Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Equity In Learning Opportunities For Middle School Students: Connecting Communities And Transportation Through Gis, Tom O’Brien, Ben Olson

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

Geographic information systems (GIS) is part of an in-demand career skillset that can lead to safer streets in California communities. This project included a three-session bootcamp that introduced middle school students to transportation via GIS and gathered assessments on their awareness of transportation as a career pathway. The project built upon CSUTC TRANSPORTS’ Year 4 project, “K–12 Special Investigation Project: Mapping E-Commerce Locally and Beyond.” The bootcamp for this project was coordinated in partnership with Rio Hondo College, which provided the instructor and connection to the students at the Mountain View Unified School District in El Monte, CA. The bootcamp …

Analysis Of Freight Movements In The San Joaquin Valley, Aly Tawfik, Utsav Shah

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

Freight transportation plays a primary role in supply chains, costs, and availability of goods and is a major part of the economy. This study identifies, assesses, and utilizes different data sources to uncover and understand the patterns and movements of different types of freight in the San Joaquin Valley’s (SJV's) different counties. The San Joaquin Valley region consists of eight counties: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, and Tulare. This research explored some major datasets with freight information, such as Global Trade Atlas (GTA), Port Imports and Exports Reporting Systems (PIERS), and Streetlight data insights for the year 2019 …

Understanding Covid-19’S Impact On Local Transportation Revenue –A Mid-Crisis View From Experts, Asha Weinstein Agrawal, Serena Alexander, Ashley M. Hooper

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

When COVID-19 swept into the United States in early 2020, it upended two patterns of behavior critical to transportation funding: how people traveled and where economic activity occurred. This study explored how, one year into the pandemic, experts in California believed that the COVID-19 pandemic was impacting local transportation budgets. We interviewed 34 funding experts who represented local transportation and public works departments, state officials, and municipal finance experts. In these conversations, conducted from December 2020 to March 2021, we asked interviewees how they saw COVID-19 impacting their overall local transportation budgets in the short and long term as well …

Charging Drivers By The Gallon Vs. The Mile: An Equity Analysis By Geography And Income In California, Samuel Speroni, Asha Weinstein Agrawal, Michael Manville, Brian D. Taylor

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

This study used data from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey California Add-On sample to explore how replacing the current state vehicle fuel tax with a flat-per-mile-rate road-user charge (RUC) would affect costs for different kinds of households. We first estimated how household vehicle fuel efficiency, mileage, and fuel tax expenditures vary by geography (rural vs. urban) and by income. These findings were then used to estimate how much different types of households pay in the current per-gallon state fuel tax, what they would pay if the state were to replace fuel taxes with a flat-rate road-usage charge (RUC) that …

Transportation Utility Fee To Fund Transit In California, Shishir Mathur, Ralph Robinson

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

Public transit is a key tool to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to combat climate change; improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers; and expand accessibility and mobility for all. However, we can only realize this potential by making sufficient investments to provide transit service levels that attract and retain greater ridership. To help with this needed investment, a handful of local governments have turned to transportation utility fees (TUFs), primarily collected as a monthly charge on customers' utility bills or property tax bills. While more widely used to support street maintenance, this study identifies six case studies where TUF …

The Impact Of Student Debt On Career Choices Among Doctor Of Public Health Graduates In The United States: A Descriptive Analysis, Chulwoo Park, Eric Coles

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

(1) Background: As gaps in the public health workforce grow in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, graduates of the schools of public health, especially Doctors of Public Health (DrPH), are poised to offer relief. While there are some known recruitment issues, student debt and debt impact on career choices are understudied. (2) Methods: In the present study, we perform a descriptive analysis of the potential impact of student debt on career choices among DrPH students and alumni in the United States using a cross-sectional national online survey. A total of 203 participants (66: alumni and 137: current students) completed …

Global Cities And Socioeconomic Inequality: A Pathways Inquiry, Herman Boschken

Faculty Publications, School of Management

Inequality in metropolitan areas is part of a paradoxical triangle of competing motives over resources allocation. Chief among inequality/equity rivals is the penchant for urban economic development, but in recent decades, ecological sustainability has also become increasingly important in this triangle. To understand inequality in global cities in such a context, one must recognize the intensity of economic development motives for those particular metropolitan areas seeking to maintain worldwide centrality, connectivity and command over the forces of globalization. As a comparative analysis of 53 large U.S. metropolitan areas, this paper examines the apparatus of a global city in response to …

A New Materials And Design Approach For Roads, Bridges, Pavement, And Concrete, Alan Fuchs, Tathagata Acharya, Luis Cabrales, Jesse Bergkamp, Nyakundi Michieka

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

Increased understanding of demand for transport energy and how to improve road pavement materials would enable decision makers to make environmental, financial, and other positive changes in future planning and design of roads, bridges, and other important transportation structures. This research comprises three studies focused on pavement materials and a fourth study that examines energy demand within the road transportation sector. These studies are as follows:

1. A techno-economic study of ground tire rubber as an asphalt modifier;

2. A computational fluid dynamics analysis comparing the urban heat island effect of two different pavement materials – asphalt and Portland Cement …

Study Of The Impact Of The Great Recession On The Relation Between Earnings Surprises And Stock Returns, Benjamin Anderson, Stoyu Ivanov

Faculty Publications

This paper examines the impact of the Great Recession on the relation between earnings surprises and stock returns and examines the role that informed and uninformed investors play in the formation of the post-earnings announcement drift (PEAD). We use quarterly earnings surprises (SUE), firms' standardized unexpected returns, calculated as actual earnings minus expected earnings, scaled by stock price one day prior to the earnings announcement, and one-year future stock returns, the subsequent twelve-month abnormal stock returns, calculated as the difference between the firm's buy-and-hold return and the value-weighted market buy-and-hold return, to test whether the Great Recession had an impact …

Economic Development And Democracy: A Disaggregated Perspective, Carl Henrik Knutsen, John Gerring, Svend-Erik Skaaning, Jan Teorell, Matthew Maguire, Michael Coppedge, Staffan Lindberg

Faculty Publications, School of Management

In recent decades, modernization theory has been challenged. Studies have found that richer countries are more likely to maintain democratic rule, but that the initial transition to democracy is unrelated to economic development, or that even the former relationship is spurious, disappearing once country fixed-effects are accounted for. Others counter that the relationship between development and democracy is restored if historical data stretching back to the nineteenth century is incorporated, if different estimators are used, or when conditioning the relationship on institutional or leadership changes taking place. Thus, the modernization debate, at present, rests upon a complex set of modeling …

Deflation And Consumer Expenditures, Ali M. Reza

Faculty Publications

One often hears that one reason deflation should be avoided is because it leads to the expectation of lower prices in the future on the part of consumers. This in turn causes consumers to defer their spending. The consequence of this is reduced demand for products and lower investment by firms now. The net result is weaker economic activity. This paper provides a new approach to verify this view.

Entrepreneurship In Off-Label Drug Prescription: Just What The Doctor Ordered!, Raymond March

Faculty Publications

This paper finds that physicians and pharmaceutical companies working as entrepreneurial actors were able to better serve patients by finding effective alternative uses of three drugs. I examine off-label drug prescription within an entrepreneurial framework by examining the development processes of aspirin, Viagra, and minoxidil. In each case, the medical community reached research and treatment conclusions quicker than the FDA did. These examples provide counterevidence to the view that off-label prescription is reckless and requires additional governmental oversight due to a lack of sufficient testing

Investor's Sentiment In Predicting The Effective Federal Funds Rate, Artem Meshcheryakov, Stoyu Ivanov

Faculty Publications

In this article we study if investor's sentiment measured by an intensity of Google searches may be used to predict future changes of the Effective Federal Funds rate. We find that online searches for “fed funds rate”, “fed interest rate”, “fed reserve”, “fed reserve rate” and “federal interest rate” are associated with next week decrease of the Effective Federal Funds Rate. Google searches for “fed rate hike” and “fed raise rates” are associated with next week increase of the Effective Federal Funds Rate even after we control for a number of macroeconomic indicators. We also find that intensity of Google …

Subjective Well-Being Of Children Of Migrant Families In Schooling Alternatives Of Urban China, Steven D. Silver, Yan Gao

Faculty Publications

Organizational labor forces in countries that include China, the OECD and U.S. continue to be increasingly composed of workers who migrate across country regions or from other countries. Since their children will enter the next generation of labor forces, it is increasingly relevant to assess the educational experience of these children. Background studies of both children and adults indicate the importance of assessing subjective well-being (SW-B) to overall health and human capital. This study reports results of an initial assessment of SW-B in children of migrantfamily in an urban center of China across school type, grade and gender differences.

Regional Economic Development―A Survey Of Theories In The Past Two Centuries (1800-2000), Xiaohong Quan

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to survey the evolution of theories in the field of regional economic development in the past two centuries (1800-2000) before the new millennium. Theories from the ‘spacial’ dimension and from the ‘economic’ dimension are understood as the classical foundation of the field. Important theories are identified and discussed for regional economic development. Specifically, the topics examined here first center around the mechanisms behind regional economic growth, answering questions such as why growth happens in certain regions, why growth can shift to other places, and what factors or environments can foster growth in certain regions. …

Do Snap Recipients Get The Best Prices, Raymond March, Conrad Lyford, Carlos Carpio, Tullaya Boonsaeng

Faculty Publications

This paper examines the relationship between SNAP participation and prices paid for food items. To test this relationship, we develop an expensiveness index following the method of Aguiar and Hurst (2007) and use the FoodAPS data set. Using both the ordinary least squares method and controlling for endogeneity using an instrumental variables approach, we found SNAP participation did not hold a statistically significant relationship with the prices paid for food items when we controlled for consumer behavior and food market variables. This suggests that SNAP participants are not systematically disadvantaged in their food purchases. Additional efforts to further educate SNAP …

Public Choice Lessons From The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter, Marta Podemska-Mikluch, Darwyyn Deyo, David Mitchell

Faculty Publications

J. K. Rowling’s series of books about the underage wizard Harry Potter is an effective tool for introducing students to the key concepts of public choice. By keeping political figures at the forefront of the story, Rowling encourages students to recognize the different incentives individuals face in markets versus politics. To illuminate the pedagogical potential of the series and to ease its adoption, we discuss a set of examples that best illustrate the key concepts of public choice. We also share a classroom exercise showcasing how the series can be used to promote active learning.

Analysis Of The Factors Impacting Etfs Net Fund Flow Changes, Stoyu Ivanov

Faculty Publications

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify the factors that impact the exchange-traded funds net fund flow changes on a daily basis.Design/methodology/approachA total of 1,212 different exchange-traded funds with a proprietary daily net fund flow data and logistic regressions were studied because the majority of the 1,212 exchange-traded funds have mostly zero daily net fund flow changes.FindingsIt was documented that in the period December 22, 2005 to July 28, 2010 autocorrelation at the daily frequency is not universally present for the 1,212 exchange-traded funds that we study, despite the fact that this is the case in the monthly data …

Study Of Reit Etf Beta, Stoyu Ivanov

Faculty Publications

PurposeThe aim of this study is to examine real estate investment trust exchange-traded funds (REIT ETFs) and test for the existence of the “asymmetric beta puzzle” phenomenon in these financial instruments that are relatively new and are gaining popularity. The “asymmetric beta puzzle” phenomenon is used to identify the hedging and diversification benefits of a financial instrument. “Asymmetric beta puzzle” exists when betas in declining markets are higher than betas in advancing markets.Design/methodology/approachTo study 14 REIT ETFs by using monthly and daily Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) data. Capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and Fama–French three-factor model were …

Managerial Segmentation Of Service Offerings In Work Commuting, Steven D. Silver

Faculty Publications

This study reports an implementation of procedures that multivariate methodology make available to assess the relative importance of attributes of service offerings to work commuters. Adaptive choice conjoint analysis was used to derive the importance weights of attributes in available service offering to a commuter sample. A clustering procedure was then used to define homogeneous sub-groups of the sample and the combination of demographic differences that discriminate clusters. Results of this assessment are used to indicate how a market in workcommuting can be segmented on the basis of user indications of the importance of attributes of service offerings.

A Note On Location And The Output Effect Of Ad-Valorem Taxes Under Free Entry Oligopoly, Yeung-Nan Shieh

Faculty Publications

This paper examines the output effect of an ad-valorem tax of undifferentiated oligopolistic firms in the Weber-Moses triangle. It shows that an increase in the ad-valorem tax will increase each firm’s output but may increase the number of firms and total output of firms if the inverse demand function is linear, concave or not too convex. This result is different from the well-known Tanaka’s result in non-spatial economy. It indicates that oligopolistic firm’s location decision has important influence on the output effect of the ad-valorem tax.

The Tale Of Two Economies: A Comparative Macroeconomic Analysis Of Palo Alto And East Palo Alto, Aditya Kotak, Safwan Siddiqi, Fred Foldvary

Faculty Publications

Cities in the USA have experienced diverse growth rates and levels of prosperity. Some cities flourish in prosperity, while others suffer economic recession. This study examines why cities have had different outcomes. We investigated three elements: 1) What are the factors that play a role in the shaping of a municipal’s economy? 2) What are the implications of these factors? 3) Which policies promote economic growth and prosperity? This essay aims to offer policy directions for cities that are not performing well. The paper applies a comparative analysis of two nearby cities, a flourishing economy contrasted with a troubled economy. …

How Effective Are Current Household Recycling Policies? Results From A National Survey Of U.S. Households, Hilary Nixon, Jean-Daniel M. Saphores

Faculty Publications, Urban and Regional Planning

This paper analyzes a unique dataset collected during a 2006 national survey of U.S. households to explore the effectiveness of common household recycling policies for metals, glass, and plastics: curbside recycling, drop-off recycling, deposit–refund systems (bottle bills), and marginal pricing for household waste. After estimating either generalized ordered logit or multinomial logit models, we find that the most important determinants of household recycling are people's attitudes toward recycling. Our results also suggest that omitting internal variables (perceived recycling obstacles and benefits as well as moral considerations) may bias policy coefficients. Socio-economic variables are typically not statistically significant, with the exceptions …

Macroeconomic Variables Effect On Us Market Volatility Using Mc-Garch Model, Jang Hyung Cho, Ahmed Elshahat

Faculty Publications

Forecasting equity volatility was thoroughly investigated during the past three decades. The majority based their forecasts on the dynamics of the underlying equity time series. They helped better understand the dynamics of these time series and understand different aspects of volatility. Other models went a step further to include the effect of news announcement on equity volatility. The vast majority ignored the effect of macroeconomic variable or the state of the economy. This paper proposes a volatility-forecasting model that accounts for effect of fundamental macroeconomic variables that reflect the state of the economy. The explanatory variables used measure the stage …

Performance Analysis Of Banks Headquartered In Hollywood Versus Silicon Valley., Stoyu Ivanov

Faculty Publications

In this study we examine the performance of banks headquartered in Hollywood and banks headquartered in Silicon Valley in the period - first quarter 2008 until second quarter 2012, which includes the period of the Great Recession - December 2007 to June 2009. We find that during the financial crisis both Silicon Valley and Hollywood banks suffered but Silicon Valley banks much less than Hollywood banks. After the recession, banks in both regions improved performance again Silicon Valley banks recovering faster. We also find that the level of deposits, the leverage ratio and total loan chargeoffs consistently play a role …

Hierarchical Decomposition Of U.S. Personal Consumption Expenditure: 1984-1991 And 2000-2006, Steven D. Silver

Faculty Publications

We conceptualize structure in personal consumption by explicitly defining categorizations of goods and services that consumers typically make in defining and organizing these objectives in their heuristics. Results from estimation of an Almost Ideal (AI) Demand System in each of two study periods generally support the structural differentiation of consumption goods.

Do Markets Promote Immoral Behavior?, Fred Foldvary

Faculty Publications

Pure markets enhance good behavior, because in such arrangements, voluntary acts are rewarded and involuntary acts are punished. A pure market, as we define it, consists only of voluntary human action. That’s because a truly free market includes governance structuresthat penalize coercive harm, and such pure markets do not impose any restrictions or costs on honest and peaceful human activity.Critics of markets think otherwise. They point to slave markets or a market for stolen goods as examples of market immorality.

An Economic Survey Analysis Of The Legal Literature Pertaining To The Privacy Implications Of Radio Frequency Identification Technology, Stephen M. Jerbic

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Ad-Valorem Taxes On Location Decision Under Free Entry Cournot Oligopoly, Yeung-Nan Shieh

Faculty Publications

This paper examines the impact of the ad-valorem commodity tax as a policy device on the location decision of undifferentiated oligopolistic firms with free entry. It shows that: (1) When the distance between the plant location and the output market is held constant, the optimum location for the oligopolistic firm would be independent of the ad-valorem tax if the production function is homothetic, and (2) when the distance between the plant location and the output market is a decision variable, the optimum location for the oligopolistic firm will move closer to the output market if the demand function is linear …

What Is Profit?, Fred Foldvary

Faculty Publications

Basically, profit is revenue minus costs. It sounds simple, but the concepts of “revenue” and “cost” are complex when we examine them closely.