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Articles 1 - 30 of 73
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Assessing Proxies Of Knowledge And Difficultywith Rubric-Based Instruments, Ben O. Smith, Jadrian J. Wooten
Assessing Proxies Of Knowledge And Difficultywith Rubric-Based Instruments, Ben O. Smith, Jadrian J. Wooten
Economics Faculty Publications
The fields of psychometrics, economic education, and education have developed statistically-valid methods of assessing knowledge and learning. These methods include item response theory, value-added learning models, and disaggregated learning. These methods, however, focus on multiple-choice or single response assessments. Faculty and administrators routinely assess knowledge through papers, thesis presentations, or other demonstrations of knowledge assessed with rubric rows. This paper presents a statistical approach to estimating a proxy for student ability and rubric row difficulty. Moreover, we have developed software so that practitioners can more easily apply this method to their instruments. This approach can be used in researching education …
Export Capacity And Capital Stock Augmentation Through Imports: Evidence From Sub-Saharan African Countries, Catherine Y. Co
Export Capacity And Capital Stock Augmentation Through Imports: Evidence From Sub-Saharan African Countries, Catherine Y. Co
Economics Faculty Publications
This paper investigates the capital goods imports of Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries from 2002 to 2017. The composition of capital goods imports has become less diverse over time in more than half of the countries studied. Colonial ties no longer determine the sourcing of capital goods as China is now the top source. Trade gravity regressions using the Poisson pseudo-maximum-likelihood estimator show that bilateral exports of non-primary products by SSA countries and their low-income peers are associated with increased net stock of imported general-purpose capital goods. Additionally, there is evidence that the net stock of some types of imported equipment …
On Guessing: An Alternative Adjusted Positive Learning Estimator And Comparing Probability Misspecification With Monte Carlo Simulations, Ben O. Smith, Dustin R. White
On Guessing: An Alternative Adjusted Positive Learning Estimator And Comparing Probability Misspecification With Monte Carlo Simulations, Ben O. Smith, Dustin R. White
Economics Faculty Publications
Practitioners in the sciences have used the “flow” of knowledge (post-test score minus pre-test score) to measure learning in the classroom for the past 50 years. Walstad and Wagner, and Smith and Wagner moved this practice forward by disaggregating the flow of knowledge and accounting for student guessing. These estimates are sensitive to misspecification of the probability of guessing correct. This work provides guidance to practitioners and researchers facing this problem. We introduce a transformed measure of true positive learning that under some knowable conditions performs better when students’ ability to guess correctly is misspecified and converges to Hake’s normalized …
Let Them Tweet Cake: Estimating Public Dissent Using Twitter, Ben O. Smith, Ethan Spangler
Let Them Tweet Cake: Estimating Public Dissent Using Twitter, Ben O. Smith, Ethan Spangler
Economics Faculty Publications
This paper establishes a new method of estimating public dissent that is both cost-effective and adaptable. Twitter allows users to post short messages that can be viewed and shared by other users, creating a network of freely and easily observable information. Drawing data directly from Twitter, we collect tweets containing specified words and phrases from citizens voicing dissatisfaction with their government. The collected tweets are processed using a regular expression based algorithm to estimate individual dissent; which is aggregated to an overall measure of public dissent. A comparative case study of Canada and Kenya during the summer of 2016 provides …
How Often Does Active Learning Actually Occur? Perception Versus Reality, Brandon J. Sheridan, Ben O. Smith
How Often Does Active Learning Actually Occur? Perception Versus Reality, Brandon J. Sheridan, Ben O. Smith
Economics Faculty Publications
I. Measuring Active and Passive Learning
There is now a robust literature touting the benefits of various active learning techniques relative to passive learning pedagogy such as lecturing (e.g., Freeman et al. 2014, Emerson and English 2016, Swoboda and Feiler 2016, Caviglia-Harris 2016). However, recent studies suggest that lecturing is still the dominant pedagogical choice in economics, even though most instructors believe that active learning methods are superior (Goffe and Kauper 2014, Watts and Schaur 2011). A limitation of these studies is that estimates of passive and active learning are based on instructors’ subjective, self-reported data.
Chinese Household Saving And Dependent Children: Theory And Evidence, Steven Lugauer, Jinlan Ni, Zhichao Yin
Chinese Household Saving And Dependent Children: Theory And Evidence, Steven Lugauer, Jinlan Ni, Zhichao Yin
Economics Faculty Publications
This paper examines the impact of family size on household saving. We first study a theoretical life-cycle model that includes finite lifetimes and saving for retirement and in which parents care about the consumption by their dependent children. The model implies a negative relationship between the number of dependent children in the family and the household saving rate. Then, we test the model's implications using new survey data on household finances in China. We use the differential enforcement of the one-child policy across counties to address the possible endogeneity between household saving and fertility decisions in a two-stage least squares …
Subnational Home Market Bias In Vietnam: Evidence From Enterprise‐Level Data, Catherine Y. Co, Thu Kim Nguyen, Que Nguyet Tran, Tung Nhu Nguyen
Subnational Home Market Bias In Vietnam: Evidence From Enterprise‐Level Data, Catherine Y. Co, Thu Kim Nguyen, Que Nguyet Tran, Tung Nhu Nguyen
Economics Faculty Publications
This paper contributes to the home (market) bias literature where administrative or political borders limit trade across borders. Home bias is well documented at the national and subnational level. To sort out macro (e.g., location characteristics) and micro (e.g., enterprise characteristics) factors behind home bias, we use small and medium‐sized enterprise (SME) data from Vietnam. Using the fractional multinomial logit model, we find that the proportion of SME sales outside of their home markets is positively associated with enterprise size, age, number of business association memberships and the distance of SMEs' most important supplier. In contrast, the proportion of SME …
March Madness: Ncaa Tournament Participation And College Alcohol Use, Dustin R. White, Benjamin W. Cowan, Jadrian J. Wooten
March Madness: Ncaa Tournament Participation And College Alcohol Use, Dustin R. White, Benjamin W. Cowan, Jadrian J. Wooten
Economics Faculty Publications
While athletic success may improve the visibility of a university to prospective students and thereby benefit the school, it may also increase risky behavior in the current student body. Using the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study, we find that a school's participation in the NCAA Basketball Tournament is associated with a 47% increase in binge drinking by male students at that school. Additionally, we find evidence that drunk driving increases by 5% among all students during the tournament. (JEL I12, I23, Z28)
The Border Effects Of Domestic Trade In Transitional China: Local Governments’ Preference And Protectionism, Yongliang Zhao, Jinlan Ni
The Border Effects Of Domestic Trade In Transitional China: Local Governments’ Preference And Protectionism, Yongliang Zhao, Jinlan Ni
Economics Faculty Publications
Following a two-region border effect model with consumption preference of local governments, this article examines the segmentation of the Chinese domestic market as well as its determinants. Through empirical tests, we find that the average border effect of domestic trade among provinces in China showed an upward trend from 1997–2002 and 2002–2010. The significant difference of border effects between western and eastern areas of China indicate more regional trade barriers in the western areas than in the eastern areas. In addition, compared to agricultural products, there are less trade barriers on industrial products. This partially verifies that there is more …
Teaching International Microenterprise Development: An Interdisciplinary Experiential Learning Approach, Catherine Y. Co, Jonna L. Holland
Teaching International Microenterprise Development: An Interdisciplinary Experiential Learning Approach, Catherine Y. Co, Jonna L. Holland
Economics Faculty Publications
In this article, the authors describe the core elements of an integrative economics-marketing course on international microenterprise development. The course covers issues related to poverty, market approaches to poverty alleviation, various methods to elicit willingness to pay, market segmentation, market research techniques, fair trade, and other topics. Students apply concepts and methods learned to a live case study. Assignments and in-class activities are designed to turn the handicraft work of four groups of ethnic minority women in a mountainous region of Vietnam into a viable and sustainable microenterprise.
Improving Student Performance Through Loss Aversion, Ben O. Smith, Rebekah Shrader, Dustin R. White, Jadrian J. Wooten, Steve Nath, Michael O'Hara, Nan Xu, Robert Rosenman
Improving Student Performance Through Loss Aversion, Ben O. Smith, Rebekah Shrader, Dustin R. White, Jadrian J. Wooten, Steve Nath, Michael O'Hara, Nan Xu, Robert Rosenman
Economics Faculty Publications
Framing an outcome as a loss causes individuals to expend extra effort to avoid that outcome (Tversky & Kahneman, 1991). Since classroom performance is a function of student effort in search of a higher grade, we seek to use loss aversion to encourage student effort. This field quasi-experiment endows students with all of the points in the course upfront, then deducts points for each error throughout the semester. Exploiting two course sequences in the business school of a Midwestern university, a control for domain-specific knowledge, this study examines the impact of loss aversion when controlling for the student’s knowledge in …
Financial Education And Financial Literacy By Income And Education Groups, Jamie Wagner
Financial Education And Financial Literacy By Income And Education Groups, Jamie Wagner
Economics Faculty Publications
This study examines associations between financial education and financial literacy among people with different levels of education and income using a large, national data set, the 2015 National Financial Capability Study. This study estimates whether financial education in high school, college, or through an employer, is associated with a person 's financial literacy score. Results show that people who received any financial education are likely to have higher financial literacy scores compared to those without financial education. Financial education has larger predicted probabilities for those with lower education and income, suggesting that financial education is especially important for this demographic …
The Exporting And Subcontracting Decisions Of Viet Nam's Small- And Medium-Sized Enterprises, Catherine Y. Co, Thu Kim Nguyen, Tung Nhu Nguyen, Que Nguyet Tran
The Exporting And Subcontracting Decisions Of Viet Nam's Small- And Medium-Sized Enterprises, Catherine Y. Co, Thu Kim Nguyen, Tung Nhu Nguyen, Que Nguyet Tran
Economics Faculty Publications
The exporting and subcontracting decisions of a panel of Vietnamese private small- and medium-sized enterprises is investigated. We find that among subcontractors, subcontracting is a supplementary rather than primary activity; the propensity to export increases with managers' or owners' knowledge of customs law; and, there is some evidence that subcontractors are more likely to have made product improvements while exporters are more likely to have adopted new processes or technologies. Our study provides useful insights into SME exporting and subcontracting strategies made more relevant by the expected reductions in trade costs associated with the World Trade Organization's Trade Facilitation …
Adjusting For Guessing And Applying A Statistical Test To The Disaggregation Of Value-Added Learning Scores, Ben O. Smith, Jamie Wagner
Adjusting For Guessing And Applying A Statistical Test To The Disaggregation Of Value-Added Learning Scores, Ben O. Smith, Jamie Wagner
Economics Faculty Publications
In 2016, Walstad and Wagner developed a procedure to split pre-test and post-test responses into four learning types: positive, negative, retained, and zero learning. This disaggregation is not only useful in academic studies; but also provides valuable insight to the practitioner: an instructor would take different mitigating actions in response to zero versus negative learning. However, the original disaggregation is sensitive to student guessing. This article extends the original work by accounting for guessing and provides adjusted estimators using the existing disaggregated values. Further, Monte Carlo simulations of the adjusted learning type estimates are provided. Under certain assumptions, an instructor …
Employment-Based Health Insurance And Aggregate Labor Supply, Zhigang Feng, Kai Zhao
Employment-Based Health Insurance And Aggregate Labor Supply, Zhigang Feng, Kai Zhao
Economics Faculty Publications
We study the impact of the U.S. employment-based health insurance system on the employment rate, the shares of full-time/part-time workers, and aggregate hours worked in a general equilibrium life cycle model with incomplete markets and idiosyncratic risks in both income and medical expenses. In contrast to most Europeans, who get universal health insurance from the government, most working-age Americans get health insurance through their employers. We find that the employment-based health insurance system provides Americans with an extra incentive to work and work full-time. In a calibrated version of the model, we assess the extent to which the different health …
Estimating State-Industry Employment, With An Application To Industrial Localization, Andrew J. Cassey, Ben O. Smith
Estimating State-Industry Employment, With An Application To Industrial Localization, Andrew J. Cassey, Ben O. Smith
Economics Faculty Publications
We describe a method to construct an industry-by-state repeated cross-section of employment at the most disaggregated level publicly available, covering 1963–2012. Nondisclosed data are estimated with a procedure using the hierarchical information structure. To illustrate the usefulness of the procedure, the resulting estimated data are tested to determine if industrial localization of the processed food sector has changed over the last 50 years in the United States. Our findings suggest it has not changed systemically despite variation in levels of localization within industries.
The Effects O F Financial Education On Short-Term And Long-Term Financial Behaviors, Jamie Wagner, William B. Walstad
The Effects O F Financial Education On Short-Term And Long-Term Financial Behaviors, Jamie Wagner, William B. Walstad
Economics Faculty Publications
This study investigates how financial education in high school, college, or in the workplace affects the short‐ and long‐term financial behaviors of adults using the 2015 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS) data. Financial education appears to have generally insignificant effects on short‐term behaviors for which there is regular feedback and penalties, and thus greater opportunity for learning by doing. If consumers do not pay off their credit card bill, they get a monthly statement showing interest charges and penalties. Financial education appears to have more positive and stronger effects on long‐term behaviors with less timely feedback, and for which the …
Create Random Assignments: A Cloud-Based Tool To Help Implement Alternative Teaching Materials, Jadrian J. Wooten, Ben O. Smith
Create Random Assignments: A Cloud-Based Tool To Help Implement Alternative Teaching Materials, Jadrian J. Wooten, Ben O. Smith
Economics Faculty Publications
Research has shown that learning is enhanced by variety (Bransford, Brown, and Cocking 2000; Halpern and Hakel 2003) such as popular press books, podcasts and videos. However, these mediums do not contain question banks and further, while learning management systems (LMS) can be used to generate random quizzes, they are not designed for long-form open-ended responses that might be answered over the course of a few days to weeks; open-ended questions are often ideal in upper-level undergraduate and MBA courses where there are less definitive correct answers. We solve these problems by developing software to generate assignments with randomized open-ended …
Multiplatform Software Tool To Disaggregate And Adjust Value-Added Learning Scores, Ben O. Smith
Multiplatform Software Tool To Disaggregate And Adjust Value-Added Learning Scores, Ben O. Smith
Economics Faculty Publications
In 2016, Walstad and Wagner released an article that suggested practitioners should disaggregate value-added learning scores into four categories: positive, negative, retained, and zero learning. Positive learning is said to occur when a student answers a question incorrectly on the pre-test and correctly on the post-test. Negative learning is said to occur when the student correctly answers the question on the pre-test but incorrectly on the post-test. Retained learning is said to occur when the student answers the question correctly on both exams and zero learning is said to occur when the student answers the question incorrectly on both exams. …
Compensation Negotiation And Corporate Governance: The Evidence From China, Xinjun Lyu, Christopher Decker, Jinlan Ni
Compensation Negotiation And Corporate Governance: The Evidence From China, Xinjun Lyu, Christopher Decker, Jinlan Ni
Economics Faculty Publications
This paper examines CEO pay dispersion for the listed companies in China. We apply a two-tier stochastic frontier model to the CEO compensation framework where asymmetric information generates a surplus between the minimum wage that CEOs accept and the maximum payment that firms offer. This surplus leads to CEO pay dispersion coming from the negotiation power between the CEO and the firm. We generate the surplus extracted by each CEO-firm pair and analyze how corporate governance affects them. An empirical analysis finds that: (1) On average, CEOs are paid 23.26% more than the benchmark; (2) additionally, we examine the bargaining …
Lesson Plans For Teaching Economics With The Big Bang Theory, Wayne Geerling, G. Dirk Mateer, Ben O. Smith, James E. Tierney, Jadrian J. Wooten
Lesson Plans For Teaching Economics With The Big Bang Theory, Wayne Geerling, G. Dirk Mateer, Ben O. Smith, James E. Tierney, Jadrian J. Wooten
Economics Faculty Publications
Using examples in the classroom from current and past television shows and movies is becoming increasingly common. Being able to relate ideas back to a popular clip or episode allows the instructor to reach students in ways the traditional lecture cannot. Building on the work of Tierney, Mateer, Smith, Wooten, and Geerling (2016), this paper introduces five lesson plans tied to clips from The Big Bang Theory that can be used in high school (9-12) economics courses.
Nonlinear Taylor Rules: Evidence From A Large Dataset, Jun Ma, Eric Olson, Mark E. Wohar
Nonlinear Taylor Rules: Evidence From A Large Dataset, Jun Ma, Eric Olson, Mark E. Wohar
Economics Faculty Publications
In this paper we estimate nonlinear Taylor rules over the 1986–2008 sample time period and augment the traditional Taylor rule by including principal components to better model Federal Reserve policy. Including principal components is useful in that they extract information about the overall economy from multiple economic indicators in a statistically optimal way. Additionally, given that uncertainty may influence Federal Reserve decisions, we incorporate an uncertainty index in the reaction function of the Federal Reserve. We find substantial evidence that the Federal Reserve responded to increases in macroeconomic uncertainty by cutting the Federal Funds rate over the sample period. We …
Improved Grade Outcomes With An E-Mailed “Grade Nudge”, Ben O. Smith, Dustin R. White, Patricia C. Kuzyk, James E. Tierney
Improved Grade Outcomes With An E-Mailed “Grade Nudge”, Ben O. Smith, Dustin R. White, Patricia C. Kuzyk, James E. Tierney
Economics Faculty Publications
Information provided at the moment a person makes a decision can influence behavior in predictable ways. The United Kingdom's Behavioural Insights Team have used this idea to help improve the insulation of lofts, collect taxes, and even reduce litter. The authors of this article developed software that appends a personalized message to each assignment in the class regarding the student's current grade. This “grade nudge” explains precisely how the assignment will impact the student's final grade given their current standing in the class. Through a randomized trial, the authors show that the nudge improves student homework performance by about four …
Keeping Our Cool: In Defense Of Air Conditioning, Arthur M. Diamond Jr.
Keeping Our Cool: In Defense Of Air Conditioning, Arthur M. Diamond Jr.
Economics Faculty Publications
In the last 15 years three books have been published that are critical of air conditioning (Cooper 1998; Ackermann 2002; Cox 2010). No books (or even articles) in those years have been primarily devoted to a general defense. Such a defense should make the following points. Air conditioners reduce disease and mortality, especially among the ill and aged. They reduce aggressive behavior, including road rage, assaults, and murders. They increase the quality and quantity of nighttime sleep. They improve student and worker productivity by reducing noise and increasing the ability to concentrate. They increase comfort and free choice.
Micro-Data Evidence On Family Size And Chinese Household Saving Rates, Steven Lugauer, Jinlan Ni, Zichao Yin
Micro-Data Evidence On Family Size And Chinese Household Saving Rates, Steven Lugauer, Jinlan Ni, Zichao Yin
Economics Faculty Publications
This paper examines the impact of family size on household saving. We first study a theoretical life-cycle model that includes finite lifetimes and saving for retirement and in which parents care about the consumption by their dependent children. The model implies a negative relationship between the number of dependent children in the family and the household saving rate. Then, we test the model's implications using new survey data on household finances in China. We use the differential enforcement of the one-child policy across counties to address the possible endogeneity between household saving and fertility decisions in a two-stage …
Perspectives On Evaluation In Financial Education: Landscape, Issues, And Studies, William B. Walstad, Carly Urban, Carlos J. Asarta, Elizabeth Breitbach, William Bosshardt, Julie Heath, Barbara O'Neill, Jamie Wagner, Jing Jian Xiao
Perspectives On Evaluation In Financial Education: Landscape, Issues, And Studies, William B. Walstad, Carly Urban, Carlos J. Asarta, Elizabeth Breitbach, William Bosshardt, Julie Heath, Barbara O'Neill, Jamie Wagner, Jing Jian Xiao
Economics Faculty Publications
This review discusses the heterogeneity in the effectiveness of financial education programs that occurs because of the unique conditions for programs and methods to evaluate them. The authors define six groups served by financial education: children, youth, college students and young adults, working adults, military personnel, and low-income consumers. They then discuss research and evaluation literature for each group with a critical eye on program purpose, content, and evaluation. They also present findings affecting multiple groups on four issues: student loans, homeownership, retirement planning, and financial advising. The accumulated evidence on the effectiveness of financial education is positive, although the …
Short Vs. Long: Cognitive Load, Retention And Changing Class Structures, Brandon Sheridan, Ben O. Smith, Erin G. Pleggenkuhle-Miles
Short Vs. Long: Cognitive Load, Retention And Changing Class Structures, Brandon Sheridan, Ben O. Smith, Erin G. Pleggenkuhle-Miles
Economics Faculty Publications
University class structure is changing. To accommodate working students, programmes are increasing their offerings of long night classes – some lasting as long as six hours. While these long classes may be more convenient for students, they have unintended consequences as a result of cognitive load. Using a panel of 124 students (372 observations) and a differencing approach that controls for student characteristics, we show that student exam performance decreases by approximately one-half letter grade on content taught in the second half of a long class (significant at the 5% level).
Review Of Cord And Hammond, Eds. Milton Friedman: Contributions To Economics And Public Policy, Arthur M. Diamond Jr.
Review Of Cord And Hammond, Eds. Milton Friedman: Contributions To Economics And Public Policy, Arthur M. Diamond Jr.
Economics Faculty Publications
Gary Becker, at a 2007 AEA reception for a documentary on Milton Friedman, gave a brief informal testimonial to his teacher, colleague, and friend. He told of sharing a cab, during which Friedman discussed economics with the cab driver. When they reached their destination, Friedman was slow to leave the cab, wanting to raise a few more ideas with the driver. Friedman was all about the ideas, and not at all about the status of the person discussing the ideas.
An Evaluation Of Constitutional Constraints On Capital Taxation, Begoña Domínguez, Zhigang Feng
An Evaluation Of Constitutional Constraints On Capital Taxation, Begoña Domínguez, Zhigang Feng
Economics Faculty Publications
This paper investigates the desirability of constitutional constraints on capital taxation in an environment without government debt and where benevolent governments have limited commitment. In our setup, governments can choose proportional capital and labor income taxes subject to the constitutional constraint but cannot commit to the actual path of taxes. First, we explore a form of constitutional constraint: a constant cap on capital tax rates. In our quantitative exercise, we show that a three per cent cap on capital taxes provides the highest welfare at the worst sustainable equilibrium. However, such cap decreases welfare at the best sustainable equilibrium (both …
Land Acquisition, Labor Allocation, And Income Growth Of Farm Households, Qingjiang Ju, Jinlan Ni, Debing Ni, Yu Wu
Land Acquisition, Labor Allocation, And Income Growth Of Farm Households, Qingjiang Ju, Jinlan Ni, Debing Ni, Yu Wu
Economics Faculty Publications
This article investigates how land acquisition during urbanization affects labor allocation decisions of farm households in China. We develop an agricultural household model by including land acquisition to examine its impacts on nonfarm labor participation and income. Two data sets (self-designed household surveys at Xingwen County in 2012 and the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) data covering 29 provinces in 2013) are adopted for empirical analysis. The results find that land reduction has significantly positive effects on the probability and the share of family nonfarm labor allocation from both data sets. We also find that land acquisition increases the household …