Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Essays In Behavioral Economics, Jing Li

Doctoral Dissertations

In chapter one, I propose a model consolidating the norm- and preferences-based approaches to explain laboratory bargaining outcomes. Social norms are identified by the axioms of cooperative bargaining theory, and other-regarding preferences are captured using Fehr and Schmidt's inequity aversion utility function. The model applies to bargaining situations where other-regarding agents abide by social norms in their decision-making. Preferences and norms interact to determine bargaining outcomes, and their interaction undermines the recoverability of the other-regarding preference parameters based on observations from the lab.

In chapter two, I employ a lab experiment to study whether men receive lucrative tasks more often …

Automation, Work, And Ideology: The Next Industrial Revolution And The Transformation Of "Labor", Anthony Jack Knowles Ii

Masters Theses

Over the last several decades, scholars and commentators from a variety of different fields, expertise, and ideological positions have written on automation technologies and their potential to cause technological unemployment. As a sociological analysis and critical examination of how experts ideologically frame these issues, this thesis demonstrates that ideology plays a crucial role in the revived debate over automation and technological displacement. Weberian ideal types are developed to demonstrate how three major ideological positions—liberal, conservative, and radical—approach and frame the link between automation, technological displacement, and the potential for technological unemployment. The qualitative tools of ideal type construction and theme …

Essays In Applied Health Economics, Bongkyun Kim

Doctoral Dissertations

I study how change in environmental factors and information provision about environmental risk effect on human capitals and individuals' behavior.

Psychological maternal stress is thought to be a factor in poor infant health, but direct evidence is difficult to obtain. In first chapter, we posit that the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles, California provides a natural test of the effect of mothers' stress on infants' birth weight and gestation. The Northridge disaster featured a low rate of injury and a quick recovery, but long-lasting and well documented consequences for mental health. Difference-in-difference results show that infants born closest to …

Essays In Applied Microeconomics, Bilal Celik

Doctoral Dissertations

First chapter studies the impacts of large natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and storms have on economic activity by using nighttime light intensity data. On a local level, using the data of three large earthquakes within a 200-mile radius from the earthquake’s epicenter, I found that when the distance from the epicenter increases, the nighttime light intensity decreases. By using the synthetic control approach, on a national level, I found that while three of nine large natural disasters have a positive impact on economic activity, one natural disaster has a negative impact. When aggregating all nine large natural disasters, …

Excessive Acquisition: What Is It? What Makes It Happen?, Melanie Doss

Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative study draws on the philosophical concept of hermeneutics and theories of the self and self-regulation to investigate the underlying meanings expressed and experienced by the self and the other in the behavior of excessive acquisition. In accordance with the methods outlined by the phenomenological and grounded theory traditions, data were collected from 15 persons afflicted with excessive acquisition, defined as the self and 12 persons afflicted by excessive acquisition, defined as the other. The data content collected from in-depth interviews, field notes, observations, and electronic messages formulated the emergent Parent Themes of Emotion, Space, Economics, and Time. …

Analysis Of A Market For Tradable Credits, Policy Uncertainty Effects On Investment Decisions, And The Potential To Supply A Renewable Aviation Fuel Industry With An Experimental Industrial Oilseed, Evan Lawrence Markel

Doctoral Dissertations

This research is aligned with identifying barriers throughout the alternative jet-fuel supply chain. Prices are analyzed in the market for tradable credits known as renewable identification numbers (RINs). The RIN market is a key policy instrument used in the implementation of the renewable fuel standard (RFS). The program is highly complex and drivers of RIN price are not always clear. RIN prices also exhibit multiple regimes where the price of nested RINs converge. Therefore, a smooth transition autoregressive model is employed to examine drivers of RIN price and to identify drivers of price regime change. Through research in the RIN …

Mass Migration: Examining Factors That Contribute To An Individual's Propensity To Migrate, Bryson A. Lype

Haslam Scholars Projects

No abstract provided.

Effects Of The Great Recession On American Retirement Funding, Tanner G. Hamil

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

An Inquiry Into The Effect Of The 2014 Russian Sanctions On European Gasoline Markets, Eric S. Peters

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Economic Forecasting With Many Predictors, Fanning Meng

Doctoral Dissertations

The dissertation is focused on the analysis of economic forecasting with a large number of predictors.

The first chapter develops a novel forecasting method that minimizes the effects of weak predictors and estimation errors on the accuracy of equity premium forecasts. The proposed method is based on an averaging scheme applied to quantiles conditional on predictors selected by LASSO. The resulting forecasts outperform the historical average, and other existing models, by statistically and economically meaningful margins.

In the second chapter, we find that incorporating distributional and high-frequency information into a forecasting model can produce substantial accuracy gains. Distributional information is …

Does Globalization Improve Quality Of Life?, Laura E. Hirt

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Does Increased Globalization Improve Citizens' Quality Of Life?, Laura E. Hirt

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Countries are more open than ever to the outside world, however research is still undecided about what effects it will have on the country’s culture and way of life. In a world where many policy makers are worried about the expansion of free trade and cheaper foreign labor, we are not certain how a country’s strivings to reach this goal of more “open” economy will or will not give their citizens a better quality of life. I will attempt to gain insight into that question using the United Nation’s millennium goals; my research uses econometric techniques to tease out possible …