Wheeling Area Economic Outlook: 2020-2024, John Deskins, Brian Lego

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

The Wheeling Area has experienced significant economic volatility over the past several years, with the region’s economy swinging back to strong growth in 2018 thanks to surging natural gas production and massive levels of pipeline construction activity. In this report, we present a detailed discussion of the Wheeling Area economy along with our forecast for regional economic conditions for the next five years.

The New River Gorge Area Economic Outlook: 2020-2024, Brian Lego, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

The New River Gorge Area enjoyed its second calendar year of growth in 2018 but despite recent growth in coal production and construction activity, the region’s economy continues to struggle in some ways with the lingering effects of a deep economic downturn that occurred between 2012 and 2016. In this report, we present a detailed discussion of the New River Gorge Area’s recent economic performance along with our forecast for the likely path of economic activity over the next five years.

The Eastern Panhandle Economic Outlook: 2020-2024, Brian Lego, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

The Eastern Panhandle (EPH) has been West Virginia’s strongest economic region for much of the past decade. Numerous economic indicators point to broad strength in the area’s economy and the region’s performance tends to stack up well against national-level economic measures. In this report, we present a detailed discussion of the current state of the EPH economy along with our forecast for the likely path of economic activity over the next five years.

West Virginia Economic Outlook: 2020-2024, Brian Lego, John Deskins, Eric Bowen, Christiadi, Dallas Mullett, Aidan Farnum, Shaun Gilyard, Danielle Kaminski, William Wagstaff

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

West Virginia registered its strongest year of economic growth in more than a decade during 2018, marking the state’s second year of recovery after a protracted economic downturn that lasted for much of the period between 2012 and 2016. The energy sector has driven most of West Virginia’s economic rebound, particularly the abundance of natural gas pipeline construction activity occurring throughout the state. Most of the state’s economic regions have seen conditions improve over the past couple of years but gains in jobs and output remain concentrated from a geographic perspective as a several counties account for have accounted for …

North Central West Virginia Economic Outlook: 2020-2024, Brian Lego, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

North Central West Virginia has remained one of the state’s healthiest economic regions and continued to post solid job growth over the past couple of years. Even with some recent job losses by at one of the area’s largest employers and protracted stoppages to natural gas pipeline projects, the area has recorded solid gains in income and employment and all four of the region’s counties have shown varying degrees of improvement across a range of labor market indicators. In this report, we present a detailed discussion of North Central West Virginia’s economy along with our forecast for regional conditions for …

Economic Impact Of The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve On West Virginia, Christiadi, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

No abstract provided.

Better Understanding Human Capital In West Virginia, Christiadi, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

No abstract provided.

Natural Gas Investment In West Virginia, 2010-2016, Eric Bowen

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

West Virginia’s natural gas boom began in 2010 as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling techniques began to be applied to the state’s shale formations. Since then, West Virginia has become the nation’s ninth-largest natural gas producer in 2017, with gross withdrawals of more than 1.6 trillion cubic feet. Since the gas boom started, the natural gas industry has made considerable investments in the state to pay for well drilling, mineral royalties, and pipeline infrastructure, among other investment costs. In this report, we estimate these investments in two key areas: upstream costs and midstream infrastructure.

Work In Progress: A Meta-Literature Review Of Moral Foundations Theory As Applied In Game Studies, Sarah E. Hodge, Nicholas D. Bowman, Sven Jockel, Alyssa Wright

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper outlines an in-progress systematic review of extant research in game studies that has incorporated Moral Foundations Theory (MFT), or relevant extensions of that theory to media entertainment, such as the Moral Intuition and Media Entertainment/Model of Intuitive Morality and Exemplars (MIME). Due to the interdisciplinary nature of these theoretical perspectives as well as game studies broadly, systematic review is critical to helping us collectively understand and collate the research in this area. The systematic review is done in two parts, one as a deep description of the characteristics of included studies, and one as a statistical analysis (as …

Lee, J.-A. (2012). Nonprofit Organizations And The Intellectual Commons. Cheltenham, Uk; Northampton, Ma, Usa: Edward Elgar., Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Professor Lee defines intellectual commons as “intellectual resources which anyone can use either without permission or with permission granted in advance.” From the vantage point of third sector studies, this is different from both the Ostrom resources approach and the commons theory of associations articulated by Lohmann. This review assesses the strengths and weaknesses of Lee's approach.

Parkersburg Area Economic Outlook 2019-2024, Danielle Kaminski, Patrick Opitz, Ian Wylie, John Deskins, Brian Lego

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

The Parkersburg Area economy has generally struggled over the past several years. The five-county region avoided the economic downturn that plagued several regions in West Virginia between 2012 and 2015, as payrolls increased nearly 2,000 during this period of time. In more recent years, however, the Parkersburg Area economy has struggled significantly, with payrolls falling by more than 3,700 by mid-2018. The region’s economy does appear to have stabilized thanks to some recent growth in natural gas output and pipeline infrastructure as well as continued development of the Hino manufacturing facility, economic recovery remains tenuous due to structural issues that …

Huntington Area Economic Outlook 2019-2024, Emily Frasa, Will Mccleery, Tucker Miller, Trip Patterson, John Deskins, Brian Lego

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

No abstract provided.

The Weirton Area Economic Outlook 2019-2024, Sarah Alway, Garrett Cathell, William Wagstaff, John Deskins, Brian Lego

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

No abstract provided.

The Greenbrier Valley Economic Outlook 2019-2024, Henry Barkey-Bircann, Patrick Klaas, John Maltby, John Deskins, Brian Lego

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

No abstract provided.

Rome Was A City Built On Common Goods: A Research Memorandum, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This unpublished research note is an expanded draft of comments on associations and patronage in ancient Rome published in Chapter 3 of The Commons: New Perspectives on Nonprofit Organizations, Voluntary Action and Philanthropy (Lohmann, 1992). It is intended to alert social scientists and students interested in the third sector to the importance of membership associations and groups in Rome well before the modern era.

Knowledge Commons In Ancient Greece, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper reviews a variety of published sources by specialists in ancient history and philosophy written for students of philanthropy, nonprofit organizations, commons and other, related social sciences. It discusses Plato's Academy, Aristotle's Lyceum, and other philosophical schools as real historically significant organizations, not merely ideas or symbols. It was expanded from one section of Chapter 3 of the author's book, The Commons: New Perspectives on Nonprofit Organizations, Voluntary Action and Philanthropy (1992).

The Principles Of Organizational Inaction, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Organization inaction and the absence of change are seriously understudied topics. This article (a spoof) reports on a research problem that identifies and studies four principles of organizational inaction: The time, subject matter, group size and controversy theorems together and separately explain a great deal of committee and organizational inaction. The article also introduces innovative techniques of invariant statistics and mystery sampling. The article is an extensive rewrite of a 'research report' that originally appeared in a peer-reviewed administrative humor journal, The Bureaucrat, in 1979.

Drinking Water Quality Impacts On Health Care Expenditures In The United States, Fahad Alzahrani, Alan R. Collins, Elham Erfanian

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

This paper explores the relationship between episodes of contaminated drinking water and health care expenditures in the United States. The analysis relies on panel data from the 48 contiguous states from 2000 to 2011. We use the population served by public water systems that violate health-based standards of the Safe Drinking Water Act as a proxy for contaminated drinking water. We estimate spatial and non-spatial models and control for factors that may affect per capita health care expenditures including variables that reflect air quality violations along with ability to pay plus demand for and supply of health care services. The …

Air Quality And Asthma Hospitalization: Evidence Of Pm2.5 Concentrations In Pennsylvania Counties, Elham Erfanian, Alan R. Collins

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

According to the World Health Organization, 235 million people around the world currently suffer from asthma, which includes approximately 25 million in the United States. There is substantial epidemiological evidence indicating linkages between outdoor air pollution and asthma symptoms, more specifically between concentrations of particulate matter and asthma. Using county level data for 2001-2014, a spatial panel framework is imposed based upon prevailing wind patterns to investigate the direct and indirect impacts of PM2.5 concentration levels on asthma hospitalization in Pennsylvania. This model controls for population density, precipitation, smoking rate, and population demographic variables. Results show that PM2.5 concentrations as …

Economic Impact Of Expanding The Morgantown Industrial Park, Eric Bowen

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

No abstract provided.

Problem-Based Learning And Information Literacy: Revising A Technical Writing Class, Kelly Diamond

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This chapter discusses the collaboration between a librarian and faculty member to revise an online technical writing course using the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy, problem-based learning, and instructional design principles. The chapter outlines three components of course revision: 1) re-design online course to be more engaging to students as well as easier to navigate; 2) create assignments and activities to mirror actual workplace writing tasks; 3) develop research assignments focused on information literacy skills used in the workplace. Using elements from ADDIE (Analyze; Design; Develop; Implement; Evaluate) and Backward Design, the course …

Father-Daughter Incest: Comparison Of Treated Cases To Untreated Control Subjects, Keith W. Beard, Jason E. Newsome, Karen V. Harper-Dorton, Stephen L. O'Keefe, Debra H. Young, Sam Swindell, Walter E. Stroupe, Kerri Steele, Megan Lawhon, Shih-Ya Kuo

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Treatment of father daughter incest (FDI) survivors using the victim advocacy/child welfare approach to FDI that predominates today in the US has never been compared to results in untreated control subjects in any published report. In the present study, thirty-two survivors of FDI who received treatment based on the victim advocacy/child welfare approach to FDI were compared to 32 control subjects who did not receive treatment. No significant differences were found using analysis of variance on 21 scales and subscales. Statistical analysis of the data from all 64 of the FDI survivors showed that items reflecting a poor self-image and …

Evaluation Of Sampling And Cross-Validation Tuning Strategies For Regional-Scale Machine Learning Classification, Christopher A. Ramezan, Timothy A. Warner, Aaron E. Maxwell

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

High spatial resolution (1–5 m) remotely sensed datasets are increasingly being used to map land covers over large geographic areas using supervised machine learning algorithms. Although many studies have compared machine learning classification methods, sample selection methods for acquiring training and validation data for machine learning, and cross-validation techniques for tuning classifier parameters are rarely investigated, particularly on large, high spatial resolution datasets. This work, therefore, examines four sample selection methods—simple random, proportional stratified random, disproportional stratified random, and deliberative sampling—as well as three cross-validation tuning approaches—k-fold, leave-one-out, and Monte Carlo methods. In addition, the effect on the accuracy of …

Quality Regulation? Access To High-Quality Specialists For Medicare Advantage Beneficiaries In California, Simon F. Haeder

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Medicare Advantage enrollment has seen tremendous growth over the past decade. However, we know comparatively little about the experience of beneficiaries in the program. Our knowledge of Medicare Advantage provider networks is particularly limited. This article is one of the first major assessments of the issue. It seeks to answer 3 important questions. First, are Medicare Advantage plan networks made up of higher quality providers? Second, how significant are the network restrictions imposed by Medicare Advantage plans with regard to access to higher quality providers? And finally, how much provider choice are Medicare Advantage beneficiaries left with? To assess these …

Federal Regulations And U.S. Energy Sector Output, Joshua Hall, Shishir Shakya

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

A large body of literature finds that the energy sector is important to economic growth and development. The production of energy has negative environmental impacts, however, which has resulted in the sector being highly regulated. While several studies examine the effect of particular regulations on the energy sector, in this study we use the recently developed measure of regulation called RegData to estimate the impact of federal regulations on the energy sector. We employ a panel ARDL model to find an inverted U-shaped relationship between federal regulations and U.S. energy sector output. Federal regulations appear to increase energy sector outputs …

Attractive Or Aggressive? A Face Recognition And Machine Learning Approach For Estimating Returns To Visual Appearance, Guodong Guo, Brad R. Humphreys, Mohammad I. Nouyed, Yang Zhou

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

A growing literature documents the presence of appearance premia in labor markets. We analyze appearance premia in a high-profile, high-pay setting: head football coaches at bigtime college sports programs. These employees face job tasks involving repeated interpersonal interaction on multiple fronts and also act as the “face” of their program. We estimate the attractiveness of each employee using a neural network approach, a pre-trained Convolutional Neural Network fine tuned for this application. This approach can eliminate biases induced by volunteer evaluators and limited numbers of photos. We also use this approach to estimate the perceived aggressiveness of each employee based …

Keeping College Pricey: The Bootlegger And Baptist Story Of Higher Education Accreditation, Mary Watson Smith, Joshua C. Hall

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Since the passage of the Veterans Readjustment Act of 1952, private accrediting agencies have held the purse strings to all federal student aid. Today, six regional accrediting agencies and ten national accrediting agencies act as the gatekeepers of these federal monies. No college or university can access federal funds without receiving the imprimatur of one of these recognized accrediting agencies. Proponents of the current system of accreditation argue that the framework presently in place ultimately benefits both students and the public at large by fulfilling quality assurance and information signaling functions. Applying Yandle’s “Baptists and Bootleggers” model, we examine whether …

Speaking For “Free”: Word Of Mouth In Free- And Paid-Product Settings, Samuel Bond, Stephen He, Wen Wen

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This research examines drivers of consumer word of mouth (WOM) in free-product settings, revealing fundamental differences with traditional, paid-product settings. The authors build and investigate a theoretical model that highlights two unique characteristics of free products (reciprocity motivation and diminished adoption risk) and considers their implications for WOM sharing. Results of a retrospective survey, two controlled experiments, and an analysis of more than 5,000 mobile apps at Google Play and Apple’s App Store reveal that consumers are generally more likely to share their opinions of free products than paid products, because of feelings of reciprocity toward the producer. However, this …

Impact Of Ethanol Plant Location On Corn Revenues For U.S. Farmers, Ani L. Katchova, Ana Claudia Sant'anna

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

settings Open AccessArticle

Impact of Ethanol Plant Location on Corn Revenues for U.S. Farmers

by Ani L. Katchova 1,* andAna Claudia Sant’Anna 2 1 Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA 2 Division of Resource Economics and Management, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Sustainability 2019, 11(22), 6512; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11226512 Received: 22 October 2019 / Revised: 11 November 2019 / Accepted: 15 November 2019 / Published: 19 November 2019 (This article belongs to the Special Issue Green, Closed Loop, Circular Bio-Economy) …

Observed Mesoscale Hydroclimate Variability Of North America’S Allegheny Mountains At 40.2° N, Evan Kutta, Jason Hubbart

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Spatial hydroclimatic variability of Eastern North America’s Allegheny Mountain System (AMS) is commonly oversimplified to elevation differences and the rain-shadow effect. Descriptive and higher order statistical properties of hourly meteorological observations (1948–2017) from seven airports were analyzed to better understand AMS climatic complexity. Airports were located along a longitudinal transect (40.2 °N) and observation infrastructure was positioned to minimize climatic gradients associated with insolation, slope, and aspect. Results indicated average ambient temperature was well correlated with airport elevation (R2 = 0.97). However, elevation was relatively poorly correlated to dew point temperature (R2 = 0.80) and vapor pressure deficit (R2 = …