Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Return To College Education, Bill Adamson, Ritu Hooda

Economics Commentator

No abstract provided.

The Coase Theorem And Arthur Cecil Pigou, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

In "The Problem of Social Cost" Ronald Coase was highly critical of the work of Cambridge University Economics Professor Arthur Cecil Pigou, presenting him as a radical government interventionist. In later work Coase's critique of Pigou became even more strident. In fact, however, Pigou's Economics of Welfare created the basic model and many of the tools that Coase's later work employed. Much of what we today characterize as the "Coase Theorem," including the relevance of transaction costs, externalities, and bilateral monopoly, was either stated or anticipated in Pigou's work. Further, Coase's extreme faith in private bargaining led him to fail …

Central Bank Of Nigeria Annual Report And Statement Of Accounts For The Year Ended 31st December 2008., Central Bank Of Nigeria

CBN Annual Report

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)'s 2008 report evaluates macroeconomic policies and outcomes, focusing on corporate operations and the economy's performance against domestic and external economic and financial developments. The CBN's monetary policy stance and banking and financial measures were deployed to ensure price stability and financial sector soundness. Despite the global economic downturn, the financial system remained relatively stable and overall macroeconomic performance was satisfactory. The formal financial system at end-December 2008 comprised the CBN, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Insurance Commission, the National Pension Commission, and various banks. The banking sector …

Causality And Granger Causality; Dependency On The Ethanol Industry, Jing Li, Yonas G. Hamda

Economics Commentator

No abstract provided.

Políticas Y Medidas Para Fomentar Las Remesas Familiares En La República Dominicana: Impacto Económico Y Lecciones Para Cuba, Mario A. Gonzalez-Corzo, Scott Larson

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Elections And Economic Turbulence In Brazil: Candidates, Voters, And Investors, Tony Petros Spanakos, Lucio R. Renno

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The relation between elections and the economy in Latin America might be understood by considering the agency of candidates and the issue of policy preference congruence between investors and voters. The preference congruence model proposed in this article highlights political risk in emerging markets. Certain risk features increase the role of candidate campaign rhetoric and investor preferences in elections. When politicians propose policies that can appease voters and investors, elections may have a limited effect on economic indicators, such as inflation. But when voter and investor priorities differ significantly, deterioration of economic indicators is more likely. Moreover, voter and investor …

Solstice Surge; The Polish-American Extention Project, John A. Sodney, Gerald W. Warmann

Economics Commentator

No abstract provided.

Assets And Needs Assessment Of Senior Residents In The West Bloomington Neighborhood, Case Bell, Melissa Busher, Amy Deal, Ted Fischer, Christine Holmes, Joseph Lauchlan, Shane Peterson, Janelle Jones, Eric Porter, Brad Pribe, Viktor Shrader

Community Project Design and Management Reports - Sociology

The experience and process of aging has become a prominent topic of discussion nationwide and Central Illinois is no exception, due to the rapid growth within the senior population in the area. The 60 and over population of Illinois is projected to grow by 87% during the next 30 years (The Maturing of Illinois). An initiative has been developed to evaluate how prepared local communities are for older adults by conducting needs assessments, which can also serve as vital tools for those who plan and provide human services in communities. Often community leaders will form policies and allocate limited resources …

Economic Effects Of Smoking Bans On Restaurants And Pubs, Barrie Craven, Michael L. Marlow

Economics

The United Kingdom has recently enacted smoking bans in public places such as restaurants and pubs. Public health advocates argue that bans are necessary because non-smokers need protection from second-hand smoke. Advocates also claim that bans do not exert harm on owners because of a vast empirical literature showing that restaurants and bars in the United States never suffer harm following bans. This paper examines whether these claims are true by developing a model within the Coasian framework whereby owners of businesses have incentives to deal with smoking disputes between smokers and non-smokers. Our model demonstrates that it is incorrect …

Wright State University Regional Economic Report, December 2008, Thomas L. Traynor

Economics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

No. 22: South African Government And Civil Society Responses To Zimbabwean Migration, Tara Poizer

Southern African Migration Programme

This policy brief discusses a key paradox in relation to Zimbabwean migration into South Africa. While Zimbabwean migration since 2000 has been the largest concentrated flow in South African history, South Africa’s reaction to this movement has been characterised by the attempt to continue with ‘business as usual’ and ‘no crisis’ responses.1 Compared with most other developed and developing countries, where an inflow of tens or hundreds of thousands of people is usually treated as a political crisis, such a non-response to over a million immigrants requires explanation.

The lack of commensurate responses is especially noticeable within the various departments …

Educational Spending: Kentucky Vs. Other States, William Hoyt, Christopher Jepsen, Kenneth R. Troske

CBER Research Report

Excerpts from the executive summary:

The passage of the Kentucky Educational Reform Act (KERA) in 1990 had a dramatic impact on the funding of primary and secondary education in the state. The amount of money spent on education increased significantly with the passage of KERA with districts in rural areas of the state experiencing the largest growth in spending (Hoyt, 1999). This has led to a decline in the disparity between rural and urban districts in education spending. However, despite the increase in educational spending, Kentucky still lags behind the typical state in the U.S. in spending per student (Troske, …

Metropolitan Report - December 2008, Division Of Business And Economic Research, College Of Business Administration, University Of New Orleans

UNO Metropolitan Report

No abstract provided.

Where Do Latinos Work? Occupational Structure And Mobility Within New York City’S Latino Population, 1990 - 2006, Laura Limonic

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines the difference in occupational changes across racial and ethnic groups in New York City as well as across Latino origin groups from 1990 to 2006.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates. All figures pertain to individuals 16 years of age or older.

Results: While there has been an overall increase in employment gains in the management sector, which includes …

America’S Biggest Low-Wage Industry: Continuity And Change In Retail Jobs, Françoise Carré, Chris Tilly

Center for Social Policy Publications

For those concerned with job quality in the United States, the retail industry commands attention. Retail is not only the largest low-wage industry in the country’s economy; it is the largest industry, period. It generates numerous entry level jobs for those with limited formal training. Hourly wages of nonsupervisory workers in retail languish at about three-quarters the national average. Retail is a very important employer of young workers. Its workforce is also disproportionately female. Women are concentrated in particular retail sub-sectors and some minority groups seem to remain employed in retail over time. At the same time, retail jobs—at least, …

Pareto Versus Welfare, Robert C. Hockett

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Many normatively oriented economists, legal academics and other policy analysts appear to be "welfarist" and Paretian to at least moderate degree: They deem positive responsiveness to individual preferences, and satisfaction of one or more of the familiar Pareto criteria, to be reasonably undemanding and desirable attributes of any social welfare function (SWF) employed to formulate social evaluations. Some theorists and analysts go further than moderate welfarism or Paretianism, however: They argue that "the Pareto principle" requires the SWF be responsive to individual preferences alone - a position I label "strict" welfarism - and conclude that all social evaluation should in …

State And Regional Variation In The Effects Of Trade On Job Displacement In The Us Manufacturing Sector, 1982-1999, Roger White

Economics

Worker-level data from the 1984–2000 Displaced Worker Surveys are employed to examine the effects of trade on manufacturing workers’ probabilities of job displacement. Observed changes in import and export penetration rates yield increases in displacement probabilities for the North Central, Middle Atlantic and South Central regions yet lower displacement probabilities for the Plains/West and Pacific regions. Changes in import and export price indexes lead to increases in displacement probabilities for the Pacific, Southeast and Northeast regions and decreases for the South Central and Middle Atlantic regions. However, while the influences of imports and exports on job displacement vary considerably across …

Do Immigrants Counter The Effect Of Cultural Distance On Trade? Evidence From Us State-Level Exports, Roger White, Bedassa Tadesse

Economics

We examine the effects of immigrants and cultural distance on US state-level exports, placing emphasis on the extent to which immigrants may offset the influence of cultural distance with respect to the initiation and intensification of exports. Our findings suggest that greater cultural differences between the US and immigrants’ home countries reduce both the likelihood that exporting occurs and, when exporting is taking place, the level of exports. Immigrants are found to exert pro-export effects that offset, at least partially, the trade-inhibiting effects of cultural distance. The estimated effects of both cultural distance and immigrants are found to be greater …

Pilots And Public Policy: Steering Through The Economic Ramifications, Brad R. Humphreys, Victor Matheson

Economics Department Working Papers

A recent IRS ruling has allowed the new Yankees Stadium construction project to be financed by a tax exempt bond offering backed by payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTS). This decision appears to contradict the spirit of the Tax Reform Act of 1986. From an economic standpoint, the question is whether it is desirable to significantly expand the number of projects eligible for tax subsidies in exchange for a more direct connection between those receiving benefits from the projects and those paying the taxes, or should the state and municipal bond tax exemption narrowly extend only to true public works …

An Analysis Of Current Healthcare Proposals: Obama And Mccain, Dan Terrell

Honors Projects in Economics

The healthcare system of the U.S. is broken. The next opportunity for overwhelming healthcare system reform will be when the next president takes office. This paper analyzes the 2008 presidential election candidates McCain and Obama healthcare proposals through a look at key players in the current healthcare system (government, pharmaceuticals, doctors, hospitals, and health insurance companies) and the affects of implementing such a plan. The presidential plans are presented side by side. Projected outcomes of the changes offered by Obama will be an increased role of the government and decreased power of the health insurance companies while increasing coverage. The …

Dealing With 'Messy Policy Problems' In The Health Care Sector, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

In his new book, Dealing with Messy Policy Problems, to be published in April 2009, political science professor Steven Ney of the Singapore Management University offers insights on how to make sense of complex, messy and often overlapping policy problems. Ney contends that having conflicts is a necessary part of the process of finding solutions to complex policy issues. He spoke to Knowledge@SMU on policy issues relating to the crisis in global health care. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Public Long-Term Care Insurance And The Housing And Living Arrangements Of The Elderly: Evidence From Medicare Home Health Benefits, Gary V. Engelhardt, Nadia Greenhalgh-Stanley

Economics - All Scholarship

We provide empirical evidence on the extent to which long-term care insurance affects the housing and living arrangements of the elderly by examining plausibly exogenous changes in the supply of long-term care insurance through the Medicare program that occurred in the late 1990s. Prior to 1997, Medicare reimbursed home health care agencies on a retrospective-cost basis. Then, starting in October, 1997, as a result of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA97), Medicare switched to a system of prospective payments for home health care, which induced state-by-calendar-year variation in the supply of this type of public long-term care insurance. We …

Why Multilevel Selection Matters, Alexander J. Field

Economics

In spite of its checkered intellectual history, and in spite of the myriadproposals of alternative models that claim both to account for the range of humanbehavior and to dispense with the need for selection above the organism level, a mul-tilevel selection framework allowing for biological as well as cultural group selectionremains the only coherent means of accounting for the persistence and spread ofbehavioral inclinations which, at least upon first appearance at low frequency, wouldhave been biologically altruistic. This argument is advanced on three tracks: througha r eview of experimental and observational evidence inconsistent with a narrow ver-sion of rational choice …

The Evolution Of Reciprocity In Sizable Human Groups, Casey G. Rothschild

Economics Faculty Scholarship

The scale and complexity of human cooperation is an important and unresolved evo- lutionary puzzle. This article uses the finitely repeated n person Prisoners’ Dilemma game to illustrate how sapience can greatly enhance group-selection effects and lead to the evolutionary stability of cooperation in large groups. This affords a simple and direct explanation of the human “exception.”

Immigrants, Cultural Distance And Us State-Level Exports Of Cultural Products, Roger White, Bedassa Tadesse

Economics

We examine the relationships between immigrants, cultural distance and state-level exports, employing state-specific immigrant stocks and total US immigrant stocks, separately, and a measure of cultural distance recently introduced by [Tadesse, B., & White, R. (2008b). Cultural distance as a determinant of bilateral trade flows: Do immigrants counter the effect of cultural distance? Applied Economic Letters]. A positive link between immigrants and aggregate exports is reported and, while cultural distance is found to reduce exports, immigrants partially offset the effects of cultural distance by increasing both the intensity of existing exports and the likelihood that exporting occurs. However, heterogeneity in …

The Effects Of Racial And Extracurricular Friendship Diversity On Achievement, Anil Nathan

Economics Department Working Papers

This paper finds the effect of having friends of a similar race and who are involved in similar activities. It explores data which allows a peer group to be defined openly through self nominations. Using a strategy that corrects for the endogeneity of peer effects by instrumenting using variables at the "grade within school" level, it is shown that friendship diversity can help whites increase achievement. Although not much significance was found with other races, most of the strategies pushed towards the direction of racial diversity aiding achievement. Regarding extracurricular activities, it is found that there is a benefit in …

La Libertad De La Ciudad, David Harvey

Publications and Research

David Harvey explora aquí la relación existente entre el problema de la reubicación del excedente de capital y las transformaciones del espacio urbano a una escala cada vez mayor. En este artículo, escrito antes de que fuera declarada la crisis económica mundial, Harvey ofrece un análisis espacial que anticipa dicha crisis y analiza las consecuencias que la continuidad del modelo económico vigente tendrá para el futuro de la vida urbana.

In this paper David Harvey explores the existing relation between the problem of surplus capital allocation and the increasing transformations of urban space. The paper, written before the world economic …

The La Crosse Promise: Economic Impact Study, George A. Erickcek

Reports

The Upjohn Institute conducted an economic impact study of a universal, place-based scholarship program for La Crosse, Wisconsin. This study examines the possibility of developing a program similar to the Kalamazoo Promise for the La Crosse area. The La Crosse area is facing a population decline, growing concentrations of low-income students, an aging infrastructure in the region’s largest school district, and regional sprawl that is consuming farmland and natural assets while creating new challenges of congestion and service delivery. As a response to these issues, this study explores the potential impact of a universal, place-based scholarship program.

Rhode Island Current Conditions Index — December 2008, Leonard Lardaro

The Rhode Island Current Conditions Index

No abstract provided.

The Wagner-Peyser Act And U.S. Employment Service: Seventy-Five Years Of Matching Job Seekers And Employers, Christopher J. O'Leary, Randall W. Eberts

Reports

This paper provides an overview of the public labor exchange system in the United States, how it came to be, and where it is going. The paper begins by offering a brief history of the development of the U.S. Employment Service, emphasizing the federal-state partnership that has evolved over time and highlighting the differing priorities Congress has placed on the services funded under Wagner-Peyser Act. It then examines the ways workers search for jobs and employers recruit employees. It also shows the role the ES plays in this job matching process. The complementarity between ES services and the broader workforce …