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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Articles 1 - 16 of 16
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Pilots And Public Policy: Steering Through The Economic Ramifications, Brad R. Humphreys, Victor Matheson
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 …
The Effects Of Racial And Extracurricular Friendship Diversity On Achievement, Anil Nathan
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 …
Slippery Slope? Assessing The Economic Impact Of The 2002 Winter Olympic Games In Salt Lake City, Utah, Robert Baade, Robert Baumann, Victor Matheson
Slippery Slope? Assessing The Economic Impact Of The 2002 Winter Olympic Games In Salt Lake City, Utah, Robert Baade, Robert Baumann, Victor Matheson
Economics Department Working Papers
This paper provides an empirical examination of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Our analysis of taxable sales in the counties in which Olympic events took place finds that some sectors such as hotels and restaurants prospered while other retailers such as general merchandisers and department stores suffered. Overall the gains in the hospitality industry are lower than the losses experienced by other sectors in the economy. Given the experience of Utah, potential Olympic hosts should exercise caution before proceeding down the slippery slope of bidding for this event.
The Effect Of Managed And Traditional Care Insurance Plans On Horizontal Inequity In Access To Health Care In The United States, Frank Puffer, Elizabeth Pitney Seidler
The Effect Of Managed And Traditional Care Insurance Plans On Horizontal Inequity In Access To Health Care In The United States, Frank Puffer, Elizabeth Pitney Seidler
Economics Department Working Papers
This study examines income inequity in access to health care in the United States. Given the predominant and growing presence of managed care organizations as a source of medical insurance and care in both the private and public settings, replacing traditional indemnity plans as a lower cost prophylactic alternative, we speculate that the presence of Managed Care Organizations would reduce, if not eliminate, any pro wealthy bias in access to health care for the insured population in the U.S. We rely on previously developed methodology from the EcuityII project, incorporating the health inequity index (HIWV), to estimate income inequity in …
Employment-Based Health Insurance And The Minimum Wage, Laura Bucila
Employment-Based Health Insurance And The Minimum Wage, Laura Bucila
Economics Department Working Papers
This paper provides new estimates of the effects of increased federal and state minimum wages on the employment-based health insurance coverage of low-wage workers. I use March Current Population Surveys collected from IPUMS, for 1988 to 2005. Previous studies have found no significant evidence that increased minimum wages reduce fringe benefit receipt (Beeson Royalty 2000, Simon and Kaestner 2003). In contrast to these studies, I use a difference-in-difference approach and I define treatment groups as being individuals in the lowest 1 and 2 deciles of the hourly wage distribution. Little evidence was found for the federal minimum wage increase of …
Estimating The Speed Of Convergence In The Neoclassical Growth Model: An Mle Estimation Of Structural Parameters Using The Stochastic Neoclassical Growth Model, Time-Series Data, And The Kalman Filter, Daniel G. Swaine
Economics Department Working Papers
An important question is whether underdeveloped countries will converge to the per-capita income level of developed countries. Economists have used the disequilibrium adjustment property of growth models to justify the view that convergence should occur. Unfortunately, the empirical literature does not obey the "Lucas" admonition of estimating the structural parameters of a growth model that has the conditional convergence property and then computing the speed of convergence implied by the estimated structural parameters. In this paper, we use U.S. time-series data to estimate the structural parameters of a stochastic neoclassical growth model and compute the speed of conditional convergence in …
Crime Networks With Bargaining And Build Frictions, Bryan Engelhardt
Crime Networks With Bargaining And Build Frictions, Bryan Engelhardt
Economics Department Working Papers
How does the timing, targets and types of anti-crime policies affect a network when criminal retailers search sequentially for wholesalers and crime opportunities? Given the illicit nature of crime, I analyze a non-competitive market where players bargain over the surplus. In such a market, some anti-crime policies distort revenue sharing, reduce matching frictions and increase market activity or crime. As an application, the model provides a new perspective on why the U.S. cocaine market saw rising consumption after the introduction of the “War on Drugs.”
Measuring Tax Incidence: A Natural Experiment In The Hybrid Vehicle Market, Melissa Boyle, Victor Matheson
Measuring Tax Incidence: A Natural Experiment In The Hybrid Vehicle Market, Melissa Boyle, Victor Matheson
Economics Department Working Papers
This study measures the economic incidence of the hybrid vehicle tax credit implemented in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. By comparing hybrids to gasoline-powered counterparts as the credit is phased out and expires, we are able to isolate the impact of the credit on the market price of hybrid vehicles. We conclude that hybrid prices increase by $0.75 on average for every additional dollar of credit. Thus, the majority of the subsidy accrues to manufacturers, potentially encouraging producers to increase the variety and availability of hybrid models on the market.
Moral Rights Protection For The Visual Arts, Melissa Boyle, Debra O'Connor, Stacy Nazzaro
Moral Rights Protection For The Visual Arts, Melissa Boyle, Debra O'Connor, Stacy Nazzaro
Economics Department Working Papers
Beginning in 1979, certain states extended extra copyright protection, known as "moral rights" protection, to visual artists. Moral rights protection, which was incorporated into U.S. copyright law in 1990, ensures that works cannot be altered in a manner that would negatively impact the reputation of the artist. Using difference-in-differences regression strategies, we compare artists and non-artists in states with moral rights laws to those in states without these laws, before and after the laws are enacted. This enables us to test the impact of the laws on the behavior of artists, consumers, and policy makers. Our analysis reveals that artists’ …
Bowling In Hawaii: Examining The Effectiveness Of Sports-Based Tourism Strategies, Robert Baumann, Victor Matheson, Chihiro Muroi
Bowling In Hawaii: Examining The Effectiveness Of Sports-Based Tourism Strategies, Robert Baumann, Victor Matheson, Chihiro Muroi
Economics Department Working Papers
We use daily airplane arrival data from Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism to determine the net change in tourism for a variety of sporting events. We find two events generate a positive and significant net impact on arrivals: Honolulu Marathon and Pro Bowl. We estimate that the Honolulu Marathon produces between 2,183 and 6,519 in net arrivals while the Pro Bowl attracts about 5,595 to 6,725 in net arrivals. At the upper end of our estimates, the Honolulu Marathon and the Pro Bowl attract a nearly identical number of visitors despite the fact that the HTA spends …
Determinants Of The Distribution Of Congressional Earmarks Across States, Melissa Boyle, Victor Matheson
Determinants Of The Distribution Of Congressional Earmarks Across States, Melissa Boyle, Victor Matheson
Economics Department Working Papers
Congressional earmarks have been the subject of significant political debate in recent years. Also known as “pork barrel spending,” earmarks are budgetary requests made by a single legislator that typically circumvent the traditional competitive bidding process designed to ensure the efficient use of public dollars. Utilizing annual state-level estimates of pork barrel spending, we briefly examine the factors influencing states’ receipt of earmarked funds from Congress. Results indicate that on average smaller states receive the largest amount of per capita earmarked funding, most likely as a result of their disproportionate influence in the Senate. In addition, the presence of a …
Costs And Benefits Of Elderly Prescription Drug Coverage: Evidence From Veterans’ Health Care, Melissa Boyle
Costs And Benefits Of Elderly Prescription Drug Coverage: Evidence From Veterans’ Health Care, Melissa Boyle
Economics Department Working Papers
This study tests the impact of a public prescription benefit on Medicare-eligible veterans, utilizing a mid-1990s benefit change in the VA health care system. Using data from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, I compare prescription spending and utilization, as well as use of other health services and health outcomes for veterans and non-veterans before and after the VA insurance change. Results show that receipt of a publicly-provided prescription benefit leads to an increase in spending on prescriptions, and simultaneously, a decrease in spending on other medical services. On average, every $1 increase in drug spending is associated with a $6.50 …
Rejecting “Conventional” Wisdom: Estimating The Economic Impact Of National Political Conventions, Robert Baade, Robert Baumann, Victor Matheson
Rejecting “Conventional” Wisdom: Estimating The Economic Impact Of National Political Conventions, Robert Baade, Robert Baumann, Victor Matheson
Economics Department Working Papers
This paper provides an empirical examination of the economic impact of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions on local economies. Our analysis from 1970-2005 of the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the country, including all cities that have hosted one of the national conventions during this time period, finds that the presence of the Republican or the Democratic National Convention has no discernable impact on employment, personal income, or personal income per capita in the cities where the events were held confirming the results of other ex post analyses of mega-events.
The Effect Of Employment Frictions On Crime: Theory And Estimation, Bryan Engelhardt
The Effect Of Employment Frictions On Crime: Theory And Estimation, Bryan Engelhardt
Economics Department Working Papers
I investigate how long it takes for released inmates to find a job, and when they find a job, how their incarceration rate changes. An on-the-job search model with crime is used to model criminal behavior, derive the estimation method and analyze several policies including a job placement program. The results show the unemployed are incarcerated twice as fast as the employed and take on average four months to find a job. Combining these results, it is demonstrated that reducing the average unemployment spell of criminals by two months reduces crime and recidivism by more than five percent.
U.S. Lotto Markets, Victor Matheson, Kent Grote
U.S. Lotto Markets, Victor Matheson, Kent Grote
Economics Department Working Papers
Lotteries as sources of public funding are of particular interest because they combine elements of both public finance and gambling in an often controversial mix. Proponents of lotteries point to the popularity of such games and justify their use because of the voluntary nature of participation rather than the reliance on compulsory taxation. Whether lotteries are efficient or not can have the usual concerns related to public finance and providing support for public spending, but there are also concerns about the efficiency of the market for the lottery products as well, especially if the voluntary participants are not behaving rationally. …
Health Insurance And The Labor Supply Decisions Of Older Workers: Evidence From The U.S. Department Of Veterans Affairs, Melissa Boyle, Joanna N. Lahey
Health Insurance And The Labor Supply Decisions Of Older Workers: Evidence From The U.S. Department Of Veterans Affairs, Melissa Boyle, Joanna N. Lahey
Economics Department Working Papers
This paper exploits a major mid-1990s expansion in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care system to provide evidence on the labor market effects of expanding health insurance availability. Using data from the Current Population Survey, we compare the labor market behavior of older veterans and non-veterans before and after the VA health benefits expansion to test the impact of public health insurance on labor supply. We find that older workers are significantly more likely to decrease work both on the extensive and intensive margins after receiving access to non-employer based insurance. Older workers are also more likely to …