Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Economic Writing On The Pressing Problems Of The Day: The Roles Of Moral Intuition And Methodological Confusion, Julie A. Nelson

Economics Faculty Publication Series

Economists are often called on to help address pressing problems of the day, yet many economists are uncomfortable about disclosing the values that they bring to this work. This essay explores how an inadequate understanding of the role of methodology, as related to ethics and human emotions of concern, underlies this reluctance and compromises the quality of economic advice. The tension between caring about the problems, on the one hand, and writing within the existing culture of the discipline, on the other, are illustrated with examples from U.S. policymaking, behavioral economics, and the economics of climate change and global poverty. …

Does Socio/Economic Status Affect Environmental Awarness In Elementary School Children Interacting With School Gardens?, Grady C. Erickson

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

This is a case study involving three elementary schools in the greater Lincoln, Nebraska area. These schools were chosen to provide insight to three different economic backgrounds. Saratoga and Randolph from Lincoln Public Schools, and Norris Elementary part of Norris Public Schools 160 was the third school involved in the study. This case study focused on seeing whether socio/economic background had any effect on environmental awareness. To do so, surveys were handed out to each school to help measure environmental awareness. These surveys also helped determine where the environmental literacy standards were in the elementary schools of Lincoln, Nebraska. The …

Recessions And The Social Safety Net: The Alternative Minimum Tax As A Countercyclical Fiscal Stabilizer, Brian Galle, Jonathan Klick

All Faculty Scholarship

As recent events illustrate, state finances are procyclical: during recessions, state revenues crash, worsening the effects of economic downturns. This problem is well known, yet persistent. We argue here that, in light of predictable federalism and political economy dynamics, states will be unable to change this situation on their own. Additionally, we note that many possible federal remedies may result in worse problems, such as by creating moral hazard that would induce states to take on excessively risky policy, both fiscal and otherwise. Thus, we argue that policymakers should consider so-called “automatic” stabilizers, such as are found in the federal …

Agenda: Shale Plays In The Intermountain West: Legal And Policy Issues, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Shale Plays in the Intermountain West: Legal and Policy Issues (November 12)

This one-day symposium to be held at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Denver will address the technology, economics, environmental impacts, and regulatory issues associated with shale gas development in the Rocky Mountain region. The purpose of this event is to facilitate productive dialogue among a wide range of stakeholders and interested parties to guide policy decisions.

November 2010, Syracuse Department Of Economics

Economics - All Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Spatial Analysis Of Aggregate And Industry-Level Fdi In China, Shalendra Sharma, Miao Grace Wang, M. C. Sunny Wong

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Development Of Modern Corporate Governance In China And India, Nicholas C. Howson, Vikramaditya Khanna

Law & Economics Working Papers

This book chapter (forthcoming, China, India & the International Economic Order) examines the development of corporate governance in the world’s two biggest and fastest growing emerging markets - China and India. Although both countries are different in important ways, they also share significant similarities such as rapid economic development, significant foreign investment, economic, structural and legal reform, and a shared interest in (if not implementation of) essentially Anglo-American corporate law norms. These differences and similarities provide an interesting and rich platform for consideration of popular or contested corporate governance precepts. In particular, after an extensive discussion of corporate governance reforms …

Engaging Economics: New Testament Scenarios And Early Christian Reception, Edited By Bruce W. Longenecker And Kelly D. Liebengood, Paul R. Koch

Faculty Scholarship – Economics

A review of the book Engaging Economics: New Testament Scenarios and Early Christian Reception edited by Bruce W. Longenecker and Kelly D. Liebengood (William B. Eerdmans Pub., 2009).

Reserve Prices In A Dynamic Auction When Bidders Are Capacity-Constrained, Viplav Saini

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Allowing for a reserve price in a dynamic auction with capacity-constrained bidders changes the equilibrium in an unexpected way. The distribution of winning bids contains a mass point; several bidder types “bunch” at the reserve price.

Japan Chair Platform: Japan's Other Spending Problem, Gene Park

Political Science and International Relations Faculty Works

Since the collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s, a combination of declining revenue growth, fiscal stimulus, and growing budget commitments have made Japan the most indebted country of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Attention to Japan’s growing public debt problem increased in the wake of Greece’s sovereign debt crisis, and the issue of how to go about fixing Japan’s finances shot to the forefront during July’s Upper House election as competing political parties put forth ideas from trimming wasteful spending to increasing taxes to reducing budget deficits and debt. But until just a short …

Ua37/29 Gary Ransdell - Federal Reserve Board - Chairman Bernanke’S Semiannual Monetary Policy Report, St. Louis Federal Reserve Board

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Email sent to members of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Board of Ben Bernanke's Semiannual Monetary Policy Report.

System Dynamics Implementation Of An Extended Brander And Taylor-Like Easter Island Model, Takuro Uehara, Yoko Nagase, Wayne Wakeland

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

We provide a system dynamics implementation of a dynamic ecological economics model. Dynamic economic models are often constrained to use functions, such as the Cobb-Douglas function, chosen “conveniently” to allow for analytic solutions. The C-D function, however, suffers from its fixed elasticity that does not allow for the substitutability between man-made capital and natural capital to change, which is vital for economic sustainability. Using system dynamics removes this constraint and enables more realistic ecological economics models containing functions not amenable to analytic solution. The base model is the natural resource and population growth model developed by Brander and Taylor (1998) …

Monetary Policy Essay, Dan Brocklehurst

Academic Symposium of Undergraduate Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Montana Nonresident Traveler Expenditure Trends: 1999-2009, Kara Grau

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

This report shows the nonresident traveler expenditure trends for visitors of Montana from 1999-2009. It also displays the total actual expenditures and the total inflation-adjusted expenditures.

Must Economics Always Determine Academic Destiny? Achievement Across Time In Two Academically Equivalent But Socioeconomically Diverse Same City Catholic Schools, Roseanne L. Williby, John W. Hill

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The study analyzed the pretest-posttest results of high stakes test scores, absence frequencies, and high school eligibility cut scores of students who completed fourth-grade through eighth-grades in two academically equivalent but socioeconomically diverse same city Catholic schools. Study outcomes were compared for a naturally formed group of students (n = 28) who had completed fourth-grade through eighth-grades in an urban Catholic school representing fewer family socioeconomic advantages and 40% eligibility for free and reduced price lunch program participation and tuition assistance and a randomly selected group of students (n = 28) completing fourth-grade through eighth-grades in a suburban Catholic school …

Montana Nonresident Traveler Expenditure Trends: 1998-2008, Kara Grau

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

This report shows the nonresident traveler expenditure trends for visitors of Montana from 1998-2008. It also displays the total actual expenditures and the total inflation-adjusted expenditures.

Ua37/29 Gary Ransdell - Federal Reserve Board - Central Bank Independence, Transparency & Accountability, St. Louis Federal Reserve Board

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Email sent to members of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Board of speech delivered by Ben Bernanke at the 2010 Institute for Monetary & Economic Studies Conference.

Policy Suggestions For Emissions Trading In The U.S.A., Nathaniel Wallshein

Honors Scholar Theses

This honors thesis will examine current and theoretical "cap and trade" emissions trading schemes in an attempt to make recommendations on how to improve this regulated commodity market. The various control mechanisms available to regulators will be discussed: including allocation methodology, benchmarking, banking, variation in design frameworks, etc. To aid and support the proposed policy recommendations, this paper will investigate the design framework of the SOx emission trading scheme in the US, the Kyoto Protocol, and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). The political, social, and economic context of these schemes will be taken into account when considering the …

April 2010, Syracuse Department Of Economics

Economics - All Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Retirement Security Through The Tax Code: The Efficacy Of Tax-Based Subsidies In Life Annuity Markets, William M. Gentry, Casey G. Rothschild

Economics Faculty Scholarship

The under-development of existing annuity markets coupled with the secular trend away from traditional pensions towards defined contribution accounts in the U.S. raises significant con- cerns about the adequacy of retirement income for future retirees. We develop dynamic pro- gramming techniques to evaluate the efficacy of policies designed to address this concern by encouraging annuitization. Our analysis suggests that policies providing monetary incentives through the tax code can indeed significantly enhance annuitization among retirees : our central estimates suggest that tax-exemption based policies which have been recently proposed in Congress have the potential to increase annuitization by as much as …

Growth In Russia's Federal Districts, 1994-2003, Gregory J. Brock

Finance and Economics Faculty Publications

Russian macroeconomic growth in the transition era is analysed across federal districts using a neoclassical production function often found in studies of Soviet-era economic growth. An adjusted capital stock series for Russian regions is created and used in the aggregate production function for 1995–2003 to analyse growth across the 11 federal districts in Russia. Federal district output growth is found to be explained well by neoclassical growth theory, indicating that poorer regions may converge to richer regions, thereby strengthening the Russian Federation. Federal districts also have high capital/labour ratios, suggesting that expanded regional domestic and foreign investment across Russia in …

Agenda: The Promise And Peril Of Oil Shale Development, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

The Promise and Peril of Oil Shale Development (February 5)

The largest known oil shale deposits in the world are in the Green River Formation, which covers portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Fully one-half of the world’s oil shale lies within 150 miles of Grand Junction, Colorado, and about 80% of these reserves are on federal land. Estimates of recoverable reserves in the Green River Formation range from 500 billion to 1.53 trillion barrels. At present consumption rates, this is enough oil to satisfy 100% of U.S. demand for well over 100 years.

Development of oil shale could cause significant impacts on the Colorado Plateau. It would provide for …

Ua37/29 Gary Ransdell - Fed. Reserve Board - Ben Bernanke's Swearing In/Kevin Warsh's Speech & Op-Ed, St. Louis Federal Reserve Board

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Email sent to members of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Board excerpting remarks by Ben Bernanke at his swearing in; speech of Kevin Warsh before the New York Association for Business Economics and Warsh's op-ed piece in the Financial Times.

Ua37/29 Gary Ransdell - Fed. Reserve Board - Gov. Duke's Speech, St. Louis Federal Reserve Board

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Email sent to members of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Board regarding Governor Elizabeth Duke's speech on the economic outlook before the Economic Forecast Forum in Raleigh, NC, Jan. 4, 2010.

Shaping Economic Practices In China’S Post-Command Economy Period: The Interaction Of Politics, Economics And Institutional Constraints, Tonia Warnecke, Alain Blanchard

Student-Faculty Collaborative Research Publications

Although much has been published on China's economic transition, less research has focused on how Chinese culture and the Communist political system have interacted to shape the new Chinese economy. In this paper, we argue that China's post-command economy period reflects not only the 'new' infusion of neo-liberal ideology into the country, but also the consistent filtering of economic practices through a historical and complex institutional arrangement of cultural and political norms. The tensions between neo-classical free market principles and the overarching authority of the Communist state explain the variety of institutional constraints on actual economic practices in China. While …

Department Of Economics Publication List 2010, Penny Stover

Economics Pamphlet Series

This compilation lists published works authored by Department of Economics faculty members and other staff working on projects funded through the Department of Economics. Publications resulting from their research and academic activities are indexed by author at the end of this pamphlet for easy access by the public. The articles were published between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009.

The Discourses Of Higher Education In Ireland: Religion, Nationalism And Economic Development, Nora French

Articles

Higher education is shaped and changed by the context in which it operates. For the past several decades, it has been shaped in Ireland by plans for economic development and the focus has been on education as an enabler of wealth creation. It is claimed to have been an important factor in the rise of the Celtic Tiger economy, and the government are again looking to education as a main contributor to recovery from the current recession. This focus marked a major change in Irish higher education. It was in sharp opposition to the deep-seated tradition of liberal education based …

Binary Economics - An Overview, Robert Ashford

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

Based on binary economic principles, this paper asserts that one widely overlooked way to empower economically poor and working people in market economy is to universalize the right to acquire capital with the earnings of capital. This right is presently largely concentrated, as a practical matter, in less than 5 % of the population. The concentration of the right to acquire capital with the earnings of capital helps to explain how people either remain poor or end up poor no matter how hard they work or are willing to work. Binary Economics offers a conception of economics that is foundationally …

Moral Markets: The Critical Role Of Values In The Economy By Paul J. Zak (Book Review), Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

This volume contains the fruits of a two-year seminar on ethics and economics funded by the John Templeton Foundation and administered through the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research. Participants came from the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities, and included Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith and other figures such as Frans de Waal, Herbert Gintis, Robert Frank, and Robert Solomon (for whom the book is dedicated in memoriam). The book’s editor, Paul Zak, is a pioneer in the emerging field of neuroeconomics, which uses medical technology to discover the physiological manifestations of cooperative and altruistic behavior. A theme of …

The Welfare Costs Of Market Restrictions, David Colander, Sieuwerd Gaastra, Casey Rothschild

Economics Faculty Scholarship

In most introductory and intermediate microeconomics textbooks, the measurable welfare effects of price controls, quantitative restrictions, and market restrictions more generally, are depicted as a Harberger triangle. This depiction understates these restrictions’ inefficiency costs because it captures only the ‘‘top-down’’ distortion caused by the wedge these restrictions drive between market-wide quantity demanded and quantity supplied. It ignores the ‘‘bottom-up’’ distortions caused by allocative inefficiencies on the constrained side of the market. In this article we describe a simple graphical exposition of these bottom-up distortions. We argue that this graph can provide students with a picture of both the top-down and …