Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Under The Red Banner, Socialism, Physical Quality Of Life, And Development, Matthew H. Hill

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Despite a steep decline since the Cold War, socialism still plays an important role on the world stage. Because of this, it is important to continue studying the effects of socialist governance. This study seeks to use multiple linear regression to determine the effect that socialism and economic development (as measured by GDP per capita) has on physical quality of life. Previous studies have examined the relationship between physical quality of life and socialism, but these were done in the 1980s. Much has changed since then, and updated information is required. Additionally, examining the impact of economic development’s impact on …

Argentina And The Philippines: Similar Development Struggles, Jesus Felipe, Matias Vernango

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

ALTHOUGH the economies of Argentina and the Philippines are very different, the two share structural problems that make both nations’ development a complex process. The election of Javier Milei as the new president elect of Argentina, gives us the opportunity to review the differences and parallels between the two economies.

Milei is a radical libertarian populist economist with authoritarian tendencies. His proposals range from the dangerous in economics (dollarization, closing the Central Bank, a drastic reduction of social spending) and social issues (curtail human rights and democratic advances, loosen gun ownership laws, and the elimination of all those institutions that …

Is Democracy Good For Growth? | Development At Political Transition Time Matters, Di Sima, Fali Huang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Is democracy a better political regime for economic prosperity than autocracy? This paper shows that the answer depends on the initial economic development level during the democratic transition when the foundation of institutions was laid. Democracy facilitates growth only in countries that already have adequate development at transition time. These countries are more likely to create and sustain growth-enhancing institutions than others. Without appropriate development, democracy does not improve growth; this applies to about 40% of the third-wave democratized countries. These results are based on a sample of 153 countries in 1960–2010 and robust to various specifications and endogeneity issues.

Is Democracy Good For Growth? Development At Political Transition Time Matters, Di Sima, Fali Huang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Is democracy a better political regime for economic prosperity than autocracy? This paper shows that the answer depends on the initial economic development level during the democratic transition when the foundation of institutions was laid. Democracy facilitates growth only in countries that already have adequate development at transition time. These countries are more likely to create and sustain growth-enhancing institutions than others. Without appropriate development, democracy does not improve growth; this applies to about 40% of the third-wave democratized countries. These results are based on a sample of 153 countries in 1960–2010 and robust to various specifications and endogeneity issues.

Cutting Edge Technology Metros In The Mountain West, 2021, Sofia Takhtadjian, Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet highlights data on cutting-edge technology metros in the Mountain West, as originally reported in the Commercial Cafe report, “Boulder Tops Silicon Valley as Most Cutting-Edge Metro in the U.S.” Of the top 30 cutting-edge metros in the nation, four are in the Mountain West: Boulder, CO (1st nationally); Denver, CO (7th nationally); Salt Lake City, UT (10th nationally); and Phoenix, AZ (27th nationally).

Municipal Housing Resource Guide: Resources For Multi-Family Affordable Housing In Mclean County, Illinois, Cassidy Kraimer

Capstone Projects – Politics and Government

In 2015, an interjurisdictional group of leaders in McLean County identified the need to take a regional approach to housing issues in the county and shortly thereafter they created the Regional Housing Initiative. This entity is led by the McLean County Regional Planning Commission and includes two committees who work together to identify gaps in housing, coordinate resources, and implement solutions for housing needs in the community. To support these efforts, the Regional Housing Initiative identified the need to compile resources to support multi-family housing acquisition, development, and preservation. This capstone presents the result of that request. The Municipal Housing …

Strengthening The Southern Nevada Workforce Pipeline, Katie M. Gilbertson

Student Research

Workforce development has been a keystone in the discussion of economic diversification of Las Vegas for decades. The leisure and hospitality industry is the lifeline for the Southern Nevada economy due to the reliance on tourism as the city’s main economic driver. The leisure and hospitality industry requires physical labor and more face-to-face customer interaction than other employment sectors. Thus, these jobs often do not require high educational attainment, but rather sharp soft skills like effective listening, nonverbal communication, and negotiation strategies. While these are valuable traits, the lack of educational attainment within the leisure and hospitality workforce suppresses employees’ …

S6e11: How Can Teaching Innovation Fuel Maine’S Economy?, Ron Lisnet, Renee Kelly, Amber Boutiette, Tyler Delargy

The Maine Question

Innovation fuels entrepreneurship in Maine. In recent years, several small business startups with novel ideas for products have created and sold them at a global scale. For more than a decade, the University of Maine Foster Center for Innovation has collaborated with students, faculty, staff, startups and established organizations, and offered courses and other resources on how to innovate. It also serves as a hub for commercializing and developing businesses from university research.

In the final episode of Season 6 of “The Maine Question,” Renee Kelly, assistant vice president of innovation and economic development at UMaine, discusses how innovation occurs, …

Covid-19 Impact On The Economic Vitality Index Of Ohio’S 88 Counties, Iryna Lendel, Georgina Guadalupe Figueroa, Iryna Demko, Jack Yochum

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This brief illustrates the results of the updated 2020 Economic Vitality Index (EVI) to understand the overall economic impact of the pandemic, including the role of the economic stimuli and related policy responses. This update of the 2019 EVI shows how Ohio’s 88 counties have been affected by COVID-19.

Williamsburg Road Commercial Corridor Revitalization Plan, Rachael B. Thayer

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Sandston is the second oldest established neighborhood in the County of Henrico, and the commercial corridor found along Williamsburg Road has served this community for over a century. This corridor developed during a time when Williamsburg Road, or Route 60, was the primary roadway between the City of Richmond and Williamsburg. As seen with other American corridors that emerged before the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, the Sandston corridor has experienced a halt in the economic development and decrease in the vitality of the economic base in recent decades. The Williamsburg Road Commercial Corridor Revitalization Plan strives to identify key …

When Economic And Political Interests Collide: The Cases Of Defense Procurement And Microfinance In India, Mackenzie Owens

Politics and International Relations Research Papers

India is a growing democracy with an abundant population that seeks economic development; India is a democracy in an ever more important, strategic location. It is essential to better understand India, its politics, and its policies as geopolitical tensions rise in our world. India will be explored via a political economy approach through three sections in this paper: (1) The Political System of India; (2) India’s Trade Policy toward Defense Procurement; (3) The Microfinance Crisis of 2010. India looks to develop its domestic industries, grow investment, while defending its interests and sovereignty.

Aggregate Implications Of Barriers To Female Entrepreneurship, Gaurav Chiplunkar, Pinelopi K. Goldberg

Discussion Papers

We develop a framework for quantifying barriers to labor force participation (LFP) and entrepreneurship faced by women in developing countries, and apply it to the Indian economy. We find that women face substantial barriers to LFP. The costs for expanding businesses through the hiring of workers are also substantially higher for women entrepreneurs. However, there is one area in which female entrepreneurs have an advantage: the hiring of female workers. We show that this is not driven by the sectoral composition of female employment. Consistent with this pattern, we find even without promoting female LFP, policies that boost female entrepreneurship …

Manufacturing In The 21st Century, Iryna Lendel, Mike Naso

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The manufacturing sector faces more challenges than ever to remain a competitive force in Northeast Ohio. The evolution of manufacturing through the advent of Industry 4.0 poses the most pressing challenge, pushing manufacturers to adopt technologies that are driven by data analysis, cloud computing, and connectivity through the Industrial Internet of Things. Northeast Ohio is falling behind in the adoption of 4.0 technology, especially among small- and medium-sized companies, and some have even delayed adoption of 3.0 technologies like basic automation and the integration of computers into production processes. This research brief investigates the advantages of Industry 4.0 implementation and …

The Economics Of The Covid-19 Pandemic In Poor Countries, Edward Miguel, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak

Discussion Papers

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended health and living standards around the world. This article provides an interim overview of these effects, with a particular focus on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Economists have explained how the pandemic is likely to have differential consequences for LMICs, and demand distinct policy responses, compared to rich countries. We survey the rapidly expanding body of empirical research that documents its many adverse economic and non-economic effects in terms of living standards, education, health, and gender equality, which appear to be unprecedented in depth and scale. We also review research on successful and failed policy …

Bridging The Divide: Community Centers As A Catalyst Of Socioeconomic Opportunity Cultivation For At-Risk Youth, Grayson Bourke

Capstone Projects – Politics and Government

The East Bluff Community Center (EBCC)’s mission is to “foster community engagement and neighborhood stabilization by providing a vibrant place to gather.” This paper seeks to shed light on the role that community centers play in creating socioeconomic opportunities for at-risk youth in low-income, American communities. The author completed an 11-month internship through Illinois State University’s Stevenson Center in which I was placed as a Community Engagement Coordinator at the EBCC. While at EBCC, I conducted a neighborhood needs assessment, strengthened existing and built new interorganizational partnerships, and launched a building revitalization within the context of the Integrated Prevention and …

Mapping Religion, Space, And Economic Outcomes In Indian Cities, Vamsi Vakulabharanam, Sripad Motiram

PERI Working Papers

We deploy a socio-spatial approach and use a spatially representative survey that we conducted in Hyderabad and Mumbai to analyze the relation between city space and religion. After documenting the relative status of religious groups in urban India and different types of cities using secondary databases, we identify poor-ghettos and elite-enclaves in Hyderabad and Mumbai. In both cities, ghettos have a high proportion of Muslims, while enclaves are dominated by non-Muslim inhabitants. Ghettoization of Muslims is far more pronounced in Hyderabad than in Mumbai. A key finding on the relation between city space and religion is that compared to segregated …

The Impact Of Global Capitalism On Economic Development In Nigeria, Tomiloba Olaniyi Quadri

Masters Theses

The topic of this research, the impact of global capitalism on economic development in Nigeria, sought to understand the role global capitalism has played in Nigeria’s economic development. Nigeria is presently considered a third-world country; however, researchers and economic observers expect that, based on the number of resources in the country, the standard of living of its citizens should be a lot better than it is currently. It is relevant to question why this is so, especially given that capitalism, which is so successful in many developed countries today, was introduced to Nigeria officially in 1986 by the World Bank …

The Role Of Academic Library Towards Economic Development In Nigeria, Musa Muhammed Assistant University Librarian, Kabiru Garba Danladi University Librarian, Abubakar Ibrahim Assistant Lecturer

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The paper looked at academic libraries in Nigeria as a special agent of economic development in Nigeria, A nation is said to be developed economically when its citizen reaches the high possible standard of living and having a security information for their wellbeing. Academic Library is an institution that is well established to take care of the information needs of students, lecturers, researchers and other comity of scholars and communities. The Academic library is continuously bringing man in contact with the world in the fulfilment of its functions as a repository for knowledge. The paper critically focuses on National development, …

Greater Wheeling Regional Plan: Economic Profile, Eric Bowen, Christiadi, Brian Lego, Cody Adams

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

The Greater Wheeling region, defined in this report as consisting of Brooke, Hancock, Marshall and Ohio counties in West Virginia, and Belmont, Jefferson, and Monroe counties in Ohio, has experienced a volatile economy over the past decade with significant swings in employment across multiple sectors.

In this report, we make a detailed examination of the recent economic indicators in the Greater Wheeling region. This report is part of a series from West Virginia University researchers at the Bureau of Business and Economic Research and the WVU Extension Service that evaluate the Wheeling Metropolitan Area’ economy with the goal of providing …

Greater Wheeling Regional Plan: Workforce And Education Assessment, Christiadi, Eric Bowen

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

Human capital is a crucial element of any regional economic growth plan, as companies looking to locate or grow in a region require a skilled workforce to meet the demands of their businesses. In this report, we examine human capital in the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area, focusing on occupational and educational requirements to support the region’s growth over the next five years.

Greater Wheeling Regional Plan: Action Plan For Economic Development, Michael J. Dougherty, Eric Bowen, Christiadi

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

The Wheeling Region has a long and rich history. However, the passage of time and the change that it has brought has not always been beneficial to the region. As a result, leaders in the region have begun a process to reevaluate and reinvent the Wheeling area and improve the regional economy. In this report, we discuss these strategies and recommend actions to further the Wheeling region’s economic development.

Greater Wheeling Regional Plan: Industrial Cluster Analysis, Eric Bowen

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

One of the most prominent strategies followed by economic development officials is to identify what the region already does well and work to enhance these strengths. Improving on a region’s competitive advantage has been the focus of Porter’s work on economic clusters, which he defines as network of companies that forms within a geographic location based on supplier relationships. In this report, we identify the industry clusters that are present in the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and provide tools to assess the most promising clusters for economic development targeting. This type of cluster analysis has become an increasingly important …

Greater Wheeling Regional Plan: Survey Results, Michael J. Dougherty, Cody Adams

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

The Wheeling Area Strategic Plan included a process for public involvement. Originally, it was to have involved holding open forums and in-person stakeholder meetings. The sessions had been scheduled for early Spring, but they were delayed and eventually cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, we conducted a web-based survey to gather ideas and opinions from people from across the region.

Darkness Falls Upon America’S Backyard: An Evaluation Of Central Appalachia’S Past Economic Woes And A Blueprint For The Region’S Future Economic Development, Jack Bergantino

Honors Scholar Theses

The United States prides itself as a nation that offers equity and opportunity to its citizens. However, in recent decades, regions of relative wealth and poverty have come to define the American landscape. Coastal communities have fared well with consistently declining rates of unemployment and increasing rates of college graduation. In contrast, Central Appalachia, which comprises parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, continues to falter with diverging employment and income levels relative to other areas of the country.

This report discusses the economic history of the Appalachian region and considers three case studies, concentrated in McDowell, Harrison, and …

Economic Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Ohio, Matthew Ellerbrock, Iryna Demko, Iryna Lendel, Erica Henrichsen

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The global COVID-19 pandemic has had sweeping impacts on our society; some of the most dire are economic in nature. In Ohio, stay-at-home orders enacted by Governor DeWine in March 2020 resulted in many Ohioans losing work, in part or altogether. The shutdowns also shifted consumption patterns, with more spending online and at grocery stores taking the place of entertainment, travel, and accommodations. To respond to the economic hardships felt by the pandemic, beginning in late March, the United States federal government issued multiple rounds of financial assistance in the form of business loans, stimulus checks, grants, and contracts. This …

Navigating Government Statistics Of Small Businesses For Pandemic Assistance, Iryna Demko, Iryna V. Lendel, Georgina Guadalupe Figueroa

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This brief examines various sources of government statistics to assist in understanding the scope of small businesses, the legal structure of their operations, and their distribution by industry in the Northeast Ohio (NEO) region. Under the current restrictions for business operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many entrepreneurs and small businesses need assistance to maintain cash flow and to retain both their employees and customers. Governments at all levels have developed business assistance programs to help small businesses; more recently, some of these programs have revised their rules. To illustrate who might be affected by the changing rules, several sources …

Moving Cleveland Above The Trend: Innovation & Talent, Iryna V. Lendel, Merissa Piazza, Molly Schnoke, Nora Walsh

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

A recent report conducted by the Center for Economic Development includes a model for understanding and predicting economic growth in U.S. mid-sized regional economies to analyze structural and policy-based factors among similar regions. The Center used factor analysis as a data-reduction technique to identify the influences in mid-sized regional economies. This statistical analysis found five factors influencing the mid-sized regional economies reviewed for this report. They are 1) Innovation and Talent, 2) Entrepreneurship in High-Cost Areas, 3) New Residential Centers, 4) Retirement Destinations, and 5) Polarization. This was followed by an analysis to determine the relationship between these factors and …

Threshold Effects Of Terms Of Trade On Latin American Growth, Andre C. Vianna, Andre V. Mollick

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper investigates nonlinear relationships between terms of trade volatility (totvol) and economic growth in 14 Latin American economies from 1997 to 2014. In the 2000s, Latin American countries experienced accelerated economic growth often attributed to commodity price booms. We split the sample into two regimes based on totvol thresholds determined by bootstrap techniques. Fixed-effects, instrumental variable and dynamic panel regressions address endogeneity in trade-growth, subject to traditional economic channels such as domestic investment, population growth, exchange rate, government size, and institutions. We find statistically significant thresholds and stronger trade-growth links during the 2000s commodity boom and in larger economies.

Moving Cleveland Above The Trend: Entrepreneurship Policy, Iryna V. Lendel, Merissa Piazza, Molly Schnoke, Shneur Kushner

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

A recent report conducted by the Center for Economic Development discussed the structural and policy factors of economic growth in mid-sized U.S. economies and included an analysis of similar regions. The Center used factor analysis as a data-reduction technique and identified five factors influencing mid-sized regional economies: 1) Innovation and Talent, 2) Entrepreneurship in High-Cost Areas, 3) New Residential Centers, 4) Retirement Destinations, and 5) Polarization. An analysis determined the relationship between these factors and the changes in regional employment, gross regional product (output), and per capita income. This brief outlines the initial analysis primary takeaways as it relates to …

Economic Vitality Index: Mapping Ohio's 88 Counties, Matthew Ellerbrock, Courtney Whitman, Iryna V. Lendel, Merissa Piazza

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Along with the unimaginable death of hundreds of thousands, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused economic hardship for many more millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of businesses, large and small. After experiencing the longest economic expansion in U.S. history, we are now faced with an unprecedented contraction in modern times as workers see their hours reduced – or jobs eliminated – and businesses scale down operations or close their doors altogether. As part of its effort to aid in responding to Ohio’s economic downturn resulting from the pandemic, the Center for Economic Development (Center) is tracking the overall economic …