Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Doors Of Perception, Gary Charness, Alessandro Sontuoso

ESI Working Papers

We investigate how a player’s strategic behavior is affected by the set of notions she uses in thinking about the game, i.e., the “frame”. To do so, we consider matching games where two players are presented with a set of objects, from which each player must privately choose one (with the goal of matching the counterpart’s choice). We propose a novel theory positing that different player types are aware of different attributes of the strategy options, hence different frames; we then rationalize why differences in players’ frames may lead to differences in choice behavior. Unlike previous theories of framing, our …

Did The Adoption Of Ifrs Affect Corporate Tax Avoidance?, Oliver Nnamdi Okafor, Akinloye Akindayomi, Hussein Warsame

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article investigates whether the adoption of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) affected corporate tax avoidance in Canada. Based on a 3,200 firm-year data set of 400 publicly listed Canadian firms that adopted IFRS and 400 listed US firms, matched one-to-one using propensity score matching, the authors’ regression results show that IFRS adoption was followed by a decrease in corporate tax avoidance in Canada, at least in the short run. The study finds a significant increase in cash tax paid in the post-adoption period by Canadian firms that adopted IFRS compared to US firms that used US generally accepted accounting …

Supply Shock Versus Demand Shock: The Local Effects Of New Housing In Low-Income Areas, Brian J. Asquith, Evan Mast, Davin Reed

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We study the local effects of new market-rate housing in low-income areas using microdata on large apartment buildings, rents, and migration. New buildings decrease nearby rents by 5 to 7 percent relative to locations slightly farther away or developed later, and they increase in-migration from low-income areas. Results are driven by a large supply effect—we show that new buildings absorb many high-income households—that overwhelms any offsetting endogenous amenity effect. The latter may be small because most new buildings go into already-changing areas. Contrary to common concerns, new buildings slow local rent increases rather than initiate or accelerate them.

Spillover Effects In Police Use Of Force, Justin E. Holz, Roman G. Rivera, Bocar A. Ba

All Faculty Scholarship

We study the link between officer injuries-on-duty and the force-use of their peers using a network of officers who, through a random lottery, began the police academy together. We find that peer injuries-on-duty increase the probability of using force by 7%. The effect is concentrated in a narrow time window near the event and is not associated with significantly lower injury risk to the officer. Complaints of improper searches and failure to provide service also increase after peer injuries, suggesting that the increase in force might be driven by heightened risk aversion.

Rethinking State Economic Development Strategies: Or, How To Maximize Benefits For State Residents’ Earnings Per Capita, Timothy J. Bartik

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Representative Economic Budgets For Nebraska Cow Herds, Glennis Mcclure, Jay Parsons

Cornhusker Economics

In 2017, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Institute of Agricultural and Natural Resources (IANR) and Nebraska Extension made a commitment to implement a multidisciplinary Beef Systems Initiative (BSI). BSI is administered by the Center for Grassland Studies and is comprised of six projects designed to develop and support implementation of beef production systems that optimize feed resource use, natural resource conservation, and producer success in Nebraska through improved management of perennial grasslands and systems of integrated crop-beef cattle production. In addition to BSI, a parallel project funded by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) is studying the best practices …

Working Paper No. 37, The American Opium Trade, Karson M. Pence

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that American merchants exacerbated China’s 19th century opium epidemic. Circumventing Britain’s monopoly of Indian opium, three men, Thomas Perkins, John Cushing, and Robert Forbes, played a key role in American consolidation of Turkish opium production. With malice and blatant disregard, numerous Americans pumped tens of thousands of chests of opium into China, creating fabulous riches and incredibly influential familial dynasties while simultaneously destroying the minds and bodies of an untold number of Chinese.

Working Paper No. 50, Alexis De Tocqueville On American 'Exceptionalism', Zachary Mckinster

Working Papers in Economics

From early settlers to the sophisticated nuances and concerns facing Americans in his time, Alexis de Tocqueville authored a definitive piece on democracy as it emerged and was practiced in 19th century America. This inquiry seeks to establish that Tocqueville’s penetrating insights into the United States in its early decades assisted him in arriving at the notion of what is widely touted as American ‘Exceptionalism’. In the first half of the 19th century Tocqueville travelled widely, seeking to understand this republic and its constitutional emphases upon principles of democracy. Completing his tour, in 1835 Tocqueville published Democracy in America. It …

Working Paper No. 40, The Rise And Fall Of Georgist Economic Thinking, Justin Pilarski

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that Henry George’s writings advanced a distinct theory of political economy that benefited from a meteoric rise in popularity followed by a fall to irrelevance with the turn of the 20^th century. During the depression decade of the 1870s, the efficacy of the laissez-faire economic system came into question, during this same timeframe neoclassical economics supplanted classical political economy. This inquiry considers both of George’s key works: Progress and Poverty [1879] and The Science of Political Economy [1898], establishing the distinct components of Georgist economic thought. This rise in ‘Georgism’ is evinced through the …

Working Paper No. 42, Commodity Production As An Explanatory Variable In The Outbreak Of The American Civil War, Andrew Pope

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that the American South’s comparative advantage in primary commodity production can be identified as an explanatory variable in the outbreak of the American Civil War. In addition, this inquiry seeks to illustrate the positive historical correlation between a state’s reliance on primary commodity production and its propensity to generate extreme outcomes—namely, institutional inequality, conflict, and civil war. Furthermore, this inquiry seeks to demonstrate that civil wars can be primarily understood as a function of a rebelling force’s economic motivations and explores the concept of King Cotton, westward expansion, and the South’s ultimate secession from the …

Consumers Support A Slowing Economy, Eric Thompson

Business in Nebraska

Nebraska will record moderate economic growth during the forecast period but will lag U.S. growth. Like the national economy, growth Nebraska’s goods producing sector will struggle. Farm incomes will be flat from 2020 to 2022 after improving this year. Manufacturing employment also is expected to drop. However, most other sectors will expand, including services, finance and construction. Projected growth rates for 2020 to 2022 are presented in Table 1.

Employment will grow by 0.6% to 0.8% per year, below the national rate. Non-farm income will grow between 3.7% and 3.8% each year. This growth readily exceeds inflation and population growth, …

Working Paper No. 39, Neoliberalism As A Variant Of Capitalism, Justin Pilarski

Working Papers in Economics

Economic systems evolve over time in adapting to the needs and deficiency of the system. This inquiry seeks to establish Neoliberalism as—in the language of Barry Clark—a variant of capitalism that evolved out of retaliation of the regulated variant of capitalism. We utilize Barry Clark’s work on the evolution of economic systems in establishing the pattern of adaptation in American capitalism. Then we establish and analyze the neoliberal variant of capitalism in how this evolution retaliated against the existing system rather than adapting the preceding variant. We then consider how the economics profession reacted when the neoliberal economic policies failed …

Accrual Accounting And The Farm Business, Part Ii, Tim L. Meyers

Cornhusker Economics

My last Cornhusker Economics article, Accounting Assumptions and the Farm Business (10-16-19) set the foundation for a specific evaluation of the conceptual framework accrual accounting offers the farm or ranch manager. The article addressed cash accounting and hinted at its shortfalls which were rectified by accrual accounting. This article will explain conceptual frameworks, and two accrual accounting principles; namely the revenue recognition principle and the matching principle.

During one of my graduate school experiences, I encountered a professor who seemed to be in love with conceptual frameworks. I chose a framework and tried to use it as instructed, but it …

Understanding Us Firm Efficiency And Its Asset Pricing Implications, Giovanni Calice, Levent Kutlu, Ming Zeng

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

We investigate the links between firm-level total factor productivity (TFP) growth and technical efficiency change, and their implications on firm-level stock returns. We estimate TFP growth of US firms between 1966 and 2015 and decompose TFP growth into returns to scale, technical progress, and technical efficiency change components. We show that most of the variation in TFP growth is explained by variation in technical efficiency change. Moreover, we examine the effects of important macro- and micro-level factors on inefficiency as well as its asset pricing implications. We find that low-efficiency firms are more vulnerable to a wide class of aggregate …

Economic Prosperity Of Nevada Counties And Southwest Metros, Madison Frazee-Bench, William E. Brown, Caitlin Saladino

Economic Development & Workforce

This Fact Sheet highlights the economic and social disparities of Nevada’s counties as well as the counties in the Southwest Metro Area. By using data from The Hamilton Project, the following tables illustrate disparities within each county in Nevada and in the Southwest Metros.

St. Cloud Area Quarterly Business Report Vol. 21 No. 4, King Banaian, Richard A. Macdonald

St. Cloud Area Quarterly Business Report

St. Cloud-area employment rose 0.7% over the year ending October 2019. This job growth represents an increase in 780 area jobs over the past 12 months. The recent increase in employment is coincidentally of similar size as the loss of jobs that occurred when Electrolux closed its St. Cloud production facility at the beginning of November. This means recent local employment growth could be reversed when the November jobs numbers are released by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development in mid-December.

St. Cloud once again outperformed both the state and Twin Cities in job growth over the past …

Should Place-Based Jobs Policies Be Used To Help Distressed Communities? Yes, But Current Policies Need Reforms, Timothy J. Bartik

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Economic Impact Of Pace University's School Of Performing Arts, Rebecca Tekula Phd, Adrian Rivero

Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship

No abstract provided.

Vision Zero: Speed Limit Reduction And Traffic Injury Prevention In New York City, Kristin Mammen, Hyoung Suk Shim, Bryan S. Weber

Publications and Research

We examine the effect on the incidence of casualties and crashes of a city-wide vehicle speed limit reduction in New York City (NYC) streets. The law change, part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Vision Zero Action Plan to improve traffic safety, cuts the default speed limit for streets with no speed limit signs from 30 to 25 mph beginning November 7, 2014. We use a monthly panel dataset with crash statistics for the entire population of NYC streets, from July 2012 through March 2019. Several difference-in-differences regressions show a statistically significant and meaningful decline in injuries and crashes.

The Impact Of Veterans Treatment Courts On The Community, Daniela Mettos, Amanda Leingang

Cornhusker Economics

With the United States’ ongoing presence in the Middle East and the ever-present possibility of future conflict, the commitment to tend to the unique needs of veterans returning from combat is an essential one. The number of veterans suffering from mental health issues, substance abuse disorders, and physical trauma continues to rise. With this comes an increased risk of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), drug and alcohol abuse, and repeating criminal behavior, all of which increase the likelihood that veterans will find themselves involved in the criminal justice system at some point following their combat service.

Utilizing effective, reliable, and focused …

Predicting Market Trends: Effects Of Gdp And Pmi On Changes In Stock Closing Prices, Charley Renna

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

In an effort to learn more about the impact of certain economic variables on the stock market, I chose to analyze the impact that the Purchasing Managers’ Index and U.S. Gross Domestic Product have on three major stock indices: S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Nasdaq 100. The PMI is an index of the direction of economic trends in the manufacturing and services sector. Released on the first business day of every month, it consists of a diffusion index that summarizes whether market conditions are expanding, staying the same, or contracting. An index level greater than 50 percent suggests …

Give Us A Little Social Credit: To Design Or To Discover Personal Ratings In The Era Of Big Data, Abigail Devereaux, Linan Peng

Economics and Management Faculty publications

In 2014, the State Council of the Chinese Communist Party announced the institution of a social credit system by 2020, a follow-up to a similar statement on the creation of a social credit system issued by the State Council in 2007. Social credit ratings of the type being developed by the State Council in partnership with Chinese companies go beyond existing financial credit ratings in an attempt to project less-tangible personal characteristics like trustworthiness, criminal tendencies, and group loyalty onto a single scale. The emergence of personal credit ratings is enabled by Big Data, automated decision-making processes, machine learning, and …

Children’S Gender And Investments From Nonresident Fathers, Kristin Mammen

Publications and Research

Evidence suggests that fathers have stronger ties to sons than daughters, which may result in differential investments in their children. This paper investigated whether girls’ gender restricts their access to fathers' contributions if they do not live together. The data used were the 1994-2008 March/April Match Current Population Survey Child Support Supplements, a large, nationally representative sample which identifies child support eligible mothers of all marital statuses and collects information on nonresident fathers’ financial and social investments in their children. Results for court-mediated outcomes such as the existence and amounts of child support orders showed that courts do not allocate …

International Trade And Capital Flight From Africa: Challenges For Governance, Melvin D. Ayogu

PERI Working Papers

Capital flight constitutes a major constraint to Africa’s efforts to fill the large and growing financing gaps that hold back its progress towards achieving sustainable development goals. The mounting evidence on the unrecorded outflows of capital from Africa has spurred calls for strategies to curb the financial hemorrhage that is afflicting the continent. The existing evidence is still inadequate, however, on four fronts. First, the quantitative evidence is predominantly aggregate and does not furnish adequate country-specific information on the mechanisms of capital flight, its institutional contexts, and the role of domestic and foreign players in facilitating it. Second, the literature …

Magnitudes And Mechanisms Of Capital Flight From Angola, Côte D'Ivoire And South Africa, LéOnce Ndikumana, James K. Boyce

PERI Working Papers

This paper presents an updated methodology for estimation of capital flight, which is applied to the cases of Angola, Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa. The results indicate that the three countries have experienced substantial capital flight over the past four decades, amounting to $103 billion in constant 2018 dollars for Angola (over 1986-2018), $55 billion for Côte d’Ivoire (over 1970- 2018), and $329 billion for South Africa (over 1970-2018). An important mechanism of capital flight is misinvoicing of exports and imports, especially in primary commodities. The fact that these outflows have persisted over a long period indicates that they are …

Strategies To Build Economic Strength In Lagging Areas: Investment, Tax Incentives, Wage Subsidies, Worker Training, And Education, Michael Wasylenko

Economics - All Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Contrasting And Synthesizing Perspectives On Late Stage Capitalism And The French Revolution, Alyssa Allen

Jessie O'Kelly Freshman Essay Award

The modern-day American wealth inequality epidemic coupled with the effective silencing of the masses through superdelegates and the Electoral College fosters conditions akin to Pre-Revolutionary France with the bourgeoisie being oppressed through wealth inequality and the Estate System.

Rhode Island Current Conditions Index -- December 2019, Leonard Lardaro

The Rhode Island Current Conditions Index

No abstract provided.

An Ai Approach To Measuring Financial Risk, Lining Yu, Wolfgang Karl Hardle, Lukas Borke, Thijs Benschop

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

AI artificial intelligence brings about new quantitative techniques to assess the state of an economy. Here, we describe a new measure for systemic risk: the Financial Risk Meter (FRM). This measure is based on the penalization parameter (λ" role="presentation" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 0px; text-align: left; text-transform: none; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: normal; overflow-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; border: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; position: relative;">λλ) of a linear quantile lasso regression. The FRM is calculated by taking the average …

Asset Pricing Of International Equity Under Cross-Border Investment Frictions, Thummim Cho, Argyris Tsiaras

Economics: Faculty Publications

We develop a tractable asset pricing model of international equity markets to investigate the impact of frictions in cross-border financial investments on equity return dynamics and cross-border equity holdings across countries. We characterize the equilibrium of the model analytically at the limit as one country becomes large relative to all other countries. Our results clarify the distinct impact of cross-border holding costs, cash-flow fundamentals comovement, and preferences on cross-border portfolio holdings, return comovement, and risk premia. The model offers a unified explanation for key empirical regularities in the cross-section of equity markets regarding cross-country return correlations, CAPM pricing errors, and …