Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Economics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 20 of 20

Full-Text Articles in Economics

Working Paper No. 46, Foundations For Feminist Legal Theory, Taylor Feltham Dec 2020

Working Paper No. 46, Foundations For Feminist Legal Theory, Taylor Feltham

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish the foundations for Feminist Legal Theory through considering its three important dimensions. These dimensions are: a) a distinct and unique historical background; b) an ongoing legacy of occupational segregation; and c) a persistence of gender inequality. This inquiry relies heavily upon Feminist Legal Theory: A Primer (2016) authored by Nancy Levit, et al. Since the emergence of the area of inquiry known as “critical race feminism,” feminist legal theory has been moving away from the principle of formal equality and towards intersectional equity. Feminist legal theorists like Angela Harris (1990), in her work Race and …


Working Paper No. 47, The Transformation Of Developmental States: Patterns Of Economic Development In South Korea And Taiwan, Mina Kim Dec 2020

Working Paper No. 47, The Transformation Of Developmental States: Patterns Of Economic Development In South Korea And Taiwan, Mina Kim

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry considers similar yet contrasting patterns in the economic development of South Korea and Taiwan. Taiwan’s developmental state has tended to exhibit ‘softer’ characteristics than South Korea’s. I identify a tendency for when developmental states face crises and then transition forward to a ‘post-developmental state’. This is traced to the internal 'paradox of success' and external pressure of neoliberal globalization. Though these two countries tend to embrace and rely upon neoliberal policies for economic growth, the speed and degree of systemic change register as different. A 1997 financial crisis appears to have goaded South Korea to move quickly through …


Working Paper No. 48, Struggle Over China, Joshua Stanfill Dec 2020

Working Paper No. 48, Struggle Over China, Joshua Stanfill

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that after Dr. Sun Yat-sen thought through and then laid the foundations for the modern Chinese state, a struggle for power emerged between those identifying as nationalists and communists. Sun’s ideas regarding some of the effects of western imperialism on Asian countries were shared by both the Chinese Communist Party and the Nationalist Party under Chiang Kai-shek. The ideological bases for the struggle between the two parties for China emerged in their beliefs regarding relationships between government and citizens, and the role of the government. Soon after Dr. Sun’s death, a struggle for power over …


Working Paper No. 45, An Intellectual History Of Josiah Warren, Jaye Balentine Dec 2020

Working Paper No. 45, An Intellectual History Of Josiah Warren, Jaye Balentine

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that Josiah Warren (1798-1874) developed a synthesis of anti-capitalist economics and radical individualism which became a unique, yet highly practical strand of anarchism in the United States. This inquiry relies heavily upon Crispin Sartwell’s The Practical Anarchist: Writings of Josiah Warren (2011) for insight into Warren’s contributions. Warren registers as distinct because of his relative isolation from other anarchist thinkers, existing largely as a lone practitioner operating in the western territories of the United States during middle-part of the 19th century. This inquiry considers Warren’s philosophical views as well as his practical program—namely his doctrines …


Writing Tips For Economics Research Papers, Plamen Nikolov Nov 2020

Writing Tips For Economics Research Papers, Plamen Nikolov

Economics Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


History Of Islamic Economic Thought: A Content Analysis, Luqman Hakim Handoko Oct 2020

History Of Islamic Economic Thought: A Content Analysis, Luqman Hakim Handoko

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

There are many sources of Islamic economic thought left by Muslim Scholars. For decades, contemporary Muslim economists have been trying to explore and examine the contribution of Muslim Scholars. Among the efforts is to produce the book of the history of Islamic economic thought (HIET) either by thematic approach or by a personal approach. The current study aims to explore how often and profoundly the discussion of the economic thought of the Muslim scholars among authors of HIET, especially on a personal approach. Therefore, to extract and analyze the data will use a simple content analysis and descriptive approach. Twenty-two …


Introduction To The Special Issue On The Economics Of Religion, Jared Rubin Sep 2020

Introduction To The Special Issue On The Economics Of Religion, Jared Rubin

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

"The economics and political science of religion have blossomed into full-fledged fields in the last decade and a half. What was once a field on the far outskirts of economics and political science now regularly publishes in its top journals (see Figure 1).1 By 1998, the field was large enough for Iannaccone (1998) to write a survey of the shape of the field. The field was very much at its infancy at that time, and most of the best work was done by sociologists and/or published in sociology journals. This has changed significantly in the 22 years since Iannaccone's …


Working Paper No. 44, The Evolution Of The Landlord, Jaye Balentine Jun 2020

Working Paper No. 44, The Evolution Of The Landlord, Jaye Balentine

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that the meaning of the term ‘the landlord’ has evolved over the course of history. In this sense, this inquiry contributes not only to the disciplines of History and Politics, but also to the field of the History of Economic Thought and the subfield of Evolutionary-Institutional Economics, carrying on the tradition established by Thorstein Veblen. A pervasive and dominant institution during the feudal era, the landlord has since evolved considerably, shifting away from the position of a predominantly political institution into a more economically oriented, capitalist institution. As a figure and agent operating within societies, …


Working Paper No. 49, On Joseph Schumpeter And Economic Development, Serene Mistkawi Jun 2020

Working Paper No. 49, On Joseph Schumpeter And Economic Development, Serene Mistkawi

Working Papers in Economics

In his writings Joseph Schumpeter stresses the important role played by the entrepreneur, serving as the agent bringing about change and contributing dynamic activities to an economy. Also, Schumpeter views capitalism as an evolving system, with his entrepreneur contributing to this evolution. Schumpeter also stresses the importance of innovation for enabling an entrepreneur to earn and accumulate profits. Related to innovation, Schumpeter’s entrepreneur can help bring about a “creative destruction.” This is thought to take place as outmoded businesses fail and their productive assets are bought up and creatively reorganized and brought back into production. In this manner, Schumpeter’s entrepreneur …


Incentivized Learning And Libraries: A Comparative Study Of Summer Reading Programs In Connecticut, Andrew Morrison May 2020

Incentivized Learning And Libraries: A Comparative Study Of Summer Reading Programs In Connecticut, Andrew Morrison

Honors Scholar Theses

With digital forms of entertainment and media more inescapable than ever, it has become increasingly difficult to encourage children and teens to read. Simultaneously, despite an overwhelming amount of literature demonstrating the educational benefits of reading, especially as a necessity in the summer between academic years, library budgets are shrinking as federal funding nears its end. How do libraries promote summer reading amidst declining interest and decreased funding? Using data from public libraries across Connecticut, this paper investigates how libraries are adapting their children's summer reading programs to a changing landscape, how programs are designed to incentivize reading without eliminating …


Crop Yield And Democracy, James B. Ang, Per G. Fredriksson, Satyendra Kumar Gupta May 2020

Crop Yield And Democracy, James B. Ang, Per G. Fredriksson, Satyendra Kumar Gupta

Faculty Scholarship

How does the historical legacy of agriculture affect democratic traditions in contemporary societies? This paper provides empirical evidence that inherent crop yield and democracy exhibit an inverted U-shaped relationship. This finding is supported by cross-country data from up to 147 countries, 186 pre-colonial societies, and the U.S. states. The relationship thus exhibits a highly persistent pattern. Crop yield is measured by kilocalories per hectare per year under rain-fed conditions, which has the advantage of being highly exogenous. The hump-shaped relationship holds up to a battery of robustness tests.


Technology In Major League Baseball: 2017 Houston Astros, Prisoner’S Dilemma, And Behavioral Solutions, Spencer Kinyon Apr 2020

Technology In Major League Baseball: 2017 Houston Astros, Prisoner’S Dilemma, And Behavioral Solutions, Spencer Kinyon

Honors Scholar Theses

This paper compares and contrasts the economic model for baseball in the 20th century without technology and the economic model for baseball in the 21st century with technology. Major League Baseball (MLB) teams have evolved to use technology to improve the performance of players on the field. This paper explores the economics of penalties in MLB and how teams are penalized for their use of illegal technology. In the 2017 season, the Houston Astros used illegal technology that led the team to win the World Series. This paper provides a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether or not a team should …


What Went Wrong With Economics?: Milton Friedman, Alexander Meiklejon, And The Reorientation Of Freedom, Aria Mia Loberti Apr 2020

What Went Wrong With Economics?: Milton Friedman, Alexander Meiklejon, And The Reorientation Of Freedom, Aria Mia Loberti

Senior Honors Projects

Economics went wrong in the midst of the Cold War, specifically the time of the terror of communism in the 1950s. It went wrong in Chicago economics in particular—exacerbated by a reorientation in how to understand and conceptualize freedom. Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom trumpets the virtues of economic freedom, or the freedom of choice within the competitive market. It represents the Chicago neoliberal position. In contrast, the luminary Alexander Meiklejohn advocates a radically different conception of freedom, and his ideas echo the voices pre-1950 Chicago economics. Meiklejohn promotes political freedom over economic freedom: championing absolute protection for free speech, …


Working Paper No. 43, Towards A Veblenian Theory Of Instincts, Duane Murray Mar 2020

Working Paper No. 43, Towards A Veblenian Theory Of Instincts, Duane Murray

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that in his writings, Thorstein Veblen offers a comprehensive and insightful contribution towards an understanding of instincts. Instincts can be viewed self-regarding and thought to promote the survival of the individual. Other instincts can be classified as group-regarding and contribute towards the continuation of society. Instincts can lead to the formation of habits and to combine to create societal institutions that govern human behavior. With the passage of time, instincts, habits, and institutions are thought to contribute to economic and societal evolution.


Working Paper No. 52, Some Of The Profound Effects Of World War I On France, Zachary Mckinster Mar 2020

Working Paper No. 52, Some Of The Profound Effects Of World War I On France, Zachary Mckinster

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that World War I engendered profound effects over the population, economy, and nation of France. The word ‘profound’ suggests significant and permanent changes affecting individuals, the society, and the economy at large. Penetrating into France’s 20th century history through the account of Louis Barthas, an infantry soldier, provides stark contrast to ‘conventional’ narratives through providing insights into some of the effects of industrialized combat, thereby allowing for a deeper understanding of the traumas suffered. Clarifying developments taking place in the French economy provides a foundation for better understanding some of the effects of WWI. This …


Integration Of And Deliveries Among The World Zionist Organization, Israel, And Diaspora Countries: System Articulation With The Social Fabric Matrix, F. Gregory Hayden Mar 2020

Integration Of And Deliveries Among The World Zionist Organization, Israel, And Diaspora Countries: System Articulation With The Social Fabric Matrix, F. Gregory Hayden

Department of Economics: Faculty Publications

The religious economics (not economics of religion) concern here is the relationship between the World Zionist Organization (WZO) and Israel, which is known as a geopolitical power in its region and which is also known as an economic success story. Joseph Schumpeter and Karl Polanyi explained how the political economy of medieval Europe was influenced and guided by Christian morality. This paper extends the analysis of religious economics by using the social fabric matrix of original institutional economics to define and structure the integration of the WZO, Israel, and the Diaspora countries. This allows us to observe how to conduct …


Supplementary Materials For "Integration Of And Deliveries Among The World Zionist Organization, Israel, And Diaspora Countries: System Articulation With The Social Fabric Matrix", F. Gregory Hayden Jan 2020

Supplementary Materials For "Integration Of And Deliveries Among The World Zionist Organization, Israel, And Diaspora Countries: System Articulation With The Social Fabric Matrix", F. Gregory Hayden

Department of Economics: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Social Agglomeration Forces And The City, Peter A. Luff Jan 2020

Social Agglomeration Forces And The City, Peter A. Luff

Library Map Prize

The presence of “agglomeration forces” in production markets is widely accepted and has been recently quantified in the economics literature. Social scientists have done little theoretical work, however, and even less quantitative work, on how the logic of agglomeration might also apply to social groups and the gains that people derive from their social interactions. This paper attempts to bridge this gap by modeling and measuring the benefits in terms of social prestige that arose from the spatial concentration of socialites in Manhattan in the 1920s. I formulate a model of location-based social status determination that illustrates why these benefits …


Neoliberalism And Financialization In Turkey, Hakan Yilmaz Jan 2020

Neoliberalism And Financialization In Turkey, Hakan Yilmaz

Publications and Research

This paper summarizes the process of financialization under the neoliberal restructuring of the Turkish economy. First, it discusses the political and economic context that led to the restructuring. Then, it elaborates the first stage of Turkish neoliberalism and financialization under the ANAP government, and the various coalition governments throughout 1990s. Then, it describes the second stage of this process under the Neoliberal Populist regime of the AKP government. Finally, it tries to locate neoliberalism and financialization in the country’s long-term capitalist development. In this context, the paper aims to display the connection between Marx’s tendency of the rate of profit …


Contractual Arbitrage, Stephen J. Choi, G. Mitu Gulati, Robert E. Scott Jan 2020

Contractual Arbitrage, Stephen J. Choi, G. Mitu Gulati, Robert E. Scott

Faculty Scholarship

Standard-form contracts are likely to be incomplete because they are not tailored to the needs of particular deals. In an attempt to reduce incompleteness, standard-form contracts often contain clauses with vague or ambiguous terms. Terms with indeterminate meaning present opportunities for strategic behavior well after a contract has been executed. This linguistic uncertainty in standard-form commercial contracts creates an opportunity for “contractual arbitrage”: parties may argue ex post that the uncertainties in expression mean something that the contracting parties did not contemplate ex ante. This chapter argues that the scope for contractual arbitrage is a direct function of the techniques …