Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Economic freedom (2)
- Regulation (2)
- Sports betting (2)
- Synthetic control method (2)
- Amendment 2 (1)
-
- Arnold Schwarzenegger (1)
- California (1)
- China (1)
- City-county consolidation (1)
- Corruption (1)
- Data Envelopment Analysis (1)
- Disinflation (1)
- Displacement effect (1)
- Economic development (1)
- Economics education (1)
- Efficiency (1)
- Election (1)
- Energy (1)
- Energy sector (1)
- Federal regulation (1)
- Fiscal impact (1)
- Gambling revenues (1)
- Governance efficiency (1)
- Government (1)
- Government experience (1)
- Governor (1)
- Higher education (1)
- Infrastructure (1)
- Institutions (1)
- Ivory tower (1)
Articles 1 - 16 of 16
Full-Text Articles in Economics
Disamenity Or A Signal Of Competence? The Empirical Political Economy Of Local Road Maintenance, Benjamin Blemings, Margaret Bock
Disamenity Or A Signal Of Competence? The Empirical Political Economy Of Local Road Maintenance, Benjamin Blemings, Margaret Bock
Economics Faculty Working Papers Series
Empirical results find different conclusions than theoretical evidence of how electorates perceive road work. This paper uses a geographically smaller unit of analysis than prior work, political alignment, local election cycles, and difference-in-differences. It finds political distortions in invasive road maintenance timing and rules out maintenance seasonality. Spatial discontinuity plots leveraging ward boundary cutoffs confirm the shift. Results identify new public distortions to road maintenance, local election cycles, which are widespread and frequent. The estimates are used to calculate financial costs of local elections on road maintenance. Local elections have cost medium-large U.S. cities over $185.5 million from 1960- 2020.
Economic Activity, International Intervention, And Transitional Governance: A Comparative Case Study Of Somalia, Daniel Bonneau, Joshua C. Hall
Economic Activity, International Intervention, And Transitional Governance: A Comparative Case Study Of Somalia, Daniel Bonneau, Joshua C. Hall
Economics Faculty Working Papers Series
This paper investigates the impact of international state-building efforts in Somalia on economic development. We use satellite data on night lights to measure economic activity to deal with nonexistent or poor-quality national income accounts. Using the synthetic control method, we find that the establishment of the Transitional Federal Government in 2004 was associated with economic stagnation relative to the years under statelessness. Using nighttime light emissions, we find economic stagnation regardless of whether we use the total lights emitted from the country or the spread of lights across the country. Our empirical findings are consistent with the idea that the …
Academia In Anarchy: 50 Years On, Joshua C. Hall
Academia In Anarchy: 50 Years On, Joshua C. Hall
Economics Faculty Working Papers Series
In 1970, James Buchanan and Nicos Devletoglou published Academia in Anarchy: An Economic Diagnosis. Even though the book focuses on the industry Buchanan worked in for nearly 70 years, it is the only one of his non-autobiographical, non-textbook, books not included in his collected works. I evaluate the arguments of Buchanan and Devletoglou in light of the past 50 years of scholarship on the economics of higher education.
The Effect Of Transparency, Independence And Accountability Of Central Banks On Disinflation Costs, Golnaz B. Motie, Joshua C. Hall
The Effect Of Transparency, Independence And Accountability Of Central Banks On Disinflation Costs, Golnaz B. Motie, Joshua C. Hall
Economics Faculty Working Papers Series
Policymakers often want to achieve low inflation to avoid the low economic growth associated with high inflation. Reducing inflation through monetary policy (disinflation) is not costless as it can coincide with higher unemployment rates and reduced output. In this paper we use sacrifice ratios to calculate the cost of disinflation during the 1990s for 40 countries. We then study whether transparency and democratic accountability of monetary institutions reduces disinflation costs. Our empirical results suggest that more transparent central banks seem to face higher disinflation costs. This result could be because more transparent central banks have lower initial inflation rates during …
Legalized Sports Betting, Vlt Gambling, And State Gambling Revenues: Evidence From West Virginia, Brad Humphreys
Legalized Sports Betting, Vlt Gambling, And State Gambling Revenues: Evidence From West Virginia, Brad Humphreys
Economics Faculty Working Papers Series
A Supreme Court decision legalizing sports betting in the US led states to legalize sports betting in order to generate new tax revenues from wagering on sports events. Most states already permit other forms of gambling and receive tax revenues from these sources. The literature analyzing consumer substitution in gambling spending contains some evidence on the impact of expansions in many types of gambling, but no evidence on the impact of expanded sports betting. This paper exploits the legalization of sports betting and timing of sports book openings in West Virginia to analyze the impact of expanded sports betting on …
Federal Regulations And U.S. Energy Sector Output, Joshua Hall, Shishir Shakya
Federal Regulations And U.S. Energy Sector Output, Joshua Hall, Shishir Shakya
Economics Faculty Working Papers Series
A large body of literature finds that the energy sector is important to economic growth and development. The production of energy has negative environmental impacts, however, which has resulted in the sector being highly regulated. While several studies examine the effect of particular regulations on the energy sector, in this study we use the recently developed measure of regulation called RegData to estimate the impact of federal regulations on the energy sector. We employ a panel ARDL model to find an inverted U-shaped relationship between federal regulations and U.S. energy sector output. Federal regulations appear to increase energy sector outputs …
The Efficient Corruption Hypothesis And The Dynamics Between Economic Freedom, Corruption, And National Income, Joshua Hall, John Levendis, Alexandre R. Scarcioffolo
The Efficient Corruption Hypothesis And The Dynamics Between Economic Freedom, Corruption, And National Income, Joshua Hall, John Levendis, Alexandre R. Scarcioffolo
Economics Faculty Working Papers Series
Income, economic freedom, and corruption interact in complex ways as all three variables are arguably endogenous. We explicitly model this endogeneity using a panel VAR framework. The pVAR models we estimate are able to explicitly model this endogeneity better than the single-equation panel data models previously used in the literature. Using data on corruption and income from the World Bank and economic freedom from the Fraser Institute, we provide evidence that corruption and the absence of economic freedom have a negative effect on national income.
Sports Arenas, Teams And Property Values: Temporary And Permanent Shocks To Local Amenity Flows, Yulia Chikish, Brad Humphreys, Adam Nowak
Sports Arenas, Teams And Property Values: Temporary And Permanent Shocks To Local Amenity Flows, Yulia Chikish, Brad Humphreys, Adam Nowak
Economics Faculty Working Papers Series
Professional sports facilities and teams generate local amenity flows in cities that may affect property values. Previous research shows evidence of important positive and negative local amenity flows based on case studies of changes in residential property values in specific cities. We analyze changes in residential property values in Oklahoma City over a period, 2000 to 2016, where both temporary and permanent exogenous shocks to local sports-related amenities occurred. Results from hedonic price models and repeat sales regression models show that nearby residential property prices increased after the opening of a new arena and the arrival of a new, permanent …
Rent-Seeking In The Classroom And Textbooks: Where Are We After 50 Years, Joshua C. Hall, Josh Matti, Yang Zhou
Rent-Seeking In The Classroom And Textbooks: Where Are We After 50 Years, Joshua C. Hall, Josh Matti, Yang Zhou
Economics Faculty Working Papers Series
No abstract provided.
Towards A Rule-Based Model Of Human Choice: On The Nature Of Homo Constitutionalus, Roger Congleton
Towards A Rule-Based Model Of Human Choice: On The Nature Of Homo Constitutionalus, Roger Congleton
Economics Faculty Working Papers Series
Anglo-American jurisprudence emphasizes the rule of reason; it grossly neglects the reason of rules. We play socioeconomic-legal-political games that can be described empirically only by their rules. But most of us play without an understanding or ap-preciation of the rules, how they came into being, how they are enforced, how they can be changed, and most important, how they can be normatively evaluated. (Bren-nan and Buchanan, 1985, preface).
A Test Of The Institutionally Induced Equilibrium Hypothesis: On The Limited Fiscal Impact Of Two Celebrity Governors, Roger D. Congleton, Yang Zhou
A Test Of The Institutionally Induced Equilibrium Hypothesis: On The Limited Fiscal Impact Of Two Celebrity Governors, Roger D. Congleton, Yang Zhou
Economics Faculty Working Papers Series
We test for the stabilizing effects of political institutions on fiscal policies by examining the impact of two unlikely governors on their state’s fiscal policies. Fiscal policies are joint products of executive and legislative decisions. These institutional factors tend to moderate the effect of changes in the chief executive, as does partisan competition for office. Jesse Ventura of Minnesota’s and Arnold Schwarzenegger of California were unique—surprise—governors of their respective states. Although both governors were arguably less constrained by partisan loyalties than most others, the other institutional factors would still tend to limit their impact on public policy. Our evidence suggests …
Economic Freedom And Government Efficiency: Recent Evidence From China, Shaoment Jia, Yang Zhou
Economic Freedom And Government Efficiency: Recent Evidence From China, Shaoment Jia, Yang Zhou
Economics Faculty Working Papers Series
We investigate the effects of economic freedom (marketization) on governance efficiency defined with the newest provincial level economic indicator data (NBSC, 2017) and economic freedom data (Fan et al., 2017) from 2008 to 2014 in China. With two different measures, the results suggest that economic freedom is positively correlated with governance efficiency. Moreover, the liberalization and marketization progress in the “factors market” is the single most significant area for both governance efficiency measures, while other areas like “market intermediary & legal system” have no significant effects.
An Overview Of Sports Betting Regulation In The United States, Brad Humphreys
An Overview Of Sports Betting Regulation In The United States, Brad Humphreys
Economics Faculty Working Papers Series
The United States employs an ad hoc, unconventional method of regulating sports betting, banning it almost everywhere while granting a monopoly to firms in a single state, Nevada. This approach encourages illegal sports betting markets, ignores negative externalities, and generates welfare losses among the large population of responsible recreational gamblers. I review the current state of sports betting regulation in the U.S. and assess its economic viability in advance of the Supreme Court of the United States decision on the landmark Christie v. National Collegiate Athletic Association case.
Tuition Increases Geaux Away? Evidence From Voting On Louisiana's Amendment 2, Joshua C. Hall, Serkan Karadas
Tuition Increases Geaux Away? Evidence From Voting On Louisiana's Amendment 2, Joshua C. Hall, Serkan Karadas
Economics Faculty Working Papers Series
In many states, public institutions of higher education have the autonomy to raise tuition. This has not been the case in Louisiana since a 1995 constitutional amend-ment required a two-thirds majority of the state legislature for any tuition increase. In November of 2016, voters in Louisiana rejected Amendment 2, a constitutional amendment that would have given state institutions of higher education autonomy in setting tuition. We examine parish-level voting on Amendment 2 using an empirical political economy model and find that parishes with a greater percentage of African-Americans and university employees were more likely to vote yes. Student enrollment at …
The Economic Impact Of City-County Consolidations: A Synthetic Control Approach, Joshua Hall, Josh Matti, Yang Zhou
The Economic Impact Of City-County Consolidations: A Synthetic Control Approach, Joshua Hall, Josh Matti, Yang Zhou
Economics Faculty Working Papers Series
Although more rapid development is a primary motivation behind city-county consolidations, few empirical studies explore the impact of consolidation on economic development. No studies look at government consolidation in the United States using modern causal inference methods. We use the synthetic control method (SCM) to examine the long-term impact of city-county consolidations on per capita income, population, and employment. The results from the three cases explored indicate that consolidation does not guarantee development and actually can have negative effects. Additionally, consolidation can deepen the urban-rural divide by accelerating the decline of rural populations relative to those of urban areas. The …
Efficiency, But At What Cost? Evidence From A Dea Analysis Of Wv School Districts, Eduardo Minuci, Amir B. Neto, Joshua C. Hall
Efficiency, But At What Cost? Evidence From A Dea Analysis Of Wv School Districts, Eduardo Minuci, Amir B. Neto, Joshua C. Hall
Economics Faculty Working Papers Series
West Virginia schools are consistently below the national average on the NAEP. Using Data Envelopment Analysis, we estimate the technical efficiency of West Virginia school districts. We find less variation in technical efficiency in West Virginia than in similar studies conducted in other states. This appears to be because of state policy imposing homogeneity of input usage. Due to the limited variation in technical efficiency across districts, we cannot analyze how non-school inputs such as socioeconomic factors affect technical efficiency across districts. Summary statistics organized by county economic status, however, suggest that socioeconomic status plays a role. Our results highlight …