Economics Commons^™

Effects Of Parental Migration On Education And Personality: Evidence From Indonesia, Kyle Sullivan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In developing countries, migration can be an important method for many families and households to produce additional income via remittances in order to meet their needs or invest in their children. However, migration is a dynamic process and the absence of a parent can have negative effects on those children left behind. This paper explores how parental migration is associated with their children’s years of education completed and how these associations are heterogenous by family compositions in Indonesia. I use a longitudinal dataset which allows for parents’ migrations to be attributed throughout an individual’s childhood to measure the cumulative impact. …

Fields And Consumer Groups: The Layered And Overlapping Roles Of Culture, Brandon James Mcalexander

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The first essay investigates Bourdieu’s conceptualization of fields and its use in the marketing literature. It suggests that fields do not exist in isolation, but rather work together in a number of different possible configurations. Fields are reconceptualized as dominated, overlapped, unrelated, contrasted, and co-constituted, rather than completely distinct and opens a new theoretical space for interpretive researchers in marketing. The second essay is a descriptive ethnography of a local fab lab. The essay describes in rich detail the ways in which new skills are developed in a shared work environment, and contextualizes the findings using practice theory as a …

An Exploratory Study Of The Impact Of Acculturation On Fashion Consumption Among Hispanic Immigrants In The U.S., Laura Toloza

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With a population of 58 million in 2016, the Hispanic immigrant population in the U.S. is expected to grow nearly 30% by 2060 (Hispanic influence, 2016). Immigrants are affected by acculturation and often have difficulty maintaining their culture of origin. Prior studies have revealed acculturation influences on consumer behaviors, but despite the increased population and purchasing power of Hispanic immigrants in the U.S., few studies have explored the ways in which acculturation influences shopping behaviors for fashion products among Hispanic consumers. The purpose of this study is to explore the general attitude related to shopping (i.e., shopping orientation) of Hispanic …

The Farmers’ Federation: Regional Racial Mythologies As Agricultural Capital, Jama Mcmurtery Grove

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 1927, the Farmers’ Federation agricultural cooperative in Western North Carolina launched an organization to solicit funds from wealthy donors. The money raised through philanthropic campaigns enabled the cooperative to fund large-scale agricultural projects, which helped members navigate the dramatic agricultural transformations of the early twentieth century. Although the cooperative advocated a progressive program of business-minded, scientific farming, its leadership modified programs to reflect farmer members’ limited resources and the realities of mountain production. As a result, the co-op provided a crucial bridge between white farmers and new methods of agricultural production that reached deep into peoples’ familial and productive …

Diversity And Health: Three Essays Exploring Social Context And Outcomes, Aaron Novotny

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the world becomes more diverse and more integrated, examining how racial, political, and food diversity influences individuals’ consumption, behaviors, and health becomes more paramount than ever before. The United States grows more racially diverse with large racial and ethnic shifts on the horizon regarding the proportion of the population. With the U.S. population expected to become more diverse, individuals’ political affiliation becoming more prevalent to personal identity, and food security becoming more problematic; we examine how racial, political, and food diversity influences individuals’ consumption and preferences with the intent to understand what changes in health and preferences may occur. …

Exploring Individual’S Explanations Of Economic Mobility Through The Gaze Of Intersectionality, Adam Alexander Broyles

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study looks at whether or not adopting intersectionality as a theoretical framework allows for a better understanding of individual’s explanations of economic mobility, rather than examining variables such as race, gender, and class as mutually exclusive from one another. The reason for this follows from the understanding that race, gender, and class can intersect to create unique views and opinions of the world and how it operates. Using the 2009 PEW Economic Mobility Survey as a secondary data source, I ran statistical regressions and interpreted the results.

An Exploratory Study Of Spending Patterns, Obstacles And Traditions Among Same-Sex Marriage Vs Heterosexual Marriage: Who's The Bigger Spender?, Lydia Perritt

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated if there was a significant difference in the amount of money spent on same-sex weddings versus heterosexual weddings. The results of this study would assist both the wedding and hospitality industry by providing much needed financial and planning information.

A descriptive, four-section survey was distributed online via Qualtrics utilizing snowball sampling. A total of 152 respondents participated in the study; 84 heterosexual and 68 LGBTQ. The respondents completed the questionnaire that measured wedding traditions, wedding spending, obstacles and challenges faced during their wedding and wedding planning, and demographic information.

The results of this study indicated that same-sex …

Predicting Employment Intention Of Ssa Beneficiaries: A Theory-Based Approach, James Mather Ii

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Employment has become an integral aspect of American society. Each year, millions of Americans engage in job search as a result of economic conditions, involuntary job loss, completion of their education, or the desire to pursue a new career opportunity. However, the employment reality for persons with disabilities remains stark. In 2012 the employment rate of working-age people with disabilities was 32.7 percent, compared to 73.6 percent for those without disabilities. Given the long-standing employment gap between persons with disabilities and those without disabilities, this exploratory research utilizes the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to predict determinates of Social Security …