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Marquette University

2021

Articles 1 - 13 of 13

Full-Text Articles in Economics

(Wp 2021-08) Deepening And Widening Social Identity Analysis In Economics, John B. Davis Sep 2021

(Wp 2021-08) Deepening And Widening Social Identity Analysis In Economics, John B. Davis

Economics Working Papers

This paper is a contribution to the Erasmus Journal of Economics and Philosophy symposium on Dasgupta and Goyal’s “Narrow Identities” (2019) that models how individuals develop social identities. They do not distinguish categorical and relational social identities, model only social group social identities, minimize intersectionality (having multiple social group identities), and ignore inter-relational, social role social identities. In a club theory-like analysis, they portray the world as locked into polarized social group rivalries, where democracy matters little compared to social group loyalty. A problem with explaining social identity only in terms of social group identity is that the ‘identify with’ …

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(Wp 2021-07) Forward Guidance Effectiveness In A New Keynesian Model With Housing Frictions, Stephen J. Cole, Sungjun Huh Sep 2021

(Wp 2021-07) Forward Guidance Effectiveness In A New Keynesian Model With Housing Frictions, Stephen J. Cole, Sungjun Huh

Economics Working Papers

Housing markets are closely related to monetary policy. This paper studies the link between housing frictions and the effectiveness of forward guidance. A housing collateral constraint and forward guidance shocks are incorporated into a standard medium-scale New Keynesian Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model. Our main results produce a number of important implications. First, financial frictions emanating from the housing market dampen the effectiveness of forward guidance on the economy. Second, forward guidance has asymmetric effects on the welfare of lenders and borrowers when housing frictions increase. Housing frictions also attenuate the effect of forward guidance at the zero lower …

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Gender Differences In The Returns To Education Over Time For Married Couples, Nikki Brendemuehl, Nicholas A. Jolly Aug 2021

Gender Differences In The Returns To Education Over Time For Married Couples, Nikki Brendemuehl, Nicholas A. Jolly

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

Using US Census data from 1960 to 2000 and American Community Survey data from 2010, this paper analyzes gender differences in the return to education for married couples. Results from this analysis show that the return to schooling has increased over time for both genders; however, the relative return to schooling for females has fallen since the 1990s. In 2010, married women who are under age 35 and are in the top 20 percent of the income distribution had lower returns to schooling compared to men. These results are consistent with several demographic shifts that occurred during the last half …

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(Wp 2021-06) A Contextualist Approach To Health Economics, John B. Davis, Robert Mcmaster Jul 2021

(Wp 2021-06) A Contextualist Approach To Health Economics, John B. Davis, Robert Mcmaster

Economics Working Papers

This paper departs from the standard abstract economics approach to health economics to develop a specifically contextualist approach to the subject emphasizing social and historical circumstances affecting health provision. Following Polanyi, it sees the economy as socially embedded and economic relationships as social relationships. The paper critically examines Grossman’s natural science utility maximization explanation of people’s demand for health and health care, and advances an alternative social science account using a two-way analysis between micro level social relationships and the macro level organization of health in society. Three significant trends affecting the future of health systems are discussed. The paper …

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Incorporating Beliefs And Experiences Into Choice Experiment Analysis: Implications For The National Park Service, Sahan T. Dissanayake, Andrew G. Meyer Jun 2021

Incorporating Beliefs And Experiences Into Choice Experiment Analysis: Implications For The National Park Service, Sahan T. Dissanayake, Andrew G. Meyer

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

We show that respondents' beliefs about future outcomes and prior recreational experiences affect policy recommendations from choice experiments. For New England residents, we find that willingness to pay for a new national park in Maine differs based on respondents' stated beliefs about the status quo long-term land use. We also find that respondents who do (do not) hunt or snowmobile would pay significantly more (less) for a park allowing these activities. Land managers may find a two-park solution (one allowing the activities and one prohibiting them) would be best; this insight would be missed when neglecting to model conflicting recreational …

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(Wp 2021-05) Heterogeneity In Individual Expectations, Sentiment, And Constant-Gain Learning, Stephen J. Cole, Fabio Milani Jun 2021

(Wp 2021-05) Heterogeneity In Individual Expectations, Sentiment, And Constant-Gain Learning, Stephen J. Cole, Fabio Milani

Economics Working Papers

This paper uses adaptive learning to understand the heterogeneity of individual-level expectations. We exploit individual Survey of Professional Forecasters data on output and inflation forecasts. We endow all forecasters with the same information set that they would have as economic agents in a benchmark New Keynesian model. Forecasters are, however, allowed to differ in the constant gain values that they use to update their beliefs and in their sentiments. The latter are defined as the degrees of excess optimism or pessimism about the economy that cannot be justified by the learning model. Our results highlight the heterogeneity in the gain …

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(Wp 2021-04) John Tomer's Reconceptualization Of The Concept Of Human Capital, John B. Davis May 2021

(Wp 2021-04) John Tomer's Reconceptualization Of The Concept Of Human Capital, John B. Davis

Economics Working Papers

This chapter examines John Tomer’s contributions to our understanding of the concept of human capital. Tomer criticized the standard mainstream view of the concept as narrowly focused on education and training and as seeing investments in human capital as having “an individual, cognitive, and machine-like nature.” A broader concept included attention to the people’s noncognitive development, and employed both social capital and personal capital concepts. This produces a more expansive view of human development, allows for a humanistic psychological perspective, and supports a multi-dimensional, Maslovian understanding of the hierarchy of human needs. Tomer framed his policy thinking regarding investments in …

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(Wp 2021-02) Attribute Substitution, Counterfactual Thinking, And Heterodox Economics, John B. Davis, Theodore Koutsobinas May 2021

(Wp 2021-02) Attribute Substitution, Counterfactual Thinking, And Heterodox Economics, John B. Davis, Theodore Koutsobinas

Economics Working Papers

This paper examines how attribute substitution (AS), central to the psychology of choice and behavioral economic reasoning, can be understood when combined with counterfactual thinking (CFT), often called ‘what if’ or ‘if only’ thinking, and how their combination creates important opportunities for the seeing heterodox economics as a single research program alternative to mainstream economics. The first section of the paper discusses AS, CFT, and what a AS-CFT behavioral framework involves, and then emphasizes how this framework departs from fundamental assumptions mainstream rational choice theory employs. The second section reviews the foundations of behavioral thinking regarding AS, describes what it …

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(Wp 2021-03) Social Economics, John B. Davis May 2021

(Wp 2021-03) Social Economics, John B. Davis

Economics Working Papers

This chapter explores the evolution and contribution of social economics to modern political economic analysis. It reviews the origins and early history of social economics, discusses more fully recent postwar social economics, and then identifies new themes in social economics’ current research agenda. Social economics is distinguished from classical political economy and contemporary neoclassical and mainstream economics – and, indeed, from most other political economic approaches – by its goal of explaining and premising the concept of ‘social’ in economics. Its main organising principle is that the economy is embedded in human society rather than vice versa. Second, the chapter …

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Shifts In Precipitation And Agricultural Intensity Increase Phosphorus Concentrations And Loads In An Agricultural Watershed, Donald M. Waller, Andrew G. Meyer, Zach Raff, Steven I. Apfelbaum Apr 2021

Shifts In Precipitation And Agricultural Intensity Increase Phosphorus Concentrations And Loads In An Agricultural Watershed, Donald M. Waller, Andrew G. Meyer, Zach Raff, Steven I. Apfelbaum

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

Fertilizers and manure applied to cropland to increase yields are often lost via surface erosion, soil leaching, and runoff, increasing nutrient loads in surface and sub-surface waters, degrading water quality, and worsening the ‘dead zone’ in the Gulf of Mexico. We leverage spatial and temporal variation in agricultural practices and precipitation events to examine how these factors affect stream total phosphorus (TP) concentrations and loads in the Sugar River (Wisconsin), recently listed as impaired. To perform our analysis, we first collected water quality data from 1995 to 2017 from 40 sites along the Sugar River and its tributaries. Starting in …

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Learning And The Effectiveness Of Central Bank Forward Guidance, Stephen J. Cole Feb 2021

Learning And The Effectiveness Of Central Bank Forward Guidance, Stephen J. Cole

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

This paper examines the link between expectations formation and the effectiveness of central bank forward guidance. A standard New Keynesian model is extended to include forward guidance shocks in the monetary policy rule. Agents form expectations about future macro-economic variables via either the standard rational expectations hypothesis or an adaptive learning model. The results show that the assumption of rational expectations overstates the effects of forward guidance relative to adaptive learning during an economic crisis. Thus, if monetary policy is based on a model with rational expectations, the results of forward guidance could be potentially misleading.

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The Housing Risk Premium In A Production Economy, Sungjun Huh, Insu Kim Jan 2021

The Housing Risk Premium In A Production Economy, Sungjun Huh, Insu Kim

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

This article studies how the housing risk premium is determined in a simple real business cycle model. We present a consumption-based asset pricing model for the housing risk premium and evaluate whether the model is able to explain the observed housing risk premium. Our findings show that a real business cycle model with generalized recursive preferences is able to match the observed housing risk premium. We also find that the volatility of the housing demand shock plays a crucial role in determining the risk–return relationship for housing.

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(Wp 2021-01) Counterfactual Thinking And Attribute Substitution In Economic Behavior, John B. Davis, Theodore Koutsobinas Jan 2021

(Wp 2021-01) Counterfactual Thinking And Attribute Substitution In Economic Behavior, John B. Davis, Theodore Koutsobinas

Economics Working Papers

This paper discusses how counterfactual thinking can be incorporated into behavioral economics by relating it to a type of attribution substitution involved in choices people make in conditions of Knightian uncertainty. It draws on Byrne’s ‘rational imagination’ account of counterfactual thinking, evidence from cognitive science regarding the forms it takes, and identifies types of attribution substitution specific to economic behavior. This approach, which elucidates the reflective stage of causal reasoning, is relevant for the explanation of hypothetical causal rules suitable for diverse tasks such as planning, expectations and mental simulations and for behavioural change interventions, which take into account people’s …

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