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Articles 1 - 30 of 53
Full-Text Articles in Economics
National Integration And Institution Building, Haiwen Zhou
National Integration And Institution Building, Haiwen Zhou
Economics Faculty Publications
The mutual dependence between national integration and institution building is established in a formal model. It is shown that a decrease in transportation costs, but not necessarily an increase in population size, reduces the equilibrium number of states and the adoption of rule-based institutions. With endogenous transportation costs or endogenous population size, the unification process can feed on itself. The model is illustrated by the state of Qin's unification of China in 221 BC. During this process of national integration, transformations from relation-based governance to rule-based governance happened.
Do Lawyers Inhibit Economic Growth? New Evidence From The 50 U.S. States, James V. Koch, Richard J. Cebula
Do Lawyers Inhibit Economic Growth? New Evidence From The 50 U.S. States, James V. Koch, Richard J. Cebula
Economics Faculty Publications
Whether the activities of lawyers might hamper economic growth has been hotly contested over the past three decades. Contradictory conclusions have flowed from evidence that typically has focused on the impact of lawyers on the growth rates of countries. Disputes over definitions and samples that vary among countries have colored portions of these debates. We surmount many of these issues by adopting a 50-state panel covering the period 2005-2018 for the United States and by utilizing widely accepted variables regarding economic activity and who is considered a lawyer. Further, we utilize two distinct measures of the activity of lawyers and …
Using The Lsat As A Labor Market Thermometer For Lawyers, James V. Koch, Barbara Blake-Gonzalez
Using The Lsat As A Labor Market Thermometer For Lawyers, James V. Koch, Barbara Blake-Gonzalez
Economics Faculty Publications
We rely upon a 50-state, 20-year panel to find that the number of Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) takers is only loosely related to economic conditions—although slightly more for men than for women, who in 2020 accounted for 58% of all LSAT takers. The number of test takers rose more than 35% between 2014 and 2020. This wave accentuated an already existing downtrend in the median real income of lawyers, and thus provides support for the hypothesis that most states have more lawyers than they need.
What Type Of Central Banker Dampens The Political Business Cycle? The Case Of Africa, Christine Strong
What Type Of Central Banker Dampens The Political Business Cycle? The Case Of Africa, Christine Strong
Economics Faculty Publications
This article investigates the extent to which central bank independence can help to reduce political business cycles in Africa. Like previous studies, we find evidence of political cycles in our sample of 34 African countries for the period 1980–2018, but our findings show that politicians' ability to manipulate both fiscal and monetary policy depends on the degree of alliance between the fiscal authority and the monetary authority. Indeed, our analysis reveals that the political business cycle worsens when the central banker is an ally whereas a non‐ally central banker is associated with a decrease in the ability of the incumbent …
Unification And Division: A Theory Of Institutional Choices In Imperial China, Haiwen Zhou
Unification And Division: A Theory Of Institutional Choices In Imperial China, Haiwen Zhou
Economics Faculty Publications
Ancient China experienced various rounds of division and unification. Unification was maintained through economic and political institutions such as low tax rates to reduce peasant rebellions and the division of authority among government officials to reduce usurpation of power. A ruler’s choice of institutions to maintain unification is studied in a theoretical model. Interactions among external threats, internal rebellions by peasants, and usurpation of power by government officials are established. A higher level of external threats induces the ruler to choose a higher level of autonomy for government officials and a higher tax rate. That is, equilibrium probability of internal …
Economic Freedom And One-Way Truck Rental Prices: An Empirical Note, Alexander Cardazzi, Robert A. Lawson
Economic Freedom And One-Way Truck Rental Prices: An Empirical Note, Alexander Cardazzi, Robert A. Lawson
Economics Faculty Publications
This study examines the one-way truck rental prices for 378 cities. There are large price differentials in one-way rental prices between city pairs. The pull of people toward higher economic freedom locales and push away from lower economic freedom locales is found to be an important determinant of the city-pair price differentials.
The Choice Of Technology In Economic Development, Lei Wen, Haiwen Zhou
The Choice Of Technology In Economic Development, Lei Wen, Haiwen Zhou
Economics Faculty Publications
The impact of capital accumulation on job creation is an important and interesting issue in economic development. This model provides a general-equilibrium framework for studying technology choice with unemployment in a developing economy based on micro-foundations. Unemployment in the urban sector results from the existence of efficiency wages. Manufacturing firms engage in oligopolistic competition and choose technologies to maximise profits. A more advanced technology uses more capital and less labour. In the steady state, an increase in the amount of capital induces firms to choose more advanced technologies and the wage rate increases. While a higher capital stock always induces …
Why Has The Median Real Income Of Lawyers Been Declining?, James V. Koch, Barbara Blake-Gonzalez
Why Has The Median Real Income Of Lawyers Been Declining?, James V. Koch, Barbara Blake-Gonzalez
Economics Faculty Publications
The median real incomes of lawyers have been declining. In 2001, the median real income of lawyers in the 50 states plus the District of Columbia was $129,389 (July 2020 prices). Almost two decades later, in 2020, this number had fallen to $126,930, 1.90% less than in 2001. By contrast, the median real income of workers in all occupations together rose 3.93% between 2001 and 2020, while the median real income of the average family practice physician rose 20.15% and the median real income of a typical economist rose 10.9%. We examine both supply and demand influences to explain the …
Promoting Sustainable Responses To The Us Opioid Epidemic With Community-Academic Partnerships: Qualitative Outcomes From A Statewide Program, David L. Driscoll, Alison Evans Cuellar, Vinod Agarwal, Debra Jones, Kathy Hosig, Mary Beth Dunkenberger
Promoting Sustainable Responses To The Us Opioid Epidemic With Community-Academic Partnerships: Qualitative Outcomes From A Statewide Program, David L. Driscoll, Alison Evans Cuellar, Vinod Agarwal, Debra Jones, Kathy Hosig, Mary Beth Dunkenberger
Economics Faculty Publications
Background: Drug overdose deaths in the United States have continued to increase at an alarming rate. The United States is facing two devastating public health crises– the opioid epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic. Within this context, one of the most ambitious implementation studies in addiction research is moving forward. Launched in May 2019, the HEALing Communities Study (HCS) was developed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) as part of the Helping to End Addiction Long-termSM Initiative (National Institutes of Health, 2020). The goal for this research was to reduce …
Pulling Back The Veil: What Determines Hbcu Campus Enrollments, James V. Koch, Omari H. Swinton
Pulling Back The Veil: What Determines Hbcu Campus Enrollments, James V. Koch, Omari H. Swinton
Economics Faculty Publications
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are among the least researched sectors of American higher education. This article addresses a portion of this knowledge deficit by focusing on the determinants of the full-time equivalent enrollments of 50 HBCUs between fiscal year FY 2005 and FY 2018 and then comparing them to a broad sample of 182 non-HBCUs. The most noteworthy specific results generated by our analyses are: (1) increased recruitment of white students by HBCUs may not hold the key to HBCU enrollment success; (2) the incomes of the households from which students emanate have a major positive influence on …
Search, Technology Choice, And Unemployment, Constantine Angyridis, Haiwen Zhou
Search, Technology Choice, And Unemployment, Constantine Angyridis, Haiwen Zhou
Economics Faculty Publications
Technology variations among countries account for a significant part of their income differences. In this paper, a firm's technology choice is embedded in a search theoretic framework for unemployment. More advanced technology is assumed to have a higher setup cost, but it is more productive. The model is tractable and the following results are derived analytically. An increase in the unemployment benefit leads to an increase in the equilibrium wage rate, giving an incentive to firms to choose a more advanced technology. Thus, this result regarding unemployment insurance in models with wage posting carries through with Nash bargaining as well. …
The Partition Of Production Between Households And Markets, Christopher Colburn, Haiwen Zhou
The Partition Of Production Between Households And Markets, Christopher Colburn, Haiwen Zhou
Economics Faculty Publications
The process of industrialization was accompanied by the switch from household production to firm production. The industrialization process was also a process of population growth, the appearance of general-purpose technologies, and the expansion of international trade. This paper studies the partition of production between households and firms in an analytically tractable general equilibrium model with a continuum of goods. We show that population growth, development of general-purpose technologies, and the opening of international trade increase the percentage of goods produced by firms. However, with the appearance of a technology biased toward home production, the percentage of goods produced by households …
Local Fiscal Adjustments From Depopulation: Evidence From The Post–Cold War Defense Contraction, Timothy M. Komarek, Gary A. Wagner
Local Fiscal Adjustments From Depopulation: Evidence From The Post–Cold War Defense Contraction, Timothy M. Komarek, Gary A. Wagner
Economics Faculty Publications
In this paper, we estimate the long-term causal effect of population losses on local government revenue, expenditure, and debt by exploiting a quasi-exogenous change that reduced the number of US military personnel by about 40 percent between the late 1980s and 2000. Aggregating across governmental units within commuting zones, we find that real per capita total revenues and expenditures remained unchanged for remaining citizens. At the same time, however, we note several important compositional effects. First, local governments appear to have offset reductions in state intergovernmental aid by increasing property tax revenues. Second, they significantly shifted the composition of expenditures …
"Letters", James V. Koch, Seth Forman
"Letters", James V. Koch, Seth Forman
Economics Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Fixed Costs And The Division Of Labor, Haiwen Zhou
Fixed Costs And The Division Of Labor, Haiwen Zhou
Economics Faculty Publications
How market size and the level of coordination costs determine the degree of specialization is studied in an infinite horizon model with the amount of capital determined endogenously. Firms producing the same intermediate good engage in oligopolistic competition and choose the degree of specialization of their technologies to maximize profits. A more specialized technology is a technology with a lower marginal cost, but a higher fixed cost. Interestingly, the relationship between the level of coordination costs and a firm’s degree of specialization is ambiguous. A firm in a country with a larger market size, more patient citizens, or a higher …
The Drug Overdose Epidemic Seen Through Different Lenses, Barbara Blake Gonzalez, Richard Cebula, James V. Koch
The Drug Overdose Epidemic Seen Through Different Lenses, Barbara Blake Gonzalez, Richard Cebula, James V. Koch
Economics Faculty Publications
The age-adjusted death rate from drug overdoses in the United States per 100,000 individuals rose from 6.8 in 2010 to 17.1 in 2018. The most common explanation offered is the deaths of despair hypothesis. We identify additional factors that have contributed to the rise in drug overdose deaths in cities and counties. Methods: We utilize a period fixed effects model with a multi-variate panel data set for 94 independent cities and counties in Virginia for the period 2008 through 2017. Results: The drug overdose mortality rate is: (a) an increasing function (prob.
Drug-Overdose Death Rates: The Economic Misery Explanation And Its Alternatives, Barbara Blake Gonzalez, Richard Cebula, James V. Koch
Drug-Overdose Death Rates: The Economic Misery Explanation And Its Alternatives, Barbara Blake Gonzalez, Richard Cebula, James V. Koch
Economics Faculty Publications
‘Deaths of despair’ is the most commonly cited explanation for the 151% increase in drug-overdose deaths that occurred in the USA between 2010 and 2018. We use panel data describing 84 Virginia cities and counties to assess the validity of the deaths of despair hypothesis and alternate explanations that focus on disability rates, travel time to work, urban vs. rural location, educational attainment, racial and ethnic characteristics, the influence of other health conditions such as obesity, and supply-side factors that include pill availability and pharmacy market shares. We find deaths of despair to be only a partial explanation for the …
Does Starting School Before Labor Day Affect High School Retention And Graduation: Evidence From Virginia's Kings Dominion Law, Timothy M. Komarek, Jay K. Walker
Does Starting School Before Labor Day Affect High School Retention And Graduation: Evidence From Virginia's Kings Dominion Law, Timothy M. Komarek, Jay K. Walker
Economics Faculty Publications
Several states have required K-12 public schools to start after Labor Day in an effort to aid the tourism and hospitality industry. However, little is known about how these policies impact educational outcomes. We examine the impact of Virginia's post-Labor Day school start law on high school retention and graduation rates. We use a difference-in-differences model to exploit exogenous variation in school division start dates. Our results show small differences of up to three weeks have little effect on high school dropout and graduation rates. Our findings inform the debate on post-Labor Day school start laws and compulsory attendance age …
Coordination Costs, Market Size, And The Choice Of Technology, Haiwen Zhou
Coordination Costs, Market Size, And The Choice Of Technology, Haiwen Zhou
Economics Faculty Publications
Impact of coordination costs and market size on a firm’s choice of technology is studied in a general equilibrium model in which firms engage in oligopolistic competition. A firm establishes an organizational hierarchy to coordinate its production. First, it is shown that an increase in market size leads a firm to choose a more specialized technology. Second, surprisingly, a robust result is that an increase in the level of coordination efficiency leads a firm to choose a less specialized technology.
The Long Term Effects Of An Aging Fleet On Operational Availability And Cost: Evidence From The Us Coast Guard, Christopher W. Lavin, Robert M. Mcnab, Ryan S. Sullivan
The Long Term Effects Of An Aging Fleet On Operational Availability And Cost: Evidence From The Us Coast Guard, Christopher W. Lavin, Robert M. Mcnab, Ryan S. Sullivan
Economics Faculty Publications
This paper empirically examines whether the aging of a fleet affects operational availability and operating cost using a unique data-set on the 117 47-foot Motor Lifeboats (MLBs) of the United States Coast Guard (USCG). Procured from 1997 to 2003, the 47-foot MLB is the standard lifeboat of the USCG and all 117 MLBs remain in service. The aging of the MLB fleet has resulted in higher annual operating costs and lower operational availability, although the nature of this relationship remains unclear. Our estimation strategy utilizes an error components estimator to examine these issues. We employ three variants of the dependent …
Health Capital Investment And Time Spent On Health Related Activities, Juan Du, Takeshi Yagihashi
Health Capital Investment And Time Spent On Health Related Activities, Juan Du, Takeshi Yagihashi
Economics Faculty Publications
One key component in the health capital investment model in (Grossman, M. Journal of Political Economy, 80: 223–255, 1972) is time spent on improving health. However, few empirical studies have examined how time spent on health investment is determined. In this paper, we fill this void in the literature by investigating how people allocate their time for different types of health-related activities in response to economic variables. Using the American Time Use Survey, we distinguish health-enhancing and health-deteriorating leisure activities, with the rationale that these activities may respond differently to socioeconomic environment. We find that health-enhancing and health-deteriorating time respond …
An Overlapping-Generations Model Of Firm Heterogeneity In Economic Development, Yu Chen, Haiwen Zhou
An Overlapping-Generations Model Of Firm Heterogeneity In Economic Development, Yu Chen, Haiwen Zhou
Economics Faculty Publications
We study firm heterogeneity in economic development in an overlapping-generations general equilibrium model in which manufacturing firms engage in oligopolistic competition. Individuals differ in their productivities in the manufacturing sector and choose to become entrepreneurs or workers. The model is surprisingly tractable. In the steady state, an increase in the entry barrier in the manufacturing sector or an increase in the percentage of income spent on the agricultural good decreases the wage rate, but the level of output in the manufacturing sector does not necessarily decrease. An increase in the degree of patience of an individual increases the steady state …
How Do The Trans-Pacific Economies Affect The Usa? An Industrial Sector Approach, Takeshi Yagihashi, David D. Selover
How Do The Trans-Pacific Economies Affect The Usa? An Industrial Sector Approach, Takeshi Yagihashi, David D. Selover
Economics Faculty Publications
This paper studies how the Trans-Pacific region affects the US economy in terms of business cycle transmission. We use a large data set consisting of disaggregated sectoral industrial production indexes from selected countries in the region and employ a factor-augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) approach to analyze the transmission of shocks in different industries. We find that a positive output shock in the entire Trans-Pacific region has positive effects on the majority of US manufacturing sectors. We also find that sectoral shocks in five sectors of the Trans-Pacific region have a large impact on the overall US economy. Three of the …
Goods-Time Elasticity Of Substitution In Health Production, Juan Du, Takeshi Yagihashi
Goods-Time Elasticity Of Substitution In Health Production, Juan Du, Takeshi Yagihashi
Economics Faculty Publications
We examine how inputs for health production, in particular, medical care and health-enhancing time, are combined to improve health. The estimated elasticity of substitution from a constant elasticity of substitution production function is significantly less than one for the working-age population, rejecting the unit elasticity of substitution used in previous studies.
Anchoring In Financial Decision-Making: Evidence From The Field, Michael Jetter, Jay K. Walker
Anchoring In Financial Decision-Making: Evidence From The Field, Michael Jetter, Jay K. Walker
Economics Faculty Publications
This paper analyzes 12,596 wagering decisions of 6,064 contestants in the US game show Jeopardy!, focusing on the anchoring phenomenon in financial decision-making. We find that contestants anchor heavily on the initial dollar value of a clue in their wagering decision, even though there exists no rational reason to do so. More than half of all wagers occur within $500 of the initial dollar value, although the maximum possible wagering value averages $5,914. This anchoring phenomenon remains statistically significant on the one percent level, even after controlling for scores, clue category, time trends, and player-fixed effects.When exploiting within-player variation …
Silence Is Golden: Railroad Noise Pollution And Property Values, Jay K. Walker
Silence Is Golden: Railroad Noise Pollution And Property Values, Jay K. Walker
Economics Faculty Publications
This paper uses a unique dataset containing property values and manually collected noise measurements in Memphis, Tennessee to estimate the impact of train noise pollution on commercial and residential property values. Results show that a residential property exposed to 65 decibels or greater of railroad noise results in a 14 to 18 percent decrease in property value. Once a 65 decibel measure is included, there is no additional impact on price of distance to the closest railroad crossing. For commercial property, neither crossing proximity nor noise level significantly affect property value. The results provide evidence of a negative externality that …
Gender In Jeopardy!: The Role Of Opponent Gender In High-Stakes Competition, Michael Jetter, Jay K. Walker
Gender In Jeopardy!: The Role Of Opponent Gender In High-Stakes Competition, Michael Jetter, Jay K. Walker
Economics Faculty Publications
Using 4,279 episodes of the popular US game show Jeopardy!, we analyze whether the opponents' gender is able to explain the gender gap in competitive behavior. Our findings indicate that gender differences disappear when women compete against men. This result is surprising, but emerges with remarkable consistency for the probability to (i) respond, (ii) respond correctly, and (iii) respond correctly in high-stakes situations. Even risk preferences in wagering decisions, where gender differences are especially pronounced, do not differ across gender once a woman competes against males. Using a fixed-effects framework, and therefore exploiting within-player …
The Big Economic Development Project Question: Is It New Revenue Or A Spending Transfer?, Paul Harris, Ronald Berkebile, Julia Martin, Larry Filer
The Big Economic Development Project Question: Is It New Revenue Or A Spending Transfer?, Paul Harris, Ronald Berkebile, Julia Martin, Larry Filer
Economics Faculty Publications
Most local governments pursue some degree of economic development activity to strengthen their economy by adding jobs and generating tax revenue. Witness the growth in tax increment financing, property tax abatements, tax credits, and exemptions for economic development. These state and local incentives totaled more than $80 billion in 2012. Economic development projects can represent a significant boon for a local economy. Estimating how much money they might generate, however, is not as easy as it initially seems, and jurisdictions can receive far less net new revenue than developers predict. Most consumers have finite incomes, which limits their discretionary spending. …
Maritime Economics In A Post-Expansion Panama Canal Era, Grace W. Y. Wang, Wayne Talley, Mary R. Brooks
Maritime Economics In A Post-Expansion Panama Canal Era, Grace W. Y. Wang, Wayne Talley, Mary R. Brooks
Economics Faculty Publications
(First paragraph) The 2016 opening of an expanded Panama Canal will allow for Post-Panamax containerships up to 12 500 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) in size to transit the Panama Canal. In response, some US East Coast container ports are having their channels and berths dredged deeper—to allow Post-Panamax containerships from Asia (transiting the expanded canal) to call at their ports. What are the implications for the US West Coast ports? Will there be a cargo shift from West Coast to East Coast ports? These topics as well as the impacts of other changes in global shipping lanes (e.g., the Suez …
A Dynamic Model Of The Choice Of Technology In Economic Development, Haiwen Zhou, Ruhai Zhou
A Dynamic Model Of The Choice Of Technology In Economic Development, Haiwen Zhou, Ruhai Zhou
Economics Faculty Publications
In this overlapping-generations model, there is unemployment in the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing firms engage in oligopolistic competition and choose technologies to maximize profits. With capital as a fixed cost of production, increasing returns in the manufacturing sector exist. In the unique steady state, first, when individuals become more patient, the savings rate increases while the level of an individual’s income decreases. Second, an increase in population or percentage of income spent on manufactured goods does not change steady-state technology while the level of an individual’s income decreases. Third, an increase in the wage rate leads manufacturing firms to choose more …