Economics Commons^™

College As Capability Enhancement, Cristina Lee

CMC Senior Theses

In this thesis I wanted to apply the Sen’s framework in Development as Freedom to college campuses. In my experience at Claremont McKenna College, I have seen how some students are able to take advantage of the resources better than others. Given that we were all accepted by the same admissions office, I always questioned why did some students know how to take advantage of the system. In order to explore this, I first discuss Sen’s capability approach. Then, I show how the capability approach is more comprehensive than social networking theory and William Deresiewicz’s account on elite colleges. Finally, …

John Lee Hancock, The Founder (2016), Alejandro Hazera

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

Sofia Coppola, Lost In Translation (2003), Masaaki Takemura

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

Mark Peterson, Sustainable Enterprise: A Macromarketing Approach (2013), Canan Madran

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

Nassimbeni And Sartor, Sourcing In China (2006), Degan Yu, Mehmet G. Yalcin

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

Marketing And Poverty Alleviation: Synergizing Research, Education, And Outreach Through The Subsistence Marketplaces Approach, Madhubalan Viswanathan, Arun Sreekumar

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

In this article, we describe our journey through the creation and development of the stream of subsistence marketplaces, summarize our learning, and discuss implications at the intersection of the field of Marketing and poverty alleviation. Distinct from macro level economic research in impoverished contexts, or mid-level approaches, such as the base of the pyramid (BOP) approach in business strategy, this approach is rooted at the micro-level, enabling bottom up understanding of buyer and seller. The term, subsistence marketplaces, reflects understanding these contexts in their own right, not just as markets to sell to, but as individuals, communities, consumers, …

Global Range And Eclectic Potpourri, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Deniz Atik

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

School District Consolidation Policies: Endogenous Cost Inefficiency And Saving Reversals, Mustafa U. Karakaplan, Levent Kutlu

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

Some education policy studies suggest that consolidation of public school districts saves resources. However, endogeneity in cost models would result in incorrect estimates of the effects of consolidation. We use a new stochastic frontier methodology to examine district expenditures while handling endogeneity. Using the data from California, we find that the effects of student achievement and education market concentration on expenditure per pupil are substantially larger when endogeneity is handled. Our findings are robust to concerns such as instrumental variable adequacy and spatial interactions. Our consolidation simulations indicate that failure to address endogeneity can result in unrealistic expectations of savings.

The Effect Of Changes In Racial Composition On Housing Prices: A Study Of The Most Diverse Place In The World, Youseph Anwar

Theses and Dissertations

This study attempts to illustrate that increases in minority residents may lead to decreases in housing prices. I observe the effects of changes in racial composition on housing prices in Queens, NY from 2011-2015. The following econometric tools are implemented: a fixed effects model, quantile, hedonic, and OLS regressions.

The Impacts Of Commercialization On Depth, Breadth, Scope, And Quality Of Outreach In Mozambique: A Case-Study, Courtney Johnson

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

In today’s microfinance, scholars and policy-makers across the world have emphasized the importance of financial sustainability, or the ability of a microfinance institution (MFI) to finance its operations. In order to reach financial sustainability, MFIs embrace commercialization, a process where an MFI undergoes restructuring in order to open up avenues to capital. Yet, scholars are concerned that this emphasizes on financial sustainability will cause the social good objective to suffer, a phenomenon known as “trade-off.” Indeed, studies have found that commercialization impacts MFI outreach in various ways. To my knowledge, no research has attempted to understand the impacts of commercialization …

Cigarette Taxes And Illicit Trade In Europe Online Appendix, James Prieger, Jonathan D. Kulick

School of Public Policy Working Papers

Cigarettes are highly taxed in Europe to discourage tobacco use and to fund public-health measures to mitigate the harms from tobacco consumption. At higher prices some consumers substitute more toward illicit cigarettes. We find that raising prices in any one country would lead to substantial increases in the expected illicit market share and volume in that country. This appendix contains more complete information about the data and additional regressions to which the article published in Economic Inquiry (and also available in earlier form as School of Public Policy Working Paper 60) refers.

. . . And Law?, John Henry Schlegel

Contributions to Books

Published as Chapter 18 in Searching for Contemporary Legal Thought, Justin Desautels-Stein & Christopher Tomlins, eds.

The locution “law and . . . (some other discipline)” implicitly asserts the primacy of legal doctrine and institutions narrowly conceived for coming to understand phenomena in which law takes a part. The ordinary story of American legal theory – formalism then realism then contemporary legal thought – can be understood to repeat the triumphalism implicit in “law and . . .” Of course, the story of American legal theory could possibly be read differently -- as a series of responses to the inability …

Microcredit And Survival Microenterprises: The Role Of Market Structure, P.V. Viswanath

Faculty Working Papers

Poverty remains a pervasive problem all over the world, but the problem is worst in underdeveloped areas like Africa. While microfinance is supposed to address this problem through the promotion of viable businesses, it has not been very successful in helping survival microenterprises, i.e., businesses that the very poor with limited human capital have access to, in sectors with low barriers to entry and selling undifferentiated products. In this paper, I examine the role of market structure in mediating the impact of micro-lending to such survival enterprises. While there have been many evaluations of microfinance institutions (MFIs), there have been …

Tax Reform And Higher Education, Michael Hemesath

Administration Publications

No abstract provided.

Individualism, Collectivism, And Trade, Aidin Hajikhameneh, Erik O. Kimbrough

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

While economists recognize the important role of formal institutions in the promotion of trade, there is increasing agreement that institutions are typically endogenous to culture, making it difficult to disentangle their separate contributions. Lab experiments that assign institutions exogenously and measure and control individual cultural characteristics can allow for clean identification of the effects of institutions, conditional on culture, and help us understand the relationship between behavior and culture, under a given institutional framework. We focus on cultural tendencies toward individualism/collectivism, which social psychologists highlight as an important determinant of many behavioral differences across groups and people. We design an …

Nebraska Monthly Economic Indicators: December 20, 2017, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

The Leading Economic Indicator – Nebraska (LEI-N) 1 rose by 0.64% during November of 2017. The increase in the LEI-N, which is designed to predict economic activity six months into the future, suggests that Nebraska economic growth will continue through the second quarter of 2018. The increase in the indicator was due to an increase in building permits for single-family homes. There also were positive business expectations during the month. In particular, respondents to the November Survey of Nebraska Business reported plans to increase sales and employment in the coming months. In terms of negative components, there was a rise …

Of Rats And Men, Thomas S. Walsh

Capstones

This capstone is a data-driven investigation into New York City's rat problem. By using publicly available government data to map rat activity in NYC, I identified several socio-economic variables that correlate with rat populations at the community district, borough, and city-scale. I used these findings (mainly that rat problems are linked to lower incomes) as the basis of an investigation, which includes interviews with residents, experts, and city officials. Prof. Bobby Corrigan, urban rodentologist and formerly with the NYC Department of Health criticizes the city's efforts for the first time on the record.

https://thomasseiyawalsh.wixsite.com/ratstone

The Ultimate Tradeoff For Colleges: Academic Quality Or Consumption Amenities, Maura Mullaney

Economics Department Student Scholarship

This thesis examines the recent rise in tuition expenses and its relation to college operation costs. My focus delves into the finances of American institutions of higher education to observe where money is actually being spent and to which areas of the college money is being dispersed. It further examines whether students are actually stimulating their own tuition growth through their costly demands on colleges and the luxury services colleges are now offering. In particular, this paper analyzes the current-day trade off for American colleges: spending on consumption amenities as opposed to spending on academic quality. From my research and …

Getting Girls In Stem & The Dangers Of Forgetting That Science Is Art - Someone Made It Up, Heidi Therese Dangelmaier, Camilla Hermann

The STEAM Journal

Encouraging girls to participate in STEM is a hot topic that has captured the concern of the world’s academic, business and scientific communities. The intention is noble, however the strategies being deployed are reinforcing the very bias society seeks to eliminate. If we wish to advance our evolutionary journey as a species, a shift from “feeling sorry for disadvantaged girls” to “fearing STEM without girls’ reformation” is imperative. This piece discusses the rise to an initiative to redesign culture: Girlapproved.

In Brownsville, A Struggle For Revitalization Without Displacement, Katherine Warren

Capstones

As many parts of Brooklyn buzz with a startling rate of economic resurgence, Brownsville seems like a neighborhood left behind.

Struggling with poverty, poor health statistics, unemployment and high crime rates, and with the highest concentration of public housing in the city, it has not seen the same commercial and real estate revival as Williamsburg, Bushwick, Crown Heights and other areas of Brooklyn.

“In Brownsville, which has had challenges battling negative perceptions of this community, most of the residents are lower income and investors in the past have deemed this community as not being as good as an investment as …

Fake News: Can We Correct It All And Does It Matter If We Don't?, Emma C. Brickfield

Economics Department Student Scholarship

This paper looks to identify if correcting fake news articles is sufficient to prevent people from making decisions based on factually incorrect information. Through an experiment, I find that correcting a fake news article makes a person less likely to put money towards the issue that the fake story supported. I also find that over time people are more likely to forget the corrections but that it does not change their economic decision at a statistically significant rate.

One Potential Problem With The Fed’S Vote To Raise Interest Rates: The Fed Might Not Know How The Economy Works, Louis D. Johnston

Economics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Note On Mitigating The Adverse Scale Effects Associated With Daily Driving Restrictions, Arthur J. Caplan, Man-Keun Kim

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

This paper investigates the role of additional regulation in mitigating the “adverse scale effect” associated with daily driving restrictions, which has become a popular regulatory tool used to control episodic air pollution internationally, especially in developing countries. We find that although an annual vehicle registration tax reduces the incentive to purchase additional vehicles among households whose sole purpose for doing so is to “cheat” the restriction (i.e., the “adverse scale effect”), it does so with an external cost. The cost occurs because households whose purpose for purchasing an additional vehicle is not to cheat the restriction are given the same …

Uk Governance: From Overloading To Freeloading, Richard Woodward

Articles

The UK's ongoing political turbulence has prompted a reprise of debates from the 1970s when many concluded the country was ungovernable. Then, the most influential diagnosis conceptualised the UK's governance problem as one of ‘overloading’ caused by the electorate's excessive expectations. This article argues that these accounts overlooked another phenomenon besieging UK governance during this period. This phenomenon was freeloading: the withering of government capacity deriving from the ability of actors to enjoy the benefits of citizenship without altogether contributing to the cost. In the interim, these problems have become endemic, not least because of the unspoken but discernible policy …

Strengthening The M&E System Of Peace Corps Colombia, Samuel Burke

Capstone Collection

In 1961, when the Peace Corps was established, Colombia was the first country chosen to receive volunteers. The program ran for 20 years, with volunteers working all over the country in various sectors. Then in 1981, due to the increasing violence from the guerilla civil war, the US government decided to withdraw the volunteers and suspend the Colombia program. After a 29-year hiatus, at the request of the Colombian government, the Peace Corps was invited back to Colombia in 2010.

The Peace Corps Colombia post currently has two programs, Practical English for Success (PES), established first; and, Community Economic Development …

Water Poverty And Its Impact On Income Poverty And Health Status In Sudan: The Case Of Gezira State (1993-2013), Mutasim Abdelmawla

International Journal of African Development

Water resource development can address poverty, improve well-being, and enhance people's opportunities in different fields of life. Even though water resources are available in Sudan, some parts of the country still continue to face significant water provision challenges. This research is aimed at measuring water poverty in Gezira State, Sudan over the period of 1993-2013 using the methodology of Sullivan et al. (2003). The research employed data collected from the Central Bureau of Statistics, Khartoum, Sudan. Both descriptive and empirical approaches are used to analyze the data. The average incidence of the water poverty index (WPI) over the period under …

In Search Of Lasting Calmness: How Sustainable Is The Federal Government’S Amnesty Program As A Peace Strategy In The Niger Delta Region Of Nigeria?, Lasisi Raimi, Nwoke N. Bieh, Kidi Zorbari

International Journal of African Development

The exploitation of natural resources and the associated marginalization of indigenous occupants of areas with such endowments continue to act as major driving forces for conflicts around the world, especially in Africa. In Nigeria’s Niger Delta Region, the major triggers of resource-based violent conflicts have been the subject matter of many academics and policy analysts. With the introduction of several peace strategies especially the Federal Government of Nigeria’s Amnesty Program notwithstanding, pockets of violent activities have generated questions as to the sustainability of the program. This study examines the sustainability of the Federal Government’s Amnesty Program in the Niger Delta …

A Framework Towards Technology Creation In Africa: Focusing On Ghana, Martin Yao Donani, Hannatu Abue Kugblenu, Azindow Bawa Fuseini

International Journal of African Development

Underdevelopment in Africa has been historical and a global concern coupled with the quest for good governance. Several efforts have been made in academia, national governments, the international community, and other institutional arrangements to reverse the trend. These efforts however are yet to produce a lasting result as Africa is still characterized by low productivity output, poverty and a widening technology gap when compared to other developing regions of the world. Conventional approaches used to address the African problem have consistently been devoid of indigenous technology development. Technology is here seen as paramount to every form of production on which …

The Aid Effectiveness Architecture In Africa: An Analysis Of Aid Structures In Kenya’S Agriculture Sector, Daniel Kipleel Borter

International Journal of African Development

This study examines in detail the development aid architecture in Kenya’s agriculture sector. The focus is on the mechanisms in place within the Kenyan government (and ministry of agriculture in particular), mechanisms among and within donor agencies, and overall coordination mechanisms that bring together the donors and the government. Findings show that coordination and harmonization activities among donors are yet to yield the desired outcomes such as the division of labor protocol and joint programming. Weaknesses are also observed on the government side where it appears authorities are yet to internalize PD concepts and interpret them to suit the country's …

Does Privatization Improve Productivity? Empirical Evidence From Ethiopia, Tadesse Wodajo, Dawit Senbet

International Journal of African Development

Theoretically, it is posited that privatization enables the private sector to play a dominant role in the economy by enhancing competition, productivity and efficiency. When evaluated using these criteria, privatization of the manufacturing industries has failed in Ethiopia. Our empirical results show that, at best, privatization did not result in improving productivity, and at worst, it led to a decline in productivity. We argue that the main reason for this outcome is the unique economic and business environment prevailing in Ethiopia, which does not allow the standard economic assumptions of market competition to hold. Ethiopia’s ‘private sector’ can be described …