Regional Economics Commons^™

Effects Of The Minimum Wage On U.S. Labor Markets, Dawn M. Otterby

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The first section of this research investigates the impacts of the minimum wage on regional labor markets in the United States. Using ten years of county-level data, we examine the relationship between the minimum wage and several key components of the labor market. Following past research, employment variables are used to measure labor supply, but—as an extension to the literature—job postings data are included to measure labor demand. Consistent with previous studies, we find a positive relationship between labor force participation and a county’s minimum wage. We do not find a statistically significant relationship between job postings and the minimum …

Analyzing The Impact Of Automation On Employment In Different Us Regions: A Data-Driven Approach, Thejaas Balasubramanian

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Automation is transforming the US workforce with the increasing prevalence of technologies like robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. As a result, it is essential to understand how this shift will impact the labor market and prepare for its effects. This culminating experience project aimed to examine the influence of computerization on jobs in the United States and answer the following research questions: Q1. What factors affect how likely different jobs will be automated? Q2. What are the possible effects of automation on the US workforce across states and industries? Q3. What are the meaningful predictors of the likelihood of …

Essays On Labor Market Size And Job Match Quality, Lan Lan

All Dissertations

This dissertation is comprised of two essays that delve into the construction of a major-related labor market and its correlation with college graduates’ job match quality. Investigating the job match quality of college graduates for different majors in large cities is crucial, as it provides evidence on which majors tend to yield better job matches. This contributes to the study of the return on major while also shedding light on how city size impacts individuals’ ability to find jobs that align with their educational level and major, thereby enriching the study of the benefits of agglomeration.

The first chapter examines …

A Qualitative Study On The Financial Education Of Young Black Men, Sue M. May

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Financial literacy awareness is low among young adults, and financial literacy among Black college students is significantly lower than in other groups (Singh, 2018). However, there is little to no research on why financial literacy is so low among young Black men between 18 and 25. Few studies specifically show how financial literacy and decision-making may be related to their family economics and socialization for young Black men. Using Critical Race Theory and Family Financial Socialization theoretical frameworks, this dissertation project examined a sample of seven young self-identified Black men ages 24 to 25 years old in Northern California Bay …

Essays On Intergenerational Mobility In Education, Ercio A. Munoz Saavedra

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters that investigate intergenerational mobility in education in Chile, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Chapter 1: In this chapter, I estimate intergenerational mobility (IGM) in education using data from 91 censuses that span 24 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) over half a century. I measure upward mobility as the likelihood of obtaining at least a primary education for individuals whose parents did not finish primary school, whereas downward mobility as the likelihood of failing to complete primary education for individuals whose parents completed at least primary school. In addition, I …

Regional Wage Inequality In Egypt: Relationships To Micro And Macro Indicators, Noha Mostafa

Theses and Dissertations

Addressing regional disparities in Egypt is of paramount importance for the country’s success in achieving the pillars of its 2030 strategy, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper focuses on examining regional disparities in wages, not only in relation to the micro level characteristics of workers such as their level of educational attainment and acquired experience, but also with regard to the overall economic conditions of the region where they work. The paper compiled a novel dataset of Egypt’s governorates macroeconomic indicators that includes the shares of public investment funds, poverty and unemployment rates and analyzed the …

An Inferentially Robust Look At Two Competing Explanations For The Surge In Unauthorized Migration From Central America, Nick Santos

Dissertations

The last 8 years have seen a dramatic increase in the flow of Central American apprehensions by the U.S. Border Patrol. Explanations for this surge in apprehensions have been split between two leading hypotheses. Most academic scholars, immigrant advocates, progressive media outlets, and human rights organizations identify poverty and violence (the Poverty and Violence Hypothesis) in Central America as the primary triggers responsible. In contrast, while most government officials, conservative think tanks, and the agencies that work in the immigration and border enforcement realm admit poverty and violence may underlie some decisions to migrate, they instead blame lax U.S. immigration …

Embracing Entrepreneurship, Naomy Sengebwila, Naomy Nyendwa Sengebwila

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

Embracing Entrepreneurship

How Christian Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship can Lead to Sustainable Communities in Zambia and Globally

Embracing Entrepreneurship

A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of Perkins School of Theology Southern Methodist University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Ministry by

Name of Student

Naomy Nyendwa Sengebwila

Name of Student: Naomy Nyendwa Sengebwila

Date: 03/31/2021

How Christian Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Can Lead to Sustainable Communities in Zambia and globally

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …

Are Small Businesses The Framework For A Successful U.S. Economy?, Carson Clevenger

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis will investigate the impact of small businesses on the United States’ economy. I will be assessing several impact areas including gross domestic product, employment, and local economy contribution. This thesis will cover a study from the time periods of 1998-2014 of the gross domestic product and employment levels and will use numbers from the years of 2018- present for other impact areas. Furthermore, I will be analyzing certain sectors of the economy, comparing small businesses contribution to corporate contribution, in order to discuss if small businesses are necessary for our country’s successful economy.

Brain Drain In Mississippi, Clifford Adam Conner

Honors Theses

Brain drain is the out-migration of educated individuals from an area. It is a problem with which Mississippi is overly familiar. This thesis uses data gathered from a survey of 965 respondents to identify who is leaving the state and for what reasons. The data gathered suggest confirmation that brain drain is an issue for the state, with roughly two-thirds of respondents having left the state or seriously considering doing so. The impetus for this varies with each individual, but respondents underscore economic and societal factors within Mississippi as pushing them away from the state. Quality of life factors are …

Three Essays In Regional Taxation, Kenneth Tester

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

This dissertation looks at the role that geographically limited taxation and the behavioral response of economic agents to different forms of regional taxation. While geographic taxation is typically thought to be confined to state and local taxes, federal tax policy can also create designated areas that receive preferential tax treatment. In this dissertation, both types of regional taxation are examined and are unified under common themes such as tax mobility and the definition of the tax base.

In chapter 2, I examine the important effect of how the location of high income earners employment is influenced by taxes in the …

Three Essays On The High-Speed Rail Network In China, Shiyu Cheng

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

My dissertation consists of three essays that study the economic consequences of China’s high-speed rail (HSR) expansion.

In the first essay, I use the college admission cutoff scores to reveal students’ college preferences under the enrollment quota. By exploiting the quasi-experimental variation in whether or not college cities are connected by the HSR network, I document a two-point increase in the cutoff scores following a HSR station opening in the college city using difference-in-difference (DD) approach. Colleges in the megacities experience a larger increase in cutoff scores after the station opening. These findings suggest that the HSR network stimulates “brain …

The Effects Of Racial Capitalism On Poor White Laborers, Amy Whittaker

Liberal Studies (MA) Final Essays

While always remembering that racial capitalism’s very nature ensures that non-white Americans suffer incomparable racial oppression, this paper will endeavor to expose the devastation caused to American society as a whole by explaining the ways in which racial capitalism destroyed poor white labors ability to participate fully in the economic system and strangled its chances of living the American dream. It is my hope that by discussing the missing piece of the poor white laborers’ experience under racial capitalism will unite poor white laborers and poor black laborers to work together to end racial capitalism, policing, and the carceral system. …

The Determinants Of Sectoral Employment In Nepal, Thaman P. Bastola

Masters Theses

This paper uses the data from 1991 to 2019 to analyze the determinants of employment in agriculture, industrial, and service sectors of Nepal. The data are gotten from the world development indicators (WDI), human development indicators (HDI) and Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB). The results show that significant determinants of employment in Nepal areeducation, health, population growth, interest rate, inflation rate and political conflict.The education, health, population growth, and inflation are inversely related to the employment of agricultural sectors employment. Likewise, the industrial sector employment is positively affected by the health and political conflict, and negatively affected by the level of …

Three Essays On The Economics Of Education Expansion, Xiaozhou Ding

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

My dissertation consists of three essays that study the unintended consequences of education policies. The first two essays examine the impact of higher education expansion in China on household saving rate and individual migration rate. The third essay looks into the impact of a school redistricting plan and the construction a new school on housing prices in Fayette County, Kentucky.

In the first essay, I utilize the large national expansion on higher education in China which exogenously increase the enrollment of college students, to estimate the induced change in the expected college probability and how it affects saving rates for …

Planning For Industrial Land And Industrial Jobs: An Evaluation Of New York City's Industrial Business Zone Program, Jennifer Davis

Masters Theses

In recent years, industrial preservation policies, which aim to preserve urban industrial activity and industrial employment often through the preservation of industrial land, have emerged as a flashpoint in cities across the country that have implemented these policies. While critics contend that industrial preservation policies amount to smokestack chasing in “post-industrial” cities like New York City, industrial preservationists argue that such policies help to preserve well-paying, middle-class jobs and thus represent a tool to mitigate rising income inequalities in cities. Despite considerable attention to these policies, minimal research has evaluated the effectiveness of industrial preservation policies as land use and …

Three Essays On The Economics Of Public Libraries, Amir Borges Ferreira Neto

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation explores empirical issues concerning public libraries in the United States. In particular, it analyzes the direct and indirect effects to and from public libraries, on different issues such as charitable donations, labor market outcomes, institutions and technical efficiency. Chapter 1 discusses the economics of public libraries and its relevance. In addition, it provides an outline of the dissertation and its main contribution to the literature. Chapter 2, analyzes the determinants of donations to public libraries testing the crowding effect from government funding of public libraries. I find suggestive results of a crowd in effect with an inverted U …

Feminización De Las Ocupaciones Y Diferencias Salariales Por Género Para Colombia Urbana: 2008-2016, Maria Camila Palacios Riaño

Economía

Evidencia empírica sugiere que, como resultado de la segregación ocupacional en la brecha salarial de género, las ocupaciones mayoritariamente desarrolladas por mujeres ofrecen salarios más bajos para ambos sexos. La concentración constante en grupos de trabajo con salarios bajos perpetúa al mismo tiempo el fenómeno de segregación y la desventaja salarial por género. El presente trabajo sigue la metodología utilizada por Isaza Castro (2013), donde se realiza una clasificación de las ocupaciones para el caso colombiano y una estimación de ecuaciones de salarios para hombres y mujeres controlando por la proporción de mujeres existente al interior de cada ocupación como …

Investigating The Effect Crime Has On Uber And Yellow Taxi Pickups In Nyc, Kebing Li

Honors Theses

How to manage the relationship between Uber and the local taxi industry has been a long-lasting and hot topic for most of the major cities around the world. Whether Uber is stealing money from and undermining the local taxi drivers or it is beneficial for public transportation has no certain conclusions. In this paper, we focus on the city of New York, where both Uber and traditional Yellow Taxi play important roles in public transportation and city culture in general, and we are trying to investigate the factors that are going to affect Uber and Yellow Taxi pickups in New …

Past, Present And Future Of Maine's Pulp And Paper Industry, Ariel Listo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The pulp and paper industry has historically been of paramount importance for the state of Maine, both from cultural and economic perspectives. The industry has been a vital part of the forest products economy and a large contributor to employment and state gross domestic product (GDP). However, the number of pulp and paper mills in Maine has declined sharply in the last few decades, deeply harming employment levels, local economies and the forest products sector of the most heavily forested state in the nation. This phenomenon has sparked efforts to understand the factors behind the downfall of Maine's pulp and …

Resilience And The U.S. Labor Market: A Cross-Scale Analysis On The Role Of Industrial Diversity And Specialization, Christian D. Sprague

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how the effects of industrial diversity and specialization vary across geographical scales and classification levels. The notion of a robust institutional design, in conjunction with a regional resilience framework, is used to model how diversity and modularity affect unemployment through-out economic cycles. We use fixed effects models on employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau in all available U.S. counties from 1998-2015. Key results suggest the optimal structure of industrial composition varies across scale, namely, that fine levels of industrial diversity are beneficial at higher levels of geographical scale (regions), whereas a broad …

Sewing Garments, Sowing Lives: Two Generations Of Migrant Workers' Back And Forth To The Chinese Coast, Alice Tzou

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Migrant workers in China have been at the center of popular news media and scholarly attention for three decades, since they started to migrate to work in factories on the coast in the post-1978 Economic Reform era. As western and central China has developed and work opportunities have arisen in these migrant-sending regions, internal migrants have started to return home. Push and pull factors of internal migration have been reversed. Poverty and lack of job opportunities used to be the push factors; they are now replaced by new push factors—long hours of work and long-distance travel to and from the …

Unemployment, Does It Really Hurt?, Claudia Vargas

Theses and Dissertations

This paper analyzes the consequences of changes in the unemployment rate in Colombia on the level of education attained for adolescents. Increases in the unemployment rate are associated with an increase in the average number of years of education. No significant effect was found for men of the same age.

A Deep Dive Into Technological Unemployment: A State-Level Analysis On The Employment Effect Of Technological Innovations, Yuqing "Jenny" Cang

CMC Senior Theses

Ever since the first Industrial Revolution, during which many textile artisans lost their jobs to weaving machines, the relationship between technological progress and unemployment has been explored and examined by researchers and policy makers. Existing empirical research, mostly at the microeconomic level, has presented ambiguous results. Procuring data on 51 U.S. states for a period of 19 years and a large number of controls, this paper studies the employment effect of technological innovations with a novel state-level macroeconomic analysis. Using commercially-supplied Research and Development expenditure as a proxy, this paper finds that although technological innovations have a non-significant effect on …

Young And Unemployed: A Multivariable Analysis Of Youth Unemployment In Jordan, Morgan E. Mabry

Honors Theses

The level of youth unemployment in the Middle East is higher than any other region in the world. The detrimental effects of early unemployment can be broad and long lasting. This paper discusses some of the factors of youth unemployment in the Middle East, such as poor education systems and underdeveloped labor markets; and the social effects such as delayed marriages and political unrest. It then goes on to analyze the School-to-Work Transition Survey (SWTS) to understand the impact of age, sex, individual education, and parental education on the transition from school to work. The results indicated that sex and …

The Impact Of Foreign Direct Investment On Labor Market Measures: Evidence From Sub-Saharan Africa, David A. Mayom

Master's Theses

There is scant literature examining the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and labor market measures in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. This paper explores the effect of FDI on the labor market measures using panel data of 48 Sub-Saharan African Countries from 1991 to 2009. The result indicates that FDI has a positive and significant effect on employment implying that an increase in the inflow of FDI is associated with higher employment. Thus, Sub-Saharan African governments should strongly consider poverty alleviation and employment policies that encourage and direct FDI to the industries where it can significantly reduce unemployment.

Economic Interrelationships And Impacts Of The Aviation/Aerospace Industry In The State Of Florida Using Input-Output Analysis, Kelly A. Whealan-George

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The study provided a detailed description of the interrelatedness of the aviation and aerospace industry with principal industries in Florida and Volusia County (VC) using Input-Output (IO) analysis. Additionally, this research provided an economic impact analysis of the creation of a university research park in Daytona Beach (DB). The economic impact measures included not only direct economic output and industry employment descriptions but also described the multiplier effects in the form of indirect and induced impacts using data for 2012.

This research concluded the average labor income of the aviation and aerospace industry was higher than average labor income in …

Three Essays On The Economic Impact Of Immigration, James Sharpe

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

With the significant rise in immigration to the U.S. over the last few decades, fully understanding the economic impact of immigration is paramount for policy makers. As such, this dissertation consists of three empirical essays contributing to the literature on the impact of immigration. In my first essay, I re-examine the impact of immigration on housing rents and completely controlling for endogenous location choices of immigrants. I model rents as a function of both contemporaneous and initial economic and housing market conditions. I show that existing estimates of the impact of immigration on rents are biased and the source of …

Economic Integration And Economic Development In Central America, Angel David Sandoval

Economics ETDs

The thesis of this paper is that economic integration can lead Central America to much higher levels of living for her people, but this will be accomplished only if the economic structure of the region is greatly modified. Correcting the structural faults of the Central American economics will also require economic integration. Such structural weaknesses as inadequate medical personal care, limited provision for education of the masses, out-moded fiscal systems, insufficient and inefficient transportation systems, lethargic public administration, the great gap between the incomes of upper classes and the masses of the people, and the concentration of land ownership in …

An Appraisal Of Techniques Employed In Occupational Wage Surveys For Communities, Henry Wilson Maglidt

Economics ETDs

For some years the writer has noticed that studies of wage rates available for general use pertain to wage conditions by industry on a national or regional basis. Literature on the subject bears upon methods employed in studies on a wide scale, or on studies of large cities or important concentrated industrial centers. There appears to be a dearth of literature on the subject of conducting wage surveys on a community basis in the smaller cities and less populated areas. Therefore, in the Fall of 1951, the writer, in connection with graduate work and the University of New Mexico, undertook …