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 …

To Know The Land With Hands And Minds: Negotiating Agricultural Knowledge In Late-Nineteenth-Century New England And Westphalia, Justus Hillebrand

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ever since the eighteenth century, experts have tried to tell farmers how to farm. The agricultural enlightenment in Europe marked the beginning of a long arc of new experts aiming to change agricultural knowledge and practice. This dissertation analyzes the pivotal period in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in Germany and the United States when scientists, improvers, and market agents began to develop comprehensive ways to communicate agricultural innovation to farmers. In a functional approach to analyzing the negotiation of agricultural knowledge through its communication in things, words, and practices, this dissertation argues that the process of change …

A Joint Estimation Of Pheasant Hunting Parameters, Rama Khadka

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The decreasing pheasant population from 2008 to 2019 across South Dakota is a concern as it may lead to decreased hunting activity and consequently reduced economic activity. Past studies have shown that changes in the landscape (e.g., from changing agricultural practices) is a major factor responsible for decreasing the bird population. However, these studies lack a clear understanding of how the fluctuating crop mixes impact the pheasant population together with harvest volume. The goal of this study was to analyze the pheasant population and the quantity of harvested birds during 2008 to 2019 in South Dakota to understand how variations …

Applications Of Regional Agglomeration: Measures Of Localization And Urbanization, Mariya Pominova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Regional agglomeration, or the concentration of firms within a given locality, has been found to offer advantages, such as cost reductions, knowledge spillovers, and labor pooling, to firms and individuals who locate there (Malmberg & Maskell, 2002). Regional agglomeration is captured in two ways: localization economies and urbanization economies, where the former emphasizes the benefits of clustering of specific industries within a given geography while the latter a more general benefit of locating in regions with a high level of industrial activity (Bosma et al., 2008). This thesis dedicates a chapter to exploring each of these measures of agglomeration. Chapter …

China’S One Belt One Road Initiative—A Debt Trap?, Qi Liu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Infrastructure has been a bottleneck for industrialization of developing countries. After decades of economic growth led by investment in infrastructure, China released its first global strategy in 2013, One Belt One Road (BRI), to improve infrastructure in less developed countries along the belt and road. Although economic development has been witnessed in some BRI members, large amount of investments from China raised concern over debt crisis from the Western world and host countries. Countries receiving loans from China are struggling to effectively manage the BRI projects. Some are renegotiating the investments with China and some BRI members even canceled them. …

Challenges To Economic Resiliency And Performance: Measuring The Regional Impacts Of Rurality And Space, Elena S. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is commonly observed that there are inequalities found in economic growth, development, and performance between different regions. Because of this, it is vital for regional planners to have knowledge to which economic problems are present (Armstrong and Taylor, 2000; Martin, 2005). With such knowledge, planners are able to tailor and implement regional policies in an informed manner that is better suited to address economic problems. Found in this work are two studies that contextualize separate economic problems which have been extensively discussed within regional sciences and rural studies.

The first study seeks to assess how a county’s degree of …

A Systematic Assessment Of Socio-Economic Impacts Of Prolonged Episodic Volcano Crises, Justin Peers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Uncertainty surrounding volcanic activity can lead to socio-economic crises with or without an eruption as demonstrated by the post-1978 response to unrest of Long Valley Caldera (LVC), CA. Extensive research in physical sciences provides a foundation on which to assess direct impacts of hazards, but fewer resources have been dedicated towards understanding human responses to volcanic risk. To evaluate natural hazard risk issues at LVC, a multi-hazard, mail-based, household survey was conducted to compare perceptions of volcanic, seismic, and wildfire hazards. Impacts of volcanic activity on housing prices and businesses were examined at the county-level for three volcanoes with a …

The Economic And Social Values Associated With Small South Dakota Lakes, Aaron Patrick Sundmark

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The valuation of small fishing lakes is a vital component in understanding the importance of fishing and of recreational resources, in general. Knowing the values associated with such lakes is essential when prioritizing management activities. The overall value of a lake as a resource for human benefit is estimated as the summation of both instrumental and non-instrumental values. Instrumental values consist of economic and utilitarian values, as well as the values that a lake provides from ecosystem services. Non-instrumental values consider what the lake is worth as a good of its own, such as aesthetic, moral, and spiritual values gained …

The Effects Of Fundamentals, Speculation, Government Policies, And International Capital Flows On China's Stock Market, Yanshen Qi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper, based on the relationship between the economy, policy and the financial market seeks to explore the leading force in China's stock market and identify how the government policies affect the stock market, through an analysis of the performance of the Shanghai Stock Exchange Index over the past 10 years. Comparing the stocks' intrinsic value to their market price can present an aerial view of China's stock market. When the market prices deviated from fundamentals, we can find what government did to respond to the market and lead market opinions.

Through our estimation, comparing the sample fundamental prices with …

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 …

Assessing Economic Performance Of Maine's Lobster Fleet Under Changing Ecosystem Conditions In The Gulf Of Maine, Alexa Dayton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the inter-disciplinary space that lies between fisheries management and stock conservation, resource extraction and economic return at the individual producer level, balanced with societal welfare. It considers policy implications in support of changing marine ecosystems and considers the values of the Maine lobster communities, which depend on it. We conducted a comprehensive lobster industry survey to assess costs and effort expended at the producer level for a representative fishing year, and establish a series of production function performance baselines for future comparison. The demographic data, attitudes and valuations collected allow us to characterize the fishing effort and …

Implications Of Macroeconomic Controls In Ghana, Wisdom Takumah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ghana’s desire to achieve sustainable economic growth with relatively stable price level pursue both monetary and fiscal policies that could lead to macroeconomic. This study examines the effects of fiscal and monetary policy on economic growth and determine the level of convergence of growth for Ghana using structural equation modeling (SEM) using time series data from 2008 to 2017. Both short run and long-run results revealed that the ratio of government spending to private investment was statistically significant and it exerted a positive impact on economic growth, an indication that government expenditure is a key channel through which we can …

The Fiscal Theory Of The Price Level In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Structural Break Analysis, Christian Tchamda

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, I provide empirical evidence of the fiscal theory of the price level (FTPL) using sub-Saharan African countries. While the traditional view of the inflation is driven and explained by the quantity theory of money, the FTPL argues that the government deficit has an impact on the price level. However, the empirical literature of the FTPL is not extensive. This paper adds to this literature in that it substantiates this theory. I determine using primary balance and liabilities data when available to classify a country as under either a monetary dominant regime (the traditional view) or under a …

Exchange Patterns And Relations In Collaborative Governance., Charles Wharton Kaye-Essien

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Collaborative governance has received considerable attention in recent years. From environmental resource management to public safety, collaborative governance continues to play a vital role in regional problem solving. In spite of this increasing popularity previous attempts to model the political, economic, and demographic determinants of collaboration have in most cases produced inconsistent results, thereby undermining the ability to generalize from such findings. Additionally, our understanding of the relational patterns that emanate from collaborative agreements remains fairly rudimentary. The main objective of this research is to address some of the gaps in the literature and improve our understanding of collaborative governance …

Temporal And Spatial Influences On South Dakota Farm Economies Of Size, Henry Brown

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Census of Agriculture data are evaluated to test for economies of size of South Dakota farms. Economies of size occur when per-unit costs decrease as the size of a firm increases. This research measures technical economies of size, which assume that all firms pay identical input prices and receive identical output prices. The dependent variable of the model is expenses per dollar of sales. This is a typical measure of efficiency in agricultural statistics. The data come from the four prior Census of Agriculture years, 1997, 2002, 2007, and 2012. A state-wide model and a county-wide model were developed to …

Attitude Comparison Among South Dakota Family Members Regarding Estate Planning And Farm Transitions, Heather Gessner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Estate planning and intergenerational farm transitions are the focus of research and extension programs across the nation due to the potential tax consequences faced by farm operations, retirement funding options available and utilized by farmers, changes in asset transition tools available, and communication (or lack of communication) issues related to bringing an heir back to the family operation.
Past plans for research projects and extension programming developed across the nation and in South Dakota (SD), were created with many assumptions regarding the attitudes of farm family members towards the transition of ownership of the operational assets and personal assets of …

Drivers Of Agricultural Land Use Change And Management Decisions In The Dakotas: The Influence Of Climate Change And Other Factors, Moses Luri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis conducts a general assessment of the: main drivers of land use change; recent and projected land use patterns; and the evolution of agriculture in the Dakotas. Specifically, it determines the main motives of land use change in the Dakotas by investigating individual and joint effects of external drivers of land use change on farm operators’ decisions and also examines recent and projected agricultural land use patterns in the Dakotas. Farm operators’ perceptions about the evolution of agriculture in the Dakotas based on observed changes in their local area were also analyzed. The study region consists of 37 counties …

Analysis And Forecasting Of Seasonal Changes In Cash Prices For Corn, Wheat, And Oats Grown In South Dakota, Prashobh Karunakaran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The overall objective of this study is to identify the seasonal patterns in S.D. cash prices (received by farmers) for corn, wheat, and oats. Seasonality in S.D. cash prices may be different from the seasonality in the U.S. cash prices for a commodity. The reasons for this may be differences in the seasonal supply and demand for the commodity and the supply and demand for substitutes. The availability and price of storage and transportation can also have substantial impact on regional commodity price seasonality. Therefore, it is important that the relationship between the seasonal fluctuations in S.D. cash prices and …

The Magnitude And Timing Of Rail Abandonment Impacts On Selected Economic Variables For Rural South Dakota Communities, J. Michael Alley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the economic impacts of past branchline abandonments on rural South Dakota communities. In this chapter the factors and conditions leading to the abandonment of the branchlines are examined first. Then a section discussing the perspectives of the people and entities involved in the abandonment is presented. This is followed by the reasons for undertaking the study and the study objectives. Finally an overview of the remaining chapters is presented.

History Of Tanning In The State Of Maine, George Archibald Riley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Inequalities In Farm Real Estate Assessment In South Dakota, Norman Victor Strand

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One of the few beneficial effects of the recent business depression has been the focusing of an increased amount of attention on taxes and tax systems. Research agencies, tax commissions and citizens tax organizations have given the matter thorough study. As a result of increased knowledge of the widespread havoc caused by excessive taxation of general property, many states which formerly obtained most of their revenue from general property taxes, have resorted to supplementary forms of taxation, such as income taxes, sales taxes, corporation taxes, and others. It is beyond the scope of this paper to consider these sources of …

A Study Of Economic Activity In South Dakota, Glenn Aldrich Scott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is undoubtedly true that now, more than at any time previously, statistical analyses hold an increasingly important place in the business world. It is decidedly important to be the man in business, whether he be farmer, manufacturer, or retailer, that he knows what the trend of business has been in the past, and what the current trend is, so that he may anticipate changes which statistical analyses show are taking place in his particular phase of business or industry. As it applies to smaller units of business, so does it apply to the whole business structure. This study has …