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The Job Of Human Capital: What Occupational Data Reveal About Skill Sets, Economic Growth And Regional Competitiveness, Lillian Frances Stewart Nov 2015

The Job Of Human Capital: What Occupational Data Reveal About Skill Sets, Economic Growth And Regional Competitiveness, Lillian Frances Stewart

ETD Archive

A region's workforce has been described as its greatest asset. Guided by human capital theory and new growth theory, regions have pursued economic development policies to increase the number of college-educated workers and expand the pool of STEM -- science, technology, engineering, and math -- talent. Academic literature and policy interventions have focused on a region's human capital in terms of educational attainment instead of a more fine-grained definition of human capital based on skills and competencies. This dissertation integrates economic and business theory and combines three federal databases to explore regional human capital assets. Findings suggest that policymakers may …


Tax Incentives And Housing Investment In Low-Income Neighborhoods, Matthew Freedman Sep 2015

Tax Incentives And Housing Investment In Low-Income Neighborhoods, Matthew Freedman

Matthew Freedman

This paper examines how tax incentives to promote housing investment affect communities by exploiting the lottery structure of Missouri’s Neighborhood Preservation Act (NPA). The NPA offers tax credits to homeowners and developers that improve or expand the owner-occupied housing stock in low-income areas. Taking advantage of the random assignment of NPA tax credits and detailed property-level data, I find that the program increases construction activity modestly. There are positive but highly localized spillovers on neighbors’ investment behavior. Spillovers on property values are larger in geographic scope, implying important roles for both neighbor interactions and amenity effects in local housing markets.


Place-Based Programs And The Geographic Dispersion Of Employment, Matthew Freedman Jun 2015

Place-Based Programs And The Geographic Dispersion Of Employment, Matthew Freedman

Matthew Freedman

Government efforts to improve local economic conditions by encouraging private investment in targeted communities could affect the broader geographic distribution of employment in a region, especially to the extent that subsidized businesses face few constraints on whom they hire. This paper examines the labor market impacts of investment subsidized by the U.S. federal government’s New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program, which provides tax incentives to promote business investment in low-income neighborhoods. To identify the program’s effects, I exploit a discontinuity in the rule determining the eligibility of census tracts for NMTC-subsidized investment. Using rich administrative data on workers’ residence and …


Fishing For A Sustainable Future: Aquaponics As A Method Of Food Production, Richard Ramsundar May 2015

Fishing For A Sustainable Future: Aquaponics As A Method Of Food Production, Richard Ramsundar

Student Theses 2015-Present

This thesis compares and explains the advantages aquaponics farming has over modern industrial intensive farming. Through a comparison natural capital usage, conservation, recycling and cost, the thesis advocates for the expansion of aquaponics usage in urban settings. The thesis also explains the history of intensive farming and aquaponics in America, the science of how aquaponics operates, the economic and environmental costs of modern intensive farming versus aquaponics farming, and the social implications of aquaponics. Lastly, I propose a policy that reallocates farm subsidies by modifying the Farm Bill. Then I propose policies that support creating a new standard of farm …


Central Georgia Regional Analysis: Demographics, Economy, Entrepreneurship And Innovation, Merissa Piazza, Joe Andre, Elorm M. Tsegah, Eunkyu Lee, Ziona Austrian Apr 2015

Central Georgia Regional Analysis: Demographics, Economy, Entrepreneurship And Innovation, Merissa Piazza, Joe Andre, Elorm M. Tsegah, Eunkyu Lee, Ziona Austrian

Ziona Austrian

No abstract provided.


The Economic Impact Of Metrohealth System, Matthew Hrubey, Ziona Austrian, Candi Clouse, Merissa Piazza Apr 2015

The Economic Impact Of Metrohealth System, Matthew Hrubey, Ziona Austrian, Candi Clouse, Merissa Piazza

Ziona Austrian

No abstract provided.


Superstar Cities, Inequality And Housing Policy, S Y Phang Mar 2015

Superstar Cities, Inequality And Housing Policy, S Y Phang

PHANG Sock Yong

Income and wealth inequality have been constantly debated, especially in recent years. Most studies, such as the recent work by Thomas Piketty, compare inequality across countries and over time. National inequality measures, however, mask considerable variations across cities within the same country. A country’s biggest and most economically dynamic cities also tend to have the largest inequality gaps. These cities – what Joseph Gyourko calls “Superstar Cities” – are also distinguished by their high housing prices. Migration in and out of cities limits the extent to which Superstar Cities can use local redistributive policies (including housing policies) to reduce inequality. …


Asean Public Private Partnership Guidelines, Fauziah Zen, Michael Regan Mar 2015

Asean Public Private Partnership Guidelines, Fauziah Zen, Michael Regan

Michael Regan

The ASEAN PPP Guidelines are designed for ASEAN nations and provide a common set of policy principles for member countries. The Guidelines offer a broad framework based on best practice standards that will help government departments to manage the processes and procedures that need to be taken when implementing PPP projects. In this respect, common policy principles provide consistency, confidence and certainty to foreign private investors and help facilitate cross-border PPP projects and enhance greater connectivity through harmonisation of member’s regulatory requirements. ASEAN nations will already have in place PPP laws and policies, and many international agencies provide financial assistance …


Signed Peer Reviews As A Means To Improve Scholarly Publishing, Linwood H. Pendleton Mar 2015

Signed Peer Reviews As A Means To Improve Scholarly Publishing, Linwood H. Pendleton

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

Peer review is a necessary process with a long history of complaints, including over-solicitation of a small number of reviewers, delays, inadequate numbers of reviewers, and a lack of incentives to provide strong reviews or avoid reviews with little helpful information for the author. In the era of Web-based distribution of research, through working paper or project reports, anonymous peer reviews are much less likely. The Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics will use signed peer reviews and an open communication process among authors, reviewers, and editors. This approach, to be developed over time, should lead to stronger communication of …


Bicycle Tourism Plan For Economic Development: A Template For Rural Agricultural Towns And A Case Study For The City Of Winters, California, Marisa Rene Lee Mar 2015

Bicycle Tourism Plan For Economic Development: A Template For Rural Agricultural Towns And A Case Study For The City Of Winters, California, Marisa Rene Lee

Master's Theses

Bicycling is a method of tourism transportation that is healthy, non-invasive, environmentally responsible, and economically sustainable. It allows freedom, mobility, and sightseeing potential that is not made possible by other modes of transit. Thousands of bicycle tourists travel from all over the globe annually to explore California on touring bikes via established cycling routes and robust determination. Thousands of additional domestic and international visitors take weekend trips, plan family vacations, travel for business, or tour California from abroad, many of whom are excellent candidates for local and regional bicycle touring at a more gentle intensity level.

The increasing popularity and …


Creating Healthy Community In The Postindustrial City, Brian A. Hoey Dec 2014

Creating Healthy Community In The Postindustrial City, Brian A. Hoey

Brian A. Hoey, Ph.D.

This chapter explores how community might be reimagined for the benefit of public health as well as to promote incipient social or economic agendas born of progressive citizen action aimed at what is commonly characterized as development or, perhaps, even more broadly as “growth.” Can a city like Huntington, West Virginia, emerge as a positive example of what we might term postindustrial urban regeneration and perhaps even community healing? Can this happen specifically through a grassroots movement now finding local governmental support in a collective attempt to transform this place from one defined primarily by the productive capacity of factories …