Western Michigan University
SelectedWorks
University of Kentucky
University of Warwick
Cornell University
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
University of the Sunshine Coast
Connecticut College
Iowa State University
Wesleyan University
An Examination Of The Stock Market's Effect On Economic Inequality,
2019
The University of Akron
An Examination Of The Stock Market's Effect On Economic Inequality, Nicholas Golina
Honors Research Projects
The economic literature on economic inequality has shown that it can negatively impact aggregate demand because it indicates a higher concentration of wealth in the hands of the top 10% as opposed to the poor and middle class, who are more likely to consume. The literature has identified many factors that can lead to increasing inequality. The stock market could be one of those factors since it can either create an upward redistributive effect towards the top 10% or redistributive effect towards the middle class. This paper tested the effect of the stock market on inequality. This study contributes to ...
The Supply Side Determinants Of Territory And Conflict,
2018
Chapman University
The Supply Side Determinants Of Territory And Conflict, Jordan Adamson, Erik O. Kimbrough
ESI Working Papers
What determines the geographic extent of territory? We microfound and extend Boulding’s “Loss of Strength Gradient” to predict the extensive and intensive margins of conflict across space. We show how economies of scale in the production of violence and varying costs of projecting violence at a distance combine to affect the geographic distribution of conflict and territory. We test and probe the boundaries of this model in an experiment varying the fixed costs of conflict entry. As predicted, higher fixed costs increase the probability of exclusive territories; median behavior closely tracks equilibrium predictions in all treatments.
Conditional Independence In A Binary Choice Experiment,
2018
Chapman University
Conditional Independence In A Binary Choice Experiment, Nathaniel Wilcox
ESI Working Papers
Experimental and behavioral economists, as well as psychologists, commonly assume conditional independence of choices when constructing likelihood functions for structural estimation. I test this assumption using data from a new experiment designed for this purpose. Within the limits of the experiment’s identifying restriction and designed power to detect deviations from conditional independence, conditional independence is not rejected. In naturally occurring data, concerns about violations of conditional independence are certainly proper and well-taken (for well-known reasons). However, when an experimenter employs contemporary state-of-the-art experimental mechanisms and designs, the current evidence suggests that conditional independence is an acceptable assumption for analyzing ...
Transactive Energy Design For Integrated Transmission And Distribution Systems,
2018
Iowa State University
Transactive Energy Design For Integrated Transmission And Distribution Systems, Hieu Trung Nguyen, Swathi Battula, Rohit Reddy Takkala, Zhaoyu Wang, Leigh Tesfatsion
Economics Working Papers
The increasing deployment of distributed energy resources (DERs) is disrupting every aspect of power system operations, from retail distribution to wholesale production and transmission. This paper reports on the development of an agentbased test system enabling the study of new transactive energy system (TES) designs to ensure the reliable efficient operation of integrated transmission and distribution (ITD) systems with growing DER penetration. This ITD test system is used to explore the ability of a non-profit Distribution System Operator (DSO), participating within an ITD system, to use an innovative TES design to manage the power usage of DER devices in accordance ...
Experimental Research On Contests,
2018
Chapman University
Experimental Research On Contests, Roman M. Sheremeta
ESI Working Papers
Costly competitions between economic agents are modeled as contests. Researchers use laboratory experiments to study contests and test comparative static predictions of contest theory. Commonly, researchers find that participants’ efforts are significantly higher than predicted by the standard Nash equilibrium. Despite overbidding, most comparative static predictions, such as the incentive effect, the size effect, the discouragement effect and others are supported in the laboratory. In addition, experimental studies examine various contest structures, including dynamic contests (such as multi-stage races, wars of attrition, tug-of-wars), multi-dimensional contests (such as Colonel Blotto games), and contests between groups. This article provides a short review ...
The Distribution Of Information And The Price Efficiency Of Markets,
2018
Chapman University
The Distribution Of Information And The Price Efficiency Of Markets, Brice Corgnet, Mark Desantis, David Porter
ESI Working Papers
Apparently contradictory evidence has accumulated regarding the extent to which financial markets are informationally efficient. Shedding new light on this old debate, we show that differences in the distribution of private information may explain why informational efficiency can vary greatly across markets. We find that markets are informationally efficient when complete information is concentrated in the hands of competing insiders whereas they are less efficient when private information is dispersed across traders. A learning model helps to illustrate why inferring others’ private information from prices takes more time when information is more dispersed. We discuss the implications of our findings ...
Identifying Treatment Effects In The Presence Of Confounded Types,
2018
Iowa State University
Identifying Treatment Effects In The Presence Of Confounded Types, Desire Kedagni
Economics Working Papers
In this paper, I consider identification of treatment effects when
the treatment is endogenous. The use of instrumental variables is a popular
solution to deal with endogeneity, but this may give misleading answers when
the instrument is invalid. I show that when the instrument is invalid due to
correlation with the first stage unobserved heterogeneity, a second (also
possibly invalid) instrument allows to partially identify not only the local
average treatment effect but also the entire potential outcomes distributions
for compliers. I exploit the fact that the distribution of the observed
outcome in each group defined by the treatment and ...
Essays In New Keynesian Monetary Policy,
2018
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Essays In New Keynesian Monetary Policy, Tzu-Hao Huang
All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
The dissertation consists of three Chapters. I consider New Keynesian models which involve tradeoffs between output gap and inflation variances. Such policy strategy is often referred to as flexible inflation targeting rules (e.g., Lars Svensson 2011, pp.1238-95). Taylor rules, in general, have the symbolic expression 𝑖t=𝜑x𝑥t+𝜑𝜋𝜋t+𝜑g𝑔t, where 𝑖t is the nominal interest rate at period t, 𝑥t is the target variable output gap at period t, 𝜋t is the target variable inflation rate at period t, 𝑔t is realized shock to ...
Big Data In Economics,
2018
University of California, Irvine
Big Data In Economics, Matthew Harding, Jonathan Hersh
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
Big Data refers to data sets of much larger size, higher frequency, and often more personalized information. Examples include data collected by smart sensors in homes or aggregation of tweets on Twitter. In small data sets, traditional econometric methods tend to outperform more complex techniques. In large data sets, however, machine learning methods shine. New analytic approaches are needed to make the most of Big Data in economics. Researchers and policymakers should thus pay close attention to recent developments in machine learning techniques if they want to fully take advantage of these new sources of Big Data.
Younger Federal District Court Judges Favor Presidential Power,
2018
Chapman University, Fowler School of Law
Younger Federal District Court Judges Favor Presidential Power, Tom Campbell, Nathaniel T. Wilcox
ESI Working Papers
From 1960 to 2015, Federal District Court opinions involving challenges to Executive Branch authority show that U.S. Federal District Court judges (trial judges) support such authority less as they age, with a sharp decline beginning near age 57. We argue that District judges know that elevation to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals becomes increasingly improbable, and hence have less reason to ‘cooperate’ with the Executive, with advancing age. Political variables (and other variables) introduced as extra regressors do not reverse our main results. When there are contemporaneous vacancies on their Circuit courts, District judges in the eleven State ...
Partners Or Strangers? Cooperation, Monetary Trade, And The Choice Of Scale Of Interation,
2018
University of Bologna
Partners Or Strangers? Cooperation, Monetary Trade, And The Choice Of Scale Of Interation, Maria Bigoni, Gabriele Camera, Marco Casari
ESI Working Papers
We show that monetary exchange facilitates the transition from small to large-scale economic interactions. In an experiment, subjects chose to play an “intertemporal cooperation game” either in partnerships or in groups of strangers where payoffs could be higher. Theoretically, a norm of mutual support is sufficient to maximize efficiency through large-scale cooperation. Empirically, absent a monetary system, participants were reluctant to interact on a large scale; and when they did, efficiency plummeted compared to partnerships because cooperation collapsed. This failure was reversed only when a stable monetary system endogenously emerged: the institution of money mitigated strategic uncertainty problems.
Environmental Policies In The Transportation Sector: Taxes, Subsidies, Mandates, Restrictions, And Investment,
2018
University of Washington, Tacoma
Environmental Policies In The Transportation Sector: Taxes, Subsidies, Mandates, Restrictions, And Investment, Justin Beaudoin, Yuan Chen, David R. Heres, Khaled H. Kheiravar, Gabriel E. Lade, Fujin Yi, Wei Zhang, C.-Y. Cynthia Lin Lawell
Economics Working Papers
The transportation sector is associated with many negative externalities, including air pollution, global climate change, and traffic congestion. In this paper we discuss several possible policies for addressing the emissions and other environmental externalities from the transportation sector, including taxes, subsidies, mandates, restrictions, and investment. Most economists generally recommend that policy-makers use incentive- (or market-) based instruments as opposed to command and control policies whenever possible. However, various economic and political constraints can preclude policy instruments that would in theory achieve a first-best outcome from being employed, and policy-makers have often implemented alternative policies such as subsidies, mandates, restrictions, and ...
The Catalyst Effect Of Historic Preservation: A Spatial Analysis Of The Impact Of Historic District Designation On Housing Renovations In New York City,
2018
CUNY Hunter College
The Catalyst Effect Of Historic Preservation: A Spatial Analysis Of The Impact Of Historic District Designation On Housing Renovations In New York City, Ali R. Mostafa
School of Arts & Sciences Theses
The constraints on property use along with the economic merits of historic districts are critical points in the debate over preservation policies. Improving the existing housing stock is a substantial economic activity and a significant part of the nation’s overall construction industry. The purpose of this study is to present an empirical analysis of the relationship between historic district designation and renovation decisions. The results of the analysis found that historic preservation does not inhibit the renovation activity of single-family homeowners. However, contrary to the claims made by proponents, it does not give a powerful incentive for owners in ...
Corporate Social Responsibility And Financial Performance: An Examination Of The Dow Jones Sustainability North American Index,
2018
Buffalo State College
Corporate Social Responsibility And Financial Performance: An Examination Of The Dow Jones Sustainability North American Index, Elizabeth A. Fides
Applied Economics Theses
This thesis explores the topic of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the relationship between CSR and corporate profitability. This thesis includes a literature review which traces the history of CSR from 1920s through current theoretical positions. The thesis then examines the relationship between financial gain and CSR as defined by the sustainability parameters set by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America. Results from analysis performed show that corporations which practice CSR may benefit from increased stability compared to other index performance criteria, but improved financial performance as measured by stock price is inconclusive.
Usage-Based Insurance Or The Implications Of Taking Big Brother For A Ride,
2018
University of Windsor
Usage-Based Insurance Or The Implications Of Taking Big Brother For A Ride, Devina Lakhtakia
Major Papers
The use of telematics in the automobile industry has been growing recently to resolve the problem of asymmetric information in the insurance market related to the identification of the type of a driver. This paper aims to study the impact of the introduction of usage-based insurance on the market participants taking into account the privacy costs associated with the installation of such a behaviour-monitoring device. We assume that UBI is offered as part of the contract to the agents and is voluntary to install. Our findings suggest that no matter how highly an agent values her privacy, there will always ...
Equilibrium Wage Rigidity In Directed Search,
2018
Chapman University
Equilibrium Wage Rigidity In Directed Search, Gabriele Camera, Jaehong Kim
ESI Working Papers
Matching frictions and downward wage rigidity emerge as equilibrium phenomena in a twosided labor market where firms sustain variable wage adjustment costs. Firms post wages to attract workers and matches are endogenous. Reducing the wage relative to the wage previously posted is costly to the firm, where the cost is proportional to the size of the proposed cut. Shocks to the firm’s profitability may yield an equilibrium wage above what the firm would offer absent proportional adjustment costs. Wage cuts can be partial or full, immediate or delayed, and are non-linear in the shock size. Importantly, wages are sticky ...
Is Antitrust's Consumer Welfare Principle Imperiled?,
2018
University of Pennsylvania Law School
Is Antitrust's Consumer Welfare Principle Imperiled?, Herbert J. Hovenkamp
Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law
Antitrust’s consumer welfare principle stands for the proposition that antitrust policy should encourage markets to produce output as high as is consistent with sustainable competition, and prices that are accordingly as low. Such a policy does not protect every interest group. For example, it opposes the interests of cartels or other competition-limiting associations who profit from lower output and higher prices. It also runs counter to the interest of less competitive firms that need higher prices in order to survive. Market structure is relevant to antitrust policy, but its importance is contingent rather than absolute – that is, market structure ...
An Economics Primer For Cyber Security Analysts,
2018
Texas Christian University
An Economics Primer For Cyber Security Analysts, John T. Harvey
Military Cyber Affairs
One of the ingredients necessary to an understanding of the impact of cyber attacks is a reliable model of the economy. We face great challenges in trying to protect an already potentially unstable system from cyber aggression and operating with a flawed understanding of the determinants of output, employment, asset prices, et cetera, surely condemns us to failure. This is so not only because we need to know where points of leverage might exist for bad actors to disrupt and disable our system, but because policy recommendations may face significant push back from both selected scholars and powerful vested interests ...
How To Create Conducive Institutions To Enable Agricultural Mechanization: A Comparative Historical Study From The United States And Germany,
2018
University of Hohenheim
How To Create Conducive Institutions To Enable Agricultural Mechanization: A Comparative Historical Study From The United States And Germany, Thomas Daum, Wallace E. Huffman, Regina Birner
Economics Working Papers
Agricultural mechanization is now high on the policy agenda of many developing countries. History has shown that successful mechanization depends on an enabling environment providing various supporting functions, for example, knowledge and skills development and quality assurance. This paper analyses how this enabling environment was created during the mechanization history of two today’s mechanized countries, the United States and Germany, thereby distilling lessons for today’s mechanizing countries. The paper highlights the different roles played by government agencies (public sector), manufacturers of agricultural machinery (private sector) and farmers’ organizations (third sector) for the creation of this enabling environment. The ...
Extraordinary Episodes Of Ancient Money,
2018
Union College
Extraordinary Episodes Of Ancient Money, Francis Louis Kailey
Honors Theses
The spread of coins, which occurred throughout the archaic and classical periods of Greece, was a foundational advancement toward forms of the modern economy. Modern theory has sought to explain the invention of coins with a variety of narratives. Generally, these narratives fall into two broad categories: market-driven monetization or state-driven monetization. On the one hand, some theory argues that coins developed from reducing private transaction costs. On the other hand, some theorists argue that the state benefitted from reductions in administrative costs from the use of coins and therefore undertook the cost of minting them. This thesis problematizes these ...
