The Influence Of The Electric Supply Industry On Economic Growth In Less Developed Countries, 2016 University of Southern Mississippi
The Influence Of The Electric Supply Industry On Economic Growth In Less Developed Countries, Edward Richard Bee
Dissertations
This study measures the impact that electrical outages have on manufacturing production in 135 less developed countries using stochastic frontier analysis and data from World Bank’s Investment Climate surveys. Outages of electricity, for firms with and without backup power sources, are the most frequently cited constraint on manufacturing growth in these surveys.
Outages are shown to reduce output below the production frontier by almost five percent in Africa and by a lower percentage in South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East and North Africa. Production response to outages is quadratic in form. Outages also increase labor cost, reduce exports …
Associations Between Male Testosterone And Immune Function In A Pathogenically Stressed Forager-Horticultural Population, 2016 University of California, Santa Barbara
Associations Between Male Testosterone And Immune Function In A Pathogenically Stressed Forager-Horticultural Population, Benjamin C. Trumble, Aaron D. Blackwell, Jonathan Stieglitz, Melissa Emery Thompson, Ivan Maldonado Suarez, Hillard Kaplan, Michael Gurven
ESI Publications
Objectives—Despite well-known fitness advantages to males who produce and maintain high endogenous testosterone levels, such phenotypes may be costly if testosterone-mediated investment in reproductive effort trade-off against investment in somatic maintenance. Previous studies of androgen-mediated trade-offs in human immune function find mixed results, in part because most studies either focus on a few indicators of immunity, are confounded by phenotypic correlation, or are observational. Here the association between male endogenous testosterone and 13 circulating cytokines are examined before and after ex vivo antigen stimulation with phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) and lipopolysaccharides (LPS) in a high pathogen population of Bolivian forager-horticulturalists.
Materials …
Indirect Reciprocity, Resource Sharing, And Environmental Risk: Evidence From Field Experiments In Siberia, 2016 University of Alaska, Anchorage
Indirect Reciprocity, Resource Sharing, And Environmental Risk: Evidence From Field Experiments In Siberia, E. Lance Howe, James J. Murphy, Drew Gerkey, Colin Thor West
ESI Publications
Integrating information from existing research, qualitative ethnographic interviews, and participant observation, we designed a field experiment that introduces idiosyncratic environmental risk and a voluntary sharing decision into a standard public goods game. Conducted with subsistence resource users in rural villages on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Northeast Siberia, we find evidence consistent with a model of indirect reciprocity and local social norms of helping the needy. When participants are allowed to develop reputations in the experiments, as is the case in most small-scale societies, we find that sharing is increasingly directed toward individuals experiencing hardship, good reputations increase aid, and the …
Multiple Openings And Competitiveness Of Forward Markets: Experimental Evidence, 2016 Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Multiple Openings And Competitiveness Of Forward Markets: Experimental Evidence, José Luis Ferreira, Praveen Kujal, Stephen Rassenti
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
We test the competition enhancing effect of selling forward in experimental Cournot duopoly and quadropoly with multiple forward markets. We find that two forward periods yields competitive outcomes and that the results are very close to the predicted theoretical results for quantity setting duopolies and quadropolies. Our experiments lend strong support to the hypothesis that forward markets are competition enhancing. We then test a new market that allows for endogenously determined indefinitely many forward periods that only close when sellers coordinate on selling a zero amount in a forward market. We find that the outcomes under an endogenous close rule …
Health Costs Of Reproduction Are Minimal Despite High Fertility, Mortality And Subsistence Lifestyle, 2016 University of California, Santa Barbara
Health Costs Of Reproduction Are Minimal Despite High Fertility, Mortality And Subsistence Lifestyle, Michael Gurven, Megan Costa, Ben Trumble, Jonathan Stieglitz, Bret Beheim, Daniel Eid Rodriguez, Paul L. Hooper, Hillard Kaplan
ESI Publications
Women exhibit greater morbidity than men despite higher life expectancy. An evolutionary life history framework predicts that energy invested in reproduction trades-off against investments in maintenance and survival. Direct costs of reproduction may therefore contribute to higher morbidity, especially for women given their greater direct energetic contributions to reproduction. We explore multiple indicators of somatic condition among Tsimane forager-horticulturalist women (Total Fertility Rate = 9.1; n = 592 aged 15–44 years, n = 277 aged 45+). We test whether cumulative live births and the pace of reproduction are associated with nutritional status and immune function using longitudinal data spanning 10 …
Combine Harvester Econometric Model With Forward Speed Optimization, 2016 CNH America
Combine Harvester Econometric Model With Forward Speed Optimization, Nathan E. Isaac, Graeme R. Quick, Stuart J. Birrell, William M. Edwards, Bruce A. Coers
William Edwards
A combine harvester econometric simulation model was developed with the goal of matching the combine forward speed to the maximum harvested net income per acre. The model considers the machinery management costs of owning a combine and platform header for harvesting wheat. A statistical Design of Experiment (DOE) was used to evaluate the model using tri-level variables; the medium values constituted the model base case. Of the 27 input variables, the optimum speed was significantly influenced by the crop area, G/MOG ratio, grain unit price, field yield, field efficiency, grain moisture content, probability of a working day in the post-optimum …
Combine Harvester Econometric Model With Forward Speed Optimization, 2016 CNH America
Combine Harvester Econometric Model With Forward Speed Optimization, Nathan E. Isaac, Graeme R. Quick, Stuart J. Birrell, William M. Edwards, Bruce A. Coers
William Edwards
A combine harvester econometric simulation model was developed with the goal of matching the combine forward speed to the maximum harvested net income per acre. The model considers the machinery management costs of owning a combine and platform header for harvesting wheat. A statistical Design of Experiment (DOE) was used to evaluate the model using tri-level variables; the medium values constituted the model base case. Of the 27 input variables, the optimum speed was significantly influenced by the crop area, G/MOG ratio, grain unit price, field yield, field efficiency, grain moisture content, probability of a working day in the post-optimum …
Combine Harvester Econometric Model With Forward Speed Optimization, 2016 CNH America
Combine Harvester Econometric Model With Forward Speed Optimization, Nathan E. Isaac, Graeme R. Quick, Stuart J. Birrell, William M. Edwards, Bruce A. Coers
William Edwards
A combine harvester econometric simulation model was developed with the goal of matching the combine forward speed to the maximum harvested net income per acre. The model considers the machinery management costs of owning a combine and platform header for harvesting wheat. A statistical Design of Experiment (DOE) was used to evaluate the model using tri-level variables; the medium values constituted the model base case. Of the 27 input variables, the optimum speed was significantly influenced by the crop area, G/MOG ratio, grain unit price, field yield, field efficiency, grain moisture content, probability of a working day in the post-optimum …
Microfinance, Household Indebtedness And Gender Inequality, 2016 University of Massachusetts Amherst
Microfinance, Household Indebtedness And Gender Inequality, Theresa Mannah-Blankson
Doctoral Dissertations
My dissertation explores the implications of access to microfinance for gender equity and household welfare in Ghana. The study draws on the quantitative and qualitative evidence from a unique dataset generated from a survey of 499 households, with and without access to microfinance, during my field research work in Ghana from May to July 2013. The motivation for the dissertation derives from evidence suggesting that access to finance is an important tool for fighting poverty and reducing inequality. However, for most developing countries access to finance for the poor is mainly through the informal or the semi-formal sector, including microfinance …
Employment And Family Leave Mandates: Three Essays On Labor Supply And Demand, Nontraditional Families, And Family Policy, 2016 University of Massachusetts Amherst
Employment And Family Leave Mandates: Three Essays On Labor Supply And Demand, Nontraditional Families, And Family Policy, Samantha Schenck
Doctoral Dissertations
Many American families have a difficult time balancing their obligations at work with their responsibilities at home. This is especially the case when a member of the family needs an increased level of care giving, for instance after the birth of a child or when a family member is seriously ill. Governments around the world have passed legislation to make these difficult times easier for workers by mandating that employers provide paid family leave to their employees. However the US federal government mandates only 12 weeks of job-protected leave through the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which only …
John Nash: A Personal Remembrance (Introduction To The John Forbes Nash Jr. Memorial Special Issue), 2016 Chapman University
John Nash: A Personal Remembrance (Introduction To The John Forbes Nash Jr. Memorial Special Issue), Vernon Smith
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
In January of 2011, three years after his 80th birthday, Games and Economic Behavior published a special issue to honor John Nash. In their introductory note, the editors, Avinash Dixit, Ehud Kalai and Stephen Morris wrote: “We are delighted to have the privilege of coordinating this expression of the whole profession's admiration and appreciation of John Nash and his work, and look forward to a repeat in ten or even twenty years' time.”
This wish was sadly interrupted by tragedy. On their way back from the ceremony awarding John the Abel Prize in mathematics, John and his wife Alicia were …
High Resting Metabolic Rate Among Amazonian Forager-Horticulturalists Experiencing High Pathogen Burden, 2016 University of California, Santa Barbara
High Resting Metabolic Rate Among Amazonian Forager-Horticulturalists Experiencing High Pathogen Burden, Michael Gurven, Benjamin C. Trumble, Jonathan Stieglitz, Gandhi Yetish, Daniel Cummings, Aaron D. Blackwell, Bret Beheim, Hillard Kaplan, Herman Pontzer
ESI Publications
Objectives—Resting metabolic rate (RMR) reflects energetic costs of homeostasis and accounts for 60-75% of total energy expenditure (TEE). Lean mass and physical activity account for much RMR variability, but the impact of prolonged immune activation from infection on human RMR is unclear in naturalistic settings. We evaluate the effects of infection on mass-corrected RMR among Bolivian forager-horticulturalists, and assess whether RMR declines more slowly with age than in hygienic sedentary populations, as might be expected if older adults experience high pathogen burden.
Materials and Methods—RMR was measured by indirect calorimetry (Fitmate MED, Cosmed) in 1,300 adults aged 20-90 …
Three Essays On International And Intranational Trade And Economic Growth, 2016 Florida International University
Three Essays On International And Intranational Trade And Economic Growth, Rooholah Hadadi
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation introduced a method to construct a new measure for trade flows within a region using nighttime lights. After analyzing the relation between lights data and other proxies of economic human activity, I employed light data and econometric techniques to estimate the bilateral trade between any two regions around the world. Using these estimations, I estimated the overall internal trade volume for all countries. Moreover, I estimated the effect of internal trade within a state of the United States on the state’s income. The first essay proposed nighttime lights as an alternative proxy for economic activity to be used …
The 2016 Nebraska Manufacturing Report, 2016 University of Nebraska-Lincoln
The 2016 Nebraska Manufacturing Report, Mitch Herian, Eric Thomspon
Bureau of Business Research Publications
The purpose of this report is to provide an economic snapshot of the Nebraska manufacturing industry. In particular, the report is designed to present contributions of manufacturing to the state economy, recent trends in Nebraska manufacturing, and considerations for the future of Nebraska manufacturing. The information contained within the report will help policy makers and stakeholders better understand the current state of manufacturing in the state, particularly in relation to recent demographic and economic trends in Nebraska and the United States. The report finds that the manufacturing sector has a significant impact on the Nebraska economy. Approximately 10 percent of …
Self-Correcting Kelly Strategies For Skeptical Traders, 2016 AQR
Self-Correcting Kelly Strategies For Skeptical Traders, Aaron C. Brown
International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking
The Kelly criterion gives the appropriate bet size in idealized situations with known parameters. In financial trading situations parameters are generally unknown and the mathematical assumptions underlying the Kelly proof are not met precisely. Moreover a risk manager typically must cooperate with a trader who may be skeptical about both the Kelly criterion specifically and the concept of mathematical optimization of bet size in general.
This presentation tackles the problem of designing a Kelly-based system for setting trade risk management parameters that is both self-correcting (the system delivers good results even if initial parameter are misestimated or parameters change) and …
Crop Price Patterns, 2016 University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Crop Price Patterns, Jessica J. Groskopf
Extension Farm and Ranch Management News
No abstract provided.
Air Pollution, Temperature And Cognitive Performance In The Short Run: Evidence From Women’S Ability To Recall Dates, 2016 The University of San Francisco
Air Pollution, Temperature And Cognitive Performance In The Short Run: Evidence From Women’S Ability To Recall Dates, Ke Yang
Master's Theses
Abstract: Cognitive performance is important to productivity across many fields and potentially correlated to air pollution and extreme temperatures. We study the effects of daily ambient air pollution and monthly temperature on women’s ability of recalling dates across 42 developing countries from 1997 to 2009. We use an estimated natural air pollution data, and calculate the AQI to get an aggregate effect of air pollution. We find that one standard deviation increase in the AQI leads to a statistical decrease in women’s probability to recall dates such as birthdays, marriage date or children’s birthdays by 0.44 percentage point. Furthermore, there …
Air Pollution And Fetal Loss In The Global Tropics, 2016 The University of San Francisco
Air Pollution And Fetal Loss In The Global Tropics, Shuqiao Cheng
Master's Theses
Abstract: Recent work has shown that in-utero air pollution has negative effects on both contemporaneous birth outcomes and long-term human capital outcomes. However, only a few studies explore the effects of in-utero exposure to air pollution on fetal loss, and none of the studies has been done in developing countries. In this study, we examine the impact of naturally caused CO and PM 2.5 on reproductive outcomes in 40 developing countries from 1997 to 2009. We present childbirths and birth gender as measures for potential fetal losses. The richest model identified using variation in pollution between pregnancies with controlling for …
Long-Term Effects Of Gender Representation Quotas On Political Interest Within Latin America, 2016 CUNY Hunter College
Long-Term Effects Of Gender Representation Quotas On Political Interest Within Latin America, Lismer E. Ovalle
Theses and Dissertations
This work measures the long-term effects of gender representation quotas within Latin American countries on various measures of political interest. Measuring effects on 18 countries provides a quasi-panel study with control using non-quota countries. Quotas have positive effects on confidence in government but negative effects on political interest.
Stop And Frisk Redux: Analysis Of Racial Bias In New York City, 2016 CUNY Hunter College
Stop And Frisk Redux: Analysis Of Racial Bias In New York City, Abraham Gutman
Theses and Dissertations
Stop and Frisk is a policing practice used commonly in NYC. For some, equal arrest rates for non-white and white pedestrians indicate no racial bias. I challenge that conclusion and argue that heterogeneity masks lower arrest rates of non-white pedestrians. I conclude that Stop and Frisk is an uneven policing practice that carries racial bias.