Other Economics Commons^™

Three Essays On Women's Land Rights In Rural Peru, Rosa L. Duran

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the relationship between female land rights and cultural, policy, and regional variables, and asks to what degree, and in what ways, the highly contextual nature of the relationships between these variables have determined local-specific causes and effects of female land rights in Peru. This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay provides the socioeconomic and institutional context for the entire dissertation, introducing a brief historical account of the evolution of female land rights in Peru. This essay pays particular attention to the relationship between property rights and geographical context in the Peruvian countryside, examining the region-specific …

The Effects Of Alcohol Use On Economic Decision Making, Klajdi Bregu, Cary Deck, Lindsay Ham, Salar Jahedi

ESI Working Papers

It is notoriously hard to study the effect of alcohol on decision making, given the selection that takes place in who drinks alcohol and when they choose to do so. In a controlled laboratory experiment, we study the causal effect of alcohol on economic decision making. We examine the impact of alcohol on the following types of tasks: math and logic, uncertainty, overconfidence, strategic games, food choices, anchoring, and altruism. Our results indicate that alcohol consumption, as measured by the blood alcohol concentration (BAC), increases cooperation in strategic settings and altruism in Dictator games. We do not find any effects …

Optimal Tilts, Malcom Baker, Terence C. Burnham, Ryan Taliaferro

ESI Working Papers

We examine the optimal weighting of four characteristic tilts in US equity markets over the period from 1968 through 2014. We define a “tilt” as a positive-Sharpe-ratio, characteristicbased portfolio strategy that requires relatively low annual turnover and a “trade” as a characteristic-based portfolio strategy that requires relatively high annual turnover and liquidity demands. Size is a tilt, because of its very low turnover; high frequency reversal is a trade. This dichotomy is necessary to make practical use of Fama-French style factor regressions. Unlike low-turnover tilts, a full history of transaction costs and an estimate of capacity is critical to determine …

Testimony Of John M. Abowd Before The House Committee On Energy And Commerce, Subcommitte On Commerce, Manufacturing And Trade, United States House Of Representatives, John Abowd, Lars Vilhuber

Lars Vilhuber

We focus attention on gross flows in the labor market and their role in economic reallocation. Economists distinguish between movements of individuals (gross worker flows) and those associated with businesses (gross job flows). The gross worker flows are accessions (hiring and recalls) and separations (quits, layoffs, retirements, and firings). The gross job flows are creations (increases in the employment of a given business establishment) and destructions (decreases in employment of a given business establishments). In our testimony, we discuss the different flows and the regional variation therein over the last recession.

North Borderplex Retail Gasoline Price Fluctuations: 2000-2013, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., A. A. Jiménez, Adam G. Walke

Border Region Modeling Project

Previous studies show that a variety of different variables influence retail gasoline price fluctuations. In the case of El Paso, Texas, those variables would include wholesale gasoline prices, local economic conditions, weather, and, more uniquely, cross-border economic variables associated with Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, in Mexico. To analyze the contributions of these variables to monthly price movements for gasoline in El Paso, a theoretical model is specified. From the latter construct, a reduced form equation is extracted. That specification is then expressed within an error correction framework to allow accounting for both long-run and short-run behaviors in this metropolitan economy. Results …

Arousal And Economic Decision Making, Salar Jahedi, Cary Deck, Dan Ariely

ESI Working Papers

Previous experiments have found that subjecting participants to cognitive load leads to poorer decision making, consistent with dual-system models of behavior. Rather than taxing the cognitive system, this paper reports the results of an experiment that takes a complementary approach: arousing the emotional system. The results indicate that exposure to arousing visual stimuli as compared to neutral images has a negligible impact on performance in arithmetic tasks, impatience, risk taking in the domain of losses, and snack choice although we find that arousal modestly increases in risk-taking in the gains domain and increases susceptibility to anchoring effects. We find the …

Epistemic Considerations On Extensive-Form Games, Cagil Tasdemir

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this thesis, we study several topics in extensive-form games. First, we consider perfect information games with belief revision with players who are tolerant of each other’s hypothetical errors. We bound the number of hypothetical non-rational moves of a player that will be tolerated by other players without revising the belief on that player’s rationality on future moves, and investigate which games yield the backward induction solution.

Second, we consider players who have no way of assigning probabilities to various possible outcomes, and define players as conservative, moderate and aggressive depending on the way they choose, and show that all …

Does Context Information Affect Perceptions Of The Intrinsic Value Of Visual Art?, Kelsey Ferguson

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

This study is an application of cultural economic value theory within the context of visual art. Current literature supports an incompatibility between objective, empirical economic research and the subjectivity of artistic expression. While variables affecting the intrinsic value of art are difficult to identify and measure, this study quantified the effect of context information on university students’ perceptions of visual art. For this study, 118 randomly assigned University of Arkansas students viewed four identical works of art and answered identical questions designed to measure perceptions of intrinsic value. Despite a hypothesis that context would positively affect participants’ reports, when significant …

The Impact Of Government Debt Levels On Gdp Growth: A Panel Data Analysis, Guillaume Sabourin

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper analyzes the impact of government debt-to-GDP levels on GDP growth in 6 European Union Nations and 5 Middle Eastern countries. While government debt levels shot up in the EU as a result of massive fiscal stimulus following the Great Recession, debt levels have been steadily decreasing in certain Middle Eastern countries. Several variables are observed to determine the relationship between debt and growth, including real interest rates, unemployment, inflation, population growth, trade, and consumption. For the EU nations studied, panel least squares analysis indicates that every 10% increase in government debt-to-GDP costs 30 basis points of GDP growth. …

A Panel Data Analysis On Globalization And Income Inequality, Dave Mclean-Shinaman

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

The paper investigates the relationship between globalization and income inequality using a comprehensive set of variables. It uses a panel data analysis of 51 countries over the time period of 2000-2013. The independent variables included are globalization, economic growth, education, economic freedom, and urbanization. Overall, the results suggest that globalization, as well as economic freedom and urbanization, have a significant impact on income inequality within developing nations. However, they differ in their effect on income inequality. Globalization is shown to decrease income inequality while economic freedom and urbanization in turn widen the income distribution gap. Meanwhile, results also suggest that …

A Panel Analysis Of Fdi And Trade: Growth In Developing Countries, Matthew Guerriero

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates the relationship between FDI and trade openness in 5 lower-middle income countries and 5 upper-middle income countries. This study utilizes a panel data regression analysis to determine what plays a role in growth and whether or not it varies depending on development level. The results show that lower-middle income countries should focus their attention on attracting FDI and upper-middle income countries should focus on increasing trade and decreasing government involvement in business operations.

An Empirical Analysis Of The Effect Of Wealth On Health Indicators, Olivia Derogatis

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper uses regression analysis with panel data in order to investigate the relationship between income and health indicators in ten high income countries. The purpose of this study is to investigate if income has a significant and positive effect on the health of a nation’s population. In theory, the health of the population in high income countries should be positively correlated to the country’s income because the wealthier a nation, the more available resources the nation has to allocate to health care spending. The dependent variables in this study are life expectancy at birth and infant mortality rate. The …

Empirical Analysis Of Immigrant Wage Gap: Study Of Ethnicity And Language Proficiency, Dominik Kozlowski

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates the effect of being an immigrant on a person’s wage. There is also a key focus on variables such as on language proficiency and ethnicity. Comparing the people that were born in New England to the people that were born in different areas of the world for the most recent data that was collected from the American Community Survey. The model shows and the research shows that immigrants’ wages are negatively affected because they are immigrants.

Revisiting Government Size And Economic Growth: Does Institutional Quality Matter?, Julio Diaz

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper revisits the relationship between government size and economic growth depending on the public sector quality. In this paper, an econometric panel study on a sample of 12 Latin American countries covering 1996-2013 period. It is important to note that the data has its limitation and may affect the quality of the study. The results show no significance in the relationship between government size and economic growth at any level institutional quality. These findings show a negative relationship between government size and economic growth. In addition, the results show a dependency between government size and corruption.

The Relationship Of Savings And Economic Growth In Developing Nations, Zachary Westner

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

The aim of this paper is to analyze the cause and effect relationship between economic growth and savings in developing countries. In this paper I used the co-integration model and the granger causality test which are typically used in finding the relationship between savings and economic growth. Before estimating the model, it was essential to determine the stationaries of the time series. To do so I used the ADF test (augmented dickey-fuller). The results confirmed the existence of a one-way causal relationship between Gross Domestic Savings and economic growth in developing nations.

Tip-Off Titans: Hedonic Price Analysis Of Autographed Nba Memorabilia, Jeffrey Girgenti

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

Studies have explored the economics surrounding the emergence of superstars, but relatively little research exists on the associated memorabilia markets. Using a sample of autographed artifacts, on sale through an internet outlet, hedonic analysis is used to gain insight into the significant characteristics of price determination. The data consists of current and former autographs of National Basketball Association (NBA) players on photographs. This study explores price differences with respect to a number of independent variables related to the artifact and player status. A notable difference emerges among framed and limited edition pieces, and pieces signed by top-ranked players.

Corruption And Economic Growth In The Brics: An Empirical Analysis, Iemanjá Dos Santos

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates the relationship between corruption and economic growth in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa; collectively known as the BRICS. Given the rapid rise of the BRICS and the international spotlight placed on them, this research study aims to explore the effect corruption has on the GDP growth of the states. To do this, a time-series analysis is conducted on each of the five states in order to analyze corruption’s effect on the individual countries. It is found that corruption only holds significance in Brazil and Russia, however, whilst there appears to be an inverse relationship between …

How Trade Liberalization Affects Unemployment Under The Trans-Pacific Partnership: A Panel Data Analysis, Steven Brodeur

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

Between 1994 and 2000, NAFTA eliminated over 700,000 U.S. jobs from an increasing trade deficit. Will the TPP have similar detrimental effects? This study uses panel data to investigate the relationship between trade liberalization and unemployment among the TPP confirmed and interested signatories. The results show that a negative correlation exists between taxes on international goods and the net barter terms of trade index, indicating and ceteris paribus that the elimination of duties could result in a larger trade deficit for countries with comparably stronger currencies. Additionally, the fixed-effects GLS regression yields real exchange rates to be insignificant, supporting cheaper …

How Does Student Debt Affect Household Formation?, Robert Young

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates the impact student debt has on household formation. In order to determine what the impact is, an existing model around household formation was used and that model expanded it to include additional variables in order to add student debt into the model. Overall student debt at the individual and household levels has increased tremendously in the last 30 years. With student loan debt taking up a greater share of income for individuals and households, this research seeks to demonstrate that as student loan debt increases, the rate at which households are formed decreases. The findings of this …

Causal Relationship Between Terrorism And Economic Indicators, Jenna Labarre

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This study aims to understand the causal linkage between terrorism and various economic indicators such as Gross Domestic Product, Tourism, and Foreign Direct Investment by running a Granger Causality regression. The expected results will show that terrorism does indeed decrease or increase as a result of changes in these economic indicators. In order to test for Granger Causality a unit-root test will first be performed, followed by a cointegration test. The results show that each nation experiences a different causal relationship with each of these indicators. Inflation is the most significant causal indicators in terms of percentage of countries tested …