Economics Commons^™

2013-2 Are Exporters More Productive Than Non-Exporters?, David A. Rivers

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2013-3 Analysis Of The Cslp Student Loan Defaulter Survey And Client Satisfaction Surveys, Lance J. Lochner, Todd R. Stinebrickner, Utku Suleymanoglu

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Does International Child Sponsorship Work? A Six-Country Study Of Impacts On Adult Life Outcomes, Bruce Wydick, Paul Glewwe, Laine Rutledge

Economics

Child sponsorship is a leading form of direct aid from wealthy country households to children in developing countries. Over 9 million children are supported through international sponsorship organizations. Using data from six countries, we estimate impacts on several outcomes from sponsorship through Compassion International, a leading child sponsorship organization. To identify program effects, we utilize an age-eligibility rule implemented when programs began in new villages. We find large, statistically significant impacts on years of schooling; primary, secondary, and tertiary school completion; and the probability and quality of employment. Early evidence suggests that these impacts are due, in part, to increases …

Keeping The Doctor Away: Experimental Evidence On Investment In Preventative Health Products, Jennifer Meredith, Jonathan Robinson, Sarah Walker, Bruce Wydick

Economics

Household investment in preventative health products in developing countries is typically low even though the returns to such products are high. In this paper, we experimentally estimate demand curves for health products and test whether (1) information about health risk, (2) cash liquidity, (3) peer effects, and (4) intra-household differences in preferences affect demand. In our main experiment in Kenya involving children’s shoes - critical for preventing hookworm infection - price is by far the most important predictor of purchase. Providing liquidity and targeting women also increased demand. Information had no effect even though we find that genuine learning occurred. …

The Economic Impact Of Stadia And Teams: The Case Of Minor League Baseball, Nola Agha

Sport Management

This paper uses an extensive unique dataset to investigate the justification of government subsidies for minor league baseball teams and stadiums by measuring pecuniary gains in a local economy. Specifically, a dynamic panel data model incorporating 238 Metropolitan Statistical Areas that hosted affiliated or independent minor league teams between 1985 and 2006 shows that AAA teams, A+ teams, AA stadiums, and rookie stadiums are all associated with significant positive effects on the change in local per capita income. The presence of positive effects is strikingly different from decades of non-positive results at the major league level.

The Field In Ireland In 2014, Tom Dunne

Articles

Repossessions are an important part of recovery in the housing market

Essays On Rethinking African Development: Contextual And Methodological Advances, Olumayokun Soremekun

2013

This research study sets out to provide analytical answers to the questions of African development and inequality. We examine various aspects of development from the issue of inequality among African countries to unravelling the synergies among the MDG goals and finally to investigating the progress if any that African countries have made towards attaining the MDG goals.

This research is broken down into three main studies: measuring inequality of opportunity, examining the synergies between the Millennium development goals at a particular point in time and lastly assessing the progress that has been made towards attaining the MDG goals in Africa. …

Essays On The Digital Divide - Explorations Through Global, National And Individual Lenses, Maria Skaletsky

2013

The Digital Divide has emerged as an important research and policy issue during the past thirty years. The divide exists at different levels, such as global, regional and individual levels. While extensive research already exists on this subject, the complexity of the issue presents opportunities for further research. In particular, there is ample scope for significantly contributing to the literature by leveraging recent analytics techniques, all the more since most of the literature on the Digital Divide relies on descriptive methods or on simple or multiple regression models. Therefore, the motivation for this study is two-fold. First, the Digital Divide …

Tarp: Indication Of A Potential Target? Evaluating Market To Book Ratios And Their Relationship To Tarp, Oscar Garcia

Honors Papers

This paper examines to what extent banks with outstanding Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) debt are perceived as potential takeover targets. Each bank's price-to-tangible-book value is related to a series of fundamental bank ratios and market index as well as a series of TARP variables that capture if a bank took TARP and for how long. The results show that middle tiered banks (with assets between 500 million and 5 billion) are positively associated with retaining TARP, which may suggest they are perceived as takeover targets. In addition, banks with higher valuations have lower non-performing assets, net charge offs, loan …

Payment Schemes And Moral Hazard, James Foust

Honors Papers

In a principal-agent relationship, the principal offers a take-it-or-leave-it contract to the agent, who decides to either accept it or not. In game theory terminology, the principal agent relationship is a Stackelberg game in which the principal is the leader, proposing the contract, and the agent is the follower, choosing to accept or reject the proposal. Examples of such relationships are plentiful, such as a principal bank manager hiring an agent employee to work as a teller, a principal land-owner acting hiring an agent farmer to grow crops on her land, or an insurance company offering a home insurance plan …

An Investigation Into Crowd Out Phenomenon In Local Churches: Combining Experimental And Survey Methodology, Matthew Moench

Honors Papers

This paper presents the findings of an experimental investigation into crowd out phenomenon in an as yet unexplored sector of public goods provision: the local church. I develop an entirely new instrument for experimental investigation into crowd out, using a combination of both survey and experimental methodology. While the survey finds limited evidence for an aggregate crowd out effect due to taxation, the experimental treatments uncover no evidence of crowd out in local churches due to fiscal illusion.

Newspaper Without The Paper, Jill Patterson

A with Honors Projects

An observation on how the newspaper industry is changing and how it directly relates to the topic of microeconomics.

Debt Contagion In The Europe: A Panel-Vector Autoregressive (Var) Analysis, Sharmila K. King, Florence Bouvet, Ryan Brady

College of the Pacific Faculty Articles

The European sovereign-debt crisis began in Greece when the government announced in December, 2009, that its debt reached 121% of GDP (or 300 billion euros) and its 2009 budget deficit was 12.7% of GDP, four times the level allowed by the Maastricht Treaty. The Greek crisis soon spread to other Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) countries, notably Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy. Using quarterly data for the 2000–2011 period, we implement a panel-vector autoregressive (PVAR) model for 11 EMU countries to examine the extent to which a rise in a country’s bond-yield spread or debt-to-GDP ratio affects another EMU countries’ …

A Study Of Corruption, Foreign Aid, And Economic Growth, Amanda Deerfield

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Foreign aid donors increasingly demand that aid is used efficiently and effectively. This study examines the effect of corruption levels, measured by the Corruption Perceptions Index, within a recipient country on the levels of economic growth. A growing literature outlines the mechanisms through which corruption impedes economic growth and is summarized within. Additionally, as longevity gains may result from foreign aid but are not captured in economic growth, this study computes a variable called the Life Quality Indicator (LQI) that combines such gains with economic growth and examines corruption’s effect on LQI growth. As any windfall, foreign aid has been …

Three Essays On Local Government Debt, Robert Greer

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

The local government tax-exempt debt market is a growing, and complex, sector of public finance. As local governments turn to debt financing the factors that contribute to interest costs of that debt have become important considerations for local government officials and politicians. Governance at the local level involves a network of overlapping governments some of which share a tax base. This system of overlapping governments that share a tax base are subject to externalities that arise from taxation, expenditures, and debt. These externalities are usually analyzed in terms of tax or expenditure reactions, but there are implications for local government …

Award-Winning Economists Speak On Contemporary Economic Issues 2013-14, Department Of Economics

Werner Sichel Lecture Series

“Award-Winning Economists Speak on Contemporary Economic Issues” Lectures will be held in 2028 Brown Hall from 3-4:30 p.m. Free and open to the public. This year’s Sichel Series is directed by Professor Jean Kimmel and is co-sponsored by WMU’s College of Arts and Sciences and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. Speakers: Erica Field “Making Microfinance Work”, Nancy Folbre “The Once (But No Longer) Golden Age of Human Capital”, Avner Greif “Economic Development from a Historical Perspective: The Origin and Nature of Good Institutions”, David Kreps “The Economics and Psychology of Worker Motivation”, Michael Piore “Efficient and Effective Economic …

Til Recession Do Us Part: Booms, Busts, And Divorce In The United States, Abdur Chowdhury

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

A general hypothesis regarding the impact of permanent income levels and business cycle fluctuations on divorce rate at the state level in the United States is analysed in this article. Based on the data for 45 states over the sample period of 1978–2009, it is shown that the higher the level of transitory income, the higher the incidence of divorce. In other words, divorce is pro-cyclical.

Funding Public Services: Opinions Of Nonmetropolitan Nebraskans, 2013 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben, Eric Thompson

Nebraska Rural Poll

Most rural Nebraskans seem content with current levels of spending on many public services and activities. Over one-half propose no changes in the level of spending for most of the public services listed. Only one item, unemployment compensation, had a majority say they would like to see less spending for it. And, many rural Nebraskans would propose an increase in spending for education as well as roads and bridges.

Not surprising, many groups favor an increase in spending on items important to them. Younger persons are more likely than older persons to favor an increase in spending for education. Persons …

Community And Individual Well-Being In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: 2013 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben

Nebraska Rural Poll

By many different measures, rural Nebraskans are positive about their community. Many rural Nebraskans rate their community as friendly, trusting and supportive. Most rural Nebraskans also say it would be difficult to leave their community. In addition, most rural Nebraskans disagree that their community is powerless to control its future.

Differences of opinion exist by the size of their community. Residents of smaller communities are more likely than residents of larger communities to rate their community favorably on its social dimensions. However, residents of larger communities are more likely than residents of smaller communities to say their community has changed …

Stock Index Options Pricing Models, Mark York

The Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this research is to apply stochastic modeling methods to determine the prices of stock index options. In this paper, three models are implemented and compared for accuracy based on the S&P 500 index (SPX) options data for 1996. These models include the Black-Scholes Model (BS), a stochastic volatility model (SV) which accounts for volatility in the underlying stock price, and a stochastic volatility model with jump in the underlying stock price (SVJ). This jump in the stock index prices is accounted for in the SVJ model using a compound Poisson distribution. The SV model is nested in …