Digital Commons Network^™

Industrial Hemp Production And Potential Risks In Kentucky, Hoyeon Jeong

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

Since the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2014 and 2018 legalized Industrial Hemp (Cannabis Sativa. L), interest in grain, fiber, and floral hemp production has seen growing pains. As an emerging crop, there is a research gap in the impact of weather and agronomic conditions on hemp production including THC (Delta 9 Tetrahydrocannabinol) and pollen drift as risks in hemp cultivation. The first essay aims to measure the impact of weather and agronomic factors on hemp grain, fiber, and floral yields in Kentucky using a yield-weather model with information on field locations. The results show that heat conditions during the growing …

Essays On Public And Nonprofit Financial Dynamics, Yunjun Kim

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

This dissertation consists of three essays that explore different dimensions of financial dynamics in the public and nonprofit sectors. Each chapter examines how the fiscal behavior of neighboring jurisdictions, policy interventions, and financial practices influence fiscal decision-making and financial performance within these entities.

In the first essay, I investigate yardstick competition in local government spending in South Korea by leveraging the exogenous variation introduced by by-elections. This approach allows me to estimate the influence of neighboring jurisdictions on local expenditures. Contrary to previous empirical studies from other countries, my findings reveal no significant interdependence in spending among South Korean municipalities, …

Is West Virginia A Haven For Disabled Workers? An Evolving Story, James V. Koch, Robert M. Mcnab

Economics Faculty Publications

With a particular focus on West Virginia, this study utilizes state-level monthly panel data over 13 years (2010-2022) to examine the determinants of the rates of application of individuals for Social Security Administration disabled worker income payments (SSDI) and the initial recommendations of those applications for approval by the states. Application rates are particularly sensitive to the educational attainment of state populations and approval rates to economic conditions. However, in contrast to media coverage and public perceptions, both the number of applications for SSDI and approval rates have been declining nationally and in West Virginia.

Removing Development Incentives In Risky Areas Promotes Climate Adaptation, Hannah Druckenmiller, Yanjun (Penny) Liao, Sophie Pesek, Margaret Walls, Shan Zhang

Economics Faculty Publications

As natural disasters grow in frequency and intensity with climate change, limiting the populations and properties in harm’s way will be key to adaptation. This study evaluates one approach to discouraging development in risky areas—eliminating public incentives for development, such as infrastructure investments, disaster assistance and federal flood insurance. Using machine learning and matching techniques, we examine the Coastal Barrier Resources System (CBRS), a set of lands where these federal incentives have been removed. We find that the policy leads to lower development densities inside designated areas, increases development in neighbouring areas, reduces flood damages and alters local demographics. Our …

Senior Mental Health Clinicians’ Understanding Of Their Self-Efficacy While Providing Services At Community-Based Agencies, Rukiya Symister

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many mental health clinicians strive to provide their clients with rehabilitative and psychotherapy services resulting in a client gaining stable income and housing. However, the role of a senior mental health clinician (SMHC) is not without its challenges of trying to balance their well-being while dealing with increased coworker turnover, demanding caseloads, and limited access to community resources to provide clients with getting their lives back on track, thereby impacting clinicians’ understanding of their self-efficacy. Much of the research on self-efficacy has focused on mental health clients, mental health graduate students, and mental health trainees, often leaving out the lived …

Aligning Eye Care Provider Beliefs With Behaviors: Exploring And Improving Ocular Surface Disease Decision-Making In A Cataract Surgery Clinic, Amy Hellem

Communication (PhD) Dissertations

Millions of cataract surgeries are performed every year in the United States, yet both surgeon reports and patient reports indicate that practices are not utilizing the diagnostic tests and treatments that are advocated in the medical literature to identify and manage ocular surface disease prior to surgery. As a result, patients risk suffering several significant consequences with regard to their vision, comfort and safety. Personal observations from my 25 years of experience working with ophthalmologists and optometrists led to curiosity regarding the root cause of undertreatment of ocular surface disease. Specifically, I had the impression that eye care providers held …

Analyzing The Effects Of 2018 Bank Reclassifications On Individual Balance Sheet Compositions, Hiyab Abraha

CMC Senior Theses

The March 2023 collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) marked the second largest bank failure in United States history and the largest bank failure since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC). This paper analyzes the mechanisms underlying SVB’s downfall and explores the specific systemic vulnerabilities that March 2023 revealed. To study the impact of systemic risk reclassification on individual bank balance sheets, I construct a quarterly panel dataset of the largest US chartered banks and track their regulatory classification and financial reports from 2009 to 2023. The 2018 Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (EGRRCPA) changed the Federal …

Happy Teams: Utilizing Remote Data Entry Work To Understand The Relationship Between Team Gender Composition, Team Performance, And Worker Satisfaction, Laura Zimmer

CMC Senior Theses

The following study contributes to existing scholarship surrounding the relationship between gender and teamwork. My experiment aims to build on how gender impacts team members' success, emotions, and overall experience by randomly pairing individuals in two-person remote teams, to complete data entry tasks together. Teams work together remotely to complete tasks rating Chicago roads. Pre and post-teamwork surveys were completed by individuals surrounding their emotions and experience working with their partner. My results demonstrate that single-gender female teams report the highest increases in happiness while working in teams. Individuals were found to rate partners of their same gender more highly …

A Dollar A Day Keeps Inflationary Crisis Away: An Evaluation Of Proposed Dollarization In Argentina, Dante Mcdermott

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis analyzes the history and policy variations of dollarization to gain understanding that can be used to evaluate the proposal of dollarization in Argentina. After analyzing the monetary policy histories of Ecuador, El Salvador, Liberia, Panama, and Zimbabwe, I put the main takeaways into the context of Argentina’s monetary history and current economic situation. I find that the adoption of foreign currencies in an economy provides short-term relief from inflationary crises, but that long-term economic benefits are vulnerable to attacks by populist leaders and their high spending governments. In order to maximize the long-term benefits of dollarization, the policy …

Mental Imagery Contributes To Loss Aversion By Amplifying Negative Emotions, Daniel Kroshchuk

CMC Senior Theses

Defined as the experience of sensory information without the presence of external stimuli, mental imagery is thought to play a role in memory, emotional regulation, and decision-making. Recent studies suggest that mental imagery varies widely across the general population, with approximately 2-4% of individuals having a reduction or complete absence of visual imagination, a phenomenon known as aphantasia. Individuals with aphantasia show reduced emotional arousal to fear-inducing imagery, raising the question of how variation in imagery affects cognitive processes that are influenced by emotion. Specifically, in economic decision-making it has been shown that the prospect of loss triggers negative emotions, …

Analysis Of Government Stimulus During Covid-19 And The Bank Distress Of 2023, Kara Hagler

CMC Senior Theses

Due to the hardships that small businesses were facing from the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020, the government created the Payment Protection Program (PPP). This program used banks as the initial lenders for small business loans to facilitate loans from the government to small businesses. In this article, I study how participation in the PPP lending program contributes to the Bank Distress of 2023 by using a bank-level quarterly panel data set from 2019-2023. Estimation of difference-in-difference specifications reveals banks that opted into the PPP program experienced an increase in held-to-maturity securities relative to non PPP banks. The mechanism …

Driven By Change: The Impact Of Macroeconomic Shifts And Covid-19 On New Vehicle Sales, Jackson Aldrich

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the impact of macroeconomic factors and the COVID-19 pandemic on new vehicle sales. In order to address these two topics, a two-pronged approach was used with separate regression models. The macroeconomic variables include monthly supply of new homes, CPI for urban public transportation, unemployment rate, disposable personal income, inflation expectation, consumer sentiment, average gas prices, and total vehicle miles traveled which were regressed on total vehicle sales from 1978-2022. The regression results confirmed and supported current literature and highlighted the importance of the housing market and unemployment rate on new vehicle sales. The COVID-19 pandemic model variables …

Capturing Value In Emerging Markets: A Real Options Perspective On Resilience And Risk, Alexander Castillo

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the evaluation of investment opportunities in emerging markets (EMs) through real options analysis, against the backdrop of their unique risk profiles and the recent trend of EMs exhibiting resilience in economic performance. While EMs are associated with high growth rates and infrastructure gaps, they have shown adaptability, particularly in monetary policy responses to inflation. This paper explores the sensitivity of net present value (NPV) and real options (RO) to changes in the capital asset pricing model, adapting the yield spread to capture default risk and local risk-free rates. Utilizing oil benchmark price data, the paper constructs a …

The Efficacy Of Insider Trading Regulation: An Analysis Of The 1942 Introduction Of Sec Rule 10b-5, Kamila Melikova, Eric Hughson

CMC Senior Theses

Existing research has thoroughly examined the impact of insider trading regulations, finding mixed results regarding the effectiveness of new law introductions. Although this topic has received considerable attention, there is still a notable lack of research on the first regulation of insider trading: the 1942 introduction of Section 10(b), an amendment to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. This paper uses a newly compiled dataset of earnings announcements from large public companies between 1937 and 1946, combined with event study methodology, to investigate the effectiveness of the very first ban on insider trading. Through the application of t-tests and regression …

The Impact Of Maternal Education On Chinese Children's Academic Performance, Zhilin Duan

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study examines the impact of maternal education on Chinese children’s academic performance in math and language, using data from the 2022 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). Controlling for variables such as family income, urban-rural status, region, child gender, and age, the research applies ordered logistic regression and marginal effects analysis to explore the relationship. Results show that higher maternal education is consistently associated with better academic outcomes: children whose mothers have middle school, high school, or college education are significantly more likely to achieve top scores and less likely to score poorly in both subjects. Notably, primary education has …

Perception Of Northeastern Thai Food Among Chinese Living In Thailand, Wenya Ren

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study aimed to explore the cognition, attitude and consumption behavior of Isaan cuisine (northeastern Thailand) among Chinese living in Thailand. The study was based on a cross-sectional survey of 301 Chinese residents to explore how demographic factors, cultural background and taste preferences affect their acceptance of Isaan cuisine. The results showed that Chinese generally had a positive attitude towards Isaan cuisine, with dishes such as Som Tum and Gai Yang being the most well-known and consumed. However, Chinese still had confusion about Thai regional dishes and limited knowledge of traditional Isaan ingredients. Spearman correlation analysis showed that the length …

The Impact Of China-Us Trade War On China's Outward Fdi, Bing Wang

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of The Export Performance Of Asean-10 Countries And Its Impact On Real Gdp Growth: A Panel Data Analysis (2008–2022), Tussaya Hemtanon

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This research investigates the export performance of 10 ASEAN countries and examines its impact on real GDP growth of 10 ASEAN countries from 2008 to 2022, which is a period of 15 years. The investigation is motivated by the rising importance of international trade and regional economic integration to encourage sustainable growth in the economy. This research employed static and dynamic panel data analysis to investigate the relationships between export performance and real GDP growth of 10 ASEAN countries and consider the external macroeconomic factors including foreign direct investment (FDI), inflation and official exchange rates. The main findings of this …

Automation And Income Inequality: Who Gains And Who Loses?, Poosana Bunchawattana

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study investigates the impact of automation on income inequality across nine countries from 2013 to 2021. As the global economy increasingly adopts automation technologies, concerns have grown over their potential to widen the gap between income groups. Using a fixed-effects panel regression model, this research explores whether higher levels of robot density are associated with shifts in the income shares held by the top 10% and bottom 10% of the population. Robot density serves as the primary indicator of automation, while GDP per capita, unemployment rate, tertiary education enrollment, and labor force participation are included as control variables. The …

Challenges And Opportunities For Cofco International Under The Circular Economy Development Strategy, Xin Zhou

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

As the world moves towards sustainable development and carbon neutrality, the circular economy (CE) is becoming an important way for businesses to grow with less wasted resources or longer resource life. COFCO International, which is the global part of the Chinese agribusiness giant COFCO Corporation, is using more and more CE principles in its work around the world. The company is trying to reach global climate goals by using biomass again, getting resources in a way that doesn't hurt the environment, and using transportation that doesn't add carbon to the air. But it is very hard to make CE a …

What Drives China’S Battery Electric Vehicle Exports? A Panel Data Analysis Of Global Destination Factors, Sheng Li

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study investigates the determinants of China’s battery electric vehicle (BEV) exports by employing an extended gravity model framework and panel data analysis covering 15 destination countries from 2017 to 2023. Focusing on two green-related explanatory variables—BEV stock and carbon emissions per capita in destination markets—the research explores how market maturity and environmental pressures influence China’s BEV trade flows. Empirical results reveal that BEV stock has a significant and positive effect on China’s BEV exports, underscoring the importance of infrastructure readiness, consumer acceptance, and policy support in destination markets. On the contrary, carbon emissions per person has a very strong …

The Challenge Of Feed-In-Tariff (Fit) Policies Applied To The Development Of Electricity From Sustainable Resources—Lessons For Thailand, Phaephan Mohjoh

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

No abstract provided.

An Insight Into Trade And Inequality: A Cross-Country Income Quintile Analysis, Karn Leela-Adisorn

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study examines how international trade affected income inequality in 69 countries between 2006 and 2019, a time when globalization was slowing down. Unlike earlier studies focused on periods of rapid trade expansion, this research reevaluates the trade-inequality link under new global conditions. It uses the Gini coefficient and income quintile shares to capture different aspects of income inequality. While the Gini index offers a broad measure, quintile shares reveal more detailed distributional changes, especially among lower and middle-income groups.The findings reveal that greater trade openness and export intensity are generally associated with higher income inequality. Specifically, these forms of …

Budgets And The Timing, Intensity, And Composition Of Interest Group Lobbying In The U.S. States, John M. De Figueiredo

Faculty Scholarship

This paper examines state level lobbying data to determine how budgeting affects the timing, intensity and composition of lobbying expenditures. Using a database of all available lobbying expenditures in the U.S. states ranging up to 25  years, the paper shows interest group lobbying increases substantially during the budgeting process, and the budgeting process is unlike other issues lobbyists face. Spikes in lobbying during budgeting are driven primarily by business groups, and these business groups account for most of the changes on the margin in lobbying activity. Moreover, even groups relatively unaffected by budgets lobby more intensely during legislative budgeting, consistent …

Towards Inclusive Public Administration Systems: Public Budgeting From The Perspective Of Critical Race Theory, Juan Pablo Martínez Guzmán, Meagan M. Jordan, Philip G. Joyce

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

While there is a developing consensus that governments need to address systemic racism, public administration scholarship has not played a large role in supporting policymakers who want to achieve that end. To institutionalize that effort, we analyze the budget process as a setting to identify inequities and incorporate social equity given its overarching reach across all programs and policies. This article uses the tenets of critical race theory to illustrate how to use the budget process to incorporate equity. The resulting racial equity budgeting (REB) framework has three tenets: acknowledging and correcting historic biases, increasing the voice of nondominant groups, …

Evaluating The Early Impacts Of The Snap Online Purchasing Pilot, Kyle Jones

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

This dissertation consists of three chapters that evaluate how a change in the redemption of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits impacted grocery purchasing behavior and food consumption to provide some of the first estimates of the impacts from the pilot. The SNAP Online Purchasing Pilot (OPP) allowed recipients to use their benefits online for participating retailers which was initially planned for 8 participating pilot states with a few participating retailers but massively expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first two chapters evaluate how the SNAP OPP impacts grocery purchasing behavior with the first chapter evaluating before the COVID-19 pandemic and …

Essays On Impacts Of Natural Disasters, Fang-Yu Yeh

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

This dissertation consists of three chapters that study how natural disasters affect households and individuals. The first chapter examines how Kentucky’s housing market responds to changes in flood risk information. The second chapter looks at disproportionate drinking water non-compliance post-disaster. The third chapter studies the effect of flooding events and the national school meals program in Kentucky on education outcomes.

The first chapter examines Kentucky’s housing market response to changes in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) flood maps and how the responses differ depending on whether an area has been flooded recently. I use Zillow’s ZTRAX property transaction data …

Evaluation Of Industrial Policy In The United States Of America, Hossna Seediqyar

Theses - Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy

This paper examines the evolution and current state of industrial policy in the United States, focusing on strategies aimed at enhancing economic growth, competitiveness, and industrial innovation. Historically, U.S. industrial policy has fluctuated between periods of government intervention and market-led approaches. Recently, there has been a renewed emphasis on industrial policy to address challenges such as globalization, climate change, and technological innovations. The research used data from the National Solar Jobs Census 2019, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), and the Tax Foundation’s State Corporate Income Tax Rates and Brackets series. The analysis of the paper highlights the role of …

Gender Pay Gap In Kyrgyz Republic, Maryam Yari

Theses - Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy

The reasons behind the gender wage disparity in the Kyrgyz Republic are investigated in this paper using information from the 2019 Life in Kyrgyzstan (LiK) survey. Given its transitioning economy and post-Soviet socioeconomic environment, Kyrgyzstan offers a special case within the larger framework of gender wage gaps worldwide. The pay disparity is broken down in this research into explainable variations based on observable characteristics and an unexplained component that might be discriminatory using the Heckman and Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition approach. The results indicate the existence of gender discrimination in wage determination since a large amount of the gender wage gap is …

Are Industry Returns Informative About Other Industries And Fundamentals?, Nikiforos T. Laopodis

Business Faculty Publications

This paper examines the information content of selected US industries focusing on the dynamic linkages among these industries, the stock market and a number of fundamental variables. The period of investigation spans from January 1960 to December 2021. The empirical strategy includes several methodologies such as regressions, vector autoregressions and volatility models. The idea is to investigate the dynamic linkages among these series at both the mean and the volatility levels. The results point to significant industry returns’ explanatory power for many predictors of economic activity including the stock market. Further, time-varying analysis of the linkages among the industries and …