Digital Commons Network^™

Raising The Bar: The Impact Of Gender Quotas On Legislator Quality, Viola Hernandez-Derbez

CMC Senior Theses

We analyze the effect of a legislative candidate quota on the quality of congresspeople elected. We study a landmark legislation passed in 2014 in Mexico that required all parties to have an equal number of male and female congressional candidates. We observe a 31% increase in number of bills proposed in legislative sessions after the quota and a significantly higher likelihood for greater educational attainment among male and female deputies alike, controlling for an array of factors that could influence our quality measures. Since not all states had the same level of female representation when the quota was introduced, we …

Guns And Fatal Police Shootings: Accuracy Of Firearm Prevalence Proxies In A Panel Data Analysis, Corin Elmore

CMC Senior Theses

This paper explores the relationship between gun prevalence and fatal police shootings in the United States. Specifically, the study assesses the validity of using FSS (Firearm Suicides Per Total Suicides) as a proxy for gun prevalence. It examines whether FBI background check data can be a more reliable alternative. Through a panel data analysis, the study provides moderate evidence that FBI background check data performs better than FSS as a proxy for gun prevalence and that the relationship between firearm prevalence and fatal police shootings is positive. Additionally, the study finds that instrumenting FSS with background check data to account …

A Philosophical And Empirical Investigation Into Buddhist Economics, Hannah Doyle

CMC Senior Theses

There is a growing body of literature on Buddhist economics from a philosophical perspective; however, no work to date has sought to empirically validate it as an effective economic theory at a global scale. In my paper, I draw on the long history of Buddhist metaphysics to construct an account of Buddhist ethics and then proceed to derive a set of Buddhist economic principles. I draw on the World Happiness Report’s methodology to quantitatively demonstrate the relationship between Buddhist economic principles and the psychological wellbeing of a country’s citizens, as measured through their own evaluation of their quality of life …

Renewable Portfolio Standards: Effectiveness And Carbon Implications, Alexander S. Albrecht

CMC Senior Theses

A renewable portfolio standard (RPS) policy is a popular regulatory tool implemented within the U.S. and abroad to limit energy sector emissions and incentivize renewable energy. Assessing their effectiveness and efficiency is a key component of achieving further reductions. We assess an energy market under an RPS using fixed-effects panel and 2SLS regression models to lend empirical credence to common theory-based concerns about RPS policy, namely (1) that they leave emissions unregulated once the RPS requirement is met and (2) that they do not incentivize full use of renewable energy resources. Our results show these to be valid concerns that …

The Paycheck Protection Program's Effect On Real Estate Prices, Someswar Amujala

CMC Senior Theses

This paper investigates the relationship between the Paycheck Protec- tion Program (PPP) and real estate price increases. The Paycheck Protection Program was established by the Small Business Association in 2020 to pro- vide forgivable loans to businesses to aid with potential losses from COVID- 19 impacts. I leverage zip code level data across the United States and a fixed effects panel data model to quantitatively measure the PPP’s influence on housing and rental prices. I find a positive and significant relationship between the number of PPP loans disbursed and housing and rental rates. Specifically, a 1% change in the number …

Application Of Sentiment Analysis And Machine Learning Techniques To Predict Daily Cryptocurrency Price Returns, Edward Wu

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the effects of social media sentiment relating to Bitcoin on the daily price returns of Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies by utilizing sentiment analysis and machine learning techniques to predict daily price returns. Many investors think that social media sentiment affects cryptocurrency prices. However, the results of this paper find that social media sentiment relating to Bitcoin does not add significant predictive value to forecasting daily price returns for each of the six cryptocurrencies used for analysis and that machine learning models that do not assume linearity between the current day price return and previous daily price …

Hubungan Antara Pertumbuhan Ekonomi Dan Infrastruktur Transportasi Di Indonesia, Ida Kade Sukesa, Elissaios Papyrakis

Jurnal Ekonomi dan Pembangunan Indonesia

Given the mixed results of the existing research on the relationship between transport infrastructure and economic growth in Indonesia, this study, which aims to examine this relationship, uses two approaches, first using time-series data and second using panel data. From the first approach, this study concludes that there is a unidirectional relationship from economic growth to road infrastructure, while between economic growth and air and sea transportation infrastructure there is no relationship. Similar results were also found using the second approach. The growth of three types transport infrastructure does not have a significant effect on economic growth.

Three Essays On Health, Food, And Agricultural Economics, Saber Feizy

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation comprises three distinct but interrelated projects that explore the intersection of agriculture, nutrition, and economics. The first project investigates the impact of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) food programs on the health outcomes of its participants. Using fixed effects models and a matching algorithm, the study finds that while conventional fixed effects models indicate a significant effect of CSA participation on diet-related medical expenditures, our modified time-heterogenous fixed effects model did not find a meaningful effect. The results of the matching method are consistent with those of our modified model.

The second project examines racial disparities in the prevalence …

The Scope For Monetary Autonomy In Hong Kong And Singapore, Shan Xue

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The monetary trilemma autonomy has been at the heart of a great deal of international monetary analysis. It implies that countries with fixed exchange rates and no capital controls will lose monetary autonomy. What is often not recognized, however, is that the trilemma need not hold in the short run. If capital mobility is less than perfect, then countries can sterilize reserve flows and maintain a degree of monetary autonomy in the short run. Hong Kong is a natural case to test this possibility since it has a credibly fixed exchange rate against the dollar and no major capital controls. …

Impact Of Fiscal And Monetary Policies On The Performance Of The Nigerian Stock Market, Abraham Ochoche, Tari M. Karimo

Bullion

This paper examines the impact of the interaction between fiscal and monetary policy on Nigeria's stock market performance for the period 2011:M11 — 2019:M12. Bounds test results indicate a run relationship among the variables. Further results indicate that Nigeria's all-share index increases with government expenditure in the short- and long-run, but increases with the interest rate in the short run only. Government revenue hurts AS in the short run, suggesting that the revenue-generating activities of government cause a crowding-out effect in the market. The study therefore recommends the synchronisation of both policies in any model intended for formulating stock market …

Are The Informal Economy And Cryptocurrency Substitutes Or Complements?, Rajeev K. Goel, Ummad Mazhar

Faculty Publications – Economics

This research considers a new dimension of the effects of the underground sector by examining the spillovers on cryptocurrency holdings. Cryptocurrencies offer a relatively greater ability to dodge taxes and ensure the anonymity of holders, providing attractive avenues for underground operators to stash their informal-sector earnings. Our results, based on data from more than 50 nations, show that a greater prevalence of the underground economy in a nation is indeed associated with greater cryptocurrency holdings. This result holds across an alternative measure of the shadow economy, and when the bi-directional causality between the shadow economy and cryptocurrency holdings is considered. …

When Minsky And Godley Met The Dependentistas: The Currency Hierarchy In A Stock-Flow Consistent Model, Nitin Nair Ms

Theses - Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy

Underdevelopment often is conceived as being reproduced domestically. This thesis emphasizes the international forces that enable the persistence of underdevelopment. The first part of this thesis lays out a liquidity approach to underdevelopment which suggests that failure to create capacity arises from the asymmetries of international financial relationships. The second part of this thesis investigates a specific financial asymmetry, the currency hierarchy. We point out that the uncovered interest rate parity and the divergence from it are necessary conditions for the emergence of the currency hierarchy. Using ratios from the balance sheet of the currency issuer, we propose a quantification …

Dynamic Correlations Of Bond And Equity Futures And Macroeconomic Determinants: International Evidence, Nikiforos T. Laopodis, Theophano Patra, Vassilis Thomas

Business Faculty Publications

This paper examines whether the dynamic co-movements between stock-bond futures markets may be driven by domestic and international macroeconomic factors. The empirical analysis also investigates whether economic uncertainty and geopolitical risks have an impact on the dynamic conditional correlations of bond and equity futures markets. The results pointed to significance of domestic inflation and industrial production, while the 3M USD Libor and 3M Euribor surfaced as determinants of the dynamic equity-bond futures correlations. Finally, the paper examines the impact of the pandemic on the dynamic correlations with the split of the sample in pre- and post-pandemic periods and it was …

Neo-Whorfian Examination Of Cross-Linguistic Temporal Discounting Behavior, Piper Connelly

Scripps Senior Theses

This study examines differences in temporal discounting tendencies in German and French participants (recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk) through the lens of Neo-Whorfian cognition and the Linguistic Savings Hypothesis (Chen 2013). The LSH proposes that tendencies towards future-oriented economic decisions can be cognitively explained by literal morphosyntactic conventions of one’s native language. Our experiments (sooner-smaller/larger-later choices, endowment-investment task) failed to produce results aligning with the LSH, but uncovered the importance of controlling for risk appetite when specifically investigating intertemporal choice. There are several fruitful improvements to consider for the future, such as stricter sampling, taking richer detail of time preferences, …

The Subscription Video-On-Demand Industry – Past, Present, And Future, Emily Anderson

Scripps Senior Theses

In the past few years, we have seen a massive change in television viewing habits. More Americans subscribe to video streaming services than to cable and satellite, and most subscribe to several. While the streaming industry is rapidly growing, it is unclear where the industry is heading, and projections in the literature vary. Using data I collected and aggregated into original data sets, I explore the evidence to uncover patterns and trends. Specifically, I analyze the pricing strategies that select streaming services have used over time. My research focuses on six popular subscription video-on-demand services with similar organizational structures: Netflix, …

Why Have There Been No Rich Women Artists? Examining The Gender Price Discount In The Contemporary Auction Market For Early Twentieth Century Mexican Avant-Garde Art, Lucy P. Bloomstran

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper examines the gender price discount for early twentieth-century Mexican avant-garde art in the contemporary auction market. A premium for art by men is established through the econometric analysis of a dataset of auction transactions taking place at major American and Mexican auction houses between 2000 and 2022. After this price discount for women’s art is established, a deep delve into gender discrimination in the creation and exhibition of Mexican Muralism and Surrealism is presented to provide possible art historical explanations for the results of the regression analysis.

An Investigation On Wage Penalties: The Effect Of Foreign-Born Status On Employee Wages, Salaries, And Incomes In The United States And Canada, Lucy C. Dustman

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper investigates whether there is a wage penalty that negatively affects foreign-born employees in the United States and Canada, addressing the following two questions: (1) Does being a foreign-born employee result in a wage penalty in the United States and Canada? And if so, (2) How does this penalty differ across the two countries over time? With data collected from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMs), four separate multiple linear regression models are estimated to compare the presence of wage penalties across various industries and occupations. These analyses cover the following comparisons: the United States in 1990 and …

Association For The Promotion Of Political Economy And The Law (Appeal): Transforming Law And Economic Power, Martha T. Mccluskey

Journal Articles

This article reflects on the Association for the Promotion of Political Economy and Law (APPEAL), formed in 2012 as the first contemporary scholarly group named for the emerging field of Law and Political Economy (LPE). APPEAL organizes academics and allies to address urgent social problems by exploring possibilities for reorienting the economy toward justice, equality, and democracy. To mobilize ideas for change, APPEAL emphasizes collaborative intellectual communities. I situate APPEAL in the context of a neoliberal political movement to capture law’s power by investing in the Law and Economics message that economic power inevitably limits democracy and social justice. Though …

Boom And Bust: Job Churn In The Technology Industry In The Covid-19 Pandemic Era, Aliza Mayer

Scripps Senior Theses

Layoffs in the technology sector since 2021 have dominated news cycles and raised concern amongst everyone, from investors to employees. However, there is limited literature regarding the reasoning behind these layoffs and whether they really are as concerning and dramatic as our modern-day news has expressed. In this paper, I examined the historical trends of employment and contributing factors and discerned that the current wave of layoffs has occurred for a few reasons. In the past, the technology sector has been very strategic with hiring and only does so when revenue permits. However, during the pandemic, the technology sector became …

Earnings Gap Between Urban And Rural Migrant Workers In Vietnam, Kristen Le

Honors Theses

This thesis studies whether there is an earnings disparity between urban and rural migrant workers in Vietnam’s urban areas and whether that earnings gap is due to individual characteristics and human capital levels or other unobserved factors. In this paper, urban workers, or urban residents, are workers who have household registration status in the urban cities where they work. On the other hand, rural migrant workers, or rural-to-urban migrants, are defined as workers who live and work in urban cities but have their registered household statuses in other rural areas. Using the Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey (VHLSS) in 2008, …

The Impact Of Subjective Risk Analysis On Real Estate Prices In The Nisqually Region Following The 2001 Nisqually Earthquake, Ryan Espedal

All Master's Theses

Earthquakes are an environmental hazard that pose great risks to communities almost every day. With earthquakes, the main cause of concern is physical destruction of property, however, there are also psychological effects that are researched and discussed much less. In 2001, the Nisqually area of western Washington experienced a substantial earthquake that produced minimal physical damage but caused a significant decrease in real estate prices. Studying single-family homes from 1986-2012, this research utilizes hedonic property models to measure the change in consumer’s subjective risk calculations with reference to real estate purchases after the Nisqually earthquake, measure the relationship between earthquake …

An Analysis Of Demand-Pull Inflation In The United States Post-Pandemic, Isabella A. Moynihan

Honors Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a global shutdown of the economy resulting from both demand and supply shocks. Also, the significant decline in output and employment in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic led to a fast reaction from the government in the form of large fiscal rescue packages. At the end of 2021, the acceleration of inflation, which had been dormant for more than four decades, became the main topic of macroeconomic debates. The debate has revolved around the influence of cost-push versus demand-pull causes of inflation. The dominant view in the United States has been that inflation resulted …

Small Firm Electricity Demand In Las Cruces: 1978-2018, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Daniel J. Pastor, Michael Pokojovy, Andrew T. Yurachek

Border Region Modeling Project

Research examining small commercial and industrial electricity usage patterns have historically received less attention than residential electricity consumption patterns. This study examines electricity as an input to small firm commercial and industrial (CIS) production in Las Cruces, the second largest metropolitan economy in the state of New Mexico, using annual frequency data from 1978 to 2018. Those data include labor, per capita personal income, price measures for electricity and natural gas, and weather variables. The long-run and short-run elasticities of the data are then estimated using an autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL). In the long-run, the CIS derived-demand curve is …

Socio-Economic Comparative Analysis Of Front-Of-The-Meter And Behind-The-Meter Microgrids For Panamnik, Olivia C. Amann Mcshea

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

In Northern California, the Karuk Tribe is feeling the effects of climate change on inadequate energy infrastructures leading to unreliable power supply. Improving energy reliability in a way that also increases energy sovereignty is necessary. Renewable energy microgrids have emerged as a pathway forward.

Modeling ownership structures and cash flows for different microgrid configurations can support the Tribe’s implementation of a microgrid in Orleans, CA that maximizes community benefits. This thesis considers a front-of-the-meter (FTM) and behind-the-meter (BTM) configuration, both approximately 2 MW solar PV and 3 MW/12 MWh battery energy storage. Cash flows including capital costs, operations and maintenance …

From More Growth To Better Growth : The Challenge And The Way Out, Lok Sang Ho, Wing Lok Hung

PSEI/CERP Working Paper Series

The Chinese economy’s meteoric rise has caused alarm in the West. An article published online on the CNN website states, “China’s rapid technological advances have also made it a strategic threat to the United States and its allies. It’s steadily pushing American rivals out of long-held leadership positions in sectors ranging from 5G technology to artificial intelligence.” This, in truth, is the nature of the “threat” perceived by politicians in the West. It was also pointed out that “Until recently, some economists were predicting that China would become the world’s biggest economy by 2030, unseating the United States.” If China …

Misinterpreting Yourself, Paul Heidhues, Botond Koszegi, Philipp Strack

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We model an agent who stubbornly underestimates how much his behavior is driven by undesirable motives, and, attributing his behavior to other considerations, updates his views about those considerations. We study general properties of the model, and then apply the framework to identify novel implications of partially naive present bias. In many stable situations, the agent appears realistic in that he eventually predicts his behavior well. His unrealistic self-view does, however, manifest itself in several other ways. First, in basic settings he always comes to act in a more present-biased manner than a sophisticated agent. Second, he systematically mispredicts how …

The Samuels-Buchanan Correspondence And The Lost Opportunity For A Positive Public Choice Scholarship, Luke Petach

Faculty Scholarship

This article revisits the debate between James Buchanan and Warren Samuels over Miller v. Schoene (1928). The initial court case—concerning the rights of government in the face of conflicting private interests—and subsequent debate between Buchanan and Samuels have important implications for the interrelations between legal and economic processes, the difference between a normative and positive theory of public choice, and the nature of public choice more generally. In published papers and private correspondence, the writings of Samuels reveal an alternative conception of public choice theory as a positive endeavor divorced from the free market normative implications of Buchanan’s work. Application …

Religion And Economic Growth: Evidence From U.S. Counties, Luke Petach, Aiden Powell

Faculty Scholarship

This paper examines the impact of religious participation on regional economic growth. Using data on GDP growth for United States counties from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) Regional Economic Accounts and data on county-level religious participation from the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA), this paper estimates the impact of religiosity on growth using two-way fixed-effects Barro regressions for the period 2000 to 2020. In our preferred specification, a ten percentage-point increase in the county religious adherent share reduces the 10-year compound annual growth rate of per-capita GDP by 0.14 percentage points (a 19% reduction relative to the sample …

Chinese Yuan Interest Rate Swap Yields, Tanweer Akram, Khawaja Mamun

WCBT Faculty Publications

This paper models the dynamics of Chinese yuan–denominated long-term interest rate swap yields. It shows that the short-term interest rate exerts a decisive influence on the long-term swap yield after controlling for various macrofinancial variables, such as core inflation, the growth of industrial production, the percent change in the equity price index, and the percentage change in the Chinese yuan exchange rate. The autoregressive distributed lag approach is applied to model the dynamics of the long-term swap yield. The findings reinforce and extend John Maynard Keynes’s conjecture that in advanced countries, as well as emerging market economies such as China, …

Incumbent Competition And Private Agenda, Anne Marie Go

DLSU Business & Economics Review

Consider two politicians who decide whether to follow what they believe the electorate wants or choose the option that secures their private gain. Policies are implemented when the politicians reach a unanimous decision. The electorate only rewards a politician when a policy is implemented or when the politician is the only one whose action coincides with the popular decision. The results show that if politicians have good decision-making abilities, sufficiently high payoffs in policy implementation—given moderate private agenda payoffs—push them to implement the popular policy. For very poor decision- making abilities, at sufficiently high policy rewards, politicians vote for the …