Digital Commons Network^™

A Mixed-Methods Study Of Resident Readiness, Engagement, And Relocation During Mixed-Income Redevelopment, Laurie A. Walker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since 1990, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has supported mixed-income redevelopment (MIR) strategies to address the problems of concentrated urban poverty neighborhoods with traditional public housing structures. This study focused on two neighborhoods in Denver, Colorado, with more than 38% of the residents living in poverty, which are facing transit-oriented MIR in the coming years. Residents in both neighborhoods have engaged in formal planning processes and community organizing as a way to be prepared for the change.

The study posed three research questions: (1) what predicts a community's readiness for MIR, (2) what predicts resident involvement as …

Brazil Under Change, Roberta Alves Costa Melo

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this case study is to identify the policies and programs that President Lula's administration has instituted to alleviate poverty in Brazil. This study will seek to determine if the economic condition of the poor has been improved as a result of Lula's ascent to the Presidency. The methodology applied to this study is a qualitative strategy of inquiry. This is a case study on the outcome of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The research design is based on a philospohical advocacy/participatory worldview.

The Digital Age: Nonmetropolitan Nebraskans’ Use Of Technology: 2011 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley D. Lubben, Connie Reimers-Hild

Nebraska Rural Poll

Most rural Nebraskans use the Internet or email from home. The groups most likely to use the Internet or email from home include: persons living in or near larger communities, residents of the Panhandle region, persons with higher household incomes, younger persons, females, married persons, persons with higher education levels and persons with management, professional or education occupations. The Internet applications used by the majority of rural Nebraskans include: research, looking for health information, purchasing a product, watching a video and social networking.

Most rural Nebraskans have positive opinions about shopping online: that the Internet is the best place to …

2011 American Incentive System Almanac, Don P. Diffine Ph.D.

Belden Center Monographs

No abstract provided.

Theorizing Practice In Economic Geography: Foundations, Challenges, And Possibilities, Andrew Jones, James T. Murphy

Geography

Over the last decade or so there has been an identifiable shift in the interests of many economic geographers towards a concern with practices: stabilized, routinized, or improvised social actions that constitute and reproduce economic space, and through and within which socioeconomic actors and communities embed knowledge, organize production activities, and interpret and derive meaning from the world. Although this shift has gained significant momentum its general theoretical significance remains somewhat unclear and the concept is vulnerable to criticisms that it is incoherent, too 'micro-scale' in emphasis, unable to provide valid links between everyday practices and higher-order phenomena (eg, institutions, …

Revitalizing Distressed Older Suburbs, Kathryn W. Hexter, Edward W. Hill, Brian A. Mikelbank, Benjamin Y. Clark, Charles Post

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

Relationships Between Political Competition And Socioeconomic Status In The United States, Trevor K. Smith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Over the past 30 years there has been an increase in socioeconomic inequities between Black and White persons in the United States. Some research suggests that political ideology, which in turn impacts political competition levels, may at least partially explain these disparities, though the body of academic literature in this area is sparse. Little is known about how Black political ideology is formed by perceptions of inequality. The purpose of this study was to examine the phenomenon of Black political ideology, political competition, and socioeconomic status to determine how political competition relates to social inequities between Blacks and Whites. The …

Effect Of Clinical Laboratory Practitioner Licensing On Wages, Mary Hotaling

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Professional licensing directly affects about 29% of U.S. workers and is considered a primary means to establish and maintain health care practitioner competence. Clinical laboratory practitioner licensing was largely ignored in the literature with only 2 studies 30 years apart that provided conflicting conclusions regarding wage effects. This research provided the first study of clinical laboratory practitioner licensing effects on wages after controlling for human capital and individual characteristics wage determinants. This nonexperimental correlational study extended the literature on licensing effects on wages, including women's wages and professions not uniformly licensed across 50 states. The theoretical foundation relied on the …

Roles Of Government, Nonprofit Sector, Business And Family And Their Interaction In Democracy, Stuart Mendel

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

Nova Southeastern University 2011 Annual Report, Nova Southeastern University

NSU Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

Executive Minority Employment And Compensation Gap In The S&P500: Is Compensation Disparity More Prevalent In Certain Industries?, Jason W. Toney

CMC Senior Theses

Minorities hold a significantly smaller percentage of executive positions in companies within the S&P500. However, whether these minorities are under compensated relative to their non-minority counterparts has not been previously investigated. Using Compustat data, this paper documents the differences in compensation between minorities and non-minorities as a whole, minority and non-minority CEOs, and the differences in compensation for minorities and non-minorities within industries. I show that there is no minority/white wage gap overall, and in some cases, minorities earn a premium compared to non-minorities.

The Impact Of Opinion On Foreign Trade, Nikolaus Williams

Masters Culminating Experiences (1993-2011)

This paper examines the impact that opinion has on foreign trade. Specifically, the paper examines how opinion towards the U.S. impacts U.S. exports and how changes in opinion toward the U.S. impact U.S. exports. Using survey data from the Pew Global Attitudes Projects and export data, the paper examines these relationships for 21 countries between 2002 and 2010. Regression analysis of the panel data reveals that positive opinion levels and positive changes in opinion have statistically significant positive impacts on U.S. exports. However, this conclusion is somewhat tempered by the unbalanced nature of the available data which prevents a greater …

On Trade Policies And Wage Disparity In Egypt: Evidence From Microeconomic Data, Chahir Zaki

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This working paper assesses the extent to which trade barriers, including traditional tariff barriers, non-tariff measures, and red tape, affect wage disparity and employment in Egypt. Using a microeconomic dataset, the author assesses to what extent different trade barriers affected wage disparity and employment in Egypt. This disparity is studied in three dimensions: on gender (males vs. females), qualification (blue vs. white collar workers), and regional (urban vs. rural workers). Findings show that both non-tariff measures and red tape barriers have a higher impact than traditional tariffs on wage disparity and that women, urban workers, and blue collar workers are …

Seeking For The Lost: A Papyrological Search For Luke Fifteen's Lost Economics, Erik Yingling

Student Works

This paper draws upon Egyptian documentary papyri in order to show more fully the quantitative purchasing power of items of economic significance in Luke 15. Specifically, the stories of the lost drachma, lost sheep, and prodigal son each mention economic items which—when compared with the papyrological data—can more fully elucidate areas of economic import which have not been looked at before. In doing so, the article builds upon, and supports, the framework of Roman economic "middling groups" as posited by Longenecker (2009). Furthermore, a close look at Luke 15 when compared with the Egyptian papyrological data suggests the possibility of …

Brain Drain Out Of Hungary And Its Inhibitors, Eliza Plous

Capstone Collection

In many Central and Eastern European countries, a poor economic climate at home forces young people to make their careers in the West. Hungary is no exception. After spending time both studying and working in Hungary, the author chose to investigate the phenomenon known as “brain drain”: the large-scale emigration of young, educated individuals from Hungary as they seek higher salaries and more promising career prospects in neighboring Western European countries. This paper offers a comprehensive report on the economics of the brain drain problem, and on the opinions of young Hungarians who are currently seeking employment abroad; it also …

Sweet Diversity: Colonial Goods And The Welfare Gains From Trade After 1492, Jonathan Hersh, Hans-Joachim Voth

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

When did overseas trade start to matter for living standards? Traditional real-wage indices suggest that living standards in Europe stagnated before 1800. In this paper, we argue that welfare rose substantially, but surreptitiously, because of an influx of new goods as a result of overseas trade. Colonial luxuries such as tea, coffee, and sugar transformed European diets after the discovery of America and the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope. These goods became household items in many countries by the end of the 18th century. We use three different methods to calculate welfare gains based on price data and …

Opportunity Cost Of Land And Urban Growth, Bo Jiang

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

This study examines the impact of the opportunity cost of urban land on urban growth. Based on prices, costs and productivity data on agricultural commodities at county levels, the opportunity cost of land was measured by the weighted revenue, cost, and government payment per acre of farm lands. Aggregating county data to metropolitan area levels, a panel data for 269 metropolitan areas from 1978-2000 were constructed. This study found that, as predicted by the theory, cities grow slower when revenue increases or cost decrease in the area. The impact of commodity program payment was also examined. Our results show that …

A Natural Resource Curse: Does It Exist Within The United States?, Bryce Gerard

CMC Senior Theses

In this paper, we  examine data on U.S. GDP/Capita and natural resource share of GDP by state. We then run growth regressions and build on a previous model of dynamic equations to account for the spatial equilibrium that exists between U.S. states. Our results show that there exists evidence that overinvestment in oil and mining sectors has negative effects on state TFP growth, thus giving positive evidence for the existence of a natural resource curse between U.S. states.

America's First Great Moderation, Ryan Shaffer

CMC Senior Theses

This paper identifies America's first Great Moderation, a period from 1841-1856 of unbroken economic expansion and low volatility comparable to the Great Moderation of the 1980s-2000s. This moderation occurred despite a lack of central banks, low governmental spending, and barriers to interstate commerce during the antebellum period. I demonstrate this moderation in industrial production and stock market indexes and compare the first Great Moderation with the second in these economic factors. These results also call into question the conventional wisdom of the National Bureau of Economic Research business cycle chronology that the antebellum period was volatile and fraught with recessions. …

Does The Provision Of Healthcare Vary With Race? Evidence From Health Shocks To Patients Far From Home, Ajay Sridhar

CMC Senior Theses

A vast literature acknowledges that minority groups, particularly African-Americans, receive less, and lower-quality treatment than Caucasians in U.S. health facilities. It remains an open question as to how much of this disparity is a result of poverty, and how much, a result of more overt discrimination. Former empirical studies are far from conclusive given the endogeneity of hospital quality, as minorities are overrepresented in areas served by poor health facilities. To remedy this endogeneity issue, we observe visitors to the state of Florida, as well as travelers within Florida. When an individual experiences a health shock far from home, her …

Variation In The Dynamic Response Of Housing Markets, Andrew Pate Hill

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluates the existence of asset bubbles in Florida metropolitan statistical areas during 2000–2010. Estimation occurs in two stages with the first being the estimated fundamental price of housing using a fixed effects estimator. Once the fundamental price of housing is determined an error correction model of housing prices is estimated to evaluate the degrees of serial correlation and mean reversion existing in the sampled geographic areas. Serial correlation and mean reversion are then interacted with the hypothesized effects of information costs, supply costs, and expectations of future price behavior to uncover variation in the dynamic response of housing. …

Responding To Foreclosures In Cuyahoga County, 2010 Evaluation Report January 1, 2010 Through December 31, 2010, Kathryn W. Hexter, Molly Schnoke

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

Financial Stability Is A Volume Business: A Comment On The Legal Infrastructure Of Ex Post Consumer Debtor Protections, Anna Gelpern

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Professor Melissa B. Jacoby's essay pays homage to Stewart Macaulay's classic study of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, a U.S. federal consumer protection law that, according to Macaulay, was virtually unknown to the lawyers whose clients needed it the most. The moral of Macaulay's study is that even good consumer protection laws on the books often fail to deliver in action for complex cultural, institutional, and economic reasons. Yet reducing Professor Jacoby's essay to this very important moral undersells its contribution. A fragmented infrastructure for legal service delivery of the sort she describes does not merely fail consumers more often than …

Knowns, Unknowns, And Impacts, Randall Jackson

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

Jouke van Dijk opened the most recent issue of Papers in Regional Science with “Long lasting knowledge in Regional Science,” an editorial highlighting the role that the Association”s journal has played in documenting much of the key regional science research since its inception. Publications obviously provide a long lasting chronicle of research in regional science, but I had rather hoped to find in his editorial an actual identification and enumeration of examples of specific long lasting knowledge gleaned from the regional science record. My hopes stemmed from having spent the past year contemplating appropriate content for this Presidential Address on …

Regional Science Reconsidered, Peter V. Schaeffer, Randall Jackson, James O. Bukenya

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

Members of a discipline share common research questions, values they use to address normative issues, and a set of research methods. Collectively, the features of a discipline that are common to all of its members constitute its core. Disciplines – and their specializations – can also be defined by their boundaries. However, in the case of regional science, the boundaries are fuzzy. Because regional science has been influenced by economics, geography, urban and regional planning, sociology, political science, public administration, and transportation engineering, it overlaps to a significant degree with these “parent disciplines” so that clear cut boundaries do not …

The Role Of Institutional Quality In Fdi Inflows In Sub-Saharan Africa, Mulugeta Kahsai, Yohannes G. Hailu, Chali Nondo, Peter V. Schaeffer

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

During the period 2000 to 2008, Africa’s collective GDP grew at an annual rate of 4.9 percent. Even though previous studies argue that strengthened and improved institutional quality is key determinant for attracting foreign direct investment to Africa, we find no evidence to that effect. Using a panel data for 45 Sub-Saharan African countries (SSH), we estimate the role of institutional quality (governance) in attracting FDI inflow during the 1996-2007 period. After controlling for country and time specific effects and the economic environment of the host country, we find no significant evidence of the impact of institutional quality on FDI …

Le Travail Des Femmes Dans Le Secteur Agricole: Entre Précarité Et Empowerment—Cas De Trois Régions En Egypte, Au Maroc Et En Tunisie, Zhour Bouzidi, Saker El Nour, Wided Moumen

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Despite a remarkable decline in the agricultural labor force in general, the number of women employed in the agricultural sector is growing substantially, particularly as a result of the intensification of agricultural activity. This Population Council working paper focuses on the working conditions of women in the agricultural sector based on the analysis of three case studies in three countries: the West of Delta in Egypt, the coastal zone of Gharb in Morocco, and the Nadhour region in Tunisia. The report analyzes to what extent agricultural work could be a means of precariousness or empowerment for women workers. Results show …

Comparative Study Of Informal Health Care Networks And Elderly Health Status In Argentina And Cuba, Ava Ginsberg

Honors Theses

The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of informal care support networks on the health status, life satisfaction, happiness and anxiety of elderly individuals in Argentina and Cuba. Recent economic changes, demographic changes, the structure of families and changes in women?s labor participation have affected the availability of informal care. Additionally, the growing number of elderly as a percentage of total population has significant implications for both formal and informal care in Argentina and Cuba. Methods: The SABE - Survey on Health, Well-Being, and Aging in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2000 was used as the data …

Local Economic Development: Researching Clusters In Woodford County, Kentucky, Tom Middleton

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Woodford Tomorrow, a citizen economic development planning group in Woodford County, is interested in promoting cluster development. Clusters are a geographic concentration of businesses and institutions which interact and collaborate within a particular economic sector. This report provides quantitative analysis of three clusters: (1) health, (2) agriculture, and (3) arts, entertainment, and tourism. The majority of this data comes from the consulting firm Economic Modeling Specialists Inc.

The agriculture cluster has many industries, specifically in the crop and animal production and manufacturing sectors, which appear to be potential industries to target. The hotel and motel industry seems to be an …

Courting Toyota, Selling Kentucky: Conflict And Relationship Building In The Establishment Of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Of Kentucky, 1984-1989, Eric Shea Bailey

Online Theses and Dissertations

This study is an examination of the social, economic, and governmental factors that surrounded the establishment of Toyota Motor Corporation's first wholly owned automobile plant in the United States. After a lengthy negotiation with several states, the plant was built in Scott County, Kentucky, near the city of Georgetown. The collected and archived correspondence of Governor Martha Layne Collins as well as contemporary media accounts and interviews with Governor Collins, Larry Hayes, Jiro Hashimoto, and Bill Londrigan served as the evidentiary basis for the research for this thesis. Previous interpretations have regarded the establishment of the factory as both a …