Digital Commons Network^™

Building Before: Community Resiliency As Emergency Management, Alexandria Rinne

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This project seeks to address gaps in emergency preparedness education related to tornado response. Through an examination of current research about best practices for tornado emergency management response and an examination of the needs of FEMA Regions 7 and 8, the author has identified key strategies and stakeholders to increase positive outcome through building community engagement and resiliency. Three presentations were created for delivery to key community stakeholders—local government officials; non-governmental organizations, social networks, and associations; and individual private citizens. The project offers an overview of background research and provides presentation slide decks, scripts, and discussion guides, all created with …

Health-Seeking Behavior Of Rural Ethnic Women In Bangladesh: A Critical Analysis Through Intersectional Lens, Faraha Nawaz, Atia Nowshin Bushra

Arab Economic and Business Journal

The paper aims to investigate the health seeking behavior of rural ethnic women in Bangladesh through the lens of intersectionality. The paper sheds light on the healthcare seeking behavior of rural ethnic women by exploring the barriers of their healthcare accessibility, role of community organizations and traditional healers in shaping health seeking behavior, analyzing the impact of education, health literacy and healthcare awareness, and evaluating the role of family and community level power imbalance over the health seeking behavior of rural ethnic women. The study is based on both primary and secondary data. The findings of the paper highlight that …

A Gis And Economic Analysis Into Solar Electricity Generation Siting Within The Greater Kalamazoo Area, Devon Kelly

Honors Theses

The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) contains a significant number of incentives, both grants and loans, for state and local governments to institute clean energy-related projects. As such, and to aid in the development of decision-making support tools for solar investments in the City of Kalamazoo, this research contains a ground-mounted solar project suitability map with an additional development siting potential map for the municipal government of Kalamazoo. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and specific parcel-by-parcel siting potential of land for the construction of solar projects in the Kalamazoo Area. In doing so, …

Perceptions Of Tourism And Quality Of Life: A Case Study In Savannah, Georgia, Marissa J. Renee

Honors College Theses

The World Travel and Tourism Council estimates that Travel and Tourism accounted for 10.3% of the world economy in 2019 and ¼ of all net new jobs over the past five years. Savannah, Georgia has experienced huge growth in the last decade due to tourism, with visitor spending on lodging alone increasing from $466 million in 2009 to $1 billion in 2019. The current study examined differences in perceived impact of tourism on quality of life using established predictors of tourism sentiments. An online community survey was conducted in Chatham County, Georgia (N = 94) using the Tourism Quality of …

Analysis Of Public Environmental Expenditure : The Case Study Of Jakarta Province, Didi Prabowo Putra, James Thomas Edward

Jurnal Kebijakan Ekonomi

The national struggle for sustainable development influenced the sub-national governments level in composing their policy directions especially public budget policy. Nonetheless, although the environmental protection function is important, it tends to be marginalized in the national budgetary debates. This study, therefore, attempts to analyse the ‘green budget’ allocation and utilization within the Regional Medium-term Development Plan 2013 – 2017 of Jakarta Province. The methodology draws on descriptive analysis of derived data from annual provincial budget documents, and in-depth interview analysis explored potential barriers and drivers give rise to gaps in budget between the allocation and realization stage. Results show that …

Empirical Analysis Of Institutional Quality And Financial Development On Income Inequality In Central America, Odette Mansour

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates the effect of Institutional Quality and financial development in middle income in Central American Countries. The study incorporates information about how inequality in middle income has increased alarmingly and how we should consider improving the institution's quality. The outcomes show a positive relationship between Institutional Quality and financial development regarding middle-income society in Central American Countries, specifically: Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Honduras, which is why we suggested reforming institutional in Central American countries, letting international institutions such as the World Bank, United Nations, and IMF use their financial and political influences to promote strategies aimed …

Refugee Arrivals In The Mountain West, Fy 2021-2022, Saha Salahi, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Demography

This fact sheet explores data on the influx of refugee arrivals by nation to the Mountain West region: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. Refugee Processing Center data, selected from annual reports and limited to the years 2021-2022, are presented in this factsheet.

Migration And Spatial Misallocation In China, Xiaolu Li, Lin Ma, Yang Tang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We structurally estimate the firm-level frictions across prefectures in China and quantify their aggregate and distributional implications. Based on a general equi-librium model with input and output distortions and migration, we show that the firm-level frictions are less dispersed and less correlated with productivity in richer prefectures. Counterfactual exercises show that reducing the within-prefecture mis-allocation increases the aggregate welfare, discourages migration towards large cities, and narrows the spatial inequality. Moreover, internal migration alleviates the impacts of micro-frictions on aggregate welfare and worsens their impacts on spatial inequality.

Essays On Agglomeration Economies And Industrial Clusters, Ahmad Aswin Masudi

Dissertations

This dissertation explores the role of agglomeration economies in Indonesia’s manufacturing sector. In three chapters, I utilize different methods from three different perspectives.

The first chapter explores the role of localization and urbanization economies in manufacturing firms’ location decisions using Indonesia’s Industrial Survey from 2003 to 2013. The mixed conditional-multinomial logit model results indicate that, despite the small magnitudes, localization economies do attract firms. However, urbanization economies seem to discourage firms. On the other hand, sectoral-weighted import content has proven to be one of the most prominent attractors of firms, except for medium technology firms in Java. For foreign firms …

College Majors And Skills: Evidence From The Universe Of Online Job Ads, Steven W. Hemelt, Brad J. Hershbein, Shawn Martin, Kevin M. Stange

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We use the near universe of U.S. online job ads to document four new facts about the skills employers demand from college majors. First, some skills––social and organizational––are demanded from all majors whereas others––financial and customer service––are demanded from only particular majors. Second, some majors have skill demand profiles that mirror overall demand for college graduates, such as Business and General Engineering, while other majors, such as Nursing and Education, have relatively rare skill profiles. Third, cross-major differences in skill profiles explain considerable wage variation. Fourth, although major-specific skill demand varies across place, this variation plays little role in explaining …

Assessment Of Industrial Policies In Ghana: A Case Study On The Current Policy Of One District One Factory Policy (1d1f), Ama Nyamekye Obenewa Otoo

Masters Theses

Industrialization has been the weakest link in Ghana’s economic development efforts. Import-substitution industrialization policy of the 1960s-1980s and the outward liberalized industrialization policy of 1990-2020 (Vision 2020), have failed to achieve the goals of industrialization. This is due to several reasons including the selfish interests of these political leaders and lack of technological advancement. In 2017, the elected New Patriotic Party (NPP), announced a new industrialization policy known as “one district, one factory" (1D1F), which was a political campaign promise to realign industrial strategies. The goal of this policy is to ensure that industries are spread equitably among the country's …

Applications Of Travel And Tourism Research - 2023 Montana Governor's Conference, Melissa Weddell, Jim Auer, Matthew Pettigrew, Kara Grau

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

2023 Montana Governor's Conference on Tourism and Recreation jointly presented session, with ITRR and MT Department of Commerce staff.

2022 Estimates - Nonresident Visitation, Expenditures, And Economic Contribution, Kara Grau

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

This report is a collection of estimates of 2022 nonresident visitation to Montana, expenditures by nonresident travelers in the state, and the contribution to Montana's economy of that traveler spending. Included are estimates by full year, quarter, trip purposed, and other visitor segments.

The Montana Travel Industry - 2022 Summary, Melissa Weddell

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

2022 summary infographic of the Montana travel and recreation industry.

Spatial Dimensions Of Water Quality Value In New England River Networks, Robert J. Johnston, Klaus Moeltner, Seth Peery, Tom Ndebele, Zhenyu Yao, Stefano Crema, Wilfred M. Wollheim, Elena Besedin

Economics

Households’ willingness to pay (WTP) for water quality improvements—representing their economic value—depends on where improvements occur. Households often hold higher values for improvements close to their homes or iconic areas. Are there other areas where improvements might hold high value to individual households, do effects on WTP vary by type of improvement, and can these areas be identified even if they are not anticipated by researchers? To answer these questions, we integrated a water quality model and map-based, interactive choice experiment to estimate households’ WTP for water quality improvements throughout a river network covering six New England states. The choice …

Paved With Good Intentions? A Geopolitical Analysis Of The Belt And Road Initiative In Central And Eastern Europe, Vincent Zhang

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The objective of this analysis is to reveal the geopolitical and geoeconomic significance of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to the region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Launched in 2013 as a proposal for increased economic interconnectivity between China and Kazakhstan, the BRI has since grown to encompass hundreds of countries across Asia, Africa, and Europe. The region of CEE is of note as it is coterminous with important regional groupings like the 14 + 1 Cooperative Framework between China & CEE and a point of overlapping interests from actors like the European Union (EU), North Atlantic Treaty …

The Role Of Worker-Driven Regulation In The Global Fashion Industry, Jessie Wills

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The global fashion industry continues to exploit workers at the bottom of its supply chains. Multinational brands pressure manufacturers to churn out products at increasingly fast rates for increasingly cheaper costs. Severe problems persist in enforcing labor standards in these factories, and methods like voluntary corporate social responsibility are aspirational at best. A newer method of enforcement, worker-driven regulation (WDR), shows promise in its improved enforceability methods and focus on worker voices. The main research question of this paper is: What are the conditions that trigger and sustain worker-driven regulation at the factory level in the apparel industry?

Research methods …

Maritime Trade And The World Picture: Exploring Shiga Shigetaka's Map Of Global Trade, Chinying Lee

Japanese Society and Culture

Shiga Shigetaka (志賀重昂, 1863-1927) was a Japanese geographer of the mid-Meiji period, one of the Southern Expedition theorists, a conservative, and a Classical Chinese poet. At that time, he was one of the very few scholars who had knowledge of geography and Classical Chinese poetry and cultural arts, as well as had many experiences in Europe, Asia, the United States and Oceania.

Through his own geographical knowledge and foreign experience, Shiga constructed a world map with global trade as the main constituent. Here are some examples: Japanese-made round paper fans (uchiwa, 団扇) and parasols can be sold to Australia; New …

Public Support: A Missing Variable In The Trade Policy Equation, Jill O’Donnell

Yeutter Institute International Trade Policy Review

As Canada considers launching free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with Ecuador, the government wants to know what Canadians think. Ottawa makes it easy for citizens to weigh in, inviting Canadians to “join the discussion” and submit their “views, reflections and priorities” on the potential FTA through a Global Affairs Canada web page that is clear, inviting, and user-friendly. Under a section titled, “Who should participate?” the first answer given is “individuals.”

Although the Biden administration has been clear that it will not seek new FTA negotiations, taking a page from Canada’s public consultation playbook may be instructive, at least when …

Growing Like India. The Unequal Effects Of Service Lead Growth., Tianyu Fan, Michael Peters, Fabrizio Zilibotti

Discussion Papers

Structural transformation in most currently developing countries takes the form of a rapid rise in services but limited industrialization. In this paper, we propose a new methodology to structurally estimate productivity growth in service industries that circumvents the notorious difficulties in measuring quality improvements. In our theory, the expansion of the service sector is both a consequence—due to income effects—and a cause— due to productivity growth— of the development process. We estimate the model using Indian household data. We find that productivity growth in non-tradable consumer services such as retail, restaurants, or residential real estate, was an important driver of …

The Effect Of Corruption Control On Efficiency Spillovers, Levent Kutlu, Xi Mao

School of Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

We examine the effect of corruption control on efficiency and its implications for efficiency spillovers by a stochastic frontier model. Our dataset covers 102 countries from 1996 to 2014. We find a positive relationship between corruption control and efficiency. If neighboring countries have difficulty in handling corruption, the country would be negatively affected by its neighbors' corruption through efficiency spillovers. We then compare the efficiency differences across countries for three time periods: 1996–2002, 2002–2008, and 2008–2014. On average, technical efficiencies slightly increased in the second period compared to the first period. In the third period, the efficiencies declined, particularly in …

Peace Studies And The Limits To Growth, Selina Gallo-Cruz

The Journal of Social Encounters

150 Peace Studies and the Limits to Growth Selina Gallo-Cruz Scientists have issued increasingly dire warnings about the present and future danger posed by ecological overshoot. Peace scholars’ entrée into this discourse is often through a concern over extractive politics, a central locus for how conflicts are bound up in environmental destruction at the hands of the same industries responsible for ecological decline. Policy and practical responses to the urgent need to scale down production lag behind reality, however, and a global growth-based economy continues to prevail. Here, I explore the dilemmas faced by peace studies scholars who may want …

The Multiple Paths Of Extraction, Dispossession, And Conflict In Mozambique: From Tete’S Coal Mines To Cabo Delgado’S Lng Projects, Ruy Llera Blanes, Ana Carolina Rodrigues, Euclides Gonçalves

The Journal of Social Encounters

When it comes to extractive processes, conflict, and peacebuilding, the case of Mozambique has recently taken center stage due to the emergence of an Islamic insurgency movement in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in its northern province of Cabo Delgado. This is but one part of a complex process of highly conflictual extractivist projects unfolding in the country. In this article, we argue that, beyond the specific case of LNG, there is a logic of continuity and accumulation regarding extraction-related grievances that, over the years, has generated community resentment in natural resource rich areas. Multiple accumulating forms of dispossession …

“Born For A Storm”: Hard-Right Social Media And Civil Unrest, Daniel Karell, Andrew Linke, Edward Holland, Edward Hendrickson

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Does activity on hard-right social media lead to hard-right civil unrest? If so, why? We created a spatial panel dataset comprising hard-right social media use and incidents of unrest across the United States from January 2020 through January 2021. Using spatial regression analyses with core-based statistical area (CBSA) and month fixed effects, we find that greater CBSA-level hard-right social media activity in a given month is associated with an increase in subsequent unrest. The results of robustness checks, placebo tests, alternative analytical approaches, and sensitivity analyses support this finding. To examine why hard-right social media activity predicts unrest, we draw …

Connecting Higher Education To Workplace Activities And Earnings, Hung Chau, Sarah H. Bana, Baptiste Bouvier, Morgan R. Frank

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

Higher education is a source of skill acquisition for many middle- and high-skilled jobs. But what specific skills do universities impart on students to prepare them for desirable careers? In this study, we analyze a large novel corpora of over one million syllabi from over eight hundred bachelors’ granting US educational institutions to connect material taught in higher education to the detailed work activities in the US economy as reported by the US Department of Labor. First, we show how differences in taught skills both within and between college majors correspond to earnings differences of recent graduates. Further, we use …

Now You Can Take It With You: Effects Of Occupational Credential Recognition On Labor Market Outcomes, Kihwan Bae, Edward Timmons

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Occupational credentials are typically not portable across geography. Using policy reforms by U.S. states, we show that the limited portability of occupational licenses constrains labor market activity and geographic mobility of licensed individuals. After states implement universal recognition, a policy that allows individuals with occupational licenses issued by other states to work without repeating a costly relicensing procedure, we find that the employment ratio increases by 0.98 percentage points among licensed individuals in the sample relative to unlicensed individuals. The employment effect is co-driven by additional labor market participation and a reduction in unemployment after the policy. With the employment …

(Wp 2023-01) Objectivity In Economics And The Problem Of The Individual, John B. Davis

Economics Working Papers

This paper addresses objectivity in economics. It criticizes a closed science, ‘view from nowhere’ conception of economics and defends an open science, ‘view from somewhere’ conception of objective science. It ascribes the first conception to mainstream economics, associates it with its principle practices – reductionist modeling, formalization, limited interdisciplinarity, and value neutrality – and argues their foundation is the Homo economicus individual conception. Two problematic consequences of adopting this stance are: (i) value blindness regarding the range and complexity of human values; (ii) fatalism regarding human behavior associated with employing a tenseless representation of time. The paper contrasts the principle …

Montana Travel Regions & Counties - Economic Contribution Of 2019/2021 Averaged Nonresident Travel Spending, Kara Grau

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

Money spent by those traveling in Montana has a direct effect on businesses where spending occurs, and it ripples throughout the state's economy from there. Statewide, spending by nonresident visitors (averaged over two years - 2019 and 2021) totaled $4.48 billion. This report details the methods and results of the economic impact analyses for each of Montana's six travel regions, as well as analyses for counties in which nonresident travelers spent approximately $50 million or more.

Live From Oregon - An Economic Analysis Of Oregon’S Emerging Live Performance Industry, Jenny Liu, Steve Marotta, Emma Brophy, Rohan Khanvilkar, Hyeoncheol Kim

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

Oregon has a vibrant creative presence, producing a diverse array of artists known on the national scale, in addition to independent artists mostly familiar on the local scene. The state is also home to many commercial and non-profit concerts, music festivals, and other live performance events that attract large numbers of attendees, while also playing host to related businesses big and small spanning musical and theater groups, instrument and gear makers, lighting and sound engineers, graphic designers, and numerous venues. All of these components of the Oregon live performance industry economically impact their communities by providing entertainment and increasing profits …

The Power Of Music – An Economic Analysis Of Oregon’S Emerging Commercial Music Industry, Jenny H. Liu, Steve Marlotta, Emma Brophy, Rohan Khanvilkar, Hyeoncheol Kim

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

Oregon has a vibrant creative presence, producing a diverse array of artists known on the national scale, in addition to independent artists mostly familiar on the local scene. The state is also home to many annual music festivals and live performance events that attract large numbers of attendees, while also playing host to music businesses big and small spanning sound recording studios, mastering engineers, composers, tuners, digital streaming services, graphic designers and music educators. All of these components of the Oregon commercial music industry economically impact their communities by providing entertainment and increasing profits for performance venues, distributing wages, and …