Digital Commons Network^™

Non-Participatory Poverty, Carrie Curtis

Undergraduate Research Symposium (UGRS)

In a capitalistic market society, all individuals should have an equal opportunity to participate, with varying extents, in consumerism. Democracy entitles one to political participation but people have come to value consumer participation as having more importance as shopping and the exchange of goods and services have become an important part of everyday living. Yet not everyone can participate in consumerism and they end up suffering, especially the children living in poverty. These children internalize the message that since they cannot participate in a society based on material consumption, they cannot belong. Poverty not only causes individuals to experience their …

The Economic Impact Of Project Arriba On El Paso, Texas, David A. Schauer, Mathew Mcelroy

IPED Technical Reports

Project ARRIBA is an El Paso-based economic and workforce development program. As of the end of 2006, Project ARRIBA has assisted over 1000 individuals in building their stock of human capital with the intent of increasing their work-life earning capacity. The purpose of this report is to identify the extent to which this has occurred and to assess the economic impact of the Project’s activities and the program graduates on the regional economic system.

An Equitable, Efficient, And Implementable Scheme To Control Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Arthur J. Caplan, Emilson C.D. Silva

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

We design an international scheme to control global externalities in which autonomous regions choose their own emissions levels in anticipation of interregional resource transfers implemented by an international agency. This agency follows a proportional equity principle, which preserves the status-quo ratio of regional welfare levels. We show that it is individually rational for each region to participate in the proposed international scheme and that regional environmental authorities choose policies that fully internalize the global externality. Although based on an admittedly ideal scheme, these results are especially noteworthy in light of the call for various forms of transfers in international agreements …

Oxytocin Increases Generosity In Humans, Paul J. Zak, Angela Stanton, Sheila Ahmadi

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Human beings routinely help strangers at costs to themselves. Sometimes the help offered is generous-offering more than the other expects. The proximate mechanisms supporting generosity are not well-understood, but several lines of research suggest a role for empathy. In this study, participants were infused with 40 IU oxytocin (OT) or placebo and engaged in a blinded, one-shot decision on how to split a sum of money with a stranger that could be rejected. Those on OT were 80% more generous than those given a placebo. OT had no effect on a unilateral monetary transfer task dissociating generosity from altruism. OT …

Need For Social Policy To Recognise That People Are Excluded When They Cannot Afford To Give Their Children A Holiday, Bernadette Quinn

Articles

This research investigated how access to an annual holiday can benefit children living in poverty and their families. It studied children who had the opportunity to avail of a child-centred, structured group holiday provided by three NGOs. Study participants were drawn from a cross-section of disadvantaged areas in Dublin, comprising two inner-city and four suburban areas. Data collection involved 75 children and 35 guardians in the first stage, and 27 children and 16 guardians in subsequent stages. In total, 16 families participated in all stages of the research process, which used qualitative methods, including focus groups, in-depth interviews and observation. …

Indiana State University Financial Report 2007, Indiana State University

Financial Reports

No abstract provided.

Selected Lid Projects In New England, New England Environmental Finance Center

Planning

Examples of low impact development (LID) projects in each state in New England.

The Effect Of Social Capital On Group Loan Repayment: Evidence From Field Experiments, Alessandra Cassar, Luke Crowley, Bruce Wydick

Economics Faculty Publications

An important question to microfinance is the relevance of existing social capital in target communities to the performance of group lending. This research presents evidence from field experiments in South Africa and Armenia, in which subjects participate in trust and microfinance games. We present evidence that personal trust between group members and peer homogeneity are more important to group loan repayment than general societal trust or acquaintanceship between members. We also find some evidence of reciprocity: those who have been helped by other group members in the past are more likely to contribute in the future.

Grandma Was Right: Why Cohabitation Undermines Relational Happiness, But Is Increasing Anyway, Bruce Wydick

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper uses a game theoretic model to explain empirical research which has revealed higher relational satisfaction among married couples than cohabiting couples, as well as among married couples who did not cohabit before marriage. Despite these findings, in recent decades cohabitation rates have dramatically increased in both Europe and the United States. Instrumental variables estimations on data from 28 industrialized countries and 50 U.S. states show cohabitation strongly correlated with increases in women’s labor force participation, where a 10 percent increase in women’s labor force participation results in a 6.4 to 14.6 percent increase in cohabitation.

The Security Rule, Stephen M. Jerbic, Stephen S. Wu

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Housing Silicon Valley: A 20 Year Plan To End The Affordable Housing Crisis, Shishir Mathur, Alicia Parker

Faculty Publications, Urban and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

No. 45: Medical Recruits: The Temptation Of South African Health Care Professionals, Christian M. Rogerson

Southern African Migration Programme

Health workers are one of the categories of skilled professionals most affected by globalization. Over the past decade, there has emerged a substantial body of research that tracks patterns of international migration of health personnel, assesses causes and consequences, and debates policy responses at global and national scales. Within this literature, the case of South Africa is attracting growing interest. For almost 15 years South Africa has been the target of a ‘global raiding’ of skilled professionals by several developed countries. How to deal with the consequences of the resultant outflow of health professionals is a core policy issue for …

The Role Of Economics In Achieving Welfare Gains For Animals, Jennifer Fearing, Gaverick Matheny

State of the Animals 2007

The demand for animal products and services is a powerful economic force in society, and multibillion-dollar industries are organized around this demand. These industries often face increased costs by improving animal welfare and are quick to use economic arguments against proposed welfare reforms (see sidebar on page 169). These arguments, while often specious, can influence consumers, voters, and policy makers. Citizens are less likely to support animal welfare reforms they’ve been told will double their shopping bill or impoverish family farmers.

Animal welfare advocates cannot respond to these economic arguments with moral rhetoric alone. Instead, non-governmental observers (NGOs) must challenge …

Assessing The State Of Tennessee’S Environment, Mary F. Evans

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

This 2007 volume of An Economic Report to the Governor of the State of Tennessee is the thirty-first in a series of annual reports compiled in response to requests by state government officials for assistance in achieving greater interdepartmental consistency in planning and budgeting efforts sensitive to the overall economic environment. Both short-term, or business cycle-sensitive forecasts, and longer-term, or trend forecasts, are provided in this report.

What Is Ailing The German Economy? A Critical Analysis Of German Social Market Economics, Robert T. Cheek Jr.

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

This paper offers a narrative historical description of the German Social Market Economy, from its inception following World War II, up to the recent Agenda 2010 reforms enacted under the administration of Chancellor Gerhard Schroder. It is the purpose of this work to explore why the German Social Market System enjoyed such a high degree of success in its early years, and which flaws might be causing the chronic problems of low growth and high unemployment that have plagued Germany more recently. In particular, the paper argues that a high-cost and highly inflexible labor market resulting from Germany's system of …

Science, Technology And The Garden Of Maine: Industrial Farming In Aroostook County, 1850-1900, Thomas J. H. Reznick

Senior Scholars Papers in Computer Science

In the mid-nineteenth century, northern Maine farmers existed amidst tension between capitalist and non-capitalist forces. This conflict is best described in terms of recent discourse on the question of rural capitalism, a topic debated by such scholars as Allan Kulikoff and Christopher Clark. This is an intricate and nuanced debate that this paper does not intend to treat with. Suffice to say, Maine farmers were caught between traditional social institutions associated with their trade that did not entail market production, and the rise of rural capitalism associated with burgeoning new markets. However, by the turn of the century, northern Maine …

2007-6 Health, Economic Resources And The Work Decisions Of Older Men, John Bound, Todd R. Stinebrickner, Timothy Waidmann

Economic Policy Research Institute. EPRI Working Papers

No abstract provided.

No. 47: The Haemorrhage Of Health Professionals From South Africa: Medical Opinions, Wade Pendleton, Jonathan Crush, Kate Lefko-Everett

Southern African Migration Programme

The health sector has been especially hard hit by the brain drain from South Africa. Unless the push factors are successfully addressed, intense interest in emigration will continue to translate into departure for as long as demand exists abroad (and there is little sign of this letting up.) Health professional decision-making about leaving, staying or returning is poorly-understood and primarily anecdotal. To understand how push and pull factors interact in decision- making (and the mediating role of variables such as profession, race, class, age, gender income and experience), the opinions of health professionals themselves need to be sought.

This paper …

Vol. 8, No. 1: South African Immigration Reform, Vincent Williams

Southern African Migration Programme

No abstract provided.

2007 American Incentive System Almanac, Don P. Diffine Ph.D.

Belden Center Monographs

No abstract provided.

Global Impact Of Energy Use In Middle East Oil Economies: A Modeling Framework For Analyzing Technology-Energy-Environment-Economy Chain, Hodjat Ghadimi

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

To explore choices of improving energy efficiency in energy-rich countries of the Middle East, this study lays out an integrated modeling framework for analyzing the technology-energy-environment-economy chain for the case of an energy exporting country. This framework consists of an input output process-flow model (IOPM) and a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The former investigates the micro-level production processes and sectoral interdependencies to show how alternative technologies affect the energy intensity of the economy (Lin, Polenske 1998 and Polenske, McMichael 2002). The latter belongs to the optimal depletion category of CGE models that analyzes energy economy interaction; it is an …

Part 1: Back To Earth: The Regional Economy Slows Down, Regional Studies Institute, Old Dominion University

State of the Region Reports: Hampton Roads

After a spectacular first half of this decade, the regional economy decelerated in 2007. A combination of declining rates of growth in defense spending, the closing of the Ford Norfolk Assembly Plant and a sluggish national economy reduced the growth of the regional economy to the national average. Looming base realignment and closure reductions beginning in 2008 bode to continue this trend.

Part 3: 'Tis Better To Give Than To Receive: Charitable Giving In Hampton Roads, Regional Studies Institute, Old Dominion University

State of the Region Reports: Hampton Roads

We are a generous lot in Hampton Roads. The region’s citizens give a higher proportion of their incomes to charity than the national average and African Americans, who direct very high proportions of their incomes to churches, lead the parade. Overall, the region’s citizens give 8.2 percent of their annual incomes to charity, easily topping the national average of 6.4 percent.

Part 2: Hidden In Plain Sight: The Ship Repair Industry In Hampton Roads, Regional Studies Institute, Old Dominion University

State of the Region Reports: Hampton Roads

Private-sector shipbuilding and repair is big business in Hampton Roads and accounts, directly and indirectly, for about 15 percent of the total value of the region’s economic activity. More than 160 ship construction and repair firms in the area employ approximately 24,600 people, whose typical compensation is one-third above the regional average.

Part 5: Affordable Housing In Hampton Roads: Facts And Issues, Regional Studies Institute, Old Dominion University

State of the Region Reports: Hampton Roads

The rapid increase in regional housing prices in recent years (97 percent between 1997 and 2006) has made it much more difficult for some people to own their own home. Between these years, the annual interest and principal payments required for a typical home purchase rose from only 21.5 percent of the median income of our region’s households to 32 percent. Economically viable solutions to affordable housing challenges nearly always include increased housing density in order to make more moderately priced housing profitable to builders.

Coastal Empire Economic Monitor, 4th Quarter, 2007, Armstrong Atlantic State University Center For Regional Analysis

Coastal Empire Economic Monitor

The Coastal Empire Economic Indicators are designed to provide continuously updating quarterly snapshots of the Savannah Metropolitan Statistical Area economy. The coincident index measures the current economic heartbeat of the region. The leading index provides a short term forecast of the region’s economic activity in six to nine months.

Towards A Vision 2030: Direction Of Industrial Development In Pakistan, Japan International Cooperation Agency ., International Development Center Of Japan .

Business Review

Pakistan needs to find out ways to promote expansion of the dynamic market economy. This Study attempted to present ways to promote industries, specifically in order to achieve “well-directed economic development” to be broken down into: upgrading of industrial structure, control of the underground economy and proper development of economic infrastructure. In addition, in relation to “building economic clusters, unique to its locality”, concrete recommendations should be presented for the purpose of “well-directed regional development”. The Study selected seven manufacturing sectors – textile, food processing, automobile, electronic & electrical, chemical, housing related and IT industries –, and looked into their …

Voices Of The Poor: Poverty And Growth In Albania, Magda Tsaneva

Undergraduate Research Symposium (UGRS)

This paper uses three waves of panel surveys at the household level to study growth and poverty in Albania over the period 2002-2004. It attempts to answer two main questions. The first question is directed at finding the micro determinants of growth and aims to expose the obstacles households face to improve their economic situation. The main focus of the analysis is to investigate the importance of health, education, and infrastructure indicators for income growth. The second question asks whether growth in Albania during the period 2002-2004 has been pro-poor. I find that there is some evidence for a convergence …

Kentucky Annual Economic Report 2007, Kenneth R. Troske, John Garen, Devanathan Sudharshan, Roy A. Sigafus

Kentucky Annual Economic Report

No abstract provided.

Nova Southeastern University 2007-2008 Annual Report, Nova Southeastern University

NSU Annual Reports

No abstract provided.