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The Private Rates Of Return To Undergraduate Education By Major, Nick Johnson

Honors Program Theses

The private returns to undergraduate education are important to understand for high school graduates trying to decide between the work force and college. The IRR method is the best measure of the private returns to education because it allows for important variables to be accounted for and includes the time value of money. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of 1972, there are large differences in the returns to college by major. This model allows the returns to college to vary by college selectivity and, through ability, within an individual major.

Learning Not To Think Like An Economist, David R. Ross

Economics Faculty Research and Scholarship

This essay describes my progress bringing the core ideas of economics into conversations with noneconomists about important public policy issues within my faith community, through local politics, and through interdisciplinary conversations in academia. Thinking like an economist is essential to conducting research and performing careful analysis of public policy issues. However, it can reduce the economists’ effectiveness in teaching and interacting with neighbors and political leaders. Effective pedagogy requires that faculty be present as good economists to their neighbors, their fellow citizens, in daily conversations and public policy debates. Our continuing education as teachers of economics requires that we enter …

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

Honors Theses

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 20022004 has been pro-poor. I find that there is some evidence for a convergence …

Two Essays In The Indiana Family Cap Provision, Aimee Williams

Honors Theses

The first federal welfare program in the United States was established under the 1935 Social Security Act. The child welfare component of this bill was entitled Aid to Dependent Children (ADC). While only children were eligible to receive benefits, this program was partially intended to keep women out of the labor force during the depression so they would not take jobs that would otherwise go to men. In the 1950's and 1960's. this program was expanded to allow states to claim federal reimbursement for aid to unemployed parents and the spouse of an unemployed or incapacitated parent, becoming Aid to …

Farmland Preservation Programs In West Virginia: A Preliminary Inquiry Into The Merits Of Purchase Development Rights, Odd Stalebrink, Samuel E. Wilkinson

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

To prevent the loss of farmland in West Virginia, the Voluntary Farmland Protection Act (VFPA) was passed in 2000. This act gives counties and the State authority to develop and fund local farmland protection programs, which typically involve a voluntary sale by a landowner of the right to develop the farmland. Following the purchase, the purchaser (often a government or a land trust) would retire the property. Since the inception of the VFPA, 5,000 acres of farmland have been retired in West Virginia. The objective of the paper is to assess the merit of this legislation in terms of its …

Far From The Commonwealth: A Report On Low-Income Asian Americans In Massachusetts, Michael Liu, Thao Tran, Paul Watanabe

Institute for Asian American Studies Publications

Asian Americans are as diverse in history, language, class, ethnic origin, and demographics as any group in the United States. This complexity is reflected in their economic status. Much attention has focused on the significant economic attainments of many Asian Americans. The fact, however, that a large number of Asian Americans also live in poverty or have low incomes has received much less notice from researchers, foundations, government agencies, and others.

The principal purpose of this report is to bring attention to and shed more light on a significant sector of Asian Americans in Massachusetts, those with low incomes. We …

W. Arthur Lewis In Retrospect, Charles M. Becker, Terry Ann Craigie

Economics: Faculty Publications

This paper reviews several themes from the writings of W. Arthur Lewis, both the first black Nobel Laureate in Economics and the first from a developing country, and examines them from the perspective of two to five decades of hindsight. The paper emphasizes three main interrelated aspects; economic growth, economic dualism, and "the evolution of the economic order"-the forces that drive the prices of goods and relative incomes across countries. Lewis's messages still resonate today, as he foresaw the rise of industrial exports from developing countries-and also that it would not end the large gaps among nations' standards of living. …

The Meaning Of Poverty: Questions Of Distribution And Power, Arthur Macewan

Economics Faculty Publication Series

Focusing on the low-income parts of the world and reviewing the different ways we can define poverty, I first argue that what people generally mean by poverty – or, more broadly, by economic well-being – cannot be adequately captured by a single, absolute measure such as income level or a more complex aggregate such as the Human Development Index. Not only do these measures fail to account for the complexity of human material needs, but they also fail to recognize the importance of distributional issues. The failure to incorporate a consideration of distribution in defining poverty (or, more generally, economic …

2007'S Housing Market: Not Yet Recovering From Recent Ills, Alan Clayton-Matthews

Public Policy and Public Affairs Faculty Publication Series

The Massachusetts economy is currently on a trajectory that is similar to that of the national economy, at least as measured in the aggregate. During the second quarter of the calendar year, the U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.4 percent. During the same period, the Massachusetts economy grew at 3.6 percent annual rate of growth, down from a strong 4.1 percent rate in the first quarter. The state’s economy is being pulled in two directions. On the upside, strong demand for the state’s technology, science, knowledge, and health-based goods and services is creating good job and income …

The Institutional Entrepreneur As Modern Prince: The Strategic Face Of Power In Contested Fields, David Levy, Maureen A. Scully

Management and Marketing Faculty Publication Series

This paper develops a theoretical framework that situates institutional entrepreneurship by drawing from Gramsci’s concept of hegemony to understand the contingent stabilization of organizational fields, and by employing his discussion of the Modern Prince as the collective agent who organizes and strategizes counter-hegemonic challenges. Our framework makes three contributions. First, we characterize the interlaced material, discursive, and organizational dimensions of field structure. Second, we argue that strategy must be examined more rigorously as the mode of action by which institutional entrepreneurs engage with field structures. Third, we argue that institutional entrepreneurship, in challenging the position of incumbent actors and stable …

Washington Dollars And The Puerto Rican Economy: Amounts, Impacts, Alternatives, Arthur Macewan, Angel Ruiz

Economics Faculty Publication Series

By examining the Washington to Puerto Rico flow of funds in some detail and comparing it with the flow of federal funds to the states, this paper demonstrates that the island’s receipt of funds is not uniquely large and cannot be viewed as representing the “largess” of U.S. taxpayers. The funds coming from Washington to Puerto Rico cannot bear the weight of responsibility for the island’s economic problems that various sources have placed upon them. Puerto Rico’s economic ills have to be explained by a larger set of factors. Nonetheless, some of the Washington to Puerto Rico transfer programs may …

Health Care And The Looming Fiscal Crisis In The United States, Michael J. Wasylenko

Economics - All Scholarship

The United States spends a sixth of its GDP on health care. The costs of Medicare and Medicaid have grown along with the cost of health care in general in the United States. The paper addresses the large budget gap that will emerge in Medicare and Medicaid in the decades to come. It describes program financing and some of their main features and explains the projections of the U.S. Congressional Budget Office as well as those of the U.S. appointed Board of Trustees of Social Security, Federal Hospital Insurance and Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds. Finally, the article discusses …

A Study On How Completion Of High School, Bachelor’S, And Master’S Degrees Affects Earnings - February 2005, Divya Ashok

Masters Culminating Experiences (1993-2011)

This project indicates that individuals who completed a high school degree, a bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree have substantial differences in earnings. Drawing data from the Current Population Survey for February 2005 and employing an Ordinary Least Square regression technique, this paper examines the determinants that significantly influence the logarithmic hourly earnings of an individual who completed a high school degree, a bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree. Overall, this project suggests that level of education, sex, age, gender, union membership, geographical region and race are the relevant factors that play an important role in determination of hourly earnings …

Choices For Financing Fiscal And External Deficits, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Newspaper and Magazine Articles

The ongoing debate on the growing trade and current account deficits and fiscal deficit needs to be encouraged as it creates awareness of economic issues among the general public and puts pressure on the policy makers to take corrective action. However, this debate has so far been dominated by a superficial or highly perfunctory analysis perpetuated by two extreme positions. Those who wish to criticize and find fault with the government paint a doom and gloom scenario and argue that deficits are a result of mismanagement and wrong economic policies pursued and pose a serious threat to macroeconomic stability and …

Pakistan's External Sector: An Analytical Survey 1999–2000 To 2005–06, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Newspaper and Magazine Articles

Recent media reports, commentators and editorials have raised questions about the growing trade deficit faced by Pakistan in the current fiscal year, as well as, about the rise in the absolute level of External Debt. In raising these issues, a serious concern has been expressed about Pakistan's ability to pay its external obligations and the impact on foreign reserves in the future. Alternatively, it is argued, that these obligations can be paid only by incurring higher debt from abroad and thus increasing debt burden.

What Is Fiscal Deficit?, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Newspaper and Magazine Articles

Fiscal deficit, Revenue deficit, Primary deficit, Government expenditure, Tax revenue, External account, Balance of payments, Current account, Capital account, Foreign exchange reserves

Modeling Small Business Growth, Migration Behavior, Local Public Services And Household Income In Appalachia: A Spatial Simultaneous Equations Approach, Gebremeskel H. Gebremariam

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

In this paper, a spatial simultaneous growth equilibrium model of small business growth, migration behavior, median household income and local public expenditures is developed. The model is empirically estimated by Generalized Spatial Three-Stage Least Squares estimator using count-level data from Appalachia for 1990-2000. The results suggest the existence of interdependence among the growth rates of small business, gross in-and out-migration, median household income and local public services in the form of feedback simultaneities, spatial autoregressive lag and spatial cross-regressive lag simultaneities. The findings also suggest the existence of conditional convergence with respect to endogenous variables of the model. The speeds …

An Empirical Analysis Of Employment, Migration, Local Public Services And Regional Income Growth In Appalachia, Gebremeskel H. Gebremariam, Tesfa Gebremedhin, Peter V. Schaeffer, Randall Jackson, Tim Phipps

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

This study develops a five-equation simultaneous system in a partial lagadjustment growth-equilibrium framework. It improved previous models in the growthequilibrium tradition by explicitly modeling local government and regional income in the growth process. It also explicitly modeled gross in-migration and gross out-migration separately in order to spell out the differential effects. The results show the existence of feedback simultaneities among the endogenous variables of the model. This finding is important from economic policy perspective because it indicates that sector specific policies should be integrated and harmonized in order to achieve the desirable outcome. Under this circumstance, looking at the direct …

A Spatial Model Of Regional Variations In Business Growth In Appalachian States, Gebremeskel H. Gebremariam, Tesfa Gebremedhin, Peter V. Schaeffer, Tim Phipps, Randall Jackson

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

In this study, a spatial growth equilibrium model of business growth is developed and empirically estimated by Generalized Spatial Two-Stage Least Squares (GS2SLS) estimator using cross-sectional data from Appalachian States counties for 1990-2000. Beside the existence of spatial spillover effects, the results suggest that agglomerative effects that arise from both the demand and the supply sides were active in contributing to business growth in the study area during the study period. The policy implications of these findings are: (1) Regional cooperation of counties and communities is advisable and may even in fact be necessary to design appropriate policies that encourage …

Impacts Of Regional Growth On Farmland Development In The Northeast U.S., Yohannes G. Hailu, Cheryl Brown

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

This study models the relationship between regional growth and agricultural land development in the Northeast United States. A system of simultaneous equations is estimated using three-stage-least squares on county-level data. Results indicate that regional growth puts upward pressure on agricultural land values and downward pressure on the stock of agricultural land. Farm performance and some farmland protection policies were not effective in limiting farmland development.

Income Inequality And The Probability Of Violent Revolt, Noah Cecil

Honors Papers

This paper examines the effect of income inequality on the impetus of an organized dissident group to initiate a "revolt" in an attempt to wrest power from the government regionally or countrywide. After suggesting alterations and extensions of a mathematical framework developed by Blomberg, Hess, and Weerapana (2004) income inequality, economic growth, urbanization, and political rights data from 102 countries from 1972-1999 are used to determine their respective influences on the likelihood of a revolt being initiated in a given year. Income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient is found to be statistically significant in determining the likelihood of …

On The Relation Between Pay And Performance: Presidents Of Liberal Arts Colleges, Imran Lalani

Honors Papers

This paper uses panel data on the salaries and benefits of liberal arts college presidents during the period 2001-02 to 2003-04 to understand what presidents are rewarded for. We try and develop a basic framework in which to understand the president's role in the institution, and attempt to explain what some claim is a combination of high wages and relatively weak pay for performance.

The rising income inequality in America has been the subject of much heated debate in the recent past. 'Excessive' executive pay has been a recurrent theme during 2007 so far, with the Senate gearing up to …

Premium Risk And Healthcare Policy, Matthew Coffina

Honors Papers

In this paper, I analyze four alternative policies that address "premium risk": the risk that health insurance premiums will increase if an individual acquires a chronic condition. They are: premium risk insurance, community rating, anti-discrimination laws for large firms, and government subsidies. I show that community rating and anti-discrimination laws provide incomplete protection, and have the potential to create welfare-reducing distortions in incentives, while subsidies can be designed that mimic the efficiency of premium risk insurance. While the economic concepts behind these conclusions are well-documented and well-understood, I believe my own model adds value in the form of simplicity and …

Adam Smith And Poverty, Jonathan B. Wight

English Faculty Publications

Can we end poverty in America? Does economic theory offer a solution? Humility would be a good starting place, because systemic problems like generational poverty rarely stem from single causes. Putting the broken pieces together is difficult when some edges are sharp, some are shattered, and others missing. This essay draws on insights from Adam Smith in order to examine the problem of poverty. It focuses on a case study involving Serena Robins (the real names have been altered).

Deficit Reduction In The U.S. Senate : The Search For Moral Leadership In The Budget Process, David Kendall Roberts

Honors Theses

Contemporary deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility are central to the economic wellbeing of future generations as well as their ability to freely decide their own policy priorities. Many scholarly publications and popular commentary on budget policy describe the obstacles to deficit reduction and political leaders' unwillingness to address the nation's long-term fiscal problems. However, current discussions of budget deficits and the national debt have not been informed by a comprehensive empirical analysis of attempts to reduce the deficit. This thesis examines all deficit-affecting floor amendments to budget legislation from 1975 to 2005 in order to assess whether the bleak account …

Are You Sure You're Saving Enough For Retirement?, Jonathan Skinner

Dartmouth Scholarship

Many view the soon-to-retire Baby Boomers as woefully unprepared for their golden years, while other economists have taken a more sanguine view of American levels of saving. And if Americans are failures at saving enough for retirement, why are some retirees so happy? The seemingly simple question of "Am I saving enough for retirement?" is apparently not so simple at all. Instead, it touches on a variety of deeper issues in economics, psychology, and health policy. I use the program ESPlanner to present life-cycle retirement wealth targets for a range of incomes and situations typical of American Economic Association members. …

Reemployment And Earnings Recovery Among Older Unemployment Insurance Claimants, Christopher J. O'Leary, Randall W. Eberts

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The rate of involuntary job loss among older workers has increased in recent years. Previous research has found that after job separation older workers take longer to get back in jobs, and experience bigger earnings declines than younger prime age workers. These studies were based on surveys targeted at older and dislocated workers, which rely on retrospective interviews of strategic samples from the general labor force. Previous studies have not explicitly accounted for the availability of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits between jobs. This paper compares the adjustment to involuntary unemployment of older and younger prime age UI claimants, using a …

Outsourcing To Staffing Services: How Manufacturers' Use Of Staffing Agencies Affects Employment And Productivity Measurement, Matthew Dey, Susan N. Houseman, Anne E. Polivka

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

A Close Look At Foreign Aid Fungibility And Government Spending: Evidence From Sub Saharan Africa, Seifu Zerihun Gebrehanna

Masters Theses

Foreign aid in different times and at different places has been highly effective, totally ineffective, and everything in between. Primarily, aid is intended to boost public spending in social and economic sector of the recipient government. However, foreign aid, in some cases used for 'non-productive' or 'wasteful' forms of recurrent expenditure such as enlarging the army or paying off the debts of parastatal organizations, increases of salaries of government officials. Hence, aid has a fungible portion in which it will be difficult to determine its impact on government spending. In this study, nine countries panel data were used for the …

Investigating Biodiversity: An Economic Analysis Of Global Endangered Species Loss, Kyle Baumgartner

Masters Theses

There has been a rapid increase in interest among economists to examine the economic causes of biodiversity loss. The goal of this thesis is to investigate biodiversity loss using percentage of endangered species across countries for a three year period of time. This is accomplished by developing a series of models to examine the impact of various economic factors on biodiversity loss, in this case using percentage of threatened species as a proxy.

The results indicate that the development of economic growth can impact endangered species loss. The results also demonstrate that there is a relationship between percentage of endangered …