Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding Employee Engagement: A Mixed-Methods Study, Joren M. Scharn

Theses & Dissertations

For over 4 decades businesses around the world have been conducting employee satisfaction surveys at regular intervals and this surfaced a strong positive relationship between employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and overall company performance. In recent years however, academics and researchers have reopened the debate on whether employee or job satisfaction metrics are in fact reliable indicators of productivity, suggesting that employee engagement has a far stronger correlation to productivity. This study addresses two interrelated problems that are associated with a practice that is common in working environments all over the world. According to literature, it is generally accepted that (a) …

Boosting: Why You Can Use The Hp Filter, Peter C.B. Phillips, Zhentao Shi

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

The Hodrick-Prescott (HP) filter is one of the most widely used econometric methods in applied macroeconomic research. The technique is nonparametric and seeks to decompose a time series into a trend and a cyclical component unaided by economic theory or prior trend specification. Like all nonparametric methods, the HP filter depends critically on a tuning parameter that controls the degree of smoothing. Yet in contrast to modern nonparametric methods and applied work with these procedures, empirical practice with the HP filter almost universally relies on standard settings for the tuning parameter that have been suggested largely by experimentation with macroeconomic …

Addressing Housing Deficit In Nigeria: Issues, Challenges And Prospects, Emmanuel Abolo Moore

Economic and Financial Review

The article examines the dimension of housing deficit in Nigeria, assess government intervention in tackling the problem of house shortages and proffer solutions that can help reduce the deficit considerably. Basic conceptual issues relevant to housing deficit in Nigeria is first discussed. These issues include: housing, housing deficit, urbanisation, and housing policy. This is followed by an examination of the current level of housing deficit in Nigeria which put existing housing stock at 23 per 1000 inhabitant; housing deficit as at December 2018 at 20 million units (15.0 per cent increase); N21 trillion required to finance the deficit. A look …

Employment Outcomes Of The Clarksdale Hope Vi Program, Ramona Stone

Public Health Sciences Faculty Publications

The HOPE VI initiative aimed to reshape neighborhoods in terms of their resident socioeconomic characteristics, business activity, levels of community collaboration, and economic growth. The goal of this research was to examine the relationship between education and employment while controlling for the type of housing received at relocation. This paper is part of a larger quasi-experimental research evaluation. Data sources included administrative records, baseline and follow-up surveys. The survey data was collected from the main adult in the family during face-to-face interviews two years apart. The questionnaire collected information about residents’ demographics, socioeconomic, health, housing, and satisfaction with the support …

An Analysis Of The Economic Barriers To Oral Healthcare Access In Omaha, Nebraska, Elias Witte

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Existing research regarding the analysis of the distribution of oral healthcare practitioners has been conducted across large metropolitan areas within the United States in order to determine the magnitude of healthcare resource deficits. Such research has demonstrated significant deficits in access to oral healthcare predominantly in lower-income urban areas. Consequently, patients in these socioeconomically disadvantaged areas have less access to routine oral care, which impacts their overall health and well-being. While there is an abundance of studies examining this issue in other localities across the country, there is a lack of information regarding the distribution of oral healthcare practitioners in …

Analyzing The Necessity And Feasibility Of The Freedom Dividend, Patrick Hodson

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Job displacement stemming from automation has already taken away millions of jobs in the United States. Andrew Yang fears that future advancements could replace further jobs and exacerbate the wealth inequality already prevalent in our country. This has motivated his plan for change, the Freedom Dividend. This paper was designed to begin with an analysis of the motives for Yang’s plan. It then goes on to cover the details of his plan and assess the economic and administrative feasibility. The paper is concluded by looking at the potential outcomes of the plan and identifying major problem areas that need to …

Institution And Housing Development: Mirage, Magic And Miracle Of Low- Cost Housing In Nigeria, Olukayode S. Oyediran

Economic and Financial Review

The article examines housing development with reference to the challenges encountered by the various low- cost housing interventions in Nigeria. The article observed that despite institutional interventions from both the fiscal and monetary authorities, the Nigerian housing deficit still remains a challenge to the government, stakeholders and the citizen. Challenges of adequate access to housing finance include affordability, access to land, cost of construction, rising cost of construction resources (materials and labour). The first section contextualises the challenges of the Nigerian housing deficit in the milieu of population explosion and urbanisation. The second section examines the theoretical issues bordering on …

The Land Use Act And The Nigerian Housing Sector, Yusuf Yahaya

Economic and Financial Review

The article discusses the Land Use Act and the and how it has affected developments in the Nigerian housing sector. Prior to the Land Use Act, all the existing tenure systems encouraged land holding without an obligation to develop them, fragmentation and uncoordinated alienation, hoarding speculatively for value appreciation and without precise documentation. Consequently, the Land Use Act was enacted to: make land easily accessible to all Nigerians; prevent speculative purchases of communal land; streamline and simplify the management and ownership of land; make land available to government at all levels for development; provide the system of government administration of …

Housing Deficit In Nigeria: Issues, Challenges And Prospects, Akpan Ekpo

Economic and Financial Review

This article examines the issues, challenges as well as prospects in the Nigerian housing sector. Following the introductory section, section 2 provides stylised facts about the real estate sector in Nigeria; section 3 investigates the challenges facing the housing sector in Nigeria, as a foundation towards proffering viable policy options in eradicating the housing deficit in the country. Section 4 provides the policies capable of curbing housing deficit in Nigeria, while section 5 discusses the prospects. Section 6 concludes the article.

Addressing Housing Deficit In Nigeria: Issues, Challenges And Prospects, Aliyu Rafindadi Sanusi

Economic and Financial Review

The article first, provides a detailed overview of the housing deficit problems in Nigeria and the Government’s efforts at resolving them. The next section briefly conceptualises and reviews the various issues and challenges faced in addressing the housing deficit in Nigeria. The article then discusses the prospects for resolving the housing crisis in Nigeria.

Addressing Housing Deficit In Nigeria: Issues, Challenges And Prospects, Ibi S. Ajayi

Economic and Financial Review

The article provides a brief review of housing policies under various regimes in Nigeria namely: the colonial era; independence and beyond; The Shagari administration (1979 -1983); Obasanjo regime under civilian rule14 (1999-2007); Yar’dua regime (29 May 2007 – 9 February 2010); Goodluck Jonathan regime (2010 – 2015); The Buhari administration (2015-2019). The article then discussed the problems militating against the achievement of targets in housing as well as the issues and opportunities. The article concluded by stressing the need to: maintain a conducive macro-economic environment which entails the maintenance of low inflation, low interest rates and stable exchange rates; deepen …

Strategies To Build Economic Strength In Lagging Areas: Investment, Tax Incentives, Wage Subsidies, Worker Training, And Education, Michael J. Wasylenko

Center for Policy Research

No abstract provided.

Housing Sector, Economic Growth And Development: Conceptual Issues And Theoretical Underpinnings, Uwatt B. Uwatt

Economic and Financial Review

This article provides a theoretical overview of the contribution of housing sector in economic growth and development. The sector plays a very important role in the social and economic development of a country through its impact on major macroeconomic indicators such as: employment, savings, investment and labour productivity. After the introduction the article examined: conceptual issues on housing, economic growth and development; housing and economic growth and development: theoretical issues; housing, economic growth and development debate: historical perspective. The article concludes by recommending that: Governments in less-developed countries can intervene in the housing sector through comprehensive policies and large-scale investments, …

Strengthening Institutions For Housing Delivery In Nigeria, Ademola Bamidele

Economic and Financial Review

This article discusses innovative structural reforms and investments that can improve housing delivery in Nigeria. Following this introduction, we would focus on the issue of housing as a fundamental human right, then a review of housing developments in Nigeria. In examining how to improve housing delivery in Nigeria, the article underscores the need for strengthening public institutions through the application of appropriate policies that would enhance optimum utilisation of existing resources for efficient housing delivery. The article highlights the need for renewed collaboration and commitment particularly among stakeholders and putting in place, specific workable institutional arrangements that would enhance sound …

The Concentration Of Household Income In The United States By Race/Ethnicity, 1967 - 2018, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report studies income distribution in the United States between 1967 and 2018 by race and ethnicity.

Methods: The data were derived from the US Census Bureau's Historical Income Tables: Income Inequality

Results: The upper 5% of households controlled 17% of total household income in 1967 and 23% in 2018. The upper 20% of households accounted for 44% of all income in 1967 and 52% in 2018. Economic growth, which has been impressive in the period under consideration, did not result in rising household incomes across the social hierarchy. Between 1967 and 2018 the upper 5% of income-earning households …

Examining Racial & Ethnic Disparities In The Reach Of The Medicare Shared Savings Program, Lindsey Arneson

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

It is important to understand the quality of health care for racial and ethnic minorities covered under the largest U.S. government-run insurance program, Medicare, because the demographics of the U.S. are becoming older and more diverse. A new value-based program under Medicare is the Shared Savings Program (MSSP), which creates incentives to improve care quality and health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries with a specific focus on increasing the provision of preventive care services. This capstone project aims to understand the representation of racial/ethnic minority Medicare beneficiaries, namely African Americans/Blacks and Hispanics/Latinxs, that receive care from providers or facilities (i.e., Accountable …

Borderplex Business Barometer, Volume 3, Number 12, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Steven L. Fullerton, Ana Gutierrez Zubiate, Ignacio Santana

Border Region Modeling Project

No abstract provided.

Borderplex Economic Outlook To 2021, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Steven L. Fullerton

Border Region Modeling Project

No abstract provided.

The Future Development Of Reits In China, Jia Sun

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) is a type of trust fund or corporation that pools the funds of a large number of investors by issuing a certificate of income and invest the raised funds in real estate projects that are managed by a specialized investment institution. The real estate investment risk is moderate, and the rent is stable, but the capital threshold is high, and it is difficult for small and medium investors to enter the market. The invention of REITs aims to solve this problem, through the collection of funds, so that small and medium investors can enter the …

Country Roads, Take Me Away: Coal Mining And Migration In West Virginia, 1971-2010, James J. Slaughter

Honors Theses

West Virginia’s population peaked in 1950. Parallel to this, employment in the coal mining industry peaked in 1948. Popular discourse links these two trends together. It is suggested that the decline of the coal mining industry, which was previously a stable source of employment, has led West Virginians to leave the state searching for better job opportunities elsewhere. This thesis uses first-difference regression models to analyze the relationship between lagged year-to-year changes in coal-mining employment and year-to-year changes in net-migration to and from West Virginia. A positive and statistically significant relationship is found between 1-year lagged changes in coal mining …

Using Behavior Economic Nudges To Facilitate Client Follow-Through In Financial Coaching, Charlene Hurst

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While benevolence-based programs have been a large part of meeting immediate financial needs of the poor, they lack the relational aspect needed to facilitate long-term behavior change. Recently many social service organizations have adopted financial coaching as a promising replacement for benevolence programming. The field of coaching has dealt with its own challenges. Most coaching practitioners surveyed in 2016 and 2019 acknowledged lack of client follow-through as their number one challenge. Behavior economics offered nudges as a solution. Nudges are cues placed within the physical environment to prod clients toward behavior change. A quantitative field study was conducted to evaluate …

Harnessing The Power Of Social Incentives To Curb Shirking In Teams, Brice Corgnet, Brian C. Gunia, Roberto Hernán González

ESI Working Papers

We study several solutions to shirking in teams that trigger social incentives by reshaping the workplace social context. Using an experimental design, we manipulate social pressure at work by varying the type of workplace monitoring and the extent to which employees engage in social interaction. This design allows us to assess the effectiveness as well as the popularity of each solution. Despite similar effectiveness in boosting productivity across solutions, only organizational systems involving social interaction (via chat) were at least as popular as a baseline treatment. This suggests that any solution based on promoting social interaction is more likely to …

The Role Of Career And Wage Incentives In Labor Productivity: Evidence From A Two-Stage Field Experiment In Malawi, Hyuncheol Kim, Seonghoon Kim, Thomas Kim

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study how career and wage incentives affect labor productivity through self-selection and incentive effect channels using a two-stage field experiment in Malawi. First, recent secondary school graduates were hired with either career or wage incentives. After employment, a half of workers with career incentives randomly received wage incentives, and a half of workers with wage incentives randomly received career incentives. Career incentives attract higher-performing workers than wage incentives, but do not increase productivity conditional on selection. Wage incentives increase productivity for those recruited through career incentives. Observable characteristics are limited in explaining selection effects of entry-level workers.

The Rise Of Anti-Immigration Populist Radical Right Parties: The Effect Of The Syrian Conflict On Refugee Resettlement And Migration Policies In Germany And Austria, Sara Kouchehbagh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The effects of Syrian migration in Europe have revolutionized refugee resettlement globally. Most immigration and refugee problems have historically been settled similarly post WWII, however, Syria is the largest refugee crisis since WWII. It is important to learn how to respond to future conflicts with displacement and resettlement affecting Western countries that are unprepared to respond to a conflict of such magnitude. This thesis will compare previous conflicts and the Syrian conflict, while highlighting the resilient political momentum of reactionary new political groups in European states, particularly Germany and Austria.

The research and results from this study will include data …

Cross-Border Shopping And Employment Patterns In The Southwestern United States, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Adam G. Walke

Departmental Papers (E & F)

Price differentials, among other factors, persuade many residents of Northern Mexico to shop in the Southwestern United States border region. Employment patterns in the latter region are studied using a set of control variables and two indicators that are likely to influence crossborder shopping patterns. The first is a real exchange rate index, which captures changes in relative prices in the United States and Mexico. The second is real per capita gross state product in Mexican states adjacent to the international boundary. Both of these variables are found to impact retail and restaurant employment in the United States border zone, …

The Spillover Effect Of Marketing Discolored Beef On Consumer Preferences For Nondiscolored Beef, Ryan Feuz, F. Bailey Norwood, Ranjith Ramanathan

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

Consumers prefer bright, cherry-red retail beef. Retailers often mark down the price of discolored beef for quick sale. However, following this practice could result in a net loss of revenue if consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for nondiscolored beef is negatively affected by the presence of discolored beef in the consumer choice set. Through a hypothetical online survey and a controlled in-person experiment, we determine that marketing discolored beef together with nondiscolored beef increases most consumers’ evaluation of, but not their WTP for, nondiscolored beef.

Child Poverty Has Been Declining In Single-Mother Families, But The Gap Remains Large, Xiaoyan Zhang

Population Health Research Brief Series

Family structure (whether a child lives in a single parent or married family) is a strong predictor of childhood poverty. While childhood poverty has been on the decline, there is still a high rate of poverty among children in single-mother families, affecting the health of these children. This data slice describes the trends of childhood poverty among different family structures in the U.S.

Which Sectors Hold The Key To India's Future Economic Growth?, Hardik A. Marfatia

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

This paper explores sectors that hold the key to India's future economic growth. The forecasts of economic growth from an autoregressive distributed lag model with stock market sectoral indices are analyzed against the benchmark autoregressive model forecasts across several forecast horizons. Results show that the information from sectoral indices improves forecasts of economic growth. However, the forecast superiority is not uniform across sectors and horizons. Auto, consumers' spending, material, metal, oil and gas, and realty sectors provide the most forecasting gains. In contrast, bankex, capital goods, finance, and industrial sectors provide superior forecasts only at horizons above one year. FMCG …

Convening The World: True Access And Global, Synchronous Pedagogy In Regis University’S Master Of Development Practice, Emily Van Houweling, Nina Miller

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

This articles describes the characteristics of the global classroom in the Master of Development Practice (MDP) at Regis University and the many ways it expresses the Jesuit mission. The MDP program is grounded in the Jesuit ideals of inclusive access, cura personlis and social justice. Using Zoom videoconferencing, we synchronously connect with our students around the world. The second half of the article describes the research we are undertaking in our global classroom. Our pedagogy pushes the boundaries of what is possible in development education with a global student body in a synchronous classroom. In this environment we are investigating …

Essays On Agricultural Water Pollution And Human Health, Na Lu

Economics ETDs

This dissertation mainly focuses on agricultural policies, water pollution and human health. Chapter.2 examines the causal impact of agricultural water pollution on individual health outcomes. The findings suggest that agricultural water pollution worsens health outcomes and these adverse health effects appear to be largely due to contaminated drinking water. Chapter.3 explores both of the intended wealth effect and unintended pollution effect on human health caused by China’s agricultural support polices. I find that although the income effect dominates on reducing the overall sickness, the pollution effect is more substantial on the diarrhea incidence and adult BMI. Income affects slightly higher …