Digital Commons Network^™

The New River Gorge Area Economic Outlook: 2020-2024, Brian Lego, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

The New River Gorge Area enjoyed its second calendar year of growth in 2018 but despite recent growth in coal production and construction activity, the region’s economy continues to struggle in some ways with the lingering effects of a deep economic downturn that occurred between 2012 and 2016. In this report, we present a detailed discussion of the New River Gorge Area’s recent economic performance along with our forecast for the likely path of economic activity over the next five years.

The Eastern Panhandle Economic Outlook: 2020-2024, Brian Lego, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

The Eastern Panhandle (EPH) has been West Virginia’s strongest economic region for much of the past decade. Numerous economic indicators point to broad strength in the area’s economy and the region’s performance tends to stack up well against national-level economic measures. In this report, we present a detailed discussion of the current state of the EPH economy along with our forecast for the likely path of economic activity over the next five years.

West Virginia Economic Outlook: 2020-2024, Brian Lego, John Deskins, Eric Bowen, Christiadi, Dallas Mullett, Aidan Farnum, Shaun Gilyard, Danielle Kaminski, William Wagstaff

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

West Virginia registered its strongest year of economic growth in more than a decade during 2018, marking the state’s second year of recovery after a protracted economic downturn that lasted for much of the period between 2012 and 2016. The energy sector has driven most of West Virginia’s economic rebound, particularly the abundance of natural gas pipeline construction activity occurring throughout the state. Most of the state’s economic regions have seen conditions improve over the past couple of years but gains in jobs and output remain concentrated from a geographic perspective as a several counties account for have accounted for …

North Central West Virginia Economic Outlook: 2020-2024, Brian Lego, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

North Central West Virginia has remained one of the state’s healthiest economic regions and continued to post solid job growth over the past couple of years. Even with some recent job losses by at one of the area’s largest employers and protracted stoppages to natural gas pipeline projects, the area has recorded solid gains in income and employment and all four of the region’s counties have shown varying degrees of improvement across a range of labor market indicators. In this report, we present a detailed discussion of North Central West Virginia’s economy along with our forecast for regional conditions for …

The Effect Of The 1918 Influenza Pandemic On U.S. Life Insurance Holdings, Dr. Joanna Short

Economics: Faculty Scholarship & Creative Works

This paper examines the effect of a sharp rise in mortality, the 1918 influenza epidemic, on life insurance holdings in the U.S. The BLS Cost of Living Surveys of 1918-1919 provide a unique opportunity to examine the effect of the pandemic—some households were surveyed before, and others during or shortly after the worst of the influenza outbreak. In addition, I use state-level insurance sales data to compare the increase in spending on insurance in states particularly hard hit by the epidemic, relative to those that were not. I find some evidence that, in the immediate aftermath of the epidemic, those …

Trouble In The Tails? What We Know About Earnings Nonresponse 30 Years After Lillard, Smith, And Welch, Christopher R. Bollinger, Barry T. Hirsch, Charles M. Hokayem, James P. Ziliak

Economics Faculty Publications

Earnings nonresponse in household surveys is widespread, yet there is limited knowledge of how nonresponse biases earnings measures. We examine the consequences of nonresponse on earnings gaps and inequality using Current Population Survey individual records linked to administrative earnings data. The common assumption that earnings are missing at random is rejected. Nonresponse across the earnings distribution is U-shaped, highest in the left and right tails. Inequality measures differ between household and administrative data due in part to nonresponse. Nonresponse biases earnings differentials by race, gender, and education, particularly in the tails. Flexible copula-based models can account for nonrandom nonresponse.

Chinese Household Saving And Dependent Children: Theory And Evidence, Steven Lugauer, Jinlan Ni, Zhichao Yin

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper examines the impact of family size on household saving. We first study a theoretical life-cycle model that includes finite lifetimes and saving for retirement and in which parents care about the consumption by their dependent children. The model implies a negative relationship between the number of dependent children in the family and the household saving rate. Then, we test the model's implications using new survey data on household finances in China. We use the differential enforcement of the one-child policy across counties to address the possible endogeneity between household saving and fertility decisions in a two-stage least squares …

(Wp 2019-02) A Road Not Taken? A Brief History Of Care In Economic Thought, John B. Davis, Robert Mcmaster

Economics Working Papers

Care is central to the human experience and part of the social provisioning process. Adam Smith recognized this, associating care with sympathy. Later contributions in the political economy tradition also provide scope for an analysis of care, but none as developed as Smith’s. With the emergence of the current mainstream, care is marginalized. Kenneth Boulding’s analysis provides an opportunity to interrogate care in the economy, but he fails to explicitly acknowledge care. It is left to feminist economics to highlight the centrality of care. An implication is that it challenges the conventional rubric of economic organization predicated on self-interest.

The Formation Of Physician Patient Sharing Networks In Medicare: Exploring The Effect Of Hospital Affiliation, Sebastian Linde

Open Access Publishing Support Funded Articles

This study explores the forces that drive the formation of physician patient sharing networks. In particular, I examine the degree to which hospital affiliation drives physicians' sharing of Medicare patients. Using a revealed preference framework where observed network links are taken to be pairwise stable, I estimate the physicians' pair‐specific values using a tetrad maximum score estimator that is robust to the presence of unobserved physician specific characteristics. I also control for a number of potentially confounding patient sharing channels, such as (a) common physician group or hospital system affiliation, (b) physician homophily, (c) knowledge complementarity, (d) patient side considerations …

Southern Border International Shopping And Employment: 1990-2016, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Adam G. Walke

Border Region Modeling Project

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 cross-border 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, …

Mining’S Impact On Environmental And Human Health: A Case Study Of Ramba County’S Gold Mine, Vivika Fernes

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research project aims to gain a greater understanding of the health implications that Ramba County’s goldmine has on miners, their families, and the environment. While this study observes the community-at-large, inclusive of visiting miners and extended family members of workers, it will focus on women who engage in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM). Millions of people in the developing word depend on ASGM for their livelihood, evident in this case study in Ramba County. However, while gold is associated with wealth, there is great irony in the fact that those working within the mining industry are being exploited …

Foreign Direct Investment In Kigali’S Special Economic Zone And Its Impact On Rwanda’S Economic Reconstruction, Sabrina Roberts

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Vision 2020 is a development strategy implemented by the Rwandan government. It aims to make Rwanda a middle-income country with a per capita income of $1240 USD. One pillar of this strategy is increasing regional and international integration. The Kigali Special Economic Zone (KSEZ) was created in direct response to this pillar.

The paper begins with an introduction to Rwanda’s post-conflict economic situation and goes on to describe and explain the role that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the KSEZ has played in reconstructing the Rwandan economy. The study focuses on the impacts of the KSEZ and the significance of …

Immigrants And The U.S. Wage Distribution, Vasil I. Yasenov

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

A large body of literature estimates the relative wage impacts of immigration on low- and high-skill natives, but it is unclear how these effects map onto changes of the wage distribution. I document the movement of foreign-born workers in the U.S. wage distribution, showing that, since 1980, they have become increasingly overrepresented in the bottom. Downgrading of education and experience obtained abroad partially drives this pattern. I then undertake two empirical approaches to deepen our understanding of the way foreign-born workers shape the wage structure. First, I estimate a standard theoretical model featuring constant elasticity of substitution technology and skill …

Using A Role-Driven Race Equity Reform Approach To Mitigate The Effects Of America's History Of Racism On Food Insecurity, Kenya N. Washington, Darryl E. Williams Jr.

Professional Agricultural Workers Journal

Abstract

Food insecurity, or the lack of reliable access to sufficient quantities of nutritious food, affects African Americans and other minorities disproportionately. This paper examines how America’s history of racism created and sustains the Nation’s racially disparate food system. Food insecurity contributes to hunger. This paper contemplates disparities in other American systems, including education and criminal justice, as exemplars of the broader ramifications of hunger. Finally, the paper examines the potential of individual action to address problems in any system. It champions the adoption of a role-driven race equity reform strategy as a tool to confront the current food insecurity. …

Improving End Stage Renal Disease Quality Incentive Payment Total Performance Scores, Shelly Guyer, Gina Gregg, Bradley Warady

Posters

The End Stage Rena Disease (ESRD) Quality Incentive Program (QIP) promotes high quality, transparent, cost-efficient care in outpatient dialysis facilities by establishing performance standards that are linked to payment.

The development of a subject matter expert and the sharing of ESRD QIP knowledge resulted in buy-in from dialysis staff and physicians leading to a higher total performance score and the avoidance of payment reduction.

Borderplex Business Barometer, Volume 3, Number 10, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Steven L. Fullerton, Ana Gutierrez Zubiate, Ignacio Santana

Border Region Modeling Project

No abstract provided.

Investment Choice Architecture In Trust Games: When “All-In” Is Not Enough, Joaquin Gómez-Miñambres, Eric Schniter, Timothy W. Shields

ESI Working Papers

While many economic interactions feature “All-or-Nothing” options nudging investors towards going “all-in”, such designs may unintentionally affect reciprocity. We manipulate the investor’s action space in two versions of the “trust game”. In one version investors can invest either “all” their endowment or “nothing”. In the other version, they can invest any amount of the endowment. Consistent with our intentions-based model, we show that "all-or-nothing” designs coax more investment but limit investors’ demonstrability of intended trust. As a result, “all-in” investors are less generously reciprocated than when they can invest any amount, where full investments are a clearer signal of trustworthiness.

Is A Driverless Future Also Jobless?, Erica L. Groshen, John Paul Macduffie, Susan Helper, Charles Carson

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.

تدقيق اداء الاجهزة الرقابية ودوره في تحسين الخدمات الصحية بحث تطبيقي في احدى الشركات العامة لتسويق الادوية والمستلزمات الطبية, عقيل دخيل كريم الاعاجيبي, عقيل جابر كاظم, وعد هادي عبد الحساني

Muthanna Journal of Administrative and Economics Sciences

No abstract provided.

A Virginia Mountain City Responds To The Challenge Of Improving Health Outcomes, Robert S. Cowell Jr.

Journal of Appalachian Health

In 2012, Roanoke Virginia was becoming a city of haves and have-nots, a place where many were benefitting from revitalization underway but too many were seeing their situation grow worse and becoming even more entrenched. Poverty with levels as high as 50% in some neighborhoods; life expectancy sometimes 14 years shorter than those living just one or two neighborhoods over; and lack of access to fresh food, medical care, and economic opportunities—all within view of the largest hospital in the region was unacceptable.

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Adult Food Security And The Relationship With Adverse Childhood Experiences Among Residents Of Appalachian North Carolina, Manan Roy, Erin Bouldin, Maggie Bennett, Adam Hege

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: The Appalachian region has worse health outcomes than the remainder of the United States. These disparities are often linked to the underlying social and environmental determinants of health. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with poor health outcomes across the lifespan and have a significant impact on future social determinants as an adult, including food security status.

Purpose: To explore the relationships between ACEs and food security among adults in the Appalachian counties of North Carolina and make comparisons with the rest of the state.

Methods: Researchers used North Carolina’s 2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data; namely, …

Roanoke's Collective Public Health Activities, Michael Lytton

Journal of Appalachian Health

Roanoke is addressing problems that confront many small and medium sized cities in the U.S., especially disparities in health and life expectancy between neighborhoods. These disparities are often legacies of decades of racial and economic segregation, resulting in low-income or disinvested communities. Typically, such neighborhoods have fewer parks, higher vacancy rates and less stable affordable housing stock, inadequate public transit systems, too few clinics, too many fast food restaurants and insufficient access to high quality schools. In Roanoke these are the northwest and southeast quadrants, both federally designated Medically Underserved Areas, and characterized by a large proportion of the city’s …

Dr. Hasan Sohaib Murad Memorial Lecture, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Talks, Speeches, & Discourse

Syed Qaim Ali Shah sb, Prof, Nisar Ahmed Siddiqui, distinguished guests particularly foreign delegates, it is always a great pleasure to be here in Sukkur and Sukkur IBA and I have followed the great interest the transformation of Sukkur IBA from scratch to what it is today. And I want to congratulate Professor Nisar Siddiqui and his team for the wonderful work they have done, and I hope that they would continue to make a difference in the lives of the students of the rural areas of Sindh who have been not a beneficiary of the best education in this …

The Effects Of Opioids On Kentucky's Workforce, Michael W. Clark, Jenny A. Minier, Charles J. Courtemanche, Bethany L. Paris, Michael T. Childress

CBER Research Report

From the executive summary:

Opioid abuse represents a significant and growing public health issue for both the nation and Kentucky. In 2016, opioids contributed to more than 62,000 deaths nationally and 1,406 deaths in Kentucky. National studies have placed the societal costs of opioid abuse at $55.7 billion in 2007 and $78.5 billion in 2013 (Birbaum et al. (2011) and Florence et al. (2016)). These costs included increased health care expenditures, higher criminal justice costs, and lost earnings due to reduced employment and premature deaths. The While House Council of Economic Advisors (2017) estimated the societal costs of opioid abuse …

Optimal Investment To Control 'Red Air Day' Episodes: Lessons From Northern Utah, Usa, Ramjee Acharya, Arthur J. Caplan

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

We address the issue of optimal investment in ‘preventative capital’ to mitigate episodic, mobile-source air pollution events by calibrating an endogenous-risk model with parameter estimates obtained from a unique dataset related to ‘red air day’ episodes occurring during the winter months in Northern Utah. Our analysis demonstrates that, under a wide range of circumstances, the optimal steady-state level of preventative capital stock – raised through the issuance of a municipal ‘clean air bond’ that provides foundational funding for more aggressive mitigation efforts – can meet the standard for PM2.5 concentrations with positive social net benefits. We estimate benefit-cost ratios ranging …

Does The Healthcare Educational Market Respond To Short-Run Local Demand?, Marcus Dillender, Andrew Friedson, Cong Gian, Kosali Simon

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.

The Cost-Effectiveness Of Neonatal Versus Prenatal Screening For Congenital Toxoplasmosis, Christine Binquet, Catherine Lejeune, Valérie Seror, François Peyron, Anne-Claire Bertaux, Olivier Scemama, Catherine Quantin, Sophie Béjean, Eileen Stillwaggon, Martine Wallon

Economics Faculty Publications

Congenital Toxoplasmosis (CT) can have severe consequences. France, Austria, and Slovenia have prenatal screening programs whereas some other countries are considering universal screening to reduce congenital transmission and severity of infection in children. The efficiency of such programs is debated increasingly as seroprevalence among pregnant women and incidence of congenital toxoplasmosis show a steady decrease. In addition, uncertainty remains regarding the effectiveness of pre- and postnatal treatments.

The Role Of Farm Size In Crop Insurance, Sankalp Sharma, Cory Walters

Cornhusker Economics

The role of farm size in crop insurance has been a reoccurring U.S. political issue with multiple attempts at legislation proposing to limit premium subsidies to large producers. For instance, in 2015 bill S.2244, amongst other items, proposed to cap crop insurance premium subsidies at $40,000 per year1. The most recent attempt was made by the current administration in mid-2017, where they introduced the same premium subsidy cap of $40,000 per year. The first mention of the $40,000 figure emerged from a report sanctioned by the Government Accountability Office in 2012 (GAO-14-700, 2014)2. Eventually no premium subsidy caps were included …

Having A Disability Reduces Chances Of Employment For All Racial/Ethnic Groups, Jennifer D. Brooks

Population Health Research Brief Series

Regardless of race, adults with disabilities are less likely to be employed than those without disabilities. This data slice explains how race-ethnicity affects employment rates among adults with and without disabilities.

Central Bank Bilateral Currency Swap And Trade Flows : An Implication For Renminbi Internationalization, Abdullahi Ahmed Mohammed

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

The emerging economic prosperity of China and its increasing economic integration with the rest of the world as the second largest economy seems to give China an edge to amplify its global competitiveness. For example, the accession of China to World Trade Organization in the early 2001 has intensified its rapid GDP growth, growing trade and current account surpluses, financial inflows and growing stockpiles of reserves holdings. The global financial crisis of 2008 nearly put a halt to China’s export-led and current account surpluses trajectory, in 2007 China’s current account surplus fell from 10% of GDP to about 2% in …