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The Impact Of Real Interest Rate On Real Exchange Rate: Empirical Evidence From Japan, Tomiwa Shodipe

2018 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity – Documents

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of real interest rate on the real exchange rate in Japan using Two Stage Least Square econometric techniques. The two instruments used are money supply and gross domestic product growth rates. The result provides support for the theoretical and empirical evidences of positive relationship between real interest rate and real exchange rate in Japan. The estimation also shows that there is positive relation between trade and Japanese Yen over the period considered in the study. In light of these findings, the study suggests the adoption of fiscal macroeconomic policy instruments that are capable of …

Financial Literacy: Impact On Student Success, Alexandra Cummingham

Honors Projects in Accounting

Financial literacy has proven to be an essential skill for young adults to help in achieving success and reaching one’s potential. Many studies find that those with a stronger background in financial literacy are more likely to demonstrate positive behaviors, both financially and in other areas. This study will attempt to draw a link between Bryant University students’ background in financial literacy and benefits within the college classroom. Specifically, my study will look at whether having a stronger background in financial literacy leads to increased confidence in the classroom, decreased accounting anxiety, and superior academic performance. The study uses primary …

Towards An Agreed Definition Of Sustainability: Exploring The Concept Of Sustainability In Amherst, Massachusetts, Babatunde Ajao

Capstone Collection

Many educators agree that to learning about sustainability and discussing it’s implications on values, ethics and the role of humans are essential. With so many moving parts it is difficult to determine a sustainable assessment to encompass the changing world. The time has come for us to ask reflective questions about what exactly sustainability means. How has the term sustainability been used worldwide? What was the goal of sustainability and what is the result? Is there a better alternative to achieving this goal? By identifying the characteristics of best practice for sustainability, we take a step towards understanding the concept …

Effects Of The Affordable Care Act On Health Behaviors After Three Years, Charles J. Courtemanche, James Marton, Benjamin Ukert, Aaron Yelowitz, Daniela Zapata

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

This paper examines the impacts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – which substantially increased insurance coverage through regulations, mandates, subsidies, and Medicaid expansions – on behaviors related to future health risks after three years. Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and an identification strategy that leverages variation in pre-ACA uninsured rates and state Medicaid expansion decisions, we show that the ACA increased preventive care utilization along several dimensions, but also increased risky drinking. These results are driven by the private portions of the law, as opposed to the Medicaid expansion. We also conduct subsample analyses by …

Gentrification In Polk County, Iowa, Danielle Massey

Major Themes in Economics

This paper measures the extent of gentrification in Polk County, Iowa from 2000 to 2016. It also looks at the factors that may have contributed to that gentrification. Five of the 77 census tracts in Polk County show high levels of gentrification. Seven other tracts show moderate levels. I find that factors positively correlated with gentrification in Polk County include proximity to an historic district, proximity to a park or open space, and the percentage of total housing units that receive Low-Income Housing tax credits. Thus, the paper provides support for demand-side theories of gentrification.

Identifying The Risk Factors For Food Insecurity In The United States, Destiny Leitz

Major Themes in Economics

Food insecurity is widespread in America and has both humanitarian and economic consequences. The purpose of this study is to identify the risk factors associated with food insecurity so that state officials can tailor assistance programs to benefit those most in need. A logistic regression model is employed using data from the 2016 Food Security Supplement to the Current Population Survey. The results provide evidence that food insecurity is negatively associated with income, education, home ownership, and age; it is positively associated with unemployment, disability, and a state’s tax burden. Other influences include ethnicity, citizenship status, and participation in nutrition …

Department Of Economics Newsletter, V23, Spring 2018, University Of Northern Iowa. Department Of Economics.

Department of Economics Newsletter

Inside this issue:
-- Scholarship News
-- Contributions
-- Alumni News
-- Executive in Residence
-- Alumni-in-Residence
-- Student Writing - Undergraduate Research Program
-- Internships and Co-ops
-- Shahina Amin named Lawrence M. Jepson International Professor
-- Who is Lawrence M. Jepson?
-- Italy Trip - 2017
-- Economics Club
-- Homecoming Open House - October 2017
-- Department Retirements
-- New Faculty
-- Faculty Recognition
-- Faculty/Staff Updates
-- Economics Department Faculty and Staff
-- From Faculty - Tax Code Changes May Affect Free Agency
-- The Amazing Amazon!
-- The Final Word

Experiment-As-Market: Incorporating Welfare Into Randomized Controlled Trials, Yusuke Narita

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) enroll hundreds of millions of subjects and involve many human lives. To improve subjects’ welfare, I propose a design of RCTs that I call Experiment-as-Market (EXAM). EXAM produces a Pareto efficient allocation of treatment assignment probabilities, is asymptotically incentive compatible for preference elicitation, and unbiasedly estimates any causal effect estimable with standard RCTs. I quantify these properties by applying EXAM to a water cleaning experiment in Kenya (Kremer et al., 2011). In this empirical setting, compared to standard RCTs, EXAM substantially improves subjects’ predicted well-being while reaching similar treatment effect estimates with similar precision.

Toward An Ethical Experiment, Yusuke Narita

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) enroll hundreds of millions of subjects and involve many human lives. To improve subjects’ welfare, I propose an alternative design of RCTs that I call Experiment-as-Market (EXAM). EXAM Pareto optimally randomly assigns each treatment to subjects predicted to experience better treatment effects or to subjects with stronger preferences for the treatment. EXAM is also asymptotically incentive compatible for preference elicitation. Finally, EXAM unbiasedly estimates any causal effect estimable with standard RCTs. I quantify the welfare, incentive, and information properties by applying EXAM to a water cleaning experiment in Kenya (Kremer et al., 2011). Compared to standard …

Parallel Worlds: Comparing Rural Development To Development In Global Communities, Jena Martin, Karon Powell

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Looming Consumer Debt: A Comparison To The Great Recession, Andrew Jenks

Honors Projects

A look into the current outstanding debt in the United States and comparison to conditions prior to the financial crisis of 2007-2008.

Does The Stock Market Value Inclusion On A Sustainability Index? An Event Study Using The Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index, Lauren Hayward

Economics Department Student Scholarship

The concept of socially responsible investing (SRI) has evolved into a mainstream strategy for investments. Investors who place value on sustainability use SRI strategies to make investment decisions. Companies send a signal to stakeholders, including investors, that they are sustainability leaders by being recognized as a member of a sustainability index. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of the announcement that a company is added to, removed from, or remaining on the Dow Jones North America Sustainability Index (DJSI NA) on its stock price. An event study is used to measure the impact of the announcement …

The Decline Of U.S. Manufacturing Employment—Automation And Trade, Susan N. Houseman

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

100 Percent Reserve Banking: A Comparison Of Proposals By Henry Simons And Laurence Kotlikoff, John H. Beck

Economics Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Financing Climate Resilience: Mobilizing Resources And Incentives To Protect Boston From Climate Risks, David L. Levy, Rebecca Herst

Sustainable Solutions Lab

This report explores the challenges of financing climate-resilience investments in the Boston region. As risks from storm surge, sea level rise, and extreme weather increase, there is growing urgency for pre-disaster investments to reduce physical risk, reduce social vulnerability, and increase capacity for emergency response and disaster recovery. However, these investments face significant barriers, including market failures, capital budget constraints, and misaligned incentives. The report identifies a range of funding mechanisms appropriate at different scales, including general obligation bonds, resilience fees, property tax surcharges, stormwater fees, tax increment financing, business improvement districts, and insurance-based funding. It evaluates these mechanisms using …

Borderplex Business Barometer, Volume 2, Number 4, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Adam G. Walke, Omar Solís, Esmeralda Muñiz

Border Region Modeling Project

No abstract provided.

Welcome To Economics! The Scope And Method Of Economics, Alexander Nunez-Torres

Open Educational Resources

This lecture covers concepts, definitions and methods of Economics and discusses how theories and models are used.

Clackamas County: Tobacco License Impact Analysis, Peter Hulseman, Emma Willingham

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

Passage of Senate Bill 754 (Tobacco 21) in August of 2017 raised the tobacco sales age from 18 to 21 in Oregon. However, there is currently no state law requiring retailers to have a license to sell tobacco products within the state. Without a full registry of tobacco vendors, it is difficult to determine whether or not said vendors are complying with the new law. Other counties within Oregon have adopted regional tobacco retail license programs, which help to ensure compliance with Tobacco 21. With this in mind, the Clackamas County Public Health Division requested that the Northwest Economic Research …

Pearl Lagoon's White Lobster: The Societal, Economic, Political And Autonomous Effects, Rafely Palacios

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua is home to the greatest number of impoverished individuals in the country. However, the people of Pearl Lagoon - a municipality in the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region - have found a way to escape their poor economic situations.

Due to the municipality’s close proximity to drug routes utilized by Colombian cartels and to the country itself, community members have turned to the drug trade in hopes of pursuing financial secureness. With the introduction of the “white lobster” or cocaine packets, the community as a whole has transformed its social, economic, and political spheres. In …

Land-Use And Land-Ownership Changes In Usoma Village, Kenya, Ernest Tan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study attempted to find out how land-use activities and land-ownership patterns have changed since land adjudication in Usoma Village, a peri-urban community on the fringe of Kisumu City. The methods used were photo-observation and geo-tagging based on walkabouts onsite, documentary analysis of maps obtained from the Ministry of Lands, interviews with key authority figures, independent experts and community leaders, and interviews as well as focus-group discussions with community members. In terms of land ownership, it was found that subdivisions of land, both formal and informal, had been common over the period. Land transfers based on compulsory acquisition and investment …

Coming In Hot: Motor Vehicles, Capitalism, And Modernization In Mongolia, Thea Bergen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Traditionally, nomads in Mongolia have used horses for transportation. The horse was used to help herd livestock and also allowed them to get to the soum center quicker (Yembuu, 2015). This way of transportation is seen less and less now. With globalization comes an increase in different products from around the world. Herders now have the opportunity to buy cars and the ever popular motorcycle. Now, when out in the open Mongolian steppe, one can see motorcycles racing around to get herders from place to place. Some even use them to herd instead of a horse. And when a family …

Immigration And The Public-Private School Choice, Lidia Farre, Francesc Ortega, Ryuichi Tanaka

Publications and Research

This paper empirically analyzes the effects of immigration on the schooling decisions of natives. We employ household-level data for Spain for years 2000-2015, a period characterized by high economic growth and large immigration that was halted by a long and severe recession. Our estimates reveal that increases in immigrant density at the school level triggered an important native flight from tuition-free, public schools toward private ones. We also find strong evidence of cream-skimming as more educated native households are the most likely to switch to private schools in response to immigration. Furthermore, we find that immigration leads to higher student-teacher …

Income Distribution, Fertility Behavior And Demographic Transition In Egypt, Sarah El-Khishin

Economics

Abstract - Demographic-economic interrelationships have been broadly examined in the literature from a macro perspective using mostly cross-country panel regressions. A limited strand of literature has emphasized the need to examine the demographic-economic dynamics in a reversed way; inspect dual-causality relation between demographic and economic factors. In this paper, I examine the effect of changes in income distribution and fertility behavior on the speed of demographic transition. I moreover examine the reverse relation by testing effect of changed household structure on income distribution and income disparities in Egypt. Empirical results show that wealth redistribution in Egypt and moving up to …

Healthcare Coverage In The United States And New York Metropolitan Area, 2009 - 2015, Andrew S. Alger

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This study examines trends regarding health insurance coverage in the United States along lines of sex, race/ethnicity, place of birth, and poverty status between 2009 and 2015.

Methods: This study uses the American Community Survey PUMS (Public User Microdata Series) for the years 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2015. These datasets were downloaded from the IPUMS USA website hosted by the University of Minnesota. The variables used in the study describe these populations in terms of sex, the four major race/ethnic groups (non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, Latino, and Asian), being born either within the United States or abroad, and being …

Spatial Effects Of Foreign Direct Investment (Fdi) On Poverty Reduction In Colombia: A Mixed Methods Approach, Mayra Alejandra Yat Aguilar

Masters Theses

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been identified as an important factor in stimulating economic growth and decreasing poverty. In particular, the relationship between FDI and economic growth has been extensively debated in the academic literature but with mixed results. Meanwhile, considerably less work has been done towards investigating the effects of FDI on poverty reduction. Evidence from the limited research linking on FDI and poverty levels is also mixed. Through a more comprehensive survey-based multi-scale method of assessing poverty, this empirical study investigates the contribution of FDI with respect to concurrent quantitative and qualitative assessment of changes in living standards …

Eco 166 Introduction To Macroeconomics, Alexander Núñez-Torres

Open Educational Resources

National income components and their measurement, unemployment rate, and price levels. Determinants of aggregate demand and output. Effects of government spending, taxation, and monetary policy on national income, employment, and the rate of inflation.

Unemployment, Inflation, And Long-Run Growth, Alexander Nunez-Torres

Open Educational Resources

This lecture covers unemployment, inflation and long-run growth.

Inflation Expectations In Singapore: A Behavioural Approach, Alexander Clark, Aurobindo Ghosh, Samuel Hanes

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The expectations of economic agents have significant impact on their decisions and are key determinants of macroeconomic outcomes such as inflation, economic growth and unemployment. For example, if a worker believes that consumer prices will rise sharply next year, she would demand a wage increase. Similarly, a homeowner with a fixed interest mortgage might make an early repayment if she expects price levels to fall, knowing that the real value of her mortgage debt will increase. In these cases, expectations about inflation could lead to changes in behaviour and in the aggregate, influence prices and become self-fulfilling.

Investment And The Long Swings Of Unemployment, Hian Teck Hoon, Katsimi Margarita, Gylfi Zoega

Research Collection School Of Economics

We estimate the relationship between investment and unemployment over the time period 1960-2015 in 20 OECD countries. While neoclassical growth theory typically assumes full employment – with no effect of investment on unemployment – we find that over our sample period covering more than five decades, a statistically significant negative relationship does exist: when investment fell, unemployment increased. When the time period is broken down into two sub-periods to take account of the Great Recession, we find that the estimated coefficient of investment is slightly smaller when the period 2001-2015 is added to the 1960-2000 period. We also find a …

The Normalization Of Prostitution In Switzerland: The Origin Of Policies, Corinne Isler, Marjut Jyrkinen

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

In this article, we examine how socio-political actors frame prostitution and problems attached to the phenomenon and what types of policies they suggest. The sex trade in Switzerland has been tolerated since 1942, and prostitution is protected under the economic freedom guaranteed by the Swiss constitution. Any critique of prostitution is viewed as counterproductive, claimed to be rooted in old-fashioned ideas about sexuality and thought to worsen the situation for women who sell sex. The role of sex buyers is largely obscured, and the presumed right to buy sex remains unquestioned.