Digital Commons Network^™

Foreword: Why Measurement Of Costs And Benefits Matters For The Sdg Campaign, S. Dercon, Stephen A. O'Connell

Economics Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Distance In Diocese : Annual Appeal Giving In The Catholic Church, Elaine Wissuchek

Honors Theses

The distance between a donor and a charity is hypothesized to affect charitable giving for self-regarding and altruistic reasons. Distance increases transaction costs, reducing the potential extrinsic benefits received by donors; it decreases social pressure for giving, and limits the ability of donors to monitor the charity’s management. Donors also have intrinsic preferences for proximity. This study does not find the hypothesized negative correlation between distance (measured as driving time) and donations to annual appeals for Catholic dioceses.

Acute Illness And Job Lock, Lauren Passero

Honors Theses

This paper assesses if the experience of an acute illness generates decreased job mobility among workers with employer-sponsored health insurance. An acute illness may increase the perceived value of health insurance and “lock” workers into jobs that provide health insurance as compensation. Using difference-in-difference tests, I evaluate the presence of job lock among workers impacted by acute health problems in Panel 19 of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. The results provide inconclusive evidence of job lock related to the experience of an acute illness. Further research on acute illness-related job lock can explore the potential long-term impact of job lock …

The Effect Of Occupational Licensing On Wages And Employment: Evidence From Electricians And Massage Therapists, Matt Shafer

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

No executive summary.

The Economic Impact Of The Oso Landslide: A Hedonic Approach, Sarah Pratt

All Master's Theses

Mass wasting, or landslides, commonly occurs in Washington State, posing risk to individuals residing in the area. The 2014 Oso landslide, the deadliest mass-wasting event in United States history, increased awareness for mass-wasting hazards in western Washington. Studying single-family homes from 2004-2017, this research uses a hedonic property model to measure consumer willingness to pay for a home in a mass-wasting hazard area after the Oso landslide and finds that home values in Snohomish County decreased by 11% after the Oso disaster.

Residential Solar In Washington State, Sam Pfeifer

All Master's Theses

Electricity generated through residential solar provides a low carbon source of electricity. However, diffusion of residential solar remains low across the United States. Growing this diffusion takes an understanding of localized uptake trends, which can focus policy and business efforts to help increase residential solar market penetration. This is the first research to investigate residential solar uptake in Washington State and to examine environmental education as a potential driver of residential solar uptake. Through a snapshot analysis which considers environmental, economic, education, and cultural variables the present research fills this gap. Triangulated results include mapping of variables, ordinary-least squares multiple …

Globalization And Immigration: How A Changing Demographic Landscape Influenced The 2016 Presidential Election, Jacob Rusnock

Honors Theses

The 2016 presidential election results varied significantly from many forecasts. The media proposes that the radically atypical candidacy of Donald Trump motivated pockets of the electorate to support the Republican Party more so than they had in past elections. This paper examines the following questions: Which traditional predictors of the election failed to foresee a Republican victory? If the traditional predictors were unsuccessful, can the results be explained using county level economic and demographic data? Is there evidence to support the media’s proposed explanations of the results? By utilizing the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey data, this paper examines some …

Fiscal Forecasts At The Fomc: Evidence From The Greenbooks, Dean D. Croushore, Simon Van Norden

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper examines fiscal policy forecasts prepared for the Federal Open Market Committee and its influence on U.S. monetary policy. The forecasts contain useful information beyond that in the CBO’s forecasts. Fiscal forecast errors are only weakly correlated with forecast errors for inflation and output growth, but those for the budget surplus are highly correlated with those for the unemployment rate and the output gap. Some fiscal variables can also account for a significant fraction of the “exogenous” changes in the federal funds rate target that Romer and Romer (2004) studied, consistent with the board’s statements on the importance of …

Trade Facilitation And Social Welfare In Africa☆, Daniel Sakyi, Isaac Bonuedi, Eric Evans Osei Opoku

Journal of African Trade

Improving social welfare in the developing world remains a top priority on the global development agenda, as policymakers and international development partners worldwide strive to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Using data on 40 African countries over the period 2010–2015, this paper investigates the extent to which trade facilitation contributes to improving social welfare in Africa. To do so, we construct three indices of trade facilitation capturing infrastructure, institutions, and market efficiency from several primary indicators. With regard to social welfare, we use education (net primary school enrollment rate), child health (under-5 mortality rate), population health (life expectancy), …

The Dodd-Frank Act And Its Impact On Community Bank Mortgage Lending, Margaret Schorgl

Honors Theses

I investigate the impacts of additional regulatory burdens on community bank mortgage lending due to the Dodd-Frank Act. The Dodd-Frank Act, which was signed into federal law by President Barack Obama on July 21, 2010, was intended to protect consumers, promote financial stability, and reduce the risk associated with larger banks being too-big-to-fail. However, one criticism of the Act is that the increased regulations and compliance costs under the Act have made it increasingly difficult for smaller banks to survive. As a result, an unintended consequence of the Dodd-Frank Act is that smaller banks may issue fewer loans than they …

The County-Level Impact Of Telemedicine: A Difference-In-Differences Analysis Of The University Of Mississippi Medical Center's Telemedicine Initiatives, Megan Elise Mcleod

Honors Theses

Mississippi has the fewest active physicians per capita of any state, consistently struggles with high rates of acute and chronic illness, and over half of its residents live in rural areas lacking specialty medical care. In an effort to bridge the state's geographical gap in access to healthcare, the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) has introduced telemedicine. This study conducts an analysis of some of the societal benefits of UMMC's telemedicine initiatives using a difference-in-differences identification strategy. This model attempts to obtain the county-level causal effects of implementing telemedicine by evaluating the resulting changes in length of life, quality …

Oregon Manufacturing Extension Partnership: Economic Impact Analysis -- January 2018 Update, Emma Willingham

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

The Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), founded in 1988, is a network of non-profit agencies staffed by industry professionals and consultants. Historically, MEP has sought to increase the competitiveness of small to mid-size enterprises (which as a group comprise 99% of all U.S. manufacturing firms) by providing expert guidance and access to resources. In recent years, the severe economic recession sparked increased interest in the strength of the manufacturing sector, due to its longtime status as one of the major drivers of the domestic economy. Oregon Manufacturing Extension Partnership (OMEP), the Oregon branch of MEP, works to provide data-driven analysis …

Share Retention, Underwriter Reputation, And Initial Public Offering Underpricing, Marcia Yvonne Reid-Grant

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Initial public offering (IPO) underpricing is a costly practice that decreases the IPO proceeds accruing to the issuing firms and can derail a firm's growth objectives. The purpose of this correlational study was to determine the relationship between share retention, underwriter reputation, and IPO underpricing among a population of IPOs issued in Jamaica. The efficient market hypothesis served as the theoretical framework for this study. Archived data for 52 IPOs issued in Jamaica from 1986 to 2018 were collected and Spearman's correlation matrix and heteroscedasticity-consistent standard errors regression analysis were applied. The outcomes of this study indicated no significant relationship …

Employee Retention Strategies In Trinidadian Small Enterprises, Alicia Singh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Organizational leaders face obstacles stemming from the lack of employee retention. An ineffective retention strategy can result in the loss of employees and the loss of institutional knowledge. Lack of appropriate retention strategies can negatively impact the reputation of the organization and ultimately affect the financial standing of an organization. Grounded by Herzberg's 2-factor theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies small retail business managers in Trinidad used to retain employees. I collected data through face-to-face semistructured interviews with 5 small business managers and a review of company documents. Data were analyzed using methodological triangulation, …

Coastal Empire Economic Monitor, 4th Quarter, 2018, Georgia Southern University Center For Business Analytics And Economic Research

Coastal Empire Economic Monitor

The Economic Monitor provides a continuously updating quarterly snapshot of the Savannah Metropolitan Statistical Area economy, including Bryan, Chatham and Effingham counties in Georgia. The coincident index measures the current economic heartbeat of the region. The leading index is designed to provide a short-term forecast of the region’s economic activity in the upcoming six to nine months.

Monitoring The Philippine Economy Year-End Report For 2017, Mitzie Irene P. Conchada, Won Hee Cho

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Growing at 6.7% in 2017, the Philippine economy realized robust full-year forecasts despite domestic and international economic challenges. Economic performance: Aggressive government spending on infrastructure projects, the growth of the manufacturing sector, and an uptick in the agriculture sector strengthen the Philippine economy.

An Introduction To Psychological Aphistemalgia, Justin Manning

Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts

No abstract provided.

Diagnostic Validation For Participants In The Washington State Parkinson Disease Registry, Jennifer Pate

Economics Faculty Works

The Washington State Parkinson Disease Registry (WPDR) was created to facilitate recruitment for Parkinson’s disease (PD) research studies conducted in the Pacific Northwest. The success of registries that rely on self-report is dependent on the accuracy of the information provided by participants, particularly diagnosis. Objective and Methods. Our goal was to assess diagnostic accuracy within the WPDR cohort. We randomly selected and attempted to contact 168 of the 1,278 actively enrolled WPDR participants. Those who responded were invited to undergo an interview and neurological examination performed by a PD specialist. If an in-person assessment was not possible, we sought information …

The Impacts Of China's Rise On The Pacific And The World, Wei-Chiao Huang Editor, Huizhong Zhou Editor

Upjohn Press

This book provides the perspectives of a group of noted China experts on how China’s economic expansion and internal reforms are impacting its neighbors in the Pacific region as well as the United States and the rest of the world.

Welfare-To-Work: The Effect Of Childcare Subsidies On Labor Force Participation Rates For Low-Income Single Mothers, Ariana Cubela

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The allocation of funding toward childcare has historically been debated due to conflicting views on the effect childcare subsidies have on low-income, single mothers. Some suggest that federal, state and local funding could put the money allocated for childcare subsidies to better use – or perhaps that there is no need for additional federal, state and/or local funding. However, there is sufficient evidence that children raised in a family structure with low-income single mothers may face long-term negative consequences not only socially, but also economically. An increase in labor force participation rates as a result of childcare subsidies not only …

Opioids And Unemployment, David Robinson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

There has been a ton of research in economics about the effects of drugs on the employment status of individuals. These papers have looked at the effects mainly pertaining to Marijuana and Cocaine, however this paper will be examining the effects of the opioid Heroin. As a first of its kind paper I will examine the relationship between employment and heroin use. To test this connection I have compiled data from the National Survey on Drug Abuse and Health. Through the use of two econometric models: OLS and Two Stage Least Squares models I will uncover the connection we can …

Three Essays On Public Finance And Public Policy: Financial Disclosure And Policy Reinvention In U.S. State And Local Governments, Jinhai Yu

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay, or Chapter 2, advances the literature by examining the conditional effects of lobbying on the relationship between policy learning and policy reinvention. Scholars have consistently shown that learning of successful policies in other states leads to higher likelihood of policy adoption. This essay extends this finding two ways. First, policy learning can also lead to more comprehensive adoption of successful policies. Second, the effect of policy learning on policy comprehensiveness is conditional on lobbying by interest groups, an alternative source of information about policy success. To test these hypotheses, I conduct …

How Applying Instrumental Stakeholder Theory Can Provide Sustainable Competitive Advantage, Thomas M. Jones, Jeffrey S. Harrison, Will Felps

Management Faculty Publications

Instrumental stakeholder theory considers the performance consequences for firms of highly ethical relationships with stakeholders, characterized by high levels of trust, cooperation, and information sharing. While research suggests performance benefits, an obvious question remains: If instrumental stakeholder theory–based stakeholder treatment is so valuable, why isn’t it the dominant mode of relating to stakeholders? We argue that the existing instrumental stakeholder theory literature has three shortcomings that limit its ability to explain variance in performance. (1) Little theory exists around how instrumental stakeholder theory–based stakeholder management could provide sustainable competitive advantage. (2) The literature has largely neglected the potential downsides (i.e., …

Easing Growing Pains: Supporting The Growth Of Small Businesses In The Philippines, Paulynne Castillo

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

In explaining the 2015 survey findings that the Philippines has the second to the lowest existing business rate in the ASEAN region, the Philippine Entrepreneurship Report, 2015-16 stated that “business operations become more burdensome as they grow due to the more restrictive regulations on large enterprises” (Velasco et al., 2017, p. 40). Established businesses, particularly firms operating in the formal sector, shoulder higher taxes and are subject to social security contributions, minimum wage, and industry-specific regulations (Velasco et al., 2017; Auriol, 2014).

Strengthening early-stage entrepreneurial activities and supporting their quest for expansion, however, require access to financial, legal, and public …

Exploring Critical Success Factors Of Community Development Projects, Kevin Wanjama Muchiri

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The utilization of Community Development Projects in developing nations continues to increase in significance. In the wake of the latest Sustainable Development Goals, developing nations are working towards eliminating poverty, promoting sustainable cities and communities, gender equality, and health and well-being. Although Community Development Projects have become prevalent, the challenge has been that some are successful, while others fail. This dissertation investigates what makes Community Development Projects successful.

This dissertation implemented a comprehensive quantitative analysis using data collected from over one hundred community development projects obtained from The World Bank database. These projects took place in developing nations around the …

An Assessment Of The Sharing Economy And Its Policy Solutions Through The Lens Of Sustainability, Chloe An

Pomona Senior Theses

This senior thesis in environmental analysis explores the promise of sustainability of the sharing economy, its shortcomings from this positive potential, and possible policy solutions to help it reach its fullest, positive potential. At its core, the sharing economy enables shared access to goods and services that would otherwise sit in idle or underutilized capacity – popular platforms such as Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, and craigslist all fall within the sharing economy. By enabling affordable and convenient access to goods that would otherwise sit idle, the sharing economy encourages maximal use of a good that already exists rather than seeking out …

Mexico Consensus Economic Forecast, Volume 21, Number 1, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Adam G. Walke

Border Region Modeling Project

No abstract provided.

Three Essays On Social Insurance, Jessica Ya Sun

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation consists of three chapters on the economics of social insurance. Each chapter explores an aspect of the evaluation and design of social insurance in terms of nutrition, healthcare and unemployment.

The first chapter, Kim, Fleisher and Sun (2016) report evidence of long-term adverse health impacts of fetal malnutrition exposure of middle-aged survivors of the 1959-1961 China Famine using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. We find that fetal exposure to malnutrition has large and long lasting impacts on both physical health and cognitive abilities, including the risks of suffering a stroke, physical disabilities in speech, …

Socio-Economic Determinants Of Physical Activity Across The Life Course: A "Determinants Of Diet And Physical Activity" (Dedipac) Umbrella Literature Review, Grainne O’Donoghue, Aileen Kennedy, Anna Puggina, Katina Aleksovska, Christoph Buck, Con Burns, Greet Cardon, Angela Carlin, Donatella Ciarapica, Marco Colotto, Giancarlo Condello, Tara Coppinger, Cristina Cortis, Sara D’Haese, Marieke De Craemer, Andrea Di Blasio, Sylvia Hansen, Licia Iacoviello, Johann Issartel, Pascal Izzicupo, Lina Jaeschke, Martina Kanning, Fiona Ling, Agnes Luzak, Giorgio Napolitano, Julie Anne Nazare, Camille Perchoux, Caterina Pesce, Tobias Pischon, Angela Polito, Alessandra Sannella, Holger Schulz

Publications

Background To date, the scientific literature on socioeconomic correlates and determinants of physical activity behaviours has been dispersed throughout a number of systematic reviews, often focusing on one factor (e.g. education or parental income) in one specific age group (e.g. pre-school children or adults). The aim of this umbrella review is to provide a comprehensive and systematic overview of the scientific literature from previously conducted research by summarising and synthesising the importance and strength of the evidence related to socioeconomic correlates and determinants of PA behaviours across the life course. Methods Medline, Embase, ISI Web of Science, Scopus and SPORTDiscus …

State Specific Poverty Thresholds Adjusted For Cost Of Living Differences, Melissa Gentry

Theses and Dissertations

While poverty is undoubtedly one of the most widely used domestic indicators of social wellbeing, its measurement has a critical shortcoming. Using national poverty thresholds ignores the potential differences in the cost of living across states. States use the national poverty threshold when conducting poverty research and assessing community demographics. Theoretically price level differences between states could mean that, if poverty thresholds were adjusted for cost-of-living by state, the adjusted poverty rate could be different than the official poverty rate Using data specific to individual states that can be found in the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, geographically specific thresholds …