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Essays On Education And Family Economics, Yue Hu

All Dissertations

The dissertation consists of three essays: the first two discuss the effect of American high school vocational education on individuals' labor market and educational outcomes, and the third essay explores the effect of unilateral divorce laws on women's labor force participation rates. In the first chapter, treating vocational class choice as a continuous variable, I used family-fixed effects to investigate the average effect of American high school vocational classes on students' labor market and educational outcomes. The findings indicate that high school vocational classes significantly decrease the likelihood of attending a four-year college but do not significantly affect other educational …

How Can Cbdcs Be Designed To Drive Financial Inclusion?, Heng Wang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

As a new form of national currency, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) hold the potential to be a transformative innovation that can enhance financial inclusion. However, the realization of this potential is very much contingent on their design. The realization of the benefit is also influenced by the barriers to financial inclusion that were identified in our first blog such as financial literacy, digital divide, and complexity.

Linking Risk Preference, Women’S Empowerment, Farm Investment And Household Well-Being, Samuel Olusesi Olumide

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A nuanced understanding of intra-household dynamics can inform the design of more effective empowerment and agricultural investment policies. By integrating household risk preferences and empowerment dynamics, this work offers valuable insights into the complex mechanisms driving household welfare and provides a framework for future interventions to promote gender equality and economic development in rural settings. This thesis addresses three core hypotheses: first, that the spouses of risk-seeking male heads are more likely to be disempowered compared to those of risk-averse male heads; second, that households with risk-seeking male heads and disempowered spouses are likely to invest more in farming activities; …

Essays On Education And Labor Market Outcomes, Ishita Ahmed

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This dissertation focuses on the labor market or educational outcomes using applied microeconomic methods. Chapter 1 investigates the impact of waiting an additional year to start kindergarten on the socioeconomic achievement gap in Nebraska using longitudinal administrative data from the Nebraska Department of Education. I utilize fuzzy regression discontinuity design to find the effect of waiting on test scores. I find waiting a year to improve the test score, and this impact fades away over time. This fading pattern shows a considerable amount of heterogeneity across different demographic groups, suggesting an acceleration of the achievement gap. The study also investigates …

Identity And Access: Gender-Based Preferences And Physician Availability In Primary Care, Brigham Walker, Janna Wisniewski, Sarah Tinkler, Jillian Torres, Rajiv Sharma

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Patient preferences for physicians may be influenced by shared characteristics such as gender. We analyzed experimental data from a survey of US adults in which respondents were asked to choose between physician profiles that on average varied only by gender. We find that female patients prefer female physicians to male physicians by 51.8 percentage points (95 % CI: 0.470 to 0.566, p < 0.01), and that result holds across Black, White, and Hispanic sub-groups. With no countervailing preference among male patients, this result holds in the overall sample at 26.8 percentage points (95 % CI: 0.228 to 0.307, p < 0.01). We also analyzed data from a simulated patient field experiment concerning access to primary care appointments and find that female physicians, on average, offer appointments 7.1 days later than male physicians (95 % CI: 5.1 to 9.1, p < 0.01), consistent with the finding that female physicians are preferred. Female physicians’ offices appear to favor female patients, offering appointments to them 2.6 days earlier compared to male patients (95 % CI: -5.3 to 0.195, p = 0.07). However, Hispanic female patients were offered 4.2-percentage-points fewer appointments compared to Hispanic males (95 % CI: -0.069 to -0.014, p < 0.01) by female physicians’ offices. Similarly, Black female patients were told that the physician is “not taking new patients” 3.5 percentage points more often (95 % CI: -0.004 to 0.073, p = 0.08) and were offered appointments that were 2.6 minutes shorter compared …

Two Essays On Corporate Finance, Yongdong Wang

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two essays on corporate finance. In my first essay, I investigate the effect of the top management team (TMT) political heterogeneity on the CEO’s ability to implant her/his ideology onto the firm’s CSR policies. We present evidence that a CEO’s ideology can shape CSR policies only in the existence of a politically homogeneous TMT. This result is robust to the use of the propensity score matching (PSM) approach to address selection bias, the instrumental variable (IV) approach to address endogeneity, and Oster’s test to address omitted variables bias. Further analysis shows that the association between CSR …

Western Australian Regional Development Trust Annual Report 2023-24, Western Australian Regional Development Trust, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Western Australian Regional Development Trust Annual Reports

The Trust is an independent statutory advisory body to the Minister for Regional Development, established under the Royalties for Regions Act 2009 (Act).

The functions of the Trust are to provide advice and make recommendations to the minister:

• for the purposes of sections 5(2) and 9(1) of the Act; and
• on any other matter relating to the operation of the Fund that is referred to it by the minister.

In addition to its monitoring and advisory role, the Trust also works to engage and enhance relationships with key regional stakeholders and influencers to promote greater collaboration and innovation in the …

Inflation Expectations, Price Equations, And Fed Effects, Ray C. Fair

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper makes three main contributions. First, inflation expectation equations are estimated using quarterly time series data. Second, a price equation in level form is estimated that is consistent with the data, unlike Phillips-curve equations. Third, the case is considered in which an expectation variable in an inflation or price equation is not causal.

The results suggest that household inflation expectations are mostly affected by current and past inflation. The Fed through interest rates has a modest effect. In the estimated price equation a measure of the expected future price level is significant, although it may not be causal. Whether …

The Reallocation Effects Of Domestic Outsourcing, Mayara Felix, Michael B. Wong

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper estimates the wage, employment, and reallocation effects of non-core activity outsourcing using Brazil’s unexpected 1993 court-ordered outsourcing legalization. We leverage North-South variation in pre-legalization court permissiveness and compare security guards to less affected occupations. We find that older incumbent security guards were adversely impacted through occupational layoffs, loss of firm-level wage premia, and exit from the occupation. At the same time, increased numbers of younger workers entered the formal sector and became employed at contract firms. On net, legalization increased guard employment by 5%, led by a 50% increase in employment for guards aged 18-24, and had no …

Mission And Editorial Policy

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Spaces Of Progress And The Challenge Of “Mindfulness” In A Postcolonial World, M. Satish Kumar

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Progress implied both change and improvement in the colonial and postcolonial world. Such a concept of progress came to be enshrined in specific geographical places. The notions of development and underdevelopment in the postcolonial context thereafter supplanted this idea. Over time, while the structures of colonial domination dissolved, those of embedded regional inequalities came to be deeply entrenched, thereby urging for Thich Nhat Hanh’s approach to “mindfulness” in a “postcapitalist,” postcolonial world. The key question is whether postcolonialism has reached an impasse in its delivery and deployment of ideas across the widening gulf between the spaces of progress and stagnancy. …

Statement From The Indiana Academy Of The Social Sciences And Board Of Directors

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Notes On The Future Possibilities Of Engaged Anthropological Research: Why Decolonizing Anthropology Needs Black Diasporic Feminist Theory And Methodologies, Meryleen Mena

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

While in the past decade there have been more ethnographic accounts that shed light on minoritized stories and demystify the specific challenges that women and femmes experience during their research, much is desired to prepare students and junior scholars from marginalized identities for fieldwork research. Reflecting on a moment of precarity in the context of pre-impeachment São Paulo, I explain why the integration of Black diasporic feminist thought, method, and praxis is critical to further decolonizing efforts in anthropology. Beyond reflection, this narrative calls for sustained politically active engagement to establish an anthropology of liberation.

Author Biographical Notes

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

The Decline Of Republican Democracy And Rise Of The Techno-Authoritarian State: Reading Dystopian Novels In Hindi Literature, Manindra Nath Thakur

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

In the past few decades, the nature of capitalism has changed fast as it has lost its philosophical justification based on the principle of the common good. There have been many avatars of the idea of the “common good”: “white man’s burden to civilize the world,” “welfarism,” and “neoliberal concept of freedom of choice.” Capitalism now seems to have moved in a new direction, however, and it has failed to produce any further philosophical justification for its existence as a mode of production despite generating unprecedented economic inequality. Consequently, there is a rising tension between capitalism and democracy in societies …

Covid-19: Change In Adjusted Gross Income From Net Migration In Nevada, 2020-2021, Ayda Atici, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet examines data on changes in taxable income and net average income as a result of net migration for each county in Nevada during the COVID-19 pandemic (from 2020 to 2021). The data illustrate which Nevada counties experienced increases in taxable income and average income, and which counties experienced losses. The data are retrieved from “Tax Data Reveals Large Flight of High Earners from Major Cities During the Pandemic,” an interactive data report by the Economic Innovation Group.

Supply Chains Shocks, Network Linkages, And Economic Outcomes, Romeo Eric Neuyou Nana

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One prominent consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic was the disruption of critical parts of the global supply chain. In the U.S., delays at ports and shortages of critical inputs such as semiconductors have negative ripple effects across the economy. This situation prompts a surge of interests from academics, business leaders, and policy makers alike. However, the evidence of the quantification of supply chain disruptions’ impact and its drivers on economic variables are still scant. In this essay, I investigate the extent of the impact of supply chain shocks on the U.S. economy and the mechanisms through which they affect economic …

Essays On Networks And Gender Dynamics In Corporate Finance, Xiaonan Wei

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In my dissertation, I explore the effect of networks and gender dynamics on corporate finance. In my first essay, I examine the effects of personal network on insider trading decisions. Using COVID-19 as a shock to test personal network effect, I find individuals were influenced by information about COVID-19 provided by the members of their personal networks. S&P 1500 insiders whose personal networks contained higher fractions of socially connected individuals from countries affected by early stages of COVID-19 were more likely to sell shares of their firms in the period preceding the U.S. stock market decline, and they are less …

Essays In Industrial Organization And Regulation, Micah D. Thomas

All Dissertations

This dissertation is comprised of two essays; in the first, I develop a model to show that when there is a sufficiently large segment of uninformed consumers and an existing norm regarding the advertising of bundled good prices that price obfuscation through base good advertisements can be both: (1) profit maximizing, and (2) result in an equilibrium where only some firms obfuscate. I provide the first empirical evidence of this setting by estimating the increase in prices charged by retail gasoline stations, finding a statistically and economically significant obfuscating premium of 5-7 cents per gallon. I also provide evidence of …

Coupling And Decoupling Of Ancestral Linkages And Current Cross-Border Economic Activities: Genetics And Policy, Suparna Chakraborty, Miao Grace Wang, M.C. Sunny Wong

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

This paper studies the potential link between the biological evolution of populations and present-day economic interactions by estimating the correlation of shared ancestry among populations with cross-border capital and human flows. To this end, we employ the new concept of genetic distance, based on (dis)similarity of neutral gene alleles, to quantify shared ancestry. We then incorporate the genetic distance measure into an augmented gravity model, traditionally used to analyze the effect of geographical distance on bilateral exchange. Our analysis focuses on bilateral foreign direct investment (FDI) and migration across 135 countries and we use both linear regression techniques as well …

Essays On Aging, Health, And Labor Market, Lanjie Wang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation consists of four chapters on aging, health, and labor economics.

In the first chapter, we investigate the short-term impacts of unemployment on older workers in Singapore, a setting without public unemployment insurance. Using monthly panel data, we analyze dynamic impacts on income, spending, health, and subjective well-being over two years post-unemployment. We find substantial initial earnings losses with incomplete recovery, with income remaining 46.5% below pre-unemployment levels after 24 months. Despite this persistent income gap, consumption responses are modest and comparable to countries with strong social safety nets, suggesting robust self-insurance mechanisms. We observe increased retirement among married …

Digital Payments And Consumption: Evidence From The 2016 Demonetization In India, Sumit Agarwal, Pulak Ghosh, Jing Li, Tianyue Ruan

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study how consumer spending responds to digital payments, using the differential switch to digital payments across consumers induced by the sudden 2016 Indian Demonetization for identification. Usage of digital payments rose by 3.38 percentage points and monthly spending increased by 3% for an additional 10 percentage points in prior cash dependence. Spending remained elevated even when cash availability recovered. Robustness analyses show that the spending response is not driven by income shocks, credit supply, price changes, or consumers' moving to the formal market. We provide evidence that digital payments increase consumer spending due to subdued salience.

Value Capture And Affordable Housing: Insights From Singapore, Sock Yong Phang

Research Collection School Of Economics

To explain the role of value capture in Singapore’s progress, I will first provide some background information on Singapore and its housing sector. I will then take you on a journey back to the 1960s to show how we established our present institutional arrangements for land and housing. I will next describe how housing policies have evolved over the past six decades in response to changing contexts. Finally, I will conclude with the fiscal implications of successful value capture. Where relevant, I will indicate how Singapore’s policies align with George’s views.

A Robust Optimization Approach To Mechanism Design, Jiangtao Li, Kexin Wang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study the design of mechanisms when the mechanism designer faces local uncertainty about agents’ beliefs. Specifically, we consider a designer who does not know the exact beliefs of the agents but is confident that her estimate is within ϵ of the beliefs held by the agents (where ϵ reflects the degree of local uncertainty). Adopting the robust optimization approach, we design mechanisms that incentivize agents to truthfully report their payoff-relevant information regardless of their actual beliefs. For any fixed ϵ, we identify necessary and sufficient conditions under which requiring this sense of robustness is without loss of revenue for …

We're Swarming Again! Swarming, Collectivity, And Trope: The Case Of Extinction Rebellion, Tyler J. Behymer

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis explores the rhetoric of the eco-movement Extinction Rebellion, focusing on the use of swarming and nature tropes to mobilize collective action and revivify contemporary notions of collectivity. Drawing on rhetoric of social movement scholarship, cultural studies, and psychoanalysis, this essay theorizes swarming as a tropological economy that expands the conditions of propriety in the context of collectivity. Through an analysis of Extinction Rebellion’s discourse, this study demonstrates how the naturalization of swarming tropes works in various ways to rewild conventional political discourse, galvanize disruptive collective assembly, and challenge green neoliberalism.

Advisor: Casey Ryan Kelly

A Cross-Country Analysis Of China’S Belt And Road Initiative, Leah Shoff

International Studies (MA) Theses

China established The Belt and Road Initiative in 2013 to unite the global economy as well as bolter their own political and economic interests. Though the initiative is relatively new, it is important to understand how the Belt and Road Initiative could impact the global economy. This program is open to any country in the world that seeks to improve its infrastructure. However, critics of China’s proposal have questioned whether countries participating in the program gain economically. Through evaluating the relationship between GDP, time, and other significant data provided by the IMF, a cross-country comparison between Pakistan and the Philippines …

Geographic Links And Predictable Returns, Zuben Jin, Frank Weikai Li

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Using establishment-level data of U.S. public firms, we construct a novel measure of geographic linkage between firms. We show that the returns of geography-linked firms have strong predictive power for focal firm returns and fundamentals. This effect is distinct from other cross-firm return predictability and is not easily attributable to risk-based explanations. It is more pronounced for focal firms that receive lower investor attention, are more costly to arbitrage, and during high sentiment periods. The cross-firm information spillovers and return predictability are also stronger for geographic peers with economic linkages and with positive information. Our results are broadly consistent with …

The Effect Of Crime On Tourism In Indonesia, Muhammad Farhan, Hera Susanti

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

Tourism sector is widely known as one of economic sectors that can be the engine of economic growth in an effort to reduce poverty in a country. However, growth in the tourism sector can be influenced by safety factors. Tourists tend to avoid tourism destination areas with high crime rates in order to avoid becoming victims of crime. This study aims to analyze the effect of crime on the number of tourist arrivals in Indonesia by using four proxies of crime, which are total crime rate, property crime rate, violent crime rate, and fraud crime rate. This study utilizes a …

Three Scandinavian Countries In The Baltic Sea: A Critical Study Of The Blue Economy Programmes, Adityarachman Sofiar, Henny Saptatia Drajati Nugrahani

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the current state of the Blue Economy in the Baltic Sea region, with a focus on sustainable development in the Scandinavian countries. The paper begins by providing an overview of the economic, social, and environmental impacts. The paper identifies key challenges facing the industry in the Scandinavian countries, including the need for better planning and management, the preservation of natural and cultural heritage, and the protection of the marine environment. This research aims to explain the urgency of Blue Economy activities impact in the Baltic Sea, Specifically the impact on the environment and communities in Scandinavian …

Consumption Of Over-The-Top (Ott) Media Streaming Services In Rural Tamil Nadu, Rajarathi K

Theses and Dissertations

Over-the-top (OTT) Media Streaming Services are modern online entertainment services based on new media technologies. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, the OTT consumer base experienced exponential growth, especially in India. Currently, the Indian OTT industry is in its second growth phase, owing to increased consumption in rural India. The interests of rural consumers align with different types of OTT content, providing potential market for OTT media streaming services. Tamil Nadu is a front runner in the consumption of YouTube and other popular OTT media streaming services in the country. The Government of Tamil Nadu is making penetration efforts to establish OTT …