Digital Commons Network^™

Improving American Men's Quality Of Life By Economically Empowering American Women, Margot Rosenblatt

Scripps Senior Theses

In this paper, I explore the relationship between women’s economic empowerment and men’s quality of life in the United States. I created an index of women’s economic empowerment based on county-level data on labor force participation rates, rates of pay, teen birth rates, and families in which a woman is the primary income earner. I then created an index of men’s quality of life based on financial, physical, and mental health indicators. Adjusting for income, dominant industry type, age, population density, race variables, and environmental factors, I found a statistically significant positive correlation between women’s economic empowerment and men’s quality …

Money Doesn’T Grow On Trees: How Financial Literacy Is Learned And Developed Within American Childhood, Nate Lewis

Soaring: A Journal of Undergraduate Research

Financial literacy refers to the ability to process and utilize economic information to make informed decisions for their wellbeing. Given concerning indicators of financial outcomes within the United States, it is crucial to understand how and when strong financial behavior is developed. Efforts to enhance financial education have explored incorporating financial concepts into children’s literature and games. Yet, research indicates that financial literacy is far more rooted in the habits learned from one’s family, despite the emphasis often placed on schooling and socioeconomic status. It is therefore evident that efforts to promote financial literacy must always involve empowering family members …

Horizontal Skill Mismatch Among College Graduates: Analyzing Job Placement For African American In The U.S, Mimla Wardak

Theses - Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy

This study investigates the persistence of horizontal skill mismatches among African-American college graduates in the U.S. labor market and explores the influence of community racial composition on job placement and wage levels. Utilizing data from the American Community Survey (2018-2019), the research constructs a Match Quality Index to assess the alignment between individuals' fields of study and their occupations. The analysis reveals that African-Americans are disproportionately affected by horizontal mismatches, which result in underemployment and wage penalties, despite similar educational backgrounds compared to their counterparts. The findings suggest that larger African-American networks within Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) correlate with slightly …

Examining The Relationship Between Immigration And Labor Market Dynamics In The United States Before And After Policy Changes Of 2017, Noor Jahan Tarshi

Theses - Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy

This thesis investigates the effects of U.S. immigration policy changes in 2017 on labor market dynamics, examining both the immigrant and native-born populations. The study is motivated by the significant socio-political shifts under the Trump administration, which introduced measures like the Public Charge Rule, adjustments to the H-1B visa process, and threats to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). These policy changes provide a unique opportunity to analyze their impact on the U.S. labor market, offering insights critical for policymakers and scholars. The research specifically aims to explore how these immigration policies have influenced employment opportunities, wage levels, and …

The Impact Of Asian And Latin American Immigrants On U.S. Occupational Class Structure, Masooma Hassan Zada

Theses - Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy

This research examines what factors influence the occupational structure of Asian and Latin American immigrants in the United States, focusing on 2002 and 2022. It seeks to understand how levels of education, citizenship status, and other factors impact where each group ends up in the occupational hierarchy. Using data from monthly IPUMS-CPS, a multinomial logit regression model is applied to analyze the change in the occupational category between these two years. The findings reveal a significant disparity in occupational outcomes between the groups, with educational attainment and citizenship being the two most important factors that explain the gap, though not …

Evaluation Of Industrial Policy In The United States Of America, Hossna Seediqyar

Theses - Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy

This paper examines the evolution and current state of industrial policy in the United States, focusing on strategies aimed at enhancing economic growth, competitiveness, and industrial innovation. Historically, U.S. industrial policy has fluctuated between periods of government intervention and market-led approaches. Recently, there has been a renewed emphasis on industrial policy to address challenges such as globalization, climate change, and technological innovations. The research used data from the National Solar Jobs Census 2019, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), and the Tax Foundation’s State Corporate Income Tax Rates and Brackets series. The analysis of the paper highlights the role of …

Gender Pay Gap In Kyrgyz Republic, Maryam Yari

Theses - Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy

The reasons behind the gender wage disparity in the Kyrgyz Republic are investigated in this paper using information from the 2019 Life in Kyrgyzstan (LiK) survey. Given its transitioning economy and post-Soviet socioeconomic environment, Kyrgyzstan offers a special case within the larger framework of gender wage gaps worldwide. The pay disparity is broken down in this research into explainable variations based on observable characteristics and an unexplained component that might be discriminatory using the Heckman and Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition approach. The results indicate the existence of gender discrimination in wage determination since a large amount of the gender wage gap is …

Does Blended Learning Improve Student Grades? A Quasi-Experimental Study

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

This study evaluates the impact of blended learning on student performance using a differences-in-differences method. In a controlled experiment with two classes, each having two sections, all sections initially used face-to-face teaching. After midterm 1, one section from each class transitioned to blended learning. The differences-in differences method analyzed students' performance on both midterms, with midterm 2 covering material taught through blended learning in the treatment group. Results indicate a non-significant increase in midterm 2 grades for the treatment group.

A Shadow Federal Open Market Committee Exercise: A Semester-Long Approach To Teaching Monetary Macroeconomics In Real Time

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

This paper describes a real-time, semester-long approach to helping upper-level undergraduates understand real-time decision-making by the Federal Open Market Committee. The exercise, which culminates in an end-of-semester “shadow” FOMC meeting that corresponds in time to an actual FOMC meeting (in May or December), is intended to illustrate (1) how the open-market committee incorporates real-time data as they unfold between meetings (2) how the real-life conduct and voting membership of the FOMC may differ from what is described in a typical textbook, and (3) that voting FOMC members are real people with different perspectives and backgrounds that inform their decisions.

Designing, Implementing, And Assessing A Financial Education Program At A Minority Serving University In The U.S.

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

This study assesses a tailored financial literacy program aimed at fostering financial inclusion and reducing the equity gap among minority populations in the U.S. at a large minority-serving university in an economically disadvantaged area. A needs assessment survey of 659 students informed the development of the program covering several personal finance topics. Using 404 completed surveys and a mixed methods approach, results indicated significant improvement in financial knowledge, confidence, and goal attainment with notable differences in perceptions between Hispanic and non-Hispanic participants. The results highlight the need and importance of customized financial education for minority populations.

(Wp 2024-01) Douglass North, New Institutional Economics, And Complexity Theory, John B. Davis, Mauro Boianovsky

Economics Working Papers

Douglass North was central to the emergence of New Institutional Economics. Less well known are his later writings where he became interested in complexity theory. He attended the second economics complexity conference at the Santa Fe Institute in 1996 on how the economy functions as a complex adaptive system, and in his 2005 Understanding the Process of Economic Change incorporated this thinking into his argument that market systems depend on how institutions evolve. North also emphasized in the 2005 book the role belief played in evolutionary processes, and drew on cognitive science, especially the famous ‘scaffolding’ idea of cognitive scientist …

Tax Streams, Land Rents, And Urban Land Allocation, Yugang Tang, Zhihao Su, Yilin Hou, Zhendong Yin

Center for Policy Research

This paper examines the fiscal motives behind municipal governments' decisions to allocate commercial and residential land when two categories of land use are subject to different fiscal revenue alternatives: business-related tax and/or land rent. We use urban parcel-level land transfers during China’s peak period of urbanization, match commercial parcels with residential parcels, and find significant price discounts on commercial parcels relative to adjacent residential parcels. The observed discounts arise from the future tax flows from commercial use, i.e., expected taxes from developed commercial land reduce its transfer price. We conduct a structural estimation to examine the implications on land use …

Ledroit Park Photograph Collection, Jaclynn Martin

Prints and Photographs Department

The LeDroit Park Photograph Collection is a limited edition of ten (10) 12" x 12" gelatin silver print photographs capturing the revitalized LeDroit Park and its surroundings, taken in 2003 by Steven M. Cummings. The LeDroit Park Initiative, spearheaded in the late 1990s by then-Howard University President H. Patrick Swygert and Ms. Jamie Gorelick, Vice Chair of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), aimed to renovate and redevelop Howard University-owned properties within the LeDroit Park area. The initiative also explored innovative mortgage rates and payment assistance programs to enhance homeownership opportunities for the university-affiliated and neighboring community. Notably, the …

Esop Shocks: Employee Ownership And Employment Stability In Public Firms During The Covid-19 Crisis, Richard Taylor Lennox

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Did employee ownership preserve jobs and firm-level skill retention during the COVID-19 pandemic? In the United States, employee ownership (EO) primarily takes the form of Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs). Using a longitudinal dataset composed of Department of Labor Form 5500 – CompuStat Fundamentals matched data from 2010-2022, this thesis examines the relationship between ESOPs and employment stability during the COVID pandemic for a large sample of public firms in the US. A fixed effects specification, controlling for a vector of firm characteristics and the national employment-to-population ratio, suggests that ESOPs had an employment-cushioning effect in public firms during the …

Immigration Level And Its Impact On The United States Labor Market Tightness, Khai Quy La

Honors Theses

This research investigates the complex interplay between immigration labor and market equilibrium in the United States, focusing on the period from 2000 to 2019. By examining the correlation between the rate of net international migration and the unemployment-to-vacancy ratio (U/V) across 51 states, the study uncovers significant relationships that shed light on immigration dynamics in response to labor market conditions. The findings support the hypothesis that a decrease in the U/V ratio leads to an increase in immigration in the following period as immigrants seek improved job employment prospects.

The Populist Wave: Unpacking The Global Drivers Of 21st Century Right-Wing Populist Support, Ellie Fallon

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the underlying causes of the global rise in right-wing populism support in the twenty-first century. I will examine both the origins of these shifts in public opinion and their consequences for political systems and global interactions. My analyses will take two forms: (1) a cross-national analysis of the rise in right-wing populism in 34 of the 38 member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to explore the demographic factors that exhibit a relationship with populist attitudes and (2) case studies of right-wing populism in the contemporary United States (with particular attention to former …

Catching Up To Yesterday: An Argument For A Practical Application Of Creativity For Inspiring Change From A Content-Based Course Delivery To A 21st-Century Skills-Based Delivery, Darren Chapman

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project is a creative vision for how college-level courses could be changed to deliver the most important skills students need in the 21st century—moving toward an essential employability skills-based delivery process while training vocational (content) skills. Technology is outpacing humans' ability to adapt and adopt to it, making it increasingly difficult to keep pace with technological change. This has wide-ranging effects on each of us – productively, emotionally, and perhaps physically. Colleges are at the forefront of educating citizens about the working world to improve their productivity, incomes and their sense of intrinsic motivation. However, these same colleges are …

Do The Securities Laws Actually Protect Investors (And How)? Lessons From Spacs, Patrick M. Corrigan

Journal Articles

From the Article

This Article identifies transactional innovation in public offering markets as a case study of how going-public transactions would work if issuers could choose to relax some of the investor protections provided under the securities laws. In recent years, private companies that wanted to go public had a meaningful choice between a traditional initial public offering and a merger with a special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC). Most of the direct and indirect investor protections that ordinarily apply in the initial public offering context are relaxed in the SPAC context.

The Article argues that outcomes in SPAC markets, where …

The Role Of Place Of Birth And Residence In Puerto Rican Health Disparities: Evidence From Disability Prevalence Among Archipelago- Vs. Mainland-Born Puerto Ricans, Mara Getz Sheftel, Frank W. Heiland

Publications and Research

Objectives: This paper provides new estimates of disability prevalence for the archipelago and mainland-residing Puerto Rican populations ages 40 and above and compares disability by place of birth and place of residence to investigate drivers of middle and older age health.

Methods: Large nationally representative samples from 2013 to 2017 American Community Survey and Puerto Rico Community Survey data are used to estimate age-specific disability prevalence for archipelago-born/archipelago-residing, archipelago-born/mainland-residing, mainland-born/mainland-residing Puerto Ricans.

Results: Mainland-born/ mainland-residing Puerto Ricans have the lowest age-adjusted disability rates and archipelago-born/archipelago-residing Puerto Ricans have the highest rates. Differences in education explain part of this disparity.

Discussion: …

Market Trends And Emerging Opportunities: Thailand And Japan In The Evolving Us Packaging Industry, Patsanut Dejavichitlert

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This paper examines the packaging industries of Thailand and Japan, with a focus on their competitiveness and potential for success within the evolving US market. The research explores the size, structure, and comparative advantages of each country's packaging sector. Analyses, including the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), Trade Specialization Index (TSI), Porter's Five Forces, Porter's Diamond Model, and SWOT analysis provide a comprehensive assessment of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats faced by Thai and Japanese packaging firms. The study reveals that both Thailand and Japan possess unique advantages, with Thailand's cost-competitiveness and Japan's focus on innovation and quality offering distinct …

Essays On The Urgent Care Market, Thomas Wilk

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation examines aspects of the urgent care market. We first explore the history and recent trends of urgent care, from its inception in the 1970 to its growing competition with primary care physicians and retail clinics in the 2010s. We examine aspects of how urgent care can impact a patient’s medical home and its use of pricing transparency that is sweeping the nation. We examine the growing need for patient convenience and flexibility in care with retail clinics encroaching the urgent care service space. We also cover the development of technology to better facility telehealth visits and to disrupt …

Inflation Expectations And Political Polarization: Evidence From The Cooperative Election Study, Ethan Struby, Christina Farhart

Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Using a unique, nationally representative survey from the 2022 midterm elections, we investigate the partisan divide in beliefs about inflation and monetary policy. We find that party identity is predictive of inflation forecasts even after conditioning on beliefs about both past inflation and the Federal Reserve’s long-run inflation target. Partisan forecast differences are driven by respondents who express low generalized trust in others and have a high degree of political knowledge; high-trust and low- knowledge partisans make similar forecasts all else equal. This finding is consistent with the literature in political psychology that examines the endorsement of conspiracy theories and …

Essays On Corporate Debt Structure, Kyuyoung Oh

Theses and Dissertations--Finance and Quantitative Methods

The dissertation consists of three chapters exploring three different facets of corporate debt structure choice. In the first chapter, “Risk Management and the Choice between Secured and Unsecured Debt: Evidence from Natural Experiment,” I study whether and how corporate hedging affects firms’ choice between secured and unsecured debt. Exploiting the introduction of steel futures as a natural experiment, I provide causal evidence that risk management enables firms to switch from secured to unsecured debt without sacrificing debt capacity. Cross-sectional evidence supports the interpretation that risk management drives the results. The effects are stronger for firms that are more likely to …

The Effect Of Remittances On Housing Expenditure In Filipino Households, Joaquin Franco Rigonan, Angelo Salvo, Lawrence B. Dacuycuy, Tereso S. Tullao Jr, Winfred Villamil, Krista Yu

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) have chosen to work abroad due to the abundance of better work opportunities and a higher salary earned. Migrant workers send remittances to their families from their country of origin to bring extra income for these households to spend on essential consumption. These remittances serve as additional income and protection for recipient households, easing their consumption and enabling them to spend their money on education, housing construction, and household electrical appliances. Numerous existing literature has stated that household-receiving remittances spend more money on investments that will help improve their standard of living; one of these investments …

The Relationship Of Esg Component Scores And Creditworthiness On Publicly Listed Firms In The Asean-5 Countries, Shayne Jefferson Alvarez, Charlene Ashley C. Cu, Lance L. Lamberte, Patrick Henry G. Yap, Paulynne J. Castillo, Roberto B. Raymundo, Joel Q. Tanchuco

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

ESG ratings are crucial for ASEAN-5 businesses' creditworthiness. While existing studies often concentrate on ESG's impact on financial performance or general pillars, a detailed exploration of the 10 specific ESG components in the ASEAN-5 is lacking. This study addresses this gap, examining how ESG ratings affect a company's creditworthiness (probability of default) in publicly traded companies across the ASEAN-5 countries while considering potential heterogeneity. Utilizing annual data from 2013-2022 for 10 ESG components and Eikon Refinitiv's probability of default via the Starmine Combined Credit Risk Model across ASEAN-5, the study employs a panel OLS regression model with White's Robust Standard …

Eco 11, Karen David Prof.

Open Educational Resources

This the syllabus for the ECO 11 Microeconomics course taught by Prof. David. It is a ZTC course using an OpenStax OER textbook.

Cap-And-Trade And Air Quality: Which Communities Benefit The Most?, Nicole Bobbs

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Air Quality significantly impacts public health, particularly for individuals with respiratory issues. Cap-and-trade (CAT) programs aim to mitigate emissions, focusing on greenhouse gases to improve air quality. This paper evaluated the long-run effectiveness of CAT programs, comparing multi-sector and single-sector initiatives, and their impact on air quality across counties with varying economic statuses. Using a difference-in-difference approach, comprehensive data spanning recent years up to 2023 is analyzed. The dataset includes air quality measures, population, personal income, average temperature, precipitation, and vehicle registrations enabling a thorough examination of the programs’ effects. Results reveal a complex relationship. Both programs’ initiatives create a …

Three Essays On Energy Related To State Policies And Low Carbon Transitions, Pinky Thomas

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation consists of three essays on energy-related state policies and energy transition. Each paragraph below refers to the three abstracts for the three chapters in this dissertation, respectively.

The first essay is entitled: “Impacts of State Tax and Resource Ownership Policies on Extraction: Evidence from U.S. Natural Gas Production”. The innovation of combined use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies during the 2000s has allowed natural gas producers in the United States to extract natural gas and liquids from deep shale formations in a cost-efficient manner. This essay evaluates whether unconventional gas production responds to tax changes, and …

Essays On Consumption Dynamics, Shaun M. Gilyard

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation, titled "Essays on Consumption Dynamics," comprises three chapters delving into consumer behavior within the context of household financial management. It sheds light on how consumers navigate their budgets concerning daily expenses, particularly around bill payments, and examines the potential influence of household financial holdings on the redistribution effects of monetary policy.

The first chapter delves into how consumers strategically handle their budgets in proximity to bill payments. Analyzing daily transaction-level data containing detailed expenditure information, it reveals a trend of consumers deferring non-bill expenditures until after bill payments. Spending spikes by 41% - 51% above average on the …

Essays On Urban Transportation And Health Economics, Alexander P. Tsiukes

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The first chapter analyzes how Premier League games in London impact demand for the city’s bike-sharing system. Bike-sharing systems affect mode choice for within-city transportation. Using bike rental data from Transport for London, this chapter exploits the plausibly-exogenous timing of Premier League games to identify how proximity to stadiums affects demand for London’s bike-sharing system. Results indicate games at Stamford Bridge (stadium) cause a 24.36% increase in the number of bike trips arriving within 0.5km of the stadium, with effects diminishing as distance increases. In contrast, games at London Stadium decrease nearby bike-sharing use and may actually crowd out would-be …