Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Explaining The Proliferation Of U.S. Billionaires During The Neoliberal Period, Rob Piper

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This article explains the proliferation of U.S. billionaire wealth during the neoliberal period (1980 to the present). Using the work of scholars, investigative journalists, and government researchers, it examines descriptive evidence from the past forty years of the economic, social, and political trends associated with the capital accumulation that led to so much wealth being concentrated with so few individuals. It further creates a theoretical framework of institutional factors (or “drivers”) that help to understand how these trends link together to provide a comprehensive explanation for the increase of billionaires in comparison with other economic gauges like GDP, income distribution, …

The Institutional Drivers Contributing To Billionaire Wealth At The Sector Level, Rob Piper

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Over the last 50 years (the period of neoliberalism) the national wealth of the United States reached unprecedented levels. Despite this dramatic increase in national wealth, an increasing amount of American wealth has found its way into the hands of a smaller percentage of the population. Indicative of this inequality, the number of individuals that have achieved a net worth of $1 billion (billionaires) has increased at a higher rate than any other time in American history. Descriptive evidence and analysis of macroeconomics from scholarly literature and journalism attributes this dramatic increase in billionaire wealth to certain comprehensive and interrelated …

The Iranian Crisis Of The 1970s-1980s And The Formation Of The Transnational Investment Bloc, Mazaher Koruzhde

Class, Race and Corporate Power

The events surrounding the Iranian Revolution in the 1970s and 198s significantly contributed to the formation and consolidation of a U.S-Saudi transnational investment bloc.

Three Essays On Understanding Social And Economic Responses To Crisis And Disaster Events, Shahnawaz Mohammad Rafi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation comprises three chapters that analyze the social and economic responses to crises and disasters. In the first chapter, I have investigated whether media affects the US official foreign aid channel or crisis related aid. I have examined natural disaster citations in four mainstream US newspapers to analyze whether they influence the Official Development Assistance (ODA) or the short-term crisis related aid need of a recipient following a natural disaster. I created three new media variables to measure the strength of media effect on US ODA, humanitarian aid, and food aid. The empirical analyses indicate that media citation only …

Three Essays On Trade Policy In A Multi-Country World, Enrique Valdes

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation involves analyzing welfare in developing countries due to a variety of trade policies. Because all three chapters focus on developing countries and their interactions with more developed countries, we need a model that accounts for differences in income between countries, easily extending to more than two countries. For our analysis, we draw on the Ricardian model developed by Matsuyama (2000).

The first chapter investigates the effects tariff wars have on developing countries. We study the effect of a tariff war between two richer countries on a non-participant low-income developing country. Surprisingly, we find that the low-income country can …

Essays On Monetary Policy And International Macroeconomics, Elisa Vilorio Medina

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An understanding how external shocks affect macroeconomic variables is important

for policy implications and sound recommendations. My dissertation analyzes the

impact of exogenous shocks on inflation, exchange rate, and monetary policy in

advanced economies and emerging market economies.

The second chapter explores the extent to which the exogenous shock of the

shale oil revolution explains the missing-puzzle inflation—sluggish price inflation

in the U.S and below the Federal Reserve’s two percent inflation target following

the expansion after the Great Recession. Using a novel identification framework,

I disentangle the shocks by imposing a combination of dynamic sign restrictions,

block exogeneity, and short-run …

Three Essays On Healthcare Economics, Esteban Chinchilla

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation follows a three-essay format. The first chapter examines the impact of a home visiting program on medical expenses and healthcare services utilization implemented by a healthcare maintenance organization. The evaluation uses administrative claims data to estimate the six-month average expenditures following program enrollment. The estimation is carried out by applying a difference-in-differences method to compare spend for patients enrolled in the program to a control group. Estimation using matching methods to address any potential confounding bias is also applied to support estimates and confirms findings. The estimation finds that the program increases average medical expenditures by as much …

Essays On The Economic Effects Of Income Inequality, Adir Dos Santos Mancebo Junior

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Income inequality has been rising throughout the world. In the United States, for example, the income share of the population at the top 10% of the income distribution rose 34% from 1980 to 2019 according to data from the World Inequality Database. This dissertation studies how increasing levels of income inequality might affect the economy.

In the first chapter, I show that changes in the level of income inequality may affect consumption volatility through changes in household aggregate marginal propensity to consume (MPC). I propose a simple theoretical framework to explain this dynamic and evaluate it empirically, combining data from …

International Financial Institutions And Caribbean Development: A Comparison Of Haiti & Jamaica, Alexander Bruno

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The global financial system is based on, and influenced by specific institutions which are controlled by countries in the Global North. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) are two of the institutions whose policies help to shape state behaviors, and reinforce the Global North’s dominance. Thus, the main hypothesis of this study is that institutional policies and programs of the IMF and WB aid and abet the continued underdevelopment of Caribbean island-states. This study examines the impact of IMF and WB policies on the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) measurements in Haiti and Jamaica, and how they …

Don’T Believe The Hype, Big Finance Continues To Threaten Our Survival, Martin Hart-Landsberg

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This article is reprinted with permission from Reports From The Economic Front and the author.

Our special thanks to the author, Dr. Martin Hart-Landsberg.

Realizing A Green New Deal: Lessons From World War Ii, Martin Hart-Landsberg

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Many activists in the United States are working to build a movement for a Green New Deal transformation of the economy in order to tackle both global warming and the country’s worsening economic and social problems. To this point, Green New Deal advocates have been far more interested in discussing the programs to be included than in how to achieve the desired transformation. Helpfully, we have the experience of World War II to provide some guideposts. This paper begins by highlighting the enormity and speed of the US economy’s wartime transformation from civilian to military production. Then, it describes the …

Poverty In The High-Income Countries: A Marxist Alternative To Mainstream Ideologies, Jamie A. Gough, Aram Eisenschitz

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Poverty has been present in all the advanced capitalist countries since the dawn of industrial capitalism in the late 18C, and remains so to this day. Mainstream explanations of this phenomenon are superficial and mistake symptoms for causes. In this article we present a Marxist explanation of poverty in the high-income countries since the late 19C. We show how poverty is systematically produced by the dynamics of capital accumulation and the capital-labour relation, including their spatial dynamics, operating in the realms of production, social reproduction, and their mediations by the state. Since poverty is produced by the totality of society, …

Essays On Migration, Entrepreneurship, And Risk Hedging, Yiming Liu

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Expectations of higher income and better living conditions are the major causes behind migration. Whether migration is temporary or permanent is a consequence of both these expectations as well as the policies and the economic development of the host area. Migration comes with risks and migrants are more willing to take risks than nonmigrants. Entrepreneurship, like migration, also requires risk-taking for potentially high returns. The theme that connects the three chapters in the dissertation is the risks people take as they decide to migrate, to start new businesses, and the hedging strategies they adopt to mitigate these risks. This paper …

Three Essays On Development Economics, Ehsan Asghari-Ghara

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation includes three essays on development economics, addressing the socio-economic effects of natural shocks and interventions in these countries. In the first essay, I analyze how the Indian government's response to cyclone Fani affected the parliamentary election in 2019. It develops a theoretical model about how voters' type (being myopic or not) and the probability of a natural disaster affect politicians' response. Unlike other studies related to myopic theory, we use sentiment analysis rather than public spending to calculate voters' attitudes towards the government's response. The result shows that (1) the probability of winning the election increases for the …

Three Essays In Applied Economics, Mohammad Javad Mehregan

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Governments worldwide support their national economies to obtain growth, adequate employment, and price durability. Regulation is a unique approach through which governments control the economy. Governments attempt to maintain and regulate the economy in various ways to guarantee that business fosters the common good. The range of government regulations is enormous and touches all areas of the economy and all features of daily life. Understanding the effect of regulations on the economy is essential since its outcomes can improve government interventions’ efficiency. Applied economics can help measure the effectiveness of government intervention on economic outcomes.

This dissertation includes three essays …

Three Essays On Disaster Risk, Housing Market And Public Health, Mehrnoosh Asadi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays focusing on topics related to environmental and health economics. In the first essay, we look into risk mitigation measures related to public health. More specifically, the focus is on the societal impacts of Superfund Sites and their inundation during extreme weather events. With that objective in mind, we investigate the effect of hurricane-induced discharges from Superfund Sites in terms of residents’ risk perception and its consequence on housing values in the real estate market using the property sales data. The findings suggest that home prices in the vicinity of Superfund Sites experience depreciation. Following …

Me, Myself And My Future-Self: How Self-Motives Impact Personal Financial Decision Making, Patricia Torres

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The role of self-motives on consumer behavior has been a subject of interest for researchers in the fields of marketing and psychology. With regard to consumer well-being, most of studies have focused on health-related issues (diet, physical activity, tobacco use, substance abuse). However, there is a specific area that is of significant interest in the American context: financial decision making, specifically, personal savings and debt (mis) management. Both the 2008 financial crisis and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic exposed Americans’ lack of savings and its devastating consequences. A record-high consumer debt (Federal Reserve, 2018) combined with a lack of savings (Northwestern …

Rethinking The Functions Of Regional Economic Communities: Why African Small States Join And Remain In Sub-Regional Entities, Cliff Kodero

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation advances new arguments about regional integration in Africa. It sheds light on the roles of regional economic communities (RECs) for small-economy states in Africa by examining the benefits and drawbacks of participating in such regional groups for both the small states themselves and their ruling regimes. The study suggests that RECs, rather than being agents of economic development, facilitate regime-boosting agendas of neopatrimonial regimes, promote a sense of (false) sovereignty, and entrench the political elite’s capture of the states.

The significance is threefold. First, it suggests that RECs provide an extension of neopatrimonial networks, which expand state-capture by …

Canadian Banks And Imperialism In The English-Speaking Caribbean, Tamanisha J. John

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Canadian banks have been important components of an imperialist system since at least the 19^th century. However, their long and rich history of operating as purely exploitative entities in the English-speaking Caribbean region is often overlooked— leading to many incomplete and conflicting narratives about Canada’s role within the global system. I argue that Canada is an imperial actor that exerts agency in supporting a Canadian banking oligopoly both within Canada and in the English-speaking Caribbean. Insufficient attention is given to these Canadian banks, especially considering the power they have wielded in the Caribbean over the centuries. By analyzing the …

Three Essays On Labor And Demographic Economics, Andra Hiriscau

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation follows a three-essay format. The first chapter examines the mechanism behind birth order effects. The second and third chapters analyze the impact of paid maternity leave on fertility rate, women's labor force participation, and family living arrangements.

The literature primarily suggests that, in developed countries, first-born children have better educational outcomes than their siblings; meanwhile, in developing countries, first-born children perform worse than their siblings. In the first chapter, co-authored with Mihaela I. Pintea, Ph.D., we use parental income during childhood and family fixed effects estimation to test if financial resources contribute to birth order effects on educational …

Mexico's Fate Amid U.S. – China Competition, Kathleen C. Schwartzman

Class, Race and Corporate Power

What is Mexico’s future in the face of global hierarchical shifts. Mexico has existed in a dependent relationship with the United States since the beginning of the 20th century. Mexico’s dependency evolved in tandem with the U.S.’ rise to power. That U.S. dominance is being challenged in the 21st century, thus offering Mexico a chance for a different development path. Drawing on elements from world-systems, dependency, and political economy theories, I consider three possible trajectories: Mexico will develop more autonomously; it will become dependent on China; or it will experience stagnation. Using international and governmental data sets, reports from U.S. …

Essays On Macroeconomics And Financial Economics, Maryam Aljahani

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation comprises of three Essays. The first essay classifies households as savers and borrowers based on their wealth during the credit cycle. It examines the wealth effects of the saving and housing decisions of heterogeneous households over a credit cycle. To do so, we employ the Difference-in-Difference estimator and find evidence of a significant difference between the wealth effect for savers and borrowers. In the second essay, we examine the extent to which credit-constrained households are able to accumulate wealth when the macro environment is characterized by the presence of a liquidity trap and borrowing constraints. Our evidence highlights …

Turkey-Russia Relations In 2001-2020: Deepening Partnership And Heightening Competition Amid Regional Restructuring, Muhammet Koçak

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explains the evolution of Turkey-Russia relations in 2001 2020. Turkey and Russia are two of the most critical powerhouses of Central Eurasia. In the past, the Russian Empire played a significant role in the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and Turkey took part in containing the USSR during the Cold War. In 2001 2020, however, Turkey and Russia invested in bilateral trade and established partnerships in the defense and energy sectors. Two countries also worked together to resolve several regional conflicts, including the Syrian Crisis. Despite this trend’s regional and global significance, the literature suffers from an inadequacy …

Three Essays Of Assessing The Risk, Adaptation And Resilience To Natural Disasters, Mohammad Asif Hasan Khan

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three chapters in environmental and natural resource economics. In the first chapter, using survey data, I investigate what factors are important in people's evacuation decisions in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. I examine if temporal spillover is present in their decision making and how significant the spillover effect is. With that objective in mind, I examine the effect of previous evacuation experience on future evacuation decision. I also analyze how network effects influence people's evacuation decisions during a natural disaster.

As the threat of climate change grows, communities around the world are facing the dangers of …

What The New Deal Can Teach Us About Winning A Green New Deal, Martin Hart-Landsberg

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Growing awareness of our ever-worsening climate crisis has boosted the popularity of movements calling for a Green New Deal. At present, the Green New Deal is a big tent idea, grounded to some extent by its identification with the original New Deal and emphasis on the need for strong state action to initiate system change on a massive scale. Given contemporary conditions, it is not surprising that people are looking back to the New Deal period for inspiration. However, inspiration is not the same as seeking and drawing useful organizing and strategic lessons from a study of the dynamics of …

Equity Valuation - Seeking An Understanding Through Alternative Approaches, Faisal Awwal

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation involves measuring and testing the empirical performances of equity pricing models.

The first paper extends the constant discount factor model with intrinsic bubbles developed in Froot and Obstfeld (1991) to account for autocorrelation in dividend growth rates. We derive an analytical expression for both the present value stock price and an intrinsic bubble component when dividend growth rates evolve as a Gaussian AR(1) process. Hypotheses tests favor an AR(1) process for dividend growth rates and an AR(1)-based model developed here for price-dividends ratios over a benchmark case. Hypotheses tests also reject the absence of a bubble component in …

Neoliberalism And Monopoly In The Motion Picture Industry, Michael S. Wartenbe

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Monopolies and industry concentration have returned in our time, as did the ramifications in the globalized political economy. One of the most impactful in our daily lives are the Mass Media Conglomerates who not only own the majority of film, television, and news we access, but increasingly control the means of accessing it, from cable to digital. While many are familiar with these corporations via their services and products, less known by the public are their political operations and close cooperation with Washington. This is due to the lack of holistic analysis of the industry and cooperation in the media …

It's Capitalism, Stupid!: The Theoretical And Political Limitations Of The Concept Of Neoliberalism, Bryant William Sculos

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This polemical essay explores the meaning and function of the concept of neoliberalism, focusing on the serious theoretical and political limitations of the concept. The crux of the argument is that, for those interested in overcoming the exploitative and oppressively destructive elements of global capitalism, opposing "neoliberalism" (even if best understood as a process or a spectrum of "neoliberalization" or simply privatization) is both insufficient and potentially self-undermining. This article also goes into some detail on the issues of health care and climate change in relation to "neoliberalism" (both conceptually and the material processes and policies that this term refers …

Corporations, Associations And The State: The International Subsidy System For Film, Michael S. Wartenbe

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Rather than increasing competition in the market and decreasing government spending, neoliberalism has driven states to compete by appealing to transnational corporations. Direct subsidization to attract investment has become one of the most egregious normalization of this process, and Hollywood and the film industry have become some of the most active participants to this system. Indeed to have a functioning film industry, government subsidies are essential, commonly paying out up to a third of the production costs. Per employee these are some of the highest subsidy rates of any industry, and with most of the world participating, they offer little …

Essays On Economic Valuation Of Water Resources, Christina Estela Brown

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increased potential of flooding caused by heavy precipitation events and sea level rise, as well as growing risk of drought that are likely changes in the frequency and spatial distribution of climatic conditions, pose particular challenges to water management in coastal areas. Extreme events are expected to increase the complexity of managing scarce water resources for competing water users. South Florida, which is characterized by a mosaic of urban settlements, agricultural areas and natural areas, is served by a highly human-engineered water management system grappling to meet multiple objectives, including urban and agricultural water supply, flood control, and environmental restoration. …