Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Consumer Adoption Of Bandwidth Intensive Applications And Its Impacts On Broadband Adoption, Peter Helekiah Oburu

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the capacity required by an internet application in tandem with the network connection type (dial-up or broadband). An internet user’s experience in accessing various types of applications with either high bandwidth or low bandwidth is examined in a consumer choice model of broadband adoption. A consumer implicitly values the time-saving benefits derived from a higher speed internet connection used to access a particular internet application, and compares those utility benefits to the higher price of high speed connection services in making the decision to shift to broadband or remain with a dial-up connection. We find that using …

Estimating The Firm’S Demand For Human Resource Management Practices, Benjamin Israel Miller

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation investigates two related aspects of firms’ choice of HRM practices. The first is why some firms expend a great deal of resources on HRM practices for each employee while others spend very little; the second is the extent to which firms’ bundles of HRM practices sort into general discrete employment systems. In order to empirically address these issues, this dissertation uses an economics-based theoretical approach. The key theoretical link to economics is to treat HRM as a separate factor input in the production process, which allows me to derive an HRM input demand function. This function expresses the …

Three Essays In Public Finance, Shiyuan Chen

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation comprises three essays in public finance. The first essay is a research of a theory of trading of club goods and its application to jurisdiction. The essay establishes a model of trading of club goods among clubs, and illustrates its effects on the process and outcome of club formation. Cost function as well as disutility of crowdedness is emphasized and integrated into the process of club formation, after allowing for exchanging club good among clubs. In the process, the essay develops a market for club goods. Then the model is revised and applied to the formation of jurisdictions. …

Essays On Political And Fiscal Decentralization, Riatu M. Qibthiyyah

Economics Dissertations

We address the questions on what determines local government proliferation, specifically on the impact of intergovernmental transfers on proliferation. On exploring the determinants of proliferation, we provide a more elaborate empirical technique than exists in the literature by employing panel binary outcome, survival regression, as well as count analysis to capture the time varying effect from intergovernmental transfers. We also examine the impact of proliferation on service delivery outcomes and construct channels by which the policy may affect the outcomes in the education and health sectors. We apply panel difference-in-difference estimation and we uniquely identify the different treatment group and …

Pension Reform And Retirement Incentives: Evidence From Austria, Roman Raab

Economics Dissertations

The scope of this dissertation is to investigate the impact of pension reform on the financial incentives to retire for private sector workers in Austria. How do financial incentives embedded in the Austrian pension system affect individual retirement behavior? Was pension reform effective in changing these financial incentives in order to affect retirement behavior? How would future reform scenarios impact retirement behavior? Micro-estimating the impact of financial incentive measures on the probability of retirement shows that the behavioral response to financial incentives in Austria is relatively large in international comparison. Simulations demonstrate that pension reform was ineffective in providing incentives …

The Money-Moving Syndrome And The Effectiveness Of Foreign Aid, Nara Françoise Kamo Monkam

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation examines in depth one of the potential causes of the low performance of foreign aid; in particular, the role incentive structures within international donor agencies could play in leading to “a push” to disburse money. This pressure to disburse money is termed as the “Money-Moving Syndrome”. In this dissertation, the “Money Moving Syndrome” exists when the quantity of foreign aid committed or disbursed becomes, in itself, an important objective side by side or above the effectiveness of aid. The theoretical analysis relies on the principal-agent theory to explore how donor agencies’ institutional incentive systems may affect the characteristics …

Government Grants, Crowding Out Theory And American Based International Non-Governmental Organizations, King Odhiambo Owalla

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation extends the literature on the crowd-out theory to international nonprofits based in the United States. The dissertation measures the simultaneous impact of government grants on private contributions and fundraising activities of INGOs. Understanding the relationship of the major players (government, donors and nonprofit managers) in revenue collection of INGOs is important in understanding international charity and its implications. Six major sub-categories of international organizations have been identified for this research. These are based on a review of the literature on international organizations and those already coded as international according to the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE). An …

Government Fragmentation And The Attainment Of Regional Environmental Quality, Peter S. Bluestone

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation investigates whether higher levels of “governmental fragmentation” in metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) leads to worse environmental outcomes. Fragmentation refers to the number of local governments in a given region or MSA as defined by the census. This research contributes to two bodies of literature, that of environmental federalism and that of urban growth and local government form. In the area of environmental federalism this dissertation extends the collective action model to include local governments. An empirical framework is developed that includes cross-sectional and panel data. In the urban growth and local government form literature, this dissertation comprehensively tests …

Home Rule, Selectivity, And Overlapping Jurisdictions: Effects On State And Local Government Size, Robert Francis Salvino

Economics Dissertations

Home rule power gives local governments greater authority to obtain and manage fiscal resources and determine the distribution and extent of public services. By design, this authority alters government outcomes. The vast decentralization and local government structure literature examining horizontal and vertical competition demonstrates the complexity of predicting the effect of home rule on government sector size. Adding to the complexity, home rule is fundamentally distinct from decentralization. Home rule power gives local governments greater fiscal, structural, and functional authority, while state governments may retain partial authority. This can result in duplication of revenue generation and service provision. Under the …

Estimating The Effect Of Penalties On Regulatory Compliance, Vid Adrison

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation has two main objectives. First, we investigate the effectiveness of penalties and other enforcement tools on regulatory compliance, and comprehensively address problems that exist in previous regulatory compliance studies. Second, we develop a model that explains why most empirical studies of regulatory compliance yield results that seem to be inconsistent with the theoretical predictions of Harrington’s (1988) seminal article on regulatory compliance. Thus the dissertation comprises two essays. In Essay One, we estimate facility compliance with the Clean Water Act (CWA) by comprehensively addressing the problems that exist in previous studies. The first problem is the failure to …

Essays On Corruption And Preferences, Angelino Casio Viceisza

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation comprises three essays. The theme that unifies them is "experiments on corruption and preferences." The first essay (chapter 2) reports theory-testing experiments on the effect of yardstick competition (a form of government competition) on corruption. The second essay (chapter 3) reports theory-testing experiments on the effect of efficiency and transparency on corruption. Furthermore, this essay revisits the yardstick competition question by implementing an alternative experimental design and protocol. Finally, the third essay (chapter 4) reports a theory-testing randomized field experiment that identifies the causes and consequences of corruption. The first essay finds the following. Theoretically, the paper derives …

Designing Pension Programs To Strengthen Formal Labor Markets In Developing Countries: The Case Of Indonesia, Muliadi Widjaja

Economics Dissertations

Despite abundant studies of the application of pension systems in developed countries, little work has been done on how to apply a sustainable pension system in developing countries. The set-up of pension systems in developed countries and developing countries are expected to be different because in developing countries, labor is concentrated in the informal production sectors, while labor in developed countries is concentrated in the formal production sectors. Informal production sectors are sectors where the government, either central or local government, has little access to implement fiscal policies (taxes and subsidies) on firms and labor. This research develops a comprehensive …

The Persistence Of Spatial Mismatch: The Determinants Of Moving Decision Among Low-Income Households, Bulent Anil

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation aims to investigate alternative explanations for the adjustment of low-income inner-city minorities to residential locations. Particularly, this study searches for an answer to find the reason why low-income inner-city minorities do not move to residential locations with more job opportunities (suburbs). Much of the basis for the analysis in this dissertation derives from the irreversible investment theory under the assumption that moving can be considered as an irreversible investment. First, this study formulates a search model in which individuals simultaneously search for jobs and residential locations in two places: suburb and inner-city. Second, by employing The Panel Study …

Firm Recruitment Competition Among States, Michael T. Tasto

Economics Dissertations

Economic growth is a major concern for state governments. One method that states use to spur economic growth is recruiting firms to relocate or expand within their state. Headlines and press releases from high–profile recruitment cases suggest that states compete with each other to recruit firms. The primary question in this dissertation is whether states compete to recruit firms. A unique panel data set that captures a state’s firm recruitment effort now provides the opportunity to answer this question. A variety of econometric methods (2SLS, MLE, and GS2SLS–GMM) isolate the spatial interdependence effect, and the empirical results show states do …

Financial Intermediation And Economic Growth: Bank Credit Maturity And Its Determinants, Nikola Tasic

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation is an investigation into one of the important functions of the banking system: to transform short-term liquid deposits into long-term illiquid financial assets that can fund long gestation activities and, thus, raise the rate of economic growth. To investigate this function empirically, the dissertation uses two new data sets on the maturity of bank credit to the private sector. First data set contains yearly observations covering 74 countries during the period from about 1990 to 2005, while the second data set contains quarterly observations covering 14 transition countries from about 1995 to 2006. Using the data on a …

Urbanization And Poverty Reduction Outcomes, Panupong Panudulkitti

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation attempts to examine the effect of urbanization on poverty reduction outcomes by considering various dimensions of poverty and channels of reducing poverty. First, we develop a theoretical model in order to infer a relationship between urbanization and poverty reduction outcomes. Specifically, it shows an optimal level of urbanization to properly allocate basic public infrastructure and promote pro-poor growth. Second, we conduct empirical analysis on international data to examine the testable hypotheses that are derived from the theoretical model. Further, we explore the “channeled effects” of urbanization on basic education and health by the IV estimation and on productivity …

Subnational Taxes In Developing Countries: The Way Forward, Roy W. Bahl, Richard M. Bird

ECON Publications

Both theory and experience in a variety of circumstances around the world suggest strongly that if fiscal decentralization is to produce sustainable net benefits in developing countries, subnational governments require much more real taxing power than they now have. Students of public finance have studied the subject, and practitioners in developing countries have installed many different versions of subnational government tax. In most developing countries there are potentially sound and productive taxes that subnational governments could use: personal income tax surcharges, property taxes, taxes on the use of motor vehicles, payroll taxes, and even subnational value-added taxes and local ‘‘business …

The Property Tax In Developing Countries: Current Practice And Prospects, Roy W. Bahl, Jorge Martinez Vazquez

ECON Publications

Over the past two decades there has been an unprecedented move toward decentralized governance all over the world. The changes have taken on special significance in many developing and transitional countries where centralized systems were perceived to have failed to deliver improved general welfare. The promise of political, administrative, and fiscal decentralization is that it can strengthen democratic representative institutions, increase the overall efficiency of the public sector, and lead to improved social and economic welfare for countries that decide to adopt it. One critical assumption behind those expectations is that decentralized governments will generally be more accountable and responsive …

Revenue Assignments In The Practice Of Fiscal Decentralization, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez

ECON Publications

No abstract provided.

Revealed Altruism, James C. Cox, Daniel Friedman, Vjollca Sadiraj

ECON Publications

This paper develops a nonparametric theory of preferences over one's own and others' monetary payoffs. We introduce “more altruistic than” (MAT), a partial ordering over such preferences, and interpret it with known parametric models. We also introduce and illustrate “more generous than” (MGT), a partial ordering over opportunity sets. Several recent studies focus on two-player extensive form games of complete information in which the first mover (FM) chooses a more or less generous opportunity set for the second mover (SM). Here reciprocity can be formalized as the assertion that an MGT choice by the FM will elicit MAT preferences in …

Tax Effort In Developing Countries And High Income Countries: The Impact Of Corruption, Voice And Accountability, Richard M. Bird, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez

ECON Publications

In this paper we argue that a more legitimate and responsive state is an essential factor for a more adequate level of tax effort in developing countries and high income countries. While at first glance giving such advice to poor countries seeking to increase their tax ratios may not seem more helpful than telling them to find oil, it is presumably more feasible for people to improve their governing institutions than to rearrange nature’s bounty. Improving corruption, voice and accountability may not take longer nor be necessarily more difficult than changing the opportunities for tax handles and economic structure. The …

La Programación Presupuestaria Plurianual Con Referencia A Su Práctica En El Reino Unido Y Dinamarca, Juan Luis Gomez, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez

ECON Publications

Las últimas décadas han sido testigos de una serie de innovaciones importantes en las políticas de presupuesto y control del gasto público. En todos los casos, estas innovaciones han perseguido los objetivos de crear una política fiscal más sostenible en un sentido macroeconómico, incrementar la eficiencia en la asignación de los recursos en las distintas áreas del sector público y mejorar la calidad de la gestión de los servicios públicos. El presente trabajo se centra en el estudio de los resultados obtenidos con la puesta en práctica de la presupuestación plurianual, y en su uso efectivo en dos países del …

Local Government Fiscal Competition In Developing Countries: The Case Of Indonesia, Francisco Javier Arze Del Granado, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Rentanida Renata Simatupang

ECON Publications

This paper explores the role and significance of spatial fiscal competition among local governments in the developing world. Although there is now a large literature on local fiscal competition in North America and Western Europe, little is known about the extent and significance of fiscal interaction among local governments in the many developing countries that have undergone fiscal decentralization process over the last decade. This paper, in particular, examines whether jurisdictional competition (in the forms of expenditure externalities, tax competition, and yardstick competition) has been present in Indonesia, a country that was strongly decentralized starting in 2001. Our empirical results …

The Property Tax In Practice, Roy W. Bahl, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Joan Youngman

ECON Publications

No abstract provided.

The Determinants Of Revenue Performance, Roy W. Bahl, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez

ECON Publications

No abstract provided.

Tax Policy In Developing Countries: Looking Back—And Forward, Roy W. Bahl, Richard M. Bird

ECON Publications

We review the changing nature of tax policy in developing countries over the last 30 years and consider what factors determining the level and structure of tax revenues in such countries may have changed recently and how such changes may affect future developments.

Pillars Of Fiscal Decentralization, Roy W. Bahl

ECON Publications

Fiscal decentralization can de be defined as the process of transferring budgetary authority from central government to elected subnational governments in order to grant them power to make decisions regarding taxes and expenses. This paper discusses, theoretically and empirically, what some consider the three pillars of fiscal decentralization: expenditure assignment, revenue assignment, and intergovernmental transfers. In the real world, almost all countries have these three pillars. However, there are no two countries alike because of the different possibilities at hand in designing a decentralized fiscal framework. Here, the international experience is studied to shed some light on the various institutional …

Pakistan: Provincial Government Taxation, Roy W. Bahl, Sally Wallace, Musharraf Cyan

ECON Publications

Pakistan’s intergovernmental fiscal system is out of balance. Provincial governments account for 35 percent of all government expenditures but only 7 percent of all taxes. It is doubtful that local residents see much connect between the level of taxes they pay to provinces and the expenditure benefits they receive. This means that the government misses out on one of the most important advantages of fiscal decentralization – taxpayers holding their elected provincial officials accountable for the quality of services delivered.

A second dimension of fiscal imbalance is the mismatch between the weak tax administration skills of the provincial governments and …

Opportunities And Risks Of Fiscal Decentralization: A Developing Country Perspective, Roy W. Bahl

ECON Publications

Since the 1980s, the rhetoric of fiscal decentralization has taken root in developing countries. Most developing countries now place the strengthening of subnational government on the development policy agenda. Despite all the pronouncements, plans, and even political promises, however, there has been no rush to grant state and local governments significant taxing powers and increased expenditure autonomy. Perhaps economic conditions have not been right for countries to adopt all-encompassing decentralization schemes, perhaps political freedoms were too new in some cases, or perhaps the idea still takes some getting used to. Whatever the reason, signs that countries are now ready to …