Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

When Economic And Political Interests Collide: The Cases Of Defense Procurement And Microfinance In India, Mackenzie Owens

Politics and International Relations Research Papers

India is a growing democracy with an abundant population that seeks economic development; India is a democracy in an ever more important, strategic location. It is essential to better understand India, its politics, and its policies as geopolitical tensions rise in our world. India will be explored via a political economy approach through three sections in this paper: (1) The Political System of India; (2) India’s Trade Policy toward Defense Procurement; (3) The Microfinance Crisis of 2010. India looks to develop its domestic industries, grow investment, while defending its interests and sovereignty.

Aggregate Implications Of Barriers To Female Entrepreneurship, Gaurav Chiplunkar, Pinelopi K. Goldberg

Discussion Papers

We develop a framework for quantifying barriers to labor force participation (LFP) and entrepreneurship faced by women in developing countries, and apply it to the Indian economy. We find that women face substantial barriers to LFP. The costs for expanding businesses through the hiring of workers are also substantially higher for women entrepreneurs. However, there is one area in which female entrepreneurs have an advantage: the hiring of female workers. We show that this is not driven by the sectoral composition of female employment. Consistent with this pattern, we find even without promoting female LFP, policies that boost female entrepreneurship …

The Economics Of The Covid-19 Pandemic In Poor Countries, Edward Miguel, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak

Discussion Papers

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended health and living standards around the world. This article provides an interim overview of these effects, with a particular focus on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Economists have explained how the pandemic is likely to have differential consequences for LMICs, and demand distinct policy responses, compared to rich countries. We survey the rapidly expanding body of empirical research that documents its many adverse economic and non-economic effects in terms of living standards, education, health, and gender equality, which appear to be unprecedented in depth and scale. We also review research on successful and failed policy …

Mapping Religion, Space, And Economic Outcomes In Indian Cities, Vamsi Vakulabharanam, Sripad Motiram

PERI Working Papers

We deploy a socio-spatial approach and use a spatially representative survey that we conducted in Hyderabad and Mumbai to analyze the relation between city space and religion. After documenting the relative status of religious groups in urban India and different types of cities using secondary databases, we identify poor-ghettos and elite-enclaves in Hyderabad and Mumbai. In both cities, ghettos have a high proportion of Muslims, while enclaves are dominated by non-Muslim inhabitants. Ghettoization of Muslims is far more pronounced in Hyderabad than in Mumbai. A key finding on the relation between city space and religion is that compared to segregated …

Greater Wheeling Regional Plan: Economic Profile, Eric Bowen, Christiadi, Brian Lego, Cody Adams

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

The Greater Wheeling region, defined in this report as consisting of Brooke, Hancock, Marshall and Ohio counties in West Virginia, and Belmont, Jefferson, and Monroe counties in Ohio, has experienced a volatile economy over the past decade with significant swings in employment across multiple sectors.

In this report, we make a detailed examination of the recent economic indicators in the Greater Wheeling region. This report is part of a series from West Virginia University researchers at the Bureau of Business and Economic Research and the WVU Extension Service that evaluate the Wheeling Metropolitan Area’ economy with the goal of providing …

Greater Wheeling Regional Plan: Workforce And Education Assessment, Christiadi, Eric Bowen

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

Human capital is a crucial element of any regional economic growth plan, as companies looking to locate or grow in a region require a skilled workforce to meet the demands of their businesses. In this report, we examine human capital in the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area, focusing on occupational and educational requirements to support the region’s growth over the next five years.

Greater Wheeling Regional Plan: Action Plan For Economic Development, Michael J. Dougherty, Eric Bowen, Christiadi

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

The Wheeling Region has a long and rich history. However, the passage of time and the change that it has brought has not always been beneficial to the region. As a result, leaders in the region have begun a process to reevaluate and reinvent the Wheeling area and improve the regional economy. In this report, we discuss these strategies and recommend actions to further the Wheeling region’s economic development.

Greater Wheeling Regional Plan: Industrial Cluster Analysis, Eric Bowen

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

One of the most prominent strategies followed by economic development officials is to identify what the region already does well and work to enhance these strengths. Improving on a region’s competitive advantage has been the focus of Porter’s work on economic clusters, which he defines as network of companies that forms within a geographic location based on supplier relationships. In this report, we identify the industry clusters that are present in the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and provide tools to assess the most promising clusters for economic development targeting. This type of cluster analysis has become an increasingly important …

Greater Wheeling Regional Plan: Survey Results, Michael J. Dougherty, Cody Adams

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

The Wheeling Area Strategic Plan included a process for public involvement. Originally, it was to have involved holding open forums and in-person stakeholder meetings. The sessions had been scheduled for early Spring, but they were delayed and eventually cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, we conducted a web-based survey to gather ideas and opinions from people from across the region.

The Impact Of Integrating An Sbdc Program Into A College/University Career Center, Harshdeep Singh Nanda

Master's Projects

With a new approach for integrating the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) program in Alameda County, the Ohlone Community College District (Ohlone College) has introduced a new model for hosting an SBDC program on a college/university campus. While many other educational institutions across the nation have hosted an SBDC program (Cook Center for Entrepreneurship - Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, n.d.; University of Scranton Small Business Development Center (SBDC) | Helping NEPA & Northern Tier Small Businesses Start, Grow & Prosper., n.d.; Olson, 2006), most have treated the program as a separate entity or department, often leading to the …

Free Trade Agreements And Women’S Employment Likelihood: The Case Of Malaysia, Lexie A. Judd

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Darkness Falls Upon America’S Backyard: An Evaluation Of Central Appalachia’S Past Economic Woes And A Blueprint For The Region’S Future Economic Development, Jack Bergantino

Honors Scholar Theses

The United States prides itself as a nation that offers equity and opportunity to its citizens. However, in recent decades, regions of relative wealth and poverty have come to define the American landscape. Coastal communities have fared well with consistently declining rates of unemployment and increasing rates of college graduation. In contrast, Central Appalachia, which comprises parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, continues to falter with diverging employment and income levels relative to other areas of the country.

This report discusses the economic history of the Appalachian region and considers three case studies, concentrated in McDowell, Harrison, and …

The Lintheads' Demise: A Study In Economic Dependency For The Piedmont Region Of South Carolina, Jeremy Lewis Ward

Senior Theses

The decline of the Southern textile and apparel industries represent a unique and rich case study in rapid economic change. It is unique because of the speed and uniformity of collapse; rich, because of the geographic differences that exist even within the concentrated Piedmont textile cluster. Truly, globalization has hit this economic cluster with a brutal punch. And yet, not all cities and counties within the region have been equally harmed by the change.

This report concentrates on examining the socioeconomic variations that have taken place in the thirteen foremost textile-producing counties in South Carolina since the collapse, as well …

Threshold Effects Of Terms Of Trade On Latin American Growth, Andre C. Vianna, Andre V. Mollick

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper investigates nonlinear relationships between terms of trade volatility (totvol) and economic growth in 14 Latin American economies from 1997 to 2014. In the 2000s, Latin American countries experienced accelerated economic growth often attributed to commodity price booms. We split the sample into two regimes based on totvol thresholds determined by bootstrap techniques. Fixed-effects, instrumental variable and dynamic panel regressions address endogeneity in trade-growth, subject to traditional economic channels such as domestic investment, population growth, exchange rate, government size, and institutions. We find statistically significant thresholds and stronger trade-growth links during the 2000s commodity boom and in larger economies.

The Untouchability Of Dalits: The Economic And Social Exclusion Of Dalits In The Post-Independence Era, Duhita Das

Senior Projects Spring 2021

This project examines whether economic development efforts in India were effective in mobilizing Dalits during the post-independence era. Global and national policy continue to fail to recognize the role caste plays in inequality and poverty, further excluding Dalits from gaining freedoms continuously rewarded to higher-castes. By taking a historical approach when examining the caste system and its persistence in economic and social structures in the modern era, there can be a greater understanding of how Dalits remain excluded from major institutions and struggle to mobilize, regardless of the gaining of constitutional rights. From a chronological perspective, this project investigates the …

Llamas No Son Ovejas The Pervasive Impacts Of Colonization On Indigenous Peoples Labor Market Choices In Peru: An Examination Of Exclusionary Institutions Through Sociohistorical And Economic Lenses, Molly Jeanne Devine

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Using historical and empirical evidence, this Senior Project looks at the long-term impacts of colonization on economic, social, and cultural institutions. This project explores impacts both immediately upon Spanish arrival in 1532, and created during the Spanish colonization of Peru. Systems of forced labor created through colonization created two separate paths of development: one for the Spanish and Spanish-selected Peruvian elite and another for the Indigenous people of Peru. Vestiges of the Spanish colonization of Peru continue to manifest themselves in modern times in many ways. This Senior Project examines the link between Indigenous individuals and their participation in the …

Three Essays On “Energy , Environment, And Developmental Economics”, Bolarinwa Ajanaku

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation examines topics related to renewable energy development and investment planning, energy markets, environment degradation and economic development. The substantial ecological costs of deforestation are well known and considered globally important due to biodiversity loss, land degradation, soil erosion, and contributions to climate change. The first essay focuses upon understanding the tradeoff between development and deforestation in Africa. In the second essay, spatial analysis and Geographic Information System (GIS) are applied to determine potential locations for wind farms development in the state of West Virginia. Lastly, the third essay examines the role of wind power penetration on wholesale electricity …