Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Work Hard For The Money: Performance-Based Funding In The State Of Louisiana, Victoria C. Lloyd

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine in what ways, if any, the introduction of the equity incentive portion of Louisiana’s performance-based funding model impacted the underserved student groups it was designed to support. I employed a quantitative quasi-experimental design for this study by running three outcome variables (Adult Learner Enrollment, First-Time Enrollment for Racially Minoritized Students, and Low-Income Student Enrollment) by sector (two- and four-year public institutions) and employing a differences-in-differences regression with panel data. In my analysis I uncovered two main findings: 1) Louisiana’s equity incentive is showing early signs of success for all three underserved groups …

Reducing Recycling Contamination Using An Information Nudge, Mimi Rivette

LSU Master's Theses

Recycling contamination is a central challenge to recycling programs but is infrequently studied due to the difficulty of measuring contents and the inconvenience of sorting through recycling bags by hand. We conducted two simultaneous experiments to address both the issue of recycling contamination and the infrequency of its study at Louisiana State University in Fall 2021. We implemented two signage treatments, the first explicitly instructing passersby not to recycle a short list of common recycling contaminants, including Styrofoam, food wrappers, plastic bags, and face masks, and the second generally encouraging recycling but excluding specific instructions on what to recycle. To …

A Forestry Trade Data Discrepancy Analysis, Morgan Alyce Daigle

LSU Master's Theses

Trade data across multiple databases experience unavailability across some countries/forestry products, inconsistency, and unreliability; and these qualities manifest as discrepancies in the data. Literature provides evidence of discrepancies and inconsistencies within international trade statistics, including documented cases in which they are present within agriculture sector trade.

While researchers have worked to pinpoint factors to explain discrepancies, studies on the forestry trade databases are not as prevalent. Therefore, more research needs to be conducted to identify discrepancies within forest sector products trade data to understand the nature of discrepancies found between different bilateral trading partners.

The goal of this thesis is …

The Limits Of Financial Equity: The Federal Reserve, The Depression Of 1921, And The End Of Wilsonian Progressivism, Terril Hebert

LSU Master's Theses

The Limits of Financial Equity: The Federal Reserve, the Depression of 1921, and the End of Wilsonian Progressivism is an examination of monetary policy and centralized macroeconomic planning in the American economy during the inflationary spiral of the 1910s that culminated in the Depression of 1921. Put forward for consideration is the successful populist campaign for agricultural credit equity by the burgeoning Federal Reserve System; set against a backdrop of intentional inflation, world and domestic citizens competed against as the price and supply chain distortions perpetuated by the policing of American commerce by the Food Administration, A. Mitchell Palmer’s Department …

Essays On Intersection Of Economics And Judicial Decision-Making, Masoud Asadi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two chapters on the economics of judicial decision-making. In chapter 2, using the data from U.S. immigration courts and the Global Terrorism Dataset, I investigate the effect of terrorist attacks on asylum decisions. I find that terrorist attacks within the courts' states reduce the likelihood of granting asylums by 1.9 percent. This effect is driven by Islamic, Right-wing, and Lone-wolf terrorist attacks, and the magnitude of the effect is largest in the case of Islamic terrorist attacks (3.6 %) and smallest in the case of Lone-wolf attacks (1.9 %). Left-wing terrorist attacks have no impact on …

Culture And Economics: A Literature Review, Faith Howard

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

An Accounting And Economic Analysis Of Various Tax Plans And Strategies, Max Catalanotto

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Impact Of Psychological Empowerment, Workplace Motivation, And Social Capital On The Job Performance Of Farmers In Honduras: A Mixed Methods Study, Susan Lale Karimiha

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A farmer’s job performance is critical to the production of raw materials such as food, fiber, and fuel and is therefore an important concern for individuals, businesses, and economies across the world. The literature on improving farmers’ job performance has focused more on introducing new technologies, and less on the psychosocial factors that improve job performance. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the impact of psychological empowerment, workplace motivation, and social capital on farmers’ job performance in Honduras.

A mixed methods approach was used to collect and analyze both quantitative and qualitative data. For quantitative data, a …

An Analysis Of The Effects Of Natural Disasters On Subnational Economic Growth, Margaret Higgins

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Economic Development Of Northern Thailand After The Eradication Of Poppy, Devin Rose

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Using A Difference-In-Differences Approach To Examine The Impact Of The State Earned Income Tax Credit On Student Educational Outcomes, Caroline Louise Vanchiere

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Essays On Mortgage Portfolio Diversification, Timothy Patrick Dombrowski

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Portfolios of mortgage loans played an important role in the Great Recession and continue to compose a material part of bank assets. The distribution of mortgage portfolio returns, and consequently, the risk of these portfolios, is quite distinct even from other fixed income asset classes. This dissertation contains three essays, each aiming to analyze a specific component of risk in mortgage portfolios and role of geographical diversification in reducing this risk.

The first essay investigates how cross-sectional dependence in the underlying properties flows through to the loan returns, and thus, the risk of the portfolio. In addition to demonstrating this …

Three Essays On The Economics Of Education, Tianheng Wang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays related to the field of economics of education. In chapter 2, using data from middle school students in China and exploiting the random assignment of students to classrooms within schools, I investigate the causal effect of peer groups on students’ scholastic achievement. I find that female student proportion in the classroom positively affects male students’ test scores and that the education level of peers’ parents improves the academic achievement of both male and female students. Students with highly-educated parents benefit more from classmates with higher parental education compared to students with relatively lower parental …

Effects Of U.S. Financial Regulations On Labor Markets, Anindo U. Sarker

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis is based on a collection of three essays which study the effects of financial policy on labor markets. The first two essays investigate the effects of U.S. bank branching deregulation on labor markets. The first essay studies how these regulations impacted wages and working hours of traditional payroll workers. The second essay studies the impact of these policy reforms on the occupational choice to engage in self-employed work. The main finding of this set of studies is credit access has real effects on the workforce. Estimates from the econometric analysis used in this study suggest that credit access …

Essays On Interplay Between Economics And Culture, Ishita Tripathi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation constitutes of two distinct essays on the influence of terrorism on individual perception and belief formation. In the first study, using micro-level data from 32 European countries, we find that an increase in terrorist activities by foreign perpetrators instigates negative sentiments towards immigrants. But the intensity of this adverse impact of terrorism decreases with time. Additionally, our analysis reveals that the effect of terrorism varies across individuals depending on various socio-economic attributes. Terrorism has a stronger negative influence on the residents, if their own country hosts relatively larger number of migrants. Individuals are not affected by terrorist attacks …

Essays On The Chinese Economy, Fan Duan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation includes three essays which contribute to the literature on economic growth, innovation, and international trade in China. Chapter 2 examines the implication of early economic prosperity, measured by the city-level population density in 1776, for modern day China. It shows that uneven economic performance across cities in the modern-day China can be traced to variation in living standards in 1776. Chapter 3 investigates the effects of innovation and human capital on firms’ export decisions over the 2003-2011 period, and it shows that more innovative and skill-intensive firms are more likely to export and stay in the export market. …

The Effects Of Natural Disasters On Subnational Economic Growth In Latin America And The Caribbean, Olevia Sharbaugh

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Colombian Peace Deal With Farc: Effects On Tourism And Deforestation, Diana Solano-Florez

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Municipal Solid Waste Tax Policies In California, David Lehman

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Essays On Economic Growth In India, Sujana Kabiraj

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation comprises of three distinct studies that contribute to the field of economic growth in India. First, we investigate patterns of growth at the district level (second level administrative units) using radiance calibrated night lights data for 2000-2010. We examine growth both at the aggregated district level, as well as along the rural and urban dimensions. We find evidence of both absolute and conditional convergence, with convergence among rural areas being the primary driver. However, there is no evidence of convergence among urban areas. Moving further along similar lines, we explore the effect of credit shocks, generated by scheduled …

Essays In Health And Public Economics, Sara Oloomi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I present three distinct essays in health and public economics. In chapter 2, using Vital Statistics data from National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and a Difference in Difference methodology, I investigate the impact of the Paid Family Leave (PFL) of California on birth delay, infant health, and labor market outcomes of mothers after first childbirth. I find that PFL of California reduces birth delay by encouraging women to have their first child earlier. Results are more pronounced for older women who are over the age of 35. This policy also improves infant health by reducing incidence …

Essay On Incentives, Economic Conditions, And Human Capital Formation, Masayuki Onda

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I offer three independent studies. The first examines the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on entrepreneurial activities over the period 1996-2008. We find that FDI has no discernible effect on entrepreneurial activity in probusiness states identified by the existence of Right-to-Work (RTW) states. In non-RTW states, however, we find that an increase in FDI decreases the average monthly rate of business creation and destruction. The second study assesses the impact of breastfeeding on early childhood outcomes. Using Birth Cohort of Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (ECLS-b) data and employing a recently developed econometric technique, I estimate the …

Essays On The Impact Of Education On Economic Outcomes In A Developing Country, Omer Bahadir Dursun

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I present three distinct essays in economics of education and health economics that can be read independently from one another. These studies investigate the non-pecuniary benefits of extended primary schooling in a developing country setting. I exploit the 1997 education reform in Republic of Turkey, which extended the duration of mandatory schooling from 5 to 8 years, to address the endogeneity of educational attainment levels of individuals. Chapter 2 provides robust evidence in favor of the argument that increasing the duration of mandatory primary education among women who have a low interest in receiving more schooling may …

Essays On The Externalities Of The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act Of India, Satadru Das

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I offer two distinct studies on the welfare externalities of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) of India. The MGNREGA is an employment guarantee scheme implemented in rural India since 2006 and is the world’s largest public works project. In the first study, I look at the effects of the MGNREGA on crime in India. I use crime statistics from National Crime Records Bureau of India to create a district level panel between 2002 and 2012 to estimate the effects of the program on various violent and property crimes. I also create a district …

Essays In Economics Of Institutions And Culture, Luiza Valeriyevna Pogorelova

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I present two distinct essays in economics of culture and institutions that can be read independently from one another. In Chapter 2, using the European Social Survey data, I investigate the impact of increased educational attainment, induced by compulsory schooling reforms, on religiosity and superstitious beliefs. I find consistently negative effects of education on religiosity, superstitious beliefs, social religious acts (attending religious services) and solitary religious acts (the frequency of praying). In Chapter 3, I examine the impact of “culture of leisure” and tax rates on labor force participation and hours worked of second-generation immigrants residing in …

Essays On Regional Economic Growth In China, Ting Wang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation comprises of three essays that contribute to the literature on regional economic growth in China. In Chapter 2, I examine the impact of manufacturing growth on employment in the non-tradable sector for prefecture-level cities in China. I find that adding ten manufacturing jobs creates 3.4 additional jobs in the non-tradable sector during 2000-2010. The multiplier is greater for high-technology manufacturing industries, is the largest for wholesale, retail and catering, and is greater in inland regions. In Chapter 3, I explore the role of industry and services in growth. I found that increase in industry output share will lead …

Gubernatorial Party Affiliation And Crime, Chase Lindsey

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Essays In Labor Economics, Sukriye Elif Filiz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I present three distinct topics on labor economics that can be read independently from one another. In the first chapter, using matched mother-child data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I investigate the impact of mothers’ involuntary job loss on children’s academic achievement. In the next chapter, I examine the impact of eye and hair color on wages-at-first-job after schooling. In addition, I investigate whether hair color has an impact on the wage-at-the-first-job if the individual resides among people who have similar features. In the last chapter, I examine the impact of unemployment insurance benefit generosity …

A Bayesian Approach To Small Area Estimation Of Health Insurance Coverage, Zhengjia Sun

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Small area estimation focuses on borrowing strength across area in order to develop a reliable estimator when the auxiliary information is available. The traditional methods for small area estimation borrow strength through linear models that provide links to related areas, which may not be appropriate for some survey data. We examine the empirical best unbiased linear prediction method and hierarchical Bayes method with the Louisiana Health Insurance Survey (LHIS), and a hierarchical Bayes method with probit model to fit the LHIS data by using the single year data in 2013. This approach results in a lower level of posterior standard …

Essays On Sub-National Economic Growth: Evidence From A Global Sample, Dachao Ruan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I make three important contributions to the literature on regional economics. In Chapter 2, I construct a measure of early development, urban population density (urban population relative to total land area), that is novel to the growth literature, and apply GIS techniques to define and locate regions/cities and obtain geographic and historical measures across regions and cities. Chapter 3 investigates the persistence in sub-national development over the past 150 years. I find that regions that had a relatively higher urban population density in 1850 tend to be relatively more developed today. Geographic and climatic characteristics are significantly …