Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Ensuring A Post-Covid Economic Agenda Tackles Global Biodiversity Loss, Pamela Mcelwee, Esther Turnout, Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline, Jennifer Clapp, Cindy Isenhour, Tim Jackson, Eszter Kelemen, Daniel C. Miller, Graciela Rusch, Joachim H. Spangenberg, Anthony Waldron, Rupert J. Baumgartner, Brent Bleys, Michael W. Howard, Eric Mungatana, Hien Ngo, Irene Ring, Rui Santos

Teaching, Learning & Research Documents

Report that explores how governments can help mitigate ecosystem and species loss through their COVID-19 stimulus and recovery plans.

Assessing The Potential Equity Outcomes Of Maine’S Climate Action Plan: Framework, Analysis And Recommendations, Senator George J. Mitchell Center For Sustainability Solutions

General University of Maine Publications

The recommendations of these groups have now been completed and the equity assessment that you see before you contains an analysis that was carried out by the University of Maine’s Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions (hereafter, Mitchell Center) to assess the recommendations’ attention to equity issues.

While the impacts of Maine decreasing its greenhouse gas emissions will not be large relative to global emissions, the state’s Climate Action Plan is an important step in the right direction. Maine is not only leading by example, but is also creating policies that will reduce emissions as well as enhance …

Health Insurance Plan Design And Chronic Disease Management, Daniel E. Feldman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Each year, Americans spend more money on health care than any other industrialized nation, despite comparable mortality rates for people with risk factors for heart disease. The reasons for this lack of health care value in the US are numerous and complex – including market distortions like supplier-inflated pricing and regulatory structures that enable consumers to utilize ubiquitous, high-cost medical technologies that yield uncertain benefits. Health insurance, once thought to be an insignificant contributor to rising health spending, has changed considerably in the past few decades in ways that make it more accessible and more generous in coverage. Health insurance …

Applications Of Regional Agglomeration: Measures Of Localization And Urbanization, Mariya Pominova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Regional agglomeration, or the concentration of firms within a given locality, has been found to offer advantages, such as cost reductions, knowledge spillovers, and labor pooling, to firms and individuals who locate there (Malmberg & Maskell, 2002). Regional agglomeration is captured in two ways: localization economies and urbanization economies, where the former emphasizes the benefits of clustering of specific industries within a given geography while the latter a more general benefit of locating in regions with a high level of industrial activity (Bosma et al., 2008). This thesis dedicates a chapter to exploring each of these measures of agglomeration. Chapter …

The Next Generation Of Labor In Rural, Resource-Rich Places: Forestry Needs And Youth Aspirations, Nicole R. Bernsen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A combination of youth out-migration and lack of in-migration have led to an aging workforce and population decline in resource-dependent communities, while simultaneously declines in pulp and paper demand and biomass utilization have had negative impacts on the perceived future of the once-dominant forest products industry. These changes may increase uncertainty as to the availability and training of the next generation of workers and rural community residents. While many studies have explored the effects that these changes have on adult populations, little attention has been paid to how local labor markets and perceptions of future opportunities influence the next generation …

A Macroeconomic Investigation Of The Labor Market Matching Efficiency, Sarah M. Welch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The first section of this research explores how traditional measures of unemployment can mask important changes in the labor market across the business cycle. We therefore use broader definitions of unemployment to estimate time-varying job-matching efficiency rates that are consistent with vacancies and hiring activity data for the U.S. Our efficiency rates are then modeled along with employment data to study their dynamic, non-linear relationship. We find that including part-time workers for economic reasons as well as marginally attached workers helps explain the changes in employment patterns observed after the global financial crisis, emphasizing the importance of accounting for underemployment, …

Participation In The Belt And Road Initiative: Who Joins And Why?, Patrick Groening

Honors College

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a large-scale, global infrastructure project introduced by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013. The primary goal is to invest in infrastructure projects across Eurasia and Africa in an effort to improve regional connectivity. This research explains who participates in the BRI through cross-country quantitative analysis and two in-depth qualitative case studies. Through a logit analysis of political economy factors such as GDP per capita, FDI inflows, aid data, and others, I find that economic need is a significant predictor of membership as well as previous involvement in Chinese organizations such as the AIIB. …

The Economic Contribution Of Logging And Trucking In Maine, Megan R. Bailey, Mindy S. Crandall, Anil Raj Kizha, Sheldon Green

Economic Development

Maine's forest products industry has long been hailed as a backbone of the state's economy. Multiple reports have been commissioned detailing the economic role of the sector (e.g. Bailey, 2019; Anderson III and Crandall, 2016; Gabe, 2013). It was recently estimated that the forest products industry contributed $7.7 billion in output to the state's economy in 2016 (Bailey, 2019)

An essential component of the industry is logging—which directly effects the availability and cost of delivered wood. In 2014, researchers set out to specifically highlight the logging industry's economic role in Maine (Crandall, McCullock, Nick, Kizha, 2016). The work presented here …

Maine Energy Overview, Mariya Pominova, Jonathan Rubin

Energy & the Environment

The state of Maine is a regional leader in renewable energy production and highly ranked nationally in proportion of renewable energy consumed. Maine is 3^rd in the nation for highest percentage of renewable energy consumption as a share of state total (Maine State Energy Profile 2019). However, 61% of all primary energy consumed in Maine in 2017 was from non-renewable sources, about half of which were petroleum products. Because Maine does not have oil and natural gas reserves, it is reliant on oil and natural gas imports. This causes Maine to be subject to the volatility of national and …

The Economic Contribution Of Snowmobiling In Maine, Ian Hathaway, Jessica Leahy, Mindy S. Crandall

Forest Resources Student Scholarship

Snowmobiling has been a popular winter pastime in Maine for decades. During the 2018-2019 snowmobiling season, nearly 60,000 snowmobiles were registered in Maine by resident snowmobilers, and over 25,000 snowmobiles were registered by non-residents. Since the 1998 report An Economic Evaluation of Snowmobiling in Maine, overall registrations have increased, and registrations among non-residents have more than doubled.

There has been no comprehensive evaluation of snowmobiling in Maine since the 1998 report completed by the University of Maine in collaboration with the Maine Snowmobile Association and State of Maine Snowmobile Program. In order to update the information on snowmobiling related expenditures, …

Maine Energy Overview, Mariya Pominova, Jonathan Rubin

Economic Development

The state of Maine is a regional leader in renewable energy production and highly ranked nationally in proportion of renewable energy consumed. Maine is 3^rd in the nation for highest percentage of renewable energy consumption as a share of state total (Maine State Energy Profile 2019). However, 61% of all primary energy consumed in Maine in 2017 was from non-renewable sources, about half of which were petroleum products. Because Maine does not have oil and natural gas reserves, it is reliant on oil and natural gas imports. This causes Maine to be subject to the volatility of national and …

The Comedy Of Maine’S Commons: Private Ownership As Economic Development, Michael Cianchette

Maine Policy Review

In Maine, we have managed to avoid the tragedy of the commons in several arenas. One way we have supplanted tragedy with comedy is through supporting and respecting private ownership of property. Some of this support is by necessity, as areas that might be publicly owned in other states—such as our expansive forests—are predominately privately owned in Maine. Other times, it is through a recognition that the private sector supports responsible public investment and is willing to financially support it through increased tax revenue. As Maine prepares for its next 200 years, policymakers should take heed of these examples. Government …

Reflecting On Maine’S Changing Productive Coastal Region, Teresa R. Johnson

Maine Policy Review

This article reflects on Maine’s changing coastal region and blue economy. Much of Maine’s coastal economy is now considered to be overly dependent on a single commercial fishery, the iconic Maine lobster fishery. Marine aquaculture has grown in the last 10 years, with expansion expected both on land and sea. Marine renewable energy is also an emerging use but remains a frontier. These changes have been exacerbated by demographic changes characterized by youth out- and amenity migration. As community demographics and coastal uses continue to change following the region’s postproductive transition, policymakers must be proactive in considering potential conflicts emerging …

Declining Economic Opportunity And A Shrinking Safety Net: Consequences For Maine, Ryan M. Larochelle

Maine Policy Review

Ryan LaRochelle discusses the consequences of declining economic opportunity and a shrinking social safety net for Maine. LaRochelle recommends that policymakers in Augusta recognize how precarious many Mainers’ economic situations are and take action.

What Does The Future Hold For Maine’S Lobster Industry?, James Acheson, Ann Acheson

Maine Policy Review

The Maine lobster industry is one of the most successfully managed fisheries in the world. Catches have been at record high levels since the 1990s due to favorable environmental factors, regulations enacted over a period of years, and the conservation ethic of fishermen. The industry faces problems that threaten its future: shell disease, climate change, increased regulations to protect right whales, and economic uncertainty. Several approaches could help protect the lobster industry, including enacting lower trap limits, expanding markets for live and processed lobster, and increasing in-state processing capacity. The latter two are already underway, but prospects for lower trap …

Maine’S Changing Demographics: Implications For Workforce, Economy, And Policy, Amanda K. Rector

Maine Policy Review

The fundamental purpose of any policy is to safeguard and improve the well-being of people. The understanding of any policy decision, therefore, must start with an understanding of demographics. This article reviews Maine’s demographics using data from the 1820 and 1920 censuses and comparing them to recent population estimates. The author finds trends that persist over time as well as ways in which Maine’s demographics have changed over the past 200 years. As 2019 ended and 2020 began, Maine saw its largest challenges as being related to the current demographic situation: slow population growth, limited available workforce, and increased demand …

Institutional Challenges To Workforce Development In Maine, Thomas Remington

Maine Policy Review

The problem of workforce development in Maine has become acute. An important factor for understanding the issue of workforce development, in Maine and nationally, is rising economic inequality. High inequality impedes the working of labor markets, and over time, reduces opportunity and mobility. In Maine, as elsewhere, income gaps have widened between rich and poor while the middle class has been shrinking. Moreover, the gap between high-income and low-income counties has been growing. Meantime, many good-paying jobs are going unfilled. Comprehensive institutional solutions can help overcome these problems by matching supply and demand in the labor market, but they are …