Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Impact Of Monetary Uncertainty And Economic Uncertainty On Money Demand In Africa, Alice Kones

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the role that economic uncertainties and monetary uncertainties play in the money demand function for 21 African countries. The Auto-regressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) and F-test approach are employed using quarterly time series data covering the period from 1971I-2012IV. In particular, this paper aims to demonstrate both short and long-run relationships between the dependent variables, Real Money Aggregate (M2), and the independent variables that include real income (Y), inflation rate nominal effective exchange rate (NEX), output uncertainty (VY), and monetary uncertainty (VM). We apply GARCH methodology to approximate the uncertainty measures. The empirical results show that except for …

Three Essays In Health And Education, Ali Moghtaderi

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this dissertation is to apply empirical methodologies to analyze multiple topics in economics of education and health economics which have clear policy implications.

Chapter 1 analyzes the effect of negative publicity of child abuse scandal on Catholic schools. Public notices of child abuse have surrounded Catholic Church leadership for decades, but intensified after the 2002 coverage by the Boston Globe and the ensuing accelerated media coverage. Using diocese level panel data of Catholic school enrollment, reports of abuse after 2002 appear to have a negative, long-lasting effect on both demand and supply of Catholic schools. No effect …

Two Essays On The Relationship Between Financial Development And Income Distribution, Ruixin Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two chapters on the relation between financial development, income inequality and poverty. The first chapter examines the relationship between financial deepening and income inequality for 16 countries based on a time series approach. Unlike previous work that focuses on testing the credit channel (private credit and bank asset) through which finance improves inequality, this chapter also investigates the deposit channel (liquid liabilities and bank deposit). The results suggest that the finance-inequality relationships behave differently across countries. Five countries support the reducing-inequality function through the credit channel, whereas three countries are found to support the deposit channel. …

The Effects Of Exchange Rate Volatility On Commodity Trade Flows Between The U.S. And Thailand, Kaveepot Satawatananon

Theses and Dissertations

It is theoretically supported that the volatility of exchange rate may deter trade flows in the case of high risk aversion. Previous empirical literatures studying the effect of exchange rate volatility on trade flows for Thailand mostly have used aggregate trade data. To minimize the aggregation bias, which may occur by offsetting between a significant effect of depreciation on certain industries and an insignificant effect on the others, this paper thus emphasizes on employing disaggregated bilateral trade data between the U.S. and Thailand at commodity level. Using the annual trade data between the U.S. and Thailand from 1971 to 2012 …

Essays On The Macroeconomic Effect Of Natural Resource Rents, Salim Araji

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation comprise of two chapters on the macroeconomic effect of natural resource rents. Specifically, we focus on the effect of resource rents on human capital accumulation. In chapter one, we present a new mechanism for the curse of natural resources, i.e., "why natural resource rents if distributed as transfers to individuals' income might retard economic growth and development: their effect on incentives to invest in human capital". Extending an OLG model for this purpose, we show that the windfall rents from natural resources, when transferred directly to citizens distort their incentives away from accumulating the optimum level of human …

Essays On The Political Economy Of Institutions, Chitralekha Rath

Theses and Dissertations

There is a consensus among economists and political scientists that institutions are crucial for economic development. Different attributes of institutions like rule of law, property rights, legal environment, and constraints on executive have profound effects on a nation's prosperity, growth and development. Recently economists have recognized that a system of strong institutions of property rights can enhance efficiency of financial sector. A significant part of the dissertation deals with the question that is it likely that causality operates the other way: Does a mature financial market acts as a strong catalyst for property rights?

The first essay develops a theoretical …

Three Essays On The Economics Of Spatial Price Discrimination: Strategic Delegation Under Spatial Price Discrimination ; Consistent Location Conjectures Under Spatial Price Discrimination ; How To License A Transport Innovation, Zheng Wang

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three papers that use models of spatial price discrimination to explore issues of long-standing interest in microeconomics. The first essay introduces strategic delegation into the traditional model of spatial price discrimination. In both simultaneous and sequential location cases, delegating location choices to managers causes firms to move toward each other. This movement typically reduces social welfare. While exceptions exist for high cost convexity and for some cases of elastic demand, this reduction reverses the increase in welfare associated with delegation in common quantity games outside the spatial context. The second paper uniquely explores consistent location conjectures …

Coverage Of The Euro Crisis In Spanish, German, British, And American Elite Newspapers, Katrina Schwarz

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the relationships among culture, economic policy, and news content in the European economic context. The three variables can affect one another, and the effects of information and policy can influence the future of the European Union. The culture measure included opinion and government support in the news. The economic policy measure included austerity and bailout stances. Content analysis of news content from significant periods in 2011 and 2012 in elite Spanish, German, British and American news revealed differences in news coverage. The sample included 646 articles. Spanish and German news had the most coverage of the euro …

Evaluation Of Employment Benefits Of Ultra-Heavy Trucks: Wisconsin Case Study, Katrina Maria Kurniati

Theses and Dissertations

Allowing very heavy trucks, without permits, on United States' highways has been a subject of discussion in the past, and many politicians and industry advocates have argued that there are some benefits to much heavier trucks. Benefits include better air quality, reduced fuel usage, and increased industrial efficiency. The economic analysis of heavier trucks, however, remains incomplete. One way to measure economic benefits is by assessing employment growth. Wisconsin is used as a case study to evaluate employment benefits of ultra-heavy trucks. The current regulation of the maximum gross vehicle weight on all axles in Wisconsin is 80,000 pounds. Three …