Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Mcofuture: Formulas For Success In Montgomery County, Ohio, Zachary Moore, Jack Dustin

Explorations – The Journal of Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creativity at Wright State

The subject of regionalism and metropolitan government is one that has increasingly been addressed following the latest economic downturn and subsequent cuts in government funding. In today’s globalizing world, metropolitan regions across the United States have sought to not only attract new companies and jobs, but also to retain the companies and jobs they already have. It has become a struggle for some cities to hold on to businesses, whether they are relocating to another region altogether or even to a nearby suburban municipality. When it comes to economic development, competition is fierce between cities and regions. It is now …

Efficiency Estimates And Rankings Employing Data Envelopment And Stochastic Frontier Analyses: Evaluating The Management Of U.S. Public Colleges, G. Thomas Sav

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper estimates and compares operating efficiencies of publicly owned associate degree granting colleges in the United States using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Comparisons are based on panel data for 698 colleges over four academic years, 2005-09. Included are both constant and variable returns to scale DEA estimates along with half and truncated normal inefficiency SFA estimates. The values 0.56 vs. 0.45 represent the largest mean DEA-SFA efficiency differential. DEA results indicate that 13% of colleges are fully (100%) efficient while SFA puts that percentage at only 1.7%. Comparisons of rankings based on efficiency performance …

Productivity Growth And Efficiency Changes In Publicly Managed U.S. Comprehensive Universities: Data Envelopment Analysis And Malmquist Decompositions, G. Thomas Sav

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper uses data envelopment analysis and Malmquist index decompositions in estimating productivity and efficiency changes of comprehensive degree granting, publicly owned U.S. universities. Panel data for 247 universities is employed for the academic years 2005-09. Results indicate that universities incurred productivity regress on the order of 4% per annum. The regress was due to declines in technological change that overpowered the efficiency gains achieved by universities. The latter derived from both university management and scale efficiency improvements. The dynamics of annual changes suggest that the financial crisis worsened productivity regress but created positive efficiency changes. It will, however, be …

Spillover Effects Of Crimes In Neighboring States Of Mexico, Mingming Pan, Benjamin Widner, Carl E. Enomoto

Economics Faculty Publications

The recent surge in crime and drug-related violence in Mexico has had a profound effect on the Mexican economy. Thousands of businesses have closed in Ciudad Juarez, a city that borders the U.S., due to the violence that has erupted between drug cartels. It has been estimated by Rios (2007) that $4.3 billion of losses occur yearly to Mexico, due to illegal drug activity in the country. Using a spatial model, this paper analyzes the determinants of crime in Mexican states. It was found that high levels of total crime and drug-related violence in neighboring states of Mexico have spillover …

Stochastic Cost Inefficiency Estimates And Rankings Of Public And Private Research And Doctoral Granting Universities, G. Thomas Sav

Economics Faculty Publications

Stochastic frontier cost and inefficiency estimates are provided for research and doctoral granting universities in the U.S. Separate sector estimates are produced for public and private non-profit universities. Panel data spanning four academic years, 2005-2009, is used to estimate underlying cost structures. Inefficiency is modeled as depending on institutionally specific environmental factors. Results indicate that public universities are on average more efficient than their private counterparts. The latter exhibit greater variability and when evaluated at the median inefficiencies there does not appear to be any statistically significant difference. Time varying inefficiency estimates point to public sector efficiency gains but private …

Origins Of Money, Alla Semenova

Economics Invited Speakers

Alla Semenova, Assistant Professor of Economic, Dickinson College, presented on the Origin of Money. The seminar is part of the Pisediscalzi Lecture Series. Dr. Nicholas Pisediscalzi was the founding chair of the Religion Department and a life-long student of the dialectic of Religion and Culture—especially Art, literature, and Politics. The seminar was cosponsored by the Departments of Religion, Philosophy and Classics and the Department of Economics, Wright State University.

2012 Yellow Springs Cost Of Living Report, Center For Urban And Public Affairs, Wright State University

Economic Development

Many issues our community has faced in recent years reflect an underlying concern about our economic circumstances, particularly the cost of living in Yellow Springs, Ohio. The absence of reliable, accurate and objective information has contributed to conjecture and debate among residents. Early in this year, the James A. McKee Association resolved to try to help address this gap by sponsoring a study of the cost of living in the village. The availability of current Census data made this a particularly appropriate time to undertake this study. The hope is that this project will form a foundation for better understanding …

The Financial Crisis Viewed From The Perspective Of The Social Cost Theory, L. Randall Wray

Social Cost Workshop

The talk examines the causes and consequences of the current global financial crisis. K.W. Kapp’s “social costs” theory is contrasted with the recently dominant “efficient markets” hypothesis to provide the context for analyzing the functioning of financial institutions. Rather than operating “efficiently,” the financial sector has been imposing huge costs on the economy—costs that no one can deny in the aftermath of the economy’s collapse. While orthodox approaches lead to the conclusion that money and finance should not matter much, the alternative tradition—from Veblen and Keynes to Galbraith and Minsky—provides the basis for developing an approach that puts money and …

The Social Cost Of Labor And Its Importance For Labor Economics, Robert E. Prasch

Social Cost Workshop

The starting point and core notion of neoclassical or mainstream economics is a reductionist vision of the exchange of commodities. Missing is the historical, social, and legal environments within which exchanges occur. A parallel and equally problematic notion is that labor exists as something of a “found object.” By contrast, the classical school of economists understood that laborers must earn a wage equal to or greater than “subsistence” if society was to be an ongoing enterprise. Laborers must be fed, sheltered, socialized, and educated before they arrive in the labor market. This, in a phrase, is the Social Cost of …

Environmental Sustainability From A Social Cost Perspective, James Swaney

Social Cost Workshop

Over a quarter century, efforts to build global environmental governance institutions have been thwarted by ideology and vested interests, while ecological degradation has accelerated and disparities in wealth, living standards and economic opportunities have grown. Nonetheless, the sustainability idea remains appealing and valid: Future generations can be protected from debilitating ecological degradation only if we, the present generation, redirect development to begin restoring ecological balance to key earth systems (e.g., oceans, climate, biodiversity). The social cost perspective (SCP) of institutional economics, rooted in the contributions of Karl Polanyi (1944) and K. William Kapp (1950), provides a framework for thinking about, …

The Discourse On Social Costs: Heterodox Vs. Neoliberal Economics, Sebastian Berger

Social Cost Workshop

This presentation analyzes the discourse on social costs, focusing on how neoliberal economists in the 1950s and 1960s embarked on the successful project to marginalize the heterodox view that social controls of the economy are a good thing because markets otherwise cause too many social damages. The paper mainly looks at the intellectual project of the institutional economists John M. Clark and K. William Kapp. Both collaborated in the 1940s in crafting the institutional theory of social costs as a critique of the neoclassical theory of costs and externalities (Arthur C. Pigou), as well as the rising post WWII neoliberalism …

For-Profit College Entry And Cost Efficiency: Stochastic Frontier Estimates Vs Two-Year Public And Non-Profit Colleges, G. Thomas Sav

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper provides stochastic frontier cost and (in)efficiency estimates for private for-profit colleges with comparisons to public and private non-private colleges. The focus is on the two-year U.S. higher education sector where there exists the largest and fastest growing entry of for-profit colleges. Unbalanced panel data is employed for four academic years, 2005-2009. Translog cost frontiers are estimated with an inefficiency component that depends upon environmental factors defined by college specific characteristics. More experienced public and private non-profit colleges are found to be more cost efficient relative to the newer entrants. In addition, the newer for-profits exhibit greater efficiency variability …

Is The Production Of Religious Knowledge Efficient? Managing Faith Related Postsecondary Institutions, G. Thomas Sav

Economics Faculty Publications

The focus of this paper is on the efficiency of producing and managing religion based knowledge in postsecondary institutions. Panel data is used to estimate a stochastic cost frontier and associated inefficiencies for a panel of 222 U.S. bible colleges, theological seminaries, and other faith based higher education institutions over the 2005-09 academic years. Results indicate that institutions offering undergraduate only education are on average less inefficient than graduate only or combined undergraduate-graduate education institutions. Government provided student loans and private philanthropy are efficiency improving, while institutional debt acts to increase inefficiency. Time varying inefficiencies show efficiency gains over the …

Cost Inefficiencies And Rankings Of Ivy Universities: Stochastic Panel Estimates, G. Thomas Sav

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper employs stochastic frontier analysis in providing estimates of the operating cost inefficiencies of private non-profit and public ivy universities in the U.S. Panel data for academic years 2005-09 is used to estimate cost frontiers under two alternative specifications that lead to estimated gross and net inefficiencies. Time varying inefficiencies are reported for each academic year and used to calculate university inefficiency rankings by sector. The results suggest that private ivy universities are less inefficient or more efficient than their public counterparts. However, public ivies appear to have made significant inefficiency adjustments perhaps in response to the global financial …

Minority Serving College And University Cost Efficiencies, G. Thomas Sav

Economics Faculty Publications

Problem Statement:

Higher education minority enrollment growth has far outstripped white non-minority growth in the United States. Minority serving colleges and universities have disproportionately attended to that growth and will continue to play a critical role in providing minority educational opportunities in a knowledge based and globally diverse economy. However, they will face new and challenging budgetary and managerial reforms induced by the global financial crisis. As a result, they will be pressured to operate in the future with greater cost efficiency.

Approach:

Panel data pertaining to minority serving colleges and universities was used along with stochastic frontier analysis to …

Does Faculty Tenure Improve Student Graduation Rates?, G. Thomas Sav

Economics Faculty Publications

The primary objective of this paper is to determine whether tenure in comparison to non-tenure faculty employment is efficient in producing the academic success of university students. A stochastic production frontier is estimated for university graduation rates while the inefficiency specification includes measures of tenured, tenure-track, and non-tenure track faculty employment. Using panel data for U.S. doctoral and master level public universities, the evidence indicates that the employment status does matter and that increases in the pro- portion of tenured faculty employment lead to efficiency gains in graduation rates. Effects of tenure-track and non-tenure track faculty are somewhat mixed with …

Data Envelopment Analysis Of Productivity Changes In Higher Education For-Profit Enterprises Compared To Non-Profits, G. Thomas Sav

Economics Faculty Publications

Data envelopment analysis is used to compare private for-profit colleges to publicly owned colleges in terms of their operating efficiency and productivity. Academic year 2005-09 panel data is used for two-year institutions in the U.S. Results indicate that for-profit efficiency exceeded that of public colleges. Malmquist index results show that colleges in both sectors increased managerial and scale efficiencies, but that both were hindered by technological regress to the extent that overall productivity declined. 2007-08 created efficiency declines across the board, but for-profits managed large technological gains that produced the only annual productivity improvement for either sector. The results are …

Kettering Health Network Proton Therapy Facility Economic Impact Analysis, Wright State University, Center For Urban And Public Affairs

Economic Development

In 2012, Kettering Health Network (KHN) contracted with the Center for Urban & Public Affairs (CUPA) to conduct the economic impact analysis of the construction of a new Proton therapy facility, the new employment at this facility, and patient hospitality (hotel and restaurant) impacts resulting from the six-week Proton therapy treatment. For this study, CUPA used IMPLAN, a tool for economic impact assessment to estimate the direct, indirect, and induced impacts of the $84 million1 Proton facility construction project and operations on the regional economy (Montgomery, Greene, Preble and Miami counties).

The Great Recession Of 2007-2009: Examining The Presence Of A Credit Crunch, Julius Britton Canter

Masters Culminating Experiences (1993-2011)

This study of the Great Recession of 2007-2009 and the credit crunch phenomenon suggests that there is an ongoing rationing effect on bank loans following the financial crisis of 2008. The rationing effect may lead to lower interest rates as banks switch to safer lending in order to hedge risk. However, the credit crunch may be inequitable as it primarily affects bank dependent borrowers, as well as restricting lending to new customers. An in-depth review of the current literature, empirical studies, leading economic indicators, and bank surveys are examined to reach this conclusion. We find that there are real economic …

Technology Generators In The Dayton Region: Leveraging Regional Assets For Economic Recovery, Kim Frazier, Jane Dockery

Economic Development

The Dayton Region shows tremendous promise in becoming an area known for its technology and innovation with a strong concentration of research and development and a capacity for innovative manufacturing. Yet to become an innovative leader, the Dayton Region must transform its culture and realign investments that will promote its technology capability and strengthen the economy. The old ways of doing business and training the workforce are no longer sufficient to become a player in the global economy. This report compares the Dayton Region to other regions across the country, points out gaps in various innovation and economic indicators, and …