Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Impact Of Refractive Error Correction On Harvest Productivity In The Guatemalan Coffee Sector, Bryce C. Everett

Master's Theses

Providing refractive error correction has the potential to bolster productivity within developing countries. Current literature is in agreement that interventions targeting those with uncorrected visual impairment can realize benefits in various sectors, with particular regard to agriculture. The design of this experiment attempts to derive the intent-to-treat (ITT) effect stemming from the provision of glasses to coffee harvesters in Guatemala. Methodology incorporates two distinct approaches: an ANCOVA model with basic controls and a fixed effects model with a control for farm-specific harvest trends. With daily harvest weight observations serving as a proxy for productivity, and a sample of 321 participants …

“High Spending, Poor Productivity Gains!” Assessing Public Health System (In)Efficiency And Hospital Performance In The State Of Kuwait: Would More Private Delivery Improve Healthcare?, Aljawhara Alsabah

NYMC Student Theses and Dissertations

The healthcare sector in the State of Kuwait has been nurtured for many decades by the government, where the majority of health services in the country are controlled by the Ministry of Health (MoH). Although healthcare services in public sector hospitals are at highly subsidized rates, causing private sector involvement in healthcare to be considerably low, the growing demands for private delivery of care burgeoned participation of private hospitals in Kuwait, and improving hospital efficiency and productivity is more critical and timelier than ever. This dissertation aims to analyze public health system efficiency and hospital performance in the State of …

The 2021 Nba Rule Change: Analyzing Strategic Adjustments And Changes In Worker Productivity, Jeremy Long

All Theses

The NBA introduced a rule change for the 2021/22 season to stop shooters from drawing fouls from “non-basketball moves.” This paper seeks to determine how the 2021 Rule Change has impacted productivity in the NBA and investigate whether it has caused teams to make strategic adjustments. My analysis reveals evidence that the rule change has limited offensive players’ abilities to draw fouls on 3- point shots. While the rule change has rendered non-basketball moves ineffective, there is no evidence of strategic adjustments beyond this arena. I find only limited evidence that the rule change has impacted worker productivity. The findings …

Three Essays On Creative Industries, Yue Sheng

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation focuses on agglomeration economies, productivity, competition, and price variation in creative industries (CIs). Chapter 1 examines agglomeration effects on the productivity of Chinese firms in the CIs between 2012 and 2014. We estimate productivity with a production function approach, and test whether three measures of agglomeration-namely, specialization, diversity, and density-affect the productivity of firms in creative industries. According to our results, that the density elasticity of productivity is 0.31, which suggests that agglomeration economies matter for creative industries. Urbanization economies resulting from diversity in service industries are the main source of agglomeration economies, but there is no specialization …

Essays In Development Macroeconomics, Miguel Orozco Vazquez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters that cover topics on development macroeconomics.

Chapter 1 - Misallocation of Resources and Total Factor Productivity: Evidence from Mexico. This paper aims to measure the gross output loss due to misallocation of resources in the manufacturing and service sectors in Mexico during 2008-2018 and identify the inputs of production related to it. To do so, I use Mexican Economic Censuses and an extension of Hsieh and Klenow (2009). I also include resource misallocation computations using data processed with a Bayesian model for editing and imputing data to correct for measurement error (MEC data), which …

“The Real Cost Of Mining: How Digging For Rare Earth Metals Could Pose A Greater Cost Than Evs Can Save”, Brahim Khalil Yatim

Honors Theses and Capstones

The Paris Climate Agreement proposes to have 20% of all road transport vehicles be electric by the year 2030. Implementation of this policy is critical to help obtain a 2 degrees Celsius reduction in the increase of global temperatures by 2030. This paper dives into the true costs of taking on a project that large scale. This study finds that though the benefits of this project would result in a 351,785,600 tons of GHG saved by the electric conversion there are significant environmental and human costs associated with the mining necessary to complete the agreement's goal. With current technologies and …

Biased Technical Change, Institutional Shift, And The Functional Distribution Of Income: Who Benefits From Economic Growth?, Adam Szymanski-Burgos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Starting from the mid 1970s and early 1980’s, the US and other advanced economies observed a widening divergence between the growth of average and median real hourly labor compensation and the average growth of labor productivity. This decoupling between labor compensation and productivity indicates a decline in the labor share of national income. Opposite to movements in the labor share, the share of national income remunerated as capital income has increased with the rise of capital incomes concentrated largely in corporate sector profits. Key developments since the middle of the 20th century have coincided with the onset of medium-run fluctuations …

Examining The Impact Of It Investment On Insurer Productivity: A Bootstrapped Malmquist Frontier Analysis Approach, Jee Yuen Yew

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This paper attempts to examine productivity changes of insurance companies in Singapore as represented by bootstrapped Malmquist indices, generated from a data envelopment analysis (DEA)-based frontier analysis, and attribute these changes to an increasing investment in information technology infrastructure and equipment, and increasing investment in staff enhancement. Through this analysis, the author finds that there has been a general increase in productivity and efficiency from 2011 – 2017, as seen from changes in the kernel density functions of productivity change between the two periods. The author also finds, through running a panel tobit regression model, that there is a positive …

Principales Factores Que Inciden En El Desarrollo Empresarial De Las Mipymes Del Sector Calzado, En La Localidad Antonio Nariño En La Ciudad De Bogotá, Luis Alejandro Álvarez Moncada, Javier Felipe Giraldo Acosta

Finanzas y Comercio Internacional

El sector calzado ubicado en la localidad de Antonio Nariño en la ciudad de Bogotá conglomera gran parte de la fabricación y distribución de calzado en el país, por lo cual esta investigación tiene como objetivo identificar los principales factores que inciden en el desarrollo empresarial de las pymes de la localidad de Antonio Nariño de la ciudad de Bogotá. Este documento analiza las principales problemáticas que afectan el sector calzado en la localidad Antonio Nariño, esto se hace mediante la indagación a expertos y encuestas estructuradas a microempresarios, para hallar los factores que están afectando las pymes Este análisis …

Propuesta Metodológica Para El Cálculo Diferenciado Del Impuesto Predial En El Suelo Rural, Paula Andrea Méndez Ramírez

Economía

El suelo rural ocupa la mayor parte del territorio colombiano, aun así y pese a las grandes diferencias económicas y sociales, el cálculo del impuesto predial no difiere en gran medida respecto a las áreas urbanas. Vincular los tributos de la tierra al uso y función eficiente del suelo, postula ser un mecanismo efectivo para incentivar y reactivar el sector rural, brindar garantías a sus habitantes y desincentivar el acaparamiento de tierras como instrumento de acumulación de riqueza. Conforme a lo anterior, el objetivo del presente documento se centra en proponer un rediseño de la metodología de cálculo del impuesto …

Implicaciones De La Productividad Total De Los Factores Como Instrumento En La Negociación Del Salario Mínimo En Colombia 1993 2017 : Una Discusión Teórica Y Empírica, Kelly Johanna Lara Ospina

Economía

En la negociación del salario mínimo en Colombia se destapan las cartas de los empresarios, trabajadores y del gobierno en plena época navideña. Manteniendo una serie de roles que van de acuerdo al tipo de intervención en dicha negociación. La investigación realiza un análisis de esta discusión bajo los postulados teóricos de la escuela neoclásica que ejerce una influencia directa en el comportamiento político de los interventores. Además analiza las implicaciones sobre la medición de la productividad teniendo como referencia principal la productividad total de los factores durante el período 1993-2017 en la fijación del salario mínimo, poniendo en cuestión …

Do Shifts In Labor Shares In Productivity Growth Affect Poverty And Inequality? A Comparative Study Of Sub-Saharan Africa And Asia, Precious W. Allor

Masters Theses

This paper examines whether productivity growth induced by intersectoral labor movement affects inequality and poverty. To address this question a nonparametric shift-share decomposition technique is employed to decompose productivity growth into the structural change component; the component of productivity growth that is induced by the intersectoral labor movement, and the technological change component; the component of productivity growth that is induced by capital or improvements in productive efficiency. The paper then examines the long-run impact of structural change-induced productivity growth on poverty and inequality for a sample of 28 countries, and with a focus on Sub-saharan Africa and Asia. The …

Understanding Employee Engagement: A Mixed-Methods Study, Joren M. Scharn

Theses & Dissertations

For over 4 decades businesses around the world have been conducting employee satisfaction surveys at regular intervals and this surfaced a strong positive relationship between employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and overall company performance. In recent years however, academics and researchers have reopened the debate on whether employee or job satisfaction metrics are in fact reliable indicators of productivity, suggesting that employee engagement has a far stronger correlation to productivity. This study addresses two interrelated problems that are associated with a practice that is common in working environments all over the world. According to literature, it is generally accepted that (a) …

Essays On Macroeconomics, Sangmin Aum

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation investigates how technological progress shapes economy. Technological changes have heterogeneous effects on economic agents as they are often biased toward certain tasks or sectoral activities. The dissertation aims at understanding the sources of heterogeneity and their impacts on aggregate outcomes, focusing on economic growth and labor allocation.

The first chapter investigates a bi-directional relation between technology and occupational structure (job allocation). Jobs have polarized in the U.S. since at least the 1980s, but the growth of high-skill jobs has been stagnated since 2000s (skill demand reversal). I document that software innovation has increased compared to equipment innovation and …

A Cross-Cultural Examination Of The Effect Of Employer Support On Employee Productivity, Shawn Tuman, Haley Lipton

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The purpose of this creative, collaborative, capstone project is to conduct a cross-cultural examination of the effect of employer support on employee productivity by compiling, examining, and synthesizing conclusions from existing research. In a world of growing globalization and technological innovation, the speed of productivity is often the cornerstone that differentiates successful businesses from unsuccessful businesses, providing a competitive advantage to the quick while the others fall behind. Often this increased level of efficiency comes at a cost beyond the price of the product and the salary of employees, a deeper, psychological cost. By reviewing research focused in the United …

Why Not Mexico? Policy Recommendations For A Globally-Oriented Economic Strategy, Víctor Manuel Hernández-Rodríguez

CMC Senior Theses

Mexico, one of the world’s largest economies and an increasingly relevant actor in international affairs, is at a crucial point in defining its future policy course. Given the uncertainty surrounding the global economy, as well as the political situation in Mexico, it is important to have a clear vision for policy going forward. This thesis offers a foundation for a national economic strategy with a long-term vision, upon which future administrations can build as appropriate to maximize on the country’s economic potential. The task is undertaken through a three-part approach. First, a thorough and analytical overview of the country’s economic …

Financing And Productivity: Evidence From Indian Manufacturing Industry, Tingyi Wu

Master's Theses

India grows rapidly in recent years, not to mention its high-technology industry. What are secrets behind this fast-growing situation? This paper intends to find the answer using a firm-level panel data in India and examine the loan-productivity relationship via both contemporaneous and lagged models. I find positive and statistically significant results that loans play an important role in firms’ performances.

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 …

Improving Micro-Finance Productivity Through Data Analysis, Ryan D. Taylor

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

After nearly three months of gathering, creating, organizing, and analyzing data from social entrepreneurship programs in Peru and Ghana, correlations have been found within the data which may be used in the pursuit to eliminate poverty around the globe. These correlations were found through completing both linear relationship analyses and multi-variable regression analyses. The most statistically significant factors when looking at correlational relationships with number of missed and late payments were APR, loan duration, loan date (year fraction), gender or principle loan participant, and participation in incentive programs. The most poignant of these variables in terms of statistical significance was …

Innovation And Productivity: Evidence From China, Jingying Xu

Honors Theses

This paper investigates a lesser-known effect of innovation on the productivity of manufacturing firms in China using data that cover more than 330,000 firms across 40 sectors from 1998 to 2008. Innovation plays a key role in the productivity of firms and it matters for all types of firms, new as well as established. The ratio of new product output to the firm’s total outputs is used to measure innovation ability in this paper. A higher ratio is expected to have a positive impact on a firm’s productivity since new products are likely to be more differentiated than old products …

Corruption And Productivity, Chris Kelly

All Theses

Corruption is suggested to have a negative impact on productivity and thus growth. Several studies have studied the relationship closely, including Hall and Jones (1999) and Lambsdorff (2003). This paper seeks to build on their foundation and specify a new and robust model by looking at the effect of corruption controls on total factor productivity through a two-stage least squares regression. Since it is through public institutions that corruption manifests, also examined are differences between `inclusive' and `extractive' institutions. Also important is the degree to which a state is centralized. Extraction by way of corrupt institutions differs in highly centralized …

Can Policy Spur Technological Growth?, William Sargent

Honors Theses

The long-term slowdown in productivity growth for OECD countries, despite increased resources allocated to R&D, has once again raised the issue of limits of technological change. I explore the relationship between labor productivity growth and R&D intensity, using macro-level panel data from OECD countries. My empirical analysis essentially tests the semi-endogenous growth theory against the fully-endogenous Schumpeterian growth theory. The semi-endogenous framework assumes diminishing returns to R&D and requires positive population growth to generate long-run growth. The fully-endogenous framework assumes growing product variety and requires a constant share of R&D inputs in overall inputs in order to generate positive long-run …

How Population Density Influences Agricultural Intensification And Productivity: Evidence From Ethiopia, Anna Leigh Josephson

Open Access Theses

We use household-level panel data to estimate how population density impacts agricultural intensification and farm income in Ethiopia. We hypothesize that increases in population density affect agricultural intensification and farm income directly through information flows, institutional development, and reduction in transactions costs. Increases in population density also affect agricultural intensification and farm income indirectly through farm size, agricultural wage rates, and staple crop prices. We find that increases in population density lead to lower farm sizes, which has major implications for agricultural intensification and household well-being. Our analysis indicates that increases in population density cause farmers to purchase more inorganic …

Foreign Direct Investment And Local Firm Productivity: Evidence From Thailand, Sasima Wongseree

Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract The enormous costs incurred to government for foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows raised question whether its benefits are worthwhile. In this dissertation, I use productivity estimates as outcomes to explore the direct and indirect impacts of FDI inflows on local firms in manufacturing sector of Thailand during 2001 to 2006.

Chapter 1, I introduce the overview of the entire dissertation.

Chapter 2, I briefly reviewed investment climates and FDI conditions in Thailand. Then I constructed a comprehensive firm-level dataset from several data sources for FDI examination. The main dataset offers quantity and capacity outputs along with revenues at product-level. …

Essays On Foreign Direct Investment, Agglomeration And Productivity, Fariha Kamal

Economics - Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the role of foreign direct investment and agglomeration economies in the process of industrial development, with a focus on the productivity of manufacturing firms. The first chapter analyzes the importance of the source of foreign direct investment on the performance of domestic Chinese firms. The second chapter studies the interaction between foreign and domestic manufacturing firms operating in the same industry and located within the same Chinese city. The third chapter examines the response of multinational companies to changes in domestic institutions. My findings highlight the importance of the source of foreign direct investment, proximity to economic …

The Relationship Between Information Technology And Construction Productivity, Dong Zhai

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Over the past decades, information technology has been impacting industries, economics, the way of life and even the culture throughout the world. Productivity has been attracting much attention as an important indicator of economics, and numerous researchers have investigated the relationship between information technology and productivity. Construction is one of the largest industries in the United States, but little research has been conducted to investigate the relationship between information technology and construction productivity.

The major objective of this dissertation is to determine the degree (if any) to which information technology usage, specifically the use of information technology to automate and …

A Macroeconomic Analysis Of The Sources Of Economic Growth In India, Sohini Sahu

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Economic liberalization in 1991 marked a significant turning point for India since its independence in 1947. After decades of slow growth, the economy suddenly took off at a steady and fast pace after 1991. We investigate the factors that propelled India's long-term economic growth and short-run economic cycles pre and post 1991. Using a multi-sector dynamic general equilibrium model specifically tailored for transition economies, we find that service sector productivity, coupled with a structural shift in the economy, have been the drivers of the recent spate of growth in India. In the period 1960-1980, productivity fluctuations in the agricultural sector …

Are De Jure Labor Laws Absolute? Formal Manufacturing In India, Gurmeet Singh Ghumman

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

We investigate the view that de facto labor market conditions are important in evaluating the effects of labor institutions in developing countries where enactment does not necessarily imply enforcement. Using India as a case study we empirically investigate the effects of labor markets on the organized manufacturing sector from 1970 to 1997. Recognizing that the state can intervene in the outcome of labor disputes we construct a measure to proxy the degree of the state legislature's prejudice towards pro-worker causes. We argue that leftist and communist political parties can interfere in the resolution of disputes in favor of workers through …

Pay And Performance: Among 100 Best U.S. Companies To Work For, Omair Mahmood Faisal

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

In the 21st century, world is becoming a global village and with increased competition businesses are always looking for regions with the lowest possible production costs. Appropriate compensation of U.S. employees working for major U.S. corporations is a hotly debated topic in political circles. This research focuses on the top 100 companies designated as “the best companies to work for” by Fortune Magazine for the year 2006. Performance of these companies, as measured by their return on equity, return on assets, revenue growth and earnings growth along with their profit margin is used to determine the impact on them as …

All Work: An Evaluation Of Worker's Attitudes, Worker's Behavior And Productivity In The U.S. Automobile Industry, Todd M.R. Baker

Honors Papers

The American automobile industry has become extremely sensitive to the increased number of Japanese cars and plants in the United States. Some parties believe that in order to operate competitively in the future labor and management must continue to find ways to work together and improve relations. Irving Bluestone, a former labor leader, believes that humanistic relations between the two parties are essential to the welfare of everyone involved. Joint efforts between the workers and management need to be continued and expanded. Both sides can benefit from such cooperation.