Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Evolutionary Global Vision Of Chinese Political Philosophy; China's Socio-Economic Transformation In The 21st Century, Meryem Gurel

Master's Projects and Capstones

Evolving relations of East Asia due to trade liberalization raised the search for financial stability for institutional development. It also increased the importance of China integrating the global economy into renewing its political philosophy in the new century. This capstone project aims to examine why China has transformed its socio-economic structure by generating outward investments and how it has affected international political relations in terms of the role of the economic institution Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Quantitative methodology aims to examine the impact of China’s export trade on income distribution and economic growth through linear regression analysis for the …

Understanding Without Explanation? A Philosophical Inquiry Into The Explanation Paradox Of Economic Models, Eric Haupt

Economics Theses

Conventional economic modeling is frequently criticized for being “unrealistic” due to the variety of unrealistic assumptions that underpin many models. Critics frequently wonder how models that are unrealistic or false can accurately explain economic phenomena. This criticism and the problem it presents for economics is captured by Julian Reiss’s “explanation paradox.” This paper aims to evaluate Reiss’s paradox and assess the problems it poses for economics as a positive science. To address this problem, I survey a variety of competing strategies offered by philosophers and economists before critically evaluating the validity of the paradox. I conclude that while economic models …

Social Determinants Of Health: The Impact On Health Outcomes And Hospital Profitability, Danielle Mcpherson

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Hospitals are experiencing decreasing profitability due to increasing healthcare cost. In this paper, I demonstrate that there is financial value to hospitals by addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) as this strategy improves health outcomes and yields cost savings. I estimate the impact of SDOH on the health outcomes using an IV probit regression analysis and estimated the impact of health outcomes on cost using a basic linear regression. I estimate that improving SDOH by one standard deviation will result in hospital cost savings as follows: addressing Violent Crime will decrease hospital cost between 0.16% and 0.21%, addressing Supplemental Nutrition …

Essays On Women And Work In India And On Other-Regarding Preferences, Sai Madhurika Mamunuru

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is a collection of three essays. In Essay I, I explore declining female workforce participation in India and propose the following explanation: Traditionally, Brahmin (upper caste) women were more secluded and did not work outside the house, while non-Brahmin, often poorer, women did. With increased income, non-Brahmin families withdraw women from the workforce in order to signal their enhanced social status. This is a part of a larger process of cultural emulation referred to as the Sanskritization of non-Brahmin families. Using a nationally representative panel dataset, I show, in favor of this hypothesis, that while Brahmin women’s participation …

Three Essays On Political Economy Of Uneven Development: Space, Class And State In Pakistan, Danish Khan

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation delineates the underlying dynamics of the political economy of uneven development by focusing on the dynamic interaction between socially produced space, class and the state in the context of postcolonial capitalism in Pakistan. The first essay (chapter two) focuses on the political economy of urban slums in the context of a postcolonial city of Islamabad, Pakistan. It presents a new conceptual framework of ‘expulsionary development’ to illustrate that the growth of slums and high-end gated housing enclaves are two sides of the same coin at the urban scale. Dispossession and urban sprawl are the underlying factors which mediate …

Three Essays On The Economics Of Corporate Governance, Kuochih Huang

Doctoral Dissertations

The Great Recession and the revival attention on inequality have cast doubts on various aspects of the governance of Corporate America. Not only the specific design of corporate governance institutions, but also the very purpose of the firm have became hotly debated issues. The first essay investigates the effect of the CEO's equity-based pay on workers' wages and whether the effect is amplified by product market competition. Since the 1980s, Chief Executive Officers' (CEO) pay has exploded, largely in the form of equity-based incentive compensation such as stock awards and options. Using a two-tiered principal-agent model, we show that aligning …

Federation Divided, Max M. Balton

Capstones

At the start of the 2020 school year, a lack of covid safety plans led teachers like Rosy Clark to protest, urging her union the United Federation of Teachers to act. She and other progressives in the dissident caucus, Movement of Rank and File Educators, were willing to strike to ensure their safety. Union leadership hesitated largely because public union strikes are illegal under the state’s Taylor Law.

This four-part audio documentary looks at the history of the UFT and this contentious state law. The union began striking under more onerous strike prohibition legislation. Its roots are steeped in radical …

Three Essays On The Past And Future Of Socialism, Mihnea Tudoreanu

Doctoral Dissertations

The idea of economic planning and state ownership of the means of production, which had been central to socialist economic thought for a century and a half, suddenly fell out of favor even among socialists after the fall of the Soviet Union. The three essays of this dissertation are in essence critiques of this 21st century orthodoxy. The first essay addresses the idea of market socialism, as proposed by several academic works in the decades before and after the fall of the USSR. The essay questions whether market socialism would be substantially different from capitalism in practice. It aims to …

Three Essays On The Economics And Political Economy Of The “School-To-Prison Pipeline”, Anastasia C. Wilson

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the political economy and economics of the school-to- prison pipeline (STPP). In my first essay, I interrogate approaches to the economics of the STPP. I then situate my analysis within the theoretical lens of Robinson (2000)’s racial capitalism, to show a political economy approach for understanding the nexus of public schooling and the carceral state. Building on the concept of enclosure as presented by Sojoyner (2013, 2016), I describe the emergence and impacts of the STPP to show how this dynamic functions as a racialized economic enclosure, through punitive discipline, exclusion, and criminalization. Next, I examine the …

Three Chapters On Transportation And Its Impact On Employment And Health Visits For Low-Income Adults In The Southwest, Michael Hensley

Economics ETDs

Many barriers to employment and healthcare access in the United States exist. Barriers to employment include lack of education, homelessness, or a criminal background. Barriers to healthcare include lack of insurance, lack of medical knowledge, and the inability to pay for service. This dissertation examines the role of transportation access and if transportation access is a burden for employment and healthcare access in the Southwest United States. This dissertation also examines if those differences are different based on gender, race, and ethnicity. The 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) serves as the data source for this dissertation.

Chapter 1 gives …

Nyc’S Boom: More Jobs And Housing, No Affordability, Lacandis Brown

Capstones

Although the number of NYC jobs is steadily growing faster than housing units are being created. Housing units are still being made in abundance, but residents say these new jobs just don't provide an adequate wage necessary to live within them.

https://lacandisbrown.home.blog/2020/06/19/nycs-boom-more-jobs-and-housing-no-affordability/

Mum’S The Word: Are Mothers Choosing To Give Up Their Careers Or Being Booted Out Of The Labor Force?, Harini Chakrapani

Capstones

Since the pandemic began, mothers have been leaving the labor force in droves. Mum’s the Word: Are mothers choosing to give up their careers or being booted out of the labor force examines the reasons that are forcing mothers to quit their jobs, the cost of mothers’ not participating in the labor force and what steps corporations and the government can take to support mothers’ return to the labor force. https://www.hcpani.com/post/mum-s-the-word-are-mothers-choosing-to-give-up-their-careers-or-being-booted-out-of-the-labor-force

Meta Analysis Of Rct Interventions, Ayo Ellis

Master's Theses

External validity of an RCT intervention enables understanding of where interventions are successful.

Meta-analysis allows for more generalized statements to be made on the effectiveness of RCTs across countries of different geographic and national income profiles. By comparing the findings from similar studies carried out in different settings I seek to describe whether RCTs in certain sectors are more sensitive to high GDP growth or higher levels of GDP. I consider 402 health, education, and industry development RCT studies done between 1980 and 2015 in 201 countries compiled by development non-profit Aidgrade. I find no significant effect of income level …

Financial Literacy For Latino Immigrants: A Guidebook For Esl Teachers, Anna Braden

Master's Projects and Capstones

Latino immigrants face many financial challenges in the United States. Language barriers exclude them from jobs as well as financial and consumer markets. Lack of familiarity with the U.S. financial system or bad experiences with financial systems in their home countries can create mistrust and lead to Latino immigrants being unbanked or underbanked. Consumer vulnerabilities may also be exploited as immigrants turn to nonbank financial services such as predatory lenders (check cashers, payday lenders, etc.). Lack of access to jobs and marketplaces results in lower income and less wealth accumulation. Over time this results in wealth inequality between Latino immigrants …

An Understanding Of Prisons, Race, And Class In The United States, Seth Ketchum

Honors Projects

After a summer of protests sparked by police brutality, the United States remains divided on this most important issue. This paper will seek to contextualize this country’s situation to explain that these protests stem from a history of inequality, in order to argue against claims that the protests are unjustified. With a multidisciplinary approach, we can begin to observe just how unequal this country is and understand what drives so many people to protest during the middle of a global pandemic.

Gender Differences In The Mental Health Of Parents During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Lucia Regina Gomes

Economics

The global COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the mental health of many in the world. With stay-at-home orders and schools transitioning to remote learning, the mental health of parents specifically has become an important topic for research. This paper utilizes Ordinary Least Squares Regression to examine the effect of gender on depleted mental health among U.S. parents. The results indicate an association between mothers and worsened mental health during the onset of the pandemic in the U.S.

Understanding Philanthropy And Inequality In The United States Through Probabilistic Regressions, Drew Evans

Economics Theses

This paper seeks to analyze and understand the dynamics between charitable donations and income inequality in the United States. Through the theoretical lens of financialization and income inequality, we analyze data from the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics. We utilize probabilistic regression models to find and compare the impact of demographics on the likelihood of an American household donating to charity. Our results show that age, sex, and income have positive impacts on donation likelihoods, while non-white racial groups can be seen having a lower probability of donation. Analyzing household data from lower-income groups allows for a recognizing of the …

Essays On Private And Public Debts, Financial Integration And Economic Volatility, Prince Osei-Sarfo

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two essays on surges of private and public debt flows and how these debt flows through financial integration affect output and consumption volatility (risk sharing) in emerging markets. Chapter 1 focuses on a common characteristic of many of the recent emerging market financial crises – a preceding surge in the debt inflows not only in the public but also in the private sector. In this chapter, I examine the drivers of the occurrence and magnitude of foreign debt surges to 28 emerging market economies (EMEs) over 1990-2016. Using the threshold method of defining a surge on …

Applying Analytics To The Nfl Draft: Athletic Performance Measures As A Predictor Of Future Success, Owen Brower

Economics Theses

Can an athlete’s National Football League’s (NFL) Scouting Combine measurements be used to predict their future success in the League? In this analysis, I use historical combine data to create a grading system that measures a player’s athleticism, regressed upon the player’s rookie year Pro Football Focus (PFF) grade to determine the extent to which athleticism can help NFL franchises better predict the outcomes of their draft picks.

Does Attending A More Elite School Lead To Better Labor Market Outcomes?: Evidence From The College Football Labor Market Using Screening Information, Kyle Brookman

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

College football prospects in the market for an athletic scholarship face similar career-altering choices as traditional academic students when selecting a college, however, the market they operate in is very different. They are actively recruited by university coaches and closely observed by a college sports scouting industry. Their choice of school is highly anticipated and publicized within college sport culture. College football is no doubt a lucrative industry, particularly for the elite university football programs, but one may want to know if the athletic scholars themselves gain in any career measurable way by attending a more elite university football program. …

Three Essays On International Financial And Monetary Interactions, Kemal Burak Bekircan

Dissertations

This dissertation develops three essays on safe haven currency behavior and international monetary interactions.

Essay one notes the dramatic appreciation of the U.S. dollar vis-à-vis all world currencies, along with its reversal after a year on the account of the Great Recession. This paper investigates bilateral U.S. dollar exchange rate movements during and in the aftermath of the Great Recession. I find that increasing global market uncertainty has a significant and consistent effect in strengthening of the U.S. dollar. This striking finding suggests flight-to-safety phenomenon of foreign investors, and repatriation of capital flows to the United States by the U.S. …

The Economic And Health Impacts Of Community Gardens On Refugee Populations: Cric Garden Case Study, Joseph Montoya

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The purpose of this paper is to examine the economic benefits of community gardens and incubator farms, both of which support the populations they serve from an economic viewpoint as well as socially, and as a benefit to public health and nutrition. The findings were gathered from the large body of research concerning the benefits of community gardens as well as program evaluation responses conducted with gardeners at the Cache Refugee and Immigrant Connection (CRIC) garden in Logan, Utah in 2020. They are also informed by experiences had and lessons learned while working as the garden manager. There is a …

Essays On Financial Frictions, Shipping Frequency And Exchange Rate Pass-Through, Md Deluair Hossen

Doctoral Dissertations

In three chapters of this dissertation, I examine financing frictions, shipping frequency, and exchange rate pass-through.

In the first chapter, I develop a model of importer-exporter procurement where the importer is procuring international inputs from the exporting firms located in developing countries. The exporters are credit constrained for working capital, incur the per-shipment fixed costs, and get paid after goods delivered to the importer. The model shows that for high financing costs in origin and destination, the shipping frequency increases. Furthermore, longer delivery times increase shipping frequency as well as procurement costs. The model also shows that the higher per-shipment …

An Economic Analysis Of Using Retired Vessels To Create Artificial Reefs In Costa Rica, Josué González

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The Republic of Costa Rica is a Central American country with only 0.03% of the world’s landmass, but 5% of the world’s biodiversity, making it a leading ecotourism destination. Ecotourism is one of the main sources of revenue for the country, but the degradation of coastal reefs has resulted in a significant loss of financial income for developing areas. As a result, many of these areas are searching for methods to revert the degradation of coral reefs.

Artificial reefs play an important ecological role in marine ecosystems due to their complexity and size. They help in the development of …

Essays In Labor Economics, Tianfang Li

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two chapters on labor economics. Despite differentia between topics, both share a similar property: causal effects analysis in the presence of unobserved variables. The first chapter examines the effects of China's two-child policy on childbearing, marriage, and female labor force participation. Using data from the China Labor-Force Dynamic Survey (CLDS) for 2012, 2014 and 2016, it generates three broad results. First, the universal two-child policy had a significant positive impact on having a second child during a portion of its phase-in. Second, the two-child policy did not influence the likelihood of marriage for young people. Third, …

The Relationship Between The Earning Of Career And Technical Industry Credentials And The Virginia Economy, Anjanette Mcfadden Hendricks

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Nationally, the labor market is calling out for workers to fill the increasing number of job vacancies, but those qualified, skilled, and able to fill them are limited in supply or retiring in large numbers. As America’s key industries offer high salaries in return for candidates with the necessary skills and credentials to fill their vacancies, the skills learned and third-party industry credentials earned in secondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs seem to make a perfect fit for the student, employer, and the economy. However, unlike the favored US educational model of the four-year degree, the continued outdated perception …

Selling To Reference-Dependent Consumers, Hin Shing Leung

Lingnan Theses and Dissertations (MPhil & PhD)

This research studies the optimal price charged by a monopoly firm when it is facing reference-dependent consumers (Kőszegi and Rabin, 2006). In the model, a consumer’s total utility from purchasing a good consists of intrinsic utility and gainloss utility, the latter of which is determined by an exogenously determined reference point. The firm’s optimal pricing depends on the level of the reference point. In particular, the firm optimally adopts a gain-type pricing strategy when the reference point is low. In this equilibrium, all consumers who purchase enjoy gain utility (gaintype consumers). When the reference point is high the firm optimally …

Three Essays On Health Economics, Jihye Kim

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This thesis focuses on various factors affecting health of American adults and the elderly based on the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). In chapter 1, I examine the role of educational and racial differences in life expectancy (LE) and health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE) for Americans at ages 45-64 using Health and Retirement Study (HRS) during 2000-2016. I compute severity-weighted prevalence of diseases with comorbidity adjustments based on the Global Burden of Disease (2015), and map onto the information on 17 doctor-diagnosed diseases and four self-rated disabling health conditions from HRS. This approach allows us to evaluate the importance of major …

Well-Being Indicators, Social Globalization, And Unaccompanied Child Migration From Central America, Lucia Farriss

Dissertations

This research investigates the effect of well-being indictors and social globalization on the migration of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) from Central America. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the surge in UAC that began in 2014 at the United States southern border is driven primarily by violence, or whether other factors are at play. Using data for the period 2008-2018, the apprehension of UAC serves as a proxy for measuring unaccompanied child migration to the United States. The four countries of focus are El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico as they contribute the largest numbers of child …

Aporte De La Industria Automotriz Al Crecimiento Del Sector Secundario Y Cómo Impactan Las Tendencias Actuales En El Crecimiento Económico Del Sector, Luis Vicente Pinillos Romero

Economía

En la investigación se hizo un análisis del aporte de la industria automotriz al crecimiento del sector secundario y cómo impactan las tendencias actuales en el crecimiento económico del sector. En vista de que Colombia únicamente ensambla automóviles Renault y Chevrolet, la industria del automóvil en Colombia, a pesar de su tamaño, tiene las características para convertirse en clave para el desarrollo de la economía colombiana. Para el adelanto de la monografía se formulan los siguientes objetivos: Analizar las tendencias actuales de producción de vehículos en Colombia y su aporte al sector secundario de 2015 - 2019. Indagar las preferencias …