Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An On-Ramp To Financial Inclusion: Measuring The Impact Of Mercy Corps' Community Investment Trust Program On Minority Investors, Lexi Yokote

University Honors Theses

Mercy Corps' Community Investment Trust (CIT) was launched in 2017 as a low-risk real estate investment and education initiative. The program is now working to replicate this in cities across the United States. However, it has not been able to collect much feedback from existing investors about their experiences and needs. This paper will use primary and secondary research in the form of a literature review and original surveys to collect information about investor demographics, attitudes toward the CIT and investing, risk perceptions, and future investment plans. The results show that U.S.-born versus foreign-born status, ethnicity, and gender affect the …

Revisiting Development Discourse Amidst Informal Sector Crises Covid-19 Pandemic, Anjan Chakrabarti, Pooja Sharma

International Journal on Responsibility

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, India has experienced a severe catastrophe of the informal sector, related to both health and livelihood. The informal sector and migrant workers are closely linked and they became easy prey during the nationwide lockdown at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The informal sector, primarily a fallout of the prevailing dual economy, makes it highly imperative to revisit not only India’s growth and development process but also the distribution. The paper attempts to evaluate the development process adopted by developing countries and their relevance in terms of growth and inequality. The study finds the missing link …

Analysing Pandemic Induced Economic Inequality In Developing Nations, Ravneet Kaur Bhogal

International Journal on Responsibility

The dawn of the new decade of the 21st century saw an unprecedented global crisis. This crisis led the world to halt economic and social progress. It led to a galloping increase in the economic inequality and migration of people in search of opportunities to save them from the current situation. The developing nations saw a sea of people migrating back to their roots in search of safe havens. This has led to the loss of jobs which has increased income inequality. Migrants face the risk of contagion and also the possible loss of employment, wages, and health insurance coverage. …

Deciphering French Decentralization Efforts And Economic Attractivity Through The Evaluation Of France's Lyonnaise Region, Magwyer Grimes, Kimberley Brown

University Honors Theses

France has long been a country politically and economically dominated by its largest city: Paris. This dynamic seemed natural for an absolute monarchy and a subsequent empire that sought centralized administration, but in the second half of the twentieth century there were increasing calls for regional solidarity and a more active industrial policy to develop metropolitan France beyond the Paris basin. The objectives of the French government seem two-fold: to lean on and expand the economic strength of the Paris region while increasing the economic dynamism of the various other large agglomerations. But in an economy already so dominated by …

Panel Data Models With Time-Varying Latent Group Structures, Peter C. B. Phillips, Liangjun Su, Yiren Wang

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper considers a linear panel model with interactive fixed effects and unobserved individual and time heterogeneities that are captured by some latent group structures and an unknown structural break, respectively. To enhance realism the model may have different numbers of groups and/or different group memberships before and after the break. With the preliminary nuclear-norm-regularized estimation followed by row- and column-wise linear regressions, we estimate the break point based on the idea of binary segmentation and the latent group structures together with the number of groups before and after the break by sequential testing K-means algorithm simultaneously. It is shown …

The Economic Value Of Sea Otters And Recreational Tourism In A California Estuary, Jessica A. Fujii, Charles S. Colgan, Anthony Castelletto, Michelle M. Staedler, Amy G. Wolfrum, Kyle S. Van Houtan

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

The recovery of marine megafauna can lead to improved ecosystem function and services, but not all stakeholders may benefit equally. Quantifying the local economic value of a species’ presence may appeal to broader range of stakeholders when developing conservation strategies. This study aims to examine the economic effect recreational activities can have on a local region, and to determine what role the presence of southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) had on the value visitors placed on the visit and the area’s preservation. We surveyed visitors to Elkhorn Slough, a small estuary in California known for diverse wildlife, …

Economic Empowerment Through Art, Ava Ellis

Thinking Matters Symposium

Economic Empowerment Through Art: Final Abstract

Ava Ellis, Shaw Innovation Fellow, USM, MSW graduate student

My research project focused on using drawing and one-to-one art workshops as a way into discussing money habits. Participants shared their beliefs about money and responses to questions about money. They considered ways they may want to alter habits related to money within the 1 hour workshop, art was used as a scaffold to envision future-oriented economic goals. Participants mentioned uncertainty regarding financial planning and a lack of education regarding money in childhood. All felt they often needed more financial insight, in terms of developing …

The Digital Divide Between The Outputs Of Media Faculties And The Leading Sector In The Jordanian Market... Indicators And Treatments, Hani A. Al Badri

Journal of the Association of Arab Universities for Research in Higher Education مجلة اتحاد الجامعات العربية للبحوث في التعليم العالي

Global technological transformations predict the birth of new societies based on knowledge and qualitative elements of production within an accelerated digital environment, which calls for a review of various educational strategies to keep pace with the high dynamism in the business sectors. Therefore, the research aims to shed light on the digital gap between the educational outputs of the media faculties and the leading sector in the Jordanian market. The article adopted the inductive method based on observation and comparison of the results of previous literature and official reports. The article concluded that despite the great development that Jordan has …

Formalizing Dispute Resolution: Effects Of Village Courts In Bangladesh, Martin Mattsson, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak

Discussion Papers

Disagreements over business deals, land boundaries, or loan non-repayment are very common sources of disputes, and courts are congested in developing countries. We evaluate the effects of the government introducing formal “village courts” (VCs) in rural Bangladesh using a randomized controlled trial with a pre-analysis plan. VCs were designed to improve dispute resolution and relieve the pressure on congested district courts. We find that VCs are more of a substitute for the ubiquitous informal dispute resolution mechanism (DRM) called shalish. VCs become functional and active in treated areas, but shalish remains the primary preferred DRM in both treatment and …

A Look At Provincial Budgets, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Newspaper and Magazine Articles

Budget discussions and debates in Pakistan have historically focused on the federal government and FBR, though the provincial budgets should occupy a salient place in the aftermath of the 18th Amendment and the 7th National Finance Commission Award. This has not been the case despite the fact that the objectives of raising the tax-to-GDP ratio and efficient and effective delivery of public goods and services to the citizens can be achieved mainly through provincial budgets.

One-Shot Economic Mobility Via Microsoft Excel, Humberto Barreto

School of Business and Leadership Working Papers

This paper explains how to use a macro-enabled Excel workbook, Mobility.xlsm, to teach basic concepts about intergenerational mobility as a standalone, one-time class or assignment at the undergraduate level. The focus is on explaining the results from Chetty et al. (2014) which tracks the parent’s place in the income distribution and then their adult children’s income ranking. Simulation is used to explain the bottom-to-top transition probability and the transition matrix with strong visuals and concrete numbers. The workbook is entirely self-contained and has a series of questions to lead students through the material. This paper has suggested answers and further …

Comment : Economic Consequences Of Budgetary Options, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Newspaper and Magazine Articles

Let me first concede that I have great deal of sympathy with those who have been given the responsibility for preparing the FY24 Budget. We are faced with the most difficult external and domestic circumstances. Global economic conditions and geopolitical compulsions are unfavourable.

Terrorism And Growth: Evidence From India And Egypt, Nibal Ezz Eldin Attia Nibal, Ahmed Sabry Abou Zaid

Future Journal of Social Science

The impact of terrorism is different in developed and developing countries, according to many economists. But what leads to variation in the consequences of terrorism among two developing countries? This paper takes into account two developing countries from two different continents and quantifies the impact of terrorism on GDP per capita. The data is extracted and arranged from the Global Terrorism Index (Humanity, n.d.) for India and Egypt from the years 1975-2018 and 1977-2018, respectively. A set of statistical analyses using the OLS and Newey-West method is used to examine the relationship between the variables. For India, an act of …

The Death Of Volunteerism In America And The True Cost To Society, John R. Ash

Pennsylvania Economic Review

Communities throughout the United States face a public safety concern in providing fire protection and emergency medical services (EMS) due to the nationwide decline in volunteerism. Two-thirds of the nation’s 30,000 fire departments are volunteer-run, and since 2015, the number of volunteer firefighters has declined from 814,850 to 682,600. EMS organizations face an equally daunting dilemma with up to a 55% attrition rate in emergency medical technicians and paramedics. Pennsylvania has been especially hard hit. Benjamin Franklin founded the first volunteer fire department in the nation in Pennsylvania. In this state, the number of volunteer firefighters has dropped from a …

Dollarization In Latin America: The Effect On Macroeconomic Outcomes In El Salvador And Ecuador, John Stephen Petrich

Quantitative Social Science Undergraduate Senior Theses

This paper examines full dollarization in Latin America and the experience of El Salvador, Panama and Ecuador using the U.S. Dollar as their sole currency. This is accomplished by comparing key macroeconomic indicators in these countries to both their pre-dollarization experience and a control group of the largest economies in the region from 1986 to 2019. Special attention is paid to the comparison between El Salvador which fully dollarized and Guatemala which partially dollarized in 2001. A gravity model using a difference in differences analysis found no significant increase in bilateral trade with the United States relative to the control …

New Asymptotics Applied To Functional Coefficient Regression And Climate Sensitivity Analysis, Qiying Wang, Peter C. B. Phillips, Ying Wang

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

A general asymptotic theory is established for sample cross moments of nonstationary time series, allowing for long range dependence and local unit roots. The theory provides a substantial extension of earlier results on nonparametric regression that include near-cointegrated nonparametric regression as well as spurious nonparametric regression. Many new models are covered by the limit theory, among which are functional coefficient regressions in which both regressors and the functional covariate are nonstationary. Simulations show finite sample performance matching well with the asymptotic theory and having broad relevance to applications, while revealing how dual nonstationarity in regressors and covariates raises sensitivity to …

Reintroducing Hemp (Rongony) In The Material Palette Of Madagascar: A Study On The Potential Of Hemp Clay Components And Its Impact On Social And Ecological Communities., Henintsoa Thierry Andrianambinina

Masters Theses

When mentioning the word hemp, especially in the local language of Madagascar, the literal translation does not set it apart from marijuana, as they are both called “rongony” - creating the stigma around hemp as the negative stereotype of marijuana. However, the material has been used by the ancestors of Madagascar, as well as across cultures, in its fibrous form to produce fabrication like textile goods and packaging. During colonization, the prohibition of hemp intensified, and since then, any activity related to either of these plants is prohibited and will end in severe punitive measures. This thesis explores the strengths …

Liquid Border, Yingfan Jia

Masters Theses

A River is a mighty and constantly-evolving force, leaving behind an intricately designed and constantly changing system. Not just a river, the Rio Grande stretches all the way from Colorado before intersecting with the US-Mexico Border in southern Texas - a point where the powerful forces of nature now merge with a clearly-defined political boundary. The outcome of this is a unique ecological niche, which may often go unnoticed despite its distinctiveness.

Texas is famous for its farms and ranches, and the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas was once an agricultural hub. However, urbanization and the depletion of water …

Economic Impacts Of Investment Facilitation, Edward J. Balistreri, Zoryana Olekseyuk

Yeutter Institute International Trade Policy Review

After the successful adoption of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) in 2014, investment facilitation is gaining importance as the next policy priority for a plurilateral agreement under the World Trade Organization (WTO). In fact, more than 110 WTO Members aim to conclude the negotiations on the Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) Agreement by mid-2023 after only three years of formal negotiations. Investment facilitation refers to actions taken by governments designed to attract foreign investment and maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of its administration through all stages of the investment cycle. The IFD agreement focuses on allowing investment to flow efficiently …

Optimal Contest Design When Policing Damaging Behavior, Scott M. Gilpatric, Ye Hong

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Abstract

Learning From Zambia's Economic Policy Reversals, Alan Whitworth

Southern African Journal of Policy and Development

The economic policies of Zambia’s first independent government, the United National Independence Party (UNIP), had disastrous results - turning Zambia from a middle-income into a least developed country. Following a difficult adjustment period, the Movement for Multiparty Democracy’s reversal of many UNIP policies led to over a decade of rapid growth and falling poverty. Despite their apparent success, policies such as privatisation were unpopular and the Patriotic Front administration from 2011 reverted to many of UNIP’s policies. This led once again to low growth and Zambia defaulting on its debt. As the United Party for National Development administration seeks to …

Overreaction At The Time Of Regulatory Policy Adjustment: Evidence From The A-Share Market In China, Jian Huang

Fordham Dissertations and Theses

The stock market is a significant place for capital allocation where paternalistic securities regulation is a necessary choice to hedge against risks in a growth-oriented capital market and enhance efficiency of capital market. However, paternalistic regulation can also lead to behavioral failure and amplify market failure, thus resulting in a decline in market efficiency. This dissertation attempts to empirically reveal that it is one of the objectives of securities regulation to increase the stock direct financing ratio (DFR), but policy adjustments can cause increased market volatility, and a stock market with increased volatility may exhibit overreactions, a phenomenon …

Revisit The Moving Average Technical Trading Rule For The Nasdaq Composite Index, Louie Ren, Peter Ren, Jeffrey Yi-Lin Forrest

Pennsylvania Economic Review

We check the regression model assumptions via residual analysis using one dummy variable for Buy and Sell Days. Since the returns of the NASDAQ composite index is not stationary, it is inappropriate to use the Student T-test on Buy and Sell Days to analyze the efficiency of the market via moving average technical trading rules. As such, the Buy-Sell Days from the moving average trading rules have no predictability on daily NASDAQ index returns. This refutes the results of at least two studies on the NASDAQ Composite Index.

An Empirical Research On The Financial Distress Risk In The Garden And Construction Industry, Jianlin Guan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In recent years, the garden and construction industry has faced significant financial distressdue to the downward pressure on the macro economy. This financial distress not onlyposesrisks to the financial stability and management of enterprises but also has far-reachingimpactson society.

This paper utilizes various analytical methods such as case analysis, empirical analysis, andevent analysis to derive the following conclusions:(1)The participation of garden constructionindustry enterprises in public-private partnership (PPP) projects leads to increased financial distress.(2)The higher the debt ratio of the local government where listed gardenandconstruction enterprises are located, the greater the financial distress theyexperience.(3)Enterprises in the garden and construction industry, whose …

Exchange Rate Pass-Through To Domestic Prices, Jui-Chi Huang

Pennsylvania Economic Review

By using Generalized Least Squares and Least Squares Dummy Variable techniques, we use the aggregate 98 U.S. 4-digit Standard Industrial Classification manufacturing data over 43 years (1976 – 2019) to investigate the connection between exchange rate shocks and domestic prices. Our panel data analyses reveal that the exchange rate shocks passed to the U.S. domestic prices through imported inputs and import penetration

The Determinants Of Poverty In Pennsylvania Counties, Angelique Alcantara

Pennsylvania Economic Review

This study examines the determinants of poverty in Pennsylvania counties. Economic and demographic characteristics are evaluated in their relation to the poverty rate, using panel data from 2000 to 2019 for the 67 Pennsylvania counties. Data was collected from the U.S. Census Bureau. In accordance with the Hausman (1978) specification test, a two-way fixed effects model is estimated to account for unobserved county-specific and time-specific heterogeneity. Wald (1939) tests are used to determine joint significance for both demographic and economic variable groups. Results indicate that employment in manufacturing and in construction are negatively related to the poverty rate. Employment in …

The Relationship Between Economic Policy Uncertainty And Stock Market Volatility, Jadesola Alatishe, M Halim Dalgin, Necati Tekatli

Pennsylvania Economic Review

This paper studies the relationship between the economic policy uncertainty and the stock market volatility. On a daily basis, stock prices react to news about what governments around the world plan to do or have done. As economic policy uncertainty is expected to be priced in the stock market, the relationship between economic policy uncertainty and financial markets can reveal investors' assessments of how policy risks impact economic activity into the future, conveniently summarized in present value terms. In this paper, we hope to unravel how an uncertain economic policy climate affects the stock market dynamics. Our results indicate that …

It Doesn’T Pay To Be Purple: An Empirical Test Of Pork Barrel Spending And Congressional Delegation Homogeneity, M. Garrett Roth, Zachary Klingensmith

Pennsylvania Economic Review

This paper presents empirical evidence that pork barrel spending, as a best proxy for targeted spending through legislative coalition formation, is significantly affected by the party homogeneity among congresspersons of a given state. Moreover, the magnitude of homogeneity, when measured as uniform or non-uniform, carries larger magnitude than a state delegation’s congruence in either chamber with the current majority party. The result suggests that coalition value is a major motivator of U.S. congressional budgeting.

Impact Of Central Bank Of Nigeria Interventions To Agriculture: Evidence From Anchor Borrowers Programme, Sani A. Oshishepo

Bullion

In an effort to boost agricultural production and non -oil export in the face of unpredictable crude oil earnings and it resultant effect on the revenue profile of Nigeria, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in line with its developmental function, established the Anchor Borrowers Programme. This paper assesses, the impact, state participation and season positions from inception of the programme. Destock review and indebt interview as well data generated were employed to assess the impact of the programme, Issues surrounding, the distribution model, risks mitigation and challenges of the scheme were also examined. The paper concluded that there is …

Heterogeneity In The Persistence Of Health: Evidence From A Monthly Micro Panel, Stephen Hoskins, David W. Joohnston, Johannes S. Kunz, Michael A. Shields, Kevin E. Staub

ROSA Journal Articles and Publications

Despite being widely used in health economics, dynamic models of health and healthcare typ ically assume that the persistence in these outcomes is the same for every individual. This paper explores individual-level heterogeneity in the persistence of health outcomes. Using simple re gression methods that do not place any restriction on the distribution of the heterogeneity in persistence, the paper documents substantial heterogeneity in health, medical expenditures, and healthcare use. We show that neglecting this heterogeneity leads to estimates that overstate the average persistence and can bias the coefficients of covariates. We find that between 75% and 87% of individuals …