Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Grease Or Grit?: International Case Studies Of Occupational Licensing And Its Effects On Efficiency And Quality, Morris M. Kleiner Editor, Maria Koumenta Editor

Upjohn Press

The book provides a comprehensive approach to whether a dominant governmental institution in the labor market-occupational licensing-greases, which enhances, or on the other hand results in grit, which diminishes the efficient workings of labor and service markets in parts of Europe and the United States. The detailed case studies in the book indicate that an increase in the availability of service providers or enhanced competition does not have negative effects on the quality of the services provided, prices, or survey measures of consumer satisfaction.

Seize The Time: Needed Research On Local Economic Development In An Era Of Increased Attention To Problems Of Place, Timothy J. Bartik

Upjohn Institute Policy Papers

With the increased attention to place-based policies comes an increased need for policy-relevant research on local economic development. Within the policy area of local economic development, this paper identifies five types of research needs: 1) better definitions of local labor markets; 2) policy know-how on how local economic development’s benefits can be better spread to distressed neighborhoods; 3) evidence on what types of jobs have both good growth prospects in the U.S. economy yet also provide good long-run job opportunities in local labor markets for the majority of U.S. workers who lack a bachelor’s degree; 4) estimates of how local …

Essays On The Effects Of Mergers On Competition, Yiran Cao

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

Mergers enable firms to internalize pricing externalities among competitors, hence raising market power and reducing social welfare. Mergers, on the other hand, can create merger-specific efficiencies and hence promote welfare. This thesis investigates the competitive effects of both horizontal and vertical mergers, motivated by this trade-off. It consists of two chapters. Chapter 2 sheds light on the competitive effects of killer acquisitions by extending the theoretical model of Cunningham et al. (2021). It examines how an acquiring firm's post-acquisition divestiture incentive is affected by the nature of competition, how the divestiture strategy impacts the likelihood of killer acquisitions, and what …

Reviewing John Maynard Keynes: The Economic Consequences Of The Peace, John C. Daniel

Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy

The 1919 Treaty of Versailles is one of the most impactful documents in world history. The treaty effectively ended World War I, decimated Germany, and laid the foundation for World War II. In his analysis The Economic Consequences of the Peace, John Maynard Keynes gives a first-hand account of the influence of world leaders President Woodrow Wilson, English Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau and the roles they played during the Paris Peace Conference. Keynes explains the treaty from a geopolitical lens, argues against the treaty’s reparations clause, and advocates for alternative solutions. Almost …

Beauty Premium Of Working Women In Urban Indonesia, Tri Putri Octafia, Diahhadi Setyonaluri

Makara Human Behavior Studies in Asia

Being attractive is believed to give many benefits in life. Economic studies have observed that physical attractiveness is associated with a higher wage. The benefits of being attractive have been perceived from early age, to the labor market, and to the marriage market. Despite all the advantages that beauty brings, efforts are being made to achieve or maintain attractiveness. People spend substantial resources,such as time and money, to enhance appearance. Using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression, this study examines the correlation between perceived attractiveness and earnings among urban working women in Indonesia. Findings show that the income of women who …

Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation In A Small Archipelago: The Role Of Ecotourism In Malta, Karl Agius

International Journal of Islands Research

The aim of this paper is to present the potential of ecotourism to develop into a niche contributing to climate change adaptation strategies whilst making the existing tourism industry more resilient. The paper provides an overview of mitigation measures adopted in Malta by the aviation, tourism and hospitality industry as well as policy makers in the archipelago to respond to major challenges that climate change poses for tourism. These changes are vital to lure ecotourists and to support ecotourism development. Six main themes emerged from the research in the context of the role ecotourism can play as an adaptation to …

Interfirm Network Analysis In Marginal Tourist Destinations: The Mediator Company In Business Relationships, Giovanni Ruggieri, Gaspare Varvaro, Salvatore Iannolino

International Journal of Islands Research

The literature on tourist destinations and the use of empirical approaches evidence the need to adopt this model to increase tourism economies. In model application, the enterprises, and local stakeholders, sometimes represent limitations or opportunities. This article opens the view to tourist destination networks, described as relational structures that can influence and determine the destination-building process. The Network Analysis methodology offers a better understanding of inter-firm relational dynamics when applied in a small context, and in this case, the application was undertaken on the island of Sicily, in Menfi town and its hinterland. Findings show the presence of a company …

A Relational Approach To Networks In A Tourism Destination: Business And Family Networks In San Vito Lo Capo, Sicily, Giovanni Ruggieri, Salvatore Iannolino

International Journal of Islands Research

This article constructs a relational framework using the principles of the Network Approach to examining the business exchange structure of a tourist destination. Network Analysis is the methodology to analyse the metrics of collaboration and cooperation among destination companies. The model was applied in a remote tourist destination named San Vito Lo Capo on the island of Sicily, where tourism has significantly expanded in the last twenty years. The focus is on how groupings of small companies within family relations can govern and be responsible for tourism destination cooperation. As the main result, the existence was identified, of a relational …

The Nexus Between Tourism Demand And Regional Characteristics: The Case Of Japanese Islands, Kantaro Takahashi

International Journal of Islands Research

This paper explores the relationships between tourism demand and regional characteristics of the Japanese islands. A regression model was carried out for 113 islands designated by the Remote Island Development Act, which is one of the laws designed to promote rural areas in Japan. Results show that the transportation situation was related to the demand of arrival tourists, whereas the results were insignificant for the model with the response variable as lodging tourists. Meanwhile, location factors were significant for lodging tourists—that is, open sea areas have more lodging tourism demand than islands in inland sea areas. Furthermore, this study found …

Changes In The Development Of Social Policy In A Small Island Economy: Malta, Rose Marie Azzopardi, Joseph Azzopardi Dr, Maximilian Bonnici

International Journal of Islands Research

This paper analyses the development of social policies in Malta, with a particular focus on events which have impacted on the country’s growth and subsequently on its social security system and policies involving housing, health, education migration and employment. In recent decades, with costs to sustain an ever-growing web of social services becoming more demanding, governments have tried to encourage more self-help and to lessen the heavy dependence on aid structures within the system, pushed at times by recommendations from regional and international institutions. The smaller the economy the more open it is likely to be. Consequently, it is impacted …

Ijir Title Page And Table Of Contents Vol. 3, Kevin A. Griffin, Giovanni Ruggieri, Patrizia Calò, Razaq Raj

International Journal of Islands Research

No abstract provided.

The Personality And Cognitive Traits Associated With Adolescents’ Sensitivity To Social Norms, Christopher Tate, Rajnish Kumar, Jennifer M. Murray, Sharon Sanchez-Franco, Olga L. Sarmiento, Shannon C. Montgomery, Huiyu Zhou, Abhijit Ramalingam, Erin Krupka, Erik Kimbrough, Frank Kee, Ruth F. Hunter

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

Little is known about the personality and cognitive traits that shape adolescents’ sensitivity to social norms. Further, few studies have harnessed novel empirical tools to elicit sensitivity to social norms among adolescent populations. This paper examines the association between sensitivity to norms and various personality and cognitive traits using an incentivised rule-following task grounded in Game Theory. Cross-sectional data were obtained from 1274 adolescents. Self-administered questionnaires were used to measure personality traits as well as other psychosocial characteristics. Incentivised rule-following experiments gauged sensitivity to social norms. A series of multilevel mixed effects ordered logistic regression models were employed to assess …

India’S Economy At 75 : Part Ii, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Newspaper and Magazine Articles

India’s success factors may be many but three salient features need emphasis. First, Indian entrepreneurs are dynamic, vibrant and innovative. They even used the socialist economy regime of control and license raj for ‘learning by doing’. Just to give an example, India had a ramshackle automobile industry dominated by two outdated models until the 1990s. The suppliers, engineers, vendors, parts manufacturers did acquire the techniques of supply chain management, production and distribution under most adverse circumstances. When the economy did open up in the post-1991 period and the private sector allowed to set up manufacturing industries without prior approvals, among …

The Great Student Swap, Aaron Klein

Policy Briefs and Reports

For the last twenty years, nearly every flagship university in the U.S. has been decreasing its share of in-state students and enrolling more students from out of state, a phenomenon I call the “Great Student Swap.” Using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), I examine every “flagship” public university by comparing incoming first year students from 2002 through 2018 (those who would have graduated in the spring 2022 assuming the traditional four-year timeframe for completion). I find that the share of out-of-state students has risen by an average of 55 percent since 2002 and that 48 of …

Plato’S Market Optimism, Brennan Mcdavid

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

Despite the extensiveness of top-down control in his ideal city, Plato takes seriously the idea that the market does not require total regulation via legislation and that participants in the market may be capable of self-regulation. This paper examines the discussion of market regulation in the Republic and argues that the philosopher rulers play a very limited role in regulating market activities. Indeed, they are concerned only with averting excesses of wealth and poverty. The rules and regulations that are foundational to the daily functioning of the market – enforcement of contracts, resolution of disputes, etc. – are endogenous to …

Helping Distressed Places: Best Practices And Needed Scale, Timothy J. Bartik

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Critical Review Of The Enactment Of The Minimum Wage On Poverty Alleviation In Hong Kong Since 2011, Man Yu Ngan

Lingnan Theses (Doctoral degree)

The academic discussion on the minimum wage law's effect is controversial and continuous. Given that Hong Kong is one of the free economies worldwide with the most competitive labour market, it is one of the best natural laboratories for testing how minimum wage law influences the labour market.

This study aims to answer four important research questions:1.What are the effects of statutory minimum wage legislation and its adjustment level?2.Which groups of employees will mostly benefit or suffer, and to what extent?3.Can Hong Kong’s minimum wage law achieve its policy goal of reducing poverty?4.How could Hong Kong’s minimum wage policy re-enter …

Free Market: The History Of An Idea. By Jacob Soll. Basic Books, 2022. 326 Pp, Index. $32., James K. Galbraith

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

Review of Free Market: The History of an Idea. Jacob Soll. New York, Basic Books, 2022. 326 pp.

Intermarket Analysis: Oil, Gold, Us Dollar And Stock Market, Khalife Danielle, Elia Richard, El Chaarani Hani, Bou Nader Elsa

Arab Economic and Business Journal

The interdependence among the prices of oil, gold, the US dollar and stock market prices is of fundamental importance for any investment decision. This paper studies the bilateral relationships between these asset classes in order to identify direct and indirect relationships, positive and negative interactions by using regression analysis, and then tries to demonstrate if a simultaneous relationship exists between the four asset classes via the empirical methodology: the simultaneous equation approach. The international data used to do a regression analysis to identify the bilateral relationships between assets is from November, 2011 to October, 2021 on a monthly basis. The …

A Practicum In Behavioral Economics, Arthur J. Caplan

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

A Practicum in Behavioral Economics is a practice-based textbook covering the broad field of behavioral economics. Because behavioral economics is foremost a "test-and-learn" field of scientific inquiry that evolves according to experimental outcomes, so too should students test-and-learn. As such, the book's primary goal is to help students experience behavioral economics through participation in the same experiments and games that serve as the foundations for, and shape the contours of, the field. With the help of this book students learn behavioral economics firsthand, and in the process create their own experiences. They learn about themselves - about how they make …

Information Aggregation With Heterogeneous Traders, Cary Deck, Tae In Jun, Laura Razzolini, Tavoy Reid

ESI Working Papers

The efficient market hypothesis predicts that asset prices reflect all available information. A seminal experiment reported that contingent claim markets could yield market outcomes consistent with information aggregation when traders hold heterogeneous state-contingent values. However, a recent experiment found the rational expectation model outperformed the prior information and maxi-min models in contingent claim markets when traders hold homogeneous values despite the no trade equilibrium in that setting. But that same study failed to replicate the original result calling into question when, if ever, prices reliably reflect the aggregate information of traders with heterogeneous values. In this paper, we show contingent …

Team Incentives And Lower Ability Workers: An Experimental Study On Real Effort Tasks, Richard B. Freeman, Xiaofei Pan, Xiaolan Yang, Maoliang Ye

Economics Faculty Working Papers

Team incentives are important in many compensation systems that pay workers according to the output of their team as well as to their own output, with team bonuses often depending on whether the team meets or exceeds specified thresholds. Yet little is known about how team members with different abilities respond to compensation rules and thresholds. We contrast the performance of lower ability participants and higher ability participants in an experiment with three distribution schemes – equal sharing, piece rate sharing, and tournament style winner-takesall – in settings with and without a team threshold. Workers randomly assigned to equal sharing …

In A Gig Economy, Do People Work More When Wages Rise?, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Study finds that when wages go up, how the supply of labour changes can depend on how the change in pay is communicated

Is Fed Policy In The Eye Of The Beholder?, Leo Krippner, Thomas Lam

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

While the US Federal Reserve remains vigilant on inflation, it will likely continue its tightening cycle with caution, with an eye on market expectations about future policy actions and financial conditions.

Labor Market Efficiency And Youth Unemployment In The Mena Region, Wasseem Mina

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

The Arab countries of the MENA region adopted a state-led development path in the sixties and seventies. Since then, the government and the public sector have become the main owners of factors of production and labor force employers (Cammett et al., 2015). Salehi-Isfahani (2012) projected high youth unemployment rate to be a key challenge. The purpose of this paper is to qualitatively discuss the development of youth unemployment over time in the Arab world and empirically examine the determinants of youth unemployment. Data shows that high youth unemployment is a challenge. Using system GMM estimation methodology and panel data on …

(Wp 2022-07) Teaching Economics And Ethics, John B. Davis

Economics Working Papers

As an interdisciplinary field, economics and ethics has been taught in many different ways, including in my experience teaching the course over many years. This paper describes the challenges teaching this subject involves and the strategy I ultimately adopted for doing so after trying different approaches. This strategy was meant to address the needs of a heterogenous collection of students, many of whom had limited knowledge of economics and were likely not take many additional courses in it. The course was structured around four modules opposed to one another in two pairs:

(1) Ways economics influences ethics: The market vision …

A Study On The Mechanisms Of Shareholders’ Equity Adjustment In Bankruptcy Reorganization Of Listed Companies, Yongliang Zhang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In recent years, amid cyclical macroeconomic fluctuations, national economic slowdown, economic restructuring, and over-expansion of some enterprises, a number of listed companies have faced serious debt and operational challenges, many of which are worthy of keeping afloat. From June 1, 2007 when the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law of the People’s Republic of China came into effect, up to the end of 2021, a total of 93 listed companies in China have gone through bankruptcy reorganization, one of the major means to save the listed companies in distress.

The bankruptcy reorganization of listed companies, by its nature, is a process of game …

Order Statistics From Independent Non-Identical Exponentiated And Proportional Hazard Rate Random Variables, José-Antonio Espín-Sánchez, Tianhao Wu

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We study order statistics (OS) from independent non identically distributed (INID) samples for two large classes of statistical distributions: Exponentiated Distributions (ED) and Proportional Hazard Rate Models (PHRM). We show that for the analytical solution for the CDF (PDF) of OSs in ED and PHRM: i) each OS's CDF (PDF) depends on all shape parameters; ii) the CDF (PDF) of each OS is a weighted average of CDF (PDF) within the same family and with shape parameters equal to a partial sum of the original shape parameters; and iii) the weights are integers and sum up to 1. These properties …

The Effects Of Network Structure And Social Information On Contribution Performance On Crowdfunding Platforms: An Experimental Investigation, Yanni Hu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The long-term potentiality of online communities and activities depends critically on contribution behaviors of online individuals. In this dissertation, this study deepen and extend our understanding of contribution behavior by applying contributions to crowdfunding platforms, whereas social networks, social information, and social influence affect people’s contribution decisions, which in turn influences their contribution performances. Specifically, this study looked into how contribution behavior at crowdfunding platforms is shaped at a fundamental level of social interactions initiated by social and information technologies on contribution performance, using online and natural experiments as study methodologies.

Examining the effects brought by online social interactions on …

How Would Medicaid Expansion Affect Texas Hospitals? Evidence From A Retrospective Quasi-Experimental Study, Meryem Saygili

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study aims to estimate the impact of a potential Medicaid expansion on Texas hospitals. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansion increased access to health care and improved health outcomes. Still, several states, including Texas, have not adopted the expansion. This is a retrospective quasi-experimental study. We obtained inpatient data containing discharges from Texas hospitals between 2010 and 2017 from the Texas Department of State Health Services. Texas hospitals receive a significant number of patients from the adjacent states. We use a difference-in-differences methodology, where the patients from the neighboring states that expanded Medicaid in 2014 are the treatment …