Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Impact Of The 2003 Illinois Gaming Tax Rate Increase On Marketing Spending And Cross-State Substitution, Mikael Bengt Ahlgren

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this research was to investigate three potential consequences related to the 2003 Illinois Gaming Tax rate restructuring. The first section presents the assessment of whether a higher tax rate motivated an Illinois casino operator to reduce of marketing/promotional expenditures in an attempt to negatively influence revenues. The second establishes if the surrounding state gaming operators reacted to the increased Gaming Tax rate in Illinois, by raising their marketing spending. The last section clarifies whether the changes to the Illinois Gaming Tax Schedule impacted gaming volumes in the neighboring/competing states of Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri.

The analysis relied …

The Effect Of Casino Tax Policy On Short-Run Gaming Development, Kahlil Philander

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the effect of casino tax rate structure on investment by casino operators. Using a panel data set consisting of all states with legal commercial casino gambling from 1998 to 2009, a fixed-effect model with two-stage least squares is estimated to examine the effect of gambling taxes on firms' short-run behavior. The study finds that maximum casino tax rates decrease casino employment, with an estimated average elasticity of -0.5. This result is noted to be robust to several different model specifications and data subsets. No robust relationship is found between maximum tax rates and casino wages. No significant …

Caught In The Immigration Cross-Fire: The Changing Dynamics Of Congressional Support For Skilled Worker Visas, Maryam Tanhaee Stevenson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This project examines the congressional politics associated with legislation on skilled foreign workers, specifically the H-1B visa which was created by the Immigration Act of 1990. It attempts to explain why legislative policies were successful on a small scale between 1998 and 2004 and completely unsuccessful after 2004.

Specifically, this study is a longitudinal qualitative analysis that uses Krehbiel's pivotal politics model (1998), Cox and McCubbins' party politics models (2005; 2007), Sinclair's (2007) unorthodox lawmaking theory, and Gilmour's (1995) strategic disagreement model to explain four key periods of H-1B legislation: (1) the passage of the Immigration Act of 1990; (2) …

Implementing A State Lottery In Nevada, Benjamin K. Boulton

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study is to assess the feasibility of implementing a state lottery in Nevada and to present the benefits of a state lottery for both the Nevada hospitality industry and the Nevada economy. It will compare and contrast the arguments for and the arguments against a lottery by executing a content analysis of existing research literature as well as other relevant publications. It will also examine the history of lotteries, the states that border Nevada and have lotteries and the legislative history of lottery proposals in Nevada.

State Juvenile Justice Spending Decisions: The Effects Of Federal Aid, Race, Politics, And Other Socioeconomic Factors, Willie B. Coleman Smith

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Historically, juvenile justice in the United States has been the responsibility of state governments with limited federal support. There is a notable gap in the empirical literature on factors that affect funding policies for state juvenile justice programs. In this dissertation research, I used two theoretical perspectives to examine determinants of juvenile justice spending: economic theory on intergovernmental aid and tenets of the Politics of Social Order Framework, developed by Stucky, Heimer, and Lang (2007) to investigate corrections spending. Two research questions were considered: 1) What impact does federal aid have on state spending on juvenile justice programs? and 2) …

Adaptive Behavior Malingering In Legal Claims Of Mental Retardation, Renee M. Kadlubek

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to put people with mental retardation to death for capital crimes (Atkins v. Virginia, 2002). Justice Scalia dissented, suggesting that mental retardation is a condition easy to feign. The current study examined whether participants provided with the definition of mental retardation and adaptive behavior ("informed malingering group") are any better at malingering having mental retardation than participants not provided with the definitions ("malingering group"). Three groups of participants participated in this study: the control group, the malingering group, and the informed malingering group. All participants completed an intellectual assessment and …

Formal, Bounded, And "Hyper" Rationality In Police Processing Of Sexual Assualt Claims: Case Dispositions And Ucr Reporting, Brooke M. Wagner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Over the past three decades, many scholars have examined the prevalence, consequences, and official sanctions of sexual violence. The following study builds on past research by quantitatively examining police and crime analyst discretion in sexual assault claims. Using recently accessed data from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department from 2008 through 2010 and utilizing labeling theory, rape myth literature, and the theoretical perspectives of justice processing outcomes, I assess the extent to which police officers and crime analysts are influenced by extralegal variables like victim and offender's race, victim's age, the location of assault, incident characteristics, and victim's background. I …

The Role Of Ethics In Athletic Participation, Ryan Matthews

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine what role ethics plays in athletic participation and what intrinsic and/or extrinsic factors may influence the decision making process of athletes. Once identified, the information found in this paper can be used to help athletes understand their own thought processes concerning rules adherence and to assist them in making a conscious decision to follow the rules to achieve their goals.

Statement of Problem: The exploration of the literature will reveal the many factors and conditions that an athlete faces that will influence their decision to participate within the confines of the …