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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
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- Gambling (2)
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Articles 1 - 8 of 8
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Impact Of Political Uncertainty: A Robust Control Approach, Robert Baumann, Justin Svec
The Impact Of Political Uncertainty: A Robust Control Approach, Robert Baumann, Justin Svec
Economics Department Working Papers
In this paper, we examine how candidate uncertainty affects the policy platforms chosen in a uni-dimensional, two candidate Downsian spatial model. The candidates, we assume, do not know the true distribution of voters. Following the robust control literature, candidates respond to this uncertainty by applying a max-min operator to their optimization problem. This approach, consistent with findings within the behavioral economics literature, protects the candidate by ensuring that her expected utility never falls too far, regardless of the true voter distribution. We show that this framework produces policy convergence between the two candidates but there is a multiplicity of possible …
Infrastructure Investments And Mega-Sports Events: Comparing The Experience Of Developing And Industrialized Countries, Robert Baumann, Victor Matheson
Infrastructure Investments And Mega-Sports Events: Comparing The Experience Of Developing And Industrialized Countries, Robert Baumann, Victor Matheson
Economics Department Working Papers
Countries vigorously compete for sports mega-events in hopes of generating an economic impact during the event but also long-term growth induced by the hallmark event. It is well understood that the economic legacy depends on the infrastructure that not only facilitates the games but also has far broader implications for sustainable economic activity in the host city’s economy. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the extent to which developing and developed countries adopt different strategies as it related to the composition of infrastructure enhancements that have implications for the generation of an economy legacy from the mega-sports event.
Endogenous Voting Weights For Elected Representatives And Redistricting, Justin Svec, James Hamilton
Endogenous Voting Weights For Elected Representatives And Redistricting, Justin Svec, James Hamilton
Economics Department Working Papers
This paper analyzes the merits of a novel method of eliminating the power of a gerrymanderer that involves an endogenous weighting system for elected representatives. This endogenous weighting system ties the voting weight of elected representatives in the legislature to the share of the voters who voted for that representative's party and to the share of representatives elected from that party. If the weights are set correctly, it can be shown in simple voting models like Gilligan and Matsusaka (1999) that redistricting has no influence on the policy passed by the legislature. This benefit, though, is out-weighed by the fact …
Workers' Responses To Incentives: The Case Of Pending Mlb Free Agents, Joshua Congdon-Hohman, Jonathan A. Lanning
Workers' Responses To Incentives: The Case Of Pending Mlb Free Agents, Joshua Congdon-Hohman, Jonathan A. Lanning
Economics Department Working Papers
This study examines ways in which workers respond to implicit incentives. Specifically, we examine the extent to which workers shift their effort to activities that are measured and which have been previously rewarded in the labor market. To examine this question, we examine the changes in the performance measures of professional baseball players in the season prior to the opportunity to freely negotiate their contract (free agency). We will examine different eras in baseball to examine if we can identify changes in behavior in this pivotal year based on changes to the current premium outputs for each time period.
Love, Toil, And Health Insurance: Why American Husbands Retire When They Do, Joshua Congdon-Hohman
Love, Toil, And Health Insurance: Why American Husbands Retire When They Do, Joshua Congdon-Hohman
Economics Department Working Papers
The provision of health insurance has previously been shown to be an important determinant of retirement timing among older Americans, but the existing literature has largely ignored some aspects of the inter-spousal dependence of health insurance benefits. Specifically, the literature examines only how retirement may affect the health insurance available to the potential retiree but not how it might affect a spouse's options. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, I find that the impact a husband's retirement might have on a wife's health insurance options has a statistically significant impact on a husband's rate of retirement that is …
Should Gambling Markets Be Privatized? An Examination Of State Lotteries In The United States, Kent Grote, Victor Matheson
Should Gambling Markets Be Privatized? An Examination Of State Lotteries In The United States, Kent Grote, Victor Matheson
Economics Department Working Papers
State lotteries currently operate in 43 states across the US. Recently, three states have privatized their lottery operations, handing over the management of their lotteries to private companies in hopes of generating greater revenues for the state governments. Questions arise regarding the economic rationale for this decision and an economic model is presented to determine whether one state, Illinois, has been successful at generating more state transfer revenues as a result of privatization in its first year of results. The issue of lottery privatization is also examined
Student Uncertainty And Major Choice, Joshua Congdon-Hohman, Anil Nathan, Justin Svec
Student Uncertainty And Major Choice, Joshua Congdon-Hohman, Anil Nathan, Justin Svec
Economics Department Working Papers
This paper examines how model uncertainty affects students' choice of major. To account for this uncertainty, the students apply a max-min operator to their optimization problem. We show analytically that greater uncertainty in a particular major causes the student to be less likely to choose that major and that greater uncertainty across all majors causes fewer students to major in science, technology, engineering, and math. To test the model's assumptions and predictions, we have conducted a novel survey of college freshmen. The results from this survey are consistent with assumptions and implications of the theoretical model.
The Impact Of State Lotteries And Casinos On State, Kent Grote, Victor Matheson
The Impact Of State Lotteries And Casinos On State, Kent Grote, Victor Matheson
Economics Department Working Papers
Over the past half century, there has been an increasing prevalence of legalized gambling in the US. At the same time there is a general recognition, empirically supported in the economics literature, that spending on lottery and gaming products tends to be regressive in nature. In addition, gambling addiction is a widely acknowledged social problem. This raises the question of whether the increased presence of casinos and state lotteries results in relatively more bankruptcy filings in the states that offer them. This paper adds to the existing literature by comparing the relative impact of the presence of lotteries to that …