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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™

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Marquette University

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

Series

2019

Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

An Experiment On Innovation And Collusion, Andrew Smyth Jul 2019

An Experiment On Innovation And Collusion, Andrew Smyth

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

This paper examines the relationship between product innovation and the success of price collusion using novel laboratory experiments. Average market prices in low innovation (LO) experiments are significantly higher than those in high innovation, but otherwise identical experiments. This price difference is attributed to LO experimental subjects' greater common market experience. The data illustrate how collusion can be perceived as the "only way to make it" in LO markets where product innovation is not a viable strategy for increasing profits. They suggest that product homogeneity can be a proximate cause, and product innovation an ultimate cause, of collusion.

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Elite Influence On Climate Change Skepticism: Evidence From Close Gubernatorial Elections, Andrew G. Meyer Jul 2019

Elite Influence On Climate Change Skepticism: Evidence From Close Gubernatorial Elections, Andrew G. Meyer

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

Many theorize that public opinion follows political elite on climate change skepticism, yet evidence of a causal link is lacking. I use a regression discontinuity design to establish the impact of the political party of a governor on constituents’ global warming beliefs. I find that, relative to the election of a Democratic governor, the election of a Republican governor significantly decreases the probability of a Republican constituent believing in global warming by approximately 11–15 percentage points; there is no significant impact on Democratic constituents. I also find a negative effect of a Republican governor on belief in human-caused global warming …

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The Great Recession And Public Education, William N. Evans, Robert M. Schwab, Kathryn L. Wagner Apr 2019

The Great Recession And Public Education, William N. Evans, Robert M. Schwab, Kathryn L. Wagner

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

We examine the impact of the Great Recession on public education finance and employment. Five major themes emerge from our work. First, nearly 300,000 school employees lost their jobs. Second, schools that were heavily dependent financially on state governments were particularly vulnerable to the recession. Third, local revenues from the property tax actually increased during the recession, primarily because millage rates rose in response to declining property values. Fourth, inequality in school spending rose sharply during the Great Recession. We argue, however, that we need to be very cautious about this result. School spending inequality has risen steadily since 2000; …

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State-Level Fdi And Within-Occupation Wage Inequality In The United States, Miao Wang, M. C. Sunny Wong, Hong Zhuang Jan 2019

State-Level Fdi And Within-Occupation Wage Inequality In The United States, Miao Wang, M. C. Sunny Wong, Hong Zhuang

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

Our paper explores the relationship between inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and within-occupation wage inequality at the state level in the U.S. We argue that sectoral FDI may affect different occupations differently, and our study looks at possible heterogeneous effects of sectoral FDI on wage inequality for 22 occupations. Using data over 1999–2007, our results show that state-level manufacturing FDI tends to reduce wage inequality, measured by the ratio of the 90th percentile wage and the 10th percentile wage in an occupation. Manufacturing FDI is significantly associated with less wage inequality in the production occupations and the construction and extraction …

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Bank Efficiency And Regional Economic Growth: Evidence From China, Hong Zhuang, Haiyan Yin, Miao Grace Wang, Jiawen Yang Jan 2019

Bank Efficiency And Regional Economic Growth: Evidence From China, Hong Zhuang, Haiyan Yin, Miao Grace Wang, Jiawen Yang

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

This paper examines for the first time the relationship between bank efficiency and regional economic growth in China with provincial data over 1995 - 2014. We find consistent and strong evidence that bank efficiency positively affects regional economic growth. Further, bank efficiency exerts a more pronounced impact on economic growth in inland provinces than coastal regions. The insignificant effect of the quantity of credit in our regressions suggests that a mere expansion of financial volume is not effective in promoting regional economic growth, whereas the improvement in the quality of financial intermediation plays an important role fostering provincial economic growth.

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Expected Inflation And The Sacrifice Ratio, Joseph Daniels, Sandeep Mazumder, David D. Vanhoose Jan 2019

Expected Inflation And The Sacrifice Ratio, Joseph Daniels, Sandeep Mazumder, David D. Vanhoose

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

Using inflation forecasts from the OECD Economic Outlook as proxy measures of inflation expectations, we examine the impact of inflation expectations on the sacrifice ratio for 20 OECD countries. The regression analysis considers four different empirical models of the determinants of the sacrifice ratio typically found in the existing literature. The impact of the level of inflation expectations is negative and significant, implying that a higher level of expected inflation is associated with lower sacrifice ratios. This result is consistent with the theoretical role of nominal wage and price rigidities in that reductions in wage and price stickiness diminish the …

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