Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Review Of Real Education By Charles Murray, John Yinger

Center for Policy Research

It’s Elementary is a series of essays on topics in education and education policy. The main focus is on education finance in New York State, but general research findings in education and education policy issues in several other states are also discussed. John Yinger, Professor of Economics and Public Administration at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University is the author of most of these essays, although a few are written by or co-authored with other scholars.

Household Wealth And Heterogeneous Impacts Of A Market-Based Training Program: The Case Of Projoven In Peru, Jose Galdo, Miguel Jaramillo, Veronica S. Montalva, Sonia Moreau

Economics - All Scholarship

This paper analyzes the relationship between households' wealth and heterogeneous treatment impacts for a market-based training program that has benefited more than 40,000 disadvantaged individuals in Peru since 1996. We proxy long-run wealth by a linear index based on 21 household assets, and three main findings emerge. First, we find that voluntary choices among eligibles, rather than administrative choices, play a bigger role in explaining demographic disparities in program participation. Second, quantile treatment effects on the treated suggest important differences in program impacts at different quantiles of earnings, and strong differences in distributional impacts for men and women. Third, both …

Distribution Of Wealth And Interdependent Preferences, Andrew Grodner, Thomas J. Kniesner

Economics - All Scholarship

We examine the socially optimal wealth distribution in a two-person two-good model with heterogeneous workers and asymmetric social interactions where only one (social) individual derives positive or negative utility from the leisure of the other (non-social) individual. We show that the interdependence can effectively counter-act the need to transfer wealth to low-wage individuals and may require them to be poorer by all objective measures. We demonstrate that in the presence of social interactions it can be socially desirable to keep substantial wealth inequality.

The Incidence Of Tobacco Taxation: Evidence From Geographic Micro-Level Data, Andrew Hanson, Ryan S. Sullivan

Economics - All Scholarship

This paper uses a recent increase in the state of Wisconsin's tobacco tax as a natural experiment to measure the economic incidence of tobacco taxation. We estimate the economic incidence of tobacco taxation using micro level data on cigarette prices collected from retail locations in Wisconsin and states that share its border. We find that Wisconsin's $1.00 increase in tobacco tax was over-shifted to consumers; they pay the entire amount of the tax as well as a premium of between $0.08 and $0.17 per pack of cigarettes. We use geo-coded data to test if the incidence of the tobacco tax …

Beyond Backlash: Assessing The Impact Of Judicial Decisions On Lgbt Rights, Thomas Keck

Political Science - All Scholarship

This article evaluates the widespread scholarly claim that the courtroom victories of the LGBT rights movement have invariably provoked a counterproductive political backlash. Those victories have indeed provoked conservative counter-mobilization, but that has not been their only or even their most prominent effect. Assessing the political reaction to the movement’s judicial victories, the policy impact of those victories, and the alternative strategic paths that were available to the movement at the outset, I argue that here, as elsewhere, legal mobilization has sometimes been a promising avenue for pursuing policy changes whose prospects were otherwise quite limited.

Social Interactions In Demand, Andrew Grodner, Thomas J. Kniesner

Economics - All Scholarship

We examine theoretically demand in a two-good economy where the demand of one good is influenced by either a spillover effect in the form of an externality from other consumers' choices and or a conformity effect representing a need for making similar choices as others. A positive spillover effect increases the demand for the good with interactions, and a conformity effect makes the demand curve pivot around the average market demand to make demand less price sensitive. The collateral implication is that spillover in consumption increases the associated derived demand for labor and conformity in consumption makes the associated derived …

Patterns Of Culture: Re-Aligning Library Culture With User Needs, Nancy Turner

Librarian Publications

Radical changes in technology and information access have given rise to new academic disciplinary connections, new research and teaching practices, and new modes of communication. With the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Syracuse University Library has undertaken a research project to better understand these changes at the University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. We intend to develop an indepth understanding of one multi-disciplinary academic culture and then to examine the library’s culture and work practices to discover where services and resources are meeting needs and where they are not.

The qualitative methods used in the Patterns of …

Summer 2008, School Of Information Studies

iSchool Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Can Offshoring Reduce Unemployment?, Devashish Mitra, Priya Ranjan

Economics - All Scholarship

In this paper, in order to study the impact offshoring on sectoral and economywide rates of unemployment, we construct a two-sector, general-equilibrium model in which labor is mobile across the two sectors, and unemployment is caused by search frictions. We find that, contrary to general perception, wage increases and sectoral unemployment decreases due to offshoring. This result can be understood to arise from the productivity enhancing (cost reducing) effect of offshoring. If the search cost is identical in the two sectors, or is higher in the sector which experiences offshoring, the economywide rate of unemployment decreases. When we modify the …

Understanding Declining Mobility And Interhousehold Transfers Among East African Pastoralists, Marieke Huysentruyt, Christopher B. Barrett, John G. Mcpeak

Economics - All Scholarship

We model interhousehold transfers between nomadic livestock herders as the state-dependent consequence of individuals' strategic interdependence resulting from the existence of multiple, opposing externalities. A public good security externality among individuals sharing a social (e.g., ethnic) identity in a potentially hostile environment creates incentives to band together. Self-interested interhousehold wealth transfers from wealthier herders to poorer ones may emerge endogenously within a limited wealth space as a means to motivate accompanying migration by the recipient. The distributional reach and size of the transfer are limited, however, by a resource appropriation externality related to the use of common property grazing lands. …

Mapping The New Commons, Charlotte Hess

Librarian Publications

From Introduction: "This paper is a guide to the rapidly growing area of research and activity I call 'new commons.' Simply put, new commons (NC) are various types of shared resources that have recently evolved or have been recognized as commons. They are commons without pre-existing rules or clear institutional arrangements. The paper introduces a map that outlines the NC resource sectors and identifies some of the salient questions that this new area of research raises. In addition, it examines the relationship between new commons and traditional common-pool resources and common property regimes. "This overview includes a survey of the …

Why A Property Tax Cap Is A Bad Idea For New York, John Yinger

Center for Policy Research

It’s Elementary is a series of essays on topics in education and education policy. The main focus is on education finance in New York State, but general research findings in education and education policy issues in several other states are also discussed. John Yinger, Professor of Economics and Public Administration at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University is the author of most of these essays, although a few are written by or co-authored with other scholars.

Exploring The Characteristics Of Opinion Expressions For Political Opinion Classification, Bei Yu, Stefan Kaufmann, Daniel Diermeier

School of Information Studies - Faculty Scholarship

Recently there has been increasing interest in constructing general-purpose political opinion classifiers for applications in e-Rulemaking. This problem is generally modeled as a sentiment classification task in a new domain. However, the classification accuracy is not as good as that in other domains such as customer reviews. In this paper, we report the results of a series of experiments designed to explore the characteristics of political opinion expression which might affect the sentiment classification performance. We found that the average sentiment level of Congressional debate is higher than that of neutral news articles, but lower than that of movie reviews. …

Rehab Or Relocation? Estimating The Demand For Cocaine Through An American Port City Analysis, Gustave A. Bartuska

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Over the past five decades American drug policy can succinctly be classified by two words: expensive and punitive. American drug policy makers have conducted the “war on drugs” largely through supply side intervention. As the theory goes, by attacking drug producers, drug prices will rise due to the increased risk faced by suppliers, this risk will in turn be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices. In order to critically asses the merits of such an expensive antidrug policy it is essential to estimate the price elasticity of demand for drugs.

The main finding of this paper …

“‘Why Does Google Scholar Sometimes Ask For Money?’ Leveraging The Economics Of Information And Scholarly Communication Processes To Enrich Instruction.”, Scott A. Warren, Kim Duckett

Librarian Publications

Librarians at North Carolina State University have developed useful techniques for enhancing information literacy instruction through the systematic incorporation of concepts pertaining to scholarly communication and the economics surrounding information. This presentation describes ways to leveraging such concepts as the Deep Web, Google Scholar, the nature of scholarly communication, and the inflated costs of journal subscriptions to contextualize hands-on instruction in the use of library resources. Assessment data from open-ended quizzes and surveys positively reflects students’ attitudes towards this instruction and exposes the impact of such instruction on student understanding about how research is made available on the Web.

The Third Incident Of Jp Mercer A Collection Of Short Fiction, Lauren Picard

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The main goal of this Capstone Project is to create a collection of short stories whose amalgamation is more poignant than the sum of its part. One purpose of writing is to leave the reader with an emotional punch, to give them a catharsis for new or even familiar sensations. Each story should be able to stand on its own as a pleasurable, or at least captivating, experience. Each piece should manipulate the reader to feel certain ways, whether hopeful, anxious, uncomfortable, or just moved. I do hope, however, that the experience of reading the entire collection is more powerful …

Goldin Ceramics: Website As Primary Advertising Vehicle For Small Business, Alfiya Mukhutdinova

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

I wanted my Honors Capstone Project to capitalize on the combination of advertising, design, and website-building skills I have gained both inside and outside of the classroom during my time atSyracuseUniversity. I wanted the chance to apply my conceptual knowledge as well as my knowledge of advanced design and website software to an actual client with measurable results. I decided to tackle the challenge of creating a new website for my aunt’s small business, Goldin Ceramics. Since Olga’s only method of advertising is in-person at craft shows that she attends roughly once a month, her website plays a crucial role …

Non-Native Discourse About The Goals Of The Onondaga Nation’S Land Rights Action, Sarah Wraight

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

On March 11, 2005, the Onondaga Nation became the last nation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy to file suit against New York State for what it claims was the illegal seizure of the vast majority of its aboriginal land between 1788 and 1822. The Nation is asking for a declaratory court judgment condemning New York’s actions and recognizing that the Onondagas still bear legal title to their homelands. (Onondaga Nation v. State of New York et al., [2005]:12-14). It argues that the suit is not possessory, but rather is an attempt to regain certain rights to the land. The …

A Computer-Based Study Of Mnemic Neglect, Maxwell S. Sapolsky

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Mnemic neglect may be a form of attentional control which protects us from threatening criticism about our personalities. According to the model, positive feedback is recalled more easily than negative feedback when it is about the self. However, this is not the case when feedback is about other people. Mnemic neglect occurs even when people are told to simply imagine that the feedback is real. The reason for this is assumed to be that people spend relatively little time attending to or thinking about self-threatening feedback. The current study replicated the mnemic neglect effect but also directly measured how long …

Overfishing And Environmental Justice In Marine Fisheries, Kristin Novak

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This thesis focuses on the depletion of marine fisheries, as a resource, from a geographical perspective. The decline and collapse of abundant fisheries worldwide has serious, though largely unaddressed, social implications, and should be considered as an issue of environmental justice. I analyze the processes that have lead to fisheries collapses all over the world, as well as the governance structures, management strategies, and political and economic forces involved. This is examined through two case studies: one, the collapse of cod stocks in Newfoundland and New England in the 1990s after centuries of intensive fishing, and two, the currently stressed …

The Gap Between The Ideal And The Reality How High Stakes Testing Causes The United States And China To Fall Short Of Creating Well-Rounded Students, Adam L. Jones

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in the United States in 2001, there has been ever increasing attention paid to the role of high-stakes testing in an education system. The system in the United States and its counterpart in the People’s Republic of China have come under scrutiny because of their heavy reliance on high-stakes testing.

It is understandable in the United States that these tests may be necessary to ensure the existence of accountability in the educational system. Similarly, it is understandable that the People’s Republic of China needs an education system to help place …

Bicycle Space And The American Urban Landscape: Re-Thinking Distance And Mobility In The City, Katie (Kathleen) Gill

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Since its arrival in the United States, the bicycle’s place in public space has influenced, and been influenced by not only road improvements and infrastructure investments but also by the social production of what it means to be mobile and to circulate throughout the city. Drawing upon the theory of “Time- Space Compression” posited by the geographer David Harvey, I propose that the bicycle can compress time and space in urban environments where time-space compression is occurring for motorists and their automobiles. But yet, bicycles (and their riders) have been consistently and systematically excluded from the American urban landscape; keeping …

Internal Throes: Reexamining The Effect Of U.S. Immigration Policy And Transitional Realities For Immigrant Families, Faith S. Abubey

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

From the inception of this country, theUnited Statesgovernment has always declared this nation state as a land of immigrants. However, the impetus of immigration during the past three decades has created antipathy among Americans. These antipathy and xenophobic attitudes against immigrants have intensified especially since the events of September 11, 2001. The resentments, inter alia, have significantly influenced the way in which theUnited Statesgovernment facilitates and implements immigration policies.

In this research, I argue that regardless of definitional complexities and functional distinctions between refugees and voluntary immigrants with regard to benefits and legal protection underUnited Statespolicy and United Nations Conventions, …

A Student’S Guide To The Unique Iranian Theocracy, Evan Linhardt

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

When listening to the news one day I heard the president of a nation describe wiping another country off the map. Later I heard from the same president that his country would defy United Nation recommendations and continue their nuclear program. The media took a great interest in this mans’ speeches and their potential implications. They portrayedIranas a country on the brink, challenging the world to stop them. The media unfortunately was focusing on the wrong man’s rhetoric because although he is labeled as president ofIran, he will not have a say in declaring war on another nation nor will …

Community Service Intiatives Of Medical Students, Kerri I. Aronson

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This Honors Capstone Project focuses on community service projects of medical students. Extensive research was done on the types of community service programs that exist in medical schools. The types of programs were divided into four different categories representing the various ways that schools conduct their community service initiatives. Schools may have multiple types of programs, and a combination of any of these programs is offered at many institutions. This project also examines nationally recognized programs and the awards received for excellence in community service initiatives.

The study was completed in collaboration with SUNY Upstate Medical University (UMU). A close …

Effect Of Source On Perception Of Bias In Cable News, Braden Lynk

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Problem: The central study question was whether or not believing that a certain media outlet is biased in a certain direction predisposes someone to perceive more or less bias in news content. The following hypotheses were formed:

Hypothesis One: News consumers would find a news story to be more biased toward the corresponding associated political viewpoint of its source regardless of the actual content of the story.

Hypothesis Two: Liberal respondents would be more likely to perceive the news stories as conservatively biased and conservative respondents would be more likely to perceive the new stories as being liberally biased. …

Deconstructing The Black Coming-Of-Age Film And Its Effect On The Negotiation Of Black Identity, Linita Shannon

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Every film is a social script that places scenes within a framework in which the setting, surrounding characters, and situations are key components of the story being told. In the context of the black coming-of-age film this holds true. The black coming-of-age film represents the power of fictional film to contextualize the existent social situations of youth in black communities. All youth go through a stage where they experience an event or series of events that marks a new phase in their lives or signifies that they are about to embark on a new journey. It is during these formative …

Presidential Signing Statements: Expanding The Assessment Ot Include Policy As Well As Constitutional Implications, Matthew A. Gass

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The greatly expanded use of signing statements by President George W. Bush has been very controversial, as many view this as practice as an inappropriate encroachment by the president on the legislative function of Congress. A majority of the arguments made for or against the application of signing statements have focused on legal principles. The problem is that traditional legal, constitutional analysis does not fully address the concerns raised by signing statements. Not only is it unlikely that presidential signing statements violate the Constitution, but legal analysis fails to recognize or appropriately evaluate the policy implications of signing statements. This …

The Effect Of Disability Insurance On Health Investment: Evidence From The Va Disability Compensation Program, Perry Singleton

Center for Policy Research

I examine whether individuals respond to monetary incentives to detect latent medical conditions. The effect is identified by an amendment to Title 38 that deemed diabetes associated with Agent Orange exposure a compensable disability under the VA’s Disability Compensation program. Since a diagnosis is a requisite for benefit eligibility, and nearly one-third of diabetics remain undiagnosed, the advent of disability insurance may have encouraged the detection of diabetes among the previously undiagnosed population. Evidence from the National Health Interview Survey suggests that the policy increased the prevalence of diabetes by 2.7 percentage points among veterans.

Drive Magazine, Shannon Sweeney

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Abstract Not Included