Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Impact Of Health Shocks On Worker Performance: Evidence From Professional Sports, Yulia Chikish, Brad R. Humphreys

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Workplace injuries generate substantial costs to workers and employers. We analyze consequences of a workplace injury, ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) damage in elbows of baseball pitchers. Once career ending, a method to repair torn UCLs, Tommy John surgery, was developed in the 1970s. We analyze performance of pitchers before and after undergoing this surgery and also compare them to a matched sample of uninjured pitchers. Surgical repair of UCL injuries extends post-injury careers by roughly one season relative to matched uninjured pitchers, generating economic benefits for players and teams. Post-injury performance, in terms of batting success of hitters faced by …

Nfl Franchise Departures And Nearby Home Prices, Brad R. Humphreys, Geoffrey Propheter

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Research shows that US professional sports facilities positively impact nearby house prices. New facilities typically have existing teams, complicating a separate assessment of the impact of teams and facilities. Existing research analyzed departures of pro basketball teams, but arenas host many non-sporting events. These results may not generalize. We exploit the relocation of two professional football teams to investigate the impact of team departures on home sales. Difference-in-differences and repeat sales model results indicate proximity to one team represented an amenity while proximity to the other did not. Differences in urban form likely explains this heterogeneity.

Measuring Activity Demands On Fatigue In Individuals With Parkinson's Disease, Laura R. Mccray, Kara M. Lee

Graduate Student Scholarship

The functional presentation of those with Parkinson's disease (PD) are complex, varying depending on cognition, physiological deficits, and support network. This study assesses the perceptions of fatigue across individuals with Parkinson's disease with different clinical presentations to guide clinicians in their selection of evidence-based interventions to facilitate greater functional outcomes. A mixed-methods design was used to collect data on the mental and physiological perceptions of fatigue, utilizing surveys and physiological measures such as heart rate. Participants were recruited from a community group targeting those with PD with inclusion criteria being a diagnosis of PD. Results for both heart rate and …

Legalized Sports Betting And Mental Health, Brad R. Humphreys, Jane Ruseski

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Since the Supreme Court declared the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 unconstitutional in 2018, 38 states and the District of Columbia legalized face to face and/or on-line betting on sports. A potential unintended consequence of legalized sports betting is an increased risk for mental health disorders and problem gambling. Using a staggered difference-in differences framework, we exploit variation in timing of adoption of legal sports betting across states to evaluate the impact of these laws on mental health outcomes. We combine data on when states passed laws to legalize gambling with data from the Behavioral Risk Factor …

Water Equity And Planning: Acid Mine Drainage In Deckers Creek Watershed, Brooke O. Waters, Lennon Jewell Auvil, Grace Dever

Undergraduate Scholarship

When mines close, they simply do not disappear. They cannot be buried or forgotten about. The implications of mining leave a lasting history and impact not only on our lands but on the people as well. Abandoned mine lands are areas of our community and environment that have been destroyed due to the extraction of coal and other minerals. Mining results in the destruction of landscapes, contamination of waterways, and the emission of harmful chemicals to our communities.
Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) is a resultant water pollutant that is derived from mining practices, active or abandoned. This pollutant forms from …

Exploring The Intersection Between West Virginia Farmland Protection Boards, Landowners, And The West Virginia Agrarian Commons, Samuel W. Bayne, Joshua Lohnes

Undergraduate Scholarship

New Roots Community Farm (NRCF) came to life through the purchase of a piece of land by the Fayette County Farmland Protection Board in a buy-protect-sell model. NRCF then partnered with The Agrarian Land Trust, a New England based organization experimenting with land commons models across the United States, to purchase the property and create the West Virginia Agrarian Commons (WVAC), an entity that could advance land access for the next generation farmers in WV. The experience of NRCF and the WVAC and the vision for its operation and extension of the buy-protect-sell model in partnership with county farmland protection …

Reclaiming Housing For Sustainable And Equitable Development, Ethan Harner, Gabrielle Fraizer, Bradley Wilson

Undergraduate Scholarship

Across West Virginia, Appalachia, the South, and other regions which have borne the historic brunt of extraction, capital flight, and systemic lack of opportunity, cooperative and community-based solutions to economic challenges have historically and presently been found in and amongst marginalized communities. As a critical component of community wellbeing, development, and prosperity, we situate housing as a necessary component to the understanding of cooperative, grassroots, and solidarity forms of economic organization. In this we explore the ways community-based housing solutions contribute to senses of community and solidarity both within housing structures and the broader community. We place these findings in …

Ethnic Minority Owned And Serving Grocers In Morgantown And Solidarity Economies, Bane B. Clements-Smart, Rissell L. Velarde Vila, Cameron G. Rishworth

Undergraduate Scholarship

This project sought to build off previous research within the Center for Resilient Communities on grocers and solidarity economies, by learning about grocers owned by minority ethnic groups and that serve minority ethnic groups through offering products for cuisines and cooking unavailable through large, mainstream grocery chains such as Walmart, Kroger, or Giant Eagle. These stores also offer a cultural space where people from minority ethnic groups can connect and build community through a sense of home and familiarity provided by these spaces, not easily found elsewhere in Morgantown.

Seeding Sparks For The Right To Food, Alexandra Grace Winn, Shelby Lynn Davis, Kirsten Hannah Jaquish, Alexandra N. Ehlers, Joshua Lohnes

Undergraduate Scholarship

Seeding Sparks for The Right to Food partnered with Voices of Hunger to disperse a grant to community leaders. These community leaders have projects that are aimed to advance the Right to Food and promote food security. This project interviewed the applicants and pulled out common themes among their responses to further understand their motivations and passions related to food justice.

Food Policy Council, Alexandra G. Winn, Kirsten Hannah Jaquish, Shelby Lynn Davis, Alexandra N. Ehlers, Joshua Lohnes

Undergraduate Scholarship

Nourishing Networks is a workshop that promotes the development of Food Policy Councils, which are a group of community members that advocate for the Right to Food in their community. Through conversation surrounding food access barriers and strategies in their community, the workshop aims to educate participants on how they can improve food access in their community. This research project sought to conduct Nourishing Networks meetings in a variety of West Virginia counties with the intention of accompanying local community members and organizations to create a Food Policy Council for their region. Using a standardized organization process, curriculum, and reporting …

Water Security And Justice: Community Pfas Exposure In Monongalia County, Selena A. Melendez, Ilan Rice, Grace Dever

Undergraduate Scholarship

Water security and justice is the right of all people to have reasonable access to clean and safe water. Pollution in the form of toxic discharge from various industries poses a significant risk to public and environmental health. Among these toxic pollutants are per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as "forever chemicals” that compromise water quality in our communities. Despite the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) in 1974 aimed at ensuring clean drinking water for WV, there is still an alarming pattern of neglect and injustice to communities related to race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and language barriers . Non-compliance …

Food System Transformation: Farm To School, Dylan Upperman, Cameron Mahar

Undergraduate Scholarship

This project conducted with the Center for Resilient Communities at West Virginia University is focused on identifying and understanding barriers and opportunities present within the Farm to School program in West Virginia. Through this project, a producer survey was conducted to understand the production side of the program, a quantitative analysis was conducted of state and county level Farm to School purchasing data, and organizational sales through a local nonprofit were reviewed. Through this analysis, it was found that access to new markets and lack of knowledge and information posed a significant barrier for increased production from producers surveyed. It …

Collectible Pricing And Collector Utility: The Role Of Production Commitments, Corey J.M. Williams, Kole Reddig, Adam Nowak

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

This paper investigates the effect of production commitments on consumers of collectable goods. Using data on prices for Magic: The Gathering trading cards, we estimate that the reprinting of certain card varieties caused a 34% decrease in the relative price of reprinted cards. We interpret this estimate with a model of a forward-looking consumer that views collectibles as both a source of enjoyment and a store of wealth. Using a mapping between structural parameters of the model and difference-in-differences regression parameters, we compute lifetime discounted utility decreased by as much as 14% for collectors holding mainly reprinted cards.

Learning By Doing, Productivity, And Growth: New Evidence On The Link Between Micro And Macro Data, Brad Humphreys, Scott Schuh, Corey Williams

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

No abstract provided.

Systematic Review Search Strategies: Non-Arthritic Hip Diseases And Psychosocial Factors, Jenn Monnin

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The following search strategies were built for a systematic review addressing non-arthritic hip diseases and psychosocial factors. An a priori protocol for this review was developed and registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021248562). The search was originally designed in PubMed, then translated to the other databases searched (Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, and SPORTDiscus). Search peer review was performed by Anna Crawford using a modified version of the Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies guideline. The original search was run on July 12, 2021, with a search update performed on June 21, 2023.

Retrospective Exhibition Evansdale Section, Sally Brown, Colleen Moretz, Frankie Tack, Jason Lee, Ruth Yang

Art in the Libraries Retrospective: 2015-2024

This section of the WVU Art in the Libraries Retrospective (2015-2024) includes a summary of the exhibitions that have taken place at the WVU Evansdale Library.

Flood Resiliency Planning: Historical Analysis And Youth Participation In Monongalia County, Wv, Josephine Q. Kemp-Rye, Jack P. Van Dusen, Kennedy Lawson

Undergraduate Scholarship

Flooding is a prevalent threat to community wellbeing, particularly in West Virginia where the mountainous topography and narrow valleys create perfect conditions for flood water to accumulate. To more deeply understand how hazards, such as flood events, become disastrous, we must consider not only the environmental/physical aspects, but also political, economic, and social dimensions. Thinking holistically about flood vulnerability acknowledges the influence of economic positioning, inadequate policies, industrial legacies, etc. which result in varied vulnerabilities to hazards within communities. The insights, knowledge, and experiences of local individuals and communities remain absent from domain top-down approaches to flood preparation. In an …

Retrospective: The Beginning, Section 1, Sally Brown, Linda Blake

Art in the Libraries Retrospective: 2015-2024

This section of the WVU Art in the Libraries Retrospective (2015-2024) exhibition includes the history of the Art in the Libraries Program, including the first exhibitions and the forming of the committee.

Taking It To The Street: Designing Archival Walking Tours For Cultural Heritage Months, Catherine M. Fonseca

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This chapter discusses an archives-based walking tour piloted by a mid-size academic library as part of a campus-wide Hispanic Heritage Month celebration. Drawing on materials from university archives, the event served to highlight Latin@/x historical points of interest across campus. The chapter examines the significance of identity-specific programming for distinct BIPOC groups, details aspects of program planning and implementation, and offers practical suggestions and considerations for librarians seeking to offer similar culturally affirming programming. While the following case study discusses a walking tour event primarily designed to support the needs of Latin@/x students, strategies shared can be applied to walking …

Pepperoni Roll Studios: A Handbook & Policy Guide For A Podcast And Audio Production Student Organization, Nicholas Kirk Kratsas

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

For Students

Welcome to Pepperoni Roll Studios, WVU’s new and exciting experiential podcast and audio production organization! You’ve made a great decision to join one of the best communities on campus.

This handbook will guide and facilitate our new student-run organization. Within its pages, you’ll find out who we are, what we do and how we do it to fill you in on everything you need to know. Let’s roll!

For Advisors and Staff

WVU Student Media is excited to launch our new podcast and audio production organization, Pepperoni Roll Studio! This venture grew out of a demand for more …

Sports Team Success And Managerial Decisions: The Role Of Playing Time Concentration, Alexander Cardazzi, Brad R. Humphreys, Kole Reddig

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Professional sports teams employ highly paid managers and coaches to train players and make tactical and strategic team decisions. A large literature analyzes the impact of manager decisions on team outcomes. Empirical analysis of manager decisions requires a quantifiable proxy variable for manager decisions. Previous research focused on manager dismissals, tenure on teams, the number of substitutions made in games, or the number of healthy players on rosters held out of games for rest, generally finding small positive impacts of manager decisions on team success. We analyze manager decisions by developing a novel measure of game-specific coach decisions based on …

The Growth Of Firms, Markets And Rents: Evidence From China, Daniel Berkowitz, Shuichiro Nishioka

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

The evidence for whether China become more competitive following its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) is mixed. Using recent methods for estimating markups and profit shares, this paper documents that Chinese manufacturing firms on average collected more rents after the accession because the rate of net entry of firms lagged the rapid growth of the domestic market. While the selection on large productive firms drove the rise in the aggregate markups in the United States (De Loecker et al, 2020), these competitive forces played a secondary role in China.

Measuring Persistent Global Economic Factors With Output, Commodity Price, And Commodity Currency Data, Arabinda Basistha, Richard Startz

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

In this study we use monthly G7 industrial production data, commodity price index data, and commodity currency exchange rate data in a dynamic factor model to examine the global economic factors useful for commodity price prediction. We differentiate between the dynamic factors by specifying a persistent factor and a non-persistent factor, both as a single global factor using all data and as factors for each category of data. The in-sample predictive performances of the three persistent factors together are better than the non-persistent factors and the single global factors. Out-of-sample outcomes based on forecast combinations also support the presence of …

The Economic Impact Of West Virginia University Institute Of Technology, Eric Bowen, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

In this report, we estimate the economic contribution of West Virginia University Institute of Technology's operational and student spending to the state and Raleigh County economies. Between the operations of the campus and spending from its student population, WVU-IT has a broad economic footprint in West Virginia and its local region.

Title Panel And Map, Amy J. Hirshman, Madison Mccormick, Riley Bowers, Bonnie M. Brown

Hidden No More: The Enduring Impact of Native American and Enslaved People on the Evansdale Neighborhood and WVU Campus

No abstract provided.

Political Regimes And Firms' Decisions To Pay Bribes: Theory And Evidence From Firm-Level Surveys, Shuichiro Nishioka, Sumi Sharma, Tuan Le

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

This paper makes the most of the observed actions of bribe takers and givers from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys and studies how a taker’s action influences a giver's decision to pay bribes. To motivate our empirical study, we consider Kaufmann and Wei's (1999) Stackelberg game between a tax authority and a firm that undergoes tax inspection. The model predicts that, when the authority can use its action as a credible threat for the firm's profitability, the authority disturbs the firm by inspecting more, and the firm is more likely to pay bribes. Consistent with the theoretical prediction, we find …

Land, Amy J. Hirshman, Madison Mccormick, Riley Bowers, Bonnie M. Brown

Hidden No More: The Enduring Impact of Native American and Enslaved People on the Evansdale Neighborhood and WVU Campus

No abstract provided.

Landscape, Amy J. Hirshman, Madison Mccormick, Riley Bowers, Bonnie M. Brown

Hidden No More: The Enduring Impact of Native American and Enslaved People on the Evansdale Neighborhood and WVU Campus

No abstract provided.

Home, Amy J. Hirshman, Madison Mccormick, Riley Bowers, Bonnie M. Brown

Hidden No More: The Enduring Impact of Native American and Enslaved People on the Evansdale Neighborhood and WVU Campus

No abstract provided.

Property, Amy J. Hirshman, Madison Mccormick, Riley Bowers, Bonnie M. Brown

Hidden No More: The Enduring Impact of Native American and Enslaved People on the Evansdale Neighborhood and WVU Campus

No abstract provided.