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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Keeping Our Cool: In Defense Of Air Conditioning, Arthur M. Diamond Jr.
Keeping Our Cool: In Defense Of Air Conditioning, Arthur M. Diamond Jr.
Economics Faculty Publications
In the last 15 years three books have been published that are critical of air conditioning (Cooper 1998; Ackermann 2002; Cox 2010). No books (or even articles) in those years have been primarily devoted to a general defense. Such a defense should make the following points. Air conditioners reduce disease and mortality, especially among the ill and aged. They reduce aggressive behavior, including road rage, assaults, and murders. They increase the quality and quantity of nighttime sleep. They improve student and worker productivity by reducing noise and increasing the ability to concentrate. They increase comfort and free choice.
Differential Recessionary Impacts On U.S. Research Relative To Comprehensive University Efficiencies And Productivities: 2004-2014 Panel Data Estimates, G. Thomas Sav
Economics Faculty Publications
Using data envelopment analysis and Malmquist index decompositions this paper focuses on the impacts of the Great Recession on the efficiency and productivity changes of U.S. publicly funded prestigious research universities in comparison to their lower level comprehensive university counterparts. Do elite research relative to comprehensive universities have more political clout and resources to better ward off the financial impacts and production demands of the? Results, based on ten academic years from 2004-05 through 2013-14, are somewhat mixed, but indicate that research universities have a technological edge that acts as the primary advantage driver to total productivity gains over their …
Recession And Post-Recession Efficiency And Productivity Changes In United States Public Universities: The Good, Bad, And Ugly, G. Thomas Sav
Recession And Post-Recession Efficiency And Productivity Changes In United States Public Universities: The Good, Bad, And Ugly, G. Thomas Sav
Economics Faculty Publications
This paper employs data envelopment analysis to investigate the extent to which publicly owned, operated, and managed universities in the United States have undergone efficiency and productivity changes in response to the financial crisis that induced the Great Recession and how post-recessionary conditions have altered those changes. The paper revisits an earlier study of like kind that used panel data covering the 2005-2008 academic years but could not, obviously, capture the dynamic changes of the 2007-2009 recession or the lingering post-recessionary financial and enrollment effects imposed on public universities. The present paper offers many improvements over that previous study by …
Productivity Growth And Efficiency Changes In Publicly Managed U.S. Comprehensive Universities: Data Envelopment Analysis And Malmquist Decompositions, G. Thomas Sav
Economics Faculty Publications
This paper uses data envelopment analysis and Malmquist index decompositions in estimating productivity and efficiency changes of comprehensive degree granting, publicly owned U.S. universities. Panel data for 247 universities is employed for the academic years 2005-09. Results indicate that universities incurred productivity regress on the order of 4% per annum. The regress was due to declines in technological change that overpowered the efficiency gains achieved by universities. The latter derived from both university management and scale efficiency improvements. The dynamics of annual changes suggest that the financial crisis worsened productivity regress but created positive efficiency changes. It will, however, be …
Data Envelopment Analysis Of Productivity Changes In Higher Education For-Profit Enterprises Compared To Non-Profits, G. Thomas Sav
Data Envelopment Analysis Of Productivity Changes In Higher Education For-Profit Enterprises Compared To Non-Profits, G. Thomas Sav
Economics Faculty Publications
Data envelopment analysis is used to compare private for-profit colleges to publicly owned colleges in terms of their operating efficiency and productivity. Academic year 2005-09 panel data is used for two-year institutions in the U.S. Results indicate that for-profit efficiency exceeded that of public colleges. Malmquist index results show that colleges in both sectors increased managerial and scale efficiencies, but that both were hindered by technological regress to the extent that overall productivity declined. 2007-08 created efficiency declines across the board, but for-profits managed large technological gains that produced the only annual productivity improvement for either sector. The results are …
Thriving At Amazon: How Schumpeter Lives In Books Today, Arthur M. Diamond Jr.
Thriving At Amazon: How Schumpeter Lives In Books Today, Arthur M. Diamond Jr.
Economics Faculty Publications
Amazon.com’s “Search Inside the Book” feature provides a new and exciting tool for bibliometric research. Over the last few years, a growing number of books listed on Amazon. com reference Schumpeter in some way. As of May 3, 2007, Amazon listed 8,086 books that in some way refer to Schumpeter. Of these, I currently have names and titles of 3,719 books in the Schumpeter Amazon database. Of these, I have done content-analysis for 1,176 books that make reference to Schumpeter. The main result is that a significant number of the references to Schumpeter are related to creative destruction. The percent …
Pillars Of Growth In Nebraska's Non-Metropolitan Economy, Eric Thompson, Ernie Goss, Chris Decker, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Bruce Johnson, Ben Schmitz, Julian Neira, Pavel Jeutang
Pillars Of Growth In Nebraska's Non-Metropolitan Economy, Eric Thompson, Ernie Goss, Chris Decker, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Bruce Johnson, Ben Schmitz, Julian Neira, Pavel Jeutang
Economics Faculty Publications
Agriculture is a critical part of Nebraska’s economy, and changes in the fortunes of agriculture play an important role in the success of the state’s non-metropolitan regions. Trends toward consolidation and rising productivity in agriculture, however, have raised concerns about the future of non-metropolitan Nebraska. Some citizens and policymakers have begun to wonder if the economy can create sufficient job opportunities for non-metropolitan residents. The answer to this question depends not only upon the relative strength of the agricultural sector, but also upon the presence of other industries that can join agriculture as pillars for employment growth in non-metropolitan Nebraska. …