Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

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.

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.

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 …

The Broad Economic Impact Of West Virginia Metallurgical Coal In The United States, Christiadi, Eric Bowen, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

In this report, we examine the economic impact of the production of West Virginia met coal and the economic impact of the production of steel by the US steel mills that are supplied by West Virginia’s met coal mines. Estimates are based on the West Virginia met coal production and the US steel production in 2019, respectively.

Now You Can Take It With You: Effects Of Occupational Credential Recognition On Labor Market Outcomes, Kihwan Bae, Edward Timmons

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Occupational credentials are typically not portable across geography. Using policy reforms by U.S. states, we show that the limited portability of occupational licenses constrains labor market activity and geographic mobility of licensed individuals. After states implement universal recognition, a policy that allows individuals with occupational licenses issued by other states to work without repeating a costly relicensing procedure, we find that the employment ratio increases by 0.98 percentage points among licensed individuals in the sample relative to unlicensed individuals. The employment effect is co-driven by additional labor market participation and a reduction in unemployment after the policy. With the employment …

Certifiably Employable?: The Effects Of Occupational Regulation On Unemployment Duration, Ilya Kukaev, Edward Timmons

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Occupational regulation is a labor market institution that has received a growing amount of attention by researchers. Existing research has explored the effects of occupational regulation on wages and employment. To the best of our knowledge, no existing study has estimated the effect of occupational credentials on unemployment duration in the US. We derive a random search model to explain differences in individual unemployment duration resulting from heterogeneous effects from licenses and certificates. Our model predicts that an occupational credential with a stronger signaling or human capital effect results in a shorter individual unemployment duration. To estimate the effect of …

The Scope Of Variable Inputs And Markup Estimates, Shuichiro Nishioka, Mari Tanaka

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

This paper builds an empirically tractable framework for the analysis of marginal costs in markup estimates from the production approach and examines how markups differ by the scope of variable inputs. Using plant-product matched data from Japan, we show that changes in markups can capture price and marginal cost dynamics, irrespective of the scope of variable inputs. Markups, however, are negatively and conditionally correlated with real output when only the most flexible intermediate inputs are selected as variable inputs. We find that the properties of markups depend on how variable inputs are selected and how underlying marginal costs are specified.

Willingness To Pay For Policies To Reduce Health Risks From Covid-19: Evidence From U.S. Professional Sports, Brad Humphreys, Gary A. Wagner, John C. Whitehead, Pamela Wicker

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Airborne transmission of COVID-19 increased the need for health policies to reduce transmission in congregate settings associated with minimal risk before the pandemic. While a large literature estimates tradeoffs between policies designed to reduce negative health outcomes, no empirical research addresses consumer willingness to pay for health policies designed to reduce airborne virus transmission. Using survey data from 1,381 fans of professional sports teams, we estimate consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for reduced likelihood of coronavirus transmission through mask and social distancing policies using a stated preference approach. The results indicate increased attendance likelihood if the venue requires masks and …

The Effect Of Monitoring And Crowds On Crime And Law Enforcement: A Natural Experiment From European Football, Brad R. Humphreys, Alexander Marsella, Levi Perez

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Technological advancements like the presence of smart phones and body cameras have led to increased monitoring of police, but little evidence exists on their impact. We address these problems using data on fouls from football matches in five European football leagues over six seasons. This period contains exogenous changes in monitoring rule enforcers through introduction of Video Assistant Referee review and limited "bystanders" from Covid-19 restrictions. Results from difference-in-differences models estimated separately for each league indicate that both events influenced the number of fouls called with substantial heterogeneity across leagues and home/away teams.

Public Interest Or Policy Diffusion: Analyzing The Effects Of Massage Therapist Municipal Licensing, Darwyyn Deyo, Kofi Ampaabeng, Conor Norris, Edward Timmons

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Massage therapy is widely licensed by the states. However, municipalities also often passed massage therapist licensing, motivated by preventing prostitution. Using a novel dataset on municipal licensing and crime data from the FBI, we test if local massage therapist licensing reduced prostitution. We also test a policy diffusion hypothesis, in which cities pass responsive massage therapist licensing. We find that municipal massage therapist licensing does not lead to a reduction in prostitution, but we find support for the policy diffusion hypothesis, with municipalities up to 65% more likely to pass responsive licensing within three years of their neighbor doing so.

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

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Using recent methods for estimating firm-level markups and profit shares, we document that Chinese manufacturing firms collected more rents following China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). This is because the net entry of firms lagged the massive growth in the domestic market. These effects were particularly strong in domestic markets where state ownership was pervasive. While selection on large productive firms drove the rise in the aggregate markups in the United State (De Loecker et al, 2020), these competitive forces played a secondary role in Chinese manufacturing.

Are West Virginia Banks Unique?, Eduardo Minuci, Scott Schuh

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Many factors contribute to weak economic growth in Appalachia, but little research has examined the role of banking heterogeneity and efficiency across states. This paper documents how West Virginia (WV) banks' financial behavior differs from other U.S. banks and shows these differences cannot be explained fully by the composition of banks in the state. Despite experiencing faster banking consolidation, West Virginia still has more and smaller banks that are less efficient and profitable. WV banks' customers and managers heavily favor liabilities (time deposits) and assets (real estate loans) with longer maturity and lower risk and returns. Although shares of time …

The Economic Impact Of Coal Production And Coal-Fired Power Generation In The United States, Christiadi, Eric Bowen, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

While coal production in the United States has declined by nearly 50 percent since its peak in 2008, the sector remains an important part of the US economy in many ways. In this report, we consider the contribution of coal production and coal-fired power generation to the U.S.’ employment base, economic output, labor income, and tax revenue.

Vertical Integration And Competitive Balance In Professional Sports: Evidence From Minor League Baseball, Qi Ge, Brad R. Humphreys, Alexander Eisert

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Major League Baseball (MLB) teams regularly call up players from their Minor League Baseball (MiLB) affliates to fulfill roster needs. This paper utilizes a manually collected panel of player call-ups between 1946 and 2019 and studies their impact on competitive balance in the minor leagues. Our results indicate an overall positive relationship between call-ups and competitive balance in the MiLB, with the pro-competitive effect primarily driven by the AA leagues and not AAA leagues. We also  find suggestive evidence of the effect being likely explained by the promotion of MiLB players to MLB, rather than the demotion of MLB players …

The Political Effects Of Trade With Japan In The 1980s, Shuichiro Nishioka, Eric Olson

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

The 1974 trade act substantially increased the executive branch's authority in trade negotiations through the granting of fast-track and Section 301 authority. This paper evaluates the effect on U.S. voting behavior resulting from trade with Japan over 1976-1992 time period after the act was passed. To capture U.S. trade exposures to Japan, we develop the Bartik index from Autor et al (2013) for import competition with Japan and show that local exposure to import competition had statistically significant negative impacts on Republican presidential candidates over the 1976-1984 period. Although the second Reagan administration used Section 301 to open Japan's markets …

Economic Impact Of The West Virginia International Yeager Airport Expansion, Eric Bowen, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

West Virginia International Yeager Airport in Kanawha County serves the largest metropolitan area in West Virginia and has the greatest amount of airplane traffic in the state. The airport has begun construction on a new terminal building and plans a variety of other construction projects in order to upgrade its facilities and handle the expected increased traffic through the area. In this report, we provide an economic impact estimate of the terminal’s expansion and associated growth in region on the West Virginia economy.

The Economic Impact Of The North Central West Virginia Airport Expansion, Eric Bowen

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

The North Central West Virginia (NCWV) Airport in Clarksburg/Bridgeport has experienced rapid growth over the last decade. The number of airline passengers through the airport increased nearly four-fold between 2010 and 2019. The airport was also chosen as the primary US hub for the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries airplane refurbishment facility, which services airplanes from most major airlines.

Because of this rapid growth, the NCWV Airport has begun construction on a new terminal building in order to handle the increased traffic through the area. In this report, we provide an economic impact estimate of the terminal’s expansion and associated growth in …

Municipal Finances In West Virginia, Christopher Plein, Priscila Borges Marques Dos Santos, Eric Bowen, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

West Virginia’s municipalities are part of the lifeblood of our state. From the smallest incorporated towns and villages to our larger cities like Charleston, Wheeling, and Morgantown, our state’s cities and towns often act as hubs for civic, social, cultural, and economic activity. We associate these municipalities and their surrounding communities as places to shop, work, worship, and receive services like healthcare and education. This report seeks to place West Virginia’s cities and towns in this broader context of change, challenge, and opportunity by providing an in-depth study of major features, trends, and factors in municipal finance.

Parkersburg Area Economic Outlook: 2022-2026, Connor Kelly, Lauren Moore, Glenn Whited, John Deskins, Brian Lego

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

The Parkersburg Area economy experienced a substantial loss in jobs during COVID-19 recession, as the combination of public health measures and massive negative shock to economic activity globally caused employment in the area to plunge by nearly 8,000 jobs in early-2020. By some measures, the area’s recession was not demonstrably worse than what occurred at the state and national level yet was still unprecedented in terms of how fast these losses happened when compared to previous economic downturns. At the same time, the area has recovered nearly 6,000 jobs over the last six quarters, putting its overall recovery on par …

Weirton Area Economic Outlook: 2022-2026, Mackenzie Hill, Ben Sbei, Isabelle Dallaire, Brian Lego, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

The Weirton Area1 suffered a sharp drop in employment during the COVID-19 recession, but the region experienced a relatively milder bout of job losses during the early phases of the pandemic compared to many areas.

Economic Impact Of A Proposed Metals Manufacturing Plant, Eric Bowen

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

In this briefing paper, we estimate the potential economic impact of a new metals manufacturing plant in West Virginia. Data for this study were provided by the West Virginia Development Office. We consider the economic impact of the plant construction and operational spending in terms of output, employment, employee compensation, and select state and local tax revenue.

Sexual Assault On Campus: The Impact Of The Women's Gymnastics Scandal On Michigan State, Bryan Mccannon, Kaleigh Strohl

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

In 2017 Larry Nassar was sentenced to 60 years for assaulting over 300 women during his career as team doctor for the U.S. women’s national gymnastics team and as an osteopathic doctor and professor at Michigan State University. The university received a stream of negative publicity for their role in the scandal. We identify the impact of the sexual assault scandal on the university. Using a synthetic control method approach, we estimate the differences between the real and “synthetic” Michigan State in several university outcomes. We find significant reductions in the number of applications, changes in gender ratio of incoming …

Three Golden Balls: Pawn Shops And Crime, Bryan Mccannon, Zachary Rodriguez, Zachary Porreca

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

We ask what the relationship is between pawn shops and crime. The dominant narrative is that pawn shops reduce the transaction costs of crime and, consequently, promote it. We explore the alternative where pawn shops address the financial distress of those in need, which reduces the incentive to engage in crime. We exploit two distinct policies affecting access to pawn shops − severe licensing fees implemented in London in the early 1800s and state variation in the classification of pawn shops as essential businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic in spring 2020. For each, employing a difference-in-difference identification strategy, we provide …

Aacsb Accreditation And Student Demand, Bryan Mccannon, Katherine Starr, Marisa Cameron

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

We ask whether AACSB accreditation has a meaningful impact on university admissions. To do this, we explore 16 U.S. institutions which first achieved this certification recently. We, first, document a modest, but nonzero, impact on university-wide undergraduate applications, without any changes in first-year enrollment, price, or quality of the incoming student body. Restricting attention to business schools, while initial evidence suggests that the accreditation is associated with a decrease in enrollments, we show that this is complicated by non-parallel trends prior to accreditation. Compared to their comparison institutions, universities who seek out accreditation were experiencing flatter business enrollments. Correcting for …

Save To Win: Using Contests To Promote Savings, Bryan Mccannon, Zachary Rodriguez, Roman Sheremeta

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

We ask whether linking savings accounts to contests can promote saving. We do this by offering contest-linked accounts to individuals in rural Uganda where poverty is a serious problem. Our design builds off of results in experimental economics documenting excessive competitiveness in contests, with the goal of harnessing this behavior for the good. We find that, properly designed, we encourage savings beyond both pre-treatment levels and the control group. We explore reasonable heterogeneous treatment effects and document long lasting impacts on wealth.

Do Elections Encourage Public Actors To Be More Responsive?, Bryan Mccannon, Corey Williams

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

In the U.S. many public services are provided by individuals who are selected in local elections. We ask whether elections encourage public actors to be responsive to citizens. We design a novel field experiment where we send an information request to a random sample of prosecutor offices. Whether someone replies to the request is our measurement of responsiveness. We show that offices whose head is up for re-election are more likely to respond. We also show that offices in states that appoint their local prosecutors are substantially less likely to respond than a matched set of offices with elected leadership.