Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Economicdevelopment In The Postcolonial And Postwar Era In East Asia: A Comparison Of Taiwan And South Korea, Eliot R. Johnston

Senior Theses

This thesis examines the postwar political economy of South Korea and Taiwan, aiming to find how Taiwan achieved higher GDP per capita and lower corruption perception than South Korea when both countries carried out similar policies as they developed their economies. By comparing a historical overview of policy and outcome and taking economic measures, the thesis seeks to find a method that could be applied to other developing countries. Though the measurements used were insufficient to prove analysis, enough was found to give plausible suggestions for the difference in the outcome, such as the South Korean reliance on mega conglomerates …

The Parental Labor Gap: The Impact Of Daycare Access On The Parental Labor Force During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Acacia Wyckoff

Honors Theses

In the two years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the landscape for work has shifted dramatically. Many companies and employers switched to telework when the pandemic hit, and many still do not require workers to come into the office. Research suggests these COVID-induced changes have led to a closing of the gap in childcare duties between men and women in households. Comparing parents in positions with telework eligibility versus in-person positions, Heggeness and Suri (2022) found that while telework improved the labor participation rate of mothers slightly, there was still a major gap in labor force participation between mothers and …

Effects Of The Raising The Minimum Legal Purchasing Age For Tobacco On Cigarette, Cocaine And Inhalant Consumption, Ahmed Adil

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past few years, several states have passed laws that increase the minimum legal purchasing age (MLPA) for tobacco from 18 to 21 years. This study examines the impact of statewide MLPA laws on youth tobacco consumption. Using data from the 2009-2019 Youth Risky Behavior Surveys (YRBS) and a difference-in-differences approach, I find that the enactment of MLPA laws is associated with a decrease in tobacco usage among adolescents. I also find that MLPA laws have important spillover effects to other youth risky behaviors. MLPA law adoption is associated with a reduction in cocaine use and inhalant abuse.

Counties As Catalysts For Change_ Exploring The Economic Costs Of Child Maltreatment Through Its Connection To Incarceration, Kayla Solomon

Scripps Senior Theses

This study posits the question, what is the relationship between child maltreatment and adult incarceration at the county-level, and how can we utilize an understanding of it to inform child welfare strategies? Child maltreatment is a public health crisis and an obstacle to the United States Economy. Inspired by my high school capstone project on the connection between the foster care and criminal justice systems, I entered this project hoping to add to the myriad of literature that influences child welfare policy throughout California and the broader United States. This project serves to culminate my college career and exemplifies my …

Pre-Existing Illness Discrimination In Healthcare: How Barriers To Specialty Medication Effect Public Health Costs And Access, Charles M. Coryell

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Abstract: Rising costs in specialty meds are at the center of the problems in healthcare. Pharmaceutical companies have grown to have nearly unchecked pricing power with specialty medications. Insurance companies have responded to rising prices in specialty medications by making these medications difficult to access for patients who need them. Policies to address the problems in healthcare have failed because they do not recognize the impact that the specialty medicine market has on the overarching story. Healthcare policy will be effective if it directly addresses specialty med costs and accessibility. This paper proposes an expansion of Medicare part D to …

Raising The Bar: The Impact Of Gender Quotas On Legislator Quality, Viola Hernandez-Derbez

CMC Senior Theses

We analyze the effect of a legislative candidate quota on the quality of congresspeople elected. We study a landmark legislation passed in 2014 in Mexico that required all parties to have an equal number of male and female congressional candidates. We observe a 31% increase in number of bills proposed in legislative sessions after the quota and a significantly higher likelihood for greater educational attainment among male and female deputies alike, controlling for an array of factors that could influence our quality measures. Since not all states had the same level of female representation when the quota was introduced, we …

Misinformation, Fact Checking, And Immigration Voting Preferences, Katherine Van Shaar

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Although misinformation is rampant in social media and society, there is not an extensive literature exploring the impact of misinformation and fact checks on people’s political preferences relating to immigration policies in the US. The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of misinformation and fact-checking on people’s policy preferences about immigration. Using an experimental survey and a between-subject approach, we observe how anti-immigration politician’s statements (ranging from false to partially true) impact participants’ perceptions of hot-topic immigration issues with and without fact checks. We also study the correlation between people’s political affiliation and the impact of politicians’ …

County Walkability And Small Business Receipts, Talia Perluss

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores the correlation between county walkability and small business receipts, as well as other possible demographic variables that could explain the success of small businesses, by using a fixed-effect panel regression model. Using county-level data in the years 2012 and 2017, this paper finds that there is a significant correlation between an increase in walkability and an increase in receipts. When running the fixed-effect regressions, this paper found that there is a moderately high positive correlation between walkability and per capita income, suggesting that the effects of an increase in walkability may also capture the effects of an …

The Impact Of Select Buses On Taxi Ridership In Nyc, Sara Ahmed

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this research is to measure the impact of select buses on taxi ridership in NYC. Due to the phased implementation of select buses in NYC, a difference-in-differences model was used. Taxi ridership on the M14A/M14D, M34, M79, and M15 bus routes was examined as the treatment group. The control group is the M100/M101 non-select bus route that runs along Lexington and Amsterdam Avenue. The results from this model show that the M14A/M14D, M34, and M79 select buses had a negative statistically significant impact on taxi ridership. The M15 select bus had a positive statistically insignificant impact on …

The Extent To Which The Provision Of Water And Sanitation Services Affect The Individual’S Decision To Migrate: The Case Of Egypt, Sara Mohamed Soliman

Theses and Dissertations

Determinants of migration, although researched copiously shed little light on the importance of access to sustainable, basic water and sanitation utilities on an individual’s decision to migrate. This research reveals that individuals originating from rural Upper Egypt, rural and urban Lower Egypt, and rural and urban Alexandria and Suez Canal regions are more likely to migrate relative to those from the urban Greater Cairo region. Access to water has been deemed as insignificant while access to sanitation is a significant factor in determining migration patterns as do macro- economic differences in origin governorates, gender, educational background before migration, and employment …

The Lintheads' Demise: A Study In Economic Dependency For The Piedmont Region Of South Carolina, Jeremy Lewis Ward

Senior Theses

The decline of the Southern textile and apparel industries represent a unique and rich case study in rapid economic change. It is unique because of the speed and uniformity of collapse; rich, because of the geographic differences that exist even within the concentrated Piedmont textile cluster. Truly, globalization has hit this economic cluster with a brutal punch. And yet, not all cities and counties within the region have been equally harmed by the change.

This report concentrates on examining the socioeconomic variations that have taken place in the thirteen foremost textile-producing counties in South Carolina since the collapse, as well …

The Exploitation Or Protection Of Communities And Exploited Persons?, Spencer Boldt

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study was intended to dissect the inner workings of the newly implemented Bill C-36 in Canada, The Protection of Communities and Exploited Peoples Act through a mixed methods approach. This was done through comparing statistical research (demographics, crime data, and overall economic state) within Regina to interviews conducted with those individually involved in prostitution and the community of the city. This study was meant to draw out the differences between what the statistics depict, a growth in the overall safety of Regina, versus the perspectives gained from multiple interviewees. With this mixed method approach I have deduced that Bill …

The Evolutionary Global Vision Of Chinese Political Philosophy; China's Socio-Economic Transformation In The 21st Century, Meryem Gurel

Master's Projects and Capstones

Evolving relations of East Asia due to trade liberalization raised the search for financial stability for institutional development. It also increased the importance of China integrating the global economy into renewing its political philosophy in the new century. This capstone project aims to examine why China has transformed its socio-economic structure by generating outward investments and how it has affected international political relations in terms of the role of the economic institution Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Quantitative methodology aims to examine the impact of China’s export trade on income distribution and economic growth through linear regression analysis for the …

Examining The Effects Of Public Policies And Addiction On Purchase Of Tobacco Products With Causal Inference And Machine Learning Methods, Xueting Deng

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

My three essays explore the effects of tobacco policies and addiction on the consumption of e-cigarettes and other tobacco products. Recently, jurisdictions imposed taxes and other regulations on e-cigarettes, with the hope to raise tax revenues and address health concerns regarding e-cigarette use, especially youth addiction. My first essay in Chapter 1 focuses on the effects of e-cigarette taxes on sales of e-cigarettes. It compares the two types of tax policies on sales of e-cigarettes, cigarettes, and smoking-cessation products. This comparison provides information for lawmakers on decisions of taxes regarding the perspectives of revenue generation and tobacco control. Second, after …

The Evolution Of State Higher Education Public Funding Policy, Angela Rogers

Senior Theses

In the past several decades, public colleges and universities have increasingly struggled to fund all of the programs demanded of them as states slowly drain funding from their coffers. This discussion will examine different policies and frameworks that have been used by states to determine funding for their public institutions. Different factors that will be considered include political relationships, governance structures, and accountability models. The political trend of “free college” will also be considered. Then, the discussion will narrow to South Carolina funding policy, how it has changed over the years, and what the current challenges are. A policy proposal …

Alleviating Poverty In Sub-Saharan Africa, Owen Dubeck

CMC Senior Theses

While most of the world has been able to dramatically reduce extreme poverty rates, Sub-Saharan Africa has failed to do so and is the only region in the world with more people living in extreme poverty than thirty years ago. This thesis will develop a policy framework for alleviating poverty by drawing from countries that are performing surprisingly well and poorly in the region. The thesis concludes with an analysis of whether education, health, or agricultural sectors should be receiving more or less funding based on expected rates of return and the feasibility of policy successes.

Russian Climate Politics In 2019: Concessions And Trade Offs, Nikita O. Minin

Senior Projects Spring 2019

In the paper of this project the Russia’s political justifications for the signing of the Kyoto Protocol and the refusal to sign the Paris Accord are analyzed. Russia’s current adaptive strategies and trajectory towards creating a potentially devastating future for the planet are assessed in terms of their economic justifications. Overall this paper argues that the Paris Accord needs to be amended to be economically and politically fair for all signing countries. Currently Russia could lose GDP if they signed the accord, and this is presented as the primary reason for Russia’s refusal to sign. The thesis of the paper …

Examining The Role Of Intra-Household Bargaining In The Adoption Of Green Technology, Antara Anand

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper investigates factors that affect gender-based differences in intra-household bargaining power that are reflected in consumption decisions regarding the adoption of green technology. Using data from the Indian Human Development Survey-II and a probit regression analysis, I find that increasing the level of a woman’s education (a proxy for increasing bargaining power) increases the likelihood of her household adopting LPG, the cleanest fuel option available. I also create an experimental design to serve as a next step for future research and target data collection on individual-level factors and environmental outcomes. The setup is for a potential intervention that assesses …

Sanitation, Ek Prem Katha: The Impact Of Sanitation On Education In Indian Government Schools, Romanshi Gupta

Scripps Senior Theses

The Total Sanitation Campaign is an initiative launched by the Government of India in 1999 to accelerate sanitation coverage throughout the country. This thesis measures the impact of the Total Sanitation Campaign on education in Indian government schools. I assess whether access to toilets, access to water or access to both toilets and water impact the following parameters of education: literacy, current enrollment in school or completed years of education. Data is sourced from the Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS) 2005, sorted for the nineteen major states in India and aggregated at a district level for each state. The analysis …

Assessing Economic Performance Of Maine's Lobster Fleet Under Changing Ecosystem Conditions In The Gulf Of Maine, Alexa Dayton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the inter-disciplinary space that lies between fisheries management and stock conservation, resource extraction and economic return at the individual producer level, balanced with societal welfare. It considers policy implications in support of changing marine ecosystems and considers the values of the Maine lobster communities, which depend on it. We conducted a comprehensive lobster industry survey to assess costs and effort expended at the producer level for a representative fishing year, and establish a series of production function performance baselines for future comparison. The demographic data, attitudes and valuations collected allow us to characterize the fishing effort and …

Regional One Child Policies And Economic Development In China From 1997 To 2010, Austin Hayes

Honors Theses

The one child policy enacted by the Chinese government in 1979 has restricted the sizes of Chinese families and led to an abnormal male-dominated sex ratio. Abnormal sex ratios can have a variety of economic consequences that could work together to reduce the general welfare of the regions they exist in. This study aims to evaluate the effect of sex ratios on GRP (gross regional product) and GRP per capita through a series of linear regression models. Data used in this study was collected from the National Bureau of Statistics in China, a Chinese government organization in charge of collecting …

The Effects Of Food Security On Socioeconomic Mobility In The United States: A Case Study In Allendale County, South Carolina, Taylor St Clarke

Senior Theses

This thesis examines the relationship between food security – defined as accessibility to an affordable, nutritious, and sustainable source of food – and socioeconomic mobility in the continental United States. This thesis is primarily focused on the effects of food insecurity on both individuals and communities, examining the chronic long-term effects of such insecurity on areas known as “food deserts,” which are often given status as areas of persistent poverty. This research further examines the effects of a sustained poor diet, brought about by food insecurity, on the individual and overarching community in a food desert and how such a …

Reactions To Market Failure And Approaches To Reduce Market Failure, Yingzhe Cheng

Economics ETDs

Market failure can have serious negative consequences on human welfare, including various health risks to people. How to best correct market failure becomes an important question. Different approaches may reduce market failure, such as direct government regulation, or market based approaches. This research explores consumers’ or societies’ reactions to market failure and approaches to reduce market failure.

The first study uses a random utility model and a choice experiment method to estimate Chinese parents’ marginal willingness-to-pay for potential policy changes that target overall food safety. Results suggest that a policy that provides both direct government regulation and information to create …

Financial Literacy In Local At-Risk Appalachia, Elijah R. Osborne

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Unfortunately, rural Appalachia is perennially one of the poorest areas of the United States. Many scholars have offered opinions as to why this trend of poverty continues in this region, but one potential cause has not been the subject of much research: do residents in Appalachia have a functional knowledge of the financial system, or even a simple understanding of basic savings, which is necessary for achieving certain levels of financial security?

We conduct a survey modeled after a national study which measures basic financial literacy in local Appalachia, expecting to find that at-risk Appalachians would have less financial literacy …

Shaping Policy In The Anthropocene: Gender Justice As A Social, Economic And Ecological Challenge, Phoebe Spencer

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Environmental pressures such as natural disasters, resource scarcity, and conflict related to climate change have emphasized the importance of considering social justice within its ecological context. Gender inequality is one type of injustice that has traditionally been addressed as a social matter, yet gendered divisions in bargaining power, mobility, and access to resources are exacerbated by environmental instability. One barrier to gender equity in the face of a changing climate is the mainstream economic paradigm, which promotes growth and individualism, often at the cost of environmental and social wellbeing. The issue of gender inequality in the Anthropocene, the proposed geological …

The Role Of Aid For Trade And Foreign Direct Investment In Poverty Reduction: A Panel Data Analysis Of 91 Developing Countries, Olivia Durowah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Aid for trade (AFT) focuses on helping developing nations to overcome supplyside constraints in trade to maximize trade benefits and use trade to achieve economic growth and poverty reduction. Since its inception at the 2005 Hong Kong ministerial conference, AFT has become viewed as a crucial tool for helping developing countries and donors continue to shift their attention to AFT programs, even in times of prolonged global financial crisis. AFT programs ultimately seeks to achieve growth poverty reduction. Thus, this study focuses on assessing the role of AFT and foreign direct investment in poverty reduction using the headcount ratio (1.90 …

Managing The Agricultural Biotechnology Revolution: Responses To Transgenic Seeds In Developing Countries, Alper Yagci

Doctoral Dissertations

There has been heated debate over transgenic or genetically modified (GM) crops in agriculture. Advocates and critics argue over possible economic, environmental, public health implications of this technology. This study examines varying policy approaches to regulating GM crop cultivation in four developing countries where the technology has large potential application. Why have some countries banned GM crop cultivation in their territory while others encouraged it? In countries where GM crops were allowed, why have varying systems of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection been constructed? To investigate these questions I comparatively examine the policy experience (1995-2015) of Argentina, Brazil, Turkey relying …

From The Classical School To Today: The Evolution Of Stagnation Theories, Francis J. Lukacovic Ii

Applied Economics Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to study the theory of secular stagnation, which was made famous by the American Keynesian economist Alvin Hansen in his book Full Recovery or Stagnation. The theory of secular stagnation has reappeared in economic circles today due to recent economic conditions since the financial crisis of 2007-2008. The thesis will analyze the history of the stagnation theory dating back to Classical economists in the 19^th century. The concept of a stagnating economy has been talked about for centuries with many economists adding important thoughts. Furthermore, the thesis will address the current questions and …

How Good Intentions Backfire: Failures And Negative Consequences Of Federal Environmental Policies, Jordan K. Lofthouse

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis is meant to dispel the myths that surround federal environmental policies. The research object of this project is to show that the formation of environmental policies is not altruistic, and the outcomes of these policies often have negative side effects that policymakers and the general public should recognize.

During my time as an undergraduate, I studied environmental geography, which also included environmental policies. We would research environmental problems, but the solution to these problems always seemed to be another government policy. I began to wonder why environmental problems never seemed to actually get better. Once I began my …

Examining Monetary Policy In The Absence Of A Central Bank And Sovereign Currency In Palestine, Salam Marwan Awartani

Senior Projects Spring 2016

There is extensive literature on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that studies the historic, political, and social aspects. However, few scholars have examined the economic model that was born out of the conflict and the various implications behind it. According to Charles Goodhart: “A Central Bank has two main functions. Its first (macro-economic) function is the operation of discretionary monetary policy” and a “second (micro-economic) function, of providing support (e.g., via Lender of Last Resort assistance), and regulatory and supervisory services to maintain the health of the banking system”[1]. However, with the Israeli Occupation’s imposed restrictions on the PMA, the …