Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Heartbreak And Defiance: Stories Of Crisis In Puerto Rico, Andrea C. González-Ramírez

Capstones

No abstract provided.

In The Race To Reach New Wine Drinkers Old World Taste Is Losing Out, Lillian Knoepp

Capstones

But this old world is losing its grip on the wine industry. French wine production and consumption are falling while the New World of wine is gaining ground in both areas. Experts say that new wine making techniques and higher consumption in New World markets like the United States have changed the French wine industry.

For the French, more than just their wine industry is at stake. For many, the loss of French wine is a loss of French identity.

“They can't choose between the two. Because French people - we are wine and cheese - we are everything,” said …

Inequality, Employment, And Migration In Oregon: A Regression-Based Decomposition, Justin Hooker

Economics Theses

This research looks trends in employment by industry in the state of Oregon from 1990 to 2010. The goal is to empirically evaluate the hypothesis that relative declines in manufacturing and natural resource employment combined with a rise in service employment has contributed to increased income inequality, as well as look at the role of migration and differences in urban and rural counties. Empirical results show that manufacturing most notably has a significant negative effect, as do federal government employment, trade, transport and utilities employment, and financial activities employment. No evidence for a link to migration or a significant difference …

The Social And Economic Consequences Of Gendered Toys In America, Cydne Pope

Economics Theses

Toys in the American marketplace are heavily gender stereotyped, creating a variety of social and economic consequences. Beginning at an early age, children foster different cognitive abilities based on play with toys deemed appropriate for their gender. While boys’ toys promote skills in math and science fields, girls’ toys promote verbal and linguistic skills. This difference in cognitive ability has shown to influence a child throughout his or her lifetime, beginning with the education gap in schools and continuing on to influence a child’s choice in college major as well as his or her future occupational choice. Additionally, gender specific …

Two Essays In Finance And Economics: “Investment Opportunities In Commodity And Stock Markets For G7 Countries” And “Global And Local Factors Affecting Sovereign Yield Spreads”, Selma Izadi

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In chapter 1, I investigate the return links and dynamic conditional correlations between the equity and commodity returns for G7 countries from 2000:01 to 2014:10. The commodity futures include BCOM Index which contains the futures and spot price of 22 commodities, Brent and Crude oil futures, gold and silver futures, Wheat, Corn and Soybean futures and CRB index. The finding indicates that during the full sample period GOLD, WHEAT and CORN have the smallest dynamic conditional correlations with all the Equity indexes. In addition, the correlations between the GOLD/Equity pairs are negative during the financial crisis. This fact indicates the …

The Role Of The State, Multinational Oil Companies, International Law & The International Community: Intersection Of Human Rights & Environmental Degradation Climate Change In The 21st Century Caused By Traditional Extractive Practices, The Amazon Rainforest, Indigenous People And Universal Jurisdiction To Resolve The Accountability Issue, Marcela Cabrera Luna

Master's Theses

Local, national and international conventions that protect indigenous sovereignty and their territories, where many of the resources are extracted from by multinational corporations (MNCs) particularly oil, the number one commodity of the world and cause of climate change, continue to be jeopardized because of the lack of a clear international legal framework that can protect them and potentially hold multinationals accountable for their actions. These practices are causing not only environmental issues to the indigenous and surrounding communities, but climate change is in fact, the real human rights issue of the 21^st century and it affects everyone. By using …

From Communism To The European Union: A Case Study Of Agricultural And Economic Development In Poland, Samantha Anuszewska Anders

Economics Theses

This paper explores the Poland’s agricultural value added per worker as an indicator of economic success post-Soviet era and into its transition to the European Union. Holding GDP and other factors constant, our model shows that Poland’s value added per worker is superior to most other countries in Europe. This success is attributed to Poland’s private agricultural system, which was retained despite Soviet influence. We further conclude that countries that produce a high quantity of potatoes and rye, Poland’s top crops, on average have lower value added per worker.

Negative Implications: The Subsidization Of Sports Stadiums And The Perspective Of Seattle Arena, Russell Ridenour

Economics Theses

This paper adds to the literature on the subsidization of professional sports arenas. Rather than focusing on subsidization and the effect of sports arenas on a national scale, this paper focuses exclusively on the plans for Seattle Arena in Seattle’s SoDo District. I delve into the economic impact analysis paper for Seattle Arena in order to provide evidence that the negatives of building this arena outweigh its positives especially from a financial standpoint. This is done in conjunction with the analysis of the Traditional Lease Purchase Financing model (T-LPF) which is the most widely used arena lease purchase agreement used …

Technical Analysis Under Knightian Uncertainty, Andre Mouton

Student Theses and Dissertations

Technical analysis, or the forecasting of asset price movements using past prices, is commonly practiced in financial markets but poorly explained by mainstream economic theory. I show that a technical rule can have predictive power when an asset’s payoffs are subject to Knightian uncertainty, defined as variation that cannot be described probabilistically (Knight, 1921). I present an asset-pricing model in which asset payoffs undergo periodic shifts in trend, and agents form expectations about these payoffs using a constant gain least squares (CGLS) rule. I investigate whether a second CGLS rule, operating on price, can provide a more accurate forecast of …

The Validity Of The Environmental Kuznets Curve For The European Union, Connor L. Kasten

Honors College Theses

This research empirically explores the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for the European Union. Data for CO₂ emission per capita, GDP per capita, population density, and fossil fuel consumption percentage was gathered for the 28 countries within the European Union for years 1990-2010 and regression analysis was conducted in order to see if the EKC relationship held true. However, under this analysis, that result is inconclusive. As GDP per capita increases, CO₂ increases to a certain point and then, instead of having a negative relationship, it continues to increase but at a lesser rate. The coefficients …

Effects Of Real Estate Cycles On Residential Amenity Values For Water Resources, Amy L. Hillard

HIM 1990-2015

Little research has been conducted on the effects of housing price cycles on preferences for environmental landscape attributes over time (Cho, Kim, & Roberts, 2011). If the economic value of scarce resources like water resource amenities depends on consumer preferences, then it is useful to address possible effects of cyclical variation in the housing market on these values. This issue is addressed in the primary research question for this thesis: Did the 2007-2009 recession and consequent real estate bust affect marginal willingness to pay for water resource amenities for properties in proximity to the lower St. Johns River (SJR) in …

Incentive Based Residential Demand Aggregation, Qinran Hu

Doctoral Dissertations

From the beginning of the twenty-first century, the electrical power industry has moved from traditional power systems toward smart grids. However, with the increasing amount of renewable energy resources integrated into the grid, there is a significant challenge in power system operation due to the intermittency and variability of the renewables. Therefore, the utilization of flexible and controllable demand-side resources to maintain power system efficiency and stability has become a fundamental goal of smart grid initiatives.

Meanwhile, due to the development of communication and sensing technologies, intelligent demand-side management with automatic controls enables residential loads to participate in demand response …

Cirugía Cosmética: Un Análisis De Su Historia Y Prevalencia En Latinoamérica, Elena R. Hamilton

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Adaptive Capacity On The Subjective Career Success Of Former D-I African-American Male Athletes: A Mixed-Method Study, Leon Antonio Jackson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

African-American male student-athletes who played a revenue-generating sport enter the labor market having relatively poor social networks, low grade point averages, few marketable skills outside of sports, restricted work experiences, and marginal subject matter knowledge; most of which are the result of their participation in sports (Singer, 2008). Therefore making the transition more difficult than even the average African-American male (Edwards, 1980). The purpose of this study was to: (1) Determine the factors that predict subjective career success for former D-I African-American male athletes who played a revenue-generating sport, and (2) Explore how former D-I African-American male athletes, who played …

Relative Responsiveness Of Trade Flows To A Change In Prices And Exchange Rate, Esmaeil Ebadi

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation includes two essays in international trade. In my first essay I consider Orcutt’s (1950) hypothesis in which trade flows respond to changes in exchange rate more quickly than they do to changes in prices. There are several studies, which test the Orcutt’s hypothesis by imposing lag structure on both relative prices and exchange rate. I employ generalized impulse response analysis as an alternative approach to test Orcutt’s hypothesis using the sample of developed and developing countries. The empirical results do not support Orcutt’s hypothesis in most cases. In my second essay I investigate the effects of technological progress …

Analysis Of The Euro And The European Monetary System And Its Effect On Greece In The Light Of The European Financial Crisis, Mohamed Alinur

Applied Economics Theses

The ability to issue money used for transactions is a power usually reserved by a country’s central government, and it is often seen as a part of a nation’s sovereignty. A monetary union entails multiple countries ceding control over the supply of money to a common authority. The euro was introduced sixteen years ago and has since functioned well, with the European Central Bank keeping inflation low. However, the current Eurozone crisis provides a severe test of the euro’s ability to survive. The Eurozone crisis is plagued by fiscal crises, which have taken their biggest toll on Greece. A competitiveness …

Evaluating The Impacts Of Respondent Errors In Arms: A Case Of Farm Service Agency Loans, Louise Nicole Mcminn

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many studies have used the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) to research various aspects involving the agricultural sector in the United States. Since nonresponse and inaccurate reporting may cause significant bias in statistical analysis, research was conducted to determine the magnitude of response error on the farm debt section of the ARMS Phase III. A multinomial logit model identified demographic, structural, and financial characteristics of FSA Farm Loan Program (FLP) borrowers who refused to indicate if they had end of year farm debt, or who accurately or inaccurately classified their farm operations as having end …

The Economic Implications Of Evolving Aviation Funding Policy In Tennessee, Hunter Pressley Mccracken

Masters Theses

The majority of state funding for capital improvements at Tennessee’s general aviation and commercial airports comes through grants awarded from the Tennessee Transportation Equity Trust Fund (TETF). Through a 4.5 percent sales and use tax on the consumption of aviation fuel, users help to fund the continued improvement and maintenance of aviation facilities around the state. Aircraft refueling operations associated with the FedEx “SuperHub” in Memphis were responsible for two-thirds of the TETF’s revenue for Fiscal Year 2014. In response to speculation that FedEx would relocate its refueling operations to reduce its fuel tax liability, the Tennessee General Assembly passed …

The Impact Of Uncertainty On Data Revision, Pei-Ju Sung

Dissertations

Initial estimates of macroeconomic variables based on incomplete source data can be unreliable. Because of the methodology used by reporting agencies and the presence of reporting errors in the survey data, I argue that initial-released output estimates tend to be irrational and unreliable under uncertainty. Using U.S. nominal and real output real time data from 1985 to 2014 and the Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) index proposed by Baker et al. (2013), I investigate the impact of economic policy uncertainty on aggregate output data revisions, modeling the output revisions, and the effect of output data revision on inflation forecasts.

In Chapter …

“Men Of Good Timber”: An Archaeological Investigation Of Labor In Michigan’S Upper Peninsula, Aaron Howe

Masters Theses

This study approaches the material assemblage of Coalwood, a cordwood camp that operated from 1900-1912 in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, with a dialectal method and a theory of internal relations in order to understand how daily life was produced and reproduced. Common sense notions often see home and work as separate entities that only relate to one another externally. My archaeological and historical research abstracts domestic labor as a set of social relations that are dialectically and internally connected to the processes of capital accumulation. My archaeological analysis concludes that both productive and reproductive labor was conducted within the home and …

The Economic Impact Of Lifting Sanctions On Iran: How The Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action Will Affect The Economy Of Iran, Ryan Foley

Washington Semester Program

During the second term of the Obama Administration, the United States and the European Union negotiated a deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding their nuclear program. These negotiations encompassed the relaxing of sanctions on the Iranian economy in exchange for concessions on the part of their nuclear program. This thesis investigates how the deal will affect the economy of Iran and the international oil market, two entities which are deeply intertwined. The findings suggest that the opening of Iran’s economy will almost certainly lead to a strengthening of their domestic economy in the short-term, but that the government …

An Analysis Of Major League Soccer: Competitive Balance And Wage Dispersion, William Hobbs Iii

All Theses

Major League Soccer is in a transitional state which may see it projected into the realm of international relevancy, competing with European soccer. This transition is fueled by contracting renowned superstars from Europe via the designated player (DP) rule. This study examines implications of the DP rule on competitive balance (CB) of the league and wage dispersion among teams. The effect of the rule on CB is inconclusive in the model constructed, but propositions of a more appropriate CB measure are presented for future research. The DP rule has caused higher levels of salary dispersion within the league and this …

The Impact Of China's "West To East" Electricity Transmission Project On Energy Poverty, Xiaotian Chen

All Theses

Energy poverty, which means that people can't get enough energy for daily life, is one of the big problems in rural place of Northwest region of China. The government wants to solve the problem with a large-scale electricity transmission project named "West to East". The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the impact of "West to East" project on the reduction of energy poverty in Shaanxi province in China through the analysis of 119 counties between the years 2003 to 2015. Since residential electricity price are set by the government at artificially low levels, an alternative measure is constructed …

The Effects Of Individual And Employer Characteristics On Hourly Employee Retention: An Empirical Study, Robert Allen Cobb

Masters Theses

This paper argues that employee tenure length is a function of not only firm specific characteristics and policies, but also individual characteristics, which can be identified and used in the pre-employment selection process. The information learned from this study can help hiring managers in identifying potentially high-production workers, by looking at several key factors that can be measured in a pre-employment application. This paper quantifies how the tenure length of employees can be influenced by not only the characteristics of the applicant, but also by decisions made by the employer. Some of these decisions include the starting wage, the number …

Analytics In The Atp, Christopher Pillitere

All Theses

This paper applies data analysis used in the major team sports to the Association of Tennis Professional (ATP). A linear regression model is used to determine the aspects of the professional tennis most relevant to player success. Special focus is given to the effect of a player’s overreliance on his serving performance. The available data (1991-2014) is divided into two periods in an effort to observe any differences between the era dominated by Pete Sampras and the era dominated by Roger Federer. The results from the former period indicate the same effect on player success of first and second serving …

An Examination Of U.S. Restaurant Firms' Internationalization In A Risk Context, Soyeon Jung

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this dissertation is to advance the theoretical and practical understanding

of the relationship between publicly traded U.S. restaurant firms’ internationalization as a

corporate strategy and risks using a comprehensive set of risk measures: 1) market-based risk (i.e., systematic and unsystematic risk) and 2) accounting-based risk (i.e., standard deviation of return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and earnings per share (EPS) during the period of 2000-2013. This dissertation further investigates linear, nonlinear, and lagged effects of internationalization on restaurant firms’ risks. In summary, the findings of this dissertation reveal that internationalization tends to mitigate systematic risk, …

Defining Equity And Addressing The Social Determinants Of Equity In International Development Evaluation, Kelly N. Robertson

Dissertations

The purpose of equity-focused evaluation is to examine the relationship between the evaluand and (1) experiences of social groups with different levels of advantage/disadvantage, and (2) the social determinants of equity, which shape those experiences. Equity-focused evaluation has emerged within the field of international development evaluation because of an increased emphasis on equity in the achievement of international development goals. However, empirically based theoretical and practical guidance on equity-focused evaluation is limited. There has not been a detailed examination of how equity—the conceptual root of equity-focused evaluation—is defined and differentiated from similar concepts in the field, despite having important implications …

The Child Support "Tax" : Determining The Effect Of Child Support On The Income Growth Of Noncustodial Parents, Jesse Snook

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the role of child support in determining income growth. Using an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) model with state-level fixed effects applied to panel data from the National Study of Families and Households (NSFH), I find that having a legal agreement to pay child support has a significant and negative effect on the income growth of the noncustodial parent. Specifically, after controlling for demographic variables and the respondent’s economic circumstances in the initial time period, the OLS model with state-level fixed effects finds that having a child support obligation is associated with a 17.73 percentage point decrease in …

Young And Unemployed: A Multivariable Analysis Of Youth Unemployment In Jordan, Morgan E. Mabry

Honors Theses

The level of youth unemployment in the Middle East is higher than any other region in the world. The detrimental effects of early unemployment can be broad and long lasting. This paper discusses some of the factors of youth unemployment in the Middle East, such as poor education systems and underdeveloped labor markets; and the social effects such as delayed marriages and political unrest. It then goes on to analyze the School-to-Work Transition Survey (SWTS) to understand the impact of age, sex, individual education, and parental education on the transition from school to work. The results indicated that sex and …

Estimating The Effect Of Extended And Emergency Unemployment Benefits On The Long-Term Unemployed, James Jones

All Dissertations

Unemployment insurance is designed to help workers smooth consumption in the event of a negative employment shock. These benefits are traditionally funded and administrated by the individual states and territories of the United States. The depth and severity of the “Great Recession” that started in December of 2007 and ended in June of 2009 was such that, Congress was compelled on multiple occasions to extend those benefits. Legislation during this period extended the duration of unemployment benefits to the longest period in history, as unemployed individuals in many states could receive up to 99 weeks of unemployment compensation. The policy …