Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Utilization Of Income Tax Credits By Low-Income Individuals, Stacy Dickert-Conlin, Katie Fitzpatrick, Andrew Hanson

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

The Internal Revenue Service-a sub-agency that exists to collect revenue-has the task of administering and enforcing a wide array of social policy: from subsidies for college and child care expenses, to creating jobs in depressed areas, and assisting welfare recipients with employment. While these new or expanded credits represent a new paradigm in the delivery of social policy, little is known about who uses these programs and, equally important, who does not use these programs. Understanding utilization is a key to understanding how effective this means of transferring income is and whether we are reaching the targeted populations. This paper …

Empirical Studies Of Foreign Direct Investment, Joseph P. Daniels

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

International Technology Diffusion: Effects Of Trade And Fdi, Alejandro Ciruelos, Miao Wang

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

There has been little analysis of the effect of inward FDI on international R&D diffusion, especially in LDCs, although FDI has become the core of international production and LDCs have been receiving an increasing share of world FDI over the past few decades. Using data from 57 countries from 1988 to 2001, we find that both FDI and trade serve as important channels of international technology diffusion. However, there exist heterogeneous effects of FDI in DCs and LDCs. For inward FDI to promote technology diffusion in LDCs, a certain threshold of human capital has to be reached.

Changes In Student Attitudes Toward The Market System And The Introductory Microeconomics Course, Charles Breeden, Noreen Lephardt

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

God And The Global Economy: Religion And Attitudes Towards Trade And Immigration In The United States, Joseph P. Daniels, Marc Von Der Ruhr

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

Using the results of a national identity survey, we test the impact of religious affiliation on trade and immigration-policy preferences of US residents while controlling for individual level of skill, political ideology and other important demographic characteristics. Our results show that religion is an important determinant of international-policy preferences as individuals who are pre-Vatican II Catholic or members of a fundamentalist Protestant denomination are more likely to prefer policies that restrict imports and immigration. Religiosity, in contrast, has a separate effect of moderating attitudes towards immigration. In addition, we find evidence of denominational effects among African Americans in that members …

Social Economic Strategies In Recent Economics, John B. Davis

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

This paper reviews three distinct strategies in recent economics for using the concept of social identity in the explanation of individual behavior: Akerlof and Kranton’s neoclassical approach, Sen’s commitment approach, and Kirman et al.’s complexity approach. The primary focus is the multiple selves problem and the difficulties associated with failing to explain social identity and personal identity together. The argument of the paper is that too narrow a scope for reflexivity in individual decisionmaking renders the problem intractable, but that enlarging this scope makes it possible to explain personal and social identity together in connection with an individual behavior …

The Effects Of Gender On Salary-At-Hire In The Academic Labor Market, Peter Toumanoff

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

This paper uses data compiled from faculty files at a private, doctoral-granting research university to investigate whether or not there are gender-related differences in salary offers at the time of initial appointment. The investigation uses single- and multiple-equation regression models that control for gender, date of hire, experience and degree attained, rank, characteristics of the position being filled, inflation, and academic department. The study finds an unexplained and statistically significant differential in salary-at-hire between men and women of from 2.9% to 8.4%, and it finds that the unexplained male–female differential in salary-at-hire has increased since 1990.

(Wp 2005-03) Openness, Centralized Wage Bargaining, And Inflation, Joseph P. Daniels, Farrokh Nourzad, David D. Vanhoose

Economics Working Papers

This paper develops a model of an open economy containing both sectors in which wages are market-determined and sectors with wage-setting arrangements. A portion of the latter group of sectors coordinate their wages, taking into account that their collective actions influence the equilibrium inflation outcome in an environment in which the central bank engages in discretionary monetary policymaking. Key predictions forthcoming from this model are (1) increased centralization of wage setting initially causes inflation to increase at low degrees of wage centralization but then, as wage centralization increases, results in an inflation dropoff; (2) a greater degree of centralized wage …

(Wp 2005-05) Assessing The Determinants Of Willingness To Pay For Urban Flood Control: The Role Of Locational, Demographic And Attitudinal Factors, David E. Clark, Robert J. Griffin, Vladimir Novotny

Economics Working Papers

The urbanization of urban watersheds can influence flooding risks. Traditional Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood risk maps identify 100 year floodplains. These maps are updated infrequently. However, as a community urbanizes, flood risks can change, especially for downstream residents. Thus, one would expect that the willingness to pay (WTP) to prevent the worsening of flooding risk would depend in part on the location of the household in the community and their associated flooding risk. Economists and regional scientists have evaluated the role played by traditional demographic factors. However, attitudinal factors measuring community norms, political philosophy, and other psychological factors …

Perspectives On Michael A. Bernstein's A Perilous Progress: Economists And Public Purpose In Twentieth-Century America, Esther-Mirjam Sent, Roger E. Backhouse, A.W. Bob Coats, John B. Davis, Harald Hagemann

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

(Wp 2005-04) The Effects Of Ignoring Train Whistle Bans On Residential Property Values, David E. Clark

Economics Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Learning Dynamics In Monetary Policy: The Robustness Of An Aggressive Price Stabilizing Policy, Miao Wang, M. C. Sunny Wong

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

This paper investigates the effect of an aggressive inflation stabilizing monetary policy on the ability of agents to reach a rational expectations equilibrium for inflation and output. Using an adaptive learning framework, we develop a model that combines a real wage contracting rigidity with an interest rate rule. We show that an AR(1) equilibrium requires more aggressive monetary policy to achieve both determinacy and learnability. This model and policy findings contrast with Bullard and Mitra’s [Determinacy, learnability and monetary policy inertia (2001); Journal of Monetary Economics 49 (2002) 1105] model (no inflation persistence) and policy findings (less aggressive policy). These …

Response To Vinca Bigo, John B. Davis

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Neoclassicism, Artificial Intelligence, And The Marginalization Of Ethics, John B. Davis

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose – The paper examines the dependence of the positivist and welfarist preference satisfaction paradigm of neoclassical economics upon an implicit functionalist philosophy of mind. Functionalism is the doctrine that mental states are strictly materialistic and understandable in cause-effect terms. An important aspect of functionalism is the multiple realizability thesis, namely, that mental states can be realized in any type of hardware, whether human brain or computer.

Design/methodology/approach – The approach used involves investigating the fact-value distinction after Robbins in terms of the positivist meta-ethical view known as emotivism, and then explaining emotivism as inherently functionalist. Functionalist thinking itself is …

(Wp 2005-02) Social Identity Strategies In Recent Economics, John B. Davis

Economics Working Papers

This paper reviews three distinct strategies in recent economics for using the concept of social identity in the explanation of individual behavior: Akerlof and Kranton’s neoclassical approach, Sen’s commitment approach, and Kirman et al.’s complexity approach. The primary focus is the multiple selves problem and the difficulties associated with failing to explain social identity and personal identity together. The argument of the paper is that too narrow a scope for reflexivity in individual decision making renders the problem intractable, but that enlarging this scope makes it possible to explain personal and social identity together in connection with an individual behavior …

The Market Attitudes Inventory: The Development And Testing Of Reliability And Validity, Noreen Lephardt, Charles Breeden

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

In this article we report the development of a 22-statement survey that measures attitudes towards the market system. We report on the testing of the Market Attitude Inventory (MAI) for reliability and validity. Mean scores on the instrument are reported for a random sample of Midwest high school social studies teachers. We conclude that the MAI is a valid and reliable instrument. The MAI has applications in research, educational outcome assessment, and teaching pedagogy for the measurement and evaluation of attitudes and values towards the workings of the market system in the US.

Religious Affiliation And Individual International-Policy Preferences In The United States, Joseph P. Daniels

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

Empirical examination of individual-level survey data on national identity, in general, reveals a significant relationship between religious affiliation and an individual’s international-policy preferences and that this relationship varies across Protestant denominations. Specifically, we test attitudes toward import and immigration policies, the role of international institutions, and unilateral policy actions. The empirical results indicate that individuals affiliated with conservative Protestant denominations are more likely to support positions on international issues that can be regarded as consistent with the anti-globalist right. We also find evidence of a reinforcing regional effect among conservatives in the south, and differences in the preferences of Baptist …

The Significance Of The Economic Summits, Joseph P. Daniels

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

It is argued here that the summits should not be transformed or elevated to some system of global economic governance. Rather, global economic stability depends on good domestic economic policymaking and, thus, the economic summits cannot substitute for effective and effcient policymaking within sovereign nations. The summits, therefore, should be seen first and foremost as a means for improving and generating better domestic policies via cooperation as opposed to delivering packages of coordinated policies. By focusing on international economic policy cooperation, the summits can contribute much to improving domestic economic policymaking. The protest at the Genoa summit and the events …

Value [Encyclopedia Entry], John B. Davis

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Response To StéPhane Luchini And Miriam Teschl, John B. Davis

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Response To Alban Bouvier, John B. Davis

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Information Diffusion In A Cobweb World, Miao Grace Wang, M. C. Sunny Wong

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

Based on an assumption of one-way learning, Granato and Wong (2004) consider a framework with two groups of agents, Group L and Group H, where Group L is less "attentive" and uses the expectations of the more or highly "attentive" Group H to update their forecasts. The paper shows the "boomerang effect," which is defined as a situation where the inaccurate forecasts of a less attentive group confound a more attentive group's forecasts. This extended paper relaxes the one-way learning assumption and investigates the case that both groups are learning from each other, i.e., dual learning. Simulations suggest that a …