Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Evaluation Of The Renaissance Zone Programs Of Michigan, Yuanlei Zhu

Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes whether the Renaissance Zone (RZ) programs in the state of Michigan are effective in helping distressed urban areas. The unique ES202 data permits us to use both establishment level data and aggregated zip level data to examine the impact of RZ programs on the establishment number and the firms' employment, real wage, and life duration. Based upon the presumption that different firms are sensitive to the tax incentives in different ways, this study examines the impact on all firms, on new firms, dead firms, and existing firms, on manufacturing and service firms, and on large and small …

Peace In Unity: 19th Century Irenic Motivations In European Unification, Robert Taft Keele

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Hauptargumenten of politicians and citizens concerning the advantages and disadvantages of the EU are almost exclusively economic or political in nature: lower tariffs; loss of monetary instruments; immigration; disenfranchisement; etc. The object of my thesis is to remind everyone, amid the flurry of speculation and uncertainty prevalent in Europe since the French rejection of the EU constitution, that a major benefit of the European integration is peace, on a continent that has been ravaged by war for centuries. I prove that the establishment of peace was a major element in European unification by confirming links between peace movements and …

Fiscal Decentralization And Corruption In The Public Sector, Bayar Tumennasan

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation explores the relationship between fiscal decentralization and corruption. Theoretically, it is shown that decentralization has a potential to induce public officials to reduce the bribes they charge from entrepreneurs. That would encourage firms to enter the economy. Consistent with the theoretical model, we find empirical evidence that suggests that fiscal decentralization causes public officials to reduce the bribes they charge per firm; thus decentralization lowers the bribery cost to entrepreneurs. Empirical analysis is based on cross country study and panel data study where appropriate. Secondly, not all aspects of fiscal decentralization have an equal impact on corruption. Based …

The Effects Of Environmental Contamination On Commercial And Industrial Property Values: Do Perceptions Matter?, Peter Edward Grigelis

Economics Dissertations

The effects of severely contaminated properties (e.g. NPL sites) on residential property values are well documented. However, most contaminated sites are not so severe to warrant placement on the NPL, and little is known about the impacts to commercial and industrial property markets. Furthermore, perceptions may be developed about different types of land-uses as a result of information made public about sites placed on lists. If perceptions matter, then properties with no known contamination may be viewed as undesirable neighbors in a way similar to listed sites. Therefore, property value impacts could be even more substantial as compared to only …

Tax Policies And Entrepreneurship: Relative Tax Rates And Health Insurance Deductibility, Tami Jean Gurley

Doctoral Dissertations

I use a twelve-year panel of tax return data to assess whether or not taxes affect entrepreneurship. Beyond assessing possible distortions in entrepreneurial activities created by the tax system, this research provides information to policymakers on the effectiveness of tax policy in influencing entrepreneurial activity. The extent of entrepreneurial activity in the economy is a vital policy concern as entrepreneurs are thought to contribute to economic growth by creating jobs and producing innovations.

Past theoretical and empirical studies examining the effects of taxes on entrepreneurship produced ambiguous results creating the need for further study. Toward this end, I investigate the …

Risk Sharing And Consumption Insurance In Poor Urban Economies: Theory And Empirical Evidence From Household Data, Seife Dendir

Dissertations

Households in poor economies often strive to protect consumption from fluctuations in income through various mechanisms. Due to the absence or scarcity of formal insurance, however, they are often forced to rely on informal means to achieve this objective. This dissertation consists of three essays that analyze the nature, performance and instruments of risk sharing and consumption insurance in poor urban areas.

The first essay identifies the peculiar problems poor urban households face in their attempt to pool risk from idiosyncratic income swings, and derives unique results pertaining to the level of insurance and effort. Two specific problems are identified: …

Aid Effectiveness, Policies And Reform, Elias Kedir Shukralla

Dissertations

Resource equalization represents the historical and theoretical basis for American school finance and its ideals continue to dominate discussion and practice. During the last decade and a half, the national aspiration for equitable distribution of school finance resources has started a transformation into a derivative notion of adequacy. This equity policy derivative embraces the idea of sufficiency, which in turn implies a standard. The concept of educational adequacy has grown to mean the achievement of high absolute standards. Equity (equalization) theorists measure resource level on a relative basis; each student relative to all others. Adequacy adherents measure student achievement against …

The Impact Of Trade Liberalization On Growth, Unemployment, And Poverty In Bangladesh, Maha Z. Mirza

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Trade liberalization has been one of the major policy components of the governments of the developing countries in the recent decades. Bangladesh as many other developing nations, has adopted different measures of trade reform policies as an element of International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), as well as to be an integral part of the world wide trend of globalization. Such policy measures include the reduction/rationalization of tariff rate, simplification of import and export trade procedures, relaxation of restrictive trade policies, and reform of financial and monetary policies. Even though, the trade reform measures were anticipated to increase …

Essays On The Organization And Impact Of Professional Sports, John Jasina

All Dissertations

This thesis contains a collection of essays related to economics and sports. The final essay looks at the growing controversy of publicly funded sports stadiums. Local governments are spending millions of dollars on sports stadiums as a means to spur economic development. Economic impact studies supporting public funding claim that the investment will bring thousands of jobs and additional revenue to the local community. Most of the academic literature on the subject has been less favorable. Much of the literature focused on broad measures of employment in metropolitan statistical areas. In this paper regression analysis is used to investigate the …

The Effects Of Local And Global Risk Factors On Industry Stock Returns: Across Country Analysis, Mahdy Farag Elhossiny

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

This dissertation studies the local and global sources of risk and industries stock returns across national equity markets. We examine several local and global economic risk factors and ask whether and to what extent these risk factors can explain the variation in the industries' stock returns of five countries, namely Canada, Germany, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S. Specifically, the main objective of this dissertation is to find answers for three main questions: First, whether and to what extent do returns on local industries respond to changes in local macroeconomic risk factors? Second, whether and to what extent do returns …

An Economic Analysis Of School And Labor Market Outcomes For At-Risk Youth, Generosa Kagaruki-Kakoti

Economics Dissertations

Federal education policy has targeted children who are disadvantaged in order to improve their academic performance. The most recent federal education policy is the No Child Left Behind law signed by President Bush in 2001. Indicators often used to identify an at-risk youth range from economic, personal, family, and neighborhood characteristics. A probit model is used in this study to estimate the probability that a student graduates from high school as a function of 8th grade variables. Students are classified as at-risk of dropping out of high school or non at-risk based on having one or more risk factor. The …

Essays On Intra-Industry Trade, Yanhong Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

Intra-industry trade (IIT) is one area in international trade that interests me very much. The pattern of world trade has been changing consistently over the last half century, in which the importance of intra-industry trade has increased significantly. Such a trade pattern change has consequences on domestic real economic variables due to the associated capital and labor adjustments. My dissertation sets out to identify the US static and dynamic trade patterns and investigate the determinants of US intra-industry trade. In the analytic part of the dissertation, I introduce capital accumulation and an innovation process into a North-South quality-based product cycle …

Us Current Account Imbalance, Milena Gueorguieva

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

China’S Financial Institutions: Analysis Of The Dynamic Changes And Associated Inefficiencies Under A Hybrid Capitalistic Approach, Juan J. Zhou

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Chinahas risen to the forefront of international scrutiny because of its unique political and economic structure and evolution. The growth and development ofChinaas a world economic power has resulted from the political-economic reform efforts of Communist leaders withinChina. Under Mao Ze Dong, during the pre-socialistic modernization period,Chinabegan its reform of rehabilitation from war time and social-economic restructuring by instituting socialistic ideology. During the Dengist period under Deng Xiao Ping, there was a transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy. After Deng, socialist modernization reform has continued underChina’s hybrid capitalistic economic model, with particularly significant effects on the rapidly structured …

Connections Between U.S. Consumer Magazine Cover Characteristics And Single Copy Sales Circulation, Stephanie C. Barlow

Honors Capstone Projects - All

In the realm of journalism, conventional wisdom suggests that magazine covers “sell” magazines at newsstands. This study explores this idea by looking at the econometric relationship between cover characteristics such as presence of people and “catch” words and single copy sales. Several significant characteristics influencing such sales are found. In addition, this study is based on a new data set developed by the author indicating various characteristics of numbers of magazine covers over a five-year time span.

Specifically, a set of 14 magazines were observed for 10 characteristics. The percentage of the presence of these characteristics on magazine covers over …

Movement Of Economics Professors Among Top Research Universities In The Us, Benjamin E. Resnick

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Abstract not Included

The Failure Of Vertical Mergers, Frederick M. Schwarz

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Creating successful vertical mergers is a challenge for organizations across Corporate America. This honors thesis contains a study of five of those vertical mergers. To complete this study, five mini cases were created that outlined those deals. In addition, statistical analysis of the post merger abnormal returns was completed for each of these deals. Abnormal returns are calculated as the difference between the returns occurring in the post-merger period and the normal returns, i.e., the returns that would have been expected if the merger had not taken place.

This thesis targets the mergers of Viacom Corporation and CBS, Merck Corporation …

The College Football Gambling Market An Empirical Approach, Brian Mcneil

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This study tests the efficiency of the college football gambling market and whether the market allows for profitable wagering. Operating upon the theoretical framework that, at any given time, prices fully reflect all information available in a particular market, I test for the existence of residual information that is not currently incorporated into the market, thus rendering it inefficient. This project expands upon several previous studies performed on sports betting – most notably that of Zuber, Gandar, and Bowers (1985), which examined the gambling market efficiency for National Football League games. The findings prove to be consistent with the conclusions …

Hiv/Aids And The Economy In Southern Africa, Kathrin Gerner

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Testing Backward Linkages Of Fdi In China, Zhuomin Liu

Theses & Dissertations

Inward FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) affects productivity of local industries through three channels- direct effects, horizontal spillovers, and vertical linkages. This study focuses on the backward linkages of FDI in the 28 two-digit manufacturing sectors in China, as well as their horizontal and forward linkage effects. Two related tests, firm level pooled data test 1999-2002 and industrial level panel data test 1994-2003 are conducted to investigate whether backward linkages from multinational buyers brings productivity gain to local suppliers. Firm level tests provide convincing evidence that increase backward linkage of FDI will lead to productivity gains. This includes not only total …

"Return Denied" And More Serious Consequences Of Modern Blacklists, Tess Quinn

Economics Theses

No abstract provided.

Socioeconomic Attainments Of Africans Versus African-Americans In The United States, Azeb Berhane

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Using data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) of the 2000 U.S. census, the socioeconomic attainments of African immigrants was compared to African Americans in the United States. This comparison was made within the context of assimilation perspective, human capital perspective, and the family investment model. Consistent with previous research findings, the current study found that African immigrants have higher educational attainments than African-Americans in the United States. However, when breaking down the African group by country of birth, African-Americans were found to have higher educational attainments than a few African countries. Generally, the results reveal that African …

A Fuzzy Programming Approach For Portfolio Management In Banks, Noha El Sayed Ahmed Ibrahim

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Measure Of Entrepreneurial Risk Preference And Optimism Using Field Experiments, Mark Schneider

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies have underscored the economic importance of the role of the entrepreneur, and empirical studies testing the nature of the entrepreneur are notably lacking. This study directly addresses this issue by examining newly gathered field data which captures the decision making and risk behaviors for a group of high-technology entrepreneurs. Two decision making tasks were used to elicit risk aversion measures and to test for any 'joy of winning' or judgmental errors, possibly in the form of over optimistic behavior. These elicitations were made with the use of multiple price formats and winner's curse experiments. 62 responses were collected …

Fatal Crashes Caused By Light Trucks Relative To Cars: A Test Of The Offsetting Behavior Hypothesis, Adam David Zubritsky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an econometric test of the offsetting behavior hypothesis concerning drivers of light trucks relative to cars. The main objective is to determine whether drivers of light trucks offset perceived safety benefits associated with larger vehicles by driving more aggressively than drivers of cars, subsequently causing more fatal crashes, holding all else constant. An empirical model using data on pedestrian fatalities across the United States over a five-year period is developed and analyzed in order to capture the desired results. Estimates provide substantial evidence in support of the offsetting behavior hypothesis. To strengthen the case for driver offsetting …

Post Merger Performances In Japan, Mami Suzuki

Honors Papers

Mergers and acquisitions are relatively new phenomena in the Japanese market. The total number M & A transactions per year has increased from approximately 500 to 1,752 between 1995 and 2002. MergerStat records 3,510 and 7,411 transactions in the U.S. for the equivalent years. The percentage of M & A transactions per number of business entities was 0.03% for Japan in 2001 and 0.1% for the U.S. in 2002. As illustrated through the figures, the frequency of M&A in Japan is considerably lower relative to the U.S., but proliferation of transactions is evident as well. Post-merger performances of firms in …

Small-Scale Biodiesel Production: A Feasibility Study, Isabel Call

Honors Papers

The objective of the research presented in this paper is the development of cost curves for small-scale biodiesel production and a comparison of relevant technologies. The three technologies considered are the biodiesel pilot plant at the Iowa Energy Center's Biomass Energy Conversion Center, the commercially-sold Fuelmeister, and the bicycle-powered machine currently under development by students at Oberlin College. The price of biodiesel at which production via these technologies becomes profitable and the relative profitability of each will be determined through the use of a linear program. The importance of resource recovery and energy efficiency and the use of recycled feedstocks …

Does The Type Of Legal Representation Affect Sentencing Outcomes?, Lawren Elaine Hill

Honors Papers

This paper examines the potential differences in sentencing outcomes for public defenders compared with private attorneys. I explore the economic literature for explanations, implications, and results. There is a need for extensive research within the field of economics to provide empirical results to offset the mostly game-theoretically dominated discussion of the criminal justice system. The results are inconclusive due to a lack of statistical significance and potential selection bias in the data. Future research relating to this study is also discussed.

Production Cost Structure And Commercial Success In The New Film Industry, Daniel Hatkoff

Honors Papers

In a country that thrives on commercialism and image, the motion picture industry is an engine of social commentary, celebrity, and enormous cash flows. From the development of the first kinetoscope to our current star-studded event-movie culture, the industry has evolved and grown to become one of the largest and most influential cultural forces in the world today.

Substantial critical analysis and literature exist discussing aesthetic qualities in film production. This paper does not follow that particular line of inquiry. Instead, we examine film as an industry focused on profitability, in which all decisions are based on the ultimate bottom-line. …

Return To Main Street : An Assessment Of The Main Street Revitalization Program, Lisa Hechesky

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Once the heart of a town’s commercial district, Main Street in the post-World War II era became a ghost town as suburbanization lured consumers and merchants to new shopping complexes in rural areas. From the 1950s to the 1970s, with the aid of federal dollars cities embarked on various urban renewal projects. These revitalization attempts did not help the slumping commercial districts. In many cases, they destroyed historic buildings and left the cleared city blocks empty for decades. The National Main Street Program, created and administered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, began in 1980 to address problems faced …