Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Resource Curse: The Cases Of Botswana And Zambia, Audria Crain

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A puzzling correlation has been observed over the last thirty years between slow or negative economic growth and countries with large export dependence on natural resources. This correlation has been dubbed "the resource curse." It has been argued that resource wealth has an inherently negative effect on the economic growth of developing countries. Zambia is such a country in which resource-dependence has been coupled with poor economic performance; Botswana, however, is an important exception to this phenomenon. The question is: Why or how has Botswana surmounted the effects of the resource curse while Zambia has not? A comparative case analysis …

The Global Credit Crisis Of 2007–2009: An Examination Of Some Of The Causes, Chronology, And Unconventional Monetary Tools Employed, Mark P. Culver

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper will first examine some of the causes over many years and conditions that evolved that preceded the 2007-2009 credit crisis as well as some of the events that took place in the midst of the crisis. More importantly, this paper will examine how central banks applied the generally prescribed first line defense in the form of conventional monetary policy to its full extent without complete or adequate satisfaction or result. The bulk of the paper is directed at a description and analysis of the unconventional monetary tools, that which has come to be called quantitative easing, that central …

Estimating Economic Activity From Space, Tilottama Ghosh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Accurate estimates of the magnitude and spatial distribution of both formal and informal economic activity is necessary to achieve various social and economic goals of societies and countries at different levels of analysis. However, collection of data on economic variables, especially of national and sub-national income levels is problematic due to various shortcomings in the data collection process. Additionally, the informal economy estimates are often excluded from official statistics. Thus, developing alternative methods for estimating these economic activities may prove to be useful and necessary. This research demonstrates the potential of developing spatially explicit estimates of economic activity from nighttime …

Asset Distribution And Productivity: Best Practices For Developing This Synergistic Relationship, Wendy Lee Willbanks Wiesner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Productivity is an essential component of lasting corporate success. It is also a critical ingredient in the recipe for making a vibrant and prosperous community.

Economics recognizes that both capital and labor make contributions to productivity through the functions of investment and production. Enhancements to productivity can be obtained in multiple areas, including technological advancement, corporate expansion, market penetration, and product development. Sustained productivity growth, however, is predicated upon continual process improvement and market innovation.

Identifying precisely "who" and "what" are contributing to productivity is challenging. Because capital and labor interact, it is difficult to determine whether the positive effect …

Modern Slavery: A Regional Focus, Amanda Gould

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Kevin Bales, through his study in Understanding Global Slavery: A Reader, provides an important quantitative analysis on the predictive factors of modern slavery. Upon examining his study though, several issues arise including too few observations for several of the variables and the lack of a regional variable. The author decided to rerun his study with replacements for the problematic variables used previously. Upon obtaining the results from this, the author examined development theory (development is believed to be closely liked to slavery), and began creating an alternative model, which eventually included the addition of a regional variable. This model differed …