Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Missouri's Economic Future Lies With School Reform, Eric A. Hanushek

Center for Applied Economics

Between 1970 and 2007, Missouri’s growth in income per capita was 41st in the nation. This dismal outcome is largely a function of its educational system. Its schools have not been competitive, either among the U.S. states or internationally. Lifting the quality of schools will by the historical evidence presented here produce large long-run gains for Missouri’s economy. Even though many youth have in the past migrated to other parts of the country, the strength of the Missouri economy will continue to rest mainly on those current students who will become the backbone of the future labor force. Improving the …

Recent Research On The Minimum Wage: Implications For Missouri, Jonathan Meer

Center for Applied Economics

The minimum wage has long been a contentious policy issue, but particularly so in Missouri in recent years. When St. Louis raised its city minimum wage in 2015, with increases planned to $11 per hour by 2018, legal battles held up implementation and a state law eventually overrode the local ordinance. This essay delves into the sources of this policy dispute, first by examining the theoretical issues involved, then focusing on recent research, particularly regarding outcomes other than the traditional focus on employment outcomes. Using minimum wage increases as an anti-poverty policy is not likely to succeed. While the empirical …

Sb 106 Congressional And State Legislative Districts; Standards And Criteria, The Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute At Virginia Commonwealth University, Amber Adams, Kristen Dahlman, John Darnell Hicks, Cassandra Reynolds, Vanessa Walker Harris

The Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute Publications

This report examines Senate Bill (SB) 106, introduced during the 2018 Virginia General Assembly session to address the criterion of redistricting and the specific impact on racial and ethnic minorities. This legislation is a direct response to previous legislative attempts to address gerrymandering and remains an evolving issue in the Commonwealth.

Labor Market Freedom And Economic Prosperity: How Does Missouri Compare?, Dean Stansel

Center for Applied Economics

Government restrictions on workers and employers tend to have a dampening effect on their ability to thrive. There have been numerous studies of the relationship between state labor market restrictions and labor market outcomes (as well as economic outcomes in general). As theory would imply, that literature generally has found a positive relationship between labor market freedom and various measures of positive economic outcomes. After a discussion of the concept of economic freedom and how it is measured in labor markets, this paper briefly reviews that literature. It also provides a detailed examination of how Missouri compares to its neighboring …

Measuring Human Capital Across Countries: Iq And The Human Capital Index, Gail Heyne Hafer, R. W. Hafer

Center for Applied Economics

It has been shown that country-level IQ and aggregated performance by school-age children on international assessment tests in math and science are by-in-large capturing analogous indicators of the cognitive human capital. We expand that analysis by comparing country-level IQ to the World Economic Forum’s Human Capital Index (HCI). This index, comprised of several dozen separate indicators, accounts for inputs and outcomes to measure human capital, across age profiles and gender. Two outcomes are of note. First, there is a positive, significant correlation between IQ and the vast majority of the component indicators in the HCI across all age cohorts. Second, …

The State Of The Missouri Economy And Workforce, Timothy J. Gronberg, Dennis W. Jansen, Lori L. Taylor

Center for Applied Economics

This article presents an overview of the state of the Missouri economy. We begin by assessing measures of economic output. Compared to the nation and to neighboring states, Missouri’s economy has hardly grown over the past 20 years. We identify several sources for this lackluster record. Perhaps one of the most important is the observation is that productivity in Missouri—output per worker—is lower than the national average. This poor productivity record quite possibly stems from two sources. One is problematic trends in labor force quality. A key factor here is a lack of commitment by the state to a higher …

City-County Consolidation In St. Louis: An Analysis, Joshua Hall, Josh Matti

Center for Applied Economics

This report provides an analysis and evaluation of the proposed city-county consolidation in St. Louis. The report draws upon theoretical research considering the impact of local government consolidations on efficiency, equity, spillovers, and development. Where possible, we connect the ideas from the academic literature to arguments made regarding the situation in St. Louis. After exploring both the theoretical reasons for and against consolidation, we consider the real-world empirical evidence. Although city-county consolidations sometimes lead to positive outcomes, often they do not. Importantly, the context of consolidation matters. By understanding the importance of context with consolidations, we conclude with five lessons …

Innovative Justice: Federal Reentry Drug Courts – How Should We Measure Success?, Timothy D. Degiusti

Duke Law Master of Judicial Studies Theses

In response to the drug abuse and addiction epidemic in the United States, innovative ways of dealing with non-violent drug offenders within the criminal justice system began to emerge in the late 1980s. Special court dockets – commonly referred to as drug courts – were developed featuring an interdisciplinary team of criminal justice and mental health professionals, led by a presiding judge. Drug courts and other problem-solving courts have proliferated within the state court system, numbering 3,057 by the end of 2014. The use of such courts is expanding among the states, but the federal courts have been slow to …

Rita, Rita, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Rita Alkhaledy grew up in Sadr City, a poor suburb of Baghdad. Her father is an Iraqi Arab and her mother was Kurdish Iranian. Her mother lived in fear that she would be cast out of Baghdad as being an outsider in Iraq was frowned upon. Her father served in the Iraqi army in the 80s and was gone a great deal, leading to a strained relationship. Their relationship was mended when her mother died from cancer.

After the Iraq war, Rita and her brothers realized that their lives were in danger. They had to move from house to house …

Virtual Reality Technology And Customer Delight In Theme Parks: The Role Of Experience Quality, Chenge Jia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the rapid development of Virtual Reality (VR) technology, theme park companies are eager to apply VR technology to their attractions. Operating as highly hedonic consumption businesses, theme parks need to make sure that they offer unique and memorable experiences to customers in order to enhance their competitive advantages. However, empirical data is needed to understand whether and how VR technology will enhance visitors' experiences, including the quality of their experience, customer delight, and customer loyalty. Therefore, this study aims to examine how VR influences visitor's theme park experience quality, customer delight, and customer loyalty. Based on an in-depth literature …

Environmental Sustainability For Business Success, Kailyn Cohen

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

No abstract provided.

Environmental Studies 117: Human Ecology, Costanza Rampini

Faculty Publications, Environmental Studies

This is a required course in the major, which covers the diversity and similarity of human adaptation, cultural evolution, cultural change and environmental modification in African, Asiatic, Oceanic and Latin American cultural groups. The emphasis is on traditional non-Western conservation practices and their lessons for the modern-day resource manager. ENVS 117 is a core requirement for majors. Students interested in other cultures and world regions, and in particular international development, will find this course not only interesting, but useful.

Contributors

The Chautauqua Journal

Contributors to Volume II: Living with Others / Crossroads

Living With Others: The African American Experience, Arnold Rampersad

The Chautauqua Journal

The phrase, “Living with Others,” is especially intriguing in the context of race relations in the United States. At one level, it invites pleasantries about our natural wish for harmony and peace among diverse peoples, along with simple or even simplistic notions about what it takes to achieve this harmony and peace. At another level, however, it has the potential to be something much more complex.

To speak of living with others against the backdrop of the history of black Americans is to ask the following key question. How does a minority people manage to live with the majority, when …

The Chautauqua Journal, Complete Volume 2: Living With Others / Crossroads

The Chautauqua Journal

Complete text of The Chautauqua Journal, Volume 2: Living with Others / Crossroads

The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln And American Slavery, Eric Foner

The Chautauqua Journal

In April 1876, Frederick Douglass delivered a celebrated oration at the unveiling of the Freedmen’s Monument in Washington, D.C., a statue that depicted Abraham Lincoln conferring freedom on a kneeling slave. “No man,” the great black abolitionist remarked, “can say anything that is new of Abraham Lincoln." This has not in the ensuing 130 years deterred innumerable historians, biographers, journalists, lawyers, literary critics and psychologists from trying to say something new about Lincoln. Lincoln has always provided a lens through which Americans examine themselves.

Sesquicentennial Reflections On Civil War Women, Catherine Clinton

The Chautauqua Journal

The nation looked back on its Civil War, in the midst of a whirlwind of domestic debates, while impending foreign crises loomed—but with a new young President in the White House, with his charismatic wife and children, the country seemed on the brink of momentous change. On the cusp of a new era, it seemed an appropriate time, if not overdue, to reflect on the legacy of an epic historical era that tore the nation in two. Whether referring to the centenary in 1961 with John F. Kennedy in office, or the sesquicentennial in 2011 with Barack Obama, backward glances …

A Talk With Bracelen Flood, Author Of Grant's Final Victory, Charles Bracelen Flood

The Chautauqua Journal

A talk with Charles Bracelen Flood, author of Grant's Final Victory, about the last years of Union General and President Ulysses S. Grant's life and his determination to complete his memoirs while also fighting the effects of terminal illness.

Bible Belt Gays: Insiders-Without, Bernadette Barton

The Chautauqua Journal

During a Spring 2012 visit to a university nestled in the Appalachian Mountains, my hosts introduced me to an openly gay Episcopalian priest active in a variety of local progressive causes, including gay rights issues. While enjoying a buffet luncheon of Indian food, I learned that Father “Joe” (all the names are changed) had lived many years in Central Kentucky and we knew several people in common. After a run-through of our personal connections, Father Joe shared other tidbits of his life story, including that he had not been raised Episcopalian. He explained, “I grew up in a fundamentalist family …

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Further Reflections On A Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, Eric Metaxas

The Chautauqua Journal

I first heard the name Dietrich Bonhoeffer during the summer that I turned 25. I had just returned to faith in a serious and moving way and one day the man who led me along that journey gave me a copy of Bonhoeffer’s classic book, The Cost of Discipleship. He asked if I’d ever heard of Bonhoeffer. I told him that I hadn’t, and he told me that Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian who because of his faith had stood up for the Jews and had gotten involved in the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. He said that …

Christian Faith And Struggles For Justice (A Reply To Metaxas), Carolyn R. Dupont

The Chautauqua Journal

As part of the EKU Chautauqua Lecture Series, author Eric Metaxas came to Central Kentucky to speak about his newly published book, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. The book garnered glowing reviews in some circles and continued to sell briskly after reaching the top slot on the New York Times bestseller list in September 2011. Engaging and openly evangelical, Metaxas tells a compelling story of the life and ultimate end of the German pastor who opposed the Nazi regime, joined a plot to kill Hitler and paid with his life. Audiences leave his presentations as if under a spell. …

First Day Of My Life, Derek Nikitas

The Chautauqua Journal

Mom stomped on the gas and the wheels spun but the car went nowhere. Rowan scooted up in the passenger seat to get a better view. The windshield was caked around with snow like the fuzzy edges of a dream, and the back window was even worse. Six hours back they left Queens, but now they were in the woods somewhere in New Hampshire. Rowan couldn’t even see a road.

“Well, we’re here,” Mom said, and tossed up her hands. Her voice steamed. They were both bundled in extra layers, but still Rowan’s toes were frozen in his boots. Around …

Abiding With Me, John Lackey

The Chautauqua Journal

Poem: "Abiding With Me"

Q & A With Donna Freitas, Author Of Sex And The Soul, Donna Freitas, Lisa Day

The Chautauqua Journal

As part of your methodology for your research and your writing of Sex and the Soul, how did you choose the participating universities? Did you consider any Bible Belt schools? Do you think Southern schools might align more closely with purity culture at religious schools? Have you visited any schools that presented different results from the predominant paradigm?

For this study, I chose the participating colleges and universities based on a number of factors: religious affiliation or non religious affiliation (Catholic, evangelical, private-secular and public), size, geographic location and whether the school was primarily a campus where students lived …

Elder Women Making Family Through Celebratory Foods: Kentucky, New Zealand, Thailand, Doris Pierce, Anne Shordike, Clare Hocking, Valerie Wright, Wannipa Bunrayong, Soisuda Vittayakorn, Phuanjai Rattakorn

The Chautauqua Journal

This study, which describes how older women of three counties experience the preparation of annual celebratory foods, is uniquely responsive to the theme of EKU’s 2011-2012 Chautauqua Lecture Series, “Living with Others: Challenges and Promises.” How women of different countries lead their families in preparing traditional foods together each year demonstrates how, although each culture is unique, the challenges and promises of living with others are fulfilled and managed in many similar and little-examined women’s ways in countries around the globe.

Understanding The Complexity Of School Bully Involvement, Dorothy L. Espelage

The Chautauqua Journal

Bullying perpetration and victimization are issues of increasing concern for researchers, educators, clinicians, parents and youth today. Bullying broadly refers to aggressive behaviors including physical aggression (hitting, shoving, tripping, etc.), verbal aggression (teasing, name-calling, threatening) as well as relational aggression (rumor spreading, exclusion, isolation from clique). Bullying is thought to differ from normal peer conflict in that it is often repeated and involves a difference in power between the bully and victim. Bullying behaviors also extend to the use of the internet and cell-phones to harass and intimidate recipients. Bullying through these mediums is commonly referred to as cyberbullying. Although …

The Ethics Of Facebook, Michael W. Austin

The Chautauqua Journal

In this paper, I offer a moral analysis of Facebook. What are the morally positive features of Facebook? What are its morally negative features? I will limit my attention to the personal and interpersonal aspects of the use of this technology, and set aside an ethical analysis of the business practices, both past and present, of Facebook. My analysis, then, is not comprehensive. I will argue for a particular thesis concerning Facebook, namely, that in many ways Facebook’s moral value for a person depends on the character of that person, though the structure of this technology is not morally neutral. …

How To Build A Domesticated Fox: The Start Of A Long Journey, Lee A. Dugatkin

The Chautauqua Journal

In 1959, outside of Novosibirsk, Siberia, Dmitri Belyaev and Lyudmila Trut began what remains one of the longest-running experiments in biology. For the last 59 years they have been domesticating silver foxes and studying evolution in real time. Belyaev died in 1985, but Trut has continued to lead this experiment up to this very day. Each generation they and their team have been selecting the calmest, most prosocial-toward-humans foxes and preferentially breeding those individuals. Today they have foxes that are calmer than lap dogs, and who also look eerily dog-like—floppy ears, wagging tail and all. Belyaev and Trut’s results have …

Implementing Stremii: A Practical Guide For Crisis Communication On Social Media During Hurricanes And Natural Disasters, Margaret Stewart, Cory Young

International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference

This paper details a practical series of recommendations to implement the two ongoing stages of the STREMII model – Social Listening and Responsive Engagement – during a crisis event. First, we outline the original STREMII model, then detail and discuss a revised and updated version of the model. Then, we describe steps for getting started using the STREMII model for social media crisis communication, and, finally, present suggestions for uses of best practice for the model.

Cultural Challenges When Memorializing Tragedies, Kjell Brataas

International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference

After a tragedy, victims and survivors often desire to memorialize what happened. This can take many forms, and finding the right way often involves a number of challenges. There will usually be differences of opinion among the bereaved, the injured and the uninjured survivors, and cultural aspects and differences play a major role. This presentation provides examples from around the world and hints on bridging the culture gap when memorializing a tragedy.