Economics Commons^™

Growth Convergence Across Countries And Regions In The Long Run: An Empirical Study Using Panel Analysis (1980-2018), Portia Mensah

Masters Theses

With the emergence of new superpowers, the changing landscape of the global economy, and the heterogeneity of growth experiences being discovered in recent times, the concept of growth convergence must be revisited. This study examines whether developing countries are catching up with the advanced countries in terms of their per capita income. The study uses a panel analysis of 69 countries over a period of 39 years spanning from 1980 to 2018 to test for growth convergence (both absolute and conditional) among countries based on the Augmented Solow model. The countries were further divided into three regions namely, Europe, Asia, …

Understanding And Measuring Net Positive Business Strategies, Luke Ruffner Robinson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Despite their attempts to mitigate ecological impacts through sustainability initiatives, businesses are a major cause of the world's ecological problems. Some progressive businesses are attempting to move beyond “net zero” in terms of achieving neutral environmental impacts and instead are now pursuing a goal of net positive. Net positive refers to the idea that business activities could contribute value-added benefits to earth’s ecological systems, for example, by using technologies that sequester and store carbon. However, except for a handful of high-profile corporate case studies, little is known about how companies are developing their strategies to become net positive and …

Economic Activity, International Intervention, And Transitional Governance: A Comparative Case Study Of Somalia, Daniel Bonneau, Joshua C. Hall

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

This paper investigates the impact of international state-building efforts in Somalia on economic development. We use satellite data on night lights to measure economic activity to deal with nonexistent or poor-quality national income accounts. Using the synthetic control method, we find that the establishment of the Transitional Federal Government in 2004 was associated with economic stagnation relative to the years under statelessness. Using nighttime light emissions, we find economic stagnation regardless of whether we use the total lights emitted from the country or the spread of lights across the country. Our empirical findings are consistent with the idea that the …

A Contemporary Tale Of Two Countries - State Of Children In India And Pakistan, Arijit Ray

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Some common economic problems of the Indian subcontinent are its low per-capita income, major dependence on agriculture, heavy population pressure, chronic unemployment, slow capital formation, limited opportunity for human capital development, rising pollution, and heavy inequality in the wealth distribution. Each of these problems affects its children in its unique way, both directly and indirectly. However, some problems are human-made which directly affect its own existence. I focus on two countries in the Indian subcontinent: India and Pakistan, where such problems exist. In both societies, female children are valued less than male children, a common theme across many other countries …

Essays In Development Economics, Zachary Rodriguez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

My dissertation focuses on several fields of study within economics. The common lens through which I ask all my questions is development economics. I employ health and public economics to aide in the interpretation and discussion of my analyses. Separately, my chapters explore issues related positive spillovers from overcompetition in contests, demand for financial services among low-income households, and the empowerment of women through access to guaranteed employment. Collectively, my dissertation offers evidence and insight regarding how we analyze and improve development initiatives that aim to change the lives of people who are poor or ill.

Essays On The Political Economy Of Governance, Yang Zhou

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation studies the governance structure and its economic impacts in the Chinese context. Specifically, I use a public choice framework to analyze how institutions influence economic and political activities of both public officials and private sectors. Chapter 1 employs the synthetic control method to investigate the effects of institutions to regional economic development. Chongqing Municipality, a province-level region in China, had a unique leader from late 2007 to early 2012 who conducted red ideology movements and legal intervention. The empirical results reveal that although the economic policies promoted the Chongqing economy, the Maoist political policies partially undermined its economic …

The State And War On Poverty: British Welfare Development And Its Legacies For Malawi, 1930s-1983, Gift Wasambo Kayira

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation documents the struggles and dilemmas that the Malawian state endured as it attempted to achieve its developmental goals from the 1930s to 1983. It contributes to histories of development by focusing on the interventions both the colonial and postcolonial states made to improve the living standards of African rural communities, the ideas which shaped state programs, and the behavior of the state which such interventions reveal. Scholars typically argue that state policy in Malawi was necessarily destructive and limited the economic progress of the local communities. The state deliberately pursued land, market, and other agricultural policies that constrained …

Trickle Down Nationalism: Interactions Between Liberal Nationalism And Colonialism In The Raj And Nigeria, Aaryaman Sheoran

CMC Senior Theses

The combination of nationalism and colonialism has remained understudied in academia, despite the important interaction between the two phenomena. European ideas bled over into their colonial empires and began to fill the power vacuum created by colonial enterprises. This study analyzes the impact of British colonialism on the development of national identity in British India and Nigeria.

British influences included large scale economic disruption, cultural reform through ‘westernizing’ the population and abolishing local customs, and creating a new set of institutions to replace traditional power centers. Inevitably, these factors created a nationalist surge across both the Raj and Nigeria, as …

Healthy And Unhealthy Responses To American Democratic Institutional Failure, Thomas D'Anieri

CMC Senior Theses

I have set out on the hunch that politics in America “feels different,” that we are frustrated both with our institutions as well as with one another. First, I will seek to empirically verify this claim beyond mere “feelings.” If it can be shown that these kinds of discontent genuinely exist to the extent that I believe they do, I will then explain why people feel this way and why things are different this time from the economic, political, and social points of view. Next, I will examine two potential responses, what I will call the populist and the institutional …

Consumers Support A Slowing Economy, Eric Thompson

Business in Nebraska

Nebraska will record moderate economic growth during the forecast period but will lag U.S. growth. Like the national economy, growth Nebraska’s goods producing sector will struggle. Farm incomes will be flat from 2020 to 2022 after improving this year. Manufacturing employment also is expected to drop. However, most other sectors will expand, including services, finance and construction. Projected growth rates for 2020 to 2022 are presented in Table 1.

Employment will grow by 0.6% to 0.8% per year, below the national rate. Non-farm income will grow between 3.7% and 3.8% each year. This growth readily exceeds inflation and population growth, …

Learning Consequences Of School Improvement In Mexico: Evidence From A Large Government Program, Carlos Alejandro Noyola Contreras

Undergraduate Economic Review

I study the impact of investment in infrastructure of already existing poor schools and increased school based management on learning outcomes, as measured by student achievement in standardized tests. To that end, I implement a difference-in-differences design to compare schools that received money from a large government program to improve their physical conditions with those that do not, before and after program implementation. Unlike previous studies, I focus on the effect of improving schools that already exist, to see whether the impact is different from that of building schools. I find no evidence of positive impacts on test scores at …

Is Diamond A Resource Curse For Africa?, Karli Hamrick

Undergraduate Economic Review

This paper investigates the resource curse in diamond exporting industry in African countries. The empirical evidence about the “resource curse” is mixed in literature and almost none has been done regarding diamond. Our study aims to bridge that gap. The results suggest that diamond export is positively correlated with well-being in a group of African countries. In other words, the “resource curse” may not occur in diamond mining industry after the Kimberly Process (KP) was put in place in 2002. We argue that the KP serves as a good institution and has created good incentives for firms in the industry. …

Economic Prosperity Of Nevada Counties And Southwest Metros, Madison Frazee-Bench, William E. Brown, Caitlin Saladino

Economic Development & Workforce

This Fact Sheet highlights the economic and social disparities of Nevada’s counties as well as the counties in the Southwest Metro Area. By using data from The Hamilton Project, the following tables illustrate disparities within each county in Nevada and in the Southwest Metros.

Megachurches And Economic Development: Pastoral Interpretations Of Internal And External Expectations On Church Behavior, Ashley E. English

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

What sorts of economic development activities do megachurches engage in, and what rationale do leaders give for this behavior? This study provides theoretical guidance for answering this research question through an investigation of megachurches’ extra-role behaviors (ERB) in economic development activities. ERB is a “behavior that attempts to benefit the organization and that goes beyond existing role expectations” (Organ, Podsakoff & MacKenzie, 2006, p. 33). This field study includes an online survey completed by 42 megachurch senior or executive pastors in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown Metropolitan Statistical Areas and 23 follow-up telephone interviews. The researcher used these data …

Is Our Coal-Onial Era Ending Anytime Soon?, Hadiqa Faraz

Undergraduate Economic Review

In this paper, I estimate the long-run co-integrated relationship between energy demand and economic growth for 20 countries from the year 2000 to 2016. I use panel unit-root and heterogeneous panel co-integration tests to test for non-stationarity of the panels and to determine whether there is a long-run link between energy consumption and GDP per capita. The estimated model uses a first-difference OLS model to estimate income elasticity of energy demand; the empirical results of this model show that there is a long-run relationship between energy consumption per capita and GDP per capita. In the long-term, on average, with 1% …

Bottlenecks Or Growth Zones? A Study Of The Chirundu And Beitbridge Border Economies, Anna Ngarachu, Christopher Wood, Heinrich Krogman, Elisha Tshuma, Dale Mudenda

Southern African Journal of Policy and Development

Land borders in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region are critical zones for unlocking regional value chains, trade and economic development. The Beitbridge and Chirundu border posts represent important links in the North–South Corridor. They are vital in both regional development and bilateral initiatives. It is at these borders that many issues related to regional integration intersect. Understanding the major complications that prevent competitive trade and undermine trade facilitation initiatives is, therefore, essential. This policy brief examines the causes of standing time – a major contributor to transport costs in sub-Saharan Africa – and discusses the softer issues such …

When Spillovers Enhance R&D Incentives, Rittwik Chatterjee, Srobonti Chattopadhyay, Tarun Kabiraj

Journal Articles

It is commonly believed that spillover reduces R&D incentives of a firm. This happens because of the appropriability problem. However, some empirical literature shows the possibility of enhanced R&D incentives under spillovers. In the literature this is explained under incomplete information, but we show this theoretically under complete information. We show in particular that in a duopoly there are situations when with no spillovers only one firm invests in R&D, but under spillovers both the firms invest. This occurs when there is complementarity in research and the spillover rate lies in an interval specified by the size of R&D investment.

The Rise Of Anti-Immigration Populist Radical Right Parties: The Effect Of The Syrian Conflict On Refugee Resettlement And Migration Policies In Germany And Austria, Sara Kouchehbagh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The effects of Syrian migration in Europe have revolutionized refugee resettlement globally. Most immigration and refugee problems have historically been settled similarly post WWII, however, Syria is the largest refugee crisis since WWII. It is important to learn how to respond to future conflicts with displacement and resettlement affecting Western countries that are unprepared to respond to a conflict of such magnitude. This thesis will compare previous conflicts and the Syrian conflict, while highlighting the resilient political momentum of reactionary new political groups in European states, particularly Germany and Austria.

The research and results from this study will include data …

The Future Development Of Reits In China, Jia Sun

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) is a type of trust fund or corporation that pools the funds of a large number of investors by issuing a certificate of income and invest the raised funds in real estate projects that are managed by a specialized investment institution. The real estate investment risk is moderate, and the rent is stable, but the capital threshold is high, and it is difficult for small and medium investors to enter the market. The invention of REITs aims to solve this problem, through the collection of funds, so that small and medium investors can enter the …

Contrasting And Synthesizing Perspectives On Late Stage Capitalism And The French Revolution, Alyssa Allen

Jessie O'Kelly Freshman Essay Award

The modern-day American wealth inequality epidemic coupled with the effective silencing of the masses through superdelegates and the Electoral College fosters conditions akin to Pre-Revolutionary France with the bourgeoisie being oppressed through wealth inequality and the Estate System.

Convening The World: True Access And Global, Synchronous Pedagogy In Regis University’S Master Of Development Practice, Emily Van Houweling, Nina Miller

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

This articles describes the characteristics of the global classroom in the Master of Development Practice (MDP) at Regis University and the many ways it expresses the Jesuit mission. The MDP program is grounded in the Jesuit ideals of inclusive access, cura personlis and social justice. Using Zoom videoconferencing, we synchronously connect with our students around the world. The second half of the article describes the research we are undertaking in our global classroom. Our pedagogy pushes the boundaries of what is possible in development education with a global student body in a synchronous classroom. In this environment we are investigating …

Morocco’S Makhzen And The Challenge Of National Development, Zakaria Fatih

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This article explores the question of national development in Morocco considering the institution of the makhzen. It asserts that to adequately assess Morocco’s national development as a post-colonial country, it is necessary to rely on an economic model based in politics rather than in theories exclusively informed by classical and neoclassical economics. Among the key economists called upon to investigate the validity of politics in discussions of national development and income inequality are the following: Simon Kuznets, Thomas Piketty, W. A. Lewis, and the duo Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, all of whom continue a long tradition of economic …

Empowering Rural Participation And Partnerships In Morocco’S Sustainable Development, Yossef Ben-Meir

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This essay explores the vast potential for participatory and sustainable human development in Morocco. Though Morocco is a country with many diverse resources, it remains burdened by severe levels of poverty and illiteracy, and now growing social discord. There have recently been increased public calls for participatory development programs designed and implemented by and for local people. The essay identifies six existing Moroccan Frameworks intended to initiate decentralized human development programs, and critically examines their efficacy. Ultimately, the purpose of the article is to suggest a new model to implement these Frameworks with maximum impact. The six Frameworks deal with …

Seeing Like A Citizen : Decolonization, Development, And The Making Of Kenya, 1945–1980, Kara Moskowitz

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

In Seeing Like a Citizen, Kara Moskowitz approaches Kenya’s late colonial and early postcolonial eras as a single period of political, economic, and social transition. In focusing on rural Kenyans—the vast majority of the populace and the main targets of development interventions—as they actively sought access to aid, she offers new insights into the texture of political life in decolonizing Kenya and the early postcolonial world.

Using multisited archival sources and oral histories focused on the western Rift Valley, Seeing Like a Citizen makes three fundamental contributions to our understanding of African and Kenyan history. First, it challenges the widely …

Assessing The Prospects And Challenges Of Bangladesh Shipping Corporation In The Context Of The China's 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative, Tarequl Islam

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Imo 2020 Sulfur Cap : Green Investment In Shipping Industry, Nishank Sharma

World Maritime University Dissertations

Winner of the 2019 Schlüter Foundation Dissertation Prize

Efficiency And Competitiveness Analysis Of Port Of Izmir, Oğuz Alpcan

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Identify Monitoring Needs And Emerging Technology To Support Ecosystem Based Management (Ebm) And Sustainable Blue Growth In Nigerian Ports : Case Study : Lagos Ports (Lagos Pport Complex And Tin Can Island Port Complex), Roland Oladipo Ijabiyi

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Analysis Of Dry Port Developments In Developed And Developing Countries : An Implication For Myanmar Dry Ports, - Aye Nyein Zin

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Logistics Performance And Its Impact To Exports Growth Of Sri Lanka, Sebastian Shanika Roshini

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.