Economics Commons^™

Statement From The Indiana Academy Of The Social Sciences And Board Of Directors

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Editor-In-Chief's Note, Surekha K. Rao

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Volume 29, Issue 1 Full Contents

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Mission And Editorial Policy

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

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Learning By Doing To Teach Research Skills In Econometrics, Christie Byun

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

This paper examines a revision in an introductory econometrics course at an undergraduate liberal arts college. The instructors have incorporated extensive use of data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series from the Current Population Survey (IPUMS-CPS), with applied examples that demonstrate econometric theory. The key element is a short empirical paper assignment in which all students work on a common research question, but with different data sets. The paper assignment includes a series of scaffolding assignments using IPUMS-CPS data. This approach has several benefits, including ease of implementation into any course that has an empirical paper component, significantly streamlined …

Time And Money: Patterns Of Nonstandard Work Across The First Year Of Covid-19, Ellen M. Whitehead, Alison Winiarski, Emily Wornell, Justin Schupp

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

The COVID-19 pandemic had a well-documented impact on the formal economy, with the extent of these consequences varying across industries and sociodemographic groups. Less attention has been paid to whether the nonstandard economy, including informal and gig work, mirrored this broader economic fallout. We draw on 2019 and 2020 data from the Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking to assess participation in, time spent on, and money earned from nonstandard work across the first year of the pandemic. We find evidence of an overall decline in participation in nonstandard work during this time. However, our results indicate heterogeneous experiences across …

Reviewers And Referees

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Eating Disorders & Meat Consumption: A Meta-Analytic Review, Urska Dobersek, Laurel Standiford-Reyes, Tyler Robinson, Alex Antony Edwin, Sarah Siebers

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

In this meta-analytic review, we examined the current evidence on eating disorders in relation to meat consumption and meat abstention. We systematically searched six online databases in December 2025 for primary research on eating disorder-related variables in meat consumers and meat abstainers. Fifty-one studies with 55,984 participants (n_{meat consumers} = 44,282, n_{meat abstainers} = 9,751) met the inclusion/exclusion criteria. The outcomes were eating disorders and orthorexia nervosa. Meat consumption was associated with lower eating disorder (g = 0.20, 95% CI [0.08, 0.32], p = .001) and orthorexia nervosa symptomology (g = 0.47, 95% CI [0.33, …

Editorial History

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Call For Papers

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Why Publish With Mssj?

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Author Biographical Notes

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

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George C. Roberts Award Recipients

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

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The Survival Of Sugar In Post-Emancipation British Guiana: East Indian Indentured Immigration And The Cheapening Of Labor, Wazir Mohamed

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

This Paper revisits the post-emancipation changes in the labor market of British Guiana. British Guiana, Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji, and several other locations were spaces where East Indian Indentured Immigrants from Idia became pivotal in the economy.[1] In the decade after emancipation (1838-1848), the rise of global free trade in sugar spurred by the equalization of duties in sugar factored in the search for a cheaper and the importation of a more pliable labor force to keep the wheels of sugar turning in British Guiana. With this background in mind this paper focuses on indentured immigration of East …

Submission Guidelines

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Bridging Fiscal Sustainability And Health Equity: A Policy Analysis Of California’S Healthcare Coverage Safeguards, Guadalupe Castaneda Martinez

Master's Projects and Capstones

Without structural policy intervention, approximately 4.6 million Californians remain at risk of being uninsured by 2030, worsening racial and ethnic health disparities and hospital uncompensated care burdens. This policy analysis advocates for a hybrid universal coverage model combining sliding-scale subsidies (California Senate Bill 78) with full-scope Medi-Cal expansion for all income-eligible residents regardless of legal status (California Assembly Bill 133). The framework relies on existing funding mechanisms, including the Managed Care Organization tax and the Health Care Affordability Reserve Fund. Comparative analysis indicates that market-only subsidies leave severe equity gaps, whereas immediate single-payer transitions pose substantial fiscal and administrative risks. …

Lessons From Tanzania’S Ujamaa For Smart Settlements In Nepal: Social Justice And Economic Development, Keshav Bhattarai, Ambika P. Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Nepal’s constitutional commitment to a “socialism-oriented” state places social justice, equitable access to resources and housing, and protection of marginalized populations at the center of national development discourse. However, persistent landlessness, informal settlements, unemployment, youth outmigration, and unequal access to infrastructure reveal a significant gap between constitutional aspirations and socioeconomic realities.

This article examines lessons Nepal can draw from Tanzania’s experience with Ujamaa, the African socialist development model initiated by President Nyerere in 1967. Using comparative policy analysis, published research, official documents, and exploratory field observations from selected Tanzanian locations, including the capital and villages in the Iringa Region, the …

Ai And The Music Industry: Its Current Status And A Speculative Projection Of Its Evolutionary Trajectory, Rhett D. Morris, Clayton Rosati, Stefan Fritsch

Honors Projects

Music serves as one of society's biggest cultural outlets, allowing millions to share in what used to be a uniquely human form of expression. The commodification of music has built a huge industry full of companies and platforms that have used technology and property laws to shape music's relationship with the public. This study aims to look into the future to see how AI and its implementation could affect the structure of the music industry. To look into the future, this piece establishes two of the most pressing kinds of AI technology for the music industry and looks to contextualize …

External Debt In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Five Country Case Study On External Lending, Andres Ramirez

International Studies (MA) Theses

This thesis examines China as a new external lender to Africa and analyzes if their large infrastructure loans are leading developing countries into debt distress, compared to Multilateral and Commercial Private financing. A regression analysis is run on a 10-year data set, 2014-2024, and analyzes the external debt service-to-revenue ratio, relative to the external debt stock by lender, across a panel of five East and West African economies, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, and Benin. The empirical findings in the analysis shows that commercial private debt causes the most strain on a country’s external debt service to revenue ratio, but …

Ethics Under Siege: The Conflict In Tigray Through The Lens Of Just War Theory, Daniela Widya Purba

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

This research article explains the ethical principles of the conflict in Tigray based on the Just War Theory. By using the descriptive qualitative methodology, this research article draws data from secondary sources which includes; academic journals, news reports, as well as international legal instruments to analyze the moral trajectory of the conflict. This research begins with jus ad bellum, to assess Ethiopia’s government justification in declaring conflict within Tigray. While the government fulfilled the criteria of just cause and legitimate authority, the question stands on the ambiguous political intentions and the failure to enact peaceful alternatives before resulting in waging …

Presidential Visits As Foreign Policy Instruments: U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy In Trump’S Second Term, Atar Thaung Htet

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

Through an analysis of President Donald Trump's October 2025 travel to Asia, this study investigates the consequences of U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy under his second-term diplomacy. The paper examines three significant diplomatic encounters—the ASEAN Summit in Malaysia, bilateral meetings in Japan, and the APEC Summit in South Korea—using a qualitative case study methodology based on role theory and foreign policy analysis. The results show that alliance-centered security cooperation, strategic balancing toward China, and selective economic engagement were U.S. Indo-Pacific goals. Through extremely transactional and bilateralized relations, presidential diplomacy allowed the United States to fulfill a number of foreign policy responsibilities, such …

Through The Arena: A Marxist Strategic-Relational Perspective On East Asian Regional Trade Architecture, John H. Limaldi

Journal of Critical Global Issues

This paper critically assesses the dominant regional trade architecture that impacts East Asia, focusing on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and its U.S.-bastardized version, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Using a strategic-relational approach grounded in Marxist theory, the paper examines how these agreements impact the relationship between the Capitalist State and Capital. It argues that international economic architecture in the neoliberal era produces state effects that weaken national sovereignty to the benefit of capital and the detriment of labor. The paper concludes with recommendations for a new regional trade architecture that prioritizes labor rights, democratic accountability, and …

From Models To Modules: Towards A Change Of Approach In Postcapitalist Political Economy, Simon Tremblay-Pepin

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

In this article, I take for granted the existence of a field of social sciences called postcapitalist political economy. This field of research emanates from the critique of capitalism and seeks to establish, in theory and practice, alternative political and economic systems to capitalism. I argue that in its late and post-Soviet period (1988 – 2012), this field has mostly, but not solely, been based on debates between all-encompassing models. Analyzing its contemporary period (2013 to now), I will sustain that we are partly witnessing a transfer from a model-based approach to a modular one. I present six arguments to …

Do Voters Understand The Benefits Of Taxes?, Benjamin Carter, Alessandro Del Ponte, Peter Discioli

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

We use economic experiments to study a fundamental question in political economy: Do voters understand the benefits of taxes? Participants play an economic game as members of a virtual society composed of computer players. In each round, the players earn low or high income, see the distribution of income, and then vote for low or high taxes. We test whether participants vote rationally for high taxes when poor and low taxes when rich, following a classic model in political economy, or whether they focus on the burden of taxes more than the benefits. Across three experiments, poor players voted against …

The Institutional Production Of Ethical War Across Modern Conflict, Katerina Udov

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

This paper argues that modern warfare operates through an ethical infrastructure that enables, rather than restrains, the use of violence. Contrary to the common assumption that moral frameworks such as Just War Theory function as safeguards against harm, the historical record shows that ethical language, humanitarian rhetoric, and democratic narratives serve as mechanisms to legitimize intervention, manufacture consent, and naturalize civilian suffering. Through case studies including Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, U.S.-backed coups in Latin America, and French intervention in Mali, the paper traces how political leaders, media institutions, and corporate actors frame war as a moral necessity while pursuing strategic and …

Expanding The Cognitive Attentional Standards Platform Through Artificial Influence Assessment (Aia): Rationale, Development, And Measurement Design, Delante Clark

Graduate Scholarship and Creative Works

Artificial intelligence is increasingly shaping how individuals access information, make decisions, and interact with digital environments. The Cognitive Attentional Standards Platform (C.A.S.) was developed to assess attention related harms, cognitive safety, digital autonomy, and platform influence across digital systems (Clark, 2026). However, the growth of generative AI, conversational agents, and algorithmic decision support technologies has introduced new forms of influence that may not be fully captured by existing assessment domains. This paper proposes the Artificial Influence Assessment (AIA) as an expansion of the C.A.S. framework designed to measure AI mediated influence on cognition, behavior, autonomy, and information processing. Drawing on …

Governing Algorithmic Attention: Attention Safeguard Models And The Cognitive Attentional Standard As System Level Interventions In Human Computer Interaction, Behavioral Economics, And Artificial Intelligence, Delante Clark

Graduate Scholarship and Creative Works

Algorithmic recommendation systems and interface designs shape attention by combining visually salient cues with uncertain reward timing and low friction interaction. These conditions can sustain anticipatory checking, extend time on task, and reduce natural disengagement points through patterns such as infinite scrolling and autoplay. This paper synthesizes research across neuroscience, human computer interaction, behavioral economics, and artificial intelligence to argue that attention capture is a predictable outcome of incentive driven design rather than an individual failure of self regulation. It advances the Attention Safeguard Models and the Cognitive Attentional Standard as system level interventions that regulate exposure conditions, pacing, and …

News Media Coverage Of Measure Ula: How The Story Of La’S Big Project To Address Homelessness And Affordable Housing Got Sidetracked By The Story Of Big Real Estate, Christopher R. Martin

Faculty Publications

“Measure ULA,” named after United to House LA, was approved by voters in Los Angeles in 2022 to create a dedicated, long-term funding source for solutions to homelessness in LA, including funding the construction of affordable homes and preventing homelessness by helping tenants stay in their homes. The funding would come from a new tax on the most expensive real estate transactions in L.A. (i.e., mansion tax), and would affect fewer than 4% of all property transactions. At the end of three years of local news coverage about Measure ULA from the Los Angeles Times and LAist, the news audience …

American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, And The Pursuit Of A More Perfect Union: An Anthology, Jay Nathan

Journal of Global Awareness

No abstract provided.

Boundaries Of Inequality: The Political Economy Of Redlining And Modern Mortgage Credit, Kyle Guo

Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award

This paper investigates the legacy of historical redlining on contemporary access to mortgage credit across three distinct urban policy environments: Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Manhattan. I find that while historical redlining is associated with a statistically significant negative effect on mortgage approval rates, the magnitude of this direct effect is relatively small. In comparison, applicant race, particularly for Black applicants, is a stronger predictor of mortgage approval rates across cities and models. This study utilizes 1930s Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) residential security maps and Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data from 2007 to 2017, and uses ordinary least squares (OLS) …