Economics Commons^™

Encouraging Naturalization: The Broader Effects Of Daca On U.S. Immigration, Emily Battaglia, Thomas Pearson

Center for Policy Research

This paper examines how protection from deportation and work authorization affect immigration outcomes, focusing on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Using a difference-in-differences design exploiting geographic variation in exposure to DACA-eligible immigrants, we find that DACA significantly increased the number of naturalized citizens without increasing the number of noncitizens. This increase is driven by higher naturalization among prior noncitizens, most of whom are likely not DACA beneficiaries. We provide evidence consistent with DACA increasing incentives for, and reducing barriers to, naturalization by protecting undocumented DACA-eligible contacts, suggesting temporary protections can encourage longer-term commitments and permanent residence among existing immigrants.

Human Capital And Labor Market Effects Of Elite Schooling In England, Scotland, And Wales: New Causal Evidence From Nonparametric Bounds, Zhanhan Yu, Vikesh Amin, Carlos A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, Giuseppe Germinario

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We estimate the causal effect of attending elite schools in England, Scotland, and Wales on human capital and labor market outcomes for cohorts of children from the 1958 National Child Development Study and the 1970 British Cohort Study. For identification, we employ a nonparametric partial-identification approach that provides bounds on the causal effect by assuming that, on average, there is positive selection into elite school attendance, and that attending an elite school does not worsen average potential human capital or labor market outcomes. The bounds indicate that there could possibly be large education and labor market returns from attending an …

Child Care Costs In The Mountain West, 2025, Cason Noll, Isabelle G. Graham, Mohit Pande, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet reports child care affordability and cost data for the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) report, “Child care costs in the United States,” highlights data on the differences in child care affordability across the United States. This fact sheet presents data on the percentage of annual income required to afford infant care for a minimum-wage worker, a typical child care worker, and a median family with children based on state-level income data for each Mountain West state. This fact sheet also reports annual costs, including college, …

The Rise Of The Global Middle Class, Homi Kharas

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

As part of the Brookings Scholar Lecture Series, Brookings Mountain West presented a lecture titled, "The Rise of the Global Middle Class" by Brookings senior fellow in global economy and development, Homi Kharas.

For the last two hundred years, ever since the start of the Industrial Revolution, the most successful economies in the world have developed large, stable middle classes. With globalization, the expansion of the middle class has accelerated to a historically unprecedented speed. But global consumerism is scaling faster than the adaptation of institutions, ecosystems, and social norms. Brookings senior fellow Homi Kharas discusses his most recent book, …

Early Learning Across Decades: Advances In Measuring Head Start Effectiveness, Chloe R. Gibbs

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The Head Start program, launched in 1965 and targeted to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, remains the largest early childhood care and education (ECE) program in the United States and the only one deployed at the federal level. As such, the Head Start literature spans several decades and now allows for synthesis of findings from different contexts, time periods, and research designs. This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the rigorous evidence measuring Head Start’s effects on children, their families, and society. The focus is on how (1) the contrast between program and counterfactual conditions, (2) takeup of the program among …

On The Legal-Theoretical Foundations Of Property Taxation Under State Ownership Of Land, Tianke Ban, Yilin Hou, Ping Zhang

Center for Policy Research

The general public and even some scholars challenge the legitimacy of levying the property tax under conditions where land is state-owned and multi-year land-use fees have already been collected at the time of house sales. This challenge points to the legal- theoretical foundations of property taxation: the core issue is whether the rights and economic utility of China's construction land-use-rights (CLUR) are sufficient to be treated as the object of property tax levy. China's Civil Law stipulates that CLUR holders have the rights to possess, use, and profit from the land during their use period, as well as the right …

Removed: When Taxi Drivers Meet Dynamic Pricing: A Lesson From Singapore's Justgrab Program, Shih-Fen Cheng, Wen-Tai Hsu, Jing Li

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies how dynamic pricing influences taxi drivers’ behaviors using a unique event, the inception of the JustGrab program in Singapore in 2017, which introduces dynamic pricing to some, but not all, taxi drivers. This is the first time in history that traditional taxi drivers have access to dynamic pricing. Using data covering the universe of taxi trips before and after the inception of JustGrab, we find that there is spatial reallocation that directs more taxi drivers to the previously less-served areas, that there is also a temporal reallocation that directs more taxi drivers to rush hours, as well …

The Uncomfortable Truths About Inclusive Growth In Singapore, Kong Weng Ho

Research Collection School Of Economics

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Economics (Education) Ho Kong Weng said that the Ministry of Finance’s Occasional Paper provides food for thought on the way forward on social mobility, growth and redistribution. Assoc Prof Ho stated that these macro statistics suggest Singapore’s socioeconomic compact has performed well, and suggests that sustaining inclusive growth is a multifaceted effort that cannot be boiled down to one single metric, whether income, wealth, inequality or mobility. He noted that pursuing ever-lower Gini coefficients through heavy regulation risks deadweight losses without guaranteeing better mobility outcomes. He added that Singapore’s approach of tempering market-driven …

Typeface: Machine-Viewing Gentrification On Storefront Imagery In Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Alexander Mcquilkin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Gentrification—broadly, the replacement of a less powerful group by a more powerful one in an urban context—is oft-discussed in the popular press, but its definition is much-debated in the urban planning literature. Furthermore, academic treatments of displacement understandably focus on measurable yet fairly abstract indicators like changes in rent or income, whereas neighborhood change is often registered by residents on the ground using visual, but difficult-to-quantify markers like retail turnover. This project uses image recognition technology on a set of storefront photos to index the visual streetscape of a neighborhood, as well as to track changes to that portrait over …

Economic Outlook Of Battle Creek: Challenges And Opportunities, Iryna V. Lendel, Chloe Wieber, Sevrin Williams, Gerrit Anderson

Upjohn Institute Technical Reports

This report by the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research examines labor market dynamics in Battle Creek, finding that roughly 75 percent of jobs in the city are held by workers who live outside the city limits, with significant skill mismatches between city residents and local employer needs. This mismatch helps explain persistently low wages, elevated poverty rates, and high reliance on public assistance among city residents despite a strong manufacturing base and growing logistics, food processing, and machining sectors. Limited housing supply, inadequate public transportation, and childcare shortages further restrict residents’ access to employment. The report underscores the urgency …

Forecast Of China’S Economic Growth Rate In 2026 And Policy Suggestions, Xikang Chen, Cuihong Yang, Kunfu Zhu, Huijuan Wang, Xinru Li, Yu Zhao

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

In 2025, China’s economy has shown a steady progress while maintaining stability. The industrial structure continues to be optimized, the new-quality productive forces enjoyed thriving development, people’s wellbeing was effectively ensured. China’s GDP growth rate ranks among the first tier of the world’s major economies. This study reviews the economic performance of China in 2025 and analyzes the domestic and international conditions for the next period. Using a system-based comprehensive factor prediction method, the study forecasts the economic growth rate for 2026, indicating that China’s economy is expected to maintain stable operation, with a growth rate of around 5.0%. This …

Level Measurement, Problem Analysis, And Countermeasures Of “Four Chains” Integration Development In China, Changhong Nie, Yuxuan He, Chuan Li

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

romoting the deep integration of innovation chain, industrial chain, funding chain, and talent chain (Four Chains) is an important path to accelerate the formation of new quality productive forces. The evaluation of the integrated development of the “Four Chains” is helpful to comprehensively and objectively reveal the development status, providing decision-making reference for the strategic deployment of scientific and technological innovation and its supporting policies. Based on the meaning and function of “Four Chains”, this study constructs an evaluation indicator system. The study also reveals the development level, regional differences, and dynamic evolution rule of “Four Chains” integration in China. …

Research On China’S Economic Pulse Based On Etc Big Data: Operational Characteristics, Structural Challenges, And Paths To High-Quality Development, Junjie Hong, Geng Li, Jian Guo, Zhengjie Tian, Libin Hu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Big data from highway ETC systems, characterized by full-domain coverage, high-frequency real-time updates, and precise granularity, provides a unique micro-observational window for perceiving the pulse of China’s economic operation. Based on the daily traffic data of national ETC users from Shandong Hi-Speed Xilian Science and Technology Co., Ltd. spanning the period 2023–2025, this study constructs a “China Economic Pulse Index” encompassing five core indicators: daily traffic volume, truck traffic volume, average truck load, inter-regional flow ratio, and travel efficiency. It systematically analyzes the economic operation logic reflected behind ETC big data. Research findings indicate that ETC data clearly reveals China’s …

Where Americans Get And Trust Political Information: Traditional Media Leads, Social Media Grows, Ai Emerges, Hwayong Shin

Weidenbaum Center Survey (WCS) Reports

Where do Americans turn for political information—and which sources do they actually trust? As traditional news organizations struggle with declining public trust (Brenan 2025; Ladd 2012), social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, X) and artificial intelligence (AI) tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot) are increasingly stepping into the information space (Bode 2016; Podimata & Cen 2025). Yet little is known about how these sources compare in citizens’ minds. This question matters because a well-functioning democracy depends not just on the availability of information, but on which sources individuals use and trust to support informed political judgments (Lupia & McCubbins 2019; Soroka …

Student Disruptions And Teacher Turnover, Kyuhan Choi, Ying Shi, Maria Zhu

Center for Policy Research

This paper examines how exposure to disruptive students affects teacher retention using linked teacher–student administrative records from North Carolina. To address non-random classroom assignment, we instrument for classroom exposure using the school-by-grade share of disruptive students based on prior-year disciplinary infractions. A 10 percentage point increase in the share of disruptive students raises the probability of an early-career teacher leaving the school in the following year by 1.0 percentage points. Notably, working in a school environment with supportive leadership and greater teacher autonomy, particularly around student conduct policies, mitigates the impact of student disruptions.

Urban Sprawl And Residential Carbon Emissions: Evidence From Indonesia And The Philippines, Yi Jiang, Taylor Lathrop, Alexander D. Rothenberg, Yao Wang

Center for Policy Research

This paper studies how neighborhood density affects residential carbon emissions, using detailed data from Indonesia and the Philippines. To address simultaneity, we instrument density with soil characteristics, and to address sorting, we control for community averages of observed characteristics. Unlike cities in developed countries, we find that density is positively correlated with residential energy use. After controlling for sorting, we find a precise null relationship between density and residential carbon emissions. Our results suggest that policies to control urban sprawl may not be successful in reducing residential carbon emissions in developing country cities.

Airbnb And The End Of The Local, Nadia Beyersdorf

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how second-home ownership and self-catered tourism reshape community life in Tenby, Wales. While gentrification research often focuses on permanent displacement, less attention has been given to the movement of temporary residents that erodes local culture, social ties, and transforms everyday relationships in coastal towns.

Environmental Degradation And Food Systems In Ghana: Gold Mining And Synthetic Pesticides, Da'mirah Vinson

Honors Theses

This research examines the relationship between environmental degradation and food systems in Ghana. Although sociological research has explored how extractive practices like gold mining dispossesses farmers of land (Gilbert and Albert 2016; Agariga 2021; Kwang and Blagogie 2025), the consequences for food sovereignty and security remain understudied. Research that considers food and land from a sociocultural perspective is even more limited. My research addresses these gaps by asking: How do environmental degradation practices—specifically gold mining and chemical use—affect food production, distribution, and security in Ghana? And how does the decline of arable land reshape cultural food identity? To explore these …

The Role Of Socioeconomic Development In Preventing Violent Extremism, Caelan Stewart

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

No abstract provided.

From Financial Education To Financial Decisions: Evidence On College Financing, Personal Finance Behavior, And Student Attitudes, Dongwei Shi

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

I examine how financial education shapes students’ financial knowledge, college financing decisions, and longer-term financial behavior.

The first chapter studies whether taking high school financial education in Kentucky affects students’ college financing decisions using linked administrative records on high school course-taking and postsecondary financial aid. Using school-level financial education course availability as an instrument, the chapter evaluates whether exposure to financial education is associated with differences in student loan borrowing and receipt of need-based aid.

The second chapter examines whether exposure to state high school financial education mandates improves financial literacy and longer-term personal finance behavior among U.S. adults. Using …

Beyond Interests And Ideas: Institutions And The Persistence Of Trade Protectionism In Brazil, Samo Sérgio Gonçalves Tosatti

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Despite decades of economic reforms and growing international integration since the 1990s, Brazil has remained one of the most protectionist large economies in the global trading system. Tariff levels remain relatively high, the country maintains a limited network of trade agreements, and non-tariff barriers play a significant role in shaping market access. Existing explanations for this persistence have focused primarily on the influence of organized interests, particularly import-competing industries, and the enduring influence of developmentalist ideas rooted in Brazil’s import-substitution industrialization (ISI) legacy.

This dissertation argues that these explanations are incomplete without accounting for a third explanatory dimension: institutions. It …

Plastic Waste Imports & Coastal Litter: Evidence From Citizen Science Data, Rebecca L.C. Taylor, Hebe Williams, Shan Zhang

Economics Faculty Publications

Plastic waste is an internationally traded commodity, where importing countries recycle plastic waste into usable materials. However, there are concerns that the importation process creates plastic litter - a negative externality - in importing countries. While this concern has received much media and policy attention, quantifying the magnitude of this externality has been hindered by a lack of data on plastic litter across countries and over time. To this end, we use unconventional citizen science data on litter from Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup, together with the United Nations Comtrade Database, to estimate the correlation between traded plastic waste and …

Fiscal Decentralization, Foreign Capital, And Economic Development In Sub-Saharan Africa, Kwadwo D. Frempong

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa has been shaped by two transformative policy shifts: widespread fiscal decentralization reforms transferring revenue and expenditure authority to subnational governments, and the pursuit of foreign direct investment to supplement domestic capital. Despite the breadth of these reforms, their effectiveness in promoting sustainable economic development remains empirically contested. This dissertation examines three interconnected questions about fiscal governance and capital flows in Sub-Saharan Africa: what determines the extent to which governments decentralize fiscal authority; how county fiscal composition and revenue autonomy shape subnational economic performance; and how foreign direct investment interacts with domestic investment and growth.

The …

Beyond The Meter: Frameworks For Evaluating The Broad Spectrum Of Microgrid Benefits, Elias Henderson

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Community-scale microgrids can create a range of social benefits. These include resilient electricity, cleaner air, decarbonization, and economic development, alongside more qualitative values like energy sovereignty and community self-determination. Many such benefits, however, are illegible to California’s market and regulatory frameworks. This thesis traces this disconnect, with particular attention to grid-edge communities in Northern California.

Microgrid benefits are classified as monetized, modeled, or incommensurable according to their inclusion/exclusion in existing regulatory and revenue mechanisms. To explore each category, a mixed-methods analytic approach is employed, pairing Tribal and stakeholder interviews with the development of a microgrid valuation calculator. This tool is …

The Economics Of Accountability: Learning From German Holocaust Reparations, Grace I. Gates

Scripps Senior Theses

Drawing on microdata from the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe, this study compares European Holocaust survivors who received reparations with similar Europeans who did not. It finds that, decades on, recipients are not systematically better or worse off on core outcomes like life satisfaction, savings, and debt. This is consistent with the argument that reparations restore parity rather than create new advantages. Where differences emerge, they point to stabilization in more vulnerable settings (e.g., lower likelihood of high debt in parts of Eastern Europe). The main takeaway from effective reparations is applicable to the United States debate: …

The Future Of U.S. Higher Education: Equity Implications Of Shifting Immigration Policies, Research Institute For Social Equity Rise

Research Institute for Social Equity

This report examines the impact of U.S. immigration policies on higher education and international students from 2000 to 2025. It traces five major policy eras, from the post- 9/11 security overhaul and Obama-era expansion to the restrictive turns of 2017–2020 and 2025, and analyzes how shifting regulations have influenced enrollment patterns, economic contributions, and student well-being. Despite hosting more than 1.1 million international students in 2023–2024, the U.S. share of the global student market has fallen from 20% to 16%, underscoring how policy volatility and restrictive measures weaken national competitiveness. Drawing on federal data, scholarly research, and institutional reports, this …

C.A.S. Full Assessment Report: State Of Florida Government Portal, Delante Clark

Graduate Scholarship and Creative Works

The purpose of this assessment is to evaluate the cognitive overhead, transparency, and attentional integrity of

official State of Florida digital interfaces using the Cognitive Attentional Standards (C.A.S.) platform.

While the Florida Digital Bill of Rights (FDBR) establishes strict regulatory guardrails for consumer data

transparency, tracking opt-outs, and attentional safeguards, the State of Florida explicitly exempts its own

government agencies, public universities, and non-profit entities from complying with these rules.

This assessment serves to investigate the tension between legislative intent and government execution. By

analyzing public sector websites through the C.A.S. platform, this project will establish a “state-enforced vs.

state-executed” …

The Effect Of The Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansion On The Risk Of Hospital Closure And Adolescent Hpv Immunization In Rural Counties, Juliette Des Rosiers

Scripps Senior Theses

From 2005 to 2025, over 200 rural hospitals shut their doors, often citing increased operational costs, staffing shortages, low patient volume, regulatory barriers, financial challenges exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and uncompensated care as common contributors to the closures. Rural patients are often referred by their primary care physician to a hospital for regular immunizations, since smaller clinics have less capacity to provide immunizations due to a shortage of pediatricians and limited vaccine stock. A crucial vaccine that is not required by schools and underutilized in rural areas is that against human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus that infects cutaneous and …

Good Food In The Neighborhood: Localizing Nutritious Food Access, Joseph Pool

Honors Program Theses

Given contemporary changes to federal budget priorities and recent challenges to federal food access funding, this research explores the potential benefits of entrusting state-level and municipal-level policymakers with food access policy. More specifically, this research suggests that “localizing” food access has the unique benefit of not just addressing the affordability of food, but the physical accessibility of it. As observed in the previous literature and expounded upon here, food provisioning requires consideration of nutrition, physical accessibility, and financial affordability. Programs that only address one of these priorities fail to adequately help people receive the food they need. Through policy analysis …

Improving Maternal Health: Investigating The Early Impacts Of Medicaid Coverage Of Doulas In Oregon, Miriam Akhmetshin

Scripps Senior Theses

While the U.S. spends more per-capita than any country on healthcare, we experience the worst maternal health outcomes of high-income nations. In addition to hefty healthcare bills, an overwhelming majority of mothers experience pregnancy-related health issues that decrease productivity and utility. Thus, it is critical to research cost-effective solutions that can improve maternal health and promote equitable outcomes. Doulas are trained non-medical professionals who support mothers and families before, during and after birth. As a growing body of medical literature points to the role of doulas in decreasing costly medical interventions, insurance companies have begun covering their services. In 2014, …