Economics Commons^™

Narcocorridos: Music, Defiance, And Violence In Transnational Contexts, Nallely G Murguia

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This research aims to explain and understand the effects that the music genre known as narcocorrido has on society, politics, and culture in Mexico and the United States. It provides a background on the history of narcocorridos and how it came be known as a symptom of the ongoing violence in Mexico. The Movimiento Alterado is also explored in this research project, as a product of narcocorrido singers who came together to glorify violence. A global aspect plays a big role in researching this topic as globalization and transnationalism reveal the complexity of politics, economics, and culture and its effects …

Fantasy Football's Impact On Nfl Revenue, Joshua Hamby

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper investigates the hypothesis that fantasy football positively influences NFL revenues. While there are many variables that may substantially influence NFL revenues, such as team by team and year by year variation, the estimations in this paper attempt to isolate the effects of fantasy football. Providing evidence of impacts attributable to fantasy football would be important information for parties involved with the NFL and/or fantasy football to better understand what is creating value for the league, players in the league, and the fantasy industry. This paper has results on estimations testing the impacts of both the fantasy participation explosion …

The Dictators’ Dilemma: Repression Or Concessions In The Face Of Resistance, Chris Massaro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Arab Spring revolts of late 2010 and 2011 were a profound moment in the history of a region troubled by decades of authoritarianism. Years of economic mismanagement and security force repression trammeled on the rights and aspirations of people striving for a better life. When social movements and anti-government protests erupted throughout the region, each country responded to the uprisings with different methodologies. This research closely examines why autocratic regimes of the region chose such divergent responses, with some opting to use violent repression, others attempting to make concessions and most combined repression with concessions. I will make the …

Full Circle: Building A Local Economy Through Pollinator Enterprises In The Food System, Catherine M. Demets

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

As the alternative food movement gains traction in mainstream American society, it is essential to document how enterprises in the movement are building robust local economies. As Eric Holt-Giménez (2010: 1) points out, the movement “has successfully shone the spotlight on hunger and food access in the US, created a drive for more local food, and gotten better policy from the federal to the local level,” yet no assurance exists that our society’s interest in food issues is not a passing fad. Rather, we should ask: “how do we turn initial reforms into lasting food system transformation?” (Holt-Giménez 2010: 1). …

Politics And The Price Of Rice In Thailand: Public Choice, Institutional Change And Rural Subsidies, Jacob Ricks

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Despite the Thai state’s long record of rice market interventions, historically politicians failed to leverage rice subsidies in their pursuit of political support, notwithstanding the large number of farmers in the country. Since Thaksin Shinawatra’s election in 2001, though, each government has subsidised rice producers, although at varying degrees. What explains this change? This article traces the four-decade history of rice price support programmes. It is proposed that these policies be interpreted through the dual lens of institutionalism and public choice theory, demonstrating how political institutions have shaped incentives for politicians to cater to different constituencies. During the pre-1980 period, …

Professional Development Needs Of Utah State University Extension Professionals, Callahan K. Ward

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many Utah State University (USU) Extension personnel are nearing retirement age. The purpose of this study was to identify professional development needs of Extension professionals and assess USU Extension by evaluating competencies essential to be a successful Extension professional. USU Extension can conduct more beneficial professional development training by using identified high priority competencies and improve the on boarding process for new Extension professionals. With improvements as suggested, the effectiveness of professional development could be enhanced and produce Extension professionals who work more efficiently and are committed to the success of USU Extension.

Social Exchange Theory: What Is It, And How Can It Be Applied To Everyday Situations?, Miriam Deauseault

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

In all forms of relationships between people, the concept of ‘give and take’ is central. You spend time with a friend because you offer each other mutual support and have fun with them. You pay to take your significant other out on a date or buy them a nice gift because their affection and presence in your life makes you feel good. When these balances get shifted so one person is consistently taking more and the other is giving more, it tends to turn friendships, romantic relationships and other types of social bonds sour quickly. This is all common knowledge. …

Consciente O Inconsciente: El Rol De La Educación En La Formación De Una Conciencia Social Y Colectiva En La Juventud Chilena / Conscious Or Unconscious: The Role Of Education In Forming A Social And Collective Awareness In Chilean Youth, Samsara Davalos Reyes

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Esta investigación explorará la formación de una conciencia social y colectiva en la juventud chilena y los distintas causas que contribuyen a su creación como los es la educación. En la última década se ha visto el surgir de una multitud de movilizaciones estudiantiles y ferviente espíritu militante que llaman a investigar, que impulsa de forma individual y colectiva a que uno tome conciencia y se movilice. Es por eso que este estudio observó tres clases de historia además de entrevistar a nueve estudiantes y 3 docentes en liceos históricos y/o emblemáticos en la comuna de Santiago y técnico en …

La Influencia Del Neoliberalismo Sobre Las Ideas De Lo “Natural”: Un Análisis De Las Ideas De La Naturaleza En Urbanizaciones Cerradas Y Grupos Subalternos En Tigre / The Influence Of Neoliberalism On Ideas Of What Is “Natural”: An Analysis Of Ideas Of Nature In Closed-Gated And Marginalized Communities In Tigre, Catherine Fraser

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Since the 1970s, there has been a global increase in neoliberal policy and ideology, marked by privatization, deregulation, and the withdrawal of the state from social programs (Harvey 2005: 2-3). Neoliberalism has manifested itself in Argentina in various forms, notably in the rise of closed-gated neighborhoods. In Tigre, a northern suburb of Buenos Aires, real estate developers fill in wetlands and re-route river tributaries to construct closed-gated neighborhoods around artificial water bodies to create an idealized neighborhood that offers residents a life in contact with “nature”. Seeking to accumulate capital, real estate developers commodify and construct a specific form of …

Nature And Nomads: Service Approach To Mongolia Tours, Jesse E. Shircliff

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Tourism has potential to diversify Mongolia’s geopolitically challenged economy. Tourism development and promotion has increased since 1990, and there is reason to expect continued sector growth. Cultural tourism has potential to commodify or degrade cultural resources (Gilbert, 2006, Pigliasco, 2010, Soma & Suhkee, 2014) and alter the physical landscape and identity of local people (Chang & Yeoh, 1999, Seng, 2005, Phua & Berkowitz, 2014). As tourism in Mongolia increases, its effects on cultural resources should be understood. This study of Mongolian tourism interviews fifteen tour company employees to understand how Mongolian culture is perceived and used from a business perspective. …

Passion With Purpose A Case Study Of St. Jude Children’S Research Hospital, Allyson Favuzza

Honors Projects in Management

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is “leading the way the world understands, treats, and defeats childhood cancer and other life threatening diseases” (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital). Fifty-five years ago when St. Jude opened its doors, the overall childhood cancer survival rate was 20 percent; today, the overall childhood cancer survival rate exceeds 80 percent. Through research and discovery, St. Jude has played a pivotal role in increasing this survival rate. St. Jude, a non-profit organization and hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, operates primarily through donations. St. Jude-American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC) is the fundraising and awareness organization with the …

The Gender Wage Gap And The "Motherhood" Effect, Adrianna Decicco

Honors Senior Capstone Projects

This paper discusses the gender pay gap and how motherhood is a major factor toward the inequalities in the workplace. For this paper, the wage gap is defined as the difference between men and women’s yearly income consisting of hourly or salary wages, overtime, benefits and bonuses. It should be noted that men earn more in every category of work, even the categories that are female-dominated professions.

Towards An Agreed Definition Of Sustainability: Exploring The Concept Of Sustainability In Amherst, Massachusetts, Babatunde Ajao

Capstone Collection

Many educators agree that to learning about sustainability and discussing it’s implications on values, ethics and the role of humans are essential. With so many moving parts it is difficult to determine a sustainable assessment to encompass the changing world. The time has come for us to ask reflective questions about what exactly sustainability means. How has the term sustainability been used worldwide? What was the goal of sustainability and what is the result? Is there a better alternative to achieving this goal? By identifying the characteristics of best practice for sustainability, we take a step towards understanding the concept …

Paradigmas Del Desarrollo Urbano En Cuenca: Abordando Los Procesos De Segregación, Marginación Y Desplazamiento / Paradigms Of Urban Development In Cuenca: Addressing The Processes Of Segregation, Marginalization And Displacement, Sarah Rothschild

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Cuenca, tercerca ciudad más grande de Ecuador, ha experimento un crecimiento rápido en los últimos años, que ha influenciado en los paradigmas de desarrollo urbano de forma considerable. Los impactos de la urbanización han cambiado las dinámicas y condiciones de vida de la ciudad y de su gente, creando un ambiente urbano que favorece a los sectores más ricos de la población, y al mismo tiempo relegando y segregando a comunidades con menos recursos; si bien, no son tan extremos como en ciudades más grandes como Quito y Guayaquil. Por otro lado, el reciente fenómeno de migración extranjera, también ha …

Pearl Lagoon's White Lobster: The Societal, Economic, Political And Autonomous Effects, Rafely Palacios

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua is home to the greatest number of impoverished individuals in the country. However, the people of Pearl Lagoon - a municipality in the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region - have found a way to escape their poor economic situations.

Due to the municipality’s close proximity to drug routes utilized by Colombian cartels and to the country itself, community members have turned to the drug trade in hopes of pursuing financial secureness. With the introduction of the “white lobster” or cocaine packets, the community as a whole has transformed its social, economic, and political spheres. In …

Engaging America: Unearthing The Middle Way In The Conflict Between Liberals And Conservatives, Noah Cadet

Capstone Collection

Liberals and conservatives have waged conflict over development strategies since the founding of the United States of America. Observers of the 2016 Presidential Election may have noticed an escalation of a preexisting trend of destructive engagement between Democrats and Republicans. The researcher pursued primary and secondary research in an attempt to understand how conflict within and between development paradigms in the United States can be transcended. The central research question was regarding how this conflict affects efforts towards peacebuilding at the grassroots from the perspective of a liberal. The literature review provides a brief histories of US American Political Economy …

Healthcare Coverage In The United States And New York Metropolitan Area, 2009 - 2015, Andrew S. Alger

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This study examines trends regarding health insurance coverage in the United States along lines of sex, race/ethnicity, place of birth, and poverty status between 2009 and 2015.

Methods: This study uses the American Community Survey PUMS (Public User Microdata Series) for the years 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2015. These datasets were downloaded from the IPUMS USA website hosted by the University of Minnesota. The variables used in the study describe these populations in terms of sex, the four major race/ethnic groups (non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, Latino, and Asian), being born either within the United States or abroad, and being …

The Normalization Of Prostitution In Switzerland: The Origin Of Policies, Corinne Isler, Marjut Jyrkinen

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

In this article, we examine how socio-political actors frame prostitution and problems attached to the phenomenon and what types of policies they suggest. The sex trade in Switzerland has been tolerated since 1942, and prostitution is protected under the economic freedom guaranteed by the Swiss constitution. Any critique of prostitution is viewed as counterproductive, claimed to be rooted in old-fashioned ideas about sexuality and thought to worsen the situation for women who sell sex. The role of sex buyers is largely obscured, and the presumed right to buy sex remains unquestioned.

Coming In Hot: Motor Vehicles, Capitalism, And Modernization In Mongolia, Thea Bergen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Traditionally, nomads in Mongolia have used horses for transportation. The horse was used to help herd livestock and also allowed them to get to the soum center quicker (Yembuu, 2015). This way of transportation is seen less and less now. With globalization comes an increase in different products from around the world. Herders now have the opportunity to buy cars and the ever popular motorcycle. Now, when out in the open Mongolian steppe, one can see motorcycles racing around to get herders from place to place. Some even use them to herd instead of a horse. And when a family …

El Valor De Verde Neoliberalismo, Crisis Económica Y Políticas Polarizadas: Cómo Afecta En La Vida Cotidiana De La Gente De Clase Media En Buenos Aires. / The Value Of Green Neoliberalism, Economic Crisis And Polarized Politics: How They Affect The Everyday Life Of The Citizens Of The Middle Class In Buenos Aires., Sierra Conboy

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The history of a country can haunt them for decades. For Argentina, the history of neoliberal economics has plagued the economic development of the country; so much so that as a result of neoliberalism, Argentina experienced the worst social, political, and economic crisis of the countries entire existence between the years of 1998 and 2002. With the height of the crisis being in 2001, it continues to lurk in the economic and political infrastructure of the country today. The threat of constant economic dilemmas has manifested into the minds of the citizens of Argentina, but how far has it gone? …

Raci (Red Argentina Para La Cooperación Internacional): La Cooperación Internacional En El Contexto De Las Organizaciones De La Sociedad Civil En Argentina / Raci (Argentine Network For International Cooperation): International Cooperation In The Context Of Civil Society Organizations In Argentina, Juno Rettenmier

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

La cooperación internacional entre los actores estatales y no estatales —como las organizaciones de la sociedad civil, fundaciones y empresas— es un desarrollo relativamente nuevo en las relaciones internacionales, pero es una parte importante para el desarrollo social hoy en día. Este informe intenta introducir el concepto de la información como un recurso tan valioso como el dinero en el proceso de la cooperación internacional y en el logro de los objetivos de desarrollo social, especialmente para las OSC, apoyado por los aprendizajes y las observaciones que yo hice durante mis cuatro semanas como una pasante de RACI (Red Argentina …

Entrepreneurship Education Empowers Youth To Change Their Lives, Marianna Brashear, Jason Riddle

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) aims at equipping Title 1 schools with free, hands-on, engaging materials that any teacher can facilitate either individually or in a classroom setting with no background in entrepreneurship necessary. These versatile lessons, courses, and workshops teach the entrepreneurial mindset optimizing opportunities for grades 8-12 students no matter which life/career path they choose.

Unicorns, Guardians, And The Concentration Of The U.S. Equity Markets, Amy Deen Westbrook, David A. Westbrook

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Networks Of Survival In Kinshasa, Mumbai, Detroit, And Comparison Cities; An Empirical Perspective, Beryl S. Powell

Ph.D. Dissertations (Open Access)

People in impoverished cities, for example in Kinshasa, lend small quantities of food to neighbors when requested, to prevent starvation. In Mumbai, they share their living space with others who are homeless. In Detroit, churches and the Detroit Urban League have helped poor residents to obtain jobs, meals, and housing. Rather than mere self-interest, this expression of generosity is an outstanding human quality. Networks of survival also include the lessons of history, good economic and political policies, human rights, equal opportunity, and culture.

Barriers To Labor Migration For The Rural Poor: Experimental Evidence From A Vocational Training Program In Bangladesh, Abu S. Shonchoy, Tomoki Fujii, Selim Raihan

Research Collection School Of Economics

Vocational training programs aimed at rapidly growing sectors have the potential to reduce skill gaps as well as improve income and employment possibilities. Such programs have often been unsuccessful because they are not driven by industry demand and market linkages. Also, they do not tackle other barriers faced by trainees, such as savings and credit constraints and the uncertainty of migration. We introduced a training "plus'' program for the apparel sector jobs offered to the poor, rural households in northern Bangladesh, where we relaxed some of these constraints in a rigorous Randomized Control Trial (RCT) setting. Analyzing the program uptake …

No. 80: Problematizing The Foreign Shop: Justifications For Restricting The Migrant Spaza Sector In South Africa, Vanya Gastrow

Southern African Migration Programme

Small businesses owned by international migrants and refugees are often the target of xenophobic hostility and attack in South Africa. This report examines the problematization of migrant-owned businesses in South Africa, and the regulatory efforts aimed at curtailing their economic activities. In so doing, it sheds light on the complex ways in which xenophobic fears are generated and manifested in the country’s social, legal and political orders. Efforts to curb migrant spaza shops in South Africa have included informal trade agreements at local levels, fining migrant shops, and legislation that prohibits asylum seekers from operating businesses in the country. Several …

Life In Hampton Roads Survey Press Release #3: Economics, Social Science Research Center, Old Dominion University

Life in Hampton Roads Survey Report

[Introductory paragraph]

This report examines regional perceptions of economic conditions from the 2018 Life In Hampton Roads survey (LIHR 2018) conducted by the Old Dominion University Social Science Research Center. Data from prior years is also provided when available to show comparisons in responses over time. Responses were weighted by city population, race, age, gender, and phone usage (cell versus land-line) to be representative of the Hampton Roads region. For additional information on survey methodology, and analyses of other issues, please see the SSRC website at www.odu.edu/ssrc.

Cacao Together: A Model For True Sustainability In The Chocolate Industry, Kerstin Roos

Capstone Collection

This Course Linked Capstone provides a critical analysis of the concept of sustainable development and then uses this analysis to create a social venture plan for a non-profit called Cacao Together. This capstone project will identify challenges in the sustainable use of cacao by first critiquing the mainstream sustainable development initiatives of certification schemes and corporate sustainability programs. It then offers an alternate framework through the 5 Capital Livelihood assessment tool which when applied, shows the gaps in cacao sustainability initiatives generally. I then propose a social venture that will addresses the needs of many parts of the chocolate supply …

Taxation For Whom?:A Diachronic Analysis Of Taxation In Ireland And The United Kingdom From 1970-2015., Ewan Macdonald, John Hogan, Brendan O'Rourke

Other

This paper explores the discursive development of taxation within budget speeches in two countries, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, from 1970 to 2015 by means of a corpus-assisted discourse analysis. We ask the following questions; how have discourses of taxation developed diachronically in both countries, what are the similarities and differences in the observable discourses across both countries, and for whom and how are these discourses legitimised? In answering these questions, this paper makes use of Corpus linguistics, a methodological approach which utilises computational analysis of large bodies of text to draw statistically significant conclusions about the …

Making Implicit Methods Explicit: Trade Press Analysis In The Political Economy Of Communication, Thomas F. Corrigan

Communication Studies Faculty Publications

The political economy of communication (PEC) situates media systems and practices in their structural and historical contexts; however, PEC scholars rarely articulate or justify their research methods. To address this oversight, this article explains how PEC scholars use trade publications to study media industries, practices, policy making, and discourses thereof. Following a critical realist approach, PEC researchers “burrow down” in trade press advertisements and reports and “listen in” to the frank, insider discussions therein. This article evaluates the trade press against Scott’s four “quality control criteria” for documentary sources—authenticity, credibility, representativeness, and meaning. Trade publications employ daunting industry jargon, and …