Economics Commons^™

Empirical Analysis Of Nba 2011 Cba Changes And Their Effects On Competitive Balance, Derek Smith

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates the effects of the 2011 collective bargaining agreement on the competitive balance in the National Basketball Association. It illustrates how the different rules and regulations affected various factors within the sport, and in turn how these alterations affected the competitive balance of the NBA. The goal is to exemplify the importance of NBA factors in the competitive balance of the sport and prevent incorrect manipulation of the industry. The results showed that the 2011 CBA did little to none in terms of improving the level of competitive balance within the NBA. All of the factors that were …

Economic Growth And Cultural Attitudes Towards Women: An Empirical Investigation, Jake Barlow

Honors Projects in Economics

This study explores the relationship between cultural attitudes towards women and national GDP growth, across several countries. Data from the World Values from 2017 through 2020 wave has been utilized to determine cultural attitudes, and data from the World Bank and USAID has been utilized for building the economic growth model. The purpose of this study is to inform policy makers regarding the effects of policies that are pro gender equality and to identify the effects of gender inequality on economic growth, independent of other economic factors. In addition, this study also investigates the relationship between cultural attitudes towards women …

The Zero-Leverage Policy And Family Firms, Pedram Fardnia, Maher Kooli, Sonal Kumar

Finance Department Faculty Journal Articles

Purpose – The purpose of the study is to examine the zero-leverage (ZL) phenomenon in family and non-family firms.

Design/methodology/approach – The authors consider three hypotheses and empirically test them using a sample of the largest US firms over the 2001–2016 period.

Findings – The authors find that, on average, 19.20% of family firms have zero debt vs 10.42% for non-family firms. The authors also find that family firms strategically choose to be ZL to maintain financial flexibility for future investments and exercise control over the decision-making process, consistent with the hypotheses of financial flexibility and control considerations. However, non-family …

Cross-Quality Impacts Of Ncaa Division I Baseball And Softball, Laura Beaudin

Economics Faculty Journal Articles

Fifty years after Title IX, inequalities still exist between men's and women's sports. Most sport studies still fail to examine women's sports. This study explores the cross-quality impacts of Division I baseball and softball teams. The softball team win percentage is positively related to softball and baseball game attendance. However, models produce mixed results for the impact of the quality of the baseball team. Therefore, improving the strength of the softball team could increase softball and baseball game attendance, while improving the strength of the baseball team might only increase attendance at baseball games.

Earnings Management: Are Men From Mars And Women From Venus?, Sonal Kumar, Rahul Ravi

Finance Department Faculty Journal Articles

Research on gender and finance finds that women chief executive officers (CEOs) are relatively risk-averse and more ethical than their male counterparts. These differences are often presented as reasons for lower earnings management by firms led by women. A strand of contrasting literature however finds the notions of women being risk-averse and ethical not necessarily true for women occupying top leadership positions as women successful in shattering the glass ceiling adopt behaviors like men. This study attempts to understand the differences between the ethical tendencies of the two genders by examining if CEO power impacts the relation between CEO gender …

War And Money In Ngram Viewer, Robert H. Mcfadden, William Zywiak, Ronald P. Bobroff, Gao Niu

Finance Department Faculty Journal Articles

The second and fourth authors have been inviting Intro to Applied Analytics and Statistics 1 students to use the Ngram Database to explore historical topics of their choosing. This is the first article derived from this exercise. The first author examined the historical relationship between war and money from 1775 to 2005 in the American English corpus. This is followed by an examination of the 3-gram “cost of war” in the American English and British English corpora. Specific to the analyses presented here several military and economic events are discussed. More specifically, both economies and wars are somewhat unpredictable, with …

Financial Literacy And Investing Habits Of Generation Z As It Pertains To Financial Marketing, Meghan Mazzatto

Honors Projects in Marketing

As technology boomed at the end of the 20th Century and into the 21st Century, the methods young adults use to manage their finances have also evolved. Between moving financial investing and banking to the internet, robo-advising apps, college debt, and the generational reaction to the 2008 Financial Crisis, the world of investing has taken a drastic turn when it comes to young investors. The purpose of this study is to examine the financial habits of Generation Z in order for financial planning companies to better market to the upcoming Generation Z. A survey was used for this study to …

Team Incentives And Lower Ability Workers: An Experimental Study On Real Effort Tasks, Richard B. Freeman, Xiaofei Pan, Xiaolan Yang, Maoliang Ye

Economics Faculty Working Papers

Team incentives are important in many compensation systems that pay workers according to the output of their team as well as to their own output, with team bonuses often depending on whether the team meets or exceeds specified thresholds. Yet little is known about how team members with different abilities respond to compensation rules and thresholds. We contrast the performance of lower ability participants and higher ability participants in an experiment with three distribution schemes – equal sharing, piece rate sharing, and tournament style winner-takesall – in settings with and without a team threshold. Workers randomly assigned to equal sharing …

Young Adults And Money: The Covid-19 Pandemic, Michael Mariano

Honors Projects in Finance

This study looks to explore the relationship between the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy and young investors. More specifically, this research looks to answer the question: how have young adults, ages 18-25, responded to the economic distress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic with their investing decisions? Through analyzing a sample of young adults, ages 18-25, this study will develop a deeper and broader perspective on the unique impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the investing decisions of young adults. Using a mix of literary studies on similar historical events and a sample study of young …

Natural Disasters And Government Size: A Cross-Country Analysis, Justin Hainse

Honors Projects in Economics

re have been multiple studies within the field of economics concerning the various effects that natural disasters have on countries. The goal of the present study is to address the seemingly forgotten area of how natural disasters affect the size of a government. Using data from both the Emergency Events Database and the World Bank, a cross-country panel data analysis is performed to test the impact of natural disasters on government size. The results show that more deaths from a natural disaster is associated with countries having a larger government. These results aim to be useful for allowing governments to …

Panel Data Analysis Of Import Tariff Policy On Economic Growth And Industrial Output In Developing Economies, Connor A. Palazzo

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper is focused on interpreting the effects of import tariff policy on domestic economic growth in the small market economies of developing nations. There have been several previous studies that have investigated the effect of tariff policy on domestic consumers and producers of already established economies. In addition, there have also been many studies assessing the effects tariffs from developed countries have on developing countries. However, few reports have been done on how tariffs impact the domestic producers of a developing nation. It is widely accepted that open and free trade is the best method for facilitating growth and …

Disparities Within The Housing Market: Determinants Of Homeownership With An Emphasis On Sex And Race, Olivia Lemire

Honors Projects in Economics

A home is one of the wealthiest assets an individuals can hold and serves as a major indicator of economic wellbeing. The decision for someone to rent or buy a home is based upon many factors. Similar, to Hood (1999), this paper analyzes the relationship between determinants of homeownership and the probability that an individual owns their home using regression and probability models. The focus of this paper is the relationship between sex and race on homeownership. Results suggest that White males have the highest rate of homeownership, while Black females have the lowest rate of homeownership even after all …

Investing In Democratic Countries: An Investigation Of Democracy And Fdi, Maxwell Lajeunesse

Honors Projects in Economics

In this paper, the relationship between Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows and democracy levels of upper-middle income nations using three different measures of democracy is investigated. An empirical analysis across the years 2010 through 2018 was conducted, using the democracy indicators and data from the United States Agency for International AID (USAID). These democracy indicators are the EIU Democracy Index, Polity5, and IDEA Global State of Democracy Indices. The importance of this research revolves around the benefits of FDI inflows and how countries may capitalize on these benefits. Additionally, FDI has increased rapidly in the past 20 years and democracy …

The Impact Of Female Leadership On Lgbtq-Supportive Policies, Samantha Bove

Honors Projects in Finance

In the past two decades, gender inequality in c-suites has received a large amount of attention. Thus, the number of women in top management roles has increased substantially. However, the corporate sector has also neglected other marginalized groups, specifically, members of the LGBTQ community. These individuals are important employees and previous literature has established the benefits, both financial and otherwise, that the presence of LGBTQ supportive policies have on American corporations. In this paper, I examine if the presence of women CEOs influences the LGBTQ policies that are implemented in that firm. This will be analyzed using an OLS regression …

Corporate Social Responsibility Within The American Craft Beer Industry: Environmental Sustainability And Community Engagement, Bradley Demild

Honors Projects in Management

Craft brewing and craft beer is emerging as an established business in the United States, with many states housing established regional breweries. As the United States looks to implement environmentally friendly practices in business operations, the goal of this report is to analyze the respective steps taken by the craft beer industry to achieve sustainability. Looking into environmental sustainability and community efforts holistically, the corporate social responsibly (CSR) practices of certified independent, craft brewers who are members of the Brewers Association of various sizes, lends insights into the current state of the industry. A combination of educational materials provided by …

Footballer Valuations: Valuing World-Class Football Players Against Transfer Fees, Louis Diblasi

Honors Projects in Economics

This paper aims to create a model to value European football players. It will do so by comparing a player's transfer fee and then measuring their value based on performances in the season after the transfer has occurred. The model will be applied to Europe's top five leagues: the English Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Ligue 1, and the German Bundesliga. This study takes variables from multiple past studies to be used in the model, and adds a valuation for goalkeepers, which has never been done before. The goal of this study is to measure the variables that contribute …

The Effect Of Minimum Wage Increases On Employment Of Teenagers In New England, Felicia O’Reilly

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper examines the relationship between increasing minimum wage and the number of hours that teenagers ages 15-19 work in New England states during the years 2002- 2019. In these years, all New England states have had various minimum wage rates, this paper will use feasible general least squares state-level panel data analysis to see if there is a positive or negative impact on teenage employment due to increases in minimum wage. Data was collected from the Current Population Survey, the American Community Survey, and state census data, and used with an equation derived by Zavodny (2000). State-level panel data …

A Panel Data Analysis Of The Effects Of Macroeconomic Variables On Income Inequality In Latin American Countries, Scott Poretsky

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates the relationship between inflation, trade, unemployment, education, and economic growth on income inequality in the South American OECD countries (Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and Peru). While Argentina, Brazil, and Peru are not official OECD countries, they have a working relationship with OECD and have taken the first steps toward initiation in OECD. The variable that represents income inequality is the Gini Index World Bank estimator, and the variable that represents economic growth is GDP. This paper uses a panel data set from 2006 to 2020. The results of this study show that trade percentage, …

International Integration And Export-Led Growth In Latin America: A Panel Data Analysis, James Titus

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates the potential determinants for international integration and effects of export-led growth in Latin American countries to determine the most effective measure of growth in the countries. The study incorporates information asymmetry into a GDP per capita growth model to examine the influence of openness, human capital, export diversity, and more. While examining data from World Bank development indicators, it has been shown that there are at least nine different variables that provide relevant data to create a functional model. The results show that there are many applicable determinants that can be used in the model without over-correlation. …

Effectiveness Of Aid: Panel Data Analysis Of Foreign Aid In Africa, Will Bittrich

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates the effectiveness of international foreign aid flows into the continent of Africa. The study incorporates economic information into an econometric model to examine the influence of variables including natural resources, types of government, corruption, and education. The influence of gender equality and rule of law in relation to developed countries is factored in through a dependent variable. These findings provide an analysis on the efficiency of foreign aid and its effects on economic development in the region.

A Panel Data Analysis On Income Inequality On Life Expectancy In Asia, Julianna Flaccavento

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper aims to investigate the possibility of interdependence between income and life expectancy in countries across Asia. The study looks at the difference of life expectancies for men, women, and the two genders combined. We also looked at how health could have an impact on the model. We ran a fixed and random effect model on our panel data. We then ran the fixed and random effect model on the countries separated by income levels which we separated into low, middle, and high. The results show that the fixed effect was significant in Asia on both males and females …

The School-To-Prison Pipeline: A Panel Data Analysis, Samuel Guider

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

The objective of this paper is to analyze the potential affect public-school funding has on juvenile incarceration rates in the United States using a panel series data set from 2000 until 2020. The United States has the highest per capita incarceration rates among 114 other members of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with 639 individuals for every 100,000 are incarcerated in the United States. This papers aims to use explanatory variables like race (black and white), sex, age, arrests, educational attainment, and rates of school attendance to further help in answering if an increase in public spending …

The Empirical Analysis Of Motherhood Penalty: The Effect Of Having Children On Women’S Career, Madison Henry

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates the motherhood penalty as well as the fatherhood bonus. The Motherhood penalty is a phenomenon by which women’s pay decreases once they become mothers. The fatherhood bonus refers to the advantages that working fathers get in terms of pay and perceived competence in comparison with working mothers and childless men. This study incorporates information on the effect a child has on a mother’s income verse that of a father’s, while also measuring how a woman’s income is affected after having a child comparatively to that of a childless woman’s. The results show that the income of Mother’s …

An Empirical Analysis On Disparities In Access To Healthcare In New York City, Olivia Lemire

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

Healthcare access varies across demographics. Access to healthcare is a strong determinant of health of individuals in New York City. There are a wide range of disparities in health care access for People of Color. Determinants of insurance include race, sex, education status, marital status, whether an individual has children. White individuals, specifically White females have the highest rate of insurance, while Latinx males have the lowest rate of insurance.

Panel Data Analysis: Gender Wage Gap And Macroeconomic Factors Impacts, Yuzhe Lin

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper study the relationship between the gender wage gaps and macroeconomic factors that would impact them. The paper use panel data with data collected from OCED and World Bank WDI Indicator. The results show that the difference between female and male life expectancy, import, and female labor participation has a positive impact on the gender wage gap. FDI and Women business and law index score has a negative impact the gender wage gap.

Causal Relationship Between Defense Spending And Economic Growth In Countries With Different Income Levels, Kyle Sampson

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper addresses the relationship between defense spending and economic growth for various economies with different income levels. Using time series annual data, the Granger causality test was conducted. This study looks to determine whether the direction of causality in these economies is different in low−income, middle income, and high−income countries.

Impact Of Corruption On Economic Growth In Central America: A Panel Data Analysis, Ben Bresnee

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates the possible impact of corruption on economic growth in Central America. This study incorporates information into a model to examine the influence of different factors such as population growth, aid, human capital, gross domestic investment, Corruption, and consumption. This study finds that there is a negative effect of corruption on economic growth in Central America.

Determinants Of Real Median Household Income In The United States Using Time-Series And Panel Data Analysis, Evan Clark

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper’s main objective was to explore the determinants of income inequality using real median household income in the United States. This paper utilizes time series analysis to examine the Gini coefficient, trends in the top 1%’s share of wealth, and the relationship between real median income and varying demographics. The Gini coefficient is a summary measure of income inequality in a country. Income inequality is how unevenly income is distributed throughout a population. The results show that there is a negative correlation between the top 1%’s share of total wealth and the United States Gini rating, and that inequality …

Granger Causality Of The Relationship Between Tourist Flows And Household Expenditure In Jamaica, Ben Williams

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

Keynesians propose that increases in tourist arrivals are associated with an expansion in private spending through the multiplier effect. To test this hypothesis, this study augments a simple consumption function with tourist arrivals and employs the dynamic OLS method to compute the short and long run relationships of the variables. Time series data from 1980-2019 is used to test if tourist arrivals Granger cause household expenditure. The results show that there is no relationship between tourist arrivals and household expenditure in Jamaica and tourist arrivals do not Granger cause household expenditure.

A Panel Data Analysis Of Institutional Quality, Fdi, And Public Debts’ Impact On Economic Growth For Asean, Joshua Kearney

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates the effects on economic growth driven by institutional quality, foreign direct investment, and public debt while doing a breakdown and comparison between the first and last five nations to join ASEAN as well as a collective analysis of the complete 10 ASEAN. The model used in this paper focuses primarily on the country’s gross domestic product and the domestic growth seen within ASEAN that utilized public debt to fund governmental agendas.