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Articles 91 - 120 of 608

Full-Text Articles in Economics

The Economic And Health Impacts Of Community Gardens On Refugee Populations: Cric Garden Case Study, Joseph Montoya Dec 2020

The Economic And Health Impacts Of Community Gardens On Refugee Populations: Cric Garden Case Study, Joseph Montoya

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The purpose of this paper is to examine the economic benefits of community gardens and incubator farms, both of which support the populations they serve from an economic viewpoint as well as socially, and as a benefit to public health and nutrition. The findings were gathered from the large body of research concerning the benefits of community gardens as well as program evaluation responses conducted with gardeners at the Cache Refugee and Immigrant Connection (CRIC) garden in Logan, Utah in 2020. They are also informed by experiences had and lessons learned while working as the garden manager. There is a …

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Brexit And The Effects On European Adrs Vs British Adrs, Matthew Clint Bisbee Aug 2020

Brexit And The Effects On European Adrs Vs British Adrs, Matthew Clint Bisbee

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Using a collection of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), this study examines the stock-price reaction of European, European Union, and British firms to the Brexit Referendum on June 23, 2016. Results show that non-European firms experienced greater returns than the market after the Brexit referendum. European, European Union, and British firms all experienced negative returns compared to the average market return. While at first glance British firms appeared to experience even greater negative returns as compared to firms in the European Union, overall there was no statistically significant difference between returns for firms in the European Union and firms in the …

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Banking Scandals And Abnormal Cumulative Returns: An Analysis Of The Wells Fargo Fraud Scandal, Heather Christensen Aug 2020

Banking Scandals And Abnormal Cumulative Returns: An Analysis Of The Wells Fargo Fraud Scandal, Heather Christensen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

In September 2016, Wells Fargo Company was fined a large amount of money due to its employees opening unauthorized accounts and credit cards under customer’s names. This paper examines the effects of the lawsuit announcement on the stock market as it pertains to finance, insurance, and real estate firms. The analysis will be completed using the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) and various control variables through univariate and multivariate tests. The results of these tests show that the markets did not lose confidence or trust in banks. Instead, the Wells Fargo scandal generated positive CARs for other banks on the day …

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We Can Use Machine Learning To Determine Which Financial Ratios Are Best For Investors, Collin Butterfield Aug 2020

We Can Use Machine Learning To Determine Which Financial Ratios Are Best For Investors, Collin Butterfield

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This study develops and tests the hypothesis that the machine learning algorithm, Random Forests, can be used to systematically pick financial ratios that would be best for indicating market trends and be used subsequently to perform comparable analysis to speculate whether a firm is over- or under-valued. Results show that financial ratio selection differs depending on the market sector to which a firm pertains. We examine the 11 financial sectors representing the key areas of the economy. We also look at four possible trading strategies that an investor could have: month-long, quarter-long, semi-annual, and annual to capture differing trading horizons.

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An Economic Comparison Of Two Leading Aquaponic Technologies Using Cost Benefit Analysis: The Coupled And Decoupled Systems, Grace M. Gibbons Aug 2020

An Economic Comparison Of Two Leading Aquaponic Technologies Using Cost Benefit Analysis: The Coupled And Decoupled Systems, Grace M. Gibbons

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Aquaponics is an agricultural production practice which combines aquaculture, the raising of fish, and hydroponics, a soil-less crop production method, to create a system that symbiotically produces both. Compared to conventional open-field agriculture, this practice is highly resource efficient in terms of water and land usage, but has yet to be widely adopted due to a lack of research regarding its economic feasibility. This study compares the two most economically promising aquaponic system designs to determine which would be more profitable at the intermediate-commercial scale. The first of these is the coupled system which continuously circulates water in a closed …

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Are Financing Constraints Binding For Investment? Evidence From A Natural Experiment, Katarzyna Anna Bilicka Jul 2020

Are Financing Constraints Binding For Investment? Evidence From A Natural Experiment, Katarzyna Anna Bilicka

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

This paper shows that the availability of cash flows dominates the effects of cost of capital for investment at the firm level. Using an exogenous tax reform in Canada as a quasi-natural experiment, I find that a temporary and unexpected increase in the cost of capital for firms with low availability of retained earnings has no effect on investment of those firms. A subsequent direct increase in the availability of cash flows has large effects on investment. This suggests that internal financing constraints are binding for firms, as they prefer to use low cost retained earnings to finance their investment.

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Information Search And Financial Markets Under Covid-19, Behzod B. Ahundjanov, Sherzod Akhundjanov, Botir B. Okhunjanov Jul 2020

Information Search And Financial Markets Under Covid-19, Behzod B. Ahundjanov, Sherzod Akhundjanov, Botir B. Okhunjanov

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

The discovery and sudden spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) exposed individuals to a great uncertainty about the potential health and economic ramifications of the virus, which triggered a surge in demand for information about COVID-19. To understand financial market implications of individuals’ behavior upon such uncertainty, we explore the relationship between Google search queries related to COVID-19—information search that reflects one’s level of concern or risk perception—and the performance of major financial indices. The empirical analysis based on the Bayesian inference of a structural vector autoregressive model shows that one unit increase in the popularity of COVID-19-related global search …

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Rural Transportation Conference Participants’ Opinions And Concerns Pertaining To Transit For Older Adults, James W. Mjelde, Rebekka M. Dudensing, Geoffrey Battista, Jonathan Brooks, Maria Carrillo, Blane Counsil, Anil Giri, Man-Keun Kim, V. Dimitra Pyrialakou May 2020

Rural Transportation Conference Participants’ Opinions And Concerns Pertaining To Transit For Older Adults, James W. Mjelde, Rebekka M. Dudensing, Geoffrey Battista, Jonathan Brooks, Maria Carrillo, Blane Counsil, Anil Giri, Man-Keun Kim, V. Dimitra Pyrialakou

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

Mobility remains a vital part of the well-being of rural-living, older adults and transportation disadvantaged persons. This study seeks to identify research and policy needs related to rural transit for older people and the transportation disadvantaged. To obtain this goal, the multidisciplinary study team conducted two activities as part of a 2016 rural transportation conference: a survey of conference attendees and open discussion to elicit additional information. Results suggest the attendees felt the need for rural transit for older adults would continue to increase with public and private funding being critical issues. Respondents had similar opinions about challenges and opportunities …

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Disconnect Within Agriculture And Ecosystem Climate Effects, Adaptations And Policy, Anastasia W. Thayer, Aurora M. Vargas, Thomas E. Lacher, Bruce A. Mccarl May 2020

Disconnect Within Agriculture And Ecosystem Climate Effects, Adaptations And Policy, Anastasia W. Thayer, Aurora M. Vargas, Thomas E. Lacher, Bruce A. Mccarl

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

Frequently, agriculture and ecosystems (AE) are seen as separate entities, causing entity specific solutions in response to threats. Anthropogenic climate change simultaneously stresses both agriculture and ecosystems along with their interactions. Induced increasing surface temperatures [1], altered precipitation [2], drought intensification [3], altered ground and surface water quantity/quality [4,5], and diminished soil moisture [6] force adaptations for AE, but these adaptations fail to be efficient when interdependencies are not considered. Additional adaptations will be necessary, as future projections anticipate even greater climate change [1].

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Abstention And Costly Information Acquisition In Elections, Jacob Meyer May 2020

Abstention And Costly Information Acquisition In Elections, Jacob Meyer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Voter turnout rates are low in the United States. Even among citizens who show up to the polls, many do not vote in every race on the ballot. This is especially true for low-profile elections, and races where political party is not on the ballot. Both low turn out and incomplete ballots could be caused by high costs of information. Voters and non-voters have time constraints that can prevent them from researching every candidate or proposition on the ballot. One proposed solution to increase citizen informedness is to make voting mandatory. Mandatory voting imposes a penalty (usually a fine) if …

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Utah County Level Drought Effect On Cattle Inventories 1981-2016, Fred Openshaw May 2020

Utah County Level Drought Effect On Cattle Inventories 1981-2016, Fred Openshaw

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Utah cattle industry generates 20.6% of sales value for the agricultural sector. As well, this industry encompasses about 34.4% of Utah farms. Besides these figures, Utah cattle ranchers depend heavily upon both public and private lands for grazing as a primary source of feed for their herds. The soil moisture levels of pasturelands impacts the forage yield for a particular year. As a result, the primary purpose of this research is to determine if drought impacts Utah county cattle inventory numbers and what the magnitude of the impact is by analyzing data from 1981 to 2016. A secondary purpose …

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Political Connections And Abnormal Stock Returns: An Analysis Of The Trump Nominations, Kennon Bacon May 2020

Political Connections And Abnormal Stock Returns: An Analysis Of The Trump Nominations, Kennon Bacon

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Shortly after winning the 2016 Presidential Election, Donald Trump began announcing his Cabinet nominations. I examine cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) for firms with political connections to Cabinet and some non-Cabinet level appointments. Nominee and stock characteristics are aggregated, and I find positive and significant CARs surrounding the announcement dates. Additionally, the traits of being a Cabinet nominee, being a board member, and having a narrow confirmation margin all significantly explain the CARs for various event windows and subgroups. The annualized CARs around the announcement date for these firms are often greater than 100% in excess of the market, providing strong …

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Limits Of Growth: An Ecological Approach To Mainstream Economics, Jacob Cannon Alder May 2020

Limits Of Growth: An Ecological Approach To Mainstream Economics, Jacob Cannon Alder

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Modern economists today rely on several fundamental assumptions in the same way physicists rely on laws governing energy and motion. Economists use growth—ideally unrestricted growth—as the key assumption upon which they build models and policy recommendations. The central economic theory explains that growth will enhance individual well-being over time. However, every known physical system has boundaries beyond which it will collapse, and the observed reality is that economic growth cannot be separated from physical resource consumption. As a result, many societies are overshooting physical, ecological boundaries. This project focuses on a few of the complexities generated by a growth-oriented economy …

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Profit Shifting And Corruption, Katarzyna Anna Bilicka, André Seidel Mar 2020

Profit Shifting And Corruption, Katarzyna Anna Bilicka, André Seidel

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

This paper introduces heterogeneous profit shifting costs induced by corrupt tax officials to the analysis of profit shifting of multinationals. Using a theoretically derived corruption weighted tax differential, we show that corruption increases profit shifting of European firms. We use our estimates to calculate the implied tax revenue elasticities for European countries and find that countries with otherwise similar tax rates face lower tax revenue elasticities when they are more corrupt. This means that corruption negatively affects the revenue gains that countries could have from increasing their tax rates.

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Residential Preferences Study, Arthur Caplan, Krisopher Toll Feb 2020

Residential Preferences Study, Arthur Caplan, Krisopher Toll

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This study reports on estimates of residential preferences in the Mountain West region of the US. The estimates are derived from a choice experiment funded by the Utah Department of Transportation and Utah Transit Authority – an experiment based on large samples of both homeowners and renters who participated in a larger, statewide transportation study. The choice experiment and transportation study provides a rich set of household- and individual-specific demographic controls, enabling us to identify a host of factors contributing to heterogeneity in residential preferences. We leverage a percentage-change housing-cost attribute included in the experiment to obtain measures of marginal …

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Comovement In The Cryptocurrency Market, Benjamin M. Blau, Todd Griffith, Ryan J. Whitby Feb 2020

Comovement In The Cryptocurrency Market, Benjamin M. Blau, Todd Griffith, Ryan J. Whitby

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

This study examines the comovement between 17 of the most active cryptocurrencies. We are unable to statistically reject the presence of perfect comovement between Bitcoin and six of the 16 non-Bitcoin cryptocurrencies. Consistent with the friction-based explanation for the presence of comovement, once the CBOE introduced futures contracts on Bitcoin, we find that all 16 cryptocurrencies comove with Bitcoin. These results suggest that introducing futures contracts improves the informational environment of the entire cryptocurrency market, which helps explain the unusual comovement in the cryptocurrency market.

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Control Of Episodic Air Pollution In Utah's Wasatch Front Region Through Investment In Preventative Capital, Ramjee Acharya, Arthur J. Caplan Jan 2020

Control Of Episodic Air Pollution In Utah's Wasatch Front Region Through Investment In Preventative Capital, Ramjee Acharya, Arthur J. Caplan

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

We address the issue of optimal investment in "preventative capital" to mitigate episodic, mobile-source air pollution events in Utah's Wasatch Front region. We calibrate Berry et al.'s (2015) endogenous-risk model using a unique dataset related to the region's "red air day" episodes occurring over the past decade. Our analysis demonstrates that, under a wide range of circumstances, the optimal steady-state level of preventative capital stock – raised through the issuance of a municipal "clean air bond" that can be used to fund more aggressive mitigation efforts – meets the standard for PM2.5 concentrations with positive social net benefits. We estimate …

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The Naked Emperor: Politics Without Romance In The Calculus Of Consent, William F. Shughart Ii, Arthur R. Wardle Jan 2020

The Naked Emperor: Politics Without Romance In The Calculus Of Consent, William F. Shughart Ii, Arthur R. Wardle

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

Published more than a half-century ago, The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy (Buchanan and Tullock 1962) is one of a handful of pathbreaking contributions to the then contemporary literatures of economics and political science that launched the public-choice research program and its subfield of constitutional political economy.1 It has remained in print ever since, most readily available nowadays as volume 3 of The Collected Works of James M. Buchanan (Buchanan and Tullock [1962] 1999) and as volume 2 of The Selected Works of Gordon Tullock (Buchanan and Tullock [1962] 2004).2 The Calculus was one of the …

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Appendix For Measuring The Bioeconomic Impacts Of Prolonged Drought On A Lake Ecosystem: The Case Of The Great Salt Lake, Utah, Arthur J. Caplan, Dong-Hun Go Dec 2019

Appendix For Measuring The Bioeconomic Impacts Of Prolonged Drought On A Lake Ecosystem: The Case Of The Great Salt Lake, Utah, Arthur J. Caplan, Dong-Hun Go

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Measuring The Bioeconomic Impacts Of Prolonged Drought On A Lake Ecosystem: The Case For The Great Salt Lake, Utah, Arthur J. Caplan, Dong-Hun Go Dec 2019

Measuring The Bioeconomic Impacts Of Prolonged Drought On A Lake Ecosystem: The Case For The Great Salt Lake, Utah, Arthur J. Caplan, Dong-Hun Go

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

We present a general-equilibrium (GE) bioeconomic model of Utah's Great Salt Lake (GSL) ecosystem that tightly links the lake's ecosystem with its regional economy and attendant international trading partners, thereby enabling full identification of dynamic feedback effects in the presence of prolonged drought. The drought modeled here mimics a drying climate's impact on the lake's nutrient pool. We demonstrate how prolonged drought affects key bioeconomic variables over time, and how the GSL bioeconomy recovers toward a new steady state. We also consider how two separate fishery-specific regulatory tools—a temporary harvest moratorium and ad valorum tax on the fishery's factors of …

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Potential Weather Data Anomolies Within The Usda's Pasture Rangeland And Forage Insurance Program, Chad Steven Van Orden Dec 2019

Potential Weather Data Anomolies Within The Usda's Pasture Rangeland And Forage Insurance Program, Chad Steven Van Orden

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The purpose of this study is to delve into the functionality of the PRF insurance program. The primary goal is to uncover any underlying anomalies which may inadvertently skew data within the program. Because the USDA uses NOAA’s weather stations regardless of location or timing of activation, it is consequential that the collected precipitation data may be inconsistent across both time and space. This phenomenon could have substantial and significant effects on the RMA’s PRF insurance program, resulting in producers being compensated inaccurately for their insurance claims.

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The Effects Of Fluctuations In Federal Revenue Sharing Payments Made To Rural Counties On School District Budgets, Camille Harmer Dec 2019

The Effects Of Fluctuations In Federal Revenue Sharing Payments Made To Rural Counties On School District Budgets, Camille Harmer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Federal revenue sharing programs aim to make up lost tax revenue to counties that contain federal land, as counties do not receive any property tax revenue from publicly owned lands. This may have a significant impact on rural school districts with a limited tax base, as most funding for public education comes from property tax revenue. My analysis seeks to determine the full impact of certain federal revenue sharing payments (paid out by the U.S. Forest Service) on school districts in counties that contain U.S. Forest Service land. My analysis shows that the payments have little impact on school district …

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Using A Discrete Choice Experiment To Estimate Willingness To Pay For Location Based Housing Attributes, Kristopher C. Toll Dec 2019

Using A Discrete Choice Experiment To Estimate Willingness To Pay For Location Based Housing Attributes, Kristopher C. Toll

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In 1993, a travel study was conducted along the Wasatch front in Utah (Research Systems Group INC, 2013). The main purpose of this study was to assess travel behavior to understand the needs for future growth in Utah. Since then, the Research Service Group (RSG), conducted a new study in 2012 to understand current travel preferences in Utah. This survey, called the Residential Choice Stated Preference survey, asked respondents to make ten choice comparisons between two hypothetical homes. Each home in the choice comparison was described by different attributes, those attributes that were used are, type of neighborhood, distance from …

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The Spillover Effect Of Marketing Discolored Beef On Consumer Preferences For Nondiscolored Beef, Ryan Feuz, F. Bailey Norwood, Ranjith Ramanathan Nov 2019

The Spillover Effect Of Marketing Discolored Beef On Consumer Preferences For Nondiscolored Beef, Ryan Feuz, F. Bailey Norwood, Ranjith Ramanathan

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

Consumers prefer bright, cherry-red retail beef. Retailers often mark down the price of discolored beef for quick sale. However, following this practice could result in a net loss of revenue if consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for nondiscolored beef is negatively affected by the presence of discolored beef in the consumer choice set. Through a hypothetical online survey and a controlled in-person experiment, we determine that marketing discolored beef together with nondiscolored beef increases most consumers’ evaluation of, but not their WTP for, nondiscolored beef.

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Optimal Investment To Control 'Red Air Day' Episodes: Lessons From Northern Utah, Usa, Ramjee Acharya, Arthur J. Caplan Sep 2019

Optimal Investment To Control 'Red Air Day' Episodes: Lessons From Northern Utah, Usa, Ramjee Acharya, Arthur J. Caplan

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

We address the issue of optimal investment in ‘preventative capital’ to mitigate episodic, mobile-source air pollution events by calibrating an endogenous-risk model with parameter estimates obtained from a unique dataset related to ‘red air day’ episodes occurring during the winter months in Northern Utah. Our analysis demonstrates that, under a wide range of circumstances, the optimal steady-state level of preventative capital stock – raised through the issuance of a municipal ‘clean air bond’ that provides foundational funding for more aggressive mitigation efforts – can meet the standard for PM2.5 concentrations with positive social net benefits. We estimate benefit-cost ratios ranging …

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Organic Wheat Prices And Premium Uncertainty: Can Cross Hedging And Forecasting Play A Role?, Tatiana Drugova, Veronica F. Pozo, Kynda R. Curtis, T. Randall Fortenbery Sep 2019

Organic Wheat Prices And Premium Uncertainty: Can Cross Hedging And Forecasting Play A Role?, Tatiana Drugova, Veronica F. Pozo, Kynda R. Curtis, T. Randall Fortenbery

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

We compare the volatility of organic wheat prices to that of conventional wheat prices using historical measures. To reduce uncertainty, we examine the possibility of cross hedging using conventional wheat futures and the ability of futures to forecast the organic premium. Results provide evidence that conventional futures can be used to cross hedge organic wheat price risk, but results depend on the method used to impute the missing values. We also find a long-run equilibrium relationship between organic wheat prices and conventional wheat futures prices. Finally, futures prices contain some information useful in predicting organic prices in the short run.

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Optimal Vehicle Use In The Presence Of Episodic Mobile-Source Air Pollution, Arthur J. Caplan, Ramjee Acharya Aug 2019

Optimal Vehicle Use In The Presence Of Episodic Mobile-Source Air Pollution, Arthur J. Caplan, Ramjee Acharya

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

This paper develops a conceptual model of vehicle trips in a region plagued by weather-dependent, mobile-source air pollution, and numerically estimates optimal trips for one of the nation's perennially worst air quality regions in terms of short-term particulate matter. Based upon data-driven parameters and damage estimates, our numerical model generates optimal values for region-wide vehicle trips and associated PM2.5 concentrations along with their corresponding time paths. Our dataset includes a host of pertinent weather variables that determine PM2.5 concentrations both independently as well as interacted with vehicle trips. As a result, our empirical model enables us to isolate …

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Comparing Uk Tax Returns Of Foreign Multinationals To Matched Domestic Firms, Katarzyna Anna Bilicka Aug 2019

Comparing Uk Tax Returns Of Foreign Multinationals To Matched Domestic Firms, Katarzyna Anna Bilicka

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

In this paper, I use confidential UK corporate tax returns data to explore whether there are systematic differences in the amount of taxable profits that multinational and domestic companies report. I find that the ratio of taxable profits to total assets reported by foreign multinational subsidiaries is one-half that of comparable domestic standalones. The majority of the difference is attributable to the fact that a higher proportion of foreign multinational subsidiaries report zero taxable profits. I document how the estimated difference is related to profit shifting and show that using accounting data leads to much smaller estimates of the difference.

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Industry Compliance Costs Under The Renewable Fuel Standard: Evidence From Compliance Credits, Arthur R. Wardle Aug 2019

Industry Compliance Costs Under The Renewable Fuel Standard: Evidence From Compliance Credits, Arthur R. Wardle

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Renewable Fuel Standard requires US oil refineries to blend biofuels into domestic transportation fuels. To ensure that compliance costs under this mandate don’t disproportionately affect any subset of refiners, the regulation includes a compliance credit program, whereby refiners blending excess biofuels can sell their excess compliance to refiners that do not blend enough. The price of these credits can be interpreted as the marginal cost of compliance with the mandate. I measure how changes in the prices of these compliance credits affect the stock prices of oil refining firms. There are a number of ways one might expect these …

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Medicaid Expansion And Diagnosis-Targeted Cost Shifting Behavior: The Case Of Diabetic Treatment And Insulin Pricing, Hayden Garff Hubbard Aug 2019

Medicaid Expansion And Diagnosis-Targeted Cost Shifting Behavior: The Case Of Diabetic Treatment And Insulin Pricing, Hayden Garff Hubbard

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Nine years after passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and five years after the Medicaid expansion roll-out, the debate and cost-benefit analysis on U.S. health reform rages on. While many impacts of the ACA remain unmeasured or inconclusive due to mixed research claims and the complexities inherent to healthcare, widespread research interest on the effects of Medicaid expansion have led to some early findings regarding cost, access and quality.

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