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Articles 331 - 360 of 686

Full-Text Articles in Economics

Does Economic Freedom Affect The Production Frontier? A Semiparametric Approach With Panel Data, Fan Zhang, Joshua C. Hall, Feng Yao Jan 2017

Does Economic Freedom Affect The Production Frontier? A Semiparametric Approach With Panel Data, Fan Zhang, Joshua C. Hall, Feng Yao

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

This paper applies a multi-step semiparametric stochastic production frontier estimator proposed by Yao et al. (2017) to investigate the effects of economic freedom on the production frontier and technical efficiency. We allow output elasticities and technical efficiency to depend on the economic freedom variable, estimate a smooth coefficient stochastic production frontier, and compare with parametric alternatives, the Cobb-Douglas and translog estimates. Our results add to the literature on economic freedom and growth in three ways. First, our results highlight the flexibility of semiparametric approaches as we find the commonly used parametric approaches to be too restrictive in estimating the marginal …

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Tuition Increases Geaux Away? Evidence From Voting On Louisiana’S Amendment 2, Joshua C. Hall, Serkan Karadas Jan 2017

Tuition Increases Geaux Away? Evidence From Voting On Louisiana’S Amendment 2, Joshua C. Hall, Serkan Karadas

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

In many states, public institutions of higher education have the autonomy to raise tuition. This has not been the case in Louisiana since a 1995 constitutional amendment required a two-thirds majority of the state legislature for any tuition increase. In November of 2016, voters in Louisiana rejected Amendment 2, a constitutional amendment that would have given state institutions of higher education autonomy in setting tuition. We examine parish-level voting on Amendment 2 using an empirical political economy model and find that parishes with a greater percentage of African-Americans and university employees were more likely to vote yes. Student enrollment at …

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Previous Studies Find State Lottery Sales Are Significantly Influenced By Socioeconomic Characteristics Of The Population. We Extend This Literature By Examining How The Overall Expected Value, The Top Prize, And The Total Combinations Influence Sales After Controlling For These Other Socioeconomic Factors. We Perform Our Empirical Analysis On An Unparalleled Set Of Data That Includes Information For 135 On-Line Lottery Games In The United States. Our Results Show That Sales Are Significantly Influenced The Top Prize Amount And Odds Of Winning It, But That Sales Are Not Significantly Affected By The Expected Value Of The Remaining Lower Prizes., Thomas A. Garrett, Russell S. Sobel Jan 2017

Previous Studies Find State Lottery Sales Are Significantly Influenced By Socioeconomic Characteristics Of The Population. We Extend This Literature By Examining How The Overall Expected Value, The Top Prize, And The Total Combinations Influence Sales After Controlling For These Other Socioeconomic Factors. We Perform Our Empirical Analysis On An Unparalleled Set Of Data That Includes Information For 135 On-Line Lottery Games In The United States. Our Results Show That Sales Are Significantly Influenced The Top Prize Amount And Odds Of Winning It, But That Sales Are Not Significantly Affected By The Expected Value Of The Remaining Lower Prizes., Thomas A. Garrett, Russell S. Sobel

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Theoretical models of risk have attempted to explain why risk-averse individuals take unfair gambles. Using all United States’ lottery games, we find theoretical and empirical evidence that skewness of prize distributions explains why risk averse individuals may play the lottery.

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Bank Branching Deregulation And High School Graduation, Patrick Reilly Dec 2016

Bank Branching Deregulation And High School Graduation, Patrick Reilly

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

This paper utilizes variation in timing of deregulation to investigate the relationship between bank branching deregulation and educational outcomes for individuals in 39 states over the period 1977 - 1999. In order to investigate the labor market channel, this paper focuses on the relationship between deregulation and high school graduation, as opposed to recent studies focusing on the relationship between deregulation and college attendance via the credit market channel. Results indicate increases in the likelihood of graduating high school after deregulation. Results also suggest heterogeneity in effects due to race and age at deregulation. Finally, models testing the relationship between …

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Spatial Spillover Effects Of Debt Relief From The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (Hipc) Initiative, Joshua C. Hall, Serkan Karadas, Minh Tam T. Schlosky Dec 2016

Spatial Spillover Effects Of Debt Relief From The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (Hipc) Initiative, Joshua C. Hall, Serkan Karadas, Minh Tam T. Schlosky

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

The impacts of various economic and institutional factors transcend the borders of a nation and ow over to adjacent countries. Past research has found that there are spatial spillovers in economic growth, development of institutions, governance quality and institutional quality. This paper conducts a study on the direct and indirect effects of debt relief from the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) programs. The IMF and the World Bank provide debt relief to the member countries that have passed the Decision Point of the HIPC Process. Using the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) model, …

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Outcome Uncertainty, Fan Travel, And Aggregate Attendance, Brad R. Humphreys, Thomas J. Miceli Dec 2016

Outcome Uncertainty, Fan Travel, And Aggregate Attendance, Brad R. Humphreys, Thomas J. Miceli

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

The classical Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis (UOH) informs economists’ understanding consumer decisions to attend sporting events and models of team revenue generation. Coates, Humphreys and Zhou (2014) developed a reference dependent preference based consumer choice model under uncertainty to motivate the UOH in which loss-averse consumers prefer games with certain outcomes. We develop an alternative model based on a standard expected utility model of fan behavior which incorporates fans’ decisions to travel to away games and aggregates decisions across local and visiting fans. This model generates predictions consistent with the classical UOH and concave team and league-wide total revenue functions.

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Cultural Superstitions And Residential Real Estate Prices: Transaction-Level Evidence From The Us Housing Market, Brad R. Humphreys, Adam D. Nowak, Yang Zhou Dec 2016

Cultural Superstitions And Residential Real Estate Prices: Transaction-Level Evidence From The Us Housing Market, Brad R. Humphreys, Adam D. Nowak, Yang Zhou

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

In Chinese culture, the number 8 is considered lucky and 4 is considered unlucky. We analyze the relationship between the presence of 8 s and 4 s in addresses and transaction prices paid by Chinese home buyers and sellers in a novel setting, Seattle, Washington, from 1990 to 2015. In the absence of explicit identifiers for Chinese individuals, we develop a probabilistic model for identifying ethnicity based on name alone. The results indicate Chinese buyers pay a 1-2% premium for addresses that include an 8 and 1% less for properties with a 4 in the address. These results are not …

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Is There Moral Hazard In The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (Hipc) Initiative Debt Relief Process?, Joshua C. Hall, Serkan Karadas, Minh Tam T. Schlosky Dec 2016

Is There Moral Hazard In The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (Hipc) Initiative Debt Relief Process?, Joshua C. Hall, Serkan Karadas, Minh Tam T. Schlosky

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) were created by the IMF and World Bank to help low-income countries reduce their debt burden and to facilitate reaching the Millennium Development Goals. After entering the decision point of the HIPC Initiative stage, countries receive interim aid while following a strategic path to improve their macroeconomic stability via structural reforms. Many countries reached the completion point of the HIPC Initiative stage within a few years, receiving a substantial amount of debt re- lief. Other countries remained in the interim period for almost a decade. We …

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Abnormal Returns From Joining Congress? Evidence From New Members, Joshua C. Hall, Serkan Karadas, Minh Tam T. Schlosky Nov 2016

Abnormal Returns From Joining Congress? Evidence From New Members, Joshua C. Hall, Serkan Karadas, Minh Tam T. Schlosky

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Past research shows that members of Congress are informed traders, i.e., that they earn abnormal returns while in office. This important research does not identify whether being elected leads to informed trading or whether informed traders are selected into office. We try to provide a partial answer to this question by looking at whether new members of Congress were informed traders prior to being elected and how their portfolio performance changes after election and appointment to different types of committees. Due to data limitations our analysis focus on the pre-congressional (i.e., election) and congressional (i.e., post-election) common stock trades made …

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Strip Clubs, “Secondary Effects,” And Residential Property Prices, Taggert J. Brooks, Brad R. Humphreys, Adam Nowak Jul 2016

Strip Clubs, “Secondary Effects,” And Residential Property Prices, Taggert J. Brooks, Brad R. Humphreys, Adam Nowak

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

The "secondary effects" legal doctrine allows municipalities to zone, or otherwise regulate, sexually oriented businesses. Negative "secondary effects" (economic externalities) justify limiting First Amendment protection of speech conducted inside strip clubs. One example of a secondary effect, cited in no fewer than four United States Supreme Court rulings, is the negative effect of strip clubs on the quality of the surrounding neighborhood. Little empirical evidence that strip clubs do, in fact, have a negative effect on the surrounding neighborhood exists. To the extent that changes in neighborhood quality are reflected by changes in property prices, property prices should decrease when …

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The Economic Impact Of The Robinson Grand Performing Arts Center On Harrison County, Eric Bowen Jul 2016

The Economic Impact Of The Robinson Grand Performing Arts Center On Harrison County, Eric Bowen

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

The City of Clarksburg is in the process of renovating and restoring the Robinson Grand Performing Arts Center located in the city’s downtown. The renovation promises to bring a historic landmark back into use as a center for music and other arts performances. In this report we estimate the impact of this renovation on Harrison County’s economy during the first five years of operation.

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Growth And Variability Of School District Income Tax Revenues: Is Tax Base Diversification A Good Idea For School Financing?, Joshua C. Hall, Antonis M. Koumpias May 2016

Growth And Variability Of School District Income Tax Revenues: Is Tax Base Diversification A Good Idea For School Financing?, Joshua C. Hall, Antonis M. Koumpias

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

School districts in Ohio have the option of diversifying their revenue base by adopting income taxes. Using a panel of Ohio school districts that adopted a local income tax from 1990 to 2008, we find that revenues are pro-cyclical and fluctuate only mildly. For every dollar increase in average school district income, tax revenues increased by 21 and 3 cents in the long- and short-run. We also find that the school district tax base fully adjusts to its long-run equilibrium within three years. Our results highlight a revenue-stabilizing role of income tax bases on total school district tax revenues.

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Barber Licensure And The Supply Of Barber Shops: Evidence From Us States, Joshua C. Hall, Shree B. Pokharel Apr 2016

Barber Licensure And The Supply Of Barber Shops: Evidence From Us States, Joshua C. Hall, Shree B. Pokharel

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Occupational licensure is on the rise. According to Kleiner (2014), over 29 percent of the U.S. workforce required some form of license. While a number of studies estimate the wage effects of occupational licensure, few studies look at the impact of licensure on entry into new business formation. In this paper we focus on the impact on barber shops, since many barber shops are sole proprietorships. Using state-level data on the occupational licensure of barbers from the Institute for Justice, we find that the number of exams required to become a barber is negatively related to the number of barber …

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Endogenous Competence And A Limit To The Condorcet Jury Theorem, Bryan C. Mccannon, Paul Walker Mar 2016

Endogenous Competence And A Limit To The Condorcet Jury Theorem, Bryan C. Mccannon, Paul Walker

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

The seminal contribution, known as the Condorcet Jury Theorem, observes that under a specific set of conditions an increase in the size of a group tasked with making a decision leads to an improvement in the group's ability to make a good decision. An assumption under-appreciated is that the competency of the members of the group is assumed to be exogenous. In numerous applications, members of the group make investments to improve the accuracy of their decision making (e.g. pre-meeting efforts). We consider the collective action problem that arises. We show that if competence is endogenous, then increases in the …

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The Impact Of Microfinance On Pro- Social Behaviors: Experimental Evidence Of Public Goods Contributions In Uganda, Bryan C. Mccannon, Zachary Rodriguez Feb 2016

The Impact Of Microfinance On Pro- Social Behaviors: Experimental Evidence Of Public Goods Contributions In Uganda, Bryan C. Mccannon, Zachary Rodriguez

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

We ask whether access to microfinance loans by the poor has a spillover effect on their pro‐social behaviors. An experimental field study in southern, rural Uganda is conducted using free riding in public goods contributions as an assessment. We document higher levels of contributions by those who have previously received a microloan. This effect cannot be explained by changes in social norms, income effects, or sample selection bias. The results suggest that exposure to microfinance promotes social preferences.

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Honest Abe Or Doc Holliday? Bluffing In Bargaining, Gregory Deangelo, Bryan C. Mccannon Feb 2016

Honest Abe Or Doc Holliday? Bluffing In Bargaining, Gregory Deangelo, Bryan C. Mccannon

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

We consider a bargaining environment where there is asymmetric information regarding whether the two players have common preferences or conflicting preferences. If the cost of strategic communication is independent of the state, then signaling is not expected to be effective. If the uninformed agent believes, though, a (cheap‐talk) signal has been sent, then the informed agents are incentivized to engage in deceptive bluffing. Alternatively, if bluffing is not too prevalent, honest communication can be worthwhile. We explore this theoretically and experimentally. We present a bargaining model where state‐dependent mixed strategies arise as equilibria. Thus, bluffing occurs in equilibrium. In the …

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Economic Clusters Research An Annotated Bibliography, Jing Chen, Randall Jackson Jan 2016

Economic Clusters Research An Annotated Bibliography, Jing Chen, Randall Jackson

Regional Research Institute Resource Documents

No abstract provided.

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Collective Bargaining And School District Test Scores: Evidence From Ohio Bargaining Agreements, Joshua C. Hall, Donald Lacombe, Joylynn Michelle Pruitt Jan 2016

Collective Bargaining And School District Test Scores: Evidence From Ohio Bargaining Agreements, Joshua C. Hall, Donald Lacombe, Joylynn Michelle Pruitt

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

We revisit the relationship between collective bargaining by teachers unions and school performance. The empirical literature in this area has found mixed results at both the state and district levels. We contribute to this literature in two ways. First, rather than simply dummy union status, we proxy for the restrictiveness of collective bargaining agreements with the number of pages per agreement. Second, we employ Bayesian spatial methods to deal with spatial dependence in school district activities. Our reduced-form results indicate that collective bargaining directly lowers scores on high school math scores, but that the total effect is zero.

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The Roots Of Broadened Stock Ownership, Joshua C. Hall Jan 2016

The Roots Of Broadened Stock Ownership, Joshua C. Hall

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

No abstract provided.

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Cultivating The Liberally Education Mind Through A Signature Program, Emily Chamlee-Wright, Joshua C. Hall, Laura E. Grube Jan 2016

Cultivating The Liberally Education Mind Through A Signature Program, Emily Chamlee-Wright, Joshua C. Hall, Laura E. Grube

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

In this paper we describe the Miller Upton Programs, launched by the Department of Economics at Beloit College in 2008. The Miller Upton Programs aim to advance student understanding of the nature and causes of wealth and well-being. After describing core elements of the program, we discuss the ways in which they leverage economic discourse as a means to advance liberal learning. We argue that programs of this kind advance liberal learning by cultivating the skills required to engage the great questions of human flourishing, by fostering the development of a students’ economic imagination, and by enhancing students’ ability to …

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Regionalization And Consolidation Of Municipal Taxes And Services, Joshua Hall, Joshua Matti, Yang Zhou Jan 2016

Regionalization And Consolidation Of Municipal Taxes And Services, Joshua Hall, Joshua Matti, Yang Zhou

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

The United States has a rich history of local government taxation and good provision. The last fifty years, however, have seen increasing calls for the regionalization of municipal taxes and services from policymakers. Arguments for greater regionalization emphasize improved efficiency, enhanced equity, mitigation of spillovers, and improved economic development. A number of localist scholars have responded to regionalists’ concerns. This review articulates regionalists’ arguments, the localists’ response, and then summarizes the relevant empirical literature to see which side’s theories hold forth in the data.

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The Renewable Fuel Standard’S Effect On Corn Belt Income And Unemployment, Ryan M. Yonk, Landon Stevens, Arthur R. Wardle, Joshua C. Hall Jan 2016

The Renewable Fuel Standard’S Effect On Corn Belt Income And Unemployment, Ryan M. Yonk, Landon Stevens, Arthur R. Wardle, Joshua C. Hall

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

No abstract provided.

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Investment In Education: Private And Public Returns, Joshua C. Hall Jan 2016

Investment In Education: Private And Public Returns, Joshua C. Hall

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

There is a strong consensus among economists that formal education is an important determinant of individual earnings as well as economic growth. The importance of formal education has been magnified by recent economic trends underlying U.S. labor market demand for skilled workers. The following is an analysis of the importance of education to both the individuals acquiring education and of the benefits received by society resulting from increased educational attainment.

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Police Bias In The Enforcement Of Drug Crimes: Evidence From Low Priority Laws, Gregory Deangelo, Kai Gittings, Amanda Ross, Annie Walker Jan 2016

Police Bias In The Enforcement Of Drug Crimes: Evidence From Low Priority Laws, Gregory Deangelo, Kai Gittings, Amanda Ross, Annie Walker

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

We consider the impact of adoption of a low priority initiative in some jurisdictions within Los Angeles County on police behavior. Low priority initiatives instruct police to make the enforcement of low level marijuana possession offenses their ``lowest priority.'' Using detailed data from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and a difference-in differences strategy, we show that the mandate resulted in a lower arrest rate for misdemeanor marijuana possession in adopting areas. However, the lower relative arrest rate is driven by a spike in the arrest rate in areas not affected by the mandate rather than a reduction in adopting …

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Social Interactions In Voting Behavior: Evidence From India, Umair Khalil, Sulagna Mookerjee, Ryan Tierney Jan 2016

Social Interactions In Voting Behavior: Evidence From India, Umair Khalil, Sulagna Mookerjee, Ryan Tierney

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Using the unique staggered nature of the Indian General Elections, where voting takes place in several different phases spanning several weeks, we investigate how spatial variation in electoral dynamics affects subsequent voter turnout. Exploiting quasi-random assignment of constituencies to electoral phases each election, we assess the impact of average voter turnout in a given phase, on turnout in the subsequent phase. Standard endogeneity concerns in the estimation of social interactions are dealt by employing two distinct instrumental variables: 1) constituency specific average historical turnout in elections from the pre-staggered era, 2) voter density as measured by number of voters per …

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The Effect Of Recreational Gambling On Regional Health Outcomes: Evidence From Canadian Provinces, Brad R. Humphreys, John A. Nyman, Jane Ruseski Jan 2016

The Effect Of Recreational Gambling On Regional Health Outcomes: Evidence From Canadian Provinces, Brad R. Humphreys, John A. Nyman, Jane Ruseski

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

The relationship between gambling and health has important economic and public policy im- plications. We develop causal evidence on this relationship using data from the Canadian Community Health Survey and exploiting regional variation in access to legal gambling. Empirical models treat gambling as an endogenous regressor in explaining regional variation in health outcomes. Results from instrumental variable and bivariate probit models show recreational gambling has no or a negative impact on the probability of having certain chronic conditions and a positive impact on life satisfaction, differing from past studies that find a positive association between problem gambling and adverse health …

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What Is Near And Recent In Crime For A Homeowner? The Cases Of Denver And Seattle, Adam Nowak, Juan Tomas Sayago Gomez Jan 2016

What Is Near And Recent In Crime For A Homeowner? The Cases Of Denver And Seattle, Adam Nowak, Juan Tomas Sayago Gomez

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

This paper analyzes the effects of the concentration of crime on housing prices using nonparametric methods. Specifically, we use a modified local K-function in order to measure crime concentration. This technique provides us with a crime measure that is not dependent on pre-defined boundaries. Results from this analysis suggest a decrease in housing prices of two percent to seven percent for crimes in the past six months that occur within a quarter of a mile of the house.

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Police Bias In The Enforcement Of Drug Crimes: Evidence From Low Priority Laws, Gregory Deangelo, R. Kaj Gittings, Amanda Ross, Anne Walker Jan 2016

Police Bias In The Enforcement Of Drug Crimes: Evidence From Low Priority Laws, Gregory Deangelo, R. Kaj Gittings, Amanda Ross, Anne Walker

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

We consider the impact of adoption of a low priority initiative in some jurisdictions within Los Angeles County on police behavior. Low priority initiatives instruct police to make the enforcement of low level marijuana possession offenses their “lowest priority.” Using detailed data from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and a difference-indifferences strategy, we show that the mandate resulted in a lower arrest rate for misdemeanor marijuana possession in adopting areas. However, the lower relative arrest rate is driven by a spike in the arrest rate in areas not affected by the mandate rather than a reduction in adopting areas.

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Does The Presence Of Professional Football Cause Crime In A City? Evidence From Pontiac, Michigan, Hyunwoong Pyun, Joshua C. Hall Jan 2016

Does The Presence Of Professional Football Cause Crime In A City? Evidence From Pontiac, Michigan, Hyunwoong Pyun, Joshua C. Hall

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

We empirically explore the relationship between the National Football League (NFL) and crime using daily panel data from Detroit. We exploit the natural experiment of the Detroit Lions movement from Pontiac MI to downtown Detroit in 2002 to examine the impact of NFL games on crime in a jurisdiction. Pontiac is used as a treatment city and other suburban cities are used as a comparison group. Employing a triple difference-in-difference approach, we find little to no change in crime on a home game day in Pontiac compared to other suburban cities. There is no difference in crime between the football …

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Designing Policies To Spur Economic Growth: How Regional Scientists Can Contribute To Future Policy Development And Evaluation, Carlianne Patrick, Amanda Ross, Heather Stephens Jan 2016

Designing Policies To Spur Economic Growth: How Regional Scientists Can Contribute To Future Policy Development And Evaluation, Carlianne Patrick, Amanda Ross, Heather Stephens

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Policymakers at all levels of government try to design policies to promote economic growth. Many of these policies have a goal of attracting new businesses to an area, as new businesses are considered a key driver of local economic growth. An emerging literature suggests that such policies have heterogeneous effects on economic growth, both in terms of how the effect of the same policy may vary across locations as well as how different policies spur different types of growth. In this chapter, we discuss the insights provided by the existing literature on the effect of government policy on local economic …

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