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Articles 631 - 660 of 686

Full-Text Articles in Economics

Environment And Trade: A Review Of Issues And Methods, Haixiao Huang, Walter C. Labys Jan 2001

Environment And Trade: A Review Of Issues And Methods, Haixiao Huang, Walter C. Labys

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

This survey attempts to provide an overview of the major issues concerning economic interactions between environmental and trade policies. Such a review is necessary because of the pressure that the accelerated pace of globalisation is placing on environment and trade. Not only is world trade increasing rapidly but global industrialisation related to trade has spawned severe environmental degradation. As a consequence, growing numbers of researchers have attempted to analyse the linkages between these areas. This study attempts to provide a perspective on received and future research by employing a dual approach economic studies of the major environmental and trade issues …

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Disability Legislation: An Empirical Analysis Of Employer Cost, Beth A. Loy, Tesfa Gebremedhin Jan 2001

Disability Legislation: An Empirical Analysis Of Employer Cost, Beth A. Loy, Tesfa Gebremedhin

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

As U.S. civil rights legislation, Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) was created to eliminate workplace discrimination on the basis of disability. Using the United States as an example, this research analyzes the potential for disability legislation to laden employers with excessive cost burdens, specifically expenses from additional workplace injuries and illnesses. In addition, this study looks at the likelihood that employers compensate for these costs by cutting workplace sick leave benefits. Prior to the ADA’s implementation, U.S. employers had the fear of incurring excessive cost. The paper successfully counters this fear by looking first …

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Site Correspondence Effects In Benefit Transfers: A Meta-Analysis Transfer Function, Randall S. Rosenberger, Tim Phipps Jan 2001

Site Correspondence Effects In Benefit Transfers: A Meta-Analysis Transfer Function, Randall S. Rosenberger, Tim Phipps

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

Several factors can affect the validity and reliability of benefit transfers. This paper proposes the existence of meta-valuation function and uses meta-regression analysis to estimate this function. The meta-valuation function controls for systematic effects of differences in sample and site characteristics on the magnitude of error associated with an experimental benefit transfer. Validity measures are derived through various specifications of multi-site and single-site travel cost demand models for hiking on a variety of trails in Colorado. The results show that some characteristics account for a large portion of error in the benefit transfer application. When the meta-regression analysis function is …

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Growing The Economy Of Clay Country Through Industry Targeting: A Preliminary Analysis, David W. Hughes, Steven N. Zaricki Jan 2001

Growing The Economy Of Clay Country Through Industry Targeting: A Preliminary Analysis, David W. Hughes, Steven N. Zaricki

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

No abstract provided.

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Seasonality, Nonstationarity And The Structural Forecasting Of The Index Of Industrial Production, Eugene Kouassi, Walter C. Labys, François B. Aka Jan 2001

Seasonality, Nonstationarity And The Structural Forecasting Of The Index Of Industrial Production, Eugene Kouassi, Walter C. Labys, François B. Aka

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

In this paper we focus on two ‘STS’ models suitable for forecasting the index of industrial production. The first model requires that the index be transformed with a first and seasonal difference filters. The second model considers the index in its second difference filter, while seasonality is modeled with a constant and seasonal dummy variables. Tests designed to discriminate empirically between these two models are also conducted. Our results prefer the performance of the second model, particularly when the conventional ML estimation procedure is replaced by the ALS procedure. This process together with appropriate seasonal adjustment advances the possibility of …

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Heterogeneity And Chaotic Dynamics Incommodity Markets, Catherine Kyrtsou, Walter Labys, Michael Terraza Jan 2001

Heterogeneity And Chaotic Dynamics Incommodity Markets, Catherine Kyrtsou, Walter Labys, Michael Terraza

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

The nonlinear testing and modeling of economic and financial time series has increased substantially in recent years, enabling us to better understand market and price behavior, risk and the formation of expectations. Such tests have also been applied to commodity market behavior, providing evidence of heteroskedasticity, chaos, long memory, cyclicity, etc. More recently the evaluation of empirical financial models suggests that chaotic structure in asset prices can result from the heterogeneity of trader’s expectations. The present evaluation of futures price behavior confirms that the resulting price movements can be random, suggesting noisy chaotic behavior. The root cause of this behavior …

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Switching, Mean-Seeking, And Relative Risk With Two Or More Risky Assets, Gregory M. Gelles, Douglas W. Mitchell Jan 2001

Switching, Mean-Seeking, And Relative Risk With Two Or More Risky Assets, Gregory M. Gelles, Douglas W. Mitchell

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

This paper relates and extends two strands of literature on behavioral implications of utility function features. A class of utility functions switching preference no more than once between W0 r~ and W0 s~ is identified (r~ and s~ being per-dollar returns of alternative portfolios), as is the subclass permitting only switches to the higher-mean portfolio. This latter subclass, which permits expected utility to be expressed in terms of the mean and suitably defined relative risk of final wealth, never decreases expected per-dollar final wealth and never decreases relative risk of final wealth in optimal n-asset portfolios as initial wealth rises.

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On The Measurement Of Rent Seeking And Its Social Opportunity Cost, Russell S. Sobel, Thomas A. Garrett Oct 2000

On The Measurement Of Rent Seeking And Its Social Opportunity Cost, Russell S. Sobel, Thomas A. Garrett

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Utilizing 4-digit industry data by county, we compare the allocation of resources across industries in state capital areas with noncapital areas. We are able to identify which industries are expanded and contracted relative to noncapital areas. Our results provide the first direct evidence and measurement of the forgone productive activity resulting from resources being reallocated toward rent seeking and interest group activity. Our data also allow us to measure total rent seeking, and also to isolate the extent of indirect and in-kind rent seeking, which can account for part of the Tullock paradox.

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Effects Of Decision Interval On Optimal Intertemporal Portfolios With Serially Correlated Returns, Douglas W. Mitchell Jun 2000

Effects Of Decision Interval On Optimal Intertemporal Portfolios With Serially Correlated Returns, Douglas W. Mitchell

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

This paper considers portfolio choice when decisions are made for several future time periods all at once. The risky asset share sequence must be precommitted for the entire decision interval, either constrained (as in Samuelson (1991)) or not constrained (as in Balvers and Mitchell (2000)) to be constant across time periods within the interval. For a broad, plausible class of dynamic returns processes, contrary to Samuelson, under log utility the decisions for the more distant future are more conservative. This class is exemplified by autocorrelated ARMA(p,q) processes and finite-state Markov processes. The source of Samuelson's contrary result is elucidated.

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Murder, Nonnegligent Manslaughter, And Spatial Autocorrelation In Mid-South Counties, F Carson Mencken Jan 1999

Murder, Nonnegligent Manslaughter, And Spatial Autocorrelation In Mid-South Counties, F Carson Mencken

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

In this paper we explore to what extent murder and violent crime rates in the mid-South are spatially autocorrelated with a variety of county-level spatial association measures. The analysis shows that while statistically the murder and violent crime rates in the mid-Southern counties are spatialy associated, the degree of clustering among these counties is minimal-especially when compared to clustering among the significant predictors of violent crime (percent black, female headed households, percent in poverty, etc.). The analysis has important implications as to how county violent crime rates are being modeled.

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High School Dropouts: Implications In The Economic Development Of West Virginia, Semoa C. B. De Sousa, Tesfa Gebremedhin Jan 1999

High School Dropouts: Implications In The Economic Development Of West Virginia, Semoa C. B. De Sousa, Tesfa Gebremedhin

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

An ordinary least squares (OLS) regression method was used to evaluate the relative importance of high school dropout rates and other economic factors that could explain the economic development in West Virginia, as represented by the employment rates. The empirical results revealed that an increase in the high school dropout rates and the State GDP increased the employment rates while the increase in unemployment compensation decreased employment rates. Thus, the increase in the employment rates may likely be on unskilled and low paying jobs.

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Training Needs Of Affordable Housing Nonprofits: How To Develop “Better Total Management”?, G Stevenson Smith Jan 1999

Training Needs Of Affordable Housing Nonprofits: How To Develop “Better Total Management”?, G Stevenson Smith

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

The following report analyzes the data collected from two surveys as that data relates to the training needs of affordable housing non profits (AHN). The first survey was administered in March to nonprofit managers attending a seminar in Charleston. The second survey is a collection of audio taped phone interviews with the executive directors of 28 AHNs conducted in July. The purpose of both surveys was to collect data about the training needs of AHNs in the State of West Virginia. In addition the first survey collected background information about business practices, funding sources, and computer/software usage. Although the first …

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Locational Differences In The Underlying Characteristics Of Poverty, Brian Cushing, Buhong Zheng Jan 1999

Locational Differences In The Underlying Characteristics Of Poverty, Brian Cushing, Buhong Zheng

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

We explore how poverty differs between urban and rural areas and among U.S. regions, using metropolitan versus nonmetropolitan to proxy urban versus rural. Our study focuses on social and demographic characteristics, rather than economic characteristics. We are concerned with which personal characteristics appear to increase the risk of poverty, regardless of whether these characteristics manifest themselves through unemployment, low-wage employment, or some other economic problem that ultimately leads to poverty. Using data for the working-age population from the one percent Public Use Microdata Sample of the 1990 Census of Population and Housing, we find significant differences in predictors of …

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The Origins Of Devolution: A Speculative Note, Scott Loveridge Jan 1999

The Origins Of Devolution: A Speculative Note, Scott Loveridge

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

Why is devolution gaining strength both in the United States and in other highly developed countries? This note looks at broad social and economic trends that may be contributing to the movement toward more local control of government operations. Among the points discussed are: the end of the cold war; the information age, the booming economy, the increasing globalization of the economy, the rise of the south; and society’s increased understanding of environmental issues. A concluding section comments on what it all means for regional scientists.

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Locating Gender In Rural Economic Networks, Ann M. Oberhauser Jan 1999

Locating Gender In Rural Economic Networks, Ann M. Oberhauser

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

In recent decades, increasing entrepreneurial activities among women have contributed to shifting livelihood strategies at the household, community, and regional scales. In this paper I examine home based work in an economic network to highlight the intersection of gender and economic practices in rural Appalachia. The research demonstrates that these livelihood strategies both construct and are shaped by dynamic material conditions and social processes in place. Economic restructuring in the central Appalachian region has led to the reworking of economic strategies, despite a continued reliance by households on homework and informal activities. The case study for this project as an …

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A Multi-Sector Export Base Model Of Long-Run Regional Economic Growth, Brian Lego, Tesfa Gebremedhin, Brian Cushing Jan 1999

A Multi-Sector Export Base Model Of Long-Run Regional Economic Growth, Brian Lego, Tesfa Gebremedhin, Brian Cushing

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

The relationships between intersectoral export and local employment and regional economic growth are analyzed in a long-run equilibrium framework. Dynamic location quotients decompose regional employment into export and local components for multiple sectors. Johansen’s Full-Information Maximum Likelihood (FIML) approach is used to identify the existence and resultant rank of the co-integrating relationship between sectoral export and local employment in West Virginia’s four metropolitan areas. Empirical results indicate inter-sectoral basic and non-basic employment form a co-integrating system of equations. Furthermore, this analysis shows that inter-sector shocks to local and export employment may cause multipliers to be positive or negative in magnitude.

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Using Gis To Identify High Value Areas In Large Coal Resources, Thomas F. Torries, Jeffrey Kern Jan 1999

Using Gis To Identify High Value Areas In Large Coal Resources, Thomas F. Torries, Jeffrey Kern

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

Identifying high value areas of unmined coal when large quantities of coal are available relative to annual markets is difficult because of the uncertainty of when the coal is to be mined. A GIS based methodology developed to value reserve coal in a producing coal region for the purpose of ad valorem taxation also identifies high value areas for mining investment. The methodology is unique in that it accounts for most mining, environmental, and market factors to determine when specific properties are to be mined The methodology and database are useful for directing regional exploration and acquisition activities toward most …

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Measuring The Impacts Of Health Care On Rural Counties: Hospitals And Clinics In Preston County, Alyse Schrecongost Jan 1999

Measuring The Impacts Of Health Care On Rural Counties: Hospitals And Clinics In Preston County, Alyse Schrecongost

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

Quality health care systems are important to a community’s health interests, but they also play an important role in a community’s economic vitality. This paper reviews some
contemporary challenges facing rural health care systems due to changes in the health care industry, the health insurance industry, the national economy, and reforms of social benefit
programs. Using Preston County, West Virginia as a case study, the paper illustrates the link between rural economic vitality and quality, accessible healthcare systems. Furthermore, this
paper demonstrates the need for active community involvement in local health care decisionmaking processes. It also provides a variety of …

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Local Academic Knowledge Spillovers And The Concentration Of Economic Activity, Attila Varga Jan 1998

Local Academic Knowledge Spillovers And The Concentration Of Economic Activity, Attila Varga

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

Agglomeration effects on the intensity of local knowledge spillovers from universities to high technology innovations are examined within the modified Griliches-Jaffe knowledge production function framework. Estimations are carried out at the level of US metropolitan areas. Concentration of high technology employment turns out to be the most important factor promoting local academic knowledge spillovers. It is found that a “critical mass” of agglomeration needs to be reached in order to expect substantial local economic effects of academic research spending.

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Expressions Of Discontent In America: Regional And Temporal Aspects Of Third Party Governors And Gubernatorial Candidates, 1866-1996, Shannon Jones Jan 1998

Expressions Of Discontent In America: Regional And Temporal Aspects Of Third Party Governors And Gubernatorial Candidates, 1866-1996, Shannon Jones

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

Democrats and Republicans traditionally dominate elections in America. The main goal of this project lies in determining if support for third parties exists and if certain third party support patterns exist within the United States. This project examines gubernatorial elections beginning with 1866 and continuing through 1996. This research does demonstrate that third party support has definite patterns and characteristics. Certain third parties rise up and exist for definite periods of time. Eventually they lose their support or their cause loses its salience. However, it remains one huge cycle: prevalent parties appear, and then disappear, making way for other parties …

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Federal Spending And Economic Growth In Appalachian Counties, F Carson Mencken Jan 1998

Federal Spending And Economic Growth In Appalachian Counties, F Carson Mencken

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

In this paper I use a model informed by key theories of regional processes, and I test three related hypotheses concerning the effects of different types of federal spending (public investment, defense, salaries/wages) on economic growth in the 399 Appalachian counties during recent business cycles. The analysis incorporates a maximum likelihood estimate spatial lag regression model and shows the federal public investment spending and defense spending exerted net positive effects on per capita income, civilian employment, and private nonfarm employment growth rates between 1983 and 1988. In addition, public investment spending had a positive relationship with percentage of earnings from …

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Gendered Livelihood Strategies In Rural South Africa And Appalachia, Ann M. Oberhauser Jan 1998

Gendered Livelihood Strategies In Rural South Africa And Appalachia, Ann M. Oberhauser

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

This paper examines the contextual nature of gendered livelihood strategies through a comparative study of rural women”s producer groups in former homelands of South Africa and Appalachia. This comparative approach situates gendered livelihood strategies in distinct local contexts that are constituted by specific historical dynamics and cultural relations. Producer groups are defined here as cooperatives, networks, and other collective economic activities that generate income for households and are part of community-based economic strategies. The discussion focuses on the link between socio-economic conditions and gendered livelihood strategies and the economic viability of these producer groups as sustainable income-generating activities, especially in …

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An Economist's Perspective On Urban Design, Scott Loveridge Jan 1998

An Economist's Perspective On Urban Design, Scott Loveridge

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

No abstract provided.

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Local Economic Development As A Game: We’Re Caught In A Trap, I Can’T Walk Out …, Stephen Ellis, Cynthia Rogers Jan 1997

Local Economic Development As A Game: We’Re Caught In A Trap, I Can’T Walk Out …, Stephen Ellis, Cynthia Rogers

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

This paper uses game theory to analyze the practice of offering incentives to attract new firms to localities. It demonstrates that in trying to attract firms localities are faced with something like a prisoner’s dilemma: they are compelled to offer incentives but would be better off if they could agree not compete for firms. The dilemma that localities face explains why the bidding war for firms continues to escalate despite calls by economists and politicians for disarmament.

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Sense Of Community And Neighbourhood Form: An Assessment Of The Social Doctrine Of New Urbanism, Emily Talen Jan 1997

Sense Of Community And Neighbourhood Form: An Assessment Of The Social Doctrine Of New Urbanism, Emily Talen

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

New urbanism , an umbrella term which encompasses `neotrad itional development’ as well as `traditional neighbourhood design’, lives by an unswerving belief in the ability of the built environment to create a `sense of community’. The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the social doctrine of new urbanism can be successfu lly supported or at least integrated with the social science literatu re which deals with the question of com munity form ation . Towards this goal, the paper ®rst delineates the social doctrine of new urbanism, and then discusses the conceptual fram eworks and empirical ®ndings that …

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Wavelet Analysis Of Commodity Price Behavior, Russell Davidson, Walter C. Labys, Jean-Baptiste Lesourd Jan 1997

Wavelet Analysis Of Commodity Price Behavior, Russell Davidson, Walter C. Labys, Jean-Baptiste Lesourd

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

We propose a form of semi-nonparametric regression based on wavelet analysis. Traditional time series methods usually involve either the time or the frequency domain, but wavelets can combine the information from both of these. While wavelet transforms are typically restricted to equally spaced observations an integer power of 2 in number, we show how to go beyond these constraints. We use our methods to construct ‘patios’ for 21 important international commodity price series. These graph the magnitude of the variations in the series at different time scales for various subperiods of the full sample.

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Measuring The Public Realm: A Case Study, Emily Talen Jan 1997

Measuring The Public Realm: A Case Study, Emily Talen

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

Urban planners are vitally interested in the role, meaning, and use of public space. The recent trend toward building neighborhoods and towns according to the doctrine of new urbanism - a movement which seeks to promote sense of community by adhering to certain principles about the physical arrangement of space - brings the debate about the use of public space and its effect on social life to the forefront. New urbanism stresses the need to resurrect a more civic focus in town planning principles via the provision of public space ( Kunstler, 1996 ; Hochstein, 1994), a view based on …

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Social Contacts And Job Searching: Does Gender Of Contact Matter?, F Carson Mencken Jan 1997

Social Contacts And Job Searching: Does Gender Of Contact Matter?, F Carson Mencken

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

In this study, I investigate how the gender of the social contact women use to find jobs affects the gender composition of the jobs that women find. Using a subsample of women in the Metropolitan Employer Worker Survey, I test two competing hypotheses about the effects of gender of social contact using multivariate logistic regression. Controlling for a range of individual, household, occupation/industry and organization variables, the analysis shows that females are significantly less likely to find female dominated jobs when they find their jobs through male contacts, compared to female contacts. Moreover, I also show that traditional measures of …

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The Effects Of Federal Spending On Earnings Change In Appalachia, F. Carson Mencken, James H. Noonan Jan 1997

The Effects Of Federal Spending On Earnings Change In Appalachia, F. Carson Mencken, James H. Noonan

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

In this paper we investigate the effects of federal spending on earnings change in Appalachian counties during the 1983-88 recovery and 1989-92 recession. Specifically, we explore the effects of federal spending from grants/research, procurement, salary/wages and defense. The analysis controls for key concepts in the human ecology and new urban sociology. The dependent variables are earnings change for each business cycle from a shift-share analysis, which decomposes county earnings change into that from nationally declining industries. The analysis shows that federal spending has no effect on earnings change, when it is considered as an aggregate measure. However, when federal spending …

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Linking Spatial Statistics With Gis: Operational Issues In The Spacestat-Arcview Link And The S+Grassland Link, Shuming Bao, Luc Anselin Jan 1997

Linking Spatial Statistics With Gis: Operational Issues In The Spacestat-Arcview Link And The S+Grassland Link, Shuming Bao, Luc Anselin

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

The extension of the functional capacity of geographic information systems (GIS) with tools for exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) has been an increasingly active area of research in recent years. In this paper, two operational implementations that link spatial analysis software with a GIS are considered more closely. They consist of a linkage between the SpaceStat software for spatial data analysis and the ArcView GIS (based on socalled loose coupling), and the S+Grassland Link between S-PLUS/SpatialStats and Grassland GIS (based on so-called close coupling). The emphasis is on the implementation of methods of exploratory spatial data analysis to describe spatial …

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