Economics Commons^™

The 6th International Conference On The State Of Africa: Challenges And Opportunities For Sustainable Development And Peace In Africa In The 21st Century, Sisay Asefa

International Conference on African Development Archives

No abstract provided.

The Family And Medical Leave Act: Effects On Women's Wages And Employment, Andrea E. Miller

Honors Theses

For many years, women's labor force participation and issues of parental leave have been of great importance not only to families and individuals, but also to policy makers, researchers, and employers alike. The Family and Medical Leave Act was the first federal policy enacted in an effort to accommodate medical leave for employees. The Family and Medical Leave Act allowed both men and women to take extended, unpaid leaves due to personal or family medical and health issues. The FMLA establishes a federal, minimum leave threshold in order for employees to take such an extended leave to include the following …

Common Currency Examined In Latin America, Jack William Mccloskey

Honors Theses

Maintaining a stable currency with economic growth and prosperity has always been an obstacle for countries in Latin America. Debt crises and high poverty rates have plagued economies in the region for decades now. A possible solution to these problems is a shared currency. This approach has positive and negative attributes, and other solutions are also discussed.

The Effects Of Trade And Other Factors On Income Distribution: The Cases Of Chile, Dominican Republic, And Venezuela, George G. Lluberes

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the factors affecting income distribution in Latin America, specifically, the cases of Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela. The focus of this study is to identify economic, as well as, political factors that may be causing the inequality levels of income distribution to increase or decrease within the countries previously stated. Economic factors investigated include freedom to trade, trade as a percentage of GDP, economic growth, and educational enrollment levels. Furthermore, the political factors analyzed in this thesis are: corruption levels, legal structures, security of property rights, rule of law, democratic or non-democratic status, expenditure in social …

The Economics Of Health 2011-12, Department Of Economics

Werner Sichel Lecture Series

The 2011-12 Werner Sichel Lecture Series features six nationally recognized economists & medical specialists whose presentations will focus on the economics of health.The Sichel Series is directed by Professor Donald Meyer, and is cosponsored by the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, College of Arts and Sciences, and the Medical Humanities Workgroup of WMU. It is named for longtime WMU economics professor, Dr. Werner Sichel, who retired in 2004.

Three Essays On Financial Markets And Monetary Policy, Abeba Siraj Mussa

Dissertations

The global financial crisis triggered by fallout from the sub-prime mortgage market in the U.S. has led economists to focus attention on the role of monetary policy in the crisis. The question of how monetary policy affects the financial sector is the key to the current debate over the role financial stability should play in the monetary policy decisions. As a contribution to this debate, my dissertation examines the link between monetary policy and three main financial sectors - the banking sector, the stock market, and the housing market.

The first essay examines whether the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) …

A Study On The Productivity And Efficiency Effects Of Enterprise Reforms In China, Song Gao

Dissertations

This dissertation studies the progress and impacts of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) reforms in China. The primary interests center on impacts of non-ownershipchange reforms and privatization on Chinese SOEs’ productivity and efficiency. The research comprises of three major sections.

Section one briefly reviews the history of SOEs’ reform in China and examines the changes in some selected performance indicators with help of a comprehensive dataset on 863 Chinese firms from 1995 to 2001. In addition, causes of Chinese SOEs’ privatization and determinants of firms’ inefficiency are also studied.

Section two examines the effects of privatization and non-ownership-change reforms on firms’ productivity …

The Allocation Of Time And Goods: Three Essays On American Household Shopping Behavior, Jing Cai

Dissertations

Consumers’ shopping behavior connects market goods expenditure with the out of- market time allocation in their daily time use. This study is composed of three essays. In the first essay, data are collected from the American Time Use Survey and it is found that an individual’s time devoted to shopping is positively determined by opportunity cost of time. Grocery shopping and other shopping, as two distinct types of shopping, react differently to a series of individual and household characteristics as well as by seasons. The corresponding marginal effects also differentiate between shopping time, leisure time, and home production time. In …

Economic And Risk Factors Associated With Sexual And Reproductive Health, Julio Cesar Hernandez-Correa

Dissertations

This dissertation is intended to evaluate the effects of economic and risk factors on three aspects of sexual and reproductive health: maternal mortality, prenatal care demand, and contraceptive use. The first study of this dissertation discusses the effects of risk factors and socioeconomic determinants on maternal mortality. This research uses a unique, nationwide panel of counties to analyze maternal mortality in Madagascar. Factors like health environment and access to health services were controlled for. The results indicate that female literacy and wages decrease maternal mortality. Other factors related to health infrastructure, and diseases can represent a burden to women's health. …

Skew Selection Theory Applied To The Wealth And Welfare Of Nations, Susan F. Allen, Deby L. Cassill

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

According to skew selection theory, working citizens who build wealth and, at the same time, share portions of their wealth with those in need are more likely to survive economic downturns than citizens who hoard wealth. In this article, skew selection is employed as a theoreticalframework to support governmental efforts to develop social policies that protect the income of working citizens and, at the same time, provide for vulnerable, non-working children and elders. To illustrate its applicability, the social policies of Japan, Sweden and the United States-all of which are challenged by decaying ratios of working to non-working citizens-are compared …

Why You Should Care About The Threatened Middle Class, Jill Littrell, Fred Brooks, Jan Ivery, Mary L. Ohmer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In the last two decades, the income and security of the individual middle class worker has declined and the gap between the middle class and the wealthy has widened. We explain how this is bad for democracy, the economy, and the aggregate health of the nation. We examine the governmental policies and interventions that increased the middle class following the depression and maintained its vigor through the post-World War II period. The impetus for these changes in governmental policies in the 1930s was to end the Great Depression. We pose the question of whether a nation can recover from a …

Essays On Export Destination Decisions And Spillovers From Inward Fdi: Evidence From Chilean Manufacturing Plants, Ivan A. Duran Diaz

Dissertations

This dissertation examines the relationship between destination country characteristics and Chilean firm characteristics on the export destination decisions of Chilean firms. Additionally, it explores the impact generated by inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on Chilean firms' export decisions, wages, and productivity.

For the first study, a random coefficients logit approach is employed to model export likelihood to a particular destination country. From this, estimates of export substitution elasticities among destination countries are obtained, given changes in some of their macroeconomic variables such as GDP. Both destination country and the Chilean firms' characteristics are shown to be relevant in the export …

Regional Economic Development: Current Issues 2010-11, Department Of Economics

Werner Sichel Lecture Series

The Sichel Series is codirected by Professors Wei-Chiao Huang and Huizhong Zhou, and is cosponsored by the W. E. Up john Institute for Employment Research, College of Arts and Sciences, and Timothy Light Center for Chinese Studies at the Diether H. Haenicke Institute for Global Education at WMU. It is named for longtime WMU economics professor, Dr. Werner Sichel, who retired in 2004. This series also coincides timely with the founding of Timothy Light Center for Chinese Studies at Western Michigan University.

The Politics And Consequences Of Stakeholder Participation In International Development Evaluation, Anne Cullen

Dissertations

Participatory approaches to evaluation have long been vogue in the international development evaluation community. However, despite their widespread use, there is a dearth of research on the impact of stakeholder participation in international development evaluations. Although proponents of participatory approaches to international development evaluation assert many advantages of their use, the evidence to support these claims is largely anecdotal. Similarly, critics of participatory approaches do not have empirical data on which to base their assertions. Further confusing the matter are multiple and conflicting definitions of stakeholder and participation. Some interpret stakeholders to mean funders while others view stakeholders as those …

Empirical Essays On The Impact Of Health-Aid On Health Outcomes, Elsy Thomas Kizhakethalackal

Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays that empirically explore the impact of multilateral health-aid on health outcomes like infant mortality rate (IMR) and incidences of an infectious disease, Tuberculosis, in developing economies. The first essay uses parametric and semiparametric mean regressions (additive and non-additive specifications) to capture the impact of education and health-aid on the IMR, after controlling for other covariates. Both specifications confirm education as an important factor in reducing IMR. However, the effect of health-aid on IMR is not significant. In our additive model, we do see a threshold level of health-aid after which the impacts of health-aid …

Three Essays On Foreign Aid, Poverty And Growth., Aberra Senbeta

Dissertations

This dissertation studies how foreign aid impacts poverty and economic growth and addresses three interrelated issues: whether aid reduces poverty, how aid affects economic growth, and whether the poverty mitigating role of aid depends on the levels of poverty.

The first essay, "Does Foreign Aid Reduce Poverty?" examines the direct effects of foreign aid on poverty in developing countries using dynamic panel estimation techniques. The results suggest that aid has a significant poverty reducing effect even after controlling for average income. The findings are robust to model specification and estimation techniques. The policy implication is that poverty reduction can be …

A Multidisciplinary Conference On The Challenges & Opportunities For Sustainable Development In Ethiopia & The Greater Horn Of Africa

International Conference on African Development Archives

No abstract provided.

Ethnosymbolism And The Dismemberment Of The State In The Horn Of Africa: The Ethiopian Case Of Ethnic Federalism, Assefa Mehretu

International Conference on African Development Archives

The paper has three major objectives. The first is to do a critical review of the current largely antagonistic narratives of ethnic instrumentalism in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa that have ultimately led to the balkanization of the state and caused serious political instability and fratricidal conflicts with traumatic and costly consequences in the region. The second is to do a critical review of the policy of the current Ethiopian government to implement ethno-territorial formations under the rubric of killils (Amharic for territorial enclosures), and to demonstrate how this may seriously vitiate national integration along compatible cultural and economic …

On The Battleground Of Environmental And Competition Policy: The Renewable Electricity Market, Matyas Tamas Meszaros

Dissertations

Renewable energy resources have become increasingly important in the effort to provide energy security and to fight global warming. In the last decade environmental policy has increased the support for renewable electricity. At the same time the electricity sector was often subject to antitrust investigation because of relevant market concentration and market power. This dissertation looks at the renewable electricity market to analyze the effect of environmental policy on competition.

The first chapter provides a short introduction to the regulatory schemes employed in electricity markets. The second chapter analyzes the demand side of the electricity market. The estimations show that …

Advances In Economic Forecasting 2009-10, Department Of Economics

Werner Sichel Lecture Series

The 2009-10 Werner Sichel Lecture Series features six nationally recognized economists whose presentations will focus on new methodologies for improving the accuracy and evaluation of economic forecasts. The series is directed by Professor Matthew Higgins and is cosponsored by the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. All presentations are free and open to the public.

Three Essays On Computer And Internet Use At Home, Tadesse Biru Wodajo

Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays on computer and Internet (CI) use in the United States households. Surveys show that the adoption and use of these two technologies at home have been steadily increasing over time. In addition to providing information regarding the use of CI at home, the essays seek to address a number of issues.

The first essay investigates the factors that determine the probability of owning a home CI and those influencing the intensity of use by employing the double-hurdle model. The double-hurdle estimation reveals that the use of a home CI is governed by two distinct …

Essays On Asymmetric Loss And Learning In Macroeconomic Forecasting, Sagarika Mishra

Dissertations

My dissertation consists of three essays that answer the questions whether agents have asymmetric loss, why agents have asymmetric loss and whether agents engage in least squares learning.

In my first essay, I test the rationality of inflation forecasts from the Livingston survey using the Mincer-Zarnowitz (MZ) regression when agents have asymmetric loss. I show that the MZ regression is inappropriate when agents have asymmetric loss. I demonstrate how the MZ regression can be suitably modified to test forecast rationality when agents have asymmetric loss. When I augment the MZ regression with higher order moments of the forecasts, the rationality …

Potential Impact Of Eitc Adjustments On Financial Self-Sufficiency Among Low-Income Families: A Simulation Model, Younghee Lim, Catherine Lemieux

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Policies that help low-income mothers find and keep employment as a means of obtaining self-sufficiency have been a focal point of the welfare reform debate in the past decade. In the midst of this dialogue, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has gained popularity as one of the core work support programs for America's low- and moderately low-income families with children. This study compares the estimated effects of EITC when its value deteriorated in the late 1990s with that of a simulated EITC for which the real value kept pace with the actual cost of living on welfare caseload reductions. …

Globalization, Precarious Work, And The Food Bank, Ernie S. Lightman, Andrew Mitchell, Dean Herd

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper explores whether people are better off working in the precarious employment associated with a neoliberal globalized economy. Firstly, we show the impacts of globalization on the composition of food bank users in Toronto, Canada. We then compare two groups offood bank users, one with at least one household member working, the other without. Our findings demonstrate that the life experiences of the two groups remain depressingly similar: those employed remained mired in poverty and continued to lead marginalized, precarious lives. The lack of investment in education or training characteristic of 'work-first' welfare reforms leads to unstable, low-paid work …

The Economics Of Natural And Unnatural Disasters 2008-09, Department Of Economics

Werner Sichel Lecture Series

The 2008/2009 Werner Sichel Lecture Series features six nationally and internationally recognized economists whose presentations will focus on the economic impacts generated by both natural and man-made disasters and the policy options that might reduce our vulnerability to these events. The series is directed by Professors William Kern and Christine Moser and is cosponsored by the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. All presentations are free and open to the public.

Essays On Intrahousehold Allocation And The Family: Fertility, Child Education, And Nutrition, Alemayehu Azeze Ambel

Dissertations

Understanding the constraints that households face when making decisions on fertility, education, and health is beneficial for effective interventions aimed at enhancing investments in human capital, promoting gender equity, and reducing poverty. This dissertation consists of four essays that analyze the nature, performance, and determinants of fertility, child education, and nutritional status in a developing economy.

The first essay identifies peculiar constraints, including gender preference and income uncertainty that households face when making fertility and schooling choices. The underlying assumption in the theoretical analysis is that in the absence of formal risk and capital markets, households may revert to informal …

Estimating The Impact, Transmission Mechanism And Reaction Function Of Monetary Policy: A Factor-Augmented Vector Autoregressive (Favar) Approach, Dawit Legesse Senbet

Dissertations

This dissertation employs factor-augmented vector autoregressive (FAVAR) models to investigate the impact, transmission mechanism and reaction function of monetary policy. The recent development of augmenting dynamic factor analysis with the vector autoregressive (VAR) models, pioneered by Bernanke et al. (2005), has led to advances in monetary policy analysis. The new approach bases measurements of monetary policy on large data sets that approximate the true information set of policymakers. This is in contrast to low dimensional VAR models. The FAVAR model summarizes information from large data set by a few factors that are incorporated into VAR models.

The first essay investigates …

Three Essays On The Impacts Of Risk And Uncertainty On Foreign Direct Investment (Fdi) And Remittances Flows Into Developing Countries, Blen Solomon

Dissertations

This three-essay dissertation focuses on the two most important and most stable sources of finance to developing countries, namely Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and remittances. The first essay examines the roles of exchange rate uncertainty and political risk in determining FDI inflows into African economies. The past few decades have witnessed a surge of FDI inflows to developing regions. However, FDI inflows to Africa still remain relatively small and investor surveys show political risk and macroeconomic uncertainty to be strong deterrents of FDI inflows into Africa. In this essay, I use a sample of 12 African countries and employ Fixed …

The Role Of Informal Social Networks In Micro-Savings Mobilization, Margaret Lombe, Fred M. Ssewamala

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The influence of informal institutions on economic outcomes for low income individuals and households has received little attention in the United States. Yet, drawing on social capital theory and existing studies from developing countries where informal institutions have been widely used in promoting economic opportunities offamilies in poverty, one would expect these institutions to have positive effects on the economic outcomes of low income individuals in the context of an IDA program. Using a sample of 840 respondents who were enrolled in a community action program, this study assesses the effects of informal networks of social support on performance in …

Maternal Education And Child Nutrition: Evidence From The 2000 And 2005 Ethiopian Demographic And Health Surveys, Alemayehu Azeze Ambel

International Conference on African Development Archives

I used the 2000 and 2005 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Surveys to analyze the effect of maternal education and its pathways on chronic and acute malnutrition in Ethiopia. The pathways examined in this study are socioeconomic status, maternal health-seeking behavior, maternal knowledge of health and family planning and reproductive behavior. I find that maternal education works through all except health-seeking behavior. I also find that maternal education and its pathways are more relevant and robust in explaining chronic than acute malnutrition. Socioeconomic status is the most important factor linking maternal education and child nutritional status. Although girls’ education is a …