Economics Commons^™

The Modern-Day Effect Of Holc Redlining On Neighborhood Development, Liubov Ivashov

Master's Theses

Racial segregation, which happened more than one hundred years ago in the U.S., is a fundamental cause of economic inequality for people living in historically segregated neighborhoods today. Redlining was one form of federal policy that forced to separate communities by race even more after the Great Depression. The Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) maps are widely used in economic research papers as one of the most comprehensive sources of data available to measure the effect of residential segregation. In this paper, using the Historical Redline Score (HRS) method, the author measured the association between modern-day population distribution, rent prices, …

Does My Skin Tone Really Matter? A Socioeconomic Analysis In Nigeria., Mutiu O. Fakorede

Master's Theses

Abstract: Does my skin tone really matter? If it does, to what extent and direction does skin tone predict socioeconomic outcomes, especially amongst people of color who have experienced colonial rule with its white supremacy agenda? In this research, we examined if skin tone measured in individual typology angle (ITA) does not affect employability, income, partner selection, and political representativeness. With a focus on Nigeria, the most populous black nation, a former British colony, we addressed this broad question through a survey. Using the iterative capability of Qualtrics which randomly picks a set of three pictures with known ITA and …

Impact Of Climate Variability On Child Nutrition In Ethiopia, Juan S. Gomez

Master's Theses

Changes in precipitation and temperature due to climate change have caused a shortage in food productivity leading to an increase in malnutrition outcomes, especially among children in developing countries that are more susceptible to undernutrition outcomes. This study contributes to existing literature studying the impact of climate variability measured by temperature, precipitation, and vegetation index on wasting. Wasting is measured by the weight for height score during the main growing season (Meher) using Demographic and Health Surveys data for five different periods in Ethiopia. Results suggest that lower NDVI outcomes are associated with an increase in the risk of acute …

Using Machine Learning To Analyze Children’S Drawings As Indicators Of Mental Well-Being, Nicholas R. Lawrie

Master's Theses

Human figure drawings are a well-studied diagnostic tool for emotional distress in children. Cleft lip/palate is one of the most common birth defects in the world, and has been shown to negatively impact emotional well-being in childhood which can have negative economic consequences in adulthood. Utilizing a dataset of human figure drawings from children in India and survey data on mental health, this paper will assess the impact of corrective surgery on mental health outcomes, as well as assess the validity of the drawing emotional indicators themselves. The results indicate that while the emotional indicators may not be valid in …

Inaccessible Interpolated Imagery: How Coffee Farmers In The State Of Chiapas Might Access Political Economic Opportunity Through Representation, Paolo Fiann Bicchieri

Master's Theses

Here is a useful parable to boil down the idea of this project and set the tone: when one goes to the bar to tell a story about a fight at the bar, they would never venture to place themselves as the hero of the brawl, taking out three drunkards in a single punch, unless they were really in the bar, at that time, fighting a good fight. One would never do this as the bartender, locals, and regulars would all know if this were the case or not. Yet transnational corporations, governments, and even consumers do this all the …

Degrowth And Catholic Social Thought: Rethinking Socio-Economics For A Planet In Crisis, Chad G. Baron

Master's Theses

It is assumed within both degrowth literature and the social teaching of the Roman Catholic Church (CST) that socio-economic transitions and transformations are needed due to the failings of the dominant capitalist paradigm. Both bodies of thought engage with issues of socio-economic transitions by considering what constitutes globally just development, and by outlining key principles they espouse to be foundational to global justice. By highlighting these principles, and locating the affinities between the two, these theories of socio-economic development can benefit from engaging with the other’s promoted framework. What could follow is a more coherent and holistic approach to development, …

Can Social Support Ameliorate Burnout?, Timothy Finney

Master's Theses

Mental health provides different areas of interest compared to physical health when looking at general health. Social support decreases the negative impacts of burnout while positively influencing productive components of the economy. Social sciences other than economics such as sociology and psychology take notice of the impact of social support on burnout. Pronto Soccorso e Medicina d’ Urgenza Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria in Parma, Italy provides high quality health care services before and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic while anticipating continuing to administer care well into the future. Here we show social support effecting workers in the health care industry. Work colleagues influencing …

A Pandemic Of Greed And A Disease Of Poverty In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque Of The Red Death", Benjamin Herrick

Master's Theses

The breakers tripped. Again. The breakers, a mandatory halt to trading on the floor of the stock exchange in response to the S&P falling more than 7% from the previous close. This was instituted after the Crash of 1987 to calm the markets before trading is allowed to resume. They are supposed to mitigate a drastic crash. They have only ever triggered once before, in 1997. Not for the tech bubble. Not even in the crash of 2008. All trading stops for fifteen minutes when the Level One breaker trips. If it drops further in the same day, the Level …

The Effect Of Foreign Direct Investment On Colombia’S Economic Growth And The Role Of Human Capital: Does Foreign Direct Investment Foster Growth?, Jean K. Plantin

Master's Theses

Abstract: Since the pioneering work of John H. Dunning on the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the economic growth of the United Kingdom, many experts have debated the growth effect of FDI in an economy. This study investigated the impact of FDI on Colombia’s economic growth from 1990 to 2019. Moreover, it explored whether the Colombian economy has benefited from positive spillover from FDIs. Additionally, the paper examined how the stock level of human capital conditioned the effect of FDI on GDP per capita growth. To this end, the analysis separated tertiary enrollments from the human capital …

Do Conditional Cash Transfers Increase School Enrollment? Evidence From Brazil, Jeanette L. Silvernale

Master's Theses

Conditional cash transfer programs have been widely deployed across the globe. They seek to bolster human capital by providing benefits contingent upon a variety of actions such as school attendance and regular health checkups. Bolsa Familia is the most extensive conditional cash transfer program, serving 46 million Brazilian citizens. Despite its expansive size, there have been seldom large-scale micro evaluations of the program. Limited data has resulted in small sample sizes drawn from a single point in time. Our study diverges from the rest and utilizes a novel administrative dataset with an overall sample of nearly 60 million and a …

Gender Differences In Risk, Social, And Competitive Preference. Experimental Evidence From Uzbekistan., Firuzjon Khayrulloev

Master's Theses

Most of the previous literature suggests that women are less competitive than men. However, I we hypothesize that women are as competitive as man when the incentive for winning equally matter for both genders. The option to share some of their winnings with other competitors may afford females benefit from rewards without suffering some of its potential costs. In this paper we conducted an experiment on 212 subjects and the results support our hypothesis. The gap in competitiveness between males and females vanishes when we allowed winners an opportunity to share some of their winnings. Overall, our work demonstrates that …

The Role Of Learning Styles In The Uptake Of Index Insurance: Evidence From Kenya, Yibekal Abebe Tessema, Andrew Hobbs, Nathaniel Jensen

Master's Theses

Index insurance has a huge potential to increase the income of households in developing countries by shielding them against various shocks and by facilitating technology adoption. Despite this theoretical promise, however, the uptake of insurance has turned out to be disappointingly low. One of the key barriers in the adoption of this financial technology has been learning difficulty. Index insurance can be considered a relatively complex product especially in the context of low financial literacy in developing countries. Despite the relevance of learning in the diffusion of the product, however, previous studies on the subject have been quite limited. This …

Do Letters And Gifts From International Sponsors Affect Child Outcomes? Evidence From Colombia, Ghana, And Haiti, Mai Moua

Master's Theses

Past research has found child sponsorship results in higher aspirations, mental health, and educational outcomes. In this research, I explore the extent to which these outcomes can be influenced by letters and gifts sent from the sponsor to the child. However, there is limited research on the effects of direct relationship between sponsor and child. Using 1142 sponsor letters and a 2017 survey from Compassion International, an international child sponsorship organization, we find that letters and gifts from sponsors have a statistically insignificant impact on outcomes including education, mental health, aspirations, social connectedness, nutrition, religiosity, hygiene, and views on drugs, …

Temperature Effects On Prevalence Of Sexually Transmitted Infections Among At-Risk Female Sex Workers In India, Rajshri Suresh

Master's Theses

Vulnerability to climate change varies depending on the baseline climate, sensitivity to given exposure, and the presence of social, political, cultural, and institutional inequalities that influence access to essential resources of livelihood, particularly among informal labor market participants. Within the risky informal labor market, the transient nature of sex work implies that sex workers suffer disproportional losses in health, income, protection, and other aspects of general well-being as a result of the effects of climate anomalies. In this paper, I investigate the effect of temperature on the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections in a high-risk population of female sex workers …

Does Prize Sharing Close The Gender-Based Gap Of Competition In Nepal?, Supriya Adhikari

Master's Theses

Past research has shown that even when women perform
equally as men, they are less competitive when cash is provided as
incentive. Using the experimental design of Cassar and Rigdon
(2021), where in a real effort tournament a social incentive
motivates women to compete more and closes the gender gap in
competitiveness, we examine if this will be found in a Nepal
sample. Following the evolutionary literature that suggests women
need each other’s support for child care, participants are given an
option to share the prize they win to help them earn friendships and
bonds in a competitive game. Our …

The Health Costs Of Political Identity: Evidence From Public Safety Responses In The Us And A Natural Experiment In California, Sahiba Chopra

Master's Theses

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought political polarization in the US to the forefront of the battle against coronavirus. We find that for every one percentage point increase in votes for Trump there are 881 more Covid-19 cases and 17 more Covid-19 deaths. We find that these results are motivated by political identity as it is mediated through public safety behaviors like maskwearing and social distancing. In addition, a natural experiment in California during the first half of the pandemic in the US finds that 36% of the Covid-19 cases at the census tract level in California can be associated with …

Transitioning Into Retirement: Effect Of Pension Expansion On Elderly Labor Force Participation In India, Devaprasad Sahadevan

Master's Theses

The welfare effects of public social security programs have been extensively studied in the context of developing economies where the reliance on state is much larger for the provision of basic goods and services. Pension schemes and reforms, however, are met with much less fiscal investment considering the demographic composition and the requisite demands of the larger proportion of youth- and working age- population. Given the rapid pace of demographic transition, there will inevitably be an ever-growing pressure and economic problems associated with aging are bound to become more apparent. As transitioning into retirement is an under-studied area in countries …

Police Union Membership And Lethal Use Of Force, Scott Barger

Master's Theses

I examine the Fraternal Order of Police union presence in cities as an explanation for the lethal use of violence. Using a novel dataset of FOP union presence, I utilize a simple log OLS linear model to explore the relationships between FOP unions and lethal use of force. I find robust evidence that FOP unions have higher incidences of death at the hands of police, compared to cities without a FOP union. Exposure to FOP leads to an increase in baseline risk of death by police by 17%. This effect increases for larger cities.

The Gendered Impact Of Droughts On Household Decision Making: Evidence From Uganda, Fiona Onyango, Andrew Hobbs

Master's Theses

Do female headed households lose/ sell more of their livestock in the event of a drought as compared to households headed by males? We address this question through an analysis of the combination of Living Standards Measurement study Integrated surveys on Agriculture dataset on Uganda using data from the period 2011-2016 and NDVI & Weather data. We carry out both OLS and fixed effects estimations. Our OLS Results are consistent with the theory of Consumption smoothing while we do not find evidence of any gendered effects from both the OLS and IV estimations.

Do Conditional Cash Transfers Increase School Enrollment? Evidence From Brazil, Jeanette L. Silvernale

Master's Theses

Conditional cash transfer programs have been widely deployed across the globe. They seek to bolster human capital by providing benefits contingent upon a variety of actions such as school attendance and regular health checkups. Bolsa Familia is the most extensive conditional cash transfer program, serving 46 million Brazilian citizens. Despite its expansive size, there have been seldom large-scale micro evaluations of the program. Limited data has resulted in small sample sizes drawn from a single point in time. Our study diverges from the rest and utilizes a novel administrative dataset with an overall sample of nearly 60 million and a …

Temperature Effects On Prevalence Of Sexually Transmitted Infections Among At-Risk Female Sex Workers In India, Rajshri Suresh

Master's Theses

Vulnerability to climate change varies depending on the baseline climate, sensitivity to given exposure, and the presence of social, political, cultural, and institutional inequalities that influence access to essential resources of livelihood, particularly among informal labor market participants. Within the risky informal labor market, the transient nature of sex work implies that sex workers suffer disproportional losses in health, income, protection, and other aspects of general well-being as a result of the effects of climate anomalies. In this paper, I investigate the effect of temperature on the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections in a high-risk population of female sex workers …

Meta Analysis Of Rct Interventions, Ayo Ellis

Master's Theses

External validity of an RCT intervention enables understanding of where interventions are successful.

Meta-analysis allows for more generalized statements to be made on the effectiveness of RCTs across countries of different geographic and national income profiles. By comparing the findings from similar studies carried out in different settings I seek to describe whether RCTs in certain sectors are more sensitive to high GDP growth or higher levels of GDP. I consider 402 health, education, and industry development RCT studies done between 1980 and 2015 in 201 countries compiled by development non-profit Aidgrade. I find no significant effect of income level …

The Effect Of The Second-Stage Anti-Corruption Campaign On Provincial Development In China, 2015-2017, Zhenyao Yuan

Master's Theses

China had experienced long-term economic growth since the reform in 1978. With the communism system shifts in the socialist market economy, the country's legal institution and administration are facing corruption's challenge. President Xi Jinping takes action against deep corruption in China after coming to power in 2013. To observe the impact of the second stage of the anti-corruption campaign on provincial economic development since the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 2015 to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2017, this project downloads and extracts public …

Mentoring Effects On Microbusiness Growth In Medellín, Colombia, Diana Herrera

Master's Theses

Microbusinesses are stagnant in growth across least developed countries due to their lack of managerial skills and limited access to the credit market. Current business methods aimed at increasing profitability for microentrepreneurs with limited capital in developing countries are only moderately successful in increasing growth. Having a mentor that has a localized business understanding can provide their mentee with the proper guidance on how to effectively manage their business to increase growth. This paper presents the results for a randomized controlled trial which identifies the average treatment effects of meeting with a mentor and observes the impact on business growth …

An Estimated New Keynesian Model For The Egyptian Economy, Dalia Elgebaly

Master's Theses

This paper aims to identify the drivers of Egypt’s aggregate macro fluctuations during the period 2002-2013. In particular, the paper will empirically investigate the effects of the unexpected shocks to consumers’ preference, cost-push, technology, and monetary policy on the dynamic behavior of output growth, inflation, and short-term nominal interest rate. The paper estimates a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with sticky prices for Egypt within a New Keynesian framework. The paper uses maximum likelihood, with quarterly data of key macroeconomic variables: GDP, inflation rate, and nominal interest rate from year 2002q1 until 2013q4. We have found that preferences shocks …

Income Inequality In America: Conclusions From 100 Years Of Income Tax Data And Cross-Country Comparisons, Noriel Campos

Master's Theses

In 1913, taxation of income was permanently introduced in the United States. Other similarly developed countries soon followed suit. From there, income inequality in the United States dropped significantly, and the decline in Europe was even more dramatic. First, this paper considers the changes over time of the share of national income gained by the top 1% of income earners in seven countries going back to World War Two. A second analysis considers the impact that tax policy may have had on the share of income accruing to the top 1% of U.S. income earners between 1980 and 2014, a …

Oil Price Changes And Unemployment Rate In The U.S. And Chile, Agamani Maity

Master's Theses

Abstract

There is a recurring question in theoretical, empirical and policy work is what the effects of higher oil prices are on the country’s macroeconomic aggregates. Empirical evidence in support of the view that fluctuation in the economy due to the interaction of macroeconomic variables is caused by oil price was based on inappropriate econometric models. These studies do not capture the composition of the price of oil that is affected by the exogenous oil shocks and has an indirect or direct impact on the macroeconomic aggregates. In this study, we decompose the change in oil prices into three structural …

Estimating Predictors Of Mental Well-Being Through Analysis Of Children’S Drawings: The Case Of Syrian Refugees, Stephanie Smith

Master's Theses

There are currently over 65 million individuals that have been forcibly displaced globally. The cumulative trauma that comes from the refugee experience and exposure to violence has proven to have long-term negative psychological outcomes and thus negative impacts on human capital in the long run. Given that over 50% percent of the global refugee population are children, the ability to efficiently and accurately assess their mental well-being is of critical importance. Using data from over 2000 refugee children in Jordan, I use machine learning techniques to find key predictors of psychological distress, PTSD, and exposure to violence found in children’s …

Who Benefits From Park And Recreation Improvements In San Francisco? A Case Study Of Recreation Center Renovations In San Francisco, Safia Belayadi

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the efficacy of city policies undertaking public goods investments to benefit disadvantaged communities in San Francisco. Namely, is the process of improving the quality of public goods serving targeted populations, or does it lead to unintended consequences such as gentrification? I take advantage of the timing of city recreation center renovations and the synthetic control method to capture any difference in the proportion of users that is poor before and after the renovation date. I use San Francisco Recreation and Park Department registrant data containing user zip codes and census demographic data …

The Role Of High-Fructose Corn Syrup Imports In Child And Women Obesity, Anna Subirana Bofill

Master's Theses

High Fructose Corn Syrup is believed to be responsible for the increase of the obesity epidemic that is affecting both developed and developing countries, yet to date there are no rigorous analyses that quantify this effect. To estimate the impact of consumption of HFCS on obesity, I have paired country-specific data on imports of HFCS from the United Nations International Trade Statistics Database (UN Comtrade) with women and child health data from around 70 countries from 1985 to 2018. The results show that conditional on space and time fixed effects, imports of HFCS with a high concentration of fructose have …