Economics Commons^™

Building A Knowledge Economy Index For Southern Metropolitan Areas, Kristine Koutout

All Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to determine if the methodology used to build the South Carolina Research Authority Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) for states can be replicated and applied to Southern Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). Data to imitate the KEI measures for workforce education and fast growth firms were available at the MSA-level; however, academic R&D was used as a proxy for industrial R&D in this index because data was not available for MSAs. An index for Southern MSAs was built based on the coefficients from the OLS results. Workforce education was the most important factor for increasing mean …

Economic Analysis Of Adoption Of Water-Saving Land Improvements In Northern China, Xuanwen Wang

All Dissertations

Determinants for farmers' choice of water-saving land improvements in Northern China are analyzed with a sample survey of 401 villages. The analysis focuses on two aspects of adoption, whether or not to adopt and if a technology is adopted, how much land to which to apply the technology. In the first stage, 'whether to adopt', multinomial logit models are applied to analyze the discrete choice of alternative land improvement strategies. In the second stage of adoption, 'how much to adopt', both sample selection models and OLS models are utilized to measure the adoption extent of field leveling, use of borders, …

Population Growth And Planned Birth Policy, Yigang Zhang

All Dissertations

China's planned birth policy is based on 'population pessimism', which states population growth affects the income level negatively, though the role of population growth in cross-country growth regressions is ambiguous. There are 'population pessimism', 'population optimism', and 'population neutralism'. Also, a new concept 'demographic dividend' was raised in recent years, which states a rise in the rate of economic growth can be induced because of a rising share of working age people in a population while still holding 'population neutralism'. The planned birth policy results in a decreasing fertility rate, which slows down the population growth and changes the age …

Estimation Of Emergency Room Visits: Implications For Uninsured In South Carolina, Anusha Pokuri

All Dissertations

This study assesses the relationships between the percentage of emergency room visits, the percentage of uninsured population, and socio-demographic characteristics. This is accomplished by developing linear models of the relationships among these variables for the 46 counties of South Carolina for the year 2000. The results showed that the percentage of non-White population and percentage of business establishments that employ fewer than 50 workers had significant positive influence on the percentage of uninsured population. The median household income and high percentage of population with educational attainment beyond high school had a significant negative influence on the percentage of uninsured population. …

La Libertad De La Ciudad, David Harvey

Publications and Research

David Harvey explora aquí la relación existente entre el problema de la reubicación del excedente de capital y las transformaciones del espacio urbano a una escala cada vez mayor. En este artículo, escrito antes de que fuera declarada la crisis económica mundial, Harvey ofrece un análisis espacial que anticipa dicha crisis y analiza las consecuencias que la continuidad del modelo económico vigente tendrá para el futuro de la vida urbana.

In this paper David Harvey explores the existing relation between the problem of surplus capital allocation and the increasing transformations of urban space. The paper, written before the world economic …

A Comparison Of The Economic Profitability Of Specified Risk Management Alternatives For Intermountain West Farmers, Cody D. Bingham

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this research is to provide quantitative and limited qualitative analysis for the United States Intermountain West on the economic effectiveness of risk management alternatives in an agricultural operation. This research is not meant to be an exhaustive comparison of every potential combination of alternatives and risk scenarios. Instead, specific parameters such as farm size, crops grown, risk attitudes and risk management strategies are set to guide the research and offer a basis of comparison.

This research evaluates several levels of coverage using Multiple Peril Crop Insurance, Crop Revenue Coverage Insurance, Adjusted Gross Revenue – Lite Insurance and …

A Critical Analysis Of The Cooperatives Working Together Program, Spencer N. Parkinson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study analyzes the effectiveness of the Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) program. This program is believed to have improved the farm-level price of milk since it began in July 2003. To date, no publicly available analysis addressing this question has been conducted. Total milk removed by the program was determined and expressed as a percentage of total milk produced nationally during the same time frame. Elasticity measures from prior studies were adapted to determine the impact of the program. This analysis suggests the program has had a significantly positive effect on the price of milk. Issues dealing with future action …

Essays On Investment Fluctuation And Market Volatility, Chaoqun Lai

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation includes two different groups of objects in macroeconomics and financial economics. In macroeconomics, the aggregate investment fluctuation and its relation to an individual firm's behavior have been extensively studied for the past three decades. Most studies on the interdependence behavior of firms' investment focus on the key issue of separating a firm's reaction to others' behavior from reaction to common shocks. However, few researchers have addressed the issue of isolating this endogenous effect from a statistical and econometrical approach. The first essay starts with a comprehensive review of the investment fluctuation and firms' interdependence behavior, followed by an …

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 …

New Mexico Labor Market Review 12-01-2008, New Mexico Department Of Workforce Solutions

Historic Publications

This issue of the New Mexico Labor Market Review presents October 2008 employment, unemployment, wage, and economic activity data for New Mexico, its counties, and metropolitan areas.

Maximum Likelihood And Gaussian Estimation Of Continuous Time Models In Finance, Peter C. B. Phillips, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper overviews maximum likelihood and Gaussian methods of estimating continuous time models used in finance. Since the exact likelihood can be constructed only in special cases, much attention has been devoted to the development of methods designed to approximate the likelihood. These approaches range from crude Euler-type approximations and higher order stochastic Taylor series expansions to more complex polynomial-based expansions and infill approximations to the likelihood based on a continuous time data record. The methods are discussed, their properties are outlined and their relative finite sample performance compared in a simulation experiment with the nonlinear CIR diffusion model, which …

Global Analysis Of An Expectations Augmented Evolutionary Dynamics, Angelo Antoci, Antonio Gay, Massimiliano Landi, Pier Luigi Sacco

Research Collection School Of Economics

We consider a deterministic evolutionary model where players form expectations about future play. Players are not fully rational and have expectations that change over time in response to current payoffs and feedback from the past. We provide a complete characterization of the qualitative dynamics so induced for a two strategy population game, and relate our findings to standard evolutionary dynamics and equilibrium selection when agents have rational forward looking expectations.

The Wagner-Peyser Act And U.S. Employment Service: Seventy-Five Years Of Matching Job Seekers And Employers, Christopher J. O'Leary, Randall W. Eberts

Reports

This paper provides an overview of the public labor exchange system in the United States, how it came to be, and where it is going. The paper begins by offering a brief history of the development of the U.S. Employment Service, emphasizing the federal-state partnership that has evolved over time and highlighting the differing priorities Congress has placed on the services funded under Wagner-Peyser Act. It then examines the ways workers search for jobs and employers recruit employees. It also shows the role the ES plays in this job matching process. The complementarity between ES services and the broader workforce …

Washington Pension System Review, Peter S. Barth, Heather Grob, Henry George Harder, H. Allan Hunt, Michael Silverstein

Upjohn Institute Technical Reports

The purpose of this study is to analyze the incidence of Total Permanent Disability (TPD) pensions in Washington State's workers' compensation program. Concerns exist at both the legislature and in the Department of Labor and Industries as there appears to have been a sharp upturn in the number of pensions awarded since late in the 1990s. This report examines the factors that may be causally related to any upsurge in such awards. Our task is to evaluate pension incidence for both the state fund and the self-insured populations, with a view towards identifying causes of the trend in both sectors, …

The Remittance Environment In Nigeria, A. Englama

CBN Occasional Papers

This preliminary study is on the remittance environment in Nigeria which became compelling because of low availability of information and empirical research on the subject. The need to obtain evidence-based information to drive policy formulation on remittances inflow which grew from US$1.4 billion in 2002 to US$17.9 billion in 2007 and tap its potentials to promote economic growth in Nigeria were the rationale for the study. An understanding of the drivers, inhibitors, characteristics, cost of transaction and channels of the flows would promote policy formulation to improve the remittance environment. The objectives of the survey were to examine current trend …

Greenspan’S Monetary Policy In Retrospect: Discretion Or Rules?, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, David R. Henderson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Distributing Discipline: Race, Politics, And Punishment At The Frontlines Of Welfare Reform, Richard Fording, Joe Soss, Sanford F. Schram

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Numerous studies have confirmed that race plays an important role in shaping public preferences toward both redistribution and punishment. Likewise, studies suggest that punitive policy tools tend to be adopted by state governments in a pattern that tracks with the racial composition of state populations. Such evidence testifies to the enduring power of race in American politics, yet it has limited value for understanding how disciplinary policies get applied to individuals in implementation settings. To illuminate the relationship between race and the application of punitive policy tools, we analyze sanction patterns in the TANF program. Drawing on a model of …

Rhode Island Current Conditions Index — November 2008, Leonard Lardaro

The Rhode Island Current Conditions Index

No abstract provided.

An Inquiry Into The Metaphysical Foundations Of Mathematics In Economics, Edgar Luna

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Economics is supposed to fall somewhere between a hard science and a social science. During the last half century, economics has become highly mathematical trying to mimic physics. The purpose of this study is to look at the metaphysical statements linked to mathematical models, specifically, Game Theory. In doing so, it will be demonstrated that Game Theory, as part of neoclassical economics, engages in analysis which can be categorized as metaphysical, with real metaphysical implications. In categorizing the metaphysical assumptions of neoclassical economists/game theorists we will see how much of their analysis is consists in a reductive, implausible metaphysical view. …

A Study Of Colorado's Tabor Law And Its Influence On Public Finance During The 2001 Recession, Zak Brewer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Colorado's constitutional Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) is a product of the citizen initiative process, a mechanism of direct democracy that allows citizens to circumvent legislatures and enact laws themselves. A prominent argument against this process is that such a mode of lawmaking can generate conflicts within state constitutions and bring about unintended consequences. This paper considers the Colorado state budget difficulties that arose during the 2001 recession, the relationship of TABOR and those difficulties, and finds that TABOR resulted in unintended consequences that were unforeseen by voters who approved the measure. Examples of these unanticipated, unintended consequences include: significant …

Protecting Investment, Profit, And Personnel: Corporations As Social Change Agents, Carole C. Fotino

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper describes a three-level toolkit - The Investment Sustainability Toolkit. The Toolkit assists firms in improving the efficacy of one segment of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative by creating at the first level, a strategy of conflict prevention. This strategy is followed by Common Elements of Conflict that Resolves/Becomes Violent, and Key Areas for Stabilization as Level II. The third and final level of the toolkit describes specific initiatives for increasing success, through The Screening Checklist.

The paper assesses through case study, the efforts of Firestone, Inc. in Liberia regarding regional development, stabilization, and economic development. This is done …

What Explains The Increased Utilization Of Powder River Basin Coal In Electric Power Generation?, Shelby Gerking, Stephen F. Hamilton

Economics

This article examines possible explanations for increased utilization of Powder River Basin (PRB) coal in electric power generation that occurred over the last two decades. Did more stringent environmental policy motivate electric power plants to switch to less polluting fuels? Or, did greater use of PRB coal occur because relative price changes altered input markets in favor of this fuel. A key finding is that factors other than environmental policy such as the decline in railroad freight rates together with elastic demand by power plants were major contributors to the increased utilization of this fuel.

The Effect Of Managed And Traditional Care Insurance Plans On Horizontal Inequity In Access To Health Care In The United States, Frank Puffer, Elizabeth Pitney Seidler

Economics Department Working Papers

This study examines income inequity in access to health care in the United States. Given the predominant and growing presence of managed care organizations as a source of medical insurance and care in both the private and public settings, replacing traditional indemnity plans as a lower cost prophylactic alternative, we speculate that the presence of Managed Care Organizations would reduce, if not eliminate, any pro wealthy bias in access to health care for the insured population in the U.S. We rely on previously developed methodology from the EcuityII project, incorporating the health inequity index (HIWV), to estimate income inequity in …

Venture Capital And Sequential Investments, Dirk Bergemann, Ulrich Hege, Liang Peng

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We present a dynamic model of venture capital financing, described as a sequential investment problem with uncertain outcome. Each venture has a critical, but unknown threshold beyond which it cannot progress. If the threshold is reached before the completion of the project, then the project fails, otherwise it succeeds. The investors decide sequentially about the speed of the investment and the optimal path of staged investments. We derive the dynamically optimal funding policy in response to the arrival of information during the development of the venture. We develop three types of predictions from our theoretical model and test these predictions …

Estimation And Model Selection Of Semiparametric Multivariate Survival Functions Under General Censorship, Xiaohong Chen, Yanqin Fan, Demian Pouzo, Zhiliang Ying

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Many models of semiparametric multivariate survival functions are characterized by nonparametric marginal survival functions and parametric copula functions, where different copulas imply different dependence structures. This paper considers estimation and model selection for these semiparametric multivariate survival functions, allowing for misspecified parametric copulas and data subject to general censoring. We first establish convergence of the two-step estimator of the copula parameter to the pseudo-true value defined as the value of the parameter that minimizes the KLIC between the parametric copula induced multivariate density and the unknown true density. We then derive its root–n asymptotically normal distribution and provide a simple …

Venture Capital And Sequential Investments, Dirk Bergemann, Ulrich Hege, Liang Peng

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We analyze sequential investment decisions in an innovative project that depend on the investor’s information about the project failure risk and its potential final value. We consider the feedback effects between learning about the project parameters and the continuous adjustment of the investment strategy. Investors decide sequentially about the speed of investment and the optimal degree of involvement. We develop three types of predictions from our theoretical model and test these predictions in a large sample of venture capital investment in the U.S. for the period of 1987-2002. First, the investment flow starts cautiously if the failure risk is high …

Venture Capital And Sequential Investments, Dirk Bergemann, Ulrich Hege, Liang Peng

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We present a dynamic model of venture capital financing, described as a sequential investment problem with uncertain outcome. Each venture has a critical, but unknown threshold beyond which it cannot progress. If the threshold is reached before the completion of the project, then the project fails, otherwise it succeeds. The investors decide sequentially about the speed of the investment and the optimal path of staged investments. We derive the dynamically optimal funding policy in response to the arrival of information during the development of the venture. We develop three types of predictions from our theoretical model and test these predictions …

Managing Strategic Buyers, Johannes Hörner, Larry Samuelson

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We consider the problem of a monopolist who must sell her inventory before some deadline, facing n buyers with independent private values. The monopolist posts prices but has no commitment power. The seller faces a basic trade-off between imperfect price discrimination and maintaining an effective reserve price. When there is only one unit and only a few buyers, the seller essentially posts unacceptable prices up to the very end, at which point prices collapse in a series of jumps to a “reserve price” that exceeds marginal cost. When there are many buyers, the seller abandons this reserve price in order …

Managing Strategic Buyers, Johannes Hörner, Larry Samuelson

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We consider the problem of a monopolist with an object to sell before some deadline, facing n buyers with independent private values. The monopolist posts prices but has no commitment power. We show that the monopolist can always secure at least the larger of the static monopoly profit and the revenue from a Dutch auction with a zero reserve price. When there are only a few buyers, her profits are higher than this bound, and she essentially posts unacceptable prices up to the very end, at which point prices collapse to a “reservation price” that exceeds marginal cost. When there …

Corporate Predators Caught In Meltdown, Gil Villagran

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

The meltdown of Wall Street's so-called 'investment institutions' where the financial bubble of over-valued assets finally burst is so mind boggling that even economic gurus with PhDs and Nobel Prizes, and CEO billionaires testifying before Congress fail to fully explain what happened. Did the "invisible hand" of the "free market" finally deal America a losing set of cards after years of a winning streak? Is it all due to bad luck? Fate? An unfortunate financial version of a perfect storm, similar to Hurricane Katrina hitting the Gulf Coast?