Job Design Factors In The Workplace That Support Successful Aging For Older Workers, Martha J. Sanders

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Increasing numbers of older adults are expected to return to the labor force to reap both the financial and social rewards of paid employment. However, little is known about how the workplace supports older workers' successful aging process. The purpose of this study was to examine how the design of a job (opportunities for decision making, use of a variety of skills, coworker support, and supervisor support) influences successful aging (having a sense of control over life, social networks, emotional support, and opportunities for generativity) in older workers (aged 55 and older) in the home building industry. The study explored …

What Are Country-Level Determinants Of Economic Research Productivity?, Hoa Nguyen

Economics Theses - Archive

Economics research productivity is an emerging concern because it determines education system's quality and it can help improve economic welfare. This study seeks to investigate country-level determinants of research productivity in the Economics discipline. The main variables of interest are the use of the Internet and personal computers, economic openness and higher education. I hypothesize that Internet and PC use can lower the collaboration cost and searching cost resulting in increased marginal productivity from Internet adoption and positive cross productivity effects. Therefore, if people can access Internet more, their productivity will increase. In addition, economic openness, especially greater labor mobility, …

Three Essays On The Black White Wage Gap, Nola Ogunro

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

During the 1960s and early 1970s, the black – white wage gap narrowed significantly, but has remained constant since the late 1980s. The black – white wage gap in the recent period may reflect differences in human capital. A key component of human capital is labor market experience. The first chapter of this dissertation examines how differences in the returns and patterns of experience accumulation affect the black – white wage gap. Accounting for differences in the nature of experience accumulation does not explain the very large gap in wages between blacks and whites. Instead, the wage gap seems to …

Competitive Strategy, Alliance Networks, And Firm Performance, Goce Andrevski

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the interplay between competitive strategy and alliance network structure in explaining firm performance in highly volatile environments (e.g., personal computers or consumer electronics). In particular, I examine the following three questions: (1) Which competitive strategies enable firms to gain superior performance? (2) How do these strategies affect the firm‘s networking behavior and lead to the formation of particular network positions? (3) What optimal combinations of competitive strategies and network structures maximize firm performance?

Firms can outperform rivals by pursuing two types of competitive strategies: advantage-creating and advantage-enhancing. Each of these strategies creates different needs, motivations, and opportunities …

Three Essays On Residential Real Estate Brokerage, Jason S. Beck

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

The first essay investigates how individual characteristics influence sales outcomes for houses they help transact. It develops hedonic housing models to assess the impacts of agent characteristics such as the level of recent and concurrent agent activity on sales outcomes (price and time on market). This is done in a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) setting using seven years of data obtained from a large Midwestern city. I find evidence that more active listing agents sell homes more quickly, though they do so to the detriment of final sales price. I also find that more listings concurrently held by agents have …

Is The United States Postal Service's Business Model Broken? Fixing The Model Through Innovation Not Competitive Postal Services, Paul J. Martin

Masters Culminating Experiences (1993-2011)

This project suggests that the United States Postal Service (USPS) business model that utilizes very large mail volume revenues to cross-subsidize last-mile delivery is broken by the continuing trend of paper documents converted to electronic documents. As the paper to electronic conversion trend continues, the USPS will need to develop additional revenue sources and/or cut costs to survive without government funding. In response to the shift from paper mail to electronic mail, other countries have liberalized postal services to make competitive postal mail systems with the goals of achieving postal service innovation, better service, and reduced prices. Postal liberalization is …

Basic Is Macro Models, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Shaikh, A. (n.d.). [Handwritten folder label identifying contents as "Basic IS macro models": (1) Hicks; (2) Keynes/PK; (3) NC; (4) Harrod; (5) Marx; folder tab notation: "Macro IS models comparisons"]. Unpublished manuscript note. New School for Social Research.
• Shaikh, A. (2009, December 03). [Handwritten working notes, 3 pages plus one additional formula page, titled "Basic macro models: IS/LM, PK, NC, Harrod, Marx, 12/3/09": comparative static and dynamic analysis of five macroeconomic frameworks across two cases (exogenous vs. endogenous money, fixed saving rate, u ≠ u_N); Model I (Hicks/IS-LM): exogenous money with fixed saving rate, paradox of thrift, …

Chinese Women And Economic Human Rights, Lisa Fry

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Women’s human rights in China have an intriguing history and a challenging present. In ancient China, Confucianism espoused the virtues of silent women who stayed at home. During the Maoist period, on the other hand, gender equality was prioritized by the state, and women were equally appointed to leadership positions and agricultural collectives with men. After Mao’s death, the country transitioned to a social market economic system that resulted in a loss of state support for gender equity. Today, the rights of women in China are not clearly defined, protected, or promoted. China’s patriarchal traditions have reasserted themselves, obstructing women’s …

Considering The International Monetary Fund And World Bank: Lending Effectiveness In Sub-Saharan Africa, Daniela A. Wohlwend

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Sub-Saharan Africa is a place of unequivocal beauty, diversity and history; it is also the most impoverished and neglected area on the planet. With an objective look at what has gone wrong in the past five decades of International Monetary Fund and World Bank lending, along with strategic assessment and planning, sub-Saharan Africa does not have to remain the home to unimpeded, rampant poverty.

Human Rights Abuses Along The Dominican-Haitian Border, Calla Cloud

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A 122 mile-long border separates the Dominican Republic and Haiti on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Of the two countries, Haiti’s human rights abuses are much more somber than the emerging developments of the Dominican Republic. Haiti’s stagnant economic situation has contributed to perennial political instability and lack of infrastructure, having a particularly confounding affect on the rights and labor conditions of Haitian citizens. There are a myriad of reasons why Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Two of the most prominent include its violent political history and the gradual deterioration of its economy. In the context …

Are Private Government, Civil Society And Nonprofit Organizations The Same Thing?, Stuart Mendel

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

Responding To Foreclosures In Cuyahoga County: Program Year Three Evaluation Report, March 1, 2008 Through February 28, 2009, Kathryn W. Hexter, Molly Schnoke

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Cuyahoga County, Ohio is at the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis. With close to 13,000 foreclosure filings a year since 2005, more than 10,000 vacant and derelict structures and thousands of homeowners losing their homes, the effects of the crisis will be long lasting and far reaching. In Ohio, County courts, agencies and departments have some level of authority and responsibility for virtually every step of the foreclosure process. So it is not surprising that the fifteen mayors of the First Suburbs Consortium2 turned to Cuyahoga County to help them address this crisis. In response, in August 2005, the Cuyahoga …

Socioeconomic Status, Child Health, And Future Outcomes: Lessons For Appalachia, Janet Currie

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Appalachians are in poor health relative to other Americans. For example, the ageadjusted all cause mortality rate for Appalachian in 2006 was over 900 per 100,000 compared to a rate of 760 per 100,000 for those outside of Appalachia. This essay shows that health disparities start before birth—the incidence of low birth weight is 90 1,000 in rural Appalachia compared to 83 per 1,000 outside the U.S. These disparities continue through childhood and into adulthood. Moreover, although African Americans are generally in poorer health relative to white Americans, disparities between Appalachia and the rest of the U.S. are much greater …

National And State Economic Impact Of Netl, Randall Jackson, Amanda Krugh, Brian Lashier, Ronald Munson

National Energy Technology Laboratory

This report documents the development of state-level input-output models for Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Oregon and the augmentation of the national input-output model that was developed previously for the project Valuing Domestically Produced Natural Gas and Oil. The state IO models were developed to assess the economic impacts of expenditures, employment, and research and development awards at the NETL sites located in Pittsburgh, PA, Morgantown, WV, and Albany, OR. The national IO model was developed to assess the economic impacts of NETL site expenditures, awards, and employment at the national level.

Is Income Inequality Endogenous In Regional Growth?, Yohannes G. Hailu, Mulugeta Kahsai, Tesfa Gebremedhin, Randall Jackson

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

This study focuses on testing the relationship between income inequality and growth within U.S. counties, and the channels through which such effects are observed. Based on a system of equations estimation, the empirical results confirm the hypotheses that income inequality has a growth dampening effect; income inequality is endogenous to regional growth and growth adjustment; and the channels through which income inequality determines growth are regional growth adjustments, such as migration and regional adjustment in job and income growth. Results have numerous policy implications to the extent that: (1) that income inequality is endogenous, its equilibrium level can be internally …

Sustainable Economic Development In Energy Rich Economies: A Regional Approach, Hodjat Ghadimi

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

There is an extensive literature on or relating to development issues of energy rich economies – particularly those in the developing world. While national-level studies abound, the analyses of these economies at a regional scale or with a regional and spatial perspective are scarce. Generally, a bottom up regional approach to development and the value of insights that regional models and comparative regional studies provide have not received deserved attention in the field of development economics. Analyzing development sustainability in energy-based economies at a regional scale may provide insights not otherwise possible. National scale studies and models are mostly sectoral …

Regional Innovation Systems: An Annotated Bibliography, Eric Bowen, Zheng Tian, Junbo Yu, Randall Jackson, Shaoming Cheng

Regional Research Institute Resource Documents

Innovation, the ability to create, diffuse, and adopt new ideas and to transform them into new profitable products, processes, and services has been increasingly seen as an essential, if not the primary, driving force behind the enhancement of productivity, competitiveness, and economic welfare. While people conventionally understood the mechanism of generating innovation as a straightforward linear process from basic research to technology transfer and completed by industrial commercialization, re- searchers have begun to challenge this rationale with a complex, systemic model for innovation, viz. the theory of the systems of innovation where the orchestrated eorts and interactions among governments, universities …

Lanse Minkler On Human Rights And Structural Adjustment By Rodwan Abouharb & David Cingranelli. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 276pp., Lanse Minkler

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Human Rights and Structural Adjustment by Rodwan Abouharb & David Cingranelli. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 276pp.

Hitting The Sweet Spot By Accident: How Recent Lower Court Cases Help Realign Incentives In The Credit Rating Industry, John Crawford

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Annual Economic Report 2009, Kenneth R. Troske, John Garen, Devanathan Sudharshan, Roy A. Sigafus

Kentucky Annual Economic Report

No abstract provided.

Deconcentration, Counter-Urbanization, Or Trend Reversal? The Population Distribution Of Switzerland, Revisited, Mulugeta Kahsai, Peter V. Schaeffer

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

This study analyzes trends in the population distribution of Switzerland, with focus on the period 1980-2000. It updates and extends an earlier study (Schaeffer, 1992a). The extensions include analyses of population distribution trends by region and citizenship. Results show that Switzerland experienced deconcentration in the 1970s at the cantonal level, and in the 1980s and 1990s at the district level. The results also show a trend of moving away from large densely populated districts to small, sparsely populated and medium sized districts. There was a strong suburbanization trend starting the 1950s and counter-urbanization during 1980-2000. The core urban areas experienced …

Multifactor Productivity And Idea Transmission Channels In The Malaysian Economy, Ester Shen Ai Chan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This paper examines the contribution of multifactor productivity (MFP) growth to output per worker growth in Malaysia from 1961-2000. MFP growth is found to contribute about 74 percent to output per worker growth from 1987-2000, but has only minimal or negative contribution to growth in the earlier years. This paper then attempts to explain why MFP growth has such a large contribution to output per worker growth in the period 1987-2000 by looking at international trade as channel of technology or idea transfer from the G5 countries into Malaysia. MFP grows because ideas from these advanced nations are transferred into …

The Civil Market: Medieval Franciscan Ideas To Solve 21st Century Economic Problems, Stefano Zamagni

Clemens Lecture Series

No abstract provided.

Anarchy, Groups, And Conflict: An Experiment On The Emergence Of Protective Associations, Adam Smith

Economics Department Faculty Publications & Research

In this paper, we investigate the implications of the philosophical considerations presented in Nozick‘s Anarchy, State, and Utopia, by examining group formation in a laboratory setting where subjects engage in both cooperative and conflictual interactions. We endow participants with a commodity used to generate earnings, plunder others, or protect against plunder. In our primary treatment, we allow participants to form groups to pool their resources. We conduct a baseline comparison treatment that does not allow group formation. We find that allowing subjects to organize themselves into groups does not lead to more cooperation and may in fact exacerbate tendencies towards …

Mexico Consensus Economic Forecast, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Angel L. Molina Jr.

Border Region Modeling Project

No abstract provided.

Shaikh Appendices — Data Tables: Combined Summary, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

Table Inventory

• Appendix 2.2 — Chart only, log scale, US, 1832–1992, BEA index (1958=100). Variable unlabeled.
• Appendix 4.2 — Simulated (not empirical): hypothetical productivity/labor-intensity/unit-cost tables. No real time/place.
• Appendix 5.3 — Chart only, log scale, US & UK, 1790–2010. Variable unlabeled.
• Appendix 6.8 (Corrected) — US corporate capital stock & depreciation, 1925–2013. $bn, index (2005=100), %.
• Appendix 6.8 (Uncorrected) — US corporate profit rates/shares, value added, equity data, 1946–2011(13). $bn, %, ratios.
• Appendix 7.2 — Cross-sectional plant productivity: US beet sugar (1933–35), cement (1935), cotton textiles (1946). Tons or barrels/man-hr.
• Appendix 8.1 — Cross-sectional concentration/profitability: Bain (1936–40), Stigler (1939–57), Demsetz …

An Analysis Of The Intra-Regional Trade In The Middle East And North Africa Region, E. M. Ekanayake, John R. Ledgerwood

Publications

This paper analyzes the intra-regional trade and investment flows in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region using an augmented gravity model applied to panel data. The study uses annual trade and investment data for the period 1980-2006. There is a growing awareness among countries in the MENA region regarding the importance of international trade and foreign direct investment for stimulating growth and integrating into the world economy. The research will attempt to achieve the following objectives: (a) analyze the intra-regional trade and investment flows in the MENA region; (b) identify the major determinants of trade and investment flows …

Can Parallel Exchange Rates Forecast Commodity Prices?, John F. Roberts

Honors Theses

Commodity price uncertainty imposes large costs on society. On the macro level, it results in sudden and unexpected shifts in current account imbalances and real GDP volatility, while on the micro level, it leads to allocation inefficiencies. Accurate price forecasts have the potential to remove some of this uncertainty and allow for a more efficient distribution of resources, and thus, an increase in social welfare. Despite the obvious gains to be had from accurate commodity price forecasts, few models have been able to deliver these results. Chen, Rogoff and Rossi (2008) were the first to find a promising link between …

Cyclicality Of State Budgeting: A Political-Economy Analysis., Ian W. Cummins

Honors Theses

This paper disentangles the effect of political ideology and budget rules on fiscal cyclicality across the U.S. states. Using panel data from 1963 to 2006, liberal states are found to be significantly less procyclical than conservative ones. The impact of balanced budget constraints is contingent on the ideological orientation of the state in which they are imposed. Tight balanced budget rules are not binding on conservative states, but are binding on liberal ones. Where they are binding, budget rules mediate the link between voter preferences and policy outcomes skewing them toward greater procyclicality.

The Perils Of The Learning Model For Modeling Endogenous Technological Change, William D. Nordhaus

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Learning or experience curves are widely used to estimate cost functions in manufacturing modeling. They have recently been introduced in policy models of energy and global warming economics to make the process of technological change endogenous. It is not widely appreciated that this is a dangerous modeling strategy. The present note has three points. First, it shows that there is a fundamental statistical identification problem in trying to separate learning from exogenous technological change and that the estimated learning coefficient will generally be biased upwards. Second, we present two empirical tests that illustrate the potential bias in practice and show …