Economics Commons^™

Economic Writing On The Pressing Problems Of The Day: The Roles Of Moral Intuition And Methodological Confusion, Julie A. Nelson

Economics Faculty Publication Series

Economists are often called on to help address pressing problems of the day, yet many economists are uncomfortable about disclosing the values that they bring to this work. This essay explores how an inadequate understanding of the role of methodology, as related to ethics and human emotions of concern, underlies this reluctance and compromises the quality of economic advice. The tension between caring about the problems, on the one hand, and writing within the existing culture of the discipline, on the other, are illustrated with examples from U.S. policymaking, behavioral economics, and the economics of climate change and global poverty. …

Economic Size And The Changing International Political Economy Of Trade: The Development Of Western Hemispheric Ftas, Gaspare Genna

Departmental Papers (PS)

Why are some free trade agreements (FTAs) in the western hemisphere successfully negotiated and implemented while others seem to stagnate during negotiations? FTAs are more likely to develop when there is an asymmetrical power relationship and potential partners are satisfied with projected trade patterns. The European Union (EU) and United States have been successful in negotiating agreements with the Caribbean and Central American (CCA) countries. However, current bilateral and multilateral trade talks between the EU, the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), and United States are at a standstill. Although all four sets of trade negotiations include dissatisfactory conditions for …

Impact Of Banking Sector Reforms On The Nigerian Capital Market (Equities)., Peter A. Adekunle

Bullion

Following the outcome of the Special Joint Examination by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), ten banks were indicted, out of which two were asked to recapitalize, while the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Directors of the remaining eight were removed by CBN based on mismanagement and poor corporate governance. In order to protect the investors as well as prevent unprecedented dumping of the shares of the listed seven banks, two weeks of full suspension was imposed on trading of their shares on the stock market at various times. This paper attempts to determine …

The Role Of Economic Community Of West African States (Ecowas) In Promoting Borderless Trade In West Africa., Adam J. Akperan, Sanni Ganiyu Kayode

Bullion

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is a regional group of fifteen countries, founded in 1975. Its mission is to promote economic integration in "all fields of economic activities, particularly industry, transport, telecommunications, energy, agriculture, natural resources, commerce, monetary and financial questions, social and cultural matters". This paper examines the role of CBN economy and monetary policies on the heels of borderless trade amongst the ECOWAS State. ECOWAS aims to promote peace, co-operation and integration in economic, social and cultural activity, ultimately leading to the establishment of an economic and monetary union through the total integration of the …

Analysis Of Revenue Generation As A Tool For Socio-Economic And Infrastructural Development In Nigeria, Obiechina M.E.

Bullion

The paper analyses the federal government revenue vis-àvis the provision of socio-economic Volume 34, No. 4 October - December 2010 and infrastructural development in Nigeria from 1970 2008, the centerpiece, which is improved productivity and standard of living. To this end, the paper is divided into five sections. Following this introductory section, section two explains the concept of government revenue and infrastructural development as well as theoretical and empirical literature. In section three, we examine the sources and structure of government revenue. Section four focuses on the trend in government revenue and expenditure and the state of some infrastructure in …

Oil And Gas Management In Nigeria: Lessons For Ghana, Omolara O. Akanji Mrs.

Bullion

This paper is to discuss the oil and gas management in Nigeria: Lessons for Ghana. The paper is structured into five parts with part 1 being the introduction while part 2 scoops the literature on the economics of natural resources and its management globally. Part 3 will situate the Nigeria's multifaceted crisis of oil and gas governance and all related issues. Part 4 will sieve out the lessons for Ghana while part 5 summarizes and concludes the paper.

Petroleum Industry Linkages And Nigeria's Economic Development, Chinyere U. Nwolisa, Chinyelu N. Ugoji

Bullion

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and potentially its largest economy, has witnessed decades of dictatorship and misrule. Accompanying this misrule are severe economic problems of an unprecedented magnitude. This paper intends to add further clues to the solution for this national developmental puzzle. The remaining part of the paper is arranged thus: Part 2 presents an overview of the Nigerian Petroleum industry while the part 3 looks at the literature of economic development the country appears to be executing. Parl4 discusses the various linkages the Petroleum industry offers visa-vis Nigeria's exploration of their potentials. The penultimate part will offer some …

A National Report On The Use Of Telecommunications To Deliver Vr Services, Catherine Ipsen, University Of Montana Rural Institute

Employment

It can be difficult for VR counselors to provide face-to-face services to rural clients. Large caseloads reduce counselors’ available travel time to travel to outlying rural communities, and rising fuel costs make such trips expensive (Metzel & Giordano, 2007; Riemer-Reiss, 2000). Telecommunications can increase counselor-client accessibility and provide flexibility to supplement face-to-face services. Telecommunications refers to a variety of information technology (IT) that allows people in different locations to engage with one another, while reducing boundaries of time, distance, and location. Access to telecommunication services, however, may be limited. For instance, people living in rural areas may lack access to …

Borderplex Economic Outlook: 2010-2012, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Teodulo Soto

Border Region Modeling Project

No abstract provided.

Black-White Differences In Wealth Accumulation Among Americans Nearing Retirement, Eun Hyei Shin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Using data from the 2006 Health and Retirement Study (HRS), this study examines what types of assets and levels of savings are held by Black near-retirees, while comparing how types of assets and levels of savings of Black near-retirees differ from those of White near-retirees. Through the use of multivariate analyses, this study further investigates the effects of being Black on the levels of savings, the likelihood of holding IRAs, and the likelihood of being financially prepared for retirement. The study sample includes 4,077 individuals between the ages of 51 and 64, and the subsamples consist of 680 Black and …

Mountain Monitor-3rd Quarter 2010, Jonathan Rothwell, Kenan Fikri

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

One year after the Mountain Monitor began tracking recession and recovery in the Intermountain West, the Southern Nevada economy has yet to turn around. The rate of slippage across a range of indicators has slowed measurably, but evidence of a nascent recovery eludes. Las Vegas' poor relative performance over the past year can be attributed not only to the legacy of a particularly devastating initial wave of economic distress, but also to a continued struggle to slow and reverse the downward trend.

Crime And Punishment: Insitutional Sanctions And Other Characteristics That Effect Campus Crime, Aldon Givens

All Theses

Crime, has and continues to be, a major issue in the world of institutions of higher education. Colleges and universities are constantly working on ways to prevent and improve crime on their respective campuses, which in most occasions includes collecting and reporting crime data to law enforcement agencies and the general public. By setting up punishment schemes and sanctions to deter criminal activity at their institution, administrators and faculty are looking for better, more efficient ways to influence the behavior or their students and steer them away from a life of criminal activity.
By studying existing literature, crime definitions, and …

Relationship Between Inflation And Stock Market Returns: Evidence From Nigeria, Omotor G. Douglason

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

The linkage between stock prices and inflation has been subjected to extensive research in the past decades and has arouse the interests of academics, researchers, practitioners and policy makers globally, particularly since the 1990s. The issue has been the apparent anomaly of the negative relationship between inflation and stock market returns as most studies in the industrialized economies have shown. This paper investigates this relationship using monthly and quarterly data of Nigeria for the period 1985 to 2008. The findings of this paper seem to suggest that stock market returns may provide an effective hedge against inflation in Nigeria.

Is The Stock Market A Leading Indicator Of Economic Activity In Nigeria?, Alvan E. Ikoku

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

In an effort to address the lacuna in leading indicator studies of African economies and Nigeria in particular, this paper examines the causal relationships among stock market prices, real GDP and the index of industrial production in Nigeria, using quarterly data from 1984Q1 to 2008Q4. Granger causality tests indicate bidirectional causality between stock prices and GDP but no causality between stock prices and industrial production or between GDP and industrial production. Stock prices and GDP are found to be cointegrated, leading to the estimation of vector error correction models. Out-of-sample forecasts constructed with AR(1), ARIMA, structural ARIMA, and VEC models …

Monetary And Fiscal Policy Interactions In Nigeria: An Application Of A State-Space Model With Markov-Switching, Chuku V. Chuku

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This paper uses quarterly data to explore the monetary and fiscal policy interactions in Nigeria between 1970 and 2008. As a preliminary exercise, the paper examines the nature of fiscal policies in Nigeria using a vector autoregression (VAR) model. The simulated generalized impulse response graphs generated from the VAR estimation provides evidence of a non-Ricardian fiscal policy in Nigeria. Further, the paper analyzes the interactions between monetary and fiscal policies by applying a State-space model with Markov-switching to estimate the time-varying parameters of the relationship. The evidence indicates that monetary and fiscal policies in Nigeria have interacted in a counteractive …

Optimal Designs Approach To Portfolio Selection, Etukudo A. I.

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

In order to obtain the best tradeoff between risk and return, optimization algorithms are particularly useful in asset allocation in a portfolio mix. Such algorithms and proper solution techniques are very essential to investors in order to circumvent distress in business outfits. In this paper, we show that by minimizing the total variance of the portfolio involving stocks in two Nigerian banks which is a measure of risk, optimal allocation of investible funds to the portfolio mix is obtained. A completely new solution technique – modified super convergent line series algorithm which makes use of the principles of optimal designs …

A Distributional Analysis Of Out-Of-Pocket Healthcare Financing In Nigeria Using A New Decomposable Gini Index, Ichoku Eme Hyacinth, William M. Fonta, Abdelkrim Araar

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This study applies a new method of decomposing total redistributive effect of taxation proposed by Duclos et al. (2003) to assess the redistributive effects of direct healthcare financing in Nigeria. This new framework makes it possible not only to introduce into the conventional Gini Index estimation framework a flexible ethical measure of aversion to inequality but also a novel concepts of horizontal inequity and re-ranking. The empirical results indicate that when the decision to utilize healthcare is always linked to the decision to pay for healthcare, as is the case in Nigeria, out-of-pocket payment, contrary to existing literature, may indeed …

Factors, Preventions And Correction Methods For Non-Response In Sample Surveys, Godwin Nwanzu Amahi

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

Missing survey data occur because of unit and item non-response. This is practically independent of the method of data collection. As a result of the bias that non-response sometimes introduces in survey estimates, identifying factors that promote it, and taking measures of prevention and correction methods are clearly necessary. The standard method to compensate for unit non-response is by weighting adjustment, while item non-responses are handled by some form of imputation. This paper reviews factors that give rise to nonresponse and the corresponding methods used for its prevention and control. It also discusses their properties.

Addressing The Problem Of Non-Response And Response Bias, Fabian C. Okafor

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

Survey planners and analysts in Nigeria have devoted much more attention to sampling errors at the expense of nonsampling errors (non-response and response errors). Sampling error is the degree to which the sample estimate differs from the average value of the characteristic due to chance. The present discussion will be centered on non-sampling error, which may present serious deficiencies in the statistics and render the survey useless. According to Platek and Gray (1986), “Non-response has been generally recognized as important measure of the quality of data since it affects the estimates by introducing a possible bias in the estimates and …

Statistics For National Development, Sani I. Doguwa

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

Good statistics that has been collected according to agreed good practices are crucial as a tool for development. Gross domestic product (GDP) and other measures of economic activity such as Gross National Income (GNI) together with their individual components, show how the economy is responding to government policy and other influences. The balance of payments can demonstrate the requirement for policy adjustments and is also one of the indicators scrutinised by potential foreign investors in the country. Agricultural statistics clearly have implications for longer-term planning, particularly if they show a move away from the land into urban areas or a …

Neuroeconomics: Constructing Identity, John B. Davis

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

The paper asks whether neuroeconomics will make instrumental use of neuroscience to adjudicate existing disputes in economics or be more seriously transformed by neuroscience in ways that might transform economics. The paper pursues the question by asking how neuroscience constructs an understanding of individuals as whole persons. The body of the paper is devoted to examining two approaches: Don Ross's neurocellular approach to neuroeconomics and Joseph Dumit's cultural anthropological science organization approach. The accounts are used to identify boundaries on single individual explanations. Within that space Andy Clark's external scaffolding view and Nathaniel Wilcox's socially distributed cognition view are employed.

Return To College Education Revisited: Is Relevance Relevant?, Olga Yakusheva

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

This study examines whether the size of the college earnings premium varies depending on the quality of the match between an individual’s degree field and his/her occupation. The study uses the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) to obtain a new measure of the quality of occupational match for a sample of 2268 young adults with post-secondary degrees from the restricted use High School and Beyond (1980/92) data. The study finds that people whose occupations better match their degree fields earn significantly higher returns to post-secondary schooling. This result is robust to controlling for an extensive set of pre-existing differences among individuals, …

Alignment Of Community Preferences, Economic Development Goals, And Policy: Considering Economic Development Goals, Their Expression, And Their Execution In Economically Struggling Communities, Rebecca Lynn Moryl

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Across the U.S., and particularly in the Northeast, cities known as former "mill towns" have been largely unsuccessful in attempts to revive their economic vigor. States and cities invest millions each year in efforts to reinvigorate these cities through economic development policies. Debates about the effectiveness of such policies in generating economic growth outcomes are prevalent in the literature. This thesis takes a different focus by considering the alignment of economic development goals and actions among citizens and government professionals. I consider, compare, contrast, and draw lessons from three Massachusetts cities of similar government structure. Each of these cities has …

The Use Of Securities Data In Determining Discount Rates For Real Property, Hal B. Heaton

Faculty Publications

When the income approach is used to value real property, appraisers forecast anticipated cash flows from the property and discount those cash flows to arrive at a present value. To do this, appraisers must determine an appropriate rate for discounting the future cash flows. Market value is usually defined as the price between a willing buyer and a willing seller. Appraisers therefore should study the market for the type of properties involved to determine the discount rates used by buyers and sellers of those properties in actual transactions.

Franklin Boulevard Redevelopment Project Area Market Analysis, Joshua Chapman

Master's Theses

The following Market Analysis is an analysis of the Franklin Boulevard Redevelopment Project Area. The analysis is divided into the following four sections: ♦ Planning Context ♦ Real Estate Market Conditions ♦ Emerging Market Opportunities & Case Studies ♦ Conclusion The report serves as an opportunity to aide stakeholders of the Franklin Boulevard Redevelopment Project Area. Stakeholders include residents, business owners, the City of Sacramento, County of Sacramento, Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA), and the North Franklin District Business Association (NFDBA). The stakeholders are continually searching for data and creative examples of how to transform the area into a …

The Write Moves: An Autoethnographic Examination Of The Media Industry, Danielle Gomes

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis examines the current media environment through the use of adaptation theory, political economy theory, and media ecology theory. More specifically, this thesis is an autoethnography of this author‟s attempts to release content into the mass-media.

This thesis expects to find that in the current conglomerate controlled media environment content that has multi-media potential is preferred. Vertical integration is the standard in these massive media corporations. Consequently, the adaptation of content into multiple media is no longer an afterthought to creation, it is forethought.

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. …

Testing Structural Change In Partially Linear Models, Liangjun Su, Halbert White

Research Collection School Of Economics

We consider two tests of structural change for partially linear time-series models. The first tests for structural change in the parametric component, based on the cumulative sums of gradients from a single semiparametric regression. The second tests for structural change in the parametric and nonparametric components simultaneously, based on the cumulative sums of weighted residuals from the same semiparametric regression. We derive the limiting distributions of both tests under the null hypothesis of no structural change and for sequences of local alternatives. We show that the tests are generally not asymptotically pivotal under the null but may be free of …