Economics Commons^™

Consequences Of Elitism, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Newspaper and Magazine Articles

In my book Pakistan: The Economy of an Elitist State, I presented the thesis that one per cent of Pakistan`s population the elitist class had contrived to rig the market and hijacked the state for their own benefit. This small minority was able to enjoy its unjust accumulation of wealth in the midst of widespread poverty. Little did I realise that this phenomenon would spread from Tunis to Sanaa and from Sydney to Seattle. The Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street movement may have originated for ostensibly different reasons but their root cause is the same growing disenchantment of the …

Mountains Of Injustice : Social And Environmental Justice In Appalachia, Michele Morrone, Geoffrey L. Buckley

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Research in environmental justice reveals that low-income and minority neighborhoods in our nation’s cities are often the preferred sites for landfills, power plants, and polluting factories. Those who live in these sacrifice zones are forced to shoulder the burden of harmful environmental effects so that others can prosper. Mountains of Injustice broadens the discussion from the city to the country by focusing on the legacy of disproportionate environmental health impacts on communities in the Appalachian region, where the costs of cheap energy and cheap goods are actually quite high.

Through compelling stories and interviews with people who are fighting for …

Accommodation Or Deterrence In The Face Of Commercial Piracy: The Impact Of Intellectual Property Rights (Ipr) Protections, Yuanzhu Lu, Sougata Poddar

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

In this paper, we address the issue of illegal copying or counterfeiting of the original product and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protections. The original product developer makes costly investment to deter piracy in a given regime of IPR protection. In the presence of a commercial pirate, we find that it is profitable for the original producer to accommodate the pirate when there is weak IPR protection, and deter when the IPR protection is strong. However, in the comparative statics analysis, we find that there is a non-monotonic relationship between the optimal level of deterrence (chosen by the original producer) and …

Estimating The Value Of Public Health Services & Systems: Evidence, Uncertainties, And Research Needs, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

The Affordable Care Act authorized the largest expansion in federal funding for public health services and delivery systems in decades. These provisions, designed to support programs and services that promote health and prevent disease and injury on a population-wide basis, remain controversial because of uncertainties regarding their effectiveness in improving health and constraining medical cost growth. This session examines a series of recent studies to shed light on the health and economic value of spending on public health.

An Assessment Of The Bc Careers Employer Resource Network: Its Contributions To The Ern Model, Kevin Hollenbeck, George A. Erickcek, Bridget Timmeney

Reports

No abstract provided.

Disparities Research In Public Health Pbrns, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Public health agencies are well positioned within the health system to play key roles in addressing oral health issues on a population-wide basis, However, current evidence reveals wide geographic variation in the delivery of public health interventions for oral health promotion. This session explores the factors contributing to this variation, and it highlights studies underway through the Public Health Practice-Based Research Networks (PBRNs) to produce more and better evidence about public health delivery and impact.

Options For Addressing Long-Term Unemployment As The Economy Recovers, Ralph E. Smith

Upjohn Institute Policy Papers

The recent recession and its aftermath have once again demonstrated the importance of the unemployment insurance system as a vital part of the nation’s safety net. But some facets of the program are in need of repair, including the high rate at which recipients run out of regular benefits, even in a strong labor market. Since the mid-1970s, the exhaustion rate has increased by three to four percentage points per decade, after adjusting for cyclical variation and temporary benefit extensions. This brief, drawing on an extensive review of research on the secular rise in UI exhaustions and programs designed to …

On The Nonlinear Causality Between Inflation And Its Uncertainty In G-3 Countries, Esin Cakan, Zeynel Abidin Ozdemir, Mehmet Balcilar

Economics & Business Analytics Faculty Publications

This study examines the dynamic relationship between monthly inflation and inflation uncertainty in Japan, the US and the UK by employing linear and nonlinear Granger causality tests for the 1957:01-2006:10 period. Using a generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model to generate a measure of inflation uncertainty, the empirical evidence from the linear and nonlinear Granger causality tests indicate a bi-directional causality between the series. The estimates from both the linear vector autoregressive (VAR) and nonparametric regression models show that higher inflation rates lead to greater inflation uncertainty for all countries as predicted by Friedman (1977). Although VAR estimates imply no …

Risk Classification And Health Insurance, Georges Dionne, Casey G. Rothschild

Economics Faculty Scholarship

Risk classification refers to the use of observable characteristics by insurers to group individuals with similar expected claims, compute the corresponding premiums, and thereby reduce asymmetric information. An efficient risk classification system generates premiums that fully reflect the expected cost associated with each class of risk characteristics. This is known as financial equity. In the health sector, risk classification is also subject to concerns about social equity and potential discrimination. We present different theoretical frameworks that illustrate the potential trade-off between efficient insurance provision and social equity. We also review empirical studies on risk classification and residual asymmetric information.

2011 Workforce Needs Survey, Katherine A. Deck

Publications and Presentations

The Greater Northwest Arkansas Regional Economic Development Strategy identified four priority areas where the region needs to collaborate around specific goals to enhance the overall community. Regional success in Northwest Arkansas will therefore depend on the success of specific goals being achieved in the areas of Infrastructure, Regional Economic Development, Community Vitality and Educational Excellence.

The online survey was distributed to employers through the Northwest Arkansas Community College Workforce Advisory Group, local Chambers of Commerce, Human Resources Professional Groups and other avenues. The survey received 119 respondents. The following report will describe the major findings of the survey.

Rhode Island Current Conditions Index — November 2011, Leonard Lardaro

The Rhode Island Current Conditions Index

No abstract provided.

Pay System Gender Neutrality, Kevin F. Hallock

Economics Faculty Publications

It was Francine Blau's "Equal Pay in the Office" (1977) that laid out some of the seminal research on gender differences in labor market outcomes. Blau and other pioneering researchers established decades ago that the gender pay gap (then around 40%) could not be ignored by academic economists. Many organizations are concerned with whether their individual pay systems are gender neutral, but it is not easy to test robustly a pay system's gender neutrality. To build such a test requires consideration of several issues, including control variables, occupational patterns, statistical specifications, and the often-overlooked difference between wage and salary income …

Transmission Linked To Structural Vulnerability: How Low-Income Countries Endured The Great Recession, Rachel F. Hartgen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The implosion of the 2008 financial crisis ignited fears that integration would transmit the crisis’ effects throughout the global system. Examining two countries, Bangladesh and Zambia, this project shows that low-income countries with relatively little integration also saw negative impacts. This occurred through three main transmission mechanisms: trade flows, rising prices and financial flows that could have possible long-term effects at the macro and micro level. The manner and impact of each transmission mechanism, however, varied among LICs according to each country’s individual structural economic and financial vulnerabilities. Bangladesh saw a delayed impact but did not avoid the crisis completely, …

The Lasting Effects Of Crime: The Relationship Of Discovered Methamphetamine Laboratories And Home Values, Joshua Congdon-Hohman

Economics Department Working Papers

This study estimates a household’s willingness to pay to avoid the stigma of crime while minimizing concerns of omitted variable bias. By assuming methamphetamine producers locate approximately at random within a narrowly defined neighborhood, this study is able to use hedonic estimation methods to estimate the impact of the discovery of a methamphetamine laboratory on the home values near that location. Specifically, the analysis designates those closest to the site as the treated, while those slightly farther away act as the comparison group. The discovery of a methamphetamine laboratory has a significant effect on the property values of those homes …

Cagan Type Rational Expectations Model On Time Scales With Their Applications To Economics, Funda Ekiz

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Rational expectations provide people or economic agents making future decision with available information and past experiences. The first approach to the idea of rational expectations was given approximately fifty years ago by John F. Muth. Many models in economics have been studied using the rational expectations idea. The most familiar one among them is the rational expectations version of the Cagans hyperination model where the expectation for tomorrow is formed using all the information available today. This model was reinterpreted by Thomas J. Sargent and Neil Wallace in 1973. After that time, many solution techniques were suggested to solve the …

Towards A Metatheory Of Budgeting, Dan Williams, Thad D. Calabrese

Publications and Research

In this paper. we suggest that many budget theories actually are about appropriating and not about budgeting. We trace this development back to the classic budgeting question posed by V.O. Keys in 1940. To clarify the issue, we examine early normative theories of budgeting, and apply many contemporary theories about budgeting to the budgeting process advocated for in this early work. By analyzing current theories, we show that budget theories are, in many cases, simply focused on parts of the budget process or on the role of techniques in decision making. Our analyses suggest that rather than theories competing with …

Simultaneity Between Trade And Conflict: Endogenous Instruments Of Mass Destruction, Cullen F. Goenner

Economics & Finance Faculty Publications

The classical liberal belief is trade, which economically benefits countries, creates ties binding the interests of countries and reduces conflict. While the vast majority of the empirical literature supports this view, recent research questions these findings by also considering the reciprocal relationship between trade and conflict. If conflict also influences trade, then trade is an endogenous right hand side regressor and previous estimates which ignore this are inconsistent. This article determines when one uses appropriate instruments for the endogenous regressors that trade reduces conflict and conflict reduces trade. Failure to use such instruments results in inconsistent estimates and can lead …

Interest Rate Setting At The Ecb Following The Financial And Sovereign Debt Crises, In Real Time, Sharmila K. King, Florence Bouvet

College of the Pacific Faculty Articles

We analyse European Central Bank (ECB) policy by estimating a forward-looking, augmented Taylor rule using expectations data. Specifically, we investigate the impact of the financial and sovereign debt crises on ECB policy. We find the European Overnight Index Average (EONIA) rises when expected economic activity is strong. Regardless of the inflation measure, inflation is not associated with the EONIA. Using a recursive estimation and a Chow test, we identify a policy shift in December 2008. The more generally accepted starting date of the crisis, August 2007, does not correspond to a statistically significant shift in the ECB policy. Using December …

First Price Auctions, Lotteries, And Risk Preferences Across Institutions, Russell P. Engel

WCBT Faculty Publications

There is an unsettled debate in experimental economics literature regarding the consistency of individuals' risk preferences in varying institutions. Much of this debate stems from observations of subjects' bids in sealed-bid auctions and the implications of those bids. In this paper, I have subjects participate in a sealed-bid auction experiment and then examine if the ostensible risk parameter that one can back out from subjects' bids matches up with their elicited risk preference from a separate task in the experiment. I find that subjects do exhibit consistent risk preferences. The aggregate measure of the subjects' risk parameter is stable across …

Pricing Under The Threat Of Piracy: Flexibility And Platforms For Digital Goods, Dirk Bergemann, Thomas Eisenbach, Joan Feigenbaum, Scott Shenker

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We consider the optimal design of flexible use in a digital-rights-management policy for a digital good subject to piracy. Consumers can acquire the digital good either as a licensed product or as an unlicensed copy. The ease of access to unlicensed copies is increasing in the flexibility accorded to licensed copies. The content provider has to trade off consumers’ valuation of a licensed copy against the sales lost to piracy. We enrich the basic model by introducing a “secure platform” that is required to use the digital good. We show that the platform allows for the socially optimal provision of …

Prizes Versus Wages With Envy And Pride, Pradeep Dubey, John Geanakoplos, Ori Haimanko

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We show that if agents are risk neutral, prizes outperform wages if and only if there is sufficient pride and envy relative to the noisiness of performance. If agents are risk averse, prizes are a necessary supplement to wages (as bonuses).

Sensitivity Analysis In Semiparametric Likelihood Models, Xiaohong Chen, Elie Tamer, Alexander Torgovitsky

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We provide methods for inference on a finite dimensional parameter of interest, θ in Re ^{ d _θ}, in a semiparametric probability model when an infinite dimensional nuisance parameter, g , is present. We depart from the semiparametric literature in that we do not require that the pair (θ, g ) is point identified and so we construct confidence regions for θ that are robust to non-point identification. This allows practitioners to examine the sensitivity of their estimates of θ to specification of g in a likelihood setup. To construct these confidence regions for θ, we invert a profiled sieve …

Greek Debt And American Debt: Graduation Speech At The University Of Athens Economics And Business School, John Geanakoplos

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This is the graduation speech I gave on receiving an honorary doctorate at the University of Athens Economics and Business School. I talk about my Greek family, about how I got interested in economics, and then how in the 1990s I came to think about default, collateral, and leverage as the central features of the financial/macro economy, despite their complete absence (even now) from any textbooks. Finally I suggest that the Greek debt problem, and on a bigger scale, the American debt problem, can only be cured when lenders are prodded to forgive. That would be better for the borrowers …

Monitoring Leverage, John Geanakoplos, Lasse H. Pedersen

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We discuss how leverage can be monitored for institutions, individuals, and assets. While traditionally the interest rate has been regarded as the important feature of a loan, we argue that leverage is sometimes even more important. Monitoring leverage provides information about how risk builds up during booms as leverage rises and how crises start when leverage on new loans sharply declines. Leverage data is also a crucial input for crisis management and lending facilities. Leverage at the asset level can be monitored by down payments or margin requirement or and haircuts, giving a model-free measure that can be observed directly, …

Brief 2: Overcoming Fragmented Governance: The Case Of Climate Change And The Mdgs, Oran R. Young

Governance and Sustainability Issue Brief Series

Fragmented governance hampers efforts to address tightly coupled challenges, like coming to grips with climate change and fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals. The way forward is to launch programmatic initiatives focusing on adaptation to climate change and the transition to a green economy that appeal to many separate bodies as win-win opportunities.

Kurtz Fest Paper 11.10, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Handwritten notes on standard prices, market prices, and labor values for the Kurz Fest paper (November 10)

• A heavily annotated draft paper by Shaikh titled Near-Linearity of Wage-Profit Curves and Standard Prices: Empirical and Theoretical Considerations

• A presentation by Shaikh for the Symposium in Honour of Prof. Heinz D. Kurz titled The Empirical Linearity of Sraffa's Critical Output-Capital Ratios (2011, March 27)

• A paper by Shaikh titled The Empirical Linearity of Sraffa's Critical Output-Capital Ratios (2010, January 11)

Driving The Economy Home: What Matters Most To Northeast Ohio's Economy (Dashboard Of Economic Indicators 2011), Emily Garr, Ziona Austrian, Merissa Piazza

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This report describes trends which occur between 2007 and 2010, the most recent year for which data are available. The essay distinguishes between those that take place in the “recession period” (from the peak of the economic cycle in 2007 to the start of economic recovery in 2009) and the “recovery period” (from 2009 to 2010).

Review Of Identity Economics By Akerlof And Kranton, John B. Davis

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Incidence Of The Mortgage Interest Deduction: Evidence From The Market For Home Purchase Loans, Andrew R. Hanson

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

This article examines the incidence of the largest housing-related subsidy in the federal budget, the home mortgage interest deduction (MID). The author uses the difference in interest rates for loans made around the MID limit to identify the incidence of the subsidy. Using data on individual mortgages originated in 2004, the author estimates that for every $1,000 borrowed without the MID, the interest rate on the entire loan decreases by between 3.3 and 4.4 percent. Results suggest that lenders capture between 9 and 17 percent of the subsidy created by the home MID through higher mortgage interest rates.

Student Performance In A Quantitative Methods Course Under Online And Face-To-Face Delivery, P. Verhoeven, Victor Wakeling

Faculty Articles

In a study conducted at a large public university, the authors assessed, for an upper-division quantitative methods business core course, the impact of delivery method (online versus face-to-face) on the success rate (percentage of enrolled students earning a grade of A, B, or C in the course). The success rate of the 161 online students was 55.3%, significantly lower (p = .000) than that (72.6%) of the 212 face-to-face students. Both students with a strong (A or B) grade in the lower-division statistics prerequisite and students with a weak (C or D) grade in the prerequisite had a significantly lower …