Economics Commons^™

How The Mindless Growth Mantra Of Modern Economics Is Failing Us, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Just three years after the 2008 global financial crisis, the world wonders, yet again, if another global downturn might be looming.

Executive Summary, Cumberland County Foodshed Assessment, Report 1, Barbara Ives

Local Food Systems

Like everyone else in these troubled economic times, Mainers are looking for ways to create jobs that will remain relevant and vital in a global economy, that cannot be outsourced, and that will regenerate rather than exploit our natural resources.

A growing number of people believe that a food system rooted in local farms, fisheries, and food production and distribution enterprises can strengthen Maine’s economy and its communities’ health, thereby increasing revenue and decreasing an expense that is crippling government agencies and individuals alike – healthcare. Business people who want to make a living related to food, and public and …

Improved Estimates Of St. Louis Metro Employment, Howard Wall

Center for Applied Economics

Official employment data for the St. Louis metro area produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) are often unreliable and usually misleading. A major reason for this problem is that the BLS does not make full use of the data at its disposal. To address this, the Institute for the Study of Economics and the Environment (ISEE) at Lindenwood University has developed an alternative employment measure that makes better use of available data. More specifically, the ISEE employment series for the St. Louis MSA undergo rolling benchmark revisions four times a year as data become available. This is in …

Optimal Taxation With Rent-Seeking, Casey G. Rothschild, Florian Scheuer

Economics Faculty Scholarship

Recent policy proposals have suggested taxing top incomes at very high rates on the grounds that some or all of the highest wage earners are engaged in socially unpro- ductive or counterproductive activities, such as externality imposing speculation in the financial sector. To address this, we provide a model in which agents can choose between working in a traditional sector, where private and social products coincide, and a crowdable rent-seeking sector, where some or all of earned income reflects the capture of pre-existing output rather than increased production. We character- ize Pareto optimal linear and non-linear income tax systems under …

Rhode Island Current Conditions Index — September 2011, Leonard Lardaro

The Rhode Island Current Conditions Index

No abstract provided.

The Importance Of Region And State Welfare Rules For Disconnected Single Mothers, Andrea Hetling

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

The proportion of low-income, single mothers not receiving public assistance or participating in the formal employment sector has approximately doubled over the past decade. Many of the currently debated policy options to support these families focus on state level programs. However, little is known about the relationships between state welfare program characteristics and disconnectedness. This project assesses the effect of state welfare rules on the likelihood of being disconnected from these two income sources. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation and the Urban Institute‟s Welfare Rules Database, the current research compares the circumstances of these at-risk …

Recent Developments In Antipoverty Policies In The United States, James P. Ziliak

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

I survey recent developments in antipoverty policy in the United States over the past decade and examine how the safety net and tax system affects poverty and its correlates using data from the 2000 to 2010 waves of the Current Population Survey-Annual Social and Economic Supplement. Unlike the 1980s and 1990s, and until the health care overhaul in 2009, the first decade of the 21st Century was relatively tepid in terms of major transfer policy reforms. However, real spending on most major social program increased significantly, and in some cases doubled or tripled, in response to demographic shifts and the …

China’S Energy Inefficiency: A Cross-Country Comparison, Chu Wei, Jinlan Ni, Manhong Sheng

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper constructs a total-factor energy technical efficiency index using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method following the total factor productivity framework. We then compare energy technical efficiency across 156 countries from 1980 to 2007. The results show that China's energy efficiency considerably trails other countries’ although it has made significant gains within the last 28 years. Further analysis indicates that scale inefficiency rather than pure technical efficiency contributes to China's energy inefficiency.

Government Ideology, Democracy And The Sacrifice Ratio: Evidence From Latin American And Caribbean Disinflations, Tony Caporale

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

This study uses a sample of 34 disinflations undertaken by thirteen Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) nations to test if political institutions impact the cost of policy induced disinflations. We find, after controlling for several of the most important covariates in the literature, that disinflations are less costly for right vs. left governments and that sacrifice ratios are lower for more democratic vs. authoritarian governmental regimes. This is robust to different measures of government ideology as well as to alternative ways of computing the sacrifice ratio and lends support for political economy literature which argues that political institutions have significant …

False Profits: An Economics Primer About Americans "Going For Broke" And Nearly Making It, Don P. Diffine Ph.D.

Belden Center Books

Has there been any time in history when government could successfully spend private sector money (by first taxing it), borrow the difference (deficit spending), and crowd out private sector long run borrowing (causing higher interest rates)--all to try to bring about growth, economic recovery, jobs, and stable prices? Should we worry that our government's ambitious spending plans could be like the proverbial drunken sailor squandering his paycheck on leave? At least it was his own money!

Remember Margaret Thatcher? "The problem with Socialism," she said, "is that, sooner or later, we run out of other people's money..."

Growth Potential Of Tourism Taxation In Maldives, Fazeel Najeeb, Mehmet S. Tosun

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

No abstract provided.

Property Rights Protection And Fdi Flows: The Mena Experience, Wasseem Mina

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

No abstract provided.

Convergence Of North African Countries To The Level Of Southern Europe Income: An Empirical Evaluation, Meriem Djennas, Mohamed Benbouziane, Mustapha Djennas

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

No abstract provided.

Sectoral Composition And Unemployment In Turkey, Fatma Dogruel, Yasemin Ozerkek

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

No abstract provided.

Revolt On The Nile: Economic Shocks, Religion And Political Influence, Eric Chaney

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

No abstract provided.

Trade Liberalization And Export Diversification In Selected Mena Countries, Suut Dogruel, Mahmut Tekce

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

No abstract provided.

Potential Factors For Metal Heat Treatment In El Paso, Mario E. Caire, Dennis L. Soden

IPED Technical Reports

The Paso del Norte region lacks local access to a small to mid‐sized metal heat treating facility. As a result, local industries that manufacture products that require metal heat treatment services typically out‐source this service to non‐regional companies. Businesses have reported sending materials to California, Arizona, East Texas, and as far out as Illinois.

Say On Pay And Compensation Design, Kevin F. Hallock

Economics Faculty Publications

Say on pay is demanding far more time and energy than expected, and its full impact on the world won't be known for years. The 2011 proxy season was the first time publicly traded firms in the U.S. were required by law to solicit from their shareholders advisory yes or no votes on the pay package awarded to the CEO. In every industry, the median CEO received a raise (positive year-on-year change) in total CEO compensation. The mix of pay shifted some. For example, in the communications industry, the average share of total compensation paid in salary fell by 6.53 …

Sanctioning Policies-Australian, American And British Cross-National Reflections And Comparisons, Harry Savelsberg

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Over the last two decades welfare policies have undergone major reforms in Anglo-Western nations such as the U.S., U.K. and Australia. Central to these reforms have been the revision of welfare recipient entitlements and responsibilities and the emergence of a responsibility and obligations agenda. The essence of this agenda is conditionality and reciprocity, and it includes the threat of punitive sanctions for failing to comply with mandatory participation requirements. This paper highlights the potent influence of the ideas of American conservatives on policy reforms in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia and provides a thematic crossnational comparison of sanctioning policies …

Implications Of Simultaneity In A Physical Damage Function, Kelly M. Cobourn, Hannah J. Burrack, Rachael E. Goodhue, Jeffrey C. Williams, Frank G. Zalom

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

A modeler must often rely on highly simplified representations of complex physical systems when analyzing associated economic issues. Herein, we consider a management problem in which a bioeconomic system exhibits simultaneity in processes governing productivity and damage. In this case, it may benefit the producer to sacrifice productivity to reduce the costs associated with increased damage. We specify empirically a structural damage relationship that explains the biological process by which an invasive species damages a host and estimate the structural model and its reduced form with an exceptional dataset on infestation of olives by the olive fruit fly. We contrast …

Current Global Financial Crisis, M. Ibrahim Turhan

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

No abstract provided.

Economic Growth With Unlimited Supplies Of Labor: Theory And Some Evidence From The Gcc, Tarek Coury, Mohamed Lahouel

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

No abstract provided.

Nokia Siemens Networks: Just Doing Business – Or Supporting An Oppressive Regime?, Judith Schrempf-Stirling

Management Faculty Publications

This case study examines the relevance of taking social and political factors into consideration when a corporation is making a key business decision. In September 2009, Simon Beresford-Wylie, the outgoing CEO of Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), was reviewing the company’s achievements — while acknowledging the latest public criticism regarding NSN’s business relationship with the Iranian government. In the summer of 2009, NSN was accused of complicity in human rights violations linked to Iran’s presidential election. The company sold network infrastructure and software solutions to the Iranian government, which then used this technology to observe, block, and control domestic communications. Should …

Robust Predictions In Games With Incomplete Information, Dirk Bergemann, Stephen Morris

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We analyze games of incomplete information and offer equilibrium predictions which are valid for all possible private information structures that the agents may have. Our characterization of these robust predictions relies on an epistemic result which establishes a relationship between the set of Bayes Nash equilibria and the set of Bayes correlated equilibria. We completely characterize the set of Bayes correlated equilibria in a class of games with quadratic payoffs and normally distributed uncertainty in terms of restrictions on the first and second moments of the equilibrium action-state distribution. We derive exact bounds on how prior information of the analyst …

Sources And Application Of Funds In Non Interest Banking Regime, A. S. Abdulkarim

Bullion

The concept of Islamic finance is a new phenomenon in Nigeria. At present there are over 300 Islamic Banks that are operational throughout the world. Like conventional banks, Islamic banks also needs funds to operate its banking activities.This paper explores the sources and application of funds in non-interest banking regime. Sources of funds to include deposits, deposits from other Islamic banks, banks equity, Islamic investment funds and placement from bank treasury.

Overview And Conceptual Issues Of Non-Interest Banking In Nigeria, B. A. Umar

Bullion

This paper examines the role of non-interest banking in national development. The paper is divided into five sections, the first section contains the introduction, section 2 has the conceptual framework, section three gives non-interest bonking in Nigeria and section four concludes the paper.

Robust Predictions In Games With Incomplete Information, Dirk Bergemann, Stephen Morris

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We analyze games of incomplete information and offer equilibrium predictions which are valid for, and in this sense robust to, all possible private information structures that the agents may have. We completely characterize the set of Bayes correlated equilibria in a class of games with quadratic payoffs and normally distributed uncertainty in terms of restrictions on the first and second moments of the equilibrium action-state distribution. We derive exact bounds on how prior knowledge about the private information refines the set of equilibrium predictions. We consider information sharing among firms under demand uncertainty and find newly optimal information policies via …

Robust Predictions In Games With Incomplete Information, Dirk Bergemann, Stephen Morris

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We analyze games of incomplete information and offer equilibrium predictions which are valid for, and in this sense robust to, all possible private information structures that the agents may have. We completely characterize the set of Bayes correlated equilibria in a class of games with quadratic payoffs and normally distributed uncertainty in terms of restrictions on the first and second moments of the equilibrium action-state distribution. We derive exact bounds on how prior knowledge about the private information refines the set of equilibrium predictions. We consider information sharing among firms under demand uncertainty and find newly optimal information policies via …

Robust Predictions In Games With Incomplete Information, Dirk Bergemann, Stephen Morris

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We analyze games of incomplete information and offer equilibrium predictions which are valid for, and in this sense robust to, all possible private information structures that the agents may have. The set of outcomes that can arise in equilibrium for some information structure is equal to the set of Bayes correlated equilibria. We completely characterize the set of Bayes correlated equilibria in a class of games with quadratic payoffs and normally distributed uncertainty in terms of restrictions on the first and second moments of the equilibrium action-state distribution. We derive exact bounds on how prior knowledge about the private information …

Hiv And Concurrent Sexual Partnerships: Modelling The Role Of Coital Dilution, Larry Sawers, Alan G. Isaac, Eileen Stillwaggon

Economics Faculty Publications

Background: The concurrency hypothesis asserts that high prevalence of overlapping sexual partnerships explains extraordinarily high HIV levels in sub-Saharan Africa. Earlier simulation models show that the network effect of concurrency can increase HIV incidence, but those models do not account for the coital dilution effect (nonprimary partnerships have lower coital frequency than primary partnerships).

Methods: We modify the model of Eaton et al (AIDS and Behavior, September 2010) to incorporate coital dilution by assigning lower coital frequencies to non-primary partnerships. We parameterize coital dilution based on the empirical work of Morris et al (PLoS ONE, December …