Economics Commons^™

International R&D Transfer And Technical Efficiency: Evidence From Panel Study Using Stochastic Frontier Analysis, Miao Wang, M. C. Sunny Wong

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

We study the effect of foreign research and development (R&D) transferred through imports and foreign direct investment (FDI) on domestic technical efficiency using stochastic frontier analysis. Unbalanced panel results from a 77-country sample over 1986–2007 show that FDI- and imports-transferred foreign R&D have a significant impact on domestic country’s technical efficiency. Furthermore, we observe a complementarity between FDI-transferred R&D and domestic human capital. In other words, the domestic country needs to obtain a threshold level of human capital to benefit from FDI-transferred R&D. Other macro conditions such as infrastructure, political stability, and urbanization also help to improve the technical efficiency …

Holding Tax Shares Constant Is A Bad Idea: What The Homestead Tax Option In New York Can Teach Us About Romney’S Income Tax Proposal, John Yinger

Center for Policy Research

It’s Elementary is a series of essays on topics in education and education policy. The main focus is on education finance in New York State, but general research findings in education and education policy issues in several other states are also discussed. John Yinger, Professor of Economics and Public Administration at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University is the author of most of these essays, although a few are written by or co-authored with other scholars.

The State Of The Region: Hampton Roads 2012, James V. Koch, Vinod Agarwal, Chris Colburn, Vicky Curtis, Steve Daniel, Susan Hughes, Elizabeth Janik, Feng Lian, Sharon Lomax, Janet Molinaro, Ken Plum, John A. Sokolowski, Ayush Toolsidass, Gary Wagner, Shara Weber, Gilbert Yochum, Michael Zugelder

Economics Faculty Books

This is Old Dominion University's 13th annual State of the Region Report. While it represents the work of many people connected in various ways to the university, the report does not constitute an official viewpoint of Old Dominion or it's president, John R. Broderick. The report maintains the goal of stimulating thought and discussion that ultimately will make Hampton Roads an even better place to live. We are proud of our region's many successes, but realize that it is possible to improve our performance. In order to do so, we must have accurate information about "where we are" and a …

Who Defaults On Their Home Mortgage?, Eric Doviak, Sean P. Macdonald

Publications and Research

Since Feb. 13, 2010, detailed information on every home mortgage default and foreclosure in New York State must be filed with the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS). The data come from pre-foreclosure filing (PFF) notices that mortgage servicers must send to both the borrower and the DFS 90 days prior to initiating the foreclosure process and when a foreclosure has commenced. Pairing the PFF data with data on originations from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) reveals the race and ethnicity of borrowers who defaulted on their home mortgages. HMDA analyses consistently reveal strong racial and ethnic …

Data Analysis Of The Implementation Of The Recovery Act: Workforce Development And Unemployment Insurance Provisions, Randall W. Eberts, Stephen A. Wandner

Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

East Versus West: Chinese And American Development Efforts And Perceptions In Cameroon, Grace Perkins

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Every year, donor countries pour billions of dollars of foreign aid into developing recipient countries. Humanitarian and “win-win” rhetoric generally accompanies the grant, hospital, school, or sports stadium. To a realist international relations scholar, it is highly unlikely that powerful nations like the United States and China donate anything without political or economic strategic interests in mind. How do American and Chinese strategic interests affect the quality of development aid? This paper seeks to answer this question in the context of Cameroon, a Central African state rich in resources and young minds but whose growth is hampered by its colonial …

Identity Problems (An Interview With John B. Davis), Thomas Wells, John B. Davis

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

In this interview, Professor Davis discusses the evolution of his career and research interests as a philosopher-economist and gives his perspective on a number of important issues in the field. He argues that historians and methodologists of economics should be engaged in the practice of economics, and that historians should be more open to philosophical analysis of the content of economic ideas. He suggests that the history of recent economics is a particularly fruitful and important area for research exactly because it is an open-ended story that is very relevant to understanding the underlying concerns and concepts of contemporary economics. …

Empresas Recuperadas, Elana Gold

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Starting during the neoliberal economic policies of the 90’s and continuing through the crisis of 2001, over 200 abandoned or bankrupt factories have been recuperated by their workers to maintain their jobs and argentine industry. These factories, called empresas recuperadas, have an important role in providing economic alternatives to the typical exploitation of capitalism as nearly all are maintained as cooperatives where members share in the decision-making process and profits. Although they have their roots in the militant union history of Argentina, in many ways they have differentiated themselves from the typical worker struggle.

These factories have an interesting relationship …

Investing With An Impact: Moving Business Beyond Profits, Graham Pansing Brooks

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

“Impact Investing” is an emerging concept that focuses on developing a common ground between capital investment and philanthropy. This relatively new theory of social entrepreneurialism focuses on creating positive social impacts while also maintaining an economic commitment to investor returns. This innovative concept has been notably championed by Credit Suisse as well as other financially based institutions and NGO’s. The purpose of this paper is to explore and address the defining factors within the developing and growing field of Impact Investment. The increased effort by business towards moving beyond standard methods of Corporate Responsibility has resulted in the catalyzed formation …

Teaching A Man To Fish: Ngdos, Development Interventionism, And The Theory And Practice Of The Capacity Building Approach., Sa’Eed Husaini

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The international development world has witnessed a marked increase in the presence and participation of transnational non-governmental development organizations (NGDOs) over the last two decades. This has in turn inspired much deliberation concerning what the appropriate roles and approaches for NGDOs in the development and poverty alleviation effort are. A large part of this discussion has been characterized by sustained criticism regarding NGDOs failure to engage with political processes in the developing world and the inability of most popular approaches to inspire empowerment for the marginalized and rely on their own agency towards achieving the improvement of their societies. Considering …

Geotraveler Tendencies In Montana's Shoulder And Winter Seasons , Christine Oschell

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

After two initial studies on geotourism in Montana (Boley, 2009; Boyle, 2012) confirmed the presence of geotravelers in the third quarter of both the Crown of the Continent region and throughout the state of Montana, research interest turned to visitors during the remainder of the quarters, or seasons. This study looked statewide at all visitors and, more narrowly, vacationers, in the “shoulder” and winter season (quarters 1, 2, 4) to determine their geotourist tendencies.

Montana People And Jobs: The Tourism Connection, Norma P. Nickerson

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

The purpose of this report was to further understand employment in the Montana tourism industry based on a random sample phone interview of the general population of Montana’s workforce. The workforce sample surveyed was 2,340, and 400 were in a tourism-related business in 2011. Seventeen percent of Montana’s workforce was employed in a tourism related job in 2011, equating to nearly 81,000 jobs of the total Montana workforce of over 476,000.

The Pros And Cons Of Outsourcing, Angela Smith

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Outsourcing has become increasingly popular to the public since the mid-20th century and has become more controversial in the last decade. The United States economy has been under the microscope for the last 4 years due to an economic recession. Outsourcing has been a subject of interest that has been brought up numerous times by economists. Offshore outsourcing is the main type of outsourcing that is of concern in relation to the United States economy. This topic is highly debated because of the unemployment rate in America.

Unilateral Measures And Emissions Mitigation, Shurojit Chatterji, Sayantan Ghosal, Sean Walsh, John Whalley

Research Collection School Of Economics

We discuss global climate mitigation that builds on existing unilateral measures to cut emissions. We document and discuss the rationale for such unilateral measures argue that such measures have the potential to generate positive spillover effects both within and across countries. In a simple dynamic model of learning we show that while single countries on their own may never get to the point of switching completely to low emission activities, a learning process with positive spillovers across nations is more likely to deliver a global switch to low emissions. We discuss the key features of a new global Intellectual Property …

Estimation Of High-Frequency Volatility: An Autoregressive Conditional Duration Approach, Yiu Kuen Tse, Thomas Tao Yang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We propose a method to estimate the intraday volatility of a stock by integrating the instantaneous conditional return variance per unit time obtained from the autoregressive conditional duration (ACD) model, called the ACD-ICV method. We compare the daily volatility estimated using the ACD-ICV method against several versions of the realized volatility (RV) method, including the bipower variation RV with subsampling, the realized kernel estimate, and the duration-based RV. Our Monte Carlo results show that the ACD-ICV method has lower root mean-squared error than the RV methods in almost all cases considered. This article has online supplementary material.

Foreign Direct Investment: Clearing The Infrastructure Bottlenecks, Kim Song Tan, Sim Yee Lau

Research Collection School Of Economics

No abstract provided.

An Evolutionary Analysis Of Turnout With Conformist Citizens, Massimiliano Landi, Mauro Sodini

Research Collection School Of Economics

We propose an evolutionary analysis of a voting game where citizens have a preference for conformism that adds to the instrumental preference for the electoral outcome. Multiple equilibria arise, and some generate high turnout. Simulations of best response dynamics show that high turnout is asymptotically stable if conformism matters but its likelihood depends on the reference group for conformism: high turnout is more likely when voters care about their own group's choice, as this better overrides the free rider problem of voting games. Comparative statics on the voting cost distribution, the population's size or the groups' composition are also done.

A Generalized Representation Theorem For Harsanyi's ('Impartial') Observer, Simon Grant, Atsushi Kajii, Ben Polak, Zvi Safra

Research Collection School Of Economics

We provide an axiomatization of an additively separable social welfare function in the context of Harsanyi's impartial observer theorem. To do this, we reformulate Harsanyi's setting to make the lotteries over the identities the observer may assume independent of the social alternative.

Intergenerational Transfers In Long Term Care, Monika Lopez Anuarbe

Economics Faculty Publications

How are parental inter-vivos transfers to their children and children’s informal care of parents influenced by personal characteristics, family conditions and state specific long term care policies? AHEAD data from 1993 and 1995 and a two-party choice model are used to guide the estimation of OLS and binary logit models of the amount and likelihood of inter-vivos transfers to children and informal care of parents. Results suggest that both parents’ characteristics and their offspring’s characteristics affect parental gifts to children and children’s time assistance to their parents, highlighting the interdependent nature of these decisions. Furthermore, though state policies did not …

Driving A Tank Off The Fiscal Cliff: Why Romney Doesn’T Believe In Budget Austerity, Louis D. Johnston

Economics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Gop Tax Policy Should Ditch Keynes For Hayek, Nathan B. Oman

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

News About Aggregate Demand And The Business Cycle, Jang-Ting Guo, Anca-Ioana Sirbu, Mark Weder

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

We show that an otherwise standard one-sector real business cycle model with variable capital utilization and mild increasing returns-to-scale is able to generate qualitatively as well as quantitatively realistic aggregate fluctuations driven by news shocks to future consumption demand. In sharp contrast to many studies in the existing expectations- driven business cycle literature, our results do not rely on non-separable preferences or investment adjustment costs.

Report To Governor’S Blue Ribbon Commission On Tax Reform By Economic Consultants, William Hoyt, William Fox, Michael T. Childress, James Saunoris

CBER Research Report

Excerpts from the executive summary:

Two basic points come from our analysis of Kentucky’s tax system: a broader tax base is needed so that revenue can keep pace with future economic growth, and changes are needed to improve Kentucky’s economic competitiveness.

Without fundamental reforms Kentucky could face a $1 billion shortfall by 2020, and could find itself at a competitive disadvantage to neighboring states for business growth, retention, and recruitment.

The options we present below can improve future revenue growth and economic competitiveness—which are evaluated with respect to other important factors, such as fairness and simplicity. The Commission should view …

Why Do Women Have More Children Than They Want? Understanding Differences In Women's Ideal And Actual Family Size In A Natural Fertility Population, Lisa Mcallister, Michael Gurven, Hillard Kaplan, Jonathan Stieglitz

ESI Publications

Objectives—We develop and test a conceptual model of factors influencing women’s ideal family size (IFS) in a natural fertility population, the Tsimane of Bolivia. The model posits affects of socioecology, reproductive history, maternal condition, and men’s IFS. We test three hypotheses for why women may exceed their IFS despite experiencing socioeconomic development: (H1) limited autonomy; (H2) improved maternal condition; and (H3) low returns on investments in embodied capital.

Methods—Women’s reproductive histories and prospective fertility data were collected from 2002 to 2008 (n = 305 women). Semistructured interviews were conducted with Tsimane women to study the perceived value of …

The Economics Of Corruption, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Newspaper and Magazine Articles

The recent tragedy in which 258 innocent persons lost their lives in a fire that gutted a garment factory in Karachi has once again generated a controversy in the media about the widespread collusion and corruption prevalent in the departments dealing with safety, occupational hazards, building control, labour inspection and others. Road-worthiness certificates are issued to defective motor vehicles, approvals for buildings are given for structures without fire protection, CNG tankers ply on the roads without following safety regulations, electricity connections are granted without adequate safeguards, adulterated foodstuff and drugs are sold liberally without let or hindrance. The usual blame …

Impact Of Privatization On Sustainable Development, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Talks, Speeches, & Discourse

The impact of Privatization on Sustainable Development is difficult to measure as it involves several complex and little understood transmission channels. To start with, successful privatization, if implemented properly, leads to efficiency in allocation of resources, higher productivity and innovation and entrepreneurship. These outcomes then impinge upon a country’s growth nexus and help accelerate the rate of economic growth. If the pattern of economic growth is such that it conserves depletable natural resources and preserves the environment then we are on path to sustainable development. It must be pointed out that none of these links are automatic or can be …

The Problem With Asking: Are You Better Off Than Four Years Ago?, Louis D. Johnston

Economics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Two Can Live As Cheaply As One...But Three’S A Crowd, Christopher Bollinger, Cheti Nicoletti, Stephen Pudney

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

To measure poverty, incomes must be equivalized across households with different structures. In this paper, we use a very flexible ordered response model to analyze the relationship between income, demographic structure and subjective assessments of financial wellbeing drawn from the 1991-2008 British Household Panel Survey. Our results suggest the existence of large scale economies within marital/cohabiting couples, but substantial diseconomies from the addition of children or further adults. This pattern contrasts sharply with commonly-used equivalence scales, and is consistent with explanations in terms of the capital requirements associated with additions to the core couple.

Undergraduate Economic Review: Recent Trends Report, Jake Mann

Undergraduate Economic Review

The Undergraduate Economic Review is a peer-reviewed, internationally distributed open-access journal aimed at promoting high quality undergraduate research. It is supported by the Ames Library and the Department of Economics at Illinois Wesleyan University. The journal has been in existence for eight years, and has published many notable articles from a variety of undergraduate institutions. This report provides an overview and preliminary analysis of statistics and data from Berkeley Electronic Press and Google Analytics reports.

Was There A ‘Race To The Bottom’ After Welfare Reform?, Sarah K. Burns

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Leading up to the passage of the 1996 welfare reform, there was much speculation and debate over the possibility that states would "race to the bottom" in setting welfare generosity if given more control over their individual programs. In the fifteen years after welfare reform, did such a race to the bottom ensue? Using a spatial dynamic econometric approach I investigate welfare competition across multiple policy instruments and across three distinct welfare periods - the AFDC regime, the experimental waiver period leading up to the reform, and the TANF era. Results suggest strategic policy setting occurs over multiple dimensions of …