Economics Commons^™

Essays On Effects Of Illness And Supplemental Security Income On Employment, Sarmistha Pal

All Dissertations

The first and second chapters examine the disincentive effects of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Program's generosity on the employment decisions of prime age blind and/or deaf individuals. Using an individual-level model with state and time-fixed effects and the Difference-in-Difference method, I find only small impacts of an increase in monthly SSI benefits. Grouping all blind and deaf individuals together, the estimated impact of a $100 increase in monthly maximum SSI benefits (about a 17% increase) is only a 0.4 percentage point reduction in labor force participation. The estimated effects from separate analysis by demographic groups, however, suggest larger reductions …

Measurement Error And The Black-White Wage Differential, Jared Huff

All Dissertations

This dissertation encompasses two papers. The first paper examines the impact of measurement errors in potential experience and reported education on Black-White wage differentials. I show that measurement error is not mean zero, is distributed differently for Black and White males and, for experience, is correlated with the value of the variable measured with error. Possible conditional distributions of the true values of education and experience, given reported values, are estimated using auxiliary data. This paper introduces a Maximum Likelihood method to deal with these errors, and evaluates this method as well as other methods currently used in the gender …

Microfinance: A Tool For Poverty Reduction?, Kirsten Leikem

Senior Honors Projects

I never expected my first experiences with course content related to my majors to be so traumatic. A young 19 year old, it seemed that every class I attended accosted me with the existence of yet another problem. War, government, education, climate change… The problems were massive and all seemed intractable. One particular “problem” that plagued me was global poverty; how could one billion people in this world live on less than one dollar a day? The theories were numerous, and the classroom discussion seemed a far cry from the reality of so many people living in extreme poverty. I …

Measuring Spillover Effects Of Residential Amenity Improvements Using Spatial Hedonic Approach, Shruti Bishan Tandon

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this dissertation is to develop a methodology for the estimation of the appropriate welfare benefits in the presence of spillover externalities. The ability to capture influences of the not so easily observed variables allow spatial lag models to measure the direct and indirect spillover effects. The direct effect measures the value of the property in question and the indirect captures the influences of neighboring properties, through a spatial multiplier effect.

Kim et al. (2003) through a path breaking approach estimated welfare benefits of air quality improvement. Their methodology captured spillover effects of amenity changes that lump both …

A Study Of The Determinants Of Transfer Fees For French Ligue 1 Soccer Players, Reid Barrett Taylor

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

In light of the increasing flow of millions of dollars into the sports industry during the last two decades, notably the international soccer market, the repercussions from the wave of economic activity have come under scrutiny by economists. In France alone, while the real Gross Domestic Product for the country has grown at an annualized rate of 2.75%, the soccer industry in France has experienced a 500% growth in ticket sales, 3,300% growth in sponsorship income, 122,000% increase in income from television contracts overall during the same time period (Bourg and Gouget, 2005). Sports have become such a pivotal facet …

Minority Participation In Technology Based Growth Industries In Northeast Ohio, Merissa Piazza, Elorm Tsegah, Ziona Austrian, Ellen Cyran

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

The Potential Of Downtown Las Vegas Becoming A Creative Milieu, Ana Magdalena Barragan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The city of Las Vegas is attempting to revitalize downtown through a creative economy by bringing cultural and experiential activities to the area in a mixed use arrangement with residential, business and civic uses. This study looks at the possibility of not only revitalizing downtown, but on it becoming a true creative milieu - a place that fosters creativity and innovation. It does so by first identifying three major forces working upon the realization of these goals: 1) the regional socio-economic conditions, 2) the government strategies, and 3) the creative population's participation.

The study conducts a quantitative assessments of each, …

State Juvenile Justice Spending Decisions: The Effects Of Federal Aid, Race, Politics, And Other Socioeconomic Factors, Willie B. Coleman Smith

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Historically, juvenile justice in the United States has been the responsibility of state governments with limited federal support. There is a notable gap in the empirical literature on factors that affect funding policies for state juvenile justice programs. In this dissertation research, I used two theoretical perspectives to examine determinants of juvenile justice spending: economic theory on intergovernmental aid and tenets of the Politics of Social Order Framework, developed by Stucky, Heimer, and Lang (2007) to investigate corrections spending. Two research questions were considered: 1) What impact does federal aid have on state spending on juvenile justice programs? and 2) …

Valuation Of Financial Derivatives Subject To Liquidity Risk, Yanan Jiang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Valuation of financial derivatives subject to liquidity risk remains an open problem in finance. This dissertation focuses on the valuation of European-style call option under limited market liquidity through the dynamic management of a portfolio of assets. We investigate liquidity from three perspectives: market breadth, depth, and immediacy. We present a general framework of valuation based on the optimal realization of a performance index relative to the set of all feasible portfolio trajectories. Numerical examples are then presented and analyzed that show option price increases as the market transitions from liquid to less liquid state. Furthermore, buying and selling activities, …

Efficiency Of Fiscal Expenditures In Nevada Elementary Schools Using Data Envelopment Analysis, Todd Patrick Yocum

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

For decades educational researchers have attempted to find links between school funding and student achievement. These attempts have generated many contradictory viewpoints and have produced many unanswered questions. Ever increasing accountability on states, districts and schools combined with severe financial strain has made measuring school fiscal efficiency a valuable tool for school leaders looking to get more student achievement with fewer resources.

The methodology for this study was comprised of two phases. Phase I analyzed the per pupil expenditures of Nevada elementary schools over a three-year period and developed descriptive statistics that revealed the expenditure patterns by category. Phase II …

The Role Of Family Ties In Mitigating Moral Hazard: Firm-Level Evidence From Tamil Nadu, India, Goldie Chow

Master's Theses

Drawing on firm-level data from the district of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, India, this study explores the role of family ties as a means to counteract potential moral hazard concerns. It is shown that firms will be more likely to employ family relations when faced with a higher hidden context for moral hazard. Specifically, the analysis finds that the presence of family members within the firm is higher when the firm provides general training and that firms that are more likely to do external business with family relations when it is believed that the legal system is not effective. Additionally, …

The Application Of Instructional Design Principles In The Development Of Sportsmanship Education Software And Its Impact On Children’S Acquisition Of Sportsmanlike Attitudes And Behaviors, Michael J. Petersen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Millions of people participate in sporting events as either athletes or spectators, or both. The presence or absence of sportsmanship they experience can affect them in both negative and positive ways. The purpose of this study was to determine whether schoolchildren who use a computer-based sportsmanship education program would learn and exhibit more sportsmanship than those who did not use the software. It was determined that younger children were more affected by the software than the older children were.

Understanding Urban Sustainability And Quality Of Life: A System Dynamics Approach, Abby Elizabeth Beck

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

For an urban area to be sustainable, its resources cannot be depleted faster than they can replenish. If an urban area is to provide a high quality of life (QOL), it must offer and maintain an amenity package that satisfies its resident's preferences. Past studies on these topics all have a common thread: sustainability and QOL both pertain to people's relationship to capital. Capital is something that can accumulate and add value to a person or society. If sustainability and QOL are a function of people's relationship with capital, how they use it, deplete it, replenish it and transform it …

Determining An Optimum Cropping Pattern For Egypt, Loujaina M. El Sayed

Theses and Dissertations

Agriculture is considered to be the major economic activity in Egypt despite the government policies that favored other sectors since the second half of the 20^th century. However, Egypt currently faces a food security challenge that stems from the increasing demand for food in light of huge population growth and the inability of the agricultural sector to fulfill the abovementioned increasing demand.

This research focuses on the vertical expansion of the agricultural sector through attempting to determine the optimum cropping mix for Egypt in the year 2017. A fuzzy goal programming (FGP) approach for optimal land allocation is utilized. …

An Economic Analysis Of Optimum Population Size Achieved Through Boosting Total Fertility And Net Immigration, Hian Teck Hoon

Research Collection School Of Economics

Without net immigration, the population size is projected to decline from 2025 onward. Does it matter? To answer this question, the paper proceeds in two main parts. In the first part, taking a citizen's utility as a measure of welfare, we identify the channels through which a larger population size reduces welfare, on the one hand, and increases welfare on the other hand. The optimum population size is achieved when the net resultant effect of all these channels leaves citizens' welfare at the maximum. When current and projected total fertility rates without net immigration lead to a projected path of …

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: The Value Of Political Connections In Social Networks, Quoc-Anh Do, Yen Teik Lee, Bang Dang Nguyen, Kieu-Trang Nguyen

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper investigates the impact of social-network based political connections on firm value. We focus on the networks of university classmates and alumni among directors of U.S. public firms and congressmen. Comparing firms connected to elected versus defeated politicians in the Regression Discontinuity Design of close elections from 2000 to 2008, we provide evidence that political connections enhance firm value. However, the value of political connections varies in a more complex way than expected. While connections to powerful members of the Senate generate strong positive impact on firm value, connections to newly elected congressmen are less valuable to firms than …

Measuring The Upstreamness Of Production And Trade Flows, Pol Antras, Davin Chor, Thibault Fally, Russell Hillbery

Research Collection School Of Economics

We propose two distinct approaches to the measurement of industry upstreamness (or average distance from final use) and show that they yield an equivalent measure. Furthermore, we provide two additional interpretations of this measure, one of them related to the concept of forward linkages. We construct this measure for 426 industries using the 2002 US input-output Tables. We also construct our measure using data from selected countries in the OECD STAN database. Finally, we present an application of our measure that explores the determinants of the average upstreamness of exports at the country level using trade flows for 2002.

Changing Unchanged Inequality: Higher Education, Youth Population, And The Japanese Seniority Wage System, Ken Yamada, Daiji Kawaguchi

Research Collection School Of Economics

Wage inequality declined in the 1990s and rose after 2000 among full-time male workers in Japan. Narrowing wage inequality in the 1990s can be accounted for by a decline in between-group inequality resulting from a stable return to education and decreased returns to experience and tenure. Widening wage inequality after 2000 can be accounted for by a rise in within-group inequality resulting from a relative increase in educated and experienced workers, as well as changes in heterogeneous returns to human capital.

Off The Cliff And Back? Credit Conditions And International Trade During The Global Financial Crisis, Davin Chor, Manova Kalina

Research Collection School Of Economics

We examine the collapse of international trade flows during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis using detailed data on the evolution of monthly U.S. imports over the November 2006 - April 2009 period. We show that credit constraints and the reduction in the availability of external capital were an important channel through which the crisis affected trade volumes. We identify the effects of credit tightening by exploiting the variation in the cost of capital across countries and over time, as well as the variation in financial dependence across sectors. We find that countries with higher interbank interest rates and thus tighter …

Wage-Vacancy Contracts And Coordination Frictions, Nicolas L. Jacquet, Serene Tan

Research Collection School Of Economics

We consider a directed search model with risk-averse workers and risk-neutral entrepreneurs who can set up firms that post wage-vacancy contracts, i.e., contracts where firms can make payments to more than one applicant, and where the payments can be different for each applicant and be contingent on the number of applicants. We establish that the type of contracts the literature focuses on are not offered if firms can post wage-vacancy contracts. We show that there exists an equilibrium satisfying a Monotonic Expected Utility property which is efficient. Furthermore, we investigate the role of wage-vacancy contracts on welfare and competition.

Love And Money By Parental Match-Making: Evidence From Urban Couples In China, Fali Huang, Ginger Jin, Lixin Collin Xu

Research Collection School Of Economics

Parental involvement in marriage matchmaking may distort the optimal spouse choice because parents are willing to substitute love for money. The rationale is that the joint income of married children can be shared among extended family members more easily than mutual attraction felt by the couple themselves, and as a result, the best spouse candidate in the parents' eyes can differ from what is optimal to the individual, even though parents are altruistic and care dearly about their children's welfare. We find supporting evidence for this prediction using a unique sample of urban couples in China in the early 1990s.

Organizing The Global Value Chain, Pol Antras, Davin Chor

Research Collection School Of Economics

We develop a property-rights model of the firm in which production entails a continuum of uniquely sequenced stages. In each stage, a final-good producer contracts with a distinct supplier for the procurement of a customized stage-specific component. Our model yields a sharp characterization for the optimal allocation of ownership rights along the value chain. We show that the incentive to integrate suppliers varies systematically with the relative position (upstream versus downstream) at which the supplier enters the production line. Furthermore, the nature of the relationship between integration and “downstreamness” depends crucially on the elasticity of demand faced by the final-good …

Isolated Capital Cities, Accountability And Corruption: Evidence From Us States, Filipe R. Campante, Quoc-Anh Do

Research Collection School Of Economics

We show that isolated capital cities are robustly associated with greater levels of corruption across US states. In particular, this is the case when we use the variation induced by the exogenous location of a state’s centroid to instrument for the concentration of population around the capital city. We then show that different mechanisms for holding state politicians accountable are also affected by the spatial distribution of population: newspapers provide greater coverage of state politics when their audiences are more concentrated around the capital, and voter turnout in state elections is greater in places that are closer to the capital. …

Evidence Of The Shaming Effect: A Look At Ncaa Football, Holmes Hill

All Theses

This paper addresses the general theory of shaming and the effects it has on criminal behavior. There has been much debate of the use of shaming in the criminal justice system and the effects it has on criminal behavior. The lack of quantitative data has limited such debates to theory without evidence. This paper applies the theory to NCAA football statistics to study the behavior of football players on the field, to explain the way people and how people respond to shaming. The analysis is based on seasonal team statistics of all division I football teams in correlation with a …

Diminishing Discrimination In English Premier League Soccer, Can Cetegen

All Theses

Racism still represents one of the biggest problems in soccer. Szymanski has proven that racial discrimination exists in English Premier League soccer. This paper shows diminishing discrimination against African origin and foreign players looking at a time period from 2001 to 2010.

Players' Performance Index For Major League Soccer, Joel Correll

All Theses

This paper analyzes player compensation and team finances within Major League Soccer's 2007 season by calculating salaries with respect to the player's marginal revenue product and performance parameters. The player's performance index is a calculated overall value which takes into account variations of weighted in-game actions. This performance index is tied together with a player's marginal revenue product to determine their actual economic value with respect to their 2007 rating. The paper concludes that on average, Major League Soccer as a whole compensates players based on the team's marginal revenue product, and not the individuals. The study also finds clear …

Financial Inclusion & Economic Development: A Case Study Of Turkey And A Cross-Country Analysis Of European Union, Recep Yorulmaz

All Theses

ABSTRACT
Financial development enhances human development, and access to financial services makes a positive impact on people's lives particularly poor people. In addition, financial development reduces income inequality and boosts incomes. Over the last few decades, policymakers have considered financial sector reforms that promote financial inclusion. This paper attempts to show how financial inclusion is correlated with standard measures of economic development and economic well-being. To this end, we first measure the extent of financial inclusion by comparing economies and regions over time. Then, using this index of financial inclusion, we identify the factors associated with financial inclusion using a …

The Financial Crisis Viewed From The Perspective Of The Social Cost Theory, L. Randall Wray

Social Cost Workshop

The talk examines the causes and consequences of the current global financial crisis. K.W. Kapp’s “social costs” theory is contrasted with the recently dominant “efficient markets” hypothesis to provide the context for analyzing the functioning of financial institutions. Rather than operating “efficiently,” the financial sector has been imposing huge costs on the economy—costs that no one can deny in the aftermath of the economy’s collapse. While orthodox approaches lead to the conclusion that money and finance should not matter much, the alternative tradition—from Veblen and Keynes to Galbraith and Minsky—provides the basis for developing an approach that puts money and …

The Social Cost Of Labor And Its Importance For Labor Economics, Robert E. Prasch

Social Cost Workshop

The starting point and core notion of neoclassical or mainstream economics is a reductionist vision of the exchange of commodities. Missing is the historical, social, and legal environments within which exchanges occur. A parallel and equally problematic notion is that labor exists as something of a “found object.” By contrast, the classical school of economists understood that laborers must earn a wage equal to or greater than “subsistence” if society was to be an ongoing enterprise. Laborers must be fed, sheltered, socialized, and educated before they arrive in the labor market. This, in a phrase, is the Social Cost of …

Environmental Sustainability From A Social Cost Perspective, James Swaney

Social Cost Workshop

Over a quarter century, efforts to build global environmental governance institutions have been thwarted by ideology and vested interests, while ecological degradation has accelerated and disparities in wealth, living standards and economic opportunities have grown. Nonetheless, the sustainability idea remains appealing and valid: Future generations can be protected from debilitating ecological degradation only if we, the present generation, redirect development to begin restoring ecological balance to key earth systems (e.g., oceans, climate, biodiversity). The social cost perspective (SCP) of institutional economics, rooted in the contributions of Karl Polanyi (1944) and K. William Kapp (1950), provides a framework for thinking about, …