Economics Commons^™

Strategies Of Cooperation And Punishment Among Students And Clerical Workers, Maria Bigoni, Gabriele Camera, Marco Casari

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

We study the individual behavior of students and workers in an experiment where they repeatedly face the same cooperative task. The data show that clerical workers differ from college students in overall cooperation rates, strategy adoption and use of punishment opportunities. Students cooperate more than workers. Cooperation increases in both subject pools when a personal punishment option is available. Students are less likely than workers to adopt strategies of unconditional defection, and more likely to select strategies of conditional cooperation. Finally, students are more likely than workers to sanction uncooperative behavior by adopting decentralized punishment, and also personal punishment when …

Human Economic Choice As Costly Information Processing, John Dickhaut, Vernon L. Smith, Baohua Xin, Aldo Rustichini

Accounting Faculty Articles and Research

We develop and test a model that provides a unified account of the neural processes underlying behavior in a classical economic choice task. The model describes in a stylized way brain processes engaged in evaluating information provided by the experimental stimuli, and produces a consistent account of several important features of the decision process in different environments: e.g., when the probability is specified or not (ambiguous choices). These features include the choices made, the time to decide, the error rate in choice, and the patterns of neural activation. The model predicts that the further two stimuli are from each other …

Access To Capital In Dakar: An Analysis Of Microfinance, Michael Furlane

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study analyzes the effectiveness of micro credit in a developing African country by evaluating the history of microfinance and then focusing on access to credit in modern day Dakar, Senegal. Microfinance, or small capital loans to business startups in budding nations, has been used as a tool in developmental economics for a several decades. Ideally it is an elegant solution to a problem that permeates developing countries around the world: the lack of available credit. This lack of credit stifles economic growth in every sector of an emerging economy. As part of this study I interviewed both credit firms …

Las Raíces De La Deforestación En El Departamento Pando, Jeremy Levine-Drizin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research paper examines the phenomenon of the recent trend of deforestation in the Pando department in northwestern Bolivia. Historically, the economy of Pando has always been based primarily in agro-forestal extraction activities that provided income to communities without the need to destroy the surrounding forests. The most important of these agro-forestal products have been rubber (primarily during the beginning of the 20th century) and more recently Castaña (Brazilian Nut). Recently however, as the result of various forces, the inhabitants of Pando have begun to cut down there forests at an alarming rate. The most relevant causes of this phenomenon …

Luxury’S Last Frontier: An Analysis Of Hanoi Residents’ Perceptions Of The Luxury Market In Vietnam, Rachel Schuh

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

One consequence of Vietnam’s rapid economic development in recent decades is the booming luxury market in Hanoi. Although few Vietnamese consumers can afford luxury goods, luxury consumption is highly visible in Hanoi. Luxury shopping centers continue to open throughout the city, and fancy cars are a common sight on city streets. Luxury consumers often influence trends in the wider marketplace, but luxury good consumption can also be a divisive issue. In addition, luxury consumers in developing countries, even more so than those in developed countries, are often believed to be motivated by status concerns. Thus, the phenomenon economists call conspicuous …

Justicia Ambiental Contra La Corriente: Un Estudio Del Impacto, La Influencia Y El Éxito De Fundiccep En Chiriquí, Gabby Queenan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The current environmental justice debate within Panama has led to a series of conflicts on both a political and social scale. Non-profit organizations have developed rapidly throughout the organization to fill crucial gaps in this debate. The success of these organizations will dictate the ability of Panama to survive these conflicts. The organization of FUNDICCEP in Cerro Punta, Chiriquí, has had a definitive role in environmental justice in their community and the province of Chiriquí. They are a leader in their community and a leader to other environmental justice organizations as well. This group has worked in over eleven communities …

Modernization And Its Effects In Loma Bonita: A Leap From Historical Subsistence Agriculture Into The Precarious Commercial Market, Piper Halpin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This investigation studies the modernization effects on Loma Bonita and how these changes will ultimately shape the community in the future. By performing of series of 50 interviews and surveys, I used anecdotal and observational research to my make conclusions about the effects of electricity installation, road construction, and foreign influences on the town. Although it is recognized that there are an abundance of factors contributing to modernization, the scope of this paper only focuses on the three components mentioned above.

Daily lives of Loma Bonita residents have already been drastically changed by the electricity, road, and foreigners. The community …

Carbon Can’T Buy Happiness: An Analysis Of Ecological Footprints And Happiness Of University Students In The City Of David, Panama, Samantha Burlager

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Global climate change is perhaps the most pressing issue our world faces today. Greenhouse gas emissions reductions are urgently needed, however, there is currently a lack of action due to the fear that a reduction in the ecological footprint will lead to a reduction in GDP and happiness levels of a society. Increasing GDP and economic progress are equivocated with increasing happiness and overall well-being of society. However, based on the literature I discuss in this paper, instead of GDP, an objective measurement of happiness is a better indicator of success. In this paper, I investigate the ecological footprints (in …

Landscape Ideology In The Greater Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt Plan: Negotiating Material Landscapes And Abstract Ideals In The City's Countryside, Kirsten Valentine Cadieux, Laura E. Taylor, Michael F. Bunce

College of Liberal Arts All Faculty Scholarship

We analyze the role of landscape ideology in the recent Ontario Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) Greenbelt Plan. Focusing on the “Protected Countryside,” the major land-use designation in the Plan that structures the Greenbelt framework, we explore tensions between abstract ideals of countryside used by policy makers to elicit support for the Plan and people's lived experience of material landscapes of the peri-urban fringe. Approaching “countryside” from the combined perspectives of landscape studies and political ecology, we show how the abstract ideals used to build support for the protection of countryside in the high-level political arena are in tension with existing …

Agricultural Productivity And Poverty Reduction In Nepal, Satis Devkota, Mukti P. Upadhyay

Faculty Research and Creative Activity

This paper provides for the first time a clear quantitative link between agricultural productivity and poverty among rural households in Nepal. Using data from a nationwide Nepal Living Standard Survey 2004, we first estimate household-specific productivity per worker under both Cobb–Douglas and translog production functions. Second, the paper identifies the determinants of productivity. Third, we explore a theoretical link between productivity and poverty using Sen's poverty index and find empirically that productivity growth substantially helps poverty reduction. Finally, the integrated effects of changes in productivity determinants are found to be stronger than the outcomes of sectoral policies taken in isolation.

Conflicting Currencies: An Examination Of The Usd And The Geoeconomics Of The International Monetary System, Cullen Millikin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

What is the future of the United States dollar within the international monetary system? The dollar has certainly enjoyed supremacy as a unit of account, store of value, and medium exchange since World War II, but what about new challengers (most notably the euro and Chinese yuan)? Using “geoeconomic” analysis to determine what strategies or actions a state might pursue in the international political economy can help to begin answering these questions. Geoeconomic considerations used in this paper do not dismiss cultural, political, or military aspects of international power relations, they supplements them. The short-run status of USD preeminence within …

The "Play-Out" Effect And Preference Reversals: Evidence For Noisy Maximization, Joyce E. Berg, John Dickhaut, Thomas A. Rietz

Accounting Faculty Articles and Research

In this paper, we document a "play-out" effect in preference reversal experiments. We compare data where preferences are elicited using (1) purely hypothetical gambles, (2) played-out, but unpaid gambles and (3) played-out gambles with truth-revealing monetary payments. We ask whether a model of stable preferences with random errors (e.g., expected utility with errors) can explain the data. The model is strongly rejected in data collected using purely hypothetical gambles. However, simply playing-out the gambles, even in the absence of payments, shifts the data pattern so that noisy maximization is no longer rejected. Inducing risk preferences using a lottery procedure, using …

Evaluation Metric For Technical Assistance At A Community Development Financial Institution, Emma R. Miran

MPA Capstone Projects 2006 - 2015

The Mountain Association of Community Economic Development (MACED) serves a fifty-four county region in Central Appalachia and is legally registered as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). MACED provides financial capital and technical assistance to small businesses and nonprofit organizations in order to generate new employment opportunities and develop a strong local economy and community in its service region. My study explored how MACED can improve its evaluation system for assessing clients' technical assistance needs and how it can better understand the impact of these services.

"Let It Come From The People”: Exploring Decentralization, Participatory Processes, And Community Empowerment In Western, Rural Uganda, Rachel Harmon

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study sought to understand the extent to which the participatory planning framework established in the Local Government Act of 1997 is utilized and to what extent it encourages and results in genuine community empowerment for rural communities.More specifically, it aimed to understand the extent of genuine citizen participation by assessing the degree to which community members feel that they are empowered to participate in strategies for rural development at all levels of the government. Additionally, this project sought to explore the position that the Epicenter Managers have within the participatory framework established for rural development, with a particular focus …

Inefficiency In Japanese Water Utility Firms: A Stochastic Frontier Approach, Michelle Phillips

Economics Faculty Research & Creative Works

I examine inefficiencies in Japanese water utility companies. Efficiency in this context is defined as a firm's capacity to maximize output given a fixed level of inputs. The findings suggest that the average operation rate, customer density and size variables are associated with lower levels of inefficiency (or higher levels of efficiency), while water purification (a conditioning variable capturing low initial water quality), subsidies and outsourcing are associated with higher levels of inefficiency. Since inefficiency exists, there is an opportunity to improve Japanese water utilities by working on emulating "best practice" firms whenever possible and by providing a regulatory framework …

Selling Cookies, Dirk Bergemann, Alessandro Bonatti

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We propose a model of data provision and data pricing. A single data provider controls a large database that contains information about the match value between individual consumers and individual firms (advertisers). Advertisers seek to tailor their spending to the individual match value. The data provider prices queries about individual consumers’ characteristics (cookies). We determine the equilibrium data acquisition and pricing policies. Advertisers choose positive and/or negative targeting policies. The optimal query price influences the composition of the targeted set. The price of data decreases with the reach of the database and increases with the fragmentation of data sales.

Selling Cookies, Dirk Bergemann, Alessandro Bonatti

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We develop a model of data pricing and targeted advertising. A monopolistic data provider determines the price to access “cookies,” i.e., informative signals about individual consumers’ preferences. The demand for information is generated by advertisers who seek to tailor their spending to the value of each consumer. We characterize the set of consumers targeted by the advertisers and the optimal monopoly price of cookies. The ability to influence the composition of the set of targeted consumers provides incentives to lower prices. Thus, the monopoly price of data is decreasing in the reach of the database and increasing in the number …

Barefoot And Footloose Doctors: Optimal Resource Allocation In Developing Countries With Medical Migration, John E. Roemer, Pedro Rosa Dias

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

In light of the shortage of healthcare professionals, many developing countries operate a defacto two-tiered system of healthcare provision, in which Community Health Workers (CHWs) supplement service provision by fully qualified physicians. CHWs are relatively inexpensive to train but can treat only a limited range of medical conditions. This paper explicitly models a two-tiered structure of healthcare provision and characterizes the optimal allocation of resources between training doctors and CHWs, and implications for population health outcomes. We analyze how medical migration alters resource allocation and population health outcomes, shifting resources towards training CHWs. In the model, migration stimulates health care …

Model Selection In The Presence Of Incidental Parameters, Yoonseok Lee, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper considers model selection in nonlinear panel data models where incidental parameters or large-dimensional nuisance parameters are present. Primary interest typically centres on selecting a model that best approximates the underlying structure involving parameters that are common within the panel after concentrating out the incidental parameters. It is well known that conventional model selection procedures are often inconsistent in panel models and this can be so even without nuisance parameters (Han et al., 2012). Modifications are then needed to achieve consistency. New model selection information criteria are developed here that use either the Kullback-Leibler information criterion based on the …

Selling Cookies, Dirk Bergemann, Alessandro Bonatti

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We analyze data pricing and targeted advertising. Advertisers seek to tailor their spending to the value of each consumer. A monopolistic data provider sells cookies. informative signals about individual consumers.preferences. We characterize the set of consumers targeted by the advertisers and the optimal monopoly price of cookies. The ability to influence the composition of the targeted set provides incentives to lower prices. Thus, the price of data decreases with the reach of the database and increases with the fragmentation of data sales. We characterize the optimal policy for selling information and its implementation through nonlinear pricing of cookies.

Equality Of Opportunity, John E. Roemer, Alain Trannoy

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This forthcoming chapter in the Handbook of Income Distribution (eds., A. Atkinson and F. Bourguignon) summarizes the literature on equality of opportunity. We begin by reviewing the philosophical debate concerning equality since Rawls (sections 1 and 2), present economic algorithms for computing policies which equalize opportunities, or, more generally, ways of ordering social policies with respect to their efficacy in opportunity equalization (sections 3, 4 and 5), apply the approach to the conceptualization of economic development (section 6), discuss dynamic issues (section 7), give a preamble to a discussion of empirical work (section 8), provide evidence of population views from …

Experimental Studies Of Arbitration Mechanisms And Two-Sided Markets, Daniel Mihai Nedelescu

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay is an experimental study that examines a relative new type of arbitration called α-Final Offer Arbitration. The second is a theoretical study that introduces inequality aversion as a new explanatory factor for low agreements rates during disputes under arbitration mechanism. The final essay analyzes the effects of different polices on the price stricter in a two-sided market monopoly.

Promising results to improve arbitration used in the field are obtained from Amended Final Offer Arbitration (AFOA), which outperforms Final-Offer Arbitration (FOA) and weakly outperforms Conventional Arbitration (CA). The first essay presents an …

The Dangers Of Aggressive Trade Liberalization: Why The Washington Consensus Is Not A Global Consensus, Stephen T. Hanshaw

Government Undergraduate Publications

The theory of trade and capital market liberalization has been floated around in discussions about economic stability and development for decades. Due to the fact that the world is becoming more and more interdependent and interconnected each and every day, the necessity for a global market emerged in the early 1990’s. The Western response to globalization in many cases was dubbed the "Washington Consensus," of which trade liberalization is a huge part. The idea of trade liberalization is centralized in the idea of a free-market economy, originally posited by Adam Smith. His model proposed the idea of the "invisible hand", …

Teaching Time-Inconsistency Consistently, Mark Kuperberg

Economics Faculty Works

This paper places Kydland and Prescott's classic analysis of time inconsistency in a fuller context by examining their result in five different economic environments. Pedagogically, the paper uses a consistent mathematical treatment of the subject throughout. To understand the motivations of the central bank, the paper begins with the environment that Kydland-Prescott successfully criticized wherein the public has static inflationary expectations and the central bank assumes that they do. The main sections of the paper go on to analyze time inconsistency in four alternative environments defined by the belief structure of the central bank with respect to the nature of …

Model Selection In The Presence Of Incidental Parameters, Yoonseok Lee, Peter C.B. Phillips

Center for Policy Research

This paper considers model selection in nonlinear panel data models where incidental parameters or large-dimensional nuisance parameters are present. Primary interest typically centers on selecting a model that best approximates the underlying structure involving parameters that are common within the panel after concentrating out the incidental parameters. It is well known that conventional model selection procedures are often inconsistent in panel models and this can be so even without nuisance parameters (Han et al, 2012). Modifications are then needed to achieve consistency. New model selection information criteria are developed here that use either the Kullback-Leibler information criterion based on the …

Livelihood Security Among Refugees In Uganda: Opportunities, Obstacles, And Physical Security Implications, Karen J. Norris

Student Publications

This research project was designed to investigate the challenges refugees face in securing a livelihood, to understand the extent to which the United Nations, the government of Uganda, and various aid groups are able to assist refugees in achieving self-reliance, and the capacity that refugees have to empower themselves. It also endeavors to expose any disparities between nationality groups, and the impact of these differences. Furthermore, this project aims to explore the impact of refugee livelihood security on regional physical security and community stability.

The study found that despite international and national policies, and efforts by both non-governmental organizations and …

Economic Effects Of Successful Sports Franchises On Local Economies, Joshua Goodrich

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Trends In Median Household Income Among New York City Latinos In Comparative Perspective, 1990 - 2011, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines trends in median household incomes among New York City’s Latino population between 1990 and 2011, and considers these in comparative perspective with the City’s other major race/ethnic groups as well as with Latinos across the United States.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: Between 1990 and 2011 median household incomes among the City’s entire population fell by -4.7%. …

How Local Workforce Investment Boards Can Help Support Job Creation, Randall W. Eberts

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Licensing Occupations: How Time And Regulatory Attainment Matter, Morris M. Kleiner

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.