Economics Commons^™

Real Effective Exchange Rate And Unemployment Rate: The Difference Between Re-Exporting And Non-Re-Exporting Countries, Xiaolong He

All Theses

In this paper, I examine the relationship between unemployment rate and real effective exchange rate in several countries from 1994 to 2009. The analysis shows that most of countries have a negative relationship between those two factors, which implies increase of exchange rate can improve employment rate in an economy. However, re-exporting countries like the Netherlands, Singapore and Hong Kong has a less negative relationship than other countries. I hypothesize that those results are caused by the different elasticity of demand for imports.

What Are Hybrid Vehicle Buyers Really Paying For? An Empirical Analysis, Christa Partridge

All Theses

The increasing popularity of eco-labeled products has given rise to numerous studies showing that consumers will pay more for eco-labeled products than for similar non-labeled products. One such pairing is hybrid vehicles and traditional combustion engine vehicles. This analysis is the first attempt at identifying a willingness to pay for the hybrid vehicle label in excess of the willingness to pay for fuel economy and reduced vehicle emissions. In this analysis I apply a hedonic price model to new vehicle data from 2012, and also analyze county-level vehicle registration data from Oregon. The hedonic price analysis shows that, for given …

Firm Formation And Economic Freedom: A Look At The Effect Of Regulation And Fiscal Power Across States, Cameron Cox

All Theses

This paper looks at the effect of economic freedom, a cost of investment for entrepreneurial action, on the amount of firms established across states and years. My hypothesis is that economic freedom has a positive effect on the number of firms that are established in a given year. My assumption for why this is the case is because greater economic freedom implies that costs of investing in a new firm will decrease thereby increasing the incentive to create new firms. I use data from the Mercatus Institutes Freedom index and the United States Census Bureau for firm formation and economic …

Demographic Changes In Developed And Developing Countries, Sarah Sax

All Theses

I will be observing demographic changes across both developed and developing countries and noting whether or not some developing countries follow the same trends as developed countries. This information can provide insight as to why some countries are so poor and help determine where to focus their attention in order to improve their standards of living. I will be performing a regional and country-specific analysis in order to determine which trends each developing country follows in accordance with the developed countries. I will suggest some policy solutions, which impoverished countries can use in order to improve their circumstances.

Afriat From Maxmin, John Geanakoplos

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Afriat’s original method of proof is restored by using the minmax theorem.

Identification And Estimation In Two-Sided Matching Markets, Nikhil Agarwal, William Diamond

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We study estimation and non-parametric identification of preferences in two-sided matching markets using data from a single market with many agents. We consider a model in which preferences of each side of the market are vertical, utility is non-transferable and the observed matches are pairwise stable. We show that preferences are not identified with data on one-to-one matches but are non-parametrically identified when data from many-to-one matches are observed. The additional empirical content in many-to-one matches is illustrated by comparing two simulated objective functions, one that does and the other that does not use information available in many-to-one matching. We …

Collateral Equilibrium: A Basic Framework, John Geanakoplos, William R. Zame

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Much of the lending in modern economies is secured by some form of collateral: residential and commercial mortgages and corporate bonds are familiar examples. This paper builds an extension of general equilibrium theory that incorporates durable goods, collateralized securities and the possibility of default to argue that the reliance on collateral to secure loans and the particular collateral requirements chosen by the social planner or by the market have a profound impact on prices, allocations, market structure and the efficiency of market outcomes. These findings provide insights into housing and mortgage markets, including the sub-prime mortgage market.

Optimal Sup-Norm Rates And Uniform Inference On Nonlinear Functionals Of Nonparametric Iv Regression, Xiaohong Chen, Timothy M. Christensen

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper makes several important contributions to the literature about nonparametric instrumental variables (NPIV) estimation and inference on a structural function h0 and its functionals. First, we derive sup-norm convergence rates for computationally simple sieve NPIV (series 2SLS) estimators of h0 and its derivatives. Second, we derive a lower bound that describes the best possible (minimax) sup-norm rates of estimating h0 and its derivatives, and show that the sieve NPIV estimator can attain the minimax rates when h0 is approximated via a spline or wavelet sieve. Our optimal sup-norm rates surprisingly coincide with the optimal root-mean-squared rates for severely ill-posed …

The Effects Of Foreign Direct Investment And Official Development Assistance On The Human Development Index In Africa, Christina R. Tamer

Graduate Masters Theses

Africa is a changing continent. Although it is home to some of the world's most impoverished nations, over the last ten years Africa has seen tremendous economic growth and many organizations contributing to this change. International development organizations and governments alike are seeking the best ways in which to accelerate these accomplishments to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. As such, this study seeks to update the literature on the effects that two of the largest foreign funding mechanisms have on the development of the continent. Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to the continent reached $42 billion dollars in 2011, while …

The Impact Of Political Uncertainty: A Robust Control Approach, Robert Baumann, Justin Svec

Economics Department Working Papers

In this paper, we examine how candidate uncertainty affects the policy platforms chosen in a uni-dimensional, two candidate Downsian spatial model. The candidates, we assume, do not know the true distribution of voters. Following the robust control literature, candidates respond to this uncertainty by applying a max-min operator to their optimization problem. This approach, consistent with findings within the behavioral economics literature, protects the candidate by ensuring that her expected utility never falls too far, regardless of the true voter distribution. We show that this framework produces policy convergence between the two candidates but there is a multiplicity of possible …

Pundits: The Confidence Trick: Better Confident Than Right?, Ben O. Smith, Jadrian Wooten

Economics Faculty Publications

Media pundits are the supreme example of self-belief and confidence in their own opinions. Through TV, newspapers and blogs they tell us with sublime certainty what will happen. But are they right? And does it matter if they are wrong? Ben Smith and Jadrian Wooten ask what we demand from pundits – accuracy or confidence?

Medicaid Expansion, Long-Term Care Financing In Retirement States And The Post World War Ii Birth Cohort, Toni P. Miles

Center for Policy Research

This policy brief contains a formal consideration of ideas discussed during a presentation to the 2012 Syracuse Seminar on Aging. Like most briefs, it will appeal to policy makers and academics craving detailed demographic, fiscal and policy data. Before diving into this brief, I would encourage readers to view the presentation video (available at http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=bsv8K7DdJFY). As you will see, the seminar was informal and the discussion was wide ranging. In contrast, this brief focuses on limitations faced by states as they finance longterm care. It is primarily concerned with the Medicaid expansion and growing need for care as the …

Compensation Research Summer Camp, Kevin F. Hallock

Economics Faculty Publications

This summer, the Institute for Compensation Studies at Cornell's ILR School hosted its first Emerging Scholars Conference, which the author affectionately calls Comp Camp. Their conference, funded in part by WorldatWork, hosted a dozen junior scholars, three PhD students, a few senior scholars and some leaders from the practical world (including some from WorldatWork). They convened experts from fields like sociology, psychology, economics, industrial relations and business on the Cornell campus in Ithaca, NY, for robust discussions of several as-yet-unpublished research studies. The conference had three interesting papers on gender by scholars from three fields using data from three countries. …

Nutrition Political Economy, Pakistan. Province Report:Sindh, Shehla Zaidi, Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta, Rozina Mistry, Gul Nawaz, Noorya Hayat, Shandana Khan Mohmand, Andres Mejia Acosta

Community Health Sciences

No abstract provided.

Nutrition Political Economy, Pakistan. Province Report: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Shehla Zaidi, Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta, Abdul Wajid, Gul Nawaz, Kashif Nazeer, Shandana Khan Mohmand, Andres Mejia Acosta

Community Health Sciences

No abstract provided.

Private Debt Syndicates: Governance, Networks, And Syndicate Structure, William R. Mccumber

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I examine the primary market for syndicated private credit agreements to U.S. firms within the context of contract theory with information asymmetries between contracting parties in a repeated game. Specific governance mechanisms determine a firm's cost of borrowing in syndicated credit agreements. Firms with governance mitigating agency risk between stakeholders, i.e. independent boards, strong shareholder monitoring, and greater CEO pay-performance sensitivity, enjoy lower borrowing costs. The interests of creditors and shareholders diverge with regard to external governance. Lenders charge higher spreads to firms at greater risk of acquisition and reward stronger firms with price concessions when they possess staunch anti-takeover …

Essays In Economic Growth And Development, Zhen Zhu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three chapters exploring the Solow Residual of the Solow growth model. Two central components of the Solow Residual have been studied in my doctoral dissertation. The first is the structural transformation, an internal adjustment process that helps the economy attain the optimal points on its Production Possibility Frontier by reallocating resources from the low-productivity sectors to the high-productivity sectors. The second is the technology diffusion, a positive externality process that pushes forward the economy's Production Possibility Frontier if it adopts the newer technology.

The first chapter of my dissertation is devoted to a case study of …

Essays On The Economics Of Child Care And Child Custody, Jennifer Lee Hafer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In my first essay I use data from licensed child care centers in the state of Arkansas to examine the relationship between quality and price charged. To measure quality, I use Arkansas's Better Beginnings Quality Rating and Improvement System, a tier-structured voluntary certification program which can be viewed as a voluntary increase in regulations for licensed child care centers which allows them to send an observable signal of quality to consumers. Using an hedonic pricing estimation with controls for varying geographic markets, results indicate firms with Better Beginnings classification charge higher prices once the highest levels of certification are obtained. …

Local Responses To Federal Grants: Evidence From The Introduction Of Title I In The South, Elizabeth U. Cascio, Nora Gordon, Sarah Reber

Dartmouth Scholarship

We analyze the effects of the introduction of Title I of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, a large federal grants program designed to increase poor students' educational services and achievement. We focus on the South, the poorest region of the country. Title I increased school spending by $0.50 on the dollar in the average southern school district and by more in districts with less ability to offset grants through local tax reductions. Title I-induced increases in school budgets appear to have reduced high school dropout rates of whites, but not blacks.

Metropolitan Report - August 2013, Division Of Business And Economic Research, College Of Business Administration, University Of New Orleans

UNO Metropolitan Report (1986-2017)

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Financing Unfunded Social Security With Consumption Taxation When Consumers Are Shortsighted, Michael P. Clagg

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Using a representative-agent life-cycle model with consumer shortsightedness, I study an unfunded social security program financed via consumption taxation. Compared to financing an unfunded program with payroll taxation, I find that there is only a slight increase in well-being across planning horizons that is generated by a program with a consumption tax.

We suggest that both our data and the available time-series evidence are consistent with Milton Friedman's view that people save to smooth consumption over several years but, because of liquidity constraints, caution, or shortsighted-ness do not seek to smooth consumption over longer horizons. . . . Indeed, Milton …

China And The Northeast Region: Agricultural Machinery, Kelsey White

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Using Chinese government statistical data, relevant laws and policy regulations, and current market projections, this report aims to help new-to-market U.S. exporters understand the development of the agricultural machinery market in China and the Northeast region, identifying both challenges and opportunities.

With a vast land area and diverse topography, China is one of the world's top agricultural producers. Agriculture accounts for about 11% of China's GDP and more than 40% of China's employment. Over the past several years, China has been increasing its agricultural mechanization in an effort to move from traditional to modern farming. The central government has been …

Determinants Of The Profitability Of The U.S. Banking Industry During The Financial Crisis, Shiang Liu

All Theses

This research focuses on the determinants of the profitability of the US banking industry during the financial crisis. The analysis focuses on both internal and external variables regarding the profitability of banking sector, including bank-specific variables, industry-specific variables and macro economy variables. Data over the period 2007-2012 for 8677 US banks is derived from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Nasdaq Stock Market and Federal Reserve Bank. Fixed effect panel model are used to analyze the estimator and the significance of the determinants of the profitability. In this study, I test the nonlinear relationship between profitability and capital adequacy ratio and …

Explaining The Wage Differential Between American And Latino Baseball Players In Major League Baseball, Kristopher Kusterman

All Theses

This paper examines the wage differential between Latino and American baseball players in the Major Leagues. First, a literature review is prepared to look at how, historically, economists have gone about comparing different races' and ethnicities' compensation in professional sports. Historically, these comparisons are made between white and African American players. Next, a detailed look at the dataset that is used in the paper, which is from the Sean Lahman 2012 Baseball Database which consists of data going back to 1871, although this paper's scope is only for the years between 1985 and 2009. Regressions are then prepared in the …

The Effects Of Education On Youth Crime Participation Using Self-Reported Data From Nlsy97, Aiwei Mao

All Theses

This paper empirically examines the impacts of education on crime participation among youth aged between 18 -24, using data from National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 97(NLSY97). First, it estimates the reduction effects of high school graduation on general crime participation, which shows significant negative effects. Then this paper predicts the effects of high school graduation on three types of crime. A robust finding is that all of the three types of crimes are negative associated with high school graduation whether or not controlling family background and cognitive skill. Also, this paper classifies education level into three levels and predicts the …

The Permanent Income Hypothesis: Regarding The Housing Boom, Nick Havers

All Theses

The influential work by R. Hall (1987) is replicated with more recent data to test the modified version of the Permanent Income Hypothesis, specifically in testing the predictability and stability of the reduced consumption function. One aspect is to test the implication of the joint permanent income hypothesis with rational expectations is that no other lagged variable other than the previous period's consumption, value of stock prices, and the index of housing prices should be of any use to predict current consumption. The data used are quarterly time series data from 1954-2012. Hall's results are replicated, that the previous period's …

Essays In Energy Economics: An Inquiry Into Renewable Portfolio Standards, Laura Lamontagne

All Dissertations

In an attempt to motivate the transition away from fossil fuels, reduce carbon emissions and diversify electricity supply, twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have adopted a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). An RPS is a form of regulation that requires increased electricity production from renewable energy sources. These standards vary by state but generally require a minimum percentage of electricity generation to come from renewable technologies by a predetermined date.
In the first chapter I examine the effect of the adoption of an RPS on electricity rates, making use of the increased availability of data since several policies' adoption. …

Person-Centered Heath Care: Capabilities And Identity, John B. Davis

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Geographic And Social Distance In Finance, Liping Ma

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Our research interests lie in studying the economic behavior, choices, and actions of individuals given their geographical and Social proximity to others, and analyze the consequences of such decisions to the financial health and survival of households, firms, and the macro economy. Network analysis and spatial econometrics take account of information spill-overs and constraints of behaviors as consequence of the geographical and Social distance between and among individuals. In this research, we apply those techniques to analyze aspects of corporate governance and explanations for the recent housing crisis.

The literature on principle-agent problems has devoted most of its attention to …

Assessing Revenue Managers' Level Of Trust In Information Systems: An Exploratory Study Of Las Vegas Casino Resorts, Landon Taylor Shores

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examined revenue managers' level of trust in their revenue management system (RMS) at Las Vegas casino resorts. The study utilized an e-mail interview to measure revenue managers' attitudes about their RMS's degree of reliability and dependability, the degree to which they trust their RMS's pricing recommendations, and if a revenue manager's level of trust in technology had any effect on their likelihood of trusting their RMS.

The study invited 11 property and corporate revenue managers from Las Vegas casino resorts to participate in an e-mail interview, with nine revenue managers agreeing to participate. The main findings of the …