Economics Commons^™

Heterodox Economics: The Alternative To Neoliberal Market-Fundametalist Economics, Tae-Hee Jo

Neoliberalism Seminar

Mainstream-neoclassical economics is the theoretical foundation of neoliberal economic policy that promotes competition and commodification through markets. Increasing fragility of an economy, increasing income inequality, the scaled-back welfare system, and recurring financial crisis are prominent consequences of neoliberal restructuring of industries and the economy as a whole. Is the “law of supply and demand” the universal principle that governs all the economic activities under capitalism? Is there an alternative way of explaining and organizing the provisioning process of a capitalist economy? How can economics deal with such socio-economic problems beyond market-fundamentalist economic narratives? In my presentation, I will highlight heterodox …

Environmental Conflicts In The Neoliberal Era, Charalampos Kostantinidis

Neoliberalism Seminar

Neoliberalism is characterized as a 35-year long period of attack of capital against labor in an attempt to restore falling profit rates. This has come at the expense of increased inequality and uncertainty, leading to a crisis of legitimacy for the neoliberal model of capitalism. Environmental issues offer both an opportunity for accumulation and profits, by extending the reach of the market into areas that were not previously incorporated into the circuits of capital, as well as a chance to restore some of the waning legitimacy of the neoliberal model, to the extent that environmental problems occupy a central position …

Bank Leverage And Asset Positions: Cross Country Evidence, Diny Ghuzini

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

No abstract provided.

U.S. Manugacturing Competitiveness In A Global Context, Johanna Retana-Quiros

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

No abstract provided.

New York Camp Econometrics Viii Program, Center For Policy Research

Camp Econometrics-Programs

No abstract provided.

Sequestration, Deficit, Debt? Our Real Problem Is The Future ‘Fiscal Gap’, Louis D. Johnston

Economics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Support For Suburban Growth Management: Lessons From Loudoun County, Virginia, Sidney Turner, Edmund Zolnik, Debasree Das Gupta

Suburban Sustainability

A multilevel approach is adopted to analyze how individual-level and community-level predictors interact to affect support for a specific growth management instrument. The multilevel model specification controls for respondent’s perceptions of local government’s general efficacy in managing growth and local growth rates. Results suggest that support for a specific growth management instrument increases amongst residents who generally support local government efforts to management growth and who live in high-growth communities. The implication is that policymakers who wish to foster support for specific growth instruments ought to target residents who generally support local government’s efforts to manage growth and who live …

An Econometric Analysis Of Anti-Bullying Program Factors On Bullying In Public American Middle Schools And High Schools, Austin B. Beck

Undergraduate Economic Review

This paper seeks to answer the question: “Do typical factors of anti-bullying programs reduce the amount of bullying that takes place in American public middle schools and high schools?” An overview of the literature on bullying and anti-bullying programs is provided. Data from the School Survey on Crime and Safety is analyzed using a probit model. The model is tested for accuracy and the results are analyzed. Parental involvement and out-of-school suspension are found to be significant anti-bullying program factors. Other explanatory variables are also discussed and recommendations for further research are provided.

The Euro Area Crisis: Origins, Prospects And Implication For The World Economy And Global Governance, Domenico Lombardi

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

European nations have adopted a common currency and created regional institutions but they are also undergoing the greatest crisis in the integration since the end of World War II. This presentation will explore Europe’s regional integration, assess this process in light of the current crisis, and consider lessons to be learned for other regions, notably Asia.

Public Health Roi: Evidence, Experience And Remaining Questions, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Expanding the delivery of efficacious public health and prevention strategies holds considerable potential for improving health outcomes and constraining costs across the U.S. health system. Unfortunately, lingering certainties about the costs required to expand public health delivery systems and about the health and economic effects of such expansions has muted private and public support for increased public health expenditures. This lecture examines recent evidence from public health services and systems research studies that examine the health and economic value of public health delivery, and identifies remaining research needs for the field.

Copper’S Corollaries: Trade And Labour Migration In The Copperbelt (1910-1940), Enid Guene

Zambia Social Science Journal

The geopolitical importance of the mining industry in Zambia and Katanga, and the rural-urban migration patterns that it brought about, has been the subject of many studies. And yet, the extent to which these industries were interdependent is often downplayed or overlooked. Looking more closely at the history of the Zambian and Katangese Copperbelts, one can see that, despite their separateness, there was interplay between them. During the British South Africa Company rule of Rhodesia (1899-1924), Northern Rhodesia was developed as an important labour and food reserve for the Katangese mines. Following the onset of the Great Depression in the …

Wealth, Success, And Personhood: Trajectories Of Labour Migration From Mwinilunga District, 1930s-1970s, Iva Peša

Zambia Social Science Journal

What were the causes and consequences of labour migration from Mwinilunga District between the 1930s and 1970s? Within Zambian historiography, economic and political aspects of labour migration have received much attention. Labour migration has been analysed within dichotomies of rural-urban, development-underdevelopment or tradition-modernity. Instead, this article proposes to bridge such dichotomies and to foreground the socio-cultural dispositions behind labour migration. If mobility is viewed as a social, rather than a geographical practice, connections and long-term continuities come to light. Through the case of Mwinilunga District the causes, motives and effects of labour migration will be examined. Why did individuals decide …

Introduction, Ken Mccormick

Major Themes in Economics

No abstract provided.

Cover - Table Of Contents

Major Themes in Economics

No abstract provided.

Jobs Don’T Grow On Trees, Nicholas Johnson

Undergraduate Research Symposium 2013

Most contemporary macroeconomic models account for unemployment by making the simplifying assumptions that 1) there is an equilibrium level of unemployment and that 2) when the economy is not at that level it will tend towards equilibrium. Implicit in these models is also the assumption that the actual behavior of unemployment does not affect the equilibrium level. This paper joins a growing number of economists pointing out that such assumptions are false: the equilibrium does depend on past behavior, a trait called hysteresis. This paper considers the hysteresis hypothesis by using an iterated version of OLS to construct a series …

Rhode Island Current Conditions Index -- April 2013, Leonard Lardaro

The Rhode Island Current Conditions Index

No abstract provided.

Quasi-Maximum Likelihood Estimation Of Multivariate Diffusions, Xiao Huang

Faculty Articles

This paper introduces quasi-maximum likelihood estimator for multivariate diffusions based on discrete observations. A numerical solution to the stochastic differential equation is obtained by higher order Wagner-Platen approximation and it is used to derive the first two conditional moments. Monte Carlo simulation shows that the proposed method has good finite sample property for both normal and non-normal diffusions. In an application of estimating stochastic volatility models, we find evidence of closeness between the CEV model and the GARCH stochastic volatility model. This finding supports the discrete time GARCH modeling of market volatility.

Radical Student Activism In The 1930s And Its Comparison To Student Activism During Occupy Wall Street, Andrew J. Pierce

Senior Honors Projects

In order to understand the present we must first understand the past. The United States may be a country founded on principles of democracy and republicanism, but students in universities across the nation have aligned themselves, historically, with some heterodox philosophies over the years. Whether it was Communism or Socialism in the 1930’s, or left libertarianism and direct democracy during the recent Occupy protests, students have long considered whether the policies of the United States government were really working in their best interests.

On campus in Depression-era America, Leftist student groups began to rise up and attempted to change the …

Returns To Schooling: A Quantile Regression, Arman Oganisian

Annual Celebration of Student Scholarship and Creativity

This paper contributes to the large body of economic literature that attempts to estimate the returns to schooling. It uses quantile regression to estimate the effect of an additional year of education on monthly wage for earners in different quantiles. Using data from the young men’s cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey, the paper attempts to control for ability, family background, geography, and race, and finds that the returns to schooling is approximately 3.49% for men. Furthermore, the paper finds that while the effect of education on earnings is not significantly different from quantile to quantile, the significance of education …

The Politics Of Household Budget Research In Colonial Central Africa, Robert Ross

Zambia Social Science Journal

This paper investigates the various academic studies of the household budgets of Africans living in what became the countries of Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi, and the Congolese province of Katanga. These studies were made during the colonial period, by members of the Rhodes- Livingstone Institute, the Central Statistical Office of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, in what was then Salisbury, and by Belgian researchers in the Congo. It demonstrates how what at first sight appears to be a neutral form of investigation was in fact highly politicised. On the one hand, there were many who showed how African incomes …

Development Narratives: How Rwandans Perceive, Re-Make, And Re-Imagine Themselves Within And Without Government Development Programs, Katy Lindquist

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Rwanda is currently pursuing an ambitious development agenda that already has led to impressive results. The government has created many development programs that are aimed at poverty eradication and urban development in Kigali including housing regulations, cooperatives, and access to loans. However, how are these programs translated into the daily life of Rwandans who operate within the lower economic strata of Kigali? Who get’s to participate in these programs and who doesn’t? Through a month of ethnographic research in markets, umudugudus, and small businesses I gathered different narratives of development in Kigali. What I discovered was small lines of exclusion …

[Sabbatical Report], Claudia Strow

Sabbatical Reports

This document summarizes my sabbatical leave activities for spring semester, 2014. Below my accomplishments are discussed, and the value of the sabbatical leave to my teaching and research is assessed. The main activities I conducted during my sabbatical leave period included work on a new research project examining FMLA's impact on breastfeeding, the writing of a second edition of a textbook, substantial revisions for an accepted publication for the Journal of 'Markets and Morality, a revise and resubmit of a manuscript for the Journal of Applied Economics and Public Policy, an interview for Voice of America, the presentation of a …

Connecticut Economic Outlook For 2013-2015: A Perspective From Sacred Heart University Students In Business Economics, Jack Welch College Of Business

WCBT Undergraduate Publications

Final Research Project for EC392 – Economic and Financial Forecasting. Instructor: Dr. Lucjan T. Orlowski - Professor and Chair, Department of Economics and Finance, John F. Welch College of Business, Sacred Heart University.

The state of Connecticut has been severely impacted by the recent financial crisis, perhaps more greatly than other states. It was our objective to apply the skills we have acquired as an undergraduate class in Economic Forecasting at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, to compare various economic indicators and trends of the State of Connecticut to those of the United States. We ultimately wanted to evaluate …

Ce Winter 2013, Coyote Economist

Coyote Economist

Inside this Issue:

We’re on Facebook ..................2

Economics & Model UN .........3

Found on the Internet ............5

Tentative Spring Schedule .....6

Tentative Future Classes ........6

Elle Doit S’Épanouir: The Women’S Entrepreneurial Program And Women’S Empowerment In Dschang, Melanie Meisenheimer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper provides a field study of the Women’s Entrepreneurial Program (WEP) in Dschang, Cameroon. It looks at the obstacles that impede women’s involvement in Cameroon’s economic development and that keep them trapped in a cycle of poverty, especially their access to financing and socio-cultural influences. Notions of ‘women’s empowerment’ are discussed and an overview of the WEP’s functions and goals is provided. This study seeks to explore how access to micro-finance in conjunction with entrepreneurial training has impacted the economic situation of WEP participants as well as any corresponding changes in their culturally dictated roles and responsibilities. The gendering …

Everyone Counts : Une Enquête Sur Le Recensement Général De La Population De Madagascar, Charlotte Mcdonald

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Qu’est-ce que c’est le recensement ?

D’habitude, lorsqu’on parle de « recensement », on veut dire un recensement général de la population et de l’habitat dans un pays. Le recensement est une opération statistique qu’un pays devrait mener d’une manière régulière pour suivre la croissance de sa population, les changements démographiques et les besoins de son peuple. Ce travail comprend des centaines d’indicateurs (comme l’âge, la religion, l’accès à l’eau potable, et les problèmes de santé) à partir desquels on collecte les données pour chaque ménage dans le pays.

Dans un pays riche comme les Etats-Unis, le recensement permet au …

Vision 2035 And The Kribi Deep Seaport: An Analysis Of The Economic Impacts For Cameroon, Charlotte Fisken

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the effects of the Kribi Deep Seaport project will be positive for economic development in Cameroon, and how the Port will affect Cameroon’s regional and global role. The study was conducted over a one-month period and was primarily qualitative in nature. The principal method of inquiry was interviews, which were complemented by quantitative secondary source research. Although most informants asserted that the project was a positive step for the country, the information they provided led me to conclude that the project was undertaken prematurely and will not promote sustainable economic development …

Food From Foreigners: Examining Expatriate Entrepreneurship In The Food Sector Of Nepal, Melanie R. Couchman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Recognizing the large impact that entrepreneurship can have on the development of a country, this research attempts to study the process foreigners face in starting up a business, the motives for entering the Nepalese market place, and ultimately how these foreign business owners are finding success in Nepal. Focusing primarily on the food sector, this research hopes to answer the question of whether foreign entrepreneurs can successfully integrate into the Nepalese market, how foreign business might differ from native business, and how foreign presence is affecting Nepal’s development. This study takes place in Kathmandu, Pokhara, and Patan, and will use …

Dharma And The Free Market: Reconciling Buddhist Compassion With A Market Economy In Post-Socialist Mongolia, Yazmeen Mendez Nuñez

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In this inductive ethnographic study, I explore the unique social and theological pressures placed on Mongolian Buddhists after the wake of free market transition in Mongolia. It utilizes the Buddhist virtue of compassion as a lens by which the study might examine how Mongolians balance their spirituality and commitment to Buddhist ethics with new roles as rational agents in an emergent free market. In this study I draw on narratives from thirteen subjects as well as extensive participant observation to examine the ways that Mongolian market reform has guided social paradigms of ethic that present ethical contradictions with Buddhist dharma, …

Adding Injustice To Injury - Health Perceptions, Plurality, And Power In The Ongoing Bhopal Disaster, Ruth Markwardt

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Standards of health, human rights, and development are typically defined and dictated by policymakers instead of the populations directly affected by so-called development efforts. This paper seeks to contextualize global development efforts by highlighting specific local realities among the community of Bhopal Disaster survivors in Madhya Pradesh, India. As the site of the world’s largest industrial disaster, a disaster which is not over but ongoing, Bhopal represents an important population to highlight as the disaster continues. The Political Ecology of Health model was used to highlight political and environmental influences on community health. Within Political Ecology, this study takes a …