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2014

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Articles 1291 - 1320 of 1582

Full-Text Articles in Economics

The Evolution Of Garnishment And Wage Assignment Law In Illinois, Bradley A. Hansen, Mary Eschelbach Hansen Jan 2014

The Evolution Of Garnishment And Wage Assignment Law In Illinois, Bradley A. Hansen, Mary Eschelbach Hansen

Economics Articles

Recent research shows that, despite high interest rates, wage earners in the early twentieth century frequently obtained credit from retail shops, from loan sharks, and from the emerging formal consumer credit market. When wage earners defaulted, the options for collection available to their creditors were governed by state laws on garnishment and wage assignment. These important laws varied widely from state to state, and little is known about their origins or evolution. In Illinois, the law put significant restrictions on creditors in the late nineteenth century, but the restrictions were removed in the first quarter of the twentieth century. This …


Gaming And Strategic Opacity In Incentive Provision, Florian Ederer, Richard Holden, Margaret Meyer Jan 2014

Gaming And Strategic Opacity In Incentive Provision, Florian Ederer, Richard Holden, Margaret Meyer

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

It is often suggested that incentive schemes under moral hazard can be gamed by an agent with superior knowledge of the environment, and that deliberate lack of transparency about the incentive scheme can reduce gaming. We formally investigate these arguments in a two-task moral hazard model in which the agent is privately informed about which task is less costly for him to work on. We examine two simple classes of incentive scheme that are “opaque” in that they make the agent uncertain ex ante about the values of the incentive coefficients in the linear payment rule. We show that, relative …


Family Dynamics In Vietnam, Linh Vu Jan 2014

Family Dynamics In Vietnam, Linh Vu

Economics Honors Papers

No abstract provided.


Determinants Of Undergraduate Gpa And Persistence At Connecticut College, Patrick Russo Jan 2014

Determinants Of Undergraduate Gpa And Persistence At Connecticut College, Patrick Russo

Economics Honors Papers

This thesis uses a unique dataset of five class-years to determine the factors that affect the academic experience of students at Connecticut College, particularly their cumulative grade point averages (CGPA) and persistence into sophomore year. Chapter I examines how changes in high school inputs affect students’ performance at Connecticut College. This chapter finds that high school inputs (viz., pupil-teacher ratio, total expenditure per pupil, and expenditure on teacher salaries per pupil) have a significant effect on college GPA even after controlling for demographics and prior academic performance. Chapter II examines the factors affecting persistence at Connecticut College. It …


Self- Employment In Cuba After The 6th Party Congress, Mario A. Gonzalez-Corzo, Orlando Justo Jan 2014

Self- Employment In Cuba After The 6th Party Congress, Mario A. Gonzalez-Corzo, Orlando Justo

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.


Economic Freedom And Recidivism: Evidence From Us States, Joshua C. Hall, Kaitlyn Harger, Dean Stansel Jan 2014

Economic Freedom And Recidivism: Evidence From Us States, Joshua C. Hall, Kaitlyn Harger, Dean Stansel

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

This paper provides an exploratory analysis into factors contributing to differences across states in recidivism rates. We provide the first such examination that incorporates differences in economic freedom. Using a panel data set from 1998- 2010, we find that higher levels of economic freedom within a state are associated with lower recidivism rates within that state. A one percent increase in economic freedom is associated with a 0.47 percent decrease in recidivism. The relationship is stronger and more statistically significant for labor market freedom, with a one percent increase in labor market freedom being associated with a 0.67 percent decline …


Essays In Fiscal Policy, Edmund Lawrence Matecki Jan 2014

Essays In Fiscal Policy, Edmund Lawrence Matecki

Wayne State University Dissertations

Fiscal policy is investigated in two settings. First, a fully identified neoclassical growth model with rich fiscal policy rules is augmented with non-Ricardian consumers and fit to post-war U.S. data using Bayesian techniques. Allowing transfer payments to directly affect the consumption choices of rule-of-thumb agents permits a new interpretation of time series evidence regarding which fiscal instruments have historically financed government debt. The economic impact of fiscal adjustments is studied for two labor supply specifications. The first specification restricts labor supply by equalizing hours worked across household types. The second relaxes this assumption, allowing for intratemporal optimization by non-Ricardian households. …


Effort And Performance: What Distinguishes Interacting And Noninteracting Groups From Individuals?, Tibor Besedeš, Cary Deck, Sarah Quintanar, Sudipta Sarangi Jan 2014

Effort And Performance: What Distinguishes Interacting And Noninteracting Groups From Individuals?, Tibor Besedeš, Cary Deck, Sarah Quintanar, Sudipta Sarangi

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

We study how group membership affects behavior both when group members can and cannot interact with each other. Our goal is to isolate the contrasting forces that spring from group membership: a free-riding incentive leading to reduced effort and a sense of social responsibility that increases effort. In an environment with varying task difficulty and individual decision making as the benchmark, we show that the free-riding effect is stronger. Group members significantly reduce their effort in situations where they share the outcome but are unable to communicate. When group members share outcomes and can interact, they outperform groups without conmmnication …


The Coordination Value Of Monetary Exchange: Experimental Evidence, Gabriele Camera, Marco Casari Jan 2014

The Coordination Value Of Monetary Exchange: Experimental Evidence, Gabriele Camera, Marco Casari

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

What institutions can sustain cooperation in groups of strangers? Here we study the role of monetary systems. In an experiment, subjects sometimes needed help and sometimes could incur a cost to help an anonymous counterpart. In the absence of money, the intertemporal exchange of help, which could be supported by a norm of community punishment of defectors, did not emerge. Introducing intrinsically worthless tokens substantially altered patterns of behavior. Monetary trade emerged, which increased predictability of play and promoted cooperation when strangers could trade help for a token.


A Tractable Analysis Of Contagious Equilibria, Gabriele Camera, Alessandro Gioffré Jan 2014

A Tractable Analysis Of Contagious Equilibria, Gabriele Camera, Alessandro Gioffré

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

This paper studies contagious equilibrium in infinitely repeated matching games. The innovation is to identify a key statistic of contagious punishment that, used together with a recursive formulation, generates tractable closed-form expressions for continuation payoffs, off equilibrium. This allows a transparent characterization of the dynamic incentives created by contagious punishment schemes.


Uniqueness Of Equilibrium In Directed Search Models, Jaehong Kim, Gabriele Camera Jan 2014

Uniqueness Of Equilibrium In Directed Search Models, Jaehong Kim, Gabriele Camera

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

We study a decentralized trading model as in [7], where a finite number of heterogeneous capacity-constrained sellers compete for a finite number of homogeneous buyers, by posting prices. This "directed search" model is known to admit symmetric equilibria; yet, uniqueness has proved elusive. This study makes two contributions: a substantive contribution is to establish uniqueness of symmetric equilibrium; a methodological contribution is to develop a tool based on directional derivatives to characterize equilibrium.


Solar Pv Power Generation Forecasting Using Hybrid Intelligent Algorithms And Uncertainty Quantification Based On Bootstrap Confidence Intervals, Donna Alhakeem Jan 2014

Solar Pv Power Generation Forecasting Using Hybrid Intelligent Algorithms And Uncertainty Quantification Based On Bootstrap Confidence Intervals, Donna Alhakeem

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis focuses on short-term photovoltaic forecasting (STPVF) for the power generation of a solar PV system using probabilistic forecasts and deterministic forecasts. Uncertainty estimation, in the form of a probabilistic forecast, is emphasized in this Thesis to quantify the uncertainties of the deterministic forecasts. Two hybrid intelligent models are proposed in two separate chapters to perform the STPVF. In Chapter 4, the framework of the deterministic proposed hybrid intelligent model is presented, which is a combination of wavelet transform (WT) that is a data filtering technique and a soft computing model (SCM) that is generalized regression neural network (GRNN). …


Short-Run Price Dynamics In Guatemala, Miguel R. Martinez Jan 2014

Short-Run Price Dynamics In Guatemala, Miguel R. Martinez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

An equation is estimated to model short-run price dynamics for Guatemala using ordinary least squares. The data range from 1960 to 2012. Due to the lack of complete data for interest rates, fitted values for the deposit rate are calculated using the discount rate. The aim is to measure how the consumer price index responds to changes in monetary base, real output, interest rates and exchange rates. All coefficients have their expected signs. With the exception of real output, the coefficients are found to be statistically significant at a 5% confidence level.


Words Worth Price And Value, Tom Dunne Jan 2014

Words Worth Price And Value, Tom Dunne

Articles

TOM DUNNE explains the terms used in relation to the valuation of property, and the need for common understanding among all parties using those terms. -


The Effect Of Informal Employment And Corruption On Income Levels In Brazil, Jamie Bologna Jan 2014

The Effect Of Informal Employment And Corruption On Income Levels In Brazil, Jamie Bologna

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

This paper exploits a unique dataset on corruption and informal sector employment in 476 Brazilian municipalities to estimate whether corruption impacts GDP or income levels once variation in informal economic activity is taken into account. Overall, I find that higher levels of corruption and a larger informal economy are generally associated with poor economic outcomes. However, only the size of the informal economy has a statistically significant effect. This effect is robust to the inclusion of a variety of controls and fixed effects, as well as an instrumental variable analysis. Further, these effects are large in magnitude. For example, a …


Empirical Analysis Of Causes Of Income Inequality: A Level Playing Field For Children At The Start Of School Career, Ei P. Theint Jan 2014

Empirical Analysis Of Causes Of Income Inequality: A Level Playing Field For Children At The Start Of School Career, Ei P. Theint

Scripps Senior Theses

Numerous and countless factors have been theorized to be causes of inequality. This paper started with identifying the most important determinants of income inequality through theoretical research. Among the various theories of causes of inequality, I hypothesized creating a level playing for children at the very start of their career as students as an important determinant. In order to test the hypothesis that a level playing field is important to help fight inequality, a regression tailored for this question is created. I develop a regression model using the variable public expenditure on primary education as the variable to be tested …


Digging Deeper Into Hardin's Pasture: The Complex Institutional Structure Of "The Tragedy Of The Commons", Daniel H. Cole, Graham Epstein, Michael D. Mcginnis Jan 2014

Digging Deeper Into Hardin's Pasture: The Complex Institutional Structure Of "The Tragedy Of The Commons", Daniel H. Cole, Graham Epstein, Michael D. Mcginnis

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The institutional and ecological structure of Hardin’s “tragedy of the commons” appears deceptively simple: the open-access pasture eventually will be overexploited and degraded unless (i) it is privatized, (ii) the government regulates access and use, or (iii) the users themselves impose a common-property regime to regulate their own access and use. In this paper, we argue that the institutional structure of the “Herder Problem” (as it is known to game theorists) is far more complicated than it is usually portrayed. Specifically, it is not just about the pasture. It is equally about the grass that grows on the pasture and …


Household Economies : The Production And Consumption Of Plumbate At Miguel AlemáN, The Conquista Campesina Complex And The PiñUela Complex, Marx Navarro-Castillo Jan 2014

Household Economies : The Production And Consumption Of Plumbate At Miguel AlemáN, The Conquista Campesina Complex And The PiñUela Complex, Marx Navarro-Castillo

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The Soconusco region of Chiapas, Mexico, where the sites of Miguel Alemán, the Conquista Campesina Complex (Conq-18) and the Piñuela Complex (PIN) are located, has been an object of study by archaeologists since the beginning of the nineteenth century. My project focused at this locale is concerned with craft production as related to the organization and the development of hierarchical social relations and how this relationship is reflected through diverse indexes. Although Plumbate ceramics are my principal source of information, I studied other ceramic types as well.


Essays On Health Insurance Reform, Brian James Fischer Jan 2014

Essays On Health Insurance Reform, Brian James Fischer

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Overlapping generations general equilibrium models are developed to study health insurance reforms in the U.S. The models share common features such as heterogeneity in health, medical expenditures, productivity, endogenous insurance decisions, and capture key aspects of the U.S. insurance system. Each model is calibrated to match the 2007 U.S. economy.


Trends In The Effect Of Economic Insecurity On The Allocation Of Household Expenditures In The U.S., 1980-2005, Kirsten Bartlett Lauber Jan 2014

Trends In The Effect Of Economic Insecurity On The Allocation Of Household Expenditures In The U.S., 1980-2005, Kirsten Bartlett Lauber

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The transition to late-capitalism in the U.S. has generated extensive societal change. This paper examines the intersection of three of these changes: the transition to a consumer-oriented economic and societal model, the increase of economic insecurity experienced by individuals and households and the heightened emphasis on a short-term orientation in individual decision-making. A review of literature from the fields of Sociology, Economics and Psychology describes differing understandings of how individuals react to the heightened economic insecurity that households experience under late-capitalism. Within mainstream Economics', theoretical and empirical work suggests that individuals respond to insecurity by reducing spending and maximizing long-term …


Three Essays On Consumption, Portfolio Choice And Retirement Accounts, Pu Li Jan 2014

Three Essays On Consumption, Portfolio Choice And Retirement Accounts, Pu Li

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation is mainly trying to address discrepancies between theoretical predictions and empirical stylized facts in terms of what is the optimal stock share households should hold throughout the life cycle.


A Stochastic Volatility Model With Leverage Effect And Regime Switching, Hong Jiang Jan 2014

A Stochastic Volatility Model With Leverage Effect And Regime Switching, Hong Jiang

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Modeling the volatility of asset returns is a very important study in financial economics. Among the time-varying volatility models, the Stochastic Volatility (SV) models are argued to have advantages over the autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH) models. The purpose of this article is to put forward a generalized and flexible Stochastic Volatility model, the Stochastic Volatility Model with Leverage Effect and Regime Switching (SVLR model), which could capture the complex features of financial time series to the most extent.


Early Health And Human Capital Accumulation : An Econometric Analysis Using The Psid-Cds, 1997-2007, Dohyung Kim Jan 2014

Early Health And Human Capital Accumulation : An Econometric Analysis Using The Psid-Cds, 1997-2007, Dohyung Kim

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The first chapter estimates the effect of fetal growth on academic achievement in childhood using a nested error-component two-stage least squares (NEC2SLS) estimator that draws on internal instruments from alternative dimensions of the multi-level panel data structure of the panel data set. This estimation method increases efficiency by exploiting information on children with no siblings in the sample as well as identifies coefficients for the time-invariant, mother-specific regressors, all of which are not feasible with conventional mother-fixed effects estimation. We estimate modest but statistically significant effects of birth weight and fetal growth rate on math and reading scores, with the …


Local Power Of Panel Unit Root Tests : Impact Of Initial Values In Finite Samples, Xiaomei Li Jan 2014

Local Power Of Panel Unit Root Tests : Impact Of Initial Values In Finite Samples, Xiaomei Li

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation investigates and compares the performance of the panel unit root tests in terms of local power. The tests considered include the Gaussian power envelope, the pooled t-tests based on the Dickey-Fuller (DF) least squares demeaning and on the initial value demeaning, the IPS test proposed in Im, Pesaran, and Shin (2003) , and the Fisher-P type tests. Cases where the panel data have no fixed effects and where the panel data contain fixed effects are studied. The model allows for heterogeneity not only in the auto-regressive coefficients and the error terms but also in the fixed effects. The …


Forecasting Binary Outcomes : Estimation, Evaluation And Combination, Liu Yang Jan 2014

Forecasting Binary Outcomes : Estimation, Evaluation And Combination, Liu Yang

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Forecasting binary outcomes is involved in a wide variety of decision-making settings. This dissertation addresses the econometric issues related to predicting binary outcomes from three perspectives: estimation, evaluation and combination. All methodologies are empirically illustrated by predicting economic recessions in the United States.


Heterogeneity In Housing : Evidence From Regional Prices, Monetary Policy Transmission And Wealth Distribution In China, Lili Wu Jan 2014

Heterogeneity In Housing : Evidence From Regional Prices, Monetary Policy Transmission And Wealth Distribution In China, Lili Wu

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Housing market displays a high degree of heterogeneity in China: house prices show great uneven patterns across regions; housing markets present remarkably various roles in trasmitting outside shocks to real economies; housing wealth exhibits obviously asymmetric profile in holding and distribution among households, etc. To investige these heterogeneities is the single purpose of this paper.


Democracy, Political Externalities & The Labour-Process, Nicholas Alan Partyka Jan 2014

Democracy, Political Externalities & The Labour-Process, Nicholas Alan Partyka

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

My dissertation focuses on elaborating a problem for democratic political institutions posed by an externality of the capitalist labour-process, particularly for more participatory conceptions of democracy and democratic citizenship. I argue that the labour-process under capitalism causes a transformation in the skill-level and personality of worker-citizens. In the main, the direction of this transformation is towards workers who lack important deliberative skills enabling them to effectively participate in democratic politics. If one is committed to democracy as a means of collective self-government, then this negative transformation, or deformation, should be troubling. If the labour-process under capitalism deprives workers of the …


Geometric Information Of Yield Curve, Unspanned Stochastic Volatility, And Affine Heath-Jarrow-Morton Models, Qingbin Wang Jan 2014

Geometric Information Of Yield Curve, Unspanned Stochastic Volatility, And Affine Heath-Jarrow-Morton Models, Qingbin Wang

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The differences between the daily routine of fitting the yield curve (or equivalently, the forward rate curve) and the dynamic


Psychiatric Disorders And Their Impact On Labor Market Outcomes : A Latent Variable Approach Using Multiple Clinical Indicators, Souvik Banerjee Jan 2014

Psychiatric Disorders And Their Impact On Labor Market Outcomes : A Latent Variable Approach Using Multiple Clinical Indicators, Souvik Banerjee

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Psychiatric disorders are highly disabling and affect a substantial proportion of the working age population in the US. They have been associated with reductions in employment, labor force participation, labor supply, lower productivity and earnings. This dissertation examines the effect of mental illness on labor market outcomes, focusing on issues of endogeneity and measurement of mental illness.


Predictable And Predictive Emotions: Explaining Cheap Signals And Trust Re-Extension, Eric Schniter, Roman M. Sheremeta Jan 2014

Predictable And Predictive Emotions: Explaining Cheap Signals And Trust Re-Extension, Eric Schniter, Roman M. Sheremeta

ESI Publications

Despite normative predictions from economics and biology, unrelated strangers will often develop the trust necessary to reap gains from one-shot economic exchange opportunities. This appears to be especially true when declared intentions and emotions can be cheaply communicated. Perhaps even more puzzling to economists and biologists is the observation that anonymous and unrelated individuals, known to have breached trust, often make effective use of cheap signals, such as promises and apologies, to encourage trust re-extension. We used a pair of trust games with one-way communication and an emotion survey to investigate the role of emotions in regulating the propensity to …