Economics Commons^™

Divided Loyalists Or Conditional Cooperators? Creating Consensus About Cooperation In Multiple Simultaneous Social Dilemmas, Matthew W. Mccarter, Anya Samek, Roman M. Sheremeta

ESI Publications

The current social dilemma literature lacks theoretical consensus regarding how individuals behave when facing multiple simultaneous social dilemmas. The divided-loyalty hypothesis, from organizational theory, predicts that cooperation will decline as individuals experience multiple social dilemmas with different compared to the same group members. The conditional-cooperation hypothesis, from behavioral economics, predicts that cooperation will increase as individuals experience multiple social dilemmas with different compared to the same group members. We employ a laboratory experiment to create consensus between these literatures and find support for the conditional-cooperation hypothesis. The positive effect of interacting with different group members comes from participants having an …

Decision Making In A Sequential Game: The Case Of Pitting In Nascar, Alan Deck, Cary Deck, Zhen Zhu

ESI Publications

This article uses data from NASCAR to examine strategic decision making with professional players and high stakes. The authors look at driver decisions to pit, enabling car performance to be improved at the cost of track position. Unlike other sports choices that have been used to test game-theoretic play, pitting decisions occur sequentially. Therefore, optimal decision making should result in the sub-game perfect equilibrium outcome. After estimating the likelihood of successfully passing another driver, the authors find some evidence that drivers make optimal decisions; however, driver behavior is also consistent with a simple heuristic of following the preceding car.

The Evolutionary Fitness Of Personality Traits In A Small-Scale Subsistence Society, Michael Gurven, Christopher Von Rueden, Jonathan Stieglitz, Hillard Kaplan, Daniel Eid Rodriguez

ESI Publications

"Personality, or “behavioral syndromes”, are relatively stable dispositional traits and behaviors that have now been identified in a myriad of social species (Gosling, 2001; Sih et al., 2004), and with clear consequences on fitness (Smith & Blumstein, 2008). The canalization of personality during development and relative stability thereafter, despite varying circumstances over the life course that might otherwise favor greater plasticity, is an important problem attracting much theoretical and empirical attention (Dall et al., 2004; Dingemanse et al., 2010). Further, personality is highly heritable, yet how heritable genetic variation in personality traits is maintained over generations remains another conundrum (Buss …

Estimating The Effect Of Home Court Advantage On Wins In The Nba, Jason Kotecki

Honors Projects

What is the effect of home court advantage in the National Basketball Association (NBA)? Based on the Economic Theory of Professional Sports and the concept of shirking, teams should perform better at home than they do on the road. Descriptive statistics support this expectation. It is hypothesized that a home court advantage is due to fan attendance, field goal and free throw percentages, and fouls called by the referee. Following every NBA team and every game played over a three-year span (2008-2011), this paper estimates the probability of producing a win at home based on the aforementioned variables. Using a …

Does Educational Inequality Explain Income Inequality Across Countries?, Claudia Petcu

Honors Projects

A wide variety of studies support the notion that income inequality has detrimental effects on a country’s economic growth, levels of trust in government, and even health of its citizens. Throughout economics literature, numerous researchers have endeavored to explain the variance in income inequality across countries. One notable area of inquiry examines how dispersion in education of the labor force impacts income inequality, but it generally yields ambiguous and inconsistent results. This paper examines income inequality as a function of educational inequality in a cross-sectional analysis. It attempts to improve on previous research by utilizing more recent data such as …

The Effect Of Relative Wage On Hours Worked, Mark Giannis

Honors Projects

Traditional economic research on the number of hours that one chooses to work depends largely on wage rates and total family income. However, more recent research in behavioral economics suggests that one’s relative position in the community’s income distribution could also affect hours worked. This paper investigates the effect of an individual’s relative wage will have on their actual hours worked. Relative wage is defined as how one’s wage compares to others within the same geographical region. Cross-sectional data from 2004 to 2013 is used from the Current Population Survey to estimate the traditional labor supply function with the addition …

Open Trade Policies: Filthy Fog Of The Future?, Erin Wachtel

Honors Projects

This paper focuses on the relationships between open trade, environmental policies, and greenhouse gas exposures between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Comparative advantage theory posits that opening up to trade will capitalize on a country's efficiency and increase a country's gross national product. Furthermore, because of less government regulations in underdeveloped countries, it is hypothesized that as GDP increases in Mexico, there could also be a subsequent increase in air pollutants. This study focuses on what determinants might have an effect on C02, NOx, NzO, and CHF3 emissions (the major greenhouse gas emission) in three countries (Canada, Mexico and …

Loose Notes, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes: (23-33_Loos... p. 1)

• Interview notes on the Great Recession by Anwar Shaikh, PhD (23-33_Loos... p. 2)
• Commentary on Juan Martín Graña's analysis by Anwar Shaikh, PhD (23-33_Loos... p. 3)
• Argentina variables data charts by Anwar Shaikh, PhD (23-33_Loos... p. 5)
• Notes on Streeck's lecture "Has capitalism seen its day?" by Anwar Shaikh, PhD (23-33_Loos... p. 6)
• Notes on Argentina development and industrial policy by Anwar Shaikh, PhD (23-33_Loos... p. 7)

Imputed Interest Nipa, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes,

• Shaikh, A., PhD. (n.d.). Tables from Appendix 6.1–6.7, including Classical and NIPA accounts for net interest paid by production and households, and the impact of imputed interest on business sector accounts [Manuscript].

• Shaikh, A., PhD. (n.d.). Annotated versions of Appendix Tables 6.7.4–6.7.10 on Classical and NIPA accounts [Handwritten notes].

• Shaikh, A., PhD. (2010, December 20). Imp Mkt Int Flows: Notes discussing EBIT and Classical vs. NIPA accounts [Handwritten notes].

• Shaikh, A., PhD. (2014, November). Interest paid and received by sector and legal form of organization [Table with handwritten notes].

• Shaikh, A., PhD. …

Global Expansion Of National Securities Laws: Extraterritoriality And Jurisdictional Conflicts, Junsun Park

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “As securities fraud has grown increasingly transnational, it has become necessary to expand the reach of anti-fraud provisions to persons and entities participating in global securities markets. So far, however, no single antifraud provision exists to govern the entire global marketplace. Although each country strives to combat international securities fraud by using its own regulatory regime, problems can develop when extraterritorial application of national securities laws leads to regulatory overlapping or conflicts. In light of these problems, it is necessary to set forth clear guidelines for determining whether national securities laws can apply extraterritorially and, if so, how far …

The Coasean Framework Of The New York City Watershed Agreement, Geoffrey Black, D. Allen Dalton, Samia Islam, Aaron Batteen

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Over 50 years ago, in “The Problem of Social Cost,” Ronald Coase (1960) attempted to reorient the economics profession’s treatment of externalities. He wanted to draw economists’ attention away from the world of pure competition as a policy standard and investigate the consequences of transaction costs and property rights for the operation of markets. In 1991, he was awarded the Nobel prize in economics “for his discovery and clarification of the significance of transaction costs and property rights for the institutional structure and functioning of the economy” (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 1991). The Academy cited both his 1960 article …

The Importance Of Housing Variables In Predicting Economic Fluctuations, Wenxian Xu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper investigates the importance of housing variables in predicting the six recent recessions using factor analysis model. It shows that housing variables have great predictive power in forecasting the downturn of the economy, but little predictive power when the economy is steady or is expanding. The explanation is that housing variables match consumers' expectations of future income and employment, and consequently predict future economic downturn. By using Granger-Causality test and vector autoregression (VAR) model, combination of factor analysis and VAR model, and hard thresholding method to identify the importance of each housing variable, the results show that housing price …

Monetary Policy And The Housing Market During The Last Decade, Jing Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines how monetary policy influences the housing market in U.S. with a special emphasis on the recent financial crisis dating from 2007, which started from the burst of bubbles in the housing market. Using monthly U.S. data spanning over the period from January 2000 to July 2011, I estimate Vector Auto-regressive(VAR) models using data for each metropolitan statistical area (MSA) to analyze the interaction between local housing markets and monetary policy. Aggregate responses of housing variables to monetary policy are also estimated by adopting composite data. Empirical results show that employment and housing price index both respond negatively …

Three Essays On Diversification Strategy, Diversification Performance, And Corporate Misconduct, Brandon Charles Lee Morris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The first essay investigates the relationship between diversification strategy and firm performance in the U.S. property-liability insurance industry. Prior literature has evaluated the effect of total diversification on insurer performance; however, there is an absence of evidence on the effect of diversification strategy for multi-line insurers. Theory suggests that related diversifiers should benefit from economies of scope while unrelated diversifiers should benefit from uncorrelated earnings streams. We test for the net effect of diversification strategy and find that relatedness negatively impacts accounting performance. However, we find that the relatedness penalty is confined to stock insurers while mutual insurers' profitability appears …

Monitoring The Philippine Economy Year-End Report For 2013, Mitzie Irene P. Conchada

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Philippine economic growth for the year 2013 exceeded expectations – posting a 7.2 growth despite devastation brought about by the Zamboanga crisis and natural calamities. Economic performance: Upward trend in the demand side was driven by consumer spending and domestic investment; on the other hand, the main growth factor for the supply side was the services sector.

Study On Investment In Water And Wastewater Infrastructure And Economic Development, Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center For Public Management, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Edward J. Collins Center for Public Management Publications

The Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management in the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston was tasked by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority Advisory Board (MWRAAB) with asking and answering a very fundamental question relating to public infrastructure: “What is the relationship between investment in water and wastewater infrastructure and economic growth?” To do so, Center staff not only researched the positive results of investing in infrastructure, but also took time to consider what failing to invest in adequate water and wastewater infrastructure might mean. Additionally, the Center …

Determinants Of Crime In Chicago, Ross Olson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper addresses occurrences of violent crime and their determinants in the city of Chicago using data collected at daily intervals for a period of two years. The economics of crime, in particular the price that crime imposes on society, is briefly explored along with a discussion of general policy techniques that aim to reduce the occurrence of violent crime. The empirical analysis addresses temperature, holidays (both official federal holidays and informal "party" holidays), weekends, unemployment rate, and seasonal trends. Relationships are examined between these variables and total crime, as well as with each component of violent crime: aggravated assault, …

Social And Solidarity Economy For Sustainable Development: Its Premises - And The Social Economy Basel Example Of Practice, Isidor Wallimann

Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration

The SSE is a viable strategy in dealing with some contemporary problems known both in industrial and developing countries. SSE is contextualized against the background of recent developments: The liberalization of goods and capital flows world wide, continued industrialization, and the increased global division of labour. Addressed is how local populations could reach certain objectives and satisfy certain needs using techniques characteristic of SSE and, thus, carve out a social and economic space of their own vis-à-vis anonymous markets, global actors, local and national elites. Within this self governed space, it is suggested, a path can be layed for the …

Selective Contracting In Prescription Drugs: The Benefits Of Pharmacy Networks, Joanna Shepherd

Faculty Articles

Selective contracting in health care involves contractual arrangements among insurers and health care providers that give covered individuals a financial incentive to obtain health care from a limited panel of providers. Although selective contracting has been an important strategy of health insurance plans for decades, it has only recently expanded to prescription drug coverage. Drug plans now create pharmacy networks that channel customers to in-network pharmacies. Pharmacies compete to be part of the networks by offering discounts on the drugs they sell to covered customers and drug plans. Although networks can lower prescription drug costs for drug plans and consumers, …

Alienation In Capitalism: Rediscovering Fulfillment, Gregory Lee Carter

Honors Theses and Capstones

Many Americans are pessimistic about their country's medium or long-term economic outlook. A century ago, Big Business was born as an economic force, but it has powerfully infiltrated the realm of politics now. The corporate scramble for natural resources has caused global disharmony and domestic economic conflict in the U.S. The capitalist system, which many have come to realize is unsustainable and oppressive, has thus come to fulfill some of the predictions made by earlier critics from Kierkegaard, Rousseau, to Marx. Each believed that a society which is forced to accommodate an oppressive system will inherently display alienation. That …

Understand Management Of Public-Private Partnership In A Secondary Private Hospital Providing Services To Citizens Registered Under Different Insurance Schemes, Rani Sachadev

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

In light of the recent public-private partnership law reenacment in various industries, it seems that the healthcare's public insurances would largely benefit from increase participation of the private sector but since there has not been any published framework on management of public-private partnership in public health insurance, this study has been undertaken to shine a light on financial and medical care delivery in a secondary private hospital. This study was conducted in a secondary private hospital located in Bangkok providing UC, SSS and for-profit medical care to citizens. This is a study aimed to understand the management strategies regarding finance …

Cointegration Approach Towards Causality Of Foreign Direct Investments And Gross Domestic Product In India, Shwetima Joshi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The link between foreign direct investments and the growth for India has been explored using a cointegration model with vector error correction model. The existence of four cointegrating vectors between FDI, GDP, price level, exchange rate and exports and imports over GDP have been deducted. These cointegrating vectors capture the long run and short run relationship between the aforementioned entities. The model Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) reveals that there exists a long run relationship between FDI inflows, exports and imports over GDP, the price level, and exchange rates. In the long run FDI inflows of India depend on the …

Food Imports Under Foreign Exchange Constraints In The Cfa’S Franc Zone Of Sub-Saharan Africa (Ssa), Seydina Ousmane Sene

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

To respond to the high imported food prices in their domestic markets, net food importing countries in the Communauté Financière Africaine (CFA) zone^[1] are adjusting their import tariffs and homologate domestic prices of imported commodities such as rice, wheat, maize, and sugar. This research uses a multivariate specification of error correction model (VECM) of estimation to investigate the link between food imports, world price index of rice, wheat, maize and sugar, real effective exchange rates, domestic food production, GDP, and trade openness in the short and long run. The data are on each homogenous commodity from 1969 to 2012. …

Essays On The Value Of A Firm’S Eco-Friendliness In The Financial Asset Market, Muhammad S. Ahmadin

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation presents three different closely related topics on the value of eco-friendliness in the financial market. The first essay attempts to estimate hedonic stock price model to find a contemporaneous relationship between stock return and firms’ environmental performance and recover the value of investor’s willingness to pay of eco-friendliness. This study follows stock and environmental performances of the 500 largest US firms from 2009 to 2012. The firms’ environmental data come from the Newsweek Green Ranking, both aggregate measures: green ranking (GR) and green score (GS), and disaggregate measures: environmental impact score (EIS), green policy and performance score (GPS), …

Rent-Seeking And Money Politics In Malaysia: Ethnicity, Cronyism And Class, Jeff Tan

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Race In Primary And Secondary School Achievement : Evidence From Virginia, Khanh Doan

Honors Theses

A large body of literature has studied the achievement gap between white and minority groups in the United States. This paper contributes to this discussion by conducting a cross-sectional study of Virginia using data for 2011-2012. I analyze the impact of race/ethnicity (White, Black, Hispanic) on school district pass rates conditional on income per capita, population density, and a cohort effect in each school district. I find that the magnitude of the gap is largest in 3rd grade and smallest in 5th grade. There are little differences between Black-White gaps and Hispanic-White gaps. The gaps are neither widening nor narrowing …

Deregulation Of Trading Hours In The German Retail Sector And Store Size, Anne Preuss

HIM 1990-2015

In 2006, the German federal government relinquished its power to determine store opening hours to the 16 federal states. Since then, substantial deregulation of shopping hours has occurred in all states except Bavaria and Saarland. Such deregulation could support economic growth, but it has been argued to hurt small businesses. Therefore, this thesis examines different store size categories to find possible effects of deregulation in Germany. Past studies have focused on the employment effects of deregulation, whereas this investigation employs a difference-in-difference approach with OLS regression on the number of stores in each size category. States that have extended store …

From Social Media To Social Movement: Developing A Secondary Stakeholder Model For The Information Age – The Case Of Deepwater Horizon, Michele A. Jurgens

2014

Secondary stakeholders are thought to differ from primary stakeholders in that they interact with the firm mainly for the purpose of changing its ethical, societal, and environmental policies and practices. Research on secondary stakeholders has shown that they are successful in influencing their corporate targets despite the relative lack of power, legitimacy, and urgency of their requests. One explanation for the success of secondary stakeholders can be found in the `political process model' from the social movement literature. The political process model describes and predicts how social movements are formed and the conditions that are necessary for them being sustained …

Numerical Simulation Of Nonoptimal Dynamic Equilibrium Models, Zhigang Feng, Jianjun Miao, Adrian Peralta-Alva, Manuel S. Santos

Economics Faculty Publications

In this paper we propose a recursive equilibrium algorithm for the numerical simulation of nonoptimal dynamic economies. This algorithm builds upon a convergent operator over an expanded set of state variables. The fixed point of this operator defines the set of all Markovian equilibria. We study approximation properties of the operator. We also apply our recursive equilibrium algorithm to various models with heterogeneous agents, incomplete financial markets, endogenous and exogenous borrowing constraints, taxes, and money.

Differential Responding By Rhesus Monkeys (Macaca Mulatta) And Humans (Homo Sapiens) To Variable Outcomes In The Assurance Game, Audrey E. Parrish, Sarah F. Brosnan, Bart J. Wilson, Michael J. Beran

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

Behavioral flexibility in how one responds to variable partner play can be examined using economic coordination games in which subjects play against a variety of partners and therefore may need to alter their behavior to produce the highest payoff. But how do we study this behavioral flexibility once players have settled on a response? Here, we investigated how responding by rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) and humans (Homo sapiens) playing a computerized single-player version of a coordination game, the Assurance game, changed as a function of the variable responses (Stag/Hare) generated by multiple simulations (SIMs). We were interested in whether individuals …