Economics Commons^™

Behavioral Public Choice And The Law, Gary M. Lucas Jr., Slaviša Tasić

Faculty Scholarship

Behavioral public choice is the study of irrationality among political actors. In this context, irrationality means systematic bias, a deviation from rational expectations, or other departure from economists’ conception of rationality. Behavioral public choice scholars extend the insights of behavioral economics to the political realm and show that irrational behavior is an important source of government failure. This Article makes an original contribution to the legal literature by systematically reviewing the findings of behavioral public choice and explaining their implications for the law and legal institutions. We discuss the various biases and heuristics that lead political actors to support and …

Poverty Decomposition By Regression: An Application To Tanzania, Tomoki Fujii

Research Collection School Of Economics

We develop a poverty decomposition method that is based on a consumption regression model. Because this method uses an integral of the partial derivatives of a poverty measure with respect to time, the resulting poverty decomposition satisfies time-reversion consistency and sub-period additivity. Unlike the existing poverty decomposition methods, it allows us to ascribe the observed change in poverty to various covariates of interest collected at a disaggregate level. This method is applied to two datasets from Tanzania to assess, among others, the short- and long-term impacts of infrastructure and market access on poverty.

Two-Year And Four-Year Tertiary Education: Measuring Human Capital Effects On Economic Growth In Developing And Developed Countries With The Uzawa-Lucas Model, Darryl M. Tyndorf

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Tertiary education is believed to be a driver of economic development through the relationship between human capital development and economic output. Global massification efforts of tertiary education have led to increased global demand. Countries with limited tertiary education systems, like developing countries, have employed policies to increase domestic tertiary education opportunities instead of sending students abroad. Many tertiary education policies have focused on importing tertiary education from countries with established tertiary education systems. Import efforts first emphasized university models, but limited success prompted the import of more flexible short-cycle education modeled after the United States’ community college system. Limited empirical …

Techno-Economic Analysis Of Protein Concentrate Produced By Flash Hydrolysis Of Microalgae, Alexander Nana Yaw Asiedu

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Process simulation and techno-economic analysis of 95wt.% protein concentrate from microalgae has been performed using SuperPro Designer v. 9.0. This work, first of its kind, is focused on the economic analysis of protein concentrate that includes processes such as microalgae cultivation, harvesting, protein extraction and drying steps. A baseline capacity of 160 MT/day protein concentrate production on commercial basis has been analyzed. This throughput requires 336 MT/day dry algae (54 wt.% protein). The amount of carbon dioxide required to grow this quantum of algae is estimated to be 648 MT/day, which is produced from an in situ 21 MW power …

Technology And Contractions: Evidence From Manufacturing, Roberto M. Samaniego, Yu Sun

Research Collection School Of Economics

Theory suggests a range of technological characteristics that might interact with the business cycle depending on what kind of shocks or propagation mechanisms are quantitatively important. We use variation in industry growth within manufacturing to determine which technological characteristics interact significantly with the business cycle. We find that growth in labor intensive industries is especially sensitive to contractions. We show this cross-industry asymmetry occurs specifically in contractions, not in recoveries nor over the cycle in general.

University Scholar Series: Matthew J. Holian, Matthew J. Holian

University Scholar Series

Trends and Relationships Related to Air Pollution, Regulations, and Economic Growth

On September 30, 2015, Dr. Matthew J. Holian spoke in the University Scholar Series hosted by Provost Andy Feinstein at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. His talk was titled “Trends and Relationships Related to Air Pollution, Regulations, and Economic Growth.” Dr. Holian’s recent research involves air pollution in California and India. His analysis of data from numerous sources reveals trends and relationships related to air pollution, regulations, and economic growth among other factors. His most recent article, “Household Carbon Emissions from Driving and Center City Quality of …

Cuba's Agricultural Transformations, Armando Nova Gonzalez, Mario A. Gonzalez-Corzo

Publications and Research

The Cuban government has implemented a series of agricultural transformations since 2007 to increase the country’s agricultural self-sufficiency and reduce its dependency on food imports. These include the transfer (in usufruct) of State-owned land to non-State producers (e.g. cooperatives and private farmers), moderate price reforms, the decentralization of decision making, and the gradual relaxation of existing forms of agricultural commercialization. As a result of these measures, the area planted, as well as physical output and agricultural yields (in selected non-sugar crop categories) have shown mixed results, but still remain below desired levels. There are three (3) fundamental unresolved aspects that …

Revisting The Domestic Labor Debate: Toward A Critique Of Workerist Feminism, Alice Feng

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The extremely high presence of housewives in Italy during the 'miracle years,' of 1950-1963, seemingly suggested that an unprecedented number of women were unemployed after their expulsion from large-scale industry. This phenomenon inspired debate among feminists on questions such as the contribution of housewives to the reproduction of labor-power, the character of reproductive labor and the relation between the participation of women in waged labor and unwaged domestic labor. In revisiting this phenomenon, this thesis argues that, contrary to the appearance of women being unemployed, a significant number of women, along with children, were irregularly engaged in undeclared forms of …

Optimal Targeting Regimes And Instrument Rules In The Basic New Keynesian Model, Luc Marest

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the first chapter, the objective is to measure the value of commitment in executing monetary policies in the context of the New Keynesian model and with value that is represented by the standard quadratic welfare function containing weighted output gap and inflation variances. It is found that there is a substantial potential for improvement of welfare under commitment, but this depends on some key parameters in the model. The range of parameter calibrations most often found in the literature, however, suggests the improvements will be large. We then consider specific monetary policies akin to Taylor rules. From the optimality …

Basic Cable: A Reluctant American Perspective On The Arab Spring Through Revolutionary Art, Philip Ayoub

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Supported by a critical component that traces back the Egyptian revolution of 2011 to its roots in the post-Nasser era when the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces assumed nearly complete political and economic control over the country, this novella, based in New York City, looks at the crisis through an American lens. As the story progresses the protagonist learns that the conditions which precipitated the events in Egypt can be viewed at once as both a product of American capitalism and Egyptian complicity, as well as act as a mirror, albeit on a magnified scale, of the changing socio-economic …

Essays On The Economic Analysis Of Transportation Systems, Hyoungsuk Shim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of four essays on the economic analysis of transportation systems. In the first chapter, the conventional disaggregate travel demand model, a probability model for the modeling of multiple modes, generally called random utility maximization (RUM), is expanded to a model of count of mode choice. The extended travel demand model is derived from general economic theory -- maximizing instantaneous utility on the time horizon, subject to a budget constraint -- and can capture the dynamic behavior of countable travel demand. Because the model is for countable dependent variables, it has a more realistic set of assumptions to …

Essays In Health Economics Of Cigarette Consumption, Yan Song

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chapter 1, the primary focus of this essay is to use a long time series of state cross sections for the 1955-2009 time period in the United States in order to predict cigarette consumption. This essay updates estimates of the rational addiction model of cigarette consumption obtained by Gary Becker, Michael Grossman, and Kevin Murphy in their seminal 1994 American Economic Review paper. By using two types of prices, the cigarette price and the cigarette tax, and employing a cigarette demand function, I verify that smoking is a rationally addictive form of behavior. This is based on the theory that …

Labor Market Trajectories Of Black Women In The United States, 1980 To 2010, Danielle Jackson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In light of several trends among Black women in the U.S., including rising levels of college degree attainment, immigration, and household headship, scholars have begun to more thoroughly explore the factors impacting Black women's labor market outcomes (e.g., employment status, earnings, and occupational prestige). Focusing on the 30-year period of 1980 to 2010, this dissertation applies theories of social and cultural capital, intersectionality, and social mobility to the examination of Black women's labor market trajectories according to their nativity (U.S.- vs. foreign-born status) and level of educational attainment (college-educated vs. non-college-educated). Additionally, this dissertation examines recent national data to determine …

Essays On Exchange Rate Pass-Through, Michael Malenbaum

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the degree to which the prices of imports to the United States respond to changes in bilateral exchange rates. The first chapter provides a review of the literature on exchange rate pass-through and outlines how research on the topic has changed over the past forty years. The next two chapters focus individually on specific questions that are important to the pass-through literature. These topics include the impact of imperfect competition and varying market shares on pass-through rates, as well as the decline in pass-through to import prices and the possible effects of China's increased role in trade …

Essays In The Economics Of Education And Health, Jesse Margolis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this work, I study several aspects of the economics of education and health. The first chapter focuses on education, analyzing the New York City Teacher Bonus Program. Recent reviews of the program have found lower student test scores at schools randomly chosen to receive performance pay than at control schools not eligible for bonuses. Several studies have suggested lower intrinsic motivation among teachers at treatment schools as a possible mechanism driving these surprising results. The program was abruptly ended after three years, allowing me to use post-trial data to study the program's persistent effect on intrinsic motivation absent any …

Price Discovery And Local Information In Cattle On Feed Reports, Matthew Diersen, Scott Fausti

Economics Commentator (1972- 2016)

No abstract provided.

Network Analysis Of The Sardex Community Currency, Georgios Iosifidis, Yanick Charette, Giuseppe Littera, Leandros Tassiulas, Nicholas Christakis

Yale Day of Data

We present a transaction dataset and preliminary analysis results about Sardex, a complementary currency (CC) in Sardinia, Italy. Sardex is currently considered one of the most successful CCs in Europe, as it grows continuously in terms of transactions’ volume and membership, and has been already replicated in 8 other regions in Italy. We model Sardex as a transaction network and study its basic properties.

Should Ui Eligibility Be Expanded To Low-Earning Workers? Evidence On Employment, Transfer Receipt, And Income From Administrative Data, Pauline Leung, Christopher J. O'Leary

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Recent efforts to expand unemployment insurance (UI) eligibility are expected to increase low-earning workers’ access to UI. Although the expansion’s aim is to smooth the income and consumption of previously ineligible workers, it is possible that UI benefits simply displace other sources of income. Standard economic models predict that UI delays reemployment, thereby reducing wage income. Additionally, low-earning workers are often eligible for benefits from means-tested programs, which may decrease with UI benefits. In this paper, we estimate the impact of UI eligibility on employment, means-tested program participation, and income after job loss using a unique individual-level administrative data set …

Wmu Collaboration With Michigan State University: The American Economic Association Summer Training Program, Christine Moser

Academic Leadership Academy

Since 1974, the American Economic Association Summer Program and Minority Scholarship Program has prepared talented undergraduates for doctoral programs in economics and related disciplines, by offering a unique opportunity for students to gain technical skills in economics and conduct research with prominent faculty. This program has been exceptionally successful, and a recent study suggests that around 20 percent of PhDs awarded to minorities in economics over the past 20 years can be attributed directly to the program. Starting in 2016, the Economics Department at Michigan State University will host this program in collaboration with Western Michigan University.

International Trade In Telecommunication Services: A Cross Sectional Gravity Regression, Justin C. Doty

Undergraduate Economic Review

The gravity model has been successful in measuring the effects of institutions, trade barriers, and other characteristics on trade in goods. Kimura and Lee [2004] find the gravity model is also suitable for measuring trade in services. The Organization for Economic Co-Development [2009a] develop gravity models for pilot service sectors such as construction, computer, professional, and telecommunication services. The purpose of this paper is to extend the findings of the OECD paper for telecommunication services. The paper finds that a 10 percent increase in distance between countries will decrease imports by 11.77 percent. Imports of telecommunication services are influenced by …

Eligibility Recertification And Dynamic Opt-In Incentives In Income-Tested Social Programs: Evidence From Medicaid/Chip, Zhuan Pei

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Conventional labor supply studies assume constant eligibility monitoring of income-tested program participants, but this is not true for most programs. For example, states can allow children to enroll in Medicaid/CHIP for 12 months regardless of family income changes. A long recertification period reduces monitoring costs but is predicted to induce program participation by temporary income adjustments. However, I find little evidence of strategic behavior from the 2001 and 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation. Given the lack of dynamic responses, I propose a framework to compute the optimal recertification period and find 12 months to be its lower bound.

Use Of Unemployment Insurance And Public Employment Services After Leaving Welfare, Christopher J. O'Leary

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

In this paper I examine the rates at which adults in households recently receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) become jobless, apply for and receive unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, and participate in publicly funded employment services. I also investigate the correlation of UI and employment services receipt with maintenance of self-sufficiency through return to work and independence from TANF. The analysis is based on person-level administrative program records from four of the nine largest states between 1997 and 2003. Evidence suggests that three-quarters of new TANF leavers experience joblessness within three years, and one-quarter of the newly jobless apply …

Controlling Episodic Air Pollution With A Seasonal Gas Tax: The Case Of Cache Valley, Utah, Leo A. Moscardini, Arthur J. Caplan

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

Using daily data spanning 10 years, we establish a statistical relationship between episodic particulate-matter (PM_2.5) concentrations and vehicle trips in Cache Valley, Utah, and estimate an average gas-price elasticity for the region. We also estimate the benefits and costs associated with a seasonal gas tax set to reduce vehicle trips during the winter-inversion season and thereby lower health costs through concomitant decreases in the PM_2.5 concentrations. We find a strong positive relationship between vehicle trips reduced and associated reductions in PM_2.5 concentrations. Further, we estimate a mean gas price elasticity of approximately –0.3 in what we …

Trends In Health Care Delivery Systems: Implications For Cancer Prevention And Control, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

The Affordable Care Act and larger economic forces are leading both health care providers and public health agencies to renegotiate their roles and responsibilities within the U.S. health system. This session reviews major changes occurring in both health care and public health delivery systems, with a focus on the implications for cancer prevention and control. The information infrastructure created by cancer registries and other health information systems are increasingly important for enabling greater coordination, alignment and accountability within the nation's changing delivery systems.

Tug-Of-War In The Laboratory, Cary Deck, Roman M. Sheremeta

ESI Working Papers

Tug-of-war is a multi-battle contest often used to describe extended interactions in economics, management, political science, and other disciplines. While there has been some theoretical work, there is scant empirical evidence regarding behavior in a tug-of-war game. To the best of our knowledge, this paper provides the first experimental study of the tug-of-war. The results show notable deviations of behavior from theory. In the first battle of the tug-of-war, subjects exert fewer resources, while in the follow-up battles, they exert more resources than predicted. Also, contrary to the theoretical prediction, resource expenditures tend to increase in the duration of the …

Measure Of Location-Based Estimators In Simple Linear Regression, Xijia Liu, Daniel P. A. Preve

Research Collection School Of Economics

In this paper we consider certain measure of location-based estimators (MLBEs) for the slope parameter in a linear regression model with a single stochastic regressor. The median-unbiased MLBEs are interesting as they can be robust to heavy-tailed samples and, hence, preferable to the ordinary least squares estimator (LSE). Two different cases are considered as we investigate the statistical properties of the MLBEs. In the first case, the regressor and error are assumed to follow a symmetric stable distribution. In the second, other types of regressions, with potentially contaminated errors, are considered. For both cases the consistency and exact finite-sample distributions …

We Saw Not Clearly Nor Understood: The Economic Background Of The Ethiopian-Eritrean War, Trace C. Lasley

Kaleidoscope

In 1991 hope reigned in Ethiopia. There was a peaceful transition of governments after a long period of civil strife. The main guerrilla movements in Ethiopia, the TPLF and the EPLF emerged from the war as brothers-in-arms ready to embark on a new era of peace and prosperity. Just seven years later, Eritrea invaded Ethiopia and a war ensued that cost 70,000 lives and did incalculable damage. This paper explores the economic relations between the two countries to show their significance in the eruption of the Ethiopian-Eritrean War.

There are three recurring themes in the recent economic history of these …

Magic Bullet, Karen Haydock

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Two of the most powerful types of corporations in the world today are those that produce pharmaceuticals and weapons. While the corporations are concerned with increasing their profits, we wonder if their products have any magical powers.

[India ink on rag paper]

This poster explores the military-industrial complex. The weapons industry profits through imperialism. The pharmaceutical industry profits through by taking advantage of people’s illnesses.

The poster has multiple interpretations, hopefully encouraging the viewer to participate by asking relevant questions, such as:

“What is that person drinking?”

”Are they pills or bombs?”

“Medicines cure us - how can a pill …

Foundations Of The Wvu Econometric Input-Output Model, Randall Jackson, Juan Tomas Sayago Gomez

Regional Research Institute Resource Documents

No abstract provided.

The Recent Growth Of International Reserves In Developing Economies: A Monetary Perspective, Gonçalo Pina

Economics

The massive accumulation of international reserves in developing economies is a puzzling recent development in the world economy. This paper studies reserve accumulation as the outcome of a simple model in which the central bank smooths inflation. I explore the view that central banks accumulate reserves to face large fiscal shocks that need monetary financing. Central bank revenues are obtained through inflation, but inflation is distortionary. As a result, the central bank optimally accumulates international reserves in order to spread the costs associated with inflation over time. A simple numerical exercise for an average developing economy using data between 1970 …