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2015

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Articles 751 - 780 of 1621

Full-Text Articles in Economics

Competitive Balance And Attendance In Major League Baseball, Gary Koplik, Christopher Kennedy, Ryan Jann, Daniel Meyer Apr 2015

Competitive Balance And Attendance In Major League Baseball, Gary Koplik, Christopher Kennedy, Ryan Jann, Daniel Meyer

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

Competitive balance is an important issue for Major League Baseball (MLB). If there is too much separation between the best and worst teams it is believed that games become uninteresting because the season-end result is predictable. If there is too little separation fans may be uninterested because the regular season result appears to be simply luck based. The MLB offices have made strides to increase competitive balance by implementing a revenue sharing system and by adding additional playoff spots. The goal of this paper is to examine the effects of competitive balance in baseball on league wide attendance. Previous papers …

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The Ecological And Economic Value Of Maine Golf Courses, Gregory Ladd, Jason Buco Apr 2015

The Ecological And Economic Value Of Maine Golf Courses, Gregory Ladd, Jason Buco

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

What is the housing premium and induced impacts of tourism attributed from Maine Golf Course?

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Controls On Farmland Prices In The Midwestern United States, A Time-Series Econometric Analysis From 1970-2014, William Kearney, Paco Defrancis Apr 2015

Controls On Farmland Prices In The Midwestern United States, A Time-Series Econometric Analysis From 1970-2014, William Kearney, Paco Defrancis

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

Farmland prices in the American Midwest are finally starting to come off of a historic bull-market run that is seen in many counties that make up District 7 of the Federal Reserves Bank (the Chicago Fed) skyrocket to well in excess of ,000 per acre. In our analysis we look at how much control different variables had on the sharp uptick in farmland prices that was experience in the late-2000's. We have compiled data from 1970 through Q4 of 2014 that came from the Chicago Fed (county-level and regional average farmland prices and agricultural loan interest rates), the USDA (figures …

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Effects Of War-Time Escalation On Immigration Attitudes In The United States, Dylan Smith, Anthony Ramirez Apr 2015

Effects Of War-Time Escalation On Immigration Attitudes In The United States, Dylan Smith, Anthony Ramirez

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

Immigration Policy is a highly divisive issue in the United States, most notably recently with the Obama Administrations executive order on immigration reform and subsequent injunction by Texas Judge Andrew S. Hansen. Major influences on immigration opinion and policy include international political conflict. For example, surrounding the tragic events of 9/11 there was a large increase in xenophobic attitudes according to polls taken in the beginning of 2001 and 2002: a Gallup poll demonstrated that those wanting less immigration increased from 36% in 2001 to 52% in the following year. The goal of this paper is to observe the effect …

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Equity Returns: Low-Cost Vs. Full-Service Airline Carriers, Austin Murphy, Mitchell Maffeo, William Kunin Apr 2015

Equity Returns: Low-Cost Vs. Full-Service Airline Carriers, Austin Murphy, Mitchell Maffeo, William Kunin

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

The purpose of this study is to examine how fluctuations in the price of NYMEX WTI light-sweet crude oil futures, the Consumer Confidence Index, and the S&P GSCI Aluminum TR index, as well as changes in the seasons, predict variation in airline carrier equity and airfare prices. We will run six regressions in order to distinguish the different effects of these explanatory variable on low-cost and full-service airline equity. Serving as a proxy for low-cost airlines, we use the three largest carriers in the United States: Southwest Airlines, JetBlue Airways, and Spirit Airlines. We then compare these results to those …

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Predicting Need-Based Financial Aid, Connor Whitley, Camden Regan, Daniel Hyszczak Apr 2015

Predicting Need-Based Financial Aid, Connor Whitley, Camden Regan, Daniel Hyszczak

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

to be added later.

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The Value Of Dune Width In Avalon, New Jersey: A Hedonic Pricing Analysis, Matthew Mignon Apr 2015

The Value Of Dune Width In Avalon, New Jersey: A Hedonic Pricing Analysis, Matthew Mignon

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

Previous research on the economics of coastal housing markets has proven that housing values along the east coast of the United States capitalize on the attributes of local beaches. These recent studies document two important findings: i) that beach width positively affects coastal property values; ii) and that there is a proximity effect, in which distance from the beach plays a significant role in the capitalization of local beach attributes. This paper builds upon these findings to explore the influence that dune width has on coastal property values in Avalon, New Jersey. I hypothesize that homebuyers in a beach town …

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The Economics Of The Audubon Society Sanctuary Program For Golf Courses, Daniel Hyszczak Apr 2015

The Economics Of The Audubon Society Sanctuary Program For Golf Courses, Daniel Hyszczak

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

To be added later.

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Preferences For Coral Reef And Fishery Management In Okinawa, Nils Carlson Apr 2015

Preferences For Coral Reef And Fishery Management In Okinawa, Nils Carlson

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

The valuation and estimation of key characteristics of a coral reef are of importance to policy makers in order to secure the capacity of coral reefs to supply humanity with ecological goods and services. This study sets out to estimate the willingness-to-pay for certain attributes of a coral reef and to elicit preferences for individuals regarding the key characteristics provided by the marine environment in Okinawa, Japan.

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Preferences For Eco-Labels In Seafood And Underutilized Fish, Xiaojie Chen Apr 2015

Preferences For Eco-Labels In Seafood And Underutilized Fish, Xiaojie Chen

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

The alarming decline of the global fishing economy has led to an increased recognition for the need to relieve pressure from the few commercially marketed and heavily overfished stocks, while regaining economic stability for struggling fishing communities. We can improve the longevity and well-being of both the fish stocks and the coastal communities by shifting consumer demand toward seafood that is more sustainably harvested or locally supplied. Currently, however, lack of transparency in the seafood supply chain is a severe impediment to consumer-driven solutions. In response, ecologically aware organizations have begun distributing a variety of eco-labels that help describe the …

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Efficient Market Hypothesis And Environmental Stocks: Market Reactions To Capital Investment In Renewable Energy Projects And The Pricing Of Environmental Securities, John Crampton Apr 2015

Efficient Market Hypothesis And Environmental Stocks: Market Reactions To Capital Investment In Renewable Energy Projects And The Pricing Of Environmental Securities, John Crampton

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

The focus of this paper is on the efficient market hypothesis which states that securities are all efficiently priced based on all available information. Furthermore, once an announcement is made or there is new information available, the market reacts and adjusts prices. I hope to analyze this theory and test it against environmental stocks focused on renewable energy generation (solar fields, wind turbine fields, etc.). Then, the analysis of what characteristics of a security make up the pricing of that stock, such as the price of oil, dividend yield, time of the year (cyclical factors), types of capital investments (solar …

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Cost Benefit Of Cafe Standards, Brian Levinson Apr 2015

Cost Benefit Of Cafe Standards, Brian Levinson

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

Cost and benefit analysis of Cafe (MPG) standards and ways to improve current techniques

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The Value And Preferences For Improved Cook Stoves: A Choice Experiment In Ethiopia, Gilbert Kiggundu Apr 2015

The Value And Preferences For Improved Cook Stoves: A Choice Experiment In Ethiopia, Gilbert Kiggundu

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

This paper investigates preferences and the willingness to pay for improved cook stoves using a choice experiment administered in Ethiopia. Previous research indicates that traditional cooking methods are harmful to human health as well as the environment, as people need to cut down trees or collect other biomass sources for fuel. However, clean stoves can solve both these environmental and health problems, as well as provide a sustainable method for cooking and heating in developing countries. In this study, we use a choice experiment survey to understand Ethiopian households valuations of different characteristics of stoves, including their durability, fuel reduction, …

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Rethinking How To Efficiently Fund Public Goods: An Agent-Based Modelling Of A Group Funding System Accommodating Different Human Behaviors And Influences Affecting Decision-Making, Shama Ramos Apr 2015

Rethinking How To Efficiently Fund Public Goods: An Agent-Based Modelling Of A Group Funding System Accommodating Different Human Behaviors And Influences Affecting Decision-Making, Shama Ramos

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

In neoclassical economics, we assume individuals generally based their decisions on their own welfare maximizing their utility. Due to this assumption, we created a tax system in order to provide public goods so that no one will act as a free-rider. Nonetheless, this system only provides general optimal utility instead of optimal utility for each individual. Because of the set assumption that humans only seek self-interest, economists overlooked other significant factors affecting peoples decision-making processes. In this research, I applied an agent-based model in order to take in consideration other factors affecting human decision-making and propose a new system in …

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Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Through Grassland Restoration In The Upper Midwest, United States: A Spatially-Controlled Cost-Benefit Analysis, Paco Defrancis Apr 2015

Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Through Grassland Restoration In The Upper Midwest, United States: A Spatially-Controlled Cost-Benefit Analysis, Paco Defrancis

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

The global agriculture sector is responsible for close 20% of gross anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions emitted since the start of the industrial age. Much of these emissions are attributed to the degradation of soils due to land use change when native ecosystems were converted to agricultural fields. Soil organic carbon (SOC) has been found to decrease in temperate soils when the native (such as a forest or grassland) ecosystem is replace by croplands. The aggregate amount of organic carbon stored in soils globally is estimated be 3.3x the size of the atmospheric carbon pool. Further soil degradation and reduction …

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Analyzing Climate Change Awareness And Responsibility Effects, Connor Clancy, Sarah Beth Solomon Apr 2015

Analyzing Climate Change Awareness And Responsibility Effects, Connor Clancy, Sarah Beth Solomon

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

No abstract provided.

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Wins And Revenues, Kenny Jacobson, Thomas Brewster, Grace Mcvey, Peter Mcauliffe Apr 2015

Wins And Revenues, Kenny Jacobson, Thomas Brewster, Grace Mcvey, Peter Mcauliffe

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

No abstract provided.

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Bargaining In The Shadow Of Arbitration, Riccardo Marselli, Bryan C. Mccannon, Marco Vannini Apr 2015

Bargaining In The Shadow Of Arbitration, Riccardo Marselli, Bryan C. Mccannon, Marco Vannini

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Arbitration, as an alternative to litigation for contract disputes, reduces costs and time. While it has frequently been thought of as a substitute to pretrial bargaining and litigation, in fact, parties may be able to reach a settlement privately while engaged in the arbitration process. Consequently, the institutional design may influence the bargaining. We develop a theoretical model of pre-arbitration bargaining that is able to identify the impact of the institutional features on its success. A detailed data set from arbitration proceedings in Italy is analyzed. The exogenous heterogeneity in the composition of the panel of arbitrators allows us to …

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Public Transit And Property Values: Did The Metro Blue Line Affect Home Prices In Minneapolis?, Clemens A. Pilgram Apr 2015

Public Transit And Property Values: Did The Metro Blue Line Affect Home Prices In Minneapolis?, Clemens A. Pilgram

Economics Honors Projects

This study estimates the accessibility premium commanded by single family homes located near LRT stations using home sales data from Minneapolis covering 1990 to 2014. The region’ first LRT, the “Blue Line”, was announced in 1998 and opened in 2004. I find mixed evidence for an increase in home values following the introduction of LRT service to South Minneapolis using a repeat sales model. My central estimate suggests that no such premium exists when including all years of data. However, limiting my data to fewer years of operation, I am able to reproduce prior studies’ positive premiums.

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Military Retention Incentives: Evidence From The Air Force Selective Reenlistment Bonus, Justin Joffrion, Nathan Wozny Apr 2015

Military Retention Incentives: Evidence From The Air Force Selective Reenlistment Bonus, Justin Joffrion, Nathan Wozny

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The limited lateral entry and rigid pay structure for U.S. military personnel present challenges in retaining skilled individuals who have attractive options in the civilian labor market. One tool the services use to address this challenge is the Selective Reenlistment Bonus (SRB), which offers eligible personnel with particular skills a substantial cash bonus upon reenlistment. However, the sequential nature of the bonus offer and reenlistment process limits the ability to adjust manpower quickly, raising interest in research that estimates the effect of the SRB on retention. While this literature has acknowledged challenges including potential endogeneity of bonus levels, attrition, and …

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The Challenging Economics Of Higher Education, Michael Hemesath Apr 2015

The Challenging Economics Of Higher Education, Michael Hemesath

Administration Publications

No abstract provided.

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Choosing The Right Steps: Management Decisions Of Dance Businesses, Jessica B. Rosina Apr 2015

Choosing The Right Steps: Management Decisions Of Dance Businesses, Jessica B. Rosina

Business and Economics Honors Papers

Fundamental dance researchers have found that dancers have some of the lowest Human Capital returns. Today, the average dancer has a median pay of $15.87. Only six percent of public schools offer dance as a part of their curriculum. This situation poses a threat to the transmission of culture in our country and will have negative impacts. Children receive little to no dance education in public schooling, leaving private dance education organizations as the only option left. Using a sample of 100 privately owned studios in the tristate area, business decisions will be analyzed to uncover the impact on enrollment.

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Did Antebellum Illinois Free Banks Take Undue Risk With Their Bond Portfolios?: An Analysis Of Decision-Making Prior To The Civil War, Scott N. Clayman Apr 2015

Did Antebellum Illinois Free Banks Take Undue Risk With Their Bond Portfolios?: An Analysis Of Decision-Making Prior To The Civil War, Scott N. Clayman

Business and Economics Honors Papers

Free banks in Illinois could issue bank notes backed by state or U.S. bond collateral. A decline in bond prices as the Civil War approached resulted in banks being unable to redeem their noteholders in gold specie and subsequently resulted in bank failures. Previously economic historians believed that failures of free banks were due to wildcat banking rather than the portfolio allocation of free banks. Over time, other researchers have found that banks that took greater ex ante risk prior to the failure were more likely to fail. There were other price declines during the 1850s, in particular the Panic …

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An Experimental Analysis Of Adaptive Learning In A Multi-Subject Economy, David Martin Apr 2015

An Experimental Analysis Of Adaptive Learning In A Multi-Subject Economy, David Martin

Business and Economics Honors Papers

The rational expectations hypothesis (REH) has long served as a foundation in macroeconomic laws of motion. However, the assumptions of REH are likely too powerful to be representative of economic actors. This research evaluates adaptive learning, a developing alternative to rational expectations, using a multi-agent macroeconomic prediction “game.” Data was gathered from a group of students, each predicting the outcome of a single economy over time. Each agent was asked to forecast output (GDP) and inflation in each period based on historic levels of output, inflation, and interest rates. These data were then analyzed under various theoretical models of adaptive …

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Fealess Friday: Kelsey Chapman, Christina L. Bassler Apr 2015

Fealess Friday: Kelsey Chapman, Christina L. Bassler

SURGE

Kelsey Chapman ’15 fearlessly advocates for human rights, peace, and justice, focusing on the Middle East. An economics major and Middle East and Islamic Studies (MEIS) minor, Kelsey is the house leader for the MEIS House, an Arabic PLA, and the founder of Gettysburg’s chapter of J Street U. [excerpt]

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Compensated Cadaver Organ Donation: Will A Small Fee Waiver Work?, Daniel Truesdale Apr 2015

Compensated Cadaver Organ Donation: Will A Small Fee Waiver Work?, Daniel Truesdale

Honors Projects

This article analyzes the use of monetary incentives to increase the supply of cadaver organs. The research focuses on whether a waiver of a driver's license fee can increase the proportion of society declaring to be a cadaver organ donor. In addition, the dynamics of organ donation are addressed using a bivariate regression to test if being a college student, religion, age, gender, income, and overall knowledge of donation has a significant impact on whether one chooses to be cadaver organ donor. Finally, the concern that a monetary and altruistic market can coexist is addressed in this research. Utilizing sample …

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Characteristics Of Stem Success: A Survival Analysis Model Of Factors Influencing Time To Graduation Among Undergraduate Stem Majors, Riley K. Acton Apr 2015

Characteristics Of Stem Success: A Survival Analysis Model Of Factors Influencing Time To Graduation Among Undergraduate Stem Majors, Riley K. Acton

Business and Economics Honors Papers

Producing more graduates in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), as well as ensuring students complete college in a timely manner are both areas of national public policy interest. In order to improve these two outcomes, it is imperative to understand what factors lead undergraduate students to persist in, and ultimately graduate with STEM degrees. This paper uses data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, provided by The National Center of Education Statistics, to model the time to baccalaureate degree among STEM majors using a Cox proportional hazard model.

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Exploring Microfinance For Social Capital Formation And The Empowerment Of South Asian Skilled Immigrant Women In Brantford, Ontario, Fatema Taskin Chowdhury Apr 2015

Exploring Microfinance For Social Capital Formation And The Empowerment Of South Asian Skilled Immigrant Women In Brantford, Ontario, Fatema Taskin Chowdhury

Social Justice and Community Engagement

No abstract provided.

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Openness And Inflation In The Long Run, David Beheshti, Richarch Evans Apr 2015

Openness And Inflation In The Long Run, David Beheshti, Richarch Evans

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Since the collapse of the Bretton-Woods Agreement in 1973, inflation rates have been steadily decreasing in most of the developed world. At the same time, countries have become increasingly open to international trade (see Figure 1). A possible explanation is that openness to trade and inflation are negatively correlated. This relationship is predicted in a highly-cited theoretical model by economist Kenneth Rogoff (1985) and in most of the previous literature on the subject. However, a more recent theoretical paper (Evans 2012) predicts that countries may engage in inflationary policy in order to tax foreign holders of domestic currency. As countries …

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The Dynamic Effects Of Changes To Japanese Immigration, Ryne Belliston, Kerk Phillips Apr 2015

The Dynamic Effects Of Changes To Japanese Immigration, Ryne Belliston, Kerk Phillips

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Immigration issues create tough political problems for policy makers. Whether or not to allow workers from low wage countries to migrate to high wage countries is a source of constant domestic and international political debate. Japan is a country facing an aging population and low birthrates, and thus is forced to consider changes to their immigration policies. Immigration would likely help Japanese firms and capital owners but would likely hurt Japanese workers. Additionally, as incomes have risen, the lure of higher wages has made Japan a more attractive place for non-Japanese laborers to work.

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