Economics Commons^™

A Big Data Approach To Optimal Taxation, Christian Baker, Richard W. Evans

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In this project we develop a big data computational technique to solve optimal policy problems and use this method to perform an analysis of optimal sales taxation. This approach provides for the consideration of a much richer sales tax schedule than current theoretical models allow. These same tools can also be used for a wide array of economic policy research.

Impact Of Women Empowered Through Community Savings Groups On The Wellbeing Of Their Families: A Study From Mgubwe, Tanzania, James Kesanta, Billy Andre

Interdisciplinary Journal of Best Practices in Global Development

This study explores the impact of economic empowerment among women and the well-being of their families and their communities through a community savings and loans association model. The research, conducted in Mgubwe, Tanzania, consists of 83 respondents from four villages, representing 12 Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs). Qualitative and quantitative data were collected using Focus Group Discussions (FGD), survey questionnaires and key in-depth interview methodologies. The findings indicated women who participate in community-based micro-lending associations have positive impacts on their children’s education, health, and livelihoods. The findings also revealed members of community savings and loans groups do not collectively …

A Measure Of The Economic Impact Of Keeneland Racing And Sales On Lexington-Fayette County, Christopher R. Bollinger

CBER Research Report

Keeneland is an important Lexington Institution. This report shows that Keeneland draws individuals into Fayette County who spend money not only at Keeneland but in the city itself. We measure the economic impact of this spending on the local economy. For our initial study, we considered spending by patrons at the 2014 Fall Meet, the September Yearling Sale and the November Breeding Stock Sale. Based upon these findings, we were also able to assess the impact of the Spring Race Meeting, January Horses of All Ages Sale and the April Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale.

The Effects Hosting An Olympic Games Has On The Host Nation's Economy, William B. Kite

Honors College Theses

In today’s world, many countries put a huge emphasis on hosting/bidding for the rights to host an Olympics Games. This has caused countries to spend enormous amounts of money to improve their country in order to be selected to host this event. Thus, this paper is going to examine the benefits that these countries get from hosting an Olympic Games. We investigate the influences that hosting an Olympic Games has on that country’s gross domestic product per capita and their levels of international trade. In addition, we also examine those countries that bid for an Olympic Games, but do not …

Estimating The Recreational Value Of Portland’S Forest Park, Randall Bluffstone, Ryan Burchett, Kahtan Eiwaz, Emma Ingebretsen, Peter Schaffer, Steve Toth, Szeto Yan Weng, Jordan Drinkhouse, Dat Huynh, Charles Maxwell, Joel Schutte, Tiffany Tram, Thananan Yupparit

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using the travel cost method, this study estimates the per-trip value and total annual value of recreational visits to Portland’s Forest Park. Based on the opportunity cost of visitors’ time and the estimated costs of travel, we derive a demand function for visits to Forest Park on the assumption that visitors value their trips to Forest Park at least as highly as the alternative uses of their time and money. The Portland Parks and Recreation Department supplied survey data for 2277 Forest Park visitors, of which we use 1626 observations.

We find that a truncated negative binomial regression best fits …

The Economy Of Oaxaca Decomposed, Albert Codina Sala

Honors College Theses

We analyze the internal economy of Oaxaca State in southern Mexico across regions, districts and municipalities from 1999 to 2009. Using the concept of economic convergence, we find mixed evidence for poorer areas catching up with richer areas during a single decade of economic growth. Indeed, some poorer regions thanks to negative growth have actually diverged away from wealthier areas.

Economic Impact Of The Pork Industry On South Dakota, Gary Taylor

Economics Commentator (1972- 2016)

No abstract provided.

Economic Impacts Of The Fifa World Cup In Developing Countries, Mirele Matsuoka De Aragao

Honors Theses

Hosting mega events, which have traditionally been a privilege of developed nations, became an attainable goal for developing countries starting in 2008. This might seem to be a positive step, but there are speculations concerning the real benefits and expenses those games generate. The aim of this thesis is to investigate if it is recommendable for a developing country to host a World Cup. This question is answered through an analysis of the two previous World Cups in South Africa (2010) and Brazil (2014). The research involves comparing before and after data for both countries on government expenditure, labor market, …

Recent Periods Of Financial Turbulence On The Russian Stock Market And Their Effect On Price Correlation And Value At Risk, Alexander Logoveev, Gregory Cherinko

Undergraduate Economic Review

The aim of this article is to observe and analyze the recent periods of financial turbulence on the Russian stock market and determine their influence on the correlation coefficients between asset prices and the Value at Risk measure for a portfolio. Our task was to describe the previously observed phenomenon of correlation enlargement during times of financial crises deemed in our research as separate Black Swans. Based on up-to-date financial data analysis we determined correlation trends that can be useful in risk management and applied the Value at Risk method.

Helping A Microfinance Institution Select Its Clients: A Risk Analysis Using Social Networks, Sayantan Mitra, Varunavi Newar

Black & Gold

This paper formulates an objective mathematical model for a Microfinance Institution (MFI) to measure the credit worthiness associated with a potential client. We use concepts from network theory to determine the credit worthiness of an individual in relation to other households in the community. We use the concept of eigenvector centrality to evaluate the relative credit worthiness in the network. The latter part of the model focuses on the absolute measures of credit worthiness such as income, ownership of assets and risk of the proposed investment. This model would help MFIs reduce the risk of borrowing by ensuring that there …

Creating An Entrepreneurial Community, Charlotte Narjes, Rebecca J. Vogt

Cornhusker Economics

The Entrepreneurial Communities Activation Pro-cess (ECAP) is a holistic approach to help com-munities support innovation and entrepreneurship by understanding their unique characteristics, community assets and potential opportunities. As a result of engaging in the ECAP program, com-munities embrace visionary thinking, endorse en-trepreneurial leadership, build synergy and are able to leverage resources to attract and retain a working age population which will empower community economic growth.

Public Procurement: The Achilles Heel Of Good Governance, Jeffrey Gutman

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Development aid is defined as the financial aid given by governments and agencies to support the economic, environmental, social, and political needs of developing countries. With the government acquisition of goods, civil works, and services representing between 15-20 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for most countries, the value of procurement policy and its application are very high. Recent high profile cases in the news, ranging from the military purchase of clothing from foreign sources that raise human rights issues, to the criticism of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act website, to a range of corruption cases around the …

Trade Reform And Regional Dynamics: Evidence From 25 Years Of Brazilian Matched Employer-Employee Data, Rafael Dix-Carneiro, Brian K. Kovak

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We empirically study the dynamics of labor market adjustment following the Brazilian trade reform of the 1990s. We use variation in industry-specific tariff cuts interacted with initial regional industry mix to measure trade-induced local labor demand shocks, and then examine regional and individual labor market responses to those one-time shocks over two decades. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we do not find that the impact of local shocks is dissipated over time through wage-equalizing migration. Instead, we find steadily growing effects of local shocks on regional formal sector wages and employment for 20 years. This finding can be rationalized in a …

White Paper On Valuing Transportation Infrastructure, Randall W. Eberts

Reports

No abstract provided.

Precarity And Gentrification: A Feedback Loop, Samuel Stein

Graduate Student Publications and Research

How do rent hikes and labor precarity conspire to reinforce each other against tenants and workers? Samuel Stein explains the mechanisms that link these two trends affecting citizens and calls for a tightening of rent-control laws to stop the spiraling descent of American residents into poverty.

The Economic And Financial Effect Of Single Parent Homes, Douglas Sidey

Senior Honors Theses

A crisis is facing the American population today because of the growing prevalence of single parent homes. This single parenthood produces a cyclical nature in which the families that get started have a hard time removing themselves from the patterns and problems of this cycle. This is due in large part to the financial issues that a family will face due to the divorce from, or loss of, a spouse. These financial issues affect not only the parent that is raising children alone, but it affects the children, the spouse that has left, and the economy at large. This phenomenon, …

A Roadmap For Governance Reforms, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Newspaper and Magazine Articles

Pakistan has been facing a unique and difficult dilemma for quite some time. Government leaders of the day are unhappy that they are unable to deliver upon the commitments they had made to the electorate at the time of the elections. Policy-Performance Gap is widening every day, Decision making is slow and implementation of decisions almost non-existent. Credibility of each successive government is eroding rapidly among the public at large creating trust deficit in the political leadership. The citizens and society are highly disenchanted and dissatisfied as they are unable to access basic services the state has to provide to …

Would A Free Banking System Target Ngdp Growth?, Alexander William Salter, Andrew T. Young

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Building on Selgin (1994), we develop a simple model of free banking and study the system’s effects on familiar macroeconomic variables. We show a free banking system does in fact stabilize nominal income in response to aggregate demand shocks. However, in the event of an aggregate supply shock, a free banking system instead stabilizes inflation, engaging in mildly procyclical behavior. We conclude by calling for a broader study of nominal income targeting and free banking in the tradition of ‘monetary constitutionalism’ (Yeager 1962; White et al. 2014) to ascertain whether this result, while almost certainly not the best of all …

A Different Approach To Jensen’S Alpha And Its Relationship With Returning Ranking, Tingyu Du Ms.

Undergraduate Economic Review

Based on Michael C. Jensen’s CAPM model (1968), this paper refines it with dummy variables included. It examines if fund manager’s skill is contributing to fund’s performance within a five-year span from June 2009 to June 2014, and if high total return ranking is related to outstanding Jensen’s Alpha. The findings coincide with Jensen’s research results.

New York Camp Econometrics X Program, Center For Policy Research

Camp Econometrics-Programs

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Act’S Btop Program On Broadband Adoption, James Prieger, Janice A. Hauge

School of Public Policy Working Papers

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) spent $4.7B during 2009-2013 to, int. al, increase broadband adoption in underserved communities. We characterize the BTOP grants and examine the impact of the awards on broadband adoption. Econometric specifications controlling for award endogeneity related to observed and unobserved county-level factors find that spending is apparently associated with increased broadband adoption. Further investigation, however, reveals that the impacts of spending are nonlinear and even nonmonotonic over the range of county-level BTOP spending in the data. Controlling for trends to reduce the potential for spurious correlation between spending and outcomes …

Economic Impact Of The Beef Industry On South Dakota, Gary Taylor

Economics Commentator (1972- 2016)

No abstract provided.

Better Lucky Than Good: The Role Of Information In Other-Regarding Preferences, Matthew J. Mcmahon

Economics & Finance Faculty Publications

There is anecdotal evidence that people often treat income earned by effort differently than that gained by luck, yet economists often overlook this distinction. Furthermore, others’ income sources may often be (at least partially) obfuscated. I adapt a common inequality aversion model to allow for income distinction by source, both for own income and others’, and for uncertainty over others’ sources. I empirically test resulting hypotheses in a dictator game experiment wherein subjects gain income via both effort and luck. Dictators know recipients’ income by source in control, but only total income in treatment. I find that partially informed dictators …

Demography Is Destiny…Or Is It?, Michael Hemesath

Administration Publications

No abstract provided.

More Money, Less Problems? New Answers To Aid Allocation Questions, Jackson Beazer

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

I wanted to investigate how the economic growth of developing countries affects the amount of aid it receives. In a study of the models previously used in aid allocation research, I noticed that the literature alternates between aid per capita and total commitment amounts as the dependent variable. After trying both, I found that economic growth is significant in the aid allocation models, but not in the aid per capita models. I hypothesized that while aid per capita models embody an individual focus on the needs of the recipient country, total aid allocation models embody more of a focus on …

The Easy Expensive Way Doesn't Work. Why Not Try The Difficult Cheap Way?, Karl A. Koehler

Purdue Policy Research Institute (PPRI) Policy Briefs

Smokestack chasing and related ad hoc efforts to create techno/commercial clusters are examples of failed economic development activities, because they are generally poorly integrated into the networks of interactions that support a local, state, or national economy. This is a general problem because it is difficult to characterize and understand such complex webs of interactions. Thus, it is the dynamic complexity of combined state innovation systems, related policy systems, and the broader economy that stands between state governors and legislators, their piecemeal enactment of ‘economic development initiatives’, and the economic growth they desire. This brief describes the social, governmental, and …

Gender And Political Ambition, Jessica Preece, Olga Bogach

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this proposal was to fund a field experiment that examined the ways in which political parties could increase women’s desire to run for office (their “political ambition”). Specifically, we worked with the Utah County Republican Party¹ to organize a “Prospective Candidate Information Seminar” to which they invited over 11,000 active party members. However, there were several versions of the invitation that made different kinds of appeals (to civic duty or by talking about the part-time nature of political positions in Utah, for example).

Assessing The Effects Of Common Social Identity On Individual Effort And Cooperation In Cross-Gender Teams., Joseph Price

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The academic objectives of this projects included introducing mentored students to experimental methods in economics and providing them with a unique experience working with the tools of this new field. This was particularly important for our students preparing to attend graduate school and likely to work for companies such as Savvysherpa, for which experimental methods are becoming a very important tool.

Who Benefits From A Minimum Wage Increase?, John W. Lopresti, Kevin J. Mumford

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper addresses the question of how a minimum wage increase affects the wages of low-wage workers. Most studies assume that there is a simple mechanical increase in the wage for workers earning a wage between the old and the new minimum wage, with some studies allowing for spillovers to workers with wages just above this range. Rather than assume that the wages of these workers would have remained constant, this paper estimates how a minimum wage increase impacts a low-wage worker’s wage relative to the wage the worker would have if there had been no minimum wage increase. The …

Assessing The Effects Of Common Social Identity On Individual Effort And Cooperation In Cross-Gender Teams., Joseph Price

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The academic objectives of this projects included introducing mentored students to experimental methods in economics and providing them with a unique experience working with the tools of this new field. This was particularly important for our students preparing to attend graduate school and likely to work for companies such as Savvysherpa, for which experimental methods are becoming a very important tool.