Economics Commons^™

Cooperation And Reciprocity In Anonymous Interactions: Other-Regarding Preferences And Quasi-Magical Thinking, Gregory Klevans

Theses and Dissertations

In economic experiments, players often demonstrate concerns for the relative payoffs between themselves and other subjects, in addition to their own payoffs. In addition, they appear to do their parts to achieve efficient outcomes, particularly when they are ignorant of the opponent's decision. I present a parsimonious model of other-regarding preferences and quasi-magical thinking that explains such behavior, and I apply it to four games: the prisoner's dilemma, the traveler's dilemma, the ultimatum game, and the trust game.

School Resources And Student Outcomes: Evidence From The State Of Illinois, Alyssa Cooper

Student Research – Stevenson Center

Literature on the subject of school resources and student outcomes tends to find that there is a positive relationship between both variables. Most literature uses per-pupil spending (PPS) or teacher salaries as a measure of school resources. While I have modeled both in my paper, my focus in this paper is on per-pupil spending. Using data from the Illinois State Board of Education from 2006-2016 and measuring student outcomes through average ACT scores, operational PPS is found to be insignificant, whereas instructional PPS is found to be positive and significant at the 5% level. Estimates suggest that a 1 standard …

Gaining Ground On Equal Pay: Empowering Boston's Women Through Salary Negotiation Workshops, A Report On Year One Of Aauw Work Smart In Boston, Jecynta Azong, Ann Bookman, Christa Kelleher

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

This report is a case study, not an evaluation. Its focus is on a particular program, AAUW Work Smart in Boston, over a defined period of time (September 2015 – October 2016) in order to understand the program’s impact on the women who participated in it. This report explores several key questions: In what ways do AAUW Work Smart in Boston workshops have an impact on the women who complete them? What are the main barriers that prevent women from addressing their compensation level and/or achieving pay equity? What are primary factors that facilitate women’s capacity to achieve successful salary …

Prosperity And Industrial Development: Review Of Concepts And Measurements, Emma Willingham, Peter Hulseman

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

This report, researched and written for the Port of Portland by the Northwest Economic Research Center, summarizes local efforts to measure and improve regional prosperity, both within and outside of Portland, Oregon, and offers a framework for assessing varying industrial land uses with respect to prosperity. As part of this review, definitions of prosperity from a variety of sources are presented. The purpose of the report is dual: First, a context for community and regional economic prosperity is established via the review of existing definitions and initiatives, and secondly, NERC offers a framework for assessing specific uses in terms of …

Prosperity And Industrial Development: Review Of Concepts And Measurements, Emma Willingham, Peter Hulseman

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

This report, researched and written for the Port of Portland by the Northwest Economic Research Center, summarizes local efforts to measure and improve regional prosperity, both within and outside of Portland, Oregon, and offers a framework for assessing varying industrial land uses with respect to prosperity. As part of this review, definitions of prosperity from a variety of sources are presented. The purpose of the report is dual: First, a context for community and regional economic prosperity is established via the review of existing definitions and initiatives, and secondly, NERC offers a framework for assessing specific uses in terms of …

Determinants Of Firm-Level Domestic Sales And Exports With Spillovers: Evidence From China, Badi H. Baltagi, Peter H. Egger, Michaela Kesina

Center for Policy Research

This paper studies the determinants of firm-level revenues, as a measure of the performance of firms in China's domestic and export markets. The analysis of the determinants of the aforementioned outcomes calls for a mixed linear-nonlinear econometric approach. The paper proposes specifying a system of equations, which is inspired by Basmann's work and recent theoretical work in international economics and conducts comparative static analyses regarding the role of exogenous shocks to the system to flesh out the relative importance of transmissions across outcomes.

Network Effects On Labor Contracts Of Internal Migrants In China- A Spatial Autoregressive Model, Badi H. Baltagi, Ying Deng, Xiangjun Ma

Center for Policy Research

This paper studies the fact that 37 percent of the internal migrants in China do not sign a labor contract with their employers, as revealed in a nationwide survey. These contract-free jobs pay lower hourly wages, require longer weekly work hours, and provide less insurance or on-the-job training than regular jobs with contracts. We find that the co-villager networks play an important role in a migrant’s decision on whether to accept such insecure and irregular jobs. By employing a comprehensive nationwide survey in 2011 in the spatial autoregressive logit model, we show that the common behavior of not signing contracts …

An Application Of Box-Jenkins Approach In Forecasting Nigerian Crude Oil Prices., Bashir Umar Faruk

Bullion

Nigerian government has been adopting Moving Average (MA) method in pegging crude oil price benchmark. However, large discrepancy between the projected oil price benchmark and the actual international crude oil prices is observed over time. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to investigate whether Box-Jenkins approach could provide a lasting solution to the problem of inefficient oil price forecast in the Nigerian budgeting process. In our quest for an appropriate oil benchmark, monthly bonny light crude oil prices for the period of April 1986 to December 2015 are used.

Cbn Real Sector Financing For Inclusive Growth And Economic Development., Mudashiru A. Olaitan

Bullion

The fall in crude oil in the international market has expose Nigeria's vulnerability to external shocks and overdependence on a mono-product economy thereby presenting the opportunity for Nigeria to diversify its economy away from oil into agriculture, manufacturing services and other non-oil sectors. This paper examines the need to support key sectors that are drivers of growth and to also upscale its developmental finance initiatives targeted at economic growth, deepening of deepening of credit delivery to the real sector. The paper highlighted focal areas and the interventions by CBN in these areas to include Agricultural sector; Infrastructure; Manufacturing sector; MSMEs …

Deficit Financing, Price And Economic Stability In Nigeria: A Bound Testing Approach., Ali Danjuma Umaru

Bullion

This research work empirically examines the impact of deficits finance on price and economic stability in Nigeria using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL)/Bound testing approach from 1980-2016. Total deficit financed externally and a disaggregated domestic source which includes CBN, Deposit Money Banks and Non-Bank Public were used as proxies for deficit financing while inflation rates and GDP were captured for price and economic stability respectively. The bound testing analysis which was carried out in a two differently specified models show no cointegration between deficit finance and inflation, while that of deficit finance and economic stability nexus reveals the existence of a …

Fss 2020 Financial Markets Programme: Progress So Far, Charles Ohamara

Bullion

The Financial System Strategy (FSS) 2020 is a national reform program aimed at developing and transforming Nigeria's financial sector into a growth catalyst to fast track the achievement of the Vision 20:2020 and engineer Nigeria's evolution into on International Financial Centre. The strategic objectives of FSS2020 are to strengthen and deepen the domestic financial markets, enhance the integration of domestic financial markets with the external financial markets and supporting the reals sector. To attain these objectives, the key regulators of the Nigerian financial system come together under the leadership of the Central Bank of Nigeria and crafted the vision to …

Msme Sector: The New Paradigm For Nigeria's Economic Development, Adewale M. Mustapha

Bullion

MSMEs play a major role in most economies, especially in developing countries. This paper examines the opportunity provided by FSS2020 to enhance development of the MSME sector in Nigeria. The paper begins by examining the concept of FSS2O2O strategy for the MSME sector with specific focus on the six (6) Strategic Objectives and three (3) Transformational Programs to drive the development of the sector. These strategic objectives and the respective initiatives have a high multiplier effect on the entire Nigeria financial system. The six objectives ore: Advocate and Work with the government to Drive SME development, 2. Promote Financial Reporting …

Nigeria's Experience With Monetary Sterilisation (2000-2016)., Moses K. Tule, Usman M. Okpanachi, Imam S. Z., Afiemo O. O.

Bullion

This study attempts to estimate the extent of sterilisation undertaken by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) during the period from 2000 to 2016. The approach used in this study involved construction of a monetary sterilisation index by measuring the rate of change in domestic asset (net) with respect to the change in foreign asset (net). The index expands the menu of available indicators which may be considered by monetary policy makers in in evaluating policy response to changing economic conditions. The paper after its introduction reviews the literature on monetary sterilization is aimed at ensuring that the balance sheet …

Transforming The Insurance Sector In Nigeriain Using The Fss 2020 Platform, Chris O. Muo

Bullion

The National lnsurance Commission (NAICOM) is the statutory Regulatory body of insurance business created to ensure the effective administration, supervision and regulation of insurance business and regulate transactions between insurers and reinsurers within and outside Nigeria. FSS 2020 Insurance Sector, in collaboration with NAICOM aims to deepen the insurance market; ensure lnsurance credibility and protect policy holders; Embed governance and risk management framework for the lnsurance Companies; Enhance access to finance (financial inclusion) with business development support and new products; and risk-based capitalization of lnsurance Companies.

Nigeria's Power Sector Roadmap: Policy Perspectives And Prospects, Bandele A. G. Amoo, O. M. Adebayo, Derek Ibeagha

Bullion

Various strategies have been employed over the years by the Government to boost power in the country. These strategies have been hinged on policies, reforms and roadmaps, including the 2005 Electric Power Sector Reform Act, the Roadmap for Power Sector Reform 2010 and the current Roadmap for Change. A perfunctory look at previous reforms has resulted in significant progress, including unbundling and privatizing the long-standing government-owned monopoly in the power sector. This paper takes a comprehensive assessment of the Roadmap of Change comparing it to previous policies, isolating policy perspectives, prospects and challenges facing it. It also gleans lessons from …

Transforming The Mortgage Sub-Sector Using The Fss 2020 Platform, Patrick E. Aririguzo

Bullion

This paper examines the Mortgage sector of FSS2020 Strategy document which falls within the category of the drivers of the FSS2020 Strategy implementation blueprint. FSS2020 Mortgage: Vision and Mission. The paper further explores the Strategic Objectives of FSS2020 Mortgage Sector and the Transformational Programmes which includes: Ml - Establish a secondary mortgage market; M2 - Attract affordable international credit to fund affordable housing programmes; M3 - Advocate for mortgage ready and affordable housing. Three Transformational Programmes were designed to support the realization of the three objectives of the Mortgage Sector namely: TPl - Establishment of Mortgage Refinancing Companies (MRC) TP2 …

A Micro-Invstigation Of The Reasons Behind Demographic Transition In Egypt: Will Egypt Witness A Demographic Window?, Sarah El-Khishin, Magued Osman, Heba Nassar

Economics

Abstract: The paper investigates the factors behind the slowdown in demographic transition in Egypt across different geographical and socio-economic groups. The authors relax the assumption of a uniform fertility behavior across households and re-visit interrelationships between demography and economic indicators from a micro perspective. Empirical findings reject mainstream beliefs that slow demographic transition in Egypt is attributed to the poorer, south-located and less-educated households. Fertility behaviors in Urban Egypt and among the high-educated females are found to be key contributors to the slowdown of demographic transition. Unemployment among the high-educated females in addition to lower public and foreign spending on …

Female Labour Force Participation And Economic Development In Labour Abundant Countries: Evidence From Sri Lanka, Prathi Seneviratne

Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Female labour force participation remains low across much of the developing world despite robust economic growth and structural change. Cross-country studies provide contradictory conclusions, while there is little analysis at the country and regional levels. This paper examines the microeconomic determinants of female participation using rich household survey data from Sri Lanka, where participation is low for its level of economic development. It finds household income, secondary education and fertility to lower participation rates. Participation has increased with economic growth, and a decomposition analysis reveals rising education, falling fertility, and weakening income effects to be the main contributors. However, growth …

Explaining Changes In Sri Lanka’S Wage Distribution, 1992-2014: A Quantile Regression Analysis, Prathi Seneviratne

Department of Economics Working Paper Series

This paper investigates the evolution of Sri Lanka’s wage distribution during 1992-2014, a period of robust economic growth following the adoption of liberal economic policies. Using unconditional quantile regression, the analysis reveals wages grew across the distribution and more strongly at lower quantiles, causing inequality to fall. The decline in inequality came almost entirely from changes to wage returns consistent with rising relative demand for less- skilled labor. However, changes in workforce composition widened income gaps, most notably through educational and occupational upgrading. The study further demonstrates selection bias

overestimates average incomes and underestimates inequality in a given year, while …

The Bourgeois Crown: Capitalism And The Monarchy In Thailand, 1946–2016, Puangchon Unchanam

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the age of capitalism, monarchy has been treated as if it were an irrelevant institution. Once capitalism becomes the dominant mode of production in a state, it is argued, monarchy must be either abolished or transformed into a constitutional monarchy, a ceremonial institution that plays no significant role in a capitalist state that is ruled by the bourgeoisie. The monarchy of Thailand, however, fits neither of those two narratives, as it enjoys hegemonic status in the capitalist state, preeminent status in the market, and popular support from the urban bourgeoisie. What explains the resilience of the Thai monarchy in …

The New American Slavery: Capitalism And The Ghettoization Of American Prisons As A Profitable Corporate Business, David A. Liburd

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The labor of enslaved Africans and Black Americans played a large part in the history of colonial America, with the American plantation being the epicenter for all that was to be produced. While the two have never been completely tied together, capitalism and modern day slavery have been linked with one another. Some analysis sees slavery as a remote form of capitalism, a substitute, to an antiquated form of labor in the modern world.

Slave plantations adopted a new concentration in size and management, referred to by W.E. DuBois as a change "from a family institution to an industrial system."1 …

Borderplex Business Barometer, Volume 1, Number 9, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Adam G. Walke, Omar Solís, Patricia Arellano

Border Region Modeling Project

No abstract provided.

Robust Linear Static Panel Data Models Using Ε-Contamination, Badi H. Baltagi, Georges Bresson, Anoop Chaturvedi, Guy Lacroix

Center for Policy Research

The paper develops a general Bayesian framework for robust linear static panel data models using ε-contamination. A two-step approach is employed to derive the conditional type-II maximum likelihood (ML-II) posterior distribution of the coefficients and individual effects. The ML-II posterior means are weighted averages of the Bayes estimator under a base prior and the data-dependent empirical Bayes estimator. Two-stage and three stage hierarchy estimators are developed and their finite sample performance is investigated through a series of Monte Carlo experiments. These include standard random effects as well as Mundlak-type, Chamberlain-type and Hausman-Taylor-type models. The simulation results underscore the relatively good …

Evaluating Public Employment Programs With Field Experiments: A Survey Of American Evidence, Christopher J. O'Leary

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Research in the 1970s based on observational data provided evidence consistent with predictions from economic theory that paying unemployment insurance (UI) benefits to involuntarily jobless workers prolongs unemployment. However, some scholars also reported estimates that the additional time spent in subsidized job search was productive. That is, UI receipt tended to raise reemployment wages after work search among the unemployed. A series of field experiments in the 1980s investigated positive incentives to overcome the work disincentive effects of UI. These were followed by experiments in the 1990s that evaluated the effects of restrictions on UI eligibility through stronger work search …

Sources Of Health Financing And Health Outcomes: A Panel Data Analysis, Tomoki Fujii

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study the differential impacts of public and private sources of health spending on health outcomes using a triple difference approach. We find that private health spending has on average a higher health-promoting effect than public health spending. This result is robust with respect to the choice of outcome measure and covariates in the regression and driven primarily by the countries with ineffective governments. Once we restrict our sample to countries with effective governments, private health spending is no better than public health spending for improving the health outcome.

Bubble Testing Under Deterministic Trends, Xiaohu Wang, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper develops the asymptotic theory of the ordinary least squares estimator of the autoregressive (AR) coefficient in various AR models, when data is generated from trend-stationary models in different forms. It is shown that, depending on how the autoregression is specified, the commonly used right-tailed unit root tests may tend to reject the null hypothesis of unit root in favor of the explosive alternative. A new procedure to implement the right-tailed unit root tests is proposed. It is shown that when the data generating process is trend-stationary, the test statistics based on the proposed procedure cannot find evidence of …

Non-Separable Models With High-Dimensional Data, Liangjun Su, Takuya Ura, Yichong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies non-separable models with a continuous treatment when the dimension of the control variables is high and potentially larger than the effective sample size. We propose a three-step estimation procedure to estimate the average, quantile, and marginal treatment effects. In the first stage we estimate the conditional mean, distribution, and density objects by penalized local least squares, penalized local maximum likelihood estimation, and penalized conditional density estimation, respectively, where control variables are selected via a localized method of L1-penalization at each value of the continuous treatment. In the second stage we estimate the average and the marginal distribution …

Preferences With Changing Ambiguity Aversion, Jingyi Xue

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper provides two equivalent representations for thegeneral class of uncertainty averse preferences studied by Cerreia-Vioglio,Maccheroni, Marinacci and Montrucchio (2011). The two representations employrespectively two important extensions of Gilboa and Schmeidler (1989)’s maxmindecision rule. The first is a weighted maxmin representation with anon-constant weight used in mixing the minimum and maximum expected utilities.The second is a variant constraint representation which evaluates a prospect bythe worst expected utility over a neighborhood of approximating priors wherethe size of the neighborhood depends on the prospect. The equivalent representationshave advantage in several respects. In the second part of this paper, we studythe wealth effect …

Fair Division With Uncertain Needs, Jingyi Xue

Research Collection School Of Economics

Imagine that agents have uncertain needs and a resource must be divided before uncertainty resolves. In this situation, waste typically occurs when the assignment to an agent turns out to exceed his realized need. How should the resource be divided in the face of possible waste? This is a question out of the scope of the existing rationing literature. Our main axiom to address the issue is no domination. It requires that no agent receive more of the resource than another while producing a larger expected waste, unless the other agent has been fully compensated. Together with conditional strict endowment …

Adaptive Estimation Of Continuous-Time Regression Models Using High-Frequency Data, Jia Li, Viktor Todorov, George Tauchen

Research Collection School Of Economics

We derive the asymptotic efficiency bound for regular estimates of the slope coefficient in a linear continuous-time regression model for the continuous martingale parts of two Itô semimartingales observed on a fixed time interval with asymptotically shrinking mesh of the observation grid. We further construct an estimator from high-frequency data that achieves this efficiency bound and, indeed, is adaptive to the presence of infinite-dimensional nuisance components. The estimator is formed by taking optimal weighted average of local nonparametric volatility estimates that are constructed over blocks of high-frequency observations. The asymptotic efficiency bound is derived under a Markov assumption for the …