Economics Commons^™

Corporate Civic Responsibility And The Ownership Agenda: Investing In The Public Good (1994), Marcy Murninghan

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article seeks to provoke broader public discussion about ways in which human and ecologic dignity, prosperity, and the civic ideal can be advanced through a revitalized and principled ownership agenda that features greater levels of corporate accountability and civic virtue. It draws from portions of what then was called an “Occasional Paper,” part of a series emanating from the early days of the University of Massachusetts Boston’s McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies. Written in 1994, it introduces a new paradigm for corporate governance called the “corporate covenant,” which casts ownership within the framework of citizenship. These …

Convergence In Income Inequality: Further Evidence From The Club Clustering Methodology Across States In The U.S., Nicholas Apergis, Christina Christou, Rangan Gupta, Stephen M. Miller

Molasky Family Department of Economics and Real Estate Faculty Research

This paper contributes to the sparse literature on inequality convergence by empirically testing convergence across states in the U.S. This sample period encompasses a series of different periods that the existing literature discusses -- the Great Depression (1929–1944), the Great Compression (1945–1979), the Great Divergence (1980-present), the Great Moderation (1982–2007), and the Great Recession (2007–2009). This paper implements the relatively new method of panel convergence testing, recommended by Phillips and Sul (2007). This method examines the club convergence hypothesis, which argues that certain countries, states, sectors, or regions belong to a club that moves from disequilibrium positions to their club-specific …

Mutual Economic Incentives For Urban Tree Canopy Restoration, Paul E. Thompson Jr.

Undergraduate Economic Review

Potential alignment of economic incentives for tree canopy restoration are modeled using data from a 2015 Louisville Metro Government (KY) Urban Tree Canopy Assessment. The study revealed marked declines in urban canopy coverage from 2004-2012; accelerating losses are forecast through 2050. Tree coverage conveys substantial financial benefit to private property owners, primarily through increased property valuations. Benefits to local government may be derived from the corresponding increase in property tax assessments. A comprehensive cost-benefit analysis demonstrates the economic efficiency of tree purchase vouchers (issued by government to private property owners) as a potential contributing solution to urban canopy loss.

Environmental Costs Of European Union Membership: A Structural Decomposition Analysis, Inácio Araúgo, Randall Jackson, Amir Borges Ferreira Neto, Fernando Perobelli

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

The interest in this paper lies in the environmental costs of the European Union (EU). EU membership requires a series of economic and political changes that should impact the country’s production and consumption structures and its trade relationships. These, in turn, will affect CO2 emissions sources and levels. This is especially true for the former Soviet Union countries that recently joined the EU, given the difference in their levels of development and production structure. Using a structural decomposition analysis we are able to quantify the main drivers of changes in emissions differentiating six components, namely: emissions intensity, industrial structure and …

Vaule-Added Erosion In Global Value Chains: Rethining International Trade, Xiao Jiang

Seminars in Local and Global Regional Economies

The prevalence of "vertical specialization" and global value chains (GVCs) demands that we think differently about international trade and its relationship to employment. This talk discusses employment effects of GVCs trade. Dr. Jiang argues that the expansion of foreign high value-adding activities in the upper stream of GVCs is likely to lead to a decline of domestic value-added share, leading to intensification of international and domestic distributional conflicts.

Dr. Xiao Jiang’s research combines mathematical modeling, simulations and statistics with classical political economy. He has provided economic consulting for the International Labor Organization, the Association for East and Southeast Asian Countries, …

A Systematic Review Of Consumer Preference For E-Cigarette Attributes: Flavor, Nicotine Strength, And Type, Samane Zare, Mehdi Nemati, Yuqing Zheng

Agricultural Economics Faculty Publications

Objective

Systematic review of research examining consumer preference for the main electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) attributes namely flavor, nicotine strength, and type.

Method

A systematic search of peer-reviewed articles resulted in a pool of 12,933 articles. We included only articles that meet all the selection criteria: (1) peer-reviewed, (2) written in English, and (3) addressed consumer preference for one or more of the e-cigarette attributes including flavor, strength, and type.

Results

66 articles met the inclusion criteria for this review. Consumers preferred flavored e-cigarettes, and such preference varied with age groups and smoking status. We also found that several flavors were …

Clarity Trumps Content: An Experiment On Information Acquisition In Beauty Contests, Sanjay Banerjee, Hong Qu, Ran Zhao

Accounting Faculty Articles and Research

We provide experimental evidence that under strong beauty contest incentives, players ignore signals from an information source with high content if the source has low clarity. Instead, they acquire equally costly signals from a source with higher clarity despite its lower content. Content measures how precisely an information source identifies an economic situation, whereas clarity measures how precisely the source content is commonly interpreted. Low clarity impairs players' ability to coordinate. When signals are provided exogenously, our experimental results are less severe than theoretical predictions, but consistent with level-2 reasoning in a cognitive behavioral model. When players acquire signals endogenously, …

Working Paper No. 08, A Non-Equilibrium Approach To Economics: Towards An Intellectual Biography Of Gunnar Myrdal, Leo Kendall

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that Gunnar Myrdal provided a foundation for and also practiced a non-equilibrium approach to economics. Throughout his career, Gunnar Myrdal was tasked with researching and providing policy for some of the most pressing economic issues of the 20th century. This inquiry considers and examines what I have selected as the most important areas of research over the span of Myrdal’s career, while showing how and why a nonequilibrium was required. First, I start with racial inequality and how Myrdal’s research broke ground on the subject. Next, I consider his key contribution towards understanding regional inequality …

A Theory Of Focal Points In 2x2 Games, Jonathan W. Leland, Mark Schneider

ESI Publications

Since the classic work of Schelling, the notion of a focal point has been widely applied to explain coordinated behavior. However, focal points remain largely outside the formal apparatus of game theory. This paper develops a model of play in 2 × 2 games where payoff differences determine what strategy players will perceive as “salient” and choose to play. The model uniquely predicts which outcome will emerge for virtually the entire class of 2 × 2 normal form games. For the subset of such games involving coordination and asymmetric payoffs, payoff differences identify focal outcomes and strategies in the same …

2018 Trends In Nebraska Farmland Values And Rental Rates, Jim Jansen, Jeffrey Stokes

Cornhusker Economics

The average market value of farmland in Nebraska declined by three percent over the prior year to $2,745 per acre according to the 2018 Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Survey (Figure 1 and Table 1). This marks the fourth consecutive year of downward pressure. Market values have dropped 17 percent since reaching a high of $3,315 in 2014.

U. S. Fiscal Policy And Asset Prices: The Role Of Partisan Conflict, Rangan Gupta, Chi Keung Marco Lau, Stephen M. Miller, Mark E. Wohar

Molasky Family Department of Economics and Real Estate Faculty Research

Fiscal policy shocks exert wide-reaching effects, including movements in asset markets. US politics have been characterized historically by a high degree of partisan conflict. The combination of increasing polarization and divided government leads not only to significant Congressional gridlock, but also to spells of high fiscal policy uncertainty. This paper adds to the literature on the relationships between fiscal policy and asset prices in the US economy conditional on the degree of partisan conflict. We analyze whether a higher degree of partisan conflict (legislative gridlock) reduces the efficacy of the effect and response of fiscal policy on and to asset …

Economic Conditions: Updates On The National, State, And Regional Economies With A Look At 2018, Jim Robey

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Multiplatform Software Tool To Disaggregate And Adjust Value-Added Learning Scores, Ben O. Smith

Economics Faculty Publications

In 2016, Walstad and Wagner released an article that suggested practitioners should disaggregate value-added learning scores into four categories: positive, negative, retained, and zero learning. Positive learning is said to occur when a student answers a question incorrectly on the pre-test and correctly on the post-test. Negative learning is said to occur when the student correctly answers the question on the pre-test but incorrectly on the post-test. Retained learning is said to occur when the student answers the question correctly on both exams and zero learning is said to occur when the student answers the question incorrectly on both exams. …

An Analysis Of The Social And Political Barriers To Wind Energy Development In Lancaster County, Nebraska, Corrin Bemis

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

With the increasing threat of climate change beginning to impact cities and regions in the United States, many states are turning to renewable energy sources as a way to mitigate their carbon footprint. While Nebraska has the potential to be a leader in wind energy development within the next few years, some restrictions are still put in place that slow down the expansion of wind farms. Although the state is ranked 4^th in the nation for wind energy potential, Nebraska is ranked 20^th for actual wind energy development. This paper will define the social and political barriers that …

Empirical Evidence On The Relationship Between Audit Probability And Internal Revenue Service Budget Levels, Akinloye Akindayomi, Gideon T. Akileye, Adeduro A. Ogunmakin

School of Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

Despite a large literature on tax avoidance strategies by individuals and the IRS ability to curb them, how the agency’s audit/examination activities respond to tax expenditures within the individual taxation context is not well understood. We hypothesize that IRS audit probability of individual tax returns will positively respond to the magnitude of different tax expenditure drivers if the agency has a shot at curtailing them. We find that while the probability of IRS audit increases as the agency’s budget on enforcement activities increases, tax expenditures do not appear to prompt IRS enforcement activities in many of the tax expenditures drivers.

Sex Differences In Political Leadership In An Egalitarian Society, Christopher Von Rueden, Sarah Alami, Hillard Kaplan, Michael Gurven

ESI Publications

We test the contribution of sex differences in physical formidability, education, and cooperation to the acquisition of political leadership in a small-scale society. Among forager-farmers from the Bolivian Amazon, we find that men are more likely to exercise different forms of political leadership, including verbal influence during community meetings, coordination of community projects, and dispute resolution. We show that these differences in leadership are not due to gender per se but are associated with men’s greater number of cooperation partners, greater access to schooling, and greater body size and physical strength. Men’s advantage in cooperation partner number is tied to …

Are Volatility Expectations In Different Countries Interdependent? A Data-Driven Solution To Structural Var Identification For Implied Equity Volatility Indices, Timothy De Silva

Undergraduate Economic Review

Over the past couple of decades, the number of volatility indices has increased rapidly. Although the dynamics of realized volatility spillover have been studied extensively, very few studies exist that examine the spillover between these implied volatility indices. By using DAG-based structural vector autoregression, this paper provides evidence that implied volatility spillover differs from realized volatility spillover. Through solving the well-known VAR identification problem for these indices, this paper finds that Asia, more specifically Hong Kong, plays a central role in implied volatility spillover during and after the 2008 financial crisis.

Nebraska Business And Consumer Confidence Indexes: March 9, 2018, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

Nebraska consumer and business confidence fell during February 2018, dropping from the near-peak levels seen in January. The Consumer Confidence Index – Nebraska (CCI-N) fell to 101.6 in February from a value of 115.2 in January. The February value remains above the neutral level of 100.0. The Business Confidence Index – Nebraska (BCI-N) fell to 107.4 In February from 112.2 in January. Both monthly readings were well above the neutral value of 100.0 suggesting that business confidence remains strong. When asked about the most important issue facing their business, customer demand was mentioned by 38 percent of respondents. But, there …

Is Education A Waste Of Time And Money?, Michael Hemesath

Administration Publications

No abstract provided.

Monetary Policy Implications Of Cash, Other Money Supplies, And Cryptocurrencies In Singapore: A Growing Cashless Society., Sarah Kesler

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

The country of Singapore has been a growing cashless society for years. Analyzing their money supplies relative to their gross domestic product and their consumer price index can give insight into how the central bank of Singapore are able to maintain control over their monetary policy. Using data from 1974 to the present, I tested the effect of physical cash and other money supplies on the economic and inflationary growth of this country. With this in mind, I expected to see a positive correlation between these money supplies, GDP, and inflation. However, what I found in my regression analysis was …

Price Volatility Transmission Between U.S. Biofuel, Corn, And Oil Markets, Cory Walters

Cornhusker Economics

Many factors have been suggested as sources of increased volatility (unexpected changes) in agricultural commodity prices in recent years. One of the most-stated causes is the increase in corn based ethanol production and the new food and ethanol linkages (Serra, 2013; Balcombe, 2011; Wright, 2011; Irwin and Good, 2009). The increased links between energy and agricultural markets raise concerns about whether new corn– ethanol links lead to volatility-spillover effects between prices of energy and agricultural commodities. Increased food-price volatility and its detrimental effects have profound economic implications, raising concerns among consumers, producers, and policy makers. High price volatility heightens food …

Your Money Or Your Time? Experimental Evidence On Overbidding In All-Pay Auctions, Adriana Breaban, Charles N. Noussair, Andreea Victoria Popescu

ESI Working Papers

Competition for a prize frequently takes the form of dedicating time toward winning a contest. Those who spend the most time become more likely to obtain the prize. We model this competition as an all-pay auction under incomplete information, and report an experiment in which expenditures and rewards are in terms of time. In the experiment, subjects must stay in the laboratory doing nothing for an initially prespecified length of time. However, they can bid, in terms of time, to leave early. The auction has an allpay structure so that if an individual does not submit the highest bid within …

Entrepreneurship Education Empowers Youth To Change Their Lives, Marianna Brashear, Jason Riddle

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) aims at equipping Title 1 schools with free, hands-on, engaging materials that any teacher can facilitate either individually or in a classroom setting with no background in entrepreneurship necessary. These versatile lessons, courses, and workshops teach the entrepreneurial mindset optimizing opportunities for grades 8-12 students no matter which life/career path they choose.

Compensation Negotiation And Corporate Governance: The Evidence From China, Xinjun Lyu, Christopher Decker, Jinlan Ni

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper examines CEO pay dispersion for the listed companies in China. We apply a two-tier stochastic frontier model to the CEO compensation framework where asymmetric information generates a surplus between the minimum wage that CEOs accept and the maximum payment that firms offer. This surplus leads to CEO pay dispersion coming from the negotiation power between the CEO and the firm. We generate the surplus extracted by each CEO-firm pair and analyze how corporate governance affects them. An empirical analysis finds that: (1) On average, CEOs are paid 23.26% more than the benchmark; (2) additionally, we examine the bargaining …

The Indian Diaspora, Culture, And Foreign Policy, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Indians living overseas can be a bridge to a rapidly changing world

In the United Nations “International Migration Report 2015”, India had the largest diaspora population in the world with 16 million individuals born in the country but living outside of it. It’s a 100 percent increase from the 8 million in 2000, with an increasing number making their way to the United States where Indians make up the second largest immigrant group after Mexicans.

The Shipping Industry In 2018, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Despite oversupply that continues to suppress container freight rates, positive global macroeconomic trends bode well for shipowners

Rhode Island Current Conditions Index -- March 2018, Leonard Lardaro

The Rhode Island Current Conditions Index

No abstract provided.

Organizational Citizenship Behavior--A Study Of The Telecom Industry, Upasna Joshi Sethi Ph.D.

International Review of Business and Economics

Organizational Citizenship behavior is a person’s voluntary commitment within an organization which is not part of the contractual tasks. Various studies suggested that engaging in OCB can enrich the work lives of employees. The Current Paper aimed to study five dimensions of Organizational Citizenship Behavior of employees in Telecom industry. For the study a sample size of 500 employees who are working in Telecom sector was selected using Snowball Sampling Technique in the areas of Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali. The scale used for the purpose of measuring the responses of the employees for Organizational Citizenship Behavior is the one developed …

Cash Shortages And Black Money: A Look At India's 2016 Demonetization Effect, One Year Later, Amitabh S. Dutta Ph.D., Kishore G. Kulkarni Ph.D.

International Review of Business and Economics

The decision of demonetization announcement in November 2016, by the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, was surprising to the general public and controversial to the economic thinkers. While the opponents of such a step have gone through actual calculation of the cost of demonetization in terms of potential GDP loss (2% as predicted by the former Prime Minister and Oxford Economist, Manmohan Singh) some supporters have pointed out the big benefits of this step. In recent days a talk of demonetization has become a “hot potato” that very few want to hold on to. Politically this has become …

Colossal Insurance Sector Of India, Anuradha Prasad More

International Review of Business and Economics

Insurance sector has its roots in the Indian economy since 1818 when the first insurance company Oriental Life insurance was established at Calcutta [now Kolkata]. Even the reference can be found in the form of marine adventure trade loans and carrier’s contracts. Industry started taking shape during the British reigning. Since then the insurance industry has undergone the various reforms/changes. Enactment of Insurance Act 1938, nationalization of Life insurance sector in the year 1956, General insurance Sector in the year 1972 and again with the recommendation of Malhotra Committee Report insurance sector reopened for private players in the year 1999. …