Economics Commons^™

Trade Wars, E. Wesley F. Peterson

Cornhusker Economics

Current United States trade policies are in line with an old economic doctrine known as mercantilism which calls for protectionist policies to reduce imports and expand exports with the goal of generating large trade surpluses. This doctrine has been discredited for over 200 years following the analyses of Adam Smith, David Ricardo and other late eighteenth- and early nineteenth century economists. Mercantilist policies by one country not only lower well-being in that country through harm to consumers and industries relying on imported inputs but also almost always lead to trade wars with that country’s trading partners. This is precisely what …

Effects Of Exposure To Violence On Health In Iraq Between 2006-2007, Fatemeh Shahandeh

Economics ETDs

Iraq has experienced protracted years of war in last two decades. These prolonged years of war in Iraq manifested conflict and violence, degeneration of economic conditions and a serious breakdown of public health services. Deaths, injury and acts of violence such as kidnapping, threat and witnessing heavy casualties are only a few examples of events that Iraqi people experienced during war times. Conflict can result in lasting and profound consequences for the health of the Iraq population. The burden of the communicable, non-communicable disease and mental illnesses in war zone areas is rising rapidly and becoming a major challenge to …

Modifying The “Generalized Exactly Additive Decomposition” Decomposition”Of Gdp And Aggregate Labor Productivity Growth In Practice For Consistency With Theory, Jesus C. Dumagan

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

The generalized exactly additive decomposition (GEAD) of GDP and aggregate labor productivity (ALP) growth, originated by Tang and Wang (2004), is gaining attention in the literature and acceptance in practice. This paper shows, however, that the original GEAD is not always consistent with the “theory” that aggregate GDP growth is pure quantity growth and ALP growth depends only on productivity and labor share changes. This paper modifies the original GEAD for consistency, subject to certain requirement, depending on the GDP quantity index that in current practice is either (1) chained Laspeyres, (2) direct Laspeyres, or (3) chained Fisher. GEAD employs …

The Path Of Least Resistance: How Strict Chinese Stock Market Regulation Incentivizes Chinese Companies To List In Foreign Stock Exchanges, Chenyu Yin

Business and Economics Summer Fellows

Despite the recent trade dispute, decades of increased trade between the U.S. and China have given Chinese companies more opportunities to list on foreign stock markets, so they can find better financing opportunities in foreign markets. With the rapid development of the Chinese financial industry and the continuous spread of news on various company listings, why is it that many Chinese companies choose to list overseas, especially in the U.S. and Hong Kong, but not in China? In addition, what is the difference between the U.S. and Hong Kong exchanges, and how does that difference affect Chinese companies’ choice of …

Water And Healthcare Access Disparities: Impacts On Health, Wealth And Education., Justin Whetten

Economics ETDs

Rural communities in the United States and developing countries face a common problem of access. Lack of clean water or medical specialists can be solved by current technology, but there is a lack of resources and understanding of the problems. Rural communities in developing countries have a lack of access to clean water. Expansion of current water infrastructure and sanitation facilities could be done, but these are large costly projects. The lack of clean water, however, has dire negative effects on child mortality, household morbidity and overall household earning potential. In the United States, rural communities face a similar problem …

Grafting Democracy: British Policy In The Burma Independence Process, Kylan Rutherford

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis investigates—through a case study of the independence process in Burma—what, if any, specific policies the British established and followed in granting independence to their former colonies. The author investigates the development of institutions in the first Burma constitution through primary source documents. Statements of policy found indicate that the British strove to create a policy of protection and representation of minorities, encouragement of democracy mirroring Western constitutions, and a desire to establish stability in the region and preserve self-interests. Documents indicate a large disparity between policy and practice. The author concludes that this disparity is caused primarily by …

Millennial Perceptions On Homeownership And Financial Planning Decisions, Margaret Ann Greenfield

Dissertations and Theses

This master's thesis investigates the economic factors that are affecting the financial decision-making of educated, middle to upper class Millennials in Los Angeles, California. This thesis explores how economic factors, preferences, and self-efficacy interact to determine housing pathways. This thesis also asks whether Millennials in Los Angeles will be able to afford homes and how the cultural narrative of the American Dream affects preferences. In order to answer these questions, twenty in person interviews are conducted with residents of Los Angeles in which they are asked about their values and preferences regarding housing, and the economic factors they are currently …

Role Of Information And Communication On Spatial Conservation Auction Performance: Evidence From A Laboratory Experiment, Simanti Banerjee, Marc Conte

Cornhusker Economics

Policy makers such as the USDA are interested in producers voluntarily adopting pro-environmental land use practices on their properties as these land uses deliver various ecosystem service benefits. As a result, they have implemented incentive based policies such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) (Hellerstein et al., 2015). The CRP involves a reverse auction in which producers submit bids for adopting different land use practices. In running these auctions, agencies are interested in both cost-effectiveness i.e. procuring land use projects which yield the highest level of ecosystem service benefits for the money spent and specific environmental goals. One key goal …

Sleep Variability And Nighttime Activity Among Tsimane Forager‐Horticulturalists, Gandhi Yetish, Hillard Kaplan, Michael Gurven

ESI Publications

Objectives

A common presumption in sleep research is that “normal” human sleep should show high night‐to‐night consistency. Yet, intra‐individual sleep variation in small‐scale subsistence societies has never been studied to test this idea. In this study, we assessed the degree of nightly variation in sleep patterns among Tsimane forager‐horticulturalists in Bolivia, and explored possible drivers of the intra‐individual variability.

Methods

We actigraphically recorded sleep among 120 Tsimane adults (67 female), aged 18–91, for an average of 4.9 nights per person using the Actigraph GT3X and Philips Respironics Actiwatch 2. We assessed intra‐individual variation using intra‐class correlations and average deviation from …

Review Of Demographics And The Demand For Higher Education, By Nathan Grawe (2018), Michael T. Catalano

Numeracy

Nathan D. Grawe. 2018. Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press). 175 pp. ISBN 9781421424132.

Grawe introduces the Higher Education Demand Index (HEDI), a new probabilistic model designed to produce more nuanced forecasts of college attendance in the US than one-dimensional predictions based on the declining number of 18 year-olds. Using HEDI, Grawe confirms that nationwide attendance at both 2-year and 4-year schools is likely to decline over the next decade, but that the nature of this decline will vary by type of institution, geography, race and ethnicity, and parental income and education levels; some …

Lynn Steen's Imprint On Demographic Change And The Demand For Higher Education, Nathan D. Grawe

Numeracy

Nathan D. Grawe. 2018. Demographic Change and the Demand for Higher Education (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press) 192 pp. ISBN 978-1421424132.

This essay introduces and excerpts my Demographic Change and the Demand for Higher Education, published by Johns Hopkins University Press. The book reflects Lynn Steen's vision of quantitative reasoning as more to do with the quality of thought than the impressiveness of the mathematical tools involved. The excerpt lays out the basic demographic challenge facing higher education and how a refinement of simple headcount forecasts can support institutions of higher education as they make preparations.

Nebraska Business And Consumer Confidence Indexes: July 6, 2018, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

Business confidence surged in Nebraska during June 2018. The Business Confidence Index – Nebraska (BCI-N) rose from 102.4 in May to 115.4 In June. The Consumer Confidence Index – Nebraska (CCI-N) also rose, ticking up from 101.3 in May to 103.9 in June. The surge in business confidence is a significant improvement, especially since both business and consumer confidence had declined in Nebraska during April and May. With confidence high, businesses were concerned about costs and competition. When asked about the most important issue facing their business, customer demand was mentioned by 27 percent of respondents, while the availability and …

The Political Cycle In China's Primary Land Market, Xuan Li

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

Using an exhaustive monthly panel data set of 331 cities between 2004 and 2015, we empirically study the political cycle in primary land markets in Chinese cities, where the local government is the sole supplier and seller of the land and holds stress-free elections. We find that the land supply pattern is far from smooth: A city party secretary who is the leading official figure in that city would supply less land during the latter period of his/her office, especially after the first five-year term. Land supply, measured by the number of plots, land area and land revenue, refers to …

Understanding And Modifying Health Behaviors, Kristina N. Piorkowski

Economics ETDs

This dissertation explores two drivers behind the spread of non-communicable diseases – sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and youth tobacco use – in order to improve policies tailored to mitigate these behaviors. Chapter 2 uses primary survey data to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) for a tax on sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) in New Mexico. Traditional contingent valuation regression methods were reformulated as a three-equation system. Results indicate that respondents who have healthier eating habits have statistically significantly higher preferences for SSB taxes. The estimated individual median WTP 95% confidence interval was 0.002-0.961 pennies-per-ounce. Chapter 3 continues the exploration into SSB …

Essays In The Social Determinants Of Health And Public Health Policy, Glen Vincent Mcdermott

Economics ETDs

There is broad-based qualitative evidence arguing that stress is a public health concern. In the search for causality however, economists investigating public health concerns are often limited to a narrow subset of socio-economic status (SES) factors which are not well suited to the evaluation of stress/health effects. As a result, economists have a difficult time answering the “how” and “why” questions which emerge from the well-respected SES/health gradient. This dissertation focuses on a subset of stressors credibly affiliated with SES to address two pathways underling the established SES/Health gradient. Chapter 2 uses the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to test …

The Economic Impact Of Apple Growing And Processing On The West Virginia Economy, Christiadi, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

No abstract provided.

The Economic Impact Of Coal In West Virginia, Christiadi, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

No abstract provided.

Coal Production In West Virginia, Brian Lego, John Deskins

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

No abstract provided.

Unconventional Natural Gas Industry Value Chain And Representative Companies, Ednilson Bernardes

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

This report defines a framework for the unconventional natural gas value chain and identifies representative companies in each stage, as per definition of the value chain adopted for the study. The main focus of the report is on major companies in the up and midstream stages of the value chain. However, the report presents major companies in stages further downstream covered by the study. The reason for the focus on up and midstream stages is two‐fold. First, given the current level of development of the unconventional natural gas value chain in the state, those are the stages where most opportunities …

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

The Rhode Island Current Conditions Index

No abstract provided.

Another Look At Dollar Cost Averaging, Gary N. Smith, Heidi Margaret Artigue

Pomona Economics

Dollar cost averaging—spreading an investor’s stock purchases evenly over time—is widely touted in the popular press because of the mathematical fact that the average cost per share is less than the average price. The academic press has generally been skeptical, and attributes dollar cost averaging’s popularity to investor naiveté and cognitive errors. Yet, dollar cost averaging continues to be recommended by knowledgeable investors as a sensible way to avoid ill-timed purchases. We argue that dollar cost averaging is, in fact, an imperfect, but helpful strategy for diversifying investment decisions across time.

The Persistent Labor Market Effects Of A Criminal Conviction And “Ban The Box” Reforms, Joshua M. Congdon-Hohman

Economics Department Working Papers

Past literature has established that individuals who have been incarcerated face difficulties reentering the work force following their release, while finding and keeping a job can significantly reduce recidivism amongst individuals with prior criminal convictions. In attempt to improve employment outcomes, many local and state governments in the United States have initiated "Ban the Box" regulations. These initiatives delay inquiries regarding criminal history on job applications. Versions of ban the box regulations covering public sector employment have been enacted in 31 states and more than 150 local governments. Ban the box laws have included private employers in eleven states and …

The Economic Impact Of Olympic Games: Effects Of Host Country Announcements On Stock Market Returns, Bryan Engelhardt, Victor Matheson, Alex Yen, Max Chisholm

Economics Department Working Papers

Roughly seven years before an Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) accepts bids from countries to host an Olympics. Subsequently, the IOC determines and announces to the world who has won (and lost) the right to host. Contrary to prior evidence, we find the announcements do not affect the bidding countries’ stock markets. We complement prior studies by including additional, more recent, years of announcements, by investigating whether there are effects prior to the announcement, and by testing for an effect both parametrically and non-parametrically.

A Key Currency View Of Global Imbalance, Hiro Ito, Robert N. Mccauley

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study divides the world into currency zones according to the co-movement of each currency with the key currencies. The dollar zone groups economies that produce well over half of global GDP. The euro zone now includes almost all of Europe and some commodity producers, but remains less than half the size of the dollar zone. The dollar zone share has shown striking stability despite big shifts across zones over time. These include the demise of the sterling zone and the expansion of the DM/euro from northwestern Europe to Europe and beyond. Global imbalances look very different from a currency …

Immigration Policy Today, Susan Pozo

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

The Economics Of Job Search: New Insights From An Upjohn Institute-Federal Reserve Bank Of Chicago Conference, Brad J. Hershbein, Claudia Macaluso

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

A Thirst For Empire: How Tea Shaped The Modern World, Jane T. Merritt

History Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) In A Thirst for Empire: How Tea Shaped the Modern World, Erika Rappaport, specialist in British consumer culture, explores the influ- ence of the quintessential English beverage on the rise of mass markets and British identity. Drawing from a variety of research tradi- tions, including recent commodity studies, the author argues that tea was both a product of and a producer of empire. The commercial success of tea created powerful corporate entities with imperial ties, such as the English East India Company and Lipton’s. But, it was the practice of drinking tea that defined and transformed “Britishness.” …

On Human Capital Development In Bangladesh, Sijia Xu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation consists of three chapters on human capital development in Bangladesh. The first chapter provides microeconometric evidence that access to electricity has a positive impact on the nutritional status of children under five in rural Bangladesh.

How Do Restaurant Menu Calorie Labeling Requirements And Exercise Impact Consumer Food Decision Making?, Nigina Rakhmatullaeva

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The percentage of the U.S. population that is obese has increased markedly over the past fifty years. Obesity is driven in part by imbalances in energy consumption and expenditures. There are two main behavioral factors that influence that balance: food consumption and exercise. In this thesis, I report the results of two experiments that encompass both food choice and exercise.

The consumption of food prepared away from home is growing rapidly. Since individuals do not control the ingredients in foods prepared away from home, these foods are frequently less healthy than home-cooked foods. The role of calorie labeling for foods …

Dissecting The Impact Of Import Competition On U.S. Earnings Inequality, Felipe Benguria

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

This paper studies the impact of globalization on U.S. earnings inequality in the context of rapidly growing import competition from China. The increase in U.S. inequality during 2000-2007 has been driven entirely by changes within regions}. While the existing literature has established differences in wage growth across regions as a consequence of import competition, understanding the impact of globalization on rising U.S. inequality requires then focusing on its impact on inequality within regions. Exploiting variation in exposure to this unprecedented trade shock across local labor markets I find that import competition causes an increase in earnings inequality. This impact occurs …