Economics Commons^™

An Agent-Based Approach To Simulating The Minimum Wage Market, Luke Snyder

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper seeks to identify and describe the economic impacts of adjusting the minimum wage on employment. The approach taken is constructing an agent-based simulation using the well-known software suite NetLogo. The simulation models business and consumer behavior through a set of governing economic principles, yet also provides randomization to more accurately account for occasional outliers and human irrationality. The results of the simulation indicate relatively small changes in employment among minimum wages between $7.25 and $10.00, with a gradual decrease thereafter.

Transfer Mispricing In Africa: Contextual Issues, Edna Kabala, Manenga Ndulo

Southern African Journal of Policy and Development

Transfer pricing is a significant tax issue and lies at the core of international trade and globalisation. This brief raises contextual issues and challenges surrounding the experience of transfer mispricing in Africa. The brief comes at a time when African countries have consistently exhibited high real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates in the past two decades, and increased FDI inflows and technological upgrades have aided their high participation in global trade. Despite the profitability of MNEs operations in Africa, the investing firms are paying less in terms of tax. This has created a problem for African countries to raise …

Centering People In The Economy: Worker Cooperatives And The Solidarity Economy In Barcelona, James Hooks

Sustainability and Social Justice

Are worker cooperatives and the solidarity economy viable tools for revolutionary change in a neoliberal, capitalist system? I approach this question by considering the arguments of utopian socialists, scientific socialists, and anarchists from the Industrial Revolution and the influence of these on the theory of the solidarity economy today. These theoretical perspectives are compared to the reality of members of worker cooperatives in the solidarity economy in Barcelona. The experiences of worker cooperative members are elucidated through focus group discussions and participant produced drawings. A comparison of worker experiences with theory shows worker cooperatives can be spaces for practicing equitable …

Trends And Disparities In Leave Use Under California's Paid Family Leave Program: New Evidence From Administrative Data, Sarah H. Bana, Kelly Bedard, Maya Rossin-Slater

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

We use novel administrative data to study trends and disparities in usage of California's first-in-the-nation paid family leave (PFL) program. We show that take-up for both bonding with a new child and caring for an ill family member increased over 2005–2014. Most women combine PFL with maternity leave from the State Disability Insurance system, resulting in leaves longer than 6 weeks. Most men take less than the full 6 weeks of PFL. Individuals in the lowest earnings quartile and in small firms are the least likely to take leave. There are important differences in take-up across industries, especially for men.

Efficacy Of Technology-Based And In-Person Health Education For Behavior Change In College-Aged Women, Madeline Bremel

All College Thesis Program, 2016-2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether an in-person or technology based bone health intervention improved bone health knowledge and behaviors in college-aged women. Methods: 30 college-aged women were randomly divided into three groups: personal intervention (n = 10), technological intervention (n = 10), and control (n = 10). Both intervention groups received identical information regarding the importance of bone health and the appropriate behaviors for maintaining strong bones including weight-bearing exercise, calcium consumption, and vitamin D consumption. The technology group received the information via an online video, and the personal group via a one-on-one …

The Economics Of The World Cup, Victor Matheson

Economics Department Working Papers

The quadrennial World Cup is perhaps the world’s most popular sporting event with millions of live fans and a worldwide television audience in the billions. It is also one of the most costly events to host with recent hosts countries such as Brazil and Russia spending around $12 billion putting on the tournament. This paper examines the costs and the benefits of hosting the World Cup with a focus on historical data and past economic impact studies.

The Effects Of Mass Shootings On Gun Sales, Elliot Chau

Economics Department Working Papers

The United States experiences mass shootings which cause the American public to respond in various ways. One measurable aspect is the demand for firearms following a shooting. Using the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System to proxy firearm sales, I create an ARMA model that estimates which characteristic of a mass shooting dictates the largest firearms purchase response. I find that President Obama’s tenure caused 210,000 more firearms sales per month. I also find that if the mass shooter was an internationally influenced terrorist, firearms sales increased by about 420,000 for the two-month period.

Are Prize-Linked Savings Accounts The Solution To Arkansas' Savings Problem?, Mckenzie Wages

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research finds that access to prize-linked savings could improve the financial security of Arkansans. Prize-linked savings (PLS) accounts are nontraditional savings products that offer depositors the chance to win cash prizes instead of a typical interest rate return. Given the low median incomes, high liquid asset poverty rates, and high levels of underbanked and undereducated individuals in Arkansas, there is a need for an innovative savings solution like PLS in the state. PLS accounts capitalize on individuals’ propensity for lottery-like risk-taking to inspire the productive behavior of personal saving. A wide range of individuals, especially those who could stand …

Fair Trade And Its Value In Today’S Globalized Economy, Kristen Unangst

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

My capstone examines how fair trade can operate in today’s globalized economy and how it can aid in solving some of the large problems that globalization has created. This paper is structured in the following way. It first examines globalization and the ways that it has advanced the world today. Then, it ventures into the problems that globalization has created and how they can be repaired using fair trade. This paper also looks into how fair trade has been successful in the recent past and how it can be improved in the future. It especially highlights how profitable fair trade …

The Effects Of Food Security On Socioeconomic Mobility In The United States: A Case Study In Allendale County, South Carolina, Taylor St Clarke

Senior Theses

This thesis examines the relationship between food security – defined as accessibility to an affordable, nutritious, and sustainable source of food – and socioeconomic mobility in the continental United States. This thesis is primarily focused on the effects of food insecurity on both individuals and communities, examining the chronic long-term effects of such insecurity on areas known as “food deserts,” which are often given status as areas of persistent poverty. This research further examines the effects of a sustained poor diet, brought about by food insecurity, on the individual and overarching community in a food desert and how such a …

2018 South Dakota Commodity Crop Producer Survey Results, Jessica D. Ulrich-Schad, Abdelrahim Abulbasher, Department Of Sociology And Rural Studies, Ness School Of Management And Economics

South Dakota Farm Survey

From January to March 2018, we surveyed South Dakota commodity crop producers about their land management practices and attitudes. Farming operations in 34 South Dakota counties east of the Missouri River, where most of corn and soybean farming activities in the state are located, were targeted to take the questionnaire (see map below). We obtained a list of 10,000 farming operations that had participated in Farm Service Agency (FSA) programs in 2016 from the FSA and selected 3,000 operations to participate using proportionate stratified-random sampling according to number of farming operations in the study counties. The questionnaire directed the person …

Essays In Applied Microeconomics And Public Policy Evaluation, Yanying Chen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation comprises four papers that evaluate the effectiveness of public policies in Singapore. The first paper studies the non-tangible effect of a new non-contributory pension in Singapore on subjective well-being. The second investigates the effect of the same pension on labour supply, work expectations, private cash transfers and expenditure. The third evaluates a pragmatic randomised controlled trial of a new transitional care programme in a large quaternary hospital, while the fourth examines the effect of a large-scale housing upgrading programme on the resale prices of upgraded flats.

Chapter 2 looks at the non-tangible effect of a new non-contributory pension …

Essays On Natural Resources And Economic Development, Ahsan Kibria

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation studies the political economy of natural resources and how these resources may pose an opportunity or a threat to a country and comprises three essays.

The first essay explores how economic development can impact the consumption behavior of natural resources, with focus on fossil fuels. It suggests the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between fossil fuel share in the energy mix and economic development. Particularly, the essay illustrates an evidence that fossil fuel's share in the energy mix increases as a country develops, however, after reaching a real income per capita of around US$16,000, the country reduces …

Measuring Socio-Economic Status Of An Urban Squatter Settlement In Pakistan Using Wami Index, Nousheen Pradhan, Tazeen Saeed Ali, Fauzia Basaria Hasnani, Shireen Shehzad Bhamani, Rozina Karmaliani

Community Health Sciences

Objective: To determine the socio-economic status of a peri-urban community.
Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted at Deh Chuhar village, Gaddap Town, Karachi from December 2015 to February 2016. The Water/Sanitation, Assets, Maternal Education and Income Index was used. All variables were given a score on the scale of 0-8. The resulting index was illustrated in the form of quintiles.
Results: : A total of 254 households were surveyed. Total population was 2117 with mean number of household members being 8±4. Mean index score was 0.39±0.14 and the median score was 0.375. Percentile distribution of the score indicated that 152(60%) …

Does Migration Cause Income Inequality?, Pia M. Orrenius, Madeline Zavodny

Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center Research

Inequality has been rising across the world in recent decades. Latin America has been an exception to what otherwise seems to be the prevalent trend in the U.S., Europe and Asia. In the U.S. the rise in inequality since the 1970s has coincided with the rise in Mexican immigration. In Mexico, inequality has been declining since the mid-1990s, a period during which emigration to the U.S. first increased to historic highs and then declined steeply.

Our review of the literature suggests that low-skilled immigration to the U.S., much of it from Mexico, has only played a minor role in rising …

¿La Migración Causa Desigualdad De Ingresos?, Pia M. Orrenius, Madeline Zavodny

Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center Research

La desigualdad ha aumentado en décadas recientes a lo largo del mundo. Latinoamérica ha sido una excepción a lo que, por lo demás, parece ser la tendencia prevalente en los Estados Unidos, Europa y Asia. En los Estados Unidos, la acentuación de la desigualdad desde los años 1970 ha coincidido con el aumento de la migración mexicana. En México, la desigualdad ha disminuido desde mediados de la década 1990, periodo durante el que la emigración a los Estados Unidos se elevó, primero a niveles nunca antes visto, para luego declinar de manera abrupta.

Nuestra revisión bibliográfica sugiere que la inmigración …

Revenue Guarantee Equivalence, Dirk Bergemann, Benjamin Brooks, Stephen Morris

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We revisit the revenue comparison of standard auction formats, including first-price, second-price, and English auctions. We rank auctions according to their revenue guarantees, i.e., the greatest lower bound of revenue across all informational environments, where we hold fixed the distribution of bidders' values. We conclude that if we restrict attention to the symmetric affiliated models of Milgrom and Weber (1982) and monotonic pure-strategy equilibria, first-price, second-price, and English auctions all have the same revenue guarantee, which is equal to that of the first-price auction as characterized by Bergemann, Brooks, and Morris (2017a). If we consider all equilibria or if we …

First-Price Auctions With General Information Structures: A Short Introduction, Dirk Bergemann, Benjamin Brooks, Stephen Morris

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

In a recent paper, [Bergemann et al. 2017a], we derive results about equilibrium behavior in the first-price auction that hold across all common-prior information structures. The purpose of this letter is to give an informal introduction into the results. At the end we offer a brief discussion of related work.

Asymptotic Theory For Near Integrated Process Driven By Tempered Linear Process, Farzad Sabzikar, Qiying Wang, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper develops an asymptotic theory for near-integrated random processes and some associated regressions when the errors are tempered linear processes. Tempered processes are stationary time series that have a semi-long memory property in the sense that the autocovariogram of the process resembles that of a long memory model for moderate lags but eventually diminishes exponentially fast according to the presence of a decay factor governed by a tempering parameter. When the tempering parameter is sample size dependent, the resulting class of processes admits a wide range of behavior that includes both long memory, semi-long memory, and short memory processes. …

Burghardt And Sinns' "Global Perspectives On The Reformation: Interactions Between Theology, Politics And Economics" (Book Review), Craig Rosenbeck

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Regional Power Distributions On Interdependence, Michael A. Allen

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Political economy debates about the influence of power configurations in expanding and maintaining global liberalization ebb and flow with the wax and wane of the concentration of power in the international system. This article engages the debate in a novel way from previous scholarship. Employing a series of econometric models that account for regional power, I argue that the global power concentration is ill fit to be the primary predictor of trade liberalization, but instead, regional power fluctuations can dampen and enhance global trends. By incorporating sub-systemic power configurations, we gain a better understanding of the regional variation in states …

Human Trafficking In The Wake Of Natural Disasters: Is The United States Any Different Than Third World Countries?, Samantha Stout

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research compares the impacts of devastating natural disasters on levels of human trafficking in developed countries to the impacts experienced in third world countries. The two disasters selected for this study were Hurricane Isaac in Louisiana and the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia. Factors selected to measure the impacts of the natural disaster include income level, homelessness, and unemployment rates.

Human trafficking is a crime that touches nearly every country around the world. It is known that human trafficking levels are impacted by factors including poverty levels of regions, political unrest, and even natural disasters. There is …

In What Areas And With What Successes The Participation In International Trade Agreements Affect Socio-Economic And Political Development In Brazil?, Alisa Sokolova

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This paper examines the effects of international trade agreements on Brazil’s socio-economic and political development. It specifically analyzes multilateral trade agreements such as Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), the World Trade Organization (WTO), bilateral agreement with the European Union and multilateral agreement with China, Russia, India and South-Africa (BRICS). This research uses Brazil as a case study because of its rapid growth, young democracy and important economic role it plays in the region and the world. The relatively recent date of Brazil’s trade liberalization, the 1991, allows comparing data on Brazil before and after it. The purpose of the research is …

Impact Of Online Shopping On Shopping Malls, Xaioxing Yan

Applied Economics Theses

The growth of e-retail has been a major discussion in the shopping characteristics of contemporary society. This has been a major concern as people strive to relate the exponential growth of online shopping to the recent decline in the growth of shopping malls. Various studies have significantly investigated the growth of online shopping and have always mentioned the impact of online shopping on shopping malls to be a negative one. This study focuses on testing that hypothesis. By exploring the possible relationship between certain factors such as the number of shopping malls and the percentage increase in online shopping retail, …

Does Debt Matter?, Luhan Li

Applied Economics Theses

National debt is a popular topic, since people have a lot of different views on national debt. For example, many people think that there is a positive relationship between national debt and GDP per capita. In other words, the national debt has also increased with the growth of GDP per capita. However, some people feel that there is an inverse relationship between them, so much so that the topic has been discussed. Based on my interest in this topic, I decided to discuss this question. This paper will discuss their influence and importance by analyzing national debt, GDP per capita, …

The Impact Of Macroeconomic Factors On The Price Of Gold, Yunhao Sun

Applied Economics Theses

My thesis is that macro factors have been important to the change of the gold price, but have had a differential impact in three factors: Gross Global Product (GGP), real interest rate, and U.S. dollar index (USDI). I estimated the 1^st difference of the gold model to determine the impact of macro factors on the price of gold per quarter. The model was estimated using the OLS approach the sample size was 148. I make use of data from Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis economic data. The result was that 1^st difference model had statistically insignificant coefficients. …

Cryptocurrencies As An Alternative To Fiat Monetary Systems, David A. Georgeson

Applied Economics Theses

The recent popularity of cryptocurrencies is largely associated with a particular application referred to as Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency has a mix of properties that make it difficult to examine. These properties consist of being infinitely divisible, durable, transferable, fungible and can be controlled to be artificially scarce. Further, cryptocurrencies can act as a means of payment, a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a unit of account. This thesis will analyze the technical features underlying cryptocurrencies and find out whether or not they can function as an alternative to fiat money. Since Bitcoin is the most commonly understood application …

Factors Influencing Corn Fungicide Treatment Decisions, Alicia Rosburg, Luisa Menapace

Faculty Work

Fungal disease management in U.S. corn production has undergone a major shift in the last 2 decades. The decision to apply fungicide, a management practice that was once rarely considered, is now contemplated annually by many U.S. corn producers. We investigate potential factors underlying the fungicide treatment decision. We use economics, agronomy, and plant pathology literature to develop a conceptual model of the fungicide treatment decision and test the model using a survey of Midwest corn producers. We find the treatment decision is positively related to perceived economic gains, but heuristic factors also have a strong influence.

Global Climate Change, The Political Economy, And Development A Case Study: The Kingdom Of Tonga, Demonte Simon

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Globalization has created prosperity and growth for many of the countries across the globe especially in the Global North, which experience some of the greatest benefits of globalization while being the least affected by its negative impacts. Small island nation states tend to experience these negative impacts of globalization more often than the states that are fueling these trends. Globalization has many meanings, but the most agreed upon definition is the increasing interaction between people and corporations due to advances in transportation and communication technology. These advances have created a more interconnected world where trade, and culture have become international …

Narcocorridos: Music, Defiance, And Violence In Transnational Contexts, Nallely G Murguia

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This research aims to explain and understand the effects that the music genre known as narcocorrido has on society, politics, and culture in Mexico and the United States. It provides a background on the history of narcocorridos and how it came be known as a symptom of the ongoing violence in Mexico. The Movimiento Alterado is also explored in this research project, as a product of narcocorrido singers who came together to glorify violence. A global aspect plays a big role in researching this topic as globalization and transnationalism reveal the complexity of politics, economics, and culture and its effects …