Economics Commons^™

The Fairness Of Fair Trade: An Analysis Of The Economics Of Fair Trade, Duke C. Schillaci, Julia R. Norgaard

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

In 2015, a study done by Cone Communications found that millennials are "universally more engaged in corporate social responsibility." In fact, 87% of millennials are willing to purchase a product with social or environmental benefits. Enter, the fair trade label. The fair trade label, which is attached to products which meet the previously mentioned consumer demands, has emerged over the last three decades. Products like organic produce, textiles, and natural commodities have entered into global retailers and supermarkets through these non-traditional distribution channels, supported by increased consumption as well as changing consumer preferences. In order to uncover the underlying economic …

Belgium’S 2008 Recentralization Of Wage-Setting Mechanisms And The Decentralization-Unit Labor Costs-Net Exports Link: Chronicle Of A Death Foretold?, Ines Pedro Fernandes

Undergraduate Economic Review

Anchored on scholarly literature on international competitiveness and the classical definition of competitiveness as net exports, policy making institutions support decentralized wage-setting mechanisms. The rationale is that decentralized wage-setting systems lower wages and unit labor costs (ULC) and, therefore, increase net exports. This paper contains a literature review on the wage-setting–ULC–net exports link and challenges conventional rationales by examining the co-evolution of Belgium’s real wages and net exports across wage percentiles and sectors. Belgium is a case in point, since the country experienced both increasing real wages and increasing net exports after recentralizing wage-setting mechanisms in 2008.

Hedge Funds In The Periphery: An Analysis Of Structures Influencing Fund Behavior In The Icelandic And Cypriot Financial Crises, Jameson K. Mah

Undergraduate Economic Review

Hedge funds are often viewed from a positive or negative lens in the public and academic forum. However, both of these perspectives neglect structuralist factors. This paper analyzes the effect of these antecedent economic, political, and legal structures. I argue that these structures are at the root of hedge fund behavior, particularly during financial crises. The financial crises of two peripheral countries, Iceland and Cyprus, are used as case studies to illustrate how hedge fund involvement diverges as a result of structural factors.

Ecological Determinants Of Respiratory Health: Examining Associations Between Asthma Emergency Department Visits, Diesel Particulate Matter, And Public Parks And Open Space In Los Angeles, California, Jason A. Douglas, Reginald S. Archer, Serena E. Alexander

Health Sciences and Kinesiology Faculty Articles

Los Angeles County (LAC) low-income communities of color experience uneven asthma rates, evidenced by asthma emergency department visits (AEDV). This has partly been attributed to inequitable exposure to diesel particulate matter (DPM). Promisingly, public parks and open space (PPOS) contribute to DPM mitigation. However, low-income communities of color with limited access to PPOS may be deprived of associated public health benefits. Therefore, this novel study investigates the AEDV, DPM, PPOS nexus to address this public health dilemma and inform public policy in at-risk communities. Optimized Hotspot Analysis was used to examine geographic clustering of AEDVs, DPM, and PPOS at the …

Nebraska Women In Agriculture “Take Charge Of Change”, Jessica J. Groskopf

Cornhusker Economics

A crowd of almost 300 gathered together Feb. 21 and 22 in Kearney, Nebraska for the 34th Annual Nebraska Women in Agriculture Conference, with the theme “Take Charge of Change.”

The conference is one of the longest-running women's conferences of its kind in the country. The goal of the Nebraska Women in Agriculture Conference is for women to build relationships with each other while gaining valuable knowledge about managing risk on their farms and ranches. The event featured 4 general session speakers and over 30 workshop sessions.

The keynote speaker this year was Marji Guyler- Alaniz, President and Founder of …

Dynamic Pricing With Fairness Concerns And A Capacity Constraint, Matthew Selove

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Although some firms use dynamic pricing to respond to demand fluctuations, other firms claim that fairness concerns prevent them from raising prices during periods when demand exceeds capacity. This paper explores conditions in which fairness concerns can or cannot cause shortages. In our model, a firm announces a price policy that states its prices during high and low demand, and customers must travel to a venue to learn the current price. We show that the interaction of fairness concerns with travel costs can cause the firm to set stable prices, which leads to shortages during high demand. However, if the …

Modeling The Dynamics Of The Supply Of Registered Thoroughbred Foals And Animal Health, Steven S. Vickner Ph.D.

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Understanding key drivers of the Thoroughbred foal supply is fundamental to long run industry sustainability. A short supply of foals poses significant future challenges for racing executives offering a full season of healthy racecards. In many regions the foal supply has steadily declined and/or plateaued.

The Political Economy Of Foreign Aid And Growth: Theory And Evidence, Sultan Mehmood, Avner Seror

ESI Working Papers

In this paper, we demonstrate that even when foreign aid is used to fund patronage, it may still have a positive - and significant - effect on economic growth in developing countries. First, we present a theory that formalizes the effect of aid on economic growth and patronage. Next, we provide evidence from Pakistan consistent with the predictions of the model that foreign aid increases economic growth, despite being used for patronage. The identification strategy we propose allows us to provide causal evidence for the predictions of the model.

Assessment Of Economics Education In Korea's Higher Education, Jinsoo Hahn, Kyungho Jang, Jongsung Kim

Economics Faculty Book Publications

No abstract provided.

Designing Call Auction Institutions To Eliminate Price Bubbles: Is English Dutch The Best?, Cary Deck, Maroš Servátka, Steven Tucker

ESI Working Papers

The bubble and burst pattern in asset market experiments is among the most replicable results in experimental economics. Numerous studies have searched for means to reduce this mispricing. Using controlled laboratory experiments, we compare mispricing in standard double auction markets to prices in two clock auctions. The double Dutch auction, shown to be more efficient than the double auction in commodity market experiments, does not eliminate bubbles. However, the English Dutch auction does yield prices reflective of underlying fundamentals and succeeds in taming bubbles even with inexperienced traders in the common declining fundamental value environment.

How The Federal Reserve Aided The Peoples Bank Of China In Addressing Its 2015 Stock Market Crash, Alec Buchholtz

Journal of Financial Crises

An insight into the July 2015 exchange between the Federal Reserve Board and the People's Bank of China (PBOC) discussing efforts to apply lessons from the 1987 "Black Monday" stock market crash to a similar crash that was occurring in China.

Yale Program On Financial Stability Lessons Learned: Scott Alvarez, Esq., Alec Buchholtz, Rosalind Z. Wiggins

Journal of Financial Crises

Alvarez, who was General Counsel of the Federal Reserve System, Board of Governors during 2007-2009, gives us his take on how best to prepare for future crises.

The Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy H: The Global Contagion, Rosalind Z. Wiggins, Andrew Metrick

Journal of Financial Crises

When Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, it was the largest such filing in U.S. history and a huge shock to the world’s financial markets, which were already stressed from the deflated housing bubble and questions about subprime mortgages. Lehman was the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank with assets of $639 billion and its operations spread across the globe. Lehman’s clients and counterparties began to disclose millions of dollars of potential losses as they accounted for their exposures. But the impact of Lehman’s demise was felt well beyond its counterparties. Concern regarding its real estate assets, its large …

The Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy G: The Special Case Of Derivatives, Rosalind Z. Wiggins, Andrew Metrick

Journal of Financial Crises

When it filed for bankruptcy protection in September 2008, Lehman Brothers was an active participant in the derivatives market and was party to 906,000 derivative transactions of all types under 6,120 ISDA Master Agreements with an estimated notional value of $35 trillion. The majority of Lehman’s derivatives were bilateral agreements not traded on an exchange but in the over-the-counter (OTC) market. Because derivatives enjoyed an exemption from the automatic stay provisions of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, parties to Lehman’s derivatives could seek resolution and self-protection without the guidance and restraint of the bankruptcy court. The rush of counterparties to novate …

The Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy E: The Effects On Lehman’S U.S. Broker-Dealer, Rosalind Z. Wiggins, Andrew Metrick

Journal of Financial Crises

Lehman’s U.S. broker-dealer, Lehman Brothers Inc. (LBI), was excluded from the parent company’s bankruptcy filing on September 15, 2008, because it was thought that the solvent subsidiary might be able to wind down its affairs in a normal fashion. However, the force of the parent’s demise proved too strong, and within days, LBI and dozens of Lehman subsidiaries around the world were also in liquidation. As a regulated broker-dealer, LBI was required to comply with the Securities and Exchange Commission financial-responsibility rules for broker-dealers, including maintaining customer assets separately. However, the corporate complexity and enterprise integration that characterized the Lehman …

The Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy D: The Role Of Ernst & Young, Rosalind Z. Wiggins, Rosalind L. Bennett, Andrew Metrick

Journal of Financial Crises

For many years prior to its demise, Lehman Brothers employed Ernst & Young (EY) as the firm’s independent auditors to review its financial statements and express an opinion as to whether they fairly represented the company’s financial position. EY was supposed to try to detect fraud, determine whether a matter should be publicly disclosed, and communicate certain issues to Lehman’s Board audit committee. After Lehman filed for bankruptcy, it was discovered that the firm had employed questionable accounting with regard to an unorthodox financing transaction, Repo 105, which it used to make its results appear better than they were. EY …

The Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy C: Managing The Balance Sheet Through The Use Of Repo 105, Rosalind Z. Wiggins, Andrew Metrick

Journal of Financial Crises

The Lehman Brothers court-appointed bankruptcy examiner produced a 2,200-page report detailing possible claims that the estate might pursue. The most surprising revelation of the report was that during its last year Lehman had relied heavily on an unusual financing transaction—Repo 105. The examiner concluded that Lehman’s aggressive use of Repo 105 transactions enabled it to remove up to $50 billion of assets from its balance sheet at quarter-end and to manipulate its leverage ratio so that it could report more favorable results. This case considers in-depth Lehman’s questionable use of Repo 105 transactions and its impact.

The Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy A: Overview, Rosalind Z. Wiggins, Thomas Piontek, Andrew Metrick

Journal of Financial Crises

On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc., the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank, sought Chapter 11 protection, initiating the largest bankruptcy proceeding in U.S. history. The demise of the 164-year old firm was a seminal event in the global financial crisis. Under the direction of its long-time Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld, Lehman had been very successful pursuing a high-leverage, high-risk business model that required it to daily raise billions of dollars to fund its operations. Beginning in 2006, Lehman began to invest aggressively in real-estate-related assets and soon had significant exposures to housing and subprime mortgages, just as these …

The Early Phases Of The Financial Crisis: Reflections On The Lender Of Last Resort, Timothy F. Geithner

Journal of Financial Crises

This essay discusses the powers and limitations of the Federal Reserve’s role as Lender of Last Resort and how it deployed those powers during the financial crisis of 2007-2009. It considers the Fed’s authorities and the frameworks that it relied on in utilizing its powers to calm markets in turmoil and to assist specific financial institutions.

Nebraska Monthly Economic Indicators: March 20, 2019, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

The Leading Economic Indicator – Nebraska (LEI-N) 1 rose by 0.38% during February of 2019. The increase in the LEI-N, which is designed to predict economic activity six months into the future, implies moderate economic growth in Nebraska through the third quarter of 2019. Strong business expectations were the primary reason for the increase in the leading indicator. Respondents to the February Survey of Nebraska Business reported plans to increase both sales and employment at their businesses over the next six months. Business expectations were at odds with other components of the indicator. Building permts for single-family homes and manufacturing …

Is The Internet Bringing Down Language-Based Barriers To International Trade?, Erick Kitenge

Seminars in Local and Global Regional Economies

Dr. Kitenge will discuss his collaborative research with Dr. Sajal Lahiri from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, reporting results from their analysis of bilateral aggregate export data from 205 countries over the period 1990-2014.

Global Capital And The Cross-Section Of International Equity Return Comovement, Thummim Cho, Argyris Tsiaras

Economics: Faculty Publications

What makes a country’s stock market more correlated with the U.S. stock market than others? This paper documents and investigates theoretically a strong positive cross-sectional relationship between the share of an equity market held by foreign investors, U.S. investors in particular, and the return correlations of 40 equity markets with the U.S. market. We argue that frictions impeding the cross-border holding of equity are key determinants of cross-border positions and equity market return correlations across countries. We develop an asset pricing model that illustrates how heterogeneity in cross-border asset holding costs can generate the observed cross-sections of cross-border positions, return …

Market Impacts Of A Meat Tax, Regan Gilmore, Azzeddine Azzam

Cornhusker Economics

Over time, animal activists and environmentalists have made calls to put a tax on meat. What effect would that have? To find out, we estimated the impacts that a retail-level greenhouse gas (GHG) tax on meat would have on livestock and grain markets.

The research used a multi-market economic model that integrates the beef, pork, and poultry markets with the corn, distillers' grain, soybean, soymeal, and ethanol markets. For GHG taxes, we used those provided by Springman et al. based on a emission price (social cost) of $52 per metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent estimated by EPA. Emissions by …

Increasing Beneficiary Retention In Food Assistance Programs, Colin Gray, Christopher J. O'Leary

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.

Working Paper No. 14, Gramsci, Dugger And Hegemony, Devin Bales

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish connections between William Dugger’s understanding of subreption leading to corporate hegemony with Antonio Gramsci’s understanding of power and the hegemon. Specifically, this inquiry examines the similarities between both authors’ descriptions and understandings of power in a civil society. Going further, I draw parallels between Gramsci’s description of ‘passive revolution’ as a key process for achieving hegemony and Dugger’s explanation of the role ‘subreption’ plays in the rise of corporate hegemony in the United States. Finally, this inquiry explores connections between Gramsci’s writings on ‘Americanism’ and Dugger’s research into ‘corporate hegemony’. While Dugger does not cite …

Searching: On The Cultural And Sociopolitical Implication Of Social Media, Siamak Javadi

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

This is a review of the film Searching (2018), a multilayered thriller co-written and directed by Aneesh Chaganty. This film is a cinematic reflection of the profound impact of social media networks on our lives. The movies continuously navigates between the pros and cons of social media platforms. In this review, I focus on cultural and sociopolitical implications of social media platforms in relation to the film.

Van Dijk, Poell, And De Wall, The Platform Society: Public Values In A Connective World (2018), Batuhan Keskin

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

The Unfree Space Of Play: Emergence And Control In The Videogame And The Platform, Logan Brown

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

This article attempts to understand the economic and informatic ramifications of the convergence between increasingly connective games and massive online platforms by considering recent trends in both that center around designing for emergence. Scholarship on emergence as a property of games overwhelmingly treats emergent design as a liberating force that privileges player agency in a virtual space. Yet, as games fuse with surrounding platform ecosystems like Steam, Facebook, and Google, those emergent behaviors are subject to vast systems of inscription that analyze user behavior in order to reshape the free space of emergence and extract greater social and financial capital. …

[Cntrl] + [Alt] + [Esc] ? Virtual Platforms As Spaces Of Control And Contestation, Aras Ozgun

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

Sleep, Salary, And Successful Occupational Negotiation: Evidence From A Labor Market Survey, Jerrick Tram, Philip Wesley Routon

Undergraduate Economic Review

We examine the relationship between sleep and wages and then ask a follow-up question: might occupational negotiation be one intermediate factor? That is, are workers of a certain sleep pattern more likely to successfully (re)negotiate the terms of their employment? Popular press, non-economic research articles, self-help guides, and websites often purport relationships between sleep patterns and one's ability to successfully negotiate. Results point to sleeping hours having a statistically significant, positive, and strong relationship with both salary and successful negotiation, though the latter relationship is only apparent for workers in about their 4th or 5th year on the job.