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Rhode Island Current Conditions Index -- May 2019, Leonard Lardaro

The Rhode Island Current Conditions Index

No abstract provided.

Box Office Showdown: How Does Movie Market Saturation Affect First Weekend Box Office Revenues?, Matthew Steele

Economics Honors Projects

The scheduling of release dates for feature films is among the most important decisions that movie studios make in the life cycle of a movie. While the economic literature on the movie industry has largely focused on modeling the box office success of a movie based on its own characteristics—star power, critical reception, and trailer data—there is a dearth of literature concerning the way that competition from within the industry affects box office revenues. This article primarily uses a propensity score matching model to fill a gap in the literature, establishing causal relationships between different forms of competition and first …

The Effects Of Conflict On Household Agricultural Investment In Nigeria, Harrison Mitchell

Economics Honors Projects

While the negative effects of conflict on health and education are well established, studies identifying the effects of conflict on household agricultural investment are sparser. I combine a household panel dataset from Nigeria’s Living Standards Measurement Survey - Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) with detailed data on conflict events from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED). Using an event studies framework, these data allow me to estimate the effects of conflict on a variety of household agricultural decisions. I find evidence that conflict involving Fulani pastoralists reduces a household’s cattle holdings in the following season. Additionally, I find …

The Political Economy Of Automation: Its Effects On Workers Past, Present, And Future, Brendan Klein

All College Thesis Program, 2016-2019

This paper explores the state of the skill premium between skilled and unskilled labor in light of new forms of automation entering the workforce from 2008-2017. I build off the work started by Goldin and Katz in their book, The Race Between Education and Technology, answering the question: is demand for skilled labor currently outpacing the supply of skilled labor due to new forms of automation? I start with a historical review of the race between demand and supply of skilled labor, along with a study of policy influences on skilled labor supply. I then examine the literature currently published …

Minimum Quotation Size And Market Quality: Evidence From The Modern Otc Markets, Kemerey Thompson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

I examine the effects of a change in the minimum quotation size on liquidity and volatility in the modern over-the-counter (OTC) markets. On November 12, 2012, the Financial Industry Regulatory Agency (FINRA) introduced a pilot program to adjust the minimum quote sizes for securities transactions in the OTC markets. I find that an increase in the minimum quote size decreases OTC market quality as spreads widen and volatility increases. In contrast, I find that a decrease in the minimum quote size improves OTC market quality, but the results are sensitive to the price of the security. These results offer important …

Examining The Capacity Of Nebraska Rangelands For Cattle, Kaitlyn Cumming, Jay Parsons, Walter H. Schacht, Brian Baskerville

Cornhusker Economics

According to the 2017 United States Department of Agriculture National Agriculture Statistics Service report (USDA-NASS 2017), Nebraska is the number one ranked state in the United States for both cattle on feed and for beef slaughtering capacity. It ranks number two in all cattle and calves while ranking number four in the number of beef cows. Beef production has a $12.1 billion impact annually to the Nebraska economy including $6.5 billion in direct sales (Nebraska Beef Cattle Facts 2016).

Given the above information, a research question was motivated to evaluate the forage production of Nebraska’s perennial grazing land systems and …

The House That Credit Built: How Advertising Shaped A Culture Of Borrowing In The Decade Of Prosperity., Morgan Folden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an examination of the visual rhetoric of the advertisements in 1920s America that encouraged consumers to implement payment plans to purchase commodities. It begins with an analysis of a standard advertisement found in a popular subscription journal and describes the ad’s reliance on an editorial-style layout to appeal to the rationality of the viewer, a theme common among marketing schemes of the surrounding decades. It uses an art historical approach to provide a new lens in studying capitalist economics and the provocative issue of empowerment versus confinement in the general visual representation of American housewives. The latter …

For-Profit Prisons: How Lobbying Has Affected The Way America Houses Prisoners, Jacob F. Israel

Political Science Theses and Capstones

There seems to be limited research and understanding as to why for-profit prisons exist in the United States. The initial selling points used to sell private prisons to states and counties were that they would reduce recidivism and cost. Recent peer-reviewed studies have found, however, that neither are the case. This could lead one to ask why for-profit prisons are still used in America. That is what I hope to answer in this research paper. After research and analysis of campaign donations by the two largest for-profit prison corporations (collected from the National Institute on Money in State Politics) and …

Can Friends Seed More Buzz And Adoption?, Vineet Kumar, K. Sudhir

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

A critical element of word of mouth (WOM) or buzz marketing is to identify seeds, often central actors with high degree in the social network. Seed identification typically requires data on the full network structure, which is often unavailable. We therefore examine the impact of WOM seeding strategies motivated by the friendship paradox to obtain more central nodes without knowing network structure. But higher-degree nodes may communicate less with neighbors; therefore whether friendship paradox motivated seeding strategies increase or reduce WOM and adoption remains an empirical question. We develop and estimate a model of WOM and adoption using data on …

Attribute Sentiment Scoring With Online Text Reviews: Accounting For Language Structure And Missing Attributes, Ishita Chakraborty, Minkyung Kim, K. Sudhir

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

The authors address two significant challenges in using online text reviews to obtain finegrained attribute level sentiment ratings. First, in contrast to methods that rely on word frequency, they develop a deep learning convolutional-LSTM hybrid model to account for language structure. The convolutional layer accounts for spatial structure (adjacent word groups or phrases) and LSTM accounts for sequential structure of language (sentiment distributed and modified across non-adjacent phrases). Second, they address the problem of missing attributes in text in constructing attribute sentiment scores—as reviewers write only about a subset of attributes and remain silent on others. They develop a model-based …

Can Random Friends Seed More Buzz And Adoption? Leveraging The Friendship Paradox, Vineet Kumar, K. Sudhir

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

A critical element of word of mouth (WOM) or buzz marketing is to identify seeds, often central actors with high degree in the social network. Seed identification typically requires data on the full network structure, which is often unavailable. We therefore examine the impact of WOM seeding strategies motivated by the friendship paradox to obtain more central nodes without knowing network structure on adoption. Higher-degree nodes may be less effective as seeds if these nodes communicate less with neighbors or are less persuasive when they communicate; therefore whether friendship paradox motivated seeding strategies increase or reduce WOM and adoption remains …

Essays On Convex Weighting For Global Vector Autoregressive Models, Garrison Leach

Economics Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on studying the impact that weighting schemes can have on forecasting performance and dynamic analysis in global vector autoregressive (GVAR) models. The first chapter discusses an existing gap in the literature regarding weighting scheme choice and develops a simple, yet powerful method for defining richer spatial linkages in a way that doesn’t sacrifice economic context. The new technique called convex weighting, extends the set of available options for defining spatial linkages in models that handle the curse of dimensionality via compression and offers a justifiable approach to alleviating uncertainty. The second and third chapters apply the newly …

The Rhode Island Earned Income Tax Credit: History And Analysis, Andrew Boardman

Senior Honors Projects

This paper offers a comprehensive political history of the Rhode Island Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and an analysis of Rhode Island EITC recipients. It explores the history of the Rhode Island EITC, an income subsidy available to low-income workers, from its introduction in 1975 through 2018. It details the forces behind expansions and reforms and the effects of those changes. It also analyzes microdata to construct a profile of current EITC recipients. This paper concludes that the Rhode Island EITC has historically been viewed as both a poverty alleviation program and an incentive for labor market work. The Rhode …

The Effects Of Demographic Changes On State Fiscal Balances In The U.S., Patrick Nartey

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The share of the population that is 65 or older keeps on rising over the years in the U.S. According to the 2017 US population projection, the rate of growth of older population is much faster than other age groups. The growing aging population will affect the economy in many ways, especially in fiscal balance of regional governments. The main goal of the study is to examine the fiscal implication of increasing old-age population in U.S states. The old-age dependency ratio is used to measure aging population, which derived by diving the population 65 years and over by the 18 …

Playing Games To Improve Conceptual Understanding And Cooperation In Social Dilemmas., Jason R Bush

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

People make decisions every day that have significant impact on others. The current experiment investigates the learning and decision-making processes involved when small groups confront a complex social dilemma under different learning conditions designed to imitate common educational interventions used in classrooms and non-laboratory settings. Participants (N=96) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions. In the Explore-First condition (n=32), participants played one round of a simulated social dilemma board game before receiving a lesson on social dilemmas, then played a second round. In the Lesson-First condition (n=32), participants received the lesson before playing …

U.S. Housing Market In 2019 Expected To Perform Better Than Originally Predicted - May 2019, Manuel Reyes-Loya, Marilyn Young

Hibbs Newsletter

In this issue of the Hibbs Newsletter we discuss the housing market in the U.S. generally and with a focus on East Texas.

Understanding Maternal Mortality In The United States, Alexis Whellan

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Background and Purpose: The maternal mortality rate in the United States is uncharacteristically high for a developed nation. Despite a concerted effort to participate in decreasing maternal mortality rates internationally as part of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, the United States has failed many of its mothers when it comes to positive maternal health outcomes. The quality of health care in the United States is comparable to other developed nations, suggesting that the unusually high maternal mortality rate is not due to physician error and lack of proper physician techniques and rather due to social variables. There are many …

Does Family Income Determine A Children Future Educational Attainment Level?, Diaisha T. Richards

Applied Economics Theses

Family income and education have been a major concern in a variety of researches, and as a topic in society. These two components are a major concern because they are known to be key elements in determining future success for an individual. Various studies investigated the significance, correlations and impacts these two factors have on one another. It is common for the amount of family income obtained to determine how much education one will receive in the future. This study focuses on testing the hypothesis that family income determines how much education a child will receive in the future. By …

Economic And Demographic Determinants Of The Consumption, Saving And Borrowing Behaviors Of Households, Micaela Joseph

Applied Economics Theses

The personal savings rate is an unsettling subject, because every economist has distinctive opinions on the determinants of consumption, saving and borrowing behaviors of households. For instance, many individuals assume that there is a positive relationship between real disposable income and the personal savings rate. In other words, saving amongst households have increased with the growth of household wealth. On the other hand, some individuals deem that there is an inverse relationship between both variables, so much that this topic has always demanded further research to be completed. Because of my awareness and experience relating to this topic, I have …

Toward A More Universal Currency: The Impact Of The Clearing Mechanism On Developing Economies, Evan Ross Kaderbeck

Applied Economics Theses

Toward a More Universal Currency:

The Impact of the Clearing Mechanism on Developing Economies

As part of a broader plan to reform the system of international finance, experts have indicated the need to modify the system of international money. They point to problems such as the difficulties faced by developing countries in obtaining hard currency needed for imports, or the flows of hot money which make the financing of long-term development projects difficult. Some have called for a form of universal currency, used only in international trade. Developing nations especially need access to a clearing mechanism which would eliminate the …

Asymmetric Effects Of Cultural Institutes On Trade And Foreign Direct Investment, Donald Lien, Melody Lo, David Bojanic

Business and Information Technology Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Purpose of a Cultural Institute is to Improve International Relations with Other Countries by Promoting Language Familiarity and Cultural Awareness. in Addition, Cultural Institutes Can Provide Additional Business Opportunities that Lead to Positive Economic Side Effects Such as Increases in Trade and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). in This Study, Gravity Models Were Used to Analyse the Data for the Goethe Institut (Germany), the Cervantes Institute (Spain) and the Confucius Institute (China) to Identify Any Stylised International Patterns of the Documented Economic Effects. the Study Finds Significant Positive Effects on Bilateral Trade and FDI Outflows for All Three Programmes, Along …

A Framework For Learning During An Honors Internship: Embold Health Inc., Haley Haldeman

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Embold Health Inc. is a health care analytics start-up company that identifies top performing providers using large data sets and clinically nuanced measurement. A comprehensive assessment of quality, appropriateness, and cost is what Embold Health delivers. Embold allows payers more control in choosing providers within their region. Being able to identify top provider behaviors through rigorous data driven measurement is significant both clinically and commercially; it provides the opportunity to increase value of care, decrease waste, and drive down cost.

Over the past year as an intern, I’ve had a first-hand look into the complexity that surrounds data driven health …

Do Not Take Peace For Granted: Adam Smith's Warning On The Relation Between Commerce And War, Maria Pia Paganelli, R. Schumacher

Economics Faculty Research

Is trade a promoter of peace? Adam Smith, one of the earliest defenders of trade, worries that commerce may instigate some perverse incentives, encouraging wars. The wealth that commerce generates decreases the relative cost of wars, increases the ability to finance wars through debts, which decreases their perceived cost, and increases the willingness of commercial interests to use wars to extend their markets, increasing the number and prolonging the length of wars. Smith, therefore, cannot assume that trade would yield a peaceful world. While defending and promoting trade, Smith warns us not to take peace for granted.

Systematic Risk-Factors Among U.S. Stock Market Sectors, Maksim V. Papenkov

Economics

The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and its extensions are a family of empirical asset pricing models which partition risk as either "systematic" (market-wide) or "idiosyncratic" (stock-specific). Examples of systematic risk-factors include the market return, company size, and company value. Within the framework of the CAPM-family of models, it is assumed that the effects of these systematic risk-factors are homogenous among sectors. This paper develops an extension to the CAPM relaxing this assumption, by directly comparing these systematic risk-factors at the sector-level. Utilizing CRSP and Compustat data, systematic risk-factor premiums are estimated for each sector, which demonstrates heterogeneity, with respect …

Effects The 2014 Medicaid Expansion On Seat Belt Use: An Investigation Into Moral Hazard, Paul Pangburn

Economics

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Obama in 2010, health insurance coverage was expanded to 20 million previously uninsured people. Of these, 14.5 million were Medicaid eligible. Moral Hazard, a common research topic in insurance, is defined as when the private actions of an individual in a risk-sharing situation influence the probability of the outcome. There are two types of moral hazard, called ex-post moral hazard and ex-ante moral hazard. In the case of health insurance, ex-post moral hazard is when a health behavior changes after an individual becomes insured. Ex-ante moral hazard, …

The Effects Of The Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansion On Breast And Cervical Cancer Screening Rates On Low-Income Childless Women, Michelle Raissa Kobou Wafo

Economics

In 2010, the Obama administration passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) commonly known as Obamacare. However, it is in 2014 that several key parts of the ACA went into effect. Among those key parts is the Medicaid expansion program. States that chose to adopt the policy, expanded Medicaid access to everyone under 138 percent of the federal poverty line. This extension had the largest impact on childless adults who previously were not covered by the program. Moreover, ACA made it mandatory for all health plans (private and public) to include the ten essential health benefits in their …

Perceptions Of The North American Free Trade Agreement And Mexican Migration: “What Is The Relationship Between Trade Liberalization And Labor Mobility?”, Colin Gonzalez

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

In an effort to understand the effectiveness of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the author uses previous academic literature to assesses the success of the North American Free Trade Agreement’s primary and peripheral goals. To understand how North American citizens, perceive NAFTA and their future relationship with one another, the author uses survey data to analyze attitudes of American and Mexican citizens towards trade liberalization (NAFTA) and labor mobility. Regression analysis reveals that there is a positive relationship between labor mobility and trade liberalization for Mexican citizens but not for American citizens. This is a significant finding that contributes …

The Value Of Farmland: Mapping Assessor Data To Understand Land Use Change, Lyndi Perry

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ideas developed by regional economists have potential applications within the urban planning field. One potential application is toward conserving farmland, and within this thesis this topic is examined for the study area of Utah County, Utah. Using assessor data, a land value map is created and further used to develop a regional economic model and spatial models that were analyzed for patterns of land use change.

Findings show that representing land value as continuous surface maps is a useful approach. The maps reveal that Utah County has densified as its population increased while farmland loss still occurred in agriculturally-important areas. …

The Effect Of "Drought Tolerant" Labeling On Consumers' Preferences And Willingness To Pay For Ornamental Plants, Susanne Tábara Cenador

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Utah’s water resources are endangered by low rainfall rates, high per capita water consumption and a strong projected increase of residents. The irrigation of ornamental plant landscaping is estimated to account for 60% of residential water use, and is, therefore, a target of education programs in the effort to promote water conservancy. The water-wise “Yellow Tag” program developed by the Utah Division of Water Resources seeks to provide retail nurseries with free tags for labeling plants which are considered low water use with the objective of promoting water conservation. The objective of this study is to determine consumer preferences for …

Exploring Financial Literacy Of Independent Musicians In The Gig Economy, Benjamin Milam

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to gain insight into the elements of the career of independent musicians. Specifically, how they overcome or fail to overcome the challenges of a gig economy through knowledge and ability to properly manage scarce financial resources. The research questions posed are as follows: (a) Does higher financial literacy allow independent musicians to sustain and improve their career in the gig economy? (b) How do independent musicians use financial literacy to sustain their career? (c) How does industry experience affect the ability of independent artists to effectively allocate financial resources? To answer these research questions, …