Economics Commons^™

The Role Of High-Fructose Corn Syrup Imports In Child And Women Obesity, Anna Subirana Bofill

Master's Theses

High Fructose Corn Syrup is believed to be responsible for the increase of the obesity epidemic that is affecting both developed and developing countries, yet to date there are no rigorous analyses that quantify this effect. To estimate the impact of consumption of HFCS on obesity, I have paired country-specific data on imports of HFCS from the United Nations International Trade Statistics Database (UN Comtrade) with women and child health data from around 70 countries from 1985 to 2018. The results show that conditional on space and time fixed effects, imports of HFCS with a high concentration of fructose have …

Covid-19 Crisis, Impacts On Catholic Schools, And Potential Responses | Part 1: Developed Countries With Focus On The United States, Quentin Wodon

Journal of Catholic Education

The COVID-19 crisis has led to widespread temporary school closures and a deep economic recession. School closures have threatened children’s ability to learn and later return to school well prepared. The impact of the economic recession is going to be even more devastating: first for students, but also for the ability of some Catholic schools to maintain their enrollment and remain sustainable financially in countries where they do not benefit from government support. This paper, the first in a set of two, looks at some of the likely impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on Catholic Schools in developed countries with …

Essays On Money And Banking, Macroeconomics, And Political Economy, David Lindequist

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This thesis consists of three self-contained articles. In the first article "The Common Currency Channel of Risk Sharing", I propose a new channel of international risk sharing: the common currency channel. I show theoretically that the central bank of a currency union can use the common currency to insure member countries against consumption risk from idiosyncratic productivity shocks. A trade-off between risk-sharing and moral hazard emerges: a central bank which enables risk sharing induces countries to free ride on each other’s production efforts. I study this trade-off and derive rules for a central bank striking the optimal balance between insurance …

Information And The Risk-Neutral Probability, Essays In Financial Econometrics, Michael G. Zdinak

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This article introduces a new high-frequency analysis of six years of data for options written on the S&P 500 and traded on the Chicago Board of Exchange. I quantify in real time the information contained in the probability measure implied by option prices, using concepts developed in information theory. Here information is analogous to a reduction in uncertainty surrounding the future price of the underlying security. A simple nonparametric estimator allows us to measure the amount of information gained as an option approaches maturity. I then test for jumps in the expectation of said future price. I find the intraday …

Essays On Macro And Financial Economics, Linyi Cao

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Nurturing Young Public Firms over Real Business Cycles. In this paper, I develop a theory of financial intermediation in a general equilibrium environment, to study the interactions between households, financial intermediation, and entrepreneurs over real business cycles. In the model, the financial intermediary, who resembles real-life private equity (PE) groups and investment bankers, works as a nurturer of young public firms. It performs screening and sorting on entrepreneurs, then allocates resources to them, borrowed from the households. However, the effort intensity in screening decreases when the financial intermediary is flooded by resources, so do the average quality of financial services …

Essays On Growth, Development, And Human Capital, Juan Ignacio Vizcaino

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Skills, Technologies and Development. I study how the productivity of skilled and unskilled labor varies with development. Using harmonized, occupational labor market outcomes for a broad set of countries across the development spectrum, I document that employment in high-skill occupations, or jobs that are relatively more intensive in non-routine cognitive tasks, grows with development. In addition, the income of workers in high-skill occupations falls relative to earnings in low-skill occupations as countries grow richer. To understand the forces driving these findings, I develop a stylized model of the labor market across development. In the model, labor productivity is determined endogenously …

Wellbeing And Marriage: Does Marriage Improve Mental Health?, Maranda L. (Kahl) Joyce

Undergraduate Economic Review

With the decline in marriage rates and the rise in mental health issues, understanding the potential correlation between marital status and overall mental health is of economic importance. This research explores the potential effects of marital status on mental health in the U.S., using microdata from the 2016 Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System. The role of marital status is examined on three different dependent variables. My results suggest that marriage is associated with a decrease in number of days of poor mental health, a decrease in the likelihood of a depressive disorder diagnosis, and an increase in overall life satisfaction.

Development Of A New Us Currency For The Post-Pandemic Remote Culture, F. Matthew Mihelic

Faculty Publications

The contemporary dollar currency was already under significant pressure prior to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the economic pressures resulting from the national and world “lockdown” have very significantly exacerbated the vulnerabilities of those Federal Reserve Notes. The ostensible nationalization of the Federal Reserve by the United States federal government in April 2020 is a harbinger of a need to restructure the US currency. Today’s developing remote culture necessitates a new form of electronic currency. Herein is a conceptual blueprint for the development of such a restructured US currency that would function in the post-pandemic remote culture.

Green Gold: Avocado Price Shocks And Violence In Mexico, Katie Roett

Master's Theses

The role of economic incentives in political armed conflict is well documented, but there is very little evidence on a growing and increasingly globalized form of violence: organized crime. Most existing research focuses on the impact of price shocks on wages and how this affects an individual’s opportunity cost to join an armed group or political movement. However, unlike other violent groups, organized criminal groups do not compete for political power, but profits in illegal markets. In Mexico, these groups have more than doubled in the past two decades, leading to an explosion of violence and record high 35,000 people …

Estimating Treatment Effect Heterogeneity In A Comprehensive Microenterprise Intervention, Mary Gathungu

Master's Theses

Do cash transfer programs have heterogeneous treatment effects within the treatment group? Why do some households in these interventions seem to benefit more than others? What is the overall treatment effect of the Microenterprise Intervention? I address these questions through the study of a comprehensive microenterprise intervention program carried out in Kenya, Africa by a non-profit organization called the Village Enterprise Organization and I obtain economic outcome data from a randomized control trial that gives out conditional cash transfer that is conditional on business formation. The Microenterprise Intervention combines cash grants and mentorship and training to achieve long term economic …

Disconnect Within Agriculture And Ecosystem Climate Effects, Adaptations And Policy, Anastasia W. Thayer, Aurora M. Vargas, Thomas E. Lacher, Bruce A. Mccarl

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

Frequently, agriculture and ecosystems (AE) are seen as separate entities, causing entity specific solutions in response to threats. Anthropogenic climate change simultaneously stresses both agriculture and ecosystems along with their interactions. Induced increasing surface temperatures [1], altered precipitation [2], drought intensification [3], altered ground and surface water quantity/quality [4,5], and diminished soil moisture [6] force adaptations for AE, but these adaptations fail to be efficient when interdependencies are not considered. Additional adaptations will be necessary, as future projections anticipate even greater climate change [1].

North Central Extension Risk Management Education Center, Christine Lockert, Bradley D. Lubben

Cornhusker Economics

Managing through the current economic challenges and accumulating shocks in ag sector will be a major challenge for farmers and ranchers. Educating producers to manage these risks and position their farm or ranch for future growth and success is the fundamental purpose of the Extension Risk Management Education (ERME) program.

Does Having A Baby Affect Tenants’ Renting Opportunities? Experimental Evidence From Nyc, Christina Katopodis

Theses and Dissertations

Access to reliable and stable housing is critical for the general population in urban areas and large cities. This paper tests for differential treatment in the rental housing market using an experiment conducted via e-mail for rental units advertised on-line. There are two emails with the same content, except for one shows the family status as childless and the other shows the family status as having an 18-month-old child. These emails were then sent to the landlords with an equal distribution. Apart from family status, there is no mention of socioeconomic status or any other identifying factors of the tenant. …

What Can We Learn From The 1918 Pandemic? Careful Economics And Policy Lessons From Influenza, Brian J. Asquith

Upjohn Institute Policy Papers

Economists and policymakers have turned to the 1918 Spanish flu for guidance on the COVID-19 crisis, and some have been cheered by the example of its sharp post-pandemic economic recovery. Policymakers have also been encouraged to use lockdowns and school closures (called non-pharmaceutical interventions, or NPIs) in part by research showing that 1918’s NPIs saved lives while aiding the subsequent economic recovery. I review a wide range of research to caution that our own recovery will likely be harder and slower because of how the economy has evolved. I conclude by discussing pro-recovery policy that account for post-1918 economic changes.

Multiproduct Intermediaries, Andrew Rhodes, Makoto Watanabe, Jidong Zhou

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper develops a new framework for studying multiproduct intermediaries when consumers demand multiple products and face search frictions. We show that a multiproduct intermediary is profitable even when it does not improve consumer search efficiency. In its optimal product selection, it stocks high-value products exclusively to attract consumers to visit, then profits by selling non-exclusive products which are relatively cheap to buy from upstream suppliers. However, relative to the social optimum, the intermediary tends to be too big and stock too many products exclusively. As applications we use the framework to study the optimal design of a shopping mall, …

The Association Between Family Income And Adults’ Attitudes On Whether The Government Should Help The Poor, Emily Malloy

Honors Projects

This research examines whether people in different social classes have varying views on whether the government should help the poor and whether that depends on political affiliation. Income inequality has become a greater problem in the U.S. in recent decades. This means that the poor could require more assistance and it is important to know if the public thinks the government should help the poor. Knowing what influences public opinion on this issue could help policy makers make informed decisions about whether the government should help the poor. Data from the 2008 (N=2,023) and 2018 (N=2,348) General Social Survey (GSS) …

Do Stronger Employment Discrimination Protections Decrease Reliance On Social Security Disability Insurance? Evidence From The U.S. Social Security Reforms, Patrick Button, Mashfiqur R. Khan

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The United States Social Security Amendments of 1983 (SSA1983) increased the full retirement age (FRA) and increased penalties for retiring before the FRA. This cut to retirement benefits caused spillover effects on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) applications and receipt by making SSDI relatively more generous. We explore if stronger disability and age discrimination laws moderated these spillovers, using variation whereby many state laws are broader or stronger than federal law. We estimate the effects of these laws on SSDI applications and receipt using a difference-in-differences approach, comparing cohorts affected by SSA1983 to similarly aged unaffected cohorts, across states. We …

Age Appropriate Wisdom? Ethnobiological Knowledge Ontogeny In Pastoralist Mexican Choyeros, Eric Schniter, Shane J. Macfarlan, Juan J. Garcia, Gorgonio Ruiz-Campos, Diego Guevara Beltran, Brenda B. Bowen, Jory C. Lerbak

ESI Working Papers

We investigate whether age profiles of ethnobiological knowledge development are consistent with predictions derived from life history theory about the timing of productivity and reproduction. Life history models predict complementary knowledge profiles developing across the lifespan for women and men as they experience changes in embodied capital and the needs of dependent offspring. We evaluate these predictions using an ethnobiological knowledge assessment tool developed for an off-grid pastoralist population, known as Choyeros, from Baja California Sur, Mexico. Our results indicate that while individuals acquire knowledge of most dangerous items and edible resources by early adulthood, knowledge of plants and animals …

Regional Airlines, Benjamin Jones Jr.

Student Works

The airline industry plays a major role in the United States. Many passengers use air transportation as a major mode of traveling for business and personal. As the demand for traveling increased, pilot shortage has increased as well. A pilot shortage will devastate the economy and have a lasting effect that will be felt worldwide. However, sources predict that the United States will experience a sizable pilot shortage over the next few years. This paper will identify the reasons for the pilot shortage and discuss the devastating effects that the shortage has on the regional airline industry. In addition, this …

Japanese Whaling And The International Whaling Commission, Tea Barndt

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This project examines the effect the International Whaling Commission has had on the Japanese Whaling Industry. Economic research into this field has been limited, and new analyses are needed considering Japan’s recent departure from the International Whaling Commission and resumption of commercial whaling. In particular, we seek to determine whether the 1986 moratorium banning commercial whaling has had a significant impact on the quantity of whales harvested by Japanese whaling vessels. Although this project did not find that the moratorium significantly impacted whale harvesting, there is a number of limitations to this research that suggest further study is required.

Liberté, Égalité, Manifester: Explaining The Yellow Vest Movement In France, Brady L. Cole

Honors Theses

Les Gilets Jaunes, or the yellow vests, is a movement of protestors that have had a large presence in France since 2018. Beginning as an online petition against French President Emmanuel Macron’s fuel tax hike, the movement has quickly amassed several hundred thousand protestors in Paris and other cities across the country. It is the objective of this thesis to examine potential reasons why 300,000 people have felt the need to protest throughout France, apart from the now rescinded fuel tax.

To this end, a sample of data from the Varieties of Democracy database was selected. These variables covered various …

The Effect Of Revenue-Source Mix On Student Performance In Mississippi K-12 Public Schools, Sally Boswell

Honors Theses

Local, state, and federal funding for public schools have different stipulations on how they are used. Local revenue is more flexible, state revenue is controlled by the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) guidelines, and federal revenue is targeted to specific areas. MAEP largely impacts all public school funding through not only state revenue stipulations, but also through its funding formula that sets a minimum contribution per district for state funding. This thesis investigates how a district’s revenue mix of these three different types of funding impacts student performance (ACT scores and graduation rates) in K-12 public school districts across Mississippi. …

Agglomeration Economies: How “Y’Allywood” Became The New Hollywood, Joseph Dugan Walker

Honors Theses

Agglomeration economies have gained special attention in recent decades. With the increasing connectivity of our world, specialized regional economies are stronger now than ever before. A specific agglomeration economy that has developed in recent years is the Georgia Film Industry. This region surpassed Hollywood as the premier filming location for the first time since the early 1900s when New York was number one. This thesis analyzes the reasons why Georgia was so successful in attracting the film industry and encouraging its development by comparing infrastructure, film tax incentives, population, and labor development to that of competing states like New York, …

Stock Market Drivers: Corporate Share Repurchases, Parker Wolf

Business and Economics Honors Papers

Such financial tools as share buybacks are coming under scrutiny by many investment experts. Evidence suggests that share repurchases foster a short-term focus in corporate managers who have a share-based compensation. Recent studies and research draw attention to the negative consequences of corporate share repurchases. While share buybacks were originally intended to create financial value for intrinsically undervalued shares, they are increasingly coming under scrutiny for enabling shareholders to increase their value of wealth at the expense of other stakeholders. With increased stock option plans for corporate executives, the association between increase in open market share buyback activity and compensation …

Accounting For Ag: Step Up While Passing Down, Austin Duerfeldt

Extension Farm and Ranch Management News

Summary

Through this article, I hope you’ve gained a better understanding of the basics of a step up in basis. A step up in basis can be viewed as an opportune time to sell long held farm ground that appreciated in value, with little to no capital gain issues. It plays a vital role in estate planning. In the individual case of each farmer/rancher, how the step up in basis might work for your operation varies on many specific circumstances. Developing an estate planning team that includes professionals such as an attorney and accountant, as well as, investment and insurance …

Alternatives To High Nebraska Agricultural Land Real Estate Taxes, Part 1 Of 2: Capital Gains And Alternative Investments, Austin Duerfeldt

Extension Farm and Ranch Management News

First paragraph

In Nebraska, most of my conversations about managing agricultural properties, whether rental or production, tend to steer toward real estate taxes at some point. While many counties in Nebraska have seen agricultural land taxes drop slightly since the 2015-2017 period, they are still a significant portion of operational expense. For example, dryland acres in Southeast Nebraska ballpark around $60 an acre. For someone looking to cash rent inherited ground, this becomes a major point of concern when looking for a tenant. If that ground cash rents for $190 an acre, and $60 an acre goes towards real estate …

Place-Based Policy: An Essay In Two Parts, Timothy J. Bartik

Upjohn Institute Policy Papers

Place-based policies that increase jobs in local labor markets can have large benefits, but current policies need reforms. Local job growth can have large benefits by increasing local employment-to-population ratios (employment rates). These employment rate benefits are larger if jobs are created in local labor markets that are distressed, or if new jobs are matched to the local nonemployed. Current place-based policies are mostly business tax incentives, provided by state and local governments. These incentives are costly per job actually created by the incentive. More cost-effective job creation are public services to businesses, such as customized job training or business …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Quantitative Easing: An Svar Approach, Seth T. Walker

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

The 2008 recession affected the American economy more than any recession since the Great Depression. Unlike its response to the Great Depression, the Federal Reserve aimed to stimulate the economy through all means in its power. However, the Federal Reserve’s conventional monetary policy tools were not viable options due to the zero lower bound. As a result, the Federal Reserve pursued an unconventional monetary policy tool known as quantitative easing which involved purchases of long-term assets on a scale never before seen in the United States. Since its inception, quantitative easing has faced significant scrutiny over its merit and has …

An Economic Analysis Of The Short-Term Rental Market: Local Regulatory Decisions, Joseph L. Kauffman, Harrison D. Hooper

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

In recent years, short-term home rental companies such as Airbnb and Vacation Rentals by Owner (VRBO) have grown in popularity throughout the United States and the world. The lack of regulation of this rapid growth, which stemmed from the legal grey area these rentals fall under, caused some states to adopt specific regulatory policies. These regulatory policies attempt to better monitor this sector, to tax rental earnings, and to reduce perceived negative externalities to this new market. This thesis researches the benefits and costs that short-term rentals (STRs) provide to cities and the regulatory implications on the growing rental market. …

"Currency Is A Most Poisonous Tool": State Capitalism, Nonmarket Socialism, And The Elimination Of Money During The Cambodian Genocide, James A. Tyner

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Between 1975 and 1979, the Communist Party of Kampuchea sought to establish a non-monetary and non-market economy. In the process, however, upwards of 1.7 million men, women, and children perished. This paper provides a critical evaluation of the CPK’s decision to eliminate money in its attempt to transform Cambodia’s pre-revolutionary economy into a communist mode of production. First, I provide some general remarks on Marx, money, and markets; the purpose here is to establish a common foundation for readers, in order to properly assess Khmer Rouge monetary policies with those of orthodox reading of Marxism. Second, I position CPK macro-economic …