Economics Commons^™

Covid-19 Lockdowns And Air Quality In The United States, Ashlyn B. Cenicola

Economics Masters Project Research Papers

Using a difference-in-differences approach, I test whether the U.S. COVID-19 lockdowns influenced air pollution levels. I hypothesize that the halt in human mobility stemming from lockdowns caused transportation sector activity to decrease, leading to a reduction in related pollutants such as PM2.5, PM10, and NO2. I investigate whether counties with strict lockdown policies experienced greater improvements in air pollution relative to before the lockdowns than counties with lenient lockdown policies. I use lockdown stringency data from the University of Oxford to identify strict versus lenient counties, and data from the Environmental Protection Agency to capture air pollution outcomes. The main …

The Healthcare Costs Of Overnutrition, Ryan Hodge

Honors Projects

Obesity is a growing problem globally and domestically. Obesity is related to several chronic and noncommunicable diseases such as hypertension, type II diabetes, coronary heart disease, and some cancers. Both obesity and its related diseases are forms of overnutrition, which is the excess intake of nutrients that causes increased body fat to the point of impaired health. Using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) from 2008-2016, this paper is the first to estimate the causal effect of overnutrition on medical expenditure by examining the effect of overnutrition diseases on health care costs, correcting for the endogeneity bias of …

From Productivity To Firm Growth, James Bessen, Erich Denk

Faculty Scholarship

It is widely held that more productive firms grow faster, thus reallocating resources and raising aggregate productivity. Yet little empirical research identifies the features of the mechanisms affecting this process. This paper develops and tests a general model encompassing several mechanisms used to overcome informational frictions to growth. We find that firm size, productivity dispersion, and large firm investments in intangibles are all significantly related to changes in firm growth in response to productivity. These factors can account for much of the decline in the response to productivity since 2000 (Decker et al. 2020). Also, industry concentration is directly related …

Do Conditional Cash Transfers Increase School Enrollment? Evidence From Brazil, Jeanette L. Silvernale

Master's Theses

Conditional cash transfer programs have been widely deployed across the globe. They seek to bolster human capital by providing benefits contingent upon a variety of actions such as school attendance and regular health checkups. Bolsa Familia is the most extensive conditional cash transfer program, serving 46 million Brazilian citizens. Despite its expansive size, there have been seldom large-scale micro evaluations of the program. Limited data has resulted in small sample sizes drawn from a single point in time. Our study diverges from the rest and utilizes a novel administrative dataset with an overall sample of nearly 60 million and a …

American Rescue Plan Act For Local Communities, Marilyn R. Schlake

Cornhusker Economics

On March 11, 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was signed into law by President Biden. ARPA provides direct relief to all 19,000 cities, towns and villages across the United States affected by COVID-19. The purpose of ARPA is to support pandemic recovery efforts, replace public sector lost revenue, spur job growth, jump start economic growth through household and business stabilization and ad-dress systemic public health and economic challenges.

Creative Occupations And The Precipitating Factors Of Burnout, Natasha E. Koval

Honors Projects

Creativity is an intrinsic part of the human life; however, it is one of the most challenging concepts to be understood. In this paper, I am examining occupations driven by creativity, their economic significance, and how sustainable these occupations are for the creative employees. I will be particularly looking at burnout and its precipitating factors as a way to understand the wellness of the creative workforce. Creative occupations, if fostered properly, can lead to job growth, increased income, and potential for investment in vulnerable communities. This makes them valuable resources for urban economic development goals. Literature suggests that there is …

Do Actions Speak Louder Than Motives? Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Image-Fundraising, K. Pun Winichakul

Economics: Faculty Publications

Charitable giving can boost an individual’s image, and organizations can capitalize on this by engaging in “image-fundraising.” Public announcements of donations give individuals the opportunity to demonstrate their generosity and are found to increase giving. This paper evaluates whether generosity inferred from charitable giving is discounted when donations are made in response to image-fundraising. I show in an experimental study that others reward larger donations, and that image-fundraising increases giving. However, others account for the conditions under which donations are made and reduce rewards for giving in an image-fundraising environment. While image-fundraising benefits charitable organizations, individuals are not recompensed for …

Domestic Workers In The Mountain West, Olivia K. Cheche, Saha Salahi, Katie M. Gilbertson, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr., Eshaan Vakil

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet explores the number of domestic workers employed in the Mountain West (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah), as originally reported in the Economic Policy Institute’s “Domestic Workers Chartbook.” Data for domestic worker median wages compared to the median wages of nondomestic workers are also included.

The 1malaysia Development Berhad (1mdb) Scandal: Exploring Malaysia's 2018 General Elections And The Case For Sovereign Wealth Funds, Chea-Mun Tan

Honors Projects

In 2015, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, was accused of corruption, embezzlement, and fraud of over $700 million USD. Low Taek Jho, the former financier of Malaysia, was also accused and dubbed the ‘mastermind’ of the 1MDB scandal. As one of the world’s largest financial scandals, this paper seeks to explore the political and economic implications of 1MDB through historical context and a critical assessment of governance. Specifically, it will examine the economic and political agendas of former Prime Ministers Najib Razak and Mahathir Mohamad. In 2018, after the crimes of those involved in the scandal were …

Regional Wage Inequality In Egypt: Relationships To Micro And Macro Indicators, Noha Mostafa

Theses and Dissertations

Addressing regional disparities in Egypt is of paramount importance for the country’s success in achieving the pillars of its 2030 strategy, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper focuses on examining regional disparities in wages, not only in relation to the micro level characteristics of workers such as their level of educational attainment and acquired experience, but also with regard to the overall economic conditions of the region where they work. The paper compiled a novel dataset of Egypt’s governorates macroeconomic indicators that includes the shares of public investment funds, poverty and unemployment rates and analyzed the …

Contested Landscapes, Disputed Realities: An Investigation Of Socio-Environmental Conflict From Mining In Northern Ecuador: An Honors Thesis, Ian F. Hirons

Student Works

For decades, Ecuador has been one of the preeminent petrostates in South America. However, in response to recent drops in global demand and pricing for oil products, the country has made serious commitments to further develop its mineral resources. By opening a new natural resource sector, Ecuador has firmly cemented itself as a primarily extractivist nation. In the process, the national government has frequently come into conflict with activist and community groups who protest the encroachment of extractive industry. This thesis explores the various dimensions of socio-environmental conflict created by large-scale mining projects in northern Ecuador with specific attention to …

Financial And Trade Relationships Between The Eurozone And China In The Age Of Resilience, Alessandro Del Ponte, Paolo Canofari, Audrey De Dominicis

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

How did the financial and trade ties between China and the Eurozone develop in the aftermath of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis? We analyze these trends until the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Using data from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), we examine the financial and trade dynamics between the two currency areas and analyze the related risks and opportunities. The data point to several patterns. We find that financial volatility in China has been substantially greater than in the Eurozone. Even so, the largest and strongest Eurozone economies – France and Germany- …

The Economic Value Of America’S Estuaries: 2021 Report, Tracy Rouleau, Charles S. Colgan, Jefferey Adkins, Castelletto Anthony, Dirlam Patty, Shannon Lyons, Hilary Stevens

Publications

This study builds on the work completed in 2009, “The Economic and Market Value of Coasts and Estuaries: What’s At Stake?,” a report by NOAA in collaboration with the Center for the Blue Economy and the Ocean Foundation, at the request of Restore America’s Estuaries. Like the 2009 study, the 2021 update uses the same data sources (Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis and NOAA), and looks in detail at the same five major sectors of the U.S. economy (fisheries, energy infrastructure, marine transportation, real estate, and recreation) from 2009-2018.

The 2021 update includes the economic …

Social Or Special Interests: How Unions Influence Spending, Devon Moffett

Kentucky Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Unions are in a decades long decline, heading for the point of non-relevance. To better understand what this change will entail, this paper asks: how does union strength affect state spending? Previous research on unions has exhausted the answers to national and congressional effects, so looking at spending on the state and local level will add more clarity to our understanding of union influence. Independent data will be used to test several areas of spending with multivariate regressions. Additionally, pairwise comparisons will test whether union influence differs across areas. It is found that unions have a positive influence on spending …

Law, Lawyers And Sustainable Development: Reflections Of A Fellow Traveler, Muna B. Ndulo

Southern African Journal of Policy and Development

At the national level, the rule of law is necessary to create an environment for providing sustainable livelihoods and eradicating poverty. Poverty often stems from disempowerment, exclusion and discrimination. The rule of law fosters development through strengthening the voices of individuals and communities, by providing access to justice, ensuring due process and establishing remedies for the violation of rights. Security of livelihoods, shelter, tenure and contracts can enable and empower the poor to defend themselves against violations of their rights. Legal empowerment goes beyond the provision of legal remedies and supports better economic opportunities. In order for the rule of …

The Missing Middle In Product Price Distribution, Pao-Li Chang, Xin Yi, Haeyeon Yoon

SMU Economics and Statistics Working Paper Series

The IO literature has typically studied the supply-side factors that determine the price structure of products/services competing in a market. This paper pro-poses that the demand-side demographics could play an important role in shaping the product price structure. In particular, we document a “missing middle” phe-nomenon in both the income and the product price distributions in the U.S., based on the IPUMS ACS dataset (2005–2017) and the Nielsen Retail Scanner Data (2006–2017), for a large set of goods sold in the U.S. at the national, state, or commuting-zone level. We show that the lagged population share of the middle-income class …

Improving Existing Methods For Calculating Embodied Carbon Emissions In Trade Through Feature Discovery: An Information Theoretic Approach, Sam Morton

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

The continued societal and ecological risks posed by climate change have spurred renewed interest in quantitative tools that can improve policy aimed at climate mitigation. In 2008, international trade accounted for up to 26\% of global anthropogenic emissions, and therefore trade has garnered increased attention from policymakers seeking carbon mitigation. The concept of embodied carbon emissions in trade (EET) quantifies overall carbon emitted in the production and transport of goods for the purposes of trade. EET in theory could prove an indispensable tool to climate-concerned policymakers, but current implementations and data availability limit EET calculation to annual snapshots that extend …

Towards Consumer-Oriented Mushroom-Based Product Development: An Exploratory Study In Rice-Based Farming Communities In Central Luzon, Philippines, Josefina F. Ballesteros, Rosaly V. Manaois, Amelia V. Morales, Riza Abilgos-Ramos

Journal of Economics, Management and Agricultural Development

This study determined consumers’ awareness and interest towards mushroom and mushroom-based product ideas. A survey of 222 adults was conducted in rice-based farming communities in selected provinces, namely, Aurora,
Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, and Pampanga. Results showed that taste, nutritional, and health benefits were the top attributes considered by both sexes whenever they buy food for household consumption. Most of the respondents (99%) liked eating mushroom because of its palatability (71%) and perceived healthiness (26%). However, the majority (76%) consumed mushrooms only once a month or seldom in a year due to its limited availability. Food supplements, coffee-like beverages, and snacks …

The Economic Impact Of Paradise Cove Aquatic Center In Richmond, Kentucky, Lauren Kilburn, Michael Bradley, James Maples

Kentucky Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

One of the most effective ways for rural communities to improve the local economy is by exploring opportunities related to tourism. When communities focus their resources on expanding and improving the tourism industry, it leads to additional opportunities for these communities to increase their revenue, provide jobs and revitalize the local economy. Like many other agencies, the Richmond Parks and Recreation Department has gradually expanded the tourism industry within the City of Richmond in Madison County, Kentucky. To help continue the expansion of this industry, Paradise Cove Aquatic Center opened in 2008. This decision was made because waterparks were becoming …

Is It Fair That Advanced Workers Get Paid Disproportionally More: Economic Analysis, Olga Kosheleva, Sean R. Aguilar

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

On the one hand, everyone agrees that economics should be fair, that workers should get equal pay for equal work. Any instance of unfairness causes a strong disagreement. On the other hand, in many companies, advanced workers -- who produce more than others -- get paid dispropotionally more for their work, and this does not seem to cause any negative feelings. In this paper, we analyze this situation from the economic viewpoint. We show that from this viewpoint, additional payments for advanced workers indeed make economic sense, benefit everyone, and thus -- in contrast to the naive literal interpretation of …

2021 South Dakota Producer Resurvey Descriptive Results, Tong Wang, Jessica Ulrich-Schad, Stephen Cheye, Ness School Of Management And Economics

South Dakota Farm Survey

From January to March 2021, researchers from South Dakota State University (SDSU) and Utah State University (USU) conducted a resurvey of South Dakota of commodity crop producers in the eastern part of the state to study their attitudes and usage of soil and water conservation practices including cover crops, diversified crop rotations, conservation tillage, and integrated crop and livestock management. These same producers completed a similar survey in 2018 (see Wang et al. 2021a, b; Saak et al. 2021; Kolady et al. 2020; Avemegah et al. 2020).1 In the 2018 surveys, farming operations in 34 South Dakota counties east of …

The Nigerian Economy, Monetary Policy And Covid-19: An Unholy Trinity, Polycarp Ishaku Mikloda Ph.D

Bullion

This article presents the dynamics of an unholy trinity involving the interplay of economic forces in the thick of a crippling health crisis with monetary policy to the rescue through activation of relevant instruments. In response to the outbreak, the Monetary Policy Committee announced several policy measures which include granting of extension of loan moratorium on principal repayments, interest rate reduction on all intervention loan facilities from 9% to 5%, establishment of a N50bn targeted credit facility to household and MSMEs and regulatory forbearance to banks and credit support to the healthcare industry among others. it is worthy to state …

The Predictive Power Of Banks' Liquidity On Profitability In Nigeria, Okonta Sunday Ukeje Ph.D

Bullion

This study investigated the predictive power of banks' statutory liquidity on their protability in Nigeria between 1990 and 2019. The vector autoregression and variance decomposition methodology were employed. The findings showed that a change in return on asset (ROA) was weakly associated with itself, with liquidity variables, liquidity risk and real gross domestic product growth rates. In a five-year prediction, a 100% change in ROA was explained by itself in the short run. Other variables showed strong exogeneity with ROA, from short to long-run, an indication that banks in Nigeria face bleak future in using statutory liquidity to positively and …

Understanding Balance Of Payments And Its Link With Monetary Policy In Nigeria, Ocheuje Leonard Pius

Bullion

Developments in the balance of payments of any country is generally of interest to national policymakers, international investors, financial and economic analysts as well as international financial institutions. In recent times, Nigeria recorded persistent current account as well as overall BOP decits and these created discomfort among policy makers with regards to its sustainability and possible implications for the economy. This paper explores some of the major developments and trends in Nigeria's BOP as well as their interrelationship with other macroeconomic accounts. It also provided clarity to the structure and components of Nigeria's BOP statistics as compiled in line with …

Financing Public Deficits In Nigeria: Groping In The Dark For Taxation, Umar Elems Mahmud Ph.D

Bullion

The objective of this study is to conduct an expository examination of the inhibitions of voluntary tax compliance and to explore prospects of leapfrogging tax contribution from its posterior position, given the lacunae in precious studies. In the descriptive research design, underpinned by the range of structural-functionalist and expectancy theories, salient among the findings of the study is the diminished contribution of taxation to Nigeria's GDP and total revenue due to weak institutional framework and “faded” enthusiasm of taxpayers. In the circumstance of the situation, and until drastic reforms are successfully executed, Nigeria may be groping in the dark, in …

The Implications Of Legal And Policy Frameworks For E-Commerce In Nigeria, Chinelo Constance Ugwu, Ann Ogbo Ph.D

Bullion

This article seeks to throw light on the legal implications of E-commerce as it affects users in Nigeria. It outlines basic requirements for smooth running of online business in Nigeria from registration to full operations. It also looks at the preparedness of the Nigerian Government to position the country alongside its peers on the digital business map in terms of cyber space security. The paper is structured in the following manner: Conceptual review of E-commerce is discussed in the first section while the second section outlines Nigeria's Preparedness and the journey so far. The third section briefly explains the global …

Capital Formation And Economic Growth In Nigeria: An Empirical Re-Examination, Emmanuel Ating Onwiodiokit Ph.D, Gabriel Efe Otolorin

Bullion

This study re-examines the impact of capital formation on Nigeria's economic growth. The paper adopts the Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) technique on annual time series data covering the period 1981 to 2018. Infrastructure, health and skills competitiveness indices computed from the global competitiveness reports were adapted to capture key specifics of physical and human capital formation. The results from the DOLS show that gross fixed capital formation had a negative and significant impact on economic growth. The results also indicate that external debt and total labour force had a negative effect on economic growth. On the other hand, human …

Topology Identification In Distribution System Via Machine Learning Algorithms, Peyman Razmi, Mahdi Ghaemi Asl, Giorgio Canarella, Afsaneh Sadat Emami

Molasky Family Department of Economics and Real Estate Faculty Research

This paper contributes to the literature on topology identification (TI) in distribution networks and, in particular, on change detection in switching devices' status. The lack of measurements in distribution networks compared to transmission networks is a notable challenge. In this paper, we propose an approach to topology identification (TI) of distribution systems based on supervised machine learning (SML) algorithms. This methodology is capable of analyzing the feeder's voltage profile without requiring the utilization of sensors or any other extraneous measurement device. We show that machine learning algorithms can track the voltage profile's behavior in each feeder, detect the status of …

Analysis Of Demand Under Time And Quantity Restriction Frames, Haily K. Traxler

Dissertations

For decades, behavioral economists and behavior analysts have borrowed techniques from one another to investigate human decision making. While there has been little overlap in their work, the union of the two may help to answer important questions about behavior. An emerging behavioral economic topic of interest in the behavior analytic literature is the analysis of how framing affects demand. The purpose of the present studies is to investigate some conditions under which demand is affected by framing and provide a behavior analytic interpretation of those effects. To assess the effects of framing, demand for marketplace items was assessed under …

Budget Deficit And Economic Growth In Nigeria, A. D. Umaru, H. M. Aliero, M. Abubakar

Economic and Financial Review

This paper examines the relationship between budget deficit and economic growth in Nigeria, from a linear and non-linear perspective, using annual time series data from 1981 to 2019. The linear model, which involves the use of an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach, was compared with a non-linear analysis, using a threshold autoregressive (TAR) model. The ARDL analysis reveals that the growth of national output is positively driven by the persistent budget deficit in Nigeria. This was substantiated by the TAR model which indicates that though budget deficit drives economic growth in Nigeria, the positive relationship holds only if the deficit …