Economics Commons^™

Family Matters: Decade Review From Journal Of Family And Economic Issues, Heather H. Kelly, Ashley B. Lebaron, E. Jeffery Hill

Faculty Publications

This article reviews research regarding economic influences on a variety of family matters published in Journal of Family and Economic Issues from 2010 to 2019. As finances permeate nearly every facet of everyday life, scholarly research related to finances and family issues has spanned a wide array of topics. We briefly review research focused on the following 11 areas related to finances and family matters: (a) family formation decisions, (b) gender and relational power in family finances and relationships, (c) finances and fathers, (d) finances and mothers, (e) finances and parenting, (f) finances and elderly family members, (g) finances and …

Rhode Island Current Conditions Index -- September 2020, Leonard Lardaro

The Rhode Island Current Conditions Index

No abstract provided.

The Quest For Greener Pastures: Evaluating The Livelihoods Impacts Of Providing Vegetation Condition Maps To Pastoralists In Eastern Africa, Elia Machado, Helene Purcell, Andrew M. Simons, Stephanie Swinehart

Publications and Research

The survival of millions of pastoral households in Eastern Africa has become increasingly at risk. Due to mounting socioeconomic and climatic stressors, pastoral households are faced with making migration decisions under increasing uncertainty about resource availability and limited coping strategies. We assess the potential of providing vegetation condition maps to support the migration decision of pastoralists in Ethiopia and Tanzania and the effect of map usage on their herd condition and size. The maps were generated from remotely sensed data using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as a proxy for vegetation condition and overlain with pastoralists’ preferred grazing areas. …

Institutions, Structural Policies, And Economic Development: Evaluating The Interrelationships Between Rule Spaces For Developing Countries, Jordan Pattison

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

Research on long term economic development has consolidated around the central role of economic and political institutions. Within these institutional spaces, structural policies represent a subset of incentive structures with their own effects on economic behavior. To capture the separate effects of both institutional environments and structural policies, we construct an Institutional Index (II) and a Structural Policy Index (SPI) to evaluate their effects on income levels and short term growth rates for non-high-income states. This paper finds that both the II and SPI predict variations in income levels between non-high-income states, with the II producing a larger and more …

Some Basics Of Capitalism And Socialism And Implications For Human Liberty, Morality, And Fairness, John Garen

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

This essay outlines the big-picture aspects of capitalism and socialism, and uses this overview to discuss human liberty and economic liberty in each system. Additionally, I note that some have argued that capitalism is unfair or immoral and so I consider three specific and common moral standards in this regard. They are: (i) “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs;” (ii) “People should get what they earn;” and (iii) “’Agreement without conformity’ or ‘conformity without agreement.’” Capitalism is centered on individual rights and private ownership, while socialism awards decision-making powers to government. The former is …

Monetary Policy And Systemic Risk-Taking In The Euro Area Banking Sector, Alain Kabundi, Francisco Nadal-De Simone

WCBT Faculty Publications

Available empirical evidence on the significance of the (micro) risk-taking channel of monetary policy is not enough to indicate a threat to financial stability. Evidence of risk-taking with systemic risk implications is necessary. Statistical measures that capture systemic risk in all its forms within a structural factor-augmented vector autoregressive model suggest that conventional and unconventional monetary policies have resulted in systemic risk-taking in the euro area banking sector. Systemic risk has taken the form of an increase in the banking sector’s vulnerability via contagion and interconnectedness. Banks’ balance sheets, however, do not account for the full transmission from (micro) risk …

Chess As A Testing Grounds For The Oracle Approach To Ai Safety, James Miller, Roman V. Yampolskiy, Olle Häggström, Stuart Armstrong

Economics: Faculty Publications

To reduce the danger of powerful super-intelligent AIs, we might make the first such AIs oracles that can only send and receive messages. This paper proposes a possibly practical means of using machine learning to create two classes of narrow AI oracles that would provide chess advice: those aligned with the player's interest, and those that want the player to lose and give deceptively bad advice. The player would be uncertain which type of oracle it was interacting with. As the oracles would be vastly more intelligent than the player in the domain of chess, experience with these oracles might …

The Impact Of The Aca Medicaid Expansion On Disability Program Applications, Lucie Schmidt, Lara D. Shore-Sheppard, Tara Watson

Economics: Faculty Publications

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded the availability of public health insurance, decreasing the relative benefit of participating in disability programs but also lowering the cost of exiting the labor market to apply for disability benefits. In this paper, we explore the impact of expanded access to Medicaid through the ACA on applications to the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) programs. Using the fact that the Supreme Court decision of June 2012 made the Medicaid expansion optional for the states, we compare changes in county-level SSI and SSDI caseloads in contiguous county pairs across a …

Essays On The Short-Term Impact Of Minimum Unit Pricing Policy In Scotland, Irena P. Xhurxhi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of two chapters, and it evaluates the short-term impact of Scotland’s Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) policy on a variety of outcome measures. Excessive alcohol consumption has long been considered one of Scotland’s greatest public health challenges, and in an attempt to change this harmful relationship with alcohol, the Scottish Government proposed an alcohol strategy comprising of over 40 measures, a central part of which was the introduction of a statutory minimum price of 50 pence per unit (10ml/8gr) of alcohol known as Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP). This policy aims to reduce alcohol consumption, and in turn, alcohol …

Essays On Trade Liberalization, Structural Change, And Technical Efficiency, Li Zhao

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A recent and growing literature analyzes differential growth across regions of Asia, Latin America, and Sub Saharan Africa. The structural change of labor reallocation is an important determinant of growth in developing countries having large productivity gaps across sectors within the border. Therefore, sectoral characteristics are still an important determinant of cross-region studies. In addition, it is well-known that labor reallocation across economic sectors does not automatically occur without external shocks, especially from international trade.

However, recent studies debate the importance of trade policy as more research focuses on the cost of transportation and communication in international trade and economic …

A Defense And Expansion Of The Theory Of Capitalist Ground Rent: Speculation, Securitization, And Struggles Over Land And Housing, Francesca Manning

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Why are the rents so high? Who is responsible for homelessness, for urban and rural displacement? How can these problems be combatted?

Recent literature addressing these questions has pointed to gentrification and the financialization of land and housing, faulted financialized landlords, hedge funds, and the irredeemable logic of finance, and pointed to the importance of land and housing regulation to prevent displacement.

However, theories of displacement—in both land and housing, on both urban and rural terrain—suffer from a lack of an underlying theory of the logic, tendencies, and limits of ground rent extraction in capitalism.

This dissertation develops a theory …

The Effects Of Eighth Years Of Compulsory Schooling Enforcement In Turkey, Muhammed Tumay

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of two chapters that cover Education, Labor and Health Economics.

Chapter 1. Impacts of Compulsory Schooling Reform on Higher Education and Intergenerational Educational Mobility: we estimate the effects of an exogenous increase in mandatory schooling (5 years to 8 years of schooling), as a result of a change in compulsory schooling law, on higher education, potential intergenerational educational mobility, and labor market outcomes among women in Turkey. Our empirical strategy addresses a well-known identification problem where women’s years of schooling are endogenous to individual characteristics. The Law took effect in 1997, whereby girls born before January …

Drug-Overdose Death Rates: The Economic Misery Explanation And Its Alternatives, Barbara Blake Gonzalez, Richard Cebula, James V. Koch

Economics Faculty Publications

‘Deaths of despair’ is the most commonly cited explanation for the 151% increase in drug-overdose deaths that occurred in the USA between 2010 and 2018. We use panel data describing 84 Virginia cities and counties to assess the validity of the deaths of despair hypothesis and alternate explanations that focus on disability rates, travel time to work, urban vs. rural location, educational attainment, racial and ethnic characteristics, the influence of other health conditions such as obesity, and supply-side factors that include pill availability and pharmacy market shares. We find deaths of despair to be only a partial explanation for the …

Paso Del Norte Economic Indicator Review, September, Hunt Institute For Global Competitiveness

Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Leveraging Import Substitution For Economic Expansion: The Case Of Nigeria, Paul Ihuoma Oluikpe

Bullion

The objective of this paper is to describe the import substitution policies of Nigeria with a historical and analytical outlook with a view to amplifying its dimensions of impact, and recommending potential options for optimizing policy and implementation. Method The methodology adopted for this paper is descriptive and historical analysis. Comparisons were drawn from various countries policies such as Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, India, South Korea, and the Philippines and outcomes are highlighted, and then extrapolated to the Nigerian context with a view to understanding the local context in the light of peer country implementation. The results from the implementation …

Microfinance Credit And Micro Enterprise Development In The Agricultural Sub-Sector Of The Nigerian Economy, Ademola A. Adebisi

Bullion

This study seeks to examine the relevance of micro financing credit loans to Agri-business in Lagos State, Nigeria - the development of Agricultural sub-sector centering the attention to the contribution of the institutions involved in the provision of these credits.It makes a critical review of the performance of microfinance institutions in Nigeria, based on a survey of the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (a microfinance scheme established to boost the agricultural sub-sector of Nigeria). The study examines the scheme – the institutions involved and analyses the performance using the outreach paradigm via the mixed approach research techniques – qualitative and …

An Adjusted Classical Model For Interest-Free Financing In Nigeria, Abdul Ibrahim, Habibu M-G Salihu

Bullion

This paper examines an interest-free macroeconomic models by adjusting the classical model into an interest-free macroeconomic model as a basis for developing a comparative analysis. The study adopted a descriptive approach by describing the mechanics for obtaining an interest-free macroeconomic model from a prototype western model. It was observed that most Muslims in Nigeria are interested in adopting interest free financing under the western system. This is a reason for converting a western model into an interest-free model.This conversion allows policy-makers to gain useful insight in the process in transition from the western system to the Islamic system. The Islamic …

The Role Of The Central Bank Of Nigeria Analytical Balance Sheet In Monetary Policy Implementation, Salihu Audu

Bullion

This paper examines the role of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) analytical balance sheet in the implementation of monetary policy. The Bank currently uses a mix of both quantity-based (monetary base) and price-based (short-term interest rate) nominal anchors. However, irrespective of the targeting regime adopted, both depends on the central bank's ability to manage its balance sheet given the huge fiscal influence on banking system liquidity in Nigeria. Therefore, the paper analyses the various liquidity management operations of the CBN and their implications for the size and structure of the analytical balance sheet.

Firm Survival Of Listed Nigerian Financial Institutions: A Consolidated Methods Approach, Sunusi Garba, Adamu M. Abubakar, Ahmad I. Mohammed, Mohammed S. Damamisau

Bullion

The firm's survival is regarded as an essential element usually used by the capital market participants in making vital decisions. This study examines the combined roles of bankruptcy, earnings management, and profitability in explaining a firm's survival in the listed Nigerian financial institutions. To achieve this, a descriptive research design is adopted and data were generated from databases of the listed companies in the Nigerian Stock Exchange for the period 2006 to 2015. Panel data analysis was employed in analysing collected data of the sampled 29 financial institutions in the Nigerian financial sector. The study found that most of the …

Analysis Of The Determinants Of Money Demand In South Africa: 1990-2019, Ali Kole, Hassan N. Wali, Alhassan M. Idris, Ismail H. Sanusi

Bullion

This study estimates real intermediate money demand (RM2) and real broad money demand (RM3) for South Africa from 1990 Q1 to 2019 Q4. The main objective of the study was to explore the relationship between money demand and its determinants in South Africa with specific emphasis on the long-run relationship and stability between RM2, RM3,and their determinants. Auto-regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound test for cointegration model developed by Pesaran (2001) was employed. The results found that both RM2 and RM3 are cointegrated with inflation rate, interest rate, exchange rate,real GDP, and credit to the private sector in South Africa. Credit …

The Las Vegas Medical District And The Unlv School Of Medicine: An Economic Analysis And Tax Revenue Study, Jaewon Lim, Robert E. Lang, Sabrina Wang

Policy Briefs and Reports

In the 2011 report, “Unify, Regionalize, Diversify,” The Brookings Institution, SRI International, and Brookings Mountain West detailed Las Vegas’s experiences during and after the Great Recession, and identified the health and medical industry as a particularly potent opportunity for economic diversification – one that could improve health outcomes while also generating sustainable economic activity and high-quality jobs. The Las Vegas Metro medical industry began growing in 2006, grew during the Great Recession, and is expected to continue to grow for the next 10-year period spurred by the rapidly growing population in Southern Nevada. The establishment and launch of the UNLV …

Essays In Applied Microeconomics, Eric Osborne-Christenson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters and covers topics in applied microeconomics broadly defined as health and labor. The precise topics are varied, with their unifying thread being that they are all related to marginalized or at-risk communities. The first chapter estimates the impact of Daylight Saving Time (DST) on deaths of despair (DoD) in the United States. Using Multiple Cause-of-Death Mortality Data from the National Vital Statistics System of the National Center for Health Statistics from 1979-1988, the effect is identified in two ways: a regression discontinuity design (RDD) that exploits discrete time changes in the Spring and Fall; …

Essays On Paid Sick Leave In The United States, Shaoying Ma

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of two chapters.

Chapter 1 This study estimates the causal effect of access to paid sick leave on worker mobility, by exploiting variation in the implementation of local paid sick leave mandates over time in the U.S. I use May 2004 - June 2019 Current Population Survey (CPS) basic monthly data, and by taking a Difference-in-Differences approach, I find that the local mandates significantly reduce private sector employees' monthly job turnover. This study is, to the best of my knowledge, the first to present the effect of local paid sick leave mandates in the U.S. on worker …

The Influence Of Learning And Price-Level Targeting On Central Bank Forward Guidance, Stephen J. Cole

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

This paper examines how the effectiveness of central bank forward guidance depends on two key channels: the expectations formation process and the monetary policy regime. The results show that rational expectations relative to an adaptive learning rule amplifies the positive benefits a price-level targeting central bank creates for forward guidance. Specifically, forward guidance generates greater amounts of output and inflation under a price-level than inflation targeting monetary policy regime, but rational expectations overstates these positive benefits compared to adaptive learning. The different responses of expectations between rational expectations and adaptive learning to forward guidance are driving this performance gap. Thus, …

Borderplex Business Barometer, Volume 4, Number 9, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Steven L. Fullerton, Ana Gutierrez Zubiate, Ignacio Santana

Border Region Modeling Project

No abstract provided.

Tahap Kemiskinan Masyarakat Orang Asli Melalui Pendekatan Model Kemiskinan Multidimensi Di Malaysia: Kajian Kes Di Terengganu, Abdullah Muhammad Fuad

Student Works (2020-2029)

Kemiskinan dan ketidakseimbangan sosioekonomi merupakan suatu fenomena global yang perlu ditangani dalam menjadikan Malaysia sebagai sebuah negara maju. Namun begitu, pengukuran kemiskinan unidimensi (pendapatan atau perbelanjaan) melalui purata pendapatan garis kemiskinan (PGK) digunakan di Malaysia tidak menggambarkan kekurangan dan taraf hidup sebenar masyarakat. Pendekatan pengukuran kemiskinan multidimensi yang diperkenalkan oleh United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) merupakan metode yang lebih sesuai digunakan dalam mengukur kemiskinan sebenar masyarakat kerana ia melibatkan pelbagai dimensi dan indikator. Oleh yang demikian, kajian ini telah mengaplikasikan kaedah pengukuran kemiskinan multidimensi menggunakan empat dimensi dengan 17 indikator terhadap masyarakat Orang Asli di Terengganu, Malaysia. Objektif kajian ini …

Income Inequality And Crime: Consumption Channel, Ishak Nur Annizah

Student Works (2020-2029)

The general objective of this study is to examine the relationship between income inequality and crime. Many studies have discussed the relationship between inequality and crime. However, all the literature focused on ‘absolute’ measurements, such as income, poverty, Gini index, education, and employment. They neglected the importance of ‘relative concept’ - a missing element of the way economists analyze inequality. This study argues income inequality is visible through conspicuous consumption. Hence this study proposes conspicuous consumption as another possible channel that could explain the relationship between inequality and crime. Specifically, this study comprises of four specific research objectives. The first …

Trade And Health Linkages: A Global Panel Data Analysis Using The Gravity Model, Pallavi Panda

School of Business

This paper provides empirical evidence on the effect of trade openness on child health using the data from 171 countries between the mid-1990s to mid-2000s. Using an instrumental variable approach with a geographic gravity model framework, this study finds that a 1% increase in openness leads to a 0.2% decrease in infant mortality rates across countries, which at the sample mean is about 8 infant deaths per 1000 live births. The result is robust to country-specific time-invariant heterogeneity as well as outliers. The main channels of operation seem to be through increasing incomes, increasing health expenditures, and decreasing inequality.

The Economic Impact Of Covid-19: Rebuilding The Las Vegas Economy, Jaewon Lim

Policy Briefs and Reports

This study analyzes the recent trends of monthly visitors to the Las Vegas-ParadiseHenderson, NV metropolitan statistical area (MSA) for the first five months of 2020. In addition, six scenarios for the seven-month period of June through December 2020 estimate the net loss of visitors to Southern Nevada and the impact for the state economy in terms of employment, income, the total value added (contribution to Gross State Product), output sales, and state and local tax revenues. The counter-factual scenario – projecting the regional economy if no COVID-19 outbreak occurred – serves as a baseline scenario that allows measurement of the …

The Limits Of Central Bank Forward Guidance Under Learning, Stephen J. Cole

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

This paper investigates the effectiveness of central bank forward guidance while relaxing two standard macroeconomic assumptions: rational expectations and frictionless financial markets. The results show that the addition of financial frictions amplifies the differences between rational expectations and adaptive learning to forward guidance. During a period of economic crisis, output under rational expectations displays more favorable responses to forward guidance than under adaptive learning. These differences are exacerbated when compared with a similar analysis without financial frictions. Thus, monetary policymakers should consider the way in which expectations and credit frictions are modeled when examining the effects of forward guidance.