Economics Commons^™

Benefits Of Extended Unemployment Insurance On Post-Unemployment Outcomes, Alyssa Roche

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates how unemployment insurance (UI) affects individuals during and after unemployment. Drawing on historical evidence from recent recessions in the United States, publicly available data, behavioral insights, and mathematical modeling, it argues that the benefits of extending UI outweigh the potential costs. The analysis incorporates a wide range of sources, including empirical economic studies using regression models and psychology and business research that highlight behavioral responses to financial stress and job insecurity. By combining quantitative data with behavioral context, the thesis offers a more comprehensive understanding of how extended UI influences job search decisions, wage outcomes, and overall …

Rainy Day Funds In Mountain West States, Fy2024, Anirudh Polagani, Cason Noll, Krish Sharma, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Elections & Governance

This fact sheet presents data on rainy day funds for fiscal year 2024 in the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah, as originally reported in the 2025 Governing Magazine article, “Growth of State Rainy Day Funds Has Slowed Down.” These data capture the number of days each state could fund state government operations using only rainy day funds, which represent the money states set aside to maintain operations during economic downturns or fiscal stress.

Situational Analysis Of Child Labour In Coastal And Marine Activities In Zanzibar, Tanzania, Happiness Anold Moshi, Rukia Kitula

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

This study analyses the situation of child labour in coastal and marine activities in Zanzibar, Tanzania, by examining activities carried out by children, the major driving factors for engaging in child labour, as well as the associated impacts to children’s schooling and wellbeing. Questionnaire survey, focus group discussions (FGDs), participant observations, and key informant interviews (KII) were all used to collect data for the study. The study involved a total of 90 children, who were randomly selected among working children in coastal and marine activities. It was found that most of the working children were involved in fishing, fish descaling, …

Working Mothers And Children’S Social-Emotional Development: Struggling With Family And Job Roles In Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, Ignasia Paskal Mbatta

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

This study aimed at examining the socio-emotional development of employed mothers’ children in the metropolis of Dar es Salaam. Early childhood socio-emotional development is crucial for shaping a child’s short- and long-term well-being, relationships, and overall mental health. An exploratory qualitative approach employing a phenomenological design, guided this study. In-depth interviews, documentary reviews, and active participant observation were used to collect data. The study sample comprised of 42 working mothers, 9 domestic workers, and 90 children under five years of age of the same mothers. Purposive sampling was used to select working mothers, while domestic workers were selected incidentally. The …

The Ancillaries Of Undergraduate Economics Programs: Results Of A Departmental Survey, Gail M. Hoyt, Roisin O'Sullivan

Economics: Faculty Publications

Most economics departments have a cadre of ancillary elements intended to enhance the experience of their undergraduate majors. These may include opportunities to attend speaker series, give conference presentations, participate in student organizations, or work as teaching or research assistants. While economists have studied individual ancillaries, there is merit in a comprehensive examination. The authors design and conduct a departmental survey of 300 U.S. institutions to characterize ancillaries’ prevalence, structure, and perceived benefits. Their findings shed light on how the prevalence and structure of ancillaries vary across different types of academic institutions. Perceived benefits involve meeting departmental learning goals and …

Working Paper No. 101, “Universal Welfare” In Marxist Thought, And Its Implementation During The Era Of The Soviet Union, Eunji Jang

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that although in his writings Karl Marx emphasized “Universal Welfare” as a central ideal, its appearance and realization in the Soviet Union was affected by tensions between ideology and the realities of centralized economic control. The first section explores Marx’s vision of universal welfare as a structural component of a post-capitalist society rooted in collective ownership and human emancipation. The second section examines how the Soviet Union institutionalized welfare across sectors such as education, healthcare, housing, and employment, while access to these services was often influenced by labor contribution and political loyalty. The final section …

Startup Accelerator Returns: J Curve Or L Curve? A Comparative Performance Analysis Between A Venture Accelerator And Early-Stage Venture Capital, Aleš Pustovrh

Economic and Business Review

This document analyses the profitability of investments in venture accelerators compared to early-stage venture capital funds. Using a case study of a single fund manager operating both investment types, it tracks the Total Value to Paid-In (TVPI) ratio over 6 years. The early-stage venture capital investments showed a positive trend, exceeding a TVPI of 1, indicating profitability driven by company survival rates, external funding attraction, and growth. Conversely, the accelerator investments underperformed, with a TVPI consistently below 1, suggesting a loss for investors. This raises questions about the long-term viability of the accelerator model, potentially resulting in an L curve …

Medical Debt In The Mountain West, 2022, Kian Parikh, Lara Karaalp, Otoniel Ramos, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Health

This fact sheet presents 2022 data on the prevalence of medical debt in the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. The Urban Institute report, “The Changing Medical Debt Landscape in the United States” includes data on medical debt estimates, hospital market concentration, as well as estimates of uninsured individuals, disabled adults, average household incomes, and racial compositions at the state and county level for the 50 states and Washington, DC. This fact sheet focuses on state-level differences on the prevalence of medical debt, as well as differences in the percentages of uninsured individuals and …

A Veblenian Approach To Chaos Theory, Isaiah Henry

Hatfield Graduate Journal of Public Affairs

This paper provides a comparative analysis of Veblen's belief in disequilibrium, the field of chaos theory, and how these two frameworks connect. We explore the similarities and differences between Veblen's theories and the principles of chaos theory, including their shared emphasis on complexity and unpredictability. By analyzing the connections between Veblen's economic theories and chaos theory, we can gain a deeper understanding of the nature of disequilibrium and the complex forces that shape our world.

The Impact Of Blue Economy Factors On Morocco's Economic Growth, Lqamar Youssef, El Amine Youness Mr, Smouni Rachid Pr

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

Purpose - This study examines the influence of blue economy factors on Morocco's economic growth.

Design/methodology/ approach - Using secondary data from 1980 to 2022, the analysis focuses on fishery production and its various sectors as contributing factors to economic growth. The study employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method and aims to highlight the impact of deep-sea fishing and coastal fishing in the context of a transition to a sustainable and inclusive blue economy.

Findings - The results suggest that coastal fishing has more potential for creating inclusive economic value within the development of the blue economy, thus promoting …

Econ100 Economics And Society Course -- Queens College, Clive Belfield

Open Educational Resources

This is a syllabus for a contemporary course on Economics for students with no background in Economics. The course blends theory and up-to-date evidence.

New Building Permits In The Mountain West, 2024, Taylor Volk, Mohit Pande, Kristian Thymianos, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Housing & Real Estate

This fact sheet examines data on new build permits from January 2023 to January 2024 in the five Mountain West States of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.“New Home Construction Statistics,” published by This Old House, reported percent changes on new builder permits and construction manufacturing costs and statistics across all 50 states.

Fixed Income Mathematics, Kenneth S. Bigel

Open Touro Created

2025

Bond Math is at the center of the functioning of the bond markets, yet this critical sub-finance discipline is usually not accessible to the typical investor. This is an approachable study of the mathematical theories underlying Fixed Income instruments. It is not a study of bonds per se or the bond markets. The text commences with a basic review of the time value of money, i.e., the theory of compound interest. It then proceeds to discuss how bond prices and yields are determined. Next, it covers the relationships between bond prices and general movements of interest rates in the …

Scalable Targeting Of Social Protection: When Do Algorithms Out-Perform Surveys And Community Knowledge?, Emily Aiken, Anik Ashraf, Joshua E. Blumenstock, Raymond P. Guiteras, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak

Discussion Papers

Innovations in big data and algorithms are enabling new approaches to target interventions at scale. We compare the accuracy of three different systems for identifying the poor to receive benefit transfers — proxy means-testing, nominations from community members, and an algorithmic approach using machine learning to predict poverty using mobile phone usage behavior — and study how their cost-effectiveness varies with the scale and scope of the program. We collect mobile phone records from all major telecom operators in Bangladesh and conduct community-based wealth rankings and detailed consumption surveys of 5,000 households, to select the 22,000 poorest households for $300 …

Scalable Targeting Of Social Protection: When Do Algorithms Out-Perform Surveys And Community Knowledge?, Emily Aiken, Anik Ashraf, Joshua E. Blumenstock, Raymond Guiteras, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Innovations in big data and algorithms are enabling new approaches to target interventions at scale. We compare the accuracy of three different systems for identifying the poor to receive benefit transfers — proxy means-testing, nominations from community members, and an algorithmic approach using machine learning to predict poverty using mobile phone usage behavior — and study how their cost-effectiveness varies with the scale and scope of the program. We collect mobile phone records from all major telecom operators in Bangladesh and conduct community-based wealth rankings and detailed consumption surveys of 5,000 households, to select the 22,000 poorest households for $300 …

Quantile-Optimal Policy Learning Under Unmeasured Confounding, Zhongren Chen, Siyu Chen, Zhengling Qi, Xiaohong Chen, Zhuoran Yang

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We study quantile-optimal policy learning where the goal is to find a policy whose reward distribution has the largest α-quantile for some α P p0, 1q. We focus on the offline setting whose generating process involves unobserved confounders. Such a problem suffers from three main challenges: (i) nonlinearity of the quantile objective as a functional of the reward distribution, (ii) unobserved confounding issue, and (iii) insufficient coverage of the offline dataset. To address these challenges, we propose a suite of causal-assisted policy learning methods that provably enjoy strong theoretical guarantees under mild conditions. In particular, to address (i) and (ii), …

More Schooling Can Delay The Onset Of Dementia Later In Life, Vikesh Amin, Jere R. Behrman, Jason M. Fletcher, Carlos A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, Iliana Kohler, Hans-Peter Kohler, Shana D. Stites

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.

Does Schooling Improve Cognitive Abilities At Older Ages? Causal Evidence From Nonparametric Bounds, Vikesh Amin, Jere R. Behrman, Jason M. Fletcher, Carlos A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, Hans-Peter Kohler

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We revisit much-investigated relationships between schooling and health, focusing on schooling impacts on cognitive abilities at older ages using the Harmonized Cognition Assessment Protocol in the Health & Retirement Study (HRS) and a bounding approach that requires relatively weak assumptions. Our estimated upper bounds on the population average effects indicate potentially large causal effects of increasing schooling from primary to secondary; yet, these upper bounds are smaller than many estimates from the literature on causal schooling impacts on cognition using compulsory-schooling laws. We also cannot rule out small and null effects at this margin. We do, however, find evidence for …

Causal Effects Of Schooling On Memory At Older Ages In Six Low-And-Middle-Income Countries: Nonparametric Evidence With Harmonized Datasets, Vikesh Amin, Jere R. Behrman, Jason M. Fletcher, Carlos A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, Iliana Kohler, Hans-Peter Kohler, Shana D. Stites

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Higher schooling attainment is associated with better cognitive function at older ages, but it remains unclear whether the relationship is causal. We estimate causal effects of schooling on performances on the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease (CERAD) word-recall (memory) test at older ages in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa. We used harmonized data (n=30,896) on older adults (≥50 years) from the World Health Organization Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health. We applied an established nonparametric partialidentification approach that bounds causal effects of increasing schooling attainment at different parts of the schooling distributions under …

The Startup Ecosystem In Southern Nevada: Growth, Energy, And Emerging Entrepreneurship In 2025, Len Jessup, Sean Curry

Policy Briefs and Reports

The startup ecosystem in Southern Nevada has undergone significant transformation during the past decade, evolving from a fragmented and nascent environment into a dynamic and increasingly coordinated landscape. This study examines the growth of the Southern Nevada startup ecosystem, analyzing key components such as funding sources, incubators, accelerators, and public-private collaborations. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data, including investment trends, economic impact reports, and interviews with over 100 stakeholders, this policy brief provides a comprehensive assessment of the strengths and gaps within the ecosystem. Key findings indicate that while the region has made substantial progress, particularly in fostering early-stage investments …

Adam Smith’S Modeling Of Agents: Roots Versus Consequences Of Action, Vernon L. Smith, Sabiou M. Inoua

ESI Publications

Adam Smith founded his investigations of economic and social exchanges on the roots of human action (sympathy, need, self-interest), unlike the utilitarians (Hume and the neoclassical economists), who centered theirs on the consequences of human action (pleasure, utility of outcome). This distinction is key to understanding the contrast between the two schools of thought, as we emphasize in this chapter.

Reform Vs Revolution: Revisiting Original Institutionalist’S Axiology, Jacob Powell

Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Institutional Change In Healthcare As Brought About By The Critical Juncture Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Olga Shvetsova

Working Papers Series

This introduction to the 2025 capstone symposium lays the conceptual groundwork for a new approach to analyzing institutional change in healthcare systems triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Departing from conventional legal-institutional perspectives, it extends the decision space framework developed by Bossert (1998) to capture both formal authority and the de-facto responsibilities exercised by public and non-public actors. By disaggregating health responsibilities across levels of government and sectors—public, private, and hybrid—and operationalizing these as quantifiable indicators over time, the framework allows for real-time and comparative assessment of institutional transformation. The pandemic is treated as a critical juncture that exposed and reconfigured …

Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing For Cervical Myelopathy Surgery: A Step Towards Total Episode Costs, Kavantissa M. Keppetipola, Adam Leibold, Jay Trivedi, Ashmal Sami, Advith Sarikonda, D. Mitchell Self, Emily L. Isch, Steven R. Glener, Srinivas Prasad, Jack Jallo, Joshua E. Pelta-Heller, James Harrop, Alex R. Vaccaro, Ahilan Sivaganesan

Department of Neurosurgery Faculty Papers

INTRODUCTION: Time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) is a highly accurate method for determining the true cost of delivering a healthcare service. However, TDABC is most often applied to a singular phase of care such as an outpatient visit or a surgical event. Here we broaden the scope by using TDABC to estimate the costs of surgically treating cervical myelopathy - from the moment of surgical scheduling until post-operative hospital discharge.

METHODS: In a single-center retrospective study at a large tertiary academic institution, TDABC was employed to measure pre-operative, intra-operative, and post-operative (inpatient) costs for 63 patients undergoing elective surgery for cervical …

Did Regionalism Kill The World Trade Organization?, Christopher S. Magee

Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Examining The Relationship Between Perceptions Of Service Quality, Student Satisfaction, And Intention To Persist At Different Higher Education Institutions, Denise Hardesty, Aaron W. Hughey

Counseling & Student Affairs Faculty Publications

Using a correlational research design, this quantitative, descriptive study was conducted at a two-year community college and a four-year public university. A modified version of the Perceived Service Quality (PSQ) instrument was used to survey full-time, undergraduate students at each institution to examine perceptinos of service quality and whether those perceptions impact a student's decision to return the next semester. Students at both institutions in the study reported a high level of satisfaction in all three primary dimensions of service quality; no significant differences were found to exist in the way in which service quality is perceived by students based …

Dataset Supporting The Manuscript Promoting Awareness And Adoption Of Biochar As A Soil Amendment: Effect Of Message Framing, Tong Wang, David Wiltse, Filip Viskupic, Akinsola Oyebanji

South Dakota Farm Survey

A farmer survey was conducted from February 22nd to March 9th, 2025 to test the impact of message framing on farmers’ learning and adoption decisions of biochar. The survey targeted operators of farms in Eastern South Dakota where the production of corn requires chemical fertilizer is intensively used as a crucial input. Biochar as a soil amendment has the potential to serve as a partial substitute for chemical fertilizer in our studied region. A sample of 10,000 South Dakota farming operations east of the Missouri River (where climate favors row crop production) was randomly drawn from those who participated in …

Resilience Of Women Entrepreneurs In Mindanao And The Impact Of Access To Finance And Digital Technologies, World Bank, Ateneo Center For Social Entrepreneurship, Social Enterprise Development Partnerships Inc.

Ateneo Center for Social Entrepreneurship (ACSEnt)

Executive Summary

This report examines the resilience of women nano- entrepreneurs in Mindanao and explores the impact of access to finance and digital technologies on their business sustainability. Utilizing data from the Social Enterprise Development Partnerships Inc. (SEDPI) and focus group discussions (FGDs), the study identifies key challenges and coping mechanisms employed by women-led nano- enterprises. The findings provide actionable insights for policymakers and microfinance institutions (MFIs) to design targeted interventions that strengthen the sustainability of these enterprises, particularly in the face of economic and environmental shocks. Women-led nano-enterprises in Mindanao typically operate informally, with assets ranging from PhP3,000 to …

A Framework For Evaluating Ev Battery Mineral Sourcing Challenges, Nurcan Kilinc-Ata, Mahelet G. Fikru

Economics Faculty Research & Creative Works

The transition to electric vehicles (EVs) is pivotal for global decarbonization but faces significant challenges in securing essential battery minerals like lithium, graphite, manganese, cobalt, and nickel. While existing literature extensively explores individual challenges such as geographic concentration, geopolitical instability, and sustainability concerns, it often lacks a holistic framework to address their interconnected impacts on supply-demand dynamics. This report synthesizes insights from the extant literature to identify vulnerabilities in the mineral supply chain and proposes a strategic framework for sourcing policies. Key findings emphasize the need for developing mineral-specific sourcing policies, integrating sustainability criteria for mineral sourcing, and investing in …

John R. Commons, Reasonable Value, And Power: A Critique, Jacob Powell

Working Papers

No abstract provided.