Behavioral Economics Commons^™

Horizontal Economic Inequality And Mass Atrocity Risk: A Large-Sample Empirical Inquiry, Charles H. Anderton, Roxane A. Anderton

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Our research question is: Does inter-group horizontal economic inequality elevate state-perpetrated mass atrocity risk? Theoretical perspectives in genocide studies show how economic and other forms of discrimination against ethnic or religious groups can elevate the risk of government violence against them. Among the approximately five dozen large-sample empirical studies of mass atrocity risk, only a few consider the effects of economic discrimination. Moreover, no large-sample empirical studies, to the best of our knowledge, test hypotheses related to how inter-group horizontal economic inequalities (as distinct from vertical economic inequalities based on GINI coefficients or quantile income or wealth measures) affect mass …

The Effect Of Conditional Cash Transfers On The Prepaid And Postpaid Expenditures Of Internet And Cellular Services: The Case Of Filipino Households, Krisann Carmina G. Caoile, Edgar Desher P. Empeño, Raphael Manuel P. Ramos, Marie Angeline A. Trinidad, Myrna S. Austria, Ma. Ella Oplas, Tereso S. Tullao Jr, Winfred M. Villamil

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Technology has been playing a large role in the lives of households regardless of income. How, then, do poor families value the importance of internet and cellular services due to the existence of outcome-improving or outcome-worsening effects associated with these services? At the same time, since the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) substantially affects its beneficiaries’ household expenditures, assessing its effectiveness concerning its objectives is important. Most literature on how poor households spend their cash transfers is centered on directly linked goods such as health and education. However, the relationship between CCTs and expenditures on goods that play a more …

Reflections On Inflation: How Bad Has It Been?, Jesus Felipe

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

THE increase in prices that countries have experienced since March 2022 has brought old fears about the deleterious impact of inflation. It is true that prices increased after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and this affected a series of commodities that are imported. Yet, it is important to understand how much prices have increased, the nature of inflation we have experienced, and the reaction of central banks.

Heterogeneous Effects In The Prospects Of Upward Mobility Hypothesis: The Roles Of Risk And Political Beliefs., Nathaniel Badalov

Theses and Dissertations

I test for heterogenous effects in the Prospects of Upward Mobility (POUM) hypothesis framework. This framework suggests that individuals who are poorer than average but expect to become richer than average support less redistribution. Using a survey of households in primarily transition economies - Life in Transition Survey (LiTS2) and ordered logistic regression, I test whether the POUM effect is influenced by the riskiness of the individual's environment or political beliefs. The results suggest that the POUM effect holds independent of the riskiness of the environment but is conditional on political beliefs. The prospects of upward mobility decrease redistributive support …

Fafsa Completion: Considerations For An Extension-Led Statewide Nudge Campaign, Portia L. Johnson, Kacee Ross, Emily Hines

The Journal of Extension

Eight U.S. states have enacted legislation that mandates high school seniors to act on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) before graduation. At least 10 other states are considering implementing similar FAFSA requirements. While proponents of the law believe it will affect postsecondary education and the workforce positively, dissenters argue that the policy is an unfunded mandate that taxes students and parents without offering adequate resources. This article synthesizes existing literature related to policy-related nudge campaigns to provide an Extension-led, cost-effective strategy to achieve the FAFSA mandate’s goal and improve citizens’ FAFSA completion behavior.

Monitoring The Philippine Economy Fourth Quarter Report For 2022, Mitzie Irene P. Conchada, Natasha Amber Y. Cabiltes, Brendan Emmanuel A. Miranda, Edgar Desher P. Empeño

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

The Philippine economy grew 7.2 percent, featuring robust growth despite facing domestic challenges. Fourth quarter growth reflected a more optimistic consumer sentiment as the economy continued to open up. Economic growth in Q4 2022 was 7.2 percent year-on-year and 17.1 percent quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q), showing the Philippines’ consistent effort to create a positive growth outlook for the economy (see Table 1). Year-on-year growth exceeded the median analyst forecast of 6.8 percent despite accelerating inflation and growing food security issues. Revenge spending continues to drive consumption on the demand side while service sector growth remains headstrong on the supply side amid stunted …

Motives For (In)Effective Giving: Comparing Rural And Urban Groups In South Africa., Luvuyo Bulelani Magwaza

Master's Theses

Different cultures have their own set of norms and values that not only shape people’s motives but also influences their decision making. What may be viewed as logical and ethical in one culture, may be seen as illogical or unethical in another. One area that is consistently affected by cross-cultural differences in motives is charitable giving. Recently, there has been an increase in interest around effective altruism— a social movement and philosophy that argues, people should give to charities that do the most good. Prior research that has found that people do not give based on efficiency; instead, people give …

A Psychological Profile Of The Digitized Economy: Who Buys Cryptocurrencies, Nfts, And Meme-Stocks (And Why)?, Nicole Wolfe

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

As the global digital economy continues to grow in interest and financial worth, it is imperative to harvest data to gain early information on this nuanced economy. Already, we have witnessed billions of dollars in losses and wins at the blink of an eye, encouragement to invest from well-known celebrities and politicians, and high anxiety from the newness, power consumption, and potential outcomes of this nuanced system. Stemming from the lack of solid evidence in this emerging field, we hope to gain more insight on the early players and variation within the digitized economy. Similarly, we hope to identify specific …

The Voluntary Carbon Market: Managing The Private Provision Of Public Goods, Atticus Maloney

Gettysburg College Headquarters

While much work has examined the large-scale compliance-based carbon offset programs associated with the Kyoto Protocol and Clean Development Mechanism, there has been far less focus on the voluntary purchasing of carbon offsets. This critical literature review will look at the formation and management of the demand for voluntary carbon offsets within the United States. It will frame carbon offsets as impure public goods and review possible explanations as to why private provision has been so active in the U.S. market. The paper will then survey the efficiency gains and other benefits associated with the voluntary market. It will highlight …

Economic Experiments On Group Identity And Bias, Nathaniel Christopher Burke

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Experiments in economics have been a valuable tool to understand the behavioral implications of incentives on the decision-making process. Particularly, aspects of decision making that cannot be observed in empirical data can be better isolated in an experimental setting such as bias and identity impacts. This dissertation uses three distinct experiments to further the understanding of individual biases, perceptions, and identity and how they impact the way people defer to these internal traits under incentives. This dissertation looks at how well individuals can make inferences about polling data that was collected from individuals susceptible to socially desirable responding. It also …

The Effect Of Quantitative Easing On U.S. Stock Prices And Wealth Inequality, Griffin W. Phillips

Student Scholar Showcase

My thesis will investigate and try to find a casual relationship between Quantitative Easing, or “QE”, and the U.S. stock market since 2003. The secondary effects will then be investigated to see if stock prices impact wealth inequality. To find the causal relationship between the two a regression model will be used. It predicts the magnitude of effects for QE and other variables that may impact stock prices. Since 2007-2009, the Federal Reserve has used QE as a means to spur economic growth. This expansionary monetary policy has impacted many financial markets including the U.S. stock market. Finding the extent …

Windfall Payment Savings: An Examination Of Act 13 Disbursements In Pennsylvania, Corey Young

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

State and local governments occasionally receive positive exogenous payments or windfalls that have a significant impact on their budgets. However, few works examine how budget-makers allocate such payments or if they are consumed in a manner consistent with other revenue streams. Prior research suggests that multiple factors, including the size of a windfall payment, impact how much of the funds are saved and spent. Using data from the Act 13 Unconventional Natural Gas Impact Fee in Pennsylvania, this study examines the relationship between windfall payment size and savings rates between 2011 and 2019. The results of the study indicate that …

The Influence Of Political Party Affiliation And Park Accessibility On Covid-19 Case Incidence, Sascha Wolf-Sorokin

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the joint effect of political party affiliation and the urban landscape, as measured by access to parks, on case rates during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The 2016 and 2020 U.S. Presidential Election returns are used as a proxy for a county’s political party affiliation prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A county population’s spatial relationship to its parks encapsulates the green open space within an urban environment. The data set controls for features of the built environment, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics (race, gender, income, education), COVID-19 government regulations, and presidential election returns. Using …

Providing Childcare, Christine Ho, Sunha Myong

Research Collection School Of Economics

Women’s economic empowerment has been hailed as one of the most remarkable revolutions in the past 50 years. Yet, women still face the lion’s share of the burden of childcare despite major progress in their education and earnings capacity. This is particularly salient in many Asian countries. This chapter proposes a synthesis of the state of knowledge on childcare and discusses policy-relevant issues applicable to the Singapore context. Selected policies are documented and lessons from the international landscape are discussed. Raising children incurs both direct costs in the form of childcare and opportunity costs in the form of career costs. …

Measuring Palatability As A Linear Combination Of Nutrient Levels In Food Items, Jeffrey S. Young

Faculty & Staff Research and Creative Activity

It well known that palatability and nutritional quality of foods and/or diets are viewed as being in tension with one another. While there exist multiple measures of healthiness, there are no such measures for tastiness. This gap limits the degree to which researchers can investigate this tension and its implications for dietary behavior and hence public health and nutrition policy. The scope of future work concerning the dietary behavior of Americans would expand greatly if researchers better understood consumers’ willingness to eat certain foods, which matters as much as recommending those foods for them to eat in the first place. …

The Effects Of Recent Minimum Wage Increases On Self-Reported Health In The United States, Liam Sigaud

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A sharp income-health gradient exists in the United States. Lower levels of income are associated with higher rates of mortality, morbidity, and risky health behaviors, as well as decreased access to health care. Growing evidence of a causal link between income and health suggests that government income-support policies may be an effective strategy for improving health outcomes among poor Americans. One such policy – the minimum wage – has experienced a surge in popularity in recent years. In 2019, twenty-five states and the District of Columbia increased their minimum wage, up from only eight states in 2011. Yet the literature …

Are Nigerian Banks Vulnerable To Oil Price Shocks? A Stress Test Approach, A. T. Odu, A. R Sanusi

Economic and Financial Review

This study empirically examines the vulnerability of the Nigerian banking industry to extreme, but plausible, adverse oil price shocks. A structural vector autoregressive (SVAR-X) is adopted to achieve this objective. The study period covers 2007Q1 – 2020Q4. The simulations assess the asset quality performance of DMBs, using the NPLs, under three scenarios (baseline, adverse and severely adverse). The findings suggest that the entire banking industry, as well as individual DMBs, are vulnerable to adverse oil price shocks. Accordingly, the study recommends, strict compliance with the single obligor limit, by commercial banks, to mitigate adverse effects of volatilities in crude oil …

Effects Of Covid: Non-Essential V Essential Industries, William Shipley

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

As the year 2020 has finally come to an end and the end of Covid is in near sight, it is important for us to look back at how it has shaped the world from an economic perspective. Ever since the closure of most of the U.S. and global economy in March 2020 it has made us deem which companies we consider essential and non-essential. This major decision came as all governments across the world had to close the operations of as many companies they could to limit the spread of the covid-19 virus. This major choice of determining what …

2021 Arkansas Business Forecast, Catherine Mann, Mark Palim, Mervin Jebaraj

Publications and Presentations

“The annual Business Forecast is a chance for business and community leaders from Northwest Arkansas, the state and the region to get first-hand insight into the direction for the next year from top economists,” said Matt Waller, dean of the Walton College. “The insights provided by these three experts will inform and shape decisions that help to drive the business community in Arkansas in 2021.”

Waller said those valuable insights and networking opportunities are only possible through the continued strong support of event sponsors.

“Each year, the interest and level of participation in the Business Forecast event continues to grow …

Financial Literacy And Retirement Preparedness In Sri Lanka: Evidence From The Private Sector Employees, Tiyani Lakshmi Rodrigo

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

The South Asian country of Sri Lanka has a rapidly aging population, but little attention has been paid to individuals and families' financial preparedness for retirement. This study aims to overview the current system of retirement preparedness in Sri Lanka, and to examine financial and pension literacy's role on the retirement preparedness. Specifically, this study evaluated three domains of retirement preparedness: planning for retirement and perceived retirement income adequacy (subjective measures, n = 142), and wealth accumulation (objective measure, n = 115). Results show that (1) financial literacy had a positive and statistically significant association with retirement preparedness (only with …

Three Essays On Tax Compliance In Indonesia, Himawan Saputro

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

This dissertation studies the impacts of major tax reforms designed to improve tax compliance, particularly in the context of developing countries with limited enforcement capacity due to informality and lack of third-party data using the Indonesian tax administrative data as well as relevant empirical research methods. In order to describe this dissertation, I discuss each essay as the following.

The first essay is titled "How Do Small Taxpayers Respond to Tax Simplification? Evidence from the Indonesian Turnover Tax Reform." This essay studies the firms' behavioral responses to tax simplification in Indonesia by exploiting the implementation of turnover tax in 2013 …

The Effects Of Racial Capitalism On Poor White Laborers, Amy Whittaker

Liberal Studies (MA) Final Essays

While always remembering that racial capitalism’s very nature ensures that non-white Americans suffer incomparable racial oppression, this paper will endeavor to expose the devastation caused to American society as a whole by explaining the ways in which racial capitalism destroyed poor white labors ability to participate fully in the economic system and strangled its chances of living the American dream. It is my hope that by discussing the missing piece of the poor white laborers’ experience under racial capitalism will unite poor white laborers and poor black laborers to work together to end racial capitalism, policing, and the carceral system. …

Does Bitcoin Use Affect Crime Rates?, Kevin Keane

The Corinthian

Bitcoin is the most widely used cryptocurrency in the world because of its decentralized network that completes user-to-user transactions, eliminating the need for intermediaries. During 2017, the volume of Bitcoin transactions totaled $94.3 trillion. Bitcoin transactions are recorded in a public database called the blockchain. Although the blockchain can keep track of how many transactions there are, it can’t identify the people involved in transactions. The lack of identity increases the anonymity of Bitcoin transactions, making it less detectable when used for crime. Using the Uniform Crime Reporting’s state-level crime rate data and blockchain’s Bitcoin transaction information, I estimate the …

Writing Tips For Economics Research Papers, Plamen Nikolov

Economics Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Housing Equity And Household Consumption In Retirement: Evidence From The Singapore Life Panel©, Lipeng Chen, Liang Jiang, Sock Yong Phang, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

Housing affordability for elderly homeowners involves an entirely different set of issues as compared to housing affordability for first-time homeowners. To afford to ‘age-in-place’ may require homeowners to access channels that enable them to withdraw their housing equity to finance consumption in retirement. We utilize data from the Singapore Life Panel© survey to empirically investigate the impact of housing equity on the consumption of elderly households. Based on panel analysis, we find housing equity value has no significant impact on non-durable consumption for elderly people. The conclusion holds for a battery of robustness checks. Moreover, heterogeneity analyses based on subsamples …

Predictors Of Social Distancing And Mask-Wearing Behavior: Panel Survey In Seven U.S. States, Plamen Nikolov, Andreas Pape, Ozlem Tonguc, Charlotte Williams

Economics Faculty Scholarship

This paper presents preliminary summary results from a longitudinal study of participants in seven U.S. states during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to standard socio-economic characteristics, we collect data on various economic preference parameters: time, risk, and social preferences, and risk perception biases. We pay special attention to predictors that are both important drivers of social distancing and are potentially malleable and susceptible to policy levers. We note three important findings: (1) demographic characteristics exert the largest influence on social distancing measures and mask-wearing, (2) we show that individual risk perception and cognitive biases exert a critical role in influencing …

Allocation Of Public Resources: Bringing Order To Chaos, Lance Clifner

Computational and Data Sciences (PhD) Dissertations

Science Olympiad (SO) is a team-based academic competition involving multiple subject areas (Events) with arcane rules governing the team composition. Add to the mix parental contention over which student(s) get on the “All-Star” team, and you have a potentially explosive situation. This project brings order and logic to school-based SO programs and defuses tense milestones through the implementation of an institutional structure that: assigns students to Events based on solicited student preferences for the Events, collects objective student performance data, composes competitive teams based on student performance (aka “Moneyball”), and brings transparency to the Team Selection process through crowdsourcing. The …

Essays On Emotional Well-Being, Health Insurance Disparities And Health Insurance Markets, Disha Shende

Economics ETDs

This dissertation has three research papers. First paper looks at the effect of social networks on emotional well-being of cancer patients by studying the response of social networks on their depression symptoms. Using the data from a primary survey conducted in Nepal, the study finds that social networks significantly reduce depression symptoms among cancer patients. The results strongly advocate for the importance of the social networks in improving their emotional well-being. Second paper examines the health coverage disparities among Hispanic and non-Hispanic young adults in five southwestern states of the United States. Using the pooled data from American Community Survey …

Rationing Social Contact During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Transmission Risk And Social Benefits Of Us Locations, Seth G. Benzell, Avinash Collis, Christos Nicolaides

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

To prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), some types of public spaces have been shut down while others remain open. These decisions constitute a judgment about the relative danger and benefits of those locations. Using mobility data from a large sample of smartphones, nationally representative consumer preference surveys, and economic statistics, we measure the relative transmission reduction benefit and social cost of closing 26 categories of US locations. Our categories include types of shops, entertainments, and service providers. We rank categories by their trade-off of social benefits and transmission risk via dominance across 13 dimensions of risk and …

Effect Of Unemployment Length On Employment Expectations, Kamyar Kamyar

Undergraduate Economic Review

Unemployment often has devastating effects on individuals -- both in financial and psychological terms. Depending on the type and category of unemployment, its length varies; and as its length increases it may implement biased thought in individuals’ predictions regarding future employment. This paper’s primary purpose is to measure and discuss how the time length that one has been unemployed for affects his or her expectations on his or her own short-term possibility of employment. The results suggest a strong opposite link between one’s prediction of future employment and the same person’s prior unemployment period. This paper was originally written in …