Behavioral Economics Commons^™

Introductory Economics: Gender, Majors, And Future Performance, Natsuki Arai, Shian Chang, Biing-Shen Kuo

Economics Faculty Publications

By investigating the exam scores of introductory economics classes in the business school at National Chengchi University in Taiwan between 2008 and 2019, we find three sets of results: First, we find no significant difference between genders in the exam scores. Second, students’ majors are significantly associated with their exam scores, which likely reflects their academic ability measured at college admission. Third, the exam scores are strong predictors of students’ future academic performance.

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 …

College Crime And Retention Rates, Abigail R. Hauer

Student Publications

Increased media attention on college crime has led to greater prioritization of campus safety when selecting a college to attend. This, coupled with society’s view of higher education as a necessity to succeed in the labor market, creates a potential tradeoff between safety on campus and future job success. To analyze such tradeoff, I examine whether college crime affects retention rates at four-year American institutions. While literature has focused on college crime and factors that affect the decision to begin attending a college, no study has solely focused on the college crime and the decision to continue attending a college. …

Endowment Effects And Contribution Strategies In Public Good Experiments, John P. Weis, John J. Cadigan, Pamela Schmitt, Kurtis Swope

Economics Faculty Publications

We investigate behavior in a laboratory public good experiment with unique endowment schemes that allow a wider range of contribution strategies than in standard voluntary contribution mechanism (VCM) experiments. A baseline treatment follows a standard VCM design (subjects receive 10 tokens in each of 10 rounds that may be allocated between a private account and a group account). In a new carry-over treatment, any tokens not allocated to the group account in the current period are made available for contributions in future periods. Under full endowment, subjects receive 100 tokens in round one (rather than 10 tokens per …

Risk Preferences And Prenatal Exposure To Sex Hormones For Ladinos, Diego Aycinena, Rimvydas Baltaduonis, Lucas Rentschler

Economics Faculty Publications

Risk preferences drive much of human decision making including investment, career and health choices and many more. Thus, understanding the determinants of risk preferences refines our understanding of choice in a broad array of environments. We assess the relationship between risk preferences, prenatal exposure to sex hormones and gender for a sample of Ladinos, which is an ethnic group comprising 62.86% of the population of Guatemala. Prenatal exposure to sex hormones has organizational effects on brain development, and has been shown to partially explain risk preferences for Caucasians. We measure prenatal exposure to sex hormones using the ratio of the …

The Staffing Of Presidential Assistants: Their Effect On Presidential Success In The House Of Representatives, Nicholas R. Jesteadt

Gettysburg Economic Review

This paper examines the Congressional success of United States Presidents based on the reported Congressional Quarterly Presidential Box Scores. Their individual success is examined as an effect of the senior staff member a President chooses and whether they are chosen from the campaign, personal experience, or previous administrations. It is important for a President to consider the origins of these staffers as these Assistants to the President act as the body of the President’s administration. The econometric analysis presented reveals several interesting results. First, the predominance of a President to choose staff members from his campaign shows no significant impact …

Environmental Justice: Where Are The Fracking Sites?, Elizabeth Adams

Gettysburg Economic Review

This paper looks at the variables that determine the location of hydraulic fracturing wells. Using cross-sectional data on Texas counties, we test whether county income level and the percentage of the population that is minority are significant indicators of well location. This study mirrors other studies that focus on the location of undesirable land uses such as landfills. Our study finds that income level and the size of the minority population are not statistically significant indicators of hydraulic fracturing well location.

The Gettysburg Economic Review, Volume 6, Spring 2012

Gettysburg Economic Review

No abstract provided.

The Gettysburg Economic Review, Volume 4, Spring 2010

Gettysburg Economic Review

No abstract provided.

Long-Term Contracts And The Principal-Agent Problem, Elizabeth A.R. Purcell

Gettysburg Economic Review

This paper examines the principal-agent problem within professional sports. Imperfect information between managers and players, as well as the guaranteed income a long-term contract provides, are predicted to provide players with the incentive to alter effort over the length of a contract – especially during the first year of a long-term contract. Regression analysis indicates that players’ performance levels decline during the first year of a long-term contract, suggesting that the effects of the principal-agent problem may outweigh competing effects. The study does not, however, suggest that players increase performance in the final year of a contract.

Reading Adam Smith: Understanding The Misinterpretations & The Fallacy Of The Adam Smith Problem, Ross J. Witte

Gettysburg Economic Review

This paper investigates Adam Smith’s intricate vision of human motivation and seeks to expose the fallacy of the “Adam Smith Problem”. Through an expansive study of the famed economist’s two most prominent works, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (WN) and The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS), I will show that the two are perfect complements of one other and that Adam Smith did not set down in one place his views on the nature of man. Adam Smith saw man for what he truly is, dominated by selfinterest but not without concern for …

The Gettysburg Economic Review, Volume 2, Spring 2008

Gettysburg Economic Review

No abstract provided.

The Genetic, Social, & Behavioral Factors That Motivate Parents To Abuse Their Children, Bradley M. Garner

Gettysburg Economic Review

This paper examines the influence of economic, genetic, behavioral, and social factors on the parental choice to abuse one’s child. I derive a choice model for the parents based on McFadden’s (1974) conditional logit model. Within society, the parent or parents not only bear the responsibility for their child’s well being, but also for ensuring the child will grow up to be an educated, productive member of society. Through the examination of individual parent and child behavior patterns, as well as numerous social and economic factors from the Physical Violence in American Families Survey of 1985, I show that after …

The Effects Of Sexual Orientation On Earnings, Tsz-Ying Yeung

Gettysburg Economic Review

Gay and lesbian topics have received much media attention in recent years. Debates have revolved around issues such as gay marriage, adoption rights, and the legal relationship of children born to a homosexual couple with their nonbiological second parent. Corporations have started to provide partner benefits to gay and lesbian employees. Many companies today have added the words “sexual orientation” to their equal rights hiring policies. Nevertheless, discrimination against homosexual people in the workplace is still widely perceived to exist.

In this paper, I address the question, does earnings discrimination against homosexual and bisexual workers exist in the U.S. labor …

Efficiency Of The Mutual Fund Industry: An Examination Of U.S. Domestic Equity Funds: 1995-2004, Chase J. Stewart

Gettysburg Economic Review

Investors have the ability to choose between two different management styles in the mutual fund industry. These two management styles differ in both the investment strategy type the fund executes and management costs, which are charged to the funds’ investors. First, investors may invest their funds in index funds, which employ a passive investment strategy. Here, investors expect to earn a rate of return equivalent to the market index—minus a small management fee—which the fund seeks to track. Alternatively, investors may choose active fund management. The returns of these mutual funds rely on stock selection ability of portfolio managers. Active …

The Gettysburg Economic Review, Volume 1, Spring 2006

Gettysburg Economic Review

No abstract provided.