Economic Theory Commons^™

How Do Reward Versus Penalty Framed Incentives Affect Diagnostic Performance In Auditing?, Bright (Yue) Hong, Timothy W. Shields

ESI Working Papers

Prior research examines how rewards versus economically equivalent penalties affect effort. However, accountants perform various diagnostic analyses that involve more than exerting effort. For example, auditors often need to identify whether a material misstatement is the underlying cause of a phenomenon among the possible causes. Testing helps identify the cause, but testing is costly. When participants are incentivized to test accurately (rather than test more) and objectively (unbiased between testing and not testing), we find that framing the incentives as rewards versus equivalent penalties increases testing by lowering the subjective testing criterion and by increasing the assessed risk of material …

Motives For Cooperation In The One-Shot Prisoner’S Dilemma, Mark Schneider, Timothy W. Shields

ESI Working Papers

We investigate the motives for cooperation in the one-shot Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD). A prior study finds that cooperation rates in one-shot PD games can be ranked empirically by the social surplus from cooperation. That study employs symmetric payoffs from cooperation in simultaneous PD games. Hence, in that setting, it is not possible to discern the motives for cooperation since three prominent social welfare criteria, social surplus (efficiency) preferences, Rawlsian maximin preferences, and inequity aversion make the same predictions. In the present paper, we conduct an experiment to identify which of these social preferences best explains differences in cooperation rates and …

Assessing The Impact Of Inequality On Political Activity And Class Consciousness, Matthew Prouty

Thinking Matters Symposium

Since 1980, the United States has experienced stagnating wages, higher levels of inequality, and intensifying political polarization. Despite this, U.S. domestic economic policy has not undergone the fundamental transformation needed to combat these systemic challenges. Why have these policies remained in place when they have a negative impact on the aggregate working class, and why has the working class not used American Democracy to change these policies? Could it be that the rising inequality has led to reduced political engagement with the remaining voters being more devout participants to their ideology than effective policy? Although there is an abundance of …

Sustainable Rural Development: Is It Possible To Boost Rural Economies While Protecting The Environment?, Jack M. Hempleman

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

Amidst rapid depletion of our carbon budget, the need to change our practices to be more in line with Earth’s limits has become important in every sector of our economy. From advances in renewable energy generation to the growth of urban gardening, people around the world are taking action to change the way they interact with our planet. However, growing concerns have been raised that protections for the environment will disproportionately harm struggling communities. For instance, rural communities in the United States already exhibit disproportionately high poverty rates, income inequality, and unemployment, as well as lower quality healthcare and public …

Modern Monetary Theory: Merits, Critiques, And Contemporary Implications, Rebecca Singleton, Thomas Herndon

Honors Thesis

The study of macroeconomics is a diverse field, with conflicting opinions and numerous camps of thought. The election of 2016 brought this to the public attention, as the appointment of Stephanie Kelton as Senator Bernie Sanders’s campaign economic advisor brought Dr. Kelton’s heterodox school of macroeconomic policy to the attention of mass media. In particular, Modern Monetary Theory became a public discussion, particularly in the wake of stimulus spending during the COVID-19 pandemic. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), a heterodox macroeconomic theory most discussed in far-left and post-Keynesian academic circles, has faced backlash from a centrist mass media. I investigate the …

The Elusive And Complex Parabolic Relationship Between Terrorism And Gdp Per-Capita, Kianna Becker

Honors Capstones

The 21st century saw a dramatic focus on terrorism after the events of September 11, 2001. The search for an explanation for the causes of terrorism have led economists to turn to the role of GDP on terrorism. This research aims to search for a pattern in the relationship between GDP per-capita and acts of terrorism. Previous research has pointed towards both a positive and negative trend. The stark different findings in previous research attests to the various ways terrorism is measured and analyzed. Encapsulating the previous research, this research merges the two theories and aims to show there is …

Antitrust Philosophy And Its Impact On Rural Industry, Logan Gary Johnson

Honors Thesis

The United States is a nation steeped in values, and tradition. One of these values has always been the preservation of competition in the pursuit of liberty. The philosophical backing of America’s founding can be traced back to a handful of European thinkers, most notably John Locke. The connection between Locke, America’s founding, and continued struggles with antitrust enforcement are worthy of exploration. Though likely unintentional, rural communities have been left to deal with the impacts of weak antitrust enforcement in a number of key sectors. Chief of which is Agriculture. Consolidation is the new norm, with each stage of …

The Coronavirus Pandemic And Participation In The Influencer Economy, Emma Grace Richbourg

Honors Theses

The 2019 coronavirus pandemic, also referred to as the COVID-19 pandemic, altered day-to-day life and has effected the economy quite notably. The aim of this paper is to determine to what extent the COVID-19 pandemic altered consumer behavior and whether these alterations encouraged participation in the influencer economy, which represents social media influencers who create and monetize online content. In order to do so, I administered a survey to 250 respondents to evaluate the reach of influencers during the pandemic and whether social media users felt the presence of influencers was an effective marketing technique. I also conducted an analysis …

On The Generalizability Of Using Mobile Devices To Conduct Economic Experiments, Yiting Guo, Jason Shachat, Matthew J. Walker, Lijia Wei

ESI Working Papers

Recent technological advances enable the implementation of online, field and hybrid experiments using mobile devices. Mobile devices enable sampling of incentivized decisions in more representative samples, consequently increasing the generalizability of results. Generalizability might be compromised, however, if the device is a relevant behavioural confound. This paper reports on a battery of common economic games and decision-making tasks in which we systematically randomize the decision-making device (computer versus mobile phone) and the laboratory setup (physical versus online). The results offer broad support for conducting decision experiments using mobile devices. For six out of eight tasks, we find robust null results …

Game Theory, John Thrasher Iv

Philosophy Faculty Books and Book Chapters

The formal study of strategic interaction known as game theory is one of the most important elements in the PPE toolbox. It is no exaggeration to say that game theory is the fundamental logic at the heart of the social and behavioral sciences, and it is crucial for understanding social and political life. Game theory is the core of modern economic theory, formal models in political science, and the most sophisticated and rigorous approaches to moral and political philosophy. Game theory is also important in many of the natural sciences, especially in theoretical biology. As Herbert Gintis (2009, xiii) puts …

Essays On Delegation And Voter Preferences, Cory Simpkins

All Dissertations

Chapter 1 examines delegation and communication as strategies in coordination games with uncertainty and social preferences. I construct a model where other-regarding partners attempt to coordinate over a binary choice with privately known utilities. Players can choose to either communicate by signaling their preferences or delegate the choice entirely to their partner. I characterize equilibrium behavior under various assumptions on information transmission and coordination risk. If coordination is risky, there is a type of "first mover advantage" where the first player to communicate her own-preference guarantees her ideal outcome when communication is honest revelation. When preference signals are cheap talk, …

A Garch Approach To Modeling Chilean Long-Term Swap Yields, Tanweer Akram, Khawaja Mamun

WCBT Working Papers

This paper econometrically models the dynamics of the Chilean interbank swap yields based on macroeconomic factors. It examines whether the month-over-month change in the short-term interest rate has a decisive influence on the long-term swap yield after controlling for other factors, such as the change in inflation, change in the growth of industrial production, change in the log of the equity price index, and change in the log of the exchange rate. It applies the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) approach to model the dynamics of the long-term swap yield. The change in the short-term interest rate has an economically …

Predicting Gross Metropolitan Product Worldwide Using Statistical Learning Models, Socio-Economic, And Satellite Imagery Data, Simin Joshaghani

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Gross metropolitan product (GMP) is one the most critical indicators for determining a metropolitan area’s economic performance. While GMP data currently exists for major cities in the US and OECD countries, the rest of the world is a blind spot. This study aims at estimating the GMP of 1289 cities in non-US and OECD countries, where no official city-level statistics are produced. We perform this estimation through multiple machine learning models, using night-time lights satellite imagery, and other publicly available data. We analyze eight spatial databases and four cross-sectional datasets and derive a feature vector of covariates through various techniques, …

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 …

Probabilistic Fixed Ballot Rules And Hybrid Domains, Shurojit Chatterji, Souvik Roy, Soumyarup Sadhukhan, Arunava Sen, Huaxia Zeng

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study a class of preference domains that satisfies the familiar properties of minimal richness, diversity and no-restoration. We show that a specific preference restriction, hybridness, has been embedded in these domains so that the preferences are single-peaked at the “extremes” and unrestricted in the “middle”. We also study the structure of strategy-proof and unanimous Random Social Choice Functions on these domains. We show them to be special cases of probabilistic fixed ballot rules (introduced by Ehlers, Peters, and Storcken (2002)).

The Optimal Cross-Border Network Structure Of Chinese Commercial Banks — An Analysis Based On The New Structural Economics And New Structural Finance Theory, Hongjie Gu

Fordham Dissertations and Theses

With the unprecedented global economic integration, the internationalization of commercial banks (CBs) in a country or region can be closely related to the stability and prosperity of the world economy. The internationalization of Chinese CBs has turned out a non-negligible trend, particularly the big four state-owned CBs. The acceleration of “going global” has enabled Chinese CBs to exert an increasing influence on the world economy. This dissertation applies New Structural Economics theory (NSE) through the “one analysis and three inductions” methodology to analyze the evolution of the cross-border network structure adopted by CBs in the internationalization process. In this dissertation, …

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 …

The Effect Of Income On Healthy Food Options, Hannah M. Doherty

Undergraduate Economic Review

This paper explores the effect of income per capita on the number of grocery stores and fast-food franchises in an area. Using a panel dataset to allow for the inclusion of every county in the United States across a period of three years, the results suggest that the income per capita of a county significantly impacts the number of grocery stores and fast-food restaurants in the area. Other factors such as education, age, and attributes regarding time constraints also play an important role in determining the number of grocery stores and fast-food franchises in a location.

Essays On Socioeconomic Shocks And Policies In Agriculture, Wilman Iglesias

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The three chapters of this doctoral dissertation estimate the responses of agricultural productivity, production value of agriculture, and crop supply to some external shocks and policies. Using unique panel datasets for Colombia and the United States, this research provides new insights regarding the responsiveness of agriculture to some socioeconomic effects and related market policies. Chapter 1 studies the impact of armed conflicts in rural areas on legal agricultural productivity in Colombia by using a production function that includes violence shocks such as the forced intra-national displacement of the rural population from 1995 to 2017. Chapter 2 investigates the effect of …

Green Growth Or Degrowth? The Economics Of Climate Change, Cadence Tomlinson

Senior Theses

The paradigm dominating how American policymakers currently approach the climate crisis issue is green growth, positing that the global economy can maintain desirable levels of persistent economic growth while also effectively reducing carbon emissions and slowing the process of global warming, all by means of market-spurred technological innovation and green production processes. Some environmental thinkers dispute the sustainability potential of green growth, urging green growth economists and policymakers to think beyond the ostensibly “limiting” economic growth paradigm. Among this dissent, a new paradigm has emerged, one de-centering goals of economic growth and instead advocating for a reduction in economic throughput, …

Who Withdraws First? Line Formation During Bank Runs, Hubert János Kiss, Ismael Rodriguez-Lara, Alfonso Rosa-Garcia

ESI Working Papers

We study how lines form in front of banks. In our model, depositors choose first the level of effort to arrive early at the bank and then whether or not to withdraw their deposit. We argue that the informational environment (i.e., the possibility of observing the action of others) affects the emergence of bank runs and should, therefore, influence the line formation. We test this prediction experimentally. While the informational environment has no effect on the line formation when we look at the average level of effort, our findings suggest that the reasons to arrive early at the bank varies …

Agency, Benevolence And Justice, Prithvijit Mukherjee, J. Dustin Tracy

ESI Working Papers

We test for social norms regarding how Agents should select between risky prospects for Principals, including norms consistent with observations by Adam Smith. We elicit norms from subjects serving as ``impartial spectator[s]" about the choice of risky prospects selected by the Agents. We find strong evidence for the existence of norms, consistent with Smith's observations. Furthermore, we find that Agents are more likely to select more normative options. In contrast, we find that Principals' allocation for bonuses depends on the realization of the risky prospect rather than whether the Agents' choice was consistent with the norm.

Working Paper No. 61, The Regulation Of Hemp In The United States, Olivia Carrillo

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that in the United States the growing and processing of industrial hemp faced an array of barriers. Its involvement in the effort during World War Two was successful and experienced high praise from the federal government. While hemp provided measurable and grand benefits as a strategic war crop, its importance diminished sharply as the United States transitioned out of the war era. What was once a highly desirable crop became a demonized crop that gradually faded into the background of the American economy. Despite its initial positive portrayal, the utilization of industrial hemp was essentially …

Working Paper No. 56, Towards A Veblenian View Of Non-Fungible Tokens, Kamren Geist

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that ideas advanced by Thorstein Veblen in his book, The Theory of the Leisure Class [1899], offer insights into nonfungible tokens. Through the evolution of technology -- aided by broad access to the internet -- the emergence of non-fungible tokens can be understood to offer the leisure class a novel form of conspicuous consumption. Enabled by expansive networks, members of the leisure class can now engage in conspicuous displays of wealth and therewith establish their status relative to members of the laboring class as well as members of the leisure class. While there exist many …

Working Paper No. 58, Auro Ex Oleum: Departing The American Gold Standard*, Zakhary L. Roth

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that the character of the United States dollar fundamentally changed over the course of the 20th century as it moved away from its being rooted in the gold standard. As the global economy transitioned into the 20th century and the United States began establishing itself as a cornerstone of global trade, the dollar evolved into the standard currency of the world economy, changing significantly along the way as it moved from a gold-backed standard to the reserve currency of the international petroleum trade. These changes are reflected in U.S. foreign and monetary policy throughout this …

Prevalence Of Dementia And Mild Cognitive Impairment In Indigenous Bolivian Forager-Horticulturalists, Margaret Gatz, Wendy J. Mack, Helena C. Chui, E. Meng Law, Giuseppe Barisano, M. Linda Sutherland, James D. Sutherland, Daniel Eid Rodriguez, Raul Quispe Gutierrez, Juan Copajira Adrian, Jesus Bani Cuata, Amy R. Borenstein, Ellen E. Waters, Andrei Irimia, Christopher J. Rowan, L. Samuel Wann, Adel H. Allam, Randall C. Thompson, Michael I. Miyamoto, David E. Michalik, Daniel K. Cummings, Edmond Seabright, Angela R. Garcia, Paul L. Hooper, Thomas S. Kraft, Caleb E. Finch, Gregory S. Thomas, Jonathan Stieglitz, Benjamin C. Trumble, Michael D. Gurven, Hillard Kaplan

ESI Publications

Introduction

We evaluated the prevalence of dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in indigenous Tsimane and Moseten, who lead a subsistence lifestyle.

Methods

Participants from population-based samples ≥ 60 years of age (n = 623) were assessed using adapted versions of the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination, informant interview, longitudinal cognitive testing and brain computed tomography (CT) scans.

Results

Tsimane exhibited five cases of dementia (among n = 435; crude prevalence = 1.2%, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.4, 2.7); Moseten exhibited one case (among n = 169; crude prevalence = 0.6%, 95% CI: 0.0, 3.2), all age ≥ 80 years. …

Correlation-Robust Auction Design, Wei He, Jiangtao Li

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study the design of auctions when the auctioneer has limited statistical information about the joint distribution of the bidders' valuations. More specifically, we consider an auctioneer who has an estimate of the marginal distribution of a generic bidder's valuation but does not have reliable information about the correlation structure. We analyze the performance of mechanisms in terms of the revenue guarantee, that is, the greatest lower bound of revenue across all joint distributions that are consistent with the marginals. A simple auction format, the second-price auction with no reserve price, is shown to be asymptotically optimal, as the number …

Laboratory Experiments Of Land Assembly Without Eminent Domain, Mark Desantis, Matthew W. Mccarter, Abel Winn

ESI Publications

The authors use laboratory experiments to test two self-assessment tax mechanisms for facilitating land assembly. One mechanism is incentive compatible with a complex tax function, while the other uses a flat tax rate to mitigate implementation concerns. Sellers publicly declare a price for their land. Overstating its true value is penalized by using the declared price to assess a property tax; understating its value is penalized by allowing developers to buy the property at the declared price. The authors find that both mechanisms increase the rate of land assembly and gains from trade relative to a control in which sellers’ …

Human Milk Oligosaccharide Compositions Illustrate Global Variations In Early Nutrition, Anita Vinjamuri, Jasmine C. C. Davis, Sarah M. Totten, Lauren D. Wu, Laura D. Klein, Melanie Martin, Ea Quinn, Brooke Scelza, Alicia Breakey, Michael Gurven, Grazyna Jasienska, Hillard Kaplan, Claudia Valeggia, Katie Hinde, Jennifer T. Smilowitz, Robin M. Bernstein, Angela M. Zivkovic, Michael J. Barratt, Jeffrey I. Gordon, Mark A. Underwood, David A. Mills, J. Bruce German, Carlito B. Lebrilla

ESI Publications

Background

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are an abundant class of compounds found in human milk and have been linked to the development of the infant, and specifically the brain, immune system, and gut microbiome.

Objectives

Advanced analytical methods were used to obtain relative quantitation of many structures in approximately 2000 samples from over 1000 mothers in urban, semirural, and rural sites across geographically diverse countries.

Methods

LC-MS−based analytical methods were used to profile the compounds with broad structural coverage and quantitative information. The profiles revealed their structural heterogeneity and their potential biological roles. Comparisons of HMO compositions were made between …

Cryptocurrencies Bandwagon…Fad Wave Or Investment Asset? Firm Level Analysis Of Panel Data In Egypt, Yasmine Galal

Theses and Dissertations

The crypto market is growing rapidly and gaining momentum globally. The current study is tackling the impact of the crypto exchanges on the stock market in Egypt. The author consolidated firm level data from DataStream and Cryptocurrency data from CoinDesk to conduct this study over the period 2014-2020. The methodology is based on Fixed Effect and IV-GMM models to study the differential impact across sectors and firm attributes. Our main findings can be highlighted as follows: (a) cryptocurrencies are substitutes to stocks. (b)Two periods are highlighted in the analysis: 2016 post currency devaluation and COVID-19 pandemic, where the adoption was …