Industrial Organization Commons^™

Food Labeling Standards Have Significant Welfare And Distributional Impacts, Konstantinos Giannakas, Nicholas Kalaitzandonakes, Alexandre Magnier

CAFIO: Policy Research Group Policy Pagers

Discussions on the appropriate regulatory norms for genetically modified (GM) foods date back to the early 1980s. Thirty years later, a consensus on what such norms should be remains elusive. Some countries, including the United States and Canada, consider GM foods substantially equivalent to their conventional counterparts and do not require segregation and labeling of these products. Others, including the European Union, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, and China have introduced mandatory labeling regimes.

Empathy Nudging Increases Conservation Of Farming Land, Natalia V. Czap, Hans J. Czap, Gary D. Lynne, Mark E. Burbach

CAFIO: Policy Research Group Policy Pagers

One of the major challenges of environmental policy with regard to conservation is that it must often rely on voluntary and non-selfish actions of individuals. Traditionally policy makers rely on direct regulation and financial incentives, but both approaches face problems. Regulations may lead to resentment and the costs of perfect enforcement are prohibitively high. Financial incentives can be perverse and may lead to unintended consequences, including crowding out of intrinsic motivation. In addition, behavioral economics and economic psychology studies demonstrate that the assumptions of the neoclassical economic models (such as self-interest only, rationality, and willpower) on which the policy design …

2013 Farm Bill: An Experimental Test Of The Senate And House Proposals, Natalia V. Czap, Hans J. Czap, Gary Lynne, Mark E. Burbach

CAFIO: Policy Research Group Policy Pagers

The 2008 Farm Bill currently guides agricultural and related environmental/conservation policy. Versions proposed by the United States Senate and the House of Representatives, to be implemented in the 2013 Farm Bill after differences are resolved, aim to achieve environmental (and other food related) goals, while also seeking significant spending cuts. While both versions propose to eliminate the Direct Payments program, they differ with respect to how other crop supports should work and whether crop insurance subsidies should be linked to conservation practices. The Senate Bill supports a policy design based on cross‐compliance, that is, crop insurance subsidies are conditional on …

Pricing Lower Or Buying Cheaper? How Grocery Consumers Pay Less During Seasonal Demand Peaks, Colin Watson

Undergraduate Economic Review

The average price paid for a seasonal grocery category is (surprisingly) lower during the category's seasonal demand peak. For several product categories at one supermarket chain, demand peaks are shown to be associated with 1) consumer substitution to lower-quality products, 2) product price reductions, especially on products that increase their market shares, and as a result 3) a decline in the average price paid for the product category. In one very seasonal category, price reductions are driven by intertemporal substitution associated with large weekly discounts. Findings are consistent with any of several loss leader models.

Trade, Firm Selection, And Industrial Agglomeration, Wen-Tai Hsu, Ping Wang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We develop a model of trade and agglomeration that incorporates trade in both intermediate goods and final goods and allows all firms to choose their locations. There are two types of labor: skilled labor, which is mobile, and unskilled labor, which is immobile. Upon choosing its factory site, a final goods firm that is managed by skilled labor can produce these goods using local unskilled labor and a variety of intermediate goods produced by productivity-heterogeneous producers. We characterize world equilibrium and establish the conditions under which industrial agglomeration arises as a stable equilibrium outcome. We show that when the unskilled …

The Pros And Cons Of Outsourcing, Angela Smith

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Outsourcing has become increasingly popular to the public since the mid-20th century and has become more controversial in the last decade. The United States economy has been under the microscope for the last 4 years due to an economic recession. Outsourcing has been a subject of interest that has been brought up numerous times by economists. Offshore outsourcing is the main type of outsourcing that is of concern in relation to the United States economy. This topic is highly debated because of the unemployment rate in America.

Sweetening The Deal? Political Connections And Sugar Mills In India, Sandip Sukhtankar

Dartmouth Scholarship

Political control of firms is prevalent across the world. Evidence suggests that firms profit from political connections, and politicians derive benefit from control over firms. This paper investigates an alternative mechanism through which politicians may benefit electorally from connected firms, examining sugar mills in India. I find evidence of embezzlement in politically controlled mills during election years, reflected in lower prices paid to farmers for cane. This result complements the literature on political cycles by demonstrating how campaign funds are raised rather than used. Politicians may recompense farmers upon getting elected, possibly explaining how they can get away with pilferage. …

The Debate Over The State Of U.S. Manufacturing: How The Computer Industry Affects The Numbers And Perceptions, Susan N. Houseman

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Workplace Deviance And Recession, Aniruddha Bagchi

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Industrial Policy And Renewable Energy: Trade Conflicts, Robert J. Carbaugh, Max St. Brown

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Business

Governments use industrial policy to promote the development of new industries and the creation and adoption of new technologies. Such policy involves subsidies granted to producers and consumers, usually for the purpose of correcting a market failure. Concerning renewable energies such as wind energy and solar energy, China, the United States, and the European Union provide extensive support to producers and consumers. This support has resulted in trade frictions among these nations. This paper discusses the relationship between industrial policy and trade disputes in renewable energy.

Revisiting The Economic Impact Of The Natural Gas Activity In The Fayetteville Shale: 2008-2012, Katherine A. Deck, Viktoria Riiman

Publications and Presentations

In 2008, the Center for Business and Economic Research released a study that estimated the economic impact of projected Fayetteville Shale activities from 2008 to 2012. This updated report revisits the assumptions of the initial study, reviews the impact of actual activities in the Fayetteville Shale from 2008 to 2011, and delivers some insights into projected impacts for 2012.

Exploration and production of natural gas in the Fayetteville Shale area generates direct effects from drilling wells and causes the need for supporting activities such as construction, transportation, storage, and distribution. Moreover, investments made by oil and gas companies produce indirect …

Managerial Turnover In The English Premier League And The Subsequent Results, Jarrod Connally

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Efficient productivity often relies upon the matching of managerial skills and the resources available for production. Often, poor production outcomes can be attributed to those not directly involved in the production: the managers. Similarly, poor results in professional sports are often attributed to the men and women who never play a minute of a game: the managers/coaches. Managers are routinely blamed for performance and are often the first change an owner or a club will make to improve results. This paper will attempt to determine the performance effects of changing a club’s manager in soccer’s English Premier League (EPL). Further, …

The Role Of Family Ties In Mitigating Moral Hazard: Firm-Level Evidence From Tamil Nadu, India, Goldie Chow

Master's Theses

Drawing on firm-level data from the district of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, India, this study explores the role of family ties as a means to counteract potential moral hazard concerns. It is shown that firms will be more likely to employ family relations when faced with a higher hidden context for moral hazard. Specifically, the analysis finds that the presence of family members within the firm is higher when the firm provides general training and that firms that are more likely to do external business with family relations when it is believed that the legal system is not effective. Additionally, …

The Application Of Instructional Design Principles In The Development Of Sportsmanship Education Software And Its Impact On Children’S Acquisition Of Sportsmanlike Attitudes And Behaviors, Michael J. Petersen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Millions of people participate in sporting events as either athletes or spectators, or both. The presence or absence of sportsmanship they experience can affect them in both negative and positive ways. The purpose of this study was to determine whether schoolchildren who use a computer-based sportsmanship education program would learn and exhibit more sportsmanship than those who did not use the software. It was determined that younger children were more affected by the software than the older children were.

The Settlers Of Catan And A Study Of Trade In Non-Cooperative Games, Dmitriy Ioselevich

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Free trade has long been hailed as the world’s answer to increased competitiveness, greater overall wealth and a higher standard of living. Adam Smith’s ideas on the foundations of capitalism assert that open market policies lead to global economic growth, and conversely that protectionist measures stunt growth and inflate prices. Critics argue that protectionism helps protect developing markets and industries and prevents unfair competition. But in the debate over trade which economic policy is actually best?

To answer this question I conducted an experiment using the board game, The Settlers of Catan, as an economic model. I isolated trade …

Economic Impact Of Legalizing Retail Alcohol Sales In Benton County, Katherine A. Deck, Viktoria Riiman

Publications and Presentations

Converting from a dry county to a wet county would have a number of tangible and intangible economic benefits for Benton County. Legal retail alcohol sales are a signal of a contemporary economic development environment. Quantifying the value of that perception is quite difficult, but it is entirely possible to estimate sales effects and tax implications of becoming a wet county for the residents of Benton County. A study was conducted by the Center for Business and Economic Research to assess the magnitude of those economic effects. Data from 2010 were used because of completeness, but the sizes of the …

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 Rise Of American Industrial And Financial Corporations, Elizabeth A. Laughlin

Gettysburg Economic Review

This paper identifies and analyzes the steps the United States took in its progression to an industrial nation. Launched by the merger movement in the late nineteenth century, vertical and horizontal integration lead to trusts and monopolies in a number of industries. Simultaneously, the labor market was undergoing a number of reforms with the deskilling of workers. The rise of big business was made possible through the growth of the financial sectors and companies such as J.P Morgan. The case study of The Standard Oil Co. highlights the wealth and power that robber barons such as J.D. Rockefeller held during …

A Historical Review Of Five Of The Top Fast Food Restaurant Chains To Determine The Secrets Of Their Success, Alex Leon Lichtenberg

CMC Senior Theses

The primary goal of this paper is to critically examine five of the top nine US fast food chains to look at their history and to determine what factors have lead to their massive success. The companies that will be analyzed include: McDonald's, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Domino's Pizza, and Subway. Similarities and differences of these companies are compared and contrasted throughout the paper and clearly demonstrate how each company has managed to capture and maintain major market share in their respective food categories. Areas that are examined range from product quality to to business models to consumer psychology. …

A Strategic Model For Ingo Accountability Systems, Sarah Elizabeth Wardwell

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis reconstructs the concept of International Non-Governmental Organization (INGO) accountability to beneficiaries through the development of a strategic model for INGO accountability to beneficiaries. It works through the history and arguments surrounding the rise of the debate around whether INGOs should be held accountable to their beneficiary populations. Unique definitions are developed for the terms and concepts related to this topic and a framework for understanding the strategic model for INGO accountability to beneficiaries is outlined: Accountable to whom? Accountable for what? Accountable how? A practical example of an internal assessment for measuring an INGO's accountability to beneficiaries is …

Economic Design Of Acceptance Sampling Plans In A Two-Stage Supply Chain, Lie-Fern Hsu, Jia-Tzer Hsu

Publications and Research

Supply Chain Management, which is concerned with material and information flows between facilities and the final customers, has been considered the most popular operations strategy for improving organizational competitiveness nowadays. With the advanced development of computer technology, it is getting easier to derive an acceptance sampling plan satisfying both the producer’s and consumer’s quality and risk requirements. However, all the available QC tables and computer software determine the sampling plan on a noneconomic basis. In this paper, we design an economic model to determine the optimal sampling plan in a two-stage supply chain that minimizes the producer’s and the consumer’s …

Securing Access To Lower-Cost Talent Globally: The Dynamics Of Active Embedding And Field Structuration, Stephan Manning, Joerg Sydow, Arnold Windeler

Management and Marketing Faculty Publication Series

This article examines how multinational corporations (MNCs) shape institutional conditions in emerging economies to secure access to high-skilled, yet lower-cost science and engineering talent. Based on two in-depth case studies of engineering offshoring projects of German automotive suppliers in Romania and China we analyze how MNCs engage in ‘active embedding’ by aligning local institutional conditions with global offshoring strategies and operational needs. MNCs thereby contribute to the structuration of field relations and practices of sourcing knowledge-intensive work from globally dispersed locations.Our findings stress the importance of institutional processes across geographic boundaries that regulate and get shaped by MNC activities.

A Bass Diffusion Model Analysis: Understanding Alternative Fuel Vehicle Sales, Michael H. Shoemaker

CMC Senior Theses

Frank M. Bass developed the Bass Diffusion Model to predict how innovative consumer durable products diffuse through consumer markets. This thesis will use data from 1999-2011 to examine the applicability of the Bass Diffusion Model to the introduction of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) in the automobile market. The findings in this thesis indicate the Bass Diffusion Model fit the diffusion pattern exhibited by AFVs well, but failed to accurately forecast diffusion patterns outside a given range of data. This thesis investigates potential reasons for the inaccurate 'Out of Sample Forecast', and gives recommendations for directions of future research on AFV …

The Effect Of Executive Compensation On Firm Performance Through The Dot-Com Bubble, Maxwell J. Chambers

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines firm performance through the dot-com bubble through the lens of executive compensation. Hypotheses based on the theoretical literature of Bolton, Scheinkman and Xiong (2006) as well as Bertrand and Mullainathan (2001) in regards to management compensation in a speculative bubble motivate three regression models with differing market-cap-growth based dependent variables and specific compensation variables. Regression analyses test the models using public compensation and security data from S&P's Execucomp and Compustat databases. Synthesizing regression results show that stock option vesting schedules and executives' status on the board of directors may significantly affect firm performance through the dot-com bubble, …

The Evolution Of The Music Industry In The Post-Internet Era, Ashraf El Gamal

CMC Senior Theses

The rise in the prevalence of the Internet has had a wide range of implications in nearly every industry. Within the music business, the turn of the millennium came with a unique, and difficult, set of challenges. While the majority of academic literature in the area focuses specifically on the aspect of file sharing within the Internet as it negatively impacts sales within the recording sector, this study aims to assess the Internet’s wider impacts on the broader music industry. In the same time that record sales have plummeted, the live music sector has thrived, potentially presenting alternative business models …

Are All R&D Dollars Created Equal?: A Look At The Effect Of Federal Investment On Patent Success, Casey J. O'Neil

Pepperdine Policy Review

No abstract provided.

2011 Workforce Needs Survey, Katherine A. Deck

Publications and Presentations

The Greater Northwest Arkansas Regional Economic Development Strategy identified four priority areas where the region needs to collaborate around specific goals to enhance the overall community. Regional success in Northwest Arkansas will therefore depend on the success of specific goals being achieved in the areas of Infrastructure, Regional Economic Development, Community Vitality and Educational Excellence.

The online survey was distributed to employers through the Northwest Arkansas Community College Workforce Advisory Group, local Chambers of Commerce, Human Resources Professional Groups and other avenues. The survey received 119 respondents. The following report will describe the major findings of the survey.

Impact Of Agricultural Profitability, Productivity And Interest Rate On Farmland Value For Selected U.S. And Slovak States, Maria Majerhoferova

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines agricultural factors which may have impact on agricultural land values. Based on theory, three primary factors are considered to have an impact on land value: agricultural productivity, agricultural profitability and interest rate. The study is of two countries: the US, where data are from 16 states and Slovakia with 6 states. The ten-year period from 2000 until 2009 is used in the analysis. A capitalization model is used to estimate the relationship between agricultural productivity, profitability and interest rate and land value. Three types of agricultural land are used: cropland and its value in relationship with crops, …

The Use Of Role-Player Prompts In Assessment Center Exercises, Eveline Schollaert, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

So far, a substantial amount of assessment center (AC) studies have aimed to improve the quality of the AC method by focusing on the assessors. However, systematic studies about the role-player in AC exercises are nonexistent. This is surprising as the role-player might serve as a key figure for consistently evoking job-relevant behavior across candidates. Therefore, this study focused on the 'role' of role-players in ACs. We examined the effects of instructing role-players to use prompts among 233 candidates. Results suggest that role-players are able to use prompts and that their negative impact on candidates' reactions is negligible. In addition, …