Labor Economics Commons^™

Consumers Support A Slowing Economy, Eric Thompson

Business in Nebraska

Nebraska will record moderate economic growth during the forecast period but will lag U.S. growth. Like the national economy, growth Nebraska’s goods producing sector will struggle. Farm incomes will be flat from 2020 to 2022 after improving this year. Manufacturing employment also is expected to drop. However, most other sectors will expand, including services, finance and construction. Projected growth rates for 2020 to 2022 are presented in Table 1.

Employment will grow by 0.6% to 0.8% per year, below the national rate. Non-farm income will grow between 3.7% and 3.8% each year. This growth readily exceeds inflation and population growth, …

Contrasting And Synthesizing Perspectives On Late Stage Capitalism And The French Revolution, Alyssa Allen

Jessie O'Kelly Freshman Essay Award

The modern-day American wealth inequality epidemic coupled with the effective silencing of the masses through superdelegates and the Electoral College fosters conditions akin to Pre-Revolutionary France with the bourgeoisie being oppressed through wealth inequality and the Estate System.

Future And Value: The Library As Strategic Partner, Antje Mays

Charleston Library Conference

Broader economic trends spawn budget pressures for education and libraries, prompting a plethora of studies on the value and relevance of libraries. Numerous reports on economic decline in libraries and studies with mixed pronouncements on the value of libraries have led to a negative self-image within the library profession. Yet libraries’ leadership in connecting learners to knowledge is at the heart of producing many of the key skills sorely needed in robust societies and economies. Librarianship has many untapped opportunities for positioning itself as a prominent strategic partner. This paper outlines current research on the economic and societal context for …

Essays On Human Capital Formation In Developing Countries, Alexander Sergeevich Ugarov

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Differences in human capital explain approximately one-half of the productivity variation across countries. Therefore, we need to understand drivers of human capital accumulation in order to design successful development policies. My dissertation studies formation and use of human capital with emphasis on its less tangible forms, including skills, abilities and know-how.

The first chapter of my dissertation explores the effects of occupational and educational barriers on human capital stock and aggregate productivity. I find that students' academic skills have very small impact on occupational choice in most developing countries. This finding suggests a higher incidence of occupational barriers in developing …

The Oppressive Pressures Of Globalization And Neoliberalism On Mexican Maquiladora Garment Workers, Jenna Demeter

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

The international economic trends of globalization and neoliberalism have exposed and enabled the exploitation of Mexican workers, especially women in the maquiladora garment industry. During the 1950s, globalization gave rise to the new international division of labor and transnational corporations (TNCs) that have offshored labor-intensive phases of production to developing countries, many of which have pursued export-led industrialization. Export processing in Mexico was encouraged in the 1960s by Item 807 of the U.S. Tariff Code and Mexico’s Border Industrialization Program. Especially following the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s, advanced capitalist countries and International Financial Institutions foisted neoliberal structural …

Place-Based Jobs Policies, Timothy J. Bartik

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Change In Relative Prices In Existing Decompositions Of Aggregate Labor Productivity Growth: A Resolution Of The Aggregate Effect, Jesus C. Dumagan

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Diewert (2015) reworked Tang and Wang’s (2004) growth decomposition and claimed that: “Thus even if all industry labor productivity levels remain constant and all labor input shares remain constant, economy wide labor productivity growth can change due to changes in industry real output prices (italics added)” (p. 370). However, contrary to his 2015 claim, Diewert (2016) found “puzzling” results from Australian data where the sum of price change effects across industries did not matter much and explained this puzzle by an approximation formula that showed price effects sum to zero with the first-order accuracy. In contrast, this paper derives the …

Producer Services: A Hub For Stem And An Engine For Job Growth, Eric Thompson, Uyen Tran

Business in Nebraska

The producer services sector, which includes professional and technical services such as accounting, engineering, computer programming, advertising and consulting, is the fastest growing, high-wage segment of the U.S. economy. Producer services employment grew by 15 percent nationwide from 2008 through 2017 but only by 5 percent in Nebraska. Nebraska growth lagged the nation in part because the state has smaller metropolitan areas. Producer service businesses tend to congregate in larger cities. To grasp more opportunities in this growing, high wage sector, Nebraska needs to train more workers in STEM occupations, encourage the development of small businesses in the sector, and …

Trends And Tariffs: Nebraska In An Aging Recovery, Eric Thompson

Business in Nebraska

Nebraska will record solid economic growth during the forecast period but will lag U.S. growth. Nebraska’s large farming sector is struggling and will not contribute much to economic growth during the forecast period. Job growth also will be sluggish in transportation and retail trade. Job growth, however, will be stronger in the services, finance, manufacturing and construction. Projected growth rates for 2019 to 2021 are presented in Table 1.

Employment will grow by 0.7% to 0.9% per year, below the national rate. Nonfarm income will grow between 4.4% and 4.5% each year. This growth readily exceeds inflation and population growth, …

Globalization And Social Spending: Lessons For India, Ansh Jain

Honors Program Theses

As developing countries increasingly integrate themselves into the global economy, increased social spending is desirable to protect their vulnerable groups from rapid changes experienced by the economy associated with increased openness. However, while developed nations are largely successful in maintaining and increasing their social spending as a response to globalization, the case with developing countries is usually the opposite. We find that key determinants of this divergence between developing and developed countries stems from factors such as the extent of surplus and informal labor, quality of democracy and democratic institutions, and the power of unions. As India further integrates into …

Institutions, Trade, And Economic Prosperity: An Examination Of The U.S. And Mexican States, Dean Stansel, Meg Patrick Tuszynski

Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center Research

We provide the first subnational-level examination of the relationship between the presence of policies and institutions that are consistent with economic freedom and trade volume. To do so, we create a new comprehensive dataset detailing export activity between each U.S. state (that is, for the volume of trade between Texas and Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico, etc.) and between each U.S. state and each Mexican state (Texas and Chihuahua, Texas and Coahuila, etc.). Our empirical strategy allows us to explore what effect institutions have on both interstate trade and cross-border trade, and also what impact the national border has on …

The Effects Of Destruction: A Macroeconomic Story, Kara Riesing

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

Destructive events such as natural disasters and terrorist attacks occur not only in developing economies but also developed economies. Consequently, the response of these economies has been observed in case of both type of events. This dissertation is a collection of essays regarding natural disasters, terrorist attacks and the macroeconomy. Specifically, I examine the response of local labor markets that reflect a wide spectrum of economies, but also have a safety-net in the form of being part of a developed country in the aftermath of a violent tornado. Further, I explore the heterogeneity in the economies response to natural disasters …

The Legalization Of Street Vending In Los Angeles: Exploring The Impact On Vendors And Their Livelihoods, Karen Alpuche Caceres

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis aims to unpack the impact the legalization of street vending and the subsequent regulation had on sidewalk vendors. Although legalization occurred state-wide through Senate Bill 946 in September of 2017, the rules and regulations for vending were passed at a city-level, and I am focusing on the City of Los Angeles specifically. Through interviews with government officials, non-profit partners and advocates, and vendors from different parts of the City, I analyze information around the policy itself, its history, and the impact it has and is expected to have on vendors and their businesses. While vendors have been central …

The Impact Of Regional Return On Education On The Self-Selection Of Mexican Immigrants, Warren Chen

CMC Senior Theses

This paper uses the 2010 Mexican Population and Housing Survey to examine the role of regional return to education on migrant selection. The study uses a standard linear regression model to predict the educational attainment of migrants and compares it to the educational attainment of non-migrants in each Mexican State. It finds evidence of negative selection, that less educated Mexican citizens are more likely to migrate to the United States. It also finds little evidence of the impact of regional return to education on migrant selection. The study offers potential explanations for the lack of impact and suggests avenues for …

Free Trade And Corporate Social Responsibility: Ethical Dilemmas In Global Economic Development, Sarah Papion

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Through the lens of the free-trade-optimist, it is black and white: corporations bring jobs, and jobs equal a happy and healthy economy. A major oversight in this neoliberal Utopian ideology is that corporations are not in the business of building communities, nor do they have an interest in keeping their operations stationary enough to allow economic growth to occur over a span of years. Corporations abandon communities as quickly as they arrive to find their next cheap labor hub. Quite contradictory to the original purpose of free trade, economic growth in Free Trade Zones is not long term or secure. …

Gdp And Refugees: An Economic Argument For Accepting Refugees, Michael Jarman

Marriott Student Review

This paper examines both the costs and benefits associated with accepting refugees and purports to show that accepting refugees is economically beneficial; increasing GDP in the long run. There is a substantial cost associated with accepting and sustaining refugees, both in providing necessities and in the impact that refugees have on local job markets. However, longitudinal data pulled from Denmark, Germany, and Turkey has shown that local markets do recover from the initial shock. Over time as refugees integrate into their host communities, they provide dividends in the form of increasing demand, greater mobility and wage increases for locals, and …

Modifying The “Generalized Exactly Additive Decomposition” Decomposition”Of Gdp And Aggregate Labor Productivity Growth In Practice For Consistency With Theory, Jesus C. Dumagan

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

The generalized exactly additive decomposition (GEAD) of GDP and aggregate labor productivity (ALP) growth, originated by Tang and Wang (2004), is gaining attention in the literature and acceptance in practice. This paper shows, however, that the original GEAD is not always consistent with the “theory” that aggregate GDP growth is pure quantity growth and ALP growth depends only on productivity and labor share changes. This paper modifies the original GEAD for consistency, subject to certain requirement, depending on the GDP quantity index that in current practice is either (1) chained Laspeyres, (2) direct Laspeyres, or (3) chained Fisher. GEAD employs …

Moderate Growth With A Stronger Industrial Sector, Eric Thompson

Business in Nebraska

Nebraska will record solid economic growth during the forecast period but will lag U.S. growth. While Nebraska’s large farming sector has stabilized, it will not contribute much to economic growth during the forecast period. Job growth also will be sluggish in transportation, retail trade and state and local government. Job growth, however, will be stronger in the services, finance, manufacturing and construction. Projected growth rates for 2018 to 2020 are presented in Table 1.

Employment will grow by 0.8% to 1.0% per year, below the national rate. Non-farm income will grow between 3.6% and 3.8% each year. This growth is …

Romania -- Systematic Country Diagnostic: Background Note-Agriculture (English), Edinaldo Tebaldi, Anatol Gobjila

Economics Faculty Journal Articles

Agriculture plays a significant socio-economic role in Romania and its transformation to a modern, vibrant, and market-oriented sector is central to fighting poverty, promoting social inclusion, and reducing the urban/rural development divide. Most of Romania's poor live in rural areas and earn their living from agriculture or agriculture-related activities. In 2016, eight out of ten people who were at risk of poverty or social exclusion lived either in rural areas or in towns and suburbs that were predominately rural. Using microdata from the 2013 Household Budget Survey (HBS), this report finds that individuals living in rural areas are 16.5 percent …

Impact Of Cooperative Membership On Members' Household Economies: The Case Of Chiapas Coffee Farmers, Stephen Pitts

Master's Theses

Coffee producers typically sell raw coffee beans as the first step in a global value chain. Recently, groups of producers have formed coffee cooperatives that attempt to regain market power by integrating the other steps of the value chain. This study uses matching to estimate the effect of membership in one such cooperative on the household economy of indigenous coffee producers in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. It contributes to the literature by considering new determinants of participation and outcomes of interest. First, social capital at the individual and village level is correlated with cooperative membership more than other demographic …

Helping Manufacturing-Intensive Communities: What Works?, Timothy J. Bartik

Reports

No abstract provided.

Challenges Facing Youth Entering The Labor Market, Martha Ross

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

As part of the Brookings Scholar Lecture Series, Brookings Mountain West invites you to a lecture titled "Challenges Facing Youth Entering the Labor Market" by Fellow in Metropolitan Policy, Martha Ross. Labor force participation and employment are declining among teens and young adults, suggesting that fewer young people are having the kinds of work experiences that prepare them for the world of full-time employment. Not everyone is equally affected, as there are marked differences by race/ethnicity, income, and education. This lecture will discuss employment trends among young people and the various strategies that cities and specific programs are using to …

What Factors Drive Individual Misperceptions Of The Returns To Schooling In Tanzania? Some Lessons For Education Policy, Plamen Nikolov, Nursat Jimi

Economics Faculty Scholarship

Evidence on educational returns and the factors that determine the demand for schooling in developing countries is extremely scarce. Building on previous studies that show individuals underestimating the returns to schooling, we use two surveys from Tanzania to estimate both the actual and perceived schooling returns and subsequently examine what factors drive individual misperceptions regarding actual returns. Using ordinary least squares and instrumental variable methods, we find that each additional year of schooling in Tanzania increases earnings, on average, by 9 to 11 percent. We find that on average individuals underestimate returns to schooling by 74 to 79 percent and …

Nebraska Business And Consumer Confidence Indexes: March 9, 2018, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

Nebraska consumer and business confidence fell during February 2018, dropping from the near-peak levels seen in January. The Consumer Confidence Index – Nebraska (CCI-N) fell to 101.6 in February from a value of 115.2 in January. The February value remains above the neutral level of 100.0. The Business Confidence Index – Nebraska (BCI-N) fell to 107.4 In February from 112.2 in January. Both monthly readings were well above the neutral value of 100.0 suggesting that business confidence remains strong. When asked about the most important issue facing their business, customer demand was mentioned by 38 percent of respondents. But, there …

Entrepreneurship Education Empowers Youth To Change Their Lives, Marianna Brashear, Jason Riddle

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) aims at equipping Title 1 schools with free, hands-on, engaging materials that any teacher can facilitate either individually or in a classroom setting with no background in entrepreneurship necessary. These versatile lessons, courses, and workshops teach the entrepreneurial mindset optimizing opportunities for grades 8-12 students no matter which life/career path they choose.

Nebraska Business And Consumer Confidence Indexes: February 2, 2018, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

Consumer and business confidence rebounded in Nebraska during January 2018. The Consumer Confidence Index – Nebraska (CCI-N) rose to 115.2, well above the neutral level of 100.0 and a value of 93.3 in December 2017. This is the highest level recorded for the CCI-N since it was first released in February of 2016. The Business Confidence Index – Nebraska (BCI-N) rose to 112.2 in January from 107.5 in December. Both monthly readings were well above the neutral value of 100.0. When asked about the most important issue facing their business, customer demand was mentioned by 40 percent of respondents. The …

Nebraska Business And Consumer Confidence Indexes: January 5, 2018, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

Consumer and business confidence declined in Nebraska during December 2017. The Consumer Confidence Index – Nebraska (CCI-N) fell to 93.3 in December, well below the neutral level of 100.0. The index had reached a record level of 106.2 in November, but that high level of confidence was not sustained. The Business Confidence Index – Nebraska (BCI-N) fell from 114.1 in November to 107.5 in December. While lower, the December reading remains well above the neutral value of 100.0. When asked about the most important issue facing their business, customer demand was mentioned by 38 percent of respondents. The availability and …

The Economic Impact Of Natural Gas Capital Expenditures In West Virginia, Eric Bowen

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

No abstract provided.

Vocational Training Programs And Youth Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence From Nepal, S Chakravarty, M Lundberg, Plamen Nikolov, J Zenker

Economics Faculty Scholarship

Lack of skills is arguably one of the most important determinants of high levels of unemployment and poverty. In response, policymakers often initiate vocational training programs in efforts to enhance skill formation among the youth. Using a regression-discontinuity design, we examine a large youth training intervention in Nepal. We find, twelve months after the start of the training program, that the intervention generated an increase in non-farm employment of 10 percentage points (ITT estimates) and up to 31 percentage points for program compliers (LATE estimates). We also detect sizable gains in monthly earnings largely driven by women who start self-employment …

Business Economics: Data For Decision Making, Brian Barnier, Kevin Foster

Open Educational Resources

Syllabus for a course in data analytics for business economics, focusing on use of source data sets to answer the "why?" questions hidden in aggregate averages used in theory and "headline" news releases. Zero cost course using data available widely on the web. Optional texts are trade books available widely in libraries or used copies at low cost.