Macroeconomics Commons^™

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 …

Natural Disasters And Government Size: A Cross-Country Analysis, Justin Hainse

Honors Projects in Economics

re have been multiple studies within the field of economics concerning the various effects that natural disasters have on countries. The goal of the present study is to address the seemingly forgotten area of how natural disasters affect the size of a government. Using data from both the Emergency Events Database and the World Bank, a cross-country panel data analysis is performed to test the impact of natural disasters on government size. The results show that more deaths from a natural disaster is associated with countries having a larger government. These results aim to be useful for allowing governments to …

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 …

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 …

The Great Resignation: A Content Analysis Of News Sources' Portrayals Of The Covid-19 Labor Shortage., Mackenzie Williams

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

When workers left the labor market in large numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic, proclamations of a labor shortage emerged extensively throughout the news. In this study, I analyze the coverage of the worker shortage among three news sources with different political orientations. Several themes emerged from analyzing a total of 75 articles. The findings showed that the perspective shown in the article, the cause of the labor shortage, restaurant worker portrayal, support of solutions, and opinion of the labor shortage all differed based on the political identity of the news source. This research supports previous findings that show there is …

Monetary Policy And Banking Sector Stability In Nigeria, Didigu Chizoba E., Joshua Nsikak J., Okon Joel I., Eze Annette O., Gopar Jurbe Y., Oraemesi Charles N., Udofia Blessing-Oxford U., Yisa Daniel N., Ejinkonye Jude C., Ette Victoria E.

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This study investigates the impact of monetary policy on banking sector stability in Nigeria, utilizing quarterly data for the period 2007Q1 to 2021Q4. The study employs the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration. Results show that a long run relationship exist between banking sector stability and monetary policy in Nigeria. Furthermore, monetary policy rate, liquidity ratio, and cash reserve ratio are found to enhance banking sector stability. The study recommends, among others, that cash reserve and liquidity ratios should be kept at levels that will prevent excess liquidity in the system.

‘Vox Populi?:’ Assessing Nato Popularity Relative To Political And Economic Indicators In Selected Member Nations, Zachary W. Cheek

Undergraduate Economic Review

This paper seeks to identify the impact of political and economic conditions on a nation’s popularity/favorability ratings towards North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the world’s most powerful military alliance. It is found that in random-effect models there exists a significant positive relationship between a country’s democratic strength and favorability, as well as a negative relationship regarding unemployment. In fixed-effect models, however, there is slight evidence of a positive relationship with per-capita GDP, as well as negative relationships with the unemployment rate and the trade index. Overall, differences in member-nations largely account for whether democratic or macroeconomic conditions influence support.

Infrastructure Investment And European Economic Growth, John Ziolo

Global Tides

As the global economy continues to recover from the impacts of Covid-19, there is significant discussion among policymakers as to the best mechanisms to stimulate recovery. One of those mechanisms is infrastructure investment. There is a large contingent of policymakers who believe that large, immediate spending on infrastructure will lead to significant economic growth. While another group is concerned about the secondary effects of such large government spending packages. With global economies still digging out of the covid shock and supply chains struggling to keep up with demand, there is no better time to explore the topic. This paper then …

Does It Pay To Be Good? The Performance Of Indonesian Green Companies From 2009 - 2018, Ega Annisa Rizti, Berli Martawardaya

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

In Indonesia, KEHATI Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI) Index, hereafter referred to as SKI, aims to raise public awareness and help pro-environmental investors by selecting 25 highly rated public companies that adhere to the internationally accepted green business standard. This paper compared the financial performance of the companies listed in SKI and their counterparts between the period of January 2009 and December 2018 by predicting their future opening price of stock, comparing the performance of SKI to JKSE market index, and examining their financial performance using ROA and ROE as dependent variables. The findings suggest that being included in SKI …

The Impact Of Foreign Investment On Firm Performance: Indonesia After The 2007 Fdi Reform, Nauval Hafiluddin, Arianto Arif Patunru

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) plays a crucial role in the economy of Indonesia. The new FDI law passed in 2007 serves as a new milestone in the FDI regime in Indonesia. As the country implements the new regulation, the impact of foreign investment on firm performance becomes an interesting subject. This paper aims to estimate the effect of foreign investment on the productivity and contribution of firms in relation to the new FDI law in Indonesia. This study employed a combination of Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Difference-in-Differences (DiD) methods to eliminate endogeneity problems and to examine causality. We discover …

Why The Rate Of Return Of Religious School (Madrasah) Is Too Low: The Case In Indonesia, Elfindri Elfindri, Edi Ariyanto, Sri Maryati, Delfia Tanjung Sari

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

Religious schools (madrasah) in Indonesia have contributed to fulfilling the equity goals of education. Up to this point, studies on the rate of return of madrasah and its relation to general or vocational education remain limited. In contrast to the previous studies that omit madrasah from their analysis, this study pay greater attention to this particular type of education. By adopting the Mincerian model of the human capital and applying the semi-log earnings function to the 2012 data of the National Socioeconomic Survey (SUSENAS) of Indonesia, this study discovers that the rate of return of graduates from madrasah is considerably …

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 Productivity And Future Growth Potential Of Indonesia, Mohamad Ikhsan, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, I Gede Sthitaprajna Virananda, Zihaul Abdi

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

The output per worker of Indonesia has been on a downtrend since 2010, with total factor productivity (TFP) and capital stock largely stagnant if not declining. This paper discusses stylized facts that may explain recent trends in the productivity and growth potential of Indonesia. The decomposition of output per worker reveals the declining contribution of human capital, which is also most negative among peer countries. The growth in labor productivity has been concentrated within sectors, implying room for gains from labor reallocations. A substantial share of employment and credit in Indonesia has shifted to the relatively unproductive service sectors, particularly …

Stuck In The Middle: An Analysis Of Economic Growth And The Technological Intensity Of Exports, Aya Abdel Halim

Theses and Dissertations

Driven by the persistence of some economies’ lower-middle-income status, also known as the middle-income trap, this research aims to identify the relationship between exports and their growth rates. A Cobb-Douglass model augmented by the different types of exports is employed, and the relationship is estimated for a panel of 77 lower-middle-income economies using multiple two-step system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) model. This research’s contribution to the literature is two-fold: First, it analyzes exports from both an aggregated level (i.e., total exports) as well as at a disaggregated level by the technological intensity of exports. To add, the panel of …

Financial Inclusion And Monetary Policy - Investigating The Relationship Between Financial Inclusion And Monetary Policy: The Case Of Egypt, Salma Maher

Theses and Dissertations

In the past decade, financial inclusion has become an issue of increasing importance to developing nations. This is due to its perceived effects on poverty alleviation, sustainable growth and enhancing monetary policy effectiveness. Unfortunately, there is little empirical research on the effects of financial inclusion. The thesis hopes to contribute to the literature by inspecting the relationship between financial utilization indices and monetary policy in Egypt. The thesis utilizes quarterly data on outstanding deposits and loans from 2004 to 2020 as well as a VAR model – supplemented with an ARDL model – to test the aforementioned relationship. The thesis …

Inflation: Just How Bad Is It?, Timothy Meyer

Cornhusker Economics

Amidst the chaotic news cycle of politics, the pandemic, and global affairs, a new topic is making headlines – inflation. To some, rising inflation causes greater fear than the other headlines combined; to others, it is nothing more than a minor nuisance. This article will explain why people’s divisive attitudes toward inflation are likely justified.

Essays In Development Macroeconomics, Miguel Orozco Vazquez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters that cover topics on development macroeconomics.

Chapter 1 - Misallocation of Resources and Total Factor Productivity: Evidence from Mexico. This paper aims to measure the gross output loss due to misallocation of resources in the manufacturing and service sectors in Mexico during 2008-2018 and identify the inputs of production related to it. To do so, I use Mexican Economic Censuses and an extension of Hsieh and Klenow (2009). I also include resource misallocation computations using data processed with a Bayesian model for editing and imputing data to correct for measurement error (MEC data), which …

Essays In Monetary And Macroprudential Policies, Mikheil Dvalishvili

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chapter 1 Using a medium scale general equilibrium New Keynesian business cycle model with macroprudential policy and news shocks I study the effectiveness of various combinations of the monetary and macroprudential policies. I incorporate defaults both in the banking sector and households. The results show that out of the policy strategies considered the standard Taylor rule combined with the LTV requirement that reacts countercyclically to the deviation of house prices from the steady state yields higher welfare as compared with all the other strategies considered. Additionally, the standard Taylor rule combined with either of the countercyclical LTV requirements mitigates the …

Waqf Fund Management Through Micro Waqf Bank Program In Indonesia, Fachry Ganiardi Danuwijaya, Nurwahidin M.Ag

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

Waqf is a muamalah activity that has a very important economic and social role in Islamic history. Waqf is one of solutions to the problem of poverty and social inequality in society. The establishment of the Micro Waqf Bank initiated by the government together with the Financial Services Authority (OJK) has played an important role as one of the new Islamic microfinance institutions in financial inclusion in Indonesia. This paper will discuss how the management of waqf funds through the Islamic Waqf Bank program based on pesantren in efforts to alleviate poverty and social inequality which has become a chronic …

Vector Autoregression Analysis Of The Relationship Between Inflation Rate, Interest Rate, And Exchange Rate To The Jakarta Islamic Index, Ajeng Qurrota A'Yun, Nur Fatwa

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

ABSTRACT

The Indonesian Sharia Capital Market is an interesting thing to study because based on the 2019 Global Islamic Finance Report (GIFR) report, Indonesia is ranked first in the Global Sharia Financial Market. The Jakarta Islamic Index (JII) is the sharia stock index that was first launched on the Indonesian capital market on July 3, 2000 and only consisted of the 30 most liquid Islamic shares listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. This study will try to uncover how the relationship between macroeconomic variables in Indonesia by using Vector Autoregression (VAR) analysis and using monthly secondary data from 2012-2019. VAR …

Cryptocurrency, Decentralized Finance, And The Evolution Of Money: A Transaction Costs Approach, James L. Caton Jr, Cameron Harwick

Journal of New Finance

We leverage a transaction costs narrative to provide a theoretically unified presentation of the evolution of exchange, with the latest evolutionary frontier being cryptocurrency and decentralized finance. We show that with each new development in the evolution of money, the new form or medium of exchange must reduce transaction costs relative to relevant alternatives. The development of blockchain and cryptocurrency reduced the cost of transferring currency by removing the need for a trusted third party to intermediate funds while also providing the benefit of anonymity/pseudonymity. Likewise, decentralized finance does not require a third party to intermediate savings and investment and …

Macroeconomic Shocks And Credit Risk Stress Testing: Evidence From The Egyptian Banking Sector, Noha Elgaliy

Theses and Dissertations

Stress tests can satisfy a range of policy objectives and ensure banks are adequately resilient to common economic shocks or specific financial risks. Though the growing body of literature on stress testing, the existing studies have usually focused on developed countries who have relatively stable macroeconomic indicator when compared developing countries. Therefore, this thesis aims to present a macroeconomic credit risk model that explicitly links a set of selected macroeconomic factors including gross domestic product, inflation, lending interest rates and exchange rate to banking non-preforming loans using evidence from the Egyptian banking sector over the time period from 2011 to …

Effects Of Foliar Application Of Zno Nanoparticles On Lentil Production, Stress Level And Nutritional Seed Quality Under Field Conditions, Marek Kolenčík, Dávid Ernst, Matej Komár, Martin Urík, Martin Šebesta, Ľuba Ďurišová, Marek Bujdoš, Ivan Černý, Juraj Chlpík, Martin Juriga, Ramakanth Illa, Yu Qian, Huan Feng, Gabriela Kratošová, Karla Čech Barabaszová, Ladislav Ducsay, Elena Aydın

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Nanotechnology offers new opportunities for the development of novel materials and strategies that improve technology and industry. This applies especially to agriculture, and our previous field studies have indicated that zinc oxide nanoparticles provide promising nano-fertilizer dispersion in sustainable agriculture. However, little is known about the precise ZnO-NP effects on legumes. Herein, 1 mg·L⁻¹ ZnO-NP spray was dispersed on lentil plants to establish the direct NP effects on lentil production, seed nutritional quality, and stress response under field conditions. Although ZnO-NP exposure positively affected yield, thousand-seed weight and the number of pods per plant, there was no statistically significant …

Regulating Bitcoin - On What Grounds?, William J. Luther

Journal of New Finance

This paper assesses costs and benefits of regulating Bitcoin. A review of the main justifications for regulating it shows that scope for efficient regulation is limited. Private governance structures and fee-based services have already begun addressing many of the known problems. Furthermore, since a regulation would discourage use, the costs—in terms of technological gains forgone—are potentially high. Nonetheless, there is scope for regulation, to ensure one has recourse in the event of theft, as long as the following are addressed: 1) provide a clear regulatory framework; 2) supervise transactions to dissuade crime, without compromising the medium; 3) regulate exchanges, rather …

Measuring The Contribution Of The Ocean: A Comparison Of The Statistical Classification Of The Marine Economy Used By China And Canada, Weiling Song, Jing Guo, Yuxin Liu, Yue Yin, Yue Wang

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

Most of the major marine countries share an identical knowledge about marine economy. Ocean-related principle is the primary principles which distinguish the ocean economy from national economy and other economies. The understandings of marine economy from various countries all take into consideration the ocean-relativeness character geographically or industrially. However, there are certain differences in statistical frameworks and specific industrial classifications. In this paper, the statistical classification of marine economy between China and Canada is comparatively studied from the perspectives of the connotation of marine economy, the classification of regional statistics, and the classification of industrial statistics. Moreover, the identification of …

Is Monetary Policy Neutral? The Effectiveness Of Monetary Policy Transmission Across The Income Distribution, Cameron Dyer

Honors Theses

This paper analyzes the role of the interest rate channel of monetary policy on household consumption sensitivities across the income distribution. To study this, I build a heterogenous agent model where households experience interest rate shocks as a proxy for monetary policy in addition to income shocks. I find that the poorest quintile increases consumption by about 4.5% in response to a recessionary interest rate cut, with this effect weakening for each additional quintile. When interest rate shocks differ by income group, the poorest lose about 3.6% of consumption and monetary policy’s effect on aggregate consumption weakens. When the income …

Climate Trailblazer Or Corporate Giveaway: An Economic And Political Evaluation Of Cap-And-Trade In California, Benjamin Reicher

Pomona Senior Theses

In this thesis, I conduct an economic and political analysis of California’s cap-and-trade program, the leading national (and international) example of a market-based strategy to reduce climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions. I evaluate the program on several economic and political measures of success, especially as contrasted with the performance of various regulatory policies that California also relies on to meet its emissions reduction targets. These regulations exemplify a command and control approach to emissions mitigation as opposed to a market-based approach, and indeed tend to be favored by grassroots activists who may be skeptical about market-friendly policies; my thesis seeks to …

Three Essays On The Economic Implications Of Oil Shocks, Ryan Hanson

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

My dissertation consists of three papers on the response of various economic indicators to crude oil shocks. In the first paper, I investigate the Western Australian gasoline market for asymmetric responses in gasoline prices to changes in input costs, otherwise known as the rockets and feathers hypothesis. This theory states that after a positive cost shock, firms will swiftly increase their retail prices to consumers; after a decrease in input costs, however, they take longer to adjust and lower prices. Using daily, establishment level data, I estimate a multi-stage error correction model and find evidence of asymmetric price adjustment in …

The Leveling Spirit: Violence And Inequality In Postwar Iraq, Griffin Perrault

Honors Theses

The Iraq War (2003–2011) constitutes by some estimates one of the deadliest and most destructive conflicts of the 21st century (Hagopian et al., 2013). In addition to the disputed figures of excess violent civilian casualties––generally ranging from 180,000 to 210,000 deaths––the war has created one of the major refugee crises of modern times, with 1 in 25 Iraqis estimated to have been displaced from their homes by the 2003 invasion (Costs of War, 2021). While much of this violence has been wrought by American and Iraqi coalition troops, violence against civilians has also been perpetuated by insurgent groups and paramilitary …

Martin Wolf And Skidelsky, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Martin Wolf and Skidelsky by Anwar Shaikh, PhD, 2022, Unpublished manuscript.