Other Economics Commons^™

Florida Housing Markets Price Reversal: A Comparative Analysis Of The Florida Insurance Crisis And Housing Market Decoupling (2022-2025), David Antonetti

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This research investigates the 2022-2025 Insurance Crisis in Florida as a localized shock to the housing market. While national home prices typically track federal interest rate trends, this study utilizes a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) framework, using Georgia as a control benchmark, to quantify the extent to which skyrocketing property insurance premiums have decoupled Florida's home price appreciation from the national mortgage rate environment. The paper finds that despite the separation in premiums did not have a significant impact on the change in HPI in the Florida housing markets, but did represent a simmer risk. This paper also uses the key factors …

A Causal Analysis Between Brent Oil Prices And Economic Growth In Saudi Arabia, Nicholas Hyland

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper aims to examine the predictive relationship between oil prices and economic growth in Saudi Arabia. Given the country’s heavy dependence on oil rents as a percentage of their GDP, we will see how fluctuations in oil prices can heavily shape and influence economic performance. Although oil revenues have proven to be a driver of short-term economic growth, it is important to understand the “Oil Curse Theory” which highlights the risks that can be associated with slowed long-term economic growth. Using time series data on real GDP growth and Brent crude oil prices, this paper will contain a predictive …

Government Revenue And Expenditure Impact On U.S. Income Inequality Vs Europe And Asia, Ryan Murphy

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper examines income inequality in the United States compared to Europe and Asia using a comparative economic model that incorporates real GDP, government expenditure, population growth, and trade openness as a percentage of GDP. By analyzing how these macroeconomic factors relate to income outcomes across countries, the study aims to highlight structural and policy-related differences that may help explain observed disparities in income inequality between the two economies. The model provides a framework for understanding how economic growth, public spending priorities, demographic trends, and integration into global trade can influence income distribution. The findings contribute to a broader discussion …

Sustainable Transportation And Technology Linked To Carbon Emissions: A Cross-Sectional Data Analysis, Adam Skinner

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates the extent to which sustainable transportation variables reduce CO₂ emissions across the United States, using cross-sectional data from the fifty states in the year 2021. To examine the impact of green transportation linked with carbon emissions, this paper uses an empirical model to investigate various factors such as EVs per 1,000 people, average fuel prices, GDP per capita, and population. This analysis will compare states with different levels of sustainable transportation and be able to evaluate whether green transportation is effective with lower emissions using an ordinary least squares model. Additionally, this study includes machine learning to …

Determinants Of Inflation In The Eurozone: Evidence From Germany, Spain, And Greece Using Panel Data And Machine Learning, Cailan Steahle

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper examines why inflation differs across Germany, Spain, and Greece despite all three countries operating under a common monetary policy set by the European Central Bank. While these countries share the same currency and interest rates, their inflation patterns have varied significantly over time. This study investigates whether countryspecific macroeconomic factors, such as GDP, unemployment, bond yields, energy prices, and money supply, helps explain these differences. Using panel data methods, the analysis estimates both fixed and random effects models and performs a Hausman test to determine the most appropriate specification. The results indicate that the fixed effects model is …

Measuring The Effects Of Housing Wealth, Oil Prices, And Determinants Of Consumption On Consumer Spending, Pedro Alordes Compres

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper examines the possible effects of Housing Wealth, Oil Prices, Disposable Income, and other determinants of consumption on Consumer Spending in the United States, considering consumer spending is the final purpose of economic activity. The study will use determinants of household consumption in a multivariate time-series model to examine the changes over time in the previously mentioned independent variables. Additionally, Random Forest will be used as a Machine Learning Model to predict different outcomes in the same sector.

Determinants Of Free Throw Performance: An Empirical Analysis Of Game Context And Pressure, David Colantuoni

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper analyzes the determinants of free-throw success using a panel data set of free throws taken from the years 2015-2016. Prior research has emphasized performance in high-pressure moments, while my study aims to evaluate a broader range of situational and contextual factors that influence free-throw outcomes. Specifically, I estimate the effect of time remaining, score margin, game period, home status, playoff intensity, shot order, and player-specific characteristics on the probability of a free throw. Additionally, a clutch indicator is included to assess whether performance systematically changes in highleverage situations, clutch being defined as the last five minutes of the …

Empirical Research Paper: The Commodity Markets’ Role On Gross Domestic Product In The United States, Fabian Cuprys

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper discusses whether the commodity market has descriptive information for short term Gross Domestic Product within the United States. Using quarterly Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), the model uses distributed log changes in commodity prices such as energy, food, and industrial inputs alongside logged and market-based expectations for GDP. The model evaluates how fluctuations in broad commodity markets (such as the Broad Commodity Index, Food Commodity Index, Metal Commodity Index, and Energy Commodity Index) influence GDP.

Public Government Spending And Economic Growth In Latin America And The Caribbean, Kate Desousa

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates how government public spending impacts economic growth among multiple Latin American and Caribbean countries of varying developments since the 1990’s. The study incorporates variables including GDP per capita and general government final consumption expenditure to analyze their contributions to the economy. Data was collected from the World Bank Group. Previous empirical studies have looked at developed countries including multiple variables, while this study has a focus on economies of varying sizes and investigates government public spendings independently. This study will add to existing literature by inspecting public spending from a micro view at the public government spending …

A Panel Data Study Of Economic Development And Carbon Emissions Vs. Level Of Green Investment, Connor Lavoie

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This study examined the relationship between economic development and carbon dioxide emissions across 15 emerging nations from 2000 to 2024, employing a fixed effects panel data set within the STIRPAT framework, then verified the legitimacy of the result via a 5-model sequential test. The findings confirm that all 15 sampled nations remain on the upward slope of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), with GDP per capita, population, and energy intensity emerging as the three dominant drivers of emissions growth.

Who Hunts In America?: An Empirical Analysis Of Income Trends And The Rural-Urban Divide In Hunting Participation, Kenneth Green

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper conducts an empirical analysis of hunting participation in the United States, focusing on the relationship between household income, geographic location, and gender. Using nationally available data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2022 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation and the Big-Game Hunters: Demographic Characteristics and Expenditures addendum report, this study looks to examine how hunting behavior differs between rural/urban populations and identifies income-based trends within both groups. Hunting participation data is compared against U.S. Census data to assess whether the share of hunters aligns with the broader population distributions. Both descriptive statistics and regression …

The Impact Of Foreign Direct Investment On Economic Growth In Eastern Europe: A Panel Data Analysis Evidence Of Consumer Expenditure, Tyler Jarvis

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This research investigates whether foreign direct investment (FDI) translates into improved economic outcomes for citizens of Eastern European countries, as measured by household consumer expenditure trends from 1996 to 2025. Building upon the FDI stock and flow model developed by Kilmek (2024), this research replaces domestic value added (DVA) with consumer expenditure (CS) as the dependent variable and employs a two-way fixed effects panel model across 13 countries. The results indicate that FDI flows and FDI as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) have no statistically significant direct effect on consumer expenditure across any of the seven models tested. …

Does Rising National Income Reduce Physical Inactivity, Or Does The Prosperity Paradox Persist? A Panel Data Analysis, Jt Heffernan

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper examines the relationship between national income and physical inactivity across nine countries at varying stages of economic development using a panel dataset spanning four time periods from 2001 to 2022. Drawing on age-standardized physical inactivity estimates from the World Health Organization and GDP per capita data from the World Bank world development indicators, three regression models are estimated: a pooled ordinary least squares model, a random effect model, and a two-way fixed-effects panel model incorporating country and year fixed effects. OLS was included to set a baseline on what to expect, while the panel models were intended to …

Determinants Of Us Housing Prices And Its Changing Market: A Panel Data Study, Timothy Jennings

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper examines the effects that different factors have on prices in the housing market between both rental and total purchase of housing units over the last thirty (30) years. The study uses time series government data with time periods to analyze both major determinants of a current housing unit’s price, rental prices, as well as reasons for changes in prices of those retail/rental units over time. For simplicity purposes, all major analysis is limited to the United States’ housing markets, although inferences and conclusions may be made regarding other countries as well for comparison, especially through literature review. Results …

The Impact Of Urbanization On Life Expectancy In Asean Countries: A Panel Data Analysis, Ethan Kalmin

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates the relationship between urbanization and life expectancy in ASEAN countries using a panel data analysis over the period 2001-2023. The study includes fixed-effects and robustness checks to estimate the impact of urbanization— along with a series of control variables such as health expenditure per capita, access to basic sanitation services, government education expenditure per capita, and fertility rate— on life expectancy at birth. The results show that urbanization alone does not explain within-country changes in life expectancy over time. Rather, education expenditure and access to basic sanitation services emerge as the most significant and robust determinants of …

Effects Of Healthcare Quality On Labor Productivity: An Empirical Analysis Employing Panel Data, Theodore Lanzaro

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper examines whether the Affordable Care Act’s restructuring of Medicare Advantage affected labor productivity in the United States. Using a state-level panel from 2007 to 2024, it estimates a difference-in-differences model that interacts with each state’s 2010 Medicare Advantage share with a post-reform indicator. Across baseline, controlled, and trendadjusted specifications, as well as event-study and robustness checks, the results show no statistically robust effect on state-level labor productivity. Any productivity spillovers from Medicare Advantage reform are too small, diffuse, or delayed to be detected in aggregate statelevel data.

Student Flows, Immigrant Stock, And Migration: An Empirical Analysis Of Brain Drain From Oecd Countries Into The Us, Tyler Nelson

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper uses panel data from seventy-eight origin countries from 2012-2023 to better understand the migration patterns of well-educated individuals on a global scale. The study adopts a model from Dreher and Poutvaara that allows international student data to be translated into a linear utility function for any given emigration target. Due to data transparency concerns, these emigration targets have been limited to countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Tuition, Debt, And Homeownership: A State-Level Panel Data Analysis Of Young Adults In The United States, Om Patel

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This study examines the relationship between the cost of higher education and homeownership rates across 51 U.S. states from 2016 to 2024 using annual panel data with 459 observations. Data were obtained from the National Center for Education Statistics Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series Current Population Survey. The model regresses state-level homeownership rates on average in-state tuition at public four-year universities, college attendance rate, and median household income. Both ordinary least squares and state fixed effects panel regressions are estimated. A Hausman test statistic of 216.53 with a p-value of 0.0000 confirms fixed …

Linguistic Intervention Unlocks The Economic Gains Of Diversity, Sheen S. Levine, Simon Siegenthaler, Bart J. Wilson

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

Significance

All That Glitters Is Not Gold: Consuelo Vanderbilt And Transatlantic Marriages In The Gilded Age, Katie M. Cassady

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

Between 1865 and the onset of World War I, wealthy American women increasingly married titled European men. These marriages played a critical role for both parties: the newly moneyed elite asserted its claim to social status, and depleted European nobility regained the funds so essential to their longevity. By 1915, 454 American heiresses had married into the European aristocracy. In one famous example, Consuelo Vanderbilt was forcibly wed to the ninth Duke of Marlborough. As the Vanderbilt family labored to assimilate themselves into old-money New York society, the opportunity to tie their family name to English nobility could catapult the …

Learning By Doing To Teach Research Skills In Econometrics, Christie Byun

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

This paper examines a revision in an introductory econometrics course at an undergraduate liberal arts college. The instructors have incorporated extensive use of data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series from the Current Population Survey (IPUMS-CPS), with applied examples that demonstrate econometric theory. The key element is a short empirical paper assignment in which all students work on a common research question, but with different data sets. The paper assignment includes a series of scaffolding assignments using IPUMS-CPS data. This approach has several benefits, including ease of implementation into any course that has an empirical paper component, significantly streamlined …

Higher-Order Risk Preferences Over Wealth And Time: Theory And Behavioral Consistency, Hannah H. Chen, Cary Deck, Rachel J. Huang, Larry Y. Tzeng, Lin Zhao

ESI Working Papers

Economic decisions often involve uncertainty in both wealth and time. We introduce an axiom requiring the trade-of between wealth and time to remain invariant across both domains. Together with standard axioms, it characterizes Expected Additive Time-Wealth Utility (EATWU). We provide an alternative characterization based on consistency in higher-order risk preferences and extend risk apportionment to decisions involving wealth, time, and both. Our model predicts consistent risk allocations across these domains within each order. A laboratory experiment examining second-, third-, and fourth-order risk preferences fnds systematic relationships across domains that are broadly consistent with the model’s predictions.

Auctioning The Right To Trust And Reciprocate: Scarcity, Market Allocation, And Selection In The Trust Game, Jason Shachat, J. Todd Swarthout, Yun Wang

ESI Working Papers

We examine how competitive allocation of scarce participation rights shapes behavior in a Berg-style trust game. Trustor and trustee roles are allocated through multi-unit uniform-price English auctions with varying scarcity, alongside a matched-fee random-assignment control treatment. Positive transfers and returns persist, but behavior lies near the low-trust, low-reciprocity end of comparable benchmarks. Tighter scarcity accelerates the decline in trustor transfers, while trustee returns show no monotonic pattern. Scarcity strongly raises auction prices without comparably raising participants’ gross trust-game earnings, thereby lowering net earnings. Exit bids adjust to past game profitability, indicating adaptive learning about the value of participation.

Evolution Of Economic Geography’S Focus On Resource Studies: Historical Trajectory, Research Progress, And Emerging Trends, Yanxiang Fan, Canfei He

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Amid the intertwined contexts of global climate change, the reshaping of the geopolitical landscape, and China’s economic transformation, complex issues in the resource sector have increasingly come to the fore, highlighting the urgent need for systematic research from the perspective of economic geography. This study constructs an interactive analysis framework of core–extended dimensions to systematically review the developments and trends in resource research from an economic geography perspective. This study establishes a two-layer theoretical analysis framework of core and extended dimensions. The core dimension includes four aspects: resource elements in regional economic development, resource flows in global trade networks, resource …

Intracommunity Social Capital Systems Of Class And Caste In South Asian Intimate-Partner Violence Survivor Outcomes, Vriddhi Vinay

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study theorizes how caste and class function as transnational forms of social capital that structure intimate partner violence (IPV) outcomes among South Asian diasporic women in the New York City metropolitan area. While existing IPV scholarship foregrounds migration status, gender, and legal precarity, it often treats South Asian communities as internally homogeneous and overlooks how intracommunity hierarchies mediate access to support. Drawing on social capital theory and postcolonial feminist frameworks, this research positions caste and class stratification as underexamined axes of stratification within United States-based IPV analysis. Using survey data from 24 South Asian woman-identifying IPV survivors in New …

Trust, Delegation, And Alignment In Human-Ai Decision Making, Erik O. Kimbrough, Brennan Mcdavid, Diba Vazirian

ESI Working Papers

This paper studies delegation to artificial intelligence in a setting where human principals retain the consequences of delegated choices. Participants wrote prompts instructing ChatGPT-4o mini how to choose on their behalf in three canonical economic domains: risky choice, intertemporal choice, and social allocation. We then elicited the compensation participants required to let the AI’s choices count for payment and compared participants’ own choices to choices generated from their prompts. The design produces two central empirical objects: a revealed measure of reluctance to delegate, captured by willingness to accept compensation for AI delegation, and a behavioral measure of alignment, captured by …

From Personal To Personalized Goals: How Goal Nudges Improve Production, Joaquín Gómez-Miñambres, Brice Corgnet, Roberto Hernán González

ESI Working Papers

We study how workers’ non-binding self-set goals affect their production and whether goal nudges (ability-calibrated goal hints) make goal setting more effective. In a real-effort task, participants first complete an ability pretest and are then assigned to one of three treatments: a no-goal baseline, a personal goal treatment with no external hint, or a personalized goal nudge that participants may accept or modify. We document a positive link between goals and production. However, merely asking workers to set goals is ineffective: when left unguided, workers anchor on conservative goals well below those induced by goal nudges, leading to underperformance. In …

The Impact Of State Insulin Copayment Caps On Diabetics In The United States, Ryan C. Meyer

All Theses

Insulin is a life-saving medication for people with diabetes that helps regulate blood glucose levels throughout the body. A Type 1 diabetic cannot survive without insulin, and a Type 2 diabetic’s quality of life greatly diminishes without access and use of this drug. Currently, many diabetics skip, ration, or abstain from insulin due to financial barriers. As of June 2026, 29 states have enacted insulin copayment caps for state-regulated commercial health insurance plans to reduce the financial burden of insulin costs. This study examines the impact of these caps on all commercially insured diabetics in the United States, particularly on …

Essays On Reputation And Feedback System In Digital Markets, Huiyu Yang

All Dissertations

Online review systems play an increasingly important role in reducing information frictions in digital markets. This dissertation studies three aspects of these systems, including sellers' incentives to manipulate reviews, the design of rating systems, and how horizontally differentiated negative reviews affect consumer demand. The first chapter investigates key drivers influencing online sellers' decisions to invest in fake reviews. I first construct a model in which sellers strategically invest in fake reviews to influence consumers, who form beliefs about product quality based on observed reviews. I then empirically test the model's predictions on the main determinants of fake review prevalence using …

What Drives Indonesian Muslims To Waqf? An Analysis Of Behavioral Intention Toward Cash Waqf Linked Deposit (Cwld), Abdullah Zaid Khoiri, Kenny Devita Indraswari, A. Azizon, Tika Arundina

International Journal of Islamic Economics and Business Sustainability

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to find out the factors that affect the intention of Indonesian Muslims to participate in Cash Waqf Linked Deposit (CWLD), a new Islamic banking product that combines cash waqf and sharia time deposits, launched in Indonesia in late 2023 to help overcome the gap between the potential cash waqf in the country and its actual collection.

Design/methodology/approach – This study employed an Extended Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) model which included religiosity, knowledge, trust and perceived benefit in addition to attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control. The primary data were …