Political Economy Commons^™

Energy Transition In Africa: A Comparative Analysis Of Five African Countries, Boluwatife G. Ayankojo

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Global energy transition remains a critical challenge for reducing carbon emissions and protecting the environment, with solar energy adoption driving improvements in both energy efficiency and conservation. This research focuses on Africa's transition from fossil fuels to solar energy. As population growth and blackouts increase, African countries must transition from unreliable, centralized national grids to decentralized, low-carbon alternatives that ensure quality household electricity. While some countries have advanced in this transition to sustainable solar energy, others lag behind. The limited access to electricity hinders the African continent's healthcare, education, economic growth, and mortality rates. This research establishes the importance of …

How Operational And Disclosure Complexity Shapes The Conglomerate Discount, Feng Dong, John A. Doukas, Son Wilson, Rongyao Zhang

Finance Faculty Publications

This study examines how firm operational diversification and disclosure complexity jointly drive the conglomerate discount. We disentangle disclosure complexity, which is determined by managerially influenced financial transparency, from accounting complexity, which is a direct informational consequence of operational complexity. We find that operational diversification is consistently associated with significant conglomerate discounts, while disclosure complexity independently reduces firm value and amplifies the magnitude of the discount when diversification is high. These findings suggest that transparent disclosures can mitigate valuation costs, offering important implications for managers seeking effective communication, investors assessing complex firms, and policymakers aiming to enhance disclosure quality and market …

But Who Are The Victims? Reassessing The 568 Higher Education Cartel, James V. Koch

Economics Faculty Publications

Thirty prestigious independent American institutions of higher education were at some time members of the 568 higher education group (often labeled a cartel). Seventeen of them were sued by the U.S. Government and representative students who alleged that their meetings and deliberations resulted in collusion that caused students to pay higher prices. Twelve of the seventeen institutions subsequently settled their cases and by 2024 collectively had paid $284 million to do so. However, an inspection of these institutions' pricing reveals that the median 568 Group institution lowered its average real net annual cost to its undergraduate students by 19.07% between …

The Environmental Justice Implications Of Industry Consolidation: Evidence From U.S. Landfills, Hui Zhou, Shan Zhang, Matthew D. Gordon

Economics Faculty Publications

Over the past three decades, the number of U.S. landfills has fallen by 41%, while average capacity has risen by 130%. This paper studies the distributional consequences of this consolidation. We show these changes coincide with waste disposal shifting toward locations with lower population density and higher shares of low-income, Black, and Hispanic residents. Event studies of landfill openings rule out large effects on migration, though new landfills are sited in places with fast-changing demographics. Using a novel measure of regulation built from large-language-model classifications of state statutes, we show evidence that increased state regulations may contribute to increasing disparities.

Tail Dependence: The Impact Of Risk Spillovers On Real Estate Markets In Times Of Economic And Geo-Political Uncertainty, Stanimira Milcheva, Simon Stevenson, Lingshan Xie

Finance Faculty Publications

The first half of the 2020's has seen a degree of economic and geo-political uncertainty not observed since the 1970s. This paper looks at how listed real estate is exposed to capital market shocks by estimating Conditional Value-at-Risk (CoVaR), which captures the sensitivity of real estate returns to extreme movements in broader equity markets. We use threshold Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (tGARCH) and Copula co-dependency functions to accurately account for tail behavior and dependency structures. We find a significant increase in downside spillovers from capital markets to listed real estate during the Covid period across most countries. However, the response …

Democracy And Foreign Aid: How Democratic Institutions Affect Aid Effectiveness, Jonas Bensah

Graduate Research Conference (GSIS)

This research paper examines the comparative effectiveness of foreign aid in Ghana and Zimbabwe, highlighting the critical role of political regimes and democratic institutions. The study underscores that while democratic governance, characterized by transparency, accountability, and citizen participation, significantly enhances aid effectiveness. Ghana’s stable democracy and robust institutions have facilitated the effective use of aid, leading to significant improvements in economic growth, education, healthcare, and infrastructure. In contrast, Zimbabwe’s authoritarian regime, marked by corruption and political repression, has hindered the efficient utilization of aid, exacerbating the country's socio-economic challenges. Policy recommendations for donors emphasize the need for promoting democratic governance, …

The Role Of Economic Sanctions In Shaping International Trade Relationships Case Study: Russia, Chick Edmond

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Economic sanctions play an influential role in international relations by shaping the behavior of states. To address security threats and uphold international norms, countries seek to punish those responsible in violating these principles through the use of economic sanctions. The paper examines the impact of economic sanctions on trade relationships and its consequences on the Russian Economy. It also seeks to analyze the evolution of trade embargo during the post-cold war era to a more resilient and sophisticated measures in the age of globalization. Through this historical perspective, this analysis examines an important case study such as Russia by evaluating …

Good Governance: The Path To Development, Eduardo Landaeta

Graduate Research Conference (GSIS)

This paper aims to understand to what extent good governance and effective public policies are aligned in the economic growth of a country. International assistance relies on political-economic analysis to evaluate the donations they can provide to a country. In this regard, good governance of domestic institutions is essential for the efficiency of a country, especially in affiliation with foreign aid. Therefore, a relationship avoiding dependency should be the focus in the short or medium-term.

Complex Global Value Chains And Economic Interdependence: A New Look At The Opportunity Costs Argument, Melle Scholten

Graduate Research Conference (GSIS)

The classical economic interdependence argument states that trade and investment between countries make conflict less likely, because they increase the opportunity costs of war. War means that trade and investment will dry up, to the detriment of society as a whole. The increased opportunity costs of war (vis-`a-vis peace) means war will be less likely to occur between interdependent states. Certain strands of realism have challenged this assertion. They argue that expectations that trade will decline in future can be a strong incentive for initiating conflict. Giving increasing political and economic tensions between the world’s superpowers – the USA and …

What Type Of Central Banker Dampens The Political Business Cycle? The Case Of Africa, Christine Strong

Economics Faculty Publications

This article investigates the extent to which central bank independence can help to reduce political business cycles in Africa. Like previous studies, we find evidence of political cycles in our sample of 34 African countries for the period 1980–2018, but our findings show that politicians' ability to manipulate both fiscal and monetary policy depends on the degree of alliance between the fiscal authority and the monetary authority. Indeed, our analysis reveals that the political business cycle worsens when the central banker is an ally whereas a non‐ally central banker is associated with a decrease in the ability of the incumbent …

Local Fiscal Adjustments From Depopulation: Evidence From The Post–Cold War Defense Contraction, Timothy M. Komarek, Gary A. Wagner

Economics Faculty Publications

In this paper, we estimate the long-term causal effect of population losses on local government revenue, expenditure, and debt by exploiting a quasi-exogenous change that reduced the number of US military personnel by about 40 percent between the late 1980s and 2000. Aggregating across governmental units within commuting zones, we find that real per capita total revenues and expenditures remained unchanged for remaining citizens. At the same time, however, we note several important compositional effects. First, local governments appear to have offset reductions in state intergovernmental aid by increasing property tax revenues. Second, they significantly shifted the composition of expenditures …

At The Hands Of Fate: The Political Economy Of Islamic Insurance In Indonesia, Malaysia, And Pakistan, C. 1980 To The Present, Muhammad S. Rahman

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Why have Islamic insurance systems developed well in some countries, but not in others? Malaysia is considered as Islamic insurance elite due to its relatively large number of operators it houses as well as the sustained growth of Islamic insurance sales within the country, while Indonesia and Pakistan are still in early stages of development. Analyzing the political and social history of Islamization of insurance systems in these three Muslim majority countries in Asia since 1980s, this dissertation demonstrates the development gap between these countries on Islamic insurance results from; firstly, complex bargains made between various groups within each country …

A Dirty Dilemma: Determinants Of Electronic Waste Importation, Jamila N. Glover

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

During the 1970s-1980s waste, specifically toxic waste from manufacturing, became a globally traded commodity. By the late 1980s, waste trade became a global political and environmental topic because many believed that developed countries were ‘dumping’ hazardous material on less developed nations despite knowing that less developed countries often lack adequate infrastructure to dispose of waste in an environmentally responsible manner, prompting international regulatory responses.

This study focuses on the fastest growing category of traded toxic waste – electronic waste. In 2014, approximately 41.8 million tons of electronic waste was generated globally. During this same period 1.6 million tons were traded …

Budgeting By Priorities: Balancing Stability With Economic Responsiveness, Meagan M. Jordan, Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf, Somayeh Hooshmand

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

This article investigates how the budget priorities of Arkansas state government departments vary with changes in economic conditions. The Arkansas Revenue Stabilization Act (ARSA) of 1945 established a formalized method of state budgeting by priorities. State funds are allocated, meaning the funds are legally made available, according to priority levels established each year by the Governor and the General Assembly. Those allocated funds are later distributed, meaning released for spending, according to priority levels as funds become available. In this study, we ask the research question: Are departmental budget priorities driven by stability or are they responsive to economic condition? …

Removing The Rust: Comparative Post-Industrial Revitalization In Buffalo, Cleveland, And Pittsburgh, Scott Nicholas Duryea

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This study seeks to understand the differences in post-industrial redevelopment among the cities of Buffalo, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh. Part of the so-called "rust belt," these three cities experienced industrial decline from the 1960s through the 1980s, largely as a result of the economic globalization of heavy industry. Intensive manufacturing and output had come to a screeching halt, unemployment skyrocketed, outmigration ensued, and each metropolitan area faced formidable challenges to convert to service-oriented industries. Over the past twenty years, these cities, and the regions that encompass them, have begun to redevelop, although unevenly. At a glance, the Pittsburgh region appears to …

Austerity, Abundance, And The Investor States: The Political Economy Of Sovereign Wealth Funds, Manda Shemirani

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) are not new, but their foreign investment created concerns among many states in 2005 and 2006. Many policy makers argued that the ownership of foreign governments in specific areas may expose their countries to various risks. The concerns in the United States were from a national security perspective, while Europe was more worried about the lack of reciprocity and established standards. The political economy literature lacks a suitable framework for the study of investor states. The mainstream economic view contends that SWFs are a result of balance of payments surpluses and are used for economic smoothing …

The Impact Of Trade Liberalization On Growth, Unemployment, And Poverty In Bangladesh, Maha Z. Mirza

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Trade liberalization has been one of the major policy components of the governments of the developing countries in the recent decades. Bangladesh as many other developing nations, has adopted different measures of trade reform policies as an element of International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), as well as to be an integral part of the world wide trend of globalization. Such policy measures include the reduction/rationalization of tariff rate, simplification of import and export trade procedures, relaxation of restrictive trade policies, and reform of financial and monetary policies. Even though, the trade reform measures were anticipated to increase …

The Guaranteed Minimum Price And Price Stabilization In The Wheat Market, Therese L. Soullier

Economics Theses & Dissertations

The government of the United States offers a guaranteed minimum price per bushel to farmers in return for a reduction in acreage planted. Through this program, the government attempts to control the supply of wheat and stabilize the price of wheat. There is growing debate in the United States as to the effectiveness and prudence of the current program.

This thesis will examine the effectiveness of the guaranteed minimum price program, using the two-stage least squares procedure to examine a demand and supply model. The study will look at the relative stability of the price of wheat and how and …

The Neo-Classical Contributions To The Theory Of International Trade, Mohammed Arifeen

Economics Theses & Dissertations

In a dynamic economy some of the most challenging policy problems tend to originate in the realm of international economic relations. In the post World War II period, these problems have been intensified and become more complex. Students of international economics often feel perplexed by numerous divergent and diametric views that well-trained and prudent men frequently offer for the solutions of what appear to be rather simple problems. Lack of understanding of the theoretical framework of international trade is largely responsible for students' puzzlement.

It is the purpose of this thesis to assemble a minimum framework of the theoretical issues …