Political Economy Commons^™

Forbidden Fruits: The Political Economy Of Science, Religion, And Growth, Roland Benabou, Davide Ticchi, Andrea Vindigni

Andrea Vindigni

We study the coevolution of religion, science and politics. We first uncover, in international and U.S. data, a robust negative relationship between religiosity and patents per capita. The model then combines: (i) scientific discoveries that raise productivity but sometimes erode religious beliefs; (ii) a government that allows innovations to diffuse, or blocks them; (iii) religious institutions that can invest in doctrinal reform. Three long-term outcomes emerge. The “Western-European Secularization” regime has declining religiosity, unimpeded science, and high taxes and transfers. The “Theocratic” regime involves knowledge stagnation, unquestioned dogma, and high religious-public-goods spending. The “American” regime combines scientific progress and stable …

The Political Economy Of Border Wall Construction, Molly Rovinski

Undergraduate Theses

During the 2016 presidential election, the construction of a border wall along the United States – Mexico border came to the forefront of the political sphere in America. Since then, state governments along the border have continued the call for increased border security through increased fencing. However, the ideation of a border wall was not a new one for American border security, with most of the wall having been constructed following the Secure Fence Act of 2006. The purpose of this paper is to explore the political economy of wall construction along the border. The argument is made that the …

Commanding Heights 20 Years On: What Remains In Light Of Recent Events?, Paul R. Koch

Scholar Week 2016 - present

In the spring of 2002, the Public Broadcasting System in the United States aired a three-part, six-hour series entitled, “Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy.” These programs, which were based on the book of the same title by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, covered the debate over economic theories in the 20^th century (“The Battle of Ideas”), the transition from state-dominated to market-oriented economies in the last two decades of this century (“The Agony of Reform”), and the various dimensions of the latest wave of globalization (“The New Rules of the Game”). This series is a reflection …

The Value Of Everything: Making And Taking In The Global Economy, David Mcclough

The Journal of Economics and Politics

No abstract provided.

Dead Money: Measuring The Influence Of Representatives On Government Spending, Adhitya Venkatraman

CMC Senior Theses

In line with popular criticisms of Congressional pork barrel spending, I find that that individual representatives do wield significant influence in securing government contracts for their districts. Using federal contract data organized at the congressional district level from FY 2001 – FY 2021, I estimate how individual members of the House of Representatives affect funding outcomes. My identification strategy leverages changes in contract funding that occur during exogenous vacancies occurring in the middle of a term. By comparing contract funding outcomes during vacant quarters to non-vacant quarters, I estimate the amount of individual influence exercised by representatives.

During vacant quarters, …

Analysis Of The Influence Of Cryptocurrency Regulation On Levels Of Financial Literacy, Kieran C. Yuen

Dissertations and Theses

Using data collected by the National Financial Capability Study (NFCS), a survey by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), this paper investigates the influence of passage of cryptocurrency regulation in U.S. states on levels of financial literacy. Results indicate that living in a state where cryptocurrency regulation was signed into law, a decrease was observed in the level of financial literacy. This finding supports the growing literature on factors that affect levels of financial literacy using a novel exogenous variable, cryptocurrency regulation.