Political Economy Commons^™

Social Capital And Conflict In The Post-Suharto Regime In Indonesia, Andar Ristabet Hesda, Rus'an Nasrudin

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

This study explores the relationship between social capital and conflict in the post Suharto regime in Indonesia. We employed a combination of cross-section datasets from the Social and Cultural Module of the 2009 National Socio- Economic Survey (SUSENAS) and the media-based conflict data from National Violence Monitoring System (NVMS) of 2010–2014 in Indonesia. Using Binomial Negative Regression, our empirical analysis shows that the past social capital stocks negatively correlate with future conflict intensity. This pattern applies to most conflict types. This result indicates that the social capital stock in 2009 is more likely to be the starting point determining the …

Essays On Political Economy And Behavior, Seth Emblem

Economics Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays which focus on the intersection of political economy and behavioral economics. I am interested in understanding how people behave in politically adjacent areas so that we can find the policy interventions that can best address the issues that arise from these areas. To do so, I utilize incentivized survey instruments and laboratory experiments to study how people behave in these settings. In Chapter 1, I examine the question of how people respond to standard political surveys and whether these surveys reflect people’s genuine beliefs regarding factual political questions. Responses to standard political surveys suggest …

Can Sports Gambling Become The Fount Of Revenue Consistency?, Richard A. Mcgowan

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Critics of legalization of gambling maintain that gambling revenue is at best stagnate or will eventually fall as a source of revenue. The stagnation of Lottery proceeds and casino revenue as sources of revenue seemed validate this criticism. But a new source of gambling revenue has recently been championed, namely sports gambling. So, the question this paper will attempt to answer is: Can sports gambling produce consistent and growing revenue that are needed to sustain public policy initiatives?

The legalization of sports gambling in NJ occurred on June 11th, 2018 and the first bet was placed on June 14th. New …

The Labor And Educational Effects Of Daca: Evidence From California, Oscar A. Alonso Guerra

Master's Theses

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, implemented in 2012, has been a subject of intense debate. While much research has examined the early effects of DACA, this study contributes to the literature by analyzing more recent data on the labor and educational outcomes of DACA recipients in California. Using a difference-in-differences approach, I aim to uncover significant changes in the labor market and educational outcomes of DACA recipients over time. I find those eligible for DACA experienced noteworthy effects compared to those who were ineligible. Specifically, they exhibit a significant 3.1 percentage point increase in the likelihood of …

Three Essays In The Economics Of Child Development And Health Inequities, Travis Whitacre

Economics Theses and Dissertations

In chapter 1, I assess the long-term education and labor market effects of missed ADHD diagnoses. Doing so is challenging for two reasons. First, a person's true ADHD status is unobserved; only their diagnosed status is known. Second, even if diagnostic errors are observed, they are likely akin to non-classical misclassification errors and therefore endogenous. To overcome these empirical challenges, I use and extend on a partial observability model with genetic data from Add Health. Through the lens of the partial observability model. I recover an estimate of true ADHD status, and the probability of underdiagnosis. Then, I estimate their …

Chinese Political Rhetoric And Ideology: Tension And Pretension, Israel Paredes

Honors Theses

This changing nature of the Chinese government’s ideology leads one to believe that its core beliefs are not dogmatic, despite the foundation for their ideology being rooted in specific societal and economic theories. Starting with Mao Zedong to modern day, the Chinese government officials will continue to support the original tenets (and, no doubt, future presidents’ additions to the tenets). However, the interpretation of their ideology over time is fluid and is used to support policies and actions during a political cycle. Chinese political leaders are unlikely to disagree with a past leaders, and will rather use their own interpretation …

Breaking The Promise: The Burden Of Unfunded Liabilities On Future Generations, Thomas Savidge

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

This paper discusses the trillions of dollars in government debt accumulated by state governments as well as the costs of debt on future generations. It examines unfunded pension liabilities, unfunded other post-employment benefit (OPEB) liabilities, as well as state bonded obligations and the crowding out effect of public debt onto state budgets. The paper also discusses opportunities for reform that can help alleviate the debt burden on future generations. Data are collected from state annual comprehensive financial reports (ACFRs) as well as public pension and OPEB actuarial valuations.

The Economic Ferocity Of Policy, Giana Depaul

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

Each day, as the Dow Jones rises and falls, Congress similarly passes and fails legislation. These two seemingly continuous cycles intersect to the point that the two structures appear affixed. For centuries, this has posed an age-old question: is it policy that influences the economic system or is it the economic system itself that molds policy decision-making? Renowned economist Adam Smith is famous for his works detailing the autonomous nature of the economic system. Smith views policy as only a small roadblock in the master strategy of the economic flow of life. The Great Depression and the 2008 Recession, however, …

Trade, Globalism, And The American System, Johnny B. Davis

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

No abstract provided.

A Path To Achieve European Energy Security, Nicholas Wolf

Student Theses 2015-Present

The apparatus of Europe’s energy security has collapsed. The Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine, hydrocarbon market turmoil, and the ever-growing threat of climate change has thrust the continent into crisis. As the risks of severe recession, acute energy shortages, and climatic disasters have begun to materialize, the member states of the European Union (EU) have been left scrambling to secure novel energy supplies. In the short-term, these developments pose severe risks to the EU and its member states. Yet, opportunity often presents itself in the midst of hardship, and the European Energy Crisis of 2022 is no different. This essay …

A New World Order?: Considering Slaughter’S Notion Of The Disaggregated And Networked State, Darlene N. Moorman

The Downtown Review

This paper briefly explains Slaughter's (2004) argument for the emergence of a new world order defined by a disaggregated and networked state where the relevance of soft power has become all the more critical in conversations of politics and corresponding theory. This transformation (arising in the face of the so-called 'globalization paradox') is considered, exploring (a) what this means for the world system and (b) what concerns it may consequently bring.

Du Undergraduate Showcase: Research, Scholarship, And Creative Works, Caitlyn Aldersea, Justin Bravo, Sam Allen, Anna Block, Connor Block, Emma Buechler, Maria De Los Angeles Bustillos, Arianna Carlson, William Christensen, Olivia Kachulis, Noah Craver, Kate Dillon, Muskan Fatima, Angel Fernandes, Emma Finch, Colleen Cassidy, Amy Fishman, Andrea Francis, Stacia Fritz, Simran Gill, Emma Gries, Rylie Hansen, Shannon Powers, Jacqueline Martinez, Zachary Harker, Ashley Hasty, Mykaela Tanino-Springsteen, Kathleen Hopps, Adelaide Kerenick, Colin Kleckner, Ci Koehring, Elijah Kruger, Braden Krumholz, Maddie Leake, Lyneé Alves, Seraphina Loukas, Yatzari Lozano Vazquez, Haley Maki, Emily Martinez, Sierra Mckinney, Mykaela Tanino-Springsteen, Audrey Mitchell, Kipling Newman, Audrey Ng, Megan Lucyshyn, Andrew Nguyen, Stevie Ostman, Casandra Pearson, Alexandra Penney, Julia Gielczynski, Tyler Ball, Anna Rini, Christina Rorres, Simon Ruland, Helayna Schafer, Emma Sellers, Sarah Schuller, Claire Shaver, Kevin Summers, Isabella Shaw, Madison Sinar, Claudia Pena, Apshara Siwakoti, Carter Sorensen, Madi Sousa, Anna Sparling, Alexandra Revier, Brandon Thierry, Dylan Tyree, Maggie Williams, Lauren Wols

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

DU Undergraduate Showcase: Research, Scholarship, and Creative Works

Heterogeneous Effects In The Prospects Of Upward Mobility Hypothesis: The Roles Of Risk And Political Beliefs., Nathaniel Badalov

Theses and Dissertations

I test for heterogenous effects in the Prospects of Upward Mobility (POUM) hypothesis framework. This framework suggests that individuals who are poorer than average but expect to become richer than average support less redistribution. Using a survey of households in primarily transition economies - Life in Transition Survey (LiTS2) and ordered logistic regression, I test whether the POUM effect is influenced by the riskiness of the individual's environment or political beliefs. The results suggest that the POUM effect holds independent of the riskiness of the environment but is conditional on political beliefs. The prospects of upward mobility decrease redistributive support …

Lobbying – A Financial Perspective, Sean Byrne

Theses and Dissertations

U.S. based bank holding companies (BHCs) exert influence at every step in the legislative process where financial regulatory reforms are enacted into law, such as the Dodd-Frank Act, to promulgation of regulations. In Chapter II, we maintain that BHCs, upon facing salient regulation, lobby regulators to have their opinions heard with the goal of favorable regulatory change and to increase non-traditional revenues. We undertook a novel collection of political and financial data from 2003 to 2018, matching 180 pairs of parsed proposed and final regulations. BHCs that participated in commenting on proposed rules are highly successful at having their views …

The Eagle’S Eye On The Rising Dragon: Why The United States Has Shifted Its View Of China, Jackson Scott

Baker Scholar Projects

Since 1978, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has long been viewed as an economic trading partner of the United States of America (US). The PRC has grown to be an economic powerhouse, and the US directly helped with that process and still benefits from it. However, during the mid-2010’s, US rhetoric began to turn sour against the PRC. The American government rhetoric toward the PRC, beginning with the Obama administration, switched. As Trump’s administration came along, they bolstered this rhetoric from non-friendly to more or less hostile. Then, Biden’s administration strengthened Trump’s rhetoric. Over the past ten years or …

Essays On The Economics Of Sports Wagering Markets, Jacob Lamb

All Dissertations

Economists have long been enamored with using wagering markets and sports data to answer various economic questions. Wagering market data are readily available to answer any number of questions relating to sports and economics. However, most studies surrounding wagering markets have focused on searching for inefficiencies and, consequently, profitable betting strategies against the house. This dissertation takes a different approach, focusing on the information that can be extracted from efficient wagering markets and using that information to answer economic questions. Rather than hunting for inefficiencies, this dissertation confirms the efficiency of wagering markets and uses wagering markets to answer questions …

The Effect Of The China Shock On The 2016 And 2020 Us Presidential Elections, Yike Zhou

Economics Honors Projects

Trade liberalization in 2000 opened up the door for increased trade between China and the US, favoring Chinese manufacturers. This period is often referred to as the "China shock" (Autor, 2013). This paper utilizes data collected from the MIT election lab, FRED, and David Dorn's published data to investigate the effect of the China import shock in the early 2000s on the most recent two US presidential elections. Our analysis, which employs commuting zone-level data, reveals that regions more adversely affected by the China shock were more likely to vote for the Republican Party, while regions that suffered less harm …

Understanding Romania's Poverty: A Historical Overview Of Economics And Politics And Their Implications On Poverty Today, Benjamin Bucur

Senior Honors Theses

Romania is a country with a high-income economy that is experiencing considerable growth following its economic reforms of earlier decades. With growth, tendencies for an unequal society are prevalent. Therefore, appropriate economic policies that are specifically targeted toward bottlenecks are essential. This thesis seeks to outline the major types of poverty in Romania while also offering actionable entrepreneurial and educational insights that practically combat poverty at its roots.

Building Before: Community Resiliency As Emergency Management, Alexandria Rinne

Honors Theses

This project seeks to address gaps in emergency preparedness education related to tornado response. Through an examination of current research about best practices for tornado emergency management response and an examination of the needs of FEMA Regions 7 and 8, the author has identified key strategies and stakeholders to increase positive outcome through building community engagement and resiliency. Three presentations were created for delivery to key community stakeholders—local government officials; non-governmental organizations, social networks, and associations; and individual private citizens. The project offers an overview of background research and provides presentation slide decks, scripts, and discussion guides, all created with …

It May Work In Practice, But Does It Work In Theory? Explaining The Trend Towards “Do-It-Yourself” Economics, Paul R. Koch

Scholar Week 2016 - present

In 1986, the late David Henderson, the former chief economist at the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), published a book entitled Innocence and Design: The Influence of Economic Ideas on Policy, which were based on his Reith Lectures from the previous year. In this book, he outlined the elements of a concept which he defined as “do-it-yourself economics,” which emphasized a case-by-case approach to economic policy, as opposed to one that was associated with a comprehensive vision or theory. Some of the following statements constitute examples of “DIY economics” at work:

• Industries or activities can be classified as …

The Institutional Drivers Contributing To Billionaire Wealth At The Sector Level, Rob Piper

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Over the last 50 years (the period of neoliberalism) the national wealth of the United States reached unprecedented levels. Despite this dramatic increase in national wealth, an increasing amount of American wealth has found its way into the hands of a smaller percentage of the population. Indicative of this inequality, the number of individuals that have achieved a net worth of $1 billion (billionaires) has increased at a higher rate than any other time in American history. Descriptive evidence and analysis of macroeconomics from scholarly literature and journalism attributes this dramatic increase in billionaire wealth to certain comprehensive and interrelated …

Congressional Oversight Of U.S. Government Programs, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Provides detailed overview of how the U.S. Congress conducts oversight of federal agency programs. Contents include a letter from a member of Congress to an agency head concerning an environmental development in Indiana, information on the foundations of congressional oversight, details on how Congress may require agency reports on various subjects in public laws, an example of a congressionally mandated report by the Department of Defense, documentation of congressional funding of individual federal agencies, examples of congressional committee hearings, congressional committee issuance of oversight and investigative reports which may include dissenting opinions, Congressional Budget Office cost estimates on congressional committee …

The Economics Of Mass Incarceration: How Imprisonment Due To Drug Offenses Impacts The Economy Of Texas, Leah N. Letterhos

Senior Theses

I begin by addressing drug use and how it impacts individuals’ economic outcomes, through psychological substance abuse disorders, income, and employment, where I discuss how each factor is impacted by drug use. Next, I undergo the same process for how incarceration and how it affects economic outcomes of individuals, through the debt cycle, the drain of household resources, limited/lack of pay while in prison, and difficulty in finding employment after release from prison. I follow this by connecting incarceration to drug use by writing about the background on the United States’ incarceration rates and link to drug enforcement and systemic …

Dual Taxation - Unbalanced And Arbitrary, Benjamin M. Simon

American Indian Law Journal

"Dual Taxation" in Indian Country happens when a state assesses taxes on private, non-tribal activities or transactions on tribal land in addition to taxes assessed by a tribe. Some analysts suggest that dual (or double) taxation puts tribal governments and citizens at a disadvantage, but the situation may be more nuanced. While dual taxation has been analyzed in depth from a legal perspective, this paper analyzes its economic consequences. With taxation, the stakes can be high. State tax revenues generated on tribal lands are revenues that tribes forgo collecting, limiting the tribal resources available for economic development and social programs. …

Corruption: A Review Of Issues, Sandra Damijan

Economic and Business Review

This paper provides a historical overview of the concept of corruption, the existing models for studying it, and the main costs that corruption imposes on the economy and society at large. Corruption was first understood as a disturbance of the balance of state power, and later as the immorality of political patronage and favouritism of certain groups. It evolved from the public sphere to the intertwining of the public and private spheres, from a political issue to the intertwining of political and economic issues. The fight against corruption evolved from the maintenance of necessary checks and balances, from moral struggles …

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 …

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.

Getting Dynamic Implementation To Work, Yi-Chun Chen, Richard Holden, Takashi Kunimoto, Yifei Sun, Tom Wilkening

Research Collection School Of Economics

We develop a new class of two-stage mechanisms, which fully implement any social choice function under initial rationalizability in complete information environments. We show theoretically that our Simultaneous Report (SR) mechanisms are robust to small amounts of incomplete information about the state of nature. We also highlight the robustness of the mechanisms to a wide variety of reasoning processes and behavioral assumptions. We show experimentally that a SR mechanism performs well in inducing truth-telling in both complete and incomplete information environments and that it can induce efficient investment in a two-sided hold-up problem with ex-ante investment. The SR mechanism also …

U.S. Energy Information Administration Information Resources, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Provides information about the resources produced by U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration. These resources cover energy statistics for U.S., states, the United States, and foreign countries. They also cover energy products as varied as coal, natural gas, nuclear energy, petroleum, and renewable energy.

Landscape With Invisible Hand, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Landscape With Invisible Hand (2023), directed by Cory Finley.