Public Economics Commons^™

Lessons From Tanzania’S Ujamaa For Smart Settlements In Nepal: Social Justice And Economic Development, Keshav Bhattarai, Ambika P. Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Nepal’s constitutional commitment to a “socialism-oriented” state places social justice, equitable access to resources and housing, and protection of marginalized populations at the center of national development discourse. However, persistent landlessness, informal settlements, unemployment, youth outmigration, and unequal access to infrastructure reveal a significant gap between constitutional aspirations and socioeconomic realities.

This article examines lessons Nepal can draw from Tanzania’s experience with Ujamaa, the African socialist development model initiated by President Nyerere in 1967. Using comparative policy analysis, published research, official documents, and exploratory field observations from selected Tanzanian locations, including the capital and villages in the Iringa Region, the …

What, Exactly, Is Surveillance Pricing?, Kaylina Stroud

McNair Summer Research Program

Surveillance pricing is a method of price discrimination in which firms use personal data to set individualized prices. While this practice is often criticized on grounds of privacy, unfairness, or exploitation, these objections do not fully explain what is morally objectionable about surveillance pricing. This paper examines surveillance pricing through the lenses of price discrimination, market competition, efficiency, exploitation, and deception. I argue that surveillance pricing is not inherently unethical merely because it results in different consumers paying different prices for the same product. Nor is it necessarily objectionable when it promotes mutually beneficial exchanges and efficient market outcomes. The …

Essays In Applied Microeconomics, Md Tahmeed Hossain

Economics Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation contributes to empirical economics research by examining three settings in which historical shocks, behavioral constraints, and localized public events affect social relations, decision quality, and public safety. The first chapter examines the persistence of historical religious conflict in contemporary Hindu–Muslim relations in India. The second chapter studies how time pressure affects decision quality in online chess. The third chapter analyzes the localized traffic-safety externalities of NFL game days. Across these settings, the dissertation uses large-scale data and quasi-experimental research designs to distinguish causal effects from selection, spatial concentration, and persistent local conditions.

The first chapter asks whether historical …

The Road To Gerontocracy, Juan David Bohorquez Pacateque, Alonso Morales Sánchez Mejorada, Paul Alexander Villegas Muñoz

Journal of New Finance

The purpose of this article is to develop a reform proposal for current pension systems based on a robust political economy approach. The research is documentary, conducting critical analysis of texts and evidence collection from various pension schemes from a public choice perspective to elaborate a comparative institutional analysis. Pension schemes, being influenced by political processes, are susceptible to adopting institutions that are inefficient, so a politically and economically robust reform is proposed. In conclusion, taking into account that pension systems can be co-opted by the political process, it is not sufficient to propose financially sustainable schemes but also ones …

Retirement At Risk: The Political Economy Of Public Pension Governance, Allen Mendenhall, Dan Sutter

Journal of New Finance

State public pension systems manage over $6 trillion in assets while facing approximately $1.3 trillion in unfunded liabilities, raising fundamental questions about governance effectiveness and fiduciary accountability. This Article examines these challenges through the analytical framework of governance, applying insights from public choice, principal-agent models, and corporate governance to argue that details in implementation significantly impact outcomes.  We offer Ohio’s State Teachers Retirement System (STRS) as a case study. Recent governance reforms in Ohio—including legislative restructuring of the STRS board and enactment of fiduciary standards legislation modeled on the American Legislative Exchange Council’s framework—suggest the potential for earlier governance problems. …

Cooling Deserts For Renters: Heat Equity Inside The Nyc Housing System, Tahreem Ashraf

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study introduces the Cooling Desert Index (CDI), a composite spatial measure designed to identify census tracts in New York City where extreme heat vulnerability and structural barriers to adaptive cooling converge. Drawing on five publicly available datasets and a seven phase statistical pipeline, the CDI scores all 2,231 NYC census tracts on a continuous 0 to 100 scale by integrating heat exposure, severe rent burden, household income, racial composition, language access, disability status, and housing crowding. The analysis identifies 557 cooling deserts, defined as tracts where environmental heat risk is high and financial constraints make effective cooling structurally inaccessible, …

Essays On Development Economics, Environmental Economics, And Political Economy, Weihong Li

Economics Theses and Dissertations

Chapter 1 explores the strategic behavior of provincial leaders in China in response to visits by central government leaders. I find that such behavior is correlated with provincial leaders’ personal characteristics and their connections with the visitors. Meanwhile, acting strategically during these visits has a positive and significant effect on overall promotions, but a positive and insignificant effect on promotions to the most important positions in the Politburo.

Chapter 2 examines the impact of the Confucian norms on the spatial heterogeneity of fertility rates and sex-selective abortions in contemporary China. To overcome the challenge of quantifying cultural norms, I construct …

Shelter From The Storm: Public Library Value And Community Adaptive Capacities, Margo Gustina

Economics ETDs

This dissertation contributes to theoretical framing within the discipline of library science, while building out empirical methods for quantitatively valuing broadly loved public libraries. Chapter 1 lays the foundation for understanding how analysis public libraries must always be set within regional contexts. Chapter 2 demonstrates that positive voter valuation of public libraries is driven by proximity to a library building by using data from public funding referendum events. Chapter 3 estimates a reduction of 0.75 percentage point (p=0.002) in graduation rates where public libraries were closed (but school instruction was in-person) from COVID closures. Chapter 4 builds on the previous …

The Marginal Sexual Equality Game: Defining The Incentives For Sexual Equality Using Economic Game Theory And Butler’S Gender Trouble, Blaise Bowers

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This project takes an interdisciplinary economic and gender studies approach to explain subversion, sexual equality, and the marginal nature of sexual rights. The project uses advanced economic game theory to derive the Marginal Sexual Equality Game Formula. The formula explains the various political-economic incentives for a minority gender/sexual identity’s subversion of dominance, a dominant sex's incentive to suppress, the impact of cooperation versus division among minority genders/sexual identities, incentives and impacts of cooperation between sects of minority genders/sexual identities and the dominant gender/sexual identity, and the various consequences of various social mobility and elasticity. Additionally, the formula proves and showcases …

Money And Power: How Big Money Shapes Democracy In The United States, Paige Long

Thinking Matters Symposium

This project explores the question: what could and should be done to strengthen democracy in the United States? More specifically, it examines the role that large amounts of money in politics play in shaping political power and representation. The central argument of this project is that reducing the influence of big money in political campaigns and policymaking is necessary for creating a more fair and representative democratic system. When wealthy donors, corporations, and special interest groups are able to spend large amounts of money to influence elections and policy decisions, it can limit the political voice of ordinary citizens.

This …

Treaty Database Project, Elisabeth Smith

Honors Capstones

International environmental governance is shaped by a complex network of treaties addressing issues such as water, agriculture, air and atmosphere, energy, wild species and ecosystems, mineral resources, and waste and hazardous substances, among many others.. However, information about these agreements is often fragmented across multiple sources, making it difficult for researchers, policymakers, and the public to understand how different treaties relate to one another. This project develops a structured database of environmental treaties that captures key attributes such as thematic focus, geographic scope, participating countries, and implementation mechanisms.

Building on this database, the project also provides an intuitive front-end interface …

Converting The Social Security Trust Fund Into A Sovereign Wealth Fund: A Proposal To Secure The Future, Keanu Moore

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

This thesis proposes the conversion of the Social Security Trust Fund into a sovereign wealth fund (SWF), paired with the phased creation of a mandatory retirement savings system for all working-age Americans. In response to forecasts projecting Trust Fund depletion by 2034, the proposed portfolio shift would diversify assets beyond U.S. Treasuries into global equities, real estate, alternatives, and fixed income, with the goal of enhancing long-term returns while remaining passively managed. While this reform would extend the Fund’s solvency, it is not, on its own, a permanent fix. To ensure structural sustainability beyond the exhaustion date, the thesis proposes …

Digital Public Service Delivery As An Institutional Outcome: Data Governance And Interoperability In The Egyptian Public Sector, Waad Hegazy

Theses and Dissertations

Moving beyond technology-centered theories of digital transformation, this thesis examines the institutional and governance factors shaping digital public service delivery in Egypt. It analyzes how governance structures, data governance arrangements, and interoperability frameworks influence the extent to which digital transformation initiatives result in integrated, scalable, and citizen-facing public services. Using a qualitative research design, the study draws on an analysis of relevant policy and program documents and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders involved in digital transformation initiatives in Egypt. The findings indicate that persistent challenges in digital public service delivery are driven less by technological constraints than by fragmented governance …

Good Food In The Neighborhood: Localizing Nutritious Food Access, Joseph Pool

Honors Program Theses

Given contemporary changes to federal budget priorities and recent challenges to federal food access funding, this research explores the potential benefits of entrusting state-level and municipal-level policymakers with food access policy. More specifically, this research suggests that “localizing” food access has the unique benefit of not just addressing the affordability of food, but the physical accessibility of it. As observed in the previous literature and expounded upon here, food provisioning requires consideration of nutrition, physical accessibility, and financial affordability. Programs that only address one of these priorities fail to adequately help people receive the food they need. Through policy analysis …

The Tcja And Shareholder Payouts, Carson T. Bloom

CMC Senior Theses

Abstract

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) provided corporations an estimated $233 billion in tax savings, yet relatively little is known about how firms allocated this cash windfall. This study examines whether growth and mature firms differed in whether they used these tax savings to distribute dividends and repurchase shares. Using panel data on publicly traded North American firms from 2016–2019, I classify firms as either growth or mature based on their cash-flow patterns and estimate the effects of the TCJA on their behavior using a difference-in-differences design.

The results indicate that mature firms increased shareholder payouts significantly more …

Analyzing The Role And Impact Of Energy Resources On The South China Sea Dispute, Adam Opp

Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy

The South China Sea is a critical but contested body of water that has been the source of much international debate and focus. The sea is a strategic maritime route and one of the most important waterways for regional and global trade. The South China Sea features rich natural resources such as fisheries and hydrocarbons, especially unknown amounts of oil and natural gas remaining untapped throughout the sea. Geological surveys estimate extremely lucrative quantities of oil and natural gas in the South China Sea, which drives the conflict, as nations with competing territorial claims seek to control not just the …

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

The Jokowi Effect On The Victory Of Prabowo: Do People Vote For Continuity?, Cakra Yudi Putra, Dyah Ayu Febriani, Andri Tantyo Cahyo Nugroho, Teguh Dartanto

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

The 2024 Indonesian presidential election marked a striking realignment as Prabowo Subianto—a former opposition leader—secured victory with the tacit endorsement of outgoing President Joko Widodo (Jokowi). This study investigates how the enduring popularity and policy achievements of Jokowi shaped voter preferences in favor of Prabowo, effectively positioning the election as a referendum on political continuity. Building on theories of economic voting and retrospective performance evaluation, the analysis explores the impact of district-level economic indicators, social media penetration, ideological orientation, social assistance distribution, and sociocultural characteristics on electoral outcomes. Employing Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression on data from 481 administrative regions, …

Constructing A State: Canals And The Transformation Of The Economy, Politics, And Finance In Nineteenth-Century New York, Youwei Xing

All Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays in economic history, unified by a focus on one of America's earliest transportation infrastructures, the canal system, in nineteenth-century New York. Each chapter explores a different aspect of the state's transformation: its economy, politics, and finance, each of which helped construct New York as the Empire State.

The first chapter studies the economic impact of canals on economic modernization from three aspects: sectoral transition, urbanization, and banking development. Contrary to much of the modern literature finds transportation infrastructure leads to decentralization, I find the opposite-evidence of centralization. Specially: (1) canal towns experienced a transition …

Recent U.S. Government Policy Literature On Critical And Strategic Minerals, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Critical and strategic minerals have become increasingly important in U.S. government civilian and military policymaking in recent years. This is demonstrated by the heavy use of such minerals in many critical civilian and military infrastructures. This work will discuss how this subject has been addressed in laws, presidential documents, and works by government agencies along with congressional oversight committees and support agencies. It will stress how the United States is heavily dependent on strategic minerals from adversarial foreign countries such as China and will examine U.S. efforts to increase its ability to produce such materials in the United States by …

Cares Act And Income Inequality In The Long Run, Kathleen Washington

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

In this paper, I will be looking at how the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a revolutionary public policy, led to income inequality decreasing during the Covid-19 pandemic in the US. Additionally, from the data available, the CARES Act seems to not have had any long run effects on income inequality in the US. Although, I would recommend more research on the CARES Act’s long-run effects when more data become available as time passes.

Almost Last Again? Mississippi's Labor Force Participation Rate: Causes And Solutions, John Martin Fox

Honors Theses

Mississippi is currently ranked second to last in labor force participation rate in the country. This is the latest damning statistic inhibiting the state from growing and becoming a more nationally recognized state with higher economic output. This thesis examines how Mississippi arrived at this bleak labor force participation rate and what is currently ongoing to alleviate it. It also examines some possible proposed solutions to accelerate those efforts. Through extensive research and numerous interviews with officials from public and private sector employees directly dealing with this predicament, this thesis has assembled a thorough and comprehensive picture of how the …

Forgive Me Not? Racial And Institutional Disparities In The Paycheck Protection Program Loan Forgiveness, Vladimir Kotomin, Wyatt Frere, Ruby Morr

Faculty Publications – Finance, Insurance, and Law

Existing research establishes that minority borrowers, particularly Black small business owners, faced significant challenges in accessing funds from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), especially in its early stages. We find that institutional and racial disparities persist during the PPP loan forgiveness stage. Controlling for various loan- and borrower-level characteristics, we demonstrate that relationship lenders – community banks, credit unions, and farm credit institutions – are associated with higher rates of PPP loan forgiveness. In contrast, automated lenders – fintechs and fintech banks – exhibit the lowest forgiveness rates. Black borrowers experience the poorest outcomes, except for loans issued by non-depository …

Drivers And Barriers To Financial Transparency In Georgia’S Local Governments, Min S. Kim

The Guardianship Journal

This study investigates the determinants of financial transparency in local governments, specifically measured by the availability of financial documents on official websites. Hypotheses were developed to examine the relationships between financial transparency and three categories of influencing factors: community environmental characteristics, governance structures, and financial conditions. Using empirical analysis on a sample of 159 counties in Georgia, the findings reveal varying levels of support for the proposed hypotheses. Key determinants of financial transparency include population size, median household income, and the size of the board of commissioners. Conversely, financial condition factors were not found to significantly influence financial transparency. These …

Women On Boards Annual Monitoring Report 2024, Center For Entrepreneurship And Innovation

Faculty Books

The AUC Egypt women on boards monitoring report is issued annually to track and monitor the presence and representation of women on boards towards meeting the goal of having 30% women on boards by 2030. The importance of improving representation of women on boards stems from the fact that it is one of the good governance pillars, in addition to the positive impact on firm performance and profitability. The National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women 2030 has accordingly promoted for increasing the leadership roles of women and holding key positions in public institutions and companies, setting the target …

When Consumers See It Coming: How Anticipation Affects The Domestic Cost Of Tariffs, Pierce D. Sanderson

CMC Senior Theses

Tariffs implemented by President Trump in 2018 were unexpected and significant, incurring large costs to U.S. consumers. This study examines the effect of tariff anticipation on price, quantity, and value effect on imports in the United States. Specifically, it focuses on tariffs implemented during Obama’s second term in office from 2012 to 2016 on the automotive, technology, and manufacturing industries. The findings present a significant divergence from the literature on the effects of 2018 tariffs, finding a near full pass-through of tariffs to foreign exporter prices rather than U.S. consumers. Specifically, a one percent increase in tariffs resulted in a …

Relocation Incentives In Alaska; Or, The Call Of The Wild And Transfer Payments, Nathan Miller

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Spillover Effects And Political Yardstick Competition In Local Public Spending In Indonesia, Muhammad Reyhan Akbar, Bagdja Muljarijadi

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

This study aims to test the presence of spillover effects and political yardstick competition in both mandatory and discretionary spending among local governments in Indonesia. A spatial econometrics model was employed to evaluate data from 410 districts/municipalities in Indonesia from 2010 to 2018. The findings confirm spillover effects in spending decisions among local governments. The empirical analysis also reveals that political factors drive horizontal interactions in mandatory spending, while such influences are absent in discretionary spending.

Striking A Balance: Market Shock & Responses In Automotive Components Manufacturing, Emma Lane Mcgahey

All Theses

This thesis examines the effects of extreme market shocks on supply chain dynamics within the automotive industry. Through an analysis of demand data from an automotive manufacturer to its component suppliers (January 2018 to May 2024), the study investigates the relationship between market shocks and supply chain responses, providing insights into how auto components inventory management handles downstream responses to market shocks. With supporting public data—from FRED, BLS, and the U.S. Census Bureau resources—we explore two primary relationships: the impact of market shocks on the Average Standard Deviation of Demand (SDO) and the effect of demand variability on expedited pricing …

Selected U.S. Government Statistical Agencies And Their Data, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Provides introductory and detailed overview of U.S. Government agencies statistics. Includes examples of how an individual U.S. law authorizes government agencies to compile statistics for particular congressional committees and the general public. Statistics cover topics such as demography, defense, foreign assistance, economic growth, criminal justice, energy, Social Security, and Medicare.