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Articles 31 - 42 of 42

Full-Text Articles in Public Economics

Three Essays On The Economics Of Public Libraries, Amir Borges Ferreira Neto Jan 2019

Three Essays On The Economics Of Public Libraries, Amir Borges Ferreira Neto

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation explores empirical issues concerning public libraries in the United States. In particular, it analyzes the direct and indirect effects to and from public libraries, on different issues such as charitable donations, labor market outcomes, institutions and technical efficiency. Chapter 1 discusses the economics of public libraries and its relevance. In addition, it provides an outline of the dissertation and its main contribution to the literature. Chapter 2, analyzes the determinants of donations to public libraries testing the crowding effect from government funding of public libraries. I find suggestive results of a crowd in effect with an inverted U …


Three Essays In Applied Econometrics, Collin Dean Hodges Jan 2019

Three Essays In Applied Econometrics, Collin Dean Hodges

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The body of work presented here consists of a collection of research projects developed during my time as a graduate student at West Virginia University. As will soon become apparent, this collection of research topics is quite eclectic. This is, in part, due to the to the nature of the research process itself--where one often begins by asking one question and ends by answering a completely different one--but also due to the fact that my time at West Virginia University has provided me the opportunity to gain insight into a wide variety of economic fields as well as work on …


The Efficient Corruption Hypothesis And The Dynamics Between Economic Freedom, Corruption, And National Income, Joshua Hall, John Levendis, Alexandre R. Scarcioffolo Jan 2019

The Efficient Corruption Hypothesis And The Dynamics Between Economic Freedom, Corruption, And National Income, Joshua Hall, John Levendis, Alexandre R. Scarcioffolo

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Income, economic freedom, and corruption interact in complex ways as all three variables are arguably endogenous. We explicitly model this endogeneity using a panel VAR framework. The pVAR models we estimate are able to explicitly model this endogeneity better than the single-equation panel data models previously used in the literature. Using data on corruption and income from the World Bank and economic freedom from the Fraser Institute, we provide evidence that corruption and the absence of economic freedom have a negative effect on national income.


Sports Arenas, Teams And Property Values: Temporary And Permanent Shocks To Local Amenity Flows, Yulia Chikish, Brad Humphreys, Adam Nowak Dec 2018

Sports Arenas, Teams And Property Values: Temporary And Permanent Shocks To Local Amenity Flows, Yulia Chikish, Brad Humphreys, Adam Nowak

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Professional sports facilities and teams generate local amenity flows in cities that may affect property values. Previous research shows evidence of important positive and negative local amenity flows based on case studies of changes in residential property values in specific cities. We analyze changes in residential property values in Oklahoma City over a period, 2000 to 2016, where both temporary and permanent exogenous shocks to local sports-related amenities occurred. Results from hedonic price models and repeat sales regression models show that nearby residential property prices increased after the opening of a new arena and the arrival of a new, permanent …


Towards A Rule-Based Model Of Human Choice: On The Nature Of Homo Constitutionalus, Roger Congleton Jan 2018

Towards A Rule-Based Model Of Human Choice: On The Nature Of Homo Constitutionalus, Roger Congleton

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Anglo-American jurisprudence emphasizes the rule of reason; it grossly neglects the reason of rules. We play socioeconomic-legal-political games that can be described empirically only by their rules. But most of us play without an understanding or ap-preciation of the rules, how they came into being, how they are enforced, how they can be changed, and most important, how they can be normatively evaluated. (Bren-nan and Buchanan, 1985, preface).


A Test Of The Institutionally Induced Equilibrium Hypothesis: On The Limited Fiscal Impact Of Two Celebrity Governors, Roger D. Congleton, Yang Zhou Jan 2018

A Test Of The Institutionally Induced Equilibrium Hypothesis: On The Limited Fiscal Impact Of Two Celebrity Governors, Roger D. Congleton, Yang Zhou

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

We test for the stabilizing effects of political institutions on fiscal policies by examining the impact of two unlikely governors on their state’s fiscal policies. Fiscal policies are joint products of executive and legislative decisions. These institutional factors tend to moderate the effect of changes in the chief executive, as does partisan competition for office. Jesse Ventura of Minnesota’s and Arnold Schwarzenegger of California were unique—surprise—governors of their respective states. Although both governors were arguably less constrained by partisan loyalties than most others, the other institutional factors would still tend to limit their impact on public policy. Our evidence suggests …


Rent-Seeking In The Classroom And Textbooks: Where Are We After 50 Years, Joshua C. Hall, Josh Matti, Yang Zhou Jan 2018

Rent-Seeking In The Classroom And Textbooks: Where Are We After 50 Years, Joshua C. Hall, Josh Matti, Yang Zhou

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

No abstract provided.


Tuition Increases Geaux Away? Evidence From Voting On Louisiana's Amendment 2, Joshua C. Hall, Serkan Karadas Jan 2017

Tuition Increases Geaux Away? Evidence From Voting On Louisiana's Amendment 2, Joshua C. Hall, Serkan Karadas

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

In many states, public institutions of higher education have the autonomy to raise tuition. This has not been the case in Louisiana since a 1995 constitutional amend-ment required a two-thirds majority of the state legislature for any tuition increase. In November of 2016, voters in Louisiana rejected Amendment 2, a constitutional amendment that would have given state institutions of higher education autonomy in setting tuition. We examine parish-level voting on Amendment 2 using an empirical political economy model and find that parishes with a greater percentage of African-Americans and university employees were more likely to vote yes. Student enrollment at …


Efficiency, But At What Cost? Evidence From A Dea Analysis Of Wv School Districts, Eduardo Minuci, Amir B. Neto, Joshua C. Hall Jan 2017

Efficiency, But At What Cost? Evidence From A Dea Analysis Of Wv School Districts, Eduardo Minuci, Amir B. Neto, Joshua C. Hall

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

West Virginia schools are consistently below the national average on the NAEP. Using Data Envelopment Analysis, we estimate the technical efficiency of West Virginia school districts. We find less variation in technical efficiency in West Virginia than in similar studies conducted in other states. This appears to be because of state policy imposing homogeneity of input usage. Due to the limited variation in technical efficiency across districts, we cannot analyze how non-school inputs such as socioeconomic factors affect technical efficiency across districts. Summary statistics organized by county economic status, however, suggest that socioeconomic status plays a role. Our results highlight …


An Overview Of Sports Betting Regulation In The United States, Brad Humphreys Jan 2017

An Overview Of Sports Betting Regulation In The United States, Brad Humphreys

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

The United States employs an ad hoc, unconventional method of regulating sports betting, banning it almost everywhere while granting a monopoly to firms in a single state, Nevada. This approach encourages illegal sports betting markets, ignores negative externalities, and generates welfare losses among the large population of responsible recreational gamblers. I review the current state of sports betting regulation in the U.S. and assess its economic viability in advance of the Supreme Court of the United States decision on the landmark Christie v. National Collegiate Athletic Association case.


Economic Freedom And Government Efficiency: Recent Evidence From China, Shaoment Jia, Yang Zhou Jan 2017

Economic Freedom And Government Efficiency: Recent Evidence From China, Shaoment Jia, Yang Zhou

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

We investigate the effects of economic freedom (marketization) on governance efficiency defined with the newest provincial level economic indicator data (NBSC, 2017) and economic freedom data (Fan et al., 2017) from 2008 to 2014 in China. With two different measures, the results suggest that economic freedom is positively correlated with governance efficiency. Moreover, the liberalization and marketization progress in the “factors market” is the single most significant area for both governance efficiency measures, while other areas like “market intermediary & legal system” have no significant effects.


The Economic Impact Of City-County Consolidations: A Synthetic Control Approach, Joshua Hall, Josh Matti, Yang Zhou Jan 2017

The Economic Impact Of City-County Consolidations: A Synthetic Control Approach, Joshua Hall, Josh Matti, Yang Zhou

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Although more rapid development is a primary motivation behind city-county consolidations, few empirical studies explore the impact of consolidation on economic development. No studies look at government consolidation in the United States using modern causal inference methods. We use the synthetic control method (SCM) to examine the long-term impact of city-county consolidations on per capita income, population, and employment. The results from the three cases explored indicate that consolidation does not guarantee development and actually can have negative effects. Additionally, consolidation can deepen the urban-rural divide by accelerating the decline of rural populations relative to those of urban areas. The …