Public Economics Commons^™

Money And Asset Prices With Uninsurable Risks, Nicolas L. Jacquet, Serene Tan

Research Collection School Of Economics

We develop a model where the coexistence of money and a higher yielding asset is endogenously obtained when no restriction is placed on the use of either object as a medium of exchange. Due to the presence of uninsurable risks, agents have, in equilibrium, di⁄erent relative valuations of the asset to money, and hence, the use of money as a means of payment is strictly preferred. This endogenous di⁄erence in the willingness of agents to use money over the asset implies that money carries a greater liquidity premium than the asset. We obtain that the asset strictly dominates money in …

The Economic Costs Of Tax Policy Uncertainty: Implications For Fundamental Tax Reform, Seth H. Giertz, Jacob Feldman

Department of Economics: Faculty Publications

The U.S. faces tremendous short-term policy uncertainty, including about $5.4 trillion in tax increases over the next decade. These changes are set to take effect on January 1, 2013. It is unlikely that these changes will fully materialize, but what will happen is anyone’s guess. Over the long term, uncertainty also looms large since the U.S. federal tax system is expected to bring in far less revenue than Congress is projected to spend. In this paper, we detail the tax policy uncertainty that the U.S. faces and the economic literature to assess how this uncertainty may be affecting the economy. …

Economic Impact Of The Ability Of Nebraska Agriculture To Irrigate: The Case Of 2012, Nebraska Farm Bureau, Decision Innovation Solutions

Nebraskiana Publications: Resources and Materials on the 37th State

With the harsh 2012 growing season behind for Nebraska crop producers, sights are now on the prospects for 2013. An exceptional drought gripped much of the United States from mid-June to the end of the growing season. In many regards, the drought persists in many parts of the country. Without significant moisture accumulations prior to spring planting 2013, drought conditions may continue into next year’s growing season. Since the drought of 2012 became a cause of concern in mid-2012, there have been discussions regarding ways to limit the use of water for agricultural purposes. Many of these discussions will result …

Government Documents On Rare Earth Minerals, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Rare earth minerals contain unique chemical and physical properties such as lanthanum, are found in small concentrations, need extensive precise processes to separate, and are critical components of modern technologies such as laser guidance systems, personal electronics such as Blackberries, and satellites. The U.S. has some rare earth resources, but is heavily dependent on access to them from from Afghanistan, Bolivia, and China. Losing access to these resources would have significant economic, military, and political implications. This presentation will highlight government information resources on rare earth minerals from agencies such as the Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defense (DOD), …

University Of Arkansas Athletics Economic Impact, Katherine A. Deck, Mervin Jebaraj

Publications and Presentations

The Center for Business and Economic Research in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas was approached by the Athletic Department to conduct an economic impact study of its operations and the visitor impacts associated with the athletic events held on the University of Arkansas campus. This study examines the economic impact of the athletic department from three broad categories of activities that produce economic impacts. The first category presented in this study is the direct economic impacts of the operations of the University of Arkansas Athletic Department, using annual expenditures of the department and …

A Theory Of Vertical Political Interaction In Cigarette Taxation, Khawaja Mamun

WCBT Faculty Publications

This paper examines the political interdependence of federal and state cigarette tax rates. We develop a lobby group model where a state’s endogenous reaction to a federal cigarette tax hike depends crucially on the political responses of the cigarette producer and anti-smoking lobby groups.

Poverty In America: Why Can't We End It?, Peter B. Edelman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The lowest percentage in poverty since we started counting was 11.1 percent in 1973. The rate climbed as high as 15.2 percent in 1983. In 2000, after a spurt of prosperity, it went back down to 11.3 percent, and yet 15 million more people are poor today.

At the same time, we have done a lot that works. From Social Security to food stamps to the earned-income tax credit and on and on, we have enacted programs that now keep 40 million people out of poverty. Poverty would be nearly double what it is now without these measures, according to …

Workplace Deviance And Recession, Aniruddha Bagchi

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Immigrants, Medicaid, And The Deficit Reduction Act, Nicholas T. Fritsch

Undergraduate Economic Review

This study examines the effects of the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) on immigrant Medicaid participation using data from the 2005 and 2007 March supplements of the Current Population Survey. The DRA made changes to Medicaid coverage laws by requiring proof of citizenship for eligibility rather than a sworn statement, as was the case prior to the DRA, thus reducing the non-citizen/non-legal permanent resident use of Medicaid. A difference-in-difference methodology is used, and the research finds that the laws were effective in decreasing non-citizen use of Medicaid relative to citizens, though there is a possibility of “chilling effects” on eligible non-citizens.

The Cupboard Is Full: Public Finances For Public Services In The Global South, Sarah T. Romano, Ronnie Lipschutz

All Faculty Work

No abstract provided.

What Factors Influence Consumers’ Decisions To Purchase Energy Star Appliances?, Rosamond Mate

Economics Honors Projects

This paper examines how differences in operating costs and market availability affect ownership of Energy Star dishwashers and clothes washers. I use logistic regressions and data from the 2009 Residential Energy Consumption Survey and the EPA’s Energy Star program to quantify these effects. Results indicate that controlling for temporal changes is very important; after doing so I find that differences in availability of efficient appliances do not affect ownership patterns. Overall, the frequency of appliance use does not increase the household’s responsiveness to electricity prices, which suggests that consumers do not fully value efficiency when choosing among appliances.

Is Elitism A Myth? A Study Of Nyc Specialized High Schools, Bonnie Kong

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

In New York City, specialized high schools exist in the public school system to educate the city’s most gifted students. These schools are recognized nationally and have a strong focus on math, science, and technology. Benefits of attending these schools include a competitive peer group, challenging courses, and strong alumni networks. Admission to these schools is determined by individuals’ score on the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT).

This paper measures the impact of attending these specialized high schools on graduation and results on New York State Regents examinations. A regression discontinuity design was used to study seven of the …

The Effects Of Foreign Direct Investment On Sovereign Debt Sustainability In Latin America, Oriana I. Fuentes

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Sovereign debt has been a central political issue in Latin American nations for many years, especially considering the region’s long history of defaults and restructurings. Finding ways to grow sustainably at manageable levels of indebtedness has certainly been a challenge, especially with the large number of factors that play into how a nation finances itself and its growth. One of these factors, foreign direct investment (FDI), has attracted significant attention after countries became more politically stable and protective of investor interests in the early 1990s. As a result, inflows of FDI have grown at record levels reaching over $112 billion …

The Recession Of 2008: For Better Or For Worse, Kelsy Litchenburg

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

With nonstop discussion about the current recession in the government, news, classroom, social media, and any other type of communication outlet, there is seldom a minute that Americans are not impacted by our current economic condition. Constantly, we are faced with pitfalls of the recession, like job loss and a declining house market, but who is to say that the motion of our economy doesn't follow Newton's third law stating that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction? Meaning that for each negative this recession brings, might there also be a positive social effect as well? After …

Isolated Capital Cities, Accountability And Corruption: Evidence From Us States, Filipe R. Campante, Quoc-Anh Do

Research Collection School Of Economics

We show that isolated capital cities are robustly associated with greater levels of corruption across US states. In particular, this is the case when we use the variation induced by the exogenous location of a state’s centroid to instrument for the concentration of population around the capital city. We then show that different mechanisms for holding state politicians accountable are also affected by the spatial distribution of population: newspapers provide greater coverage of state politics when their audiences are more concentrated around the capital, and voter turnout in state elections is greater in places that are closer to the capital. …

Government Influence And The Failure Of Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac, Aravind Mohan

Honors Theses

In 2008 two government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were placed into conservatorship due to insolvency. The financial bailout of the two publically traded corporations came at the expense of the American tax payer. This study investigates the relationship between direct and indirect government influence and the increasing risk taking of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from the late 1990’s through their conservatorship in 2008. As government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have many special advantages that other publically traded companies did not possess. These advantages allowed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase their profitability. Theoretical literature …

The Effects Of Political Institutions On Public Budgeting, Andrew Burnos

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Economics around the globe has been a growing issue of late due to the current economic crisis. This study focuses on political institutional factors that influence spending in a particular country. The variables used in this study include Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Tax Revenue as Percent of GDP, and current account balance to name a few. This research looks at the relationship between proportional representation compared to majoritarian systems as well as presidential compared to parliamentary systems and how these relate to public budgeting. This research updates the analysis of Persson and Tabellini in their book The Economic Effects of …

Washington Park Main Street Plan, Benjamin Bergenholtz, Derek Dandurand, Valerie Fram, Tracy Jonsson, Kimberly Lindner, Carolyn Reid, D.J. Sevigny, Alexandra Skerry, Timothy Guimond, Brooke Kourafas, Elise Murphy, Matt Berry, Erik Butler, Kayla Nerone, Arnold Robinson, Jeremy Wells, Julie Coon, Joel Cooper

Historic Preservation

There is an immense variety of privately owned businesses. They will be stakeholders because their businesses are located there, but they will also be assets in themselves in drawing people to the area. There is basically everything anyone could possible want or need in this area. There are two gas stations, a Family Dollar, a liquor store, a few sit down restaurants, numerous places where one can get a quick bite to eat, a frame shop, a clothing store, a pawn shop, a store with fresh produce (which is hard to find in urban areas), a store that sells sports …

Avoiding The Mistakes Of The Past, Tom Dunne

Articles

Tom Dunne explores the long term drivers of dysfunction in Ireland's housing markets and what a more sustainable housing system would look like.

The Gettysburg Economic Review, Volume 6, Spring 2012

Gettysburg Economic Review

No abstract provided.

State Of The Northwest Arkansas Region 2012 Report, Katherine A. Deck, Mervin Jebaraj

State of the Northwest Arkansas Region Report

The State of the Northwest Arkansas Region Report is an annual publication that serves as a tool for evaluating the economic performance of the region in comparison with those peers that are most likely to compete with Northwest Arkansas by virtue of a similar industry mix or geographic proximity. As a player in the global economy, Northwest Arkansas has more to off er than superior performance in traditional economic development categories such as employment, unemployment, establishment growth, and income. This region showcases strengths in newer categories of economic development like the knowledge-based sectors and quality of life indicators such as …

Technology Generators In The Dayton Region: Leveraging Regional Assets For Economic Recovery, Kim Frazier, Jane Dockery

Economic Development

The Dayton Region shows tremendous promise in becoming an area known for its technology and innovation with a strong concentration of research and development and a capacity for innovative manufacturing. Yet to become an innovative leader, the Dayton Region must transform its culture and realign investments that will promote its technology capability and strengthen the economy. The old ways of doing business and training the workforce are no longer sufficient to become a player in the global economy. This report compares the Dayton Region to other regions across the country, points out gaps in various innovation and economic indicators, and …

A Decision-Support Framework For Using Value Capture To Fund Public Transit: Lessons From Project-Specific Analyses, Shishir Mathur, Adam Smith

Faculty Publications, Urban and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Tax Facts, Tom Dunne

Articles

Tom Dunne Clarifies the issues surrounding different forms of property tax

Open Textbooks And Provincial Government Policy: A Look At The Issues, Lisa Di Valentino

FIMS Publications

In 2012, the British Columbia government announced a plan to fund a program that will result in the creation of open access textbooks for 40 lower-year university courses — the first such program in any of the provinces. This paper will argue that Ontario should follow British Columbia’s lead and invest in the development of a project to create and promote the use of open textbooks. The introduction will discuss the concept of open textbooks and the various initiatives and legislation that have been introduced in the United States, and British Columbia’s plan will be described in more detail. The …

Impact Of Work Values And Individual Attributes On Citizenship And Task Performance: A Test In A Developing Country Context, Anil Chadrakumara

Journal for the Advancement of Developing Economies

This study examined the impact of work values and individual characteristics on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and task performance (TP). Based on the arguments of Social Capital Theory, a theoretical foundation was developed to use work values as antecedents of OCB. Analyzing 416 responses from Sri Lankan manufacturing sector employees, it was found that gender and employment category were related to citizenship performance, while level of education was related to task performance. More importantly, the impact of work values (work norms, work ethics, and intrinsic values) on OCB was found to be more significant than that of demographic factors. Overall, …

Technology And The Export Behavior Of Small, Locally- Owned Firms: New Insight, Densil A. Williams

Journal for the Advancement of Developing Economies

This paper investigates the relationship between technology and the export performance of small, locally-owned firms in the Jamaican economy. The literature argues that technology is an important variable in influencing the export performance of small firms given its technological ability to generate competitive advantage for the firm. However, the results from empirical studies are not always consistent. To investigate this issue, the paper uses survey data collected through face-to-face interviews of 92 exporters and non-exporters to estimate a logistic regression model of the firm’s export behavior. The results revealed that firm size, is the most critical factor that determines export …

Measuring Water Poverty Index In Urban Areas Of Punjab, Kanwal Zahra, Syed Hussain Haider, Afzal Mahmood, Sami Ullah

Journal for the Advancement of Developing Economies

The urban population of Punjab is growing rapidly. It is projected that there will be a 25 to 30 percent increase in urban population by 2020. This rapid population increase is causing major problems in the efficient provision of urban services in these cities. To evaluate the effect of this population increase, this paper tries to produce an integrated assessment of water stress and scarcity, linking physical estimates of water availability with socioeconomic variables that reflect poverty, i.e., a Water Poverty Index. It is understood that poor households face the problem of the accessibility of potable water, and this results …

Supply Response, Exchange Rate And Domestic Price In Nigeria, Emmanuel C. Ani, Samson Adeniyi Aladejare

Journal for the Advancement of Developing Economies

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of exchange rate and domestic price on export trade in Nigeria. Firstly, based on the literature review and findings of the study in the area, the paper aligned itself within the premise of the traditionalist view which concludes that non-oil export trade in Nigeria is predicated by currency depreciation via lower export prices. Secondly, the introduction of domestic prices, alongside naira rate of exchange as major determinants of non–oil exports in Nigeria, has the implication of showing that currency devaluation could be used to improve the balance of payment …

The Us Financial Crisis, Emerging Markets And The Effects Of Imf Loans, Bridgette Bain

Journal for the Advancement of Developing Economies

The main hypothesis of this paper is that emerging markets with outstanding debt from the IMF and their economies are more severely affected by shocks to the world than countries that do not undertake IMF debt. The effect that shocks have on these economies is also dependent upon the size of the debt borrowed. This paper analyzes the effects that outstanding IMF debt has on emerging markets. Essentially, it observes the responses of emerging markets to shocks in their economy when they are indebted to the IMF. We observe 35 emerging markets as defined by Dow Jones in 2010 and …