Public Economics Commons^™

State Of The Northwest Arkansas Region 2024 Report, Mervin Jebaraj, Kashfia Kamal

State of the Northwest Arkansas Region Report

The State of the Northwest Arkansas Region Report is an annual publication commissioned by the Northwest Arkansas Council that serves as a tool for evaluating economic performance. In July 2018, the Council created a new blueprint for development, benchmarking Northwest Arkansas against other high-performing regions, including Austin, Texas; Des Moines, Iowa; Madison, Wis.; Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C.; Raleigh, N.C.; and Provo-Orem, Utah. The 2024 report compares Northwest Arkansas with these regions in GDP, employment, unemployment, establishment growth, median household income, average annual wages, poverty, educational attainment, research and development, homeownership costs, commuting time and average domestic airfares.

Perception And Prospects Of Art Of Clothing Maintenance As A Sustainable Fashion, Boiso Maria Owodiong-Idemeko, Adetona Sekinat Ajoke, Udom Owodiong

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The study focused on the perception of the art of clothing maintenance and its prospects as a sustainable fashion for consumers in Lagos state. 250 respondents were involved. The study adopted descriptive survey design. Two hypotheses were formulated and a thirty-one (31) item questionnaire was the main instrument used to collect data for the study. The statistical tools used were, percentages, mean and Friedman’s test. The result revealed that, 200 (80%) perceived ripped clothes bring dismay to the wearer, 198 (79%), perceived ripped clothes needed to be reconstructed, 200 (80%) perceived consumers lack practical ability to repair clothes. 241 (96%) …

Essays On The Dynamics Of Subnational Public Finance In Indonesia, Much Rosidi

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

This dissertation comprises three essays that collectively explore the intricacies of subnational public finance in Indonesia: vehicle tax amnesty, property tax competition, and corruption. The research aims to understand the dynamics shaping fiscal policies at the subnational level.

In the first essay, I examine vehicle tax amnesty programs in Indonesia that have been very popular in dealing with high delinquency rates. From 2008 to 2020, provincial amnesties occurred every 2.5 years on average. Using the variation in the timing of the province’s amnesty adoptions, I estimate the effect of vehicle tax amnesty on vehicle tax revenue using difference-in-differences. The short-run …

Relationships Between Local Revenue And Expenditure Policies And Urban Housing Markets, Lucas Taulbee

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

This dissertation consists of three essays on urban/local public finance, specifically residential property tax assessment and the provision of local public services. A general theme of the essays is the interplay between local financial policies and housing markets. Both revenue (tax) and expenditure policies can have significant effects on housing prices which can, in turn, have feedback effects on current and future revenues and expenditures. In the first chapter, Assessment Regressivity and Capitalization of Property Taxes, I consider assessment regressivity, the phenomenon in which higher-priced homes tend to be underassessed while lower priced homes tend to be overassessed. This may …

Evaluating The Early Impacts Of The Snap Online Purchasing Pilot, Kyle Jones

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

This dissertation consists of three chapters that evaluate how a change in the redemption of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits impacted grocery purchasing behavior and food consumption to provide some of the first estimates of the impacts from the pilot. The SNAP Online Purchasing Pilot (OPP) allowed recipients to use their benefits online for participating retailers which was initially planned for 8 participating pilot states with a few participating retailers but massively expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first two chapters evaluate how the SNAP OPP impacts grocery purchasing behavior with the first chapter evaluating before the COVID-19 pandemic and …

Essays On Impacts Of Natural Disasters, Fang-Yu Yeh

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

This dissertation consists of three chapters that study how natural disasters affect households and individuals. The first chapter examines how Kentucky’s housing market responds to changes in flood risk information. The second chapter looks at disproportionate drinking water non-compliance post-disaster. The third chapter studies the effect of flooding events and the national school meals program in Kentucky on education outcomes.

The first chapter examines Kentucky’s housing market response to changes in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) flood maps and how the responses differ depending on whether an area has been flooded recently. I use Zillow’s ZTRAX property transaction data …

Towards Inclusive Public Administration Systems: Public Budgeting From The Perspective Of Critical Race Theory, Juan Pablo Martínez Guzmán, Meagan M. Jordan, Philip G. Joyce

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

While there is a developing consensus that governments need to address systemic racism, public administration scholarship has not played a large role in supporting policymakers who want to achieve that end. To institutionalize that effort, we analyze the budget process as a setting to identify inequities and incorporate social equity given its overarching reach across all programs and policies. This article uses the tenets of critical race theory to illustrate how to use the budget process to incorporate equity. The resulting racial equity budgeting (REB) framework has three tenets: acknowledging and correcting historic biases, increasing the voice of nondominant groups, …

Cap-And-Trade And Air Quality: Which Communities Benefit The Most?, Nicole Bobbs

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Air Quality significantly impacts public health, particularly for individuals with respiratory issues. Cap-and-trade (CAT) programs aim to mitigate emissions, focusing on greenhouse gases to improve air quality. This paper evaluated the long-run effectiveness of CAT programs, comparing multi-sector and single-sector initiatives, and their impact on air quality across counties with varying economic statuses. Using a difference-in-difference approach, comprehensive data spanning recent years up to 2023 is analyzed. The dataset includes air quality measures, population, personal income, average temperature, precipitation, and vehicle registrations enabling a thorough examination of the programs’ effects. Results reveal a complex relationship. Both programs’ initiatives create a …

Divided By Design? Urban Renewal’S Differential Impacts On Economic Outcomes By Race, Derik Suria

CMC Senior Theses

I study city-level effects of the federally and state-sponsored urban renewal program that aimed to improve living conditions for residents in blighted areas and slums. I use an interdisciplinary approach to estimate urban renewal effects on measures of income, property value, poverty, and employment. I first replicate the methodology and estimates of urban renewal effects on city outcomes in 1980 from Slum Clearance and Urban Renewal in the United States (Collins and Shester 2013). I extend this research by looking at a longer time horizon (1990, 2000, 2010) and incorporating race-based outcomes. From 1980 to 2010, estimated effects on property …

Essays On Public Finance And International Finance, Deepti Sikri

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The first chapter examines New York State's Fiscal Score Monitoring program to find the effect of two quality labels on school district outcomes: fiscal stress scores, reflecting the budget solvency, and environmental stress labels reflecting economic and demographic conditions. Using the NYS school district data from 2013-22, I employ the regression discontinuity design to find the effect of stress labels, in response to the political pressure on district finances, housing, and school outcomes. I find the effect of fiscal stress label is limited, leading to a decrease in the fund balance ratio and an increase in the tax rate. However, …

Three Essays In Urban, Health And Public Economics, Dinushka Paranavitana

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation “Three Essays in Urban, Health and Public Economics” contains three chapters which explore urban, health and public economics. The first two chapters focus on examining the unexpected consequences of urban and health related policies, while the third chapter explores the nuanced relationships between health policies and religion. The first chapter examines the impact of NFL and NBA games, beyond the reach of stadium walls and arenas, extending to how it affects driver behavior after games. In this paper I analyze how game outcomes for professional level football and basketball games have an impact on affecting the rate of …

The Effects Of School Autonomy On Student Achievement, Frank P. Kastl

Honors College Theses

This paper presents new evidence on the effects of school autonomy over personnel, budgeting, and curriculum on student achievement. I use the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data, a survey and assessment of students and schools in over 80 countries along with panel data methods. The empirical findings suggest that a greater degree of autonomy over schooling decisions improves achievement in math, science, and reading. However, these improvements are most pronounced in more developed countries.

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

Affordable Housing Testimonies & Sources, Asma Mahamed

What Are The Affordable Housing Options in Portland, Maine?

Asma Mahamed

December 12th, 2023

Civic Leadership

Final Testomity

The Effect Of Conditional Cash Transfers On The Prepaid And Postpaid Expenditures Of Internet And Cellular Services: The Case Of Filipino Households, Krisann Carmina G. Caoile, Edgar Desher P. Empeño, Raphael Manuel P. Ramos, Marie Angeline A. Trinidad, Myrna S. Austria, Ma. Ella Oplas, Tereso S. Tullao Jr, Winfred M. Villamil

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Technology has been playing a large role in the lives of households regardless of income. How, then, do poor families value the importance of internet and cellular services due to the existence of outcome-improving or outcome-worsening effects associated with these services? At the same time, since the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) substantially affects its beneficiaries’ household expenditures, assessing its effectiveness concerning its objectives is important. Most literature on how poor households spend their cash transfers is centered on directly linked goods such as health and education. However, the relationship between CCTs and expenditures on goods that play a more …

The Differential Impact Of 4ps On Child Labor Before And During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Hannah Grace Villaret, Joey Anastacio, Yohana B. Burgos, Lyka May Pauline Fernandez, Paulynne J. Castillo, Roberto Raymundo, Joel Q. Tanchuco

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Poverty is widely considered the root cause of child labor in the Philippines. Thus, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) was designed to alleviate poverty and reduce child labor through financial assistance, conditional on welfare investments like children’s education. Using 2017, 2019, and 2020 data from the Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS), the study estimated the differential impact of 4Ps on child labor before and during COVID-19 across varying demographic, socio-economic, and locational characteristics. Results from the propensity score matching (PSM) and difference-in-differences (DID) model indicated that since cash transfers cannot fully offset the opportunity cost of children’s education, children …

The Determinants Of The Underemployment Gender Gap In The Philippines: A Decomposition Analysis, John Ichiro Arbole, Luisa Martina Gaston De La Paz, Therese Genota, Katrina Hernandez, Lawrence B. Dacuycuy, Maria Zunally Rapada, Krista Danielle Yu

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Underemployment is a prevalent labor market issue around the globe. It reflects how an individual can be employed but is unable to work to their desired number of hours, receive sufficient wages, or fully utilize their skills, leaving them in precarious working conditions. Studies on underemployment and its gendered impact in the Philippines remains limited with most labor studies primarily addressing wage and unemployment. This study addresses this gap by identifying the factors contributing to underemployment and gender-based inequalities in the Philippines. Using quarterly data from the Labor Force Survey from 2012 to 2021, we distinguished between visible and invisible …

Do Price Controlled Basic Food Items Affect Inflation In Fiji?, Joel Abraham, Akeneta Vonoyauyau, Seema W. Narayan Prof.

Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking

This note examines the effects of price-controlled perishable food items on inflation in Fiji. We study year-on-year changes in headline inflation and disaggregate measures of inflation in the form of food and non-alcoholic beverages and vegetables against three perishable food items used daily by Fijian households, namely, potatoes, onion, and garlic over the period 2019:01-2022:08. We also follow Narayan et al (2023), allowing for the lags and leads framework in examining Fiji’s inflation. Our results show that the leads and lags model explain 22%, 27% and 65% of headline, food and non-alcoholic beverages and vegetables inflation rates, respectively, over the …

Inflation, Monetary Policy, And The Sacrifice Ratio, Leef H. Dierks

CBER Conference

Motivated by the 2022 uptick in headline inflation and the marked shift towards globally more restrictive monetary policies, this paper examines the sacrifice ratio, i.e., the percentage cost of actual production lost to every one percentage point decrease in (trend) inflation, for selected Southeast Asian economies. Results indicate that upon adopting a contractive monetary policy, GDP growth dropped by up to 0.5 per cent, confirming that monetary authorities’ disinflationary policies typically trigger declines in both output and employment. However, as even minor adjustments to the way of determining the sacrifice ratio lead to varying results, caution ought to be applied …

Computational Calculation Of Sovereign Default Probabilities: Pakistan's Case, Salman Zaffar

CBER Conference

This paper uses Black-Scholes-Merton model to quantitatively assess sovereign debt sustainability of Pakistan. Both the International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank have separately proposed applying Black Scholes-Merton model to calculate the sovereign default risk. Historically, the Black-Scholes Merton Model has been used to analyze corporate default risk. Both the sovereign and corporate default risk calculation are based on contingent claims approach which calculates risk by reading the sovereign and corporate balance sheets, respectively. Thus, in light of the proposition by these two financial bodies this paper calculates the default probability of Pakistan in 2001-2022. As the efficacy, it is …

A Comparison Of Clustered And Isolated Casino Performance In Missouri, Douglas M. Walker, Todd M. Nesbit

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

This paper utilizes data on Missouri’s casino industry to examine how clustered casinos, such as those in Kansas City and St. Louis, perform compared to dispersed or isolated casinos, such as those in Boonville, Caruthersville, La Grange, and St. Joseph. Missouri limits the number of casino licenses allowed; however, it does not explicitly mandate casino locations. Missouri provides a unique natural experiment for comparing location model performance. Although there is no published research on which type of casino location model is more effective for generating industry revenues and associated taxes, state legislatures have nevertheless been following an isolated casino location …

The Role Of U.S. Government Regulatioms, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Provides detailed coverage of information resources on U.S. Government information resources for federal regulations. Features historical background on these regulations, details on the Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations, includes information on individuals can participate in the federal regulatory process by commenting on proposed agency regulations via https://regulations.gov/, describes the role of presidential executive orders, refers to recent and upcoming U.S. Supreme Court cases involving federal regulations, and describes current congressional legislation seeking to give Congress greater involvement in the federal regulatory process.

Valuing Social Data, Amanda Parsons, Salomé Viljoen

Law & Economics Working Papers

Social data production is a unique form of value creation that characterizes informational capitalism. Social data production also presents critical challenges for the various legal regimes that are encountering it. This Article provides legal scholars and policymakers with the tools to comprehend this new form of value creation through two descriptive contributions. First, it presents a theoretical account of social data, a mode of production which is cultivated and exploited for two distinct (albeit related) forms of value: prediction value and exchange value. Second, it creates and defends a taxonomy of three “scripts” that companies follow to build up and …

Philippine Structural Transformation - With Or Without Maharlika, Jesus Felipe, Mariel Monica R. Sauler, Gerardo L. Largoza, Lawrence B. Dacuycuy, Christopher James R. Cabuay, Jason P. Alinsunurin, Arlene B. Inocencio, Albert E. Lamberte, Natasha Amber Y. Cabiltes

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

It appears the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) is a fait accompli. As we write, our finance officials are in New York and Toronto, pitching the MIF to international bankers and representatives of Middle East sovereign wealth funds. This means once President Marcos, Jr. affixes his signature, a newly-created Maharlika Investment Corporation (MIC) will pool, before the year is over, PhP 75 billion in seed capital from the LandBank and Development Bank of the Philippines. With a further PhP 50 billion plus two full years of dividends from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), its nine directors, all presidential appointees, will …

Reflections On Inflation: How Bad Has It Been?, Jesus Felipe

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

THE increase in prices that countries have experienced since March 2022 has brought old fears about the deleterious impact of inflation. It is true that prices increased after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and this affected a series of commodities that are imported. Yet, it is important to understand how much prices have increased, the nature of inflation we have experienced, and the reaction of central banks.

Quantifying The Impact Of Airlines Exit In Tourism Destinations. The Cases Of Monarch And Thomas Cook, Ubay Pérez-Granja, Juan Luis Eugenio-Martin

ITSA 2022 Gran Canaria - 9th Biennial Conference: Corporate Entrepreneurship and Global Tourism Strategies After Covid 19

We analyze the impact on tourists’ arrivals after the bankruptcies of Monarch Airlines and Thomas Cook. It draws on arrivals from the UK to Canary Islands and it employs a univariate and multivariate structural time series with level interventions. More interestingly, after Monarch exit, the policymakers applied a laissez faire strategy, which resulted in a 93.04% net loss of their level of traffic in Tenerife. However, after Thomas Cook exit, the policymakers intervened in the market proposing incentives to the incumbent airlines to cover the loss. It resulted in a 34.72% net loss of Thomas Cook level of traffic. Moreover, …

The Death Of Volunteerism In America And The True Cost To Society, John R. Ash

Pennsylvania Economic Review

Communities throughout the United States face a public safety concern in providing fire protection and emergency medical services (EMS) due to the nationwide decline in volunteerism. Two-thirds of the nation’s 30,000 fire departments are volunteer-run, and since 2015, the number of volunteer firefighters has declined from 814,850 to 682,600. EMS organizations face an equally daunting dilemma with up to a 55% attrition rate in emergency medical technicians and paramedics. Pennsylvania has been especially hard hit. Benjamin Franklin founded the first volunteer fire department in the nation in Pennsylvania. In this state, the number of volunteer firefighters has dropped from a …

Learning From Zambia's Economic Policy Reversals, Alan Whitworth

Southern African Journal of Policy and Development

The economic policies of Zambia’s first independent government, the United National Independence Party (UNIP), had disastrous results - turning Zambia from a middle-income into a least developed country. Following a difficult adjustment period, the Movement for Multiparty Democracy’s reversal of many UNIP policies led to over a decade of rapid growth and falling poverty. Despite their apparent success, policies such as privatisation were unpopular and the Patriotic Front administration from 2011 reverted to many of UNIP’s policies. This led once again to low growth and Zambia defaulting on its debt. As the United Party for National Development administration seeks to …

It Doesn’T Pay To Be Purple: An Empirical Test Of Pork Barrel Spending And Congressional Delegation Homogeneity, M. Garrett Roth, Zachary Klingensmith

Pennsylvania Economic Review

This paper presents empirical evidence that pork barrel spending, as a best proxy for targeted spending through legislative coalition formation, is significantly affected by the party homogeneity among congresspersons of a given state. Moreover, the magnitude of homogeneity, when measured as uniform or non-uniform, carries larger magnitude than a state delegation’s congruence in either chamber with the current majority party. The result suggests that coalition value is a major motivator of U.S. congressional budgeting.

Sociodemographic Effects On Financial Inclusion: Implications From Online Transaction In Developing-8 Countries, Dyah Titis Kusuma Wardani, Navi'ah Khusniati, Susilo Nur Aji Cokro Darsono

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

The world has reached the industry 4.0, where technological developments have been widely applied to electronic payment, with no exception on Muslim countries. This study aims to investigate association between sociodemographic and financial inclusion in country D-8 in the probability of using online financial transactions. Using The Global Findex 2017 from D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation included in OIC countries and the logistic regression, this study explores the effect of sociodemographic namely gender, education, income status and working status on online financial transactions users. Using control variables such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Inflation and Exchange reta, results show that, …