Economic Policy Commons^™

Lignocellulosic Biorefineries In Europe: Current State And Prospects, Shady S. Hassan, Gwilym A. Williams, Amit Jaiswal

Articles

Lignocellulosic biorefining processes plant-derived biomass into a range of bio-based products. Currently, more than 40 lignocellulosic biorefineries are operating across Europe. Here, we address the challenges and future opportunities of this nascent industry by elucidating key elements of the biorefining sector, including feedstock sourcing, processing methods, and the bioproducts market.

Transitioning Montana To A Renewable Energy Future: The Social And Economic Impacts, Jacqueline O. Sussman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Montana is home to the second-largest coal-fired power plant in the West, the Colstrip Generating Station. The value and demand for coal both domestically and globally is quickly diminishing, while the renewable energy industries of wind and solar are booming. As utilities in the Northwest transition their investments from coal to renewable energy, Montana faces a critical decision on the future of its energy system that will impact the lives of generations of Montanans to come.

This five-part report aims to aid in the discussion and decision-making process by reviewing the most up-to-date economic data on renewable energy; discussing the …

The Politics Of Gentrification In Charlotte, Nc: A New South City Meets The Urban Realities Of 21st Century Prosperity., David Cole

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Excerpt from Introduction

In the Fall of 2017, Amazon Inc. opened an unprecedented nationwide bidding competition.[1] The huge online retailer was seeking a home for its second headquarters, dubbed “HQ2,” which could potentially include 50,000 high-paying jobs and billions of dollars of investment into a local economy.[2] The company completed a request for proposal (RFP) that detailed the baseline amenities that cities applying for the headquarters must have. This included Interstate access, a metropolitan population of over 1 million, an international airport, and the presence of a research university.[3]

Employee Financial Wellness Programs: Differences In Reach By Race And Ethnicity, Sophia R. Fox-Dichter, Mathieu R. Despard, Ellen Frank-Miller, Geraldine Germain

Social Policy Institute Research

Employee Financial Wellness Programs (EF-WPs) consist of a wide array of workplace-based services and benefits that aim to enhance em-ployees’ financial well-being, such as in-person financial coaching, online financial management tools, and payroll advances or short-term loans. EFWP provision varies across employers with few organizations offering the same set of services. The recently released Employee Financial Well-ness Programs Project: Comprehensive Report of Findings notes that EFWP utilization rates and employee self-reported benefits also vary widely. This report continues the examination of varia-tion in EFWP trends by breaking down measures of EFWP reach by employee race and ethnicity. We examine three …

Three Essays On Public Finance And Public Policy: Financial Disclosure And Policy Reinvention In U.S. State And Local Governments, Jinhai Yu

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay, or Chapter 2, advances the literature by examining the conditional effects of lobbying on the relationship between policy learning and policy reinvention. Scholars have consistently shown that learning of successful policies in other states leads to higher likelihood of policy adoption. This essay extends this finding two ways. First, policy learning can also lead to more comprehensive adoption of successful policies. Second, the effect of policy learning on policy comprehensiveness is conditional on lobbying by interest groups, an alternative source of information about policy success. To test these hypotheses, I conduct …

Three Essays On Local Public Finance, Thomas Daniel Woodbury

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

This dissertation seeks to develop the subject of local public finance in a manner consistent with the political economy of local governments. For ease of description, each essay will be discussed briefly.

The first essay is titled "The Provision of Generalized Local Public Goods Financed by Distortionary Taxation." This essay models the provision of a local public good that is simultaneously utilized as a public consumption good and a public intermediate good. Since the public good can simultaneously enter both utility and production functions, it is considered a "generalized public good." This is done to model the provision of infrastructure …

An Assessment Of The Sharing Economy And Its Policy Solutions Through The Lens Of Sustainability, Chloe An

Pomona Senior Theses

This senior thesis in environmental analysis explores the promise of sustainability of the sharing economy, its shortcomings from this positive potential, and possible policy solutions to help it reach its fullest, positive potential. At its core, the sharing economy enables shared access to goods and services that would otherwise sit in idle or underutilized capacity – popular platforms such as Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, and craigslist all fall within the sharing economy. By enabling affordable and convenient access to goods that would otherwise sit idle, the sharing economy encourages maximal use of a good that already exists rather than seeking out …

Human Development And Subnationalism: A Disaggregated Analysis Of Indian States: Kerala And Uttar Pradesh, Manika Garg

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis investigates achievements in human development outcomes on health, education, and poverty indicators across Indian states, in order to discern what factors might influence a state’s better orientation toward social policies. After conducting data analysis, the study explains differences in outcomes, as achieved by Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, by building an argument of subnational solidarity and its impact on determining the state’s policy agendas.

Paid Parental Leave In The United States: Reconciling Competing Demands, Sydney Joseph

CMC Senior Theses

The United States is the only developed nation that fails to provide its citizens with paid parental leave. The lack of parental benefit provision operates to the detriment of individuals and society as a whole by contributing to inequity across gender, race, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation. As the demographics of the American workforce have changed, public policy has not kept pace. Paid parental leave is associated a number of health, economic, and social benefits. However, the greatest barrier to legislating paid parental leave is the philosophical underpinnings of American politics, specifically the strong current of liberal individualism and absence …

Why Not Mexico? Policy Recommendations For A Globally-Oriented Economic Strategy, Víctor Manuel Hernández-Rodríguez

CMC Senior Theses

Mexico, one of the world’s largest economies and an increasingly relevant actor in international affairs, is at a crucial point in defining its future policy course. Given the uncertainty surrounding the global economy, as well as the political situation in Mexico, it is important to have a clear vision for policy going forward. This thesis offers a foundation for a national economic strategy with a long-term vision, upon which future administrations can build as appropriate to maximize on the country’s economic potential. The task is undertaken through a three-part approach. First, a thorough and analytical overview of the country’s economic …

Strength Through Diplomacy: A Fundamental Review Of The Relationship Between North Korea And The United States, Benjamin D. Blackstone

CMC Senior Theses

At the time that this thesis is printed, we are reminded of the tumultuous relationship between North Korea and the United States every day. If we follow the mainstream news regularly, it seems like we are on a steady path to war. Ultimately, this paper is centered around the question: what is the best foreign policy strategy for both countries to achieve respective goals, without descending into armed conflict? Specifically, I evaluated the failures of the last three U.S. Presidents and used their shortcomings to explain limitations in current foreign policy strategy. I also attempted to show North Korean concerns …

The Impact Of Fiscal Policy On Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence From Four South Asian Countries, Tasnia Symoom

Masters Theses

There is a constant debate about the effectiveness of fiscal policy on economic growth of developing countries. Policy makers in developing countries generally attempt to address socioeconomic issues such as poverty, unemployment, hunger, poor investment, and illiteracy while adjusting the levels of public spending and determining tax rates. This thesis examines the impact of fiscal policy on economic growth in four countries of South Asia. For reasons of data availability I choose four of these countries – Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka – for the period 1980 to 2016. I use the Error Correction Model (ECM) and Autoregressive Distributed …

China's "Mercantilist" Government Subsidies, The Cost Of Debt And Firm Performance, Chu Yeong Lim, Jiwei Wang, Cheng (Colin) Zeng

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

China has been adopting a “mercantilist” policy by lavishing massive government subsidies on Chinese firms. Using hand-collected subsidy data on Chinese listed companies, we find that firms receiving more subsidies tend to have a lower cost of debt. However, such firms fail to have superior financial performance. Instead, firms with more subsidies tend to be overstaffed, which demonstrates higher social performance. These results are mainly driven by non-tax-based subsidies rather than tax-based subsidies. Overall, our results suggest that the Chinese government uses non-tax-based subsidies to achieve its social policy objectives at the expense of firms’ profitability.

Perkembangan Asuransi Kesehatan Swasta Di Indonesia Tahun 2012-2016, Kurnia Sari

Jurnal Ekonomi Kesehatan Indonesia

Total private insurance spending in 2015 is about 3.9% of Indonesia’s health expenditures. Although it is not considerably high, the information about private health insurance in Indonesia is still limited. This review is aimed to provide an overview of the private health insurance company growths in Indonesia. The number of private insurance company does not grow significantly, while the number of membership tends to fluctuate in the last 5 years, even it is tend to decrease for non life insurance category. Sums assured tend to rise until 2014, then stagnant for the next period. The amount of premium received by …

Timbang Besarnya Manfaat Dari Salah Sasar Penerima Bantuan Iuran Jaminan Kesehatan, Prastuti Soewondo

Jurnal Ekonomi Kesehatan Indonesia

One of the foremost government policies implemented in achieving Universal Health Coverage for the Indonesian population is the provision of financial assistance through contribution of Social Health Insurance for 92.4 million targeted poor and near poor households. This segment of the population is referred to as Penerima Bantuan Iuran (PBI) and represents about 35% of the total population. This study reveals the government’s progress in protecting the health of this sub-population. The data is derived from the 2016 National Social Economic Survey. The results indicate that, at the national level, the government’s health protection program has reached the majority of …

Determinan Variasi Klaim Penyakit Stroke Peserta Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional Rumah Sakit X Sumatera Utara, Joan Xaveria Mahulae, Jaslis Ilyas

Jurnal Ekonomi Kesehatan Indonesia

Refers to IHME study in 2010 about Global Burden of Disease shows that stroke is one of the highest cause of mortality in Indonesia. While the expenditure by BPJS Health for stroke is the 2nd highest after heart disease. This study aims to determine the most dominant characteristics associated with the total claims of stroke patients covered by JKN for inpatient service at X Hospital by doing multivariate analysis with variable linear regression method. The most significant characteristics are type of health care, type of membership, length of stay age, and level of severity. The finding shows that X Hospital …

Analisis Praktik Koordinasi Manfaat (Coordination Of Benefit) Layanan Rawat Inap Di Indonesia, Fera Mutiara Dewi, Budi Hidayat

Jurnal Ekonomi Kesehatan Indonesia

Nowadays, some people may have double insurance. Besides having compulsory insurance that regulated by government, they also have additional health insurance which is not mandatory. This condition has opened up opportunities for Coordination of Benefit (COB) in Indonesia, especially in JKN era. Unfortunately, in practice COB still not executed according to the principle of general rules of insurance. This research seeks to analyze the practice of the COB and COB fee scale in Indonesia. The method used is the observational study with cross sectional design. The modeling uses an econometric approach that is a two-part model which separates the process …

Cost Of Treatment Demam Berdarah Dengue (Dbd) Di Rawat Inap Berdasarkan Clinical Pathway Di Rs X Jakarta, Vera Marietha Meinar Rejeki, Atik Nurwahyuni

Jurnal Ekonomi Kesehatan Indonesia

Hospitals as health care providers are now required to perform cost and quality control without neglecting the quality of services. Clinical pathways which underlying quality and cost control in the hospital are available but has not been audited. This study aims to determine the unit cost of services in RS X Jakarta, the utilization of hospital services for dengue disease and cost of treatment of DHF in RS X Jakarta. A cross-sectional study was performed in this study. A quantitative approach was done through data collection from hospital information system, medical record and financial data. The result showed that there …

Analisis Perbandingan Biaya Langsung (Direct Cost) Dan Biaya Tidak Langsung (Indirect Cost) Pada Pasien Stroke Di Rumah Sakit, Destanul Aulia, Sri Fajar Ayu, Nefonafratilova Ritonga

Jurnal Ekonomi Kesehatan Indonesia

Stroke is divided into two categories, ischemic and hemorrhagic. Each year there are 15 million people around the world who suffer a stroke. Stroke treatment requires a high cost. The burden of heart disease and stroke from 2012 to 2030 reaches Rp. 1,7 trillion. This study aimed to analyze the comparison of direct and indirect costs of stroke patient in X hospital in 2017. The results showed that the number of ischemic stroke patients more than hemorrhagic stroke patients. The average cost of hemorrhagic stroke patients is greater at Rp 3,763,750 than the average cost of ischemic stroke patients. The …

The Impacts Of Commercialization On Depth, Breadth, Scope, And Quality Of Outreach In Mozambique: A Case-Study, Courtney Johnson

Student Research – Stevenson Center

In today’s microfinance, scholars and policy-makers across the world have emphasized the importance of financial sustainability, or the ability of a microfinance institution (MFI) to finance its operations. In order to reach financial sustainability, MFIs embrace commercialization, a process where an MFI undergoes restructuring in order to open up avenues to capital. Yet, scholars are concerned that this emphasizes on financial sustainability will cause the social good objective to suffer, a phenomenon known as “trade-off.” Indeed, studies have found that commercialization impacts MFI outreach in various ways. To my knowledge, no research has attempted to understand the impacts of commercialization …

Japan's Employment 'Catch-22': The Impact Of Working Conditions For Women In Japan On Japan's Demographic Population Crisis, Mary Perkins

Master's Theses

This thesis examines Japan’s aging population crisis and gender inequalities in the workplace. This topic presents an interesting and challenging phenomenon for Japan, as Japan’s economy and technology have developed more rapidly than almost any other country, establishing Japan as one of the Group of Seven industrialized nations. Yet Japan still significantly lags behind other industrialized nations when it comes to women’s rights and opportunities for advancement in the workplace. This is in turn hampering efforts for Japan to address a population crisis, with an older population growth rate far outpacing the growth of demographic groups that would support the …

Small Open Economy Dsge Model With Natural Disaster And Foreign Aid, Dickson A. Lim

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

The Philippines is one of the countries in the ASEAN region to be regularly hit by natural disasters. In an analysis of natural disaster hotspots, the Philippines is one among several countries where large percentages of the population reside in disaster-prone areas (Hazard Management Unit of the World Bank, 2005). Consequently, these catastrophic events also entail adverse macroeconomic impacts to the economy (Bergeijk & Lazzaroni, 2015). Raddatz (2007) estimated that climate-related disasters reduce real GDP per capita by 0.6%. In the Philippines, Benson (1997) reported a reduction in GDP growth rate forecast by 3.3% following the Luzon earthquake in July …

Paid Family And Medical Leave: Cost And Coverage Estimates Of Three Choices In Massachusetts, Policy Brief, Randy Albelda, Alan Clayton-Matthews

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

This policy brief explores the costs and coverage of three proposed paid family and medical leave programs for Massachusetts. These are House Bill 2172, Senate Bill 1048, and 2018 Initiative Petition C. Each of these proposed programs establishes a contributory fund paid by employers and employees, to be used for eligible workers when they are out of work for their own serious health condition or that of a family member, for pregnancy, or to bond with a new child. The medical leaves considered are for own health reasons, including those related to pregnancy. Family leaves are for bonding with a …

The Diffusion Of Veterans Treatment Courts: An Examination Of Political, Social, And Economic Determinants At The County Level, Eric D. Button

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2008, leading U.S. counties adopted innovative treatment courts specializing in the unique needs of veterans with substance abuse and other legal issues. Since then, pro-veteran advocacy has aided in the continued diffusion of additional veterans treatment courts (VTCs), with more than 300 county and state-level VTCs currently operating in 46 states across the country. Though the lens through which veterans are viewed may be positive in the public eye, institutional support for these wayward veterans appears to vary across levels of government; therefore, while some posit the increased social utility of budget-friendly VTCs, others suggest that VTCs offer favorable …

Economic Growth Or Economic Development? An Examination Of Local Government Objectives Through Citizen Well-Being Framework., Mohd Mobin Khan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Economic development is considered one of the key functions and responsibilities of Federal, State, and local governments in the United States. However, most of the policies and strategies related to economic development, regardless of their focus or funding, have a strong role of municipalities for their implementation. Within local governments, economic development efforts often seem to not truly focus on the aspects of ‘development,’ but can rather be characterized as focused on economic ‘growth’ and measured in terms of economic activity generated. Job creation and the enhancement of tax base or revenue are considered two of the most important goals …

Updated Pupil Weights For New York's Foundation Aid Formula, John Yinger, Emily Gutierrez

Center for Policy Research

It’s Elementary is a series of essays on topics in education and education policy. The main focus is on education finance in New York State, but general research findings in education and education policy issues in several other states are also discussed. John Yinger, Professor of Economics and Public Administration at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University is the author of most of these essays, although a few are written by or co-authored with other scholars.

The Role Of Macroeconomic, Policy, And Forecaster Uncertainty In Forecast Dispersion, You Li, Anthony S. Tay

Research Collection School Of Economics

We explore the role of uncertainty in explaining dispersion in professional forecasters’ density forecasts of real output growth and inflation. We consider three separate notions of uncertainty: general macroeconomic uncertainty (the fact that macroeconomic variables are easier to forecast at some times than at others), policy uncertainty, and forecaster uncertainty. We find that dispersion in individual density forecasts is related to overall macroeconomic uncertainty and policy uncertainty, while forecaster uncertainty (which we define as the average in the uncertainty expressed by individual forecasters) appears to have little role in forecast dispersion.

Analyzing The Roles Of Law And Politics In Judicial Decision Making: Predicting U.S. Supreme Court Justices’ Votes On A Case Of Affirmative Action, Ashley Renkor

The Eastern Illinois University Political Science Review

This study seeks to study relevant precedent cases concerning affirmative action, the 14th Amendment equal protection clause, the 5th Amendment equal protection clause, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, with the goal of predicting how certain justices will vote in the affirmative action case, Fisher vs. the University of Texas at Austin. I conclude that justices will debate numerous aspects at play, such as original intent, plain meaning, precedent, policy preferences, public opinion, personal experience, the federal government, and interest groups in order to take positions in the Fisher case for the second time around with an intent …

Engage, Empower, Act: A Cedar Valley Conference On Diversity & Inclusion [Program], 2017, University Of Northern Iowa. Center For Multicultural Education.

Economic Inclusion Conference Documents

The program for the Engage, Empower, Act Conference on Diversity and Inclusion held October 13, 2017.

Engage, Empower, Act: A Cedar Valley Conference On Diversity & Inclusion [Session Summary Poster], 2017, University Of Northern Iowa. Center For Multicultural Education.

Economic Inclusion Conference Documents

A poster listing the sessions for the Engage, Empower, Act Conference held October 13, 2017.