Behavioral Economics Commons^™

How Can Public Sector Employers Improve The Effectiveness Of Email Recruitment?, Leonard M. Lopoo, George Theoharis, Hannah Patnaik, Robert Bifulco, Ashraf Haque, Christine Ashby

The Lender Center for Social Justice

With the constant deluge of listservs, email advertisements, and phishing scams, many email recipients have become accustomed to deleting emails from unknown sources without ever reading them. Knowing what can increase the likelihood of email engagement may improve the effectiveness of email communications in job recruitment. This brief summarizes findings from a study that reports results from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a mass email campaign to recruit applicants for a training program for K-12 teaching jobs. The authors compared email open rates between emails that contained a letter with university logos signed by a university official versus emails …

Analisis Kepemilikan Sertifikat Tanah Terhadap Akses Pinjaman Rumah Tangga, Abdul Azzis Azzis, Chaikal Nuryakin

Jurnal Kebijakan Ekonomi

This study aims to examine the impact of land certificate ownership on access to loans from formal financial institutions. Utilizing data from Indonesia in 2018, we employ logistic regression analysis to investigate the relationship between land certificate ownership and loan access in the country. The examination of land certification in relation to loan access, by distinguishing types of land ownership evidence and loan types, is deemed essential. The findings indicate that the impact of land certification is less effective for low-income households. Beyond ensuring accessible and affordable land certification processes, the government should formulate policies for innovative loan schemes, such …

Mind The Gap: Understanding Why Gen Z’S Sustainability Values Do Not Align With Fashion Purchasing Behavior. Exploring The Factors That Contribute To Values-Behavior Gap, Aileen Charron

Honors Projects in Mathematics and Economics

This thesis investigates the values-behavior gap that exists among Gen Z consumers, specifically investigating why sustainability values often do not translate into sustainable fashion purchasing. Through a multidisciplinary literature review highlighting key economic, marketing, psychological, and anthropological theories of consumer demand, this study identifies the complex motivations behind Gen Z’s fashion choices. A survey distributed to Gen Z respondents (n = 42) measured sustainability values, fashion purchasing habits, and influences across the four different theoretical domains of demand. Respondents were categorized into four subcategories of purchaser based on their sustainability values and consumption behaviors. Analyses had a particular focus on …

Who Needs More Than 1 Water Bottle? Apparently, Everyone., Jazmyn Weddig

Honors Theses

This research investigates the interplay between a good’s functional durability, and its collectability, focusing on the Stanley Quencher water bottle market as a case in point, which has recently gained widespread consumer interest. It examines the economic and psychological factors driving consumer behavior and the market dynamics associated with durable goods that become collectibles. This paper begins with a comprehensive analysis of Stanley and the history of the company to provide a better understanding of their evolving marketing strategies. This paper takes special interest in collecting behavior, planned obsolescence, market structures and economic utility to help explain consumer behavior within …

Health Crisis And Currency Risk: Fresh Evidence From New Data Sets, Afees A. Salisu, Dinci J. Penzin, Yinka S. Hammed

Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking

With the aid of a method of predictability analysis that involves a feasible quasigeneralized least squares estimator, we examine the predictive power associated with the newly computed COVID-19 indices, which are disaggregated into six indices for currency market risks (realized volatility of exchange rate). Our sample size covers the period between December 31, 2019, and December 28, 2021. We note mixed outcomes for the major currency markets considered. On average, while the health crisis seems to have heightened the risks associated with Pounds Sterling, Australian Dollar and Canadian Dollar against USD, it exerts a moderating effect on the Euro, Yen …

What About The Buyers? Deriving Factors Of Demand In The U.S. Black Market, Eric S. Schneider

Undergraduate Theses

The vast majority of econometric research regarding black markets focuses on the supply. Relatively little information is definitively shown in academic literature regarding the drivers of demand for black markets. This project seeks to identify factors of demand for black market goods and services. First, this paper gives a brief definition of the broad definition of black markets, before specifically defining the scope of individual markets which will be included in this project. Next, there is a brief review of recent literature on the U.S. black market in order to determine prime candidates for factors of demand. Then, a robust …

Transforming The Feminist Movement – How Female Celebrities Influence The Economic Power And Consumer Behaviors Of Women, Erin Lewantowicz

Senior Theses

This thesis explores the evolving relationship between feminism, economic power, and celebrity culture in the 21^st century. Through an examination of three key industries—entertainment, athletics, and influencers—this study highlights how female celebrities like Taylor Swift, Caitlin Clark, and Alix Earle act as catalysts for significant shifts in women’s economic and consumer power. Taylor Swift’s impact on the entertainment industry, Caitlin Clark’s role in redefining women’s sports, and Alix Earle’s influence on the social media marketing landscape illustrate the growing authority of women as consumers and change-makers. Utilizing social media, brand partnerships, and unprecedented fan engagement, these women transcend traditional …

Undominated Monopoly Regulation, Debasis Mishra, Sanket Patil

Working Papers

We study undominated mechanisms with transfers for regulating a monopolist who privately observes the marginal cost of production. A mechanism is undominated if no other mechanism gives the regulator a strictly higher payoff at some marginal cost of the monopolist without lowering the regulator’s payoff at other costs. We show that an undominated mechanism has a quantity floor: whenever the monopolist is allowed to operate, it produces above a threshold quantity. Moreover, the regulator’s operation decision is stochastic only if the monopolist produces at the quantity floor. We provide a near-complete characterization of the set of undominated mechanisms and use …

On Strategy-Proofness And The Salience Of Single-Peakedness In A Private Goods Allotment Problem, Shurojit Chatterji, Jordi Masso, Shigehiro Serizawa

Research Collection School Of Economics

We consider strategy-proof rules operating on a rich domain of preference profiles in a set up where multiple private goods have to be assigned to a set of agents with entitlements and where preferences display satiation. We show that if the rule is in addition tops-only, same-sided and individually rational with respect to the entitlements, then the preferences in the domain have to satisfy a variant of single-peakedness (referred to as multi-dimensional single-peakedness relative to the entitlements). We also provide a converse of this main finding. It turns out that this domain coincides with the one already identified in a …

The Role Of Personality And Late-Life Categorical Spending Regret, Blain Pearson, Thomas Korankye, Sarah Asebedo

Finance and Economics

This study examines the association between the big five “OCEAN” personality traits and late-life categorical spending regret. The categorical spending regrets examined are housing, food, clothing, appliances/furnishings, cars, leisure, child-related expenses, and providing financial help. Openness was associated negatively with spending regret on food. Conscientiousness was associated positively with spending regret on appliances/furnishings and cars. Extraversion was associated negatively with spending regret on food, cars, and providing financial help. Agreeableness was associated positively with spending regret on food, clothing, leisure, and providing financial help. The results for Neuroticism indicated no statistically significant association between the OCEAN personality traits and the …

Consumption Responses To Income Shocks Through Lottery Winning, Seonghoon Kim, Kanghyock Koh

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study the effects of lottery winning on consumption spending using newly available household survey data in Singapore. We find strong consumption responses to a transitory income shock via lottery wins. Lottery winners spend about half of their prizes within 12 months of winning. We show that consumption responses are stronger among households with more binding liquidity constraints and less risk aversion, which is consistent with the standard life-cycle model. The strong consumption response suggests that fiscal stimulus policies or other public transfer programs could be an effective means of boosting consumption spending of the economy in the short run.

Expectations Versus Reality In New Cairo's Gated Communities: An Interdisciplinary Analysis Of Socio-Spatial Features, Ala'a Marwan

Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to introduce a new framework to identify the disparities between gated community residents’ experiences and real estate developers' visions towards the development. As New Cairo experiences significant growth, many residents are increasingly relocating to gated communities. It has become crucial to assess users’ expectations before moving and their lived experience post-moving to allocate the gaps between their expectations and reality, otherwise, the GC developments will grow apart from users’ updated preferences. The research focuses on the socio-spatial qualities such as accessibility to services and facilities, community interaction, and vast green areas between buildings for privacy, all of …

Survey Of The Labor Market For New Ph.D. Hires In Economics 2025-2026, Kashfia Kamal, Mervin Jebaraj, Raja Kali

Labor Market Survey

This year, the survey questionnaire was sent to 478 organizations. Questionnaires were returned by 145 organizations (30.3 percent). Of this year’s responses, 78 (53.8 percent) were from those who responded to the last survey conducted for the 2024-25 academic year. Among the academic institutions responding, the distribution of highest degrees offered was as follows: Ph.D.—43.4 percent; Master’s—11 percent and Bachelor’s—44.8 percent.

The responses are reported for all respondents, and separately for Ph.D. Degree granting institutions and for schools whose highest degree offered is the Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree. Data for the top 30 institutions in the revised National Research Council’s …

Your Attention Is For Sale, Sam Nova

Emerging Writers

There has been an undeniable trend of shortening attention span length within the last decade. The shift has made many people anxious to point fingers at potential factors which may be partial causes. Despite the common claims that the change is inadvertently caused by technology, shorter content online, or any other unintentional factor; the change is engineered and intentional. There is profit to be made for big social media companies from the purposeful shortening of attention spans amongst the public. Through harmful design philosophy which puts profit over public health, social media companies have designed their platforms to be addictive …

The Value Of A Vote: Vote Pivotality Information And Its Impact On Voter Willingness To Accept, Nicholas J. Sickinger

Honors Theses

A variety of factors influence the decision to participate in a democratic election or not. This paper explores one of these factors: an individual’s perceived pivotality. I explore how people assess the value of their vote when they are informed about the likelihood that their vote will be pivotal. To do so, I conduct an online voting experiment where subjects participate in three different stylized elections: a marginal election, a landslide election, and an uninformed election (where the voter distribution is unclear to participants). I elicit participants’ vote valuations and compare them across election conditions and demographic groups using both …

Exploring Perceived Value: An Analysis Of Belmont University's Dining Options, Joshua Schonland, Delaney King

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Belmont University has a number of dining options available for its students, faculty, staff, and the public. These on-campus dining options include well-known fast food restaurant chains in the United States such as Starbucks Coffee, Chick-fil-a, and Einstein Bros. Bagels. Members of Belmont University who pay for a specific 'meal plan ' have full access to these on-campus options in addition to an all-inclusive dining hall, which is also open to the public for $12.50.

The available meal plans for students, faculty, and staff vary in value and offerings. Some variations offer a fixed number of ‘swipes’, which is a …

Debt Through The Decade: Exploring Connections Between Debt Type, Psychological Stress, Spending Habits, And Life Satisfaction, Emily Johnson

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

Average households in the United States holds $101,915 in consumer debt, contributing to the greater total of America’s $17.3 trillion of total consumer debt (Experian, 2024). Accruing some amount of debt is considered normal throughout a financial lifespan, however, many Americans find themselves completely overwhelmed by keeping up with personal debts and increasing costs of necessities due to inflation. (George & Hansen, 2018; Kim et al., 2019). Following the financial crisis in 2020, many individuals felt increasing financial hardship, with many Americans heavily impacted by their debt holdings. The purpose of the present study is to examine the impact of …

Analyzing Real-Time Behavioral Shifts In Response To Tourism Policy Using Google Trends Data And Advanced Difference-In-Differences (Did) Methods, Aaron Bradley Scott

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Google Trends is a publicly available aggregate search data portal that allows researchers to capture and review search interests. This dissertation analyzes real-time behavioral shifts resulting from tourism policy changes in Venice, Italy using Google Trends data. This work contributes to the current literature in DiD modeling, by using information-seeking behavior that is ahead of observable, lagged, outcomes. Through the integration of recent DiD advancements, this work further extends DiD applications in tourism econometrics, and a case-example of real-world tourism policy assessment. This dissertation highlights changes in search behavior immediately following policy implementation. Additionally, this work highlights Google Trends as …

Impact Of Parental Involvement On Children’S Mental Health, Syeda Tasnime Kabir

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study estimates the causal effect of parental involvement on the mental health of primary school children in Bangladesh. Using an instrumental variables strategy that leverages local parental involvement norms, I find that increased parental involvement significantly reduces cognitive and emotional difficulties. Notably, I find that the protective effect of parental involvement varies by socio-economic context, showing weaker effects for children of mothers who married at an older age and those whose fathers live outside the household, but stronger effects in joint families. Furthermore, I identify two key mechanisms underlying these effects: accommodating parenting style and improved household hygiene practices. …

Studi Komparasi Kesiapan Indonesia Menerapkan Carbon Trade 2025, Muhammad Rayhan Ali Ferdiansyah, Hanif Rosyadah, Fikri Fajar Ramadhan

Jurnal Ekonomi dan Pembangunan Indonesia

This study aims to assess Indonesia’s readiness to implement carbon trading in 2025 to achieve net zero emissions by 2060. The research uses a mixed-method approach, combining literature review, multivariate linear regression, and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). The results indicate that the Human Development Index (HDI) has a negative and significant impact on CO2 emissions in the long term. This impact is greater than the results observed in Singapore and Thailand. With established policies and a demographic bonus in 2045, optimizing human resources is crucial for achieving net zero emissions by 2060.