Econometrics Commons^™

Goal Effectiveness In Achieving Educational Outcomes: Experimental Evidence From 9th Graders In Medellin, Colombia, Daniel Salicath, Alessandra Cassar

Master's Theses

Does goal setting among low-income ninth graders leads to higher average goal achievements of educational outcomes? This question is explored by a field experiment motivated by the acknowledged California-based Family Independence Initiative (FII), to analyze the effectiveness of individual goal setting, incentives and self-help groups on the achievement of educational goals. By randomizing treatments and control with the cooperation of the Secretary of Education in Medellin, different classrooms were assigned to five different experimental groups that met systematically for five months. The results show that goal setting is a cost-effective method to help low-income students achieve educational outcomes. Setting a …

Unemployment, Does It Really Hurt?, Claudia Vargas

Theses and Dissertations

This paper analyzes the consequences of changes in the unemployment rate in Colombia on the level of education attained for adolescents. Increases in the unemployment rate are associated with an increase in the average number of years of education. No significant effect was found for men of the same age.

Rhode Island Current Conditions Index -- May 2017, Leonard Lardaro

The Rhode Island Current Conditions Index

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Commercial Banking Development On Economic Growth: A Principal Component Analysis Of Association Between Banking Industry And Economic Growth In Europe, Hugh L. Davis Iii

Dissertations

There are significant differences in the economic growth trajectories of Western, Central and Eastern Europe since the beginning of the democratic movements of the early 1990s. It may be observed that the more developed the region, the lower the growth rate. There are a number of explanations for this growth rate variance, e.g. cultural, resources, institutional and/or political. An explanation this research is pursuing is institutional - the correlation between banking development and economic growth. More specifically, does banking development have a greater impact on growth where economic development begins at a lower level?

Very little research has been directed …

Stock Market Wealth Impact On Consumption Expenditure, Ramberto Jr. Sosa Cueto

Applied Economics Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to explain the role of the stock market in determining aggregate consumer behavior. Theoretically, the life-cycle hypothesis is the main link between consumption and wealth. Additionally, a household’s corporate equities holdings form part of that wealth (a small proportion). However, stock market fluctuations account for a significant part of the variation in household wealth, because of the stock prices’ volatility.

In regression models, the estimated relationship between consumption and wealth is commonly positive and statistically significant. The empirical evidence in this paper suggests that the relationship between consumption and wealth is positive and statistically …

Does A Better Running Back Mean More Rushing? Game Theory And The Nfl, Eric Lofquist

Honors Scholar Theses

In this paper I attempt to answer the question of whether or not teams in the National Football League (NFL) rush less with a better running back. This seems counterintuitive, but game theory supposes that this is true. Defenses facing a better running back will generally expect the offense to rush more and therefore defend the run more often. The offense, foreseeing the defense’s actions, will choose to pass more to counteract the run defense. This is the basis of the difference between the strategic effect and the direct effect in mixed strategies. The direct effect is when a player …

The Gender Salary Gap And Race: A Case Of College-Educated Individuals, Giannina Celis

Honors Projects

Despite the fact that today, women constitute the majority of higher education graduates, (U.S. Department of Education 2016) they still earn considerably less than their male counterparts.This study examines some of the different factors that affect salary differentials by race and gender for the college-educated population. Using data from the The National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG), I estimate a series of OLS regressions with controls for geographic location, social demographics, human capital development and occupation to see how they work together to explain these differences in pay.

A Martingale Difference-Divergence-Based Test For Specification, Liangjun Su, Xin Zheng

Research Collection School Of Economics

In this paper we propose a novel consistent model specification test based on the martingale difference divergence (MDD) of the error term given the covariates. The MDD equals zero if and only if error term is conditionally mean independent of the covariates. Our MDD test does not require any nonparametric estimation under the alternative and it is applicable even if we have many covariates in the regression model. We establish the asymptotic distributions of our test statistic under the null and a sequence of Pitman local alternatives converging to the null at the usual parametric rate. Simulations suggest that our …

Singapore’S Life Program: Actuarial Framework, Longevity Risk And Impact Of Annuity Fund Return, Koon Shing Kwong, Yiu Kuen Tse, Wai-Sum Chan

Research Collection School Of Economics

The Central Provident Fund (CPF) is a defined-contribution savings plan forming the key pillar of the pension system in Singapore. The CPF Lifelong Income For the Elderly (LIFE) program, which provides lifetime income for retirees, is a mandatory pension scheme for all Singapore residents. In this paper we construct an actuarial framework to analyze the LIFE program. We use this framework to study the plan payout outcomes with respect to changes in mortality and annuity fund return assumptions. We also examine the effects of some possible changes in the program on the payouts and bequests.

In-Fill Asymptotic Theory For Structural Break Point In Autoregression: A Unified Theory, Liang Jiang, Xiaohu Wang, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper obtains the exact distribution of the maximum likelihood estimatorof structural break point in the OrnsteinñUhlenbeck process when a continuousrecord is available. The exact distribution is asymmetric, tri-modal, dependenton the initial condition. These three properties are also found in the önite sampledistribution of the least squares (LS) estimator of structural break point inautoregressive (AR) models. Motivated by these observations, the paper then developsan in-öll asymptotic theory for the LS estimator of structural break point inthe AR(1) coe¢ cient. The in-öll asymptotic distribution is also asymmetric, trimodal,dependent on the initial condition, and delivers excellent approximationsto the önite sample distribution. Unlike …

On Time-Varying Factor Models: Estimation And Testing, Liangjun Su, Xia Wang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Conventional factor models assume that factor loadings are fixed over a long horizon of time, which appears overly restrictive and unrealistic in applications. In this paper, we introduce a time-varying factor model where factor loadings are allowed to change smoothly over time. We propose a local version of the principal component method to estimate the latent factors and time-varying factor loadings simultaneously. We establish the limiting distributions of the estimated factors and factor loadings in the standard large N and large T framework. We also propose a BIC-type information criterion to determine the number of factors, which can be used …

A Specification Test Based On The Mcmc Output, Yong Li, Jun Yu, Tao Zeng

Research Collection School Of Economics

A test statistic is proposed to assess themodel specification after the model is estimated by Bayesian MCMC methods. Thenew test is motivated from the power enhancement technique of Fan, Liao and Yao(2015). It combines a component (J1) that tests anull point hypothesis in an expanded model and a power enhancement component (J0) obtained from the null model. It is shown that J0 converges to zero when the null model is correctly specified anddiverges when the null model is misspecified. Also shown is that J1 is asymptotically X2-distributed, suggesting that theproposed test is asymptotically pivotal, when the null model is correctlyspecified. …

Improved Likelihood Inferences For Weibull Regression Model, Yan Shen, Zhenlin Yang

Research Collection School Of Economics

A general procedure is developed for bias-correcting the maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) of the parameters of Weibull regression model with either complete or right-censored data. Following the bias correction, variance corrections and hence improved t-ratios for model parameters are presented. Potentially improved t-ratios for other reliability-related quantities are also discussed. Simulation results show that the proposed method is effective in correcting the bias of the MLEs, and the resulted t-ratios generally improve over the regular t-ratios.

Robust Jump Regressions, Jia Li, Viktor Todorov, George Tauchen

Research Collection School Of Economics

We develop robust inference methods for studying linear dependence between the jumps of discretely observed processes at high frequency. Unlike classical linear regressions, jump regressions are determined by a small number of jumps occurring over a fixed time interval and the rest of the components of the processes around the jump times. The latter are the continuous martingale parts of the processes as well as observation noise. By sampling more frequently the role of these components, which are hidden in the observed price, shrinks asymptotically. The robustness of our inference procedure is with respect to outliers, which are of particular …

Gender, Punishment, And Cooperation: Men Hurt Others To Advance Their Interests, Terence C. Burnham

ESI Working Papers

A laboratory experiment that reports on gender, cooperation, and punishment in two repeated public goods game using high-powered punishment. In a repeated public goods game with punishment, no statistically significant differences between men and women are reported. In a modified game that adds an explicit payoff for relative performance, men punish more than women, men obtain higher rank, and punishment by males decreases payoffs for both men and for women. These results contribute to the debate about the origins and maintenance of cooperation.

The Retirement Strategy Of Supreme Court Justices: An Economic Approach, Kayla M. Joyce

Honors Scholar Theses

Previous research has identified strategic behavior in the nomination, confirmation, and retirement processes of the Supreme Court, each independently. This paper analyzes the interaction between the justices, the president, and the Senate in these processes. I constructed a game theoretic model to consider the nomination and approval process of Supreme Court justices and the change in dynamics that might result from an impending election. I hypothesize that sitting justices take into account the party affiliations of the president and the Senate when they are deciding whether it is the optimal time to retire to achieve their own strategic objectives. The …

Does Where You Grow Up Affect Your Chances Of Being Drafted Into The Nfl?, Walker Head

Georgia College Student Research Events

The minimum rookie salary in the National Football League (NFL) is $450,000. First round picks often sign multi-year contracts worth more than $10 million. Players from some states are much more likely to receive college scholarships and eventually be drafted into the NFL, but it is not clear if this is a causal relationship. Utilizing data from Rivals and the NFL, I attempt to determine if where a player grew up has an impact on his chances of being drafted to play professional football. I focus on the top eight states, as it relates to percentage of recruits and my …

Do Farm Subsidies Affect Crop Diversification?, Chadwick O'Neal

Georgia College Student Research Events

The United States spends $20 billion each year on farm subsidies. Farmers face increased risk and income variation when their crop portfolio is less diversified. It’s possible for farm subsidies to decrease diversification if they are focused on specific crops. Utilizing state level subsidy and agricultural data from the Environmental Working Group, I used econometric analysis to estimate the effect of farm subsidies on crop diversification. I used the number of acres planted from the 15 top most subsidized and grown crops in the United States to derive my dependent variable, the Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI). The HHI is a market …

Does Race Impact Judicial Outcomes?, Kameron L. Griffin

Georgia College Student Research Events

Over the past decade, many arguments over racial disparity have become the center of worldwide media attention. While many studies have gathered and revealed a consensus of the existence of racial inequality in mass incarceration rates and the criminal justice system, few have investigated the role that race plays in determining severity of punishment. Utilizing Waves 1, 3 and 4 of the Add-Health cross-sectional data set, this paper will estimate and examine the effect being in a minority has on judicial decisions in criminal court. By using traditional OLS procedure in STATA, I estimated the impact that race has on …

Does An Adoptee’S Race Affect The Probability Of An Interracial Adoption?, Timothy C. Yates

Georgia College Student Research Events

I estimate the effect an adoptee’s race has on their chance of interracial adoption. I use data provided by the 2007 National Survey of Adoptive Parents for the linear regression, one of the only sources of individual data on adopted children. The study tests the idea that adopting outside of one’s race provides greater utility to the adopter since it is perceived as more altruistic relative to adopting within one’s race. For the purpose of the study, any circumstance where at least one adoptive parent differs in race from the adoptee is considered an interracial adoption. Ultimately, the results indicate …