Does Governance Matter To Economic Growth? Evidence From Mena Countries,
2016
Eastern Illinois University
Does Governance Matter To Economic Growth? Evidence From Mena Countries, Hamid Lahouij
2016 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity - Documents
This research paper uses panel data for the time period 2002-2013 to investigate the impacts of governance and other economic growth determinants on economic growth of some selected oil-importing MENA countries. This paper contributes to the literature on governance, economic development indicators, and economic development in novel ways. The research finds that governance is strongly associated with the economic development. However, the results of this research might conflict with others’ results if their research combines oil-exporting and oilimporting countries in their sample or use different methodologies. Therefore, the policy recommendations should be used cautiously.
Collapsing Illusions: Standards For Setting Efficient Contract And Other Defaults,
2016
University of Iowa
Collapsing Illusions: Standards For Setting Efficient Contract And Other Defaults, Steven J. Burton
Indiana Law Journal
In this Essay, Professor Burton analyzes and evaluates four commonly used standards for setting efficient default rules and standards. Based on two theoretical insights, he shows that three of them collapse upon analysis into the fourth, a Coasian standard that turns out to be a dead end. The theoretical upshot is that the Coase Theorem often is a good reason to use defaults rather than mandatory rules or standards. But neither the theorem nor reference to a transaction-costless world sustains particular defaults. To set an efficient default, the law should guide courts toward supplying terms that parties should have adopted …
Entrepreneurship, Education And Credit: The Golden Triangle,
2016
George Washington University
Entrepreneurship, Education And Credit: The Golden Triangle, Roberto M. Samaniego, Juliana Yu Sun
Research Collection School Of Economics
We develop a model to evaluate the impact of college education finance on welfare, inequality and aggregate outcomes. Our model captures the stylized fact that entrepreneurs with college are more common and more profitable. Our calibration to US data suggests this is mainly because higher labor earnings allow college educated agents to ameliorate credit constraints when they become entrepreneurs. The welfare benefits of subsidizing education are greater than those of eliminating financing constraints on education because subsidies ameliorate the impact of financing constraints on would-be entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship, College And Credit: The Golden Triangle,
2016
Singapore Management University
Entrepreneurship, College And Credit: The Golden Triangle, Roberto M Samaniego, Juliana Yu Sun
Research Collection School Of Economics
We develop a model to evaluate the impact of college education finance on welfare, inequality and aggregate outcomes. Our model captures the stylized fact that entrepreneurs with college are more common and more profitable. Our calibration to US data suggests this is mainly because higher labor earnings allow college educated agents to ameliorate credit constraints when they become entrepreneurs. The welfare benefits of subsidizing education are greater than those of eliminating financing constraints on education because subsidies ameliorate the impact of financing constraints on would-be entrepreneurs.
Economic Freedom And Quality Of Life Impacts: A Comparison,
2016
Liberty University
Economic Freedom And Quality Of Life Impacts: A Comparison, Rachel S. Bauer
Senior Honors Theses
The “invisible hand” is a concept foundational to the argument for free market economics, and so is hotly debated. One measure of whether or not the free market is a successful economic model is the quality of life of a country’s residents. Quality of life can be assessed through the areas of housing, labor, health, and education. Economic indicators and quality of life statistics for Hong Kong, the United States, China, and Venezuela appear to prove that there is a correlation between quality of life and economic freedom, as defined by the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom. Even …
Holly Martins And The Impartial Spectator: The Economics Of The Third Man,
2016
James Madison University
Holly Martins And The Impartial Spectator: The Economics Of The Third Man, Alexander W. Pickens
MAD-RUSH Undergraduate Research Conference
The film The Third Man is often critiqued for its portrayal of post-war Vienna and the abusive nature of totalitarian regimes in a nearly-anarchic state. However, this film does something that few other films do: it tackles the primary dilemmas facing economists using a visual medium and featuring some of the debates that have been plaguing economic thinkers for years (what is a just allocation of resources, competition in free markets, what happens when corrupt governments control resource allocation). Ultimately, the film is a unique analysis tension between the costs and benefits of the philosophies of Keynes and F. A. …
Working Paper No. 35, The Machine Process In Industry And Society: A Veblenian Approach,
2016
Portland State University
Working Paper No. 35, The Machine Process In Industry And Society: A Veblenian Approach, Emily Pitkin
Working Papers in Economics
This inquiry considers Thorstein Veblen’s understanding of the machine process and some of its influences. In particular, this paper explores relationships between the machine process and industry, noting the powerful influences of standardization of outputs as well as inputs. In addition, this paper considers some of the implications of the machine process on workers, considering particularly the tendency of the machine process to enforce routines and some of the related effects on “habitual thinking.” Finally, the machine process and its relation to society will be discussed with a focus on its effects on value systems, examining also the ways in …
Labor Mobility Causes U.S. Gdp To Fluctuate,
2016
Johnson County Community College
Labor Mobility Causes U.S. Gdp To Fluctuate, Paul Kim
Economics Papers and Presentations
The author proposes that labor immobility was the major factor which hindered the continuous expansion of GDP in the U.S. during the period following the Great Recession. The author examines what caused labor to become immobile as the economy began to expand.
Model Selection For Explosive Models,
2016
Singapore Management University
Model Selection For Explosive Models, Yubo Tao, Jun Yu
Research Collection School Of Economics
This paper examines the limit properties of information criteria for distinguishing between the unit root model and the various kinds of explosive models. The information criteria include AIC, BIC, HQIC. The explosive models include the local-to-unit-root model, the mildly explosive model and the regular explosive model. Initial conditions with different order of magnitude are considered. Both the OLS estimator and the indirect inference estimator are studied. It is found that BIC and HQIC, but not AIC, consistently select the unit root model when data come from the unit root model. When data come from the local-to-unit-root model, both BIC and …
Implementation With Transfers,
2016
Singapore Management University
Implementation With Transfers, Yi-Chun Chen, Takashi Kunimoto, Yifei Sun
Research Collection School Of Economics
We say that a social choice rule is implementable with (small) transfers if one candesign a mechanism whose set of equilibrium outcomes coincides with that speciÖed bythe rule but the mechanism allows for (small) ex post transfers among the players. Weshow in private-value environments that any incentive compatible rule is implementablewith small transfers. We obtain this permissive implementation result by proposinga natural extension of Abreu and Matsushima (1994) to incomplete information environments.Furthermore, in order to showcase the applicability of our results, we relatethem to the recent developments in implementation theory. Next we revisit the conjectureby Abreu and Matsushima (1994), who …
The Effects Of Alcohol Use On Economic Decision Making,
2016
University of Arkansas
The Effects Of Alcohol Use On Economic Decision Making, Klajdi Bregu, Cary Deck, Lindsay Ham, Salar Jahedi
ESI Working Papers
It is notoriously hard to study the effect of alcohol on decision making, given the selection that takes place in who drinks alcohol and when they choose to do so. In a controlled laboratory experiment, we study the causal effect of alcohol on economic decision making. We examine the impact of alcohol on the following types of tasks: math and logic, uncertainty, overconfidence, strategic games, food choices, anchoring, and altruism. Our results indicate that alcohol consumption, as measured by the blood alcohol concentration (BAC), increases cooperation in strategic settings and altruism in Dictator games. We do not find any effects …
Optimal Tilts,
2016
Harvard Business School
Optimal Tilts, Malcom Baker, Terence C. Burnham, Ryan Taliaferro
ESI Working Papers
We examine the optimal weighting of four characteristic tilts in US equity markets over the period from 1968 through 2014. We define a “tilt” as a positive-Sharpe-ratio, characteristicbased portfolio strategy that requires relatively low annual turnover and a “trade” as a characteristic-based portfolio strategy that requires relatively high annual turnover and liquidity demands. Size is a tilt, because of its very low turnover; high frequency reversal is a trade. This dichotomy is necessary to make practical use of Fama-French style factor regressions. Unlike low-turnover tilts, a full history of transaction costs and an estimate of capacity is critical to determine …
Prediction In A Generalized Spatial Panel Data Model With Serial Correlation,
2016
Syracuse University
Prediction In A Generalized Spatial Panel Data Model With Serial Correlation, Badi H. Baltagi, Long Liu
Center for Policy Research
This paper considers the generalized spatial panel data model with serial correlation proposed by Lee and Yu (2012) which encompasses a lot of the spatial panel data models considered in the literature, and derives the best linear unbiased predictor (BLUP) for that model. This in turn provides valuable BLUP for several spatial panel models as special cases.
Constrained Inefficiency And Optimal Taxation With Uninsurable Risks,
2016
European University Institute
Constrained Inefficiency And Optimal Taxation With Uninsurable Risks, Piero Gottardi, Atsushi Kajii, Tomoyuki Nakajima
Research Collection School Of Economics
When individuals' labor and capital income are subject to uninsurable idiosyncratic risks, should capital and labor be taxed, and if so how? In a two-period general equilibrium model with production, we derive a decomposition formula of the welfare effects of these taxes into insurance and distribution effects. This allows us to determine how the sign of the optimal taxes on capital and labor depend on the nature of the shocks and the degree of heterogeneity among consumers' income, as well as on the way in which the tax revenue is used to provide lump-sum transfers to consumers. When shocks affect …
Arousal And Economic Decision Making,
2016
RAND Corporation
Arousal And Economic Decision Making, Salar Jahedi, Cary Deck, Dan Ariely
ESI Working Papers
Previous experiments have found that subjecting participants to cognitive load leads to poorer decision making, consistent with dual-system models of behavior. Rather than taxing the cognitive system, this paper reports the results of an experiment that takes a complementary approach: arousing the emotional system. The results indicate that exposure to arousing visual stimuli as compared to neutral images has a negligible impact on performance in arithmetic tasks, impatience, risk taking in the domain of losses, and snack choice although we find that arousal modestly increases in risk-taking in the gains domain and increases susceptibility to anchoring effects. We find the …
Exploring Economic And Social Factors That Increase Economic And Well-Being Measurements Of Developing And Developed Countries,
2016
Minnesota State University - Moorhead
Exploring Economic And Social Factors That Increase Economic And Well-Being Measurements Of Developing And Developed Countries, Kofi D. Boadu
Undergraduate Economic Review
The historical growth paths of developed and developing countries reveal the challenges that developing countries face in traveling the road from poverty to prosperity. Based on economic development literature, economic theory, and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression method, this research considers whether or not, and to what extent globalization characteristics, foreign direct investment levels (FDI), secondary school enrollment rates, information communication technology (ICT) as a percentage of trade imports, and happiness levels of 103 developing and developed countries, impact their GDP per capita levels. This paper will also take a look at alternative ways of viewing and measuring economic success.
Seller Beware: Supply And Demand Reduction And Price Manipulation In Multiple-Unit Uniform Price Auctions,
2016
Chapman University
Seller Beware: Supply And Demand Reduction And Price Manipulation In Multiple-Unit Uniform Price Auctions, Abel Winn, Michael Parente, David Porter
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
We experimentally compare under-revelation of supply and demand across alternative variations of ascending and descending two-sided price clock auctions. We find that buyers reduce demand more when the price is ascending but sellers’ behavior is consistent across clock directions. As a result, the clock price rule has empirical effects on efficiency even though it is theoretically neutral.
To Have Done With Forgiveness: Capitalism, Christianity, And The Politics Of Immanence,
2016
University of Denver
To Have Done With Forgiveness: Capitalism, Christianity, And The Politics Of Immanence, Timothy Snediker
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This essay seeks to formulate a critical account of the genealogical link between capitalism and Christianity by interrogating the ontology and the processes of subjectivization which subtend these two apparently disparate social and political formations. To this end, I make use of the philosophical thought of Gilles Deleuze, in particular his readings of Spinoza, Foucault, Nietzsche, and Sacher-Masoch. The central themes of the essay--the identity of God and money, and the vicissitudes of the creditor-debtor relation--culminate in a theory of a theodicy of money, which deploys an apparatus of forgiveness in order to obscure and displace the stakes and …
Akratic Homo Economicus: Does The Neoclassical Economic Theory "Rational Agent" Assumption Accurately Depict Human Nature?,
2016
University of Denver
Akratic Homo Economicus: Does The Neoclassical Economic Theory "Rational Agent" Assumption Accurately Depict Human Nature?, Marina Logachev
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Neoclassical economic theory has long been scrutinized for its failure to be congruent with reality, often lacking generality and tractability due to, what many critics argue to be, unrealistic assumptions. One of the theory's core suppositions is a representative "rational agent" or homo economicus, whose self-interest and optimal choices, which are in state of equilibrium and efficiency are rooted in utility maximization of his well-being. Even though neoclassical economics claims to accurately depict human nature, from its very inception it has failed to incorporate human psychology and sociology into its foundations. As the behavioral and biological research became more …
Rethinking The "Marginal Revolution" In The History Of Economic Thought: A Brief Examination Of The Marginal Utility Theory Before And In The 1870s,
2016
University of Denver
Rethinking The "Marginal Revolution" In The History Of Economic Thought: A Brief Examination Of The Marginal Utility Theory Before And In The 1870s, Ding Ning
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The "Marginal Revolution," a well-known event in the history of economic thought, challenged the mainstream classical political economy and introduced new methods to economic study. The "Marginal Revolution" marked the rise of the Marginal Utility School and pushed the formulation of neoclassical economics. Because marginal utility is the core concept of the "Marginal Revolution," this thesis studies the origin of marginal utility theory by examining figures such as Bernoulli, Bentham, Dupuit, and Goseen, and the utility theory with its related topics of Jevons, Menger and Walras in the 1870s. This thesis considers the significance of the "Marginal Revolution," with particular …
