Growth and Development Commons^™

Illiquid Capital: Are Conservation Easement Payments Reinvested In Farms?, Joshua M. Duke, Brian J. Schilling, Kevin P. Sullivan, J. Dixon Esseks, Paul D. Gottlieb, Lori Lynch

Center for Great Plains Studies: Staff and Fellows Publications

Agricultural conservation easements have positive externalities but few studies examine the supply-side. This paper explores whether easements may also overcome a credit-market failure, as banks may not be lending based on the full developed value of land. Original survey data test our research hypotheses and show profitable owners and nonoperators to be using easement payments to extract capital from their land by using the preservation programs as a bank. The results also show that the unprofitable owners and operators are reinvesting in their agricultural enterprises. Both results are consistent with an underlying credit-market failure, and the latter suggests that easements …

Examining The Renewable Energy Consumption-Economic Growth Nexus In Sub-Saharan African Countries, Luke Neuhaus

Honors Program Theses

Given the role renewable energy is likely to play in the context of sustainable development, it is important to understand the relationship between renewable energy and economic growth. Therefore, this paper examines the relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth in a panel of sub-Saharan Africa countries from 1990-2011. Using a production function framework, the dependent variable is real GDP while the independent variables include renewable energy consumption, capital, and labor. The panel cointegration and Fully-Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) results indicate the existence of a long-run and statistically significant relationship between real GDP and the independent variables. The …

Akhuwat: Potential For A Sustainable Islamic Interest Free Microfinance Model, Juliana S. Beall

Scripps Senior Theses

This study will examine if Akhuwat provides a sustainable Islamic interest-free Microfinance model for potential poverty alleviation. This question is particularly complicated for an organization that relies so heavily on subsidies. Theoretical debates of sustainability and the recognition of donations, cross-market comparisons, and data from audit reports will validate Akhuwat’s potential for long term sustainability. Analysis also highlights the discrepancies that plague this opaque industry.

The Effects Of The One-Child Policy On Household Financial Decisions, Sylvia M. Xu

Honors Theses

The Chinese One-Child Policy, enacted in 1979, was an attempt to decrease the population growth rate following a period of massive social and political confusion and uncertainty. While the policy was beneficial to curbing the population growth in China, it also introduced unintentional consequences, including sex imbalance, and other demographic differences. The goal of this paper is to examine the economic behavior and financial decisions of son-families and daughter-families across different provinces and regions of China, which have varying levels of sex imbalance, as a result of a cultural preference for sons. These financial decisions include the household saving rate, …

Financial Development, Human Capital, And Economic Growth: A Cross Country Analysis, Keshob Sharma

Masters Theses

Taking a panel of 66 countries and employing panel data methodology, this study examines the impact of financial development, human capital and their interaction on economic growth. This study covers a period of 40 years from 1971 to 2010. To smooth out the short-run fluctuations in the data for my growth study, I take 5-year non-overlapping averages of variables. As a proxy for financial development, I use private credit by deposit money banks or liquid liabilities, as a percent of GDP. In turn, human capital is represented by the percentage of population above 25 years of age with the secondary …

Economic Growth Paradox In Nigeria: A Perspective From Natural Resource Wealth Time Series Analysis For The Period 1980 - 2013, Jamiu Amusa

Masters Theses

This thesis empirically examines the paradox of economic growth in Nigeria with a viewpoint from natural resource wealth. The question involved in this study is that whether natural resource wealth has a positive impact on economic growth in Nigeria or not. The economy of Nigeria is observed to be growing on paper but deplorably, poverty and unemployment is on a progressive increase in reality. The study uses the endogenous growth theory (AK Model) in terms of how resource wealth can influence economic growth. It exploits time series analysis (Unit Root and Co-integration) techniques to test for the existence of a …

Does Foreign Aid Promote Growth? Evidence From Africa, Mai Abdulaziz Alghamdi

Masters Theses

Taking a panel of 54 African countries and employing pooled, GLS, and panel regression, this study investigates the impact of foreign aid, policies, and their interaction on economic growth. This study covers a period of 35 years from 1980 to 2015. The key variables of this study are aid, measured by the official amount of foreign aid as a percentage of GDP by the recipient countries and policy, measured by an index created using linear estimation of various policy variables associated with political, economic and fiscal freedom; the Sachs-Warner measure of openness and World bank's Country Policy and Institution Assessment …

Evaluating Growth Slowdowns: Does Middle-Income Trap Exist?, Nusrat Farah

Masters Theses

Growth theories suggest that the factors affecting growth at low-income and high-income countries can be different. If countries struggle to graduate to high-income growth strategies, they may find themselves "stuck" at some middle-income level. This phenomenon can be termed as "middle-income trap". Using a panel of 145 countries over a period of 55 years, this study attempts to identify the existence of "middle-income trap" and its determinants. The aim of this study is to inspect whether the countries really get "stuck" at middle-income levels and if so, then pinpoint the factors associated with growth slowdowns. By employing panel probit estimations, …

Royal Uncertainty: An In-Depth Analysis Of The Potential Affects Of Brexit On The U.K. Art Market, Ashley Solmer

MA Projects

The United Kingdom, most notably London, has been known on the international commerce scene as a pivotal trade center for many centuries acting as a stepping stone from Europe to the Western World. Even though the economic importance of London can be dated back to early times, the inherent popularity of its art market only began flourishing in the late eighteenth century, riding on the back of the already established, but restrictive, art epicenter in Paris. The rise and prominence of Paris’ art market from 17^th to 19^th century eventually came to an end at the heels of …

Impact Of German Sources Of Capital On The Namibian Economy, Vladimir Chlouba

Economics Honors Papers

This work examines the impact of German sources of capital on the Namibian economy. Two sets of equations are tested. The first set tests the effect that German development assistance and German capital goods have had on domestic GDP. The second set tests the effect of German development assistance on the Namibian government’s capital formation outlays. The German independent variables are subsequently compared to global sources of capital in order to determine whether the German sources demonstrate a comparatively higher significance. Furthermore, the effects of official development assistance are disaggregated by type to test for aid’s fungibility. This analysis enables …

The Effects Of Air Pollution On Education And Human Capital: Evidence From Chinese Cities, Niall Williams

Economics Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

Religious Heritages As Tools For Sustainable Economic Development: The Case Of Ireland’S Ecclesiastical Settlement Glendalough, Vreny Enongene, Kevin Griffin

Conference papers

Accelerating the shift towards a more sustainable sector are the priorities for the tourism industry (UNWTO, 2015). Therefore, it is against this background, that the United Nations general assembly has approved the adoption of 2017 as the international year of sustainable tourism for development, with the unique opportunity to advance the contribution of the tourism sector to the three pillars of sustainability, while raising awareness of the true dimensions of the sector which is often undervalued (UNWTO, 2015), in which the religious tourism sector is no exception. Nonetheless, within the religious tourism scholarship, the role tourism to religious heritages might …

Maritime Economics In A Post-Expansion Panama Canal Era, Grace W. Y. Wang, Wayne Talley, Mary R. Brooks

Economics Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) The 2016 opening of an expanded Panama Canal will allow for Post-Panamax containerships up to 12 500 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) in size to transit the Panama Canal. In response, some US East Coast container ports are having their channels and berths dredged deeper—to allow Post-Panamax containerships from Asia (transiting the expanded canal) to call at their ports. What are the implications for the US West Coast ports? Will there be a cargo shift from West Coast to East Coast ports? These topics as well as the impacts of other changes in global shipping lanes (e.g., the Suez …

A Dynamic Model Of The Choice Of Technology In Economic Development, Haiwen Zhou, Ruhai Zhou

Economics Faculty Publications

In this overlapping-generations model, there is unemployment in the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing firms engage in oligopolistic competition and choose technologies to maximize profits. With capital as a fixed cost of production, increasing returns in the manufacturing sector exist. In the unique steady state, first, when individuals become more patient, the savings rate increases while the level of an individual’s income decreases. Second, an increase in population or percentage of income spent on manufactured goods does not change steady-state technology while the level of an individual’s income decreases. Third, an increase in the wage rate leads manufacturing firms to choose more …

Effects Of Relative Prices On Contributions To The Level And Growth Of Real Gdp, Jesus C. Dumagan

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Existing procedures for GDP in chained or in constant prices ignore relative prices – ratios of industry GDP deflators to the economy’s GDP deflator – and, consequently, yield economically misleading results by understating (overstating) level contributions of industries with above (below) average relative prices, at the same time understating (overstating) growth contributions of industries with rising (falling) relative prices. These are illustrated by US GDP in chained prices and Philippine GDP in constant prices. However, the above misleading results could be mitigated by this paper’s general formulas for level and growth contributions applied to the same GDP. While allowing for …

Conditional Cash Transfers And Their Effect On Poverty, Inequality, And School Enrollment: The Case Of Mexico And Latin America, Maria Romano

CMC Senior Theses

Over the past two decades, conditional cash transfer (CCT) has become one of the most widespread approaches to social development in Latin America. Spurred in large part by the evident and immediate success of Mexico’s CCT initiative, a multitude of countries began to invest heavily in this strategy hoping to reduce poverty and inequality in the short and long run. This paper examines the relationship between CCT program breadth and poverty, inequality, and secondary school enrollment over a thirteen year span in order to determine whether or not programs with the largest coverage were the most efficient. This question is …

Bitcoin: Implications For The Developing World, Makari Krause

CMC Senior Theses

Bitcoin has become notorious as the first cryptocurrency to gain widespread media attention, however, despite its many benefits over the existing financial system it remains a volatile fringe currency. This thesis examines the validity of bitcoin as a currency and whether it can play a role in circumventing extractive economic and political institutions in developing countries. The analysis compares bitcoin usage to the level of financial openness, the inflation rate, and the percentage of the population with a bank account in 21 different countries. The correlation is found to be both statistically and economically significant for all of these variables, …

Effective General Entrepreneurial Learning Programs For Sme Development, Paul Kenneth Steele

Capstone Collection

The principle objective of this paper is to reexamine the potential for impactful, general programs in education for Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) owners by assessing the success of a program called SME PRIME; conducted by AMIDEAST, Oman for six Omani entrepreneurs over a seven-month period.

General programs for entrepreneur education are produced and implemented the world over despite consistent assertions throughout academic literature that such programs are ineffective. Typical approaches to training program development and evaluation emphasize the critical role of training needs analysis. Training needs analysis is often an ignored step in the process of SME training program …

A Critical Examination Of Oil Wealth Management Strategies And Their Effects On Economic Growth In The Gulf Cooperation Council Countries, Caroline J. Belmont

CMC Senior Theses

Despite their natural resources, the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman) have failed to live up to their economic potential, primarily due to their dependence on a revenue source with volatile prices and political significance in an unstable region. This thesis argues that the best way to convert oil wealth into consistent long term growth is through diversification, both by investing in foreign assets and by growing domestic sectors that are independent from oil and gas prices. The research further investigates the primary tool these countries have used to …

How Cutting The Cost Of Using A Bank Affects Household’S Behavior Of Remittance Transfers: Evidence From A Field Experiment In Rural Malawi, Chuyuan Lu

CMC Senior Theses

Using a randomized experiment in rural Malawi, this paper finds that providing information on mobile bank buses’ services leads to a higher probability of adopting savings accounts in the treatment group. Households in the treated villages are 3.06 percentage points more likely to adopt savings accounts than households in the control group. Second, the information treatment leads to an increase of in the probability of households receiving remittances in the treated villages, as well as an increase in the amount of remittances received. In particular, the effect is strongest for households that lived at least three kilometers away from the …