International Economics Commons^™

The Influence Of The Electric Supply Industry On Economic Growth In Less Developed Countries, Edward Richard Bee

Dissertations

This study measures the impact that electrical outages have on manufacturing production in 135 less developed countries using stochastic frontier analysis and data from World Bank’s Investment Climate surveys. Outages of electricity, for firms with and without backup power sources, are the most frequently cited constraint on manufacturing growth in these surveys.

Outages are shown to reduce output below the production frontier by almost five percent in Africa and by a lower percentage in South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East and North Africa. Production response to outages is quadratic in form. Outages also increase labor cost, reduce exports …

Natural Disasters In Latin America: The Role Of Disaster Type And Productive Sector On The Urban-Rural Income Gap And Rural To Urban Migration, Madeline Alice Messick

Dissertations

This research provides insight into the impact of natural disasters as drivers of rural to urban migration in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Disasters of varying types are predicted to have differing impacts on the productive sectors of agriculture, industry, and services; which due to the concentration of the various productive sectors in either urban or rural areas, subsequently changes the urban-rural wage differential. Changes to the wage differential (as measured by the urban-rural income gap) are predicted to lead to movement between urban and rural areas until a new equilibrium wage is reached.

This dissertation first identifies a …

The Dynamics Of The Local And The Global: Implications For Marketing And Development, A. Fuat Fırat

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

Globalization’s contemporary omnipresence has resulted in an emphasis on the conflicts between the local and the global. This emphasis has blurred our ability to have insights that may be gained by recognizing that the local and the global are interdependent and cannot exist without each other. This paper explores the initial insights from such recognition regarding local identities, cultural development, and modern marketing’s shortcomings in aiding development. Preliminary conclusions as to how a new conceptualization of marketing can be instrumental in enrichment of meaningful and substantive human lives through constructing redefinitions of development and marketing based on these insights are …

International Journal Of African Development, Vol. 3, Issue 2

International Journal of African Development

Complete issue of International Journal of African Development, Volume 3, Issue 2 - Spring 2016.

The Integrity Of Financial Analysts: Evidence From Asymmetric Responses To Earnings Surprises, Rui Lu, Wenxuan Hou, Henry Oppenheimer, Ting Zhang

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

This paper investigates the integrity of financial analysts by examining their recommendation responses to large quarterly earnings surprises. Although there is no significant difference in recommendation changes between affiliated and unaffiliated analysts in response to positive earnings surprises, affiliated analysts are more reluctant than unaffiliated analysts to downgrade stock recommendations in response to negative earnings surprises. The evidence implies that conflicts of interest undermine the integrity of financial analysts. We further examine the effects of reputation concern and the Global Research Analyst Settlement as informal and formal mechanisms, on restoring analysts’ integrity. The results show that the positive bias in …

Exchange Rate Targeting In The Presence Of Foreign Debt Obligations, James Staveley-O'Carroll, Olena M. Staveley-O'Carroll

Economics Department Working Papers

We study the impact of foreign debt on the trade-off between the three open economy objectives of a central bank - international risk sharing, the need to facilitate expenditure-switching, and the incentive to tilt international prices to lower the labor effort of domestic households - in a two-country DSGE model with incomplete asset markets and deviations from the purchasing power parity. We find that at low debt levels, a Taylor rule outperforms simple targeting rules. However, the central bank can improve welfare by up to 0.25 percent of consumption via an exchange rate peg when debt-to-GDP ratio reaches 100 percent.

How Global Rules And Markets Are Shaping India’S Rise On The International Stage, Aseema Sinha

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

Over the last quarter century, India has shifted from a hesitant economic power to a confident player on the international stage. In her new book, Aseema Sinha draws on extensive research to ask where this global activism has come from, and considers the international dimensions of domestic change. Here she discusses how her findings challenge standard narratives on globalisation and the supposedly homegrown character of India’s reform trajectory.

Mexico Consensus Economic Forecast, Volume 19, Number 3, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Adam G. Walke

Border Region Modeling Project

No abstract provided.

Worker Cooperatives As An Innovative Strategy To Address Income Inequality?, Bryan Titzler

Student Research – Stevenson Center

This project explores the relation between the magnitude of the cooperative sector and the degree of income inequality in a country. After a somewhat selective consideration of the possible linkages between the size of the cooperative sector and income inequality, and using Gini as the primary measure for income inequality and two proxies for the size of the cooperative sector, an empirical exploration is done in three ways. First, simple plots are used to judge the gross relation between Gini and each of the two proxies for the size of the cooperative sector. Both plots show a perceptible negative relation. …

Financial Development And Growth In India, Anek Grewal

Master's Theses

In this paper I look to analyze whether bank loans have the ability to promote productivity for firms and also whether banks are more effective relative to other sources of lending such as the government. Using a panel dataset of 26,000 firms over the time period 1997-2014 I carry out multiple two-time period lagged OLS regressions with proxy variables for firm productivity as well as some control variables to observe the differences for bank against non-bank loans. The results yielded illustrate that non-bank loans did not have a positive relationship and that perhaps there is some form of zombie lending …

The Effects Of Globalization On An Emerging Economy: The Case Of South Africa, Oluwasheyi S. Oladipo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines how globalization influences selected aspects of an emerging economy, using South Africa as a case study. The dissertation consists of three chapters: two microeconomic studies and one macroeconomic paper on the effects of globalization on some of the factors affecting economic growth. One micro paper explores the impacts of openness on inequality (Chapter 1), another investigates the impacts of trade liberalization on manufacturing sector wages (Chapter 2), and the macro study, which is the final chapter, examines the effects of inflation targeting on exchange rate pass through to domestic prices (Chapter 3).

In 1994, apartheid ended in …

Financial Openness And Trade Volatility In Argentina, Joseph H. Asciuto

Master's Theses

This paper will identify the relationship between financial openness and trade volatility in Argentina. Data spanning 1970-2011 provided by the IMF, WTO, and INDEC will be used to construct a panel dataset for both a global analysis and a sectoral analysis for the Argentine economy. The application of established and accepted techniques to the constructed dataset will show a negative correlation between trade volatility and financial openness; thus, financial openness acts as a stabilizing mechanism for trade. Additional analysis will be performed on the of role regional trade agreements as stabilization mechanisms for trade. A significant implication of this study …

The Investment Casualties Of War: Global Impacts Of Armed Conflict On Foreign Direct Investment Inflows, Reinhard J. Cate Mr.

Master's Theses

Abstract: Involvement in the outbreak of an armed conflict can present a variety of potential risks to an involved nation’s economy. In this paper I examine if one one of those risks, specifically that a new war could scare away foreign investment actually occurs and whether the intensity of the conflict increases or lessens the potential impact. Using ordinary least squares on panel data from 1966 to 2015, I examine the short and long term impacts of armed conflict on global foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows using two measures of conflict intensity: Large conflicts or ‘wars’, with 1000 or more …

Evaluating Stolper-Samuelson: Trade Liberalization & Wage Inequality In India, Anthony M. Michael

Master's Theses

This paper tests the predictions of the Stolper-Samuelson Theorem in India after it underwent major trade reform in 1991. Using industry level tariff data, the paper empirically examines trade liberalization’s effect on the wages of high-skilled labor relative to low skilled labor within firms. The study finds empirical evidence to support growing wage differentials within firms, which contradict the predictions of the Stolper-Samuelson Theorem. Additionally, when controlling for firm size and the effects of the global financial crisis, these results remain robust. Finally, the paper explores training and welfare and R&D’s effect on the wage differentials within firms, finding a …

Climate Variability Influences Women’S Attitudes Towards Intimate Partner Violence (Ipv), Jean Lee

Master's Theses

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 1 in 3 women worldwide has experienced violence against women. Our study examines the effects of climate conditions on women’s attitudes towards wife beating. The demographic health surveys (DHS) dataset includes over 550,000 women in 38 countries, asked a series of wife beating justification questions in the domestic violence module. Using a linear probability model, we find prior year growing degree days (GDD), prior and current year rainfall variability have statistically significant effects. Most interestingly, we find that a one standard deviation (SD) rise in prior year annual rainfall decreases the likelihood of justifying …

Does Infant Formula Availability Reduce Breastfeeding?, Ingvild Madsen Lampe

Master's Theses

Abstract: Several key studies highlight the importance of breastfeeding and there is a broad consensus that it plays a crucial role for a child's health and cognitive development. This is especially true for the poor in developing countries, where vulnerable infants' access to proper nutrition is vital. We investigate the effect of introducing infant formula into a market on changes in breastfeeding patterns. Using the Demographic Health Surveys and annual reports from the baby food industry between 1981 and 2002 in 11 tropical countries, we find evidence that import of infant formula significantly reduces breastfeeding duration. The effects are stronger …

Savings Groups And Banks: Complements Or Substitutes? Financial Inclusion In Rural Tanzania, Shirleen Rubangura Teta

Master's Theses

Abstract: The substantial increase in the number savings and credit groups as well as microfinance institutions over the past years suggests that individuals in the developing world have progressively become aware of the importance of access to financial services. This study adds to the existing literature on the function of savings and credit groups in places with lower use of formal financial services and inform us whether these groups are a possible substitute or complement for formal financial services (banks) within low-income communities. Based on household data collected in Tanzania in 2013, this paper attempts, using two different estimations, a …

Behavioral Determinants Of Biofortified Food Acceptance: The Case Of Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato In Ghana, Chinonso E. Etumnu

Master's Theses

Biofortified foods are being introduced in sub-Saharan Africa as an important strategy to help address micronutrient malnutrition. However, there has been little research on factors that could play decisive roles in their successful introduction. This paper investigates the determinants of consumer acceptance of biofortified orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) using data from a choice experiment conducted in Ghana. I find that OFSP is preferred to traditional white-fleshed and yellow-fleshed sweet potatoes as indicated by consumers' marginal willingness to pay for the three varieties. I also find that respondents' socio-economic characteristics do not have a significant effect on consumer acceptance of OFSP. …

Geospatial Modeling Of Vietnamese Fdi, Cuong Nguyen Tien

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis sets a goal to analyze and project geographically disaggregated measures of FDI using aggregate data. We regress the country level FDI with aggregate, fine geospatial data on GDP, urban extent, and risk. By disaggregating the model, we will predict the FDI flow in every 1000 square kilometer area.

The Shochu Conundrum: Economics And Gatt Article Iii, Alex Davis

Undergraduate Economic Review

This paper will discuss the National Treatment (NT) obligation contained in Article III of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 as applied in precedential tax discrimination cases. Case law has not taken a firm stance on the economic versus legal interpretation of the likeness/directly competitive or substitutable (DCS) criterion or the principle of “so as to afford protection” (SATAP) captured in Article III.2. After examining the case law on discriminatory taxation, I conclude that the NT obligation in trade agreements is imperfect. Nonetheless, NT is a critical component of these agreements, and the international trade order would …