Other Economics Commons^™

Determinants Of Healthcare Expenditure In The Organization For Economic Cooperation (Oecd) Countries, Harry Waterton

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates the factors that determine the expenditure in healthcare within the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries. The study will contain and be based around a regression model, using healthcare expenditure per capita as the dependent variable, for 10 of the 34 OECD countries. The data that will be analyzed ranges from 2000 to 2010 using the panel data analysis format, and will be extracted from the World Bank and OECD statistics websites.

The Relationship Between Crime And Unemployment In China, Kuan Lu

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates the relationship between crime and unemployment in China. The study incorporates the information, including data of the current crime rate, unemployment rate, income level, GDP growth, Gini index and urbanization rate, into a linear regression model to examine the influence of the unemployment rate on crime in China. The crime in China is measured by crime rate, which includes six specific types of crimes: homicide, assault, rape, robbery, theft and burglary. The results show that there is a positive relationship between crime and unemployment in China. When there is an increase in the unemployment rate, crime rate …

Elections And Asset Pricing: The Politically Sensitive Equity Of Us Military Contractors, Matthew Mark Ross

Wayne State University Dissertations

I quantify the relationship between political uncertainty and equity volatility in the months around US elections from 1989-2012. The Economic Policy Uncertainty Index and Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) data are employed to measure political uncertainty faced by military contractors, capitalizing on the unique monopsony-oligopoly business environment of these firms. I employ a GARCH (1,1) model with cross-sectionally correlated moments to produce daily firm-election volatility measures. Volatility increases 11% for local, 27% for midterm, and 43% for presidential elections. These measures demonstrate that all election categories: local, federal, presidential, and midterm exhibit differential effects on equity volatility. My results …

The Sharing Economy: Exploring The Intersection Of Collaborative Consumption And Capitalism, Ellyn E. Erving

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores how the sharing economy in America combines Collaborative Consumption ideas and social values with capitalist business models to make a profit. I discuss definitions of terms associated with the sharing economy, economic anthropological theories and case studies, as well as company and consumer motivations in sharing economy companies.

The Responsiveness Of Migration To Labor Market Conditions, Preston M. Brashers

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

This dissertation explores how migration responds to economic conditions, particularly differences in responsiveness for various segments of the population. After a brief introduction and motivation of my work in Chapter One, Chapter Two estimates the responsiveness of households’ interstate migration to origin state labor market conditions and surrounding state labor market conditions. Each percentage point increase in origin state unemployment insurance claims leads to a 3.2 percent increase in household’s propensity to migrate interstate and each percentage point increase in the unemployment insurance claims rate of surrounding states reduces interstate migration propensity by 5.2 percent. I then examine how this …

The Costs Of Conflict, Adam Smith

Economics Department Faculty Publications & Research

Violent conflict destroys resources. It generates "destruction costs." These costs have an important effect on individuals’ decisions to cooperate or conflict. We develop two models of conflict: one in which conflict’s destruction costs are independent of individuals’ investments in "arms"—the tools of conflict—and another in which conflict’s destruction costs depend on those investments. Our models demonstrate that when conflict’s destruction costs are arms-dependent, conflict is more costly, making cooperation more likely. We test this prediction with a laboratory experiment in which subjects first choose how heavily to invest in arms and then choose whether to cooperate or conflict in an …

The Evolutionary Fitness Of Personality Traits In A Small-Scale Subsistence Society, Michael Gurven, Christopher Von Rueden, Jonathan Stieglitz, Hillard Kaplan, Daniel Eid Rodriguez

ESI Publications

"Personality, or “behavioral syndromes”, are relatively stable dispositional traits and behaviors that have now been identified in a myriad of social species (Gosling, 2001; Sih et al., 2004), and with clear consequences on fitness (Smith & Blumstein, 2008). The canalization of personality during development and relative stability thereafter, despite varying circumstances over the life course that might otherwise favor greater plasticity, is an important problem attracting much theoretical and empirical attention (Dall et al., 2004; Dingemanse et al., 2010). Further, personality is highly heritable, yet how heritable genetic variation in personality traits is maintained over generations remains another conundrum (Buss …

A Look Into The Industry Of Video Games Past, Present, And Yet To Come, Chad Hadzinsky

CMC Senior Theses

Since its inception, the video game industry has been both a new medium for art and innovation as well as a major driving force in the advancements of many technologies. The often overlooked video game industry has turned from a hobby to a multi-billion dollar industry in its short, forty year life. People of all ages and genders across the world are playing video games at a higher clip than ever before. With so many new gamers and emerging technologies, it is an exciting time for the industry. The landscape is constantly changing and successful business models of the past …

Bitcoin: Is Cryptocurrency Viable?, Austin Hill

CMC Senior Theses

Bitcoin, a virtual currency invented in 2009, was created as a peer-to-peer currency that eliminated the need for a third party authority, such as banks or government, to be involved in monetary transactions. Having no intrinsic value but carrying no government guarantees relegates bitcoin and its competitors to the perpetual role of investment opportunity, deriving value not from a practical use, but from a nominal, dollar value. This will continue to be the case until the U.S. Government sanctions virtual currency as a viable store of value. Because the dollar plays such a large role in the world’s economy, other …

Teaching An Old Profession New Tricks: An Analysis On The Effects Of The Flipped Classroom Model On Student Performance, Theresa K. Lomneth

CMC Senior Theses

Abstract

When traditional lecture methods prove ineffective, some professors turn to alternative teaching styles. In particular, a flipped or inverted classroom, where students watch conceptual videos before coming to class and use class time for application and fine tuning of these concepts has become popular in recent years. However, little consensus exists on the efficacy of these strategies. The purpose of this study is to determine whether a flipped classroom structure implemented in a medical school course successfully improved student performance. To do so, I analyzed exam data from the University of Nebraska Medical Center before and after implementation of …

Historical Overview, Maksim Storchevoi, Jeffrey K. Hass

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The goal of this chapter is to discuss key values and archetypes of Russian culture that have developed over several centuries of Russian history. This fundamental introduction is important because these values and archetypes have successfully manifested themselves through various institutions of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia. What are they and what are their roots? Answers to these questions can help us better understand Russian economic and business culture that shapes the behaviour of entrepreneurs, investors and employees in the current economy, and also political and legal traditions that play enormous roles in establishing and running …

Essays On The Value Of A Firm’S Eco-Friendliness In The Financial Asset Market, Muhammad S. Ahmadin

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation presents three different closely related topics on the value of eco-friendliness in the financial market. The first essay attempts to estimate hedonic stock price model to find a contemporaneous relationship between stock return and firms’ environmental performance and recover the value of investor’s willingness to pay of eco-friendliness. This study follows stock and environmental performances of the 500 largest US firms from 2009 to 2012. The firms’ environmental data come from the Newsweek Green Ranking, both aggregate measures: green ranking (GR) and green score (GS), and disaggregate measures: environmental impact score (EIS), green policy and performance score (GPS), …

Natural Phenomena As Potential Influence On Social And Political Behavior: The Earth’S Magnetic Field, Jackie R. East

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

Researchers use natural phenomena in a number of disciplines to help explain human behavioral outcomes. Research regarding the potential effects of magnetic fields on animal and human behavior indicates that fields could influence outcomes of interest to social scientists. Tests so far have been limited in scope. This work is a preliminary evaluation of whether the earth’s magnetic field influences human behavior it examines the baseline relationship exhibited between geomagnetic readings and a host of social and political outcomes. The emphasis on breadth of topical coverage in these statistical trials, rather than on depth of development for any one model, …

Money Is More Than Memory, Maria Bigoni, Gabriele Camera, Marco Casari

ESI Working Papers

Impersonal exchange is the hallmark of an advanced society. One key institution for impersonal exchange is money, which economic theory considers just a primitive arrangement for monitoring past conduct in society. If so, then a public record of past actions—or memory—supersedes the function performed by money. This intriguing theoretical postulate remains untested. In an experiment, we show that the suggested functional equality between money and memory does not translate into an empirical equivalence. Monetary systems perform a richer set of functions than just revealing past behaviors, which proves to be crucial in promoting large-scale cooperation.

Los Bancos Del Tiempo En España: Combatiendo La Recesión Con La Moneda Social, Marco Martellini

CMC Senior Theses

Un banco del tiempo (BDT) es el nombre formal que se le da a unas instituciones comunitarias que operan con horas de tiempo personal y laboral como moneda oficial. Son sistemas organizados de moneda social que permiten a sus usuarios intercambiar su propio tiempo y destreza en forma de créditos de servicio. La unidad de moneda es una hora de trabajo. Los BDT son parte de la categoría de moneda alternativa social y representan una evolución moderna de entidades clásicas como los trueques.

Los BDT valoran conceptos como compartir, igualdad y mutualismo. Así, funcionan como un sistema alternativo a los …

The Role Of Polices In Speeding The Demographic Transition: A Case Study Of Some East Asian Countries And Lessons Learnt, Sarah El-Khishin, Magued Osman, Heba Nassar

Economics

برزت إشكالية البحث عندما أكدت توقعات مستقلبية دولية عديدة قدرة الاقتصاد المصري على تحقيق طفرات تنموية ناتجة من معدلات نمو متسارعة خلال العقود المقبلة قد تمكنها من أن تصبح ضمن أسرع دول العالم من حيث معدلات النمو. ولكن هذه التقارير ربطت قدرة الاقتصاد المصري على تحقيق هذه الطفرات باستغلاله مقومات التنمية التي كان من أهمها فرصة النافذة الديمغرافي( ١)، حيث يتميز الهيكل العمري للسكان في مصر حالي ً ا بوجود شريحة كبيرة ومتزايدة منهم في سن العمل؛ نتيجة لتراجع معدلات وفيات الأطفال والخصوبة، وهو الأمر الذي يمثل مورد ً ا هام ً ا في عملية التنمية وإمكانية كبيرة للمساهمة في …

The Impact Of Fdi And Trade Openness On The Economic Growth Of The Transition Economies, Regina Castro

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper examines effects of FDI inflows and trade openness on economic growth of three former Soviet Union economies: Kazakhstan, Armenia and Ukraine. The study uses a regression model that incorporates data sets for the period from 1992 to 2011 obtained from the World Bank. The regression result indicates that FDI inflows are positively correlated to the economic growth of the transition economies. However, impact of FDI would vary for each specific country depending on the degree of capacity of the host country to use FDI efficiently. Trade openness has also a positive effect on the real GDP per capita …

The Predictive Power Of Commodity Futures Prices On South American Equity Markets, Aadithyan Manivannan

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the futures United States futures market the returns on the South American stock market. In particular the paper focuses on three key commodities—industrial sugar, copper, and coffee. The study looks into methods to isolate the effect of the United States commodity market from the returns of the equity exchanges in both the United States and South America. Once isolated, the relationship between the selected commodities and South American stock market returns can be estimated through quantitative analysis.

Learning By Exporting In India, Stephanie Lizardi

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper examines learning by exporting, in which a firm experiences growth in productivity after entering export markets. The results of existing studies show conflicting evidence regarding whether productivity gains result from learning by exporting or whether productivity gains lead to exporting. This paper discusses the relationship between entering exporting markets and subsequent product innovation. Using data from nearly 6,000 firms in India, the results suggest that learning by exporting occurs when firms enter export markets, but only during the first year.

The Effect Of Income Inequality On Happiness Levels, Spencer Carlin

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates and presents the impact of income inequality upon general levels of happiness. The study will examine the influence of the income gap upon life satisfaction. Incorporating information from OECD databanks and the World Bank into a standard model in happiness studies, we will examine the effect on nations measured Happy Life Years (HLY). After careful examination this study provides a conclusion that reinforces past studies. Income inequality has a consistent significant and negative impact on subjective well-being and happiness levels. The study contributes to the inequality happiness literature, by examining the effects of inequality on happiness amongst …