Parental Gender Bias In Youth Employment Standards: Evidence From Upper Egypt,
2026
The American University in Cairo AUC
Parental Gender Bias In Youth Employment Standards: Evidence From Upper Egypt, Mahmoud Saeed
Theses and Dissertations
Youth unemployment remains a critical challenge in Egypt, with female labor force participation among the lowest globally. While structural factors such as limited job creation and public sector contraction are well-documented, the role of family-level decision-making in constraining women's labor market entry has received limited quantitative attention. This thesis examines parental gender bias in employment standards in Upper Egypt, investigating whether and how parents impose systematically different job requirements for daughters compared to sons. Using primary survey data from 17,284 unemployed youth aged 18-35 across six governorates, paired with responses from their parents, this study analyzes parental preferences across six …
Michigan's Automotive Workforce Transition,
2026
W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
Michigan's Automotive Workforce Transition, Erik Vasilauskas, Michael Horrigan
Upjohn Institute Technical Reports
This report examines how changes in automobile production, specifically the shift from internal-combustion-engine (ICE) vehicles toward hybrids and battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), are likely to affect employment in Michigan’s automotive manufacturing and distribution system over the next decade. The goal is to quantify how many jobs in Michigan depend on the automotive supply chain today, how that employment has evolved since the early 2000s, and how it may change through 2030 under alternative production-and-demand scenarios. The results are intended to inform the workforce planning and community transition strategies of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity’s Community and Worker Economic …
Special Economic Zones And Industrial Pollution: Evidence From Vietnam,
2026
Dartmouth College
Special Economic Zones And Industrial Pollution: Evidence From Vietnam, Hannah Huang
Economics Undergraduate Senior Theses
Vietnam has seen rapid economic development, driven in part due to a proliferation of over 300 Special Economic Zones (SEZs) across the country since 1991. This paper exploits the staggered rollout of SEZs across the country to identify the effect of SEZ establishment on local air pollution in Vietnam from 2009 to 2019. I find that establishing an SEZ significantly reduces local PM2.5 concentration, with the largest reduction concentrated in the first years following establishment and attenuating over the longer term. I also find evidence that SEZs shift local firm composition toward higher-technology manufacturing, but zones focusing on dirtier industries …
Trade Liberalization & Local Labor Markets: Evidence From The U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement,
2026
Dartmouth College
Trade Liberalization & Local Labor Markets: Evidence From The U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, Josephine Jungha Lee
Economics Undergraduate Senior Theses
This paper examines the local labor market effects of tariff reductions under the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS). While free trade agreements are often evaluated through aggregate gains, their adjustment costs may be concentrated in specific industries and local labor markets. This paper constructs a shift-share measure of KORUS exposure by combining national industry-level tariff reductions with pre-KORUS commuting zone (CZ) industrial composition, then estimates how more exposed CZs changed after implementation. The results show that greater KORUS exposure is associated with statistically significant declines in employment, employment-to-population ratios, labor force participation, and working-age population, alongside increases in unemployment. These …
Congestion Pricing: A Comprehensive Look At International Congestion Pricing Models And Applying Them To The United States,
2026
University of Denver
Congestion Pricing: A Comprehensive Look At International Congestion Pricing Models And Applying Them To The United States, Ian Ertel
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Urban traffic congestion imposes large costs through wasted time, excess fuel consumption, air pollution, and lost productivity. Although congestion pricing has been recognized as the economically efficient remedy since Pigou and Vickrey, implementation has been rare. This thesis examines the conditions under which congestion pricing succeeds by analyzing three pioneering cases: London, Singapore, and New York City. Across all three, charges reduced traffic volumes and improved speeds within the priced zones. Benefits extended beyond cordon boundaries, with measurable improvements on untolled suburban roads. The distributional effects depended on how revenues were recycled rather than on the charge itself. Political viability, …
Neoliberalism & The Care Economy: Exploring The Gendered Impacts Of Social Protection Systems,
2026
University of Denver
Neoliberalism & The Care Economy: Exploring The Gendered Impacts Of Social Protection Systems, Rachel Carruthers
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This thesis examines how neoliberal transformation of social protection policy influences gender dynamics within the care economy. Care is necessary for well-being, but traditionally excluded from economic thinking. This thesis completes a historical overview of how care has been incorporated or excluded by different economic paradigms and is anchored in feminist political economy that emphasizes care as a central consideration. A comparative analysis across California, Texas, and Sweden demonstrates how social protection, specifically access to paid parental leave, varies across regimes and results in inconsistent care outcomes. The findings suggest that social protections can reduce some inequalities, but inadequately address …
A Theoretical And Empirical Framework To Estimate The Impact Of Conflict On The Economic Resilience Of Clustered Firms In Ukraine,
2026
University of Denver
A Theoretical And Empirical Framework To Estimate The Impact Of Conflict On The Economic Resilience Of Clustered Firms In Ukraine, Alexander D. Ginn
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In this thesis, I develop a theoretical and empirical framework to estimate whether participation in industrial clusters contributes to firm-level economic resilience to conflict-based shocks. Focusing on Ukraine following the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, the study situates industrial organization and firms’ resilience to conflict within a dynamic environment characterized by spatially heterogeneous exposure to conflict events and persistent institutional constraints. I document how Ukraine’s contemporary economic geography reflects the interaction of Soviet-era industrial path dependence, uneven post-transition institutional development, and conflict-induced reconfiguration, evaluating how these dynamics generate systematic variation in both firms’ baseline vulnerability and their exposure to …
Testing Potential Correlations Between Childhood Lead Exposure And Authoritarianism In Adulthood,
2026
Portland State University
Testing Potential Correlations Between Childhood Lead Exposure And Authoritarianism In Adulthood, Kragen Anderson
University Honors Theses
A significant body of research links lead exposure during childhood to negative effects ranging from increased impulsivity to societal level effects such as an increased likelihood of committing violent crime in adulthood. Due to exposure vectors such as lead water pipes, lead solder, lead based paints, and leaded gasoline there was significant lead exposure during childhood for large portions of the American population. This paper tested and found a statistically significant association between average population level lead exposure in childhood and likelihood of voting for candidate Trump later in life.
The Dictatorial Public Goods Game,
2026
Chapman University
The Dictatorial Public Goods Game, Gabriele Camera, Gary Charness, Nir Chemeya, Ro'i Zultan
ESI Working Papers
We propose a novel game, the Dictatorial Public Goods Game, to study the interplay between collective resource generation and centralized provision of public goods. After making choices in a standard Voluntary Contribution Mechanism (VCM), one player is selected from the group to administrate the contributions: either provide the public good or expropriate the collected resources for personal gain. We find that adding this centralized mechanism reduces efficiency compared to the standard VCM. Although higher contributions increase the material incentive to expropriate, they lead to more provision. Thus, pro-social choices in the contribution and in the provision stages act as …
Driving Development: Coalitions, Policies, And Upgrading Brazilian Automotive Technology (1988–2025),
2026
University of Denver
Driving Development: Coalitions, Policies, And Upgrading Brazilian Automotive Technology (1988–2025), Henrique Estides Delgado
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Among industrial activities in Brazil, the automotive sector generates some of the most significant and multifaceted multiplier effects on the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). The sector integrates activities ranging from raw materials to high-tech services, incorporating advanced technologies that influence innovation and positioning in global value chains (GVCs). Remarkably, this industry has been structured over time by public policies that have decisively shaped incentives for its participants. The world’s largest automotive multinationals have been attracted to operate in the country through varied institutional arrangements involving domestic capital and incentives across federative units. This dissertation analyzes how variations in institutional …
Determinants Of Corporal Punishment And Severe Physical Punishment In Egypt: A Mixed-Methods Analysis For Child Protection Policy,
2026
The American University in Cairo AUC
Determinants Of Corporal Punishment And Severe Physical Punishment In Egypt: A Mixed-Methods Analysis For Child Protection Policy, Marwa Moustafa Nassef
Theses and Dissertations
Corporal punishment (CP) and severe physical punishment (SPP) remain a major public health, child rights, and child protection policy concern. In Egypt, despite legislative reforms, survey-weighted analysis of the 2021 Egypt Family Health Survey (EFHS) 2021 (CAPMAS, 2022) reveals prevalence rates of 60.5% for CP and 27.4% for SPP among children aged 1–14 (author’s calculations using EFHS-2021, n=7623), yet evidence distinguishing the determinants of routine corporal punishment from escalation to severe physical punishment remains limited in low- and middle-income contexts. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological framework, this mixed-methods study identifies key drivers of CP and its escalation to SPP among Egyptian …
The Case For The Exclusion Of Exclusion: Intellectual Property, Masculine Legal Reason, And The Ethics Of Care,
2026
American University in Cairo
The Case For The Exclusion Of Exclusion: Intellectual Property, Masculine Legal Reason, And The Ethics Of Care, Ragya Shoukry
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis argues that current legal ideals of objectivity and neutrality are historically gendered and inseparable from the development of capitalist property relations and imperial expansion. It traces origins that begin with early modern witch hunts and Francis Bacon’s empiricism, where a new “scientific rationality” emerges alongside intensified patriarchal violence. The thesis then examines John Locke’s labour-based justification of property and the figure of the rational individual, showing how this framework legitimizes enclosure, dispossession and colonial appropriation under the guise of improvement and development. Building on this foundation, the analysis turns to moral psychology and how its allegedly universal stage …
Beyond Emergency: Charting Pathways To Sustainable Development In Fragile And Conflict-Affected Settings: A Case Study Of Yemen,
2026
The American University in Cairo AUC
Beyond Emergency: Charting Pathways To Sustainable Development In Fragile And Conflict-Affected Settings: A Case Study Of Yemen, Sharif Abdurabu Salem Farid Alsahbool
Theses and Dissertations
For nearly a decade, Yemen's eastern governorates of Hadramawt, Shabwah, and Al‑Mahrah have been relatively stable, yet the international aid system has kept delivering short‑term humanitarian relief like food baskets and water trucking instead of shifting to sustainable development that could rebuild people's lives, create jobs, fix infrastructure, and strengthen local government. This thesis investigates why this transition has taken so long. Based on 21 interviews with government officials, international NGO staff, and local NGO managers in these three governorates, the study develops a new way of understanding the problem. It introduces three ideas: the 'emergency mentality', which is a …
Determinants Of Public-To-Private Transitions: Evidence From Firm-Level Selection Patterns,
2026
Dartmouth College
Determinants Of Public-To-Private Transitions: Evidence From Firm-Level Selection Patterns, Joshua S. Wolfson
Economics Undergraduate Senior Theses
This paper considers which publicly traded firms are most likely to exit public markets through acquisition, and how those patterns differ between financial sponsors and strategic acquirers. Using a panel of 3,320 U.S. public firms from 2000 to 2024, I estimate discrete-time hazard models and find that lower valuation multiples, higher leverage, and stronger free cash flow predict going private. These characteristics vary for financial sponsors and strategic acquirers who select on different criteria. Strategic selection is driven mainly by leverage and valuation while private equity is also driven by free cash flow. These criteria are not stable over time, …
Distance And Trade Elasticity: The Red Sea Crisis As A Natural Experiment,
2026
Dartmouth College
Distance And Trade Elasticity: The Red Sea Crisis As A Natural Experiment, Felix C. Feldman
Economics Undergraduate Senior Theses
This paper exploits the 2023 Houthi attacks on shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea and the subsequent mass rerouting around the Cape of Good Hope to estimate modern-day elasticities with respect to effective trade cost. This event is unique among chokepoint disruptions as it did not lead to a complete blockage. Instead, many ships voluntarily rerouted away the area, but not all. This paper uses a structural approach to infer unobservable costs incurred by inframarginal Red Sea shippers. This paper combines a reduced-form gravity specification with a discrete route-choice model where ships select …
The Economic Benefits And Costs Of State And Local Incentives For Clean Energy Projects,
2026
W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
The Economic Benefits And Costs Of State And Local Incentives For Clean Energy Projects, Timothy J. Bartik, Gerrit Anderson, Brian J. Asquith, Kathleen Bolter, Kyle Huisman, Iryna V. Lendel, Jeremy Morris, Sevrin Williams
Upjohn Institute Technical Reports
This report evaluates the benefits and costs of investment incentives for 50 large clean energy supply chain manufacturing and infrastructure projects. The findings suggest that these incentives generate modest but typically positive economic returns, with a median benefit-cost ratio of 1.47, meaning benefits exceed costs by 47 percent for the typical project. Returns vary significantly across projects—approximately 70 percent of projects produced net positive benefits over a 20-year period, while 30 percent failed to recover incentive costs. Project performance depends heavily on incentive design and local conditions. Excessively large cash incentives reduce returns, while customized services, strong job multipliers, investment …
Unionization Rates And Wage Growth: Trade, Transportation And Utilities,
2026
Binghamton University--SUNY
Unionization Rates And Wage Growth: Trade, Transportation And Utilities, Nathaniel V. Thomas
Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal
This research examines how unionization rates influence wage growth in the United States’ transportation, trade, and utilities sector. Drawing on secondary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the study compares union and non-union wage trends while taking in factors like industry characteristics. By using historical and comparative analyses across multiple industries, it aims to determine if higher union density consistently translates into stronger wage gains. Prior research in both U.S. and international contexts shows that union presence can positively affect wages, but this influence varies by sector, labor strength, and political backdrop
Transmission Of Firm-Level Demand Shocks To Stock Returns: Evidence From 10-K Text Analysis,
2026
Dartmouth College
Transmission Of Firm-Level Demand Shocks To Stock Returns: Evidence From 10-K Text Analysis, Dylan Gunjan Parikh
Economics Undergraduate Senior Theses
Industrial organization and corporate finance papers that measure firm-level demand characteristics employ price, quantity, and product characteristic data that is unavailable in public financial disclosures. As a result, cross-sectional asset pricing literature attention to demand-side factors is limited. This paper constructs a demand shock measure from natural language processing of 28,263 publicly disclosed 10-K filings from 2001 to 2020. I find that a 1SD demand shock increases contemporaneously predicts a 1.8% increase (SE = 0.4%) in returns. Long-short portfolio sorted on demand shock generates 8.5% alpha (SE = 1.9%) against combined Fama-French and Q-factor models and a 0.91 sharpe ratio …
Offsetting Carbon With Lemons: Adverse Selection And Certification In The Voluntary Carbon Market,
2026
Yale University
Offsetting Carbon With Lemons: Adverse Selection And Certification In The Voluntary Carbon Market, Vahideh Manshadi, Faidra Monachou, Ilan Morgenstern
Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers
To meet voluntary climate targets, firms often complement internal decarbonization efforts by purchasing carbon credits in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), which finance projects that reduce emissions elsewhere. However, these emissions reductions are difficult to verify, and growing evidence of overcrediting has cast doubt on the VCM's potential to genuinely offset emissions. We investigate how the VCM's defining features shape its climate effectiveness. Our model captures three central elements: adverse selection, as high-quality projects that truly reduce emissions are costlier yet difficult to distinguish from low-quality ones; imperfect third-party certification, as projects are screened based on a noisy signal of …
Many Hands Make Light Work: Restoring Edu-Economical Debts For Black Males,
2026
Virginia Commonwealth University
Many Hands Make Light Work: Restoring Edu-Economical Debts For Black Males, Joyice Robinson Myers
VA Engage Journal
A college degree is closely linked to economic stability, yet only 20% of Black men in the United States hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. These disparities are not accidental; they are the cumulative result of systems that have systematically denied Black males equitable access to educational and economic opportunity across generations. This systematic review examines the compounding relationship among family structure, educational attainment, and economic standing for Black males, and considers what restoring that relationship could look like in practice. I integrate three theoretical frameworks—Education Debt (Ladson-Billings, 2006), African American Male Theory (Bush & Bush, 2013), and the R³ISE …
