Political Economy Commons^™

Citizen-Consumers Wanted: Revitalizing The American Dream In The Face Of Economic Recessions, 1981-2012, Gokcen Coskuner-Balli

Business Faculty Articles and Research

This article brings sociological theory of governmentality to bear on a longitudinal analysis of American presidential speeches to theorize the formation of the citizen-consumer subject. The 40-year historical analysis which expands through four economic recessions and the presidential terms of Ronald Reagan, William J. Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Hussein Obama, illustrates the ways in which the national mythology of American Dream myth has been linked to the political ideology of the state to create the citizen-consumer subject in the United States. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data demonstrates first, the consistent emphasis on responsibility as a …

Intragovernmental Autonomous Stabilizers, Alex Williams

Theses - Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy

We present a novel framework for understanding the relationship between the federal and state governments of the United States of America. Drawing on the experience of state government finances during and after the Great Recession in 2008, we propose the establishment of novel intragovernmental budgetary stabilization mechanisms. We draw out the flawed arguments of the existing fiscal federalism literature and demonstrate how the work of Michael Pettis and Modern Monetary Theory provide more usable insights when crafting public policy. We propose several potential policy responses and produce a counterfactual model of state finances after the Great Recession using the new …

Impact Of A Bblr Tax System On Standard Of Living In The United States: An Olg Approach, Assande Adom

Faculty Research and Creative Activity

The debate about taxation matters remains relevant in the literature across schools of thoughts and decision-makers. Indeed, these matters carry far-reaching economic effects both domestically and internationally. Taxes can constitute major conduits for distortions and inefficiencies in the economy if not properly set and administered. This study explores the impact of a broad base lower rate (BBLR) tax system on lifetime standard of living in the United States. Toward that end, it considers a partial equilibrium framework in the form of a two-period overlapping generation (2- OLG) model with two groups of people: (i) the young or poor, and (ii) …

Worker Cooperatives And Social Transformation: An Anti-Essentialist Marxist Perspective, Zachariah D. Thanasilangkul

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Critical Reflections On America’S Green New Deal: Capital, Labor, And The Dynamics Of Contemporary Social Change, Alex Stoner

Journal Articles

The increasing urgency of the current climate crisis has been accompanied by a growing desire for constructive answers on how to confront the situation effectively and meaningfully. Yet, the pace of global climate change (GCC) continues to accelerate more rapidly than societal, institutional, and individual responses can be formed. The gap between increasingly sophisticated knowledge of objective biophysical threat, on the one hand, and our ability to transform society in accordance with this awareness, on the other hand, highlights the importance of ideology. Ideological barriers have become a major stumbling block for climate change activists and researchers. Focusing on the …

From Hobbes To Habermas: The Anti-Cultural Turn In Western Political Thought, Ralph Gert Schoellhammer

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

The theme of this dissertation is the anti-cultural turn of Western Political Thought that has emerged out of Enlightenment thinking and was first turned into a comprehensive political idea by Thomas Hobbes.

Beginning with an overview of psychological research into the phenomenon of culture I put forward the argument that human beings are by nature social and individualistic, but that they oscillate between their ability to put group-interests before individual interests and vice versa. Culture is the main mechanism that influences which interest we give priority. This mechanism work through emotional attachments that create intuitions about what is morally right …

Three Perspectives On Innovation In European Agriculture: From Public Research To The Circular Economy, Michele Vollaro

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

The dissertation examines the idea that current and future challenges faced by the European agricultural sector call for a multidimensional approach combining the classical path of productivity growth with more stringent commitments to environmental protection, and more incisive mitigation and adaptation actions to mitigate climate change, all within a policy context of a transition toward the cyclical management of resources (inputs, outputs and wastes) inspired by the circular economy concept. The three essays of the dissertation aim to show: that agricultural productivity in Europe is supported by complementarities between public and private investments in agricultural research with remarkable results in …

Homeownership Rate And Other House Price Determinants Impacts On New House Prices In Colombia, Hector A. Botello-Peñaloza

Journal for the Advancement of Developing Economies

Homeownership remains a preferred form of tenancy in different parts of the world. The attractions of security, stability, investment potential and a sense of pride outweigh the fear of price instability. For this reason, the Colombian government has encouraged in recent years, various demand policies that have sought to promote the increase in the number of homeowners. However, these ideas could have a severe impact on prices in the real estate market. Therefore, this study seeks to examine the effect of homeownership rate on new house prices in an emerging country with low real estate ownership, credit restrictions and average …

Corruption, Government Effectiveness And Human Development In Sub-Saharan Africa, Sakiru O. Akinbode, Jayeola Olabisi, Remilekun R. Adegbite, Timothy A. Aderemi, Abimbola M. Alawode

Journal for the Advancement of Developing Economies

Aside economic factors causing low human development which have been extensively studied in literature, the implications of high level of corruption and weak governance prevalent in sub- Saharan African (SSA) countries have not been explored. The study assessed the effects of corruption, government effectiveness and their joint effect on human development in SSA. Data collected on thirty-seven (37) countries within the period of 2005 to 2018 were analyzed using system Generalized Method of Moment which was most suitable for the dataset. Results indicated that lagged human development index (P<0.01), government effectiveness (P<0.05), economic growth rate (P<0.1) and government health spending (P<0.1) had significant positive effect on human development while corruption and its interaction with government effectiveness did not. The results of Arrelano-Bond test of first order autocorrelation and second order autocorrelation of error term as well as the Sargan test and Hansen J test for validity of instrumental variables confirmed the validity of the model. The robustness of the estimation was established as the coefficient of the lagged dependent variable fell between the values in the fixed effect and pooled ordinary least square regression. The study recommended retraining and reorientation of government employees towards the mindset of effective service delivery and strong political will to achieve it, diversification of SSA economies alongside other growth stimulating policies such as reduced lending interest rate on loans meant for the real sector, improvement in the ease of doing business, improved funding of the health sector and proper monitoring of activities in the public service by concerned agencies to curb corruption where it is present.

The Desire For Luxury In Emerging Markets: An Interactional Perspective On Consumer Motivations In Tunisia, Pranjal Gupta,, Mouna Zaghdoudi

Journal for the Advancement of Developing Economies

The motivations underlying the desire for luxury products and services have long been the subject of academic inquiry. An understanding of these motivations is useful for the luxury market industry to help managers formulate better marketing strategies. Further, such knowledge would also be useful to public policy makers to help them mitigate societal problems that may occur as a result of such consumption. Of particular interest is the growth of the luxury market in emerging economies. This study spotlights the luxury market in Tunisia. Previous work has demonstrated that age has a significant impact both on willingness to buy luxury …

Municipal Fiscal Distress In Pennsylvania: Assessing The Municipalities Financial Recovery Act 47 Of 1987, Terry Tracy

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Department of Community and Economic Development administers a Municipal Financial Recovery program to improve outcomes in fiscally and socio-economically distressed cities. The program operates under the auspices of the Pennsylvania Municipal Recovery Act 47 of 1987.

It is designed to provide state and municipal governments the resources necessary to combat fiscal distress and economic decline, where municipalities lack the political or financial wherewithal to do so autonomously. Those resources include access to grant funding, special latitude over tax policy and fee structures not otherwise permitted by Pennsylvania’s Constitution, and developing a five-year fiscal recovery …

Community Development Financial Institutions (Cdfis): An Analysis Within The Political And Economic Context Of Neoliberalism, Tracie Victoria Wynand

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This thesis explores Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) business models by examining the organizational structures, procedural operations, services, and geography. It aims to understand its overall behavior as a financial institution providing low-income communities financial services and ultimately the role it plays within the neoliberal context. The research identifies that CDFIs ultimately hold a mission that promotes economic prosperity from within the neoliberal project by expanding free-market capitalist beliefs and practices when servicing low-income communities. Additionally, the findings suggest that CDFIs take on the role of the neoliberal state by operating in tandem with the Nonprofit Industrial Complex (NPIC), which …

The Impact Of Daca On The Labor Force: An Analysis On Non-Native Wage Growth, Chantal Balta

Scripps Senior Theses

Considering the recent efforts of the Trump Administration to rescind the Deferred Act for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), I wanted to explore how this policy has impacted the American labor market since its inception in 2012. Specifically, this paper discusses the impact of DACA on non-native wage growth. By using data from the American Community Survey from the years 2000-2016, we will use a difference-in-difference model to see the impact of the policy on immigrants recorded in the dataset by using the native-born labor force as a control. Initial results indicate that there is no statistically significant impact on non-native wage …

Trickle Down Nationalism: Interactions Between Liberal Nationalism And Colonialism In The Raj And Nigeria, Aaryaman Sheoran

CMC Senior Theses

The combination of nationalism and colonialism has remained understudied in academia, despite the important interaction between the two phenomena. European ideas bled over into their colonial empires and began to fill the power vacuum created by colonial enterprises. This study analyzes the impact of British colonialism on the development of national identity in British India and Nigeria.

British influences included large scale economic disruption, cultural reform through ‘westernizing’ the population and abolishing local customs, and creating a new set of institutions to replace traditional power centers. Inevitably, these factors created a nationalist surge across both the Raj and Nigeria, as …

Escaping The Snowstorm: Legal Rights And Economics In The Developing World, Zane Tolchinsky

CMC Senior Theses

In this thesis, I seek to provide a framework for developing nations making policy-decisions about legal rights, as in the realm of Rawlsian ideal theory, prescriptions for governments not living in conditions of moderate scarcity is lacking. I first springboard off Stephen Holmes and Cass R. Sunstein’s conclusion that “all legal rights are positive,” from their book, The Cost of Rights, to argue for the value of considering the economic implications of rights protections. I then propose that Holmes and Sunstein’s conclusion means that we can think of legal rights as goods to be purchased by governments. Next, I …

The Road To Human Emancipation - The Moral And Political Foundations Of Markets, William Shi

CMC Senior Theses

The thesis aims to provide both a real public ideology and the legal and socioeconomic structures to realize Karl Marx’s ideal of human emancipation. Marx argues that in capitalist society, the legal and political superstructure forces the ruling class to represent its interest as the public interest, which legitimizes the massive inequality in resources and social power. To demonstrate how to realize the substantive public interest, the two parts of the thesis have two goals. The first part aims to formulate a rightful candidate to the public ideology of human emancipation, which represents the substantive public interest rather than the …

Healthy And Unhealthy Responses To American Democratic Institutional Failure, Thomas D'Anieri

CMC Senior Theses

I have set out on the hunch that politics in America “feels different,” that we are frustrated both with our institutions as well as with one another. First, I will seek to empirically verify this claim beyond mere “feelings.” If it can be shown that these kinds of discontent genuinely exist to the extent that I believe they do, I will then explain why people feel this way and why things are different this time from the economic, political, and social points of view. Next, I will examine two potential responses, what I will call the populist and the institutional …

Policies And Politics Of Reform : The Governmentality Of Structural Adjustment In Urban And Rural Egypt, Gabriel Gluskin-Braun

CMC Senior Theses

This analysis explores the unique and tumultuous approach to reform in Egypt and addresses

the effects of the implementation of neoliberal policy tools. These tools included privatization, price

liberalization, deregulation, and land reform in both urban and rural areas. Based on these effects, this

analysis will argue that the benefits accrued by the political-economic elite created opportunities for

new patronage networks that upheld elite economic privilege through the process of liberalization

while a wide swath of Egyptians suffered the loss of limited privileges and protections from the state

established by Nasr and upheld by his successors. Consequently, the socialist-statist ‘social …

The Political Economy Of State Minimum Wage Laws And Legislator Voting Behavior, Sophia Helland

CMC Senior Theses

The Median Voter Theorem is a key concept in political economy, one that has been tested numerous times in the literature. However, it remains unclear the extent to which legislators respond to the needs of their district on a bill-by-bill basis. This paper seeks to understand the role of ideology and of local economic pressures that a state legislator faces when deciding how to vote on minimum wage legislation. Although some papers have examined legislator voting behavior on specific issues, this paper uses state legislatures and minimum wage bills to innovate on this existing literature in two key ways. First, …

Buying Influence? An Analysis Of The Political And Economic Impacts Of Chinese Foreign Direct Investment In The European Union, Ethan Kable

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis analyzes the economic and political impacts of the recent influx of Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) into the European Union (EU). I consider the ways in which EU perceptions of Chinese OFDI have evolved over the course of the past decade as well as what attempts the EU has made at an institutional level to address challenges posed by Chinese investment. I contend that despite institutional efforts to respond to these perceived challenges – namely losing a technological edge, security concerns, and unreciprocated market access – Chinese OFDI in the EU has had a divisive effect. Not …