Public Economics Commons^™

Natural Disasters And Government Size: A Cross-Country Analysis, Justin Hainse

Honors Projects in Economics

re have been multiple studies within the field of economics concerning the various effects that natural disasters have on countries. The goal of the present study is to address the seemingly forgotten area of how natural disasters affect the size of a government. Using data from both the Emergency Events Database and the World Bank, a cross-country panel data analysis is performed to test the impact of natural disasters on government size. The results show that more deaths from a natural disaster is associated with countries having a larger government. These results aim to be useful for allowing governments to …

Reforming The United States’ Currency Production, William Cather

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Since the 1980s, the debate about the one-cent piece’s production and use has been discussed throughout relatively recent Congressional history; and has involved economic, financial, industry-based, as well as numismatic groups to weigh in on the topic. The question arises: Why have other countries successfully changed their lower-denomination currency and converted their economic system into one that incorporates cash-rounding while the United States has struggled to do so?

By observing international examples of the obsoletion of low-denomination coinage and the implementation of cash-rounding, the proposed economic and financial reform has proved to work as an economically-sound alternative to the current …

Strengthening The Southern Nevada Workforce Pipeline, Katie M. Gilbertson

Student Research

Workforce development has been a keystone in the discussion of economic diversification of Las Vegas for decades. The leisure and hospitality industry is the lifeline for the Southern Nevada economy due to the reliance on tourism as the city’s main economic driver. The leisure and hospitality industry requires physical labor and more face-to-face customer interaction than other employment sectors. Thus, these jobs often do not require high educational attainment, but rather sharp soft skills like effective listening, nonverbal communication, and negotiation strategies. While these are valuable traits, the lack of educational attainment within the leisure and hospitality workforce suppresses employees’ …

A Full Universal Basic Income For The United States, Kevin Rogers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation is to estimate whether a "full" Universal Basic Income (FUBI), within or without a single-payer Universal Health Care (UHC) system, would be both sufficient to eliminate income poverty and affordable without increasing federal borrowing or decreasing federal discretionary spending in the United States.

In Chapter 1, I elaborate on the components and benefits of a FUBI. In Chapters 2 and 3, I present the results from a static, behavioral, partial-equilibrium, micro-simulation model that analyzes household responses to changes in mandatory spending, sources of tax revenues, and tax expenditures. These changes include introducing a FUBI in …

Policy Complementarities Between And Within Jurisdictions: The Case Of Alcohol Consumption And Driving, Tabitha Knott

All Dissertations

Federalism allows multiple levels of government, such as counties, states, and nations, to control the same territory. The result is often differentiated policies across smaller jurisdictions, which inevitably create spillovers when goods can be purchased in one locality and not in another. The first chapter discusses how each of the subsequent chapters are related using this context.

The second chapter investigates how one jurisdiction's policy may diffuse across neighboring jurisdictions to mitigate spillover effects using evidence from Texas. Texas is one of 34 states that allow local jurisdictions to determine alcohol policies and regulations via local option referenda. A force …

Essays On Delegation And Voter Preferences, Cory Simpkins

All Dissertations

Chapter 1 examines delegation and communication as strategies in coordination games with uncertainty and social preferences. I construct a model where other-regarding partners attempt to coordinate over a binary choice with privately known utilities. Players can choose to either communicate by signaling their preferences or delegate the choice entirely to their partner. I characterize equilibrium behavior under various assumptions on information transmission and coordination risk. If coordination is risky, there is a type of "first mover advantage" where the first player to communicate her own-preference guarantees her ideal outcome when communication is honest revelation. When preference signals are cheap talk, …

Improving Depression Screening And Follow-Up Care In Underserved Populations, Alicia D. Hankins

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing DNP Capstone Projects

Depression is a substantial source of financial, emotional, and physical burdens to patients and their families worldwide. It also disproportionately affects economically disadvantaged populations. To combat the depression crisis, The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) published guidelines to boost depression screenings of all patients presenting for healthcare services. A review of literature and the completed needs assessment confirmed low rates of depression screening in the rural primary care sector. This project took place in an outpatient primary care facility in rural Arkansas, where current depression screening tools were not being used. The goal was to increase the percentage …

Public Policy, Economic Development, And Taxes: An Impact Analysis Of Business Incentive Strategies At The State And Local Level, Richard Nanney

All Dissertations

In an effort to promote economic development, state-level policymakers have exercised discretion over the use of public money to incentivize subsidy packages for decades. Estimates suggest state governments spend approximately $50 billion annually on these initiatives. However, there has been little empirical research about the political and economic benefits received by local residents from these subsidy programs. This dissertation analyzes the effectiveness of state subsidy policy by considering induced economic spillover effects and population attrition rates. It examines how subsidy distribution is related to employment rates, average weekly wages, and population attrition. The project offers two methodological innovations. First, to …

Essays On Bank Performance, Strategic Behavior, And Community Development With A Focus On Minority Depository Institutions And The Political Economy Of Forgiving Student Loans, Guncha Babajanova

All Dissertations

I explore questions related to financial institutions, the accessibility of financial services, community development, and the political economy of forgiving student loans using the ideas from spatial economics, industrial organization, and public choice. Increased access to financial services improves the economic outcomes of individuals and firms in the community. Understanding sources leading to a lower accessibility of financial services is integral for an effective endeavor to lower barriers to financial services with far-reaching policy and economic implications. The economic literature provides evidence of the beneficial effects of increased access to financial services as well as the adverse effects of diminished …

Economic Experiments On Group Identity And Bias, Nathaniel Christopher Burke

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Experiments in economics have been a valuable tool to understand the behavioral implications of incentives on the decision-making process. Particularly, aspects of decision making that cannot be observed in empirical data can be better isolated in an experimental setting such as bias and identity impacts. This dissertation uses three distinct experiments to further the understanding of individual biases, perceptions, and identity and how they impact the way people defer to these internal traits under incentives. This dissertation looks at how well individuals can make inferences about polling data that was collected from individuals susceptible to socially desirable responding. It also …

Apakah Penerapan Desentralisasi Memberikan Dampak Yang Tidak Baik? Studi Permukiman Kumuh Di Jabodetabek, Meila Husna, Muhammad Halley Yudhistira

Jurnal Kebijakan Ekonomi

The implementation of decentralization should have a positive impact on regional progress. Since its implementation in 2001, decentralization in Indonesia has become deeper and wider. Using the slum settlement policy as a study approach, this study will examine the impact of decentralization and how persistent these impacts are. The estimation results using RD-DiD shows that the implementation of decentralization has a negative correlation with the arrangement of slums in the Jabodetabek area. The area of slums is 45% greater than the year before decentralization or a non-decentralized area. Thus, in the aspect of structuring the slums, it can be concluded …

Does It Pay To Be Good? The Performance Of Indonesian Green Companies From 2009 - 2018, Ega Annisa Rizti, Berli Martawardaya

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

In Indonesia, KEHATI Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI) Index, hereafter referred to as SKI, aims to raise public awareness and help pro-environmental investors by selecting 25 highly rated public companies that adhere to the internationally accepted green business standard. This paper compared the financial performance of the companies listed in SKI and their counterparts between the period of January 2009 and December 2018 by predicting their future opening price of stock, comparing the performance of SKI to JKSE market index, and examining their financial performance using ROA and ROE as dependent variables. The findings suggest that being included in SKI …

The Impact Of Foreign Investment On Firm Performance: Indonesia After The 2007 Fdi Reform, Nauval Hafiluddin, Arianto Arif Patunru

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) plays a crucial role in the economy of Indonesia. The new FDI law passed in 2007 serves as a new milestone in the FDI regime in Indonesia. As the country implements the new regulation, the impact of foreign investment on firm performance becomes an interesting subject. This paper aims to estimate the effect of foreign investment on the productivity and contribution of firms in relation to the new FDI law in Indonesia. This study employed a combination of Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Difference-in-Differences (DiD) methods to eliminate endogeneity problems and to examine causality. We discover …

Why The Rate Of Return Of Religious School (Madrasah) Is Too Low: The Case In Indonesia, Elfindri Elfindri, Edi Ariyanto, Sri Maryati, Delfia Tanjung Sari

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

Religious schools (madrasah) in Indonesia have contributed to fulfilling the equity goals of education. Up to this point, studies on the rate of return of madrasah and its relation to general or vocational education remain limited. In contrast to the previous studies that omit madrasah from their analysis, this study pay greater attention to this particular type of education. By adopting the Mincerian model of the human capital and applying the semi-log earnings function to the 2012 data of the National Socioeconomic Survey (SUSENAS) of Indonesia, this study discovers that the rate of return of graduates from madrasah is considerably …

The Effect Of Quantitative Easing On U.S. Stock Prices And Wealth Inequality, Griffin W. Phillips

Student Scholar Showcase

My thesis will investigate and try to find a casual relationship between Quantitative Easing, or “QE”, and the U.S. stock market since 2003. The secondary effects will then be investigated to see if stock prices impact wealth inequality. To find the causal relationship between the two a regression model will be used. It predicts the magnitude of effects for QE and other variables that may impact stock prices. Since 2007-2009, the Federal Reserve has used QE as a means to spur economic growth. This expansionary monetary policy has impacted many financial markets including the U.S. stock market. Finding the extent …

Housing Wealth Shocks, Home Equity Withdrawal, And The Claiming Of Social Security Retirement Benefits, Naqun Huang, Li Jing, Amanda Ross

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper examines the impact of changes in house prices on when eligible individuals start receiving Social Security benefits. If house prices increase, financially constrained households may draw upon the additional home equity to finance expenses and delay receipt of Social Security in order to have increased lifetime monthly benefits. To address concerns that house price changes are correlated with unobserved local demand shocks, we use a control function approach and employ two different instrumental variables. We find that individuals delay Social Security claiming when house prices increase during the housing boom. The probability of claiming within two years after …

Deploying Digitalisation And Artificial Intelligence In Sustainable Development Research, Peter Yang

Faculty Scholarship

Many industrialised countries have benefited from the advent of twenty-first century technologies, especially automation, that have fundamentally changed manufacturing and industrial production processes. The next step in the evolution of automation is the development of artificial intelligence (AI), i.e. intelligence which is demonstrated by machines and systems, which cannot only perform tasks but also work synergistically with humans and nature. Intelligent systems that can see, analyse situations and respond sensitively to real-time cues, from human gestures and facial expressions to pedestrians crossing a busy street, will reshape transportation, precision agriculture, biodiversity conservation, environmental modelling, public health, construction and manufacturing, as …

The Productivity And Future Growth Potential Of Indonesia, Mohamad Ikhsan, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, I Gede Sthitaprajna Virananda, Zihaul Abdi

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

The output per worker of Indonesia has been on a downtrend since 2010, with total factor productivity (TFP) and capital stock largely stagnant if not declining. This paper discusses stylized facts that may explain recent trends in the productivity and growth potential of Indonesia. The decomposition of output per worker reveals the declining contribution of human capital, which is also most negative among peer countries. The growth in labor productivity has been concentrated within sectors, implying room for gains from labor reallocations. A substantial share of employment and credit in Indonesia has shifted to the relatively unproductive service sectors, particularly …

Slices Of The Big Apple: A Visual Explanation And Analysis Of The New York City Budget, Joanne Ramadani

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As a component of government, budgets are fundamental not only to improving the quality of a shared society, but also to understanding what our government officials consider to be their priorities. However, most budgets can be difficult to understand, using terms that are not familiar to people who have not studied finance or economics. To that end, Slices of the Big Apple is an interactive, centralized narrative website that uses visualizations at its core in order to: 1) facilitate a holistic understanding of the New York City government budget for NYC residents; and 2) conduct a five-year analysis of Community …

Hudson Yards: Hybrid Capital's New Home, Massimo D. Scoditti

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis focuses on the material and metaphysical aspects of the Hudson Yards, the largest private development in US History. With its roots in the administration of Michael Bloomberg, the site is representative of neoliberal ideology. It is also one in which cultural production is central. This is in terms of the rationalization and mythos of the building of the space itself and the dreamworlds created to obscure the mechanisms of extraction and accumulation that make such a complex possible. The Hudson Yards is particularly interesting because, as Cindi Katz might suggest, topography lines connect it to transnational capital. And …