Public Economics Commons^™

Disamenity Or A Signal Of Competence? The Empirical Political Economy Of Local Road Maintenance, Benjamin Blemings, Margaret Bock

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Empirical results find different conclusions than theoretical evidence of how electorates perceive road work. This paper uses a geographically smaller unit of analysis than prior work, political alignment, local election cycles, and difference-in-differences. It finds political distortions in invasive road maintenance timing and rules out maintenance seasonality. Spatial discontinuity plots leveraging ward boundary cutoffs confirm the shift. Results identify new public distortions to road maintenance, local election cycles, which are widespread and frequent. The estimates are used to calculate financial costs of local elections on road maintenance. Local elections have cost medium-large U.S. cities over $185.5 million from 1960- 2020.

Effect Of Unemployment Length On Employment Expectations, Kamyar Kamyar

Undergraduate Economic Review

Unemployment often has devastating effects on individuals -- both in financial and psychological terms. Depending on the type and category of unemployment, its length varies; and as its length increases it may implement biased thought in individuals’ predictions regarding future employment. This paper’s primary purpose is to measure and discuss how the time length that one has been unemployed for affects his or her expectations on his or her own short-term possibility of employment. The results suggest a strong opposite link between one’s prediction of future employment and the same person’s prior unemployment period. This paper was originally written in …

The Effect Of Hurricane Sandy On Mental Health Outcomes Of New Yorkers, Kacper Perkowski

Theses and Dissertations

This study’s objective is to evaluate the effect of Hurricane Sandy on the long-term mental health of New Yorkers. Health data spanning from 2010-2014 was obtained through the Community Health Survey. Difference-in-differences regressions were employed to evaluate the relationship. The results show Hurricane Sandy had no statistically significant effect on any key mental health variables.

Who Benefits From Park And Recreation Improvements In San Francisco? A Case Study Of Recreation Center Renovations In San Francisco, Safia Belayadi

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the efficacy of city policies undertaking public goods investments to benefit disadvantaged communities in San Francisco. Namely, is the process of improving the quality of public goods serving targeted populations, or does it lead to unintended consequences such as gentrification? I take advantage of the timing of city recreation center renovations and the synthetic control method to capture any difference in the proportion of users that is poor before and after the renovation date. I use San Francisco Recreation and Park Department registrant data containing user zip codes and census demographic data …

The Effect Of Revenue-Source Mix On Student Performance In Mississippi K-12 Public Schools, Sally Boswell

Honors Theses

Local, state, and federal funding for public schools have different stipulations on how they are used. Local revenue is more flexible, state revenue is controlled by the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) guidelines, and federal revenue is targeted to specific areas. MAEP largely impacts all public school funding through not only state revenue stipulations, but also through its funding formula that sets a minimum contribution per district for state funding. This thesis investigates how a district’s revenue mix of these three different types of funding impacts student performance (ACT scores and graduation rates) in K-12 public school districts across Mississippi. …

An Economic Analysis Of The Short-Term Rental Market: Local Regulatory Decisions, Joseph L. Kauffman, Harrison D. Hooper

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

In recent years, short-term home rental companies such as Airbnb and Vacation Rentals by Owner (VRBO) have grown in popularity throughout the United States and the world. The lack of regulation of this rapid growth, which stemmed from the legal grey area these rentals fall under, caused some states to adopt specific regulatory policies. These regulatory policies attempt to better monitor this sector, to tax rental earnings, and to reduce perceived negative externalities to this new market. This thesis researches the benefits and costs that short-term rentals (STRs) provide to cities and the regulatory implications on the growing rental market. …

The Nebraska Economy Responds To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Eric Thompson

Business in Nebraska

The Nebraska economy will contract in 2020 but the rate of decline will not be as rapid as nationwide. The economic structure of Nebraska is more focused on production and transportation than the national economy and less focused on hard-hit industries such as hospitality, entertainment, automobile parts and assembly, and oil production. Nebraska also may benefit from a higher quality workforce, which is better able to adapt to changing economic conditions.

Employment will drop by 2.4% in Nebraska in 2020, much less than the national rate of decline. Employment will rebound by 2.0% in 2021 and 1.4% in 2022. With …

Addressing Urban Income Inequality Through Education: A Case Study In Atlanta, Garrett Bronn

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

For decades, the income inequality gap between the rich and poor has continued to expand dramatically, with criticism of existing education systems often at the heart of the issue. Large urban cities are commonly at the forefront of the issue, given the plethora of teacher strikes in recent years. Events such as the 11-day Chicago teacher’s strike in October of 2019 that idled academics and college prep for 350,000 students, have highlighted many current education issues (Hauck, 2019). With underfunded and poorly equipped middle and high schools, students in poor and minority neighborhoods in cities are less prepared academically, ill …

Presidential Influence And Competitive Grant Funding: Reexamining Presidential Pork, Benjamin Albert

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

How does partisan alignment with the president affect the distribution of federal competitive grant funding? This analysis contributes to the literature on distributive politics by reexamining the relationship between alignment with the president and competitive grant funding over the time period of 2001 to 2017. Furthermore, the analysis will test if the relationship between alignment and competitive grant funding changed after the enactment of the 2011 earmark moratorium. Fractional probit regression is used to model the relationship between a representative’s partisan alignment with the president and the portion of annual competitive grant funding that their district receives. The results suggest …

Restructuring And Forgiveness In Financial Crises C: The Swedish Banking Crisis Of 1990-94, Christian M. Mcnamara, Dr. Lars Thunell, Andrew Metrick

Journal of Financial Crises

In the Spring of 1992, the Swedish government faced a dilemma. The country was in the midst of an economic downturn stemming from the collapse of asset prices (especially in real estate) that had spiked as a result of a credit boom that followed the deregulation of the Swedish banking system in the mid-1980s. Initially the impact of the downturn on the country’s banks had seemed to be limited to a small number of specific firms that the government moved to assist on an ad hoc basis in 1991. However, evidence was mounting that the banking crisis was reaching a …

Australian National Audit Office: Evaluating Australian Army Program Performance, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) evaluates the management and financial performance of Australian government programs for the Australian Parliament, Australian government agencies, Australian taxpayers, and individuals interested in the performance of these programs globally. This article examines how ANAO has examined the performance of Australian Army programs and strengths and weaknesses found in these programs while recommending changes to improve program performance. It also examines how government agencies and corporations which have been the subject of ANAO analyses have reacted to ANAO findings. This assessment also examines how Plan B (the possibility that Australia might have to rely less …

The End Of Zero Returns And The Last Dollar: Can New York State Create A Collective Store Of Value, Crowdsource Wealth, And Fund Its Colleges And Universities Using Cryptocurrency?, Edward Lehner

Publications and Research

This brief personal statement, citing the previous work of the Bronx Community College Cryptocurrency Research Laboratory (BCC Lab), advocates for a private New York State Money to fund New York State’s public higher education. Attempting to shed most of the academic language and the formalities of research-driven writing, this short statement frames two distinct arguments. The first contention is that New York State residents need a means by which to store value outside of the traditional banking and financial systems due to massive Federal Reserve printing that is centered primarily on rescuing fledgling Wall Street profits and mitigating reckless businesses …

Racialized Tax Inequity: Wealth, Racism, And The U.S. System Of Taxation, Palma Joy Strand, Nicholas A. Mirkay

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This Article describes the connection between wealth inequality and the increasing structural racism in the U.S. tax system since the 1980s. A long-term sociological view (the why) reveals the historical racialization of wealth and a shift in the tax system overall beginning around 1980 to protect and exacerbate wealth inequality, which has been fueled by racial animus and anxiety. A critical tax view (the how) highlights a shift over the same time period at both federal and state levels from taxes on wealth, to taxes on income, and then to taxes on consumption—from greater to less progressivity. Both of these …

The Economic Impact Of The Metro Manila (Ncr) Enhanced Community Quarantine, Krista Danielle Yu, Kathleen Aviso, Raymond R. Tan

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Metro Manila (NCR) comprises 37.5 percent of the Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) and the 30-day enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) will cause a significant decline in the national economy. This policy brief is based on a persistent inoperability input-output model to estimate two metrics: inoperability and economic losses. This takes into account the interdependent nature of the different sectors of the economy and considers the impact of the pandemic on the productivity of sectors directly affected by the ECQ such as the manufacturing, construction, trade, finance, private sector services, and transport sectors. Unlike previous model, PIIM results will provide insights …

The Sustainability Of Child Protection Services In The Republic Of Kosovo, Shpetim Bylykbashi

Capstone Collection

Today, in Kosovo, are services provided for the children most in need sustainable? Do these services have stable and long-term funding? Did the decentralization of the Kosovo government strengthen or weaken the existing child protective environment? In an attempt to answer these questions, a review of available literature was completed, as well as direct interviews conducted with relevant stakeholders engaged in Kosovo’s child protection services at both the governmental and civil society levels. The main finding of my research is that vulnerable children in Kosovo, such as children without parental care, children with special needs, and child victims of domestic …

Do Public Program Benefits Crowd Out Private Transfers In Developing Countries? A Critical Review Of Recent Evidence, Plamen Nikolov, Matthew Bonci

Economics Faculty Scholarship

Precipitated by rapid globalization, rising inequality, population growth, and longevity gains, social protection programs have been on the rise in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in the last three decades. However, the introduction of public benefits could displace informal mechanisms for risk-protection, which are especially prevalent in LMICs. If the displacement of private transfers is considerably large, the expansion of social protection programs could even lead to social welfare loss. In this paper, we critically survey the recent empirical literature on crowd-out effects in response to public policies, specifically in the context of LMICs. We review and synthesize patterns from …

An Inquiry Into Double Dividend Effects Of Carbon Taxes, Gregory Tracey

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

For my undergraduate thesis, I conducted research on the topic of carbon taxes. Specifically, I was interested in the possible existence of a double dividend effect as a method for making this public policy option more palatable to a broader audience. To that end, I first conducted a literature review on the subject, then did an empirical analysis. I chose Nebraska as the subject of my analysis because it is my home state and I experienced heated debates over tax policy firsthand as a Page for the State Legislature. To see whether a double dividend would exist in Nebraska, I …

Integration Of And Deliveries Among The World Zionist Organization, Israel, And Diaspora Countries: System Articulation With The Social Fabric Matrix, F. Gregory Hayden

Department of Economics: Faculty Publications

The religious economics (not economics of religion) concern here is the relationship between the World Zionist Organization (WZO) and Israel, which is known as a geopolitical power in its region and which is also known as an economic success story. Joseph Schumpeter and Karl Polanyi explained how the political economy of medieval Europe was influenced and guided by Christian morality. This paper extends the analysis of religious economics by using the social fabric matrix of original institutional economics to define and structure the integration of the WZO, Israel, and the Diaspora countries. This allows us to observe how to conduct …

Traffic Congestion In F.C.T: Demand And Supply Approach, Ibrahim Abdul, Salihu Habibu Mohammed Gani, Ibrahim G. Umaru

Bullion

This study examined traffic congestion in Abuja metropolis, F.C.T.- Nigeria using demand and supply approach. The study adopted survey research design. Primary data was collected using questionnaires. Descriptive statistics was used to analysed the data with the aid of tables and graphs. It was discovered that as a road reaches its capacity, each additional vehicle imposes more total delay on others than they bear, resulting in excessive traffic volumes. Congestion is mainly due to the intensive use of automobiles, whose ownership has spread massively in the F.C.T. in recent decades. The study revealed that traffic congestion causes serious consequences in …

Analysis Of The Impact Of Central Bank Of Nigeria's Agricultural Intervention Funds On The Economy, E. T. Adamgbe, M. C. Belonwu, E. R. Ochu, I. I. Okafor

Economic and Financial Review

This paper set out to investigate the impact of Central Bank of Nigeria's interventions on the agricultural sector within an economy-wide framework of general equilibrium modelling. The paper adopted a dynamic (recursive), two-sector general equilibrium model of the Nigerian economy with some modifications on the standard model developed by the Centre for Econometric and Applied Research (CEAR) and incorporated the contributions of the CBN's agricultural based interventions as increases in the stock of agricultural capital to have a more robust size of interventions into the agricultural sector. The SAM used for the CGE model analysis was derived from the updated …