Public Economics Commons^™

Finally, Nebraska: A Synthetic Control Analysis Of Legislative Structure, William B. Hankins

Research, Publications & Creative Work

I estimate the impact of Nebraska’s 1937 switch from a bicameral to a unicameral legislature on state-level government expenditures. Using the synthetic control method I create a counterfactual Nebraska from a weighted-average of other potential control states and compare spending in this “synthetic Nebraska” to spending in the real Nebraska. Relative to the synthetic control, Nebraska experiences a sharp decrease in expenditures per capita immediately following the switch to a unicameral legislature, however, the difference appears to diminish over time. Placebo tests show that if the change in Nebraska’s legislative structure were randomly assigned amongst the sample of states, and …

Does Starting School Before Labor Day Affect High School Retention And Graduation: Evidence From Virginia's Kings Dominion Law, Timothy M. Komarek, Jay K. Walker

Economics Faculty Publications

Several states have required K-12 public schools to start after Labor Day in an effort to aid the tourism and hospitality industry. However, little is known about how these policies impact educational outcomes. We examine the impact of Virginia's post-Labor Day school start law on high school retention and graduation rates. We use a difference-in-differences model to exploit exogenous variation in school division start dates. Our results show small differences of up to three weeks have little effect on high school dropout and graduation rates. Our findings inform the debate on post-Labor Day school start laws and compulsory attendance age …

Environmental Governance For Whom? Examining The Political, Institutional, Fiscal, And Legal Determinants Of State Environmental Agency Budget Policy In The Us, Andrew R. Duggan

Theses and Dissertations

Budgets are a prospective tool of governance, and appropriations are a planning vehicle reflecting: bureaucracies’ values, complex interactions, collective preferences, political influences, and available resources. Research spanning 30 years finds that environmental pollution is a key determinant of environmental budgets in the US, though myriad factors, actors, and subsystems are important to consider. Due to federalism and devolution of responsibilities and authorities, environmental governance falls largely to the states. While the dynamics that shape state environmental budget policy have received scholarly interest, theoretically-driven examinations of environmental appropriations remain limited within the public budgeting and environmental policy literature.

Using panel data …

Academia In Anarchy: 50 Years On, Joshua C. Hall

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

In 1970, James Buchanan and Nicos Devletoglou published Academia in Anarchy: An Economic Diagnosis. Even though the book focuses on the industry Buchanan worked in for nearly 70 years, it is the only one of his non-autobiographical, non-textbook, books not included in his collected works. I evaluate the arguments of Buchanan and Devletoglou in light of the past 50 years of scholarship on the economics of higher education.

Home Rule, Local Autonomy, And Municipal Government Behavior, Xin Chen

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

This dissertation focuses on relationships between state and local governments. Of particular interest in this project is how the shift of power from the state to local governments changes local governments’ performance. This dissertation is comprised of four chapters. The first chapter briefly introduces the motivation and organization of the dissertation. The second chapter reviews the three state-imposed fiscal institutions—home rule, debt limitations, and tax and expenditure limitations, across states. While previous studies have looked at specific institutions, few studies have comprehensively reviewed the status of those institutions across states. This chapter attempts to fill this gap by comprehensively scrutinizing …

Economic Activity, International Intervention, And Transitional Governance: A Comparative Case Study Of Somalia, Daniel Bonneau, Joshua C. Hall

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

This paper investigates the impact of international state-building efforts in Somalia on economic development. We use satellite data on night lights to measure economic activity to deal with nonexistent or poor-quality national income accounts. Using the synthetic control method, we find that the establishment of the Transitional Federal Government in 2004 was associated with economic stagnation relative to the years under statelessness. Using nighttime light emissions, we find economic stagnation regardless of whether we use the total lights emitted from the country or the spread of lights across the country. Our empirical findings are consistent with the idea that the …

The Effect Of Transparency, Independence And Accountability Of Central Banks On Disinflation Costs, Golnaz B. Motie, Joshua C. Hall

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Policymakers often want to achieve low inflation to avoid the low economic growth associated with high inflation. Reducing inflation through monetary policy (disinflation) is not costless as it can coincide with higher unemployment rates and reduced output. In this paper we use sacrifice ratios to calculate the cost of disinflation during the 1990s for 40 countries. We then study whether transparency and democratic accountability of monetary institutions reduces disinflation costs. Our empirical results suggest that more transparent central banks seem to face higher disinflation costs. This result could be because more transparent central banks have lower initial inflation rates during …

A Theory Of Fire Service Provision: With An Empirical Analysis Of Response Time, Suppression Time, And Service Output, Hyong-Gu Hwang

Senior Independent Study Theses

We introduce a two-stage theoretical framework of fire services that justifies the status of response time as a factor input. In the first stage, the provincial government distributes a budget to its cities, resulting in varied numbers of firefighters and fire engines in each city. In the second stage, each city fire department places its fire stations at spatially optimal locations that minimize expected response times. When a fire occurs, the outputs from these two stages are actualized into dispatch level, response time, and suppression time. These intermediate outputs are then transformed into inputs for producing service output, which is …

The Effect Of Direct Taxes On Income And Wealth Distribution In Thailand Under Comprehensive Income Concept, Voramast Limteerakul

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This thesis research comprises three studies, each of which investigates the inequality of income and wealth in Thailand from 1996 to 2017 and the impact of personal income tax and taxes on real estate on that inequality. Shorrocks Index decomposition technique is applied to examine the key drivers of inequality in the country in the first two studies. In the third study, the analysis is developed under the Heckman Selection Model to estimate the effect of personal income tax policy reform on the individual. The overall results demonstrate that accrued capital gains from asset ownership are the main drivers of …

Topics In Cultural And Entertainment Economics, Justin W. Parker

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

During the first 60 years of television broadcasting, prime time programming was dominated by the "Big Three" networks--NBC, ABC, and CBS. Their dominance in the market functioned as an oligopoly, supported by longstanding regulatory structures. Beginning in the 1970s, a wave of deregulation and change from satellite technology swept the industry, making it easier for other firms to enter the market. In 1986, the premiere of FOX saw a viable fourth network break through to compete with the Big Three. This paper analyzes inefficiencies on both the cost and content production side of prime time television, using survival analysis to …

Three Essays In Law And Economics, Daniel Bonneau

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation investigates three relevant topics in law and economics literature. The first chapter explores the effectiveness of a crime prevention policy in Detroit, Project Green Light. This initiative began in 2016 and was aimed at reducing crime around high-risk businesses. Reductions in crime can be found in the business block that housed the green light, with a potential diffusion of benefits to their immediate neighbors. Using calls for service produces mixed results and suggest that there may be an increase in proactive policing within these areas. Lastly, response times do appear to decrease significantly. The second chapter empirically evaluates …

Three Essays On Health Economics And Policy Evaluation, Shishir Shakya

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation consists of three essays on the U.S. Health care policy. Each paragraph below refers to the three abstracts for the three chapters in this dissertation, respectively. I provide quantitative evidence on how much Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) affects the retail opioid prescribing behaviors. Using the American Community Survey (ACS), I retrieve county-level high dimensional panel data set from 2010 to 2017. I employ three separate identification strategies: difference-in-difference, double selection post-LASSO, and spatial difference-in-difference. I compare how the retail opioid prescribing behaviors of counties, that are mandatory for prescribers to check the PDMP before prescribing controlled substances …

Three Essays In Public Economics, Perry Ferrell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation investigates policy-relevant topics in public economics and law and economics. The first chapter applies the transitional gains trap to legal land title enfranchisement in developing countries. The second chapter examines the role of US Forest Service avalanche forecasting operations in preventing human-involved backcountry avalanche accidents. The final chapter explores what extent local newspaper coverage has on traffic stop behavior by local law enforcement. In the first chapter “Titles For Me But Not For Thee: Transitional Gains Trap of Property Rights Extension in Colombia” I apply Tullock’s “transitional gains trap” to the formalization of property titles in Latin America …

Essays On The Political Economy Of Governance, Yang Zhou

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation studies the governance structure and its economic impacts in the Chinese context. Specifically, I use a public choice framework to analyze how institutions influence economic and political activities of both public officials and private sectors. Chapter 1 employs the synthetic control method to investigate the effects of institutions to regional economic development. Chongqing Municipality, a province-level region in China, had a unique leader from late 2007 to early 2012 who conducted red ideology movements and legal intervention. The empirical results reveal that although the economic policies promoted the Chongqing economy, the Maoist political policies partially undermined its economic …

The Contribution Of Islamic Banks Towards The Achievement Of Sustainable Development Goals: The Case Of Indonesia, Nunung Ghoniyah

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

This study aims to strengthen the opinion that the main goal of Islamic banks is not to obtain profit, but rather to improve the standards of living. In this study, the evidence is obtained by processing secondary data on Islamic banks in Indonesia during the period of 2011 to 2017 by using panel data regression model. The results of the data analysis support the hypothesis that banks whose goals are aimed at falah will demand lower payment obligations from customers, allowing the customers to manage funds in the real sector. The implication is also strengthened by good financial quality control, …

The Effect Of School Operational Assistance Program On Investment In Education By Households: Evidence From Indonesia, Nia Pramita Sari

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

The School Operational Assistance Program, referred to as BOS, is a demand intervention program indirectly provided by the government of Indonesia to students through schools, started in July 2005. This paper examines the impact of BOS on educational investment by households and other expenditure such as food and non-food consumption. Using the observations of 1,161 households with at least one member studying in public school from the fourth wave of the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS 4), we discover that BOS is effective in relaxing household's budget constraint, thus increasing educational investment by households. We also discover that households with …

Book Review: Indonesia's Digital-Based Economic Transformation: The Emergence Of New Technological, Business, Economic, And Policy Trends In Indonesia, Anika Widiana

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

No abstract provided.

Consumers Support A Slowing Economy, Eric Thompson

Business in Nebraska

Nebraska will record moderate economic growth during the forecast period but will lag U.S. growth. Like the national economy, growth Nebraska’s goods producing sector will struggle. Farm incomes will be flat from 2020 to 2022 after improving this year. Manufacturing employment also is expected to drop. However, most other sectors will expand, including services, finance and construction. Projected growth rates for 2020 to 2022 are presented in Table 1.

Employment will grow by 0.6% to 0.8% per year, below the national rate. Non-farm income will grow between 3.7% and 3.8% each year. This growth readily exceeds inflation and population growth, …

Utilization Of Free Trade Agreement In Indonesia: Firm-Level Data Analysis Of The Yogyakarta Special Region, Nadira Asrifa Nasution

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

This study aims to observe the utilization of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in the Special Region of Yogyakarta. The findings are obtained by processing primary data collected from in-depth interviews and a survey of firms by applying descriptive analysis. The findings show that FTA is utilized by merely 44% of the total population of 64 firms in Yogyakarta. The benefits of FTA obtained by firms include market access, ease of processing custom documents, and lower preferential tariffs. However, the disadvantages include onerous document requirements, limited information, and difficulties in understanding regulations. Another issue related to the utilization of FTA concerns …

Corruption And Economic Growth In Asean Member Countries, Anisah Alfada

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

This study examines the effect of corruption on economic growth and determines the corruption threshold in nine ASEAN member countries in 1999-2016. This study assesses whether the effect of corruption is growth-enhancing or growth-deteriorating in different corruption threhsolds using a sample-splitting and threshold model. In contrast to the existing literature, this study does not group countries based on income level and therefore can reveal the corruption level of a country relative to a corruption threshold. The estimation results show that the adverse effect of corruption on economic growth is stronger for countries with corruption levels above the second threshold of …