Public Economics Commons^™

Deconstructing The Third Rail: An Analysis Of The Issue Of Poverty In The United States Through The Lens Of Social Security, Nikita Mehandru

CMC Senior Theses

The ongoing debate over welfare in the United States is rooted in the long-standing tension between the nation’s commitment to providing for its most vulnerable and a deep-seated belief that such support can corrupt its recipients. Social Security has struck this balance and appeals to the masses with its pay-as-you-go system and universally distributed benefits. Yet, the solvency of Social Security is threatening the program that has attempted to guard against old age and disability for the last eighty years. This paper examines how the perception of poverty in the United States is a hindrance when tackling social welfare policies. …

Against The Grain: The Imf, Bread Riots, And Altered State Development In The Hashemite Kingdom Of Jordan, David M. Leathers

CMC Senior Theses

Since the end of World War II, and especially over the past three decades, there has been a dramatic increase of interactions between international financial institutions (IFIs) and states. This paper will explore these interactions by examining the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This paper rests on the assumption that the complex implications of these interactions are not yet comprehensively understood and will move towards that goal by setting forth a collection of new approaches to further understand IFI-state interaction. It will discuss Jordan’s economic and political history, structural adjustment policies implemented by the IMF, …

The Macroeconomic Effects Of Tax News, Sandeep Kumar Rangaraju

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

This dissertation explores the effect of tax news on national and state-level economic activity.

In the first chapter, I explore the effect of tax news on state economic activity. I estimate a factor-augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) model, which allows us to consider the possibility that unobserved regional factors --such as credit and fiscal conditions-- might be relevant for modelling the dynamic response of aggregate and state-level economic activity. Tax news is identified as a shock to the implicit tax rate, measured by the yield spread between the one year tax-exempt municipal bond and the one-year taxable Treasury bond. My results …

Essays On Job-Related Risks And Worker Sorting, Teguh Yudo Wicaksono

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

This dissertation examines heterogeneity in the value of a statistical life (henceforth VSL) stemming from employer-provided health insurance (henceforth EHI) and worker sorting. The dissertation consists of three essays.

In the first essay (Chapter 2), I investigate the effect of health-driven productivity on the wage compensation for mortality risk, and how EHI influences VSL using the US labor market data. In this chapter I build a framework showing that the level of job risks influences the incentive of employers to provide EHI. The basic notion of the framework is that health insurance is an investment in health and health is …

Competition’S Effect On Teacher Pay And Teacher Characteristics, Casey S. Brasher

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

This dissertation adds to the literature that examines the effect of competition and school choice reform in elementary and secondary education. Specifically, we explore how three major forms of competition in U.S. schooling markets in Tiebout competition, charter competition, and private school competition affect the teaching profession by estimating a teacher wage equation and series of teacher characteristic equations. Since it has been well-established that all 3 forms of competition are likely endogenous, we present 2SLS estimates of competition’s effect in addition to simple OLS estimates. Our findings confirm the importance of studies controlling for endogeneity concerns, particularly in regards …

Breaking The Chains Of Poverty Among Filipino Households: Will It Be In This Lifetime?, John Paolo R. Rivera

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) attributes persistent poverty in the Philippines to “weak macroeconomic management, employment issues, high population growth, an underperforming agricultural sector and unfinished land reform agenda, governance issues including corruption and a weak state, conflict and security issues, particularly in Mindanao, and disability” (Asian Development Bank [ADB], 2005, xvii). Despite copious and varied government initiatives to remedy the situation, however, Filipinos in the lower income deciles continue to suffer from the constant deprivation of basic necessities (Schelzig, 2005).

Monetary Expansion And Bank Credit: A Lack Of Spark, Lucjan T. Orlowski

WCBT Faculty Publications

This paper aims to evaluate the effects of the Federal Reserve monetary expansion over thepast 15 years on the credit channel of monetary policy transmission. To do so, we analyze the allocation of the Fed vast liquidity injections by the U.S. banks. The underlying hypothesis is that the considerable monetary expansion neutralized the bank credit expansion as banks channeled borrowed liquidity into other assets.

The monetary expansion was propelled by the financial crisis of 2007–2008. The crisis led to the rapid deterioration of asset performance and liquidity of the banking system. Among the key factors contributing to the crisis was …

Measuring Happiness To Guide Public Policy Making: A Survey Of Instruments And Policy Initiatives, Laura Musikanski

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

This author examines subjective indicators of well-being as they relate to the happiness movement, a global effort to create a new economic paradigm. The essay focuses on the prominent international institutions that are developing happiness metrics as well as agencies exploring the use of happiness data for crafting supportive public policy. A definition of happiness metrics, based on international institutions, identifies the primary questions that compose perceived happiness and how this data can be used.

Does Financial Literacy Contribute To Food Security?, Katherine Grace Carman, Gema Zamarro

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

Food insecurity, not having consistent access to adequate food for active, healthy lives for all household members is most common among low income households. However, income alone is not sufficient to explain who experiences food insecurity. This study investigates the relationship between financial literacy and food security. We find that low income households who exhibit financial literacy are less likely to experience food insecurity.

Antitrust, Competition Policy, And Inequality, Jonathan B. Baker, Steven C. Salop

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Economic inequality recently has entered the political discourse in a highly visible way. This political impact is not a surprise. As the U.S. economy has begun to recover from the Great Recession since mid-2009, economic growth has effectively been appropriated by those already well off, leaving the median household less well off. The serious economic, political and moral issues raised by inequality can be addressed through a panoply of public policies including competition policy, the focus of this article. The article describes the channels through which market power contributes to inequality, and sets forth a range of possible antitrust policy …

On Testing For Sphericity With Non-Normality In A Fixed Effects Panel Data Model, Badi H. Baltagi, Chihwa Kao, Bin Peng

Center for Policy Research

Building upon the work of Chen et al. (2010), this paper proposes a test for sphericity of the variance-covariance matrix in a fixed effects panel data regression model without the normality assumption on the disturbances.

Analisa Kesenjangan Prevalensi Stunting Antar Kawasan Di Indonesia Serta Faktor Yang Mempengaruhinya, Melyana Lumbantoru, Hera Susanti

Jurnal Kebijakan Ekonomi

Stunting is an indicator for chronic nutritional status that can provide a picture of overall socio-economic disruption in the past, starting from six months old infant and continue until the age of 18 years and can not be corrected again. The study concluded that infant growth monitoring, access to sanitation, health budget allocation per capita, income per capita and female literacy rate are significantiy reducing the occurrence of stunting. While the Theil index shows that the number of stunting is increasingly dispersed throughout Indonesia. At the regional level, the total disparity for stunting tends to decrease. In 2007, 2010 and …

Perdagangan Bebas Versus Proteksionisme, Lepi T. Tarmidi

Jurnal Kebijakan Ekonomi

For the past 20 years the world has seen a proliferation of Regional Free Trade Agreements. Some Indonesian economists are criticizing the negative effects of this “neo-liberal” thinking, instead they promote measures of protection to defend domestic industries. Every citizen must bea patriotand a nationalist, and not be a servant of great foreign economic powers. However, the greater majority of economists are for the idea of free trade, since it can bring prosperity to the people through the gains from trade. These economists are also nationalists. However, the controversy between free trade and protectionism has a long history, since the …

Efisiensi Belanja Publik Untuk Meningkatkan Anggaran Lingkungan, Donny Yoesgiantoro

Jurnal Kebijakan Ekonomi

The purpose of this research is to provide recommendations to government in taking efficiency measures on public spending in order to increase budget allocation for the environment. The data used are secondary data, obtained from the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Indonesia as well as The World Bank. The research method employed is guantitative descriptive approach. Result shows that in the period of 2005-2014, the average spending growth rate is eguivalent with nominal GDP growth rate. However, the growth of spending on Goods and Services is well above higher than that of …

Persepsi Konsumen Terhadap Prioritas Perbaikan Infrastruktur Pasar Tradisional (Studi Kasus : Pasar Perumnas Klender), Bernardhus Wishman Siregar

Jurnal Kebijakan Ekonomi

everal studies have found that consumer in Indonesia has shifted their preference from traditional to modern market, due to a better service provided by modern market retailer for its consumer. Focusing on consumer perceptions, this research tries to see the consumer assessment for traditional market's service and infrastructures using the gualitative approach in Pasar Perumnas Klender. Finally, this research found that improvements in infrastructure is necessary in order to meet the consumer needs.

Dampak Pembiayaan Kredit Perbankan Terhadap Nilai Tambah Industri Pengolahan Di Indonesia, Ita Kurnia Sholihah, Telisa Aulia Falianty

Jurnal Kebijakan Ekonomi

This study aims to measure the effect of bank credit financing to value-added of manufacturing industry in Indonesia. This study uses the data of manufacturing industry sub-sector level. The data used are sub-sector credit, value added, labor, fixed capital, the minimum wage, the exchange rate, and the Gross Domestic Produc. This study period is 2002 – 2012 and using a Two-Stage Least Square with Fixed Effect as a estimation methode. Finally, the results showed that the significant effect of bank credit financing to encourage value-added manufacturing industry in Indonesia.

Common-Value Procurement Auctions With Renegotiation, Rimvydas Baltaduonis, Lucas Rentschler

Economics Faculty Publications

This note contains the equilibrium bid functions for two types of common-value procurement auctions: 1) a procurement auction in which bids represent an enforceable contract; 2) a procurement auction in which, upon learning the true cost of supplying the good, the winning bidder can renegotiate the contract with the buyer, and each bidder must submit a bond with their bid, which is returned at the end of the auction unless they are the low bidder and renegotiate the contract.

Cost Share Adjustment Processes For Cooperative Group Decisions About Shared Goods: A Design Approach, Edna T. Loehman, Richard Kiser, Stephen Rassenti

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

For group decision about shared goods, the nature of the shared good and how its cost is to be shared among group members must be determined. Complexity arises from heterogeneity in preferences and endowments and nonlinear cost. To facilitate group decision, this paper proposes special type of group decision support system, a cost share adjustment process (CSAP), in which cost shares are adjusted iteratively via algorithmic rules until unanimity is reached, ideally producing a socially optimal, cost feasible, and fair outcome. In contrast to public good literature, our designs apply for situations of nonlinear cost, with economies of scale and …

Integration Of Central And Eastern European And The Euro-Area Financial Markets: Repercussions From The Global Financial Crisis, Lucjan T. Orlowski, Anna Tsibulina

WCBT Faculty Publications

We examine integration of financial markets and banking sectors in Central and Eastern Europe and the euro area. We study co-movements between government bond and equity markets of Germany and those of Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, as well as Slovenia and Slovakia (the two recent euro members). We assume that financial integration is essential for subsequent monetary convergence, as it will enable the euro candidates to mitigate systemic risk and avert potentially destabilizing shocks. Government bond yields of the Czech Republic and Poland show high correlation with German yields, in contrast to those of the remaining countries. Equity returns of …

Perspectives On The Global Financial Crisis From Emerging Managers And Public Policy Makers [Full Version], James L. Grant

Financial Services Forum Publications

This manuscript attempts to capture the perspectives of emerging managers and public policy makers as evinced in the perspectives of graduate students and others who were enrolled in my newly developed course on the global financial crisis—first offered in the 2010 Harvard Summer Economics Program—at a time when students were engaged in the midst and aftermath of the most severe U.S. and worldwide recession since the Great Depression of the early 1930s. The many perspectives gathered on the causes, consequences, remedies, and perhaps more importantly, a glimpse at student thoughts, concerns, and worries at the time—have been collected from the …