Economic Policy Commons^™

Lignocellulosic Biorefineries In Europe: Current State And Prospects, Shady S. Hassan, Gwilym A. Williams, Amit Jaiswal

Articles

Lignocellulosic biorefining processes plant-derived biomass into a range of bio-based products. Currently, more than 40 lignocellulosic biorefineries are operating across Europe. Here, we address the challenges and future opportunities of this nascent industry by elucidating key elements of the biorefining sector, including feedstock sourcing, processing methods, and the bioproducts market.

Transitioning Montana To A Renewable Energy Future: The Social And Economic Impacts, Jacqueline O. Sussman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Montana is home to the second-largest coal-fired power plant in the West, the Colstrip Generating Station. The value and demand for coal both domestically and globally is quickly diminishing, while the renewable energy industries of wind and solar are booming. As utilities in the Northwest transition their investments from coal to renewable energy, Montana faces a critical decision on the future of its energy system that will impact the lives of generations of Montanans to come.

This five-part report aims to aid in the discussion and decision-making process by reviewing the most up-to-date economic data on renewable energy; discussing the …

The Politics Of Gentrification In Charlotte, Nc: A New South City Meets The Urban Realities Of 21st Century Prosperity., David Cole

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Excerpt from Introduction

In the Fall of 2017, Amazon Inc. opened an unprecedented nationwide bidding competition.[1] The huge online retailer was seeking a home for its second headquarters, dubbed “HQ2,” which could potentially include 50,000 high-paying jobs and billions of dollars of investment into a local economy.[2] The company completed a request for proposal (RFP) that detailed the baseline amenities that cities applying for the headquarters must have. This included Interstate access, a metropolitan population of over 1 million, an international airport, and the presence of a research university.[3]

Employee Financial Wellness Programs: Differences In Reach By Race And Ethnicity, Sophia R. Fox-Dichter, Mathieu R. Despard, Ellen Frank-Miller, Geraldine Germain

Social Policy Institute Research

Employee Financial Wellness Programs (EF-WPs) consist of a wide array of workplace-based services and benefits that aim to enhance em-ployees’ financial well-being, such as in-person financial coaching, online financial management tools, and payroll advances or short-term loans. EFWP provision varies across employers with few organizations offering the same set of services. The recently released Employee Financial Well-ness Programs Project: Comprehensive Report of Findings notes that EFWP utilization rates and employee self-reported benefits also vary widely. This report continues the examination of varia-tion in EFWP trends by breaking down measures of EFWP reach by employee race and ethnicity. We examine three …

Three Essays On Public Finance And Public Policy: Financial Disclosure And Policy Reinvention In U.S. State And Local Governments, Jinhai Yu

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay, or Chapter 2, advances the literature by examining the conditional effects of lobbying on the relationship between policy learning and policy reinvention. Scholars have consistently shown that learning of successful policies in other states leads to higher likelihood of policy adoption. This essay extends this finding two ways. First, policy learning can also lead to more comprehensive adoption of successful policies. Second, the effect of policy learning on policy comprehensiveness is conditional on lobbying by interest groups, an alternative source of information about policy success. To test these hypotheses, I conduct …

Three Essays On Local Public Finance, Thomas Daniel Woodbury

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

This dissertation seeks to develop the subject of local public finance in a manner consistent with the political economy of local governments. For ease of description, each essay will be discussed briefly.

The first essay is titled "The Provision of Generalized Local Public Goods Financed by Distortionary Taxation." This essay models the provision of a local public good that is simultaneously utilized as a public consumption good and a public intermediate good. Since the public good can simultaneously enter both utility and production functions, it is considered a "generalized public good." This is done to model the provision of infrastructure …

An Assessment Of The Sharing Economy And Its Policy Solutions Through The Lens Of Sustainability, Chloe An

Pomona Senior Theses

This senior thesis in environmental analysis explores the promise of sustainability of the sharing economy, its shortcomings from this positive potential, and possible policy solutions to help it reach its fullest, positive potential. At its core, the sharing economy enables shared access to goods and services that would otherwise sit in idle or underutilized capacity – popular platforms such as Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, and craigslist all fall within the sharing economy. By enabling affordable and convenient access to goods that would otherwise sit idle, the sharing economy encourages maximal use of a good that already exists rather than seeking out …

Human Development And Subnationalism: A Disaggregated Analysis Of Indian States: Kerala And Uttar Pradesh, Manika Garg

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis investigates achievements in human development outcomes on health, education, and poverty indicators across Indian states, in order to discern what factors might influence a state’s better orientation toward social policies. After conducting data analysis, the study explains differences in outcomes, as achieved by Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, by building an argument of subnational solidarity and its impact on determining the state’s policy agendas.

Paid Parental Leave In The United States: Reconciling Competing Demands, Sydney Joseph

CMC Senior Theses

The United States is the only developed nation that fails to provide its citizens with paid parental leave. The lack of parental benefit provision operates to the detriment of individuals and society as a whole by contributing to inequity across gender, race, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation. As the demographics of the American workforce have changed, public policy has not kept pace. Paid parental leave is associated a number of health, economic, and social benefits. However, the greatest barrier to legislating paid parental leave is the philosophical underpinnings of American politics, specifically the strong current of liberal individualism and absence …

Why Not Mexico? Policy Recommendations For A Globally-Oriented Economic Strategy, Víctor Manuel Hernández-Rodríguez

CMC Senior Theses

Mexico, one of the world’s largest economies and an increasingly relevant actor in international affairs, is at a crucial point in defining its future policy course. Given the uncertainty surrounding the global economy, as well as the political situation in Mexico, it is important to have a clear vision for policy going forward. This thesis offers a foundation for a national economic strategy with a long-term vision, upon which future administrations can build as appropriate to maximize on the country’s economic potential. The task is undertaken through a three-part approach. First, a thorough and analytical overview of the country’s economic …

Strength Through Diplomacy: A Fundamental Review Of The Relationship Between North Korea And The United States, Benjamin D. Blackstone

CMC Senior Theses

At the time that this thesis is printed, we are reminded of the tumultuous relationship between North Korea and the United States every day. If we follow the mainstream news regularly, it seems like we are on a steady path to war. Ultimately, this paper is centered around the question: what is the best foreign policy strategy for both countries to achieve respective goals, without descending into armed conflict? Specifically, I evaluated the failures of the last three U.S. Presidents and used their shortcomings to explain limitations in current foreign policy strategy. I also attempted to show North Korean concerns …

The Impact Of Fiscal Policy On Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence From Four South Asian Countries, Tasnia Symoom

Masters Theses

There is a constant debate about the effectiveness of fiscal policy on economic growth of developing countries. Policy makers in developing countries generally attempt to address socioeconomic issues such as poverty, unemployment, hunger, poor investment, and illiteracy while adjusting the levels of public spending and determining tax rates. This thesis examines the impact of fiscal policy on economic growth in four countries of South Asia. For reasons of data availability I choose four of these countries – Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka – for the period 1980 to 2016. I use the Error Correction Model (ECM) and Autoregressive Distributed …

China's "Mercantilist" Government Subsidies, The Cost Of Debt And Firm Performance, Chu Yeong Lim, Jiwei Wang, Cheng (Colin) Zeng

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

China has been adopting a “mercantilist” policy by lavishing massive government subsidies on Chinese firms. Using hand-collected subsidy data on Chinese listed companies, we find that firms receiving more subsidies tend to have a lower cost of debt. However, such firms fail to have superior financial performance. Instead, firms with more subsidies tend to be overstaffed, which demonstrates higher social performance. These results are mainly driven by non-tax-based subsidies rather than tax-based subsidies. Overall, our results suggest that the Chinese government uses non-tax-based subsidies to achieve its social policy objectives at the expense of firms’ profitability.

Perkembangan Asuransi Kesehatan Swasta Di Indonesia Tahun 2012-2016, Kurnia Sari

Jurnal Ekonomi Kesehatan Indonesia

Total private insurance spending in 2015 is about 3.9% of Indonesia’s health expenditures. Although it is not considerably high, the information about private health insurance in Indonesia is still limited. This review is aimed to provide an overview of the private health insurance company growths in Indonesia. The number of private insurance company does not grow significantly, while the number of membership tends to fluctuate in the last 5 years, even it is tend to decrease for non life insurance category. Sums assured tend to rise until 2014, then stagnant for the next period. The amount of premium received by …

Timbang Besarnya Manfaat Dari Salah Sasar Penerima Bantuan Iuran Jaminan Kesehatan, Prastuti Soewondo

Jurnal Ekonomi Kesehatan Indonesia

One of the foremost government policies implemented in achieving Universal Health Coverage for the Indonesian population is the provision of financial assistance through contribution of Social Health Insurance for 92.4 million targeted poor and near poor households. This segment of the population is referred to as Penerima Bantuan Iuran (PBI) and represents about 35% of the total population. This study reveals the government’s progress in protecting the health of this sub-population. The data is derived from the 2016 National Social Economic Survey. The results indicate that, at the national level, the government’s health protection program has reached the majority of …

Determinan Variasi Klaim Penyakit Stroke Peserta Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional Rumah Sakit X Sumatera Utara, Joan Xaveria Mahulae, Jaslis Ilyas

Jurnal Ekonomi Kesehatan Indonesia

Refers to IHME study in 2010 about Global Burden of Disease shows that stroke is one of the highest cause of mortality in Indonesia. While the expenditure by BPJS Health for stroke is the 2nd highest after heart disease. This study aims to determine the most dominant characteristics associated with the total claims of stroke patients covered by JKN for inpatient service at X Hospital by doing multivariate analysis with variable linear regression method. The most significant characteristics are type of health care, type of membership, length of stay age, and level of severity. The finding shows that X Hospital …

Analisis Praktik Koordinasi Manfaat (Coordination Of Benefit) Layanan Rawat Inap Di Indonesia, Fera Mutiara Dewi, Budi Hidayat

Jurnal Ekonomi Kesehatan Indonesia

Nowadays, some people may have double insurance. Besides having compulsory insurance that regulated by government, they also have additional health insurance which is not mandatory. This condition has opened up opportunities for Coordination of Benefit (COB) in Indonesia, especially in JKN era. Unfortunately, in practice COB still not executed according to the principle of general rules of insurance. This research seeks to analyze the practice of the COB and COB fee scale in Indonesia. The method used is the observational study with cross sectional design. The modeling uses an econometric approach that is a two-part model which separates the process …

Cost Of Treatment Demam Berdarah Dengue (Dbd) Di Rawat Inap Berdasarkan Clinical Pathway Di Rs X Jakarta, Vera Marietha Meinar Rejeki, Atik Nurwahyuni

Jurnal Ekonomi Kesehatan Indonesia

Hospitals as health care providers are now required to perform cost and quality control without neglecting the quality of services. Clinical pathways which underlying quality and cost control in the hospital are available but has not been audited. This study aims to determine the unit cost of services in RS X Jakarta, the utilization of hospital services for dengue disease and cost of treatment of DHF in RS X Jakarta. A cross-sectional study was performed in this study. A quantitative approach was done through data collection from hospital information system, medical record and financial data. The result showed that there …

Analisis Perbandingan Biaya Langsung (Direct Cost) Dan Biaya Tidak Langsung (Indirect Cost) Pada Pasien Stroke Di Rumah Sakit, Destanul Aulia, Sri Fajar Ayu, Nefonafratilova Ritonga

Jurnal Ekonomi Kesehatan Indonesia

Stroke is divided into two categories, ischemic and hemorrhagic. Each year there are 15 million people around the world who suffer a stroke. Stroke treatment requires a high cost. The burden of heart disease and stroke from 2012 to 2030 reaches Rp. 1,7 trillion. This study aimed to analyze the comparison of direct and indirect costs of stroke patient in X hospital in 2017. The results showed that the number of ischemic stroke patients more than hemorrhagic stroke patients. The average cost of hemorrhagic stroke patients is greater at Rp 3,763,750 than the average cost of ischemic stroke patients. The …

The Impacts Of Commercialization On Depth, Breadth, Scope, And Quality Of Outreach In Mozambique: A Case-Study, Courtney Johnson

Student Research – Stevenson Center

In today’s microfinance, scholars and policy-makers across the world have emphasized the importance of financial sustainability, or the ability of a microfinance institution (MFI) to finance its operations. In order to reach financial sustainability, MFIs embrace commercialization, a process where an MFI undergoes restructuring in order to open up avenues to capital. Yet, scholars are concerned that this emphasizes on financial sustainability will cause the social good objective to suffer, a phenomenon known as “trade-off.” Indeed, studies have found that commercialization impacts MFI outreach in various ways. To my knowledge, no research has attempted to understand the impacts of commercialization …