Economic Policy Commons^™

A Circuit Breaker For New York State?, John Yinger

Center for Policy Research

It’s Elementary is a series of essays on topics in education and education policy. The main focus is on education finance in New York State, but general research findings in education and education policy issues in several other states are also discussed. John Yinger, Professor of Economics and Public Administration at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University is the author of most of these essays, although a few are written by or co-authored with other scholars.

Abstracts Volume 1 2014 Chinese, The Editors

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

Abstracts for 2014 Volume in Chinese

From Preschool To Prosperity: The Economic Payoff To Early Childhood Education, Timothy J. Bartik

Presentations

No abstract provided.

The Evolution Of Non-Market Valuation Of U.S. Coastal And Marine Resources, Douglas Lipton, Dan K. Lew, Kristy Wallmo, Peter Wiley, Anthony Dvarskas

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

At the federal level, particularly within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), regulatory and programmatic needs have driven the continued development and application of non-market valuation approaches to marine and coastal resources. The evolution of these valuation approaches not only entails adopting the recommendations of the 1993 NOAA blue ribbon panel on contingent valuation, but also an expansion of stated preference approaches with increased use of stated preference choice experiments. Revealed preference approaches have also advanced with more sophisticated random utility models. We provide an overview of this evolution in the areas of natural resources damage assessment, protected resources, …

Abstracts Volume 1 2014 Spanish, The Editors

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

Abstracts to Volume 2014 in Spanish

Rebuilding The Classification System Of The Ocean Economy, Dr. Kwang Seo Park, Dr. Judith T. Kildow

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

Many ocean countries have attempted to estimate the size of the ocean economy or industry. However, it is difficult to compare the ocean economy among countries because the definition, classification standard, and scope vary within each country. This study aims to provide concrete practical proposals for universal definition, classification standard, and scope of the ocean economy. With regard to the definition of the ocean economy, a combination of industrial and geographical perspectives is considered simultaneously. As a result, the ocean economy is defined as the economic activities that directly or indirectly take place in the ocean and use outputs from …

Assessing The Economic Costs Of Water Pollution In The Yangtze River, China, Xiaoli Zhang

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

Water pollution of the Yangtze River basin is very serious. Studies have shown that from the upper to the lower river, the water volume decreases and development and pollution increase, especially in trans-boundary areas. The Yangtze Estuary is located at the intersection of Jiangsu Province and Shanghai where the waters flow directly into the East China Sea. The estuary provides drinking water to many people and serves multiple other functions, including agricultural irrigation, tourism, and aquaculture. It plays a pivotal role in the local social and economic development and in people’s general wellbeing. Directly or indirectly, the pollution of the …

What Have We Learned From The Deepwater Horizon Disaster? An Economist’S Perspective, Daniel R. Petrolia

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

This paper outlines what we have learned about the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil disaster from the economics discipline as well as what effect the DWH disaster has had on the economics discipline. It appears that what we know about the economic impact of the DWH spill today is limited, possibly because such analysis is tied up in the federal Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) process and other state-led efforts. There is evidence, however, that the NRDA process has changed over time to de-emphasize economic valuation of damages. There is also evidence that economists may be producing fewer …

An Anatomy Of State Control In The Globalization Of State-Owned Enterprises, Hao Liang, Bing Ren, Sunny Li Sun

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Integrating agency theory with institutional analysis in international business, we propose a state-control perspective to analyze government-control mechanisms in emerging economies’ globalization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). We identify two types of state control that influence SOEs’ globalization decisions and the degree of globalization: state ownership control and executives’ political connections, both of which are contingent upon the home country’s evolving institutional environments. Using a two-step corporate globalization decision model and 17,272 firm-year observations of non-financial, Chinese-listed companies, we find a strong impact of both types of state control on SOEs’ globalization, although the impacts differ between the periods before and …

On Solid Ground: Building Opportunity, Preventing Homelessness, Center For Social Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center For Public Management, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Center for Social Policy Publications

This paper presents many of the factors that contribute to family instability; identifies the gaps in programs meant to serve low-income families; documents the role of federal and state rental subsidy programs; and demonstrates the interconnected roles of rental assistance, childcare, and employment assistance in increasing family incomes. The coalition of agencies undertook both quantitative and qualitative research for this paper. The coalition held focus groups with numerous stakeholders across the Commonwealth—families who have experienced or are at risk of homelessness, service providers, and public employees. On Solid Ground thanks the many participants who shared their experiences, as well as …

Waste And Duplication In Nasa Programs: The Need To Enhance U.S. Space Program Efficiency, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The U.S. Government faces acute budgetary deficits and national debt problems in the Obama Administration. These problems have been brought about by decades of unsustainable government spending affecting all agencies including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (NASA). An outgrowth of this fiscal profligacy is the presence of wasteful and duplicative programs within NASA that prevent this agency from achieving its space science and human spaceflight objectives. These problems occur due to mismanagement of these programs from NASA and the creation of these programs by the U.S. Congress and congressional committees. This occurs because congressional appropriators tend to be more …

Shoes, Sabrina Morelli

Common Reading Essay Contest Winners

First Place

Essay Prompt: In Justice, Sandel discusses a number of contemporary political issues (e.g. price gouging during the 2004 Hurricane, the 2008-9 financial meltdown, the volunteer army, pregnancy surrogates, executive pay, slavery reparations, immigration, and gay marriage). Take a position on one of the issues discussed in the book and make the best case that you can for why this position is the most just. You may include evidence from the book, your prior studies, your own experience, and/or outside research. (Outside research is not required.)

The Evolution Of The Federal Reserve's Mandate In Response To The Global Financial Crisis: The Case For Financial Stability, Laurel Celastine Mazur

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis looks at the evolution of the Federal Reserve’s mandate and regulatory responsibilities as a result of the Global Financial Crisis. The onset of the crisis exposed the financial system to risks that had yet to be identified by the traditional microprudential regulatory framework, necessitating a rapid and unconventional response in order to prevent widespread financial collapse. Now, in 2015, as most of the scourges of the crisis are in the recent past, practitioners are beginning to not only pick up the pieces but attempting to reform the system to increase resilience in the future. One of the proposals …

Piecemeal Reform Of Trade And Environmental Policy When Consumption Also Pollutes, Mark R. Metcalfe, John C. Beghin

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

We incorporate endogenous (price-responsive) consumption pollution into a dual trade model to assess welfare effects of coordinated trade and environmental piecemeal reform in a small, open and distorted economy. Pollution is generated by production and consumption. Producers control the level of pollution and face incentives to abate both types of pollution. We identify sufficient conditions for welfare-improving reforms of trade and environmental policies. An additional domestic environmental policy instrument must be imposed on exportables because of their supply response to foreign environmental taxes.

Impact Of Welfare Participation During Childhood On Adult Income, Curran A. Prettyman

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

This paper analyzes the impact of welfare participation during childhood on adult income. In the United States, welfare programs have a long history originating from the 1800s, and over $20 billion are currently allocated to various anti-poverty programs, such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children and Supplemental Security Income. Many people believe that these programs effectively eradicate childhood poverty. However, ordinary least squares and instrumental variables regression models suggest welfare programs are counterproductive. On average, holding all else constant, with 95% confidence, the total dollar amount of funding received from welfare programs during childhood is statistically significant to a …

Ghana's E-Zwich System And The Characteristics Of Innovation, James T. Arthur

Masters Theses

In 2008, the Central Bank of Ghana launched the first ever biometric money, e-zwich, in hopes of promoting branchless banking and financial inclusion. Despite been hailed as an innovative policy aimed at transforming the financial industry of the country e-zwich has yet to realize its full potential. A number of studies has been conducted to highlight the many challenges the system faces. This study was also aimed at seeking an explanation to the relative ineffectiveness or failures of e-zwich system but through a theoretical framework. Using Rogers' (2003) framework on the characteristics of innovation, the study seeks to explain why …

Adaptive Elastic Net Gmm Estimation With Many Invalid Moment Conditions: Simultaneous Model And Moment Selection, Mehmet Caner, Xu Han, Yoonseok Lee

Center for Policy Research

This paper develops the adaptive elastic net GMM estimator in large dimensional models with many possibly invalid moment conditions, where both the number of structural parameters and the number of moment conditions may increase with the sample size. The basic idea is to conduct the standard GMM estimation combined with two penalty terms: the quadratic regularization and the adaptively weighted lasso shrinkage. The new estimation procedure consistently selects both the nonzero structural parameters and the valid moment conditions. At the same time, it uses information only from the valid moment conditions to estimate the selected structural parameters and thus achieves …

The Greek Debt Crisis: The Need For "Heroic" Economic Policy Reforms In The European Economic And Monetary Union, Peter Robbins

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Greece is in the midst of a devastating economic and financial crisis that the European Union has been trying ardently to resolve since the default of Lehman Brothers in 2008. A significant number of other European Union (EU) Member States are also in crisis due to various state-level economic and monetary causes. Meanwhile, the European Union has consistently used the existing treaty articles and legislation within its competence to impose traditional and homogenized austerity measures on highly indebted Member States, most notably Greece. In sum, the European Union has zealously advocated for fiscal conservatism driven by the German "diber-fear" of …

Investing In The Arts As A Regional Economic Development Tool: A Case Study Of Suny Buffalo State College Arts Students, Dinash Lal Mpa

Public Administration Master’s Projects

The intent of this study was to determine the financial needs of the art students attending Buffalo State College when considering producing their art. In order to establish this need, this case study required the opinions of arts students on their current and future potential financial circumstances including, prospective income supplementation to produce their art work, ability to produce art work given their current and future financial outlooks, the importance of their financial circumstances in relation to the production of their art, the degree to which they currently or foresee the use of financial products and services to produce their …

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. …