Department of Economics
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/24866
2024-03-29T04:49:55ZToo Big To Fail: Economic Voting And The 2008 Election
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/6158
Too Big To Fail: Economic Voting And The 2008 Election
Batheja, Aman
The onset of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression just months before the 2008 presidential election is thought to have played a significant role in voting behavior. Yet the extent to which voters followed traditional economic voting patterns in choosing between Barack Obama and John McCain is less clear. Using exit poll data merged with state-level aggregate economic data, we search for evidence that negative shifts in economic status made voters more likely to support Obama. After controlling for various demographic, partisan, and geographic variables, we find that voters who believed that the economy was the top issue in the election were more likely to support Obama unless their state experienced a sizeable increase in real personal income per capita in the 6-12 months or year prior to the election.
2011-10-11T00:00:00ZContracting Institutions And Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence From The U.S. Mulitnationals
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/5867
Contracting Institutions And Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence From The U.S. Mulitnationals
Phelan, Gregory
Development Economics studies have highlighted the importance of both property rights and contracting institutions for attracting foreign direct investment. However, to the best of our knowledge, none of the previous studies has examined the separate FDI impacts of these institutions. Using country level data, this thesis examines the effects that both contracting and property rights institutions have on United States multinationals' foreign direct investment decisions. We control for potential endogeneity by using indigenous population density and country latitude, along with a British legal origin dummy variable as instruments for property rights and contracting institutions, respectively. We find strong evidence that weak contracting institutions are a deterrent to US firms' investment. We believe US multinationals place high importance on formal contracting institutions because of the quantity, size, and complexity of their transactions.
2011-07-14T00:00:00ZThe Integration Of The Economics Profession Across Countries : evidence From Paper Citations
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/5834
The Integration Of The Economics Profession Across Countries : evidence From Paper Citations
Guo, Minjie
By relating country-level journal article citation patterns to country-level proxies for various policies, the current project attempts to uncover possible causal relationships between them. The paper measures patterns of knowledge flows across counties and over time using the citation information from the Social Sciences Citation Index for 174 Economics journals from 1975 to 2006. The results indicate evidence that economic openness and the adoption of the Internet have a positive effect on the spread of knowledge.
2011-07-14T00:00:00ZThe Effects Of Community Uninsurance On Health Care Quality For The Insured Population
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/4929
The Effects Of Community Uninsurance On Health Care Quality For The Insured Population
Nguyen, Tuan Anh
An important aspect of the ongoing health care reform of 2010 is to provide health coverage to the uninsured, the rising population of which has remained a significant challenge to overcome. Previously, efforts to reduce the number of people without health insurance have been centered on a moral rationale that providing care for the medically indigent was "the right thing" to do. However, recent evidence suggests that it might be in the best interest of people who are already insured to be concerned about the rate of uninsurance in their communities because of a potential negative spillover effect. Using four waves of the Community Tracking Study (CTS) Household Survey, from 1996-1997, 1998-1999, 2000-2001, and 2003, this paper attempts to investigate whether or not this type of spillover exists and to what extent it affects the insured population. The results show strong evidence linking the community uninsurance rate negatively to the quality of care available to the insured, specifically in terms of access to care and service utilization. Therefore, the issue of high uninsurance rates should not be overlooked by the insured population since they appear to bear some consequences of this issue themselves.
2010-07-19T00:00:00Z