Thesis advisor: Timothy Duket / What is the relationship between inequality and the prevalence of mobile phones in a society? It is obvious that being poor is a barrier to owning a mobile phone, but what about simply being poorer than those around you? Stories abound about the benefits mobile phones bring to the poor in developing countries. For example, in Bangladesh's Narshingdi district, mobile phones have made it possible for families who once struggled to survive, to earn more than enough to eat well and live comfortably. These isolated villagers who grow crops or raise livestock can use their village cell phone to speak directly to wholesalers and are able to get better prices for their goods in the marketplace (Ahmed, 2000). In Cote d'Ivoire coffee growers share mobile phones to follow hourly changes in coffee prices in order to sell at the most profitable time (Lopez, 2000). But how likely will these poor people be to access a mobile phone if they are significantly poorer than the “rich” in their countries. In place where there is such a disparity, does unequal income distribution make it less likely that someone will own a cell phone, or does something about the condition make adopting this technology even more widespread? As it turns out, the results of this study indicate that the higher the level of inequality in a country, the more likely someone living there is to own a cell phone. While this result seems counterintuitive, I will discuss in detail a few ways to explain it after giving some background on the subject. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2003. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Thesis advisor: S.J. Richard A. McGowan / This thesis will examine the free rider problem in a unique setting: how states compete over gambling revenues. As the economy tightens, states continue to look for revenue streams to supplement their already strained budgets. Gambling is an attractive option for many states, as it is a steady and reliable source of income each month. With appealing funds available, different states have intensified their competition, authorizing new casinos on neighboring state borders to entice out-of-state visitors. States receive money from these visitors but are not responsible for their social problems, which they bring back to their home states. This phenomenon is a modern incarnation of the free rider problem. This paper explores three main questions. To begin, does the gambling market expand with the introduction of a new state's gambling facilities? Next, are states able to successfully reclaim revenues? Lastly, what are the effects of changes in tax rates on state revenues? These questions are examined in two regions. First, the newly authorized slots in Pennsylvania are having a direct impact on the casinos in Atlantic City, NJ. Also, a variety of tax changes in the Midwest states of Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri is shifting revenues among these three states. The free rider problem relating to states and gambling will continue to be an important and relevant issue for years to come. / Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

The effect of federal revenue assistance to state and local governments on their respective fiscal decisions is analyzed in an original, neoclassical economic model. This model more accurately describes the incentive structure facing each recipient government constituency. From this model, implications are derived which are descriptive of empirically observed behavior by state and local governments receiving federal grants. / However, these implications are not the result of self-serving behavioral traits that are exogenously imposed upon donor or recipient governments, but rather the direct result of the incentive structure faced by the grant receiving state and local government constituencies in a system of fiscal federalism. / Data from the fifty states on total revenue and expenditure levels of combined state and local governments is utilized from the last thirty years to test the implications derived from the model. Cross-sectional regression analysis is combined with time series analysis to determine whether federal revenue assistance to state and local governments: (1) increases income elasticity of demand for recipient government goods and services; (2) decreases recipient government own-source tax burdens; (3) decreases the competition between state jurisdictions for a mobile tax base by increasing the homogeneity across states of locally provided programs. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2667. / Major Professor: Randall G. Holcombe. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

This study, first, looks at the underlying causes of the housing problem in Iran, and second, examines the relationships of the number of housing co-ops in a region with the level of economic development and the need for decent and affordable housing in that region. / The census data on all 24 ostans (provinces) and 496 cities in Iran are used in this study. The results indicate that in more developed ostans, greater number of housing co-ops can be expected. However, other indicators such as the ostans' housing costs and the populations' incomes are also influential factors in explaining the variations in the number of housing co-ops. The less aggregate, city-level data also show that the presence of higher education institution in cities affects the mean number of housing co-ops in the city. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-12, Section: A, page: 4607. / Major Professor: Charles E. Connerly. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

Ghana instituted a performance monitoring and evaluation system (PMES) in its Public Enterprise (PE) sector in 1989 as part of a national effort to improve the economy. Public enterprise reform is premised on the assumption that given the right incentives, managers with the capacity and autonomy will be motivated enough to respond to signals in a competitive market to increase firm performance. This study examines the impact of the institutional changes on public enterprise performance in Ghana. / This study considers PMES as essentially a policy change, an intervention in normal public enterprise operations, and its impact is treated as a quasi-experiment. It uses interrupted time-series model to estimate the intervention-induced changes in the time-series data available (1985-91) for all the 15 public enterprises participating in the PMES in 1989 and 1990. Performance is measured using five ratio indicators: profit margin, return on assets, return on equity, labor productivity, and asset turnover. The analysis did not provide a consistent set of results indicating performance improve across the board after the intervention. / The study focuses on examining the underlying assumptions of the performance measurement system to explain the results obtained and finds that certain key components of the system were never fully implemented as designed. While the process for ensuring public enterprise accountability is greatly enhanced, public enterprise management lacks the autonomy to make key decisions affecting organizational performance. In addition, the incentive system remains an ineffective source of motivation. Also, many enterprises retain their monopoly positions in the market. Finally, the regulatory institution created to oversee the implementation of the PMES is ineffectual because of unclear regulatory formulas, lack of conflict resolution mechanisms, and limited institutional capacity to enforce regulatory rules. / The study concludes that performance measurement systems are a necessary but not sufficient condition for improved organizational performance. Meaningful change in organizational performance can only be expected in the context of overall change in government philosophy, beginning with a fundamental reassessment of the expected role of the enterprises in the national economy. The study's conclusions have implications for understanding the dynamics of institutional reforms and the prospects for implementing performance measurement systems at all levels of government. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-04, Section: A, page: 1092. / Major Professor: Richard Chackerian. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

This dissertation applies modern public choice theories to the United Nations system. Public choice is the study of public sector decision making using basic economic postulates. It attempts to gain insights into the formation and operation of collective organizations by studying the personal incentives faced by the relevant decision-makers. For many years, people have pointed to the apparent failure of international organizations to achieve their goals. The public choice approach offers new insights into the reasons for this failure, and it can also be used to suggest improvements which might enable these organizations to be more successful. / There are several separate, but related, chapters in this dissertation. Chapter 2 analyzes the U.N. Charter and the League of Nations Covenant using the principles of constitutional economics. Chapter 3 analyzes the size and growth of the budgets of the U.N. system. Chapter 4 considers whether the de facto members of GATT, who do not contribute to the budget, are free riders. Chapter 5 looks at the stability of voting coalitions in the U.N. General Assembly from 1946 to 1973. Finally, Chapter 6 looks at the effectiveness of U.N. interventions, such as peacekeeping forces in Lebanon and sanctions against South Africa. This chapter uses exchange rate data to estimate the appreciations (or depreciations) caused by these interventions, and considers those movements a measure of the effectiveness of the policy. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-03, Section: A, page: 0661. / Major Professor: Randall G. Holcombe. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

A theoretical study has been conducted on the impact of mortality information on the number and quality of children that are produced by a household. The other decision making parameters included changes in the household's preferences, and changes in the efficiency of the household's decision making process. / The analysis indicates that it is neither reasonable nor meaningful to separate the procedural and calculated aspects of the decision making process that determines household fertility behavior. It is shown how changes in preferences, information, and processing ability will interact to determine a household's completed family size. / A recursive model of household fertility behavior is used to test the theory. Household fertility variables are the number of children ever born or the number of pregnancies. The child mortality variable is the number of fetal wastages. The hypotheses are that experienced child mortality would affect the household's fertility behavior in a systematic fashion; that the information imparted by a fetal wastage was non-specific; that fetal wastages would have a minimal impact on the household choice of completed family size; and that fetal wastage would have an appreciable impact on the total fertility level of the household. The associated null hypotheses are consistently rejected across the range of ordinary least squares regression that were performed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-02, Section: A, page: 0515. / Major Professor: Irvin Sobel. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1984.

This study was concerned with two objectives: (a) to examine the process of government development plan formulation, implementation, and evaluation in Saudi Arabia, and (b) to assess the current and future role of the Saudi private sector in development planning. / Eighty-seven government employees were interviewed as well as 12 executives from the private sector. / The major findings indicate that high centralization at all levels of government cause inter- and intraorganizational coordination problems and institutional rivalries. The situation is exacerbated by the lack of an effective mechanism for problem solving. Further, the required use of a standardized planning manual by all agencies imposes rigidity on an already proceduralized system of plan formulation. / Implementation of the government's five-year plans is hampered by administrative incapacity. Moreover, there is no coordination between the plan and the budget, further complicating agency implementation. / Historically, plan evaluation has been given insufficient attention. Measuring plan progress is difficult and agencies are often unwilling to cooperate with the Ministry of Planning (MOP). As the Central Department of Statistics is organizationally attached to the Ministry of Finance and National Economy, its output is tailored to that agency's needs. This output is not always compatible with the MOP's statistical demands. / The study also revealed that private sector input is not sought in the country's development planning process. Despite the government's recognition of the importance of the private sector, few institutional mechanisms have been created to transmit its views regularly and systematically. The study also acknowledged the growth of the Saudi private sector in size and influence as illustrated by recent conventions in which top government officials engaged in open discussions of public/private issues. / The study contributes to a very limited academic literature dealing with the Saudi development planning process from an administrative perspective. It is also the first to treat the Saudi private sector's current and future role in development planning. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: A, page: 4273. / Major Professor: Frank P. Sherwood. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

Thesis advisor: Robert G. Murphy / Income inequality is an issue of moral, ethical, and economic concern. Disparity in levels of wealth and income in developing countries prevents poor individuals from enjoying the same opportunities as their wealthier counterparts, and hinders the prospects for future development. FDI is one among several possible culprits responsible for increasing income inequality. As a representative of foreign control and influence in developing economies, some countries are wary of FDI. On the other hand, FDI brings the promise of jobs, technology spillovers, foreign exchange, and economic growth. Previous studies have explored the effects of FDI on income inequality in developing countries, but they have all relied on FDI data that does not distinguish between direct investment destined for the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors. This study uses sectorally disaggregated FDI data for a sample of developing countries over the years 1990-2005 in an attempt to discern whether sector-specific features play a role in affecting domestic income inequality. While this study fails to find the FDI variables significant, it does find much support for other possible causes of income inequality, such as population growth rate and levels of urbanization within a country. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2007. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: International Studies. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Thesis advisor: Christopher F. Baum / This paper seeks to estimate the impacts generated from the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Using a data set representing 76 metropolitan statistical areas in the western United States, and later 31 metropolitan statistical areas in Utah and its bordering neighbors, I construct an Arellano-Bond dynamic panel data regression that seeks to model metropolitan employment growth had the Olympics never taken place. With this logic I apply the Arellano- Bond regression to real personal income and real average wages, in a vector autoregression framework, estimating gains to those variables over a reasonable timeframe. The predictions from these variables are then compared to actual figures in which a picture of the economic impact of the 2002 Games is generated. Using out of sample predictions I estimate Salt Lake City's Olympic impact in employment is roughly between 20,487 and 36,150 job-years, between $ 381 and $ 2,470 to real per-capita personal income, and a decrease of $ 273 to $ 2004 in real average wages. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2006. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics Honors Program.