Industry clusters can be important components of regional development. The effects of industry clusters on growth typically vary across geography, which has implications for targeted development strategies. Employment and business establishment growth in the Appalachian region (2000 – 2008) was regressed on industry cluster concentration indexes controlling for local determinants. The hypothesis that local response to growth determinants is geographically heterogeneous was tested using Smooth Transition spatial process models. This class of models exhibiting regime switching behavior is useful for identifying regional clusters, providing another tool for exploring relationships between geographical determinants and economic growth.

Islamic banking is currently one of the fastest growing segments of the financial market industry, operating in over 75 countries through 300 institutions. While past literature has established the development of financial institutions as a determinant of economic growth, research on the correlation of the diffusion of Islamic banking with economic growth is limited. This study seeks to add to the literature by empirically analyzing the economic growth determinative power of Islamic banks. Confirming past research, Muslim prevalence in a population is found to be the most significant determinant of the diffusion of Islamic banks. Using this exogenous instrument in 2SLS regressions, results show that Islamic banks are not significantly correlated with economic growth. Most notably, including the Islamic banking instrument affects the strength of beta-convergence. Basic Solovian specifications show that convergence occurs; countries with higher initial GDP per capita grow more slowly. After accounting for the intensity of Islamic banking, this effect becomes much less statistically significant, suggesting that some of the effect of convergence may operate through the propensity to adopt Islamic banking. Empirical analysis disaffirms the hypothesis that Islamic banks minimize the explanatory power of legal origin on economic growth due to their independent implementation of Shariah law; the results show that accounting for Islamic banks has no effect on the determinative power of legal origin. Finally, the correlation of Islamic banking and financial deepening is largely dependent on legal origin, resulting in negative effects for countries with British legal origin and positive for those with French legal origin.

Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000183 EndHTML:0000003190 StartFragment:0000002393 EndFragment:0000003154 SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/benjaminhudgens/Desktop/Final%20Thesis.docx This thesis will use data from 2009 to examine two questions about the Microfinance industry. First, why do firms charge interest rates well beyond their cost of funds and second, are there important differences at the national level that can help us to understand the high interest rates in Microfinance? I find that interest rates are primarily a result of operating expenses, but profit-status has large effects in developed Microfinance markets. I also find that the Economist Intelligence Unit’s measures of regulatory environment and industrial development explain a large portion of the variation in interest rates across countries.

The impact of conflict and violence on foreign direct investment (FDI) is not a topic that has been done justice by the literature, and what few studies exist have contradictory results. This paper studies the impact that transnational terrorism has on FDI inflows by economic sector, in developed countries. Results indicate a statistically significant negative correlation between terrorist events and total FDI inflows. Amongst a list of 12 broad industrial sectors, FDI inflows for manufacturing, trade and repair, and construction were found to have a statistically significant negative correlation with terrorist events.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 174-184).

It is generally accepted that the less developed nations have suffered a long run deterioration of their terms of trade, which represents an indirect transfer of income to the developed nations.1 If true, the gains from international trade are being unequally distributed and the less developed nations have a legitimate complaint. They are very concerned about their terms of trade on the international scene because their trade gains provide for skills required for modernization. Raul Prebisch2 cited the Latin American nations as a classic example in the deterioration of the terms of trade. Most of these nations export heavily in "primary commodities" and spend a large percent of their monies on imports. If these nations maintain a quasi-monopoly position in the marketing of the above items, then the writeer questions whether or not an unfavorable trade relationship does exist.

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The power of natural disasters to significantly and drastically alter the lives of the people they touch is vast, and the response rate of the provided aid can be the difference between a successful recovery and not. This study examines the relationship between natural disasters and volunteerism. The analysis makes use of panel data measurements on volunteer rate and volunteer hours per resident as well as FEMA measurements of major natural disasters from 2005 – 2012. I find that states that experience a natural disaster in the current year experience a significant and positive increase in volunteer rate in the year following the disaster. The findings highlight the importance of policy focused on harnessing volunteer labor in the wake of natural disasters.

This thesis examines household characteristics as determinants of formal savings accounts in rural Malawi. The main questions answered in this paper include the effects of household characteristics on the probability of having formal savings, the amounts saved in these accounts, and the probability of adopting formal savings. The central discussion aims to identify the initial adopters of formal savings accounts, using a marketing approach previously unapplied to this area of research. This paper also contributes to the dialogue of the household composition by considering three untried variables: number of adults, number of children, and literacy of all household members. Results show that households are most likely to adopt formal savings, when provided access, if they have a head who can read Chichewa, a functional cellphone, more adults who can read Chichewa, and are close to the bank service. The field evidence comes from research conducted over a two year period 2008-2010 in sampled regions of Central Malawi.