It is the purpose of this study to examine the early state-chartered banks of Kentucky: their creation, career and dissolution. To do this it will be necessary to survey the period of Kentucky history from 1802, when the Kentucky Insurance Company was awarded its charter by the Legislature and granted banking powers, to about 1830, when all previously chartered state banks had become non-existent or were in the process of liquidation. Throughout this period it will be necessary to notice the major political trends, events and problems. These, however, will be of secondary importance, and attention primarily will be centered upon the economic factors involved in the early history of the state, which profoundly influenced the successes and failures of early banking institutions.

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 a directed dyad-year analysis using a dataset on American state drunk driving regulations from 1983 to 2000. The results show that more comprehensive policy adoption by states is positively related to policy success in other states when lobbying by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is relatively low. Moreover, lobbying by MADD increases policy comprehensiveness when policy success is relatively low. The second essay, or Chapter 3, examines the effects of GASB 45 on local government borrowing costs. Government financial disclosure is a key instrument to improve fiscal transparency and accountability. In 2004, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued Statement No. 45 to require state and local governments to disclose information about other postemployment benefits (OPEB) for the first time. The theoretical framework incorporates both direct and indirect effects of disclosure on borrowing costs. The empirical tests use a panel of counties across states and the bonds they issued in the primary market between 1999 and 2012. To account for the impact of GASB 45 on county governments’ decisions to issue bonds, a Heckman selection model is estimated. GASB 45 increases borrowing costs of county governments, with the effects decreasing over time. GASB 45 has a larger effect on borrowing costs of county governments issuing bonds of lower credit quality and adopting the generally accepted accounting standards (GAAP). The third essay, or Chapter 4, examines the impact of information about funding of OPEB plans on borrowing costs of local governments. Local governments have disclosed information about other postemployment benefits (OPEB) plans under the Governmental Accounting Standards Board Statement No. 45 issued in 2004. Funding status is measured by percentage of annual required contribution (ARC) contributed and funded ratios. Two panels of counties and cities with comprehensive annual financial reports available from the Government Financial Officers Association are matched with the bonds they issued between 2008 and 2014. The results show that higher percentage of ARC contributed of OPEB plans are associated with lower borrowing costs for counties; and higher OPEB funded ratios are correlated with lower borrowing costs for cities. Higher percentage of ARC contributed and funded ratios of pension plans are associated with lower borrowing costs for both counties and cities. This essay demonstrates that information about OPEB and pension plans is incorporated in municipal bond pricing.

I contribute to the literature by providing additional factors that could affect the incremental budgeting theory and punctuated equilibrium theory (PET) within a budgetary context. Because of the fluctuation in the price of natural resources, I argue that dependence on natural resources could lead to less stable budgets than ones not dependent on natural resources. I also argue that democracy is another source that leads to stability in the budget, relative to countries that are not democratic. I theorize that countries with no democracy and heavy dependence on natural resources will have budgets with more volatility than the rest of the countries. Most of the extant literature focuses on countries that are democratic and not dependent on natural resources. My theory expects these to have the most stable budgets. I extend the literature by comparing the Kuwaiti National Budget (dependent on natural resources and not democratic) to the U.S. Federal Budget (democratic and not dependent on natural resources). The results of all tests are consistent with the expectations of the theory that countries with no democracy and heavy dependence on natural resources have less incremental budgets than nations that are democratic and not dependent on natural resources.

No description available.

The intention of this study is to analyze the economic impact of redeveloped Major League Baseball stadiums opened between 1991 and 2004. Using two empirical models, including an event study, this impact analysis captures the economic conditions of the cities during the opening year of the stadium, as well as the prior conditions leading up to the opening of the stadium, along with any lingering effects or gradual changes in conditions. The impact was measured in relation to the Metropolitan Statistical Areas corresponding to the 18 ballparks included, specifically looking at the impact on employment rates and per capita personal income. The common assumption is that stadium redevelopment will provide a positive impact on the surrounding community, initiating revitalization of urban neighborhoods as well as increasing job opportunities, income levels, and city revenues. While previous research on the effects of stadium development have mostly concluded that there is no positive or significant quantitative impact resulting from stadiums, this study shows that the boom of ballpark redevelopment may actually have positive effects, contrasting this prior research. With the results showing small, yet positive effects, the recent boom period may actually have been so far effective in initiating new development and revitalized culture in urban areas, and will therefore be useful in further developing future plans for modernizing and redeveloping baseball stadiums.

This study looks at the relationship between charter school presence and neighborhood quality in Los Angeles. Using data from the Los Angeles Department of Education, Zillow Real Estate, and the Los Angeles Sheriff, this paper attempts to find whether changes in charter presence influence the price of surrounding real estate or the occurrence of serious and petty crimes. The results find that charter schools tend to be associated with a decrease in home sale prices. The results on crime imply that crime increases upon the opening of charter schools, however they are statistically insignificant.

No description available.

No description available.

L’objectif de cette thèse est d’analyser les conceptions de l’intervention publique des économistes libéraux français dans la deuxième moitié du XIXe siècle.Le premier chapitre expose leurs trois conceptions différentes de l’intervention publique. A partir de leurs analyses des attributions légitimes de l’Etat, nous proposons une typologie qui distingue une « orthodoxie » s’en tenant aux fonctions régaliennes, un libéralisme « régulateur », et un libéralisme plus « interventionniste ». Nous nous demandons si cette typologie reste pertinente quand ces économistes débattent de leurs problèmes pratiques de prédilection.Le second chapitre est ainsi consacré à l’analyse de la fiscalité par les économistes libéraux français. Cette analyse est en elle-même extrêmement riche, et nous mettons en avant, en particulier, les contributions formalisées de trois d’entre eux : Cournot, Dupuit et Fauveau.Nous étudions dans un troisième chapitre les positions de nos économistes libéraux sur l’émission, l’escompte et l’étalon monétaire. Nous montrons que leurs divergences théoriques s’expliquent par une préférence pour la règle ou pour l’intervention discrétionnaire.Le quatrième chapitre étudie la question des droits de propriété, en particulier de l’héritage et de la propriété intellectuelle. Nous faisons apparaître une opposition entre les partisans d’un Etat régulateur et ceux d’un Etat protecteur des droits naturels.Finalement, sur chacun des thèmes envisagés, il apparaît que la frontière entre « orthodoxie » et « hétérodoxie » libérales est moins figée qu’on ne pouvait le penser. / The object of this dissertation is to analyze the conceptions of public intervention in the French liberal School in the second half of the 19th century. The first chapter is devoted to the exposition of three different views of these economists on State. We elaborate a typology relying on their analyses of the legitimate State attributes; this typology distinguishes an “orthodoxy” considering the only provision of security and justice, a “regulatory” liberalism, and a more “interventionist” liberalism. We question this typology, wondering if it remains relevant when our liberal economists discuss the practical questions of their time.Thus the second chapter of our study presents to the liberal analyses of taxation. We highlight the richness of the French thought on this topic. We particularly put forward the formalized contributions of three of them: Cournot, Dupuit and Fauveau. In the third chapter we study the positions of our economists on the question of the issuing of banknotes, on credit, and on the metallic standard. We show that their theoretical divergences are well explained by their preference for a rule or for a discretionary public intervention.Our last chapter investigates the question of property rights. By examining their ideas on inheritance and on intellectual property, we emphasize the opposition inside this School between the advocates of a regulatory State and the defenders of the State as a protector of natural rights. Finally the boundary between the liberal “orthodoxy” and the liberal “heterodoxy” is less steady than what we could think.

This thesis attempts to apply the theory of rational disease dynamics to the human papillomavirus by testing whether HPV vaccinations are prevalence elastic. A prevalence elastic relationship suggests that HPV vaccination rates respond positively to increasing prevalence rates of cervical cancer. Prevalence rates are measured both by incidence rates of cervical cancer and by mortality rates of cervical cancer. Data from the NIS-Teen Survey as well as data from the United States Cancer Statistics branch of the Centers for Disease Controls are used to construct a linear regression that controls for income, education levels, proxies for social culture, and proxies for physician access. Incidence was found to have no statistically significant effect on vaccination rates, while mortality rates were found to have a negative relationship with vaccination rates, suggesting that the rational disease dynamics theory does not apply to human papillomavirus and that vaccination rates for HPV are not prevalence elastic.