This dissertation is a collection of essays on financial market development and economic growth. In contrast to existing literature, which considers credit for investment along, we investigate the relationship between credit market development and economic growth in the framework where both investment and consumption are financed via credit markets. The environment developed on this dissertation creates a role for each kind of credit to play. First, credit market conditions of entrepreneurs and consumers are related and depend on each other. Second, the interactions between consumers and entrepreneurs are of importance for economic growth. The models are empirically relevant, as they can explain why the effect of credit market development on economic growth appears to differ between high-income and middle- and low-income countries. / Ph. D.

My dissertation contains two separate components. One part is a theoretical examination of the effect of ownership structure on format choice in the radio industry. I use a Hotelling type location model to study the effects of mergers in the radio industry. I find that common ownership of two radio stations results in format choices that are more similar than under competitive ownership, and also that the stations will advertise more if they are operated under common ownership. Welfare results are ambiguous, but there is evidence that total welfare might decrease as the result of a merger, with obvious policy implications for the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice who evaluate and regulate mergers in all industries. The second component is an empirical study designed to assess the effectiveness of a mathematical tutorial that I authored in conjunction with colleagues in the Math department here at Virginia Tech. I taught four large sections of Principles of Macroeconomics in the spring and fall of 2001. Each class met on MWF; two sections at 8 AM, one at 10:10 AM, and one at 1:25 PM. I required one of the sections (8 AM Spring) to review the module and take a proficiency quiz to demonstrate their skill level in basic math that is used in the Economics Principles course. Final average in the course is the dependant variable in a regression designed to discover which variables have explanatory power in determining performance in introductory economics. Besides exposure to the math module, I include other independent variables describing class time, semester, demographics and effort. In addition, I collected qualitative information about the students' perceptions of the module's effectiveness and administration. I find that exposure to the Math module does not have a significant effect on performance in the course. However, within the treatment group, there is a positive significant effect of time spent using the module on performance. Also, being registered for an 8 AM section has a significant negative effect. Overall, student comments indicate a dislike for the module. Students report that they prefer learning math skills through lectures by the professor and use of textbooks. / Ph. D.

Providing improved access to farmers markets and other local food outlets for low-income audiences is an increasingly popular nutrition intervention strategy to promote consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and address obesity. The USDA encouraged more farm to fork initiatives and efforts to connect low-income populations with fresh and healthy, local foods through farmers markets through the implementation of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Nutrition Education (SNAP-Ed) provisions of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. The purpose of this research was to assess the perceived barriers to farmers market access and strategies for overcoming those barriers for low-income individuals and families participating in Cooperative Extension nutrition programming. Data collection procedures included a survey of SNAP-Ed and the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) program assistants, focus group discussions with SNAP-eligible individuals, and a photo elicitation study with mothers of young children. Results from these studies provide insight on how to structure program assistant trainings to encourage the inclusion of an optional farmers market orientation lesson in SNAP-Ed and EFNEP curricula; low-income individuals' perception of healthy food, access to and perception of local foods, benefits and barriers to shopping at farmers markets, and the impact of local foods on diet quality; and how to address perceived barriers through Cooperative Extension nutrition programming for the SNAP-Ed and ENFEP target population of SNAP-eligible mothers of young children. Working with farmers markets is an opportunity to form greater synergy between the arms of Extension (Family and Consumer Sciences, Community Viability, Agriculture and Natural Resources, and potentially 4-H) related to supporting local food systems while forming collaborative relationships with local farmers markets and community members. / Ph. D.

This dissertation analyses the impact of political and macroeconomic uncertainties on environmental outcomes and design of policy instruments.  The first essay examines how the rate of agricultural land expansion in tropical countries depends on the nature and persistence of new political regimes.  We use a novel panel data method that extends previous studies.  We find that both new autocratic and democratic regimes have accelerated the expansion of agricultural land, thus yielding support to some of the findings in the earlier literature.  Interesting differences emerge between regions, with the impact being most pronounced in Latin America.  The analysis is developed more formally using a simple competitive land use model with political regime dependent confiscation risk and agricultural subsidy policy.  The second essay evaluates the effectiveness of performance bonding for tropical forest concession management in achieving first and second best outcomes concerning reduced impact logging (RIL) standards.  As a novel contribution, this essay introduces a simple model of two-stage concession design, and focus on the impact of three complications: harvester participation constraints, government repayment risk, and imperfect enforcement.  We find several new and interesting results, in particular, imperfect enforcement and bond risk may deter implementation of bonding schemes as either the bond payment has to be set higher or the penalty mapping has to become more punitive.  Policy implications, including potential for mechanisms such as REDD+ in improving the bonding outcomes, and the degree of financial support required to guarantee full implementation of RIL, are also examined.  The third essay focuses on the relative performance of fixed versus intensity allowances in the presence of both productivity and energy price uncertainties.  Both allowance instruments achieve the same steady-state emissions reduction target of 20%, which is similar to the current policy proposals, and the regulator then chooses the allowance policy that has the lowest expected abatement cost.  We use a standard real business cycle (RBC) model to solve for the expected abatement cost under both policies.  Unlike previous studies, our results show that under a reasonable model calibration, fixed allowances outperform intensity allowances with as much as 30% cost difference. / Ph. D.

In general, an individual commands a salary in return for their contribution to the production process at their place of employment. In the case of a quarterback for a National Football League team, the salary he commands depends on how much the team's owner expects him to contribute to the team and how unique his talents and services are. The salary of the quarterback is negotiated between the quarterback and the team and will vary greatly depending on the relative strengths of each side's bargaining position. The bilateral oligopoly provides a useful way to view how salaries are determined. This thesis uses an econometric model to explore the bilateral oligopoly framework for determining quarterback salaries. Within this framework, there are a set of on-field performance variables (related to the quarterback and the team) and off-field financial variables (related to the team) that are used to negotiate a quarterback's salary. This paper characterizes the quarterback-team relationship by identifying those variables that effect quarterback salaries. / Master of Arts

Agricultural nonpoint source nutrient pollution is the leading cause of water quality impairment in the Chesapeake Bay. Agroforestry, the integration of trees with crops or livestock production, or both, achieves production and conservation objectives on a single plot of land. Agroforestry is recognized by the Chesapeake Bay Program's strategy as a means of reducing nonpoint source pollution to improve water quality in the Bay. Despite this, agroforestry adoption remains limited and agroforestry is not recognized in Virginia's water quality trading program. To understand the potential of agroforestry nutrient credit trading, I studied the prospects of agroforestry from both a social and biophysical perspective. First, I surveyed 1,436 randomly selected landowners in four 5th level watersheds of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia for a mixed-methods analysis of agroforestry adoption interest. Second, I used the Chesapeake Bay Assessment Scenario Tool to analyze the water quality implications of intermediate forest conversion scenarios on four initial agricultural land uses on respondent properties. From these studies, I recommend landowner characteristics, concerns, and objectives concerning agroforestry need to shape research and outreach messaging. Furthermore, agroforestry practices has potential to significantly reduce nonpoint source nutrient pollution in a manner that preserves agricultural production, but the terrestrial nutrient dynamics of agroforestry will need to be better captured in modeling to aid in the design of these systems and to generate adequate and fair crediting standards. / Master of Science / Pollution from farming is one of the largest threats to the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Retiring farmland is one method of reducing pollution. Water quality trading is a new strategy to encourage farmers to retire farmland. As part of this strategy, regulated polluters, such as a property developer, can offset their pollution by paying farmers to retire farmland and plant trees. Agroforestry practices involve the production of trees with crops or livestock on the same piece of land. These integrated systems could reduce pollution to the Bay while allowing farmers to continue farming, but few farmers have been willing to adopt these practices. Additionally, although agroforestry is recognized as part of a larger strategy to clean up the Bay, currently it is not recognized by Virginia's water quality trading program. To understand how agroforestry and water quality trading could help restore the bay, we asked farmers about their interest in agroforestry and used a computer program to estimate how increasing tree coverage on farms could reduce pollution to the Bay. We found that agroforestry could reduce a significant amount of pollution, while allowing farmers to continue farming to some degree. Though, knowledge of how agroforestry reduces pollution and technology that can assist in the design of these systems will need to advance for two reason. First, technology based on a better understanding of how agroforestry reduces pollution will allow us to properly credit farmers for adopting agroforestry. Second, it will assist in designing these systems. Outreach, research, and development of agroforestry should be informed by landowner perceptions, concerns, and objectives.

No / The emergence of paid sex markets is a product of various locational economies. By this it is meant that coherent paid sex markets are intimately linked with various economies of agglomeration, synergy, complementarity and 'laddering' whereby an entrant to paid sex consumption may progress from low intimacy/low value added products to those of higher intimacy/higher value added. Physical clustering of traded sex commodities can also enhance the progression of the consumer's ladder by heightening the stimulus to enter such markets for the first time. This paper discusses the above factors in the context of the economic theory of clubs with particular reference to the use of zoning ordinances to control the location of adult entertainment providers

Yes / Our paper examines the distress anomaly on the Chinese stock markets. We show that the anomaly disappears after controlling for institutional ownership. We propose two hypotheses. The growing scale of institutional investors and changes in institutional preferences can generate greater demand shocks for stocks with low distress risk than those with high distress risk, causing the former to outperform the latter. Consistent with our hypotheses, the growth of institutions explains the anomaly when the institutional market share increases rapidly. We also show that institutional preferences for stocks with low distress risk have significantly increased over time and changes in preferences also explain the anomaly. Finally, momentum trading and gradual incorporation of distress information cannot account for the anomaly.

Yes / The adoption of blockchain technologies require the consideration of a broad range of factors, over and above the predominantly technology focus of most current work. Whilst scholarly literature on blockchain technology is only beginning to emerge, majority are focused on the technicalities of the technology and tend to ignore the organizational complexities of adopting the technology. Drawing from a focused review of literature, this paper proposed a conceptual framework for adoption of blockchain technology capturing the complex relationships between institutional, market and technical factors. The framework highlights that varying outcomes are possible, and the change process is focal as this shapes the form blockchain applications take. Factors presented in the framework (institutional, market and technical) interact and mutually influence each other. The proposed framework can be used by organisations as a reference point for adopting blockchain applications and by scholars to expand, refine and evaluate research into blockchain technology.

Yes / Purpose: Despite the potential of social media in emerging markets (EMs), only few studies published in high quality information systems (IS) journals that have addressed issues related to social media in the context of EMs. This study aims to analyse existing research related to social media published in high quality IS journals for exploring initial research trends, emerging themes, limitations and future research directions in the context of emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach: This study conducted systematic review of 22 articles on social media, which were published in the “Senior Scholars Basket of IS Journals and Information Systems Frontiers” from 1997 to 2017. Manual literature search approach (i.e. screening through table of contents of each journal) was employed to identify relevant articles. The content of relevant articles was systematically analysed and synthesised along with keyword analysis to understand research trends on social media related issues in the emerging markets context. Findings: The study identified four major themes from existing research on the social media in the context of emerging markets, namely: 1) Social media frameworks; 2) Social media and consumers; 3) Social media and organisations; and 4) Social media and society with majority of the studies focusing on consumers. Single Subject was found as the major limitation with studies analysed focusing on single platform/country/domain hindering the generalizability whereas including new exogenous variable to improve the validity of existing studies emerged as main future research direction. Originality/value: This study conducted literature review on social media in EMs, which has not been undertaken yet. Moreover, it employed manual search (an effort and time intensive approach) to overcome the shortcomings of keyword search to identify, locate, select and analyse the social media literature in the context of emerging markets.