The Effects of the Great Recession on the Enrollment Yield at Private Liberal Arts Colleges

This paper analyzes the effects of the Great Recession on enrollment yields at not-for-profit private baccalaureate arts and sciences colleges. We developed a demand function that relates the admissions yield of these schools to cost and quality explanatory variables and a macroeconomic term to account for the recession. The study utilized three metrics to account for the recession: per capita GDP, percentage change in GDP, and a dummy variable. It was determined that the use of the dummy variable was the most statistically significant measure of the recession. The results show that while controlling for changes in admissions rate, aid, and net tuition and fees, the recession had a negative effect on enrollment yield of about 3%

The Impact of New Product Announcements on Quick Service Restaurant Companies’ Stock Returns

This study seeks to answer two main questions: 1) Do product announcements impact quick service restaurant stock returns? 2) Do economic conditions impact the degree which product announcements impact quick service restaurant stock returns? 159 total product announcements were collected for 6 quick service companies: McDonald’s Corp., YUM! Brands Inc., The Wendy’s Co., AFC Enterprises Inc., Jack in the Box Inc., and Sonic Corp. 84 of these announcements were from 2005-2007 (Labeled “Pre-Recession”), and 75 were from 2009-2011 (Labeled “Post-Recession”). Using historical stock price data, an analysis of the overall trends of the mean-adjusted excess returns was conducted to determine whether or not product announcements impact the stock returns. Further analysis was conducted to determine whether the “Pre-Recession” results had different results from the “Post-Recession” results, demonstrating a difference between two different economic periods. The results showed that on average, the day following the product announcement had negative excess returns. In addition, there was a noticeable difference between “Pre-Recession” and “Post-Recession” post-announcement returns behavior. “Pre-Recession” results, on average, had positive excess returns in the 10 days following the product announcement, while “Post-Recession” results had negative excess returns in the 10 days following the product announcement

An analysis of household transportation spending during the 2007-2009 US economic recession

The recent economic recession in the United States led to widespread destruction of jobs, home foreclosures, credit freeze and to creditor repossessions of key assets such as personal cars. Our objective is to empirically assess transportation conditions of US households with a focus on transportation spending. The latter is examined in the context of changes in multiple metrics such as total number of household cars, zero-vehicle status, expenditures on local public transportation and gasoline, down payment and net purchase price of cars, decline in household vehicle stock, and interest rates on auto loans. Using an econometric model of repeated cross-sections of data on households from the Consumer Expenditure Survey for the period 2005 through 2009, we examine factors which affect recession-period spending. In an effort to demonstrate the effects of the recession on specific groups, as well as to examine equity implications for vulnerable populations, our overall results are disaggregated by variations in transportation spending of minority, single mother and young households. Transportation spending declined significantly between 2005 and the recession years. A large part of this was due to lower car-ownership levels and an overall increase in zero-car households. Those households that did acquire a car needed to make higher levels of down payment. They also paid higher interest rates compared to the pre-recession period. Minorities spent significantly less than non-minorities before the recession but the difference from non-minorities was not significant during the recession. Single mothers did not spend significantly less than other households overall; however, their spending level became significantly less during the recession and they were much more likely to become zero-car households during the recession. The cost of car-ownership increased drastically for young adult households and the share of carless young households greatly increased during the recession

Involuntary Part-Time Employment: A Slow and Uneven Economic Recovery

In this brief, author Rebecca Glauber reports that, although unemployment overall has returned to its pre-recession level, involuntary part-time employment is still much higher than it was before the Great Recession began--a trend that raises questions about the continuing ability of the economy to deliver employment security to people willing and able to work. Involuntary part-time employment is down 34 percent since the Great Recession but is still above its pre-recession level. If the involuntary part-time employment rate continues this pace of decline, it will not return to its pre-recession level until 2018, a full nine years after the official end of the recession. Racial disparities persist. Since the recession, involuntary part-time employment declined by over 30 percent for white, Asian, and Hispanic workers but by less than 20 percent for black workers. Among workers with less than a high school degree, 9 percent work part time involuntarily, compared to just 2 percent of college graduates. Involuntary part-time workers are more than five times as likely as full-time workers to live in poverty. As the economy continues to recover, Glauber recommends that the complexities of involuntary part-time employment and disparities in the recovery are explored

Unemployment in the Great Recession: single parents and men hit hard

This brief discusses the sweeping impact the Great Recession has had on Americans, particularly men, single parents, young adults, and people with less education. Using data from the 2007 and 2010 Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey, the authors report that unemployment is highest among men and among unmarried adults, regardless of place or parenting status. Although this was also true before the recession, gaps between men and women, and the unmarried and married, have widened considerably during the recession. Also during the Great Recession, unemployment rose more in central cities and suburban places than in rural places, perhaps because rural unemployment was already high prior to the start of the recession

(WP 2017-02) The Great Recession and Public Education

We examine the impact of the Great Recession on K-12 education finance and employment and generate five key results. First, nearly 300,000 school employees lost their jobs. Second, schools that were heavily dependent financially on state governments were particularly vulnerable to the recession. Third local revenues from the property tax actually increased during the recession, primarily because millage rates rose in response to declining property values. Fourth, inequality in school spending rose sharply during the Great Recession. Fifth, the federal government’s efforts to shield education from some of the worst effects of the recession achieved their major goal

What We're In For: Projected Economic Impact of the Next Recession

Recent historical experience argues that the labor-market effects of the next recession will last far longer than the formal recession itself. This report uses the experience of the last three recessions to predict labor market outcomes of a recession in 2008

Husbands’ job loss and wives’ labor force participation during economic downturns: are all recessions the same?

Earlier research showed an added-worker effect for wives when their husbands stopped working during the Great Recession (December 2007–June 2009) but not when husbands stopped working in recent years of prosperity (2004–2005). By including one recession per decade for the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, this article builds upon that research by using Current Population Survey data to compare wives’ labor force responses to their husbands stopping work across three recessions to determine whether wives’ employment responses during the Great Recession differed from those during earlier recessions. Additionally, we hypothesize motivations for wives entering the labor force and consider the occupations they enter. Across all three recessions included in this study, wives entered the labor force more often when their husband stopped working. More nuanced analyses show that during both the Great Recession and the 1990–1991 recession, wives were more likely to seek work and find a job if their husband became not employed, while in the 1981–1982 recession wives were more likely to seek work but less likely to find a job. We also find that wives who started a job during the Great Recession or the 1990–1991 recession were more likely to enter service occupations than professional or managerial occupations, but this was not the case during the 1981–1982 recession. Furthermore, during the three recessions, college-educated wives who started a job were more likely than wives with less education to enter professional and managerial occupations relative to service occupations or other occupations. However, these newly employed college-educated wives were somewhat more likely to enter service or other occupations than their college-educated counterparts who were employed continuously

SME perceptions of and responses to the recession

The UK has recently experienced the worst recession since the 1930s. Despite the severity of this recent recession, there are currently few studies of its effect on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, small business growth and entrepreneurship are recognised as essential drivers for economic recovery (Matlay, 2012; Rae, 2010). Drawing on an online bi-monthly survey of SMEs in Lincolnshire and Rutland, this paper explores owner managers’ perceptions of the UK recession. We examine the views of businesses on various aspects of the recession, and how this has affected business performance, levels of confidence, and growth ambitions. The paper explores the role of business confidence in the economy as a determinant of business growth intentions, and draws a comparison between perceptions and behaviour

Trends In Long-term Unemployment

Long-term unemployment reached historically high levels following the Great Recession of 2007–2009. Both the number and share of the unemployed who are long-term unemployed typically continue to increase after a recession ends, before falling during a labor market recovery. Following this cyclical pattern, long-term unemployment has fallen in recent years, although it remains high by historical standards. Five years after the Great Recession ended, the number of long-term unemployed still made up a larger share of unemployment than during any previous recession. This Spotlight on Statistics examines trends in long-term unemployment and the characteristics of people who have experienced it