Changing Sexual Regulations in the U.S. from 1990 to 2010: Spatial Panel Data Analysis

Understanding legal regulation on sexual practices is a field in its infancy. In this paper we analyze the factors driving these sexual regulations using a novel dataset for the U.S. for the years 1990 to 2010. We first introduce the index of sexual regulation (ISR) and then using a spatial lag fixed effects estimator that accounts for spillover effects from neighboring states, we find that citizen’s ideology, population density, household income and median age are associated with a weaker sexual regulation while government ideology has a slight positive association with the overall sexual regulation. We also examine two dimensions of sexual practice regulation looking at the index of marriage practice regulation (IMPR) and sex crime regulation (ISCR). In the case of IMPR, our findings indicate that a more liberal government ideology, a higher share of population with the college degree and a higher median age are associated with a more liberal index of marriage practice regulation

Are Religion and Environmentalism Complements or Substitutes?: A Club-Based Approach

In this article, we analyze the causal link between membership in environmental groups and active participation and membership in religious groups. We use a club-based model and employ OLS and spatial econometrics with controls to test for whether membership and participation in a religious group is a substitute or complement for membership in environmental groups. Instrumental variables estimation was used as a robustness check. We found that religious participation and religious membership in evangelical groups are a substitute for environmental membership. Much of the work on environmental concerns has focused on answers to survey questions, not on membership. We used a dataset of environmental membership at the county level to perform our analysis. We further add quantitative evidence to the discussion by some researchers on the link between religion and environmentalism. In this respect, our work aims to investigate further the causal links between religion and environmentalism

Homo Economicus Meets Homo Religiosus: A Collaborative Undergraduate Course in Economics and Religion

This paper describes an interdisciplinary undergraduate course exploring multiple intersections of economics and religion using a variety of textual sources, exercises, and teaching methods from both fields. We conclude that such a course can be valuable for both majors and non-majors. Economics majors may gain a greater awareness of the philosophical underpinnings and ethical implications of their social science, while non-economists may gain an appreciation for the many ways in which the economic way of thinking affects and can be applied to aspects of their everyday lives. While this course was taught in a largely secular school with Presbyterian roots, the syllabus can easily be adjusted for a more evangelical college

Hydrodynamics of dispersed liquid droplets in synthetic fibrous slurries

M.S.S. Mostafa Ghiaasiaa

Application of modified Laffer Curve in the Marriage Market using Exit Costs

 Application of modified Laffer Curve in the Marriage Market using Exit CostsThe economics literature that deals with the exit costs of marriage has considered primarily the shift from mutual consent divorce to unilateral divorce and has not provided a larger, overall picture of the marriage market under various exit conditions. This paper proposes that a modified Laffer Curve macro model of marriage and divorce provides the best overall picture of the marriage market under various exit scenarios. Application of modified Laffer Curve in the Marriage Market using Exit CostsThe economics literature that deals with the exit costs of marriage has considered primarily the shift from mutual consent divorce to unilateral divorce and has not provided a larger, overall picture of the marriage market under various exit conditions. This paper proposes that a modified Laffer Curve macro model of marriage and divorce provides the best overall picture of the marriage market under various exit scenarios

Do Focusing Events and Narratives Drive Pharma Rent-seeking: Evidence from Disease Outbreaks

Kingdon argues that for an issue to gain agenda status, three “streams” have to come together. When these independent stream meet, a window of opportunity is created for a policy change to occur. Various factors can cause the window of opportunity to occur and one of them is a focusing event or in our case a disease outbreak (Kingdon, 1995). We hypothesize that when disease outbreaks occur pharmaceutical and related companies use this as an opportunity to seek rents. Congress passes funding when focusing events and narratives provide the opportunity to payback different pharmaceutical companies who have contributed to politicians. We use ProQuest News to track the media narratives during six different disease outbreaks and use Google Trends News to see how people interact with the narratives. We find that for five outbreaks there is support for our hypothesis, and the sixth outbreak provides a constraint on our hypothesis

Hydrodynamics of dispersed liquid droplets in agitated synthetic fibrous slurries

"August 1997.""Submitted to Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research.

Whitewater clarification using a dual flocculation/ultrasonic method

"January 2000.""Submitted to Journal of Pulp and Paper Science.

Parliament vs. Supreme court: a veto player framework of the Indian constitutional experiment in the area of economic and civil rights

Indian constitution, Property rights, Civil rights, Basic structure doctrine, Public interest litigation, Veto bargaining model, Veto player framework, Supreme Court, Parliament, D-74, K-11, K-40,