Essays on valuing non-market goods in imperfectly competitive markets

Debates on climate change have conceded to most parties acknowledging the existence of negative impacts of changing weather patterns. However, these impacts have not fully been assessed. One way which changing climates can negatively impact an economy is by changing the market structures of its most influential industries; making these markets more imperfectly competitive and taking value away from consumers. This dissertation draws on this fact and suggests accurate ways to both identify and quantify the costs of climate change. In the first chapter of this dissertation, the ski industry is used as a case study. A unique data set along with the econometric technique of discrete time survival analysis is used to estimate the impact of weather on the survival of ski areas over time. Results suggest that changing weather patterns have been an influential factor in the closure of many ski areas throughout the region. For this reason, the ski industry has become much less competitive allowing ski area managers to increase the price of their lift tickets over their marginal costs. The second chapter builds off the first to show that since many of the industries which are vulnerable to climate change are imperfectly competitive in nature, there is a need to more precise theoretical techniques of valuing non-market, climate related goods in these industries in which firms can artificially increase the price. Huang (2013) builds off of Feenstra (1995) and adapts the traditional hedonic valuation method to account for imperfect competition in the market. The theoretical technique is discussed and employed against current approaches to show its feasibility in measuring the true value of goods which are marked up when firms enjoy market power. Together the two chapters of this dissertation develop a strategy for increased precision in the measurement of the costs of climate change. By first identifying vulnerable industries with the econometric techniques used in chapter one and then estimating the value of the climate related goods in these industries with the model presented in chapter two, researchers could determine important factors which have the ability to influence policy debates on climate change

A Review of the Potts Model

This paper examines a mathematical modeling tool for complex systems with nearest neighbor interactions known as the Potts model. We begin by explaining the structure of the model and defining its Hamiltonian, probability function, and partition function. We then focus on the partition function, giving examples and showing the equivalence of two different formulations. We then introduce the Tutte polynomial a well known graph invariant. We give details of the equivalence of the Tutte polynomial and the Potts model partition function. Since the Tutte polynomial, and hence the Potts model partition function, is computationally intractable, we explore Monte Carlo simulations of the Potts model. Finally, we discuss three applications illustrating how these simulations model real world situations

Cross-Quality Impacts of NCAA Division I Baseball and Softball

Fifty years after Title IX, inequalities still exist between men\u27s and women\u27s sports. Most sport studies still fail to examine women\u27s sports. This study explores the cross-quality impacts of Division I baseball and softball teams. The softball team win percentage is positively related to softball and baseball game attendance. However, models produce mixed results for the impact of the quality of the baseball team. Therefore, improving the strength of the softball team could increase softball and baseball game attendance, while improving the strength of the baseball team might only increase attendance at baseball games

Does Student Performance in Introductory Economics and Business Courses Impact ETS Scores?

This study examines the impact of economics education on student performance on the Educational Testing Service Major Field Test in Business. We demonstrate that grades in introductory microeconomics and macroeconomics courses have a positive relationship with overall exam performance as well as sub-scores in most content areas of the test. Furthermore, we use a measure of “extranormal” ability in economics and demonstrate its positive relationship to test performance. “Extranormal” ability represents the portion of course grades that cannot be explained by prior academic achievement. Finally, we show that the relationship between “extranormal” ability and exam performance is much more limited for female students than for male students

A Little Statistical Mechanics for the Graph Theorist

In this survey, we give a friendly introduction from a graph theory perspective to the q-state Potts model, an important statistical mechanics tool for analyzing complex systems in which nearest neighbor interactions determine the aggregate behavior of the system. We present the surprising equivalence of the Potts model partition function and one of the most renowned graph invariants, the Tutte polynomial, a relationship that has resulted in a remarkable synergy between the two fields of study. We highlight some of these interconnections, such as computational complexity results that have alternated between the two fields. The Potts model captures the effect of temperature on the system and plays an important role in the study of thermodynamic phase transitions. We discuss the equivalence of the chromatic polynomial and the zero-temperature antiferromagnetic partition function, and how this has led to the study of the complex zeros of these functions. We also briefly describe Monte Carlo simulations commonly used for Potts model analysis of complex systems. The Potts model has applications as widely varied as magnetism, tumor migration, foam behaviors, and social demographics, and we provide a sampling of these that also demonstrates some variations of the Potts model. We conclude with some current areas of investigation that emphasize graph theoretic approaches. This paper is an elementary general audience survey, intended to popularize the area and provide an accessible first point of entry for further exploration.Comment: 30 pages, 3 figure

Does Gender Matter? Examining the Impact of Coach Gender on Team Success: Evidence from the NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament

We examine the impact of coach gender on the probability that NCAA Division I women’s basketball teams advance to the end-of-year NCAA tournament. Results of our full sample analysis show that coach gender has no significant impact on the likelihood of advancing, providing no evidence for ability as a potential explanation for the decline in women coaches. In the subsample analysis, while we find that men coaches have higher predicted probabilities of tournament appearances in non-Power Five conferences, women coaches are more successful in the elite Power Five conferences, where they have been losing the most ground in coaching positions

On the use of hypothetical price data to estimate hedonic models in a developing country context

Given the lack of market-based property price data in developing countries, imputed rental prices have been recently used to estimate the implicit value of some home characteristics and related amenities. This study assesses the validity of using imputed rental prices to estimate hedonic models in a developing country context. Using data from Guatemala, we compare the derived implicit values of housing characteristics from hedonic models using hypothetical and actual rental prices. We estimate an endogenous switching regression model to control for potential endogeneity of the decision to rent a home. Our results indicate that hedonic models with hypothetical and true rental prices yield statistically different estimates of marginal values for some housing characteristics

Using the Fed Challenge to Enrich the Teaching of a Money and Banking Class

We describe the Fed Challenge Project, an experiential learning project for a Money and Banking course. In this project, modeled after the College Fed Challenge Competition, student teams present on the current state of the economy and create and defend monetary policy recommendations. The project gives students an opportunity to enhance their knowledge of monetary policy and develop important economic skills including data analysis and visualization, critical thinking, research, communication, and collaboration. Three elements of the project—relevancy of content, a combination of individual and collaborative work, and the inclusion of common and creative aspects—combine to enhance learning objectives

Examining the Gender and Minority Test Score Gap on the MFT-B: A Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition Approach

This paper examines performance differences among demographic groups on the ETS Major Field Test in Business. The study employs the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition technique to analyze the test score differentials by gender and racial minority status. This technique decomposes the difference into two parts: an endowment effect (or explained portion) and a returns effect (or unexplained portion). The results demonstrate that the endowment effect fully explains the gap between white and racial minority students but virtually none of the gender gap. This large unexplained gap between male and female test performance suggests the need for further study of potential gender bias of the exam