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The effects of COVID‐19 lockdown on the body weight and lifestyle behaviors of U.S. adults Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2024-03-04 Jaesang Sung, Will Davis, Qihua Qiu
The COVID‐19 pandemic and associated policies may have impacted body weight and related lifestyle behaviors. Using 2017–2020 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, we estimate the effects of COVID‐19 lockdown on Body Mass Index (BMI) and the probability of obesity among adults in the United States. Our triple‐differences approach, using recent pre‐pandemic years as counterfactuals, identifies
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Labor force effects of Medicaid and Marketplace expansions: Variation by gender, parental status, and household structure Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Makayla Lavender, Emily Johnston
We revisit the Affordable Care Act (ACA)'s Medicaid expansion's labor market effects and build upon it by estimating effects of subsidized Marketplace insurance. Using American Community Survey data, we jointly model the effects of Medicaid and Marketplace expansion on labor force outcomes using simulated eligibility measures. Throughout our analysis, we focus on heterogeneity by gender, parental status
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Aging in style: Seniority and sentiment in scholarly writing Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2024-02-17 Lea-Rachel Kosnik, Daniel S. Hamermesh
The scholarly impact of academic research matters for academic promotions, influence, relevance to public policy, and others. Focusing on writing style in top-level professional journals, we examine how it changes with age, and how stylistic differences and age affect impact. As top-level scholars age, their writing style increasingly differs from others'. The impact (measured by citations) of each
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Economic fluctuations and mortality in Canada revisited Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2024-02-19 Zuzana Janko, Gurleen Popli
This paper uses panel data for Canada from 1976 to 2018, across 10 provinces, to reassess the relationship between mortality rates and economic fluctuations. The key contribution of our paper lies in examining the extent to which this relationship is driven by the employment rate (extensive margin) versus average hours worked (intensive margin). We find evidence of procyclical mortality for females
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Can high-skilled immigrants transfer their human capital to the United States? Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2024-02-05 Bin Xie
Using the National Survey of College Graduates, this study examines the return to pre- and post-migration human capital of high-skilled immigrants in the United States to provide an empirical evaluation of their skill transferability. I find that, on average, high-skilled immigrants exhibit no wage return to foreign work experience, yet they demonstrate a relatively substantial return to foreign education
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Certifiably employable? Occupational regulation and unemployment duration Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2024-02-05 Ilya Kukaev, Edward J. Timmons
Occupational regulation is a labor market institution that has received a growing amount of attention. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding the relationship between occupational credentials and unemployment duration in the United States. Thus, we propose a random search model to explain differences in unemployment duration resulting from heterogeneous effects from licenses and certification
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Economic freedom and growth, income, investment, and inequality: A quantitative summary of the literature Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2024-01-29 Robert Lawson, Vincent Miozzi, Meg Tuszynski
This study examines the published estimates on the relationship between economic freedom, as measured by the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) index, and measures of growth, income, investment, and inequality. We obtained 696 point estimates for economic freedom-growth from 54 articles, 386 estimates for economic freedom-income from 23 articles, 343 estimates for economic freedom-investment from
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A Bayesian analysis of e-cigarette risk perceptions in the United Kingdom Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-12-11 W. Kip Viscusi
Public Health England has communicated that e-cigarettes provide at least a 95% risk reduction compared to conventional cigarettes. This article's survey evidence indicates that adults in the United Kingdom believe that e-cigarettes are only 30%–40% safer overall and that they reduce lung cancer risks and total mortality risks by a similar percentage. A Bayesian analysis of risk beliefs finds that
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How does economic freedom influence public health? Evidence from U.S. cities Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-12-08 Justin Callais, Kelly Hyde, Ilia Murtazashvili, Yang Zhou
Although there is substantial agreement how microeconomic forces—income, risk aversion—shape public health outcomes, there is substantial disagreement about the relationship between macroeconomic forces—market liberalization and economic freedom—on public health. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between public health, economic freedom, and wealth using a large sample of metropolitan-level
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Does studying economics make you selfish? Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-11-23 Daniele Girardi, Sai Madhurika Mamunuru, Simon D. Halliday, Samuel Bowles
It is widely held that studying economics makes you more selfish and politically conservative. We use a difference-in-differences strategy to disentangle the causal impact of economics education from selection effects. We estimate the effect of four different intermediate microeconomics courses on students' experimentally elicited social preferences and beliefs about others, and policy opinions. We
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Can geography explain Quebec's historical poverty? Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-11-20 Vincent Geloso, Louis Rouanet
From the 19th century to the 1940s, Quebec remained poorer and less economically developed than the rest of Canada in general, and than Ontario in particular. This placed Quebec at the bottom of North American rankings of living standards. One prominent hypothesis for the initiation of this gap is tied to disparities in agricultural land quality. We formally test this hypothesis using newly available
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The COVID-19 pandemic and primary care appointment availability by physician age and gender Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-11-20 Janna Wisniewski, Brigham Walker, Sarah Tinkler, Miron Stano, Rajiv Sharma
Using data generated through simulated patient calls to a national random sample of primary care physicians between February and July 2020, we examine the effects of the first wave of COVID-19 on the availability of the U.S. primary care physician workforce for routine new patient appointments. As states enacted stay-at-home orders, physicians overall became less selective by insurance, and there was
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Are menthol smokers different? An economic perspective Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-11-11 Yu-Chun Elisa Cheng, Don Kenkel, Alan Mathios, Hua Wang
More than 18.5 million current smokers in the United States usually smoke menthol cigarettes. The Food and Drug Administration recently proposed a tobacco product standard to prohibit menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes. We explore whether there are internality-based market failures that provide an applied welfare economics rationale to prohibit menthol. Our empirical approach provides
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The impacts of U.S. right-to-work laws on free riding, unionization, and compensation Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-11-03 Dillan Bono-Lunn
Right-to-work (RTW) laws are theorized to precipitate union decline by inducing free riding among union-covered workers; however, this relationship has not been empirically explored. This paper uses recent policy variation and Current Population Survey (CPS) data to identify the impact of state RTW laws on union status (free riding, membership, and coverage), wages, and benefits among private and public
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Moral hazard and selection bias in insurance markets: Evidence from commercial fisheries Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-10-27 Akbar Marvasti, Sami Dakhlia
Using a panel dataset of commercial fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico, we attempt to separately identify the moral hazard and self-selection effects of property insurance coverage among commercial fishers. We use captains' propensity to take fishing trips under adverse weather conditions as a proxy for their private information; these data are available to us, but not to insurers. We find that vessels
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CBD as a cure-all? The impacts of state-level legalization of prescription cannabidiol (CBD) on opioid prescriptions Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-10-26 Tim Bersak, Richard Gearhart, Nyakundi Michieka
We investigate the impacts of state legalization of products containing cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive alternative to marijuana, on opioid prescribing rates. Research suggests that legalized medical marijuana may reduce opioid prescriptions, though no empirical link between CBD and opioids has been ascertained. Using county-level prescribing rates between 2010 and 2019, as well as state-level
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Assessing proxies of knowledge and difficulty with rubric-based instruments Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-09-28 Ben O. Smith, Jadrian J. Wooten
The fields of psychometrics, economic education, and education have developed statistically-valid methods of assessing knowledge and learning. These methods include item response theory, value-added learning models, and disaggregated learning. These methods, however, focus on multiple-choice or single response assessments. Faculty and administrators routinely assess knowledge through papers, thesis
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Does age affect the relation between risk and time preferences? Evidence from a representative sample Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-09-25 Zexuan Wang, Ismaël Rafaï, Marc Willinger
We examine the links between age, risk tolerance, and impatience in a large French representative sample. We combine elicited preferences data based on an incentivized web experiment and stated preferences data based on self-reported surveys. Our findings highlight distinct patterns: when considering stated preferences, both risk tolerance and impatience exhibit a decline with age. Higher risk tolerance
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Optimal investment in health when lifetime is stochastic, or, rational agents do not often follow health recommendations Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-09-22 Kristian Bolin, Michael R. Caputo
There exists considerable evidence that people do not often follow the health recommendations issued by health authorities. It might be tempting to think that not following health recommendations is a sign of irrationality and that behavioral considerations are required in order to explain such behavior. Despite this temptation, and using a general health-capital model which accounts for the consumption
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AACSB accreditation and student demand Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-09-19 Marisa Cameron, Bryan C. McCannon, Katherine Starr
We ask whether Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation has a meaningful impact on higher education admissions. To do this, we use the Synthetic control Method to explore 19 U.S. institutions which first achieved this certification recently. We, first, restrict attention to business school enrollment. While initial evidence suggests that the accreditation is associated
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Microcommitments: Mitigating procrastination with more than a nudge Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-09-13 Amanda J. Felkey, Eva Dziadula, Eric P. Chiang
Technological improvements have changed the way class content is delivered and absorbed, with new modes of communication and collaboration creating viable alternatives to the traditional classroom. While online learning has many benefits in terms of greater flexibility and convenience, the lack of face-to-face interaction creates potential consequences in the form of greater propensity for procrastination
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Opening the gates: The increasing impact of papers beyond the top five and other changes in economic publishing Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-09-07 Jill Caviglia-Harris
The field of economics is undergoing a paradigm shift, marked by what has become known as the “credibility revolution.” This shift has impacted what economists write about, how they organize and structure their papers, and where they chose to publish their findings. This paper traces publishing trends from the 100 most cited papers in the decades from 1970 to 2019 (500 papers in total). Data suggest
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Marijuana legalization and traffic fatalities revisited Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-09-07 Weiwei Chen, Michael T. French
The legal landscape for marijuana in the United States has changed dramatically over the last three decades. While several studies have examined the relationship between marijuana legalization and traffic fatalities, some of the research is becoming outdated and existing evidence remains mixed. Our research revisits the topic with two updates. First, our study includes states that legalized marijuana
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Personalized pricing with heterogeneous mismatch costs Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-08-31 Noriaki Matsushima, Tomomichi Mizuno, Cong Pan
Personalized pricing has become a reality through digitization. We examine firms' incentives to adopt one of the three pricing schemes: uniform, personalized, or group pricing in a Hotelling duopoly model. There are two types of consumer groups that are heterogeneous in their mismatch costs. We show that both firms employ personalized pricing in equilibrium regardless of the heterogeneity of consumer
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Decentralized response as a pandemic second-best: The case of Russia Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-08-25 Vladimir V. Maltsev
Centralized state response is almost universally considered as the first best option for managing pandemics. This paper argues that in reality, states fall short of this ideal. Knowledge problems hinder the government's disease acknowledgement, resource allocation and feedback, while compulsion, political predation, and corruption exacerbate the situation further. On the other hand, a decentralized
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Unintended effects of broadband grants on bank branches Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-08-16 Minhae Kim
The Community Connect Grant (CCG) Program was created in 2002 to provide financial assistance for the provision of broadband service in rural areas. Although it aimed to strengthen the rural economy, it is possible that an increase in internet usage due to the program could have induced bank branch closures, which could have had unintended effects on the economy. This paper discusses the mechanism
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Background risk and consumers' demand for insurance under limited liability Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-08-14 Gilad Sorek, T. Randolph Beard
This study highlights the importance of financial background risks in consumers' demand for coverage against insurable risks, considering the bankruptcy option. We explore three cases that are overlooked in theoretical literature, although found to be highly relevant in empirical studies: (1) the joint realization of the two financial risks is bankrupting, (2) the insurable risk is bankrupting and
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Interactions between job search and housing decisions: A structural estimation Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-08-10 Sílvio Rendon, Núria Quella-Isla
Housing and financial market shocks affect frictional labor markets. We structurally estimate a model of job search with accumulation of liquid and residential wealth and randomly persistent house prices. Using NLSY data from 1978 to 2000, we show that reservation wages and nonemployment increase in total wealth and respond to the composition of wealth, home prices and financial markets' tightness
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Estimating the effects of wind loss mitigation on home value Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-06-19 Sebastain Awondo, Harris Hollans, Lawrence Powell, Chip Wade
We empirically estimate the effects of windstorm loss mitigation features on the value of coastal homes using fixed-effects and spatial regression hedonic models. We use housing data from the “Fortified Home” program, which prescribes and certifies windstorm resilience features for residential property. We test the extent to which Fortified construction and the location of a house relative to the coast
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(De)unionization, trade, unemployment, and wage differentials Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-06-03 Juin-Jen Chang, Li-Wen Hung, Shin-Kun Peng
This research examines the interaction of (de)unionization and trade liberalization in shaping firm productivity, market structure, trade flows, unemployment, and functional distribution (changes in the wage difference and labor income share). It introduces unemployment to the Melitz-Ottaviano model by considering unionism in the differentiated manufacturing sector and searching frictions in the homogeneous
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Do sovereign credit rating events affect the foreign exchange market? Evidence from a treatment effect analysis Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-05-29 Hippolyte Balima, Alexandru Minea, Cezara Vinturis
We estimate the effect of sovereign credit rating events on the foreign exchange market. Using entropy balancing—a treatment effect methodology that properly addresses the possible self-selection and endogeneity biases related to rating events—we find robust evidence that a positive (negative) sovereign credit rating event significantly increases (decreases) on average exchange rates, with a larger
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Gerrymandering in the laboratory Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-05-25 SunAh An, Michael Anderson, Cary Deck
Gerrymandering, the drawing of electoral boundaries for political advantage, is a controversial political topic. Previous theoretical work has treated gerrymandering as a one-stage strategic game against nature, but this paper treats drawing districts as the first stage in a two stage game where parties subsequently compete for undecided voters within districts. In a laboratory experiment, subjects
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Innovation offshoring and reshoring with fully endogenous growth Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-05-13 Colin Davis, Ken-ichi Hashimoto
This paper studies the implications of innovation offshoring and reshoring for long-run productivity growth in a North–South framework that features a tension in the firm-level innovation location decision between accessing technical knowledge in an asset-wealthy country and sourcing low-cost high-skilled labor in an asset-poor country. We show that, with trade costs and imperfect international knowledge
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Southern gains and northern losses: Regional variation in the evolution of black/white earnings differences in the United States, 1976–2017 Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-05-05 Charles L. Ballard, John H. Goddeeris
We document large differences among regions of the United States in the trends of the black/white earnings gap among full-time workers from 1976 to 2017. Outside the South, the earnings of black workers grew more slowly than those of non-Hispanic white workers. These relative decreases were much larger for women than for men. However, in the South, the racial earnings gap shrank for men, and changed
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In-person versus online instruction: Evidence from principles of economics Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-04-25 Kenneth G. Elzinga, Daniel Q. Harper
COVID-19 required many professors to switch from in-person teaching to online instruction, allowing exploration of a pivotal question in education: are learning outcomes better when instruction takes place in-person or online? We compare student performance across two semesters of the same large introductory economics course—one taught in-person in 2019, the other taught online in 2020. We analyze
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Technology use, work adaptation, and economic vulnerability during COVID-19 Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-04-20 Kasra Khademorezaian, Georgia Kosmopoulou, Shane Connelly, Mark Fichtel, Yash Gujar, Heshan Sun
We explore how technology use helped to cope with the stresses of social distancing during the pandemic contributing insights about the impact of work adaptation enabled by technology on economic vulnerability and resilience. Using a three-wave survey conducted across 10 states in the United States, we found evidence that a high level of technology use was linked to a greater chance of maintaining
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The U.S. Postal Savings System and the collapse of building and loan associations during the Great Depression Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-03-29 Sebastian Fleitas, Matthew Jaremski, Steven Sprick Schuster
Building and loan associations (B&Ls) financed over half of new houses constructed in the United States during the 1920s but they lost their predominance within the following decades as they were pushed to convert into Savings and Loans (S&Ls). This study examines whether the U.S. government-insured Postal Savings System attracted funds away from B&Ls precisely when they needed them the most in the
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Scope economies from rural and urban microfinance services Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-03-23 Valentina Hartarska, Jingfang Zhang, Denis A. Nadolnyak
Microfinance institutions (MFIs) operate in both rural and urban credit markets and provide financial services to the poor not served by commercial banks. MFIs must keep operating costs low to better serve their clients. We evaluate whether MFIs can lower their costs by exploiting economies of diversification from serving both rural and urban markets rather than specializing in only one. We apply a
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The convergence dynamics of economic freedom across U.S. states Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-03-17 James E. Payne, James W. Saunoris, Saban Nazlioglu, Cagin Karul
This study tests for convergence in economic freedom across the 50 U.S. states from 1981 to 2019. In particular, we test for stochastic convergence in overall economic freedom using unit root tests that account for structural breaks and bounded processes, two sources of parameter instability. We find limited evidence of stochastic convergence. Further analysis of relative (club) convergence and weak
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COVID on campus: An empirical analysis of COVID infection rates at U.S. colleges and universities Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-03-16 Lewis Davis, Stephen J. Schmidt, Sophia Zacher
We provide an empirical analysis of the determinants of cumulative COVID infection rates at 1069 U.S. colleges and universities during the 2020–21 academic year. We propose that financially constrained educational institutions faced a trade-off between the reduction of COVID infection risks and an institution's educational, social, reputational, and financial goals. We find that cumulative infection
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Building and using nonlinear simulations in Excel with an application to the specific factors model Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-03-14 John Gilbert, Onur A. Koska, Reza Oladi
Excel simulation models have become increasingly common in the economics classroom, as their ability to combine numerical and graphical information has proved a useful support to traditional teaching methods. Recent efforts have tended to embed the solution within the Excel sheet, avoiding the need to use the Solver add-in and allowing changes in the exogenous characteristics of the model to be instantly
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Task specialization and low-skilled immigration in a highly educated country: Evidence from Korea Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-03-03 Hyejin Kim, Jongkwan Lee
While imperfect substitutability between native and immigrant workers is an important mechanism in estimating the wage effects of immigration, its empirical literature is concentrated on the context of only a few countries. Using occupation task-intensity data from a unique Korean data set, we demonstrate that relatively skilled native Korean workers respond to increased low-skilled immigration by
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Is the “smoke-filled room” necessary? An experimental study of the effect of communication networks on collusion Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-03-03 Timothy Flannery, Siyu Wang
We investigate how well firms can collude with partial communication in relation to full communication. We find that firms vary their communication strategies with network structures. In the networks that have either an isolated firm or full communication, more players send “pure promises” suggesting everyone select the collusive actions unconditionally. In the network with leadership, more players
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Financial dependence and exports: Entrants or incumbents? Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-03-01 Kwan Yong Lee
Using firm-level customs data from 51 countries at different levels of development, we explore differential impacts of access to finance on incumbent and new exporters. Consistent with the literature, firms in sectors more dependent on external finance have higher exports based in financially more developed countries. This effect, however, occurs entirely through entrants, with no effect found for
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On the optimality of information sharing between integrated and vertically separated competitors Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-03-01 Maria Rosa Battaggion, Vittoria Cerasi, Gülen Karakoç
A manufacturer relies on an exclusive subcontractor for production and competes horizontally against an integrated rival that produces in-house. The exclusive agent is privately informed about the marginal cost of production. When marginal costs are correlated across companies, information sharing benefits both companies due to reduced uncertainty, but it affects the contracting terms within the vertical
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Mises's dynamics of interventionism: Lessons from Indian agriculture Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2023-01-18 Shruti Rajagopalan
Despite trade liberalization, industrial delicensing, and deregulation in other sectors of the Indian economy since 1991, the agricultural sector is stifled by arbitrary, complex, and ever-increasing regulation in both input and product markets. This article resolves this puzzle of the Indian economy and, using Mises's theory of interventionism, explains the growth of regulation and subsidies in Indian
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What divides the first and second generations? Family time of arrival and educational outcomes for immigrant youth Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2022-12-25 Marie C. Hull
In this article, I develop a measure of host country experience, which I call “relative time of arrival,” to explore differences between first- and second-generation immigrants. This measure is finer than immigrant generation and expands on the widely used measures of years since migration and age at migration. It is scaled so that zero indicates that a child was born in the same year that the family
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Heterogeneity, leveling the playing field, and affirmative action in contests Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2022-12-24 Subhasish M. Chowdhury, Patricia Esteve-González, Anwesha Mukherjee
The heterogeneous abilities of players in various competitive contexts often lead to undesirable outcomes such as low effort provision, a lack of diversity, and inequality. A range of policies is implemented to mitigate such issues by enforcing competitive balance, that is, by leveling the playing field. Some of those policies, known as affirmative action (AA) policies, are practiced in ethical response
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Impacts of publicly funded health insurance for adults on children's academic achievement Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2022-12-07 Lindsey Rose Bullinger, Maithreyi Gopalan, Caitlin McPherran Lombardi
Publicly funded adult health insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has had positive effects on low-income adults. We examine whether the ACA's Medicaid expansions influenced child development and family functioning in low-income households. We use a difference-in-differences framework that exploits cross-state policy variation and focus on children in low-income families from a nationally
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An investigation of unsuccessful performance and subsequent retake behavior in principles of economics Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2022-11-23 Tisha L. N. Emerson, KimMarie McGoldrick
Using student transcript data from eight institutions over 23-years, we investigate enrollments in principles of microeconomics to determine characteristics of successful and unsuccessful students. We follow unsuccessful students to identify determinants of retake decisions and success (or lack thereof) for repeaters. Higher aptitude and more senior students are more likely to succeed in microeconomic
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Proxy variable estimation of productivity and efficiency Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2022-11-15 Mike G. Tsionas, Subal C. Kumbhakar
We model productivity and inefficiency jointly, instead of modeling and estimating either only productivity or only inefficiency with many variable and quasi-fixed inputs. In the first model, we use a multi-step procedure. We use the proxy variable method based on the first-order condition (FOC) of expected profit maximization with respect to the single variable input to take care of the endogeneity
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Two steps forward, one step back? Quantifying the pecuniary costs of debt account aversion and the debt snowball Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2022-11-14 Ben Hamilton
The interest-minimizing strategy to paying multiple debts is to make all minimum payments and allocate remaining funds to the debt with the highest interest rate. However, cognitive biases such as debt account aversion and financial advisors encourage borrowers to instead allocate remaining funds to debts with lower outstanding balances, a strategy known as the Debt Snowball. The author uses the 2016
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Intergenerational income mobility and economic freedom Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2022-11-10 Justin T. Callais, Vincent Geloso
Numerous studies have found that income inequality reduces the chances of upward relative mobility (i.e., climbing up the income ladder). However, most of this work ignores the role played by institutional quality (namely, economic freedom) in determining mobility and increasing the individual's set of choices. We fill this gap by empirically testing the direct and indirect (through economic growth)
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The effect of spouses' relative education on household time allocation Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2022-11-04 Elisa Taveras
Does spouses' relative education explain their household's distribution of labor? This paper analyzes the effect of spouses' education on time allocated to housework and paid work. To address endogeneity concerns, I exploit changes in spouses' relative education due to remarriage to identify its effects on their time allocation. I find that when a husband marries a wife with a higher relative education
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Habit persistence in assets demand Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2022-10-29 Adrian R. Fleissig, James L. Swofford
Habit persistence is examined for six asset demand categories using U.S. data and a dynamic forward-looking model. We find habit persistence is greater for more liquid assets compared to riskier assets and may in part explain low holdings of riskier assets. Cash assets are found to be substitutes with other liquid assets under habit formation. Consistent with portfolio analysis, the riskier asset categories
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Who is the most sought-after economist? Ranking economists using Google Trends Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2022-09-19 Tom Coupé
This paper uses Google Trends to rank economists and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using Google Trends compared with other ranking methods, like those based on citations or downloads. I find that Google search intensity rankings make it possible to compare the current impact of both contemporaneous and past economists and that they can help to illustrate the variety in economists' careers
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Governors and electoral hazard in the allocation of federal disaster aid Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2022-09-08 Thomas Husted, David Nickerson
U.S. public disaster aid provide elected officials opportunities to engage in “electoral hazard,” where an incumbent can influence the probability of re-election by allocating aid to influence voters' expectations of their future welfare. This is the first test for electoral hazard in the allocation of federal aid to counties exposed to the risk of economic loss from disasters by incumbent state governors
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Heterogeneous effects of health shocks in developed countries: Evidence from Australia Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2022-08-31 Asad Islam, Jaai Parasnis
We examine how health shocks impact on households' decision to save, and how different socioeconomic and ethnic groups respond to health shocks in Australia. We find that health shocks are associated with a substantial reduction in individual savings. We do not find any substitution of labor supply by a partner in response to an individual's health shocks. We extend previous work by examining whether
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The effect of Medicaid on recidivism: Evidence from Medicaid suspension and termination policies Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2022-08-27 Gultekin Gollu, Mariyana Zapryanova
Although people who go through the prison and jail system in the United States have significant health care needs, many leave it with no health insurance and, as a result, they experience gaps in access to care. Exploiting variation in Medicaid eligibility policies for incarcerated individuals across states and using administrative prison release data, we find that suspending rather than terminating
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Schumpeter vs. Keynes redux: “Still not dead” Southern Economic Journal (IF 1.333) Pub Date : 2022-08-22 John T. Dalton, Lillian R. Gaeto
Diamond's study compares the citation time series for Schumpeter and Keynes from 1956 to 2006. Citations to Schumpeter steadily increase throughout the period, whereas citations to Keynes begin to level off and then trend slightly downward beginning in the 1990s. As a result, citations to Schumpeter begin to outstrip those to Keynes. This paper replicates Diamond's study and extends the analysis to