Browsing by Subject "Economic growth"
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Item Energy intensity ratios as net energy measures for selected countries 1978-2010(2013-12) Maxwell, John Paul; King, Carey Wayne, 1974-; Zarnikau, Jay William, 1959-Stated simply, this thesis focuses on the relationship between energy and the economy. Using the foundation of King 2010, this analysis expands the scholarship from a U.S. focus to perform Energy Intensity Ratio analysis on forty-four countries for the time period 1978-2010. There are four fuels examined: coal, natural gas, crude oil and electricity. Using both the price and expenditures based Energy Intensity Ratio methods, outputs for each fuel in any applicable sector was determined. In addition, this work compiles an estimate of the total energy expenditures for the majority of the world. By examining the overall expenditures of gross domestic product spent on energy, the data showed two points in time where energy appears to become a constraint on growth. Though this thesis does not answer the question directly as to whether an increase in energy expenditures “causes” an increase in economic growth, or whether an increase in economic growth “causes” an increase in energy expenditures, the research shows that vi there may be a “threshold” effect whereby as energy expenditures become a greater share of output, the ability of economic growth to take place is affected.Item Municipal economic growth through green projects and policies(2012-05) Lindner, Harry Dreyfus; Gamkhar, ShamaCities generally need economic growth. Green policies and projects are environmentally beneficial, desirable, expected by the public, and pragmatic in the long term. However, there is insufficient research on what, if any, municipal green projects and policies generate economic growth. To address this question, the author created a database of green and economic indicators, and modeled the green indicators to predict the economic indicators. The database included carbon usage, transportation metrics, water usage, the number of green jobs, and the gross domestic product (GDP) for the 100 largest cities, defined by metropolitan statistical area (MSA), in the U.S. To gather data on green indicators, existing green rankings, indices, and reports were evaluated for methodology and usability for this paper. The results of the data-gathering step show the need for more and better data collection. That means an increased number of green indicators should be collected, and data should be collected at the MSA (or county) level for more of the largest cities. Specifically to name some green indicators, data collection on energy usage, buildings, waste, land use, air quality, and food could be improved. Those green indicators would likely be included in a model that uses green indicators to predict green jobs or GDP. However, those were not included for the regressions in this paper. The results of the regressions in this paper show two indicators with promise for predicting economic growth as defined by GDP and number of green jobs: (1) percent of people using public transportation, biking, or walking to work, and (2) public water consumption per person. The first explanatory variable indirectly measures the adoption of policies that promote public transportation, biking, and walking. The results suggest that these policies have a positive effect on GDP and number of green jobs. This means the results suggest that as the percent increases, so does GDP and number of green jobs. The second explanatory variable measures the water conservation policies. The results suggest this variable has a negative, albeit weaker relationship with GDP per person. This means the results suggest as water conservation increases (less water usage per person), the GDP per person increases. This paper offers a methodology and some of the groundwork for building a model to show which, if any, municipal green projects and policies predict economic growth.Item The effect of inflation on poverty in developing countries: A panel data analysis(2012-08) Talukdar, Shahidur R; Rahnama, Masha; Valcarcel, Victor J.ABSTRACT - The aim of this thesis is to study the effect of inflation on poverty in developing countries. I analyze the effect of inflation on poverty with a panel dataset comprising of 115 developing countries over the period 1981 - 2008. The dataset comprises of 10 observations for each country as the data is available at 3 year intervals. As previous studies indicate that poverty is also affected by factors such as income, external debt, educational attainment, and quality of governance, besides inflation, I take these as independent variables and poverty as the dependent variable. With the help of regression analysis, I find evidence supporting the view that inflation in, general, is positively correlated with poverty while income, educational attainment, and quality of governance show negative correlation with poverty in most of the specifications. Apart from the study of all the countries combined, I separately analyze the effect of inflation on poverty in low income countries, lower middle income countries, and upper middle income countries to see whether the effect of inflation is similar or different in countries with different levels of income. I find that although in most of the cases inflation shows a positive and statistically significant correlation with poverty, however, in the case of low income countries, the relationship between inflation and poverty is negative and statistically insignificant under certain specifications.Item The impact of the Internet on economic growth in upper-middle-income countries(2011-05) Hadavand, Aboozar; Rahnama, Masha; Hubbard, Timothy P.The Internet affects economies by facilitating a faster and wider access to information, promoting competition in the markets, enhancing communication in terms of lower cost and higher speed, providing a more efficient health care system, and promoting democracy. Therefore, the impact of the Internet on economic growth can be substantial and it can be seen as an important factor in classical and new economic growth models. I seek to determine the effect of the Internet diffusion on economic growth in 33 countries comprising nearly a billion people. In this regard, I consider a model in which I include the Internet diffusion as a factor reflecting the effect of the technology on economic growth. I control for standard variables suggested by growth economists: government consumption, inflation rate, degree of openness, years of schooling and life expectancy (as measures of human capital) and fertility rate, which are mostly ignored by other researches concerned with the impact of the Internet on economic growth. The results show that the effect of the Internet on the Upper-Middle-Income countries’ economies is sensitive to model specification. As expected, the Internet does not have an effect on the countries in this study consistent with its effect on developed countries. Factors that may explain the dissimilar economic impacts of the Internet between developed and developing countries are: general education differences, specific technical and language skills gap, along with the broader institutional environment and different regulations in these countries. The results in this paper suggest that the growth rate is enhanced by lower fertility rate, lower government consumption, lower inflation, and further openness to trade.Item Urban planners, economic development planners, and economic growth(2013-12) Nahavandi, Aynaz; Oden, MichaelA central goal of urban and economic development planning is producing policies and programs to promote economic growth. Urban planners and economic planners always struggle to define economic development policies to improve the growth in way that enhance the quality of life in the community people live and work. Hence, investigation of factors affecting economic growth at the regional level helps decision makers such as urban planners and economic development planners develop smarter policies to increase more opportunities for economic growth. This project aims to look at economic growth from the perspective of urban economic development planners. The main questions of this study include: What is economic growth at the regional level, and what factors influence the growth of US urban regions? Is there any relationship between transportation investments and economic growth? What can urban planners and economic development planners learn from the findings of the growth literature that can better link urban planning with economic development planning and policies? I used research synthesis/meta-study method to review a wide range of studies devoted to economic growth. As neoclassical economists discussed, labor, capital, and human capital and technology are the primary production factors. However, contemporary literature reveals secondary factors that stimulate the efficiency and quality of these primary factors. My findings show that secondary factors such as transportation infrastructure, amenities (schools, housing, weather, and historical, cultural, and recreational centers) and disamenities (pollution, road congestion, and crime rate) influence regional economic growth process. These material factors of economic growth are typically addressed by economists and economic development planners via quantitative analysis of the variables associated with per-capita regional GDP growth. I find, however; that urban planners address a qualitative set of secondary factors related to social norms and institutions. The normative factors include equity, diversity, and housing affordability, and the procedural factors are: public participation, government policies over land use and land development. By reviewing existing regional economic planning, I highlight the lack of strong linkage between economic development planners and urban planners. In the end, an economic growth guideline is developed which might help decision makers such as urban planners and economic development planners derive smarter policies to increase opportunities for economic growth and development.