Showing papers by "Joshua C. Hall published in 2019"

Economic freedom and income levels across u.s. states: a spatial panel data analysis

Abstract: There is a large literature estimating the effect of economic freedom on economic growth or income levels. Most studies examine the relationship between economic freedom and growth or income levels for countries, while a few examine the relationship for U.S. states. Absent in the state‐level literature is consideration of the presence of spatial spillovers affecting the freedom‐income relationship. Neglecting to account for spatial autocorrelation can bias estimation results and therefore inferences drawn. We find evidence of a spatial pattern in real per‐capita gross state product (GSP) that affects nonspatial estimates of the freedom‐income relationship. Taking into account the direct and indirect effects of economic freedom on real per‐capita GSP, we find a 10% increase in economic freedom is associated with a 5% increase in real per‐capita GSP. (JEL E02, O47, R11)

Does the presence of professional football cause crime in a city? Evidence from Pontiac, Michigan.

Abstract: Using daily panel data from Detroit, we empirically explore the relationship between the National Football League (NFL) and crime in a city. We exploit the natural experiment of the Detroit...

Rent-seeking in the classroom and textbooks: Where are we after 50 years?

Abstract: In this paper, we provide an overview of the influence of Tullock’s work on rent-seeking in the area of economics education. After summarizing the basic rent-seeking model in both a domestic and international context, we conduct an analysis of undergraduate and graduate textbooks in public economics. We find a majority of undergraduate texts cover rent-seeking in depth, but two texts provide zero coverage. No graduate textbook surveyed mentions rent-seeking. We conclude by summarizing the economic education literature on rent-seeking, which can be divided into either classroom experiments or popular culture examples.

Economies of scale and governance of library systems: evidence from West Virginia

Abstract: Public libraries are a billion dollar industry in the United States. We explore the institutional determinants of public library technical efficiency using data from West Virginia. We first document considerable cross-district variation in library efficiency. While the average library district in our sample is between 81 and 90% efficient depending upon the year and measure, there are many district-years that are under 50%. We then explain our technical efficiency measures as a function of institutional variables reflecting the type of district and sources of funding. We find consistent evidence that urban libraries are more inefficient, perhaps because they are too small to achieve sufficient economies-of-scale in production of library services. In addition, we find revenue from local sources is associated with reduced efficiency, contrary to what would be predicted by local public goods producer theory.

The Public Choice of Public Stadium Financing: Evidence from San Diego Referenda

Abstract: Local politicians and team owners frequently argue that the public financing of stadiums is important for local economic development. The sports economics literature, however, has largely found that new professional sport facilities do not generate any new net economic activity. We provide context to this literature by exploring the public choice in the public financing of stadiums. In 2016, San Diego had two ballot measures related to the San Diego Chargers. Measure C would allow officials to raise hotel taxes to pay for a new downtown stadium for the Chargers. Measure D would also raise hotel taxes, but explicitly prevented any money being spent on the Chargers. Both measures failed to receive 50% of the votes cast. We find that zip codes with a higher voter turnout were more likely to vote against both measures, highlighting the importance of the timing of referenda in limiting the ability of clearly defined groups, such as Chargers fans, to have a large influence on the voting outcome. Meanwhile, areas with more Trump voters were more likely to support higher taxes for the purpose of building the Chargers a new stadium.

Spatial Spillover Effects of Debt Relief from the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative

Abstract: The impacts of various economic and institutional factors transcend the borders of a country and flow over to adjacent countries. Past research has found that there are spatial spillovers in economic growth, development of institutions, governance quality and institutional quality. This paper conducts a study on the direct and indirect effects of debt relief from the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) programs, which are created by the IMF and the World Bank to provide debt relief to qualifying countries. Using the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM), this study shows that there are negative spatial spillovers associated with these debt relief programs.

The Value of Residential Community Associations: Evidence from South Carolina

Abstract: This empirical study uses a hedonic pricing model and a dataset of Spartanburg, South Carolina homes from 2002 to 2005 to evaluate the effect of Residential Community Associations (RCAs). Spartanburg is focused on due to data availability. The number of RCAs have exploded in the United States in recent decades. Given that RCAs both supplement and complement local government provision of goods and services, it is an important policy question to ascertain whether they create value for their residents. While the literature on RCAs has generally shown that they increase property values, the lack of comprehensive data has led scholars to primarily focus on Virginia and Florida. Given the heterogeneity of state laws governing RCAs and the diversity of local government amenities, the external validity of these results is in question. This study used data on a mid-sized city in South Carolina to provide further evidence on RCAs. The findings suggest that RCAs increase property values by 2.2%. These results are much smaller than estimates from other locations, suggesting that for many people in Spartanburg, local governments are a good substitute. The findings also highlight how failure to properly control for structure age can lead to incorrect inferences about the impact of RCAs on home prices.

The Political Economy of Abandoned Mine Land Fund Disbursements

Abstract: What factors determine federal spending on environmental goods? Is severity of the hazard the only metric of consideration, or do other factors play a vital role in explaining spending? This paper seeks to answer this question and to identify disbursement patterns within the context of the Abandoned Mine Land Fund (AMLF) program, a fund created as an aspect of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. We explore whether political factors, as well as environmental and health factors, have an explanatory role in disbursement of AMLF monies. The political factors examined include environmental interest group influence and legislator preferences and/or pressures to fund sites in their home states or districts. The results found here suggest that there exists a mix of public and private interests present in AMLF disbursement decisions during the overall span of the program, and that political influences have gained strength in the decision-making calculus in response to changes in the funding structure of the AMLF.

Federal Regulations and U.S. Energy Sector Output

Abstract: A large body of literature finds that the energy sector is important to economic growth and development. The production of energy has negative environmental impacts, however, which has resulted in the sector being highly regulated. While several studies examine the effect of particular regulations on the energy sector, in this study we use the recently developed measure of regulation called RegData to estimate the impact of federal regulations on the energy sector. We employ a panel ARDL model to find an inverted Ushaped relationship between federal regulations and U.S. energy sector output. Federal regulations appear to increase energy sector outputs at low levels and then decline as regulations accumulate.

Structured Writing Assignments in an American Economic History Course

Abstract: This article describes how our American Economic History capstone writing class is structured to allow students to build upon their own research and writing in order to complete an extensive written piece as the culmination of the class. The course is organized so that students can pursue their own interests across fields in economics, and emerge from it with both a better understanding of a particular field, and a paper that can be used for job and graduate school applications and potential publication. The article relates the lessons learned by the authors during the teaching of the course, and the ways in which the course organization has assisted students with their education and careers.