Browsing by Author "Cutler, Harvey, committee member"
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Item Open Access An option value analysis of hydraulic fracturing(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Hess, Joshua H., author; Iverson, Terrence, advisor; Cutler, Harvey, committee member; Weiler, Stephan, committee member; Manning, Dale, committee memberMany uncertain public policy decisions with sunk costs can be optimally timed leading policymakers to delay implementing a policy despite positive expected net present value. One salient example of this is hydraulic fracturing (fracking), a recently developed oil and gas extraction technology, that has increased fossil fuel reserves in the US. However, many municipalities have seen fit to ban its use despite seemingly positive expected net benefits. We hypothesize that an option value framework that values the ability to delay and learn about an uncertain project may explain fracking bans in practice where the neoclassical net present value rule does not. We test this by developing a stochastic dynamic learning model parameterized with a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model that calculates the value of learning about uncertainty over damages and uncertainty over benefits. Applying the model to a representative Colorado municipality, we quantify the quasi-option values (QOV), which create an additional incentive to ban fracking temporarily in order to learn. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to quantify an economy-wide QOV associated with a local environmental policy decision. In Chapter 1 we argue that a numerical, option value approach is the appropriate way to examine uncertain public policy issues involving sunk costs. This method allows for an optimal timing of the public project rather than the 'now or never' approach of the ubiquitous net present value rule. We present local fracking policy as an excellent application for an option value approach as has positive expected net benefits but has been subject to local bans seemingly despite the net present value rule. We also defend our use of a CGE model to estimate the local economic benefits of fracking. Chapter 2 presents the option value model associated with epistemological uncertainty over environmental damages. Also, this chapter presents damage values parameterized to the City of Fort Collins for application in this and the subsequent chapter. With this in hand, we solve the model and demonstrate the results. Chapter 3 has a similar structure to Chapter 2. First, it discusses the literature on stochastic oil movements, then it presents the option value model associated with stochastic uncertainty over local benefits. Then, assuming the same parameterized expected damage as in Chapter 2, we solve the model and display the results.Item Open Access Brain drain and reverse brain drain: individual decision making and implications for economic growth(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Hua, Kuo-Ting, author; Fan, Chuen-Mei, advisor; Cutler, Harvey, committee member; Kling, Robert W., committee member; Loomis, John B., committee memberIn two models, this dissertation explores two different but related topics in the international migration of skilled individuals, namely, the possibility of beneficial brain drain arises from the out-migration of skilled individuals and the potentially economic incentives for the emigrants to return to their homeland. The first model is a R&D and human capital accumulation hybrid endogenous growth model with a modified human capital accumulation behavior. It shows that an individual learns from previous innovations and that human capital accumulation fuels improvement in the quality of goods to promote economic growth. Since the ability of an individual is the key to the formation of human capital, the economic growth rate is tied to the representative individual's ability. It also shows that, with the presence of uncertainty about the opportunity of migration, the sending country could benefit from brain drain even without the scale effect. The second model is a two-period overlapping generation human capital growth model with a common self-selection fashion. Each individual optimally chooses his human capital level and the location he works. It shows that an increase in the probability of migration induces human capital accumulation in the sending country resulting from more individuals becoming potential returnees, and each potential emigrant or returnee acquiring more education. It also shows that the domestic investment opportunity could further increase human capital acquisition for an potential returnee while the wage premium couldn't.Item Open Access Forecasting fed cattle prices: errors and performance during periods of high volatility(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Linnell, Patrick B., author; Koontz, Stephen R., advisor; Hadrich, Joleen C., committee member; Frasier, W. Marshall, committee member; Cutler, Harvey, committee memberLivestock and other commodity prices have displayed considerable volatility in the past ten years. In this environment, price forecasts play a key role in producers' business planning and risk management decisions. The object of this study is to evaluate fed cattle price forecasting performance and errors during this volatile period. Price forecast models are developed using autoregressive, vector autoregressive, and vector error correction frameworks. Forecast performance is compared to the live cattle futures market. Results emphasize the importance of simplicity relative to forecast accuracy. Autoregressive and vector autoregressive methods appear the most useful, with autoregressive models typically being the most accurate of the time series methods. Time series models are significantly more accurate than futures predictions at the one-month horizon. Futures are about as accurate or more accurate at all other horizons, especially as forecast horizon increases, although differences are not significant. Time series methods still provided valuable information relative to futures-based predictions at the twoto six-month horizons. Results suggest forecast errors are related to shocks occurring after the forecast, consistent with market efficiency. Shocks related to market currentness, or the relative supply and demand conditions of the non-storable commodity, appear the most important to fed cattle price forecasting errors.Item Open Access Generalizations of comparability graphs(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Xu, Zhisheng, author; McConnell, Ross, advisor; Ortega, Francisco, committee member; Cutler, Harvey, committee member; Hulpke, Alexander, committee memberIn rational decision-making models, transitivity of preferences is an important principle. In a transitive preference, one who prefers x to y and y to z must prefer x to z. Many preference relations, including total order, weak order, partial order, and semiorder, are transitive. As a preference which is transitive yet not all pairs of elements are comparable, partial orders have been studied extensively. In graph theory, a comparability graph is an undirected graph which connects all comparable elements in a partial order. A transitive orientation is an assignment of direction to every edge so that the resulting directed graph is transitive. A graph is transitive if there is such an assignment. Comparability graphs are a class of graphs where clique, coloring, and many other optimization problems are solved by polynomial algorithms. It also has close connections with other classes of graphs, such as interval graphs, permutation graphs, and perfect graphs. In this dissertation, we define new measures for transitivity to generalize comparability graphs. We introduce the concept of double threshold digraphs together with a parameter λ which we define as our degree of transitivity. We also define another measure of transitivity, β, as the longest directed path such that there is no edge from the first vertex to the last vertex. We present approximation algorithms and parameterized algorithms for optimization problems and demonstrate that they are efficient for "almost-transitive" preferences.Item Open Access Health and human capital effects of lead exposure(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Keyes, Christopher James, author; Zahran, Sammy, advisor; Mushinski, David, committee member; Cutler, Harvey, committee member; Manning, Dale, committee memberThe legacy of lead in the United States is complex and intertwined with public health. As concerns over the toxicity of lead increased with time, policy makers responded with a series of national policies aimed at minimizing the risk of lead exposure across society. One such policy, the Clean Air Act (CAA), set a timeline for the removal of lead from gasoline beginning in 1975. This policy would target the anti-knock lead additive tetraethyl-lead (TEL), which was used to boost gasoline octane and improve engine performance (Needleman, 2000; Reyes, 2007). Over the following two decades, the flow of lead entering the environment from automobile emissions decreased precipitously. This dissertation exploits a natural experiment in lead exposure arising from the differential phase-out of leaded gasoline across states under the CAA. Though the policy was implemented at the national level, enforcement took place at the producer level, creating exogenous variation in lead emissions from automobile exhaust across states and over time. Since lead dust from automobile emissions was a significant source of lead exposure over the period, we leverage this spatial and temporal variation as a quasi-random vector of lead exposure. Chapter one summarizes the CAA, and the historical significance of the policy as it relates to public health. Using blood lead levels (BLLs) from The Second National Health Nutrition and Exercise Survey (NHANESII) as a bio-marker for lead exposure, this paper models the lead exposure effect of the policy. Combining annual gasoline sales and gasoline lead concentrations at the state level, the steps taken to construct the variables proxying for lead exposure following the CAA are detailed at length. The empirical strategy applied in this chapter is used to identify the causal effect of the phase out on lead exposure, and is carried over in the following two chapters. Much of the research focusing on the effects of lead exposure emphasize the risk faced by children, who are particularly susceptible to even minute quantities in the first five years of life. Chapter two tests the hypothesis that lead exposure in childhood impacts cognitive ability and the presence of abnormal latent preferences toward risk and uncertainty in adulthood. Applying the identification strategy detailed in Chapter one, to a nationally representative sample of individuals born during a period of significant reductions in leaded gasoline emissions, we find considerable evidence supporting the causal effect of childhood lead exposure and later in life outcomes. Across a series of tests, we find that BLLs in childhood are a significant predictor of: 1) IQ loss, measured with standardized test scores; 2) increased likelihood of low-IQ outcomes in exposure levels; and 3) increased abnormal risk response across a series of situations involving uncertain outcomes. The results presented in this paper illustrate the significance and persistent affect of early in life lead exposure. An underappreciated medium of child exposure to flow and legacy sources of lead is in-utero transmission of lead from mother to infant. Transmission of lead to the fetus occurs via diffusion across the placental barrier over the course of a pregnancy. Chapter three estimates the causal effect of maternal lead exposure on birth outcomes during the initial period of the phase out. Results show consistent evidence that fetal exposure to lead through the maternal blood lead pathway significantly depresses infant health. Our findings suggest that an increase in maternal blood lead: 1) decreases infant birthweight; 2) increases the risk of low and very low birthweight; 3) shortens gestation length; 4) increases the risk of prematurity; and 5) increases the risk of a low APGAR score. A back of the envelope calculation of the economic benefits of the phase-out of leaded gasoline through the reduction of healthcare-related costs involved in treating low birthweight infants, are in the tens of billions annually. It might be tempting to assume that lead exposure is a rear-view problem, at least in the United States, as BLLs in children have fallen since the 1990s, coincident with a series of actions that banned lead from paint, plumbing, food cans and automotive gasoline. However, the flow of lead into the environment continues from various point source polluters as well emissions from aviation gasoline used by an estimated 160,000 piston-engine aircraft (Kessler, 2013). Though the benefits to public health attributable to national policies are immense, the stock of legacy lead and present day flow sources of environmental lead remain a persistent threat to public health.Item Open Access High-resolution multi-hazard approach to quantify hurricane-induced risk for coastal and inland communities(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Nofal, Omar M., author; van de Lindt, John W., advisor; Cutler, Harvey, committee member; Mahmoud, Hussam N., committee member; Guo, Yanlin, committee memberHurricanes are devastating natural hazards that often cause damage to coastal and in-land communities as a result of their loadings which include storm surge, waves, wind, and rainfall and riverine flooding, often in combination. Modeling these hazards individually and their effects on buildings is a complex process in that each loading component within the hazard behaves differently affecting either the building envelope, the structural system, or the interior contents. For coastal communities, realistic modeling of hurricane effects requires a multi-hazard approach that considers the combined effects of wind, surge, and waves. Previous studies have focused primarily on modeling these hazards individually with less focus on the multi-hazard impact on the whole building system made up of the combination of structure and its interior contents. For inland communities, high-resolution hydrologic and hydrodynamic models are required to develop high-fidelity flood hazard maps that account for the different hazard characteristics (e.g., flood depth, velocity, duration, etc.). The current flood damage assessment standards are still using stage-damage functions to account for flood damage to buildings. These functions include inherent uncertainties in the damage assessment with significant limitations on their applications. Additionally, the analysis resolution used in these previous studies did not allow hurricane risk assessment through at the building component level (e.g., interior content, structural, and non-structural components). To address these research gaps, a high-resolution flood risk model was developed for inland communities using robust probabilistic flood fragility functions developed for a portfolio of 15 building archetypes that can model the flood vulnerability at the community-level. For coastal communities, a regional-level multi-hazard hurricane risk analysis methodology is proposed to account for the combined impacts of wind-surge-wave loadings driven by hurricanes for both the building system and its interior contents. Fragility functions are used to describe building vulnerability to the multiple loadings driven by hurricanes, and a new convolutional vulnerability approach was developed to combine wind and wave/surge fragilities. The models developed in this dissertation were included in an open-source Interdependent Networked Community Resilience Modeling Environment (IN-CORE) to allow researchers/users to systematically use these models in different types of engineering, social, and economic analyses. The analysis resolution used in the hazard, exposure, and vulnerability models allowed investigation of different levels of mitigation measures including component-, building-, and community-level mitigation strategies. The proposed hurricane risk models for coastal and in-land communities were then applied to a number of case studies to demonstrate the ability of the developed methods to predict damage at the building level across a large spatial domain of small and large communities. The main contribution of these efforts is the development of generalized fragility-based flood vulnerability functions that were applied to a suit of building archetypes and are extendable to be used for other buildings/facilities. These fragilities were then combined with another suite of existing wind fragilities and other storm surge-wave fragility functions to account for the impact of the hurricane-induced hazards on coastal communities. These models enable a better understanding of the damages caused by hurricanes for coastal and in-land communities, thereby setting initial post-impact conditions for community resilience assessment and investigation of recovery policy alternatives.Item Open Access Not so sweet: potential economic implications of restricting U.S. sugar imports from Mexico(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Sinclair, Wilson James, author; Countryman, Amanda, advisor; Graff, Gregory, committee member; Cutler, Harvey, committee memberIn December 2014, the U.S. and Mexican governments signed a bilateral agreement constraining Mexico's ability to export sugar to the U.S. because of dumping allegations by U.S. producers. This restriction came after six years of unlimited, tariff-free access to the U.S. market for Mexican sugar producers through the North American Free Trade Agreement. This analysis employs a twenty-eight country partial equilibrium model to estimate the price and welfare impacts of this bilateral trade agreement. Estimates suggest that the agreement successfully increases U.S. price by curbing imports from Mexico. These results translate to an average annual increase in producer surplus of approximately $620 million and decrease in consumer surplus of $1.48 billion across the five-year period simulated.Item Open Access Physical-socio-economic systems integration for community resilience-informed decision-making and policy selection(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Wang, Wanting, author; van de Lindt, John W., advisor; Mahmoud, Hussam, committee member; Guo, Yanlin, committee member; Cutler, Harvey, committee memberNatural hazards are damaging communities with cascading catastrophic economic and social consequences at an increasing rate due to climate change and land use policies. Comprehensive community resilience assessment and improvement requires the analyst to develop a model of interacting physical infrastructure systems with socio-economic systems to measure outcomes that result from specific decisions (policies) made. There is limited research in this area currently because of the complexity associated with combining physics-based and data-driven socio-economic models. This dissertation proposes a series of multi-disciplinary community resilience assessment models (e.g., multi-disciplinary disruption assessment and multi-disciplinary recovery assessment) subjected to an illustrative natural hazard across physical infrastructure and socio-economic systems. As illustrative examples, all the proposed methodologies were applied to the Joplin, Missouri, testbed subjected to tornado hazard but are generalizable. The goal is to enable community leaders and stakeholders to better understand the community-wide impacts of a scenario beyond physical damage and further empower them to develop and support short-term and long-term policies and strategies that improve community resilience prior to events. Advancements in multi-disciplinary community resilience modeling can help accelerate the development of building codes and standards to meet the requirements of community-wide resilience goals of the broader built environment, consistent with the performance objectives of individual buildings throughout their service lives.Item Open Access Resource privatization and endogenous production activities: can privatization of a natural resource stock benefit labor?(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Behrer, Arnold Patrick, author; Seidl, Andrew, advisor; Manning, Dale, committee member; Cutler, Harvey, committee memberTheoretically, it has been shown that privatization of open access resources results in negative impacts on economy-wide wages paid to labor when the technology used in the resource sector remains constant. Here, we examine a case where there is a change in the optimal use of a renewable resource--open access grassland used for ranching becomes private property for tourism - to show that privatization can improve economy-wide wages in theory. Whether wages improve in practice depends on the nature of the structural change and how labor is used in the privatized activity. To explore the likelihood that wages increase in practice, we use a local general equilibrium model of villages from Chilean Patagonia to investigate the impact of open access grassland privatization on factor wages and the distribution of wealth in an empirical setting.Item Open Access Shake table testing of a two-story CLT platform building(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Furley, Jace, author; van de Lindt, John, advisor; Heyliger, Paul, committee member; Cutler, Harvey, committee memberCross Laminated Timber (CLT) is an engineered, prefabricated, wood product that is well established in the European construction market, and has seen increasing usage in North America. In the U.S., CLT's application has been mostly limited to low seismic regions due to its exclusion from current seismic design standards, requiring designers to apply alternative design methods, and ultimately undermining its economic competiveness in some cases. This thesis presents the method and results from a full-scale two-story CLT platform building test conducted at the NHERI@UCSD Shake Table in San Diego, California. The testing was divided into three phases, with each phase testing a different wall configuration. The first two phases investigated the effects of different CLT panel aspect ratios (height:width) on the performance and behavior of the structure, with aspect ratios of 3.5:1 and 2.1:1 being tested respectively. The third phase used the same 3.5:1 aspect ratio CLT panels as the first phase, but introduced transverse walls to document the behavior of a more realistic building system. The Equivalent Lateral Force (ELF) procedure was used in the design of the stacked CLT shear walls, with the assumption that shear was resisted entirely by generic angle brackets, and the overturning moment was resisted by tie-down rods on either end of each shear wall. The structure was subjected to several different intensities of the 1989 Loma Prieta ground motion record, with the largest motion having a return period of approximately 2500 years. Life-safety is the primary objective of current seismic design in the U.S., and all three phases of testing showed no risk of collapse. The test results provided information on the dynamic behavior of platform style CLT construction with stacked shear walls.Item Open Access The poverty of protectionism(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Schultz-Bergin, Marcus Ryan, author; Rollin, Bernard E., advisor; Archie, Andre M., committee member; Cutler, Harvey, committee memberMuch of the modern debate on the global economy takes the form of two ships passing in the dark. The economics literature on the subject defends liberalized trade on empirical grounds while the philosophical literature defends protectionism on theoretical grounds. I aim to unite the literature, arguing against protectionism and defending liberalized trade both empirically and theoretically in the name of poverty reduction. In chapter 1 I explore two country-specific case studies to get an idea of how trade liberalization benefitted their development and poverty reduction efforts. I also establish a general background for both the economic theory, between protectionism and trade liberalization, as well as the current state of poverty and protectionism in the world. Chapter 2 seeks to expand the case study analysis to analyze three general ways protectionism and trade liberalization interact with poverty reduction efforts. I argue that trade liberalization, as opposed to protectionism, promotes short term gains to national wealth. Additionally, trade liberalization, as opposed to protectionism, promotes sustained growth and poverty reduction. Finally, I argue that trade liberalization contributes to good governance, while protectionism works against it. In the final chapter I will consider a theory of fairness for the global economic system and its implications on three aspects of the global economic order: worker exploitation, protectionism in the developed world and the Fair Trade movement.Item Open Access Three essays on energy and economic growth(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Peach, Nathanael David, author; Kling, Robert, advisor; Cutler, Harvey, committee member; Pena, Anita Alves, committee member; Bond, Craig, committee memberThis dissertation explores the relationship between energy and economic growth. Chapter Two, Three, and Four examine the interaction of energy-related measures and economic outcomes by applying different methodologies across various spatial dimensions. Chapter Two shows that increases in energy consumption are necessary for increases in state level economic growth to occur. Chapter Three estimates a simultaneous supply and demand energy market at the state level. This system allows for estimates of structural elasticities to be obtained. Findings indicate that energy supply is considerably more elastic than energy demand. Energy demand is found to be determined by responses to short run shocks rather than long run processes. Chapter Four estimates the impact of changes in various elements of governance and institutional quality impact genuine investment within an economy. Increases in democracy are predicted to decrease genuine investment in energy-rich nations. The dissertation concludes with Chapter Five.Item Open Access Three essays on producer response to information disclosure(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Yu, Shuiqin, author; Costanigro, Marco, advisor; Burkhardt, Jesse, committee member; Hoag, Dana, committee member; Cutler, Harvey, committee memberThis dissertation consists of three chapters studying how information and beliefs affect producers' behavior and decision making. The first chapter studies the effect of the Local Inspector Value Entry Specification (LIVES) program on restaurant hygiene in North Carolina. The LIVES Program, a collaboration between Yelp.com and municipalities, enables the display of restaurant inspection reports on Yelp's platform, simplifying access for consumers. Combining individual restaurant inspection data and restaurant level demographic data from Yelp.com, this study employs a difference-in-difference approach and geographic regression discontinuity design to analyze the LIVES program's impact on restaurant hygiene. The difference-in-difference analysis reveals a 1.143-point improvement in inspection scores for treated restaurants. The geographic regression discontinuity method, utilizing a neighboring county as a control group, corroborates the LIVES program's positive influence. The second chapter examines the effect of online consumer reviews on restaurant workers' wages. Online consumer reviews significantly influence the demand for experience goods, including movies, books, and restaurant meals. However, research on the impact of online reviews on restaurant workers' wages remains scarce. Utilizing decade-long panel data of quarterly consumer reviews and restaurant wages, this study demonstrates that an increase in average star ratings causes restaurant workers' wage growth. Notably, the effect varies across chain, major chain, and independent restaurants. The final chapter studies how Colorado farmers' and ranchers' subjective beliefs about the cost of adoption affect their intention to implement conservation practices. Promoting the adoption of conservation practices among farmers is challenging. Despite extensive research into farmers' reluctance to participate in conservation programs, few studies investigated how farmers' personal beliefs on the cost of adopting conservation practices affect their willingness to participate in those programs. This study adds to the literature by surveying over 150 Colorado farmers on their preferences for monetary and technical support regarding conservation tillage, soil testing, filter and buffer strips, and controlled-release fertilizers. Results from a choice experiment indicate that respondents' beliefs about costs can explain a large portion of the variation in farmers' willingness to adopt conservation practices.Item Open Access Three essays on public policies in Indonesia(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Tampubolon, Devanand Pandapotan, author; Pena, Anita Alves, advisor; Braunstein, Elissa, committee member; Cutler, Harvey, committee member; Seidl, Andrew, committee memberThis dissertation studies tax burden, tax compliance, and cooking fuel choice and energy policy in Indonesia. The three papers observe the impact of recent public policy changes in taxation and cooking fuel. The first paper comprehensively analyzes the burden of Value-Added Tax (VAT), focusing on current exemptions. This paper uses expenditure as the proxy of income or welfare to examine the VAT burden. This paper finds that the effective VAT rate is 4.51 percent nationally and weakly progressive. The effective VAT rate is relatively similar to other developing countries, but only half of the developed countries. The VAT burden is lower and more progressive in rural areas than in urban areas. The tax burden on food consumption is lower and regressive, while higher and progressive for nonfood consumption. While households in non-Java islands spend more than households in Java, this paper finds that the effective tax rate in non-Java is less than in Java. The first paper also simulates the impact of the VAT reform implemented in April 2022. The result shows that if the exempted items are maintained (by only changing nontaxable to taxable but still excused from VAT) and the tax rate increase from 10 percent to 11 percent, the tax burden will increase proportionally to all expenditure deciles by 10 percent. However, the calculations suggest that if all exemptions are excluded, the tax burden will be double that of the previous tax regime and the poorest households will get hit more than the richest. The second paper studies the impact of the high VAT threshold introduced in 2014 on small firms' reported revenues. The threshold is set to help both the tax authorities and small businesses. However, the existence of a threshold will be counterproductive in its strength of providing transaction information. Due to a lack of trading information, the tax authority will have more difficulties assessing the tax obligation owed by the taxpayers. This paper utilizes quasi-natural experiments and Difference-in Difference regression to explore the treatment effect. The treatment group is wholesale firms, and the control group is retail firms. This paper finds that wholesale reports lower revenues by 58-70 percent for four years than those in the retail sectors. This paper also finds that the decrease in reported revenues is larger than the reported costs. This may lead us to conclude that the lower reported revenues are due to underreporting revenues. The third paper studies the determinants of cooking fuel choices and energy policy in Indonesia amid the zero kerosene program. This study finds that government policy is important for the transition to clean energy. One percent increase in the distribution of LPG Kits increases the probability of clean energy usage by 2%. The impact is almost double in urban areas compared to rural areas. All socioeconomic and demographic factors significantly influence the household choice of cooking fuel. Households with higher income and wealth, better house infrastructure, formal education, electric network, and mobile phone are more likely to be clean energy users. On the other hand, working women, household heads working in agriculture, and bigger household sizes are identic to unclean energy. The age and gender of the head have different effects on urban and rural households. In line with the findings of previous studies, household income is still the main determinant of clean energy. One percent increase in income will impact the probability of clean energy by 10 to 13 percentage points. With steady GDP growth of around 5-6% yearly, Indonesia has a good path to transition to clean energy. The three essays complement each other to strengthen Indonesia's economic development. Taxation is essential for adequate and sustainable public funding and clean energy is for better living and productivity. Chapter One provides insight into estimates of the VAT burden in society. This will help the government to improve VAT revenue with a less negative impact on society, especially for low-income people. Chapter Two provides insight for government to improve the utilization of information from the VAT system and tax compliance. Adequate and sustainable self-funding through taxation will enable the government to provide sustainable clean cooking fuel, which may help society become healthier and more productive. Chapter Three has the implication that tax policy can be used to promote clean cooking fuel. The current VAT exemption on households that use electric power up to 6600 VA should be maintained to encourage low-income families to use clean cooking fuel.Item Open Access Three essays on the effect of domestic inequality and global inequality on economic growth(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Barasi, Fathalla, author; Tavani, Daniele, advisor; Kling, Robert, advisor; Cutler, Harvey, committee member; Kroll, Stephan, committee memberIn the preface to his Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817; 1951, p. 5), David Ricardo wrote that the determination of laws of distribution is the principal problem in Political Economy. One of the political economy concerns (normative economics) is the application of economic policies to maintain specific goals based on observation or economic theory describing (positive economics). Ricardo's statement points to the importance of income distribution for economic growth and implies that understanding the relationship between income distribution and economic growth is crucial for policymakers. These three essays aim to contribute to the existing literature on the effects of domestic and global inequality in income distribution on growth. By developing a theoretical model, the first paper attempts to capture the effect of domestic inequality on economic growth in a closed economy without government. The main novelty is modeling the adjustment between aggregate demand and aggregate supply when there is disequilibrium due to inequality in income distribution: such adjustment occurs via the economy's aggregate saving rate. The saving rate adjustment to disequilibrium results in an inverted U-shaped relationship between domestic inequality and growth, which has important implications for growth theory and policy. The second paper investigates recent global inequality trends by isolating its two components: between- and within-countries inequality and investigating their relationship with globalization. The main finding is that the recent decline in global inequality is mostly due to the decline in between-country inequality due mainly to the growth in income per capita for the most populated countries in the world (especially China & India). Although between-country inequality has decreased, within-country inequality has increased over the sample period. The recent increase in globalization is the main reason for the decrease in inequality between countries and the increased within-country inequality. By using a large panel dataset comprising almost all the countries globally, the third paper provides a further empirical investigation. First, it confirms the hump-shaped relation between domestic inequality and growth. Second, it finds a negative effect of international inequality on real output and consequently on demand for imports. Third, the latter result has implications on the effect of global inequality on economic growth, thus providing a further evaluation of the export-led growth hypothesis.Item Open Access Three essays on wheat production efficiency in Iraq: comparison between MENA countries and internal comparison of districts(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Altaie, Karrar, author; Pritchett, James, advisor; Koontz, Stephen, committee member; Bonanno, Alessandro, committee member; Cutler, Harvey, committee memberWheat is an important staple of the Iraqi diet, as it is for all the nineteen Middle East North African (MENA) countries. Wheat is also an important crop for farmers in the rural areas of these countries. Yet, all the MENA countries import wheat, and the gap between growing demands and local supplies is widening. This gap is prompting general concerns of food security and driving interest in wheat productive efficiency. The focus of this dissertation is examining the technical efficiency of wheat production with a goal of informing policy decisions in Iraq. In this research, a conceptual approach of wheat productive efficiency is developed based on existing models and is translated into an empirical framework. The approach evaluates the relationships between different kinds of inputs such as human capital, financial capital, operational capital, imports and sociodemographic factors and the resulting wheat output. Inputs related to temperature, humidity and irrigation pattern also included. Technical efficiency (TE) scores and factors affecting TE are explored with two empirical methods: Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). These methods are applied in two essays: panel data exploring Middle East North African countries and a cross sectional data of wheat producing districts in Middle and South of Iraq. A third essay synthesizes the result of the two empirical explorations. In the first essay factors that affected productive efficiency are: • Human capital: population (positive relationship with wheat production per unit of land). • Operating capital: harvested area (negative relationship), number of tractors (negative relationship), number of harvesters (negative relationship), pesticides (positive relationship), urea (positive relationship), seeds (negative relationship). • Financial capital: net national income (positive relationship). • Import effect: imported quantity (negative relationship). Also, factors that explained variation in TE are: • Human capital: farmers with access to electricity (negative relationship), ratio of farmers population to urban population (negative relationship), extension specialist per 100,000 farmers (positive relationship), employment of female workforce within agriculture (positive relationship). • Financial capital: credit to farmers (positive relationship). • Energy used in agriculture effect: aggregated energy (negative relationship). • Other agricultural competing activity: Livestock density (negative relationship). • Politics effect: political instability (negative relationship). • Surface irrigation effect: availability of the flow of surface water (negative relationship). • Elevation effect: elevation (positive relationship). In the second essay, factors affecting technical efficiency are: • Human capital: ratio of farmers population to urban population (positive relationship). • Financial capital: producer price index (negative relationship). • Surface irrigation effect: distance to the flow of surface water (negative relationship). The SFA and DEA indicate contradictory results. This might due to the randomness in SFA the DEA does not incorporate. Average technical efficiency score for MENA countries adopting SFA equals 62% while it equals 97% when DEA is used. In the second essay, TE equals 63% while it equals 88% when DEA is adopted. Results obtained from essay 1 and essay 2 used to obtain policies showed in essay 3. Those policies may not only have their positive effect on increasing TE but also on enhancing yield per unit for MENA countries and Iraq in particular. Policies mentioned in essay 3 suggested a strong attention has to be paid to extension role in agriculture. Policy lever that Iraq can use to improve TE is investing in the quality of human capital through increasing the level of education for farmers.