Browsing by Author "Koontz, Stephen, committee member"
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Item Open Access A study of factors that influence a horse owner's veterinary treatment purchasing decisions(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Fahey, Shannon T., author; Hadrich, Joleen, advisor; Koontz, Stephen, committee member; Frasier, Marshall, committee member; Roman-Muniz, Noa, committee memberThere has been very little academic research done to assess and understand how horse owners make treatment decisions for their sick or injured horses. An owner's decision to treat or euthanize their sick or injured horse is not only a financial one, but an emotional one as well. This decision can also impact the veterinarian's overall welfare. The responsibility of performing euthanasia on animals has been linked to decreased job satisfaction, health problems, and increased rates of suicide among the veterinary population. There are also potential financial implications when a veterinarian has to euthanize a patient. When a veterinarian euthanizes a patient, he or she can miss out on thousands of dollars in potential future revenues from the care of that patient. For these reasons, it is imperative that veterinarians understand what influences a horse owner's decision to treat or euthanize their sick or injured horse. This study used a choice experiment and demographics survey to gather data from Colorado horse owners that was analyzed to better understand the decision-making behavior of horse owners. The main effects fractional factorial choice experiment was designed using SAS 9. In each choice set, the respondents ranked the most preferred and least preferred of three choice alternatives (Treatment A, Treatment B, and Euthanasia) they could hypothetically face if their horse was suffering from obstruction colic. The attributes for Treatment A and Treatment B were price, recovery period length, and success rate. These three attributes varied between choice alternatives and across choice sets. The only attribute for euthanasia was price, which remained constant across all choice sets. The choice experiment was included with a demographics survey and was distributed to Colorado horse owners via an anonymous Qualtrics link. The demographic questions provided further insight information about the horse owners on an individual level. The data was analyzed using a rank-ordered logit model in STATA. The first of two regressions in this study involved only the treatment attributes and a euthanasia dummy variable, and the other including treatment attributes and demographic interactions. The initial regression found that an increase in price and recovery period decreased the probability that an alternative was ranked as a more-preferred option. An increase in success rate had the opposite effect. When the demographic interactions were included in the analysis, the impact of recovery period on the ranking of an alternative was no longer statistically significant. Only certain demographic interactions were statistically significant as well. Most notably, an increase in income only had a statistically significant effect on how changes in success rate affected the ranking of an alternative. The coefficients from the initial regression were used to calculate the willingness-to-pay (WTP) values for recovery period length, success rate, and avoiding euthanasia. The WTP values suggest that horse owners most value the success rate of a treatment and are willing to pay up to $2,610 for treatment in order to avoid euthanizing their sick or injured horse. This study can serve as a baseline for future research into the veterinary spending behavior of horse, livestock, and pet owners. The results from this study can also be utilized by veterinarians to better understand their clients. With this information, veterinary clinics can make decisions that are better for their patients, their clients, and themselves.Item Open Access An econometric model of determinants of visitor use on western national forests(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Kasberg, Kevin, author; Loomis, John, advisor; Koontz, Stephen, committee member; Newman, Peter, committee memberThe accuracy of visitor use data from the National Visitor Use Monitoring Program (NVUM) allows for testing the relationship between public land visitation and individual site characteristics and facilities. In an attempt to predict visitation on both BLM and USFS lands, forty National Forests in the Western US were chosen for their spatial and landscape resemblance to BLM lands. Using multiple regressions, facility and landscape characteristics have a statistically significant relationship with the four recreation types in NVUM data: Day use developed sites (DUDS), Overnight use developed sites (OUDS), General Forest Area (GFA), and Wilderness. Mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of prediction calculated using ten out of sample National Forests for Wilderness was lowest at 69%, with OUDS, DUDS and GFA higher at 93%, 103% and 115% respectively. As an alternative method to estimate the predictive power, stepwise procedures were applied to all forty observations. These resulting models were used to construct a spreadsheet calculator that provides an annual visitation prediction for a USFS or BLM land.Item Open Access An investigation into the starting salaries of male and female veterinarians(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Weiss, Jane Frances, author; Frasier, Marshall, advisor; Hadrich, Joleen, advisor; Koontz, Stephen, committee member; Jensen, Wayne, committee memberHistorically, the United States veterinary industry has been a male-dominated field, but in recent years women have surpassed men in veterinary school enrollment and now make up 60% of practicing veterinarians. There is evidence of a persistent gap between the starting salaries of male and female veterinary school graduates. This research investigates the effect of factors previously used to explain this gap and explores other factors that could further explain the unexplained residual gap heretofore attributed to wage discrimination. Most studies of wage gap attribute any unexplained residual from their statistical models as being the result of gender discrimination. However, most have not quantified or analyzed the effect of inherent differences between males and females, which could explain more of the unexplained portion instead of simple attribution toward systematic gender bias. Analysis of survey data of graduating veterinary medicine students reveals that the wage differential between the aggregate means of men and women is largely explained by employment self-selection, driven by what sectors the male and female graduates are choosing as their beginning employment within the veterinary field. However, much is still left unexplained. This study quantifies fundamental differences in the effect of male and female attributes through the regression techniques including ordinary lease squares and matching methods to analyze factors that explain the wage gap. The three-step methodology starts from an examination of the wage gap at the mean through the least squares models and then refines the resolution of analysis to identify that the wage gap is actually larger than originally estimated when comparing individuals with the same demographic factors through nearest neighbor matching. From this analysis, the fundamental differences between starting male and female veterinarians provide insight as to why the wage gap exists.Item Open Access Econometrics of market and non-market goods(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Tabatabaei, Maryam, author; Loomis, John, advisor; Koontz, Stephen, committee member; Iverson, Terrence, committee member; McCollum, Daniel, committee memberThis dissertation illustrates how different econometric methods can be applied to market and non-market goods. The first essay focuses on forecasting cheddar cheese prices by utilizing time series models from the simplest model autoregressive order 2 AR (2) model, to more complex models such as second order vector autoregressive (VAR(2)) or second order vector error correction models (VECM(2)). One-to twelve month ahead forecast horizons for cheddar cheese levels and difference models were calculated for each forecasting methods for the out of sample time period of January 1990 to December 2013. The forecasts' accuracy was diagnosed by using root mean squared error (RMSE), and Diebold-Mariano (D-M) tests and comparing the forecasted cheddar cheese prices to existing USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) cheddar cheese prices, and Futures. The D-M test is comparable to the RMSE test for forecasting price level, AR (2) forecasting method has lower forecasted error in January and February, and VAR (2) is more accurate from March onward. VAR (2) has the lowest RMSE for forecasting price level. In the forecasting model of price differences AR (2) forecasting method results are more accurate from January to April and VAR (2) has more accurate results from May onwards, and VECM (2) were never better than simpler forecasting methods in both forecasting price levels and price differences models. In the second essay, Colorado households' non-market values for two forest management options for reducing intensity of future wildfires and associated non-market environmental effects of wildfires has been calculated. The first policy is the traditional harvesting of pine beetle killed trees and burn on-site. The second policy also involves harvesting trees but involves moving the trees offsite and converting them into biochar, thus reducing some of the environmental effects associated with burning on-site. A contingent valuation method mail survey was implemented to evaluate these two management options. The survey achieved a 47% response rate. I used a non-parametric Turnbull estimator to calculate the willingness to pay (WTP) for burn on-site and off-site biochar conversion. The calculated WTP for burn on-site and off-site biochar conversion is $411 per household, and $470, respectively. In the third essay, household's non-market values for forest management options for avoiding forest fires in Larimer County have been calculated using a different stated preference survey design. A thousand surveys were mailed that asked respondents to rank the management options (including their costs to households) from best to worst. We used rank ordered and conditional logit models to calculate the WTP for burn on-site and biochar option. The rank ordered model outperformed the conditional logit in terms of consistency with economic theory. However even the rank ordered logit had insignificant cost coefficient for the burn on site option. The annual willingness to pay (WTP) for the biochar option, in rank-ordered logit model is $508 per household.Item Open Access Essays on secular stagnation, income and wealth distribution, and employment(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Cruz Luzuriaga, Manuel David, author; Tavani, Daniele, advisor; Vasudevan, Ramaa, advisor; Braunstein, Elissa, committee member; Koontz, Stephen, committee memberAfter the publication of Piketty's Capital in the XXI Century and Robert Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth, mainstream economics has shifted its attention to the distribution of income and wealth and how they interact with economic growth. This dissertation focuses on the interaction between distribution and secular stagnation, as well as the ultimate long run effects on employment at the macro level. The first chapter empirically investigates the short -and long- run interaction between labor productivity and real wages and their ultimate impact on the labor market for a panel of 25 OECD countries. The second chapter presents a theoretical and empirical model of secular stagnation, income and wealth distribution, and employment in the Classical-Marxian tradition. In this model, institutional or technological shocks to income distribution lower the wage share, increase wealth inequality, and decrease the income-capital ratio in the long run. The ultimate effect on long run employment depends on the relative strength of the response of labor-augmenting technical change vis-à -vis the response of real wage growth to labor market institutions. An empirical test of the model using time-series data for the US (1960-2019) appears to support its main implications. The third chapter extends the second chapter's model by endogenizing the growth rate of the labor force to employment in an open economy. The model is more appropriate for economies at the low or middle stages of development, where the labor force depends significantly on demographic factors like high variations in the birth rate or immigration. I then empirically test the model using time-series data from China (1990-2019) and India (1970-2019) to validate the framework.Item Open Access Exploring heterogeneous motives behind animal welfare management: a focus on fed cattle(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Ayoub, Samantha Elizabeth, author; Mooney, Daniel, advisor; Koontz, Stephen, committee member; Ritten, John, committee member; Edwards-Callaway, Lily, committee memberThis thesis evaluates animal welfare management for fed cattle in two parts. The final marketing stage of the cattle supply chain, which includes transportation from the feedlot, unloading, lairage, and stunning, can subject cattle to significant stress. Yet, previous research has primarily concentrated on animal welfare in upstream segments of the supply chain, such as at ranches and in feedlots. As consumer awareness increases and demand for improved animal welfare rises, it is crucial to evaluate the impacts of animal welfare outcomes on fed cattle production across the supply chain. First, a lot-level empirical analysis evaluates how animal welfare outcomes in the final marketing stage affect the final grid value of fed cattle carcasses. We hypothesize that poor animal welfare outcomes will be negatively correlated with processed carcass value due to reduced mobility, higher bruising trim, and meat quality defects (e.g., dark cutting). We use data collected from five federally inspected processing plants during 2021-2022 that include lot characteristics, animal welfare outcomes, and exogenous factors. Historical monthly price spreads from the Economic Research Service (ERS) and national weekly slaughter cattle premiums and discounts from the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) are used for market and pricing information. We construct grid carcass values for over 600 lots of fed cattle, representing over 87,000 fed cattle. Regression is used to analyze whether and how much mobility, bruising, and quality defects affect grid values conditional on lot characteristics and other exogenous factors. We find that the value after processing varies by the study factors, including animal welfare outcomes, although some negative welfare outcomes are relatively rare in the data. Assuming processors behave as profit maximizers, decreased returns due to poor animal welfare outcomes could incentivize improved animal welfare management in fed cattle production systems. Second, animal welfare management has broader implications for changing regulatory, market, and private industry requirements for producing animal products. Therefore, the second essay of this thesis broadens into a discussion of the heterogeneous motives behind animal welfare management at the pre-slaughter marketing stage. Animal welfare improvements are a conscious management decision impacting the various strategic goals of business. Beyond profit motives, we explore societal and consumer expectations, corporate responsibility, and market access options that are highlighted by increased investment in animal welfare management. We combine previous literature on these aspects into an over-arching discussion of the opportunities and challenges that producers may face when deciding how to manage animal welfare outcomes. To organize the discussion, we adopt a conceptual framework that incorporates dynamic firm behavior, such as access to differentiated markets and corporate social responsibility, in addition to simple profit maximization. The two essays combine to explore the trade-off of animal welfare management costs and benefits for producers in the final marketing stage of fed cattle and have the potential to generate future discussion on the feasibility and progress of ever-growing animal welfare requirements for farm animal production.Item Open Access Foreign direct investment in developing countries: productivity growth, dual economies, and location determinants(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Ohakim, John, author; Braunstein, Elissa, advisor; Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee member; Weiler, Stephan, committee member; Koontz, Stephen, committee memberThis study revisits the role of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in developing countries along two dimensions. First, we empirically analyze the impact of FDI on productivity growth in 30 developing countries for the period 1970 to 2010. We, however, depart from previous studies on the FDI-growth nexus because our approach allows us to focus on the contribution of FDI to aggregate productivity in a developing economy, while considering the reallocation of labor characterized by sizable differentials in the productivity of labor between sectors. When structural change is accounted for, something that previous growth models fail to do, we find interesting results for both regimes of absorptive capacities. Second, this study empirically re-examines the location determinants of greenfield FDI in developing countries. The work done here incorporates South-South FDI exchanges and empirically examines if FDI inflows from the South differ from those that originate in the North. This is done by employing a novel dataset, which is analyzed using an extended gravity equation. We find that FDI flows from the global North differs from those from the global South. On average, investors from the North enter a developing country seeking to benefit from factors that make them more competitive internationally. On the other hand, FDI from the South, on average, is motivated primarily by interests in accessing and exploiting natural resources. That is, North-South FDI is efficiency-seeking while South-South FDI is resource-seeking. We also show that geographical agglomeration plays an important role in attracting FDI from other developing countries as well. We conclude this study by discussing policy implications for home, host and regional countries.Item Open Access Genetic parameters for fertility and production traits in Red Angus cattle(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Boldt, Ryan John, author; Enns, R. Mark, advisor; Speidel, Scott E., advisor; Koontz, Stephen, committee memberTo view the abstract, please see the full text of the document.Item Open Access Three essays on different nature and effects of capital flows among Asian and Latin American countries(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Bolukoglu, Anil, author; Vasudevan, Ramaa, advisor; Bernasek, Alexandra, committee member; Braunstein, Elissa, committee member; Koontz, Stephen, committee memberThis dissertation contains three essays on the distinct nature and effects of capital flows on Asian and Latin American countries. Chapter I presents a Post-Keynesian open economy model to investigate the possible effects of capital flows on capacity utilization and distribution in Asian and Latin American countries. In the case of Asian countries, capital flows increase labor productivity through spill-over effects. The increase in labor productivity leads to a decrease in wage share of workers from national income which leads to lower prices. Lower price level results in real exchange rate depreciation and provides higher trade balances through enhanced competitiveness of export goods. In the case of Latin American countries, capital flows result in real exchange rate appreciation in the absence of capital controls. This real exchange rate appreciation decreases the cost of foreign borrowing, foreign intermediate goods and lower wage shares. In line with all these developments, capacity utilization increases, but trade balances deteriorate due to diminished export competitiveness. Chapter II addresses different dependent relations that lead divergent paths of Asian and Latin American countries toward globalization. Nature of dependency is detected through different types of shocks to current account balances. It is found that Latin American countries are dependent on center countries financially while Asian countries are dependent on world demand for their export goods. This divergent nature of dependent relations shape the nature of foreign capital that invests in these countries. Foreign investments in Latin American countries are domestic market oriented and for financing needs. These investments do not have future export revenue potentials and reproduces the dependency on international financial markets. Employment of capital controls and high structural domestic savings allowed Asian countries to be more selective in channeling foreign capital. They employed foreign investments to enhance export competitiveness. However, the export oriented path of development tied their economies to pattern of world trade and produced a divergent dependent relationship. Chapter III tests the dynamic relationship between capital flows, real exchange rate appreciation and trade balances in Latin American and Asian countries. The analysis suggests structural differences between Asian and Latin American countries. Different integration strategies followed in the era of globalization period led to distinct patterns in relation between capital flows and trade balances. In order to test the relationship, Panel Vector of Autoregression analysis and orthogonalized import response functions are employed. It is found that foreign capital flows affect trade balances negatively in Latin American countries. In the case of Asian countries, a positive relationship between capital flows and trade balances is detected, however this relationship is not statistically significant.Item Open Access Three essays on financial integration and trade liberalization(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Le, Huong, author; Vasudevan, Ramaa, advisor; Bernasek, Alexandra, committee member; Braunstein, Elissa, committee member; Koontz, Stephen, committee memberThis dissertation is composed of three essays which examine the impact of financial integration and trade liberalization. Chapter I investigates the effect of financial openness on labor share of income by using four measures of the labor share of income: one unadjusted and three adjusted measures of income share which account for earnings from the self-employed workers. The author also uses both measures of capital account openness: de jure and de facto indicators. The empirical work is applied for a panel dataset of 30 countries during the period of 1970 – 2013. Despite using different measurement methods of the labor share of income and financial openness, the results from all specifications support the hypothesis that financial integration leads to a decline in the labor share of income for the all countries sample. Chapter II examines the macro-economic performance of Vietnam through the six phases of Doi Moi reform, and analyzes the impact of external liberalization on economic growth, aggregate demand, employment and income distribution. The decomposition of aggregate demand suggests that private investment was the most important determinant of Vietnamese economic growth during the period of 1994 – 2011, while government expenditure has become more significant since 2005, and the external sector together with government expenditure are the important driving factors of Vietnamese economic growth since 2012. The decomposition of overall labor productivity highlighted the fact that sectoral productivity growth of the service sector plays an important role in the improvement of overall labor productivity in Vietnam. Chapter III aims to investigate the impacts of external liberalization on Vietnamese economic growth and industrial performance at both regional and provincial levels. To this end, the author reviews regional and provincial economic and industrial performance in Vietnam during the period of vigorous reforms of the Doi Moi and external liberalization (1995-2015). The paper employs the fixed effect regression to test the relation of economic growth, industrial performance and trade liberalization at both regional and provincial levels. The estimation results suggest that FDI has positive and strongly significant impact on economic growth of five economic regions: The Red River Delta, Northern midlands and mountain areas, North Central area and Central Coastal area, South East and Mekong River Delta. The study suggests that FDI inflows and trade openness play very important role in accelerating economic growth and industrial performance at both the regional and provincial levels in Vietnam. Regions and provinces with better infrastructure seem to get more benefit from FDI and trade openness, which suggests that provincial authorities should invest in building new and more modern infrastructure and also formulating rules and regulations governing FDI inflows.Item Open Access Three essays on global imbalances(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Kim, Hujin, author; Vasudevan, Ramaa, advisor; Bernasek, Alexandra, committee member; Mushinski, David, committee member; Koontz, Stephen, committee memberThis study assesses the global imbalances across three regions (Chapter I), from Korean economy context (Chapter II), and from the perspective of history of economic thought (Chapter III). Chapter I demonstrates the asymmetry of the international financial arrangement (IFA) by examining contrast adjustments in the triangular pattern of international private capital flows among the center, creditor, and debtor periphery. Based on the asymmetry it concludes that decentralized efforts by individual country have limitations and international coordination is inevitable to minimize the negative externalities of the capital flows in the world economy. Chapter II investigates the implications of global imbalances on the Korean economy by assessing the impact of Korea's foreign reserve accumulation on the macro economy and analyzing the distributional impacts of an exchange rate. Chapter III studies the global imbalances and international capital flows in a broader political-economy context from the history of economic thought. It observes that from the historical perspective challenges for policy makers and economist' philosophical foundation on global imbalances and international capital flows could be a parallel from the past to the present, if not an exact repetition. Using updated data it finds that a J-shaped proposition may be more relevant rather than the conventional U-shaped pattern of financial globalization because after 2000 the stock of assets has shown a drastic upward trend which is not comparable to that of the first era of financial globalization. To explain the changing pattern of financial globalization it suggests an analytical framework by combining 'Trilemma', tension between regulation and financial market, and the role of key currency or hegemonic money. It also identifies two competing views on the financial globalization by introducing the British Currency and Banking School debate in mid-19th century, analyzing their impacts on the theory of money and economic beliefs, and then tracing their trajectories to late economic thoughts such as the Neoclassical Synthesis, Modern monetarists, Modern Austrian School, Keynesian, New-Keynesian, New-Classical and Post-Keynesian economics.Item Open Access Three essays on U.S. foreign assistance spending and U.S. politico-military integration(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) McCarthy, Christopher David, author; Vasudevan, Ramaa, advisor; Pressman, Steven, committee member; Braunstein, Elissa, committee member; Koontz, Stephen, committee memberSimulations show that recipient nations are directly impacted by U.S. foreign assistance spending (in the form of U.S. economic and military aid) in a manner similar to transfer payments, spurring growth, and easing liquidity constraints. U.S. foreign assistance spending is often accompanied by U.S. politico-military integration, which is defined by the presence of the: (1) receipt of U.S. economic aid, (2) receipt of U.S. military aid, and (3) integration into the U.S. security apparatus through hosting U.S. troops and/or bases or through military or political treaties. Using a new comprehensive RAND database of all U.S. security-related agreements since 1955, I create a new database showing which country-years have active (a) U.S. military treaties (b) U.S. political treaties. Also new is the inclusion of David Vine's Base Nation database, detailing the location and existence of all recognized, unrecognized, and U.S.-funded bases. Lastly, I update another of RAND's databases, one detailing U.S. troop deployment abroad to include the most recent years. Empirical analysis shows a more complicated set of results than those derived in the simulations. Using deep lags and controlling for politico-military integration and U.S. military aid, I find limited evidence that U.S. economic aid is effective in development. This associated positive impact of U.S. economic aid is never large enough to overcome the associated negative impact of U.S. military aid and U.S. politico-military integration. While U.S. political treaties show a slight impact on economic growth, U.S. military aid, U.S. military bases, and U.S. military treaties overwhelm any positive impact on growth and FDI, with a resulting net effect that is significantly negative for the recipient.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.Item Open Access Valuing ecosystems and economic services across land-use scenarios in the Prairie Pothole region of the Dakotas(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Gasciogne, William R., author; Hoag, Dana, advisor; Koontz, Lynne, committee member; Loomis, John, committee member; Goldstein, Josh, committee member; Koontz, Stephen, committee memberThis thesis uses biophysical values derived for the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North and South Dakota, in conjunction with value transfer methods, to assess the environmental and economic tradeoffs under different policy-relevant land use scenarios over a 20-yr. time period. The ecosystem service valuation is carried out by comparing the biophysical and economic values of three focal services ( carbon sequestration, reduction in sedimentation, and waterfowl production) across three focal land uses in the region (i.e. native prairie grasslands, lands enrolled in the Conservation Reserve and Wetlands Reserve Programs (CRP/WRP), and cropland). This study finds that CRP/WRP lands cannot mitigate (1 for 1) the loss of native prairie from a social welfare standpoint. Furthermore, land use scenarios in which native prairie loss was minimized and CRP/WRP lands were increased provided the most societal benefit. The scenario modeling projected native prairie conversion results in a social welfare loss valued at over $2.5 billion over the policy period, when considering the study' s three ecosystem services, and a net loss of $1,888,237,567 when reductions in commodity production is accounted for. By quantifying ecosystem and economic tradeoffs of future land use scenarios, this thesis aims to help policy makers and natural resource managers make more knowledgeable, efficient, and defensible decisions.Item Open Access Wealth composition, capital flows, and the international financial system(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Baqais, Uthman Mohammed S., author; Vasudevan, Ramaa, advisor; Bernasek, Alexandra, committee member; Braunstein, Elissa, committee member; Koontz, Stephen, committee memberInternational capital flows play a critical role in the development process. On the one hand, a stable stream of capital flows could augment the capital stock accumulation of a country and, hence, spur economic growth. On the other, volatile capital flows increase the risks that could induce financial and economic crises. Moreover, contrary to the efficient allocation implied by the neoclassical growth theory, Lucas (1990) poses the paradox of "Why Doesn't Capital Flow from Rich to Poor Countries?". Recent studies also demonstrate an even stronger phenomenon known as the allocation puzzle or upstream capital flows. That is, fast-growing emerging markets have associated with net capital outflows on average (e.g., Gourinchas and Jeanne 2013). While previous studies provide explanations about cross-country differences in human capital (Lucas 1990), institutional quality (Alfaro et al. 2008), I argue that the capital flows are also explained by differences in natural resources in the current era of financial globalization. In general, I demonstrate the role of initial wealth compositions. In this dissertation, I define capital stock more broadly than the standard neoclassical growth model in terms of wealth accumulation, comprising physical capital, human capital, natural capital, net foreign assets, social capital, and domestic financial capital (as in Gylfason 2004). By exploiting a recent database on wealth accounting by the World Bank, I find that the wealth composition matters in explaining capital flows across 108 countries over 1995-2015. More importantly, results of Chapter 1 suggest that initial abundance measures of subsoil natural resources and net foreign asset positions explain much of the subsequent annualized average net capital inflows. An alternative measure of net capital inflows also suggests a stabilizing role of the valuation effects in the international financial system. In sum, measures of wealth abundance and net capital inflows should be considered carefully in studying the patterns of international capital flows. Results from the typical measure suggest that capital mobility allows subsoil resource-rich countries to invest their resource rents abroad, so they could better smooth the use of resource windfalls. Therefore, the inclusion of natural capital emphasizes the role of economic management in whether to channel rents toward productive investment and human capital to industrialize the economy, or to accumulate foreign assets for exchange rates managements and for precautionary motives due to volatile international commodity prices. It should be noted that there is no evidence on the neoclassical allocative efficiency— the relationship between economic growth rates and net capital inflows. Due to the insignificant finding of the allocative efficiency, Chapters 2 and 3 extend and modify the first chapter's conceptual framework. Chapter 2 investigates not only international capital flows but also some explanations for the persistent global imbalances. Using a unified sustainable growth framework with a broad definition of total wealth, I demonstrate that there could be specific spillover effects (or specific complementarities) rather than an overall complementarity effect, which is simply proxied by real per capita growth rates. For instance, the interaction between human capital and physical capital generates a positive spillover effect, as explained by Lucas (1990). Thus, the departure from the focus on the overall complementarity to specific complementarities and tradeoffs in capital stocks provides us with a way of testing for 13 hypotheses, motivated by the broad literature of international finance and sustainable development. Some of these are about a human capital externality, the global saving glut argument, and negative spillover effects from natural capital on institutions and financial development. I also test for Blecker's (2005) argument on comparative advantage in selling financial assets and find supporting evidence. The implication of such findings implies that the current account (CA) deficit countries with highly developed financial systems have benefited from the current international monetary and financial system (IMFS) through the role of valuation effects. On the other hand, financial liberalization allows subsoil-rich economies to smooth the use of windfalls through foreign reserves accumulation. Other developing countries with CA surpluses due to excess savings, rather than low imports, reflect the flaws in the current IMFS. Chapter 3 is motivated by utilizing theoretical insights from overlapping generations (OLG) models with non-Ricardian equivalence, rather than the assumption of the infinitely lived agent as in previous chapters. I, therefore, examine not only net total capital inflows but also consider the distinction of private and official flows. In addition to the heterogeneities in economies' wealth compositions, I investigate the role of demographic structures by highlighting the aging population phenomenon. In other words, while using the unified sustainable growth framework with a broad definition of wealth, I distinguish between private and official capital flows, and between the relative ratios of young and old groups to the working-age population. All these factors relate to capital flow movements through their effects on saving-investment decisions. Overall findings support the adoption of OLG with non-Ricardian equivalence models in analyzing aggregated and disaggregated capital flows. Also, the inclusion of demographic factors seems to correct for the omitted variable bias. Moreover, cross-country differences in initial wealth compositions are of great importance for different types of disaggregated capital flows, and so policy implications differ accordingly.