Browsing by Author "Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee member"

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Open Access
A history of interest
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Palmer, Daniel Dwight, author; Bernasek, Alexandra, advisor; Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee member; McCulloch, Michael L., committee member
A History of Interest uses methods inspired by the work of Michel Foucault to uncover institutional aspects of credit and debt. It explores three hypotheses and covers the period 1290-1914. During this period, Anglo-American society went from a system of debt conscription and usury restrictions in the Middle Ages to a system of voluntary bankruptcy and credit reporting by the late 19th century. This thesis explains how that transition occurred. Situating these changes in Foucault's notion of disciplinary writing, it also suggests what that transition means for the modern world.
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All things occur in the heights
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Casolo, Amanda, author; Levy, E. J., advisor; Doenges, Judy, committee member; Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee member
This thesis submission is a novel-in-progress written during a three-year period of M.F.A. study at Colorado State University. Written in polyphonic omniscient point of view, the novel applies a modular narrative design, following the lives of four characters from 1945 through 2010. The setting is Waterbury, CT, a diverse city, and the location of Holy Land, a now abandoned Catholic amusement park. As the city and its people struggle to define themselves in personal memory, in history, from corruption and poverty, the park's sixty-foot illuminated cross shines out across the city every night and casts its looming shadow over every day.
Open Access
Essays on the role of microfinance institutions in financial deepening, economic growth and development
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Ocasio, Vange Mariet, author; Braunstein, Elissa, advisor; Bernasek, Alexandra, committee member; Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee member; Schwebach, Robert G., committee member; Shaffer, Sherrill, committee member
To view the abstract, please see the full text of the document.
Open Access
Factors affecting China's apparel manufacturing industry's international competitive advantage
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Brubaker, Morgan, author; Hyllegard, Karen, advisor; Perry, Anna, advisor; Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee member
Since the early 1980s, China has grown its apparel manufacturing export industry by utilizing a large labor pool, low wages, and its access to a significant amount of raw materials (Zhang, Kong, & Ramu, 2015; Zhang & Hathcote, 2008). A world leader in apparel exports, China exported US $153.2 billion of apparel products in 2012 ("2016 Top Markets," 2016). In recent years, China's international competitive advantage in the apparel manufacturing export industry has faced a variety of challenges. China attributes its loss of competitive advantage in the global apparel manufacturing industry to increased costs of labor and raw materials ("2016 Top Markets," 2016). With an awareness of these challenges, China's new strategy for establishing competitive advantage has been to reposition itself in the global value chain and to become a stronger industry in the international marketplace (China National Garment Association, 2013). Challenges to China's world-renowned apparel manufacturing export industry, and the industry's awareness of the need to implement new strategies to meet these challenges, provided direction for this study. The purpose of this study was to analyze the economic, government, and social factors that were affecting national competitive advantage in China's apparel manufacturing export industry, as well as the competitive advantage of individual businesses as perceived by industry executives. Nine Chinese apparel manufacturing business executives were interviewed for this study and a qualitative research method was employed to capture the perspectives of the business executives, who were asked to respond to open-ended interview questions. The findings from this research study aid in better understanding two research questions. The first research question focused on what and how factors affect China's international competitive advantage in the global apparel manufacturing export industry. The second research question focused on the changes Chinese apparel export manufacturers made in order to maintain their international competitive advantage in the global apparel manufacturing export industry. The findings from this study revealed that three main factors were influencing China's international competitive advantage in the global apparel manufacturing industry: labor and wages, China's apparel manufacturing supply chain and raw material suppliers, and the government's policies, actions, and improvements. Findings revealed the following changes in production processes and strategies as primary ways our participants were maintaining international competitive advantage: increased focus on research and design, efficiency and productivity, customer service, and increased focus on opportunities in producing apparel goods for China's domestic market.
Open Access
Foreign direct investment and corruption
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Ardiyanto, Ferry, author; Cutler, Harvey, advisor; Braunstein, Elissa, committee member; Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee member; Koontz, Stepehn, committee member
Corruption is the abuse of public authority and discretion for private gain. Corruption is perceived as detrimental to investment as it acts like a tax on investment by increasing the cost of doing business. However, the efficient grease hypothesis argues that corruption could increase investment as it acts as grease money that enables firms to avoid bureaucratic red tape and expedite the decision making process. This study attempts to build empirical models to investigate the relationship between foreign direct investment and corruption and identify the determinants of corruption itself. As tolerance towards corruption tends to vary from country to country, countries are disaggregated into developed economies and developing economies. Additionally, there are four regions within the developing economies group to take into account intrinsic differences in perceptions of and attitudes towards corruption, as well as cultural and geographical differences. The dissertation finds that corruption is deleterious for FDI inflows in developed countries, but is somewhat beneficial for attracting FDI inflows in developing economies. However, when developing countries are disaggregated into several regions, the effect of corruption on FDI inflows fades away. Furthermore, corruption can be caused by both economic and institutional factors. It is also confirmed that factors influencing corruption vary among developed countries, developing countries and within regions of developing countries. The importance of institutional factors makes it clear that the institutional framework is important for explaining corruption, no matter whether a country is a developed or developing one.
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 member
This 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.
Open Access
Harnessing trade for structural transformation in sub-Saharan Africa: monitoring exports, South-South trade and commodity price volatility
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Hagan, Maame Ayegua, author; Braunstein, Elissa, advisor; Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee member; Numa, Guy, committee member; Costanigro, Marco, committee member
This dissertation consists of three main empirical papers that lie at the intersection of international trade and (under) development. In particular, motivated by the proposition that structural change in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is needed for sustained growth, the papers build on each other to highlight different dimensions in SSA's quest for structural transformation within the context of global integration. Together, the papers explore the linkages between structural transformation and exports, South-South trade and commodity price volatility. Much of the literature on pathways for SSA to catch-up is centered on the success in East Asia's export-oriented industrialization and the replicability of this model. While there have been calls to apply the exact export-oriented industrialization recipe that transformed several economies in East Asia, evidence from SSA about the impact of this approach is not well-documented quantitatively. The first empirical paper (chapter 3) attempts to address this gap in the existing literature. Developing countries, especially those in SSA, have been involved in the production of primary commodities which were traded for imports of technologically-intensive manufacturing commodities, primarily from rich countries in the global North. However, the 2008 global economic crisis, which began in the global North but circulated to the South particularly through its impact on global trade, raised concerns about the desirability of export systems that depended on Northern demand. This experience encouraged developing countries to deepen their efforts to diversify their trade beyond North-South. Thus, South-South trade became one main alternative for accelerating structural transformation and achieving sustainable development. The second empirical paper (chapter 4) explores the prospects and implications of South-South trade as opposed to North-South trade as drivers of structural transformation in SSA. The relationship between terms of trade fluctuations and macroeconomic performance has been a deeply debated topic in the growth and development literature. The end of the recent "commodity super cycle" has renewed the discussion of the impact of large terms of trade shocks and the resulting ways of adjustment that follow. Many existing studies use the aggregate terms of trade as a proxy for commodity terms of trade while others have used different variations of the commodity terms of trade that rely on the price of only a few commodities. To address this, the final chapter (chapter 5) uses a newly developed, comprehensive, country-specific commodity terms of trade index and a broad sample of countries (with a special eye for SSA) to study the impact of persistent commodity price volatility on key variables that influence structural transformation in an economy. To put the results from the papers into perspective, where necessary, we compare the potential differences and similarities that exist with emerging and developing economies in America and Asia.
Open Access
Inequality as a cause of macro-instability and productive inefficiency
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Friedman, Mark, author; Bernasek, Alexandra, advisor; Stevis, Dimitris, committee member; Tavani, Daniele, committee member; Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee member
These essays will examine the impact of inequality from both macro and micro perspectives. The first issue to be raised will be the contribution of inequality to macroeconomic instability. In the third chapter the focus will expand to determine whether an optimal level of inequality can be found. Much of the examination will be informed by principles outlined in the Progressive Utilization Theory (PROUT) developed by the philosopher P. R. Sarkar. As this dissertation was written during the recovery from the Great Recession, a timely controversy is addressed in the first chapter – whether growing inequality contributes to economic instability. Arguments for and against the proposition are critically examined in detail. It is concluded that the accumulated weight of the arguments favor the position that inequality can indeed help destabilize economies. In the second chapter econometric evidence is presented to show that high inequality contributes to the severity of economic downturns, both in terms of GDP declines and in consumption losses. Attention is also given to the impact of inequality in contributing to the global crisis leading to the Great Recession. While the initial evidence presented here cannot be considered conclusive in demonstrating a causal link between inequality and that specific crisis, it is shown that rising inequality was present in most of the 15 countries included in the study which were suffering recessions. An attempt to define an efficient limit to inequality will be the focus of the third chapter. The discussion will extend from the PROUT principle that any inequality that is accepted by society is only justified to the extent that it provides incentives for greater service to society by those receiving more than others. Any amount of income or in-kind amenities provided to a person that is beyond the minimum requirements by the standards of that society should not exceed the value of the extra services coaxed from that person by the extra incentives. A humanistic model of motivation for productivity is developed that suggests that people are productive for a variety of reasons besides material rewards. This is intended to place the need for incentives, and by extension inequality, in a perspective that suggests wide inequality is unnecessary and economically inefficient. Diagramatic analysis that introduces the Sarkarian Individual Productivity Curve demonstrates reasonable limits to inequality.
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Names we gave the North Star
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Stopher, Aliceanna, author; Doenges, Judy, advisor; Candelaria Fletcher, Harrison, committee member; Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee member
This thesis is interested in names. This thesis is interested in girls and women. This thesis is interested in kin. This thesis is interested in divination, in lightness, in knowing. This thesis is interested in memory–its inexactness, its gaps, in the push-pull between truth and speculation, in how much that may or may not matter. This thesis is interested in hybridity. The stories and essays in this collection seek to blur between true and untrue as a reflection of memory as constellation of facts, conjecture, and dreams. Find here mountains that are and are not my mountains, homes that are and are not my homes. Know there is a presence, my presence, on the other side of each page. Come closer. Press your palm against each page, feel the warmth of mine from the other side. Make yourself at home here.
Open Access
Saving grace and the environment: how states influence the Christian steward agenda
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Lewis, Amy, author; Yasar, Gamze, advisor; Davis, Sandra, committee member; Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee member
Explanations regarding the success and behavior of new social movements rely largely on postmaterialist assumptions. An examination of the Christian Stewards new social movement in the United States and Canada and its varying levels of success in these two different states calls into question the explanatory relevance of postmaterialist arguments as they pertain to new social movement theory and offers an alternative explanation in the form of social opportunity structure.
Open Access
The economic and the real: reflections on justice, methodology, and ontology in economics
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Teather-Posadas, Edward R., author; Bernasek, Alexandra, advisor; Ziliak, Stephen T., advisor; Fremstad, Anders, committee member; Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee member; Foskin, Kevin, committee member
The role of perspective is often overlooked within economics. While the scale and scope of economics has expanded greatly in the last decades, less and less time has been devoted to introspection. Yet, as economics grows, so does the need for introspection, in order to explore the origins and relations of, and between, our own perspectives. This dissertation is an attempt to turn our gaze inwards in three different themes: justice, methodology, and ontology. Chapter Two reassesses the Seattle/Denver Income Maintenance Experiments (1970-1976) seeking to correct many misconceptions that have been taken as conventional wisdom about the experiments. Chapter Three expands on Martha Nussbaum's capabilities list through the inclusion of negativity and a "zeroth" capability. Chapter Four redefines the nature of economic pluralism through the use of parallax ontology.
Open Access
Three essays on heterogeneous capabilities, poverty trap thresholds, and the persistence of inequality
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Anderson, Bret, author; Braunstein, Elissa, advisor; Bernasek, Alexandra, committee member; Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee member; Davies, Stephen, committee member
The current trends in poverty measurement moving toward a focus on asset and wealth stocks, and hence away from traditional flow measures of consumption and income, warrant the scaling up of efforts to understand how individuals convert asset stocks into economic well-being. At the same time, modern advancements in computing power have led to an increase in the level of rigor associated with ex ante simulations of how macroeconomic changes potentially impact microeconomic well-being. In the presentation of three essays, this study investigates how individuals and households that are endowed with heterogeneous capabilities convert productive assets into economic well-being through the lenses of ex-post empirical analysis and an ex-ante macro-micro simulation. This analysis advances thinking on poverty an inequality by presenting a re-constructive critique of both the asset-based and human development/capabilities perspectives on poverty measurement, arguing that there are significant complementarities and reconcilable differences in which researchers can take significant advantage of. The theoretical and empirical insights regarding the role of capability disparities in conditioning household poverty trap thresholds are then applied in a preliminary fashion to a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model that is linked to a microsimulation model (MSM). The top-down behavioral CGE-MSM is capable of addressing the question of how macro changes impact poverty and income distribution when individuals are endowed with heterogeneous capabilities in an ex-ante fashion. In an attempt to isolate the impacts of macro changes on micro poverty and well-being, the questions of what poverty and well-being really are must be addressed first. The opening essay thus traces out the common origins, divergent evolution, and reconcilable differences across asset-based and Human Development/Capabilities perspectives of poverty. It is argued that asset-based studies have embedded in them a strong temptation to focus solely on asset accumulation policies without giving the conversion process of assets into livelihood its due study. Although the asset-based literature has made advances on the theoretical front in explaining how poverty trap thresholds are unique and dependent on intrinsic ability, the empirical analysis of what intrinsic ability may encompass remains understudied. The essay proposes that empirical asset-based studies of poverty trap thresholds stand to benefit from insights of the Human Development/Capabilities literature by viewing intrinsic ability as capability constraints which leads to differing opportunity costs. To illustrate the bridging role of opportunity costs, a simple, two-household model with heterogeneous opportunity costs is presented and applied to South Africa's most populated province. The results of the simple model underscore the need for a capabilities consistent asset-based framework. The second essay extends the first by asking how particular asset holdings are associated with capabilities to take on new economic opportunities. Knowledge of the patterns and linkages between capabilities and particular asset holdings has been relatively under- realized, particularly in the empirical poverty traps literature. Using the same household survey data of essay one, this essay seeks to empirically decompose how early period asset endowments impact future levels of well-being into direct and indirect mechanisms. A direct impact of asset endowments on future well-being would include consumption of the asset or the direct use of it to produce incomes (i.e. grain stock consumption or the sale of livestock offspring, respectively). The indirect impacts of endowments are of greater interest to this study and are of two forms: asset-to-asset complementarities and how household capabilities (or deprivations thereof) interact with particular asset holdings. To achieve this decomposition, this paper employs a method of path analysis akin to early heritability of traits studies which were aimed at distinguishing between the effects of nature versus nurture. This second essay contributes to the prior literature in three primary ways. First, it adds empirical robustness to prior theoretical work linking intrinsic ability with household-specific poverty trap thresholds. Second, it bridges the quantitative work on poverty traps with qualitative insights from the human development/capabilities literature by identifying which particular asset holdings are associated with different household capability constraints. Lastly, it serves as a reminder to policy that measuring poverty as asset stocks requires additional knowledge about the process of converting those assets into well-being. After the first two essays tackle the issue of poverty measurement and its conversion into economic well-being, the final essay reviews a host of macro, micro, and macro-micro modeling strategies in order to draw out central features of a framework that can address the micro impacts of macro changes in the presence of heterogeneous behavioral responses. Additionally, this essay presents a preliminary framework of that model and explores how capabilities, that heterogeneously impact the occupational choice of individuals, might be incorporated. When there are heterogeneous responses to changes in the macroeconomic employment situation, the identification of winners and losers of potential macro-policy changes in an ex-ante fashion is more complex. Standard computable general equilibrium (CGE) models are only able to identify between group changes in income distributions and not within group changes. Additionally, there is a lack of capacity to include unique behavioral responses. One alternative is to link a behavioral microsimulation model (MSM) to a CGE. The benefit of this approach is that the outcomes of behavior are aggregated rather than behavior itself being homogenized and aggregated as is implicitly done in models with representative agents or household groups. Though the original aim of the entire study - to put forth a macro-micro model flexible enough to incorporate heterogeneous behavior - was accomplished, the true benefits of the study come from considering the linkages between capabilities, poverty trap thresholds, and the distribution of well-being in greater detail.
Open Access
Three essays on informalization
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Gálvez García, Jose Rolando, author; Braunstein, Elissa, advisor; Tavani, Daniele, advisor; Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee member; Zaharan, Sammy, committee member; Velasco, Marcela, committee member
This dissertation uses informalization as a way to identify workers and enterprises that engage in low-productivity, or contingent economic activities, and are systemically excluded from the costs and benefits of social welfare. Informalization represents a serious challenge for inclusive development in many economies around the world, particularly those in Latin America. The first chapter uses a political economy perspective to argue for adopting institutional approaches to conceptualize and understand informalization in order to account for the structural, exclusionary, and discriminatory dimensions of this development challenge. Adopting a macroeconomic perspective, chapter two analyzes the association between real exchange rates and the extent of urban informal employment in multiple Latin American economies in recent decades. Results indicate that real exchange rate competitiveness is associated with lower levels of urban informal employment in the region. The third chapter, taking a microeconomic approach, explores differences between formal and informal enterprises in Guatemala, and how these differences impact output and labor productivity.
Open Access
Three essays on the role of credit, labor, and information for small business establishments
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Gulati, Bhramman, author; Weiler, Stephan, advisor; Bernasek, Alexandra, advisor; Thilmany, Dawn, committee member; Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee member
Small business establishments create jobs, promote innovation, and boost productivity in local and national economies. However, despite this pronounced and enduring impact, they face numerous existential challenges, especially in rural areas, which have smaller markets, population bases, and limited amenities compared to urban areas. Therefore, the United States government has introduced numerous policy measures to support and promote small establishments. This study informs such policy conversations by investigating three key factors that influence small business sustainability and growth: credit supply, labor supply, and information asymmetries. The first chapter reviews the study motivations and elaborates on these key factors. Existing literature outlines how lending from financial institutions plays an important role in the birth of new businesses. In Chapter 2, I add that bank lending fluctuations also impact the survival of existing (newborn) businesses, particularly in non-metropolitan areas. Next, Chapter 3 considers how local labor market dynamics affect the survival of new businesses by applying portfolio theory to evaluate employment-based and income-based measures of risk-and-reward trade-offs in local labor markets. I find that volatility in local labor markets observed during the study period, 2005-2009, has a positive impact on new business survival, especially in Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Thirdly, current and consistent information about a geographical entity's local economic, demographic, and social characteristics is a valuable commodity; however, such information is often scarce in rural and remote counties. The American Community Survey (ACS) was introduced to address this problem. However, its staggered data release—based on county population thresholds—created information gaps between otherwise similar rural counties. Therefore, Chapter 4 uses a synthetic control method to investigate any differences in economic impact between counties that received ACS information earlier and those that received it later (i.e., as measured through establishment births). There were encouraging results in some cases, indicating a potential economic effect from geographical information asymmetries. The last chapter reflects on the study's findings in the context of current economic events.
Open Access
Were Turkey's 1994 and 2001 twin crises predictable?: the signal approach
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Mihyaz, Timur, author; Kling, Robert, advisor; Jianakoplos, Nancy, committee member; Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee member; Davies, Stephen P., committee member
This study presents a signal approach for predicting the occurrence of currency and banking crisis by using Kaminsky and Reinhart's (1999) Signal Model. The paper focuses on testing this theory by examining the twin crises that occurred in Turkey in 1994 and 2001. In the first step, leading indicators for twin crisis are chosen and then these indicators are used to calculate composite indicators. The out-of-sample performance will also be introduced for the period of 2007-2009. The estimation period is from Jan-1987 to Feb-2001. The real exchange rate (deviation from trend), Export/Import ratio, Excess M1 Balances, Bank Reserves/Bank Asset ratio, and oil prices are the top five indicators that are useful for predicting such crises. Short Term Debt/Reserves, Import, Reserves, and real interest rate are the other important variables that performed well for anticipating these crises.
Open Access
What factors affect school attendance? Quantitative and qualitative study of evidence from Nepal
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Bhattarai, Niroj Kumar, author; Bernasek, Alexandra, advisor; Pena, Anita Alves, advisor; Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee member; Kent, Suzanne, committee member; Canetto, Silvia, committee member
There exist many factors that impact school attendance of students in developing countries. Factors range from the distance to school from a student's home to the availability of gender-specific restrooms. A project in the south east part of Nepal that built gender-specific restrooms and brought running water to the school increased enrollment and attendance of the students, particularly of girls. To study what other factors impact attendance, a survey was conducted in and around Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. An econometric study of the data generated by the survey showed that time spent studying at home, having an educated mother and an employed mother, all had positive effect on students' attendance. Distance to school, presence of siblings, and lack of computers had negative effects on attendance. The data also demonstrated gender differences in what and how various factors affected attendance at the secondary level of education in Nepal.