Home » Year » 2012 (Page 2)

Category Archives: 2012

The Impact of Spectrum Quality on Wireless Telecom Competition

By Stephen Zhu This paper explores the metrics used by FCC and others for evaluating competition between wireless telecom carriers. It focuses on the impact of wireless spectrum quality on the results of FCC spectrum auctions and the estimated market shares of wireless carriers. In this case, it is revealed that quality is affected by […]

Continue Reading →

Policy in Competitive Insurance Markets: Incentivizing Risk Sharing and Cost Efficiency

By Ross Green In the setting of a population with heterogeneous risk of illness, informational asymmetries in a competitive health insurance market can cause the gains from risk sharing to fall short of social optimality in equilibrium. Traditional policies meant to address the under-provision of insurance, like mandating open enrollment or community-rated premiums, can be […]

Continue Reading →

Federal Outlays: The Effect of the President and Electoral Politics

By Michael Ge The effect of congressional electoral politics on pork barrel spending is a well -studied phenomenon. Likewise, presidential politics are receiving increased scrutiny. This paper aims to expand the literature relating presidential electoral politics and the geographic distribution of federal funds on a county level. It asks whether there is increased spending in […]

Continue Reading →

After the Storm Impacts of natural disasters in the United States at the state and county level

By Danjie Fang Empirical research on the impact of natural disasters on economic growth has provided contradictory results and few studies have focused on the United States. In this thesis, I bridge the gap by examining the merits of existing claims on the relationship between natural disasters and growth at the states and county level […]

Continue Reading →

Economic Racism: A Look at Rental Prices in 1930

By Basel Fakhoury The Great Migration caused massive demographic changes in Northeastern and Midwestern cities as African Americans moved from the South to the North. These changes led to economic discrimination and segregation within northern cities. This paper compares African American and white rental prices in four major cities: Chicago, Detroit, New York City, and […]

Continue Reading →

Integrating Medicare and Medicaid Healthcare Delivery and Reimbursement Policies for Dual Eligible Beneficiaries: A Cost-Efficiency Analysis of Managed Care

By Kan Zhang The extreme underpricing of Chinese Initial Public Offerings in the early days of the Chinese equity markets was reduced by several reforms instituted by the Chinese government from around 2000 to 2002. These reforms reduced 1-day returns on IPOs from 295% to 72%. The reforms reduced IPO underpricing by decreasing the inequality […]

Continue Reading →

The Predictability of the Chilean Yield Spread as an Economic Indicator

By Cong Ding A country’s yield spread, defined as the difference between its long term and short term interest rates, has historically been used in developed countries as a proxy for projecting the economy’s future gross domestic product. Because interest rates are so liquid, data on rates are accessible and up to date. This means […]

Continue Reading →

The Predictability of the Chilean Yield Spread as an Economic Indicator

By Yunze Chen “Don’t forget that your incredible success in consistently making each move at the right time in the market is but my pathetic failure in making each move at the wrong time. … … I don’t know anyone who can do it successfully, nor anyone who has done so in the past. Heck, […]

Continue Reading →

Simultaneous Occurrence of Price Jumps and Changes in Diffusive Price Volatility

By Shunting Wei This paper uses high frequency financial data to study the changes in diffusive stock price volatility when price jumps are likely to have occurred. In particular, we study this effect on two levels. Firstly, we compare diffusive volatility on jump and non-jump days. Secondly, we study the change in diffusive volatility in […]

Continue Reading →

Empirical Evidence of Airline Merger Waves Based on A Selective Entry Model

By Peichun Wang Ever since the Deregulation Act in 1978 in the U.S. airline industry, there have been series of major airline mergers and acquisitions, notably three major waves in the 1980’s, 1990’s, and late 2000’s. These mergers, especially the more recent multi-billion mergers (e.g. Delta- Northwest, United-Continental) have shown a trend of substantial market […]

Continue Reading →

Questions?

Undergraduate Program Assistant
Matthew Eggleston
dus_asst@econ.duke.edu

Director of the Honors Program
Michelle P. Connolly
michelle.connolly@duke.edu