Gary A. Hoover

The Changing Nonlinear Relationship between Income and Terrorism

This article reinvestigates the relationship between real per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and terrorism. We devise a terrorism Lorenz curve to show that domestic and transnational terrorist attacks are each more concentrated in middle-income countries, thereby suggesting a nonlinear income–terrorism relationship. Moreover, this point of concentration shifted to lower income countries after the rising influence of the religious fundamentalist and nationalist/separatist terrorists in the early 1990s. For transnational terrorist attacks, this shift characterized not only the attack venue but also the perpetrators’ nationality. The article then uses nonlinear smooth transition regressions to establish the relationship between real per capita GDP and terrorism for eight alternative terrorism samples, accounting for venue, perpetrators’ nationality, terrorism type, and the period. Our nonlinear estimates are shown to be favored over estimates using linear or quadratic income determinants of terrorism. These nonlinear estimates are robust to additional controls.

The Effect of Robust Growth on Poverty: A Nonlinear Analysis

Previous research has shown that economic growth should help to reduce the rate of poverty. However, a number of recent studies have found that the economic expansion of the 1980s had no statistically significant effect on aggregate poverty. It is shown that both a Threshold regression and a Fourier approximation provide a better empirical model of poverty than the standard linear model. It is noteworthy that the nonlinear specifications show a large and significant effect on poverty of the 1980s expansion.

Plagiarism in the Economics Profession: A Survey

The authors explore a difficult problem in academic publishing. Their survey turns up serious concerns about academic plagiarism. One conclusion is that there are no clear guidelines by which to develop a code of ethics.

Putting Out Fires: An Examination of the Determinants of State Clean Indoor-Air Laws

Although numerous studies have examined the effect of clean indoor-air laws on tobacco consumption, a handful of other studies have sought to address the demand for smoking restrictions. This paper adds to this body of research by using a random effects Probit procedure that controls for the endogeneity of cigarette consumption and cigarette taxes to estimate the determinants of clean indoor-air laws. By treating cigarette consumption and cigarette taxes as exogenous, we found that taxes complement smoking restrictions. However, when we accounted for endogeneity, the role of cigarette taxes shifted toward being a policy substitute. Results further revealed that the probability of a state adopting a smoking restriction is particularly sensitive to per capita cigarette consumption, political affiliation, metropolitan population, per capita income, and tobacco production.

Elected Versus Appointed School District Officials Is There a Difference in Student Outcomes

This article explores the differences in student performance outcomes when school officials are either elected or appointed to their posts. If appointed officials are insulated by at least one level of bureaucracy, they might be more inclined to implement unpopular policies to impact student performance. Findings indicate that there are no differences in student performance when the school superintendent or the school board is appointed rather than elected. It is found that there is a slight positive difference in outcomes when the superintendent is elected as opposed to when the school board is elected.

Privatization of Refuse Removal and Labor Costs

We examine the labor-cost savings associated with privatization by comparing earnings and employment trends of public and private sector refuse workers. Findings suggest that high union earnings for workers in the public sector are a source of labor-cost savings in the refuse industry. Evidence on job changers does not indicate that earnings for this group of workers are a compensating differential. Metropolitan area employment findings suggest that municipalities are less likely to use union refuse workers in the public sector when a relatively small percentage of area residents belong to a union.

Racial/Ethnic Differences in Income Inequality Across US Regions

In this study we investigate the differences in income inequality among different racial/ethnic groups in the United States using both personal and household income. We find that income inequality is negatively related to the percentage of males but that the impact is muted for blacks as opposed to whites or Hispanics. In addition, we find income inequality among blacks and Hispanics is affected in vastly different ways, due to unemployment, than for whites. Finally, the impacts on inequality from the exclusion of given groups is significantly influenced by education and the percentage of males contributing to household income but not in a uniform manner for whites, blacks, and Hispanics.

The Determinants of Laws Restricting Youth Access to Tobacco

Since many smokers begin consuming tobacco products in their adolescent years, many states have adopted a variety of restrictions on youth access to tobacco, which studies show reduces the demand for tobacco among this cohort. This paper takes a different track by addressing the demand for youth access restrictions. Specifically, using a random effects Probit procedure, which controls for the endogeneity of cigarette consumption and taxation, we examine the determinants of nine methods commonly used by states to restrict youth access to tobacco. (JEL H70, I18)

Salary Determinants of Entry Level Academic Economists and the Characteristics of Those Hired on the Tenure Track

This paper examines the entry-level labor market for academic economists and investigates the determinants of market salaries. The focus is on the effects of tenure and nontenure track jobs and departmental ranking that are based upon faculty research productivity. The results reveal that the market works differently depending upon whether the hiring department is ranked in terms of research productivity. Being hired on the tenure track significantly influences academic salaries in both ranked and unranked departments. The paper also analyzes the impact of observable characteristics of individuals and hiring departments on the probability of being hired into tenure track positions.

Gender differences in income inequality among immigrant populations to the United States

Abstract This work examines the level of income inequality of immigrants to the United States. We separately examine income inequality of males and females using several different inequality measures for robustness. The work finds that males have the traditional inverted “U” relationship between inequality and growth but females have the opposite. These differences are caused by several key factors but mainly due to the level of work force participation of the two groups. Finally, we examine the differences in inequality between immigrants who have been in the country for a decade and newly arrived immigrants finding that income inequality is much greater for new immigrants.