Maury Granger

Economics Faculty Research at Teaching Institutions: Are Historically Black Colleges Different?

This paper examines the difference in research output of economics departments at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and non-HBCUs that are teaching institutions. We also examine the causal relationship between economics faculty research and the number of an institution’s baccalaureate graduates who earn doctorates in economics. Our findings suggest that economics departments at HBCUs produce less research output relative to non-HBCUs. However, research output is equally effective in producing economics doctorates at both types of institutions. These findings suggest that a plausible way to increase the stock of black Ph.D. economists is to increase economics research at HBCUs.

Swimming upstream?: The relative research productivity of economists at black colleges

Teaching institutions have a legacy that values teaching. In spite of this, economics faculty at these institutions are engaged in scholarly work. Indeed, recent evidence indicates that economics faculty at liberal arts schools (Bodenhorn, 1997; Hartley and Robinson, 1997) and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) (Agesa, Granger and Price, 2000) have produced a non-trivial amount of scholarly output? HBCUs are a unique component of teaching institutions because of their commitment and resulting success in educating students whose likelihood of completion would be dramatically less had they attended a nonHistorically Black College and University (non-HBCU).2 However, economics departments at HBCUs produce significantly less research output relative to economics departments at non-HBCUs (Agesa, Granger and Price, 2000). Nonetheless, because research output is aggregated to the department level in previous work, this finding does not necessarily indicate a difference in research output of individual economists at HBCUs relative to their peers at non-HBCU teaching institutions. This paper utilizes individual data on economists at HBCUs and nonHBCUs to examine the determinants of research output and employment of economics professors at the two types of institutions. This paper is important for several reasons. First, the use of individual data in the measurement of the difference in research output between economists at HBCUs and non-HBCUs allows the control for personal and institutional characteristics that may partially explain differences in research output. This is important because previous work--which aggregates faculty re-

Does religion constrain the risky sex behaviour associated with HIV/AIDS?

This article examines the likely effectiveness of public health interventions designed to change the risky sexual behaviour associated with Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) by Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs). We utilize data from the General Social Survey (GSS) to estimate an economic model of sexual behaviour. Our theoretical approach proceeds by rationalizing, on evolutionary grounds, the existence of sexual activity in individual preference functions, with unobservable costs imposed by religious beliefs and participation. Given the objective of utility maximization, we justify the existence of demand functions for sexual activity that generate empirically testable hypotheses about the effects of religion and religious participation on risky sexual activity. Our results suggest that, at least in the case of heterosexuals, FBOs can indeed influence the risky sexual behaviour that is associated with the transmission of HIV/AIDS.

Is Mississippi Really the Worst State to Live in? A Spatial Equilibrium Approach to Ranking Quality of Life

Quality-of-life rankings could induce economic development and planning policy makers into wastefully committing too many resources into attracting human and physical capital if they are based on a methodology that is atheoretical and biased in its approach to accounting for what individuals value as contributing to their quality of life in the places they live. An alternative theoretically coherent and unbiased approach to measuring quality-of-life in particular locations is to recognize that a significant amount of what individuals value in the places they optimally choose to live is unobservable, and is reflected in the difference between amenity-adjusted housing prices and income. We implement a ranking scheme consistent with this notion, and find that in contrast to a ranking of states in terms of quality-of-life that uses an explicit amenity accounting method, states typically rated as being among the lowest in terms of being livable, move up the rankings substantially. Relative to a standard explicit amenity accounting quality-of-life measure, our spatial equilibrium measures better explain the location choices of individuals, as measured by net migration

Breaking Bad in Mississippi: Do County-Level Alcohol Sale Bans Encourage Crystal Methamphetamine Production and Consumption?

Abstract If alcohol has substitutes, changes in its relative price can encourage the production and consumption of other illicit and harmful drugs. This paper considers if county-level bans on the sale of alcohol in the state of Mississippi encourage the production and consumption of crystal methamphetamine. We estimate the parameters of a drug production function in which the inputs are the density of people and firms, underscoring the importance of learning and knowledge spillovers to production and consumption. Poisson and Negative Binomial parameter estimates reveal that county-level bans on hard liquor sales; but not on beer and wine, increase the number of crystal methamphetamine labs. In the absence of such laws, there would be approximately 308 fewer crystal methamphetamine labs in the state of Mississippi. Our findings suggest that in Mississippi, which is the least healthiest state in the nation, county-level bans on hard liquor sales are not welfare improving as they encourage substitution for a drug that is potentially more harmful to individual health than alcohol.