Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
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Item The effect of peer ratings on nonprofit contributions: evidence from charity navigator(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2024) Pela, Tavio Aleksandrs; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Andrew HillNonprofit rating organizations publish third-party assessments of nonprofit organizations for current and prospective donors. Using charity-level yearly financial and ratings data for organizations rated by Charity Navigator, a prominent nonprofit rating organization, I employ a regression discontinuity design to investigate whether a charity's total contributions are impacted by changes in the ratings of its competitors. I find a negative relationship between current-period peer rating and current-period contributions, which is consistent with peer ratings being used to inform donation decisions between comparable organizations. However, difficulty substantiating a key identifying assumption of the RDD raises doubts that these findings identify a causal relationship.Item The effects of flood zone designations on land development(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2024) Poteet, Samantha Joy; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Nick HagertyIn 2017, Hurricane Harvey hit Harris County, Texas and caused devastating flood damages. These flood damages were exacerbated by a rapid land development. This paper estimates the impact of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) high risk flood zone designation, the Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA), on land development. FEMA's flood maps convey information to homeowners regarding their property's flood risk and requires flood insurance for most properties in the SFHA. Using a spatial regression discontinuity design I find evidence of a 64% decrease in land development just inside of the SFHA boundary line. These results suggest FEMA can significantly impact the allocation of land development with the SFHA designation. Currently, FEMA underestimates flood risk, accurately assessing flood risk can help better prepare homeowners for future flooding events and allocate future land development in a more socially optimal way.Item The effects of RGGI on mortality outcomes(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2024) Power, Nicholas Markert; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Justin GallagherMost debates around market-based solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions often focus on greenhouse gas emissions reductions and cost-effectiveness. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is a cap-and-trade program designed to curb greenhouse gas emissions, and was implemented in 2009 across nine states in the greater New England area. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that over 6.5 million people die from air pollution annually. Particulate Matter of 2.5 microns or less in diameter is a major component in greenhouse gas emissions and has a myriad of deleterious effects to human health. This paper explores whether the RGGI policy had an impact on mortality rates, using a difference-in-differences approach, and estimates reduction in Cardiovascular related mortalities for the age cohort 15-64. I estimate that there are approximately 12 fewer deaths per county effected by the RGGI policy from 2009- 2019.Combined with the 45 counties affected by the policy, there are an estimated 553 fewer cardiovascular related mortalities for the 15-64 age group from 2009-2019 as compared to the counties unaffected by the policy. Robustness checks are run to verify the reliability of this finding.Item Dam removals: an agricultural analysis(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2024) Bush, Nathan Alexander; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Melissa C. LoPaloDam removals are occurring with increased frequency throughout the United States. 77% of all dam removal projects in U.S. history have occurred in the 21st century and the number of dams being removed each year is rising. Dams often play a key role in agricultural production, making it important for agricultural producers and policymakers to understand the effects of these removals as they become more common. This paper explores the causal effects of dam removal on agricultural productivity in the United States using a two-way fixed effects event study and an instrumental variable framework. Primary results of the analysis are mixed and differ based on exact specifications used but show initial evidence of per acre crop productivity increases and cash receipt declines following a removal. Further research is needed to explore the fine-scale effects of dam removals on individual agricultural producers and to expand on the preliminary causal relationships observed in this paper.Item Putting the "A" in AP: the effect of advanced course access on AP participation and performance(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2022) Callen, Ian Andrew; Co-chairs, Graduate Committee: Christiana Stoddard and Andrew HillThis paper investigates the effect of state-level policy regarding access to advanced course curriculum on participation and performance within the Advanced Placement (AP) program. From the early 2000's through 2019, participation in the Advanced Placement (AP) program, the most popular college-preparatory course in the United States, has nearly tripled in size. Today, nearly 20% of all high school students taking at least one AP exam per year. The AP program provides an opportunity for students to potentially earn college credit while still in high school which, at least in theory, reduces the cost of a college education. While the AP program provides many benefits to students, it also presents two major barriers - the ability to access advanced-level courses, and the monetary cost associated with taking the AP exam. We find that when states require schools to offer AP courses and when states fund AP exams, participation within the program increases drastically. For Black and Hispanic students, our estimates indicate a large increase in the number of exams that receive a passing score. These findings indicate that when states reduce the financial burden associated with taking an AP exam, students have the ability to participate and succeed in the program at higher rates than their peers in states without AP curriculum and exam funding.Item Medical technology and mortality transition: the diphtheria antitoxin and childhood mortality in the United States, 1880-1910(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2023) Salimi Rad, Sadiq; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: D. Mark AndersonDiphtheria was a deadly infectious disease in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly among children. In 1895, an antitoxin was developed that could effectively treat the disease. This was the first and only infectious disease in the United States at the time with a scientifically-based treatment. To gauge the impact of access to the antitoxin on child mortality, I leverage large and stable differences in physicians per capita rates across 38 U.S. cities. Physicians were the primary distributors of the antitoxin at the time. For every percentage point increase in the rate of physicians per capita prior to the antitoxin's availability, there is a corresponding one percent reduction in child mortality. These findings suggest that the introduction of the antitoxin played an important role in saving children's lives and had a significant impact on the course of medical technology and child health in the United States.Item Mitigating labor shortages: investigating the efficacy of return to work programs(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2023) Reis-Henrie, Justin Nehemiah; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Yang YuAre supply-side interventions effective at combating labor shortages? Many state governments faced tight labor markets as their states re-opened in the late spring of 2021. On May 4th, 2021, Montana announced it would be ending COVID-19 era unemployment schemes early. Additionally, they incentivized the unemployed to find work through a Return to Work (RTW) program. The unemployed would receive $1,200 for getting and keeping a job for four weeks. Similar RTW programs were subsequently adopted by several states. The impact of these RTW programs on labor markets has not yet been investigated. Using data on continued unemployment insurance claims I explore the impact of RTW programs on labor markets with a two-way fixed effects model. I find that RTW programs, at best, on average had a marginal negative impact on unemployment. However, I find a large degree of RTW heterogeneity with some states seeing large and statistically significant impacts. Additionally, I present a number of case studies to demonstrate the consequences of outreach and accessibility on RTW programs.Item Blood and black gold: natural resource extraction and violent crime on American Indian reservations(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2023) Sikoski, Laura Kate; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Wendy A. StockUsing 2001 to 2016 precinct-level crime data, I examine the relationship between natural resource development in the Bakken oil fields and violent crime on American Indian reservations. While previous studies find positive effects of the Bakken oil boom on crime, the impacts of the oil boom on crime within reservations have never been evaluated. I find that the increase in crime caused by the Bakken oil boom was significantly more severe in reservations, driving the increase in regional crime found by other studies. These results suggest that community safety outcomes should be considered by federal, state, and tribal governments for future natural resource development on reservation.Item Impacts of species protections on wind turbine development: evidence from golden eagle protection policies(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2023) O'Brien, Brock Daniel; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Diane CharltonAs demand for wind energy grows, policymakers face tradeoffs between wind turbine development and wildlife species protections. This is particularly relevant for golden eagles, which have a habitat that overlaps areas of high wind energy development potential. Golden eagle protections, such as the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (BGEPA), therefore potentially conflict with wind energy development goals. Policymakers face a lack of information regarding the existence and size of potential impacts of species protections on wind development. To approach this issue, I employ a difference-in-differences research design exploiting variation in BGEPA enforcement over time and geographic variation in golden eagle exposure to identify the impacts of species protections on wind development in resource-rich areas. I find that counties with high golden eagle exposure experienced declines in expected wind turbine capacity additions of 3.78 megawatts during the enforcement period, suggesting a total of 420 megawatts of foregone wind energy. This electricity generation loss has an estimated value of $56 to $142 million annually. Existing golden eagle valuation methods suggest significant economic gains from wind turbine expansion, although these estimations arguably apply only to marginal wildlife impacts and should be applied with caution. These results emphasize that the value of foregone renewable energy is an often-overlooked component of species protection policy discussions, and that effective conservation measures and funding are necessary both for the futures of many species and for renewable technology deployment.Item To comply or not to comply: a study of the factors affecting compliance with the 2021 hospital price transparency mandate(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2023) Flavin, Katelyn Anne; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mariana CarreraThis analysis uses hospital-level aggregation of prices of outpatient procedures from 1,595 hospitals along with hospital price transparency data to identify the market-level and hospital-level factors associated with compliance with the 2021 CMS hospital price transparency mandate. I find that the largest hospitals are about 25% more likely to comply with the mandate than the median hospital, suggesting a fixed cost burden to compliance. I also find some evidence that hospitals in less competitive markets are more likely to comply, and there does not appear to be any connection between the price of a hospital's services and its compliance with the mandate.