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 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 The water quality impacts of critical habitat designation for endangered species(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2023) Carr, Taurey Rosenhahn; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Melissa C. LoPaloThe Endangered Species Act of 1973 [ESA] is well-known by environmental economists for its extensive provisions that create a variety of impacts on housing, land development, timber harvesting, etc. However, the ESA's impact on water quality has not been formally studied despite being discussed extensively by federal agencies that administer the Act. I estimate the causal effect of critical habitat designation, an ESA provision that regulates land use, on a range of water quality outcomes. Using administrative data on water quality from 1970-2018, I employ event study and difference-in-differences [DiD] empirical models to evaluate temporal and spatial changes in water quality resulting from plausibly exogenous variation in critical habitat designations. I find null results for most water quality outcomes and mixed evidence of a decrease in pH after designations occur. However, pooled DiD results find no evidence of average declines in pH in the years following designation. Slight declines in pH from the event-study results are concentrated partially in urban areas and primarily around critical habitat designations involving fish species. Results provide some evidence that fish designations may result in more significant water quality impacts after designation across pH and additional outcomes than all designations on average. These results add to a body of research that questions if other species conservation provisions may lead to more efficient outcomes than critical habitat designation.Item Is sharing really caring? Estimating the effects of federal asset forfeiture revenue sharing on local policing outcomes(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2023) Buzzard, Jadon Jediah; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Isaac SwensenCivil asset forfeiture, whereby police agencies may profit from seized assets without a criminal conviction, is a contentious practice. Despite high-profile instances of abuse, law enforcement has made strong claims that forfeiture provides a critical funding mechanism for police departments. This paper offers a unique strategy to identify the causal relationship between asset forfeiture revenue and local policing outcomes, measured by crime reports and clearances (a standard proxy for police effort). I estimate the impact of a temporary suspension of Equitable Sharing, a program allowing local police agencies to financially benefit from asset forfeitures done in collaboration with federal law enforcement. The suspension was a plausibly exogenous shock to the forfeiture revenue received by participating police agencies. I exploit pre-suspension variation in program participation to study this interruption as a quasi-experiment; using a difference-in-differences design, my model estimates the differential impact of the suspension on participating agencies (treated) relative to non-participating agencies (control). My results indicate that the suspension led to a 4.7% increase in the number of violent crimes reported within participating agency jurisdictions relative to the baseline mean, but it also offers suggestive evidence of a small (2.5%) decrease in property crime reports as a result of the suspension. These effects appear to cancel out, producing a consistent null effect on total crime reports. While my results for violent crime are quite robust, the results for property crimes are more sensitive to model specification. My results for crime clearances also turn out to be inconclusive; as such, further research is required to determine whether the suspension's impact on crime reports stems from a change in police effort or an alternative explanatory mechanism.Item Evaluating the impact of permanent school closure(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2022) Robinson, Willard Montellous, IV; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Gregory GilpinIn any given school year, about seven percent of all U.S. public school districts will close one of its schools. In the years directly following the Great Recession, school closure increased by up to 5 percentage points. School closures can be devastating events that disrupt student and teacher routines, separate peer groups, and potentially overextend the resources of receiving schools. As a result, they are usually the last result of a school district to decrease funding. Closing a school allows districts to reduce spending by decreasing expenditures on building maintenance and operation. School closure was a tool used by districts to alleviate the financial distress following the extreme negative effects on public education caused by the Great Recession. During the recent Covid-19 pandemic, state funds began to follow similar trajectories to the 2008 recession. Thus, we ask ourselves 'what could we have done differently in response to the Great Recession?' This question is worth examining as it allows us to develop better policy in the wake of budget shocks that U.S. districts almost faced. While a closure is hard on a district, it can also provide a unique opportunity to re-allocate resources within the district to be more efficiently allocated. In normal years, tenure makes teacher re-allocation difficult, but the significant change in the educational environment brought about by closure can provide an opportunity to re-orient staff. Do districts take advantage of this opportunity? In this paper, I test the hypothesis that school districts used school closures as an opportunity to re-allocate resources in the wake of serious declining funds caused by the Great Recession. My results do not show convincing evidence that districts induced to close a school from the Great Recession's budget shocks used the opportunity to re-orient staff. This could be for two reasons: (1) they are not realizing the opportunity they have or (2) they are already allocating resources efficiently and that is not affected by the change in educational setting. If the first reason is the reality, this suggests that districts did not respond optimally to the event of school closure.Item An economic analysis of the Smith River float lottery(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2020) Walker, Chase Nelson; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Randal R. RuckerOutdoor recreation is a popular pastime for many and provides an opportunity to unwind and take a break in nature and on public resources. In recent years, overcrowding and commercial use have been highlighted in the media for taking away from the recreational experience and stressing some of the resources. To explore this issue, I collect data on float permit application numbers over 15 years for the Smith River, which is a popular lottery accessed recreational river in Montana that receives over 10,000 float applications per year and also allows private commercial guiding. To attempt to gain insights into whether commercial use is viewed negatively, I use variation in the number of outfitted trips that are permitted to launch each day within the float season to identify how outfitter use impacts application rates. I find that application rates during the peak season decrease by an average of 11 percent on days in which two outfitters launch compared to days when only one outfitter can launch. Because outfitter launch allocations effect the supply of permits available in the lottery, this result could be attributed to either an outfitter effect or supply effect. Further analyses that test the differences between the early season when outfitter use is low, and the peak season when outfitter use is high, indicates that there is a combination of both effects, but that the impact of outfitter use is large and significant.Item The value of fresh water as an economic input: evidence from Florida oyster fisheries(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2019) Dahl, Caleb Eliot; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Richard ReadyNatural resources contribute to a number of processes that humans depend on for economic benefits. A notable example is fisheries. Fishery productivity is largely dictated by environmental factors. When an ecosystem is altered, the effect on its fisheries can be catastrophic. As development intensifies throughout the world, an increasing number of fisheries are affected by environmental change driven by human behavior. A relevant example is Florida's oyster industry in the Gulf of Mexico, including the famous Apalachicola Bay fishery. As development and population have increased in the surrounding region, the river system that drains into the Florida Gulf has seen diminished water supply. Oysters rely on a particular mix of fresh and saltwater, so changes in the fresh water level affects the ecosystem and the fishing industry. In this thesis, I analyze the effect and value of freshwater input in the oyster fisheries of the Florida Gulf. I find that the effect of freshwater inflow on oyster productivity varies by season, with quarter three flow being of primary importance. Depending on the county and valuation method, I find a standard deviation change in freshwater inflow to be worth between $318,650.98 and $834,004.81 over two years in the context of oyster fisheries. While this specific situation is of particular interest, this work also contributes to the broader literature regarding the role and value of natural resources as economic inputs.Item The effect of natural disaster on individual-level aspiration: evidence from rural Nepal(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2019) Shrestha, Samyam; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Diane CharltonIn this study, I analyze the effect of the 2015 Nepal earthquake on individual-level aspiration. I use the data from a longitudinal household survey in rural Nepal from 2014 and 2016, and the earthquake intensity data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Using a fixed effects model, I find that compared to those who experienced below median earthquake intensity in terms of Modified Mercalli Scale (MMI), those who experienced MMI between the 50th and 75th percentile had their aspiration index drop by 0.14 of a standard deviation. Similarly, the drop was 0.33 of a standard deviation for those experiencing MMI more than 75th percentile. This finding adds to the literature that natural disaster not only damages physical infrastructure but also curtails individual's overall aspiration, which, as the economic literature illustrates, has a negative effect on investment. There was, however, no consistent statistically significant effects on the individual components of aspiration.Item Solo signator: analysis of the minor alone statutes(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2019) Parker, Lev Ariel; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Carly UrbanLack of banking access affects approximately a quarter of the population. It is often the most vulnerable populations that are most likely to be unbanked. Without access to the formal banking system, people turn to alternative financial services (AFS) which are significantly more expensive than the formal alternatives. Granting minors independent access to the formal banking system may be a policy tool which can reduce the number of unbanked adults and adults who frequent AFS. I exploit variation in a set a laws known as the Minor Alone Statutes (MAS) which grant minors independent access to state-chartered banks and credit unions. Results on how the MAS affect account ownership are inconclusive, but the MAS do decrease the probability of young adults with bank accounts frequenting AFS by approximately 10%.