Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item Estimating the impact of high-speed internet on teen and young adult labor force participation(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2021) Bridgewater, Samuel Edward; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Gregory GilpinHigh-speed residential internet access was rolled out in the United States in the early 2000's. While the advent of high-speed internet brought with it a lot of positive changes, like greater access to information (Dettling 2017) or flexibility in working arrangements for working parents (Dettling 2018), it also ushered in a new era of inexpensive and high-quality leisure activities. During this same period of time, teens and young adults are observed leaving the labor force. This thesis uses a Bartik or shift share instrument and variation in rollout of high-speed residential internet access to estimate the impact on teen and young adult labor force participation decisions. The results find that both students and non-students younger than 25 are less likely to participate in the labor force, and males were more profoundly impacted than females.Item A reputation for the good stuff: user feedback signaling and the deep web market silk road(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2016) Sears, James Matthew; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mark AndersonDespite complete user anonymity, asymmetrical information, and incomplete enforcement mechanisms, the deep web market Silk Road facilitated approximately $200 million in illegal drug sales in 34 months. This study tests how the site's reputation system facilitated successful transactions and how user feedback functioned as the primary signal of seller quality in the absence of formal contract enforcement. Using novel data from the site on marijuana, amphetamine, and meth transactions, listings, and vendors, I find strong evidence that consumers engaged with the site's reputation system and relied on both item and seller-level information. Hedonic regressions provide evidence of a 'bad news' learning environment, estimating a 3 to 11% price discount for negative item reviews. Seller ratings are found to act as an effective proxy for permanent seller characteristics, and named trains act as a primary source of quality (and price) differentiation for marijuana. I find no evidence of price penalties or signal heterogeneity for new sellers. This study is the first to shed light on the value of reputation on the deep web's largest marketplace, yielding new insight into the mechanisms modern markets use to overcome social distance and prevent market failure.