Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item The effect of local alcohol access on lottery purchases(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2022) Peterson, Ridge Walter; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Isaac SwensenThe relationship between gambling and drinking has attracted significant attention from researchers but has been primarily explored in the limited context of laboratory experiments and cross-sectional surveys. In this thesis, I exploit variation in county and city-level 'wet' laws in the state of Texas to estimate the causal effect of local alcohol access on gambling, using per-capita expenditures on two major lottery games, Powerball and Mega Millions, as a measure of gambling consumption. I find that the passage of a city or county-level wet law is associated with a large and significant increase in lottery consumption. While this increase in lottery purchases is observed following the legalization of any alcoholic beverages at the county level, at the city level the effect appears to be driven by laws legalizing the sale of beverages for on-premise consumption. While I cannot distinguish the mechanism by which alcohol availability may affect lottery sales, the implication of this finding is consistent with existing research which finds complementarity between alcohol and gambling.Item Interactive policy effects of the 2010 Oxycontin reformulation(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2021) Baan, Joseph Bradford; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Isaac SwensenIn this paper I estimate the additional effects counties with active Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs and Medical Marijuana Laws felt after the 2010 OxyContin reformulation compared to counties without these laws. I also estimate the effect of each additional Substance Abuse Treatment facility as well after the reformulation. I find that counties with PDMPs and MMLs see the morphine equivalent of a 6.557 and 4.681 grams decrease in the Oxycodone shipped to pharmacies for every 1000 people. Each additional SAT is associated with a 0.11 Morphine Grams Equivalent decrease. For reference 6.557 represents about 3% of the county average of MGE in Oxycodone.Item The effects of red flag laws on firearm suicides and homicides(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2021) Harris, Mitchell John; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mark AndersonRisk-based firearm removal laws, commonly known as Red Flag laws have become increasingly popular among lawmakers attempting to reduce gun violence in America. Despite widespread public support, these laws have yet to be studied in economics. Using mortality data from the National Vital Statistics System, I find that Red Flag laws have a significant negative effect on firearm suicides and firearm homicides. Upon further analysis, I find that there is evidence of a pre-existing downward trend in both firearm suicides and firearm homicides. Red Flag laws do not cause changes in these mortality outcomes, rather there is an unobserved shock that decreases firearm suicides and homicides, while simultaneously affecting a state's propensity to adopt a Red Flag law. These results contradict existing non-economic literature, which suggests that Red Flag laws cause a large decrease in firearm suicides.Item Public revenue leakage from real estate non-disclosure laws(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2021) Bollum, Tanner; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Daniel P. BigelowProperty tax is the single largest source of local own-source revenue. Due to lack of existing legal structure, county assessors are often left without access to market data. Prior to 2004, three states in the western portion of the United States had constitutions that lacked legislation regarding the disclosure of home sales. This is recognized in this research as non-disclosure laws (NDLs). New Mexico changed this legal structure in 2004 and mandated that county assessors receive all sales information in hopes that property assessments become more equitable. Using two-way fixed effects and a difference-in-differences design, I estimate the change in county level property tax revenue to be a 3.67 percent increase annually.Item The repeal of Montana's medical marijuana act and traffic fatalities(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2020) Lantz, Scott Bryan; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mark AndersonOver the last several years, marijuana legalization has become a popular piece of state legislation. While most legislation is focused on the passage of these laws for marijuana use, Montana, in 2011, rescinded a previously passed medical marijuana law with Senate Bill 423. This thesis examines the relationship between rescinding a medical marijuana law and traffic fatalities, one of the leading causes of death in America, in Montana after Senate Bill 423 was passed. I test for a causal effect using a synthetic control approach along with a weighted regression using data from the Fatal Analysis and Reporting System with data from 2001-2017. I find that the synthetic control groups saw similar patterns in traffic fatalities despite not rescinding a medical marijuana law. The weighted regression analysis also shows that there is no statistical difference in traffic fatalities after the policy in Montana.Item The costs of cooperation: the effects of section 199 on basis for farm cooperatives in the midwest(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2019) Swanson, Andrew Chase; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Anton BekkermanThe 2004 American Jobs Creation Act created Section 199, a tax provision for producers of domestic goods. During the ensuing decade, Section 199 became especially important for agricultural cooperatives, partly because of a series of favorable Internal Revenue Service private letter rulings for marketing cooperatives. I analyze the impacts of Section 199 on agricultural markets by assessing differential effects on the pricing behavior of grain marketing cooperatives and non-cooperatives in Nebraska and Kansas. I first develop a model for the agricultural cooperatives pricing behavior that incorporates a tax on the qualified patronage received by cooperative patrons. This model produces several testable predictions. First, Section 199 will lower the spot prices offered by cooperatives while increasing the spot prices offered non-cooperatives that compete with cooperatives for agricultural commodities. Second, the widening of prices between cooperatives and non-cooperatives will be mitigated by increased spatial competition. I empirically test the predictions of this model using a difference-in-difference empirical strategy and winter wheat basis data. The results indicate that the series of IRS letter rulings in 2008 widened the basis differential between cooperative and non-cooperative firms by almost 5 cents per bushel on average. Furthermore, these market distorting effects are greater for elevator locations that do not have a competing location within 10 miles of their location. While the benefits of Section 199 have been widely touted by cooperative lobbying groups, the results of this thesis show the importance of also considering the costs of policy interventions directed at specific agricultural firm types.Item The effect of drug-free school zone laws on teen drug use(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2019) Wert, Eric Daniel; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mark AndersonOne often stated goal of drug policy in the United States is keeping drugs and drug related violence away from children. Drug-free school zone laws, which impose harsher penalties on those caught on drug related offenses near schools, are perhaps the most ubiquitous policies with this specific aim in mind. While some form of drug-free zone is currently enforced in all 50 states, several have made reforms to their laws in the last 10 years. Using data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, I estimate the relationship between weakening drug-free school zone laws and teen drug use. I find little evidence to suggest these reforms have led to increases in teen drug use.Item The effect of access to concealed carry permit data: evidence from North Carolina(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2019) Dwinell, Conner Joseph; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Isaac SwensenGun regulation in the United States is a contentious political issue. This is exacerbated by the fact that the economics literature has not come to a clear consensus on the effects gun possession has on crime. In this paper, I examine whether access to online gun permit data deters criminal behavior. On July 12th, 2012, WRAL, a Raleigh, North Carolina local television station, published a database containing the number of concealed carry permits held on every street in the station's viewing area. This allowed members of the public to search the database and find the number of permits at the street level in twenty-two of the 100 total counties. This paper studies how public availability of concealed carry permit data affects violent and property crime rates. I use multiple difference-in-differences strategies, exploiting variation in the timing of WRAL's database going online, inclusion in the television station's viewing area, and agency-level permit concentration to examine the effect of a plausibly exogenous shock to crime in North Carolina. My findings indicate that there are no statistically significant changes in property or violent crime rates for counties whose permit data was published relative to those outside WRAL's viewership area. I also find no evidence of crimes shifting between areas of high and low gun concentration. However, an extension of my empirical model suggests that applications for concealed carry permits rise by approximately 18.1% in treated counties after publication of the concealed carry database.Item The effect of marijuana legalization on small bank competitive advantages(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2018) Refsland, Erika Lynn; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Joseph AtwoodFederal regulation requires that banks have specialized and sophisticated tools to prevent, identify, and record money laundering. Cash generated in states where recreational marijuana is legalized qualifies as illicit at the federal level. As such, the increase of marijuana cash in the market represents an increase in money laundering risk, to which banks must respond according to regulatory expectations. Because of scale advantages and the relationship-based nature of their transactions, small community banks may face greater constraints in responding to this risk relative to medium-to-large banks. To test this, I observe 105 banks over 12 years during a time when recreational marijuana legalization occurred in four states. I estimate bank performance with a non-parametric linear programming approach of data envelopment analysis. With marijuana legalization and bank size regressed on these measures of performance, and controlling for bank and year fixed effects, I find that small community banks in marijuana states are, on average, further from the best practice frontier relative to medium-to-large banks.Item An economic analysis of the effect of Uber on taxi medallion values(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2017) O'Donnell, Maggie Kathleen; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Randal R. RuckerLicensing requirements in taxi markets in the form of medallion systems are a common regulatory tool employed to regulate U.S. taxi industries. Such a system creates profits--i.e., rents--by restricting entry to the market. These profits are reflected in taxi medallion values, which are as high as $1.32 million in New York City. Changes in demand for taxi services result in decreased profits and thus decreased medallion values. In this thesis, I measure the effect of the introduction and expansion of Uber, a ridesharing company, which causes a decrease in the demand for taxi services. Estimates of the aggregate losses to the taxi industry in each of the four cities range from $387 million in Philadelphia to $9.6 billion in NYC.
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