Scholarship & Research
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Item Redlining in Montana(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2006) Schumacher, Joel Brent; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Vincent H. SmithRedlining is the practice of using the attributes of geographic location of a mortgage loan as the basis for differential and typically adverse treatment of an application. This is a particularly important social problem in the home mortgage market due to benefits which have been shown to be correlated with home ownership. Minority and low income applicants may find redlining to be a major barrier to obtaining home ownership and the benefits associated with being a home owner. This thesis uses a data set collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act to examine the mortgage market in Montana. A major focus is the effects of redlining on Montana's American Indian populations many of whom face substantial housing problems. A theoretical model is developed as a framework for the empirical section of this thesis. The empirical results of this study indicate variables that directly affect the expected return of a loan are relevant to the lending decision. Other variables that do not directly affect the expected return of loan are also found to be important to the lending decision, suggesting that either economic or taste-based discrimination may be occurring. In particular, other things being equal, American Indians are approximately 8 to 10 percent more likely to have a mortgage application denied than are non-American Indians. In addition, regardless of ethnicity, applicants located on reservations are approximately 4 percent more likely to have their mortgage applications denied. These results indicate that American Indians may be subject to economic discrimination in which their ethnic profile is used as an indicator of the expected return for a mortgage loan. Further, the study provides some evidence that property rights in tribal reservations are less well defined than elsewhere, partly because of the vagaries of tribal courts under which these rights are adjudicated and enforced.Item Human capital accumulation among Native Americans : an empirical analysis of the national assessment of educational progress(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2009) Fischer, Stefanie Jane; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Christiana Stoddard.Native Americans have low levels of human capital accumulation. In 2005, only 21% scored at the proficient level on the NAEP math test compared with 37% of all other test takers. One cause of their low human capital accumulation may be factors that commonly explain low academic performance among other minority groups within the United States, such as school quality and family background. Alternatively, Native American students may perform low academically due to factors that are unique to this population such as living on Native land or the political institutions that govern them. This paper will empirically examine Native American students' human capital accumulation decisions. Using data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), I find Native American students residing on Native land score 1/4 of a standard deviation lower on the math assessment than Native American students living off Native land, with no other controls added. After controlling for other area characteristics, family background, peer effects and school resources, the effect of living on Native land is not statistically significant in explaining test scores. Family background and peer effects explain most of the variation in Native American students' human capital accumulation decision. Students who identify with the white peer group score 1/5 of a standard deviation higher than students who identify with the Native American peer group. Although legal institutions do not explain student test scores, they do appear to affect students' attendance. Students living in areas under tribal jurisdiction are 13% more likely to miss a week or more of school in a month, ceteris paribus.Item The impact of the tribal college movement on Native American educational attainment(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2011) Reese, Mitchell Jordan; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Christiana Stoddard.This paper looks at the effects of tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) on Native American educational attainment. Using a difference-in-difference-in difference model, this paper attempts to isolate the effects of these schools on Native Americans living in states with TCUs. First, the results offer evidence that TCUs' effects are not evenly distributed across age groups or between the sexes. The findings show that these schools have significant positive effects on associate's degree attainment for older Native Americans, increasing associate's degree attainment by three percent for Native Americans 35 to 55 while not significantly increasing associate's degree attainment for 25 to 55 year olds. There is also evidence that TCUs lower bachelor's degree attainment levels for Native Americans. An additional TCU per 10,000 Native Americans per state lowers bachelor's degree attainment by 4 to 14 percent for 25 to 55 year olds and by 0 to 13 percent for 35 to 55 year olds. This negative effect appears to be disproportionately felt by Native American men. This paper also finds that TCUs do not appear to significantly increase or decrease the overall years of education for Native Americans in TCU states.Item The relative poverty of American Indian reservations : why does reservation poverty persist despite rich neighbors?(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2006) Cookson Jr., John Anthony; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Robert K. Fleck.American Indian reservations have per capita incomes $9,000 lower than adjacent counties. This paper seeks to explain why using an approach akin to the analysis of country-level data. I estimate differences in levels of income and income growth for a decade where Indian economies were transformed greatly by casino gambling - the 1990s. I test several recent innovations in the theory of economic growth within the context of American Indian economies and assess how economic performance depends on veto players, human capital investment, and windfall wealth. I find that measures of rule of law, rent seeking, and human capital are the most economically significant predictors of the per capita income gap. In addition, the size of Indian casinos is strongly correlated with convergence and economic growth, suggesting that tribal investment in Indian casinos plays an important role in reservation economies. From the work done here, promoting economic growth through enhancing a stable investment climate appears to be the most successful development strategy. Moreover, this study contributes to the broader literature on economic growth by providing new insight into the way institutional quality affects the speed of, or potentially lack of, convergence.