BLOG: The Growing Foreign Investment and Trade Activity of China: Analyzing the Shifting Economic and Political Structure in ASEAN

By Jingxuan Wang, George Washington University

Given that the United States and China are competing for greater economic and political influence in Southeast Asia, this paper addresses the question of whether the United States and China can significantly influence the political activity of countries in 10 countries in Southeast Asia (ASEAN) through the use of economic means. Continue reading BLOG: The Growing Foreign Investment and Trade Activity of China: Analyzing the Shifting Economic and Political Structure in ASEAN

BLOG: The Impact of Minimum Wage Implementation on Women’s Earnings: Evidence from Malaysia

By May Lyn Cheah, University of California, Berkeley

This paper investigates the effect of the introduction of minimum wage legislation in Malaysia, which became effective from January 1, 2013 for employers with six employees or more, and was fully enforced by January 1, 2014 for all employers. The minimum wage ruling prescribed a rate of RM900 (ŨSD 230) per month for Peninsula Malaysia and RM800 (ŨSD 204) for Sabah, Sarawak and Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan. Continue reading BLOG: The Impact of Minimum Wage Implementation on Women’s Earnings: Evidence from Malaysia

Our Summer 2018 Issue

On behalf of the Comparative Advantage Editorial Board, we are honored to present the sixth volume, Summer Issue of the Stanford Undergraduate Economics Journal. Through the years, Comparative Advantage has changed and expanded to include an online blog in addition to our bi-yearly issues, staying true to our mission of providing students a platform to showcase their economic prowess. We are proudly run by undergraduate students … Continue reading Our Summer 2018 Issue

Purchasing Policy: The Effect of Political Action Committee Campaign Contributions from the Agribusiness Sector on Support Mechanisms for Individual Crop and Product Producers

By Rebecca Sobel, Princeton University

In this paper, I analyze data on agricultural producer support mechanisms and agribusiness Political Action Committee campaign contributions from 1998 to 2016 to deter- mine the extent to which lobbying on behalf of any particular crop or agricultural product is translated into government transfers back to its producers. I proceed with … Continue reading Purchasing Policy: The Effect of Political Action Committee Campaign Contributions from the Agribusiness Sector on Support Mechanisms for Individual Crop and Product Producers

Vector Autoregressive Modeling of Interest Rate Shocks on Bank Balance Sheets: A Comparative Study

By Sara Diressova, Princeton University

Di Tella and Kurlat (2017) and Drechser et al. (2017a) study the effects of a nominal interest rate shock on various bank balance sheet variables. I study the same relationships using a VAR model, to understand them over multiple periods of time, without assumptions of exogeneity, and with clear interactions between variables through impulse response functions (Hamilton 1994). I find that … Continue reading Vector Autoregressive Modeling of Interest Rate Shocks on Bank Balance Sheets: A Comparative Study

BLOG: Employment Effects of Minimum Wage Increases – A Matched Pairs Design Using US Data

By Eric Karsten, Chong An Ong, Immanuel Adriana Rakshana, and Arushi Saksena, University of Chicago 

The minimum wage is a contentious issue, with proponents arguing that it is required to protect the wage security of low-income earners, and opponents arguing that it places downwards pressure on employment in the labor market. Our paper uses a differences in differences regression model, similar to the one used in Card & Krueger(1993) to estimate the unemployment effects of a minimum wage increase. Continue reading BLOG: Employment Effects of Minimum Wage Increases – A Matched Pairs Design Using US Data

The Economic Impact of Psychological Distress on Former Child Soldiers

By Jonathan Kaufmann, American University

While previous research demonstrates a significant negative relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder and earnings among adult veterans in the United States, a similar connection for children in developing nations has not been established. The literature indicates that both endogeneity and sample-selection biases are inherent in this relationship. This paper used Continue reading The Economic Impact of Psychological Distress on Former Child Soldiers

BLOG: Market Distorting Moral Hazard of Dodd-Frank’s Title II: The Costs of Inefficient Capital Markets

By Charles LeSueur, Vassar College

The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether Title II of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) effectively fulfills the stated goals of ending “too big to fail”, “no more taxpayer-funded bailouts”, and decreasing systemic risk.  I argue that Title II institutionalized taxpayer-funded bailouts under different language and increased systemic risk … Continue reading BLOG: Market Distorting Moral Hazard of Dodd-Frank’s Title II: The Costs of Inefficient Capital Markets