Eric Fruits

Portland State University | PSU · School of Business Administration

A large amount of economic research has examined the impact of federal grants on state and local spending. Much of this previous research, however, has focused exclusively on the impact of federal grants on total state and local spending itself rather than on the extent to which federal grants drive additional state and local spending and, in turn,...

We investigate the relationship of homebuyer risk perception and sales prices over different development stages of an environmental hazard (underground natural gas transmission pipeline) characterized by no sensory impact on homes, no accidents, and a relatively low actual risk of fatal explosions. We also investigate the moderating effect of media...

We investigate the relationship of homebuyer risk perception and sales prices over different development stages of an environmental hazard (underground natural gas transmission pipeline) characterized by no sensory impact on homes, no accidents and a relatively low actual risk of fatal explosions. We also investigate the moderating effect of media...

The U.S. economy has recently suffered its deepest and most prolonged recession since the Great Depression. The fundamental causes of the recession and the slow recovery are the result of two decades of poorly conceived housing credit and other policies and the adoption of long-ago discarded Keynesian policies. The latter policies have failed to re...

This report measures the impacts of right-to-work laws on the economy, measured by employment growth, income growth, and migration. Looking backward, it examines what would have happened to state employment and income growth had Oregon enacted right-to-work legislation in 1985, the same year as neighboring Idaho. Looking forward, the report forecas...

Land use policies favoring compact development have been invoked as a way slow potential climate change. While the linkages between density and greenhouse gas emissions may seem obvious, available data indicate that the connections are weak, bordering on non-existent. Thus, it is clear that compact development is not a useful tool for reducing gree...

The Oregon Health Plan has been called a “bold experiment” designed to expand health insurance to Oregon’s low- income residents. It sought simultaneously to expand coverage, control costs, and foster provider participation. However, like the experimental drug that performs no better than a placebo, the Oregon Health Plan has produced results that...

Minimum wage increases can be politically challenging to implement. Consequently, many states have introduced minimum wage indexing. With indexing, the minimum wage increases automatically each year based on some measure of inflation. The goal of this research is to evaluate quantitatively the economic effects of minimum wage indexing, with a focus...

A recent LNG terminal building boom has, in turn, produced a natural gas pipeline building boom. Some property owners have expressed concern that a pipeline would reduce the values of nearby properties. This study uses the hedonic housing price approach to estimate the impacts of pipeline. The study finds that proximity to a natural gas pipeline ha...

Policy initiatives to regulate greenhouse gas emissions are fast becoming a dominant feature of regional public policy. The initiatives commonly involve setting goals to reduce emissions below a baseline or business-as-usual level. The Western Climate Initiative is one such program, and has been subscribed to by Oregon and 10 other western states a...

This literature review examines the existing body of literature on the linkage between residential development and its impacts on the environment through air quality and greenhouse gas emissions. The research finds that, in the absence of reliable scientific studies, policy is often stimulated by “concept studies” or “frameworks.” These studies ass...

Municipal finance relies heavily on the issuance of debt.The debt is issued by a diverse range of public entities.The issuer of the debt has a choice in how the debt is issued. The issuer may choose a negotiated method or a competitive method. Some analysts believe they have observed systematic differences in the cost to the issuer by type of issua...

We report on a two-stage experiment in which i) we first elicit the social network within a section of undergraduate students and ii) we then measure their altruistic attitudes by means of a standard Dictator game. We observe that more socially integrated subjects are also more altruistic, as betweenness centrality and reciprocal degree are positiv...

This paper models and tests the determinants of managerial ownership. Theoretically it extends the principal-agent literature following Jensen and Meckling (1976) and the managerial compensation literature following Holmstroem (1979). Empirically, the paper expands on the ownership structure literature following Demsetz and Lehn (1985). Much of the...

Typescript (photocopy). Thesis (Ph. D.)--Claremont Graduate School, 1997. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-80).