Stephen B. Deloach

Elon University · Department of Economics

The process by which workers and firms establish positive assortative matches is complicated by the multidimensional nature of occupational requirements and worker skills and traits. This is especially important for young adult workers because early career mismatch is known to have long-term impacts on labor market outcomes. This paper extends rece...

Study abroad participation has increased dramatically over the past two decades, primarily through the growth of short-term study abroad experiences. Given this, it is logical to ask whether short-term experiences are capable of delivering student learning outcomes equivalent to those of long-term experiences. The research presented in this article...

As in many countries, young adult workers in the United States have experienced tremendous employment volatility in recent years. In this paper, we examine the role personality plays in determining the duration of unemployment among young adults in the United States between 2008 and 2015. Evidence from estimation of a Competing Risks Model shows th...

This paper empirically examines the search behavior of currently employed workers to understand changes in on-the-job search across different types of employed individuals and varying labor market conditions. Using data from the American Time Use Survey, we estimate the responsiveness of workers with varying levels of productivity and job-match qua...

This study examines the effect of access to formal banking services on households’ ability to smooth consumption in response to illness of adult workers. The institutional peculiarities of Indonesia’s largest commercial bank are exploited to separately estimate the effects of access to formal credit from savings. The means by which households smoot...

Business schools have long sought to increase students’ global awareness. Short-term study abroad (STSA) experiences are becoming increasingly popular ways of generating awareness. While a handful of studies have found evidence of efficacy, none have specifically tested how courses with business content differ from other STSAs. Using a longitudinal...

Recent evidence on the impact of youth employment on study time has found only small, negative effects. However, previous estimates may be biased downward due to weak identification and measurement error. In this article, we re-examine the question with more recent data from the American Time Use Survey (2003–11) using a number of alternate estimat...

This paper investigates recent commuting trends by American workers. Unlike most studies of commuting that rely on data from the American Community Survey this study utilizes the American Time Use Survey to detail the complex commuting patterns of modern-day workers. Changes in the price of gasoline in recent years suggest that the incidence of “dr...

While undergraduate research (UR) has been growing across the academy for decades, economics has been relatively slow to adopt it as pedagogy. We argue for the development of comprehensive UR programs that not only require capstone research experiences, but integrate foundational research skills throughout the curriculum. Fundamentally, there is a...

For decades, economics has been relatively slow to adopt it as pedagogy. We argue for the development of comprehensive UR programs that not only require capstone research experiences, but integrate the development of foundational research skills throughout the curriculum. Fundamentally, there is a hierarchy whereby students learn basic research ski...

Discouraged and marginally attached workers have received increased attention from policy makers over the past several years. Theoretically, periods of recessions and high unemployment should directly influence individual’s decisions whether or not to search for employment, creating more discouraged workers. Since 2003, there have been a number of...

Decades of research consistently shows that student evaluations offer limited information on the effectiveness of teaching in economics. At best, such methods are valid for a limited set of factors that correlate with “good instruction.” Even though some evidence exists that student evaluations are positively correlated with learning, strong biases...

Microfinance has become a staple of modern development policy as a means to facilitate anything from gender equality to growth. It can facilitate the sharing of health-related information among parents, promote the bargaining power of women in the household, aid in the development of important health-related infrastructure, and help households smoo...

This paper investigates recent commuting trends in American workers. Unlike most studies of commuting that rely on Census data, this study utilizes the unique American Time Use Survey to detail the complex commuting patterns of modern-day workers. The data confirm what has been suspected, that incidence of driving alone has decreased substantially...

Decades of research consistently show that student evaluations offer limited information on the effectiveness of teaching in economics. Such methods are at best valid for a relatively small set of factors that correlate with "good instruction." Even though some evidence exists that student evaluations are positively correlated with learning, it is...

To most economists, personal grooming is a non-market activity. The standard view is that time spent in non-market activities is counterproductive as it reduces work effort and job commitment (Becker, 1985). But grooming may be different. Grooming provides an important source of communication about workers, their values, social identities and perso...

Employer-financed health insurance systems, like that used in the United States, distort firms' labor demand and adversely affect the economy. Since such costs vary with employment rather than hours worked, firms have an incentive to increase output by increasing worker hours rather than employment. Given that the returns to employment exceed the r...

Over the last decade there has been increasing international pressure on countries to raise 'social standards' (i.e. production standards based on environmental and labor conditions). Currently, the World Trade Organization does not allow countries to impose minimum standards on imports based on environmental or labor standards because it is assume...

It is well understood that personal grooming provides an important source of communication about individuals, their values and personalities. From an economic point of view, grooming is a non-market activity. The standard view is that time spent in non-market activities is counterproductive as it reduces work effort and job commitment. But grooming...

With the emergence of North-South intra-industry trade in products where consumers value quality, exporting countries potentially face significant barriers to entry. Due to the existence of asymmetric information about new products in a foreign market, the producer's reputation becomes an important factor in determining whether consumers choose to...

The tendency for countries to cheat on international environmental agreements has been well-documented. One reason is that less developed countries suffer technological disadvantages. While a number of authors have shown that technological transfers can solve the stability problem, real-world giveaways rarely occur. The purpose of this study is to...

Although instructors are increasingly using electronic discussions with both traditional and online classes, little has been written about how to best moderate these discussions. Moderating online discussions requires tremendous skill. As with in-class discussions, the primary goal of the moderator is to ensure that the discussion continually makes...

Employer-…nanced health insurance systems, like that used in the United States, distorts …rms'labor demand and adversely a¤ects the econ-omy. Since such costs vary with employment rather than hours worked, …rms have an incentive to increase output by increasing worker hours rather than employment. Given that the returns to employment exceed the ret...

This paper analyzes how a country's commitment to labor standards is affected by the international political power they possess. Powerful countries may be less committed to actual enforcement of certain labor standards since they are unlikely to face significant threats of international sanctions regardless of their actions. The paper introduces an...

Unlike most developed countries, individuals’ health insurance in the United States has long been provided primarily through employers. Though the percentage has been steadily declining for decades, de Navas-Walt, Proctor, and Mills (2004) find that about 60% of Americans still get health insurance through their employers. According to the Bureau...

Few academics question the relevance of critical thinking in higher education, yet there has been little attempt to investigate which specific pedagogies aid in its development. In this study we assess whether critical thinking can be taught effectively using electronic discussions. In most discussions analyzed, the data show that the quality of a...

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a practical, effective method of teaching short-term study abroad courses to increase students' global awareness and lay the foundation for the development of a sophisticated global mindset in future managers. The global mindsets discussed in the literature coincide with the levels of cognitive complexity f...

One of the products of a liberal undergraduate education is the ability to think critically. In practice, critical thinking is a skill that economics students are supposed to master as they complete their studies, However, exactly what critical thinking means is generally not well defined. Building on the literature on critical thinking, the author...

One of the products of a liberal undergraduate education is the ability to think critically. In practice, critical thinking is a skill that economics students are supposed to master as they complete their studies. However, exactly what critical thinking means is generally not well defined. Building on the literature on critical thinking, the author...

With the emergence of North-South intra-industry trade in products where consumers value quality, exporting countries potentially face significant barriers to entry. Due to the existence of asymmetric information about new products in a foreign market, the producer's reputation becomes an important factor in determining whether consumers choose to...

Though the USSR officially touted equal opportunity for women, women in Russia earned only 70 percent of men's wages. The combination of women's dual roles in society and inadequate investment by the Soviets in household time-saving devices are often cited as reasons for a lack of commitment and advancement in the labor market. With the recent tran...

This study provides additional evidence of a significant long-run relationship between the relative price of nontradables and real output, consistent with the productivity-bias hypothesis of Balassa and Samuelson. The results, however, also indicate that additional permanent supply shocks, specifically real oil prices, need to be considered. In eve...

This study examines the role of stochastic trends in real exchange rates and foreign output in explaining economic fluctuations in the United States. While many of the results are consistent with recent closed-economy studies, the evidence shows that external shocks have significant short-run effects on economic fluctuations, even in a large countr...

In this paper, the long-run assumptions of so-called equilibrium models of real exchange rates are investigated. The assumption of purchasing power parity for tradable goods, common to this class of models, implies that the real exchange rate is a function of the relative prices of nontraded goods in the two countries. While purchasing power parity...