Core Requirements for the Economics Major

In this article, the authors are the first to describe the core economics curriculum requirements for economics majors at all American colleges and universities, as opposed to a sample of institutions. Not surprisingly, principles of economics is nearly universally required and implemented as a two-semester course in 85 percent of economics major programs. Most schools do not prescribe the order in which the principles sequence is taken. The intermediate courses are commonly required, although variation exists across institution types. While the quantitative requirement for the major has increased since 1980, significant differences exist among institutions and by academic rankings. As compared to 1950, there has been an increase in the number of required economics credit hours for the major.     

1917–2017: The Geopolitical Legacy of the Russian Revolution

The essays collected in this forum discuss the geopolitical legacy of the Russian Revolution of 1917, one of the most momentous political events of the twentieth century. From a range of different academic disciplines and perspectives, the authors consider how the profound transformations in society and politics were refracted through space and geography, and how enduring these refractions proved to be. The authors focus on three themes that have been dominant in Russian affairs over the past century: 1)the problem of center-periphery relations, 2)the civilizational dynamics of Russia’s self-identification in relation to Europe and to Asia, and 3)the geopolitics of national identity.     

Behavioural Modification Techniques as Tools for Performance Enhancement in the Nigerian Banking Industry： A Survey of Selected Banks in Makurdi

This paper is a critical analysis of behavioral modification techniques as tools for performance enhancement in the Nigerian Banking Industry. The overriding objective of the study was to determine the impact of behavior modification techniques on performance enhancement in the Nigerian banking industry. The specific focus was on selected banks in the Makurdi metropolis, Benue State. The study employed a simple empirical survey method with a view to eliciting relevant data for analytical purpose so as to answer several questions and to obtain the objectives of the study. Both primary and secondary sources were explored in a bid to attain data which were considered to be highly germaine to the investigation under reference. Five-point Likert scale rating questionnaire was used in obtaining the views and opinions of respondents （i.e. strongly agree-5, agree-4, undecided-3, disagree-2, and strongly disagree--l）. Two hypotheses were formulated and tested. Non-parametric tools including simple percentages and Pearson Chi-square statistics were used due to their analytical simplicity and relevance. The study found that banks in Makurdi utilized behavior modification strategies translated to high organizational success or enhancement in a comparative sense. This was evident from the fact that the banks net profitability trends were observed to be upwards generically. In the light of the findings of the study, it is hereby recommended that proactive behavior modifications strategies rules guideline and the like be tailored along lines with greatest organizational profitability trends and performance enhancement profiles, both potential and actual. This will require rewarding productive behaviors that detect/report fraudulent acts with cash gifts, meritawards, prizes and discouraging unproductive behaviors such as fraudulent activities, absenteeism, drug abuse, alcoholic influences and lateness to work amongst others with punishment, extinction, and negative reinforcement.     

Trends in Undergraduate Economics Degrees, 1991–2013

The 2007–10 growth spurt (18 percent over three years) in U.S. undergraduate economics degrees stalled out in 2011. Degrees awarded have been relatively constant over the past three years.     

Using Technology to Encourage Critical Thinking and Optimal Decision Making in Risk Management Education

This article draws a link between the risk management failures in the financial services industry and the educational philosophy and teaching constraints at business schools. An innovative application of prediction market technology within business education is proposed as a method that can be used to encourage students to think about risk in an open and flexible way. This article explains how prediction markets also provide students with the necessary experience to critically evaluate and stress‐test quantitative risk modeling techniques later in their academic and professional careers.     

You May Not Reap What You Sow: How Employees’ Moral Awareness Minimizes Ethical Leadership’s Positive Impact on Workplace Deviance

Although a growing body of research has shown the positive impact of ethical leadership on workplace deviance, questions remain as to whether its benefits are consistent across all situations. In this investigation, we explore an important boundary condition of ethical leadership by exploring how employees’ moral awareness may lessen the need for ethical leadership. Drawing on substitutes for leadership theory, we suggest that when individuals already possess a heightened level of moral awareness, ethical leadership’s role in reducing deviant actions may be reduced. However, when individuals lack this strong moral disposition, ethical leadership may be instrumental in inspiring them to reduce their deviant actions. To enhance the external validity and generalizability of our findings, the current research used two large field samples of working professionals in both Turkey and the USA. Results suggest that ethical leadership’s positive influence on workplace deviance is dependent upon the individual’s moral awareness—helpful for those employees whose moral awareness is low, but not high. Thus, our investigation helps to build theory around the contingencies of ethical leadership and the specific audience for whom it may be more (or less) influential.     

Health insurer market power and primary care consolidation

This paper analyzes how health insurance market concentration impacts the market structure of primary care physicians. In more concentrated insurance markets, physicians are found to work in larger practices and their practices are more likely to have a hospital with an ownership interest. Physicians are also less likely to report being in a competitive physician market, consistent with practice consolidation. Our results suggest that consolidation in insurance markets impacts the competitive structure of physician markets.     

Birth,death and public good provision

We explore the effect of fixed versus dynamic group membership on public good provision. In a novel experimental design, we modify the traditional voluntary contribution mechanism (VCM) by periodically replacing old members of a group with new members over time. Under this dynamic, overlapping generations matching protocol we find that average contributions experience significantly less decay over time relative to a traditional VCM environment with fixed group membership and a common termination date. These findings suggest that the traditional pattern of contribution and decay seen in many public goods experiments may not accurately reflect behavior in groups with changing membership, as is the case in many real-world environments.