Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
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Item Essays on Auction Design(2018) Yan, Haomin; Ausubel, Lawrence M; Economics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation studies the design of auction markets where bidders are uncertain of their own values at the time of bidding. A bidder's value may depend on other bidders' private information, on total quantity of items allocated in the auction, or on the auctioneer's private information. Chapter 1 provides a brief introduction to auction theory and summarizes the main contribution of each following chapter. Chapter 2 of this dissertation extends the theoretical study of position auctions to an interdependent values model in which each bidder's value depends on its opponents' information as well as its own information. I characterize the equilibria of three standard position auctions under this information structure, including the Generalized Second Price (GSP) auctions, Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) auctions, and the Generalized English Auctions (GEA). I first show that both GSP and VCG auctions are neither efficient nor optimal under interdependent values. Then I propose a modification of these two auctions by allowing bidders to condition their bids on positions to implement efficiency. I show that the modified auctions proposed in this chapter are not only efficient, but also maximize the search engine's revenue. While the uncertainty of each bidder about its own value comes from the presence of common component in bidders’ ex-post values in an interdependent values model, bidders can be uncertain about their values when their values depend on the entire allocation of the auction and when their values depend on the auctioneer's private information. Chapter 3 of this dissertation studies the design of efficient auctions and optimal auctions in a license auction market where bidders care about the total quantity of items allocated in the auction. I show that the standard uniform-price auction and the ascending clock auction are inefficient when the total supply needs to be endogenously determined within the auction. Then I construct a multi-dimensional uniform-price auction and a Walrasian clock auction that can implement efficiency in a dominant strategy equilibrium under surplus-maximizing reserve prices and achieve optimal revenue under revenue-maximizing reserve prices. Chapter 4 of this dissertation analyzes an auctioneer's optimal information provision strategy in a procurement auction in which the auctioneer has private preference over bidders' non-price characteristics and bidders invest in cost-reducing investments before entering the auction. I show that providing more information about the auctioneer's valuation over bidders' non-price characteristics encourages those favored bidders to invest more and expand the distribution of values in the auction. Concealment is the optimal information provision policy when there are two suppliers.Item Essays on Individual Responses to Labor Market Conditions and Policies(2018) Wilson, Riley; Kearney, Melissa S; Economics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines how individuals respond to changing conditions and policies in the labor market, with a particular interest in understanding economically motivated migration and labor force attachment. I first turn to the question of labor mobility. There is long-standing academic and policy interest in the issue of economically motivated geographic mobility. I examine the recent context of localized "fracking" booms in the United States to explore the migration response to positive labor demand shocks. Using data from 1999 to 2013, I show that local fracking led to large increases in potential earnings and employment rates, as well as a sizable migration response. But, this average migration effect masks substantial underlying heterogeneity in migration behavior across both demographics and regions. Migrants to fracking areas were more likely to be male, unmarried, young, and less educated than movers more generally. Furthermore, both in- and out-migration rates increased with fracking and both flows were driven by the same demographic groups, suggesting fracking resulted in short-term migration and increased churn. An instrumental variables analysis using fracking conditions to instrument for earnings suggests that a ten percent increase in average earnings increased in-migration rates by 3.8 percent in North Dakota fracking counties, as compared to only 2.4 percent in the West, 1.6 percent in the South, and 0.5 percent in the Northeast. The difference across regions is statistically significant; robust to housing market controls, geographic spillovers, and other various specifications; and is only partially explained by differences in commuting behavior, initial population characteristics, or a non-linear relationship between earnings and migration. There is some evidence that heterogeneous information flows might be driving the heterogeneous migration response. This implies that lack of information might be dampening rates of migration to economically favorable labor markets. I next examine how labor market information affects these types of economically motivated migration decisions. Migration is a human capital investment that allows individuals to encounter more favorable labor markets. I exploit county-level variation in exposure to news about labor markets impacted by fracking, to show that access to information about potential labor market opportunities affects migration. I use pre-fracking newspaper circulation rates and content from national news outlets to capture exogenous variation in exposure to news about fracking in a particular destination. I then isolate the effect of news exposure by comparing migration flows to the same destination from differentially exposed origin counties. Exposure to newspaper articles about fracking increased migration to the areas mentioned in the news by 2.4 percent on average. News exposure also increases commuting to fracking counties. Exposure to TV news has a similar impact, and positive news about fracking increases migration more than negative news. As further evidence that news matters, Google searches for the term fracking and the names of states specifically mentioned spike after TV news broadcasts about fracking. Migration responses to news about fracking are largest from counties experiencing weak labor markets, suggesting these areas see the largest benefits to information provision. Finally, I examine how a well known government policy aimed to incentize labor force participation -- the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)-- affects labor force transitions. Less-educated single women frequently transition in and out of the labor force. Although there is evidence that the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) increases annual labor force participation, it is unclear how it affects these high frequency, within year employment decisions and entry and exit. By exploiting the panel nature of the Current Population Survey, I overcome challenges associated with compositional changes and estimate the impact of increases in EITC generosity on employment transitions. EITC expansions induce less-educated single women who were previously attached to the labor force to work more months, leading stronger labor force attachment and more annual weeks worked. This leads to less annual exit, suggesting that the documented impact of the EITC on labor force participation rates in part operates by keeping previously employed single women in the labor force. This highlights the importance of understanding how income support programs affect not only labor force participation, but transitions as well. Employment decisions respond to increases in the maximum EITC credit eligible to receive in the current year, rather than the maximum credit eligible to earn, which differ because the EITC is a tax credit transferred with a one year lag. This would be consistent with workers basing their current work decisions on their lagged experience with the EITC. Further evidence additionally suggests that the employment response to the lagged EITC amount is likely due to information about the return to work, rather than to the relaxation of liquidity constraints.Item Describing the Ineffable: A Mixed-Methods Study of Faculty Mentoring Information Practices(2018) Follman, Rebecca Parks; St. Jean, Beth; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Formal mentoring programs are a valuable tool for the professional development and socialization of new employees, and for the mentor. However, formal mentoring is often difficult to institutionalize. What are the indications that mentor and mentee should be split up? How often should mentoring partners meet? These questions and others highlight the problem: without a clear definition of mentoring itself, we are challenged to identify the characteristics of good mentoring. Mentoring is so contextual, and generally so private, that it is difficult to define. However, there is one element that is central to all mentoring relationships, and that can be used to describe mentoring explicitly – the exchange of information. The study described here consists of a longitudinal, mixed-method investigation of mentoring attitudes and practices among higher education faculty, with the goal of gathering data about the information practices – information seeking and sharing in a social context – of faculty engaged in mentoring. The study identifies the information practices of faculty who are engaged in mentoring, as well as how those information practices change across time. Faculty were surveyed about their attitudes toward mentoring, using an online instrument. The respondents provided data about their experiences with mentoring, including aspects such as the frequency of their meetings with mentoring partners, the topics they often discussed, the number of years they had worked with mentoring partners, their expectations of their mentoring partners, and their personal philosophy of mentoring. Faculty mentoring participants also completed an online diary of their mentoring information practices. The information diary provided an opportunity for faculty mentoring participants to share their information practices in real time, without requiring a prohibitive amount of effort. Data analysis shows that faculty mentoring participants do engage in information practices, such as seeking or sharing information regarding the specifics of the work environment, with the goal of transmitting culture (e.g., the requirements to achieve tenure). Both mentors and mentees value honest and open communication with their mentoring partners. Examination of the information exchanged between mentoring participants gives us a sense of what topics are most likely to be addressed, and also recommendations for new mentors and mentees.Item Effects of Information and Time of Use Pricing on Irish Electricity Demand and Supply(2016) Pon, Shirley; Alberini, Anna; Agricultural and Resource Economics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this dissertation I quantify residential behavior response to interventions designed to reduce electricity demand at different periods of the day. In the first chapter, I examine the effect of information provision coupled with bimonthly billing, monthly billing, and in-home displays, as well as a time-of-use (TOU) pricing scheme to measure consumption over each month of the Irish Consumer Behavior Trial. I find that time-of-use pricing with real time usage information reduces electricity usage up to 8.7 percent during peak times at the start of the trial but the effect decays over the first three months and after three months the in-home display group is indistinguishable from the monthly treatment group. Monthly and bi-monthly billing treatments are not found to be statistically different from another. These findings suggest that increasing billing reports to the monthly level may be more cost effective for electricity generators who wish to decrease expenses and consumption, rather than providing in-home displays. In the following chapter, I examine the response of residential households after exposure to time of use tariffs at different hours of the day. I find that these treatments reduce electricity consumption during peak hours by almost four percent, significantly lowering demand. Within the model, I find evidence of overall conservation in electricity used. In addition, weekday peak reductions appear to carry over to the weekend when peak pricing is not present, suggesting changes in consumer habit. The final chapter of my dissertation imposes a system wide time of use plan to analyze the potential reduction in carbon emissions from load shifting based on the Ireland and Northern Single Electricity Market. I find that CO2 emissions savings are highest during the winter months when load demand is highest and dirtier power plants are scheduled to meet peak demand. TOU pricing allows for shifting in usage from peak usage to off peak usage and this shift in load can be met with cleaner and cheaper generated electricity from imports, high efficiency gas units, and hydro units.Item Making Meaning Together: Information, Rumor, and Propaganda in British Literature of the First World War(2012) Borden, Rebecca; Mallios, Peter L; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Through an examination of fiction by H.G. Wells, Joseph Conrad, and John Buchan, this dissertation examines information as a category as it exists under conditions of modernity, and how the contours of and changes in definitions and understandings of modern information become more visible, and are likely accelerated by, the complex information challenges brought about by the disruptions of the First World War. Given that "information" is a key building-block in understanding systems of knowledge in modernity, this dissertation incorporates theoretical constructs describing information drawn from a variety of disciplines, all of which circle around the problems and concerns of the increasingly saturated, complex, and untethered nature of information as experienced by an individual in modern life. This project also highlights the role that rumor plays in modernity. The war years bring an expansion of government-directed information control, both in the form of actively produced propaganda and in the form of censorship, disrupting the conduits along which information travels under normal conditions. Rumor, generally considered a pre-modern form of communication, remains a part of modern information systems and provides a mechanism for making meaning when other sources of information begin to fail. This dissertation also considers how "wartime" fiction, as a category distinct from pre-war and post-war fiction, is a revealing domain of literature in its own right, and one that has been overlooked in scholarship on literature of the First World War. This project focuses on once popular but long understudied wartime fiction by Wells, Conrad, and Buchan. It also compares the wartime fiction of these authors to their own pre-war fiction in order to trace how the category of information was a concern for these writers from the beginning of their careers. Further, this project explores how wartime texts contain significant elements that can be understood as pre-modern, as modern (and modernist), and as incipiently post-modern, which highlights the existence of both residual and of emerging forms and ideas during the war years, disrupting a dominant understanding of the First World War as a period of cultural and intellectual rupture.Item THE POWER OF INFORMATION: THE INTERNET AND THE RISE OF SOFT POWER(2009) Shin, Yookyoung; Schreurs, Miranda A; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation explores how the Internet changes the concept of political power. It focuses on information as a source of political power, and the relationship between information and power. As a conceptual analysis of the impact of the Internet on political power shift, it argues that the Internet transforms the concept of power from hard to soft. This dissertation argues: (i) the Internet changes power sources from material, such as military or economic, to non-material, such as information or policies; (ii) the Internet promotes the rise of soft power in international relations. This dissertation aims to improve theoretical as well as empirical understanding of information as a source of political power, and to conceptualize political power from hard to soft. According to Nye, soft power is defined as "the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion." This study begins with an analysis of the concept of power in politics, and continues to analyze the impact of the Internet on the conceptualization of political power. This dissertation examines the Internet as a new form of communication media with particular emphasis on the political use of the Internet. Then, it explores digital divide, and discusses some implications of the changed concept of power for two Koreas and the U.S.Item The effect of life-cycle cost disclosure on consumer behavior(2007-04-25) Deutsch, Matthias; Ruth, Matthias; Public Policy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)For more than 20 years, analysts have reported on the so-called "energy paradox" or the "energy efficiency gap", referring to the fact that economic agents could in principle lower their total cost at current prices by using more energy-efficient technology but, nevertheless, often decide not to do so. Theory suggests that providing information in a simplified way could potentially reduce this "efficiency gap". Such simplification may be achieved by providing the estimated monetary operating cost and life-cycle cost (LCC) of a given appliance--which has been a recurring theme within the energy policy and efficiency labeling community. Yet, little is known so far about the causal effects of LCC disclosure on consumer action because of the gap between the acquisition of efficiency information and consumer purchasing behavior in the real marketplace. This dissertation bridges the gap by experimentally integrating LCC disclosure into two major German commercial websites--a price comparison engine for cooling appliances, and an online shop for washing machines. Internet users arriving on these websites were randomly assigned to two experimental groups, and the groups were exposed to different visual stimuli. The control group received regular product price information, whereas the treatment group was, in addition, offered information about operating cost and total LCC. Click-stream data of consumers' shopping behavior was evaluated with multiple regression analysis by controlling for several product characteristics. This dissertation finds that LCC disclosure reduces the mean energy use of chosen cooling appliances by 2.5% (p<0.01), and the energy use of chosen washing machines by 0.8% (p<0.001). For the latter, it also reduces the mean water use by 0.7% (p<0.05). These effects suggest a potential role for public policy in promoting LCC disclosure. While I do not attempt to estimate the costs of such a policy, a simple quantification shows that the benefits amount to 100 to 200 thousand Euros per year for Germany, given current predictions regarding the price of tradable permits for CO2, and not counting other potential benefits. Future research should strive for increasing external validity, using better instruments, and evaluating the effectiveness of different information formats for LCC disclosure.