Waddell, Glen R.
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Recent Submissions
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
Item Open Access Hope for the Pell? The Impact of Merit-Aid on Needy Students(University of Oregon, Dept. of Economics, 2004-02) Singell, Larry D. Jr.; Waddell, Glen R.; Curs, Bradley R., 1977-Prior empirical evidence finds that merit-aid programs such as the Georgia Hope Scholarship yield large and significant enrollment effects, whereas need-based aid programs such as the Pell Grant yield modest and often insignificant enrollment effects. This paper uses unpublished panel data on the number and level of Pell awards at Southern universities along with detailed institutional data from the National Center of Educational Statistics to examine whether the Georgia Hope Scholarship improved the college access of needy students relative to other Southern states. Fixed-effect analyses show that large increases in merit aid improve college access of needy students and leverage Hope Scholarship funds with greater federal Pell assistance. Whereas most institution-specific increases in both Pell enrollment and funding are found for two-year and less selective, four-year institutions, the results also suggest that Pell students are not crowded out of more selective schools by Hope’s intent to retain the best Georgia high-school students.Item Open Access Consumer and competitor reactions: Evidence from a retail-gasoline field experiment(University of Oregon, Dept of Economics, 2003-09) Barron, John M.; Umbeck, John R., 1945-; Waddell, Glen R.The standard differentiated-product model with Nash-equilibrium price setting suggests that the density of sellers in a market can affect both a seller’s price elasticity of demand and a competitor’s reaction to a price change. Using field experiment data collected around a series of exogenously imposed price changes, we are able to demonstrate that a gasoline retailer’s price elasticity of demand is directly related to seller density, where density is measured by the number of sellers within a given geographical area. This finding appears to be one potential source for observed persistent price differences. The data also allow us to examine the reaction of rivals to exogenous price changes. Consistent with the theory, we find that competitors’ price reactions are in the same direction, with the magnitude of the competitors’ reactions being inversely related to the market’s density of sellers.Item Open Access Fix your attitude: Labor-market consequences of poor attitude and low self-esteem in youth(University of Oregon, Dept of Economics, 2003-09) Waddell, Glen R.Using longitudinal data on a cohort of high-school graduates, I show that individuals who reveal poor attitudes and low self-esteem as high-school students attain fewer years of post-secondary education relative to their high-school cohort, are less likely to be employed for pay fourteen years following high school and, where working for pay, realize lower earnings. Further, I find evidence that poor attitude and esteem in high school are significant predictors of the degree of supervision under which individuals ultimately work. Poor attitude and esteem in youth are also closely associated with jobs that require individuals to spend their time working more with things, as opposed to people, for example. These relationships suggest that real economic consequence exist in fostering positive attitude and esteem in youth.Item Open Access Work hard, not smart : stock options as compensation(University of Oregon, Dept. of Economics, 2003-06-01) Barron, John M.; Waddell, Glen R.This paper examines the optimal compensation package for executives, in particular the optimal mix of stock options and stock grants, for an agent deciding whether to adopt or reject a plan of uncertain value. The compensation structure in such a setting affects not only an executive's efforts to improve the precision of signals regarding the true value of proposed plans but also the choice of a reservation signal that determines the likelihood a proposed plan is adopted. While stock options can bias an executive’s decision criteria away from first-best, we show that the leverage they provide to motivate an executive to undertake more extensive plan evaluation makes options the preferred form of equity compensation if the exercise price is freely chosen. However, there is a role for restricted stock in realigning the interests of the executive with shareholders if the firm is constrained in the choice of the exercise price, which we argue may sometimes be the case. Using extensive data on top-executive compensation, we report evidence on this tradeoff that is consistent with the theoretical predictions. We also find that the extent of option compensation among top executives at a firm is associated with an increase in the likelihood of extreme returns in subsequent periods.