Master of Arts, Miami University, 2020, Economics

This paper studies the relationship between oil prices and United States stock market from January 1987 to May 2020. It has been documented in previous studies that oil prices cannot be taken as strictly exogenous. Stock market returns and oil prices are endogenously determined. To address this issue, the use of a Structural Vector Autoregression is employed where the target shock is identified using an external instrument. Impulse responses are obtained and disaggregated between the total U.S. market and 11 chosen sectors. The results of the SVAR-IV model are compared with results from a standard SVAR where shocks are identified with Cholesky decomposition. Cumulative impulse responses are taken to illustrate the change in stock market responses over time. The results show that oil prices generally don't have a strong impact on the U.S. stock market. This paper also illustrates the importance of having current data observing the dramatic changes occurring in the U.S. oil market.

Committee: Nam Vu Dr. (Advisor); Jonathan Wolff Dr. (Committee Member); Jing Li Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Economics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, Horticulture and Crop Science

Bacterial spot of tomato is caused by four species of Xanthomonas: X. euvesicatoria, X. vesicatoria, X. perforans and X. gardneri. The disease causes lesions on tomato leaves and black spot on fruits, leading to yield loss and nonmarketable tomatoes. The bacterial species X. gardneri has been recently implicated in outbreaks of bacterial spot in processing tomato fields in Brazil, Canada and the Mid-West United States. As chemical solutions are currently not reliable to control bacterial spot, the development of varieties resistant to X. gardneri and to the other Xanthomonas species is of primary interest. This project sought to identify sources of resistance to X. gardneri, to describe the genetic basis of the trait, and to develop strategies to improve selection for bacterial spot of tomato and for agronomic and fruit quality traits To identify sources of resistance to X. gardneri, wild and cultivated tomato accessions were evaluated for Hypersensitive Response (HR) and tested under inoculated field conditions. Both evaluation methods showed phenotypic variation explained by genetics. The results of the two assays were not significantly correlated. Field evaluation mimics natural epidemics, thus this method was the most reliable to identify sources of resistance to X. gardneri. Five S. pimpinellifolium and Four S. lycopersicum var cerasiforme accessions showed low disease levels in the field. S. pimpinellifolium LA2533 and S. lycopersicum var cerasiforme LA1545 were selected as sources of resistance. To simultaneously characterize the genetics of resistance to X. gardneri and introgress the trait in processing tomato background, backcross populations were developed with LA2533 and LA1545. Families were evaluated under inoculated field conditions, and genotyped with Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) markers. Four regions where significantly associated with resistance. The allele of resistance of the Quantitative Trait Loci (QTLs) on chromosome 4 and 8 orig (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Francis PhD (Advisor); Stephen Krebs PhD (Committee Member); Leah McHale PhD (Committee Member); Sally Miller PhD (Committee Member); Clay Sneller PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Genetics; Horticulture; Plant Sciences

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Communication

Audience identification with a protagonist is perhaps the single most important determinant of audience engagement with a narrative. However, much is unknown about how or why some narratives are more effective than others at creating identification. The aim of the present research is to incorporate applied knowledge from the professional field of screenwriting and knowledge from research and theory in psychology and communication into an overarching framework for understanding audience identification. Particular emphasis is placed upon psychological theories of motivation, character liking, and screenwriting guidelines regarding character motivation and story structure, as predictors of dynamic fluctuations in audience identification. Three films were randomly selected from a list of U.S. releases in recent years. Three professional screenwriters coded the films and identified key moments in the first 40 minutes of each film that were of particular importance in screenplay structure and for establishing character motivation and liking. N = 308 participants were randomly assigned to view the first 40 minutes of a film and provide real-time ratings of feelings of either liking or identification. Results indicated that certain key moments do indeed have a major impact on shaping identification and liking in real time.

Committee: Michael Slater Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Zheng Wang Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Emily Moyer-Guse Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Film Studies; Mass Communications; Mass Media

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2009, Economics

This dissertation examines theoretical and empirical topics in macroeconomic dynamics. A central issue in macroeconomic dynamics is understanding the sources of business cycle fluctuations. The idea that expectations about future economic fundamentals can drive business cycles dates back to the early twentieth century. However, the standard real business cycle (RBC) model fails to generate positive comovement in output, consumption, labor-hours and investment in response to news shocks. My dissertation proposes a solution to this puzzling feature of the RBC model by developing a theoretical model that can generate positive aggregate and sectoral comovementin response to news shocks. Another key issue in macroeconomic dynamics is gauging the performance of theoretical models by comparing them to empirical models. Some of the most widely used empirical models in macroeconomics are level vector autoregressive (VAR) models. However, estimated level VAR models may contain explosive roots, which is at odds with the widespread consensus among macroeconomists that roots are at most unity. My dissertation investigates the frequency of explosive roots in estimated level VAR models using Monte Carlo simulations. Additionally, it proposes a way to mitigate explosive roots. Finally, as macroeconomic datasets are relatively short, empirical models such as autoregressive models (i.e. AR or VAR models) may have substantial small-sample bias. My dissertation develops a procedure that numerically corrects the bias in the roots of AR models. This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay develops a model based on learning-by-doing (LBD) that can generate positive comovement in output, consumption, labor-hours and investment in response to news shocks. I show that the one-sector RBC model augmented by LBD can generate aggregate comovement in response to news shock about technology. Furthermore, I show that in the two-sector RBC model, LBD along with an intratemporal adjus (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Masao Ogaki Dr (Advisor); William Dupor (Advisor); Huston McCulloch (Committee Member) Subjects: Economics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2009, Economics

Both technology shocks and monetary policy shocks are important sources of economic fluctuations. My dissertation studies how these shocks affect the economy and how these shocks are propagated in the economy. A main theme is to detect the main propagation mechanisms of these shocks via both statistical approach and structural estimation approach.The first essay, “The Accommodation of Monetary Policy to Technology Shocks,” studies how dynamic responses of the U.S. economy to capital-embodied shocks, which affect only the efficiency of capital accumulation, differ from neutral technology shocks. I estimate a structural VAR model on U.S. data from 1960 to 2001 to show: inflation and output rise after a positive capital-embodied shock; output rises but inflation falls immediately following a positive neutral technology shock; output and labor hours respond initially more vigorously but with much less persistence to a positive capital-embodied shock than when the shock comes from the neutral technology. I then employ a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model (DSGE) to account for the differences. To do so, I estimate the DSGE model by matching the impulse response functions from the DSGE model and those from the VAR model. I show that the monetary authority accommodates capital-embodied shocks by lowering the nominal interest rate to actively stimulate aggregate demand, which then causes output and inflation to increase. In response to a neutral technology shock, however, the monetary authority raises the nominal interest rate, thus tempering the increase in aggregate demand. In summary, the expansionary effect of a capital-embodied technology is amplified by accommodative monetary policy, and my analysis also explains the formation of investment booms of the 1990s U.S.. The second essay, "The Effect of Monetary Policy Shocks on Industrial Output: Evidence from a Seasonal FAVE Study", studies the effect of monetary policy shocks on industrial outputs in a factor-au (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: William Dupor Professor (Advisor); Paul Evans Professor (Committee Member); Pok-Sang Lam Professor (Committee Member) Subjects: Economics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2004, Business Administration

This dissertation contributes to the international asset pricing literature. The research it presents in its two essays is related to papers that investigate commonalities in individual stock liquidity in the domestic US setting, to research that estimates risk premia related to liquidity risk in the US, and to articles that explore properties and determinants of market-wide liquidity in the US, while expanding the scope to an international setting. The first essay shows that individual liquidity exhibits commonalities in monthly measures of individual stock liquidity within and across countries for a sample from Japan, the UK, and the US from 1980 to 2001. An asset pricing analysis suggests that expected stock returns are cross-sectionally related to the sensitivity of returns to shocks in global liquidity in this sample and that global liquidity is a priced state variable in an international framework at the portfolio as well as at the individual stock level. The second essay analyzes cross-regional and time-series properties of weekly market-wide liquidity measures from 1990 to 2002 for five regional aggregates: developed Asia, North America, Europe, emerging Asia, and emerging America. The aggregates are calculated from a sample that contains 39 developed and emerging countries. The results suggest that liquidity shocks are contemporaneously correlated and dynamically spread across regions. However, there is only week evidence that liquidity affects returns in this sample. An investigation of determinants of liquidity indicates that market-wide returns, market-wide averages of individual stock volatilities, and world net bond flows are fundamental drivers of market-wide liquidity. There is little evidence that equity fund flows and interest rates consistently affect liquidity in the sample. Even though changes in liquidity can to some extent be explained by returns and other determinants, shocks to liquidity continue to be contemporaneously correlated across mar (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: René Stulz (Advisor) Subjects: Business Administration, General

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, Cleveland State University, 2012, Fenn College of Engineering

It is widely understood that as fuel and energy prices continue to increase, new and innovative ways of becoming more energy efficient will be required. This couldn't be more apparent than in industry, where every decision is constrained by economics. Power factor correction is a cost effective way for industry to have economically sound improvements with maximum efficiency benefits. It is proposed that in large industrial systems, where an SVC (Static Var Control) system could be used, synchrophasor measurements could also be used to control the SVC and provide enhanced historical analysis. Currently, many protective relays used in industry provided by SEL (Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories) already have this capability built-in. While synchrophasor measurement technology is still relatively unknown, they are a powerful tool that could greatly increase power system control, efficiency and historical data analysis.

Committee: F. Eugenio Villaseca PhD (Committee Chair); Charles Alexander PhD (Committee Member); Lilly Dong PhD (Committee Member); Allen Morinec PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Electrical Engineering