Abstract: The equity-efficiency tradeoff, the notion that higher economic growth can come at the expense of greater income inequality, has been widely studied and theorized about. While much of this work examines the effect of social programs on inequality and economic growth, little attention has been given to how free-market economic policy might affect the two variables. Using fixed-effects modelling on a panel dataset of 123 countries from 2000 to 2021, our paper examines how various measures of economic freedom affect both GDP per capita and inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient. We find that economic freedom has an overall positive effect on growth with no significant impact on inequality. However, there is considerable variation between the various measures of economic freedom employed and the income level of the country. Granger causality analysis suggests that economic freedom predictively causes economic growth and vice versa. We discuss the implications of our findings for economic policymaking.
Description: A short empirical paper completed as a term project for ECON-495 (Intermediate Econometrics). Examines the relationship between the 2002 Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) on economic growth. Got 100% on the project.
Abstract: Around the world, carbon emissions are projected to cause a 1.1°C to a 5.4°C increase in temperatures from now to 2100. Current attempts to tackle the climate shift include market-based mechanisms ranging from varying levels of carbon taxes to emissions trading. Using multivariate time series regression, this paper analyzes the differing trends between nations that have implemented a carbon policy relative to nations that have not, and how those have affected their carbon emissions levels within 1 and 5 years of implementation. None of our model specifications reveal a statistically significant relationship of any kind between an increased carbon tax and carbon emissions. This marked lack of relation between carbon tax policy implementation and carbon emission decreases points to a need to reexamine the way we implement policy to reduce carbon in our world.
Abstract: Ensuring inclusive and equitable education is Sustainable Development Goal 4 in the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are to be achieved by the year 2030. This paper aims to examine guaranteeing free primary and secondary education as a solution to SDG 4, by looking at how free education affects the quality and inequality of an educational system measured using a wide range of educational indicators. We calculated a variety of relative index scores that include those indicators to measure the quality of educational systems around the world. We then used these index scores within 16 different multiple regression models to quantify the effects that free education has on student outcomes. Our results suggest that overall, free education has positive effects on student outcomes in terms of reducing educational inequality in addition to improving the average student outcomes, which suggests that free education is a viable solution to SDG 4.
