Welcome to another issue of Major Themes in Economics. All papers in Major Themes are written by senior economics majors at the University of Northern Iowa. Complete funding for this edition was provided by a generous contribution from Ron Rolighed, ‘89, a past author whosearticle appeared in 1989.
African-American players in the National Basketball Association are, on average, paid more than white players. Yet when one controls for performance, Kyle Rehnstrom finds that white players were paid 24.5% more than nonwhite players in the 2008-2009 season.
The federal government has established criteria for allocating funds to protect endangered species. Josh Mahoney finds evidence that the government does not follow its own rules.
The collapse of the Soviet Union has led many to conclude that Marx’s theory of history must be wrong. Kaleb Shimp argues that Marx’s theory of historical materialism is still useful for understanding the broad drift of history, and that the collapse of the Soviet Union is actually consistentwith Marx’s theory.
Kelsey Rinehart tests the old golf adage, “drive for show, putt for dough.” Using data from the PGA tour in 2002 and 2008, she finds that putting isstill the most important skill.
Do recessions with credit crunches behave differently from other recessions? Michael Boevers examines the data and fails to find evidence that employment by sector is affected differently in a credit crunch.
Ken McCormick
Professor of Economics