Faculty in the IUP Department of Finance and Economics have high productivity across classrooms, published academic research, and service parameters. Focusing on research endeavors, across 2025, faculty have published/co-published 10 articles in very reputable peer-reviewed academic and professional journals. In some cases, co-authors include current undergraduate students and/or recent alumni from our programs.
The list of articles published in 2025 includes:
- Alcantara3, Angel, Kolesar3, Kaleb M., and Jozefowicz1, James J. (2025) “Rural-Urban Differences in SNAP Participation in Pennsylvania Counties,” Atlantic Economic Journal, 53(1-2): 105-107
Our analysis recognizes that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participation rates differ across rural and urban Pennsylvania counties. For example, SNAP involvement in rural counties rises with the unemployment rate and falls with a larger young population; however, neither impact is present in non-rural areas. We determine that rural counties in Pennsylvania would have 11.4% higher SNAP participation rates relative to urban counties if they shared identical characteristics.
- Boubacar, Inoussa, and Sissoko1, Yaya. (2025) “Sustainable Forest Management through Certification and Wood Products Trade: Analyzing the Role of the FSC across Diverse Economic and Climatic Contexts,” Journal of Cleaner Production, 518, 145786
We examine the role of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification in advancing sustainable forest management and influencing forest cover changes across 70 countries from 2000 to 2021. Our analysis suggests that FSC certification significantly enhances forest cover, with the most pronounced effects observed in low-and middle-income countries. Our findings highlight the importance of market-based conservation tools, such as FSC certification, which align economic incentives with sustainability objectives.
- Forrest, Jeffrey Y., Köse, Erkan, Wajda, Theresa A., Guo, Jin-Li, Sissoko1, Yaya, and Shao, Alan T. (2025) “Several Remarks on Consumer Preferences That Are Neither Complete Nor Transitive,” Journal of Business, Economics and Technology, 28(1)
Our analysis employs Euclidean space ℝℓ as its playground, as what was initially done in Debreu (1959), to revisit a few previously known results of the consumer theory established on the unrealistic assumption that each consumer can completely preorder his set of all consumption possibilities. Other than our theoretical contributions, including how a consumer’s set of all possible consumptions can be characteristically represented and how his preference relation can have real-valued utility representation, our analysis is also a small part of a much larger effort of developing a new consumer theory so that the new theory can be employed to produce more tangible practical values than the current, prevalent theory can.
- Jebitsch2, Micaela M., Schumacher2, Emily B. L., and Jozefowicz1, James J. (2025) “NHL Attendance Differences Across the Border: United States Versus Canada,” International Advances in Economic Research
We analyze the determinants of National Hockey League game attendance and specifically focus on differences between teams based in the U.S. and teams based in Canada. While the salary cap is influential on both sides of the border, interestingly, the unemployment rate is positively associated with game attendance in Canada. This unique result may reflect Canada’s near-religious following of the NHL.
- Smith4, Jennifer, and Vick1, Brandon. (2025). “Estimating the Effects of Restitution Penalties on Juvenile Recidivism,” Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 24(1): 30-53
We investigate the potential causal relationship between the assignment of financial restitution penalties to juvenile offenders and subsequent recidivism, defined as being sentenced for a new offense within the next two years. Using a dataset of all juvenile offenders in the state of Pennsylvania from 2015 to 2017, we implement a propensity-score matching model to estimate the effects of restitution assignment on future recidivism and test for endogeneity between the two using a control function model. Controlling for offender demographics, criminal history, and offense type and severity, we find higher rates of recidivism for those assigned restitution across all offense grades, categories, and dispositions.
- Stephenson4, Amber L., and Yerger1, David B. (2025) “Research: The Gender Wage Gap Tipping Point,” Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, 1–5
Our analysis of the gender wage gap across Canadian occupations found that having more women in an occupation does help to close the wage gap. There is a tipping point, however, in the data. Beyond approximately a 14% share for women in the occupation, further increases in the percent women in the occupation still associate with a reduced wage gap, but the rate of improvement slows appreciably.
- Thompson, Alexi, and Jozefowicz1, James J. (2025) “Greek Imports from China: Monopoly Power of the Piraeus Port Deal,” International Economics and Economic Policy, 22(20)
We investigate imports to Greece from several countries since the Chinese state-owned shipping company Costco bought the operating rights to the Port of Piraeus, noting that China has emerged as one of Greece’s largest trading partners. We find that Chinese imports were complements to Greek imports from other European nations prior to 2016, but Chinese imports became their substitutes in the post-2016 period. We conjecture that China’s market power in the Port of Piraeus drives industries in other European nations to seek alternate trading routes.
- Thompson, Alexi, Jozefowicz1, James J., and Ndede Hourizene, Bley Cynthia (2025) “The Effect of Tax Evasion on Consumption in OECD Countries,” Economic Papers; A journal of applied economics and policy
We examine the impact of tax evasion on household consumption in OECD countries. Our analysis suggests that a 1% increase in tax evasion raises consumption by approximately 0.04% in the short run, ultimately leading to a 0.13% increase in consumption in the long run. We posit that tax evasion elevates disposable income, which results in greater consumption spending in support of our findings.
- Vick1, Brandon, and Orth4, Robert. (2025) “Accuracy and Impact of Supervision Risk Assessment Tools across Racial Groups,” Journal of Experimental Criminology
We estimate the predictive validity of the Ohio Risk Assessment System Community Supervision Tool (ORAS-CST) and racial differences in outcomes both across assessed risk levels and against a comparison group of unassessed individuals. Using a dataset of individuals under supervision across four Pennsylvania counties in 2017, we perform Cox proportional hazard modelling to test for racial differences in the association between risk level and recidivism (up to 5 years). While we find similar effects for racial subgroups separately at one year, estimated treatment effects of assessment fall to zero for Black individuals by year five.
- Yerger1, David, and Potts, Todd B. (2025). “Sustainable Local Employment Gains from Marcellus Shale Gas Extraction, or Modest and Temporary?” Sustainability, 17(21), 9740
We investigate if Marcellus shale drilling activity in PA led to actual county-level employment above forecasted based on data prior to the shale boom. Actual versus forecasted employment is compared from 2010–2019. Higher than forecasted employment findings were much more likely to occur in approximately the top quarter of drilling counties, with the observed gains being modest. Most importantly, however, any employment gains above forecasted were short-lived, gone within four years in most counties.
Notes
1 IUP FIEC faculty member
2 IUP Economics current students
3 IUP Economics alumni
4 IUP PhD—Administration and Leadership Studies alumni