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Extraordinary Episodes Of Ancient Money, Francis Louis Kailey

Honors Theses

The spread of coins, which occurred throughout the archaic and classical periods of Greece, was a foundational advancement toward forms of the modern economy. Modern theory has sought to explain the invention of coins with a variety of narratives. Generally, these narratives fall into two broad categories: market-driven monetization or state-driven monetization. On the one hand, some theory argues that coins developed from reducing private transaction costs. On the other hand, some theorists argue that the state benefitted from reductions in administrative costs from the use of coins and therefore undertook the cost of minting them. This thesis problematizes these …

Is Microfinance The Best Tool For Empowerment? Analysis Of Efficiency Of Developing Economies’S Microfinance Institutions In Empowering Women Using Data Envelopment Analysis Meta Frontier Technology, Beryl Isiji

Honors Theses

Poverty is still prevalent in developing economies, although the proportion of people living below the international poverty line ($1.90 a day) decreased by 24.6% between 1990 and 2013 according to World Bank. Women are more likely than men to live in poverty due to minimal access to resources. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) lend small funds to women thereby empowering them, encouraging entrepreneurship and creating creditworthiness.

This thesis examines the effect of MFIs on gender inequality via women empowerment by calculating output-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis using the meta frontier technology, and relating the efficiency results to the Gender Inequality Index (GII) obtained …

Solar Energy For The Soul: Solving America’S Fuel Poverty Problem With Solar Panels For The Poor, Samantha St. Marie

Honors Theses

In the United States today, at least 14 million Americans live in fuel poverty. These Americans spend at least ten percent of household income on energy costs ranging from fuel to electricity. The purpose of this thesis is to identify an innovative solution to mitigate the effects of the energy affordability crisis in the United States. After examining national trends and researching localized efforts, I determined that solar panels may be able to support the modern energy needs of the fuel poor. The study uses a least squares regression model with fixed effects to determine factors influencing solar adoption at …

Banking Efficiency Within The World’S Largest Banks: Application Of Data Envelopment Analysis To The Global Financial Crisis Of 2008, Devin Coffey

Honors Theses

The world’s financial system is one of the globe’s most powerful structures, however the institutions that make up this network of banking firms are certainly not immune to the pressures of market globalization and technical innovation that drive change within the financial landscape. In order to exist within such an environment, the world’s largest commercial banks must constantly reevaluate the ways in which they function in order keep pace in the competitive market. The objective of this paper is to examine the efficiency of ten of the world’s largest commercial banks during the period spanning from 2006 to 2015. Utilizing …

An Empirical Analysis Of Climatic, Geographic, And Cultural Determinants Of International Tourism, Ethan Straus

Honors Theses

Each year, billions of people visit different countries all around the world. For many of those countries, tourism is their primary industry, leading to millions of jobs and dollars in revenue. It is expected that by 2020 total International Tourism Receipts will reach 2 trillion US dollars annually. Currently, tourism employs an estimated 200 million people around the world. With the continued progression of climate change, the tourism industry is facing a newfound threat. Global temperatures and the seal level are both expected to rise significantly by the end of the century. Additionally, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has …

An Economic Analysis Of The Rise In Franchise Values In The Four Major North American Sports Leagues From 2008-2016, Anthony Alan Desantis

Honors Theses

North American professional sports franchise values have been growing rapidly over the last 10 years, leading some to wonder how this rise might mirror previous economic booms such as those of the internet and housing sectors, and thus impact the future of the sport industry. To investigate this phenomenon, financial and other team-specific data was acquired from Forbes, while metropolitan area statistics were mostly gathered from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census. The results of this study showed that revenue, metropolitan area population and GDP, multiple teams in the same metro area and the same league, and …

Marriage, Religion, And Women's Happiness, Aaron Gordon

Honors Theses

This thesis studies the effect of six major religions (Catholicism, Protestantism, Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism) on the gender marriage gap and the gender gap in the happiness payoff associated with marriage. Becker (1974) developed a theory on marriage claiming that individuals seek to maximize their utility through marriage. However, in some religions, individuals are coerced into marriage or have an arranged marriage, and thus, it is unlikely that such individuals’ marriage choices reflect their preferences. This paper uses data from the World Values Survey to examine whether religious people’s marriage decisions are consistent with their preferences. The results show …

Does Player Performance Outside Of Major League Baseball Translate To The Mlb?, Ian Vogt

Honors Theses

Statistical analysis has transformed the way front offices across Major League Baseball manage the rosters of their teams. However, much of this statistical analysis is limited to evaluating players playing in the American major league environment. Little has been done in the way of using statistical analysis to evaluate how performance translates from league-to-league, and the market for international and college players remains highly inefficient, despite expansion of these player pools. My study is an attempt to make this market a more efficient one.

I measure the correlation between performance in two top international baseball leagues (Nippon Professional Baseball and …

The Effect Of Aca Medicaid Expansion On People’S Retirement Decision, William Christopher

Honors Theses

As of January 2018, thirty-three states have adopted the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansion. There is an emerging literature to study the effects of ACA Medicaid expansion on various outcomes, such as insurance coverage, health status, and labor supply. For example, a study from the Congressional Box Office projects that the U.S. labor supply will decrease 1.5-2% from 2017 to 2024 because of this expansion. In a recent paper, Ayyagari (2017) argues that because employer sponsored retiree benefits are declining and Medicaid coverage is expanding, retirement age will decrease by 3.6 to 7.2 months. In this paper, I use …