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Measuring Religious Demographic Group Threat Among Americans And Its Impacts On Their Political Beliefs, Karsen Bailey

Honors Theses

Identity is one of the key drivers of American political behavior. Among these identities, be it partisan, ethnic, class, etc., religious identity has been more or less assumed to be one of the more powerful identities. I set out to measure how the threat of Christianity’s decline in the United States impacts the salience of religious identity and feelings towards religion-adjacent policies. Building off of an experimental design from Major et al (2016), I hypothesized that when exposed to data showing the decline of religiosity in the United States, subjects would demonstrate both a stronger religious identity and more conservative …

Demographics Of A Painted Turtle (Chrysemys Picta) Population Responding To Drought In The Nebraska Sandhills, Allyson Beard

Honors Theses

A large portion of herpetofauna species are declining as a result of anthropogenic influences such as habitat destruction and climate change, and turtles are no exception. Studying demographics of turtle populations in a wide variety of settings could help establish a baseline for future species management because demographics such as survival and movement are essential to understanding the ecology of a species. We conducted a long-term mark-recapture study on painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) in a permanent pond in the Nebraska Sandhills to exam population size, survival, and movement of an aquatic turtle as drought conditions changed in a …

The Manifestation Of Blight: Examining The Effects Of Inner City Decline On Populations In The Bronx, New York And New Orleans, Louisiana, Bianca R. Stewart

Honors Theses

Urban decline, and the developments that trigger a collapse among formerly prosperous cities, is a phenomenon that is capable of leaving a lasting mark on any urban system. The collapse and disintegration of the urban landscape carries a variety of facilitators, and with that, this research sought to examine two distinct representations of urban decline and the populations that shifted in tandem with blight: the New York City fiscal crisis of the 1970s and post-Katrina conditions in New Orleans, Louisiana. Through New York City’s fiscal crisis and the act of condensing a city in hopes of rectifying urban decline, known …

How Does One Child Policy Influence Chinese Household Saving Behavior, Yueyang Cao

Honors Theses

This paper investigates the influence the decline in the family size on household size through a Chinese family planning policy, the One-Child Policy (OCP). I find the evidence of the negative effect at the micro level using Chinese household survey data. I also study the aggregated effect using Chinese provincial level data. With the concern of endogeneity, I use a two-stage least square regression with financial punishments for having more than one child and share of population that were exempted from the restriction as instruments for the fertility variable. This regression shows a positive impact of the implementation of the …

Demographics As Destiny: Modeling Population Change And Party Strategies On The Electoral Map, 2016-2040, Sam Parker

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the ways demographic change will affect presidential elections over the next 25 years. It utilizes a detailed, interactive model to project the electoral effects of demographic growth in every presidential election from 2016 to 2040; the model allows me to simulate how voting rates by demographic groups might be altered by changes in party strategies. The two alternative Republican strategies this model simulates are a "doubling down" on white voters and a "diversified coalition" approach, where Republicans would reach out to minorities to build a coalition better suited to America's growing diversity.

The model's results indicate that, …

The Origins Of Wave Elections: Narrative Control Polarization And Turnout In New Hampshire Electoral Politics 2006-2012, Zachary Jonas

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the origin of wave elections in New Hampshire in 2006, 2010 and 2012. It finds that recent demographic shifts in the state laid the groundwork for these dramatic electoral results. This paper also examines the nationalization and polarization that have redefined New Hampshire’s political landscape and contributed to massive partisan shifts in state government. The combination of demographic changes and a polarized political culture have created an electoral environment for both Republicans and Democrats that favors turnout, increasing the importance of agenda setting and narrative control in order to produce high turnout among core constituencies. Chapter 1 …

Perceptions Of Walt Disney World: Antecedents To Return Visits, Tiffani A. Cosson

Honors Theses

Walt Disney World is an extremely popular tourist destination that attracts millions of visitors each year. Scholars have researched Walt Disney World and there are many different written articles on the subject, however there are very few that delve deep enough into the subject to generate quantitative data about visitors rather than only opinions about the parks. Due to its popularity and prominence in America, it is important to determine which demographic segment prefers to visit Walt Disney World. This can be used for both the parks themselves as a marketing tool, and consumers as well by knowing when the …

Regional Variation In The Length Of Hospital Stay And Insurance Coverage: A State-Wide Variation In Length Of Stay And Insurance Types, Samuel S. Yoon

Honors Theses

With the continuously growing healthcare expenditure, it is important to examine the causes of this phenomenon. Length of hospital stay is one possible cause. Using the panel data from 2001 – 2008 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, Statehealthfacts.org, Center for Disease Control and Prevention Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, Almanac of Hospital Financial & Operating Indicators 2007, and Current Population Survey March Supplements, this paper utilizes regression analysis to investigate geographic variation on the length of stay, focusing on the relationship between the different insurance types and the length of stay. As a variety of insurance types offers different reimbursement …

Demographic Differences In Household Expenditure For Low-Income Families: Evidence From The United States, Joerose Tharakan

Honors Theses

Despite being one of the world’s most prosperous countries, the United States of America was home to roughly 7.7 million households living in poverty in 2006. Of this figure, 53% percent of households were headed by a single mother. What is more disturbing is that a significant majority of these households were those of full time workers, unable to meet the basic needs of their families at federally mandated minimum wage rates. Researchers and activists from a multitude of disciplines have repeatedly called for an overhaul of the current method of estimating poverty in the United States` and further proposed …

Young Singles: A Look At The Grocery Shopping Preferences Of A Unique And Underestimated Market, Survey & Analysis, Kelley Steinhofer

Honors Theses

Single person households make up a substantial percentage of the total U.S population. More than 102 million people aged 15 and over were not married in 2003. On a household basis, 48.5% of U.S. households were not headed by married couples. Some of these households are "nonfamily" which excludes single parent households according to U.S. Census Bureau definitions. Most studies that examine a specific demographic group have focused on households with children and mature consumers because their purchasing behaviors are highly predictable and easily obtainable. Very little research currently exists on the market of young, single adult consumers. This study …