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How Presidential Disapproval Affects Bitcoin Returns: A Product Of The President, Joseph Libretti Jun 2022

How Presidential Disapproval Affects Bitcoin Returns: A Product Of The President, Joseph Libretti

Honors Theses

There has been a growing fascination for decentralized electronic assets, and Bitcoin has emerged as the face and leader of the movement. There have been three different presidents coinciding with the growth of Bitcoin. Since the creation of Bitcoin, each president has faced periods of net disapproval, and these periods have been the norm throughout Obama’s, Trump’s, and Biden’s presidencies. There is currently no existing literature on Presidential ratings as a predictor of Bitcoin, however, there has been research on the predictors of Bitcoin and Presidential ratings as a predictor of financial markets. I hypothesized that increases in net disapproval …


An Empirical Analysis Of Climatic, Geographic, And Cultural Determinants Of International Tourism, Ethan Straus Jun 2018

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 …


Fair Labor Practices: Are Workers Truly Protected?, Xiaofei Xie Jun 2017

Fair Labor Practices: Are Workers Truly Protected?, Xiaofei Xie

Honors Theses

Private businesses often claim that they employ fair labor practices and care about employees' well being. However, firms may face contradictory situations since fair labor practices can result in cost increases and lower profit. In this thesis, I examine historic and contemporary workers’ conditions and fair labor practices. Workers’ conditions during the Industrial Revolution and the basis of relevant Marxist theories are examined. Contemporary labor practices are also examined and a secondary analysis of data on worker attitudes in two major companies is conducted. Results and discussion suggest that although progresses in worker conditions have been made, there still needs …


The Cult Of Cultural Consumption In The United States: How Class Stratification Shapes The Social Realms Of Consumer Brand Perception, Nelligan Rose Boff Jun 2016

The Cult Of Cultural Consumption In The United States: How Class Stratification Shapes The Social Realms Of Consumer Brand Perception, Nelligan Rose Boff

Honors Theses

An individual’s social position shapes taste culture as it pertains to fashion and branding. The purpose of this research is to develop more knowledge on who or what social factors are driving consumer’s perception of the brands they want, or don’t want to buy. The perspective of consumption seems to transcend self-interest alone and this thesis aims to analyze the extension of that transcendence. Brands are not merely relating to consumers through a relationship of functional need, but also interfere and are driven by social relationships between consumers. There is evidence that suggest that consumers might interact with brands that …


Effects Of The World Trade Center Attacks And Hurricane Sandy: Manhattan Commercial Real Estate Market, Michael Miceli Jun 2014

Effects Of The World Trade Center Attacks And Hurricane Sandy: Manhattan Commercial Real Estate Market, Michael Miceli

Honors Theses

Two rare and uncontrollable events that recently took place in Manhattan were the attacks on the World Trade Center and Hurricane Sandy. Both of these catastrophic events affected the commercial real estate market in Manhattan in several ways. Using quarterly time-series data between 1996 and 2013 collected from Brookfield Office Properties, this paper utilizes regression analysis to investigate the effects of these events on vacancy rate, absorption rate and rent in Manhattan. The regression analyses control for location and building type such as Midtown, Downtown and Classes A,B,C, as well as economic factors such as unemployment rate and the S&P …


The Effect Of Gross Profitability On Share Price Appreciation, Philip Barr Jun 2014

The Effect Of Gross Profitability On Share Price Appreciation, Philip Barr

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between gross profitability and share price appreciation. Dimensional Fund Advisors, an investment firm managing $338 billion, builds portfolios based on a number of different metrics and added gross profitability as a factor in early 2013. Profitable firms may be systematically undervalued and, therefore, gross profitability should predict future share price appreciation. Gross profitability is a firm’s gross profit multiplied by its asset turnover. A high gross profitability may signal a firm’s pricing power or quality in comparison with other businesses. Investors may neglect profitable firms and overpay for “lottery stocks” …


Intra-Firm Trade From U.S. Multinational Enterprises To Emerging Market Economies: An Assessment Of The Impact Of The Global Recession And Intellectual Property Rights, Trang Nguyen Jun 2014

Intra-Firm Trade From U.S. Multinational Enterprises To Emerging Market Economies: An Assessment Of The Impact Of The Global Recession And Intellectual Property Rights, Trang Nguyen

Honors Theses

The level of US intra-firm imports from Emerging Markets, EM, (i.e., imports of MNEs from their foreign affiliates) has increased from 149 billion USD in 2002 to 347 billion USD in 2012. A similar magnitude is observed for US arm’s length imports (i.e., imports of MNEs from third parties in foreign countries). This thesis estimates the responsiveness of US intra-firm and arm’s length imports to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection indicators, “Doing Business” indicators, and to the Global Recession. I use two panel data sets, one covering 332 industries (3-digit NAICS) and 43 emerging countries from 2002 to 2012, the …


The Effect Of Educational Debt On The Probability Of Homeownership For College Graduates: An Empirical Analysis, Cole Ikkala Jun 2014

The Effect Of Educational Debt On The Probability Of Homeownership For College Graduates: An Empirical Analysis, Cole Ikkala

Honors Theses

With the average tuition of both public and private institutions on the rise, students are graduating from college with a higher burden of debt than ever before. In turn this is adversely affecting their post-graduation decisions, specifically the purchasing of their first home. With the simultaneous increase of educational debt levels and tightening of lending constraints for mortgages, it is hypothesized that first-time homeownership is being delayed. The purpose of this study is to analyze what exactly is delaying graduates from purchasing a home, the outstanding total educational debt amount or the monthly educational debt repayment amounts. Both can hinder …


Competing Life Insurance Purchasing Strategies: Whole Life Versus Buy Term Invest The Differences, Jordon Hastings Jun 2013

Competing Life Insurance Purchasing Strategies: Whole Life Versus Buy Term Invest The Differences, Jordon Hastings

Honors Theses

Financial experts have been conflicted for decades in regards to the most effective strategy for purchasing life insurance. Specifically, is buying an expensive whole life insurance policy the most appropriate solution, or is purchasing cheap term insurance and investing the rest of the money in a side fund more effective? These strategies were compared side by side across a variety of scenarios with varying account allocations, time horizons and tax treatments. Based on our results, buying term and investing the difference is the most appropriate solution across the majority of the scenarios that were tested. This was due mainly to …


Following The Herd: An Economic Analysis Of The Effects Of Herd Mentality On The U.S. Housing Bubble, Michael P. Spicer Jun 2011

Following The Herd: An Economic Analysis Of The Effects Of Herd Mentality On The U.S. Housing Bubble, Michael P. Spicer

Honors Theses

One focus of economics in the recent years has been the integration of human behavior, including that of herd behavior, into economic thought. Herd behavior can be defined as the way that individuals, who have private information, end up acting together as a group inadvertently, without planned action. It is thought to be caused by incomplete information and subsequently information cascades. Does this behavior exist, and if it does, did it have any effect on the recent housing market? The last twelve years provide a good opportunity to test whether or not herd behavior exists in the housing market, and …