Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Rest Of The Story: A Nepalese Village Remind That There Often Is A Different Reality Behind The Romantic Narrative, Abukar Adan

Colby Magazine

The rural excursion was part of my semester abroad in the IHP: Human Rights Program, which is intended to give us insight into the rhetoric and reality of human rights through an interdisciplinary, issues-based approach. Over the course of four months, we travel to New York City, Nepal, Jordan, and Chile and learn from a diverse set of individuals and institutions, from academics to indigenous activists, grassroots movements to international aid organizations. Through our visit to this tight-knit village in the hills of the Kathmandu Valley, we were given the opportunity to hear people’s personal narratives.

Redefining "Manly" With Eric Barthold '12, Laura Meader

Colby Magazine

Eric Barthold ’12 runs Man Up and Open Up, an offshoot of the sexual assault prevention program Mules Against Violence he began his junior year at Colby. Man Up and Open Up engages young male athletes in conversations about what it means to be a real man.

When Immigrants Teach Students

Colby Magazine

Maine's thriving and vibrant immigrant communities have much to offer for Colby students.

Can We Talk? On College Campuses - Including Mayflower Hill - Free Speech Collides With Political Correctness, Kate Carlisle

Colby Magazine

In a world where thoughts can pour directly out of our heads and onto another person’s computer screen, and insults can circle the globe in the time it takes to tap send, these kindergarten admonishments are taking on added resonance on American college campuses.

Coach Kelley And The Kelley Coach: Legendary Hockey Coach Jack Kelley Drops Puck, Mules Shut Out Bowdoin, Stephen Collins

Colby Magazine

In the middle of a legendary career in big-time hockey—two Division I NCAA national championships at Boston University, founding the World Hockey Association Hartford Whalers and winning the first WHA league trophy, and later front-office jobs in the NHL—Jack Kelley returned to Colby in 1976-77 after 15 years away to coach men's ice hockey for a year.

Border Issues Demand Empathy: Speakers At Colby's Walker Symposium Consider Ways To Consider La Frontera, Charlie Eichacker

Colby Magazine

Mexican-American fiction writer Helena Maria Viramontes strives to help her readers understand the harder parts of the Chicano experience. Her first novel, Under the Feet of Jesus, for example, is about the dangerous lives of migrant farm workers in California.

Standing Up To Gender Violence: Soccer Coach Ewan Seabrook Offers Skills, From Colby To The Nba, Abukar Adan

Colby Magazine

Seabrook has a national profile for leading gender-violence prevention training for collegiate and professional athletes, from Colby to Major League Baseball and the NBA. And he knows a bystander’s actions can be powerful. His goal? To get athletes to see themselves as “bystanders who are invested in their teammates’ lives and who … have a social obligation to help them and intervene,” he said.

The Memory Professor: With A $600,000 Grant, Jennifer Coane Continues To Probe What We Remember And Why, Jenny Chen

Colby Magazine

Assistant Professor of Psychology Jennifer Coane is an expert in the science of memory, studying how we construct false memories, how memory changes as we age, and how to apply cognitive psychology to study techniques. In August 2015 she received a multiyear $600,000 grant from the James S. McDonnell Foundation for her work in understanding human cognition—a prestigious award the foundation typically gives to scientists at large research universities.

The Real Footprint Of Electric Vehicles, And What That Could Mean For Our Future, Krista Brown

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This paper looks at the impact of electric vehicles on CO2 emissions specifically based on the type of electricity used in each New England state analyzed. The research looks at the question of whether or not emissions will in fact be lowered as electric cars start to take the majority of vehicles used instead of the conventional cars that take up a much larger percent of the motor vehicles used today. Taking into account the use of electricity and how many sources of electricity also release a substantial amount of emissions, we see how valid the public opinion of electric …

The Effect Of The Deer Population On The Number Of Car Accidents, Timothy J. Hallock Jr

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This paper examines the relationship between the deer population and the number of car accidents in New York State from 2002-2012. Data collected includes information on the amount of deer hunted, the number of car accidents, and the number of hunting permits issued. This paper also involves a county level analysis within New York State of 56 counties from 2007 - 2012. An important part of analysis of this paper is the examination of the Buck population vs. the Doe population on the number of car accidents. This is an important study because of its possible policy implications regarding the …

The Effect Of Information On Avoidance Behavior And Bicycle Transportation: A Study Of “Spare The Air” And Bay Area Bikeshare, Paige W. Whistler

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This paper seeks to address the effect of “Spare the Air” pollution control alerts in the San Francisco Bay Area in California on the use of Bay Area BikeShare as a form of transportation. By observing the daily alerts on the duration of rides using BikeShare, this paper observes if STA ozone alerts are effective in changing human behavior. The results show that only as a subscriber to the BikeShare program and on an alert day does duration decrease whereas customers regardless of if it is an alert day will ride more often and at longer distances. The results contradict …

Socioeconomic Attributes’ Relationship To Green Commercial Office Buildings, Tianyang Zhou

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This paper examines the relationship between the socioeconomic attributes of a state and its green commercial office space adaptation. I hypothesize that a state with high socioeconomic status will have a high green building adoption. Additionally, the high socioeconomic status states may be more likely to invest in green commercial buildings with higher LEED certification levels, and various types of LEED commericial office projects are affected by the socoeconomic attributes differently.

Who Cares About The Environment? A Study Of Environmental Behavior In Maine, Chandler L. Blake

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

Identifying and targeting environmentally minded people is crucial to making any environmental campaign successful. It allows you to advertise to the people who will be the most helpful and supportive to your cause. The goal of this study is to identify the general demographics of environmentally minded people. To do this I examine voting data through each county in Maine and run a regression to test whether income, education level, and household size have any correlation to how the county votes on environmental issues. I found that the higher a county’s income, the more environmentally friendly their voting. I also …

Analyzing Consumers’ Willingness To Pay For Eco-Labeled Seafood Products In Coastal And Inland Maine Counties, Gaby E. Carpenter

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

Around the world, green labels are used for a wide range of food products, both in grocery stores and restaurants. Often, the price for these labeled products is higher due to higher production costs associated with the goods. This leads to demand for these goods in the market and consumers that are willing to pay. Here, I will examine the willingness to pay for three different eco-labeled seafood dishes at a Maine restaurant using a consumer choice experiment survey. I will use this survey to conduct a benefits transfer analysis to approximate the willingness to pay of consumers in each …

Do Peers Get Punished: Stock Market Effect Of Bp Oil Spill On Peers, Yuga Koda

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This paper examines the stock market reaction to the British Petroleum oil spill on April 20, 2010. This event study looks at different sectors that may be affected by the oil spill. It finds that different industries do not have significant abnormal returns, with two exceptions. First, utilities companies have a very small positive abnormal return for a short period of time after the incident. Second, when only looking at BP's direct competitors, there is a statistically significant negative abnormal return, implying that BP's competitors are punished for BP's mishap.

Media Effects On Solar Panel Installations Across 20 States, Casey Romeo

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This paper looks at the relationship between media coverage of solar power and the solar panel installation at a state level. Specifically, it aims to find if more newspaper articles cause more households to adopt solar energy. Use data from 20 states from 2009 to 2014. I find that there is a modest, yet positive and statistically significant relationship between newspaper articles and installations, which suggests that the media does influence the decision to install solar panels. There is possible endogeneity between these two variables. Disentangling this endogeneity is beyond the scope of this research and would be a topic …

Renewable Energy Consumption: Initiatives In Colorado And Washington, Robin K. Doroff

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This paper examines the use of policy mechanisms to increase renewable energy consumption within the United States. In order to effectively measure the change of renewable energy consumption, I analyze two initiatives that promote energy consumption from renewable sources and overall increases in energy conservation. Colorado and Washington had approved initiatives in the years 2004 and 2006, respectively. Although the results are not entirely statistically significant, I find that the initiatives lead to increases in total renewable energy consumption and decreases in total energy use.

Stock Market Reactions To The Iarc Announcement Linking Red Meat And Processed Meat To Cancer, Scott B. Lehman

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This study investigates how food companies were affected by the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s report that linked processed meat and red meat consumption to increased risk of cancer. The results indicate that neither fast food companies nor meat producers were greatly affected by the announcement in the days immediately following the release.

Who Wants The Right To Know? An Analysis Of Gmo-Labeling In California, Sylvia M. Xu

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

There are many studies that have been done to examine what types of voting behavior or patterns are present when voting for environmental ballot measures. This paper examines what characteristics of people are likely to cause them to support Proposition 37 in California, an initiative that, if passed, would require GMO-labeling on all genetically modified foods. Using voting data at a zip code level, I use OLS regression to identify specifically what type of political party, education, occupation, household status, and income levels are more likely to support the bill. I also run weighted regressions by population and number of …

Property Value Changes From Public Transportation: How The Greenbush Commuter Line Affected Property Values, Sarah C. Evans

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

Prior studies have investigated the impact on property values to the proximity of established public transportation stations. Public transportation is thought to increase value of towns and properties, giving residents more options for transportation to and around the city. Both benefits and consequences of public transportation exist, allowing for either a raise or lower of property values in towns with stops. This paper analyzes the Greenbush Commuter line in Massachusetts, seeing if the proximity to the stops has an affect on the property of values in the towns. A difference – in – difference model is used to investigate a …

The Effectiveness Of The Colby College Electricity Competition On Promoting Electricity Conservation To Students, Jeff Vaz

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This paper examines the effectiveness of the Colby College electricity reduction competition in altering students’ behavior to conserve electricity. The Colby College electricity reduction competition is an information-based policy that Colby implemented to promote the conservation of electricity, which are a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States. The study analyzes if different residence halls reduce electricity consumption by different amounts during the competition period. Results indicate that only 4 of 22 residence halls reduced electricity usage during competition periods in a statistically significant manner. The study concludes that the electricity competition at Colby College is …

Invited Introduction To Jerec, Matthew Kotchen

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

No abstract provided.

Welcome By The Editor, Nathan W. Chan

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

No abstract provided.

Teaching Amid Destruction: Carol Majdalany Williams '75 'P11 Helped Keep A Nepalese School Open And Students Learning, Gerry Boyle

Colby Magazine

Carol Majdalany Williams '75 'P11 helped keep a Nepalese school open and students learning.

Friends In Need: Deported Guatemalans Find Colbians Are Waiting With Surveys, Job Fairs, Assistance, Stephen Collins

Colby Magazine

Deported Guatemalans find Colbians are waiting with surveys, job fairs, assistance. Now a global studies and anthropology double major, Muller '17 has joined the Migrant Peacebuilding Project, an initiative launched by Colby students.

How Soon We Forget: The Luxury Of Disaster Amnesia, Lauren Pongan

Colby Magazine

This is only a portion of a full essay that is about the super Typhoon Haiyan that hit the Philippines and how disaster amnesia functions in the international community.

Detecting Stock Market Bubbles: A Price-To-Earnings Approach, Austin F. Murphy

Honors Theses

To this day, economists argue about the existence of stock market bubbles. The literature review for this paper observes the analysis of four reputable bubble tests in an attempt to provide ample qualitative proof for the existence of bubbles. The first obstacle for creating an effective bubble detection test is the difficulty of estimating true fundamental values for equities. Without adequate estimations for the fundamental values of equities, the deviation between actual price and fundamental price is impossible to observe or estimate. Additionally, these tests are reliant on strong underlying assumptions, which tend to cloud results.

This thesis applies a …

Campaigning On Youtube: Messaging And Online Communication In The 2016 Presidential Nomination Process, Abraham Krieger

Honors Theses

The Internet has become an important media environment in the context of political campaigns. This research examines YouTube, the most popular website for video content, in order to understand how the platform fits into the broader media landscape and analyzes the messaging content of leading candidates seeking the 2016 nomination. It tests several hypotheses about the YouTube content posted by the campaigns of Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Bernie Sanders, and Hillary Clinton, during the period from the announcement of their candidacies through February 10, 2016. The research finds that campaigns upload varying amounts and types of content and that they …

The Effect Of Temperature On The Supply And Demand For The American Lobster (Homarus Americanus) In The State Of Maine, Gaby E. Carpenter

Honors Theses

The Gulf of Maine (GOM) American lobster (Homarus americanus) stock accounts for 90% of the U.S. American lobster landings. This makes it an extremely valuable and important fishery on a national scale, but also to the state of Maine. In the past decade, the fishery has experienced rapid fluctuation in landings and price due to anthropogenic influences of the water temperature in the GOM. Given the economic importance of the fishery, it is important to understand the future impacts of climate change on the availability of lobster and economic consequences of these shifts. A bio-economic model is used in the …

The Voluntourism Encounter: Affect, Discomfort, And Transformation In Yaxunah, Caroline Tegeler

Honors Theses

Within the massive tourism and travel industry, the niche market of volunteer tourism has risen recently in both notoriety and popularity with its promises of a more conscious form of experiencing the world and its people. I explore in this thesis project the encounter between volunteer tourist and host community by examining the motivations, expectations, and imagined roles and identities of each side of the voluntourism encounter. The volunteer tourism industry frames voluntourism as a path towards a more personal, ethical and responsible tourism, but has created experiences filled with discomfort for tourists in their encounter with the communities in …