Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Competitive Balance In Division 1 College Hockey: An Economic Analysis, Christopher Decarlo

Honors Theses

This paper seeks to determine the levels of competitive balance in Division I college hockey using several well known measures of competitive balance. It focuses on the five hockey conferences, specifically on win percentages and concentration of conference and national championships. This paper also seeks to determine any correlation between university actions, specifically athletic spending, and successful hockey programs. Finally, it suggests possible areas of future research and ways to improve on the current research.

Salary Determination In The National Hockey League: Restricted, Unrestricted, Forwards, And Defensemen, Kevin Peck

Honors Theses

This thesis will attempt to estimate the relationships between salary and measures of the marginal productivity of hockey players, or performance indicators. Salary determination, as in most other sports leagues, is determined in a labor market. Each player has a marginal revenue product of labor (MRPL) and this MRPL varies from player to player, and from team to team. Firms, in this case teams, seek to add players with a high MRPLin order to increase the quantity and quality of product they sell, in this case wins. Among other things, a player has a MRPLthat will equate to the additional …

Do Structured Products Increase Social Welfare?, Eric Langner

Honors Theses

Structured products are a rapidly growing type of financial engineering which allow firms to design solutions to meet the individual needs of investors. A structured product is a contract between a financial firm and its client. It involves packaging together traditional and exotic securities, commodities, and options generating a defined payout structure for the client. I ask whether these products enhance social welfare. I argue that, on balance, structured products increase social welfare. I find that while the products are complicated, they are not designed to hide risks nor are they likely to be a source of financial fragility. Rather, …

The Effects Of Social-Adjustive And Value-Expressive Attitudes On Preferences Towards Counterfeit Luxury Goods And Logos, Sarah Reid

Honors Theses

The market for counterfeit luxury goods has been growing exponentially over the past several years, causing the luxury brand market to lose approximately $12 billion per year (International Chamber of Commerce 2004). In the United States, over 750,000 jobs are lost annually due to counterfeiting (US Chamber of Commerce 2006). This study hypothesizes that consumers with Social-Adjustive attitudes have a higher preference towards logos and will be generally indifferent towards authenticity, while Value-Expressive consumers prefer higher quality bags and are generally indifferent towards the presence of logos. Consumers’ degree of preference towards their respective variable (quality or logo) is slightly …

The Politics Of Rsfs: An Antidote To Reversing The Resource Curse In Latin America?, Sarah Gagnon

Honors Theses

Over the past three decades, the world has become highly globalized. As such, most countries around the world depend on exports for a large portion of their national income. However, some countries’ dependency on exports is extreme, especially those that heavily rely on natural resource commodities. Despite the natural resource wealth that these commodities grant countries, due to the instability of global prices and the intensive focus of the resource extraction industry, scholars have theorized this type of dependency as a “resource curse.” The resource curse is a paradox where countries that are so rich in natural resources have not …

Diagnosing The Roots Of Chinas Growth Miracle: An Examination Of Strategies That Have Most Influenced Chinas Economic Development In The Twenty-First Century, Katharine Manko

Honors Theses

There are significantly different views regarding what strategies underlie China’s economic growth and development in the past decade. An examination of these varied opinions will indicate the complexity of determining which strategies have been most conducive to China’s economic expansion. This paper will use data from several developing and developed countries along with an analysis of a number of strategies that economists and scholars have listed as aiding the economic growth process. The analysis of the scatter pot data will then be applied to China as a case study to determine which factors and strategies have been most conducive to …

How To Predict Success In College, Holland Martini

Honors Theses

This paper examines the Union College system for determining the academic quality of its applicants. Currently, Union College uses five criteria: high school GPA; rank; strength of schedule; quality of high school; and SAT/ACT scores, if available. Using data on about 1600 students, I examine the predictive power of these criteria for the performance of a student at Union. As a measure of performance I use cumulative GPA at Union and whether or not the student is still enrolled in Spring 2011. I find that the five criteria predict about 25% of the variation in GPA at Union. With the …

The Twisting Fed: How Changing Open Market Operation Compositions Affect Long-Term Interest Rates And Subsequently Influence Capital Expenditures, Michael Owen Miller

Honors Theses

The Federal Reserve has been highly active in the past decade in its attempts to lower long-term interest rates and spur economic growth. This thesis will investigate how the Federal Reserve’s actions have influenced long-term Treasury yields and whether the manipulation of the long-term interest rate helps stimulate economic growth through capital investment. To examine how the Fed’s actions affect long-term yields we study the maturity composition of the Fed’s Open Market Operations (OMOs). As the trend of proportional purchases shift farther out along the yield curve, we expect the long-term interest rate to decrease. The impact of shifting long-term …

America And The Yuan: A Quantitative Analysis Of Opinions At The Industry Level, Kevin Nowaskey

Honors Theses

Since China’s emergence as a developed economy, its unconventional monetary policies have drawn criticism from foreign trading partners. Despite pressure from Western governments, the People’s Republic continues to maintain a policy of “pegging” the value of the Yuan to the U.S. Dollar. A natural consequence of this has been an outcry for increased trade protectionism in the United States. Contrary to economic intuition, however, not all industries in the United States voice grievance against the Chinese, and some have even opposed protectionist legislation. The economic or other reasons for this private sector divergence of opinion have remained largely unclear. Equally …

Does Being Cultured Pay? Racial And Language Concordance And Its Effect On Physician Income, Nayan Patel

Honors Theses

Issues surrounding race and ethnicity in healthcare have increased in number as racial disparities as well as minority physicians become more prevalent in the USA. One such issue is the concordance rate of race and language amongst physicians and their patients. The effect of racial concordance in physician patient relationships has been looked at to determine if it affects the perceived level of health quality. Saha et al. (1999) found that Black and Hispanic patients were more satisfied in their healthcare when treated by a physician of their own race. In this study, I establish whether or not the racial …

The Relationship Between Openness And Economic Performance A Case Study Of The Five Leading Emerging Markets In Southeast Asia: Vietnam Philippines Thailand Indonesia Malaysia, Trang Pham

Honors Theses

For the last two decades, the Southeast Asian countries have emerged as the fastest growing economies in the world, together with making significant progress in economic liberalization. The thesis studies the impact of economic openness on growth and volatility in the five leading Southeast Asia countries: Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Philippines. The results obtained include: 1) economic openness is a driving force for the rapid growth of the five countries during 1990-2010, 2) during transition into an open economy, volatility cannot be eliminated; however, if a country has sound macroeconomic policies, a reasonable ratio of foreign direct investment to …

From The Gas Pump To Our Hips: The Impact That U.S. Corn-Ethanol Production Has On America's Obesity Epidemic, Scott Reddy

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect that increased U.S. corn-ethanol production has on food prices and, in turn, the diet choices of the U.S. population. Previous literature has confirmed the linkages between the energy market and the corn market and has separately examined the relationship between relative food prices and obesity. The purpose of this study is to link ethanol production to obesity. The first two sections of the model will utilize various econometric techniques to test the existence of certain empirical relationships over the period of January 1982-May 2011. The final stage will employ ordinary …

Immigration And Reverse Brain Drain In South East Asia, Trang T. Tran

Honors Theses

In recent years, governments around the world have shown increasing concerns about brain drain, the shift in human intelligence of many of their best educated citizens from developing countries to developed countries, as it causes negative effects on social and economic sectors of the source country. Nonetheless, Kuhn and McAusland (2006) argue that talent might often be wasted at home; migration to more supportive environments raises global innovation. Saxenian (2003) finds that gains may flow back to the developing country via returnees with enhanced skills, personal connections, and ideas for innovation. This thesis studies the causes of immigration. The study …

Quels Sont Les Facteurs Clés Qui Définissent Les Économies Et Par Conséquent, Les Cultures En France Et Aux États-Unis?, Paige Jacquelyn Valchuis

Honors Theses

My thesis examines the question of how the structure of work, government and policies affect work and leisure in France and the United States. Economy structures create different cultures that show important principles of a country. Economists often look at GDP when they compare countries' economies, but GDP is not the only factor for country analysis. In addition, the process of researching my thesis taught me that GDP does not calculate activities where no money is exchanged. In addition, this study examines GDP statistics, unemployment rate, incomes, hours worked, taxes, rules, governments, policies and leisure to make a true full …

The Endogeneity Of The Optimum Currency Area: Business Cycles Correlation Trade Intensity Intra­Industry Trade And Trade Pattern In The European Monetary Union, Yiran Zhang

Honors Theses

The concern of a sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone has become particularly intense since 2010, as several countries’ sovereign debts have increased sharply due to bank bailouts. The Optimum Currency Area (OCA) theory suggests that countries that have close trade links, similar business cycles, labor mobility across the region, and a risk sharing system such as an automatic fiscal transfer mechanism are suitable candidates to form a common currency union. A study by Frankel and Rose (1998) claims that trade intensity and business cycles correlation are endogenous and strongly correlated. Hence, a country is more likely to satisfy …

Analysis Of Entrepreneurial Qualities And Preparations Influencing Success And A Business Plan For The Startup Company Modd Products, Ellen Blanchard

Honors Theses

Entrepreneurship is crucial to the economy at large and within local communities; entrepreneurs are responsible for developing innovative products and services to meet consumer needs, as well as creating jobs. The primary purpose of this thesis is to develop a business plan for a startup company, MODD Products. The plan’s specific sections are included based on reasonable evidence that they are necessary to creating and running a successful startup. A core ideology, description of the company's first product line "MODD Cocktails", review of the industry and competition, target customer profile, and marketing strategy will all be included in the MODD …

The Yield Curve: An Analysis Of Its Forecasts For The Future Of The U.S Economy, Michael Casper

Honors Theses

Being able to forecast recessions is a useful tool for policymakers and investors alike. Doing so is often a difficult task. Using data on the yield curve spread, the S&P 500, and monetary regimes, this paper investigates the merits of forecasting using the yield curve. This paper found that the yield curve has done a reliable job of forecasting recessions in the past. In addition, both the probit and continuous models used in this study are enhanced by the inclusion of a detrended version of the S&P 500 index and a dummy variable adjusting for the change from the Bretton …

An Economic Analysis Of Somali Piracy Deterrence Strategies Within The Context Of The Economic Theory Of Crime And Punishment, Ryan Castello

Honors Theses

From 2006 to 2010, the number of reported piracy incidents perpetrated by Somali pirates, has increased from 19 to 212 per year, an alarming trend for the international shipping industry. This paper examines the increasing number of pirate attacks within the context of the theory developed in, Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach (Becker, 1968). This paper demonstrates the supply of pirates is a function of probability of punishment, severity of penalty, as well as institutional factors. This research entails a theoretical discussion, and an analysis of the available data on Somali piracy. The theoretical discussion combines theory with current …

Do Cigarette Taxes Make Smokers Happier Than Nonsmokers?, Mark Chaskes

Honors Theses

Public health advocates justify cigarette taxes, claiming they discourage smoking, which results in a healthier population. However, the more pertinent issue with which health advocates should be concerned is that of smoker well‐being. In this paper, I investigate whether cigarette taxes make smokers relatively more satisfied than nonsmokers. Additionally, because poor smokers have a higher discount rate than wealthy smokers, and therefore, perceive the tax differently, I explore the effect that income, in conjunction with a cigarette tax increase, has on smokers’ life‐satisfaction. Using cross‐sectional and time‐series data from the 2005‐2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, this paper utilizes …

Effects Of Income Inequality On Economic Growth, Madelyn Degutis

Honors Theses

Economic growth reflects the change in the overall well-being of a country and the standard of living of its population. It is important to understand what factors affect economic growth. This thesis hypothesizes that income inequality negatively affects growth. A country-level data set of 114 countries for 2000 and 2005 is used to estimate a growth model. The dependent variable, the five year average of economic growth per capita, is regressed on a set of standard factors (human capital, investment, and technology), institutional factors (political stability, corruption, and property rights), income inequality, and demographic factors (gender equality and racial diversity). …

Behavioral Economics And Physician Behavior, Allyssa S. Ward

Honors Theses

This study seeks to answer whether the availability heuristic leads physicians to utilize more medical care than is economically efficient. Do rare, salient events alter physicians' perceptions about the probability of patient harm? Do these events lead physicians to overutilize certain medical procedures? This study uses Pennsylvania inpatient hospital admissions data from 2009 aggregated at the physician level to investigate these questions. The data come from the 2009 Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4).

The study is divided into two parts. In Part I, we examine whether bad outcomes during childbirth (defined as maternal mortality, an obstetric fistula or …

The Effects Of Interstate Speed Limit Increases: Fatality Rates And Traffic Diversion Versus Speed Spillover, Daniel L. Dillon

Honors Theses

This thesis examines two panel data sets of 48 states from 1981 to 2009 and utilizes ordinary least squares (OLS) and fixed effects models to explore the relationship between rural Interstate speed limits and fatality rates and whether rural Interstate speed limits affect non-Interstate safety. Models provide evidence that rural Interstate speed limits higher than 55 MPH lead to higher fatality rates on rural Interstates though this effect is somewhat tempered by reductions in fatality rates for roads other than rural Interstates. These results provide some but not unanimous support for the traffic diversion hypothesis that rural Interstate speed limit …

The Health Care Debate And Health Care Coverage In The U.S. A. Today, Antonio Giraldi

Honors Theses

The health care system in the United State has struggled during the past few decades. This has been accompanied by many controversies and debates among U.S. policy makers and health insurance providers. Dissatisfaction with health care in the United States today can be divided into three main aspects of health care; coverage, cost, and quality. The first problem, coverage, is a major issue because about 15 percent of the population of the U.S. (45 million) is uninsured today. The first and second problems, coverage and cost, are somewhat related since the rising cost of obtaining health services is one of …

Challenges Of The Cooperative Movement In Addressing Issues Of Human Security In The Context Of A Neoliberal World: The Case Of Argentina, Stefan Ivanovski

Honors Theses

The response of some Argentine workers to the 2001 crisis of neoliberalism gave rise to a movement of worker-recovered enterprises (empresas recuperadas por sus trabajadores or ERTs). The ERTs have emerged as former employees took over the control of generally fraudulently bankrupt factories and enterprises. The analysis of the ERT movement within the neoliberal global capitalist order will draw from William Robinson’s (2004) neo-Gramscian concept of hegemony. The theoretical framework of neo-Gramscian hegemony will be used in exposing the contradictions of capitalism on the global, national, organizational and individual scales and the effects they have on the ERT movement.

The …

Government Influence And The Failure Of Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac, Aravind Mohan

Honors Theses

In 2008 two government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were placed into conservatorship due to insolvency. The financial bailout of the two publically traded corporations came at the expense of the American tax payer. This study investigates the relationship between direct and indirect government influence and the increasing risk taking of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from the late 1990’s through their conservatorship in 2008. As government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have many special advantages that other publically traded companies did not possess. These advantages allowed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase their profitability. Theoretical literature …

The National Hockey League: An Econometric Analysis Of Attendance, Kendrick A. Hotte

Honors Theses

The National Hockey League (NHL) and professional sports as a whole are interesting to study when econometric models are applied. First, a thorough examination of current literature concerning both professional sports and econometrics will be reviewed. In addition, a full description of the data and its accompanying sources are discussed. Then, through the use of an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and hypothesis testing, the role of attendance throughout the NHL as a function of win percentage is empirically tested. Using a demand equation for the attendance of hockey games over the past 15 years, this paper will focus on …

What Causes Ministers Of Finance To Get Fired?, Bradley Turner

Honors Theses

This paper seeks to establish the determinants of turnover in finance ministers. Based on an original worldwide data set, political and economic factors are considered for 58 countries. While the same political factors affect Minister of Finance turnover in both advanced and developing economies, the economic variables that matter differ between the sub-samples. Finance minister turnover is higher during years that there is also presidential turnover. Further, emerging economies have a higher Minister of Finance turnover than developed economies during years without presidential turnover. Results largely hold for robustness checks.

The Effectiveness Of Capital Controls On Capital Inflows In Emerging Markets, Kathleen A. Davis

Honors Theses

Capital flows have become increasingly more volatile over the past

decade, causing growing concern in emerging markets over the potential damages

large sudden capital inflows and outflows can cause those economies. Capital

controls have been used since World War I as a way to try to control these flows.

After being abolished nearly everywhere, they have recently been reintroduced in

a number of countries. The main analysis of this paper looks at the effect of the

capital controls on capital inflows from 2000 through 2010 in an 8 country sample

of emerging markets who have recently implemented changes in their …

Bailing Out America: An Honors Thesis Addressing The Bailout And Financial Crisis Of 2008, Reuben Cash

Honors Theses

This paper analyzes the financial crisis of 2008 and the resulting government intervention of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or more generally called "the bailout." Beginning with historical context of past interventions, it sets forth an understanding of the economic environment of 2008. After explaining the mechanics of the financial crisis, it proposes that the reinsurance products underlying the financial markets in 2008 were based on unsound accounting and risk management principles. Based on this proposition, the representational faithfulness and fairness of mark-to-market accounting principles are examined. The paper concludes that a short-term financial focus is largely to blame for …