Digital Commons Network^™

Cmc Thesis Chatbot, Luis Gomez

CMC Senior Theses

This GitHub repo is a senior thesis for Claremont McKenna College; it is a thesis about theses. The project is an interactive RAG-based chatbot that helps students, researchers, and faculty explore Claremont McKenna College senior theses. The goal was to create a domain-specific chatbot to show that it is possible to combat the limitations of AI, including hallucinations, outdated data, and lack of domain expertise. The website link is:

CMCThesisChatbot

Crowding-In Between Public And Private Investment In Developing Countries, Wally Bargeron

CMC Senior Theses

The tendency for public investment to crowd-in or crowd-out private investment is the subject of controversy in economic literature. This paper studies the relationship between public and private investment in fixed capital from 1970 to 2019 in 68 developing countries across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. I find evidence for a crowding-in relationship between public and private investment overall. The crowding-in effect is larger in countries with high scores for measures of good governance, including a score that measures legal framework for businesses and a score that measures corruption.

Analyzing Political Sentiment On Micro-Blogging Data: A Lexicon And Machine Learning Approach To The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, Ava Grey

CMC Senior Theses

This paper explores the trends in sentiment towards U.S. presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump through micro-blogging social media text during the five months leading up to the election. Two datasets of varying sizes and origins were used to contextualize and validate analysis findings. The analyses include both a lexicon-based approach and a machine learning predictive method. Common sentiment analysis techniques like term frequency, term frequency inverse, various lexicons, and n-grams were utilized during the lexicon approach. During the modeling, a random forest was utilized in addition to the methods used during the lexicon approach. Results showed that overall …

Invisible No More: Looking And Listening Locally To Build Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Resilience, Anjali Thakore

CMC Senior Theses

The ubiquity of sexual violence, with its devastating physical and psychological consequences, has rendered conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) one of the most effective and enduring “invisible crimes” of war. Despite receiving growing attention across academic, political, and activist circles, wartime sexual violence remains pervasive in contemporary conflict zones. Against the backdrop of these frequent and recurring violations, this thesis explores the dissonance between high-level rhetorical commitments to preventing and punishing CRSV and on-the-ground realities. What soon emerges is a troubling pattern in which gendered violence—and women’s lived experiences more generally—while increasingly visible in theory, remains marginalised in practice. By investigating …

Heat And Hardship: Energy Price Increases And Heatstroke Risks In Japan During The Global Energy Crisis, Kenshin Ueoka

CMC Senior Theses

Given the global rise in surface temperatures due to climate change, it is important to understand the interactions governing economic and behavioral responses to household heat adaptation. This study investigated the relationship between energy prices and heatstroke risks in Japan. The analysis revealed that the increase in energy prices during the 2021 global energy crisis was associated with an unexpected decrease in home heatstroke emergency room visits. This result is consistent with the Peltzman effect and moral hazard problem, as reduced economic access to air conditioning may have increased risk perception, heightening heatstroke prevention measures. The ambiguity of this result …

A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Realism In U.S. Foreign Policy, Olivia M. Licata

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the influence of realist theory on U.S. foreign policy from 1776 to 2025. Through a temporal analysis of policy across three international power systems – multipolarity, bipolarity, and unipolarity – this paper determines that U.S. foreign policymakers follow realist prescriptions for state behavior given their perception of the United States’ status within the international balance of power system. As a result, the U.S. foreign policy has become rooted in realist assumptions and constrained to realism-prescribed behavior, which will ultimately lead to hegemonic decline. This paper calls for the reexamination of realist influences on foreign policy decision-making.

When Consumers See It Coming: How Anticipation Affects The Domestic Cost Of Tariffs, Pierce D. Sanderson

CMC Senior Theses

Tariffs implemented by President Trump in 2018 were unexpected and significant, incurring large costs to U.S. consumers. This study examines the effect of tariff anticipation on price, quantity, and value effect on imports in the United States. Specifically, it focuses on tariffs implemented during Obama’s second term in office from 2012 to 2016 on the automotive, technology, and manufacturing industries. The findings present a significant divergence from the literature on the effects of 2018 tariffs, finding a near full pass-through of tariffs to foreign exporter prices rather than U.S. consumers. Specifically, a one percent increase in tariffs resulted in a …

Land Back To Right Of Return: Proposing Paths Forward In Palestine, Melanie Kallah

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis presents a parallel case study of the settler colonial histories of Canada and Palestine. The Land Back Movement was first analyzed to determine what conditions enabled the success of Indigenous land restitution in Canada. Subsequently, a cross-analysis with Palestine was conducted to ascertain whether the same enabling conditions could facilitate Palestinian land restitution, known as the Right of Return.

Responsible Giving: Foreign Aid Effectiveness And Drivers Of Development, Isabella D. Doud

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines how bilateral governments and multilateral organizations interact with recipient countries to alleviate poverty, promote sustainable growth, and address inequalities. This thesis will chronologically outline three aid strategies adopted by the industry. First, the thesis will explore the distribution of aid through sectoral or regional projects, which were constructed with the intention of sparking public investment. Second, the thesis will analyze the transition to structural adjustment loans, which were given to provoke macroeconomic reform. Third, the thesis will explore the present aid effectiveness approach, where donors are encouraged to adhere to certain norms when allocating aid. Next, this …

The Impact Of Job Loss On Health-Related Outcomes During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Kelly Prawira

CMC Senior Theses

In this paper, I explore the effects of job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic on self-reported general and mental health conditions and health insurance coverage. Using Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data from 2018-2022, I evaluate the effects of job loss on these health-related outcomes by conducting a year-over-year analysis. I also examine changes in job loss effects during the pandemic by performing a difference-in-differences analysis. Overall, I find that job loss is associated with a higher likelihood of having fair or poor general and mental health, a higher likelihood to have Medicaid/SCHIP, and a lower likelihood to have private insurance. …

Consolidating The Carbon Trade: Policy Recommendations To Promote Standard Convergence Among The Vcm, Article 6, And Regional Pricing Instruments, Jack M. Barrett

CMC Senior Theses

Efforts to construct robust international carbon markets have repeatedly fallen short of their climate and sustainable development objectives. From the Clean Development Mechanism’s collapse under the weight of non-additional credits to the Voluntary Carbon Market’s recent legitimacy crisis, structural flaws and fragmented standards have undermined offsetting systems for more than two decades. Today, the emergence of the Paris Agreement's Article 6 mechanisms, alongside initiatives like the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), offer a critical but fragile opportunity to rebuild market credibility. The proliferation of diverging standards across Article 6, voluntary markets, and regional carbon pricing instruments risks …

Predictive Policing In Practice: A Case Study Of Chicago's Strategic Subject List, Stella Cheng

CMC Senior Theses

Technological advancements in big data and algorithmic modeling have contributed to the rise of advanced predictive policing techniques. Law enforcement agencies utilize these tools to predict and prevent crime before it occurs. However, these techniques have been the subject of extensive ethical debates, particularly regarding their potential to reinforce racial biases. This thesis provides a historical overview and analysis of a prominent example of people-based predictive policing: the Chicago Police Department’s Strategic Subject List (SSL) program. The SSL program revolved around an algorithm designed to predict individuals' risk of involvement in a shooting, using indicators such as co-arrest networks, age, …

Skilled Immigrant Labor And Ai Innovation: A Longitudinal Panel Analysis Of H-1b Sponsorship Effects On Ai Patenting, Xinyue Zhang

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines how firm-level access to high-skilled immigrant labor, measured through H-1B visa petitions and approvals, affects innovation in artificial intelligence (AI). Using a panel dataset linking firm-year H-1B filings from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Employer Data Hub to AI patent records from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) between 2009 and 2019, the analysis estimates fixed effects regressions predicting AI patenting activity. The results show that H-1B approvals are positively and significantly associated with future AI patent counts, while petitions alone are not. Alternative specifications using inverse hyperbolic sine transformations and changes in …

The Uncertain Promise Of Foreign Bank Entry: Institutional Quality Effects On The Foreign Bank–Financial Inclusion Nexus, Jason Dedman

CMC Senior Theses

Despite the precipitous rise in foreign bank presence due to ever increasing financial globalization, the literature on the nexus between foreign banks and financial inclusion remains critically underdeveloped. This paper revisits the relationship between foreign bank presence and financial inclusion in emerging and developing economies (EMDEs), extending the methodology of Gopalan and Rajan (2018) by integrating updated ownership data from Panizza (2024) and introducing institutional quality as a moderating variable. Employing both fixed effects and system generalized method of moments on a panel dataset of 128 EMDEs, this study finds that foreign bank presence has a far more ambiguous effect …

Accounting Metrics And Stock Sensitivity: A Comparative Analysis Between Small Cap And Large Cap Companies, Diana B. Carranza

CMC Senior Theses

This study examines whether the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) of small-cap companies are more sensitive to accounting metrics such as return on assets (ROA), return on investment (ROI), return on equity (ROE), and the debt-to-equity (D/E) ratio compared to large-cap companies. Using a sample of firms from the S&P 500 and S&P 600, moderated linear regression models were applied to test the relationship between profitability, leverage, and stock price reactions. The models include interaction terms with firm size and control for time-fixed effects. The results show that while profitability metrics are positively and significantly associated with CARs for large-cap firms, …

Batteries For Grid Stability: The Impact Of Utility-Scale Battery Installation On Electricity Price Volatility In California, Hannah Vestring

CMC Senior Theses

As renewable energy penetration increases, driven largely by solar, electricity prices have become increasingly volatile due to the intermittency of supply, increasing the need for price stabilizing interventions. This study examines the impact of cumulative additions of utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) capacity on real-time market (RTM) electricity price volatility within the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) between 2020 and 2024, taking a long-term, system-wide perspective on storage deployment. Using an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression framework, the analysis finds that cumulative BESS capacity is significantly associated with reduced price volatility in the benchmark model, with results remaining robust …

Optimal Capital Allocation Decisions And Investments In The Nba, Anderson Cynkar

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the relationship between salary concentration and winning in the NBA, primarily focusing on how the concentration of payroll among top-earning players influences success. Several concentration metrics were constructed and employed including the use of a Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) to measure the share of payroll each player receives across a team. I used fixed effects regressions and clustered standard errors at a team level to control for unobserved factors that remain the same over time. The results revealed a consistent inverted U-shape curve, signaling that an optimal concentration of capital exists for the highest paid player, two highest …

The Pricing Of Forecast-Based Earnings Uncertainty In Equity Markets, Brenda G. Galvan

CMC Senior Theses

This paper constructs a firm-level measure of earnings forecast uncertainty by adapting the macroeconomic methodology of Jurado et al. (2015) to micro-level financial statement data from Compustat and CRSP. Using a two-stage estimation procedure, I first forecast the scaled year-over-year changes in earnings, defined as the change in income before extraordinary items normalized by firm sales,based on lagged firm fundamentals. I then model the squared forecast errors to extract the unpredictable component of earnings variation, generating a forward-looking, firm-specific measure of ex-ante uncertainty. Empirically, I examine whether this forecast uncertainty measure is priced in equity markets by regressing future stock …

Competitive Effects Of Targeted School Vouchers: Evidence From A Regression Discontinuity Study Of Arizona’S Esa Program, David Walker

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the competitive effects of Arizona’s targeted Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program, which operated from 2012 to 2022, on public school performance. Under this program, students attending D-rated or F-rated schools were made eligible for school vouchers. I analyze both short-term (2015) and longer-term (2019) impacts. Using a sharp regression discontinuity design centered on the threshold between C- and D-rated schools under Arizona’s A–F school rating system, I estimate the effect of voucher eligibility on standardized test outcomes in English Language Arts and Math, as measured by the AzMERIT assessment. The results show that voucher eligibility led to …

Built By Family: How Early Environments Shape Transformational Leaders And Star Followers, Gabrielle J. Ong

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines how early family environments—defined in this paper by parenting and attachment styles—influence the development of transformational leadership and star followership qualities in children. By integrating research from behavioral and developmental psychology, it explores how authoritative parenting and secure attachment foster self-concept, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. These traits, in turn, predict transformational leadership behaviors such as intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration, as well as star followership traits like active engagement and independent thinking. Through this, a conceptual model is proposed to illustrate the pathways from parenting and attachment to leadership and followership outcomes, mediated by personality, self-concept, and …

The Effect Of The Tcja And Cares Act On Charitable Contributions And The Financial Health Of The Nonprofit Sector, Nathanio A. Bright

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act of 2020 on charitable contributions and nonprofit financial health. The standard deduction increase introduced by the TCJA disincentivized middle to low-income earners from making contributions. In March 2020, Congress temporarily increased the AGI limit on charitable deductions while simultaneously offering an above-the-line deduction for all U.S. taxpayers. While earlier studies have analyzed the effect of the TCJA in disincentivizing charitable contributions, no study has examined the moderating effect of the TCJA and CARES Act in affecting contributions …

Beyond The Bank Account: Financial Inclusion And Maharashtra's Microenterprises, Kyra F. Variyava

CMC Senior Theses

Financial inclusion has evolved from mere bank account ownership to a broader imperative that encourages the active and consistent use of financial services to cultivate practices of savings and better financial management. Focusing on the underserved communities of Maharashtra’s microenterprise sector, this thesis evaluates the effectiveness of four central financial inclusion schemes: Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana, Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises, Stand-Up India, and Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi. This thesis develops a four-dimensional evaluative framework, assessing each scheme’s performance in accessibility, awareness and financial literacy efforts, adoption of digital services, and accountability and oversight …

The Effect Of Impersonal Language Structures In Portuguese And English On Bilinguals’ Ability To Endure Hunger, Lucas Mceachern

CMC Senior Theses

Do differences in linguistic structures affect the way speakers of those languages experience hunger? This experiment hypothesizes that they do, under the premise that our experience of the world (colors, emotions, and physiological sensations alike) is shaped by highly variable language-based conceptual knowledge. This study investigates how differing structures of impersonality in Portuguese and English affect bilingual speakers’ ability to endure hunger. In total, 162 Portuguese-English bilinguals would be randomly assigned to a fasting and language condition and asked to answer questions regarding their perceived ability to fast until the next day. Their answers, as well as the time between …

Hooked By Design: How Social Media Makes And Breaks Us, Anya Raghuvanshi

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the evolving influence of social media platforms on user behavior, corporate engagement, and digital communication norms. Tracing the historical emergence of major platforms, it analyzes how psychological principles underlying attraction, engagement, and retention have been embedded within digital environments to shape user experiences. Drawing on case studies and international examples, the research highlights how cultural and economic factors — particularly in the United States — have influenced the adoption and monetization of social media. The study also explores broader shifts, including the rising commercialization of digital spaces and the evolving role of social media as both an …

Neural Correlates Of Attentional Biases In Dietary Choice: Role Of Childhood Socioeconomic Status, Justine Jamie N. Gotico

CMC Senior Theses

Childhood poverty has been shown to increase adult risk for obesity above and beyond its direct effects on adult socioeconomic status (SES). One proposed mechanism of these effects is by shifting behavioral patterns of dietary consumption and choice, for example by increasing rapid attention to high-calorie unhealthy foods. Yet, whether such neural mechanisms can explain observed differences in dietary behavior based on childhood SES remains an open question. Here we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine early attentional correlates of low childhood SES during a dietary choice task, based on research suggesting that early attentional biases toward high-calorie foods emerge …

The Paradox Of Pleasure: How Sex-Positive Feminism Constrains Female Freedom, Katherine S. Lanzalotto

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis critiques popular sex-positive narratives that espouse sex as the path to female liberation and empowerment despite ideological and material constraints that tailor female sexual expression to male desires. It interrogates sex-positive feminism's evolution and impact on female freedom. Despite its progressive intentions, mainstream sex-positive discourse has paradoxically constrained female freedom. This thesis analyzes how sex positivity inhibited female freedom, developing a nuanced framework of negative, positive, and republican freedom. This framework elucidates new constraints introduced by pro-sex thinking, such as compulsory female sexuality, the commodification of women under capitalism, and intersectional oversights in sex-positive thinking that particularly affect …

Pacification In Rio De Janeiro Comunidades: Perceptions Of Militarized Public Security, Ilma Turcios

CMC Senior Theses

Brazil’s history of militarization in public policy has led to the adoption of new models centered around crime intervention and community growth. Rio de Janeiro’s 2008 Comunidade (Favela) Pacification Program was one of the most notable policies reflective of these goals. Rio’s state government implemented Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) that would be permanently stationed in comunidades, driving out criminal organizations and promoting socioeconomic development.

The program was recognized as a symbol of reform in urban security thanks to initial crime reductions in pacified communities. However, testimonies reveal patterns of physical and institutional violence at the hands of UPPs and continued …

Climate Change And Ski Resort Ownership Consolidation, Gabriel Yang

CMC Senior Theses

Based on a collected dataset of ski resort ownership records and localized climate data spanning 1920-2020, I analyze how environmental volatility affects firm-level outcomes. Using multinomial logit regression models, I examine whether changes in snowfall, precipitation, and temperature are associated with higher probabilities of acquisition, particularly by large conglomerates. Preliminary results suggest that climate volatility, specifically around minimum and maximum temperature, is becoming increasingly important in affecting ownership transfers. Resorts with higher volatility in warm-day temperatures are less likely to be acquired by both conglomerates and non-conglomerates, while cold volatility has become less important over time as snowmaking capabilities are …

An Associative Account Of Political Obligation And Its Implications For Global Justice, Rafael Otero

CMC Senior Theses

In this thesis I explore a theory of political obligation and justice described by Thomas Nagel, and examine the implications of his account for the demands of global justice. I begin by defining political obligation and outlining three families of morally relevant duties, voluntary duties, associative duties, and general duties, and explain how political obligation can be thought of as each type of duty. I claim that political obligation is best thought of as an associative duty, and present an associative account of political obligation and justice articulated by Nagel. After analyzing Nagel’s account, I suggest that an adherence to …

Nothing Gets In The Way Of A Good Argument, Kai Fine

CMC Senior Theses

For much of Western history, the prevailing process of creating a proof for the existence of a thing (often suggested to be God) outside the causal chain was done by following that very causal chain. One of the most well known of these theories was created by Avicenna. Through following his classification of objects, one was thought to be able to “prove” the necessity for a thing that was necessary in and of itself, and separate from all other things. In this paper I outline the strongest section of Avicenna’s argument, illustrating his classifications. I then turn to Graham Priest’s …