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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Effect Of New York City Sports Outcomes On The Stock Market, Nir Levy Oct 2015

The Effect Of New York City Sports Outcomes On The Stock Market, Nir Levy

Undergraduate Economic Review

This thesis investigates whether sports outcomes for New York City based teams affect the daily returns, volatility or trading volume of major stock indexes in the United States. I research whether events that affect local mood in a major financial center can influence national stock indexes by swaying the sentiment of workers in the financial sector. By performing an event study I found evidence that returns are abnormally high following championships won by New York City professional sports teams. Returns are abnormally low and volume is abnormally high following elimination from a championship round.


International Trade In Telecommunication Services: A Cross Sectional Gravity Regression, Justin C. Doty Sep 2015

International Trade In Telecommunication Services: A Cross Sectional Gravity Regression, Justin C. Doty

Undergraduate Economic Review

The gravity model has been successful in measuring the effects of institutions, trade barriers, and other characteristics on trade in goods. Kimura and Lee [2004] find the gravity model is also suitable for measuring trade in services. The Organization for Economic Co-Development [2009a] develop gravity models for pilot service sectors such as construction, computer, professional, and telecommunication services. The purpose of this paper is to extend the findings of the OECD paper for telecommunication services. The paper finds that a 10 percent increase in distance between countries will decrease imports by 11.77 percent. Imports of telecommunication services are influenced by …


Art Arbitrage - Violations Of The Law Of One Price Created By Fine Art Auctions, Amy Liu Jun 2015

Art Arbitrage - Violations Of The Law Of One Price Created By Fine Art Auctions, Amy Liu

Undergraduate Economic Review

Although fine art is becoming increasingly popular as investment, its price determination is relatively opaque. This paper expands upon the work of Pesando (1993) and Pesando and Shum (2007) concerning the law of one price in the art auction industry. By examining the sale history of silkscreen prints from Andy Warhol’s 1970 series Flowers, this paper controls for the physical characteristics of particular artwork and seeks to determine the likelihood of sale and price differentials created by specific auction environments. This paper further examines the extent to which auction houses take into account these auction environments when setting presale …


Cost - Benefit Analysis Of The German High Speed Rail Network, Martin Dorciak Jun 2015

Cost - Benefit Analysis Of The German High Speed Rail Network, Martin Dorciak

Undergraduate Economic Review

This study undertakes a cost-benefit analysis of the German railway market looking specifically at the effects of high-speed rail development on railway passenger subsidies. Using OLS regression analysis, I estimate a demand curve for the German railway network at the route level; this is combined with cost curve estimates to yield a required subsidy for rail development assuming a natural monopoly market structure. I find that an increase in demand as a result of the introduction of high-speed rail technology causes a 23.9% decrease in required rail subsidies.


Is All Foreign Aid The Same? : An Empirical Comparison Of The Effect Of Multilateral And Bilateral Aid On Growth, Scott B. Jeffrey May 2015

Is All Foreign Aid The Same? : An Empirical Comparison Of The Effect Of Multilateral And Bilateral Aid On Growth, Scott B. Jeffrey

Undergraduate Economic Review

Despite decades of research on foreign aid, there is little to no consensus on foreign aid’s effect on growth. While most in the field study recipient country characteristics, such as institutional quality, this paper also breaks down foreign aid by donor characteristics, specifically by bilateral and multilateral donors. Since about 75% of foreign aid is bilateral, my bilateral findings are in line with previous literature that finds high institutional quality key (Burnside and Dollar 2000; 2004), but I find that multilateral aid works best in low-income countries with poor policy environments, due, perhaps, to lacking political goals of donor countries.


Education And Women In The Informal Sector: A Cross-Country Analysis, Linh T. Nguyen May 2015

Education And Women In The Informal Sector: A Cross-Country Analysis, Linh T. Nguyen

Undergraduate Economic Review

This study investigates the effects of education on the participation of women in the informal sector of 40 developing countries using OLS linear regression. Through some econometric adjustments, the final model suggests that education, represented by years of schooling, is correlated with a 2.74% increase in women’s chances of being employed in this sub-sector of the economy. This means that the better educated still end up doing the jobs that do not require such knowledge. An implication of the result is that the current way which schooling is delivered to the poor might not be the most efficient way.


The Determinants Of Gasoline And Diesel Fuel Excise Tax Rates, Nicholas R. Jenkins May 2015

The Determinants Of Gasoline And Diesel Fuel Excise Tax Rates, Nicholas R. Jenkins

Undergraduate Economic Review

As Goel and Nelson (1999) show, fluctuations in fuel prices prompt politicians to alter fuel taxation policies. The goal of this paper was to examine the determinants of both gasoline and diesel fuel excise taxes. The diesel model builds on the work of Decker and Wohar (2006) and is extended to construct a model for gasoline fuel excise taxes. In addition to replicating results of prior research, the results suggest that states with colder weather have higher fuel tax rates. Additionally, findings demonstrated that increased funding from the Highway Trust Fund is associated with lower fuel tax rates.


Recent Periods Of Financial Turbulence On The Russian Stock Market And Their Effect On Price Correlation And Value At Risk, Alexander Logoveev, Gregory Cherinko Apr 2015

Recent Periods Of Financial Turbulence On The Russian Stock Market And Their Effect On Price Correlation And Value At Risk, Alexander Logoveev, Gregory Cherinko

Undergraduate Economic Review

The aim of this article is to observe and analyze the recent periods of financial turbulence on the Russian stock market and determine their influence on the correlation coefficients between asset prices and the Value at Risk measure for a portfolio. Our task was to describe the previously observed phenomenon of correlation enlargement during times of financial crises deemed in our research as separate Black Swans. Based on up-to-date financial data analysis we determined correlation trends that can be useful in risk management and applied the Value at Risk method.


A Different Approach To Jensen’S Alpha And Its Relationship With Returning Ranking, Tingyu Du Ms. Apr 2015

A Different Approach To Jensen’S Alpha And Its Relationship With Returning Ranking, Tingyu Du Ms.

Undergraduate Economic Review

Based on Michael C. Jensen’s CAPM model (1968), this paper refines it with dummy variables included. It examines if fund manager’s skill is contributing to fund’s performance within a five-year span from June 2009 to June 2014, and if high total return ranking is related to outstanding Jensen’s Alpha. The findings coincide with Jensen’s research results.


The Effect Of Terminating Enforcement Actions On The Nation's Problem Banks, Benjamin Doehr Mar 2015

The Effect Of Terminating Enforcement Actions On The Nation's Problem Banks, Benjamin Doehr

Undergraduate Economic Review

This paper examines whether the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's supervisory actions promote improved performance at problem banks. I show that during the three-year period following the termination of a supervisory action, return on assets rises by 10 to 20 basis points. The reaction of capital markets to the termination results in a 1.7 basis point increase in return on assets, while management actions post-termination result in a 1.6 basis point decrease in return on assets.


Analyzing Options Market Toxicity And The Black-Scholes Formula In The Presence Of Jump Diffusion As Simulated With Agent-Based Modeling, William D. Elliott Mar 2015

Analyzing Options Market Toxicity And The Black-Scholes Formula In The Presence Of Jump Diffusion As Simulated With Agent-Based Modeling, William D. Elliott

Undergraduate Economic Review

This paper presents new and significant research on the Black-Scholes Formula using the agent-based modeling software NetLogo. The software was used to simulate an options market subject to jump diffusion. Since the widely-used Black-Scholes Formula has at times proven unreliable, this research sought to understand circumstances that render the formula ineffective. It was hypothesized that markets would become difficult to trade in or “toxic” at low price volatility but high jump volatility. Further, it was predicted that kurtosis would alert the presence of toxic markets by accurately and consistently conveying whether jump diffusion was present.


The Savings Behavior Of Baby Boomers And Echo Boomers, Richard N. Fischer Feb 2015

The Savings Behavior Of Baby Boomers And Echo Boomers, Richard N. Fischer

Undergraduate Economic Review

Much has been written on the Baby Boomers and Echo Boomers following the Great Recession. This paper examines the savings behavior of these two groups and gives possible reasons as to why they make such decisions. Using data from a Times Union/Siena College poll to 751 residents in 51 upstate New York counties, I attempt to illustrate why people’s perceptions differ from reality. A chi-square analysis is used due to the categorical nature of the data. The findings show that people make economic decisions based on the life-cycle hypothesis and less on the economic recovery.


State Failure And Political Instability: The Impact Of Educational Attainment In Africa, Jesse D. Neugarten Jan 2015

State Failure And Political Instability: The Impact Of Educational Attainment In Africa, Jesse D. Neugarten

Undergraduate Economic Review

I investigate the role of educational attainment on state failure and political stability across the African continent. For the empirical analysis, I estimate a Linear Probability Model (LPM) for State Failure by Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). I hypothesize that differences in educational attainment in Africa can explain differences in political stability and state failure. Furthermore, I believe that this effect has persisted over time and that early educational attainment in the late colonial and early independence era is a significant determinant of state affairs in more recent times. I find that early secondary educational attainment explains higher state stability, while …