Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Gendered Stem Beliefs And Major Choice, Nicole T. Cesanek, Benjamin J. Durham

Student Publications

Beliefs and expectations about who can and should pursue STEM careers contribute to a student’s sense of STEM identity and may help to explain the gender gap in pursuing STEM in higher education. The formation of these beliefs is a long and complex process, starting very early on in an individual’s life. We analyze how gendered STEM beliefs of students, parents, and teachers in ninth grade affect a female student’s probability of majoring in STEM in college. We add to an analysis done by Sansone (2019) in an appendix of his paper by using actual majors instead of intended majors. …

Economic Interdependence And Conflict: An International Relations Theory Analysis, Sam M. Arkin

Glatfelter Gazette

Theories of International Relations are constructed to help make sense of how power is divided amongst international actors. Three prominent theories: Realism, Liberalism, and Neo-Marxism, interpret international phenomena differently based on their assumptions about structures of global power. Economic interdependence is seen by each theory to impact who has power and how that power is maintained. These theories diverge in interpreting how economic interdependence impacts forms of conflict. These pieces do not interpret which theory is correct but work to emphasize the contextual foundations and analytical framework for how each theory perceives the entanglement of economic interdependence and conflict.

State Capitalism’S Inability To Alter The Global Power Structure, Michael R. Woods

Student Publications

In the modern day, many nations have instituted State Capitalist policies to grow their economies and increase their international influence. To evaluate the efficacy of this strategy, this paper analyzes the historical impacts of State Capitalism, as well as its effects upon economic concepts, including competition and innovation. This work also analyzes the ways in which State Capitalist policies have negatively impacted the international reputations of nations such as Russia and China and explores the specific national characteristics and circumstances that are required to truly alter the global power structure. Ultimately, the work concludes that state capitalism is unlikely to …

Courting American Capital: Public Relations And The Business Of Selling Ivorian Capitalism In The U.S., 1960-1980, Abou B. Bamba

History Faculty Publications

This chapter is an invitation to reimagine the roles assigned to players in the history of capitalism on the global stage. It challenges aspects of the historiography of capitalism in the twentieth century, which tend to center on historical actors and institutions of the Global North. Even when actors in the Global South are discussed, it is usually to portray them as passive victims of an intractable system. By focusing on the Ivory Coast and its economic diplomacy toward the United States, I seek to destabilize this general picture.

Implications Of Online Gambling Legalization, William M. Schmidt

Student Publications

The tradition of gambling has been around for thousands of years, but has undergone a recent evolution into what it is perceived as today. This has turned it into an industry of its own, which will only continue to grow with the ongoing legalization of online gambling. Past trends in these legislations would project further economic growth tied to the gambling industry. However, the mental health implications that have been seen to stem from the practice of gambling are as present as ever. This problem associated with the industry will also be expected to climb as gambling becomes both more …

Unparalleled Opportunities Or Unmitigated Risk? Economic Globalization And Its Impact On State Capacity In The Developing World, John M. Zak

Student Publications

Economic globalization is a phenomenon driving major developments in the international system. With the force of this phenomenon shaping events within states and interactions among them, the question of economic globalization’s impact on state capacity is worthy of an in-depth analysis. In this work I use economic globalization as the central explanatory variable and state capacity as the dependent variable and seek to establish an empirical relationship between the two that will offer the social science community a better understanding of how this phenomenon is shaping state capacity in developing countries. Based on available scholarship, I argue that economic globalization …

The Effects Of Economic And Political Globalization On Level Of Democracy, Julianna R. Pestretto

Student Publications

Since the birth of the nation state, we have been undergoing a process called globalization. Simply put, globalization is the process of interaction and integration among the people, companies and governments of different nations. It is a process driven by trade and investment and supported by economic partnerships and institutions. As time goes on, the effects of globalization have become more intense, and are felt disproportionately across nations and socio-economic levels, resulting in a backlash that has been largely characterized by the rise of right-wing populism. It is thus important to study the effects that globalization has on level of …

Congenital Chagas Disease In The United States: The Effect Of Commercially Priced Benznidazole On Costs And Benefits Of Maternal Screening, Victoria Perez-Zetune, Stephanie R. Bialek, Susan P. Montgomery, Eileen Stillwaggon

Economics Faculty Publications

Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, is transmitted by insect vectors, and through transfusions, transplants, insect feces in food, and mother to child during gestation. An estimated 30% of infected persons will develop lifelong, potentially fatal cardiac or digestive complications. Treatment of infants with benznidazole is highly efficacious in eliminating infection. This work evaluates the costs of maternal screening and infant testing and treatment for Chagas disease in the United States, including the cost of commercially available benznidazole. We compare costs of testing and treatment for mothers and infants with the lifetime societal costs without testing and consequent morbidity and …

Economic Implications Of Racism In The United States, Pranav Kayastha

Student Publications

Racism in the United States has evolved with time, and has now taken a subtle and discreet, yet equally dangerous, form. Hiding under seemingly innocuous political agendas, media outlets, and criminal justice system, the current form of racism is not as easy to call out as it once used to be. Nonetheless, we as a society are targeting, discriminating, and denying equal opportunities to the African American community in a variety of ways. This is hurting not just those directly affected, but the U.S. economy as a whole. To identify and fight against the subtle forms of discrimination, therefore, is …

The Cost-Effectiveness Of Neonatal Versus Prenatal Screening For Congenital Toxoplasmosis, Christine Binquet, Catherine Lejeune, Valérie Seror, François Peyron, Anne-Claire Bertaux, Olivier Scemama, Catherine Quantin, Sophie Béjean, Eileen Stillwaggon, Martine Wallon

Economics Faculty Publications

Congenital Toxoplasmosis (CT) can have severe consequences. France, Austria, and Slovenia have prenatal screening programs whereas some other countries are considering universal screening to reduce congenital transmission and severity of infection in children. The efficiency of such programs is debated increasingly as seroprevalence among pregnant women and incidence of congenital toxoplasmosis show a steady decrease. In addition, uncertainty remains regarding the effectiveness of pre- and postnatal treatments.

Prevention And Mitigation Of Congenital Toxoplasmosis: Economic Costs And Benefits In Diverse Settings, Branko Bobić, Isabelle Villena, Eileen Stillwaggon

Economics Faculty Publications

Congenital toxoplasmosis (CT), the result of a primary infection of pregnant women with Toxoplasma gondii which was transmitted to the fetus, may result in mild to deep injuries occurring in the newborn or later in its development or in adolescence. The visual and cognitive impairment that can result imposes substantial economic costs on the individual and society. Numerous observational studies favor the conclusion that, with preventive measures currently available, it is possible to reduce the incidence of infections in pregnant women, the incidence of fetal infection by preventing transplacental transmission, and the gravity of injury in infected newborns. Treatment of …

College Crime And Retention Rates, Abigail R. Hauer

Student Publications

Increased media attention on college crime has led to greater prioritization of campus safety when selecting a college to attend. This, coupled with society’s view of higher education as a necessity to succeed in the labor market, creates a potential tradeoff between safety on campus and future job success. To analyze such tradeoff, I examine whether college crime affects retention rates at four-year American institutions. While literature has focused on college crime and factors that affect the decision to begin attending a college, no study has solely focused on the college crime and the decision to continue attending a college. …

Budget Magic: The Gathering For Beginners, Todd W. Neller

Computer Science Faculty Publications

In this talk, Neller overviewed budget-friendly entry points to playing Magic: The Gathering (M:TG) after its first quarter-century of success. Noting the ways in which M:TG players have applied head-designer Mark Rosewater’s “restrictions breed creativity” lesson, he celebrated their creative formats that push back against expensive “pay to win” dynamics.

Did Dr-Cafta Affect The Exports Of The Dominican Republic To The United States?, Maria Ivanova Reyes Peguero, Asger V. Hansen

Economics Faculty Publications

This article evaluates the impact the Dominican Republic and Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) had on the exports of the Dominican Republic (DR) to the United States. We estimate a gravity model for the DR exports to the 109 trade partners of the country from 1990 to 2014. This model quantifies the effect of the DR-CAFTA since 2007, when the agreement was ratified, and finds that the DR-CAFTA negatively affected DR exports to the US. We conduct further analysis of factors that could explain the decline in exports, in spite of the ratification of the agreement. We find that …

Honoring Veterans Means Funding Suicide Prevention, Brendan Cushing-Daniels, Christopher R. Fee

Economics Faculty Publications

Many Americans may not know that it was Dwight D. Eisenhower who in 1954 issued the official proclamation celebrating the service of all veterans by designating Nov. 11, formerly known as Armistice Day, in honor of our vets. Eisenhower, of course, was supreme commander of Allied Forces in Europe during World War II and commander in chief as the 34th president of the United States.

In Ike’s words, “on that day let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, …

Congenital Chagas Disease In The United States: Cost Savings Through Maternal Screening, Eileen Stillwaggon, Victoria Perez-Zetune, Stephanie R. Bialek, Susan P. Montgomery

Economics Faculty Publications

Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, is transmitted by insect vectors through transfusions, transplants, insect feces in food, and from mother to child during gestation. Congenital infection could perpetuate Chagas disease indefinitely, even in countries without vector transmission. An estimated 30% of infected persons will develop lifelong, potentially fatal, cardiac or digestive complications. Treatment of infants with benznidazole is highly efficacious in eliminating infection. This work evaluates the costs of maternal screening and infant testing and treatment of Chagas disease in the United States. We constructed a decision-analytic model to find the lower cost option, comparing costs of testing and …

Airbnb's Effect On The Hospitality Industry, Eric A. Douglas

Student Publications

I examined the effect that Airbnb’s entrance into and disruption of the hospitality market in 2011 had on hotel room rates across the world by 2017. Hotel room rates were taken from published data tables rather than my own analysis because of an unavailability of raw hotel pricing data. Price comparisons between current Airbnb and hotel room rates were researched to see if one method of accommodation would be better than the other. Twenty-seven cities’ hotel rate averages and Airbnb entire-home prices were averaged and compared. There was a significant difference in hotel room rates between 2011 and 2017, during …

Understanding Hiv/Aids In The African Context, Eileen Stillwaggon, Larry Sawers

Economics Faculty Publications

This book of readings is intended for courses in Global Health. The editors asked Prof. Stillwaggon to contribute a chapter summarizing her years of work on the spread of HIV/AIDS in populations among whom bacterial, fungal, parasitic, and viral diseases are extremely common, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Her work has demonstrated that differences in behavior cannot explain differences in HIV rates between world regions.

Endowment Effects And Contribution Strategies In Public Good Experiments, John P. Weis, John J. Cadigan, Pamela Schmitt, Kurtis Swope

Economics Faculty Publications

We investigate behavior in a laboratory public good experiment with unique endowment schemes that allow a wider range of contribution strategies than in standard voluntary contribution mechanism (VCM) experiments. A baseline treatment follows a standard VCM design (subjects receive 10 tokens in each of 10 rounds that may be allocated between a private account and a group account). In a new carry-over treatment, any tokens not allocated to the group account in the current period are made available for contributions in future periods. Under full endowment, subjects receive 100 tokens in round one (rather than 10 tokens per …

Risk And Abnormal Returns In Markets For Congestion Revenue Rights, Rimvydas Baltaduonis, Samuel Bonar, John Carnes, Erin Mastrangelo

Economics Faculty Publications

In organized energy markets that use locational pricing, power generators and energy suppliers procure financial transmission rights (FTRs) to hedge against grid con- gestion charges, while third-party speculators attempt to capture a return with these extremely volatile contracts. This paper develops a novel methodology for estimating the systematic risk of individual FTRs and detecting the presence of abnormal returns among these financial instruments. The prevalence of congestion paths with abnormal returns could be used by policy experts as an efficiency measure when assessing the performance of FTR markets. Being the only organized energy market in the Western Interconnection, California has …

Un Nouveau Miracle Économique Ivoirien?, Vincent Hiribarren, Abou B. Bamba

History Faculty Publications

Questions à Abou Bamba, associate professor d’Histoire et d’Etudes Africaines à Gettysburg College (Etats-Unis). Il est l’auteur de African Miracle, African Mirage: Transnational Politics and the Paradox of Modernization in Ivory Coast (Ohio University Press, 2016).

Congenital Toxoplasmosis In Austria: Prenatal Screening For Prevention Is Cost-Saving, Andrea-Romana Prusa, David C. Kasper, Larry Sawers, Evelyn Walter, Michael Hayde, Eileen Stillwaggon

Economics Faculty Publications

Background:

Primary infection of Toxoplasma gondii during pregnancy can be transmitted to the unborn child and may have serious consequences, including retinochoroiditis, hydrocephaly, cerebral calcifications, encephalitis, splenomegaly, hearing loss, blindness, and death. Austria, a country with moderate seroprevalence, instituted mandatory prenatal screening for toxoplasma infection to minimize the effects of congenital transmission. This work compares the societal costs of congenital toxoplasmosis under the Austrian national prenatal screening program with the societal costs that would have occurred in a No-Screening scenario.

Methodology/Principal Findings:

We retrospectively investigated data from the Austrian Toxoplasmosis Register for birth cohorts from 1992 to 2008, including pediatric …

In Solidarity, Musselman Library, Salma Monani, Sarah M. Principato, Dave Powell, Brent C. Talbot, Charles L. Weise, Bruce A. Larson, Scott Hancock, Mckinley E. Melton, David S. Walsh, Jennifer Q. Mccary, Kristina G. Chamberlin

Next Page

This edition of Next Page is a departure from our usual question and answer format with a featured campus reader. Instead, we asked speakers who participated in the College’s recent Student Solidarity Rally (March 1, 2017) to recommend readings that might further our understanding of the topics on which they spoke.

‘Community Of Schools’: A Case Study Of Development, Participation And Integration In Cato Manor Township, South Africa, Anthony L. Wagner

Student Publications

By the end of the twentieth century, a subfield of anthropology known as critical development studies emerged - in large part due to the work of James Ferguson and Arturo Escobar - as a critique of post-colonial development programs and NGOs of the West that were at work in much of the developing world - most notably sub-Saharan Africa. Development was largely panned by these early researchers as a means by which Western powers habituated problems in the developing world so as to create a profitable industry of development. Contemporary anthropological inquiries have called for an increasingly field-based approach to …

¿Qué Pasa Con Cuba Ahora?: La Economía Actual Y Sus Proyecciones Para El Futuro, Erica L. Nye

Student Publications

A través de un análisis de las opiniones y datos del libro Cuba. Hacia una estrategia de desarrollo para los inicios de siglo XXI y de las acciones que han ocurrido desde la publicación de este libro en el año 2012, este ensayo es una explicación de la economía actual y una proyección de lo que viene para Cuba. Los elementos de la economía que están considerados son: el sistema de microfinanzas y la pequeña y mediana empresa (Pyme), el sistema monetario, el control estatal, las industrias biotecnológicas e farmacéuticas, el acceso al internet, la infraestructura, la agroindustria de la …

Human Migration And Health: A Case Study Of The Chinese Rural-To-Urban Migrant Population, Leah C. Pinckney

Student Publications

Human migration is a complex, ancient process driven by a variety of social, political, and economic factors. Modern migrants and their families are often compelled to migrate voluntarily in pursuit of new opportunities for study or work and, in extreme circumstances, involuntarily for safety and survival. Chinese domestic migrant populations were mobilized with China’s early 1980s economic reform, which enabled rapid economic development largely dependent on urban factories. While this massive influx of young people predominantly from rural locales to urban locales seeking opportunity enabled China’s rise as a world power, their move not only marked changing internal labor patterns …

The Economics Of Refugees: How Refugees Influence The Economies Of Spain And England, Mary K. Bovard

Student Publications

The economic impact of refugee movements is a topic disputed throughout the world, but even more highly disputed in the European Union. In this last Syrian refugee movement, we have heard many different interpretations of how the movement would affect the European economy. Whether based on factual data or speculation, this paper aims to unpack several of the main economic arguments for and against the movement of refugees into European countries, particularly Spain and England. This paper argues that the perceived economic impacts of the refugee movement in Europe does not match the measured economic impacts.

La Influencia Del Mercado En La Crianza De Alpacas En Las Comunidades Alto Andinas De Pucará, Jessica Casale

Student Publications

Using a social-anthropological approach, through first-hand experiences living in the field and speaking with the subjects of this study, this paper investigates how the global economic market of alpaca wool has had effect on the traditional cultural practices of alpaca herders in the high Andean communities of Pucará, Peru. The results reveal a loss of traditional Andean herder’s practices and beliefs in the face of modernization, the inequality and exploitation within the wool market, and the influence of western economic ideologies. To preserve cultural practices and enhance the conditions of an alpaca herder, I suggest educating the communities on more …

The Proximity-Based Effect Of Terrorism On Countries' Economies, Sofia E. Mouritsen

Student Publications

In this paper, I explore the effect that proximity to terrorist-controlled areas has on countries’ economies. I posit that there exists a correlation between the aforementioned proximity and GDP growth rates, and hypothesize that the closer a country is to an area with high levels of terrorism, the more likely it is that its economy will be negatively affected. I begin by examining the nature of the correlation between terrorism and economic growth; following this, I explore the direct ways in which terrorism affects economic growth. Next, I delve into the recent economic history of countries around three areas: the …

Economic Costs And Benefits Of A Community-Based Lymphedema Management Program For Lymphatic Filariasis In Odisha State, India, Eileen Stillwaggon, Larry Sawers, Jonathan Rout, David Addiss, Leanne Fox

Economics Faculty Publications

Lymphatic filariasis afflicts 68 million people in 73 countries, including 17 million persons living with chronic lymphedema. The Global Program to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis aims to stop new infections and to provide care for persons already affected, but morbidity management programs have been initiated in only 24 endemic countries. We examine the economic costs and benefits of alleviating chronic lymphedema and its effects through a simple limb-care program. For Khurda District, Odisha State, India, we estimated lifetime medical costs and earnings losses due to chronic lymphedema and acute dermatolymphangioadenitis (ADLA) with and without a community-based limb-care program. The program would …