Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Not From My Wallet: Mental Accounting For Peer-To-Peer Digital-Payments, Jason Saltzman

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examined the presence and scope of mental accounting biases for peer- to-peer digital-payment systems (Venmo, PayPal, and Zelle) that have gained popularity in recent years. Payment mechanism related biases have implications for both consumers and retailers. The experimental study in this paper looked at different aspects of biases including how participants evaluate and account for money transferred through peer-to- peer digital-payment, if participants treat this money as completely fungible, and if treatment of this money is affected by demographic variables. Participants in the study were split into two treatments that differed only in regard to the account (peer-to-peer …

Understanding Place-Based Immigration: The Proposal, Its Popularity, And Its Prospects, Mohamad Moslimani

CMC Senior Theses

The idea to create a new class of place-based visas is gaining traction in policy circles. These visas, known in some instances as “heartland visas” and as part of a class of immigration reform called “place-based immigration” (PBI), are designed to give state and local governments the ability to sponsor immigrants to live and work in their local communities. The proposal has gained traction among a variety of candidates for federal office and local immigration policy stakeholders. The reason for this support is the proposal’s ability to address a grave issue facing numerous communities across the U.S.—and its ability to …

Would “Robot Umpires” Reduce Discrimination? Measuring Racial Bias In Major League Baseball Umpires, Hank Snowdon

CMC Senior Theses

Utilizing thirteen years of Major League Baseball pitch-tracking and play-by-play data, this study investigates racial discrimination by umpires when making pitch calling decisions. Two models are formulated, one that predicts the probability of a strike erroneously being called a ball (batter favoritism) and one that predicts the probability of a ball erroneously being called a strike (pitcher favoritism). The probabilities are modeled as a function of whether or not the pitcher’s or batter’s race is the same as the umpire’s. With over 3 million pitch observations, multiple sub-sample and time trend analyses are conducted to examine with whom the discrimination …

Sufficientarianism Revised: A Look At Past Theories Of Distributive Justice And Working Prospects For Future Theories, Georgia Dietz

CMC Senior Theses

In philosophy, distributive justice is the economic, political, and social structure that constitutes a larger debate on how resources should be divided in society. What is a ‘fair’ way of distributing resources? Many philosophers have created different frameworks that attempt to answer this question. This paper will focus on the attempts that have been made by sufficientarians, then look at problems with these theories that have been pointed out by critics, and finally attempt to revise sufficientarianism altogether.

Feature Investigation For Stock Returns Prediction Using Xgboost And Deep Learning Sentiment Classification, Seungho (Samuel) Lee

CMC Senior Theses

This paper attempts to quantify predictive power of social media sentiment and financial data in stock prediction by utilizing a comprehensive set of stock-related fundamental and technical variables and social media sentiments. For conducting sentiment analysis, this study employs a pretrained finBERT model that provides three different sentiment classifications and respective softmax scores. Hence, the significance of these variables is evaluated with XGBoost regression and Shapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) frameworks. Through investigating feature importance, this study finds that statistical properties of sentiment variables provide a stronger predictive power than a weighted sentiment score and that it is possible to quantify …

A Network Pandemic: Exploring The Effects Of Social Connectedness On The Spread Of Covid-19 In The United States, Mrinalini Bhushan

CMC Senior Theses

Social interactions influence the way we think and act. Recent literature on COVID-19 and social connectedness explores how social interactions influence people’s perceptions of the risk from COVID-19 and their behaviors. This paper seeks to investigate how social connectedness, political ideologies, and physical interaction are associated with local COVID-19 case and death rates at the US county level. Social connectedness, as defined by (Bailey et al, 2018) measures connectedness between US counties based on Facebook friendship links. I examine whether a county’s average social connectedness to other counties, as determined by the Facebook index, has an impact on its own …

Converged Subset Portfolios: An Extension To Subset Optimization, Coleman Cornell

CMC Senior Theses

The limited span of useful data, coupled with increasingly expansive asset universes, cripples the traditional mean-variance problem. When optimizing in these environments, the pronounced effect of estimation error yields extremely unstable portfolios when evaluated out-of-sample. As a proposed solution to the "curse of dimensionality," Gillen (2016) presents subset optimization as a technique to reduce the impact of estimation error. Instead of optimizing jointly over the entire asset universe, subset optimization na\"ively aggregates over many "subset portfolios" that each optimize over a much smaller random sample of assets. Given the inefficiencies when using naive aggregation, converged subset optimization is presented as …

Diversifying Investment Portfolios With Collectible Sneakers: Expected Returns And Benefits Of Diversification, Samuel Soo

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis seeks to identify if collectible sneakers can provide diversification benefits to an investor’s portfolio. Using data from a global collectible sneaker marketplace, StockX, I constructed an index to compare it with other traditional assets, including the S&P 500 index and 5-year US Treasury Bills. By calculating key metrics including expected returns, volatility, and correlation, I analyzed the risk-return characteristics of the collectible sneaker asset class compared to other traditional asset classes. From the data analysis I performed, I found that collectible sneakers did not outperform returns significantly compared to traditional asset classes, but had low correlations, which provides …

The Socioeconomic Impact And Allocative Discrepancies Of Fema Disaster Declarations And Aid, Emma Ranheim

CMC Senior Theses

In my thesis I examine the impact of natural disaster declarations on socioeconomic outcomes. I use counties that requested, but did not receive, a natural disaster declaration as controls for treatment counties that received the requested declaration. I construct a county-by-year panel dataset covering 2005 to 2016. I estimate a difference-in-differences model to estimate socioeconomic outcomes resulting from the disaster declaration decision. I find that receiving a declaration was associated with a 0.8 percentage point poverty reduction in 2010, but no other years or changes in socioeconomic outcomes were causally and significantly established by my model.

Dropping The Ball: A Political And Economic Analysis Of Public Subsidization For Stadium Construction Projects, Max Fisher

CMC Senior Theses

The results generated by this research argue that the high cost of public subsidization does not outweigh the benefits associated with new stadiums. By using several cost-benefit analyses, my research adds to the current literature that these projects, while seemingly beneficial for communities, induces negligible or even negative outcomes. In particular, this study details the Las Vegas Raiders and the New York Yankees, explaining how these teams were able to achieve a new stadium. To understand why politicians continually support stadium construction despite extensive literature showing its harms, this research includes explanations based on the political theory from authors such …

Gambling Autonomy: The Impact Of Latin American Central Bank Independence On Risk Aversion Within Monetary Policy Implementation, Julia Duarte Schulman

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the effect of Latin American central bank independence (CBI) on risk-averse behaviors in monetary policy. Using a fixed effects panel regression, I document how multiple forms of monetary policy are influenced by different macroeconomic variables, conflicting policy targets and central bank independence benchmarks. The results show that increasing CBI has a positive impact on risk aversion, especially in policies targeting inflation and money supply. Additionally, the results show that interest rates and reserve requirements were especially susceptible to changes in independence, while the monetary base and volume of domestic credit were less influenced. Finally, as time and …

‘It’S Like Baking A Cake’: An Analysis Of Conscience Voting In The New Zealand House Of Representatives Since The Introduction Of The Mixed-Member Proportional System In 1996, Harrison Hosking

CMC Senior Theses

Conscience voting in the New Zealand House of Representatives offers a unique opportunity to assess Sam Peltzman’s ‘Principal-Agent Theory’ as outlined in his 1984 paper, Constituent Interest and Congressional Voting.

This thesis begins with a brief assessment of the principal-agent model (and other literature regarding parliamentary representation) before looking at the New Zealand Parliamentary system and the phenomenon of private member’s bills and how they aid the legislative process. This is followed by an exploration of a constructed dataset of conscience votes that have occurred since the inception of the mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system in 1996. An analysis …

Akses Pelayanan Kesehatan Keluarga Berstatus Ekonomi Rendah Di Era Jkn, Prastuti Soewondo, Meliyanni Johar, Retno Pujisubekti

Jurnal Ekonomi dan Pembangunan Indonesia

Economically disadvantaged families often cannot pay for healthcare. Since Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional (JKN) was launched in 2014, the government expands subsidies for these families, identified based on consumption. However, this criterion would misclassify families with low purchasing power as economically advantaged because they have large consumption, financed through social assistance. This paper uses the income from the main job instead to determine families’ economic rank. Based on 35 percent of families with the lowest income, utilisation increases with insurance availability. Predictions using consumption as the gauge for economic rank are underestimated, up to 71 percent for inpatient services.

Generalized Trust And Economic Growth: The Nexus In Mena Countries, Rania Miniesy, Mariam Abdelkarim Ms.

Economics

This study mainly examines the relationship between generalized/horizontal/social trust and economic growth in countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, considering the substantial decline in their trust values since 2005. The study utilizes a multiple linear regression model based on panel data comprising 104 countries over the period from 1999 to 2020. Trust data were obtained from the last four waves of the World Values Survey (WVS). A Pooled Ordinary Least Squares (POLS) estimation technique was used, and interaction terms between trust and several dummy variables were employed. The results show an overall positive and significant relationship …

Classical Models, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

22-17_Classical Models.pdf You said: as an archivist detailing a new entry, analyze the uploaded file and give an outline of the material with all dates standardized, all bullet-point item formatting, and sentence case for titles, and italics for all titles, 1.5 spacing between paragraphs, and expand the published items into full apa references with publisher details and journal information but without internet links, or further description, standardize the handwritten notes, emails, and comments into full apa-style manuscript citations so they match the level of formality of the published and class paper with all handwritten notes credited to anwar shaikh, phd …

Impacts Of Forest Tax Programs On Property Tax Rates In Michigan's Upper Peninsula And Northern Wisconsin, Elsa Schwartz

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Forest tax programs offer reduced property taxes to private forest owners as incentive to sustainably manage their forests and to encourage the provision of ecosystem services. They also protect forests from conversion to other land uses and ensure the viable supply of timber for forest products industries. Despite the benefits that these programs provide, they can negatively impact local municipalities by reducing the property tax base, which can then cause local governments to increase tax rates for non-preferential properties in order to maintain revenue needed to run their services. This shifts the tax burden from participating properties to nonparticipating properties. …

Backfire: How The Rise Of Neoliberalism Facilitated The Rise Of The Far Right, Jacob Fuller

Capstone Showcase

The U.S. far right has become increasingly mainstream in contemporary American politics. In this paper, I analyze the theory that the far right has gained ground due to a backlash from neoliberal policies beginning in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan. Using Process tracing, I operationalize claims made by those arguing that the white working class has moved towards the far right due to their loss of status, as well as the theory that specific wealthy actors have mobilized these groups and altered the movement against neoliberalism to suit their interests. I find that these arguments have merit, and further the …

Are Investment Banks Helpful Or Hurtful? An Analysis Of Intraday Volatility In The Direct Listing Process As Compared To Investment Bank-Involvement In Traditional Ipos, Alexis Paff

Scripps Senior Theses

In this paper, I carry out an empirical analysis of the pricing volatility of direct listings as compared to traditional IPOs. Direct listings solve an efficiency problem in the US going-public market, in which well-funded, late-stage firms lack incentives to pursue a public listing, which would create liquidity for preexisting shareholders and allow for a more diverse body of public shareholders. Direct listings have been allowed on the New York Stock Exchange since early 2018, and four firms, Spotify, Slack, Asana, and Palantir, have gone public through this new listing mechanism. While underwriters are heavily involved in the IPO process, …

Black Maoism, But Make It Fashion: How The Black Panther Party Utilized Mao Zedong’S Marxist Interpretations In Conjunction With Fashion To Redefine Us Militarism, Chiugo Akujuobi

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores the intersections present between the multifaceted, sociopolitical institutions of Marxism and communism with a highlight on their seedling Maoism; the revolutionary organization that is the Black Panther Party; and the art of fashion and processes that create modes of dress, that emblazon dress with identity, meaning, and purpose. The lenses with which these complex topics will showcase themselves and intersect are through militarism and militarization. These lenses and topics of intersection work in tandem to produce an examination of the Black Panther Party’s subversion and redefinition of the practices of militarism and militarization. Specifically, the main point …

Do Global Pandemics Matter For Stock Prices? Lessons From The 1918 Spanish Flu, Marco Del Angel, Caroline Fohlin, Marc D. Weidenmier

Business Faculty Articles and Research

We study the impact of the 1918 Spanish Flu on U.S. stock prices. We use the death rate to control for the impact of the global pandemic and war news reported in the New York Times to capture the positive effects of the end of World War I on stock prices. Using a new weekly hand collected NYSE stock price index, we show that there is a -.73 correlation between the aggregate stock market and the death rate. Furthermore, vector autoregressions demonstrate that the death rate can explain up to 24 percent of the forecast error variance in the aggregate …

The Effect Of Female Managers On Mutual Fund Performance During Down Markets, Madison Gates, Madison I. Gates

Scripps Senior Theses

Women in the finance industry have long been underrepresented. The mutual fund industry is no exception, with female managers in the United States falling stagnant at only 11% from 2000 to 2019. Given this low and stagnant number, this study seeks to understand if female managers impact mutual fund performance, specifically comparing down and up market periods. The data for this research was compiled from individual US mutual fund prospectus and fact sheet information in order to create a unique dataset containing the returns for every year between 2000 and 2019 as well as gender make-up, average experience, and team …

The Effect Of The Investment Tax Credit Policy On Renewable Energy Resources In The United States Relative To Europe, Laura B. Epperson

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper aims to explore the effect of the Investment Tax Credit policy on the production and usage of renewable energy resources in the United States and whether the implementation of this policy in the US helped close the gap with European Countries. It focuses largely on the economic theory of incentives, cost/benefit analyses, and the theory of externalities. To analyze this, data was collected from the World Bank and the Quality of Government Dataset and the effectiveness of this policy was measured using four outcome variables: Renewable Energy Consumption, Fossil Fuel Consumption, Renewable Electricity Output, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions. …

Rural Business Development Corporation Annual Report 2021, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

All other publications

No abstract provided.

Dynamic And Non-Neutral Productivity Effects Of Foreign Ownership: A Nonparametric Approach, Yoonseok Lee, Mary Lovely, Hoang Pham

Center for Policy Research

This paper studies two novel productivity characteristics of foreign acquisition on high-tech manufacturing firms: the dynamic and the non-Hicks-neutral effects. A dynamic productivity effect of foreign ownership arises when adoption of foreign technology and management practices takes time to fully realize. Furthermore, these dynamic adjustments may be capital or labor augmenting as adoption of advanced production technologies tends to have non-neutral productivity implications in developed countries. We propose and implement an econometric framework to estimate both effects using firm-level data from China's manufacturing sector. Our framework extends the nonparametric productivity framework developed by Gandhi, Navarro and Rivers (2020), in which …

The Determination Of The Factors Affecting Air Transportation Passenger Numbers, Tüzün Tolga İnan Asst. Prof. Dr.

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

So long as human beings are required to go between places, the civil aviation industry will always exist. In this study, a country-based examination has been applied to air passenger numbers. 50 countries are selected according to the highest rating of air transportation passenger numbers, gross domestic product (GDP), total population, and human development index (HDI) data. 28 of these countries are included in the analysis which is common in at least three of these rankings. The relationship between the four parameters is examined via correlation analysis. Thereafter, the related parameters were taken as independent variables in multiple linear regression …

Subsidi Perumahan, Migrasi Dan Permintaan Rumah Studi Kasus Program Kpr Bersubsidi Di Indonesia, Elenka Fourtiena, I Dewa Gede Karma Wisana

Jurnal Kebijakan Ekonomi

This study examines the effect of the implementation of Kredit Pemilikan Rumah Fasilitas Likuiditas Pembiayaan Perumahan (KPR-FLPP) as subsidized mortgage on the recent migration rate and its impact for low-income households in Indonesia. Using the multiple linear regression method random effect model, this study analyzed the home ownership status of recent migrants with indicators of the average household’s per capita expenditure in the 2010-2019 Statistics Indonesia survey. The results show that the realization of KPR-FLPP has a negative effect on the migration rate. Meanwhile, the realization of KPR-FLPP has a negative effect on low-income households’ home ownerships rate, it is …

Tracking School-To-Work Transition Among The Youth In The Philippines, Futoshi Yamauchi, Marites Tiongco

DLSU Business & Economics Review

This paper examines wage variations and turnovers using a unique tracking survey data of Filipino youth who were initially sampled at Grade 6. The analysis also uses mathematics and English test scores at Grade 6 to proxy for cognitive abilities. The empirical results show that returns to education and ability increase with labor market experience and occupational upgrading. The study highlights the importance of academic achievements, measured by both years of schooling completed and academic test scores, in upgrading occupations of youth to realize higher returns in the labor market, even though many youths often start with irregular and undesirable …

A Time Series Analysis Of Determinants Of Pce Inflation In The United States, Elliot Charron

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates the factors contributing to the PCE inflation rate in the United States. The study incorporates economic determinants in a time series analysis to examine the influence of economic variables on the PCE Inflation rate in the United States. The economic variables include the unemployment rate, wages, inflation expectations, the federal funds rate, the money supply, import prices, and the labor force participation rate. The ADF unit root test shows that the first difference is stationary while the Johansen test of cointegration shows that there is cointegration of 7 and that a vector error correction model (VECM) must …

Good For You Or Good For Us? A Field Experiment On Motivating Citizen Behavior Change, Syon Bhanot

Economics Faculty Works

In recent years, public sector agencies have increasingly been moving citizen services online to reduce administrative burdens for citizens and costs for governments. However, motivating citizens to make the transition to online services can be difficult. In this paper, I report on a randomized control trial with the Philadelphia Licenses and Inspections Department, testing a letter intervention with 11,579 rental license holders designed to encourage them to register for an account and renew online. Subjects were randomly assigned to either a control group that did not receive a letter or one of three treatment groups: 1) Standard (a simple reminder …

The Relationship Between School Shootings And Gun Acquisition Rates, Sun-Il (Sun) Moon

Honors Papers

In this paper, I seek to understand how communities respond to tragic events involving violence, exploring the relationship between school shootings and gun acquisition rates. Using National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) as a proxy for firearm acquisition rates, I estimate an event study framework, finding that gun acquisition rates increase by up to 32% one month after a school shooting compared to firearm acquisition rates one month before a school shooting. Furthermore, I supplement my analysis by using Google Search data on firearms. Additionally, I stratify my analysis by the four census regions and whether a school shooting …