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Full-Text Articles in Economics

Decision Making And Reform Within The United States Criminal Justice System, Rainita Narender Jan 2022

Decision Making And Reform Within The United States Criminal Justice System, Rainita Narender

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The United States Criminal Justice System has undergone massive legislative reform in the past decade. These reforms have prompted a demand to analyze the benefits and potential unintended consequences of proposed policies and legislation. The following dissertation measures policy implications across three types of actors in the criminal justice system: 911 call-takes, prosecutors, and law enforcement. As most citizen-officer interactions arise from 911 calls for service, the first chapter of this dissertation is a study on the “priming” effect 911-call-takers have on officer decision to arrest and use force on calls for service in Dallas, Texas (2013-2018). In this work, …

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Economic And Financial Factors Affecting Currency Stability Of Floating Exchange Rate Regimes: A Survival Analysis, Istvan Zambori Jan 2022

Economic And Financial Factors Affecting Currency Stability Of Floating Exchange Rate Regimes: A Survival Analysis, Istvan Zambori

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Currency crises can wreak havoc on countries economically, financially, and politically. This study has been conducted in the spirit of attempting to find a general notion of why such crises occur. The aim is to describe, based on empirical evidence, a general time dependent evolution of currency crisis probabilities. Furthermore, the goal is to uncover general and systemic variables driving currency crises. The research utilizes survival analysis. Durations of tranquility are used to determine probabilities of crises. In turn, economic and financial variables are used to test possible linkages to these crises. In the study, durations of tranquil periods are …

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Climate Trailblazer Or Corporate Giveaway: An Economic And Political Evaluation Of Cap-And-Trade In California, Benjamin Reicher Jan 2022

Climate Trailblazer Or Corporate Giveaway: An Economic And Political Evaluation Of Cap-And-Trade In California, Benjamin Reicher

Pomona Senior Theses

In this thesis, I conduct an economic and political analysis of California’s cap-and-trade program, the leading national (and international) example of a market-based strategy to reduce climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions. I evaluate the program on several economic and political measures of success, especially as contrasted with the performance of various regulatory policies that California also relies on to meet its emissions reduction targets. These regulations exemplify a command and control approach to emissions mitigation as opposed to a market-based approach, and indeed tend to be favored by grassroots activists who may be skeptical about market-friendly policies; my thesis seeks to …

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The Cost-Effectiveness And Feminization Of The Human Papillomavirus Vaccine, Audrey Jammes Jan 2022

The Cost-Effectiveness And Feminization Of The Human Papillomavirus Vaccine, Audrey Jammes

Scripps Senior Theses

Approved in 2006, the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine provided a medical breakthrough in combating cancer by inoculating first female and then male adolescents in 2010. In 2016, a new HPV vaccine was approved for all adolescents. However, it is the most expensive vaccine created in the United States and its female centered prescription led to debates regarding the vaccine’s necessity and risks. For the STS portion of this paper, analysis of the language in the vaccine’s prescriptions from 2006, 2010, and 2016 demonstrates two implicit assumptions regarding female health built into the vaccine’s rollout. Comparison of the two assumptions to …

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Impact Of College Extracurricular Involvement On Entrepreneurial Outcomes, Emily Malech Jan 2022

Impact Of College Extracurricular Involvement On Entrepreneurial Outcomes, Emily Malech

CMC Senior Theses

Despite extensive inquiry, relatively little is understood about the factors which shape entrepreneurs as young adults. This paper examines the impact of college extracurricular involvement on the entrepreneurial outcomes of alumni; it considers which extracurricular activities are most strongly associated with entrepreneurship. Additionally, it explores whether the number of extracurricular activities participated in by students impacts their proclivity for entrepreneurship. It observes 219 alumni of Claremont McKenna College and uses data from the institution’s public records as well as alumni’s LinkedIn profiles. This data contains information on entrepreneurship, indicated by job titles, and five extracurricular activities. Using a probit model …

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The Federal Reserve’S Qe Practices Impact On Inflation: A Comparative Analysis Of The Gfc And Covid-Eras, Robert Driscoll Jan 2022

The Federal Reserve’S Qe Practices Impact On Inflation: A Comparative Analysis Of The Gfc And Covid-Eras, Robert Driscoll

CMC Senior Theses

This paper investigates and compares the effects of the Fed’s quantitative easing policies on US inflation during the Global Financial Crisis and the Covid-era up to February of 2022. As inflation continues to rise, a quantitative measurement of the Fed’s monetary policy response to recessions and its resulting effect on the price level is becoming increasingly relevant. Supporting the quantity monetary theory, I test the impact of the Fed’s increasing their total assets and securities on their balance sheet on CPI and core CPI. Using multiple time series regressions and a single lag component on the analyzed variables. The model …

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How A Supply Chain Stumble Changes A Company’S Policies And Progress 20 Years Later: A Case Study Of Gap Inc., Alexandra Futterman Jan 2022

How A Supply Chain Stumble Changes A Company’S Policies And Progress 20 Years Later: A Case Study Of Gap Inc., Alexandra Futterman

CMC Senior Theses

Gap Inc. is the third-largest American retailer. Founded in 1969, Gap Inc. holds four brands, Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Athleta. In the late 1990s and early 2000s Gap Inc. made headlines for child labor abuses along with many other large brands. After this negative attention, Gap Inc. began developing policies and practices to combat ethical supply chain issues. These policies included a Human Rights Policy, a Code of Vendor Conduct, working conditions standards, and even capacity building programs that boarded company reaches into communities they touch. In conjunction with the policies Gap Inc. has published several social responsibility …

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The Lure Of Musical Comfort: An Analysis Of How Consumer Preferences In Popular Music Change Depending On The State Of The U.S. Economy Using Billboard Hot 100, Spotify Api, & Economic Data, Lindsey A. Larson Jan 2022

The Lure Of Musical Comfort: An Analysis Of How Consumer Preferences In Popular Music Change Depending On The State Of The U.S. Economy Using Billboard Hot 100, Spotify Api, & Economic Data, Lindsey A. Larson

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines data from Spotify’s Web API for all songs that have been on the Billboard Hot 100 chart from the first chart’s release in August 1958 to May 2021 to determine the relationship between music misery and economic misery. Twelve dependent variables– duration, danceability, energy, key, acousticness, speechiness, mode, loudness, instrumentalness, liveness, valence, and tempo– are used to measure the impact of Arthur Okun’s U.S. economic misery index on each characteristic. Using 12 individual linear regressions– one for each dependent variable– I find that during times of increased economic hardship, consumers are likely to choose to listen to …

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Geographic Banking Discrimination In The United States, Simon Ross Gilbert Jan 2022

Geographic Banking Discrimination In The United States, Simon Ross Gilbert

CMC Senior Theses

Financial institutions in the United States have historically discriminated against Black Americans in a multitude of ways. One potential dynamic of unequal access that remains understudied is geographic in nature. That is, are commercial banks less likely to locate in neighborhoods with more Black people? Using a fixed effects and selection on observables model, I find that a 1 percentage point increase in an area’s Black population is related to a 0.11 decrease in the number of commercial banks in that area. This effect is localized primarily in urban areas, particularly in cities in the Mid-Atlantic, Upper Midwest, and Pacific …

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Cross-Cultural Examination Of Vacation Policy On Employee Satisfaction And Happiness, Ketan D. Parekh Jan 2022

Cross-Cultural Examination Of Vacation Policy On Employee Satisfaction And Happiness, Ketan D. Parekh

CMC Senior Theses

With the advent of technological advancement, entrepreneurship, and a higher emphasis on meritocracy, societies across the globe have experienced intense competition to outdo one another. This has pushed companies to place increased importance on worker productivity; large and small companies want to see their employees work harder, longer, and faster. With this increased demand for work, companies today are making sure they have suitable reward systems to ensure worker satisfaction and quality work production. However, what these reward systems look like and how they function contrast significantly across cultures, especially as it pertains to corporate leave policies. This thesis examines …

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Nft-Related Companies: Token Sale Returns, Robert Liu Jan 2022

Nft-Related Companies: Token Sale Returns, Robert Liu

CMC Senior Theses

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have emerged as a new means of digital asset ownership and many companies are building projects that revolve around the technology. These companies are blockchain-based and raise capital for their projects through cryptocurrency token sales, which have become a new mechanism of entrepreneurial finance. In a sample of 62 NFT-related companies, I examine which company, fundraising, and token sale process characteristics are associated with the performance of 7-day and 60-day market returns after a token’s public listing. A multivariate regression analysis finds that the total amount of capital raised before a token launch has a negative relationship …

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Impact Of School Closures On Female Labor Force Participation In The Covid-19 Pandemic, Shreya Shome Jan 2022

Impact Of School Closures On Female Labor Force Participation In The Covid-19 Pandemic, Shreya Shome

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the role of school closures in reducing the female labor force participation during the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States. While there is significant discussion on the decline of female labor force participation, this paper examines the role of school closures and lack of child care options in determining women’s decisions and ability to work. The data set includes the share school closures at each level of education, the number of schools and students in each school, the regulatory stringency indices, and the number of Covid-19 related deaths in each state on a monthly basis from January …

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The Rising Power Of The Individual Investor: How Social Media Sentiments And User Activity Impact Stock Price Volatility And Trading Volume, Nandini Jayaram Jan 2022

The Rising Power Of The Individual Investor: How Social Media Sentiments And User Activity Impact Stock Price Volatility And Trading Volume, Nandini Jayaram

CMC Senior Theses

This paper investigates the relationship between social media sentiments and user activity on the ability of online platforms like Robinhood, Reddit, and Twitter to drive volatility in stock returns and trading volume of shares. The research contributes to the existing literature by studying the potential power of social media communities to influence the stock market parameters. The dataset includes information for several stocks of daily Robinhood users, mentions in r/wallstreetbets, number of Twitter followers, as well as closing price and trading volume data. Using a fixed effects panel data model, the regressions yield statistically significant results that indicate higher WallStreetBets …

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Exploring The Generational Evolution Of Black-White Wage Inequality Across Geographic Regions Of The United States, Rachel Scharff-Hansen Jan 2022

Exploring The Generational Evolution Of Black-White Wage Inequality Across Geographic Regions Of The United States, Rachel Scharff-Hansen

CMC Senior Theses

Wages of black men trail those of their white counterparts despite decades of generational socio-political change. This paper examines the extent to which the black-white wage gap has evolved from individuals born in the Baby Boomer (births between 1956 and 1964) to the Millennial (births between 1977 and 1995) generation, an era assumed to reflect great shifts in anti-racist sentiments and opportunities in the late 20th century. Despite presumed progressive attitudes developed in this time period, I find that the black-white wage differential of the labor market in its whole has worsened from black earnings lagging 28.1% behind white …

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The Influence Of Political Party Affiliation And Park Accessibility On Covid-19 Case Incidence, Sascha Wolf-Sorokin Jan 2022

The Influence Of Political Party Affiliation And Park Accessibility On Covid-19 Case Incidence, Sascha Wolf-Sorokin

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the joint effect of political party affiliation and the urban landscape, as measured by access to parks, on case rates during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The 2016 and 2020 U.S. Presidential Election returns are used as a proxy for a county’s political party affiliation prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A county population’s spatial relationship to its parks encapsulates the green open space within an urban environment. The data set controls for features of the built environment, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics (race, gender, income, education), COVID-19 government regulations, and presidential election returns. Using …

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Economic Propaganda In The United States, Brooklyn Montgomery Jan 2022

Economic Propaganda In The United States, Brooklyn Montgomery

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis aims to identify and analyze three different forms of economic propaganda: cultural, structural, and political. I first examine ‘Do What You Love’ culture and its impact on the labor force. Chapter Two explores the propagation of neoliberal economics as an objective study, and the final chapter analyzes the use of Black capitalism as a political mechanism to quell Black radical sentiment. In detailing these phenomenons, I investigate the implementation, normalization, and effects, as well as the material repercussions of these ideas and structures.

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Migration And The Quality Of American Cities, Chase Mendell Jan 2022

Migration And The Quality Of American Cities, Chase Mendell

CMC Senior Theses

Across the United States, cities are expanding. It is the role of the city leaders to promote policies that benefit both current and incoming residents. While these policies have intended results, the realized benefits and damages are challenging to define because they are the result of individual choices and the unique characteristics of the city. As a result, policymakers need to consider a complex web of factors such as employment, taxation, housing, mobility, and environmental quality. This thesis seeks to analyze these overlapping factors to discuss how policymakers can increase well-being while mitigating potential harms.

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Disembedded Liberalism: The Global Pressure On Democracy, Hallie Spear Jan 2022

Disembedded Liberalism: The Global Pressure On Democracy, Hallie Spear

CMC Senior Theses

The international political order is at a crossroads with divergent paths. Liberal democracy is once again threatened on the international stage. What's more troubling is that the most stable and influential democracies, the United States, those in Europe and India, seem to be vulnerable to the autocratic wave sweeping through the world. This thesis completes a critical analysis to understand the root causes of the recent disruption to democracy the world has observed. Focusing on three established, diverse, and populous democracies, this thesis investigates the economic conditions at play that made each nation vulnerable to populism. Neoliberal economic policies implemented …

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The Transforming Importance Of Social Skills In The Labor Market In The 2010s, Andrew Bradjan Jan 2022

The Transforming Importance Of Social Skills In The Labor Market In The 2010s, Andrew Bradjan

CMC Senior Theses

The growing importance of social skills has led to an increase in returns to wages and employment for workers specializing in social skill-intensive occupations. Between 2012 and 2019, social skill-intensive occupations grew by 3 percentage points as a share of the U.S. labor force. Math-intensive occupations also grew by a similar amount during this time. To analyze these patterns, I utilize a model of team production where workers trade tasks to exploit their comparative advantage. Social skills reduce coordination costs between workers and allow them to specialize and cooperate with other workers more effectively by trading tasks. This model predicts …

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Liquidity Outbreak: A 49 Country Analysis Of The Money Supply’S Effect On Stock Markets During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Dylan Porter Jan 2022

Liquidity Outbreak: A 49 Country Analysis Of The Money Supply’S Effect On Stock Markets During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Dylan Porter

CMC Senior Theses

This paper compares the effects of monthly money growth on monthly stock market performance in 49 countries around the world before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries are grouped in aggregate, by continent, and development status. OLS panel regressions show that lagged monetary growth variables are better monetary indicators of stock market performance than contemporaneous values. Variables that measure the pandemic’s progress (infections/deaths and government responses) are included alongside macro-economic variables but are seldom significant. Monetary growth had less correlation with the stock market during the pre-pandemic period (January 2018 - December 2020), suggesting that the uncertain economic conditions of …

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Rural Development In Papua New Guinea: Mining, Logging, Agriculture, And Alternatives, Tj Askew Jan 2022

Rural Development In Papua New Guinea: Mining, Logging, Agriculture, And Alternatives, Tj Askew

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines multiple approaches to providing rural, indigenous Papuans with improved social services and economic opportunities. Rural Papuans, who make up 80 percent of the population, face below average rates of nutrition, education, disease, crime, and other quality of life indicators. Due to location, land use rights, lack of infrastructure, and minimal access to economic markets, the PNG government has struggled to provide rural communities with basic social services. Historically, the development of resource extraction projects such as mining, logging, and agriculture have been the main strategies used to improve the livelihood of rural Papuans, with limited success. This …

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Buying-Up Europe No More? How The European Union Has Responded To The Challenges Of Chinese Foreign Direct Investment, Ethan Kable Sep 2021

Buying-Up Europe No More? How The European Union Has Responded To The Challenges Of Chinese Foreign Direct Investment, Ethan Kable

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

towards Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) has evolved over the past decade. I contend that the EU was quite receptive to Chinese OFDI at the beginning of the decade, due to both ideological leanings and the economic context of a post-crisis Europe. I then illustrate how the EU slowly adopted a more guarded and critical approach towards Chinese OFDI. This paper will focus specifically on four key issues surrounding Chinese OFDI policy: national security, technology transfers and IP theft, state support for Chinese firms, and market access, ultimately arguing that bilateral investment treaty (BIT) negotiations and the new EU …

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Neither “Post-War” Nor Post-Pregnancy Paranoia: How America’S War On Drugs Continues To Perpetuate Disparate Incarceration Outcomes For Pregnant, Substance-Involved Offenders, Becca S. Zimmerman Jan 2021

Neither “Post-War” Nor Post-Pregnancy Paranoia: How America’S War On Drugs Continues To Perpetuate Disparate Incarceration Outcomes For Pregnant, Substance-Involved Offenders, Becca S. Zimmerman

Pitzer Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the unique interactions between pregnancy, substance involvement, and race as they relate to the War on Drugs and the hyper-incarceration of women. Using ordinary least square regression analyses and data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ 2016 Survey of Prison Inmates, I examine if (and how) pregnancy status, drug use, race, and their interactions influence two length of incarceration outcomes: sentence length and amount of time spent in jail between arrest and imprisonment. The results collectively indicate that pregnancy decreases length of incarceration outcomes for those offenders who are not substance-involved but not evenhandedly -- benefitting white …

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The Effect Of Female Managers On Mutual Fund Performance During Down Markets, Madison Gates, Madison I. Gates Jan 2021

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 …

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The Effect Of The Investment Tax Credit Policy On Renewable Energy Resources In The United States Relative To Europe, Laura B. Epperson Jan 2021

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. …

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Information Prioritization: A Comparison Between Utility Maximizers And Probability Matchers, Yusuf Ismaeel Jan 2021

Information Prioritization: A Comparison Between Utility Maximizers And Probability Matchers, Yusuf Ismaeel

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the differences between probability matchers and utility maximizers in their preferences for information sources in a lab environment. In this paper, we consider the best source of information to be the most connected one. We conducted several linear probability model type regressions along with logit regressions. Furthermore, we also attempted to control and fix any potential misclassifications in classifying the cognitive strategy by using instrumental variables. The results show that utility maximizers will almost always choose the most informed node. Probability matchers, on the other hand, do not exhibit such a behavior as the probability matching strategy …

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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 Jan 2021

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, …

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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 Jan 2021

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 …

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Feature Investigation For Stock Returns Prediction Using Xgboost And Deep Learning Sentiment Classification, Seungho (Samuel) Lee Jan 2021

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 …

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A Network Pandemic: Exploring The Effects Of Social Connectedness On The Spread Of Covid-19 In The United States, Mrinalini Bhushan Jan 2021

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 …

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