Econometrics Commons^™

Discrimination Among College Football Head Coaches, Yusuke Fukuda

Honors Theses

Several major sports organizations have come under scrutiny in recent years for alleged discriminatory practices towards minority coaches. In this paper, I analyze whether minority college football head coaches are more likely to be fired and to earn a lower salary. I observe a sample of 300 head coaches from 132 Division-I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools between the years 2006 to 2021. After controlling for performance and experience variables and holding the time and school or conference variables fixed in a Cox hazard regression model, I find statistically significant evidence that minority coaches face a higher likelihood of being …

Investigating The Effect Crime Has On Uber And Yellow Taxi Pickups In Nyc, Kebing Li

Honors Theses

How to manage the relationship between Uber and the local taxi industry has been a long-lasting and hot topic for most of the major cities around the world. Whether Uber is stealing money from and undermining the local taxi drivers or it is beneficial for public transportation has no certain conclusions. In this paper, we focus on the city of New York, where both Uber and traditional Yellow Taxi play important roles in public transportation and city culture in general, and we are trying to investigate the factors that are going to affect Uber and Yellow Taxi pickups in New …

Who Wants The Right To Know? An Analysis Of Gmo-Labeling In California, Sylvia M. Xu

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

There are many studies that have been done to examine what types of voting behavior or patterns are present when voting for environmental ballot measures. This paper examines what characteristics of people are likely to cause them to support Proposition 37 in California, an initiative that, if passed, would require GMO-labeling on all genetically modified foods. Using voting data at a zip code level, I use OLS regression to identify specifically what type of political party, education, occupation, household status, and income levels are more likely to support the bill. I also run weighted regressions by population and number of …

Detecting Stock Market Bubbles: A Price-To-Earnings Approach, Austin F. Murphy

Honors Theses

To this day, economists argue about the existence of stock market bubbles. The literature review for this paper observes the analysis of four reputable bubble tests in an attempt to provide ample qualitative proof for the existence of bubbles. The first obstacle for creating an effective bubble detection test is the difficulty of estimating true fundamental values for equities. Without adequate estimations for the fundamental values of equities, the deviation between actual price and fundamental price is impossible to observe or estimate. Additionally, these tests are reliant on strong underlying assumptions, which tend to cloud results.

This thesis applies a …

How Does The Stock Market Value The Renewable Energy Sector: A Public Announcement Analysis And Test Of The Efficient Market Hypothesis, Jack Crampton

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This study analyzes the market reaction to public announcements in the stock market. The efficient market hypothesis is put to test and similar studies are reexamined in the context of the renewable energy sector. Through fixed effects models, we can assess the validity to the efficient market hypothesis and assess how the market values the clean energy sector.

Willingness-To-Pay For Renewable Wind Energy: Differences In Preferences Between Demographic Groups, Carlton D. Reed, William H. Scott

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

Many surveys have shown that public acceptance of wind energy is high in general; however there always seems to be concerns at the local level during the siting and permitting process. This shows that people understand that clean wind energy is an essential need, however people do not normally want to have turbines in their own community. This choice experiment determines which benefits people prefer and which trade-offs people are willing to make in order to host a wind farm in their community. The effectiveness of several attributes, and their respective ability to rid apathy and concerns about local wind …

Individuals Willingness To Pay For Health And Wellness In The Built Environment, Max Pollinger

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

Improving biological sustainability through health and wellness improvements in the built environment is currently being applied to high-end real estate development in both the residential and commercial environment in the United States. However, the market for health and wellness extends well beyond the top income bracket. This study adopts a choice experiment (CE) approach to investigate individual’s willingness to pay (WTP) for health and wellness improvements within their homes. The results suggest that individuals value health as an inelastic good independent of income, and they are willing to pay significant premiums to ensure biological sustainability within their homes independent of …

The Role Of Underutilized Fish In New England's Seafood System, Taylor Witkin

Honors Theses

The global fisheries crisis has led to an increasing recognition for the need to relieve pressure on overfished, popular food fish stocks. Opportunities exist to shift consumer demand toward more sustainable choices, including fish that may be locally abundant. Attempts have been made to market underused fish (sometimes termed “trash fish”) that represent more sustainable alternatives; however, it is unclear whether consumers will choose to purchase these more sustainable options, particularly if underused fish are also unfamiliar. Chapter 1 reviews existing research and current issues surrounding sustainable seafood and the recent shift toward local, abundant, undervalued species in New England’s …

Can Parallel Exchange Rates Forecast Commodity Prices?, John F. Roberts

Honors Theses

Commodity price uncertainty imposes large costs on society. On the macro level, it results in sudden and unexpected shifts in current account imbalances and real GDP volatility, while on the micro level, it leads to allocation inefficiencies. Accurate price forecasts have the potential to remove some of this uncertainty and allow for a more efficient distribution of resources, and thus, an increase in social welfare. Despite the obvious gains to be had from accurate commodity price forecasts, few models have been able to deliver these results. Chen, Rogoff and Rossi (2008) were the first to find a promising link between …

An Analysis Of Attendance At Major League Baseball Spring Training Games, Michael R. Donihue, David Findlay, Peter Newberry

Faculty Scholarship

This paper examines the determinants of game-day attendance during Major League Baseball’s 2002 spring training season in Florida. Our model of game-day attendance includes location, quality of game, and time and weather variables. A censored Tobit estimation procedure is used to estimate our model. Our results indicate that the quality of the game, average ticket price, and several location-specific factors affect attendance. Specifically, our results suggest that changes in income have no effect on attendance while increases in ticket prices cause reductions in attendance. Furthermore, the estimated price elasticity of demand for Major League Baseball during the spring training season …