Thirty-one students presented individual comprehensive research projects on economic issues.
Seniors majoring in economics or international economics presented undergraduate research theses to faculty members in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business’ Department of Economics on April 19.
The senior thesis is the culmination of the economics and international economics majors and serves as the students’ required comprehensive evaluation in the major field of study. For this research project, students work individually with a professor to build on work done in previous courses, culminating in a work of presentation quality.
The 2016 theses:
Patrick Michael Barnes, “NCLB & Adequate Yearly Progress: A New York State of Teacher Turnover” (mentor: Katy Rouse)
Alex Battaglia, “How Does the Young Adult Mandate Affect Wages and the U.S. Labor Market for Younger Workers?” (mentor: Katy Rouse)
Ameya Benegal, “The Effects of Armed Conflict on the Incidence Rates of Infectious Diseases” (mentor: Steve Bednar)
Rudolph Nathaniel Biagi, “Does the Access to Health Insurance Through the Affordable Care Act Affect Labor Market Outcomes? (mentor: Dr. Steven Bednar)
Andrew Brazel, “The Varying Effects of Monetary Integration on the EU’s Core and Peripheral Business Cycles: An examination of GDP correlations across the Eurozone” (mentor: Vitaliy Strohush)
Alex Butler, “How much Tourism will lead to Sustainable Growth in Cuba?” (mentor: Tina Das)
James Chadwick, “Modern Mobile Gaming Monetization: The End of Gaming Consoles?” (mentor: Greg Lilly)
Edward Cooley, “Empirical Estimation of Bitcoin Prices: Integration of Market and Bitcoin Data” (mentor: Vitaliy Strohush)
Cameron F. Douglass, “Economic and Environmental Benefits of Market Based Emissions Policies: Carbon Cap-and-Trade vs. Carbon Taxes” (mentor: Brooks Depro)
Logan Drew, “Minimum Wage Effects on Unemployment Rates Examined Using a Cross-State Data Set” (mentor: James Barbour)
Liam Dugan, “The Effect of Education and Wealth on Crime Rates: An analysis of Crime Rates, Economic and Educational Indicators in 2012” (mentor: James Barbour)
Michael Faircloth, “Recreational Boating” (mentor: Jen Platania)
Benjamin Foshee, “Analyzing Health Care Expenditure through Heart Disease: What Drives Growing HCE?” (mentor: Tonmoy Islam)
Atticus Grinder, “The Effects of Microfinance Activity on Government Corruption in Developing Nations,” (mentor: Casey DiRienzo)
Christopher Grippo, “The Effect of a State’s GDP on Eco-certified Buildings: An Analysis of the Kuznets Curve” (mentor: Doug Redington)
Michael Keenan, “Microfinance, Disasters, and their Impact on Business Outcomes: Evidence from Indonesia” (mentor: Steve DeLoach)
Sarah Krulewitz, “The Effect of Renewable Energy Generation on Residential Electricity Prices” (mentor: Brooks Depro)
Samantha Lutz, “The Effect of Microfinance Loans on Domestic Violence in Bangladesh” (mentor: Andrew Greenland)
Bernardo Missura, “Oil Prices & Corruption: Do Lower Oil Prices Increase Corruption in Oil Exporter Countries?” (mentor: Vitaliy Strohush)
Kaitlyn Mulder, “Volatility Effects and the Energy Market: A study of crude oil and natural gas price volatility” (mentor: Andrew Greenland)
Krissy Parrett, “How do unemployment rates impact household carbon emissions?” (mentor: Jennifer Platania)
Jaqueline Peifer, “An Analysis of College Rankings on Earnings for Top 50 Ranked Institutions” (mentor: Tonmoy Islam)
Carolyn Powell, “Saving for Retirement: A Behavioral Economic Approach” (mentor: Greg Lilly)
Jeremy Revelise, “Job Mobility and Wage Progression Among TANF Recipients” (mentor: Tonmoy Islam)
Rebecca Sansale, “The Predictive Power of Personality on Productivity: Evidence From American Millennials” (mentor: Steve DeLoach)
Justin Schweitzer, “Crowdfunding Viability in Low-Income Nations: An Experimental Study” (mentor: Greg Lilly)
Derek Sims, “Foreign Aid” (mentor: Tina Das)
Stephen Taliadoros, “American Urbanization and Local Ozone Levels: A Cross Sectional Analysis” (mentor: Doug Redington)
John Taylor, “The Effects of Democratic Policy on Economic Development: An Analysis of Countries within the Caribbean Region from 1960 to 2014” (mentor: Tina Das)
Stephanie G. Tizik, “Prison Overcrowding and Recidivism” (mentor: Andrew Greenlaw)
Matthew VanDerveer, “Exploring Differences in the Effect of Divorce on Individual Health Insurance Coverage by Gender and Within-Gender Demographics” (mentor: Katy Rouse)
“The presentations were very engaging,” said Steve DeLoach, professor of economics. “The seniors all had interesting results that really showed the effort they have put into their research. We also had a good turnout from sophomore and junior economics majors who wanted to support their peers. All in all, it was a great testament to the quality of research and mentoring that is going on within the economics department.”