Economics

In the 2007-2008 academic year the Economics Department began awarding one level of Honors to student research projects. The projects listed below have been defended successfully, and a copy of the highlighted titles has been deposited in Swem Library.

Key:

• Student, "Thesis" (Honors level)
  Committee Chair + Other Committee Members

2024-2025

•  Peter Sam Awabdeh, "Aena Al-Faloos? Where is the Money? An Economic Analysis of Microfinance Institution Performance in the Middle East and North Africa After the Arab Spring" (Honors) 
  Andrew Dustan + Abhiprerna Smit, Yonca Ozdemir
• Juliana Rose Gomien, "Reactor Reactions: The Impact of Nuclear Power Plant Closures on Real Residential Property Values" (Honors) 
  Rui Pereira + Rob Hicks, Dan Maliniak
• Adam Dawson Jutt, "The Great Migration and Education Quality in the South" (Honors) 
  John Parman + David Feldman, Dan Cristol
• Rachel Abiodun Oduntan, "Managing Resource Wealth: A Study of Fiscal Linkages in Sub-Saharan Africa" (Honors) 
  Admasu Shiferaw + Rob Hicks, Brad Weiss

2023-2024

• Thomas G Cronin, "The Effects of SNAP’s ABAWD Work Requirement on Food Security and Work Outcomes" (Honors) 
  John Parman + Peter McHenry, Alexandra Joosse 
• Noah Benjamin Lansing, "The Economic Effects of Democratization: A Review of the Third Wave" (Honors) 
  Berhanu Abegaz + Nathaniel Throckmorton, Mark Deming
• Daniel Karsten Posthumus, "Starting Early: Returns on Kindergarten Attendance in Indonesia" (Honors) 
  Ranjan Shrestha + John Parman, Daniel Cristol
• Sydney Marie Smith, "Beyond Human Players: Investigating AI Participation in Public Goods Games" (Honors) 
  Robert Hicks + Lisa Anderson, Daniel Vasiliu 

2022-2023

• Kevin Lamar Bloodworth II, "FDI and Environmental Externalities in Southeast Asia" (Honors) 
  Luis Baldomero-Quintana + Ariel Ben Yishay, Rachel Sayer
• Yining Li, "The 9/11 Attacks’ Impact on Muslims’ Labor Market Outcomes in the United States" (Honors) 
  Peter McHenry + Rui Pereira, Daniela Hurtado-Lange
• Stanley Junwen Wang, "Dour Hour: The Effects of Policy Uncertainty on Investment Rates in Europe" (Honors) 
  Alfredo Pereira + Rob Hicks, Shahrokh Fardoust
• Emma Abigail Williams, "Chinese Roadbuilding and the Forest-Based Incomes of Indigenous and Rural Cambodians" (Honors) 
  Ariel BenYishay + Ranjan Shrestha, Ammar Malik

2021-2022

• Cody Taylor, "Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Costs and Undesirable Healthcare Expenditures" (Honors)
  Tate Twinam + Nathaniel Throckmorton, Elyas Bakhtiari
• Georgiana Reece, "The Boys are Back in School: Increased Chinese Import Exposure’s Effect on Community College Enrollments" (Honors)
  Luis Baldomero-Quintana + John Lopresti, Ammar Malik
• Jiayong Lu, "On the Impact of Social Spending on Long-term Economic Performance in the USA" (Honors)
  Alfredo Pereira + Jennifer Mellor, Reya Farber
• Leah Damelin, "The Effect of Subsidies on Small Exporting Sectors in Chile" (Honors)
  Luis Baldomero-Quintana + John Lopresti, Tanu Kumar
• Madeline Helfer, "True Price of a Pack: Tobacco Expenditure and Height-for-Age in Indonesia" (Honors)
  Ranjan Shrestha + Jennifer Mellor, Iyabo Obasanjo
• Stephen Rosene, "The Energy-Growth Nexus in India and the United States" (Honors)
  Carl Moody + Berhanu Abegaz, Saskia Mordijck
• William Anderson, "The Role of Homeownership in Taiwan's Low Fertility Story" (Honors)
  Peter McHenry + John Lopresti, Emily Wilcox
• William Merone, "Examining Labor Market Recovery During the COVID-19 Pandemic Using Occupational Lousiness Indicators" (Honors)
  Peter McHenry + Rui Pereira, Elyas Bakhtiari
• Xufeng Liu, "Economic Impact of the Western Africa Ebola Outbreak--A Holistic Approach" (Honors) Admasu Shiferaw + Berhanu Abegaz, Phil Roessler

2020-2021

• Jutta Appiah, "Oil Production and Performance of Ghana’s Manufacturing" (Honors)
  Admasu Shiferaw + Berhanu Abegaz, Philip Roessler
• Elizabeth Crotty, "Concentration and Nurse Staffing Outcomes in the Healthcare Labor Market" (Honors)
  Peter McHenry + Jennifer Mellor, Elyas Bakhtiari
• Matthew Levinson, "The Catalytic Effect and the IMF: The Relationship between Capital Inflows and IMF Program Characteristics" (Honors)
  Admasu Shiferaw + Nathaniel Throckmorton, Shahrokh Fardoust
• Christian Moore, "Improving Society through Electrification: The Case of Solar Energy in Mozambique" (Honors)
  Rui Pereira + Admasu Shiferaw, Daniel Maliniak, Rui Pereira
• Dongyang Wang, "International Trade and Revenue-Based Total Factor Productivity: A Firm-Level Analysis" (Honors)
  John Lopresti + Admasu Shiferaw, Philip Roessler

2019-2020

• Cheng Chen, "Rust Belt City Revitalization: Estimating the Effects of Input Stock on Post-Recession Economic Recovery of 51 Rust Belt Cities" (Honors)
  Thomas LaSalvia + Donald Campbell, Jungping Shi
• Renee Garrow, "Health Effects of Spousal Caregiving Among Elderly Americans" (Honors)
  Jennifer Mellor + Peter McHenry, Katie Lopresti
• Owen Giordano, "The Impact of the 1981 Automobile Voluntary Export Restraint on Commuting Zone Level within the United States" (Honors)
  John Lopresti + Nate Throckmorton, Rani Mullen
• Ethan Harrison, "Modeling Movement: A machine-learning approach to track migration routes after displacement" (Honors)
  Ariel BenYishay + Dan Runfola, Philip Roessler
• Lincoln Hartnett, "An Empirical Study of Bicycle Sharing Systems Using a Product Diffusion Context" (Honors)
  Thomas LaSalvia + Rui Pereira, Ron Smith
• Madeleine Yi, "The Overrepresentation of Female Students in For-Profit Higher Education" (Honors)
  Peter McHenry + David Feldman, Katie Lopresti
• Henry Young, "The Legacy of State Farms on Ethiopia’s Spatial Structural Transformation" (Honors)
  Admasu Shiferaw + Phillip Roessler, Berhanu Abegaz

2018-19

• Adam Abate, "On Macroeconomic Nowcasting and Forecasting with Satellite Imagery and Convolutional Neural Networks" (Honors)
  Matthew Klepacz + John Lopresti, Martin White
• James Bolard, "Interactions Between an Education Polygenic Score and SES in Determining Health in Young Adulthood"
  Peter Savelyev + Peter McHenry, Elyas Bakhtiari
• Emily Martell, "Comparison of Global Solution Methods to a Zero Lower Bound Model" (Honors)
  Nathaniel Throckmorton + Martin Rolek, Zhao Han, Donald Campbell
• Xiangwen Sun, "The Effects of Tax Revenue Changes on Economic Growth"
  Carl Moody + Zhao Han, Guannan Wang

2017-18

• Robert O'Gara, "The Importance of STEM: How Rust Belt Universities can Drive Economic Growth by Supporting High-technology Industry" (Honors)
  John Parman + John McGlennon, Peter McHenry

2016-17

• Brandon Posner, "The Value of Statistical Life for College Students in the Context of Death by Homicide" (Honors) 
  Tatyana Kuzmenko + Jennifer Mellor, Joel Schwartz

2015-16

• Alyssa Brown, "The Compensating Wage Differential for the Risk of Injury" (Honors) 
  Peter McHenry + Caroline Hanley, John Lopresti
• Collin Jones, "Oil Shock Effects and the Business Cycle" (Honors) 
  Lance Kent + Robert Hicks, Ross Iaci, Nathaniel Throckmorton
  
• James Ryan, "A Historical Examination of Creative Destruction, Turnover Rate, and New Technology Based Firms in the Context of the Financial Times US 500 List" (Honors)
  William Hausman + John Lopresti, Ron Rappaport

2014-15

• Jake Schneider, "The Middle Institutions Trap: A Parabolic Association Between Institutions and Income for OPEC Countries" (Honors)
  Lance Kent + Till Schreiber, John Lopresti and Fahad Bishara
• Carolyn Shira, "The Right Fit: Improving the Algorithm that Matches Students to Colleges Based on Test Scores" (Honors)
  Donald E. Campbell + Bob Archibald and Rex Kincaid
• Andrew Turscak, III, "Payoffs, Probabilities, and Preferences: Relative Risk Aversion Across Treatments of Multiple Payoff Structures" (Honors)
  Lisa Anderson + Carl Moody and Lisa Szykman

2013-14

• Daniel Carlen, "Cooperation in a Repeated Public Goods Game with a Probabilistic Endpoint" (Honors)
  Lisa Anderson + Rob Hicks, Christopher Freiman
• Christopher Pickett, "An Agent-Based Network Simulation Model for Comprehensive Stress Testing and Understanding Systemic Risk" (Honors)
  Lance Kent + Alfredo Pereira, Till Schreiber, John Merrick

2012-13

• James Harkrader Jr. "Okun's Law Across the Business Cycle: New Evidence on the Sources of Asymmetries" (Honors) 
  Rui Pereira + Carl Moody, Tanujit Dey 

2011-12

• Amy Filipek, "Current Account Determination in the Eurozone" (Honors)
  Till Schreiber + Olivier Coibion, Claire Rosenfeld
• David Fisher, "Do Forecasters Know the Slope of the Phillips Curve?" (Honors) 
  Olivier Coibion + Till Schreiber, John Boschen 

2010-11

• Taylor Kaye Porter, "Stuffing the Mattress: An Experiment on Risk and Bank Runs" (Honors)
  Lisa Anderson + Beth Freeborn, Katherine Guthrie
• Eric Robinson, "Start-Up Grants to Unemployed Immigrants in Germany: A Means to Reach Employment Parity?" (Honors)
  Eric Jensen + Clay Clemens, Peter McHenry
• Samanthe Tiver, "A Closer Look at Nonprofit Evaluation" (Honors)
  Robert Archibald + Monica Griffin, Melissa McInerney

2009-10

• Bradley Howard Akin, "Shall-Issue Laws and the Structure of Crime Data" (Honors)
  Carlisle Moody + Olivier Coibion, Graham Ousey
• Saika Shaolin Belal, "Motivation of Remittances and the Potential for Diaspora Philanthropy: Empirical Studies of Rural Bangladesh, and the US-Bangladeshi Diaspora" (Honors)
  Eric Jensen + Arnab Basu, Rani Mullen

2008-09

• Daniel Byler, "Investigations into Alternative Sources of Disturbance and Bias in the Implied Volatility Surface" (Honors)
  Carl Moody + Alfredo Pereira, David Dessler
  
• Bryan Callaway, "A Characterization of Optimal Strategies in a Reciprocal Product Dumping Environment" (Honors)
  Arnab Basu
  
• Stephen Jensen, "Structural Change, Diffusion of Technology, and Heterogeneity of Economic Activities" (Honors)
  Berhanu Abegaz + Till Schreiber, Brett Rushforth
  
• Jonathan Eggleston,"Decentralization and Corruption: A Model of Interjurisdictional Competition and Weakened Accountability" (Honors)
  Berhanu Abegaz + Melissa McInerney, Paula Pickering
  

2007-08

• Luke Godwin-Jones, "Augmented Pivotal Mechanism" (Honors)
  Donald Campbell + Sarah Stafford, Charles Johnson
• Matthew Hanson, "The Economics of Roadside Bombs" (Honors)
  Carlisle Moody + Martin Schmidt, Phillip De Camp
• You-Suk Kim, "Optimal Frequency of Introducing a New Edition of a Textbook and the Structure of the Secondhand Market" (Honors)
  Donald Campbell + Robert Archibald, Rex Kincaid (defended December 2007)
• Lauren Merrill, "Strategy-Proofness on the Condorcet Domain" (Honors)
  Donald Campbell + Carlisle Moody, Larry Evans

2006-07

• Lauren Childers, "Knowledge of Wealth Inequality in Two-Person One-Shot Bargaining Games" (High Honors)
  Lisa Anderson + Jennifer Mellor, David Philips
• Keith Klovers, "Estimating the Effects of Transit on Residential Property Values: The Case of the Portland MAX System" (Highest Honors)
  Alfredo Pereira + Will Hausman, Larry Evans
• Ryan Lema, "Are Class Size Reductions Effective? A Look at Returns to School Resources in Texas" (Honors)
  Robert Archibald + Scott Nelson, Eric Jensen

2005-06

• Paul Charpentier
  David Feldman + Eric Jensen, Berhanu Abegaz, Charles Johnson
• Francis DiTraglia, "Experimental Public Goods in Prague and Williamsburg: An International Comparison" (Highest Honors)
  Jeffrey Gerlach + Lisa Anderson, Michael Trosset
• Harrison Killefer, "The Tiger Effect: An Empirical Analysis of How One Athlete Changed the Face of Golf" (Honors)
  Martin Schmidt + Don Campbell, James Armstrong
• Daniel Kuehn, "Downstream Trade and the Vertical Structure of the Domestica Market: Evidence from the Steel Industry" (Honors)
  Clyde Haulman + Sarah Stafford, Eric Jensen, Dee Royster
• Kevin Park, "The Fourteenth Colony: An Economic History of Nova Scotia during the American Revolution and its Aftermath, 1760-1815" (High Honors)
  William Hausman + Sarah Stafford, Clay Clemens

2004-05

• Bonnie Queen
  Rob Hicks + Clyde Haulman, Rob Hicks
• Amanda Young
  Jeffrey Gerlach + Clyde Haulman, Richard Hynes