Impact of Medicare Advantage Supplemental Benefit Expansion on Startup Funding
by Judy Tianhong Zhong Abstract In 2018, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that they would expand the supplemental benefits that can be included in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. The goal was to encourage insurers to innovate and test new benefit offerings that could improve health outcomes and reduce healthcare spending. A […]
Technological Impacts on Return to Education in Brazil
by Yirui Zhao Abstract The wage return to education has been studied for a long time. Acemoglu and Autor (2010) connect the decrease of medium-level job opportunities in the U.S. with technological advances. Their theoretical model predicts that if technology replaces routine jobs, workers with medium-level skills will experience decreases in wages relative to both […]
The Cost of Delay: Evidence from the Ethereum Transaction Fee Market
by Yinhong “William” Zhao Abstract Delaying a financial transaction can be costly, but the cost of delay is difficult to estimate in traditional finance. I exploit the unique data offering and market design of the Ethereum blockchain to estimate the cost of delaying financial transactions in decentralized finance (DeFi). I construct a dynamic auction model […]
Determinants of Sustained Success in NFT Markets
by Emily Xu Abstract Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) took headlines by storm in 2021 and have since established their own marketplace. As public interest in the space wanes in 2022-2023, I characterize this emerging space and investigate factors that distinguish top-performing NFT projects within their respective market segments while controlling for external market and cryptocurrency exposures. […]
Illuminating the Economic Costs of Conflict: A Night Light Analysis of the Sri Lankan Civil War
by Nicholas Kiran Wijesekera Abstract This paper investigates the economic consequences of the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983-2009) by using event-based data on civilian and combatant fatalities in addition to night light imagery as a proxy for economic activity. By looking at regional economic activity across the island of Sri Lanka, this paper seeks to […]
The True Cost: An Aggregate Analysis of the Advanced Clean Cars II Policy
by Lauren Mackenzie Sizemore Abstract Global climate change, emphasis on the global, requires local solutions. Every entity plays a role, some more than others. Yet, when improvements in pollution or emissions in one region leads to more problems in another, how is the net cost or benefit to be deciphered for the environment, for the […]
Student Effort and Parent Attitude on Education Attainment: Evidence from Multi-year Survey in Gansu, China
by Ridge Zhong-yuan Ren Abstract This paper explores whether student effort and parent attitudes have varying effects at different stages of a student’s life in terms of educational attainment and job outcomes. With survey data in Gansu, China, a largely rural province in Northwest China that lags behind the rest of China in education, this […]
Short Term Effectiveness of Chinese Stock Connect Program — a Study of the Pricing Dynamics of Cross-listed Stocks
by Kaiyu Ren Abstract This thesis examines the pricing dynamics of cross-listed stocks in the Chinese A-share and Hong Kong H-share markets. By identifying an announcement-implementation window, I offer a fresh perspective on the short-term price adjustment of cross-listed stocks around the launch of the first Stock Connect program. My findings reveal a significant increase […]
Price Determinants and Depreciation of Used Cars Post-COVID-19
by Ayaan Sundeep Patel Abstract Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the price of used cars has fluctuated greatly due to numerous factors. Inflation and supply chain issues have been at the forefront of the news and have affected not only cars but most consumer goods. While the majority of society has seemingly progressed past COVID-19, its […]
Improving Institutional Performance: Foreign Aid Evaluation and Determinants of Foreign Aid Project Success Ratings
by Susan Sawyer O’Keefe Abstract In this paper, I use a regression model to predict project outcome ratings for international aid projects by 12 multilateral and bilateral aid agencies taking place in 183 recipient countries. The influential factors considered are project duration, project size, evaluation type, evaluation lag, donor ratings, and country-level indicators of development. […]
