Religious Identity and Climate-Sustainable Behavior
by Zixin “Finnie” Zhao
Abstract
What motivates individual action on climate change? The study focuses on the potential influence of religious identities. It employs a laboratory experiment to investigate how priming religious identity affects individuals’ donation behaviors to climate versus non-climate charities in a dictator game setting. In contrast with expectations, this study finds no significant evidence that an increase in religious identity salience influences religious individuals’ donation to climate, nor does it affect overall charitable donation behaviors, when demographic factors and perceptions about charity are controlled. Although failing to establish a causal relationship between religious identity and climate sustainable behavior or a linkage between religious identity and pro-social behavior, this research marks an innovative attempt to use experimental economics methodology to study factors that shape individual responses to the global climate challenge.
Professor Rachel Kranton, Faculty Advisor
Professor Michelle Connolly, Faculty Advisor
JEL Codes: C91; D64; Q54; Z12
Economic Situations and Social Distance: Taxation and Donation
by Alexander Brandt
Abstract:
This experimental study evaluated the effects of two common economic situations –
taxation and donation – on the social distance between participants in the situations, an original
effect of interest that is the opposite of prior research. This study employed a novel survey
framework, in which subjects gave money to others in the economic situations and socially
judged recipients of their money. Findings mostly did not support predictions that the economic
situations would differently affect social distance, but the novel framework enabled an effective
test of the effect of economic situations on social distance and is a major contribution to the field.
Professor Rachel E. Kranton, Faculty Advisor
Professor Scott A. Huettel, Faculty Advisor
Professor Grace Kim, Seminar Advisor
JEL Codes: C91; D64; D89; D90
The Toll of Commuting: The Effects of Commute Time on Well-Being
by M. Thomas Marshall Jr.
Abstract
When deciding on housing location, people theoretically optimize for the best location given their commute time, housing cost, income, as well as other factors. Stutzer and Frey (2008) suggest that this is not true in some nations, such as in their investigation of Germany, with their results showing that the cost of an average commute is equivalent to 35.4% of the average income. This paper investigates the impact of commute time on the well-being of individuals in the United States, correcting for various other factors that determine housing choice such as race,
age, and whether they have a child living at home. The results of this study are clearly that the relationship found between commuting time and well-being cannot be proven to be statistically significant from zero, so there is not any evidence against optimization.
Kent Kimbrough, Faculty Advisor
JEL Codes: D12, D61, R31, R41
Program Characteristics and Economic Conditions That Affect WIC Participation
By Amy Tingle
WIC is one of the most expansive food assistance programs in the United States. Despite extensive research demonstrating the health benefits of participation, there is a sizable gap between those that are eligible and those that enroll. This paper studies how economic conditions and program characteristics affect both eligibility and coverage rates using post recession data from 2010–2013. The results show that the average monthly food benefit is positively correlated with take–up. They also indicate that the unemployment rate is correlated with eligibility but not take–up, meaning that in times of economic downturn, people enroll at the same rate as before.
Advisor: V. Joseph Hotz | JEL Codes: D04, D60 | Tagged: Participation in Federal Assistance, WIC Program
Are the Chinese Altruistic? Explaining Motives behind Chinese Intergenerational Transfers using the Strategic Bequest Motive
By Lucy Yin
Two main competing theories regarding intergenerational transfers from adult children to elderly parents exist: the altruism model and the exchange model. The strategic bequest motive supports the exchange model in claiming parents with bequeathable wealth will incentivize children to devote more resources to parents in order to receive a larger bequest. I use data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey to assess whether children increase monetary or time transfers to elderly parents with bequeathable property ownership. My findings suggest an altruistic model at play, which contradicts most findings in East Asian countries but may be a trend found in other developing countries.
Advisor: Frank Sloan, Michelle Connolly | JEL Codes: D14, D64 | Tagged: Bequests, Altruism, Intergenerational Transfers
The Effects of Prevention and Treatment Interventions in a Microeconomic Model of HIV Transmission
By Allison Stashko
A rational choice-based model for sexual transmission of HIV demonstrates the behavioral and epidemiological effects of public health interventions. Susceptible individuals choose to protect or expose, both responding to and determining HIV prevalence. Interventions are modeled as exogenous shocks to the cost of protection, treatment coverage, and treatment quality. A prevention intervention is more effective when infected individuals are better off. Specifically, treatment interventions increase the elasticity of behavioral change with respect to the cost of protection. Complementary effects between different types of interventions are important for finding an optimal public health HIV strategy.
Advisor: Curtis Taylor | JEL Codes: D61, D69, D91 | Tagged: Epidemiology, HIV/AIDS, Microeconomics
Integrating Medicare and Medicaid Healthcare Delivery and Reimbursement Policies for Dual Eligible Beneficiaries: A Cost-Efficiency Analysis of Managed Care
By Kan Zhang
The extreme underpricing of Chinese Initial Public Offerings in the early days of the Chinese equity markets was reduced by several reforms instituted by the Chinese government from around 2000 to 2002. These reforms reduced 1-day returns on IPOs from 295% to 72%. The reforms reduced IPO underpricing by decreasing the inequality between IPO supply and demand. These reforms, while announced between 2000 and 2002, likely took until around 2004 to take full effect. In addition to inequality between supply and demand, other factors such as information asymmetry and government/quality signaling contributed to underpricing both before and after the reforms.
Advisor: Frank Sloan, Kent Kimbrough | JEL Codes: D61, I0, I11, I12, I18 | Tagged: Dual Eligibles, Managed Care, Medicare
