Externalities of Overhead Power Lines on Residential Housing Values
by Jake Park-Walters Abstract Overhead electricity transmission lines (OHLs) create negative externalities on nearby housing values largely from perceived factors including aesthetics, safety, and health. Studies have been performed outside of the US to determine the specific value impact of power lines by proximity. It is not, however, well researched within the United States–specifically in […]
Splitting Hairs or Splitting Regions: The Differential Democratic Impacts of Splitting ZIP Codes vs. Counties During Redistricting
by Jacob Hervey Abstract In light of the Supreme Court’s holding in Gill v. Whitford, judicially-enforceable gerrymandering metrics must focus on democratic harms to individual citizens, instead of state-wide measures of proportionality. Previous literature has suggested that gerrymandering metrics should focus on the extent to which congressional districts split preexisting geographic boundaries (namely, ZIP codes […]
The Impact of 2021 Advance Child Tax Credit Payments on Low-Income Households’ Labor Supply
by Zixin “Ellen” Zhang Abstract Studies have established that the Advance 2021 Child Tax Credit (CTC) payments substantially reduced poverty and food insecurity, but some claim that the CTC payments may create negative labor supply effects that could offset its hardship-reduction benefits. Researchers have used a variety of methods to measure how the monthly CTC […]
School Choice and Neighborhood Change in Post-Katrina New Orleans
by Rosalind Fei Yang Abstract As school choice policies weaken the traditional link between neighborhoods and schools, traditional housing patterns previously governed by school zoning are changing. This paper examines the connection between school choice reform, specifically an increase in charter schools, and changes in neighborhood composition, focusing on New Orleans over time. I use […]
Blaze of Distrust: The Impact of Wildfires on Social Capital and Governance in Brazilian Amazonia
by Feishi “Alicia” Gong Abstract The 2019 wildfire crisis in Brazilian Amazonia not only captured global headlines but also deeply influenced public sentiment towards environmental and political challenges within the country. Trust, a pivotal element of social capital, plays a vital role in shaping a nation’s progress and the well-being of its citizens. This study […]
The Press and Peace, Examining Iraq War Coverage in Newspapers using BERT LLMs
by Jakobe Bussey Abstract This study utilizes state-of-the-art BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) models to perform sentiment analysis on Wall Street Journal and New York Times articles about the Iraq War published between 2002 and 2012 and further categorize them using advanced unsupervised machine learning techniques. By utilizing statistical analysis and quartic regression models, […]
Effects of Neighborhoods on Children’s Educational Outcomes in Indonesia
by Audrey Liu Abstract There is considerable observed geographic variable in outcomes across space. Neighborhood effects attempt to explain to what extent the place in which an individual grows up impacts their future outcomes. This paper focuses on neighborhood effects on children in Indonesia where there is a large disparity in public and private amenities […]
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 […]
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. […]
