Reconstruction following Destruction: Entrepreneurship in the Aftermath of a Natural Disaster
by Richard Lombardo Abstract Entrepreneurship is thought to be the engine of growth in many developing countries. There is, however, a paucity of evidence on the role that entrepreneurship plays in rebuilding economic livelihoods both in the short and longer-term in the aftermath of a large-scale shock. This is an important gap in the literature […]
Peer Effects & Differential Attrition: Evidence from Tennessee’s Project STAR
by Sanjay Satish Abstract This paper explores the effects of attrition on student development in early education. It aims to provide evidence that student departure in elementary schools has educational impacts on the students they leave behind. Utilizing data from Tennessee’s Project STAR experiment, this paper aims to expand upon the literature of peer effects, […]
Revisiting California Proposition 209: Changes in Science Persistence Rates and Overall Graduation Rates
by Anh-Huy Nguyen Abstract California Proposition 209 outlawed race-based affirmative action in the University of California (UC) system in 1998. However, the UC system subsequently shifted towards race-blind affirmative action by also reweighing factors other than race in the admissions process. To evaluate the hypothetical changes in the science persistence rate and graduation rate of […]
Economic Effects of the War in Donbas: Nightlights and the Ukrainian fight for freedom
Paper available to internal Duke affiliates only upon request. Professor Charles Becker, Faculty Advisor Professor Grace Kim, Faculty Advisor JEL Codes: F51; H56; O52; N44 View Data
The Impact of Conflict on Economic Activity: Night Lights and the Bosnian Civil War
by Stephanie Dodd Abstract The tendency of violent conflict to suppress economic activity is well documented in the civil war economic literature. However, differential consequences resulting from distinct characteristics of conflicts have not been rigorously studied. Utilizing new conflict data on the 1992-1995 Bosnian civil war from Becker, Devine, Dogo, and Margolin (2018) and DSMP-OLS […]
Taxing Marijuana and the Road to Reparations: Comparing the Colorado and Illinois Cannabis Markets
by Tommaso Carlo Filippo Babucci Abstract Although still prohibited at the federal level, cannabis can now be found on the shelves of recreational dispensaries across thirty-three U.S states. This thesis examines the development of this legal market from both historical and empirical perspectives. Using a new data set, it estimates the determinants of cannabis sales […]
Evolution of Wealth and Consumption in the Aftermath of a Major Natural Disaster
By Ralph Lawton Natural disasters can have catastrophic personal and economic effects, particularly in low-resource settings. Major natural disasters are becoming more frequent, so rigorous understanding of their effects on long-term economic wellbeing is fundamentally important in order to mitigate their impacts on exposed populations. In this paper, I investigate the effects of the […]
Asylum Determination within the European Union (EU): Whether Capacity and Social Constraints Impact the Likelihood of Refugee Status Determination
By Louden Paul Richason This paper analyzes whether capacity and social constraints impact acceptance rates for asylum seekers in the European Union from 2000-2016. Theoretically people should receive asylum based on the criteria outlined in international law – a well founded fear of persecution – but the influx and distribution of applicants in the European […]
Assessing the Impacts of an Aging Population on Rising Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Expenditures within the United States
By Rahul Sharma This paper studies the impact of aging on rising healthcare and pharmaceutical expenditures in the United States with the goal of contextualizing the future burden of public health insurance on the government. Precedent literature has focused on international panels of multiple countries and hasn’t identified significant correlation between age and healthcare expenditures. […]
Benefit Spillovers and Higher Education Financing: An Empirical Analysis of Brain Drain and State-Level Investment in Public Universities
By Chinmany G. Pandit This paper analyzes the impact of out-migration of college graduates on state higher education investment. A three-stage least squares regression model with state and year fixed effects is developed and estimated, addressing the relationship between state legislative appropriations, tuition, and educated out-migration across 49 U.S. states from 2006-2015. The results support […]
