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 […]
Withdrawal: The Difficulty of Transitioning to a Cashless Economy
by Praneeth Kandula Abstract In 2021, modern payment methods such as mobile pay have increased nearly fivefold since their introduction in 2015. This shift to an increasingly cashless, digital economy has been marked by inequitable financial and technological divides. Historically, Black and Latino adults have had less access to financial systems and are less likely […]
Long-term Benefits of Breastfeeding: Impact on Education in Indonesia
by Natalie Gulrajani Abstract Healthy breastfeeding behaviors have been shown to produce many long-term health benefits including improved cognition. This study uses data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) to assess the longitudinal impact of exclusive breastfeeding duration and early life breastfeeding practices on education. Though a positive correlation was found between breastfeeding duration […]
Predictors of Student Loan Repayments: A Comparison Between Public, Private For-Profit and Private Nonprofit Schools
by Mannat Bakshi and Arjun Ahluwalia Abstract Using a sample of over 3,500 colleges from the College Scorecard Dataset , we investigate the association of average federal student loan repayment rates with institutional, regional, and student demographic characteristics of colleges. We consider educational cohorts from 2010 to 2016 at public, private for-profit, and private non-profit […]
Bridging the Persistence Gap: An Investigation of the Underrepresentation of Female and Minority Students in STEM Fields
By Aaditya Jain and Bailey Kaston Prior literature on mismatch theory has concentrated primarily on minority students, whose lower average levels of pre-enrollment preparedness tend to discourage them from persisting in STEM fields as often as their non-minority counterparts at selective universities. Our study shifts the focus to the persistence gap between men and women, […]
Cashing Out the Benefits: The Spillover Impact of Cash Transfers on Household Educational Investment
By Mitchell Garrett Ochse and Matheus Dias Using electricity price, generation, installed capacity, and carbon price data from the European Union from January 2015 to December 2018, this study finds that the carbon pricing in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) incentivizes electricity sector carbon emission reductions through renewable energy deployment only for […]
The Impact of Collegiate Athletic Success and Scandals on Admissions Applications
By William J. Battle-McDonald This paper examines how the quantity and quality of admissions applications to Division 1 colleges and universities were affected by two non-academic factors: (1) performance of a school’s men’s basketball and football teams; and (2) scandals associated with these athletic programs. Admissions data from 2001 – 2017 were compared to team […]
The Impact of Violence in Mexico on Education and Labor Outcomes: Do Conditional Cash Transfers Have a Mitigating Effect?
By Hayley Jordan Barton This research explores the potential mitigating effect of Mexico’s conditional cash transfer program, Oportunidades, on the education and labor impacts of increased homicide rates. Panel data models are combined with a difference-in-differences approach to compare children and young adults who receive cash transfers with those who do not. Results are very […]