The Rise of Mobile Money in Kenya: The Changing Landscape of M-PESA’s Impact on Financial Inclusion
By Hong Zhu M-PESA, the hugely popular mobile money system in Kenya, has been celebrated for its potential to “bank the unbanked” and increase access to financial services. This paper provides evidence to support this idea and explores mechanisms through which this might be the case. It specifically looks at the savings products held by […]
Marijuana Pricing Structure and State-Level Price Determinants
By Rebecca Li This study uses the PriceofWeed.com data set first examined in Thies (2012) to analyze the price-quantity relationship for marijuana transactions and to determine the effect of various state-level factors on marijuana prices. By applying the cost-based full fixed cost recovery pricing model developed by Britney, Kuzdrall, and Fartuch (1983), this paper finds […]
The effect of Mexico’s Conditional Cash Transfer Program on Migration Decisions
By Aki Ishikawa The Mexican conditional cash transfer program, Oportunidades, is commonly overlooked for long-term evaluations. One understudied effect of this poverty-reduction program is the change in migration behavior caused by the cash transfers. Using data from the Mexican Family Life Survey, this study outlines the effects of the social net program on international migration […]
The Impact of Greek Affiliation on Grades and Course Selection
By Andrew De Donato We seek to understand how affiliating with a Greek organization impacts both grades and course selection. This research provides a novel addition to the literature due to a unique situation at the sample university, in that the first opportunity for freshmen to join Greek organizations occurs in the spring semester rather […]
Corporate Financial Distress and Bankruptcy Prediction in North American Construction Industry
By Gang Li This paper seeks to explore the application of Altman’s bankruptcy prediction model in the construction industry by measuring its percentage accuracy on a dataset consisting of 108 bankrupt & non-bankrupt firms selected across the timeline of 1985-2013. Another main goal this paper is to explore the predictive power of an expanded variable […]
High Occupancy Toll Lines: Do They Reduce Congestion?
By David Wang In 2009, according to data from the American Community Survey, ninety percent of workers in the U.S. used a privately owned vehicle when commuting. For an average commuter, the annual traffic delay in urban areas has increased from below fifteen hours in 1982 to more than thirty-five hours in 2007 (Winston, 2013). […]
The Determination of Newspaper Slant in Small Markets
By Jordyn Gracey This paper takes the assertion, made by Gentzkow et al., that newspaper slant is primarily determined by slant as given. Both that paper and this one use Hotelling as a foundation. However, this paper considers what happens when the distribution of ideological preferences differs at national and county levels. This paper controls […]
Undergraduate Education and the Gender Wage Gap: An Analysis of the Effects of College Experience and Gender on Income
By Kelsey Siman Labor and education economists have long been interested in the link between undergraduate education and earnings. In addition, studies have addressed the connections between gender and college major and GPA, as well as between gender and income. This paper brings all of these together in order to show that college major choice […]
Martin Bronfenbrenner: An Economist in the American Occupation of Japan
By Michael Potts Martin Bronfenbrenner (1914-1997) was one of the last of a generation of generalist economists. His involvement in the U.S. Occupation of Japan changed his life and his career. This paper examines the mutually stabilizing relationship between his persona and his work in light of his experiences in Japan. Access to Bronfenbrenner’s previously […]
The Economic Effects of Military and Non-Military Government Spending
By Patrick Royal There has been substantial investigation into the influence of government spending in general on economic growth, unemployment, and inequality, but relatively little investigation into the relative effects of different types of spending. This thesis attempts to separate the influence of military and non-military government spending on the economy. As with many such […]
