Economics

In the 2007-2008 academic year the Economics Department began awarding one level of Honors to student research projects. The projects listed below have been defended successfully, and a copy of the highlighted titles has been deposited in Swem Library.

Key:

Student, "Thesis" (Honors level)
Committee Chair + Other Committee Members

2023-2024

Thomas G Cronin, "The Effects of SNAP’s ABAWD Work Requirement on Food Security and Work Outcomes" (Honors)
John Parman + Peter McHenry, Alexandra Joosse
Noah Benjamin Lansing, "The Economic Effects of Democratization: A Review of the Third Wave" (Honors)
Berhanu Abegaz + Nathaniel Throckmorton, Mark Deming
Daniel Karsten Posthumus, "Starting Early: Returns on Kindergarten Attendance in Indonesia" (Honors)
Ranjan Shrestha + John Parman, Daniel Cristol
Sydney Marie Smith, "Beyond Human Players: Investigating AI Participation in Public Goods Games" (Honors)
Robert Hicks + Lisa Anderson, Daniel Vasiliu

2022-2023

Kevin Lamar Bloodworth II, "FDI and Environmental Externalities in Southeast Asia" (Honors)
Luis Baldomero-Quintana + Ariel Ben Yishay, Rachel Sayer
Yining Li, "The 9/11 Attacks’ Impact on Muslims’ Labor Market Outcomes in the United States" (Honors)
Peter McHenry + Rui Pereira, Daniela Hurtado-Lange
Stanley Junwen Wang, "Dour Hour: The Effects of Policy Uncertainty on Investment Rates in Europe" (Honors)
Alfredo Pereira + Rob Hicks, Shahrokh Fardoust
Emma Abigail Williams, "Chinese Roadbuilding and the Forest-Based Incomes of Indigenous and Rural Cambodians" (Honors)
Ariel BenYishay + Ranjan Shrestha, Ammar Malik

2021-2022

Cody Taylor, "Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Costs and Undesirable Healthcare Expenditures" (Honors)
Tate Twinam + Nathaniel Throckmorton, Elyas Bakhtiari
Georgiana Reece, "The Boys are Back in School: Increased Chinese Import Exposure’s Effect on Community College Enrollments" (Honors)
Luis Baldomero-Quintana + John Lopresti, Ammar Malik
Jiayong Lu, "On the Impact of Social Spending on Long-term Economic Performance in the USA" (Honors)
Alfredo Pereira + Jennifer Mellor, Reya Farber
Leah Damelin, "The Effect of Subsidies on Small Exporting Sectors in Chile" (Honors)
Luis Baldomero-Quintana + John Lopresti, Tanu Kumar
Madeline Helfer, "True Price of a Pack: Tobacco Expenditure and Height-for-Age in Indonesia" (Honors)
Ranjan Shrestha + Jennifer Mellor, Iyabo Obasanjo
Stephen Rosene, "The Energy-Growth Nexus in India and the United States" (Honors)
Carl Moody + Berhanu Abegaz, Saskia Mordijck
William Anderson, "The Role of Homeownership in Taiwan's Low Fertility Story" (Honors)
Peter McHenry + John Lopresti, Emily Wilcox
William Merone, "Examining Labor Market Recovery During the COVID-19 Pandemic Using Occupational Lousiness Indicators" (Honors)
Peter McHenry + Rui Pereira, Elyas Bakhtiari
Xufeng Liu, "Economic Impact of the Western Africa Ebola Outbreak--A Holistic Approach" (Honors) Admasu Shiferaw + Berhanu Abegaz, Phil Roessler

2020-2021

Jutta Appiah, "Oil Production and Performance of Ghana’s Manufacturing" (Honors)
Admasu Shiferaw + Berhanu Abegaz, Philip Roessler
Elizabeth Crotty, "Concentration and Nurse Staffing Outcomes in the Healthcare Labor Market" (Honors)
Peter McHenry + Jennifer Mellor, Elyas Bakhtiari
Matthew Levinson, "The Catalytic Effect and the IMF: The Relationship between Capital Inflows and IMF Program Characteristics" (Honors)
Admasu Shiferaw + Nathaniel Throckmorton, Shahrokh Fardoust
Christian Moore, "Improving Society through Electrification: The Case of Solar Energy in Mozambique" (Honors)
Rui Pereira + Admasu Shiferaw, Daniel Maliniak, Rui Pereira
Dongyang Wang, "International Trade and Revenue-Based Total Factor Productivity: A Firm-Level Analysis" (Honors)
John Lopresti + Admasu Shiferaw, Philip Roessler

2015-16

Alyssa Brown, "The Compensating Wage Differential for the Risk of Injury" (Honors)
Peter McHenry + Caroline Hanley, John Lopresti
Collin Jones, "Oil Shock Effects and the Business Cycle" (Honors)
Lance Kent + Robert Hicks, Ross Iaci, Nathaniel Throckmorton
James Ryan, "A Historical Examination of Creative Destruction, Turnover Rate, and New Technology Based Firms in the Context of the Financial Times US 500 List" (Honors)
William Hausman + John Lopresti, Ron Rappaport

2014-15

Jake Schneider, "The Middle Institutions Trap: A Parabolic Association Between Institutions and Income for OPEC Countries" (Honors)
Lance Kent + Till Schreiber, John Lopresti and Fahad Bishara
Carolyn Shira, "The Right Fit: Improving the Algorithm that Matches Students to Colleges Based on Test Scores" (Honors)
Donald E. Campbell + Bob Archibald and Rex Kincaid
Andrew Turscak, III, "Payoffs, Probabilities, and Preferences: Relative Risk Aversion Across Treatments of Multiple Payoff Structures" (Honors)
Lisa Anderson + Carl Moody and Lisa Szykman

2013-14

Daniel Carlen, "Cooperation in a Repeated Public Goods Game with a Probabilistic Endpoint" (Honors)
Lisa Anderson + Rob Hicks, Christopher Freiman
Christopher Pickett, "An Agent-Based Network Simulation Model for Comprehensive Stress Testing and Understanding Systemic Risk" (Honors)
Lance Kent + Alfredo Pereira, Till Schreiber, John Merrick

2012-13

James Harkrader Jr. "Okun's Law Across the Business Cycle: New Evidence on the Sources of Asymmetries" (Honors)
Rui Pereira + Carl Moody, Tanujit Dey

2011-12

Amy Filipek, "Current Account Determination in the Eurozone" (Honors)
Till Schreiber + Olivier Coibion, Claire Rosenfeld
David Fisher, "Do Forecasters Know the Slope of the Phillips Curve?" (Honors)
Olivier Coibion + Till Schreiber, John Boschen

2010-11

Taylor Kaye Porter, "Stuffing the Mattress: An Experiment on Risk and Bank Runs" (Honors)
Lisa Anderson + Beth Freeborn, Katherine Guthrie
Eric Robinson, "Start-Up Grants to Unemployed Immigrants in Germany: A Means to Reach Employment Parity?" (Honors)
Eric Jensen + Clay Clemens, Peter McHenry
Samanthe Tiver, "A Closer Look at Nonprofit Evaluation" (Honors)
Robert Archibald + Monica Griffin, Melissa McInerney

2009-10

Bradley Howard Akin, "Shall-Issue Laws and the Structure of Crime Data" (Honors)
Carlisle Moody + Olivier Coibion, Graham Ousey
Saika Shaolin Belal, "Motivation of Remittances and the Potential for Diaspora Philanthropy: Empirical Studies of Rural Bangladesh, and the US-Bangladeshi Diaspora" (Honors)
Eric Jensen + Arnab Basu, Rani Mullen

2008-09

Daniel Byler, "Investigations into Alternative Sources of Disturbance and Bias in the Implied Volatility Surface" (Honors)
Carl Moody + Alfredo Pereira, David Dessler
Bryan Callaway, "A Characterization of Optimal Strategies in a Reciprocal Product Dumping Environment" (Honors)
Arnab Basu
Stephen Jensen, "Structural Change, Diffusion of Technology, and Heterogeneity of Economic Activities" (Honors)
Berhanu Abegaz + Till Schreiber, Brett Rushforth
Jonathan Eggleston,"Decentralization and Corruption: A Model of Interjurisdictional Competition and Weakened Accountability" (Honors)
Berhanu Abegaz + Melissa McInerney, Paula Pickering

2007-08

Luke Godwin-Jones, "Augmented Pivotal Mechanism" (Honors)
Donald Campbell + Sarah Stafford, Charles Johnson
Matthew Hanson, "The Economics of Roadside Bombs" (Honors)
Carlisle Moody + Martin Schmidt, Phillip De Camp
You-Suk Kim, "Optimal Frequency of Introducing a New Edition of a Textbook and the Structure of the Secondhand Market" (Honors)
Donald Campbell + Robert Archibald, Rex Kincaid (defended December 2007)
Lauren Merrill, "Strategy-Proofness on the Condorcet Domain" (Honors)
Donald Campbell + Carlisle Moody, Larry Evans

2006-07

Lauren Childers, "Knowledge of Wealth Inequality in Two-Person One-Shot Bargaining Games" (High Honors)
Lisa Anderson + Jennifer Mellor, David Philips
Keith Klovers, "Estimating the Effects of Transit on Residential Property Values: The Case of the Portland MAX System" (Highest Honors)
Alfredo Pereira + Will Hausman, Larry Evans
Ryan Lema, "Are Class Size Reductions Effective? A Look at Returns to School Resources in Texas" (Honors)
Robert Archibald + Scott Nelson, Eric Jensen

2005-06

Paul Charpentier
David Feldman + Eric Jensen, Berhanu Abegaz, Charles Johnson
Francis DiTraglia, "Experimental Public Goods in Prague and Williamsburg: An International Comparison" (Highest Honors)
Jeffrey Gerlach + Lisa Anderson, Michael Trosset
Harrison Killefer, "The Tiger Effect: An Empirical Analysis of How One Athlete Changed the Face of Golf" (Honors)
Martin Schmidt + Don Campbell, James Armstrong
Daniel Kuehn, "Downstream Trade and the Vertical Structure of the Domestica Market: Evidence from the Steel Industry" (Honors)
Clyde Haulman + Sarah Stafford, Eric Jensen, Dee Royster
Kevin Park, "The Fourteenth Colony: An Economic History of Nova Scotia during the American Revolution and its Aftermath, 1760-1815" (High Honors)
William Hausman + Sarah Stafford, Clay Clemens

2004-05

Bonnie Queen
Rob Hicks + Clyde Haulman, Rob Hicks
Amanda Young
Jeffrey Gerlach + Clyde Haulman, Richard Hynes