Senior Projects 2021 – Economics

Table of Contents

Abadi, Alex

ASSESSING THE PERFORMANCE OF ASSET-PRICING FACTOR MODELS ACROSS INDUSTRY PORTFOLIOS
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: In the finance literature, specifically when dealing with asset-pricing, one of the biggest issues posed is deriving a model that can explain the variation in the returns of an asset or portfolio by taking as many market anomalies into account as possible. In this paper, I test the performance of 7 asset-pricing factor models (6 of which were introduced in the literature) on 49 industry portfolios to see which model does the best job in explaining the variation in their excess returns. I derived a 10-factor model by combining the factors from each of the previous factor models tested. With procedures such as data mining and p-hacking raising skepticism of which market anomalies are relevant in explaining average returns and whether certain market anomalies will hold over time, I also examined the statistical significance of each of the 10 factors on the 49 industry portfolios to see which factors are actually relevant in explaining the variation in excess returns for these industry portfolios.

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Ackerman, George

Local Foods in Meadville: Shopping Decisionsand Perceptions
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics & Environmental Science
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: Food systems area subject of interest for researchers due to their importance to economic,environmental, ecological, and human health systems. This study aims to gain insight into the food system in Meadville, Pennsylvania through the lens of a sample of consumers. The survey included questions in four categories: demographics,method of food acquisition, what drives food shopping decisions, general attitudes of interest,and perceptions of local food and food more generally in Meadville. The sample is more white and richer than the Meadville population.Respondents generally had a positive view of local foods, but it seems that these views did not translate to the type of demand necessary to scale up local foods systems. Overall, the results suggest that local foods play no more than a supplemental role in food purchases, and oftentimes less than that. Results also suggest a possibility for a gap in demand for local foods and supply for local foods, especially in areas where prices for local foods are like foods produced by conventional means and where convenience of purchasing local foods can be increased.

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Burner, Quenton

Impact of Surface Coal Mining on West Virginia Property Values
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: The fossil fuel industry has been a leading industry for our economy for many years, but fossil fuels have also had an impact on the well-being of local environments. There are many practices of extracting fossil fuels, and some of them have long-lasting social and environmental costs. The use of surface mining techniques is a topic that has generated controversy due to its impact on the environment and community health. This study uses the hedonic pricing method to investigate the impact that surface coal mines have on residential property values in West Virginia. I hypothesize that the statistical analysis will show that as the number of surface mines and their average production increases, the median value of housing units in a county will decrease because coal-mining dependent counties in West Virginia have lower total median property values than the state-level median. After running multiple log regressions, a statistically significant negative relationship was found for properties within 10 miles of the surface mining site, and appraisal value. For properties within 10 miles of the site, appraisal value decreased by 39%. State and county officials should consider all the costs and benefits involved with granting new permits for surface mine production sites

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Capristo, Peyton

Versatility in Monte-Carlo Simulations: an Application Within Physics and Economics
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics & Physics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: For this comprehensive project, Monte-Carlo simulations are applied to two different fields of study. Those fields consist of physics and economics. The physics simulation observes different attributes of a photon traveling through the sun. A visual walk, some statistics, and a question of time for this process to conclude will be analyzed. While the economics simulation explores Monte-Carlo simulations applied to european call and put options. The objective of this paper is to show how Monte-Carlo simulations are a method that can be used not just in a singular area of study. The programming language python is utilized to accomplish this goal. Results show a successful monte carlo simulations in both a physics and an economics application.

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Chisholm, Logan

The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and Seasonality in Financial Markets
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: This research attempts to establish and explain the relationship between the Capital Asset Pricing Model and Seasonality in financial services markets. 58 time-series regressions are run using the CAPM as a base to determine what type of stocks (small or large volume) are affected by seasonality within the model, as well as determining what impact seasonality may have on important variables in the model. In addition, comparative analysis between the expected theoretical outcomes of variables and empirical results of the CAPM can show the significance of seasonality in estimating stock risk and return relationships. There is a clear element of seasonality in primarily small volume stock returns that the CAPM does not account for and often these same stocks seemingly overperform compared to the theoretical values of the model. Determining the impact of this seasonality on stock returns can help investors and portfolio managers make accurate evaluations of the CAPM’s empirical results and therefore craft more efficient portfolios and investment decisions.

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Del Rosso, Matthew

“Driving” the Financial Gains of Golf Through Analytical Data
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: The PGA Tour is the competitive professional golf tour based in North America. Players every year are competing both for tournament victories and consequently yearly earnings. This analysis will aim to provide a further dialogue that looks into the various factors of the game that can be statistically analyzed in order to optimize both practicing strategies as well as tournament play in general. Knowing which areas of the game to focus on is immensely important in determining continued success on the Tour and in general with the game. The use of statistical indicators from the various areas of the game should prove to yield significant results regarding the determinants of financial success on the Tour. Practice is important, but the golfer must know what areas to improve on. With the immense amount of technology and the ever-growing nature of the industry, even slight statistical improvement in determining practicing routines plays a very big role in determining success as well. Equipment and performance are part of an important discussion at the forefront of golf today as manufacturers compete to provide the most trustworthy and productive clubs as they can. Club loyalty is a very big concept in the game of golf, as players want a brand they can work with and personalize to fit their needs on the course. Technology and data allow us to analyze the very determinants of success through the use of ShotLink data to track tournament statistic indicators. These statistical indicators are regressed against Yearly Earnings in order to interpret their effect on this outcome variable.

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Forland, Hans

The Effects of Values and Influences on Generation Z Engagement in the Sustainable Fashion Industry on Instagram
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: The purpose of this research is to identify how sustainable fashion brands use social media, specifically Instagram, to encourage sustainable fashion consumption amongst generation Z. This research identifies the typology of Instagram posts that stimulates the most engagement among generation Z based on important values and influences. The values that are important to generation Z are peer pressure and family influence, brand/product knowledge, and the perception of uniqueness. These values connect to certain influential characteristics of a post. Peer pressure and family influence relate to social and aesthetic posts, brand and product knowledge link to informative posts about their products and ethics, while the value of uniqueness connects to close-up and detailed shots of products. With these values and influences in mind, this research further identifies categories that correlate to these values, by undergoing a content analysis from three sustainable fashion brands, and clarifying what Instagram posts create the most engagement. 388 Instagram posts have been analyzed and coded, and the results show that peer pressure and uniqueness are the most engaging factors for generation Z.

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Greer, Nazareth

CEO Successions & Gender Impacts on Firms
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: CEO successions have been a common market anomaly since the beginning of business. The purpose of this research was to find out just how much of an impact successions have on wealth factors (employee numbers as well) of companies. Since there has been a noticeable push for workplace gender equality in past decades, I wanted to observe whether or not there were any noticeable differences in performance between male and female CEO successors. For my research, I compiled data on 69 companies from the Fortune 500 list that have had successions where the CEO lasts at least 5 years, dating back to 2005. After conducting my research, I concluded that all CEO successions (male & female) do have positive impacts on employee and wealth factors on average. There were some slight differences within a few variables between the two genders, but on average, there is no significant difference, just that CEO successions do have positive impacts on employee numbers and company (shareholder) wealth factors. The push for workplace gender equality has had no negative effects, and CEO successions are positive market anomalies on average.

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Harkins, Owen

Assessing the Impact of Environmental Social Governance on the Banking Industries Financial Performance
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: Consumer preferences over the past 20 years have opened the door to a new sector in the marketplace that is centered around sustainability and social responsibility. With rising concerns and attention towards climate change, consumers are pressuring corporations and governments to act upon this global issue. As a result, the introduction of Environmental Social Governance (ESG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports have provided a platform for corporations to showcase their commitment to sustainability and social responsibility. This innovative ideology, scores corporations on a basis of different matrixes concerning corporate governance, social relations, and environmental sustainability. However, previous theoretical and empirical studies have a mixed consensus on the impact from ESG and CSR, and the implications of these practices are under question with their legitimacy, accuracy, and financial benefit. This paper examines the impact that ESG has on a corporation’s excess returns in the market through the use of a Fama-French Three Factor model. Historical stock price data and ESG scores from 21 banking corporation across North America from 2012 to 2019 were collect and compared to market return factors to measure the level of impact ESG has on a corporation’s excess returns. Through this analysis, it was found that ESG scores are not significant and therefore do not have an impact on a corporation’s excess returns from the market. This suggests that ESG scores alone do not have a significant impact on returns a corporation could see, but the underlying implications of ESG can impact the business in different ways than observed.

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Hunt, Savannah

The Impact of Income on Body Mass Index in the United States
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: This paper is an investigation of the relationship between household income and body mass index within the United States. This investigation is important because the average household income continues to become a less liveable wage and it has started impacting consumers’ health. Every year the obesity problem within the United States gets worse and the average BMI increases. This paper explores the relationship and impact of income in relation to BMI. This paper uses the 2019 Behavioral Risk Surveillance Survey dataset to run an OLS regression on BMI, income, and other demographic/health variables. The results demonstrated that there is a significant correlation between BMI, income, and several other variables. After analyzing four different regressions and controlling for many variables, the regressions demonstrated that having a low income increases someone’s BMI. These results are an important understanding that will help further research on obesity and how implementing public policies can combat public health issues within the United States.

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Knowlton, Mackenzie

The Effect Legalization of Recreational Marijuana has had on Achieving the Goals of the 2018 Canadian Cannabis Act
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: Legalization of cannabis has been a topic of discussion by many countries, debating the pros and cons of ending an almost century-long prohibition of recreational cannabis use. Canada is the second country to nationally legalize recreational cannabis and is predicted to reach a market size of 5.18 billion by 2024. As Canada adapts to new laws and regulations, the question of whether legalization has been beneficial for the public health arises, and whether regulation and policy have achieved the goals of the 2018 Cannabis Act. This study analyzes the effects that legalization has had on consumption in youth, eliminating the illicit market, reducing the burden on the justice system, and generating tax revenue from an untapped market. An examination of each province’s policy structure, using data from Statistics Canada, will analyze the outcomes of the Cannabis Act and possible lessons to be learnt as other countries proceed in legalizing recreational cannabis.

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Lashbrook, Kirsten

Foreign Aid and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: a Panel Vector Autoregression approach
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: This paper looks at the aid effectiveness debate and the history of its creation. Contributing with a panel vector autoregression (PVAR) involving 48 countries from 1973-2019. This PVAR approach allows for a minimal assumption approach that engages both economic growth and human development as variables. Impulse response functions (IRF) were measured to determine the effects of aid on growth and development. The results after a shock (1% increase in foreign aid) showed an increase in economic growth that was unsustainable and a smaller increase in human development (life expectancy) that was long-term.The conclusions were that while foreign aid may work, it is not very effective requiring continuous donations of vast amounts of aid to incite any true growth and lacking in statistical significance.

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Le, Tin

Calendar Anomalies in the Stock Market: January and Halloween Effect in Small Capitalization Stocks in the Technology Industry
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: To answer if the calendar anomaly known as the January effect is still displayed in small capitalization stock markets in the technology industry by utilizing a time series regression for fifteen different companies over the span of approximately nine years.

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Lengauer, Grace

Analyzing the Impact of Corruption on Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth in Developing Countries
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: This research study examines the impact of corruption on foreign direct investment and economic growth in developing countries. The study shows data from 44 developing countries that have high levels of corruption in a cross-sectional data set from 2007 and a panel data set from 2005-2009. These countries are from different regions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and Caribbean. The citizens of these countries are classified in incomes levels such as low income, lower-middle income and upper middle income. The variables being analyzed are foreign direct investment, gross domestic product, corruption levels, human development levels, interest rate, inflation rate, infrastructure, secondary education, population, and natural resources. All of these are used as determinants of economic growth and foreign direct investment. Three regressions were utilized for both datasets. Based on the results of this study, corruption and foreign direct investment positively impact economic growth in a cross-sectional dataset while economic growth positively impacts foreign direct investment in a panel dataset.

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Mascio, Adam

The Four-Factor Model, Pricing Assets in The Oil and Gas Industry
Date: Fall 2020
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: There are three main purposes to this research: first, to examine how well the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), the Carhart four-factor model, and the Fama-French three-factor model can explain the returns of oil and gas stocks. Second, to determine if the four-factor model proposed by Carhart improved upon the CAPM and Fama- French three-factor model. Third, to determine the relevance of the factors in the U.S. oil and gas industry. To test this, the models were used to price 88 individual assets and 1 portfolio asset of the oil and gas industry. The individual assets were oil and gas stocks trading on the NYSE, and the portfolio asset consisted of U.S. oil and gas stocks. The size, value, momentum, and market risk factor were obtained through the Kenneth French database. The method to test the model is an ordinary least squares (OLS) multiple linear regression for the Carhart four-factor and Fama-French three-factor model, and a simple linear regression for the CAPM. Eighty-nine regressions were conducted for each model to determine the explanatory power of the models and its factor(s) in the oil and gas industry. Hypothesis testing of the intercepts indicated that the three-factor model and four-factor model are an improvement upon the CAPM. However, the four-factor model only marginally improves on the three-factor model. The market risk premium factor, size factor, and value factor were statistically significant in explaining the returns of oil and gas companies for both the three and four-factor models. The momentum factor, for almost all of the assets, was not statistically significant and does not seem to be relevant for pricing assets in the oil and gas industry.

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Moore, Noah

Analyzing the North American Free Trade Agreement: Estimating a Gravity Model with Specificities
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: This research paper proposes to quantitatively and empirically assess the effects of the free trade agreement known as NAFTA, or the North American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA is a trade agreement between the nations of America, Canada and Mexico that went into effect in 1994. The goal of such a trade agreement between nations is to create or increase trade between the member nations. This is done by liberalization of trade between member nations, which boosts incentives for a mutually beneficial trade relationship between nations by eliminating restrictions. While the traditional Gravity model does not have a theoretical framing, many efforts by economists have been made to rectify this. This paper plans to use a Gravity model based on a recent theoretical framework, and study effects of NAFTA by employing “dynamic” dummy variables for NAFTA. The variables used will represent whether NAFTA created trade or diverted trade between the countries in the sample. Trade data from the UN COMTRADE database capture total exports between the US, Mexico, Canada, Japan, China, Brazil and Germany. Other widely used variables in Gravity models such as distance and population are used. Unlike many popular works concerning the Gravity model, estimations will come from an alternative method, the Hausman Taylor estimator.

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Rockwell, Amelia

Analysis of Volunteer vs. Career Firefighter Deaths in New York State
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: The purpose of this project is to analyze the differences in volunteer and career firefighter deaths in New York State by examining age, cause of death, nature of death, duty, activity, and property type among 2,006 firefighters between 2000 and 2015. The literature is composed of risky job analysis, heart attack risk for firefighters, and differing compensation for volunteer firefighters upon injury/death. This analysis is through descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, and mean equivalence testing to find any possible relationships between volunteer and career firefighter deaths. Theory on this topic includes research on human capital in labor economics and the foundation of risky jobs that leads to compensation, inequality, and incentive pay. This study found that volunteer and career firefighters share stress/overexertion as the number one cause of death and heart attack as the number one nature of death. They both also shared similar duties and activities that led to firefighter deaths.

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Santia, Mark Roman

ESG Framework: Is it Ideal for corporate advancement and the Future of Investing?
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: For this project I reviewed literature on the ESG framework (Environmental, Social, Governance) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with a focal point on the effects it had on corporate profitability, and if it could be used to determine potential high return investment opportunities. Analysis was run to see any relationship between the literature that was reviewed. Majority of the academic research found a link between certain components of ESG while the other had no relation at all, either positive or negative. There are also pieces that suggest ESG is just used to make companies appear “green”, however most of the work shows ESG to be a useful tool for corporate evaluation. The studies linking ESG and CSR to a firm concluded that better performing companies have higher corporate value, higher equity returns (ROA & ROE), and lower volatility to risk.

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Schmidt, Sarah

Student experiences in the Business and Economics Department: Implications for gender disparity
Date: Fall 2021
Major(s): Economics & Environmental Science
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: At the undergraduate level, student experiences play an important role in determining entrance and persistence across fields, including economics. Gendered differences in student experiences and reasons for choosing business and economics majors can be used to understand the dynamics that lead to the gender disparities. Previous research has shown that barriers are present on both the supply and demand side that prevent women from pursuing an economic course of study. On the supply side, math intensity, lack of knowledge, and lack of role models can all be preventative barriers to entry for female students. On the demand side, biased attitudes and microaggressions can limit opportunities for female students to excel in the field. I use data gathered through focus groups of Allegheny College business and economics students to perform a qualitative analysis of student experiences in search of gender differences that could explain the disparity in the department. Additional data is gathered using a Survey of Economic Attitudes to test for gender differences in attitudes towards economics as a field of study and certain economics concepts, with particular attention paid to environmental attitudes. The results of the qualitative and quantitative analysis show that male and female students do indeed have different experiences in the business and economics majors. In addition, there are supply side barriers present among female students at Allegheny College. The Survey of Economic Attitudes showed that female students do tend to have a more negative view of economics as a field, although not significantly. Women do have significantly more socially-conscious attitudes while male students have opinions aligned more with neoclassical, neoliberal economic teachings.

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Skowron, Julianna

The Impact of CO2 Emissions on Economic Growth and Foreign Direct Investment in the MENA Region
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: This research is important because it creates an understanding of the Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH), and how CO2 emissions influence FDI inflows and economic growth in the MENA region. The MENA region is a group of 19 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, whose abundant natural resources account for two-thirds of the world’s known crude oil reserves (IMF, 1996). Factors that contribute to economic success are typically not environmentally friendly. For example, a large part of economic growth and success comes from FDI, and according to the PHH, developed countries move their dirty production to the developing world to reduce emissions in the home country. The MENA countries are interesting for my research because they had a spark in FDI in recent years due to their abundant crude oil reserves. This spark has led to an increase in economic development, which also increases CO2 and other fossil fuel emissions from manufacturing. The purpose of this research is to determine if Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Economic growth are positively impacted by CO2 emissions in the MENA region. From my results, I concluded that CO2 emissions do not positively impact the MENA region’s FDI inflows and economic growth. However, I did find that fossil fuel energy consumption sparks an increase in CO2 emissions, while an increase in CO2 emissions causes GDP and FDI to decrease.

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Tobler, Rachel

Profiting off of Social Consciousness: A Case Study on the Performance and Motivations of ESG Mutual Funds
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors are growing in popularity as a tool for corporate financial analysis and as an investment strategy. Mutual funds, a primary vessel for ethical investing, are being created with ESG strategies in place by screening companies based on ESG scores. Research has been done on the effectiveness of this strategy, analyzing the risk and return profiles of ESG mutual funds relative to the market and non-ESG funds. Results in the research are conflicted on whether these funds over or underperform the market, with the research changing as ESG itself evolves. The definition of ESG, scoring, screening methods, and market conditions all impact the conclusions of research on ESG profitability. This senior project uses the Carhart 4 Factor Model to measure the performance of 6 ESG mutual funds relative to the market portfolio. The model provided statistically significant results that between the years 2015-2020, these 6 ESG mutual funds underperformed the market portfolio. In an additional discussion on the pricing of ESG mutual funds, this research finds that for these 6 funds, expense ratios have fallen relative to historical data between 2017-2020. Through these results, this research intends to provide further evidence on the existing theories on the performance of ESG mutual funds and analyze the motivations behind the ESG investment movement.

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Todd, Lamar

How Covid-19 Affects Small Business Owners and the Disparities Between White and Black Owned Businesses
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: Black owned businesses suffer the most from COVID and receive the least help from the government. This is shown through the historical and economic lens of African American oppression in our country. In order to analyze the differences in aid received by black-owned businesses in this country, we must compare to the predominating race, white-owned businesses. We must ask a series of questions to determine what protection and aid is offered by the government to keep black owned small businesses competitive, one of which being: What are the differences amongst different races and how well are black owned businesses supported? In order to uncover the unfair distribution of funds and aid, we focused on smaller black owned businesses that are struggling in today’s economy and compared them to other businesses to see if there is a difference in government aid or help. This topic tackles the systemic race effects towards black people while also trying in the covid-19 effect on the economy. In order to examine the data to see any differences between businesses depending what race the owner is, I uploaded a data set to stata that includes companies across the country that were approved for PPP loans during covid-19 and used the appropriate variables to run regressions. This data set includes 453,691 observations. The results from running regressions on this data set showed the differences between the government aid white and black owned businesses received as it shows that white owned businesses received aid faster and in a greater amount than black owned businesses.

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Tran, Anh

Spillover Effect of US Monetary Policy and its Contribution on Developing Countries’ Economic Development
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: In this research project, I will focus on the effect of the US monetary policy on macroeconomic outcomes in developing economies. The US has strong trade and financial connections with the world economy, which is likely to influence the economic standing of developing economies. Moreover, because the US is home to the most important financial markets globally, the functionality of international finance depends on these financial markets to certain degrees. Therefore, my question of interest is: Does US monetary policy integrate other countries’ economic and financial conditions, particularly developing countries, and to what extent? To expand my researching topic, I have included work from sources in which they have indicated the closest view to what I have focused on in my comprehensive study. In the following part of the paper, I provide empirical evidence to describe the impact of US monetary policy on developing economies.

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Urso, Bryanna

Effects of Race on the Abortion Rate in the United States
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: The topic of abortion is strongly debated throughout the United States. For many years this topic has created a bipartisan divide in the United States, and over the course of the recent presidential debates and election, light has been shed heavily on this topic. If race and the abortion rate are correlated this leads to a major issue within the abortion care system. This study focuses attention on individual woman who have gone through the abortion procedure and evaluates their race. The study will identify which race groups have the most abortions. It is significant to look at race to see if a specific race has higher abortion rates than others, and to really delve into the possible repercussions of those results. If a specific race, statistically, has a significantly higher abortion rate than others, then other policies should be put into place to help educate and fund these groups to ensure that they are making the right decision for themselves. It is essential for woman of all backgrounds to understand the impact abortions have on society and the world as a whole. I found the Black non-Hispanics, to be statistically significant with 99% confidence, with a marginal effect of -0.071, meaning that Black non-Hispanic females be 7% less likely to have an abortion White non-Hispanic woman, ceteris paribus. I also found the variable Hispanic, to be statistically significant with 95% confidence, with a marginal effect of -.047, meaning that Hispanic females are 4% less likely to have abortions than females who are White non-Hispanic, ceteris paribus. The last race variable, Other non-Hispanic, to be statistically significant with 90% confidence, with a marginal effect of 0.059, meaning that Other non-Hispanic females are 5% more likely to have an abortion than females who are White non-Hispanic, ceteris paribus. The results show statistical evidence of disparities in abortion rates between different races.

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Van Voorhees, Kaleel

Netflix and Panic!
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Communication & Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in 2020, most residences went into lockdown during the month of March, lasting long into summer. During that time, many people resorted to TV as a means to pass quarantine time. Netflix reported an all-time high of record-breaking subscriptions during the month of April 2020, with an increase of 10 new million subscribers. While media industry reports supply lists of surging content releases among SVoD platforms, announcements show general drawback in TV consumption and supply after the month of April. Two schools of thought surrounding subscribers’ streaming habits emerge: the first involves resorting to broadcast TV as a means of domestic comfort, and the second embraces increasing SVoD consumption and binge-watching as the months of the COVID-19 pandemic drone on. It was also found that during the pandemic, Generation Z became the second largest group to consume streaming goods. Testing these two viewpoints, this project uses Allegheny College students (Gen Z) as a case study, focusing on student’s viewing habits during the month of January 2020 (pre-pandemic) and the month of January 2021 (roughly mid-pandemic). Factors such as residency lockdown, multi-tasking, happiness, binge-watching habits, and genre preference are measured as a means to understand the consumption behavior of college students during a national crisis. Comedy was found to be the most watched genre for both 2020 and 2021, with an increase in viewership in January 2021, year over year. Results revealed that if you’re young, female, happy, or have a heavy course load, you would’ve greatly increased the likelihood that streaming and comedy genre viewership increased during the pandemic.

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Vradenburg, Victoria

The Effect of Professional Sports Stadiums on Gentrification in Atlanta, Georgia, between 2010 and 2018
Date: Spring 2021
Major(s): Economics
Thesis Committee: Econ faculty
Abstract: I analyzed the impact of professional sports stadiums on gentrification, focusing on Truist Park and Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. This study used a census tract analysis and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Peer City Indication Tool (PCIT) to find that the city of Atlanta experienced an increase in apartment buildings, poverty rate and White non-Hispanic residents between the years 2000 and 2018. During the same time period, the percentage of households below the poverty level and median home values increased. Patterns of gentrification are seen through a high percentage of White persons moving into the downtown Atlanta neighborhood, indicating the current or impending suburbanization of the minority population. When white, young professionals start moving into Atlanta’s downtown neighborhood, low- income families, typically people of color, are pushed out of the central city due to higher mortgage, rent and overall living costs. The cost of living will continue to increase as more young, white professionals move into the city and displace low-income residents.

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