Previous Economics Distinction Students

2020-2021 Distinction Students

• Lia Z. Chabot - House Prices and Birth Rates: A Replication Study

• Yijing Chen - How Broadband Infrastructure Affects Labor Force Participation of Rural Households

• Madison Kovach - The Effect of Identity Theft Victimization on Consumer Payment Behavior

• Bin Lio - The Impact of Children’s Education on Parents’ Physical Health and Cognition

• Can Luo - Impacts of Number of Children on Married Women’s Labor Supply and Earning

• Jacob Waldron - Wal-Mart: The American Labor Market Boogieman? Researching the Effects of Wal-Mart Locational Choice on Local Labor Markets

2019-2020 Distinction Students

•  Austin Church - Risk Tolerance and its Effect on Majoring in Art

• Hailey Hudson -Underage Versus Legal Alcohol Consumption and the Patterns Among Demographic Characteristics

• Emerson Womble - The Impact of Justice Department Consent Decrees from the 1970s and 1980s on Minority and Female Representation in Police and Fire Departments

• Xinyue Zhang - How Refugees and Economic Immigrants Given Old Versus Young Act Differently on Their Human Capital Investment

• Brianna Ward - The Determinants of Poverty Ratio as a Child on Outcomes as an Adult

• Ziwei Zhang - The Effect of Government Investment on Private Investment in China: Crowding-In Versus Crowding-out
  
  

2018-2019 Distinction Students

• Eden Afework - Understanding the Relationship between Height and Labor Market Outcomes

• Hannah Gross - Heroes Get Remembered, Legends Never Die: World Series Success and Effects on Survival of Major League Baseball Players

• Molly Kerstetter - The Effect of Mandated Fertility Treatments on Female Wages

• Sunlee Stechuk - Social Capital Investment on Refugees and Economic Immigrants

• Cameron Taylor - Unintended Consequences: Assessing the Realized Impact of Dodd-Frank

2017-2018 Distinction Students

• Matteo Nadalutti - Widening The Wage Gap? Repeal Of Equal Employment Opportunity Programs And The Controversy Of California Proposition 209

• Grant Webster - The Effect of Socio-Economic Status in the Obesity Epidemic, Weight Recognition, and Weight Management

• Kyle Putnam - Determinants of Employment and Earning for Hurricane Katrina Evacuees

• Leigh-Anne Barreira - Adolescent Psychological Distress on Employment Outcomes

• Valerie R. Boctor - Reevaluating the Life Cycle/Permanent Income Hypothesis: Evidence from the Consumer Expenditure Survey

• Lixiao Shan - The Effect of the Unemployment rate on the Homeownership Rate

2016-2017 Distinction Students 

• Nathalie Abigail Budiman - The Effect of Exchange Rate Volatility on US Immigrant Labor Market Characteristics

• Jeffrey Gould - A Statistical Analysis on the Impact of Marijuana Legalization on the Work Place and Drug Overdose Fatalities

• Canming Jiang - The Effect of Parent Characteristics on College Major

• Wyatt Suling - The Impact of Victim and Perpetrator Characteristics on Kidnapping Outcomes in Colombia 1970-2010

2015-2016 Distinction Students

• Taylar Cobb - The Effect of the 2008 Financial Crisis on Depression: Does the State of the Local Economy Affect Mental Health in Americans? 

• Tianhao Lan - Abnormal Returns and Intensity of Share Pledging in the Chinese-Mainland Stock Market

• Li Cheng Li - The lntertemporal Substitution of Leisure: The Effects of Temperature on Hours of Work 

• Eashaa D. Parekh - Women, Work, and Wages: The Labor Market Effects of Equal Pay Laws 

• Matthew Pietz - Bruised Ballots: A Study of Violent Crime and Voter Participation in the U.S. 

• Bryce Scott VanderBerg - Examining the Marginal Effect of Right-to-Work Legislation on Traditionally Highly Unionized States: An Examination from the Current Population Survey 

• Yuqing Xie - Is Attitude Shaped More by Culture or Economic Events? Eastern and Western Europeans' Anti-Immigrant Sentiment and the Great Recession

• Mengran Zhang - Migration at the Provincial Level in China: Effects of the Economic Motivation and Migration Cost 

2014-2015 Distinction Students

• Valdrin Berisha - Immigrant Families Language Acquisition - Effects from Children

• Kevin Donovan - Estimating the Causal Effect of Clinical Recommendations on Screening and Vaccination Decisions  

• Lidia Medina - An Indentured Generation? The Effect of Student Debt on Entrepreneurship 

2013-2014 Distinction Students

• Kenneth Arbuckle - The Impact of Arrest on Expectations of Educational Attainment and Criminal Punishment

• Elizabeth Larimore - The Effect of Minimum Wage Increases on Adolescent Smoking Rates

• Ke Xu -  The Effect of Macroeconomic Conditions on Applications to Supplemental Security Income

2012-2013 Distinction Students

• Joseph Andrade -  Labor Market Assimilation: Evidence from Hurricane Katrina Evacuees

• Alex Curthoys - Identifying the Effect of Unemployment on hate Crime  

• Brendon Dunham - The Effect of Minimum Wage on Youth Smoking

• Sam Giber - The Impact of Macroeconomic Events on Microfinance Institutions  

• Benjamin Hatch - The Effects of Sex Offenders on Housing Sales Prices

• Joseph Smeeding - Single Mothers Labor Supply Response to the EITC

2011-2012 Distinction Students

• Forrest Ball - An Analysis of Classification Policy in the United States

• Stephen Alexander Barton - Measuring Sex Trafficking from Russia to the U.S.

• Yuk Ki Chau - Predicting Housing Prices using Lagged Regressions with Leading Indicators

• Ryan Michael Daddi - The 1999 Repeal of Glass-Steagall: The Effect on U.S. Commercial Banks

• Oriana I. Fuentes - The Effects of Foreign Direct Investment on Sovereign Debt Sustainability in Latin America

• Qiu Jin - Substitution in Spousal Age: Evidence from the Great Chinese Famine

• Bonnie Kong - Is Elitism a Myth? A Study of New York City Specialized High Schools

• Chuanyi Tang - An Examination of Causal Relation between War and Crude Oil Price: Evidence from Iraq and Libya

2010-2011 Distinction Students

• Alexander J. Brozdowski - The Effects of Trade Openness on Per Capita GDP during Banking Crises

• Emily Alice Larson - Hurricane Katrina's Impact on Louisiana's Educational Systems

• Mengchu Ye - Chinese Manufacturing Profits and Costs under the Economic Openness and the Labor Law Reform

• Renyong Zhang - The Impacts of Regional Economic Agreements on the Trade of Agricultural Products: ASEAN FTA, NAFTA

• Leyla Ziad - The Effects of Walmart on Healthcare and Unionization: Is America Really Saving Money and Living Better?

• Melanie A. Zilora - Preventing Pandemics: Contributing Factors to Susceptibility During the H1N1 Pandemic

2009-2010 Distinction Students

• Auyon Ghosh - Do CT Scans help prevent cancer-related deaths?

• Scott Kuzdeba - Estimating the Effect of Terrorism on Stock Prices

• Ann Dunnavan O'Neill - Chinese Job Growth and Workers' Injury Compensation in China

• Rita M. Pattarini - The Influence of New Medications on Prescribing Behavior by Practice Type: A Regression Analysis

• Drew Sullivan - The Interrelation of Box Office Results: How does one weekend's movie attendance affect the next?

• Daniel Weistrop - The Effects of Winning a Basketball National Championship on Admission Factors

2008-2009 Distinction Students

• Mallory McDermott - The Effect of Tuition on Higher Education Enrollment and Qualifications in England

• John Rogers -  The Effect of Compulsory Attendance Laws and Quarter Birth of Education and Returns on Education in the Labor Market

• Benjamin Skomsky - Measuring the Effect of Conflict on Oil Production and Prices

• Mallory Vachon - Effects of the European Union on Foreign Direct Investment

• C. Wyatt Wolfram - Theory and Evidence on the Evolution of the Digital Music Industry

2007-2008 Distinction Students

• Alexei Abrahams - The Economics of Fresh Water in the West Bank

• Gustave A. Bartuska - Rehab or Relocation? Estimating the Demand for Cocaine through an American Port City Analysis

• Mark Fegley - The 2005 Bankruptcy Policy and Real Estate Speculation

• Marko Markov - The Shortfalls of Chinese Monetary Policy

• Devin McBride - The Effect of Mall Development on American Cities: An Examination of Changes in Employment and Wages due to the Introduction of a Super-Regional Mall

2006-2007 Distinction Students

• Jonathan Baselice - Salary Caps in Professional Sports: Do They Promote Competition Among Teams?

• Stephanie Good - Does Assigned Attorney Type Matter for Indigent Defendants? Evidence from Selected Countries

• Baker Gregory - The Price Elasticity of Demand for Tax Paid Cigarettes: A Comparison of Methods

• Clay Rehrig - Earnings Effects of Sexual Orientation Revisited: Evidence from the Current Population Survey

2005-2006 Distinction Students

• Amy Brundage - Bridging the Digital Divide: The Maine Learning Technology Initiative and Student Performance

• Melissa Clune - Do PAC Contributions Buy Policy? The Case of CAFTA 

• Jeff Evans - Information for Profit: Can an Investing Strategy Based on Revisions in Earnings Estimates Earn Abnormal Returns?

• Brian Hecht - Credit Card Interest Rates: Do Race and Gender Matter?

• Christiane LaBonte - Do Children's Hospitals Have Lower Mortality Rates? Evidence from the 2003 Kids' Inpatient Database  

2004-2005 Distinction Students

• Nishad H. Majmudar - Credit Crunched: Does Bank Consolidation Harm the Small Business Borrower?

• Brian McNeil - The College Football Gambling Market - An Empirical Approach

• Paul W. Swartz - Is More Information Better? FOMC Press Releases and Internet Rate Expectations

• Lok Y Yeung -  Are Girls a Luxury in China?

Thesis Project hard copies are available by request.