Econ Research Symposium

The Department of Economics conducts an Economics Research Symposium every spring. They are a valuable experience for Economics students who want to present research they have been working on during the academic year. Research projects are from independent studies, research courses, or any class where the student worked on a project, paper, or research. Some of the research is in the proposal form or will be ongoing, while others are completed projects.

2020 Research Symposium Presentations

2019 Research Symposium Presentations

2018 Research Symposium Presentations

Research Presentation
Measuring Stochastic Long-Range Dependence: Calculating the Hurst Exponent of the S&P 500 Ajay Dugar Abstract: Underlying the foundations of modern ﬁnancial theory is a series of faulty mathematical assumptions, stemming from Louis Bachelier’s work with Parisian bonds. From this, our modern orthodox ﬁnancial theory has been built (Black-Scholes, β’s, CAPM, EMH, etc.). By using fractal and statistical analysis, we can deconstruct these myths and establish a better understanding of the true volatility of markets. In order to minimize the biases of this research, we will treat the market as a black box system. By curve ﬁtting a distribution to the S&P 500 daily price changes, we see that we may treat the daily price history as a fractal. Using time-series segmentation, we will calculate the Hausdor-Besicovitch dimension of this fractal. Because of the relationship between this dimension and the Hurst exponent, we can analyze the validity of such a measurement method and compare it to other ﬁndings, and draw conclusions of our own.
Exporting Uncertainty: The Impact of Brexit on Corporate America Lilla Szini Abstract: The main goal in this project is to analyze the work patterns and levels of education from every county in the U.S. from 2010 to 2017 to observe the impact of Brexit in corporate America. This is done by analyzing several factors across the U.S. in terms of employment, activities of firms, trading of goods, and income particularly focusing in on white Americans with no greater than a high-school level education. The changes that occurred in 2017 due to Brexit impacted several aspects of the U.S. and gathering data from the U.S. census sheds some light on some of these implications.
Measuring the Effect of Unemployment on Juvenile Delinquency Zhao Zhang Abstract: In this research, I measure the relationship between Unemployment and Juvenile Delinquency. Previous theoretical and empirical research on Unemployment-Crime correlation are reviewed. On this basis, an empirical study is carried out with China’s province-level data published by Chinese Supreme Court. As the multivariate regression model contains a set of social, economic, and demographic variables, I also discuss alternative calculation methods for economic indicators such as unemployment rate and income inequality. To obtain valid estimations with multicollinearity in data, methods like Ridge regression and Bootstrap are used. Results show that there is a significant positive relationship between Unemployment and Juvenile Delinquency. Future improvements on more robust and precise estimates as well as possible intervention methods for juvenile delinquency are discussed.

Research Presentation

Measuring Stochastic Long-Range Dependence: Calculating the Hurst Exponent of the S&P 500

Ajay Dugar

Abstract: Underlying the foundations of modern ﬁnancial theory is a series of faulty mathematical assumptions, stemming from Louis Bachelier’s work with Parisian bonds. From this, our modern orthodox ﬁnancial theory has been built (Black-Scholes, β’s, CAPM, EMH, etc.). By using fractal and statistical analysis, we can deconstruct these myths and establish a better understanding of the true volatility of markets.
In order to minimize the biases of this research, we will treat the market as a black box system. By curve ﬁtting a distribution to the S&P 500 daily price changes, we see that we may treat the daily price history as a fractal. Using time-series segmentation, we will calculate the Hausdor-Besicovitch dimension of this fractal. Because of the relationship between this dimension and the Hurst exponent, we can analyze the validity of such a measurement method and compare it to other ﬁndings, and draw conclusions of our own.

Exporting Uncertainty: The Impact of Brexit on Corporate America

Lilla Szini

Abstract: The main goal in this project is to analyze the work patterns and levels of education from every county in the U.S. from 2010 to 2017 to observe the impact of Brexit in corporate America. This is done by analyzing several factors across the U.S. in terms of employment, activities of firms, trading of goods, and income particularly focusing in on white Americans with no greater than a high-school level education. The changes that occurred in 2017 due to Brexit impacted several aspects of the U.S. and gathering data from the U.S. census sheds some light on some of these implications.

Measuring the Effect of Unemployment on Juvenile Delinquency

Zhao Zhang

Abstract: In this research, I measure the relationship between Unemployment and Juvenile Delinquency. Previous theoretical and empirical research on Unemployment-Crime correlation are reviewed. On this basis, an empirical study is carried out with China’s province-level data published by Chinese Supreme Court. As the multivariate regression model contains a set of social, economic, and demographic variables, I also discuss alternative calculation methods for economic indicators such as unemployment rate and income inequality. To obtain valid estimations with multicollinearity in data, methods like Ridge regression and Bootstrap are used. Results show that there is a significant positive relationship between Unemployment and Juvenile Delinquency. Future improvements on more robust and precise estimates as well as possible intervention methods for juvenile delinquency are discussed.

2017 Research Symposium Presentations

2016 Research Symposium Presentations

2015 Research Symposium Presentations

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