Analyzing the Effects of District Performance and Family Income on Participation in Arizona’s School Tuition Organization Scholarship Programs

Description
Since their inception in 1997, Arizona policymakers have debated the merits of Arizona’s income tax credits for contributions to certified school tuition organizations (STOs), though the programs have grown year over year. This study aims to answer lingering questions about

Since their inception in 1997, Arizona policymakers have debated the merits of Arizona’s income tax credits for contributions to certified school tuition organizations (STOs), though the programs have grown year over year. This study aims to answer lingering questions about the beneficiaries of STO scholarships. First, using publicly available reports from the Arizona Department of Revenue, the Arizona Board of Education, and American Community Survey 5-year estimates, multiple regression analysis indicates a weakly negative relationship between scholarship dollars and family income but no statistically significant effect of public-school quality on scholarship dollars. Second, using data from a survey of parents whose students’ attend Arizona private schools, logistic regression suggests a weakly negative relationship between scholarship utilization and family income, with public school quality having no statistically significant effect on STO scholarship utilization. Moreover, multiple regression analysis again shows a weakly negative relationship between scholarship dollars and family income but no statistically significant relationship between public school quality and scholarship dollars. This paper concludes by offering policy suggestions to improve the accountability of these programs.
Date Created
2022-12
Agent

Understanding the Economic Impact of Community Bank Closures in Rural America

Description
This paper seeks to highlight the strong correlation and potential causation between the presence of physical community bank branches in rural communities and local economic outcomes like payroll, employment, and establishments in a given region. To do this, I conduct

This paper seeks to highlight the strong correlation and potential causation between the presence of physical community bank branches in rural communities and local economic outcomes like payroll, employment, and establishments in a given region. To do this, I conduct a two-part analysis involving a fixed effects model with data from across the US and a regression discontinuity model of a subset of the data in parts of Delaware and Maryland. Overall, my results show a significant strong correlation between the number of bank branches in a region and the expected percent changes in economic outcomes, but I lack the results to claim causality between the opening or closure of a bank branch and changes in the local economy. This has relevance in understanding the need for physical bank branches as changes in the financial industry since the 2008 Financial Crisis, like online banking, have continued to accelerate.
Date Created
2022-12
Agent

Beauty Performance Across Different Formats of Values-Based Panhellenic Formal Recruitment at Arizona State University

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Description
This thesis explores the relationship between the performance of beauty and Potential New Member (PNM) success across various formats of formal sorority recruitment at ASU. It builds off of existing scholarship in economics of beauty premiums in labor markets, as

This thesis explores the relationship between the performance of beauty and Potential New Member (PNM) success across various formats of formal sorority recruitment at ASU. It builds off of existing scholarship in economics of beauty premiums in labor markets, as well as sociological research on the intersection of beauty and human interaction. Through interviews of women who went through formal recruitment across three different modalities (in-person, virtual, and hybrid), themes emerged that suggest the current policies in place by ASU Panhellenic make it so that the performance of beauty hinders the facilitation of a recruitment process that is truly values-based.
Date Created
2022-05
Agent

Academic and Demographic Factors Predicting College Dropout Rates

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Description

Using a dataset of ASU students from the 2016-2017 cohort, we interact gender and parent education level to observe gaps in academic achievement. We see a statistically insignificant achievement gap for males across parent education level, but a statistically significant

Using a dataset of ASU students from the 2016-2017 cohort, we interact gender and parent education level to observe gaps in academic achievement. We see a statistically insignificant achievement gap for males across parent education level, but a statistically significant achievement gap for females across parent education level. We also observe dropout gaps among these interaction groups. We see the widest dropout gap being between males across parent education level, with the smallest dropout gap being between females across parent education level. So with males we see an insignificant achievement gap but the widest dropout gap across parent education level, and with females we see a significant achievement gap but the smallest dropout gap across parent education level. What is driving these gaps and causing more similarly performing students to drop out at wider rates? At the aggregate level, we see larger gaps in grade- associated dropout probability across parent education level for males which may be able to explain the larger difference in overall proportions of dropouts between males. However, when predicting dropout probability of the semester with the most first generation and non-first generation dropouts, we see that females have the largest differences across parent education level in grade-associated dropout probability. This suggests that our model may be best suited in using college achievement data to predict overall dropout probabilities, not next-semester dropout probabilities using current semester data. Our findings also suggest that first generation students’ dropout probability is more sensitive to the grades they receive than non-first generation students.

Date Created
2022-05
Agent

Hiring and Retention Challenges: A Case Study of Arizona Retail Businesses

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Description

This thesis examines hiring and retention challenges in the retail sector. Using a case study format, I interviewed 2 retail firms to determine in what ways they are experiencing these issues and what strategies they use to combat them. I

This thesis examines hiring and retention challenges in the retail sector. Using a case study format, I interviewed 2 retail firms to determine in what ways they are experiencing these issues and what strategies they use to combat them. I use Lazear & Shaw (2007) and their personnel economic theories about compensation structure, nonmonetary benefits, and sorting to discuss the data I obtained.

Date Created
2022-05
Agent

The Snows of Kalder: A Narrative and Placemaking Analysis

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Description

This thesis is an exploration of my imaginary world through a short narrative with a focus on placemaking in fiction. The narrative follows Dengar, a civil servant estranged from the central government, as he investigates disappearances occurring in the edges

This thesis is an exploration of my imaginary world through a short narrative with a focus on placemaking in fiction. The narrative follows Dengar, a civil servant estranged from the central government, as he investigates disappearances occurring in the edges of the empire, uncovering secrets related to the empire’s past and the past of the conquered people of Thron. He must navigate a bitter, cold landscape and a dangerous resistance group as he learns more about the real reason behind why he was sent there. Schemes are uncovered and foiled as he makes his way into the core base of the resistance, a towering mountain called Diran. Following the narrative, I explain my inspirations and analyze my narrative from the perspective of placemaking, referring to placemaking scholars such as Basso and Whitridge.

Date Created
2022-05
Agent

An Analysis of Voter Mobilization Across Working Class and Majority-Minority State Legislative Districts of Arizona and Georgia Relative to the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election

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Description
The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election was a presidential election unlike any other in modern U.S. history for several reasons. In the rare defeat of an incumbent president, Joseph Biden secured the title of President of the United States over President

The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election was a presidential election unlike any other in modern U.S. history for several reasons. In the rare defeat of an incumbent president, Joseph Biden secured the title of President of the United States over President Donald Trump. In this victory, Biden flipped several historic battleground states in his favor, in addition to two formerly safe conservative states: Arizona and Georgia. This research seeks to examine the role that the mobilization of voters from working class and majority-minority state legislative districts played in determining the outcome of the election in Arizona and Georgia.
Date Created
2022-05
Agent

Haiti in Turmoil: Why US Foreign aid has not worked and how to fix it

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Description

Countries such as Haiti—where corruption, violence, and extreme poverty hinder economic growth and recovery— require multifaceted, interdisciplinary solutions. The United States, along with much of the western world, has a flawed understanding of foreign aid. Though current humanitarian efforts have

Countries such as Haiti—where corruption, violence, and extreme poverty hinder economic growth and recovery— require multifaceted, interdisciplinary solutions. The United States, along with much of the western world, has a flawed understanding of foreign aid. Though current humanitarian efforts have effectively improved the lives of millions of Haitians, they fail to address the systemic roots of Haiti’s issues. Likewise, some efforts have been counterproductive or even harmful. If the US wishes to assist Haiti (and similar developing countries for that matter) in its journey to restoring the rule of law, reducing corruption, and empowering its citizens, it must collaborate with Haitian leaders and prioritize socioeconomic policy programs.

Date Created
2022-05
Agent

The Personite Problem and Ethics Under Four-Dimensionalism

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Description

Four-dimensionalism is a popular philosophical view of how we persist through time. However, some philosophers, such as Mark Johnston and Eric Olson, argue that four-dimensionalism has perverse implications on our practical ethics. This is because, if four-dimensionalism is true, then

Four-dimensionalism is a popular philosophical view of how we persist through time. However, some philosophers, such as Mark Johnston and Eric Olson, argue that four-dimensionalism has perverse implications on our practical ethics. This is because, if four-dimensionalism is true, then there exist entities called personites. And if personites exist, then many of the ordinary prudential, social, and moral habits we engage in, like present self-sacrifice for future benefit, promising to do something painful in the future, or being held responsible for something the we did in the past, subjects personites to suffering without sufficient compensation, consent, or desert. And this would be immoral according to our common-sense morality. In this paper, I argue that if four-dimensionalism is true, and personites exist, then we are still morally permitted to engage in the above practices. If four-dimensionalism turns out to be true, it has no perverse implications on how we ought to live.

Date Created
2022-05
Agent

Critical Food Supply Chains in Crisis: Feeding America Capacity Analysis

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Description

With unforeseen shocks to supply chains around the world happening as a result of COVID-19, humanitarian aid organizations like Feeding America struggled to keep up with the added demand placed on their warehouses. Many facilities struggled with getting accurate estimates

With unforeseen shocks to supply chains around the world happening as a result of COVID-19, humanitarian aid organizations like Feeding America struggled to keep up with the added demand placed on their warehouses. Many facilities struggled with getting accurate estimates of their capacity, as they fluctuate greatly with demand and supply, and most smaller facilities don’t have ERP systems to track their operations. Through the utilization of a user-friendly spreadsheet program and a basic warehouse diagram, this model offers a simple means of quantitative capacity estimation that is available to foodbanks across the nation.

Date Created
2022-05
Agent