Honors and Prizes

Honors Seminar

• The honors seminar is a full year course, and you will not receive a grade until you have completed both semesters. Completing both semesters satisfies your seminar requirement in the economics department. If you do not complete both semesters, however, you must take a senior seminar to graduate as a major. In this case, you will receive the grade of R for the fall semester of the seminar.
• Like other seminars in economics, you will be expected to present your research and discuss the work of other students periodically throughout the year. Unlike those other seminars, the honors seminar does not meet weekly. The instructor of the honors seminar will provide a meeting schedule at the beginning of each semester. In addition to attending the seminar, you will  be working one-on-one with an individual faculty advisor.
• The Summary of the Honors Seminar Information Session 2024 is available here: Summary of Honors Seminar Information Session 2024

Timeline for the Senior Honors Thesis

• Choose a topic and think of possible advisors.
• Attend an information session.
• Submit a preliminary proposal for your thesis.

• Begin background reading on your topic.
• Submit the final proposal for your thesis.

Topic

•  Your topic should be one that you have a genuine interest in exploring and one that you have spent some time thinking about during your time at Columbia. The topic can be one that arose from a class or an assignment that you have already completed here or from a work or research experience that you have had recently.
• General advice regarding finding a suitable topic is available online.

Advisor

•  You will work one-on-one with your individual faculty advisor. He or she will have the primary responsibility for advising you on your work.
• More information regarding finding an advisor is available online.

Proposal

• You will submit both a preliminary and final proposal to be admitted to the honors seminar. In both, you will be expected to formulate one or more questions that you hope to answer in your thesis. Each question would be the basis of a hypothesis that you would test in your thesis.
• The preliminary proposal will be due in Spring of your junior year. The purpose of the proposal is to give you feedback on your topic before the summer.
• The final proposal is due in August prior to your senior year. This proposal will be reviewed by the faculty committee. Selection for the honors seminar is based on both an evaluation of your academic record and the quality of your final proposal. The final proposal must include one or more questions that hope to address as well as an identification of the method (including data sets if relevant) you will be using.
• Examples of successful Senior Thesis final proposals can be found below. These proposals include a clear statement of the project, a research strategy, and a short bibliography. In some cases, the proposal includes preliminary results (which is not required). The description of the research project should be 1 – 3 pages.
  • Chen Thesis Proposal
  • Helleloid Thesis Proposal

The department awards 3 prizes annually to graduating seniors: the Parker Prize and two Romine Prizes and it awards 7 Parker Summer Research Prizes to underclassmen. Requests for applications for all of these prizes are sent out on the major listserv and posted on the WIKI page in March of each academic year.

Sanford S. Parker Prize

• The Parker prize is a cash prize that is awarded to a member of the graduating class who majored, joint majored or concentrated in economics that is planning on attending graduate school in economics. Any student that intends to pursue a Ph.D. in economics within two years of graduation is eligible. However, the department may give preference to students that will be attending graduate school in the year following graduation.
• Please note that all students thinking of going to graduate school in economics should mention this to their faculty advisor as early as possible. In addition please read the graduate school section of the FAQ page for more information about graduate school in economics.
• Recent winners of the Parker Prize can be found here.

David Estabrook Romine Prizes

• The two Romine Prizes are cash prizes that are awarded annually to two members of the graduating class who majored or joint majored in economics. One prize is awarded to the student that wrote the best paper in a senior seminar. The other prize is awarded to the student that wrote the best senior thesis.
• To be considered for the prize awarded to the best paper in a senior seminar you should speak with the instructor of your senior seminar. The department will contact seminar instructors regarding the best papers in their individual seminars. In addition, the department will send out a request for submissions on the major listserv at the end of the fall semester and around spring break for submissions. A faculty honors committee will review all of the submissions to select a winner.
• Please note that in the spring semester the deadline for choosing the prize recipients is before the end of the semester. So if you are in a spring seminar and would like to be considered for this prize then you should speak with your instructor no later than the first week of April about the possibility of being nominated. You will be required to submit a polished draft of your paper before the end of the semester to be considered for the Romine Prize.
• All students that write a senior honors thesis are automatically nominated for the Romine prize.
• Recent winners of the Romine Senior Seminar Prize can be found here.
• Recent winners of the Romine Senior Thesis Prize are noted under Departmental Honors Recipients (below).

Parker Prize for Summer Research

• The department of economics provides financial support for  students who take unpaid summer internships that focus on research. By introducing students to original research, a summer internship can provide the foundation for an honors thesis or develop an interest in pursuing a graduate degree.
• Five CC and two GS students (juniors preferred but also open to sophomores) will receive a stipend of $5,000. This money is meant to support research, so the internship must be research in nature and cannot focus on office or clerical tasks. Preference will be given to students working with Columbia University faculty (the faculty need not be in the economics department).
• If you are working with a faculty member as an RA during the academic year, you should speak with that faculty member regarding the possibility of continuing your research during the summer. If the faculty member agrees, then you should apply for the Parker Prize.

GS Dean’s Prize

• This prize is awarded to the graduating GS student who has contributed the most to the intellectual life of the department and who we believe shows the greatest potential as an economist.
• Recent winners of the GS Dean’s Prize are listed here.

2023 – 2024

Samuel Barnett
Complexity and Income-Contingent Student Loans
Advisors: Sandra Black and Mark Dean

Eleanor Campbell
Teaching Mobility: Texas School Quality and Immigration
Advisor: Brendan O’Flaherty

Jonathan Shing Yan Chan
~GS Dean’s Prize Recipient~
Arbitrage opportunities in the multi-listed stock market
Advisor: Matthieu Gomez

Ariana Gamero
~Parker Prize Recipient~
When Banks Hit the Ceiling: The Effects of Interest Rate Caps on Microcredit Provision in Colombia
Advisor: Jennifer La’O

Lorelei Loraine
~ Romine Prize Recipient ~
Market Power in the Market for Power
Advisor: Gautam Gowrisankaran

Zachary Narimanian
Climate Litigation Impact on Retail, Mutual Fund, and Hedge Fund Investors
Advisor: José Scheinkman

Jaime Romero Florez
Local Projections and VAR: Analysis of Monetary Policy Shocks
Advisor: Serena Ng

Sarah Yu Wang
Trained, to Discriminate: Experimental Evidence for Evaluator Endogenization of Exogenous Noise in Candidates’ Signals of Ability
Advisor: Mark Dean

Matthew Xu
~Parker Prize Recipient~
A New Chess Rating System: Accuracy-Elo
Advisor: Navin Kartik

2022 – 2023

Fahad Algifari
Satisficing: It’s Time to Consider Time
Advisor: Mark Dean

Clemente Antuna
~Parker Prize Recipient~
When Data Becomes Private: A Differentially Private Approach to Ordinary Least Squares
Advisor: Serena Ng

Carsten Barnes
Artisanal Mining: At the Nexus of Conflict and Economic Activity in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Advisor: Jack Willis

Jacob Kim-Sherman
~ Romine Prize Recipient ~
Predicting the Policy Future: Are Financial Markets Sensitive to the Progress of State-Level Climate Bills?
Advisors: Harrison Hong and José Scheinkman

Suwijak (Max) Mongkalakorn
~Parker Prize Recipient~
Computation of Quantile Regression Under Random Censoring: A Mixed Integer Programming Approach
Advisor: Simon Lee

Noah Simon
~GS Dean’s Prize Recipient~
Labor Share of Income and The Phillips Curve
Advisor: Suresh Naidu

Yue Zuo
Empirical Study of Information Sensitivity: China’s Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Market in the 2021 Evergrande Crisis
Advisor: Tri Vi Dang

2021 – 2022

Joseph Campbell
What Makes a “Better” School? Academic Outcomes and Student Demographics in Nassau County
Advisor: Jonah Rockoff

Kasey Chatterji-Len
The Impact of Gentrification on Local Public School Quality
Advisor: Lena Edlund

Christian Flores
State Subsidies and Wage Inequality
Advisor: Cailin Slattery

Amerti Gudissa
Development Aid and Government Finances in Sub-Saharan African Countries
Advisor: Xavier Sala-I-Martin

Michel Gutmann
~GS Dean’s Prize Recipient~
Bike Sharing Does Not Change Subway Usage: Evidence From New York City
Advisor: Bernard Salanié

Blake Jones
Development’s New Frontier or Debt-trap Diplomacy: an analysis of how China gives foreign assistance and how it affects global trade
Advisor: David Weinstein

Ilina Logani
~ Romine Prize Recipient ~
Collective Bargaining and Faculty Composition in Public School Districts: Evidence from California
Advisor: Suresh Naidu

Ignacio Lopez Gaffney
~Parker Prize Recipient~
“Zoned Out of Opportunity”: Causal Effect of Land Use Regulation on Adult Incomes
Advisor: Donald Davis

Kyle Neary
Is Happier Better? Effects of Employee Happiness on Productivity
Advisor: Lalith Munasinghe

Julia Silbert
Segregation and Police Homicides
Advisor: Brendan O’Flaherty

Bennett Smith-Worthington
~Parker Prize Recipient~
School Competition: An Inattentive Economy
Advisor: Pierre-André Chiappori

Serdil Tinda Yalcin
Thou Canst Steal My Neighbor: Regional Convergence Trends in the European Product Market
Advisor: Stephanie Schmitt-Grohé

2020 – 2021

Leopold Aschenbrenner
~ Romine Prize Recipient ~
Aversion to Change and the End of (Exponential) Growth
Advisor: Hassan Afrouzi

Xueer (Michelle) Chen
~ Romine Prize Recipient ~
Cognitive Load & Discounting
Advisors: Alessandra Casella and Mark Dean

Monika Francsics
Short Interest, Holding Costs and Arbitrage in the Stock Market
Advisor: Harrison Hong

Maggie Gleason
Household Inflation Uncertainty and the Horizon Effect: Are Expectations More Anchored at Longer Horizons?
Advisor: Harrison Hong

Eric Heiser
Long-Term Effects of the 1918/1919 Pandemic on Human Capital Development
Advisor: Miguel Urquiola

Blaine Helleloid
The Differential Impact of Monetary Policy
Advisor: Emilien Gouin-Bonenfant

Jackson Nichols
Impacts of Race, Income, Age and Mobility on COVID-19 Outcomes in New York City
Advisor: Dan O’Flaherty

Mary Olson
Reconsidering Pink-Collar Work: Evidence from Chinese Trade Shocks on Gender Occupational Segregation
Advisor: Sandy Black

SeHyun (Shawn) Park
~GS Dean’s Prize Recipient~
Political Corruption, Political Connection, and Corporate Finance
Advisor: Daniel Wolfenzon

Giovanni Topa
~Parker Prize Recipient~
The Impact of Liquidity Constraints on Job Seekers’ Reservation
Advisor: Andres Drenik

2019 – 2020

Rebecca Cai
~ Romine Prize Recipient ~
Wives’ property rights, divorce rights, and domestic violence: evidence from South Africa
Advisor: Lena Edlund

Yankang (Bennie) Chen
~ Parker Prize Recipient ~
Predicting U.S. Recessions Using Yield Spreads
Advisor: Simon Lee

Leo Goldman
~ Parker Prize Recipient ~
Prioritizing Informed Preferences in School Choice
Advisor: Yeon Koo Che

Olivia Hartzell
~ GS Dean’s Prize Recipient ~
Born Addicted: Mandatory Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs, Opioids, and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome
Advisor: Douglas Almond

Julia Hewitt
Parental Involvement Laws,Teen Births, and Youth Incarceration Rates
Advisor: Christian Pop Eleches

John Kadlick
Households’ Inflation Expectations and Volatile Inflation Experiences: Theory and Evidence
Advisor: Hassan Afrouzi

Felipe Pombal Fritsch
Bounds on the Dynamic Causal Effects of Monetary Policy: An Analysis using the Federal Reserve’s Textual Repository
Advisor: Jose Montiel-Olea

Neel Puri
The Time Trend of Short-Sale Constraints and Market Efficiency: Evidence from the IPO Aftermarket
Advisor: Harrison Hong

Yifan (Jerry) Shi
Powering Education Panel Surveys: The Case of Taiwan Education Panel Survey
Advisor: Bentley MacLeod

2018 – 2019

Sungmin An
Effect of Crackdown on Undocumented Immigration on Wages of Native Workers
Advisor: Wojciech Kopczuk

Jessica Bai
~ Parker Prize Recipient ~
Gender and Graduate Admissions: Text Analysis of Recommendation Letters
Advisor: Bentley MacLeod

Mario Henrique Cavalcanti Curiki
The Impact of For-Profit Universities’ Stock Listing on Institutional Profile and Educational Quality: A Brazilian Event Study
Advisor: Rodrigo Soares

Justinas Grigaitis
~ Romine Prize Recipient ~
Framing, Perception, and Previous Outcome Heuristic: Evidence from Two-stage Lotteries
Advisor: Michael Woodford

Stephanie Grove
Income and Child Health: Why Whose Money Matters
Advisor: Pierre Andre Chiappori

Brett Hardman
Capex, Repurchases, and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
Advisor: Matthieu Gomez

Shizuka Inoue
The Analysis of Fiscal Policy News Shocks to Inflation Expectations Using High Frequency Data in Japan
Advisor: Andres Drenik

William Labasi-Sammartino
How do Migrants Impact Native Labor Markets? Evidence from a Canadian Natural Experiment
Advisor: Lena Edlund

Dafne Murillo
From the Home to the House of Representatives: The Effects of the Campaign and Legislation of the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights on Hourly Wages and Wage-Theft
Advisor: Suresh Naidu

Manuel Fernando Perez Archila
Excess Returns and Puzzling Incomes: A Global Update on Exorbitant Privilege
Advisor: Stephanie Schmitt-Grohe

Simon Shalmiyev
Mass Incarceration and Labor Force Participation: A Case Study from Texas
Advisor: Francois Gerard

Yilun Ying
The Effects of Borders on the Urban Spatial Structure of Border Cities
Advisor: Brendan OFlaherty

2017 – 2018

Zoey Chopra
The Efficacy of Biomedical Research: A Bibliometric Analysis Across Longitudinal Respiratory Disease Data
Advisor: Frank Lichtenberg

Guillermo Carranza Jordan
~Parker Prize Recipient~
Vacancy Duration and Demand for H1B Labor in the United States
Advisor: Wojciech Kopczuk

Brendan Moore
~Romine Prize Recipient~
The Firm’s Role in Displaced Workers’Earnings Losses and Educational Investment Decisions: Evidence from Ohio
Advisor: Suresh Naidu and Judy Scott-Clayton

Daniel Reuter
Expectations, Uncertainty and Monetary Policy
Advisor: Hassan Afrouzi and Michael Woodford

Shambhavi Tiwari
Testing for Overconfidence and Optimism and Their Effects on the Savings Behavior of Indian Farmers in Deoria, Uttar Pradesh
Advisor: Mark Dean and Alessandra Casella

2016 – 2017

Raghav Bansal
A Machine Learning Approach to the Minimum Wage-Employment Debate
Advisor: Simon Lee

Jakob Brounstein
~GS Dean’s Prize Recipient~
The Colonial Origins of Inflation: A Study of Institutions and Monetary Outcomes
Advisor: Stephanie Schmitt-Grohe

Jeremy Cooper
Winning and Losing: The Socioeconomic Impact of Sports on Crime
Advisors: Sunil Gulati and Dan O’Flaherty

Jeff Gortmaker
~Romine Prize Recipient~
Agents Who Know Their Principals: Social Connections, Institutional Investment, and Executive Compensation 
Advisors: Jose Scheinkman and Harrison Hong

Bo Yeon Jung
The Effect of North Korean Military Incidents on South Korea’s Economy
Advisor: Suresh Naidu

Derek Li
The ENSO Cycle and US State Output Performance
Advisor: Wolfram Schlenker

Colin Pating
Testing Mixed Strategy Nash Equilibrium Play in Baseball’s Pitcher-Batter Game
Advisor: Pierre Andre Chiappori

Luis Sanchez
~Parker Prize Recipient~
Ambiguity in Social Learning: A Test of the Multiple Priors Hypothesis
Advisor: Alessandra Casella

Rafael Schwalb
The Effects of Large Scale Asset Purchases on Corporate Bond Yields: Drivers and Channels
Advisor: Mike Woodford

Jesse Silbert
Approximate Competitive Equilibrium from Equal Incomes with Required Objects
Advisor: Yeon Koo Che

2015 – 2016

Emily Corning
A Tale of Two Markets: An Empirical Analysis of WIC Infant Formula Contract Rebate Auctions Using Non-Parametric Estimation
Advisor: Kate Ho

Adriano Fernandes
~ Parker Prize Recipient ~
Salience Distortions and Asset Prices in Dynamic Economies
Advisor: Michael Woodford

Siran Jiang
~ Romine Prize Recipient ~
Pharmaceutical Settlements under the Hatch-Waxman Act: Stock Price Analysis of Generic Firms
Advisor: Steven Olley

Chate Khemakongkanonth
Verizon’s FiOS Deployment: A Case Study of Investment
Advisor: Michael Riordan

Qui Linan
Bitcoin Volatitily Predictions using Big Data: An Attention and Sentiment Analysis Approach (2015)
Advisor: Jose Scheinkman

Omeed Maghzian
~Parker Prize Recipient~
Sparsity-Based Bounded Rationality and Adjustments to Anticipated Fiscal Payments
Advisor: Michael Woodford

Eitan Neugut
The Elasticity of Distilled Spirits Consumption
Advisor: Christopher Conlon

Shen Qui
Mostly Contagion in 2008 Global Financial Crisis
Advisor: Martin Uribe

2014 – 2015

Meir Brooks
Poverty and Growth in Ethiopia
Advisor: Jonas Hjort

Ashwath Chennapan
Determinants of Crimes against Dalits in India
Advisor: Suresh Naidu

Rishab Guha
~ Parker Prize Recipient ~
Understanding Bitcoin as a Speculative Asset
Advisor: Jose Scheinkman

Ryan Rivera
Sovereign Bond Yield Response to ECB Announcements in a Negative Nominal Interest Ratte Environment
Advisor: Jon Steinsson

Adam Stansell
Information Weighting in Predicting Soccer Outcomes
Advisor: Sunil Gulati

Quitze Valenzuela Stookey
Migration, Risk Sharing, and Social Capital: Household Risk Dynamics in Developing Countries
Advisor: Dan O’Flaherty and Joe Stiglitz

Preeti Varathan
Work, Learn, Train, or Search? The Response of Mothers, Fathers, and Potential Parents if Chidcare Were Free
Advisor: Bernard Salanie

Harry Wheeler
~ Romine Prize Recipient ~
Intrahousehold Bargaining Power and Leisure Externalities Using the PSID 1968-2011
Advisor: Pierre-Andre Chiappori

2013 – 2014

Nicole Dussault
The Impact of Hospital Closure on Emergency Room Rates and Community Health in New York, 2006-2012            
Advisor: Kate Ho

Marlon Francisco
The Behavior of Salaries in Portugal        
Advisor: Ricardo Reis

Yiming He
Road Pricing in New York City     
Advisor: Brendan O’Flaherty

Evan Munroe
~Romine Prize Recipient~
Comovements of the US and Canadian Financial Markets
Advisor: Serena Ng

Joonwoo Park
~ Parker Prize Recipient ~
Labor Supply Shock and Jobless Recovery
Advisor: Serena Ng

Zeller Samantha
A Study of the Effect of the Internet on the Globalization of Knowledge Production in Academic Economics          
Advisor: Donald Davis

Adam Xu
Effects of Rainfall Shocks and Cash Transfers on Microenterprise Development  
Advisor: Christopher Blattman

Rui Yu
Persistence of Memory? Waning Experiences, Anchored Expectations
Advisor: Ricardo Reis

2012 – 2013

Travis Baseler
Agglomeration Economies & Provincial Convergence in Thailand’s Manufacturing Sector
Advisor: Ronald Findlay

Ravi Bhalla
Housing Equity and Real Consumption Effects: An Empirical Anlaysis of Housing Equity as a Determinant of Consumption

Hadi Elzayn
The Windy City and Urban Gentry: Does Gentrification Explain the Integration of Chicago?
Advisor: Donald Davis

Asher Hecht Bernstein
The Effects of a System of Restricted Migration on Population Distributions: Analysis of the Chinese Houkou System from 1949-2009
Advisor: David Weinstein

Yuxaio Huang
~ Parker Prize Recipient ~
The Effect of HIV on Human Capital Investment and Fertility Choice in Zambia
Advisor: Donald Davis

Susan Ou
Contagion in the European Sovereign Debt Crisis
Advisor: Jon Steinsson

Jason So
Revisiting the Predictive Power of Spreads for Economic Growth
Advisor: Bernard Salanie and Serena Ng

Richard Sun
Who Should Plan Subways? Public vs Private Planning in Urban Transit Development: A Brooklyn case Study
Advisor: Brendan O’Flaherty

Sergio Villar
United Kingdom Monetary Policy 1975 to 2012: A study Using Taylor Rule Estimation and Calibration
Advisor: Richard Clarida

Matt Yeaton
Abandonment and Crime
Advisor: Brendan O’Flaherty

Sam Zakay
Free Riding or Competition? Analyzing the Choice of Compensation Structure in New York City Restaurants
Advisor: Bentley MacLeod

Lorna Zhang
~ Romine Prize Recipient ~
Market Reaction to Patent Litigation Verdits and Patent Appeal Results
Advisor: Yeon-Koo Che

2011 – 2012

Richard Falk-Wallace
Debt Maturity Structure and Corporate Default Forecasting
Advisor: Sally Davidson

Andrea Golfari
Exchange Rates, Sovereign Yields and Economic Recovery in the Great Recession
Advisor: Marin Uribe

Felipe Gonçalves
~ Parker Prize ~
Asymmetric Information in Insurance Markets: Investigating Risk Aversion and Accident Probability
Advisor: Pierre-Andre Chiappori

Kazunari Inoki
On the Identification of Conditions on Utility Representations for the Exhibition of Axiomatic Notions of Fairness UnderUncertainty
Advisor: Navin Kartik

Jodie C. Liu
The Effect of HIV on Human Capital Investment and Fertility Choice in Zambia
Advisor: Stefania Albanesi

Keith Miao
Commodity Prices and Macroeconomic Performance: Examining Sub-Saharan Africa during the 2000s Commodities Boom
Advisor: Sunil Gulati and Xavier Sala-i-Martin

Benjamin Mills
~ Romine Prize Recipient~
~GS Dean’s Prize Recipient~
Unbiased Testing Under Weak Instrumental Variables
Advisor: Marcelo Moreira

Julian Richers
Who Runs the ECB? Regional Influences in EMU Monetary Policy
Advisor: Bruce Preston

Anoushka Vaswani
Is There Such Thing as Too Much Choice? An Empirical Examination of the Choice Overload Hypothesis
Advisor: David Weinstein

Yu Zheng
Investor Expectation & Asset Prices
Advisor: Michael Woodford

2010 – 2011

Avi Allison
The Yasuni-ITT Initiative:  An Effective Approach to Sustainable Development?
Advisor: Wolfram Schlenker

Jim Bauserman
Shaping US Cities, 1790-2000: Insights for Urban Growth Theory
Advisor:  Donald Davis

Marcello Cricco-Lizza
Option Implied Default Probabilities

Gregory Cox
~Parker Prize Recipient~
The Efficiency Gain of Joint Estimation with a Binary Dependent Variable
Advisor: Serena Ng

Hector Forero
Size matters, and so does time
Advisor: Ricardo Reis

Maya Funaki
Assessing the Impact of the Increasing Government Debt to GDP Ratio and the Growing Elderly Population on Fiscal Sustainability in Japan
Advisor: David Weinstein

Grant Graziani
Responses to Climate Shocks in a Low-Income, High-Risk Setting: A Study on Pastoralists in Kenya
Advisor: Wolfram Schlenker

Christina Patterson
~Romine Prize Recipient~
A Public Policy Patch: Cigarettes, Addiction and the Role of Self-Control
Advisor: Wojciech Kopcuzk

Parinitha Sastry
The Politics of Money in the Early Federal Reserve Period: 1913-1921
Advisor: David Weiman

Rohan Thavarajah
Accommodating Housing Bubbles: Monetary Policy Ease and Housing Activity
Advisor: David Weinstein

Monica Varman
The Impact of Professional Delivery Care on Child Health Outcomes: Evidence from Kenya.
Advisor: Cristian Pop-Eleches

Joshua Wan
Chinese Foreign Direct Investment and GDP Growth in Developing Economies
Advisor: Padma Desai

Dasha Wise
The Utility of Simulation Techniques in Merger Analysis
Advisor: Michael Riordan

2009 – 2010

Jehan Sparks
~Romine Prize Recipient~
Investigating the Determinants of Carpooling in the US
Advisor: Brendan O’Flaherty

Daniel Villar
~Parker Prize Recipient~
The Dynamics of Peruvian Inflation: Cagan’s Hyperinflation Model Re-Visited Once Again
Advisor: Michael Woodford

Kerry Watson
Skinniness equals Success? An Empirical Investigation of the Media-Body Image Connection
Advisor: Janet Currie

Semee Yoon
The Impact of the Basic Act on Low Carbon Green Growth on Top 200 Korean Companies
Advisor: Wolfram Schlenker

Oskar Zorrilla
Monetary Non-Neutralities in the Long Run
Advisor: Xavier Sala-i-Martin

2008 – 2009

Vitaly Bord
Asymmetric Information of Charitable  Giving: An Examination of How Scandals Impact Public Charities
Advisor: Pierre-Andre Chiappori

Edward Chaffetz
A study on the effectiveness of state mandated health insurance  coverage for young adults under parental plans

Evan Daar
What Makes a Baseball Manager?: The Link Between Managerial Human Capital and Compensation in a Post-Moneyball Era
Advisor: Sunil Gulati

Rachel Eisenberg
The Impact of School Based Performance Awards on Student Outcomes: A case study from New York City Public Schools
Advisor: Jonah Rockoff and Miguel Urquiola

Kyle Jurado
~Parker Prize Recipient~
The Effects of a Monetary Policy Shock on Hedge Fund Returns
Advisor: Serena Ng

Arjun Kapoor
Trade Liberalization and Productivity in India
Advisor: Donald Davis

Leora Kelman
The Effect of Market Features on Consumer Experience in the Mobile Phone Market:  An Empirical Analysis of the Price and Penetration Effects of Government Ownership, Number Portability, Market Concentration, and Calling Party Pays
Advisor: Michael Riordan

Michael Kim
Quantitative Effects of Transparency in the Monetary Policy of the  Federal Reserve
Advisor: Bruce Preston

Sydney Murray
Consumer Bankruptcy Reform: Past Failures and Proposals for the Future
Advisor: Jaromir Nosal

Monica Nania
The Impact of Middle-Size Enterprise Sector on Economic Growth
Advisor: Xavier Sala-i-Martin

Jisung Park
~Romine Prize Recipient~
Reduced Emissions from Deforestation (REDD) in the Brazilian Amazon: An Opportunity Cost Analysis
Advisor: Geoff Heal

Brendan Price
~Parker Prize Recipient~
Why Do Lawyers Certify?  Certification As a Signal
Advisor: Dan O’Flaherty

Nick Shea
Seasoned Equity Offerings on the Nasdaq: New Evidence on the  Asymmetric Information Discount
Advisor: Michael Adler

Ori Sosnik
Non-Loan Financial Services and Business Diversity
Advisor: Pierre-Andre Chiappori

Katherine Zhang
A Cartel in Name Only?  An Analysis of OPEC’s Influence on Crude Oil Prices
Advisor: Albert Bressand

Ariel Zucker
When Do They Take the Risk? Generic Challenges to Pharmaceutical Patents
Advisor: Bhaven Sampat

2007 – 2008

Joel Beal
Hurricanes, Climate Change, and the Externalities of Coastal Living
Advisor: Bernard Salanie

Ari Freisinger
The Stimulus of Baby Booms on Domestic Innovation
Advisor: Padma Desai

John Gardner
An Unintended Consequence: The Effect of Social Security on Elderly Health
Advisor: Richard Clarida

Jia Guo
Globalization and Monetary Policy
Advisor: Stefania Albanesi

Jan Hagiwara
How Much is Central Park Worth?
Advisor: Dan O’Flaherty

Shruti Kumar
Educating Away the Jobs Lost to International Outsourcing
Advisor: Kyle Bagwell

Maxim Pinkovskiy
~Parker Prize Recipient~
~Romine Prize Recipient~
Rational Inattention and the Allais Paradox
Advisor: Michael Woodford

Lauren Schy
Seduced and Scorched? Banking’s Risky Bets on Commercial Real Estate
Advisor: Bruce Preston

Anushka Shenoy
The Effects of the Dual Monetary System on Consumption Inequality in Cuba
Advisor: Padma Desai

Jeff Shrader
Seasonal Energy Consumption and the Permanent Income Hypothesis
Advisor: Wolfram Schlenker

Eric Wang
Do Risky Individuals Choose Risky Majors?
Advisor: Randall Reback

2006 – 2007

Arun Chandrasekhar
~Parker Prize Recipient~
The Effect of Reputational Heuristics on Auction Prices: An Analysis of Information Aggregation by eBay Customers
Advisor: Leigh Linden

Maria Coelho
Labor Mobility in Europe: The Impact of the Common Market     
Advisor: Francisco Rivera-Batiz

Abby Friedman
~Romine Prize Recipient~
Women’s Education and Fertility in India: Considering the Relationship between Women’s Education, Health Knowledge, and Total Children Ever Born       
Advisor: Jane Waldfogel

Matthew Isanuk
Something to Hide? The Effects of Harm Size on Self Disclosure   
Advisor: Alex Pfaff

Subash Iyer
Show Me the Money: A Study of Contract Incentives in Major League Baseball   
Advisor: Yeon Koo Che

Alex Kardon
Revenue Sharing and Player Salaries in Major League Baseball   
Advisor: Sunil Gulati

Nick Klagge
Battalion Assignments in the Newark Fire Department: A Two-Sided Matching Problem 
Advisor: Brendan O’Flaherty

Tom Lightcap
The Role of Fundamentals in the Context of Low Price-to-Book Stocks     
Advisor: Michael Adler

Jeremy Maletz
Capital Flows to Transition Economics: An Examination of Macroeconomic Determinants 
Advisor: Padma Desai

Adam Sacarny
Are Foreign Investors Averse to Politically Connected Firms?  A Study of Indonesia            
Advisor: Ray Fishman

David Schor
The Effect of Bankruptcy Exemptions on Mortgage Default:  Another Look at the Effect of Bankruptcy Law on Mortgage Credit    
Advisor: Stefania Albanesi

Peter Shalek
Improving the Efficiency of the National Hockey League: An Econometric Analysis             
Advisor: Sunil Gulati

Svetlana Viollis
Evaluating the Key Variable of the Lost Decade in Japan: The Effect of Japan’s Workweek Reduction Policy of 1988 on Lost Total Work Hours by Full-Time Tenured Workers                
Advisor: David Weinstein

Stephanie Yee
Is Social Responsibility Profitable? The Case of Voluntary Emissions Reductions
Advisor: Ray Fishman

2005 – 2006

Ady Barkan
Diagnosing Tuberculosis in India: An analysis of three strategies
Advisor: Miguel Urquiola and Susan Elmes

Shuky Ehrenberg
A question of Rank: An Empirical investigation of law school rank maximizing strategies, with a focus on admissions decisions 
Advisor: Eiichi Miyagawa

Zack Luck
Bigger Houses or Bigger Cities? Exploring the Link between the Preferential Tax Treatment of Owner-Occupied Housing and Urban Sprawl
Advisor: Dan O’Flaherty

Aaron Maczonis
~Romine Prize Recipient~
The American Pastime and the American Way: Talent Valuation and Baseball’s Double Output Quandry
Advisor: Sunil Gulati

Paasha Mahdavi
Consumer Demand for Fuel Efficient Automobiles
Advisor: Graciela Chichilnisky and Kate Ho

Krishna Rao
~Parker Prize Recipient~
Incentives to Self Report: Regulatory Treatment of “Voluntary Disclosures
Advisor: Alex Pfaff

Laura Rosner
In Search of Spillovers: the Effect of FDI on Domestic Firm Productivity in the Czech Republic
Advisor: Shari Spiegel

Svetoslav Roussanov
The Currency Board Arrangement: Removing Barriers to Economic Growth rather than Being One. Evidence from Bulgaria
Advisor: Bruce Preston

Tesia Sommer
The Large Market Advantage? An Economic Inquiry into the financial structure of the MLB and NFL
Advisor: Sunil Gulati

Stanley Tan
Bully in the Playground? The Implications of UEFA Champions League Revenues on Competitive Balance in Domestic European Soccer Leagues
Advisor: Sunil Gulati

Venkat Vaikuntanarayanan
An Investigation into the Effect of Corruption on Total Factor Productivity and GDP Growth Rates
Advisor: Christian (Kiki) Pop-Eleches