Author Archives: Holly Ross

Thesis Corner: Those High School Hooligans…

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Today, steroid use among professional athletes gets a lot of spotlight in the media. Those stories about “how the mighty have fallen” resonate the same message time and time again: kids, don’t ever use drugs. This public exposure has massive consequences; it tarnishes a professional’s athletic reputation (I’m sure Lance Armstrong can attest), handicaps their prospects for future endorsements, and leads fans to question their favorite star’s ethics. We can understand the allure of abusing performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), but while it is highly scrutinized in professional sports, this problem is less known among lower levels of sports competition. This Continue reading Thesis Corner: Those High School Hooligans…→

Thesis Corner: Read and Write the World With Music

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No matter what our caliber of creativity is, art and music are important elements in our lives one way or another. Obviously there is enjoyment and pleasure imparted to audiences whom observe these creative and artistic products. But what is often overlooked and equally as important is the benefit gained by the artist producing these novelties. Educational scholars have confirmed the importance of children’s art and musical programs because thinking creatively and artistically unlocks ways our mind can process other types of scholastic information. Ben Hagen, a senior Economics student at the UPS, studied the importance of educational music and Continue reading Thesis Corner: Read and Write the World With Music→

Thesis Corner: Pay Those Players!

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College is a promise land offering a wealth of academic, extra-cirricular, and professional opportunities. It’s the time of your life when you can create new experiences, juggle your interests, and form your identity. But for student athletes, this idea of “you can do it all” is often an unattainable reality due to the time crunch required by sports. I’m sure Division I student athletes everywhere have reflected on their hard work and commitment to their sports and have wondered, “man, I should get paid for this”. While playing sports is a passion, it’s morphed from an extra-cirricular activity to a full Continue reading Thesis Corner: Pay Those Players!→

Thesis Corner: All About the Craft Beer Industry

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In the past, I’ve written Thesis Corners on the biological importance of water and coffee’s link to national health, but today’s blog will focus on the industry changes happening to another beverage: beer. From a brewer’s standpoint, the beer business is a precious trade that stimulates one’s business savvy, scientific know-how, and an artistic expression to some degree. This week I had an email exchange with senior Eric Hopfenbeck, who tackled the entire craft brewing industry for his thesis. Read on to understand what classifies a craft brew, how this beer category is capturing market share from the Goliath beer companies, and a potential Continue reading Thesis Corner: All About the Craft Beer Industry→

Thesis Corner: Coffee Price Shocks on National Health

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If we were to extract pithy lessons from literature like Freakonomics and Everything I Needed To Know About Economics I Learned from Online Dating, it’s that there is an economic dimension to everything. The reason I love writing for this blog is because it allows us to look at seemingly ordinary subjects we take for granted and examine them from new angles and perspectives. I spoke with Jared Soares about his thesis and he gave me another fresh perspective about the economics behind everything. Jared took an interesting approach with his thesis: rather than making a laymen’s subject economical, he analyzed how economic phenomena Continue reading Thesis Corner: Coffee Price Shocks on National Health→

Thesis Corner: Sport Event Sponsorships May Not Be Worth Their Price Tag

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All marketers face the dilemma of how to promote their brand to consumers creatively and memorably. Today, there are so many platforms to advertise ranging from television, internet, print, radio, and out of home (billboards, bus skins, etc). But among competitors making equal or more noise, how how will advertisers get their brand to stand out? Sponsoring a sporting event (sports marketing) is a nontraditional out of home marketing tactic that many companies believe to have profitable commercial promise. But as several companies attempt to insert their brand in arenas everywhere, how much do we undercut the lucrativeness of these Continue reading Thesis Corner: Sport Event Sponsorships May Not Be Worth Their Price Tag→

Thesis Corner: Making Sure We Are “Dam” Confident with Water Infrastructure

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What were you doing when 9/11 happened? If you’re like me, you have a vivid snapshot of what you were doing and where you were when this tragedy struck. Not only is it a moment imprinted in our memories, but in history it represents a transformative event effecting almost every facet of American daily life. Fear and awareness of terrorism impacts everything, even (to some degree) the glass of water you gulped at the Sub. In his Economics thesis, esteemed UPS senior Alex Shannon testifies how the heightened perception of terrorism embodies significant political and economic ramifications with an unlikely commodity: water. His topic Continue reading Thesis Corner: Making Sure We Are “Dam” Confident with Water Infrastructure→

Thesis Corner: YouTube’s Impact on the Video Content Market

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Flashback to the Super Bowl in 2004. Remember who was playing? Neither do I. But this was a historic Super Bowl because it was when Justin Timberlake indecently exposed Janet Jackson’s breast during the halftime show. The day after, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, heard all commotion about the incident but missed it. Unfortunately, none of them could find a video of the episode, so they were out of the loop. This miniature tragedy helped plant the idea of YouTube, a realm allowing easy sharing of video content among users. Perhaps YouTube’s history gave you a chuckle, but Continue reading Thesis Corner: YouTube’s Impact on the Video Content Market→

Thesis Corner: An Introduction to Bitcoin

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Imagine that one day you woke up and someone told you, “Hey, these M&Ms over there have monetary value. Go ahead and buy whatever you want with them”. Okay, so M&Ms may be a bit facetious, but that scenario pretty much describes the origin of Bitcoin. If you’re a millennial like me, our trust in currency has always been anchored in the US dollar. We’ve been trained and conditioned to believe it’s worth something despite being a measly piece of paper. Now we are told these “Bitcoins” are equivalent to money too? Madness! What does this mean to money as we Continue reading Thesis Corner: An Introduction to Bitcoin→

Thesis Corner: The Economic Success of Sharing

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One of Adam Smith’s mantras describes self-interest as an ingredient for the wealth of nations. Acts of selfishness creates an economy conducive to trading goods and services in exchange for money. UPS’s very own Shelby Senaga, a senior studying Economics and Business, explored a different dimension to this self-interest story in her thesis. Shelby’s research explored the phenomenon of collaborative consumption (CC), which creates commercial value through the power of sharing rather than ownership. Shelby and I sit down to chat about the concept behind CC and its growing popularity. HR: So what exactly is the idea behind CC? SS: Continue reading Thesis Corner: The Economic Success of Sharing→