2022 Economics Thesis Presentations!

March 3, 2022 brought a final culmination of the economics major degree for 26 hardworking seniors. After four years of modeling markets, laughing and crying through courses, and surprising ourselves with our abilities through exams, we presented our Fall 2021 thesis projects to our friends, families, and Puget Sound community. Many completed through econometrics and the remaining macro-based theory, the full variety of thesis presentations can be seen here: Myself and 10 other students had the pleasure of completing our theses under the guidance of Professor Matthew Warning. Through data focused collaborations with our own focused topics, our Fall 2021 Continue reading 2022 Economics Thesis Presentations!

Thesis Corner: Emily Davis

Welcome to Thesis Corner! I recently interviewed fellow senior Emily Davis about her experience with the thesis project. Enjoy! 1)What is your thesis about? My thesis is about how inequality increased in the US after the Great Recession. I looked at the impacts of monetary policy, specifically quantitative easing (QE), on wealth and income inequality. 2)How did you get the idea for this topic? I got the idea for this topic after reading Aftershock by Robert Reich. In his book he talks about increasing wealth gap after the Great Recession through multiple lenses. From his research, I expanded on how Continue reading Thesis Corner: Emily Davis

Thesis Corner – Peter Henning

This edition of Thesis Corner focuses on Peter Henning’s research into China’s ongoing domestic and foreign economic development plans that has been dubbed in some circles, a “Beijing Consensus”. A little context is needed to understand the implications of the term “Beijing Consensus”. It is a direct reference to the economic policy plans the US built its economic aid, reform, and development plans in less developed countries around the world. The goal at hand was the promotion of neoliberal free market economies and aggregating US power and increasing the number of liberal democracies globally. Peter argues that examples can be Continue reading Thesis Corner – Peter Henning

Thesis Corner: Alia Kabir

In this Thesis Corner interview, I sat down with Alia Kabir to talk about her project that explored the linkages between declining salmon populations due to climate change and local economies. Could you explain a little bit about what your thesis was and what you focused on? Yeah, so it was basically about…salmon. I was trying to see if there was a correlation between the amount of value of the salmon harvests in particular areas across the West Coast and economic indicators in the counties where the ports that salmon were coming in were located. So, it was basically about Continue reading Thesis Corner: Alia Kabir

Thesis Corner: Henry Gardella

This is an interview with senior, Henry Gardella (HG), about his senior thesis “The Alliance of Youtube and Patreon.” B: To begin with, what is your thesis?   HG: What do you mean what is it called, or what…   B: Basically what is your thesis called and what is it about?   HG: So my thesis is called the Alliance of Youtube and Patron. If you don’t know what patreon is, it is a crowdfunding platform that allows content creators to make money to produce their content. Basically, this is really hard to explain…   B: Take your time Continue reading Thesis Corner: Henry Gardella

Thesis Corner: Ellen Knowles

Welcome to Thesis Corner with Ellen Knowles! Q: What was your thesis about? For my thesis, I looked at how homeowners are able to apply pressure on local governments to restrict the quantity of housing through zoning. From there, I looked at how this affects the rental prices of multi family units. Q: How did you pick your topic? I heard about this issue while listening to a Planet Money podcast and found it interesting. Q: What were your results? I found that there was a positive correlation between the amount of political pressure homeowners place on local governments and Continue reading Thesis Corner: Ellen Knowles

Thesis Corner: Madeleine Elliott

Welcome to Thesis Corner! This week, I am writing about my own thesis, using the same questions I asked Max last week. Q: What was my thesis about? A: I wrote about the Economic development of Seattle and Tacoma in the 1890s. I specifically focused on the Klondike Gold Rush and a few economic circumstances which may have influenced the cities’ differing responses to the Gold Rush. Q: How did I decide on this topic? I started thinking about my thesis toward the end of the spring of my junior year (spring 2017). I knew I wanted to research something Continue reading Thesis Corner: Madeleine Elliott

Thesis Corner: Max Coleman

Welcome to Thesis Corner! This week I spoke with graduating senior and former Sound Economics writer Max Coleman to talk about his thesis. Q: What was your thesis about? A: I wrote my thesis about agricultural contracting in the hop market. So hops as in Humulus lupulus, which is what they use to flavor and preserve beer. Q: How did you decide on this topic? A: My family grows hops, and originally I was like What would be useful to actual real life? I didn’t have an area of study that was calling out to me, so I was like Continue reading Thesis Corner: Max Coleman

Thesis Corner: Annie Vela

Alex Shaw (AS): Annie, first, what was your thesis about? Annie Vela (AV):  My thesis was about US government changing allocation of funding from public prisons to public education. AS: How did you arrive at this topic? AV: When Kate (Stirling) asked us to start thinking of a topic over the summer, I started thinking about which of my economics classes I really enjoyed my Urban Economics class with Bruce Mann, which I loved. I’m very interested in how economic policy tangibly affects actual people. So I thought about topics that focused on people, and education is super important to Continue reading Thesis Corner: Annie Vela

Thesis Corner: Lorraine Black on Video Games

Below I present an interview I had with our very own Lorraine Black, discussing her highly intriguing senior economic thesis. Let’s dive right in! Okay, first couple questions: what was the topic of your thesis, and why did you pick that? The topic of my senior thesis was the economic behavior of consumers that play free-to-play multiplayer online video games. I picked it because it struck me as pretty irrational behavior in a relatively new industry. Also I like video games. Good a reason as any. What were your findings? I conducted a survey of 300 League of Legends players Continue reading Thesis Corner: Lorraine Black on Video Games