The Senior Program

The Senior Project in economics can be satisfied either by a project in a designated 500 level course or by a Senior Thesis. Projects require a paper or a series of papers demonstrating a mastery of advanced methods, an understanding of the scholarly literature on a topic or an understanding of the evolution of important issues in the discipline. The Senior Thesis is a written report of an original research project undertaken in the department's Research Seminar (Economics 560). Students participating in this seminar make a number of presentations of their work in progress during the semester and usually submit their theses to the department for consideration for department honors. On several occasions, these theses have become the basis for collaborative work with faculty supervisors that has resulted in  publications in professional journals.

Recent projects in economics include:

Honors presentations

• Filling the Stands: Exploring the Relationship Between Team Performance and Fan Attendance in Professional Soccer
• The Effects Of Competition On Commercial Banking:  Evidence From The Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking Act Of 1994 
• Vanishing Predictive Power? The Yield Curve Amongst Other Macro Indicators to Estimate Real GDP Growth
• The Effects of Historical Preservation on Residential Landmarks in New York City
• The Effect of Campaign Finance Reform: Evidence from the BCRA (2002) 
• Unpacking Need-Blind Admissions: Challenges, Opportunities, and Future Directions in Higher Education Access
• The Impact of the Smart Grid on Electricity Demand Shocks in Heatwaves
• Green Foreign Direct Investment: A Catalyst for Growth in Latin America
• How do exchange rate fluctuations influence the investment decisions of multinational corporations? The case of primary sector activities in commodity-exporting countries
• Portfolio Allocation: Investigating the Influence of Macroeconomic Factors on Stock-Bond Relationships
• Integration of 19th Century Wheat Markets
• The effect of emerging biomass power plants on environmental, economic, health, and political outcomes of Virginia counties between 2005-2019 
• Effects of Income Taxation on Country-Level Subjective Well-Being
• How do macroeconomic conditions affect FDI’s effect on economic growth?
• Austerity Policies and the Great Recession: an Analysis of Government Expenditure Cuts in Great Britain and Their Effects on Welfare
• The Impact of Medicaid Expansion on the Mental Health of Low Income Adults
• Using Stock Multiples as an Investment Strategy
• The Impact of Early Investment on Startup Survival
• The Impact of the South African Old Person's Grant on Hypertension of the Elderly
• Ideology vs. Incentives: The Causes of Anti-Automation Riots in 1830s England 
• Investigating the effect of higher Energy Prices on Investment in Energy Efficiency
• The Impact of Trade on Chinese Regional TFP Growth
• The Differential Sectoral Effect of Monetary Policy: The Case of The Aerospace and Transportation Sector
• The Impact of Parental Discipline Method on Adults’ Behavior of Heavy Drinking, Using Marijuana, Smoking Tobacco, Adults’ Mental Health, and General Health Status