Georgetown Students Present Orginal Economics Research at 7th Annual Carroll Round Conference
Eight Georgetown University seniors presented original research at the seventh annual Carroll Round, an international undergraduate economics conference supported by Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and John Carroll Scholars Program. Run entirely by Georgetown students, the goal of the Carroll Round is to foster interaction and exchange of ideas among the nation's leading economic undergraduates through presentations, discussions, and lectures.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Eight Georgetown University seniors presented original research at the seventh annual Carroll Round, an international undergraduate economics conference supported by Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and John Carroll Scholars Program. Run entirely by Georgetown students, the goal of the Carroll Round is to foster interaction and exchange of ideas among the nation’s leading economic undergraduates through presentations, discussions, and lectures.
“The research presented at this year’s Carroll Round conference emphasizes Georgetown’s pursuit of scholarly innovation at the undergraduate level,” said Robert L. Gallucci, Dean of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. “I applaud the students for their comprehensive study of international economic issues, and faculty for their extensive involvement.”
The annual Carroll Round provides a unique forum for research and discussion about the changing global economy. Students present their qualified senior theses research in panels moderated by economics professors and practitioners, which is then followed by economic discussion and debate. Participants are selected from the country’s leading economics programs for the strength of their research design, general interest in economic studies, and academic record. Many Carroll Round participants have gone on to pursue graduate work in economics at prestigious programs around the world.
“Each year, the Carroll Round showcases some of the best undergraduate economics research from colleges all over the country,” said Arik Levinson, an associate professor in the Economics Department at Georgetown University. “All of the credit for the conference’s success goes to the generations of students who originated the concept, founded the program, and have kept it running every year.”
The following seniors from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and Georgetown College, the university's undergraduate school for arts and sciences, presented their senior theses as original research at the seventh annual Carroll Round:
Sue Bai ( SFS '08 ), an International Economics major from Silver Spring, Md., explores whether microfinance loans have an effect on children's education in her paper, “Does Microfinance Really Help the Children: Evidence from Rural Bangladesh.” Bai finds that positive effects of microfinance loans largely disappear once controlling for other unobservable characteristics, and that microfinance can even have a negative effect on school enrollment if the family business demands more child labor as a result of business capitalization. Bai also observes that this effect depends on the type of enterprise the loan finances: non-farm enterprises tend to benefit more from microfinance compared to agriculture operations in terms of children's education.
Stacey Droms ( COL '08 ), a Political Economy major from Westford, Mass., considers the relationship between internet access and corruption levels in her paper, “E-radicating Corruption: A Study of the Impact of Internet Access on Corruption Levels.” Using a large panel of countries, she finds a robust and significant relationship between higher levels of internet access and lower levels of corruption. Droms concludes that this relationship holds even in the presence of government censorship, giving support to current efforts to increase internet access as a means to reduce corruption.
Yasmine Fulena ( SFS '08 ), an International Economics major from Geneva, Switzerland, investigates the performance of the Mauritian export processing zone ( MEPZ ) and its effects on the Mauritian economy from 1977 to 2006 in her paper, "The Performance and Impact of the Mauritian Export Processing Zone.” Fulena finds that the trade agreements in force during this period positively affected the performance of the MEPZ and that the latter assisted in spurring economic growth, as well as reducing the rate of female unemployment.
Michael Kunkel ( SFS '08 ), an International Economics major from Macungie, Pa., investigates whether democratic countries continue to receive a larger allocation of U.S. bilateral assistance in the post-Cold War era in his paper, “The Relative Effect of Democracy within Recipient Countries on Allocations of Different Forms of Bilateral U.S. Assistance.” Kunkel conducts an empirical analysis isolating the marginal effects of a recipient country's level of democracy on the probability that it receives aid, the country's relative share of the overall U.S. aid budget, and the aid's share of the country's GDP. He also examines the differences in these effects when considering aid targeted for economic versus military purposes. Kunkel finds that although democracies continue to be more likely to receive U.S. assistance, this factor has no significant effect on the size of the allocation.
Han Youp Lee ( SFS '08 ), an International Economics major from Seoul, Korea, assesses the empirical observations and economic outcomes of the 2003 Korea-Chile Free Trade Agreement in his paper, “The Trans-Pacific Grape War: The Impact of the Korea-Chile Free Trade Agreement on the Grape Market in Korea.” Lee studies how the Korean grape industry, the comparatively disadvantaged sector versus the Chilean grape industry, sought its survival through improving competitiveness and productivity. His paper verifies both expected and unexpected damages observed in the Korean grape market, ranging from the decrease of production to the fluctuation of price level.
Olivia Lynch ( SFS '08 ), an International Economics major from Bedminster, N.J., investigates whether the quality of the judicial system significantly affects the amount of FDI inflows to transition countries in her paper, “The Importance of Judicial Quality on Foreign Direct Investment to Transition Countries.” Lynch tests judicial quality on FDI using a traditional measure of judicial quality, judicial independence, as well as a newly developed measure of judicial quality, judicial effectiveness. Lynch finds that although judicial independence significantly affects FDI inflows to transition countries, judicial effectiveness does not.
Dominique Shure ( SFS '08 ), an International Economics major and German and European Studies minor, from Manhattan Beach, Calif., investigates the returns to early education in her paper, “The Effects of Kindergarten on High School Placement: The German Experience.” Shure examines whether attending Kindergarten increases the chance that a German student will attend an elite form of high school. Shure finds that attending an early education program in Germany does increase the probability of attending a better form of high school, indicating that early education does make a difference.
Kris Walsh ( SFS '08 ), an International Economics major from Yorktown Heights, N.Y., investigates whether announcements by foreign governments about changing their foreign reserve structure are affecting exchange rates in his paper, “Foreign Reserve Diversification and the Exchange Rate: An Event Study.” Walsh finds that such announcements are providing information to the marketplace, and that announcements by East Asian countries are more likely to affect the exchange rate between the dollar and the yen than other exchange rates. Walsh’s work shows that the sample of events seems to be a good predictor of exchange rate movements in the short-term.
About Georgetown University
Georgetown University is the oldest and largest Catholic and Jesuit university in America, founded in 1789 by Archbishop John Carroll. Georgetown today is a major student-centered, international, research university offering respected undergraduate, graduate and professional programs in Washington, DC, Doha, Qatar and around the world. For more information about Georgetown University, visit www.georgetown.edu.
Contact: Katherine P Martha 202-687-4328 kpm43@georgetown.edu
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