Journal of Undergraduate Research

Jeff Sorensen and Dr. James McDonald, Department of Economics Main Text Salary compression is common in many fields with high demand for or low supply of a specific type of labor. In order to attract new recruits in such fields, employers sometimes must offer them wages higher than those of more senior employees. Unlike in […]

Jared Shores and Dr. Joseph Price, Economics Department I have always been drawn to the arts. Growing up I was continually playing and writing music. As I grew older my interested broadened into visual arts, specifically film. Although I am an economics major, I have continually looked for opportunities to apply what I was learning […]

Brent Jensen and Dr. Eric Eide, Economics Department Education is a growing area of study in the area of economics and it is often difficult to find objective answers to the questions and problems that educators and policy makers face each day. For my research, I used economic theory to try and determine if there […]

Angelyn Fairchild and Dr. Joseph Price, Economics Department Purpose Patients trust that their medical provider will help them receive the best care possible even when this may involve referring them to another provider. However, transferring patients to other providers represents a transfer of income between the health care providers, thus creating a strong profit incentive […]

Corbin Miller and Dr. Joseph Price, Department of Economics The purpose of my project is to discover whether or not there is a link between the nutritional quality of food served for elementary school lunch and test scores. Our hypothesis is that eating a more healthy meal prior to taking a test will improve cognitive […]

Nathan Law and Dr. C. Arden Pope, III, Department of Economics The main goal of this research project was to discover whether or not results attained in epidemiology studies assessing the increased risk of mortality attributable to air pollution, are influenced by funding source or affiliation of the authors. This study was motivated by public […]

Daniel Bennett and Dr. Richard Evans, Department of Economics The purpose of this research is to verify the implications of common economic models which predict that increases in taxation will lead to increases in net exports. I find that tax increases have a positive impact on net exports, but that the estimated impact is likely […]

Michael Barnett and Dr. Eric Eide, Department of Economics My initial research topic was to determine whether individuals who needed longterm care dispersed their assets in order to qualify for Medicaid coverage. In doing this, I hoped to identify the existence of a relationship between asset dispersion and longterm Medicare claims and then quantify the […]

Benjamin Tengelsen and Dr. Richard Evans, Department of Economics Government transfers to households take many forms, including unemployment benefits, food stamps, social security, and cash handouts to households to stimulate consumption. Generally, these transfer programs act as “automatic stabilizers” due to the way they naturally increase (decrease) when economies are weak (strong). Often policy-makers suggest increasing these programs beyond […]

Wayne Sandholtz and Dr. Joseph Price, Department of Economics Introduction The purpose of this project was to examine whether consumers who buy a wider variety of distinct fresh fruits and vegetables pay lower average prices for fresh fruits and vegetables, by substituting away from fruits and vegetables during price shocks. In order to answer this […]