Business

Session I

Sophia Ahmed "Stocked or Stranded: Regional Grocery Chain Strategy Across America's"

This study asks whether grocery chains deliberately avoid counties with high unemployment, and whether the rise of dollar stores and online grocery delivery has driven grocery chains out of communities they once served. We analyze thirteen publicly traded regional grocery chains across more than 3,900 U.S. counties between 2016 and 2025, matching store location data to county unemployment rates and demographic characteristics. We compared each regional chain's strategy and demographics to Walmart. Using regression analysis that controls for population, income, poverty, and rural geography, we find that regional grocery chains had significantly fewer stores in high-unemployment counties as of 2016. However, chains did not withdraw further from these counties during 2016 to 2025, suggesting the gap was already established before our study period. Dollar store expansion and growing internet access predict Walmart store closures but show no equivalent effect on regional grocers. These findings suggest that food access inequality in economically distressed communities reflects longstanding corporate location decisions rather than recent competitive pressures, with important implications for food access policy targeting.

Student Major(s)/Minor: Finance Major, Data Science Minor

Advisor: Dr. Osman Nal

Matthew Conrad, "Target Cash and Firm Performance: Replicating and Extending Oler and Picconi (2014) Across a Modern Large-Cap Sample"

How much cash should a company hold, and what happens when it holds too much or too little? This project tests whether a company's deviation from its statistically estimated ideal cash level predicts weaker future operating performance and stock returns. We replicate a 2014 accounting study by Oler and Picconi using U.S. company data from 1989 to 2008, then test whether its findings extend to the 1,000 largest U.S. companies from 2000 to 2025. The replication largely confirms the original study: companies holding too much or too little cash see weaker future operating performance. One stock-return finding initially reversed sign; we traced this to a specific measurement choice and corrected it in the original data, but found the same fix does not work for modern firms, suggesting the relationship between cash and stock returns may have changed for today's largest companies, relevant to how investors and executives think about corporate cash policy.

Student Major(s): Finance and Psychology Major

Advisor: Dr. Osman Nal

Session II

Clare Osberg, "The Economic Impact of Artifical Intelligence on the Labor Force"

This project will examine how artificial intelligence (AI) may reshape the role of human labor, considering AI as a combination of computing power and algorithms. Public debate often asks whether AI will reduce employment, and this project seeks to explore whether AI will mainly substitute for human workers or complement human labor by making workers more productive, changing the kind of tasks they perform rather than replacing the tasks altogether. This research will examine the labor market through the lens of the task-based framework developed by Acemoglu and Restrepo about the substitutability of AI and human labor, with particular attention to the implications on wages, unemployment, and job shifts. Using a structured review of economics literature and analysis of labor-market evidence, this project will clarify when and why AI tends to replace tasks versus augment works. The findings will help inform policies aimed at creating new tasks and complementary roles that may offset the losses of existing tasks and reduced labor demand.

Student Major(s): Computational & Applied Mathematics & Statistics and Economics Major

Advisor: Dr. Osman Nal

Ommar Proano, "Bamboo Packaging: An Analysis of Bamboo as an Alternative to Plastic Packaging"

Americans threw out over eighty million tons in packaging and containers in 2018, and only about half gets recycled, leading to the rest to be thrown in landfills, with plastic being the main contributor. What if this wasn't the case? Is there a financially and environmentally sustainable alternative? This project explores the possibility of alternative packaging, such as bamboo, in the market and whether it is financially viable for companies to make the switch in the United States. This question will be tackled by examining research papers, financial statements, comparing costs of the materials, and evaluating market trends on bamboo packaging to summarize the opportunities, benefits, and costs of switching to bamboo packaging. This can lead to incredible benefits to ecosystems and landfills by reducing fossil fuels spent producing current packaging, reducing plastics leached into the environment, and possibly saving consumers and producers money in the long run.

Student Major: Undeclared

Advisor: Dr. Tonya Boone

Video Presentations