Junior Projects 2024-25

Themes

1. Rising temperatures and violence

Rising temperatures have been shown to influence various aspects of the economy, including employment, migration, and GDP growth. Given these effects, ongoing climate change is expected to affect economic activities. This research project aims to understand another channel through which rising temperatures influence the economy: the prevalence of violent actions by individuals. The project group utilizes either a country-level macro dataset or a finer dataset from a particular country to analyze the effects of rising temperatures on violence, measured by statistics such as violent crime rates, gun ownership, and armed conflicts. 

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Databases


2. Right-to-work laws and labor market effects of globalization in the US

Labor market effects of increasing international trade and migration have been studied extensively in recent years. Existing studies have shown that a sudden and substantial increase in imports from China reduced manufacturing employment and increased the unemployment rate in the regions that are more exposed to these import shocks in the US. This project aims to understand whether the labor market effects of globalization were magnified or mitigated through institutional differences across regions, for example, whether the state has a right-to-work law or not. This project utilizes a dataset from the US at the state level, county level, or commuting zone level. 

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Databases



3. The role of financial sectors in mitigating or magnifying the effect of financial crises

Financial crises have been shown to deteriorate a country's economic activities, thereby reducing GDP. This project aims to understand the role of countries' financial sectors' characteristics—e.g., the private credit-to-GDP ratio, the ease of access to the banking sector, and financial development indicators—in mitigating or magnifying the effects of financial crises. This project utilizes a country-level macro dataset. 

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Databases



4. Refugee crises and their effects on host countries

International migration may have effects on various aspects of host countries. This project aims to understand the impact of international migration or refugee crises on host countries' economic indicators such as GDP growth, employment, unemployment rates, and other statistics. The project utilizes either a country-level macro dataset or a dataset from a particular host country such as Türkiye, Germany, or the US, if such a dataset is available. 

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Databases