Tag: Economics

Signal Crayfish Behavior, Health, & Habitat in the Tryon Creek Watershed

Presenter: Kyla Schmitt – Economics, Environmental Studies

Faculty Mentor(s): Alexis Barton, Reyn Yoshioka

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

In Portland, Oregon, signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) earn the title of “keystone species” by consuming otherwise-inaccessible detritus, which can then be passed up the food chain to various other species, and carving up riverbeds, an act which greatly influences aquatic habitat quality. This study questioned whether habitat factors impact signal crayfish health and behavior in the Tryon Creek Watershed. Overall, crayfish were disproportionately likely to be observed in locations with high human impact levels; silt/sand or boulder and cobble substrates; culverts, runs, and pools; and water 10-39 cm deep. Juvenile crayfish were disproportionately likely to be observed in locations with low human impact levels, silt/sand or cobble and gravel substrates, and water 0-19 cm deep. Unhealthy crayfish—specimens that were deceased, immobile, struggling, or consisted of severed appendages— were disproportionately likely to be observed in locations with culverts or riffles and water 0-19 cm deep. The study found no evidence for an established population of invasive crayfish in Tryon Creek, although further monitoring (particularly in the Tryon Cove area) is necessary to confirm this finding. The study’s analysis also suggested that human-caused ecosystem disruptions can seriously decrease the health and wellness of signal crayfish populations if not managed mindfully and holistically, pointing to a need for better waterway designs that benefit fish and crustaceans alike.

Economic and Political Aspects of Peruvian Immigration in the US during the Late 20th Century

Presenter: Kai Angel Augusto Sanchez-Pajuelo – Economics

Faculty Mentor(s): Iker Saitua

Session: (Virtual) Oral Panel—Read, Speak, and Act

“Not in Luxury, But to Get Along:” Economic and Political Aspects of Peruvian Immigration in the United States during the Late Twentieth Century”

The present paper studies Peruvian immigration to the United States during the late twentieth century. More specifically, it analyzes emigration from Peru caused by the sociopolitical and economic instability of the 1980s. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Peruvian economy went through a series of deep and prolonged economic crises that affected the country’s economic growth. The great depression of the Peruvian economy was mainly due to the negative effects of external shocks, political instability, limited national entrepreneurial capacity, and the lack of capacity to develop new export economic activities. Such depression pushed many Peruvians to emigrate to the United States to make a new start. Motivations of those immigrants were not limited to economic needs, but were framed in a wider context of lack of prospects in Peru. This wave of immigration into the United States was characterized by professional, qualified and semiqualified immigrants, remarkably working either in the service or clerical sectors. Educated people and skilled workers migrated from Peru to the United States during this period rather than unskilled labor force from rural areas. Furthermore, this immigration wave was characterized by family reunification and an occasional wave of refugees.

From the Ground Up: Connections and Contradictions Within the United States Housing Movement

Presenter: Anna Nguyen – Economics, Political Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Alison Gash

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Connection and Community

The repercussions of the housing crisis today are immense, to say the least. Accelerating trends of deregulation, financialization, and globalization produce conditions that are ripe for real estate investment. Neoliberal policies make affordable housing inaccessible by design. The idea of housing— as a lived and social space, a necessary form of shelter, and a universal basic need—has been stripped away for purposes of profit generation. With these deteriorating conditions in mind, this much is clear: the housing crisis is a colossal problem and will not be resolved overnight. Tenant and unhoused organizers who understand this reality are motivated by it and have acted accordingly to respond to the crisis at its worst. Evaluating the scope of eviction and its root causes necessitates a deeper understanding of housing insecurity and the traumatic displacement of tenants on a political, economic, and spatial level. Because working class tenants and their unhoused neighbors are subject to experiences of housing precarity in their daily lives, they have a lot to gain from establishing solidarity with each other. The goal of this thesis is to investigate how tenant and unhoused groups navigate these collaborative relationships tensions as they respond to the housing crisis on a local and national scale.

Investigating Variations in Unemployment Between North and South Spain and Associated Implications

Presenter: Emily Kraschel − Economics

Faculty Mentor(s): Glen Waddell, Dennis Galvan

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

Unemployment in Southern Spain has long been significantly higher than in Northern Spain, negatively affecting Spain’s national unemployment rate. This has caused Spain to have one of the highest unemployment rates in the EU, making it a target for sanctions and corrective policies which further isolate it from the international community. The regional difference has previously been explored through purely quantitative methods and is widely attributed to a deficit in industrial output or a cultural aversion to work. The purpose of this research is to use a combination of quantitative decomposition through regression and various historical, policy, and geo-sensing sources to determine correctable factors which may contribute to unemployment and areas where further development may attract industry and workers. The regression model suggests that regional differences in industrial output and overall age have insignificant effects on unemployment, while education, working age, and population have significant effects. Sensing suggests the South may lack not only employment opportunities but the necessary infrastructure to support the desired growth. To improve employment rates in Southern Spain, education and youth employment must be better supported, and infrastructure and resources must be improved to allow for growth in all sectors of industry.

Identifying COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Motivators for People Who Inject Drugs in Lane County

Presenter: Blake Hardin − Economics, Global Studies

Faculty Mentor(s): Melissa Graboyes, Camille Cioffi

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Covering Covid

People who use intravenous drugs (PWID) are at greater risk of mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases yet also express higher levels of vaccine hesitancy than the general public. For the COVID-19 pandemic, identifying common vaccine hesitancy motivators among intravenous drug users is key to ongoing vaccination campaigns against the disease. However, very little research has used qualitative methods to examine why intravenous drug users are often more vaccine hesitant. This thesis used a mixed-methods design, conducting 41 semi-structured interviews and 260 quantitative surveys with PWID in Lane County to understand better the most influential contributors to vaccine hesitancy among this demographic group. The interviews and surveys demonstrated a consistent connection between the poor social determinants of health and frequent dehumanization of intravenous drug users and their reduced willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. This thesis proposes a new model for assessing vaccine hesitancy among PWID, directly informed by the actual experiences shared by collaborators for this project. Moreover, the results of this thesis elucidate the need to address systemic barriers in healthcare that inhibit accessibility, trust, and confidence in preventative services like vaccines among marginalized communities. Current and future vaccine outreach programs for PWID must first establish a foundation of trust to alleviate vaccine hesitancy and encourage vaccine uptake.

ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) Population in Lane County- A Project with United Way of Lane County

Presenters : Man Nguyen, Eric Wittkop, Emily White

Mentor : William Harbaugh

Major : Economics

Poster 5

Many US households earn an income greater than that specified by the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), a measure of poverty that does not vary across the 48 contiguous states, however, many households in the U.S who stand above the FPL still struggle to meet their basic needs and be financially self-sufficient. Although the FPL does not take into account the actual quantity of money required to meet the basic cost of living expenses across the United States, many financial assistance programs are designed solely to assist people below this line, especially federally administered programs. As there exists a percentage of population who stands above the 100% FPL but still not able to be self-sufficient, it is the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) population. We are working on the research with United Way of Lane County who seeks a way to calculate the percentage population of ALICE and its distribution in Lane County. It is important to know the ALICE population as ALICEs has been suffering without sufficient income that will lead to a short and long-term suffering to the whole community. Our methodology is focused on meeting two separate objectives. The first objective is to calculate the number and percentage of ALICE population in Lane County. The second objective is to create a predictive model that will give United Way a tool to estimate future fluctuations in the size (but not the distribution) of the Lane County ALICE population so that they can better direct their programming to serve this group.

Teaching, Learning, and Achievement: Are Course Evaluations Valid Measures of Instructional Quality at the University of Oregon?

Presenter(s): Emily Wu − Economics, Mathematics And Computer Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Bill Harbaugh

Data Story Session 1CS

Research Area: Economics

This study explores the legitimacy of the use of Student Evaluations of Teaching (SETs) as a measure of teaching quality. To do so, we seek to answer two questions surrounding the creation and implications of SETs. Using data from the University of Oregon (UO) we first analyze the influence of a variety of factors commonly hypothesized to bias SET scores. Second,
we investigate the relationship between SET scores and future student achievement. We find that a many of these factors influence SET scores, and that SET scores for a class are not a useful measure for predicting how well students will do in future classes. These findings suggest that SET scores are not a valid measure of teaching quality at the UO.

Evaluating the CARD Act: Subgroup Analysis on Restricted Credit Access 

Presenter(s): Linmei Amaya – Economics

Faculty Mentor(s): Alfredo Burlando

Oral Session 1CS

Data Story Session 3S

Research Area: Social Science: Economics

The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (CARD Act) is a federal law established in response to the recession of 2008. Mandates were created to increase credit responsibility for both creditors and recipients. A portion focuses on restrictions for young adults, which requires a cosigner for those aged under 21 and changes credit worthiness evaluation by considering individual income rather than household income. This study aims to investigate whether the restrictions decreased access to credit for young adults and whether the magnitude of the impact varied among demographic subgroups. The analysis uses individual data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, which uses an estimation sample from the Transitioning Adults Supplement. A difference-in-difference approach was used to estimate the impact on treated individuals (under 21) when the act went into effect and a control group (over 21). The propensity of owning a credit card was compared across the treatment and control groups. For preliminary results, we found that there was a 3% difference in credit card ownership between the groups but these results were not statistically significant. When comparing across subgroups, we found that white males were more likely to be restricted from access relative to blacks and other non-whites. The study will include further subgroups analysis and outcome indicators that could potentially be impacted from the hypothesized decrease in credit access. The overall implications of this study aim to address are the effectiveness of both credit legislation and a further analysis of credit market dynamics.

Measuring instructor quality and student learning at the University of Oregon, using a value added measure

Presenter(s): Marie-Rose Tonguino—Economics

Faculty Mentor(s): Bill Harbaugh

Session 2: Oregon Trails

Student evaluations of instructors are widely used in higher education to measure the quality of teaching of professors and instructors . Yet, recent research suggests that these evaluations are often biased, especially toward women and ethinic minorities, and that they do not necessarily provide an accurate measure of teaching quality . Research has found that some instructors tend to teach to the test in order to improve student performance on standardized tests, therefore omitting important skills that students need as they further their education . Other instructors have also been found to have bad evaluations and yet appear to be the ones who better prepare students for subsequent classes than their counterparts . For this reason, some researchers have been looking at value added and continuation rates to measure teaching quality, as opposed to measuring instructor quality solely using student evaluations and student performance on standardized tests . Value added is a method of measuring teaching quality through evaluating a student’s performance in a subsequent course compared to their counterparts, after taking the first course from different instructors . Continuation rate is a measure of the percentage of an instructor’s students who go on to take a subsequent related course . This research paper focuses on value added and continuation rate methods to measure instructor quality using University of Oregon data, as opposed to using student evaluations of instructors .

The Effects of Abstinence-only Sexual Education on Teen Health and Behavioral Outcomes in the United States

Presenter(s): Kara Krnacik—Economics

Faculty Mentor(s): Melissa Graboyes, Ed Rubin

Session: Prerecorded Poster Presentation

The federal government began providing funding for abstinence-only sexual education in the 1980s to decrease teen pregnancy and poverty in the United States . In the last two decades a significant body of research has found that comprehensive sexual education is a better mechanism to obtain lower teen pregnancy rates and improve teen physical and mental health . This paper investigates the effects of states rejecting federal funding from the Title V Abstinence-Only Until Marriage Program on teen health and behavioral outcomes, with the assumption that these outcomes will improve upon the rejection of Title V funding . This research utilizes a quasi-experimental difference-in-difference econometric model to estimate the effects of the rejection of Title V funding on contraceptive use and sexually transmitted disease (STD) rates in teens of high school age in the United States . The data that this research utilizes comes from the Centers for Disease Control and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States . The preliminary results find that rejection of Title V funding caused small statistically significant increases in contraceptive use rates and decreases in STD transmission rates . The results of this study indicate that comprehensive sexual education is better for teen health and behavioral outcomes than abstinence-only education . This study also highlights the complexity of federal funding for sexual education and the need for evidence-based policy when determining sexual education curriculum . This research adds to the few studies that have investigated the effects of state-level sexual education policy on teen health and behavioral outcomes .