Who Trains the Future? How U.S. competitiveness for Chinese undergraduate students has evolved over time

Categories Project, Working Paper

Senior Honors Thesis, advised by Professor Erica Fuchs: U.S. higher education institutions’ (HEIs) ability to attract Chinese students will likely shape the future of U.S. international relations with China, as well as both countries’ economies and innovation enterprises. A substantial literature on international talent flows documents how the supply of foreign students to U.S. schools has changed over time, and the causal implications thereof. However, scholars have primarily focused on understanding the flow of students to U.S. graduate education programs—PhD programs in particular—ignoring the largest…Continue Reading “Who Trains the Future? How U.S. competitiveness for Chinese undergraduate students has evolved over time” →

The Economic Impacts of Immigration and International Students

Categories Project, Working Paper

Paper for class on Science and Innovation Leadership for the 21st Century: For the past 20 years, economists have sought to assess the characteristics of immigration as well as the costs and benefits conferred by immigrants upon a wide variety of agents. This paper reviews the immigration economics literature and seeks to understand the evidence that has been used to answer the following question: “what are the innovative, entrepreneurial, and other economic impacts of immigrants and international students?” Read the full paper here.

The Structures Supporting Technological Change

Categories Project, Working Paper

Paper for class on Science and Innovation Leadership for the 21st Century: The evolution of intellectual arguments regarding the benefits, limitations, and characteristics of systems for organizing productivity activity can be understood in three parts. This paper begins with a discussion of the three systems for organizing productivity activity, followed by an introduction to institutions and their effect on the three systems. The paper concludes with an assessment of how the competitiveness of each system for organizing productivity activity is affected by exogenous change. Read…Continue Reading “The Structures Supporting Technological Change” →

Emerging Talent: Rethinking Higher Education for the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Categories Project, Working Paper

Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency and 5G/6G will reshape our education system by 2030. It is essential that governments and the private sector collaborate to make sure that the economic transition to these technologies doesn’t exacerbate existing socioeconomic divides in the United States. In order to prevent a widening class divide, the education sector will need to evolve to match the skills required for newly emerging jobs – including digital literacy and soft skills – and must ensure that students across the…Continue Reading “Emerging Talent: Rethinking Higher Education for the Fourth Industrial Revolution” →

The Ripples Project: Expanding the Reach of University Research

Categories Project, Working Paper

Research project with Greg Volynsky to increase the diffusion of academic research into public policy. This project was supervised by Professor George Loewenstein. Read the report here! The academic world has long treasured her independence — academia is seen as an intellectual silo; an oasis of thought and science. This is, in many ways, a necessary, positive, and formative feature of the academic world — transformational thought requires autonomy and distance. Intellectual developments have, therefore, historically had a substantial incubation period; this, too, can be…Continue Reading “The Ripples Project: Expanding the Reach of University Research” →

Reducing Building Energy Consumption in Pittsburgh

Categories Project, Working Paper

Global climate change represents a significant threat to our well-being and to the well-being of future generations, across the world and in Pittsburgh. Climate change is driven by the emission of greenhouse gases, and urban areas are responsible for approximately 70% of global emissions. The state of Pennsylvania contributes significantly to global carbon emissions; if it were ranked as a country, it would be the 22nd largest carbon emitter in the world. Within Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh has a legacy of high per capita greenhouse gas (GHG)…Continue Reading “Reducing Building Energy Consumption in Pittsburgh” →

Mending the bridge: Repairing political justification in American society

Categories Project, Working Paper

American democratic institutions have begun to degrade without a robust and secure connection between representatives and constituents—their purpose lost. Most work has either sought to exclusively define the extent and source of a lack of political justification in American politics or propose general solutions to the problem. However, this work has not yet drawn a connection between source and solution in a broad, aggregated analysis. This paper first presents innovative interpretations of (1) the reasons for a lack of political justification and (2) previously proposed…Continue Reading “Mending the bridge: Repairing political justification in American society” →

Religious Fervor: Analyzing the significance of religious practice

Categories Project, Working Paper

Paper for a statistics course: Understanding the significance of constituent demographics is incredibly important to politicians and policymakers alike. These individuals constantly apply statistical tools to surveys in order to effectively understand the political perspectives of target populations. How fervently an individual practices their religion—what will be called “Degree of Religious Practice”—is one key aspect of political science. This study seeks to answer one primary research question and two secondary research questions. The primary research question is to determine whether or not there exists a…Continue Reading “Religious Fervor: Analyzing the significance of religious practice” →

Power in Government: A comparison of the American & German political systems

Categories Project, Working Paper

Paper for course about Germany and the European Union: Germany and the United States are both wealthy, powerful, democratic states that operate in the upper-echelon of global superpowers. However, despite the apparent similarities between these two nations, they have different political concerns and divergent beliefs about the proper function of government. This disparity has manifested itself in differences of governmental structure between Germany and the United States. These differences begin at the constitutional level and persist throughout the entirety of the two political systems. Read…Continue Reading “Power in Government: A comparison of the American & German political systems” →

Relentless Reckoning: Why Germany’s past must decide its future

Categories Project, Working Paper

Paper for course about Germany and the European Union: Last year [2017], the German military police discovered a stockpile of Nazi military memorabilia when they searched a Bundeswehr barrack. Since then, the German government implemented more stringent security screening processes for Bundeswehr applicants, but this is only one facet of a much larger issue (Eddy). This is not the sign of a nation that has fully dealt with its dark past. Germany must continue to reckon with its Nazi past, but the nation should view…Continue Reading “Relentless Reckoning: Why Germany’s past must decide its future” →