Honors students present posters

December 1, 2016
News

Taylor Finn, Olivia ReicksEconomics seniors Taylor Finn (on left in photo) and Olivia Reicks participated in the Fall Honors Poster Presentation at the Great Hall, Memorial Union on Nov. 30. All students graduating in Honors present their capstone projects at an Honors Poster Presentation event. Poster presentations are held each semester. Most students present during their senior year, but may present earlier if their Honors Project has been completed.

Finn, who majors in economics and world languages and cultures, graduates this semester. Her honors project was titled, "What Are The Best Universities in the Nation, and Why?" Her advisers are Terry Alexander and Ruxandra Looft and her project adviser is Peter Orazem.

"For this project we took an economist's approach at ranking 950 universities across the nation. We used a  salary ratio that compared a weighted national average salary to what the actual starting salary undergraduates earn from each university. We were able to control for location and student quality. In the end we were able to rank all 950 universities and analyze how certain institution characteristics impact their quality," said Finn.

Reicks majors in supply chain management and economics. Shannon Grundmeier and Terry Alexander are her advisers, Bobby Martens is her project adviser, and her project was named, "Market Link: Understanding Small Malawi Farmers' Profits." Read the abstract.

"The reason I chose this topic was because I had the conceptual understanding of my solution through the Global Food Challenge Internship, but had not quantitatively estimated the effects it would have. By working with Dr. Martens, I was able to quantify the differences in farmers' profits based on differences in warehouse locations and infrastructure improvement."

 

 

Category: