Undergraduate Research

Anna Curtin's Economic Development Research

Anna's research focused on the relationship between free trade agreements, unhealthy food import shares, and obesity rates in developing countries. She became interested in this topic after taking Dr. Osang’s Economic Development class. The question that drove her research was, "Do free trade agreements between developed and developing countries increase, decrease or have no effect on the growth rate of obesity in developing countries?'

She found that free trade agreements did matter.  By entering a free trade agreement, the negative impact of unhealthy food imports should be mitigated. Her research showed that while a developing country was engaged in a free trade agreement with a developed country, even as the share of unhealthy food imports rose, it was associated with a decrease in obesity. This is due to the many additional international linkages that free trade agreements offer to developing countries such as obesity mitigating technology, free capital flows, and healthcare experts.

Ben Jaksick Receives Hamilton Research Award

Ben was granted a Hamilton Undergraduate Research Award for Summer 2022.  Under the supervision of Dr. Beth Wheaton, Ben had the opportunity to break down the complexities of human trafficking using economic models. After spending a month gaining a broad knowledge of the human trafficking industry, he then applied utility maximization models to the demand side of sex and labor trafficking. Through this analysis, he deepened his understanding of buyers’ incentives and generated solutions to combat human trafficking that were rooted in economic theory.

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