What should I study for my Senior Thesis?
Scale for the 1 to 5 questions below.
<-- 1 --> Not interesting
<-- 2 --> Kind of interesting
<-- 3 --> Interesting
<-- 4 --> Very interesting
<-- 5 --> Do this!
Thanks very much for participating in this!
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Why do people pay for legal music online?
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What explains differences between use of Napster-like software (e.g. Limewire), torrent file sharing, and the legal iTunes music store. Does the Radiohead model (pay-whatever-you-want, and zero is included) help to answer this question?
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Do this!
Do higher grades lead to changes in the number of friends?
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Do students with higher standardized test scores have different amounts (less?) friends?
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Do this!
Can microfinance work in the United States? If not, why not? What are the conditions for microfinance?
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Is it psychologically feasible to consider a one-shot game (e.g. ultimatum game)? Is there any rational explanation (not biological)?
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Specifically, the rational consideration: is there a weak coordination between players when this is done in a lab, despite not actually playing against the same player twice?
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Do this!
What are trends in American Top 40 (or 100) music over time? What makes a song a hit?
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Using Pandora.com's Music Genome Project which catalogs 150 different variables for songs (type, chords, instruments, etc..), figure out what songs are popular at what times. Also, do elements in popular music emerge over time (e.g. hip-hop), or spontaneously (e.g. The Beatles)?
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Do this!
Does God give with both hands? Are intelligent people more or less likely to be attractive (as perceived by peers)?
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How is an internet phenomenon (meme) transmitted? Does a virally popular show or image map to a game theoretic model?
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Range of memes from Rickroll to LOLcats to Impossible is Nothing. Ideally, using google.com/trends. Also, is there a way to model the speed of transmission?
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Do this!
How do game theory and epidemiology combine? Can the story of zoonoses (e.g. SARS, AIDS or avian flu) be explained with an evolutionarily stable strategy model?
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This continues a paper written in my Sophomore tutorial.
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Should I write about my epistemological theory ("probabilism") that is, in rough terms, a categorical theory on objective truth comprised of (empirically sound) subjective truth(s)?
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Do this!
What is the impact of high school dropouts on unemployment?
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Can a Rawls-esque theory of *access* to an idealized utility curve be used for the political purposes of interpersonal economic comparisons?
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Economics and political theory. Should we try to conceive of what people should want, and compare their having it or not, and redistribute access to these goods in line with trying to maximize this singular conception of the individual for all individuals?
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Do this!
What affects the decision to purchase a hybrid vehicle? Specifically, what is the lag in time for gasoline prices to affect the demand / sale of fuel-efficient vehicles?
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How should a rational (probabilistic), empirical, and/or consequential calculation compare with a reasoned, principled, and/or categorical conception of the individual in politics?
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Economics and political theory
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Is there a way to have an individual reveal his or her "true" valuation of a good?
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Related: what are the price revelation mechanisms of auction theory?
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What do current economists think of the current financial crisis?
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This is more a documentary film project than a thesis.
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Does the variability of a demand curve affect the incidence of a tax and what are the effects on market efficiency in terms of deadweight loss?
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Does cultural development occur more often in times of economic expansion (when more resources are available) or during recessions when individuals stay at home?
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Similarly, amongst low-income individuals, does the rise in unemployment (and under-employment) lead to more baby-making because of more free time or less because children are less affordable? How did the advent of birth control affect those pressures?
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Does living at a particular Harvard house endow their inhabitants significant benefits? For example, do students from Adams tend to make more money than their Currier counterparts?
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Sorting into the Harvard housing system has been pseudo-random since 1973.
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[Help] What is the best kind of economics thesis to get me to travel to another country?
[Help] Is there anything else you can think of that would be interesting to study?
[Help] What do you do that you know you shouldn't but you do anyways (e.g. eating fast food). Or, vice-versa (e.g. exercising).
If you are interested in researching one of these topics with me, write your email below and what topic(s) so we can get in touch!