Article by Armine Kardashyan and Weston Crewe Days before the US was expected to have its first ever default, Congressional Republicans and the White House negotiated a deal that lifted the debt ceiling and cut government spending. This was in part because the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projections showed substantial deficits for the foreseeable future. The CBO is seen as the gold standard for policymakers who rely on their budget and economic projections for policy and negotiations. Despite the trust they have put in the CBO to guide them in these decisions, the data we have gathered ..read more

Article by Abizer Mamnoon and Anahitha Gopikumar Ontario Airport (ONT), located east of downtown Ontario in San Bernardino County, is the geographically closest airport to the Claremont Colleges. Used regularly by students, staff, and faculty, the community has a great interest in its success as measured by the breadth of destinations and frequency of flights. In November 2016, ownership of ONT was returned to the Inland Empire from LA County. By examining cargo volume, domestic and international passenger traffic, and the resulting financial implications, we show that the Ontario Airport has ..read more

Article by Derik Suria & Meghna Pamula Air pollution is a serious public health concern. Research shows significant disparities in exposure to air pollution and health outcomes among different communities by the level of income. Low-income communities are likely to be disproportionately affected by air pollution (Harvard study). African Americans and Latinos are more likely to suffer from respiratory diseases caused by air pollution, because they are more likely to live near sources of pollution, such as highways and industrial facilities (American Lung Association, 2023). This correlatio ..read more

Article by Sambhav Maheshwari and Karan Goel Upon completing this article, you’ll have effortlessly forecasted the future multiple times. The headline alone gave you a rough idea of whether this article will pique your interest. Now, these initial lines serve as a litmus test, determining if the remainder merits your attention. We’re all natural forecasters with constant incentive to try to predict the future, be it in the pursuit of self-interested outcomes, or in the search for answers pertaining the future of humanity such as the development of emerging technologies, geo-political risk-ana ..read more

Article by Noah Hendelman Recent research from economists like Richard Reeves has pointed to a concerning decline in men’s health and wellbeing. One of the most visible spheres displaying this trend is education, where male and female graduation rates have diverged at alarming rates. California is no exception to this phenomenon, as male students continue to fall behind their female counterparts. In 2018, more females graduated than males in every single county, as shown by the choropleth in figure 1. Various hypotheses have been set forth attempting to explain this male regression in educat ..read more

Article by Anya Syed Prior studies show that when local NFL teams lose, especially when unexpected, reports of at-home violence by men against their partners increase by 10% (Card and Dahl 2011). Research also shows that Americans increasingly treat politics as a sport where they identify heavily with the wins and losses of their team. We investigate whether election results also lead to changes in domestic violence as political frustration is vented against vulnerable members of a household. To understand whether political frustration leads to domestic violence, we collec ..read more

Article by Katie Chen On September 22nd, 2021, Chinese real estate giant Evergrande failed to meet a coupon deadline totaling $83 million of bond interest payments. News outlets drew comparisons between  Evergrande’s crisis and the Lehman Brothers’ collapse; it seemed as though Evergrande’s potential bankruptcy had the ability to trigger global financial panic.   As the second-largest real estate company in China, Evergrande poses a threat of financial  contagion if it defaults. It outperforms competitors by aggressively outbidding others in  acquiring land from the g ..read more

Article by Joseph Zhong Imagine you are a five-star quarterback that grew up in Alabama, with guarantees that you would be the starting quarterback your freshman year. Which school would you pick: the University of Alabama or Samford University? The answer is obvious: University of Alabama. But why did you choose it? The coaching staff, training facilities, and other players give you the complementary infrastructure to succeed. When corporate boards decide to move manufacturing operations overseas, they similarly focus on complementary infrastructure when choosing a destination. Some countrie ..read more

Article by Sambhav Maheshwari  The COVID-19 pandemic, by changing experiences across transportation, well-being, caregiving, health care, and jobs, has caused society-wide shifts in behavior with potentially far reaching consequences. One of these is the impact on birth rates with potentially long-lived demographic consequences.  In 2020, many academics predicted that the incidence of a pandemic (COVID) would have a negative effect on birth rates. This is in line with a robust historical regularity that economic recessions lead to declines in fertility and birth rates. On the other ..read more

Article by Meghna Pamula Although democracy has greatly expanded globally over the past few decades, democratic backsliding has been a topic of concern over recent years. Democratic backsliding is the state-led debilitation or elimination of the institutions sustaining democracy. Democracy is made up of factors such as voting rights, freedom of the governed, and minority rights. Those who are concerned about democratic backsliding are concerned about these tenets being undermined. In the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic put democracies under major stress as they had to work around obstac ..read more