Vassar College Digital Library

Vassar Scholarship

Vassar Scholarship, the institutional repository formerly known as Digital Window, reflects the research and scholarly output of the Vassar College community.  It provides access to a variety of collections, including senior theses and projects across a wide range of disciplines.

Foreign aid and domestic politics: Voting in congress and the allocation of USAID contracts across congressional districts

Publication Date
1998-June-01
Document Type
Department or Program
Document Type
Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between congressional support for foreign aid and the distribution of USAID contract spending across congressional districts within the United States. The extent to which such a relationship matters has become increasingly important in recent years...

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How do political changes influence U.S. bilateral aid allocations? Evidence from panel data

Publication Date
2005-June-30
Document Type
Department or Program
Document Type
Abstract

This paper examines the role of U.S. domestic politics in the allocation of foreign aid using panel data on aid to 119 countries from 1960 to 1997. Employing proxies for four aid allocation criteria (development concerns, strategic importance, commercial importance...

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LOL MY THESIS: An Exploration of the Written and Oral Linguistic Effects of Text Messaging

Publication Date
2014-January-01
Document Type
Department or Program
Document Type
Abstract

This project explores a new register of language called 'textese,' which has developed as a result of text messaging via cell phones. I research how and why textese is being used, to understand how text messages are linguistically affecting the...

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Reassessing the role of constituency in congressional voting

Publication Date
2000-August-01
Document Type
Department or Program
Document Type
Abstract

Poole and Rosenthal (1997) argue that most congressional voting can be understood in terms of a low-dimensional spatial model. This paper uses their model to assess the importance of the two mechanisms that could contribute to the vote-predicting power of...

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Social Networks and Social Welfare Disparities Among Sexual Minorities

Publication Date
2020-January-01
Document Type
Authors
Department or Program
Document Type
Abstract

Currently there is a deficit in economics literature on the labor market outcomes of sexual minorities. Previous studies have provided evidence that homosexual and bisexual individuals endure worse mental and physical health, and lesbian women excluded, face wage penalties associated...

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World Bank independence: A model and statistical analysis of U.S. influence

Publication Date
2005-June-30
Document Type
Department or Program
Document Type
Abstract

This paper develops a model to test whether World Bank lending caters to U.S. interests. We use country-level panel data to examine the geographic distribution of World Bank lending to 110 countries from 1968 to 2002. After controlling for country...

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