Building research skills in the Macalester economics major

Economics majors at Macalester College have won numerous awards for their research papers, and this success has helped them land jobs in finance, consulting, and the nonprofit sector, as well as gain admission to top graduate programs. This article describes how the Economics Department at Macalester promotes economic research among its students

"Liquidity, Uncertainty, and the Declining Predictive Power of the Paper-bill Spread"

This paper addresses two questions. First, what causes the paper-bill spread to vary over time in anticipation of income fluctuations’? Second, why has the predictive power of the spread declined in recent years? Consistent with previous empirical work, the paper provides evidence for the default-risk, monetary, and cash-flow hypotheses. Moreover, new evidence is provided for the liquidity hypothesis by showing that uncertainty has a strong impact on the paper-bill spread. This finding holds for two different approaches used to measure uncertainty - financial market volatility and forecaster discord - and for uncertainty about five different variables: the federal funds rate, the Treasury bill rate, the long-term corporate bond rate, stock returns, and industrial production. Using a Kalman filter to recursively estimate the reduced-form model for the paper-bill spread, the paper shows that the impact of monetary policy and uncertainty on the spread declined during the 1980s, while the impact of default risk increased. These findings are explained by two financial market developments occurring during the 1980s: 1) the rapid growth in the volume and liquidity of the commercial paper market, and 2) increased financial fragility of commercial paper issuers.

Risk aversion, intertemporal substitution, and the aggregate investment-uncertainty relationship

We analyze the role of risk aversion and intertemporal substitution in a simple dynamic general equilibrium model of investment and savings. Our main finding is that risk aversion cannot by itself explain a negative relationship between aggregate investment and aggregate uncertainty, as the effect of increased uncertainty on investment also depends on the intertemporal elasticity of substitution. In particular, the relationship between aggregate investment and aggregate uncertainty is positive even if agents are very risk averse, as long as the elasticity of intertemporal substitution is low. A negative investment-uncertainty relationship requires that the relative risk aversion and the elasticity of intertemporal substitution are both relatively high or both relatively low. We also show that the implications of our model are consistent with the available empirical evidence

Health Care Professionals’ Perspectives on Their Patients’ Access to Hospice Care

Hospice is available to those who have been diagnosed with a terminal prognosis and have less than six months of life left. Although these benefits are available for much longer, most people are only utilizing hospice care during their very last days of life, less than 20 days. This short length of stay also does not allow the patient time to take full advantage of all the services that hospice has to offer. There seems to be barriers for individuals to receive a timely enrollment into hospice, whether it is the healthcare providers, the patients themselves, or their families. The purpose of this study was to take a look at ways doctors, nurses, and social workers promote or hinder access to hospice for their patients. If patients are eligible for hospice when they have less than six months to live, why are the majority waiting until the last few days or hours? The researcher utilized a mixed methods research design. An online survey through Qualtrics was available to doctors, nurses, and social workers. The final sample consisted of 14 doctors, nurses, and social workers. The researcher used computer software, Qualtrics, for descriptive data analysis. A qualitative content analysis was utilized to determine emerging patterns and themes gathered from the online survey. The findings indicated the same percentage of the respondents, agreed their professional education and training trained them to help patients understand their terminal diagnosis, yet they disagreed that their professional education and training prepared them to know when a hospice referral would be appropriate for those same patients. These findings also indicated that the majority of respondents still feel that the physician is responsible for making a referral to hospice. The social work profession needs to find a way to show the doctors and nurses that they are capable to assist with these patients and might even be a better choice to have these hard discussions with these patients and families as social workers are trained to work with these difficult issues

Uncertain Transformation: The Role of Asceticism in Death in \u3ci\u3eThe Sayings of the Desert Fathers\u3c/i\u3e

Between the second, third and fourth centuries the Christian Church produced biographies chronicling the pious undertakings of monks. These hagiographies borrowed from preexisting Greek biographies to distinguish the Christian monk from the pagan holy man. Patricia Cox Miller’s Biography in Late Antiquity: The Quest for the Holy Man demonstrates how hagiographers adaptation of Greek biographies allowed them to create idealized portraits of Christian holy men and distinguish them from their pagan counterparts. This paper applies Cox Miller’s method to examine portions of The Saints Lives, The Lausiac Histories and The History of the Monks of Egypt in order to demonstrate the shared conception of death within these works. This paper argues that hagiographers desire to present idealized holy men created a distinct and consistent portrayal of death in their writing. Hagiographers’ articulation of the monk’s power over death established a unique community within Late Antiquity based on mastery over mortality through monastic life. The monk’s mastery over death is a large part of his authority in Late Antiquity. Hagiographers constructed their narratives to not only to edify but to persuade their audience. These narratives transformed individual monks into an imagined community. The monk’s triumph at the hour of death mirrors that of the Christian Church over paganism in the religious marketplace of Late Antiquity

Health Care Professionals’ Perspectives on Their Patients’ Access to Hospice Care

Hospice is available to those who have been diagnosed with a terminal prognosis and have less than six months of life left. Although these benefits are available for much longer, most people are only utilizing hospice care during their very last days of life, less than 20 days. This short length of stay also does not allow the patient time to take full advantage of all the services that hospice has to offer. There seems to be barriers for individuals to receive a timely enrollment into hospice, whether it is the healthcare providers, the patients themselves, or their families. The purpose of this study was to take a look at ways doctors, nurses, and social workers promote or hinder access to hospice for their patients. If patients are eligible for hospice when they have less than six months to live, why are the majority waiting until the last few days or hours? The researcher utilized a mixed methods research design. An online survey through Qualtrics was available to doctors, nurses, and social workers. The final sample consisted of 14 doctors, nurses, and social workers. The researcher used computer software, Qualtrics, for descriptive data analysis. A qualitative content analysis was utilized to determine emerging patterns and themes gathered from the online survey. The findings indicated the same percentage of the respondents, agreed their professional education and training trained them to help patients understand their terminal diagnosis, yet they disagreed that their professional education and training prepared them to know when a hospice referral would be appropriate for those same patients. These findings also indicated that the majority of respondents still feel that the physician is responsible for making a referral to hospice. The social work profession needs to find a way to show the doctors and nurses that they are capable to assist with these patients and might even be a better choice to have these hard discussions with these patients and families as social workers are trained to work with these difficult issues

Attitudes And Beliefs Of North Dakota Early Childhood Educators Toward Gender Constructs

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the attitudes and beliefs about gender and gender diversity held by certified practicing early childhood teachers in North Dakota Department of Public Instruction approved preschool programs. Selected children’s books were used to elicit qualitative responses that provided insight into teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, and practices regarding gender. The theoretical framework for the study was based on Vygotsky’s theories on the Zones of Proximal Development (ZPD) and the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO), which focus on the importance of the role of educators’ influence in the social development of young children. The methodology for the study was based on constructivist learning theories and the constructions of attitudes and beliefs held by teachers that lead to competencies and practices that influence the construction of attitudes and beliefs in young children. The method of the study entailed interviews which elicited responses about attitudes and beliefs about gender and gender diversity in young children, and current levels of cultural competence in addressing them. The results indicated a hierarchy of complexity regarding gender and gender diversity and that as gender topics become more complex, comfort levels decrease. Implications are that teachers are in need of professional development and resources in order to address gender issues in their classrooms

The Representation of Salvation in The Sayings of the Desert Fathers

This thesis examines four prominent works of monastic literature composed during the third through the sixth centuries and contrasts the representations of salvation within them. The Lives of Constantine and Antony, The Lausiac History and The Sayings o f the Desert Fathers discussed conceptions of salvation in some of the earliest forms of monastic literature. The contention of this thesis is that in relation to the major works of monastic literature composed during the same period, The Sayings, articulated an existential dimension of salvation experienced as deliverance from sin and manifested in restored communion between God and the believer. Using genre as its primary unit of analysis, this study reveals the unique theology of salvation found in The Sayings o f the Desert Fathers. While this study focuses on the early monastic community, it has much broader implications in the study of historical theology and Late Antique religion. This study’s theological focus contributes to the existing discussions on the holy man of Late Antiquity. At present, such scholarship remains focused on the sociological implications of ancient religion. This thesis provides a point of departure for studies of theological texts as works that describe the intellectual history of Late Antiquity. The present discourse on the history of Christianity places much of its emphasis on Western Christendom. Saint Augustine and Aquinas remain the exemplars of Christian thought, and the reformation the pinnacle of the church’s impact on the course of history. This thesis contributes to a growing body of schokirship which probes Eastern foundations of Christian spirituality through the monastic movement and its rich intellectual history