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Essays on Applied Macroeconomics:
Full text linkThesis advisor: Pablo Guerron-QuintanaThis thesis consists of two self-contained essays on topics in applied macroeconomics. In the first chapter, I study how heterogeneous sensitivities to weather fluctuations and interregional production networks impact the measurement of weather shocks’ impact on economic activity in the United States. I start the analysis by building a general equilibrium model where the impact of weather fluctuations on productivity is state-sector dependent, and networks expose sectors to weather shocks from other regions through the use of intermediate inputs. Then, I quantify the relevance of these mechanisms, combining the model’s predictions with annual data on sectoral GDP and average temperatures by state from 1970 to 2019. My estimates show that models that do not consider these characteristics underestimate the aggregateimpact of weather fluctuations by at least a factor of 3. In particular, when the whole economy faces an unexpected increase in temperature of 1 Celsius degree, the contraction in economic activity increases from -0.13 to -0.37 percent once heterogeneity is considered and -1.14 percent when networks are included. In the second chapter, I propose a new methodology to disentangle between terms of trade movements caused by global shocks and those resulting from country-specific terms-of-trade fluctuations. This methodology extends the so-called maximum-share approach in two ways. Firstly, a global shock is identified as the shock with the highest explanatory power on the forecast error variance of a set of exogenous variables. This is in contrast to the typical approach of using only one variable as a source of information to identify a shock. Secondly, country-specific terms-of-trade shocks are identified as shocks that satisfy two conditions: (i) maximum explanation power on terms-of-trade variability and (ii) orthogonality to global shocks, allowing me to isolate the main drivers of terms of trade that are not related to global fluctuations. I apply this methodology to data on ten small open economies(SOEs) and show that global shocks contribute - on average- to 33 percent of their business cycle fluctuations. The contribution of global shocks to terms-of-trade variability is close to 20 percent, meaning that around 80 percent of terms-of-trade movements have country-specific origins. Interestingly, on average, country-specific terms-of-trade shocks are responsible for less than 10 percent of SOE business cycle variability. These results help to reconcile current estimates on the importance of terms of trade and suggest an intensive evaluation of the origins of terms-of-trade movements by policymakers before any intervention.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Economics
Beyond the 9 to 5: Exploring the Interplay Between Maternal Nonstandard Employment, Academic Involvement, and School Suspension
No full textThesis advisor: Shanta PandeyThesis advisor: Cal HalvorsenStudents in the United States missed more than 11 million school days in the academic year 2017-2018 due to out-of-school suspensions. Research has shown that suspension has adverse short- and long-term consequences, such as lower academic achievement and lower graduation rates. With school suspension affecting approximately one-third of students across their K-12 experience, policymakers, researchers, and professionals have outlined school suspension as a major problem. Maternal involvement has been identified as a significant factor in student achievement, motivation, and aiming toward higher education, but little is known of the influence it may have on reducing exclusionary discipline—particularly for mothers with nonstandard employment. Exclusionary discipline is discipline practices that isolates students from the classroom environment. Guided by disability critical race theory, role conflict theory, and ecological systems theory, this dissertation utilized the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing dataset to assess the relationship between maternal nonstandard employment and three response variables: mothers’ (1) school-based and (2) home-based academic involvement; and (3) children’s school suspension rates. Children’s special education status was tested as a potential moderator for all three response variables, and maternal academic involvement was tested as a potential mediator between maternal nonstandard employment and children’s school suspension rates. There was a positive relationship between mothers working a sporadic schedule and their school-academic involvement, but not their home-academic involvement. There was a negative relationship between mothers working on the weekends and home-academic involvement, but not school-academic involvement. There was a negative relationship between mothers working on the weekends and youth school suspension, but the association was lost when covariates were included in the model. Despite the fact that Black mothers had a higher likelihood of academic involvement (both school based and home based) than White mothers, Black children also had a higher likelihood of school suspension than White children. Similarly, mothers with youth in special education had a higher likelihood of academic involvement (both school based and home based) than mothers with youth not in special education, however youth in special education also had a higher likelihood of school suspension than youth not in special education. Additional factors that were shown to decrease the odds of school suspension include- youth engaging in no or less externalizing behavior, being a boy, higher income status and higher maternal education. These results show the need to improve anti-racism and anti-ableism initiatives to reduce the suspension gap through implicit bias training, increased community engagement efforts, and restorative justice practices.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work.Discipline: Social Work
Brotherhood and unity: Exploring language and nationalism in Yugoslav primers, 1941-1992
No full textThesis advisor: Gerald M. EasterThesis advisor: Margaret ThomasNationalism and national identity are abstract yet extremely powerful forces that can be at once a source of cohesion and faction. And a government’s ability to harness or rein-in these powers can be a crucial factor to its longevity, lest it be overcome by them on other fronts. These concepts—along with nation itself—are an amalgam of many elements that can include culture, economics, geography, history, language, politics, religion, etc., and the importance of a particular element can vary from group to group. In this dissertation, the focus is on the salience of language as an essential element of national identity, and the exploration of this topic has been done through an analysis of elementary language primers from 1941 through 1992 from the region known for a majority of that time as Yugoslavia. I argue that we can measure how important governments think language is as a component of a particular national identity by seeing how they treat and utilize—even instrumentalize—the language or languages spoken in their territory. This direct governmental use of language as a tool is particularly important in revealing how that government connects language to the national identity(-ies) in question. Certainly language policy and laws passed by a government to bolster or limit a particular language’s use can tell us a lot—in a very straightforward and overt way—about what that government sees as important; but, there is another more subtle—yet potentially more long-lasting—thing that can strengthen these efforts even further: teaching children. Looking at educational materials, in this case elementary language primers, can provide insight into what the government thinks is important with respect to its national identity. This analysis, done within a framework that focuses on three historical periods in the history and development of Yugoslavia, shows that governments do use language primers as a vehicle to promote and strengthen the nation, national identity, and national cohesion. We can be fairly confident that every book analyzed in this study was approved or published by the government where it was used; and, in each of the three historical periods that fall within the scope of this study, we see the goals of the state reflected in the language, content, and pedagogical methodology of the primers that were published during a given period.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Political Science
An Intellectual and Political History of Crime, Poverty and Public Safety: Public Housing in late 20th Century Chicago
No full textThesis advisor: Michael GlassThis thesis explores intellectual debates over the relationship between crime and poverty with a focus on Chicago's public housing projects as a case study. During the late twentieth century, Americans' understanding of crime and poverty underwent a fundamental shift from the ideas of the "sociological reformers" to the "tough on crime consensus." Influenced by emerging criminological research, politicians and policymakers altered their crime control and public safety strategies. Once believing that crime could be prevented by eradicating poverty and investing in social programs, in the early 1970s, their focus shifted to retribution, deterrence, and incapacitation. Chicago, however, had a different - yet hightly important - trajectory in regards to public safety. Using its public housing projects as testing grounds for crime control and practices, the city largely defined what it meant to be "tough on crime" in the late twentieth century.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: History.Discipline: Scholar of the College
Aesthetic Experience of Nature: An Expressivist Account
No full textThesis advisor: Elisa MagriThis thesis will argue that art expresses feeling, affirming the expressivist theory of aesthetics of R.G. Collingwood, and will expand this thesis to say that aesthetic experience of nature is also expressive. By aesthetic experience of nature, I refer to an experience in which the subject is not merely observing, but appreciating the natural world for its aesthetic qualities. I will present the argument that such experiences of nature are governed by the same principles of expression and imagination that intentionally made art objects are. I will begin with an analysis of the expressivist theory of Collingwood, which asserts that all proper art is the result of expression followed by an act of imaginative creation. Following this, I will investigate the expression of feelings in the non-art aesthetic experience of nature. To do this I will present the work of Arnold Berleant, whose framework for aesthetic engagement will allow the expressivist theory of expression and imagination to apply in natural aesthetics. With this framework in place I will explore several examples of aesthetic experience of nature to illustrate this process at work.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Philosophy.Discipline: Departmental Honors
Nanoscale Visualization of Symmetry Breaking Phenomena and Band Topology in Kagome Crystals using Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy:
No full textThesis advisor: Ilija ZeljkovicKagome lattice is a versatile platform that can host both strongly correlated electronic phenomena and topological Bloch electrons. Correlated electronic states in kagome metals show some resemblance to those in high-temperature superconductors, such as cuprates and iron-based superconductors, where rotational and/or translational symmetries of the electronic structure are spontaneously broken. Many of the kagome materials are now also known to break time-reversal symmetry, even if spin magnetism is entirely absent. In our studies, we use scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/S) to discover novel emergent phenomena in several representative families of kagome metals.In the first part of the thesis, I focus on a family of kagome superconductors AV3Sb5 (A = Cs, Rb, K). Using STM/S, we visualize a surprising C6 to C2 rotation symmetry breaking in the charge density wave (CDW) state of AV3Sb5. Moreover, we discover distinct temperature scales associated with a two-fold symmetric 2a_0×2a_0 CDW (~70+ K), a unidirectional 4a0 stripe-charge order (~50-60 K), and unidirectional coherent states in AV3Sb5 (~30-35 K). In isostructural system CsTi3Bi5 Kagome crystal, we revealed rotational symmetry breaking, or electronic nematicity, without the underlying CDW state. Our experiments shed light on a rich phase diagram hosting a variety of symmetry-breaking electronic phases in kagome metals.
In the second part of the thesis, we focus on the topological aspects of the electronic band structure of kagome metals. When electrons hop (nearly) freely in kagome lattices, spin-orbit coupling can open a topological Dirac gap at the K point and induce either quantum anomalous Hall or quantum spin Hall phases when the Fermi level is positioned in the gap. In strongly spin-orbit coupled kagome metals YMn6Sn6 and TbV6Sn6, we discovered enormous crystal momentum-dependent magnetic-field induced electronic band renormalization, which could be attributed to unusual orbital magnetization. Modern orbital magnetization theory describes that orbital magnetization comes from (spin) Berry Curvature associated with the Chern Dirac band. Using quasiparticle interference imaging, we map the Dirac band renormalization under external magnetic field and measure the values of orbital magnetic moments as a function of crystal momenta. Our experiments provide the first effort to resolve momentum-space orbital magnetic moments in a single crystal with atomic resolution.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Physics
Precarious Employment among Millennials in the United States: Psychological Distress and the Role of Social Policy in the Post-Great Recession Era
No full textThesis advisor: Shanta PandeyThesis advisor: Vincent FusaroIt is well established that employment conditions are a key determinant of health, including mental health. Research conducted in the wake of deindustrialization and the onset of neoliberal reforms—reforms that significantly weakened the collective bargaining power of workers—has consistently shown that job loss, perceived job insecurity, and temporary employment increase the risk of depression, anxiety, and psychological distress. The secular erosion of standard employment relationships compounded by specific exigencies introduced by the Great Recession (2007-2009) has resulted in a concerning rise in precarious employment: employment forms characterized by stagnant wages, irregular working hours, and lack of fringe benefits are now the norm rather than the exception. This dramatic change in the conditions of employment has been especially challenging for Millennials, many of whom were entering the workforce at the time of the Great Recession and experienced high levels of unemployment. As the converging challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, technological advances, and inequality threaten to further destabilize Millennials’ participation in the labor market, research is needed to better understand the interplay between precarious employment and mental health as well as risk and protective factors for mental wellbeing. To date, few studies examining the health implications of precarious employment have focused on young adults. Moreover, research on the relationship between job precarity and mental health has relied primarily on cross-sectional studies. This dissertation contributes to this literature, leveraging nationally representative panel data from the Panel Study on Income Dynamics to 1) identify subgroups of precarious employment (PE) trajectories among Millennials residing in the United States following the Great Recession (2009-2019); 2) examine associations between PE trajectory subgroups and mental distress; and 3) explore the moderating role of social welfare benefits on the relationship between PE and mental distress.
A total of 1303 Millennial respondents were included in the study. Growth mixture models identified three subgroups of PE trajectories across the study period: nearly three-quarters of respondents belonged a subgroup experiencing stagnant employment quality, a second subgroup (16% of the sample) faced declining employment quality, while a third subgroup (12% of respondents) enjoyed steadily rising employment quality. Millennials in the negative EQ growth class compared to the low- and high-growth subgroups were more likely to have lower levels of educational attainment; to be divorced, separated, or widowed; to be low-skill, white- or low-skill, blue-collar workers; and to have mothers with less than a high school level of education. With respect to the relationship between precarious employment and psychological distress, mixed-effects logistic regression models revealed that fewer years of education and widowed/divorced/separated marital status (compared to married/cohabitating status) were associated with higher odds of severe psychological distress. Models examining moderate psychological distress outcomes, meanwhile, demonstrated that Millennials who were younger, female, experiencing declining EQ over time, and single/never married or divorced/separated/widowed had higher odds of endorsing symptoms of moderate mental distress. Contrary to expectations, none of the three social welfare policies—minimum wage, state EITC rate, and state unemployment insurance replacement rate—conferred a moderating effect on the relationship between EQ and psychological distress.
These findings have important implications for social work research, policy, and practice. Beyond filling an important gap in our understanding of the ways in which the shifting landscape of work contributes to young adults’ mental health, the study’s attention to the moderating role of social welfare policies on the association between PE and mental wellbeing should serve as a stepping stone for future research aimed at elucidating policies that can best protect the mental health of workers in a political and economic climate marked by accelerating technological change and rising labor contentiousness.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work.Discipline: Social Work
Not Out of the Dark Night: Beyond Sanitized Theological Scenes of Instruction
No full textThesis advisor: Hosffman OspinoThis work disrupts and re-envisions normative or traditional theological scenes of instruction anchored around imago Dei, dignity, and hope. These elements comprise “sanitized scenes of instruction” that are unable to adequately and creatively respond to the complex epistemes that have shaped and continue to guide contemporary death-dealing atmospheres of violence as manifested in necropolitics, biopower, and intensified precarity in the Anthropocene. The result is theological reflection, social analysis, and education that is out of touch with the perpetual dark night of the soul that we all experience but that is especially felt by those bodies considered disposable or as fodder for Orwellian visions of societal homeostasis (biopower) on an increasingly precarious Earth.
Instead of providing easy chimeras or a quick way out, this work invites readers to rethink imago Dei, dignity, and hope without escaping the dark night (the atmospheres of violence). It does so by juxtaposing scenes, unsanitized ones, with traditional theological accounts on imago Dei, dignity, and hope––challenging them in the process. The hope is that such juxtapositions will jolt imaginations into considering other possible scenes of theological instruction that go beyond, but that do not discard, the normative ones. This work ends by offering some contours for a rhizomatic theological imagination and pedagogy that can perhaps facilitate an “active” sitting in the dark: one that still manages to move in all directions and that envisions infinite possibilities within states of suspension. The penultimate chapter hones in on the centrality of a theological hermeneutics that embraces plurality and ambiguity––crucial to any theological project that seeks to respond to complex contemporary concerns. The final chapter tentatively concludes with some possible fragments of scenes for consideration in developing future theological scenes of instruction. It models the pedagogy that I currently find most useful in my writing and teaching, namely a rhizomatic and pluriversal one. Rather than end the work with yet another system or scene of instruction, I offer the fragments as an exercise for the reader to think through his/her/their own experiences with theology and the precariousness that we all, to different extents, share.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Theology and Education
Identification of Novel Mediators of Ferroptosis Using Proteomic Methods:
No full textThesis advisor: Eranthie WeerapanaOver the past two decades there have been a variety of programmed cell death (PCD) pathways to emerge. Among these emerging PCD pathways ferroptosis is has been of especial interest as its iron-dependent reliance on the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) links this PCD pathway to some of the most pervasive pathologies including cancer and neurodegeneration. In order to broaden our understanding of ferroptosis we applied a number of proteomic based methods in effort to identify novel ferroptotic mediators. Before the application of proteomic methods, we developed complementary pharmacological and genetic ferroptosis models. With these models we identified ferroptosis-induced changes in protein abundance. Using these data, we generated CRISPR-Cas9-mediated knockouts of protein disulfide isomerase A1 (PDIA1) and cytosolic acetyl-CoA acetyltransferase (ACAT2) that were found to exhibit altered susceptibility to the induction of ferroptosis. With data on protein abundance changes we then profiled ferroptosis-induced changes in abundance corrected cysteine reactivity. Many proteins displayed significant changes in cysteine reactivity that will require further investigation in order to determine if they are drivers or a downstream consequence of ferroptosis. Finally, we used a cell surface biotinylation reagent together with proteomics in effort to identify potential cell surface markers of ferroptosis. This lead to the identification of multiple known cell membrane proteins with ferroptosis altered cell surface labeling. Future studies will seek to confirm the observed alterations with complementary methods. Together these studies illustrate the dynamic responses of the proteome to the induction of ferroptosis.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Chemistry
Expanding the Genetic Code of Mammalian Cells to Probe and Manipulate Protein Function:
No full textThesis advisor: Abhishek ChatterjeeThe study of protein structure and function has advanced significantly with the development of genetic code expansion (GCE) technology for the incorporation of noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs), revolutionizing synthetic biology by enabling the introduction of novel functionalities into proteins. Within eukaryotic systems, these advancements have paved the way for deeper investigations into complex protein functions critical to human biology and have spurred the development of innovative biotherapeutic solutions.The work described within this dissertation has aimed to further advance various applications of mammalian GCE. This includes the construction of next-generation homogenous antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) both using a genetically encoded photocaged cysteine and with a dual incorporation system for the construction of a dual-drug conjugate. Multiple new platforms were developed for the incorporation of two or even three ncAAs within a single protein, utilizing a novel aaRS/tRNA pair and evolved hyper-efficient tRNAs. GCE-enabled precise protein modification was also utilized to spectroscopically study the conformational dynamics of dimeric EGFR. Additionally, platforms were established for the precise installation of post-translational modification (PTM) mimics within mammalian proteins, allowing for their programmed activation. Finally, an innovative strategy for the study of protein-protein interactions using genetically encoded photocrosslinkers was developed. Collectively, these efforts have contributed to the development of novel tools for studying protein function in mammalian cells and advancing the creation of new biotherapeutics through GCE technology.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Chemistry