This paper uses March CPS data to decompose the Gini coefficient by source of income. The sources of income, divided by labor income, capital income, and public transfer income, include earnings; interest, dividends, and net rentals; public assistance and welfare; retirement funds; self-employment; farm or non incorporated self-employment; nonfarm self-employment; Social Security or railroad retirement; supplemental security; wages and salaries; and unearned sources. The decomposition yields the share of a source in total income, the source Gini corresponding to the distribution of income from a source, the Gini correlation of income from a source with the distribution of total income, and the impact of a marginal change in a source on overall income inequality. Labor income had the largest negative impact on income inequality (resulting from wages and salaries mostly), while capital income did worsen it but on a much smaller scale. Public transfers that favor bottom income groups helped to alleviate income inequality for both individuals and households.

Countries such as Haiti—where corruption, violence, and extreme poverty hinder economic growth and recovery— require multifaceted, interdisciplinary solutions. The United States, along with much of the western world, has a flawed understanding of foreign aid. Though current humanitarian efforts have effectively improved the lives of millions of Haitians, they fail to address the systemic roots of Haiti’s issues. Likewise, some efforts have been counterproductive or even harmful. If the US wishes to assist Haiti (and similar developing countries for that matter) in its journey to restoring the rule of law, reducing corruption, and empowering its citizens, it must collaborate with Haitian leaders and prioritize socioeconomic policy programs.

In this paper, I cover the background and economic history of green buildings, including four case studies. Based on this exploration, I find that green roofs and walls are best suited to dense, highly paved cities with little capacity to expand their sewer systems. Green infrastructure is best suited for stormwater management to avoid combined sewer overflow (CSO) pollution and managing urban heat island (UHI) effects, while at the same time providing many positive externalities for people and the environment. Green buildings take those benefits and fit them into a smaller area (on roofs and walls), which is most applicable where tearing up pavement to provide more ground-level green space and expanding the sewer systems would be too costly.

This research explores the use of transformative urban scenarios and timelines as a planning tool for addressing future sustainability challenges in urban environments. The analysis comes from a set of scenarios that were explored through workshops conducted in 2019 in which Phoenix stakeholders developed timelines toward their visions of Phoenix 60 years into the future. To evaluate the pathways created in these timelines, we employed process tracing methodology to understand which causal mechanisms lead to certain phenomena. Or in other words, it helps us understand how changes happen. We converted the timelines into process tracing diagrams that categorized the relationship between actions, actors, and observable manifestations (OM’s) of change over time. To understand the relationship between these components, we then used a combination of inductive and deductive coding to categorize types of activities, actors, OM’s and sustainability topics and organized them into themes. This helped us to understand how city decision-makers and community leaders think sustainability and resilience transformation can and should occur. This thesis takes a closer look at one particular scenario, Some Like it Hot, which explores resilience to extreme heat. Through coding and analysis, we found trends, correlations, and missing pieces in the participants’ timeline. There are numerous overarching causal mechanisms throughout the scenario timeline. These trends offer insight into which activities and stakeholders are seen as significant drivers of sustainable transformation according to the workshop participants. The file attached is a pdf version of an ArcGIS Story Map completed for this honors thesis. To view the full, interactive thesis deliverable, visit https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/14d1e52a9448498e87f20e7566651a13

In the 21st century economy, life moves pretty fast, and change is happening all around us. For example, it was common to drive to shopping malls with your friends or family and spend the whole afternoon browsing through hundreds of items until you found the perfect purchase. Or, only a few months ago, the entire world was put on lockdown to stop the spread of COVID-19, which caused a recession when consumers stopped spending as much to start saving. Americans also used to enjoy their loud, gas-guzzling cars and trucks to get them from place to place. Now what changed, and why? The study of economics justifies how we, as human, fundamentally live and make choices every day. As we notice the results of our choices, we may continue to do the same the next day, temporarily go another route, or alter our behavior permanently. This framework presents the concept of innovation. By applying this logic to the business world, I will attempt to analyze and defend why the innovations of e-commerce, COVID-19 vaccines, and electric vehicles were the natural cause of society changing perspective to move forward toward a better tomorrow.