INQUIRY

New York University • College of Arts and Science
leftist guerrillas fighting for a more egalitarian society; rightist
paramilitary groups using self-defense as an excuse to carry
out systematic killings of guerrilla members, supporters and
peasants; and drug lords advancing an industry that is outside
of the margins of legality. Violence affects society negatively
through direct and indirect channels that cross economic,
political, social and psychological lines. Quantifying all of
the consequences of violence is impossible; but this study
attempts to look at the effect of violence on Colombian real
GDP growth rates in order to isolate its economic effect on
the country. This study analyzed violence in conjunction
with other economic variables such as agriculture industry
and services and also studied the effect of its interaction with
the political party of the president in power. Results showed
that violence had a negative statistically significant effect on
real GDP growth when the president was a member of the
Liberal party. The focus of this study is to quantify what can
be measured in the Colombian conflict and use these results to
shed some light on the cost of violence to Colombian society
at large. Colombia is a relatively unexplored case study for
internal armed conflicts, but the length of the conflict can
help us draw some conclusions about violence. The results
of this paper are just one of the many potential answers this
case can provide.
A Hearth of Our Own: A Documentary
Gabrielle Ewing, Film and Television, Journalism
Sponsor: Professor Jason Samuels, Journalism
Forced out of Ireland after the economic collapse of
2008, Conor is now one of 50,000 undocumented Irish immigrants
living in the United States. Working as a bartender in
New York City, he makes as much as a lawyer would in his
rural hometown. With his dreams of opening his own bar
hanging in the balance, he faces the threat of deportation
unless he can marry an American girl—for papers instead
of love. A Hearth of Our Own comes at a critical point
where immigration reform is in the front of the nation’s
mind, especially with President Barack Obama’s executive
order on immigration. At times like these, it’s important to
consider all sides of the argument, and the undocumented
Irish have had and continue to have a strong influence on
New York. A Hearth of Our Own tells the recent history
of emigration from Ireland that is often hidden and will
broaden the understanding of an immigrant group that has
made America their home. It is hoped that this documentary
contributes to the immigration discussion on a national level
with an angle that has not yet been discussed.
Reducing Test Anxiety Using Mental Contrasting
Amanda Fisher, Psychology
Sponsor: Professor Gabriele Oettingen, Psychology
Exams are used as a measure of knowledge in higher
education and may have significant consequences for a student’s
future. For this reason, many school- and college-age
students have test anxiety: they perceive exams as threatening
and experience intrusive and debilitating cognitions and
autonomic arousal before and during exams. The model of
fantasy realization demonstrates that mental contrasting of
a positive future with a negative reality forms goal commitments
and leads to goal achievement. Further research
shows that mental contrasting of a negative future fantasy
with aspects of the positive reality leads to commitment to
approaching the negatively-perceived future and can make
people approach futures of which they are unfoundedly
afraid. The present research investigates the effectiveness of
mental contrasting with negative future fantasies in the area
of test anxiety. In the present study with student participants,
the authors predict that contrasting a feared future concerning
a test with positive aspects of the present reality leads to
commitment to approaching the feared future, a reduction
in state test anxiety and improved performance on a test
more so than reverse contrasting and no treatment. The
pressure to perform well on exams can have implications
for students’ mental health, and mental contrasting may be
used as an affect-regulation strategy that can help students
rid themselves of unjustified fears and confidently master
their feared futures.
Personal Income Tax Competition among States
Alec Fletcher, Economics
Sponsor: Professor Xiaochen Fan, Economics
Using state-to-state domestic migration data, this
research tests whether personal income taxation levels
among U.S. states affected the flow of domestic migration
from 1992–2011. A theoretical analysis of an individual’s
migration decision model allowing for different degrees of
valuation for public and private goods leads the researcher
to hypothesize that personal income taxation levels will not
significantly affect net migration since some individuals
may value public goods, paid for by taxes, highly. Several
panel data linear regression models were developed which
purport that neither per capita personal income taxation nor
a state’s highest marginal tax rate affect net immigration in a
consistent way: some models reported no significant effect,
and some actually reported a positive significant effect. One
model testing for the existence of tax competition suggested
that states experiencing net domestic emigration do attempt
to emulate the tax levels of the states where its citizens are
emigrating. This research may suggest that states engaging
in personal income tax competition will not experience the
desired results since taxation changes have inconsistent
effects. As optimal public good provision is unlikely to be
reached in the presence of tax competition, the ramifications
are significant.
46