On September 14th, we hosted our first Undergraduate Research Expo. Eleven students from Tufts, MIT and Harvard held short Ted-Talk style on a topic of their choice. Here is the profile of presenter Christina A. Nguyen:
Christina is a Pre-Medical senior at Harvard studying sociology and global health and health policy. She presented her research on how CEOs of the largest and most powerful companies in the U.S. were able to protect or maintain their compensation during the Great Recession. Christina’s research question was inspired by her work interning in the National Economic Council at the White House and her economic sociology class on the shareholder value management revolution. Joining the debate on the relationship between the private sector and government, she pursued an independent research project advised by Frank Dobbin, Professor of Sociology at Harvard.
Her study investigates the relationship between having revolvers and whether a company lobbied legislation related to shareholder votes on executive compensation during the Great Recession. Revolvers are revolving door lobbyists who transition from jobs in government to the private sector, using their connections and knowledge of Washington to influence their former colleagues. Employing statistical methods to analyze a database she generated from political and compensation data, Christina examined the characteristics and honesty of the relationships and negotiations that take place in the intersection of the public and private sectors.
