Alan Branson (PhD student) defended his dissertaton proposal successfully on De.c 9, 2015. He will investigate the trends of payday lending business in Missisippi (title: Determinants of Payday Lending and Bank Branch Locations in Mississippi). Using the data obtained from MSDBCF, FDIC, Census, he will analyze the location change patterns of the payday lending offices and the bank branches, and examine impacts of the changing patterns to local communities. For his anslysis, he will conduct cross-sectional analysis, OLS & Logit regression analysis, and spatial/time-series analysis. His findings will generate policy implications for local, state, and federal levels in managing impacts of payday lending business (Advisor: Dr. Jae-Young Ko). Congratulations and Good Luck, Alan.
