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“This thesis will help prepare me for my career,” says Braeden Rogers, a senior economics and business major from Plainfield, N.J., and a graduate of Wardlaw-Hartridge School. “I have experience in critical analysis, problem solving, and doing research. This has taught me how to examine inefficiencies in our society.”
For his senior honors thesis in economics and business, Braeden Rogers is investigating whether race is a significant factor in the decision to invest in common stocks. His advisers are Donald R. Chambers, Walter E. Hanson/KPMG Peat Marwick Professor of Business and Finance, and Susan L. Averett, associate professor of economics and business.
“Long term investment in common stock has offered extraordinary returns relative to alternatives such as savings accounts,” he says. “If white Americans allocate a greater portion of their resources to stocks than African-Americans, this helps whites to gain greater wealth than blacks.”
Rogers was inspired to do an honors thesis on this topic by an article he read that showed the wealth differential between whites and blacks in America. The research builds on work he did as an EXCEL Scholar with Gladstone A. Hutchinson, assistant professor of economics and business. In the EXCEL Scholars program Lafayette students collaborate closely with faculty members on research projects while earning a stipend.
“Professor Hutchinson told me about the current wealth gap that exists between white and black Americans. After doing some research with him this summer, I decided that this was an area that needed further investigation,” Rogers says.
“Braeden is studying a very socially significant project. He’s doing things people don’t usually tackle until graduate school,” Averett says. “I had him as a student before I started advising him, and he really made a great impression. He is very meticulous, a very hard worker.”
Chambers says, “Braeden is doing quality research. He is creating a model and working through the data and statistics. He’s really driving this project.”
“This thesis will help prepare me for my career,” Rogers says. “I have experience in critical analysis, problem solving, and doing research. This thesis research has taught me how to examine inefficiencies in our society. For this research I wasn’t driven by race, I wanted to examine why there are inefficiencies with black wealth.”
“Lafayette is a place of great opportunity for its students,” he says. “It has a great academic history with great alumni.”
Another Side of Braeden
He is vice president of the Brothers of Lafayette Brothers of Lafayette, an organization of black students promoting unity through campus and community activities.