Papers coauthored with Arik Karim

This paper examines the current landscape of financial literacy within the context of secondary schools, youth, and adolescents. For this paper, financial literacy can be defined as the ability to use financial knowledge and skills to manage financial resources effectively for a lifetime of well-being. Our literature review highlights three main issues in current practices: curriculum standardization, methodological differences in measuring financial literacy, and lack of long-term retention in youth as they grow older. Current assessment methods vary widely, financial literacy education is not completely effective, and many results were not deemed statistically significant due to small sample sizes and a small number of available studies. The absence of available data underscores the importance of a more standardized system with better analytical methodology to assess financial literacy. To address these issues, this paper proposes several solutions. We recommend standardized financial literacy curricula that are developed through collaboration with existing institutions, the increase in resources and incentives, and youth advocacy programs and government efforts can promote financial education and assist with integration into school curricula.

@misc{karim2024financialliteracy,
  title        = {Recommendations for Increased Financial Literacy in American High Schools},
  author       = {Karim, Arik and Tan, Sebastian and Ding, Siyang and Sun, Hanming and Zeng, Jake and Mukund, Varun and Zhou, Brian},
  year         = {2024},
  month        = feb,
  day          = {25},
  howpublished = {SSRN},
  url          = {https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4795120}
}

High-speed rail has the potential to revitalize the decaying American passenger rail system and public transit infrastructure at large. However, while other countries have far surpassed America's HSR network, ongoing projects in America face delayed construction, rising costs, legal challenges, and poor support infrastructure. Despite these challenges, HSR still has the potential to revolutionize American transit and revitalize the American economy, offering an alternative to car and air travel, reducing carbon emissions, and connecting vast cities and regions. Support for improved infrastructure enjoys bipartisan support, and the growing political sway of the younger generation is increasingly advocating for improved rail transit. However, actions are needed by the Federal government and state legislatures to allow for these HSR projects to succeed. We analyze the involvement of stakeholders through the development of HSR, their incentive structures and influence, and propose actions that can be taken by governments on the state and federal levels to encourage the growth and development of a national HSR project.

@misc{zhou2023highspeedrail,
  title        = {Report on High-Speed Rail: Recommendations for a New Era of American Infrastructure},
  author       = {Zhou, Brian and Karim, Arik and Zhu, Vivian and Zeng, Jake and Khandelwal, Anant and Chen, Sam and Sun, Hanming and Yenuganti, Venkata and Chen, Zach},
  year         = {2023},
  month        = apr,
  day          = {4},
  howpublished = {SSRN},
  url          = {https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4408880}
}

The COVID-19 pandemic, paired with increased inflationary pressures, have worsened the labor crisis afflicting millions of minimum wage workers across the United States. Increased minimum wages have the potential to promote upward mobility, and importantly, create a grand vision for equitable pay & treatment of workers in tandem with profit. We analyze the relevant stakeholders to determine the viability of federal minimum wage increases in the United States and suggest comprehensive policy action to catalyze minimum wage increases across the United States to address this labor crisis.

@misc{karim2023minimumwage,
  title        = {Report on Minimum Wage: Federal and State Recommendations},
  author       = {Karim, Arik and Li, Sophia and Wilkes, Ethan and Ram, Shreyes and Zhou, Brian},
  year         = {2023},
  month        = oct,
  day          = {19},
  howpublished = {SSRN},
  url          = {https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4607088}
}

Social media has exploded in usage amongst children. 50% of parents state that their child has access to some type of social media, with 32% of parents reporting that their children aged 7 to 9 have access to social media. Three quarters of parents have shared the content of their children online. With staggering numbers of children online, child content in social media is increasingly profitable. In 2020, the highest paid YouTube content creator was 9 year old Ryan Kaji, best known for his toy reviews. Content creators like Niki Phillips, DaddyOFive, and Myka Stauffer have all gained significant online followings through their content based on their children. Unfortunately, this creates numerous opportunities for exploitation of the content creator. Family content channels have been accused of physical and emotional abuse of their children in their content. Content creators have also violated the privacy and dignity of neurodivergent or adopted children.

@article{huang2023childexploitation,
  title   = {Recommendations to Combat Child Exploitation in Social Media},
  author  = {Huang, Oliver and Karim, Arik and Zhou, Brian and Zhang, Natalie and Kimberlin, Avery and Lee, Grace and Mukund, Varun},
  journal = {SSRN},
  year    = {2023},
  month   = oct,
  day     = {4},
  url     = {https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4652240}
}