Destiny Muller presented her undergraduate honors research thesis titled “Examining the Effect of Housing Costs on Poverty” at the Spring 2023 MU’s Research and Creative Achievements Forum. From her abstract, “This project analyzes the link between factors of economic disparity and housing costs. Using a panel dataset across all U.S. counties from 2015-2020, estimates of the link are obtained using three panel data estimators. Preliminary regressions use the percent difference between rental and homeownership costs as a measure for relatively high housing costs for low-income individuals. The results show no significant effect on income inequality measured as the Gini coefficient. However, controlling for county fixed effects, county level demographic information, and other control variables, we find that housing costs do influence poverty rates at a statistically significant level.” Destiny has been working on this research from Fall 2022 through Spring 2023 under the mentorship of Dr. Alyssa Carlson.