2024-03-29T06:59:58Z
http://surface.syr.edu/do/oai/
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1000
2010-09-14T17:15:21Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Differential effects of economic policy across local labor markets
Thompson, Jeffrey P.
2009-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Jeffrey D. Kubik
Policy
Economic policy
Earned income tax credit
Local labor markets
State and local taxes
Minimum wage
Taxes
Economics
Labor Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
This dissertation consists of three essays examining how local labor markets lead to differential impacts of economic policy on behavior. The dissertation explores two primary sources of variation relating to local labor markets: (1) regional variation in economic conditions, and (2) household variation in the costs of moving to a different market. Each essay examines the impacts of a different policy: minimum wages, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and state and local taxes.
Economic conditions, including nominal wages and rents, vary dramatically across local labor markets in the United States. Policies that do not account for this local variation will generate different outcomes across regions of the country, and analysis that ignores it will produce misleading estimates of the impacts of these policies. The first two essays explore how local variation in wages and cost-of-living influences the impacts of minimum wages (Essay I) and the Earned Income Tax Credit (Essay II).
Essay I estimates the differential effects of minimum wages on teenage employment across local labor markets. County level data is used to identify local labor markets with low teenage earnings-where the minimum wage is likely to present a binding constraint on firms. In these counties, the impact of the 1996 increase in the federal minimum wage on teenage employment is found to be larger than had been suggested by some previous studies. When all counties are included-whether or not the minimum wage is binding-small and statistically insignificant effects are found, similar to previous studies using state panels. This essay concludes that the small employment impacts noted in much of the literature are, in part, a result of including local labor markets where the minimum wage is not binding, producing an effect that is the average across binding and non-binding regions. The employment impacts are strongest in small counties, and are isolated to "transitory" jobs and new hires, with no impact found on employment lasting for at least a full quarter or on the employment of young adults ages 19-22.
Essay II-co-authored with Katie Fitzpatrick-expands on what is known about the labor supply response to the Earned Income Tax Credit by exploiting differences in the cost-of-living and nominal wages faced by potentially eligible recipients in different metropolitan areas. We hypothesize that this variation is important because regional cost-of-living affects the purchasing power of the EITC benefit, and eligibility for the EITC is determined by nominal wages. Using the 1993 EITC expansion, we demonstrate that the labor supply response varies considerably with regional cost-of-living. We identify an increase of as much as 10 percentage points in labor force participation by single mothers in the lowest-cost metropolitan areas. There is no discernable participation response in metropolitan areas with the highest housing costs, where approximately 40 percent of the population lives. We find little response along the intensive margin, regardless of living costs in the metropolitan area. We conclude that the welfare-enhancing effects of the EITC are undermined by the interaction of the program's fixed national rules and geographic variation in wages and cost-of-living. In addition, our findings suggest that the federal EITC does little to reduce joblessness in many of the nation's largest cities.
The final essay explores the importance of the costs households face when moving to a different local labor market. These costs include out-of-pocket costs required to physically move, as well as information and opportunity costs, and the "psychic" costs of severing attachments to people and places. These costs, however, are heterogeneous across the population; moving is relatively costly for some groups and less costly for others. Wages and labor supply of groups with lower migration costs will, ceteris paribus, be relatively more responsive to policy changes and localized shocks.
Essay III incorporates these differential migration costs into the empirical literature on the incidence on wages of states and local taxes. The responsiveness of pre-tax wages to changes in state and local taxes (including income, sales and property taxes) is shown to vary by age and education-the key factors driving differential migration costs in Robert Topel's (1986) model of local labor market dynamics. Pre-tax wages of younger, highly-educated workers (those facing the lowest costs of migration) are shown to be quite responsive, while the wages of older, highly-educated workers and young, less-educated workers are generally less responsive. In addition, for households facing low migration costs, cross-state migration rates are shown to be relatively responsive to state and local taxes, but this is not the case for households facing high migration costs.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/2
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1001
2010-09-14T17:43:47Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays on testing for cross-sectional dependence and estimation of change points in panel data models
Feng, Qu
2009-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Chihwa Kao
Panel data
Change point
Cross-sectional dependence
Lagrange Multiplier test
Estimation
Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
This dissertation consists of three essays on testing for cross-sectional dependence and estimation of change points in panel data models. The first two essays discuss two testing procedures of cross-sectional dependence in fixed effects panel data models. In the first essay, I propose a new test for cross-sectional dependence based on the Frobenius norm of the sample covariance matrix of the within residuals. In the second essay, I develop a bias-corrected Lagrange Multiplier (LM) test for cross-sectional dependence in a fixed effects model. In the final essay, I discuss the estimation of change points in a panel data regression model, and establish the consistency and rate of convergence of the change point estimator.
The first essay proposes a new test, called the John test, for cross-sectional dependence of the error terms in linear panel regression models. Different from Pesaran's (2004) CD test and the bias-adjusted LM test (Pesaran et al., 2008), the proposed test is based on a statistic for sphericity of a large dimensional covariance matrix developed by Ledoit and Wolf (2002). Since the errors are unobservable in fixed effects panel models, the within residuals are used. I show that the effect of using the within residuals cannot be ignored asymptotically. The limiting distribution of the proposed test statistic is derived. The Monte Carlo simulations show that the size of the John test is very close to the nominal significance level in large panels.
The second essay discusses the LM test for cross-sectional dependence in fixed effects panel data models. Unlike testing for serial correlation in time series data, Breusch and Pagan's (1980) LM test is not valid for testing cross-sectional dependence in panel data models since the test statistic diverges as the number of cross-sectional units increases. Thus, a scaled version of LM test is proposed by Pesaran (2004). However, this test suffers from a big size distortion and cannot be applied directly in empirical research of panel data with large cross-sectional units, as discussed by Pesaran (2004) and Pesaran, Ullah and Yamagata (2008). This essay finds that, in a fixed effects panel data model, the scaled version of LM test exhibits an asymptotical bias, which is a constant related to the numbers of cross-sectional units and the observations over time. Therefore, a bias-corrected LM test is proposed and its limiting distribution is derived. Additionally, its finite sample properties are examined and compared with the other tests for cross-sectional dependence using Monte Carlo simulations.
The third essay studies the phenomenon of structural change in panel data models. It is a common feature that the processes of GDP, inflation and interest rates, are often vulnerable to political, technological and supply shocks, e.g., the current global financial crisis and the oil crisis in 1970s. Thus, accurate estimation of the change point when the structural change occurs is essential to correct the potentially invalid statistical inference resulting from ignoring this phenomenon. However, the time series literature shows that the estimate of the change point is inconsistent (Picard, 1985; Yao, 1987; Bai, 1994; Bai, 1997; Bai and Perron, 1998). Nevertheless, in panel data models with many individuals, this essay shows that the estimator of the common change point becomes consistent. In addition, the limiting distribution of the change point estimate in panels can be derived without the traditional shrinking break assumption.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/1
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1002
2010-09-16T19:30:42Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
The impact of government policies on the location decisions of new business
Rohlin, Shawn M.
2009-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Stuart Rosenthal
Government policies
Location
Minimum wage
New business
Empowerment Zone
Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
This dissertation consists of three essays on the impact of government policies on the location decisions of new businesses. The first essay examines the degree to which changes in state minimum wage rates affect the state in which entrepreneurs choose to locate their businesses. The last two essays examine the impact of the Federal Empowerment Zone program on establishment location and employment. The second essay examines the potential for location-based tax incentives, such as Empowerment Zones, to have a differential effect on establishment location and employment across industry sectors. In the final essay, my co-author and I test the degree to which the Federal Empowerment Zone program attracts new business establishments to the designated geographic areas.
The first essay examines the impact of state minimum wage rate changes on where entrepreneurs choose to locate their business in areas along state borders. Using GIS software, the analysis focuses on activity within one mile of state borders and utilizes two levels of differencing to identify effects, cross-border differences and differences between the two sample years. The analysis also allows for differences in impacts across different one-digit industries. The difference-in-differences methodology in conjunction with a border approach controls for unobserved area characteristics that would otherwise confound the impact of minimum wage rates. Controlling for unobserved factors has been a central challenge in previous research on the minimum wage, and has also hampered prior efforts to identify the impacts of local business policy on business location decisions.
Results from the first essay indicate that an increase in the state minimum wage has a small negative impact on new business activity when pooling all industries together. Further analysis reveals substantial differences in the sensitivity to state minimum wage across one-digit industry groups: minimum wage effects are most pronounced negative impacts in manufacturing and retail. Results also indicate that sensitivity to the minimum wage increases with the degree to which an industry relies on workers with less than a high school education: the response of new business activity to a one dollar increase in the minimum wage is 7 percentage points higher among two-digit industries most reliant on low-skill workers as compared to industries that employ few workers with a limited education. These findings indicate that close to state borders, entrepreneurs are responsive to differences in the minimum wage changes, and especially so in industries that rely heavily on low-skilled workers.
The second essay examines the potential for location-based tax incentives to have a differential effect on establishment location and employment across industry sectors. My co-author, Andrew Hanson, and I use a simple model to show the differential effect of the location-based federal Empowerment Zone (EZ) wage tax credit on equilibrium labor and total cost savings across industry sectors. The predictions of this simple model guide our empirical work as we use the assignment of the federal EZ to test the effect of the program on employment and location of firms across industry sectors. Our empirical analysis shows that the location based-tax incentive had a positive effect on firm location in some of the industries our model predicts and a negative impact in industries that could be crowded out by those that benefit more from the tax incentive. We estimate that in the short-term the federal EZ program increased the share of firms in designated areas in the retail and service industry by between 0.16 and 0.30 percentage points and reduced the share of establishments in the transportation and finance, insurance and real estate industry by between 0.16 and 0.19 percentage points. The long-term effect of the program is to replace firms in the transportation industry with those in the retail industry, although these effects are less precisely estimated.
The third essay examines how offering employment based tax incentives in a local area affect the entry of new establishments in the area. Andrew Hanson and I use the federal Empowerment Zone (EZ) tax incentive, the largest employer-based wage tax credit in the federal tax code, as a natural experiment to test this relationship. Our results show that offering a tax credit that is tied to local geography reduces the number of new establishments in the targeted area by almost 74 percent in the short-term. The negative result is persistent across industry types, and is driven by the substantial negative effect on small establishments (between one and four employees). We also find that the negative effect of the tax incentives persists in the longer term. The sign of our primary results is robust to an alternative instrumental variables specification, however the statistical significance is not. We show evidence that the negative result for new businesses is driven by the expansion of establishments that were in the targeted area prior to the tax incentives being offered, and is consistent with the capitalization of the incentives into property values. We do find some evidence that the tax incentives worked to attract new establishments in industries for areas that had some existing agglomeration of establishments, however these results are quite imprecise.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/5
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1003
2010-09-16T20:00:13Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on agglomeration economies in the Korean manufacturing sector
Hong, Sung Hyo
2009-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Stuart S. Rosenthal
Manufacturing sector
Agglomeration economies
Externalities
Labor market pooling
Labor productivity
Relocation
Diversity
Economics
Labor Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
This dissertation consists of three essays on agglomeration economies in the Korean manufacturing sector. The first essay investigates the existence of potential external benefits from labor market pooling using establishment-level data. A pooled labor market enhances better matching between firms and workers by allowing firms to easily find workers with specific skills, and it raises the probability of a firm-specific idiosyncratic demand for labor to be offset between firms. According to the theoretic model by Krugman (1991), an increase in individual firms' responsiveness to the firm-specific idiosyncratic demand for labor leads to an increase in expected profits. The empirical results of this essay show that establishments in the larger labor pool are likely to experience more flexible adjustments in employment. A doubling of own industry employment within the commuting distance of the area where an establishment locates increases the establishment's flexibility in employment adjustment over two years by 37 percent.
The second essay revisits the concept of agglomeration economies by estimating the effects of localization, urbanization, and local competition on labor productivity in Korean manufacturing industries. The results show that, when an establishment locates in a more localized/specialized, more urbanized/diversified, and more competitive area, its workers become more productive, due to external benefits from agglomeration. However, the external effects from the spatial proximity of other establishments vary across the categories of industry type, age, size, and the legal form of organization of establishments. Establishments in traditional heavy manufacturing industries receive more external benefits in a less diversified area, while those in transport equipment manufacturing industries enjoy the largest benefits from localization. Externalities exist for existing establishments aged between 2 and 7 years, having at least 10 workers, being corporate establishments, and having multi-plant (or being non-headquarters).
The third essay investigates the magnitude of localization economies by analyzing the relocation pattern of establishments in the Korean manufacturing sector. In this essay, relocation of establishments is identified by their move across the border of wards, counties, or cities and distinguished between beyond and within their workers' commuting distance. It seems that relocation beyond commuting distance costs more than that within commuting distance since the former includes additional costs related with searching for, hiring, and training new workers. Key findings of this essay show that external benefits from agglomeration are large enough to be recognized and cared about by entrepreneurs through relocation beyond the border of their workers' commuting area. When the own industry's share of employment in all manufacturing industries becomes doubled through relocation, the probability for establishments to relocate over a long distance across the boundary of their workers' commuting area rises by 17%. The results for sub-samples divided by the age of establishments show that older establishments are more likely to relocate over a long distance to an area with disproportionate presence of establishments in the same industry. These results seem to fit product life cycle theory by Duranton and Puga (2001). As the production process of the product becomes standardized, the firms producing that product tend to relocate to the specialized area where they can reduce the production costs by increasing dependence on the existing intermediate input suppliers, who are more likely to appear in a more specialized area.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/4
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1004
2010-09-16T20:02:45Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on education finance and policy
Golebiewski, Julie Anna M.
2009-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
John McHenry Yinger
Education
Efficiency
Finance
Foundations
Policy
Student
Education finance
Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
This dissertation encompasses a number of topics related to education finance and policy. The common theme is the recognition of outputs of the educational process other than standardized scores in Math and English. I examine the outputs' effects on the interpretation of research on school efficiency, on the willingness of taxpayers to donate money privately, and on the motivation of students and teachers to improve student performance. I present each of the three papers as a chapter of the dissertation.
Chapter 1 examines the components of efficiency measures used in studies of educational cost. We enrich the literature by developing a model that uses two indexes of student performance. This model is used to reveal how scholars' choice among student performance measures affects the measurement of efficiency. We show that the inefficiency measured in educational cost studies includes spending related to student performance measures not included in the analyses. Our simulation shows that more of the resulting increase in spending associated with a $1000 increase in state aid can be explained by spending on other included student performance measures than by an increase in inefficiency, which measures both wasteful spending and spending on other outputs not included in the study. These results suggest that efforts to minimize measures of inefficiency may incentivize districts to dissolve programs valued by voters because spending for these programs is implicitly considered inefficient. This finding has widespread implications for education policy, especially in the development of accountability systems.
In Chapter 2, we examine the success of education foundations in securing private contributions to the public education system. We extend and enrich the research in Brunner and Sonstelie (1996 and 2003) by developing a measure of the size of the constraint imposed by the tax limits in each district, and incorporating this measure into estimates of revenue generating ability of each foundation. Estimates of the size of the tax limit constraint are derived from a series of structural equations that identify the level of student performance under the counterfactual scenario in which there are no tax limits. The percent difference between the desired performance level and the level attainable given the tax limits is used to measure how restrictive the tax limit is for each school district. Our study shows that this variable explains much of the between-district variance in the amount of revenue raised by education foundations. We also extend the model to account for other characteristics that influence private contributions to public goods and for the relationship between the parcel tax and private contributions. Finally, we analyze the extent to which private contributions are crowded out by government funding.
Chapter 3 evaluates the effectiveness of statewide "No Pass, No Play" policies using a quasi-experimental analysis. Although "No Pass, No Play" policies have persisted over two decades, very few studies of the policies' success in raising student achievement exist in the literature. The evaluation of "No Pass, No Play" policies is important because the policy can produce negative consequences. Students may drop out of school when denied the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities, or they may choose easier classes in order to retain their eligibility. I use Kentucky's adoption of the "No Pass, No Play" policy to identify its effects on a number of different margins of response. The results show that student athletes in Kentucky performed no better academically in response to "No Pass, No Play". Instead, results suggest that course grades were inflated by student athletes' teachers in response to the policy.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/3
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1005
2010-09-17T17:33:36Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Urbanization in developing countries
Kalarickal, Jerry
2009-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Stuart Rosenthal
Developing countries
Urban economics
Urbanization
Housing policy
Economics
Growth and Development
Social and Behavioral Sciences
This dissertation looks at the relationship between urbanization processes in developing countries and effective policies to manage rapid urbanization. Chapter 2 looks at the long-term relationship between per capita GDP and urbanization rates. The paper finds that for the 1960-2000 period, a large number of developing countries have a negative or zero relationship between per capita GDP and urbanization. In a panel data setting, developing countries seem to exhibit a weaker, even if positive relationship, between the two variables. However, once countries that are geographically constrained or are resource rich are controlled for, the relationship between urbanization and per capita incomes for developed and developing countries are not dramatically different. The paper also finds that autocratic countries tend to have a smaller relationship between urbanization and per capital incomes. This seems to imply that for some developing countries urbanizing is driven by political economy factors.
Chapter 3 examines whether the rate at which a country urbanizes has an impact on per capita income growth rate. Per capita income growth is a function of the change of capital per capita and the change in the levels of technology. This paper argues that the change in a country's technology level is a function of the rate of change of urbanization. Therefore, increasing agglomeration gains as a result of the urbanizing process should contribute to productivity growth and hence, economic growth. This paper calculates the effect of urbanization (the rate of change of percent urbanized) on economic growth. The paper finds evidence that urbanization has a dramatic effect on per capita income growth. A one percent increase in urbanization can increase per capita income growth by 0.6 to 0.8 percent. However, it is part of a quadratic process - urbanization increases of over 18 percent in five years begin to have a negative effect on economic growth.
Chapter 4 discusses housing policy in developing countries. It examines recent research findings in light of earlier arguments as to the benefits of more market-oriented approaches. In particular, it reviews: the empirical analysis of the effects of policy on housing supply; the richer understanding of the effects that land market regulations have on housing affordability and the functioning of urban areas; and the alleged mysterious effects that de Soto, for example, claims effective property rights have not only for housing policy but for development more generally. It also examines the effects of the increased emphasis given to community participation, showing how this approach helps to more fully reconcile the incentives faced by beneficiaries of housing policy and donors. Finally, it examines recent literature on the welfare effects of rent control. In sum, the paper concludes that while some of the conjectures as to the likely benefits of more market-based policy have been refuted, that it is now clear that large welfare gains for the poor can be realized from adapting such an approach. Further, this approach appears to be gaining ground as the consensus approach to effective housing policy.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/8
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1006
2010-09-17T19:43:19Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays on measurement error, nonstationary panels and nonparametrics econometrics
Liu, Long
2008-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Panel data
Measurement error
Nonstationary
Nonparametrics
Nonstationary panels
Econometrics
Economics
Economic Theory
Social and Behavioral Sciences
My dissertation consists three independent chapters. The first chapter studies the asymptotic properties of standard panel data estimators in a simple panel regression model with random error component disturbances. Both the regressor and the remainder disturbance term are assumed to be autoregressive and possibly non-stationary. Ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effects (FE), first-difference (FD), and generalized least squares (GLS) estimators are shown to have asymptotic normal distributions and have different convergence rates dependent on the non-stationarity of the regressors and the remainder disturbances.
The second chapter extends Robinson's (1988) partially linear estimator to admit the mix of datatypes typically encountered by applied researchers, namely, categorical (nominal and ordinal) and continuous. We employ Racine and Li's (2004) mixed data kernel method, and extend this so that a mix of continuous and/or categorical variables can appear in the nonparametric part. The coefficient estimator appearing in the linear part is shown to be [Special characters omitted.] -consistent.
The third chapter examines measurement errors contained in hourly and weekly earnings reported or calculated in the Outgoing Rotation Group of Current Population Survey (CPS) and March Supplementary Survey from 1998 to 2004. The findings suggest that weekly earnings contain less errors than hourly wages, and that the Outgoing Rotation Group contains less errors than the March Supplementary CPS. The chapter also finds that the errors in the Outgoing Rotation Group and the March Supplementary CPS are not normally distributed nor independent of respondents' demographic characteristics.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/7
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1007
2010-09-17T19:45:24Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays on federal tax policy for housing and urban redevelopment
Hanson, Andrew R.
2008-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Empowerment zone
Tax credit
Mortgage interest deduction
Tax incidence
Urban redevelopment
Federal tax policy
Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Urban Studies and Planning
This dissertation consists of three essays on the economics of federal tax policy for housing and urban redevelopment. The first two essays examine the federal Empowerment Zone wage tax credit, a wage subsidy that is targeted based on the geographic location of employers and employees. In the first essay, I measure a utilization rate for the Empowerment Zone tax credit based on how many employees in the targeted area are claimed for the credit. In the second essay, I design a method for testing the effect of the Empowerment Zone tax credit on local economic outcomes and empirically estimate these effects. In the final essay, I design a method to test the economic incidence of the federal mortgage interest deduction subsidy and empirically estimate how the subsidy is split between lenders and borrows in the market for home purchase loans.
The first essay provides estimates of utilization for the Empowerment Zone (EZ) wage tax credit, a subsidy claimed by employers who operate in and hire residents of federally designated areas experiencing economic distress. I show that about 6.4 percent (and at least 3.5 percent) of the working age population was claimed under the EZ wage credit in 1999. In addition, I estimate that 24.2 percent (and at least 13.1 percent) of those employed inside of the target area were claimed for the credit. These measures of tax credit use are an alternative to the use rate of firms that are presented in the existing literature, and reveal how effective the credit is at reaching residents of the target area.
The second essay uses the federal Empowerment Zone wage tax credit as a natural experiment to assess the effectiveness of geographically-targeted tax incentives at increasing local employment and reducing poverty. I estimate the effect of the wage tax credit by comparing areas that received an Empowerment Zone with areas that applied for an Empowerment Zone but were awarded a less generous assistance package (that did not include the wage tax credit). To account for the endogenous nature of the EZ designation process I use an instrumental variables regression. The results of instrumental variables regressions contradict the standard OLS estimates, and suggest that the tax incentives had no effect on local employment and poverty rates in the targeted areas, although this result is statistically imprecise. I find evidence that the null findings are driven by both inelastic labor supply of residents and capitalization of the tax credit into local property values.
The third essay examines the economic incidence of the mortgage interest deduction, or MID. I identify how the subsidy is split between lending institutions and borrowers using the rules for claiming the MID as exogenous factors that determine the demand for debt financed housing. I find evidence that lenders charge a higher interest rate on loans where the MID can be claimed on the full loan than on loans where marginal borrowing is not covered by the deduction. I estimate that the interest rate on marginal borrowing without the MID is on average 7.8 percent lower and between 6.8 and 9 percent lower than borrowing with the MID. I conduct several robustness checks that support the validity of these findings. My results suggest that between 20 and 36 percent of the subsidy created by the mortgage interest deduction is captured by lenders in the form of higher interest rates.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/6
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn-1000
2010-09-20T13:12:03Z
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Entrepreneurial Decisions and Liquidity Constraints
Holtz-Eakin, Douglas
Joulfaian, David
Rosen, Harvey S.
Article
1997-01-01T08:00:00Z
entrepreneurs
liquidity constraints
inheritance
Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations
This paper analyzes the role of liquidity constraints in the formation of new entrepreneurial enterprises. The basic empirical strategy is to determine whether an individual's wealth affects the probability of becoming an entrepreneur, and the conditional amounts of depreciable assets and interest deductions, ceteris paribus. If so, liquidity constraints are likely to be present. To be successful, such a research strategy requires a measure of asset variation that is both precisely measured and exogenous to the entrepreneurial decision. Our data are uniquely well-suited for this purpose. The sample consists of the 1981 and 1985 federal tax returns of a group of people who received inheritances in 1982 and 1983, along with information on the size of those inheritances from a matched set of estate tax returns. Hence, we can examine how the exogenous receipt of capital affects the decision to become an entrepreneur and important financial characteristics of new enterprises. Our results suggest that the size of the inheritance has little effect on the probability of becoming an entrepreneur, but that conditional on becoming an entrepreneur, the size of the inheritance has a statistically significant and quantitatively important effect on the amount of capital employed. The conditional elasticity is 0.45. Thus, liquidity constraints matter, but not in the fashion suggested in some earlier investigations.
Working Paper #299, Industrial Relations Section, Princeton University, February 1992. RAND JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS, Vol. 25, Pages 334-347, 1997.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn/1
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1008
2010-09-20T19:16:23Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Supply-side housing subsidies and savings programs for the poor
Eriksen, Michael Donald
2008-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Tax policy
Individual development accounts
Subsidized housing
Field experiments
Low-Income Housing Tax Credit
Home ownership
Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
My research is concerned with the economics of low-income housing markets. The first two chapters of my dissertation examine issues related to the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), a federal program that awards a subsidy to private market developers who agree to impose income-targeted rent controls on any subsidized units for at least 15 years. At least 1.6 million units have been subsidized under the program since the program's inception in 1987. The first chapter finds that 1 less private rental housing construction occurred for every 3 subsidized units through the program. The second chapter argues the program is a very expensive method to provide housing support for the poor. More specifically, units constructed under the program cost 20 percent more than those unsubsidized and developers only receive $0.73 per dollar of tax credit allocated to them. Both papers call into question the viability of the program for future years.
The third and fourth chapters use data collected from a field experiment where the treated were randomly offered to participate in a matched savings program called an Individual Development Account. More specifically, treated participants could receive a 2:1 match, up to $750 annually, for three years to put towards a home purchase. The third chapter finds treated participants were between 7 to 11 percentage points more likely to be homeowners 48 months after randomization. The fourth chapter uses the experiment to explore if low-income homeownership should be promoted by the government. Previous research has found a strong positive correlation between homeownership and social engagement. This chapter rebukes these previous results and finds low-income homeowners are less likely to be politically engaged and volunteer in their communities.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/9
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1009
2010-09-21T17:32:14Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on children's well-being in developing countries
Baez, Javier Eduardo
2008-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Genocides and refugees
Fertility
Natural disasters
Human capital accumulation
Children
Developing countries
Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Several factors that increase the prevalence of poverty and threaten children's well-being persist in the developing world. Two specific issues are the focus of this dissertation: the consequences of fertility and risks on health and human capital formation in three developing countries. The first chapter uses exogenous variation in fertility from parental preferences for sex-mix among their children to identify the causal effect of family size on investments in children. Results using data from Colombia suggest that family size has negative effects on average child quality as measured by less schooling and weaker health and nutrition. It also reduces mother labor participation and increases child labor. The second chapter exploits the exogenous variation in the trajectory of a hurricane that hit Nicaragua in October in 1998 to examine the consequences of large and aggregated shocks in the well-being of children. The results show that this natural disaster had adverse medium-run effects in terms of health, nutrition and labor force participation. Children in affected areas were 30% less likely to be taken for medical consultation, four times more likely to be undernourished and more likely to join the labor market. Further evidence suggests that children were disproportionately affected by the shock as the nutritional status of mothers and adult consumption in affected areas were largely unchanged by the storm. Finally, the third chapter turns the attention to another type of shock: the migration of refugees from civil wars. Kagera--a region in northwestern Tanzania--received more than 500,000 refugees from the genocides of Burundi and Rwanda. This region is home to a series of geographic natural barriers, which resulted in exogenous variation in refugee intensity. This variation is used to investigate the short and long run causal effects of hosting refugees on the outcomes of local children. The results in the short run point to a deterioration of children's anthropometrics and an increase in children's morbidity and mortality. Childhood exposure to the massive arrival of refugees reduced height in early adulthood by 1.8 cm (1.2%), schooling by 0.2 years (7.1%) and literacy by 7 percentage points (8.6%) in the long run.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/13
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1010
2010-09-21T17:33:51Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays in international trade and development
Hoonsawat, Ratidanai
2008-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
International trade
Internet
Transfer pricing
Transaction costs
Monitoring costs
Foreign direct investment
Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
This dissertation consists of three unconnected empirical works; nevertheless, these three essays generally share the same theme, international trade and development. The first essay explores further evidence that Internet growth has stimulated international trade between the years 1998 and 2004. Using a gravity model, I find that a 10-percentage point increase in the number of web hosts in an exporting country leads to a 0.12-percentage point increase in a country's export volume. However, the web hosts in an importing country are not statistically correlated with the export volume and there is no evidence of proximity-biased export volume. To ensure that the Internet is one of the aggregate trade drivers, this study investigates the impact of the Internet on trade openness. The results indicate that a 10 percentage point increase in the number of web hosts in a country leads to a roughly 0.22-percentage point increase in aggregate trade volume.
The second essay examines evidence of multinational firms' transfer pricing behavior in response to inter country difference in corporate tax rates for a selection of 52 countries between the years 1978 and 2002. I use the method proposed by Bartelsman and Beetsma (2003) to disentangle income shifting effects from the effects of tax rates on real production activity. After I find that differences in corporate tax rates induce firms to decrease their transfer prices. This behavior leads to income-shifting that gives rise to a loss in tax revenue. Moreover, by adding transportation costs to the model, I find that country sensitivity of transfer pricing is higher for countries with high wage rates and for those close to their major markets by adding.
The third essay explores the roles of transaction costs and monitoring costs in multinational firms' decisions on foreign direct investment (FDI). The model predicts that transaction costs and monitoring costs have a negative effect on FDI. To measure these costs, I use proxies (the corporate tax-rate difference, common culture and language) for transaction costs and for monitoring costs (distance, Internet penetration and time-zone difference). Applying a two-stage-least-squares estimation method to the bilateral FDI stock between 1980 and 1997, I find that transaction costs and monitoring costs are crucial factors determining the amount of inward bilateral foreign direct investment stock.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/12
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1011
2013-01-24T16:41:34Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Aging and assets: Three essays
Marchand, Joseph T.
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Aging
Assets
Savings
Retirement
Life cycle
Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
<p>This dissertation is composed of three interrelated essays which examine the household assets of older adults through the process of aging. As individuals age, they accumulate assets for the purpose of future consumption. However, as each of the following three essays will show, this is not the only systematic relationship that arises between aging and assets. As cohorts of individuals age, the asset inequality within each cohort will also grow as individual risk is transmitted into greater overall variance (Essay 1). In addition, a reduction of risk-sharing within an aging cohort will cause a further growth in their asset inequality (Essay 2). Moreover, while primary home equity increases with age and serves as the largest household asset, it is not being used for consumption purposes until late within the retirement period (Essay 3). All of the essays share a common theme that the process of aging is far more important to understanding the dynamics of household assets than initially thought. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)</p>
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/11
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1012
2010-09-22T15:00:19Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays on trade, FDI and development
Liu, Xuepeng
2006-06-01T07:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Devashish Mitra
Trade
Development
Foreign direct investment
Free trade agreements
Political economy
Economics
The general theme of my dissertation is globalization and economic development. My first essay considers the distributional concerns of free trade agreement (FTA) formation. This can be studied by empirically testing two conflicting political economy models---the median voter model and the lobbying model, which predict pro-labor and pro-capital trade policy, respectively. Applying duration analyses, I find robust empirical support for the median voter theory of FTAs proposed by Levy [AER, 1997]. This paper provides a better understanding of the conflicting distributional forces when an unequal society votes for or against FTAs, and proposes a better empirical approach for bilateral FTA panel data analysis.
The second essay was motivated by Rose [AER, 2005], who finds no impact of the GATT/WTO on the world trade. This essay addresses this puzzle by investigating the sample selection bias and the gravity model specification. First, the GATT/WTO not only promotes trade between existing trading partners (intensive margin), but also creates new trading relationships (extensive margin). By restricting analysis to observations having positive trade flows, existing studies ignore the extensive margin. Second, the traditional specification of the gravity regression is inappropriate and also accounts for part of the failure in the previous literature to uncover the effectiveness of the GATT/WTO. Applying Poisson regressions to the gravity equation, this paper finds that both the intensive and extensive margins are important in evaluating the trade impact of the GATT/WTO.
My third essay was motivated by the hypothesis of race to the bottom in wages. This paper investigates whether foreign firms are attracted to lower wage provinces within China given that the overall wage level is already very low. Existing plant-level location choice studies provide almost no evidence for this proposition. Using a unique data on equity joint venture in China, we find that standard estimation suffers from omitted variable bias. Applying a two-step control function technique to conditional logit analysis, we find strong support for the attractiveness of low wages. This paper also provides new evidence on the attractiveness of low wages for different types of activities based on their skill and capital intensity.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/10
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1013
2010-09-23T16:56:22Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays in international trade and development
Ural, Beyza P.
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
International trade
Economic development
Welfare
Poverty
Productivity
Economics
Economic Theory
International Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
This dissertation investigates the effects of trade liberalization on welfare, poverty and productivity. I especially focus on the effects of the Indian trade liberalization that took place in 1991 and investigate how this substantial trade reform affected poverty, welfare and productivity in India.
The first chapter of my dissertation empirically investigates the distributional effects of the Indian trade liberalization using household level survey data in a general equilibrium framework. I use a theoretical framework that traces two important channels through which trade reforms affect household welfare: the consumption channel and the labor income channel.
Building on the same research question, the second chapter of my dissertation empirically investigates the effect of trade liberalization on poverty reduction in India. This chapter is co-authored with Devashish Mitra and Rana Hasan. In this chapter, we investigate the role of domestic market regulations in the relationship between trade liberalization and poverty.
In the third chapter, we look at the impact of trade liberalization on productivity in Indian manufacturing industries. This chapter is co-authored with Devashish Mitra. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/19
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1015
2010-09-23T17:00:17Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays on education policies and discrimination in credit markets
Hu, Yue
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Education finance
Class size effect
Capitalization
Matching
Policies
Discrimination
Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
My dissertation consists three independent but related chapters. The first two chapters focus on education policy issues; while the second and third apply the same methodology to address similar empirical challenges in the literature. The first chapter examines the causal relationship between school district consolidation and property values using New York state data. We find that school district consolidation leads to a 25 percent increase in property values in very small school districts and this effect declines with school district enrollment. My strong interest in education policy is also reflected in my second chapter, in which I investigate the impact of small class size on students' achievement using propensity score matching methods. Matching methods help address nonlinearity issue as well as support condition. The analysis based on National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 finds that small classes are beneficial only in science but not in other subjects. Following my advisor's footsteps, also realizing that matching could be a valuable tool in conducting econometric analysis in other fields, in my third chapter, matching is again employed to improve estimation on discrimination in credit markets. Based on pooled Survey of Small Business Finances data from 3 years, the findings indicate that on average, black and Hispanic-owned firms pay an interest rate that is significantly higher than their white counterparts. I find no evidence of gender discrimination in credit markets.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/17
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1014
2010-09-23T16:58:55Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays in international trade
Trofimenko, Natalia
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Mary Lovely
International trade
Technology transfer
Manufacturing
Colombia
Economics
International Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
This dissertation contains three essays. The empirical analysis is based on a panel of Colombian manufacturing plants.
The first essay deals with knowledge exchange through trade. It is argued that exporting increases plant-level productivity by exposing producers to new technologies or through product quality upgrading. However, if learning occurs through the acquisition of new knowledge, exporting to less developed markets should not generate as much productivity growth as exporting to advanced countries. I demonstrate that exporting to advanced countries generates the highest productivity premium and that the ability to benefit from exporting in general and exporting to advanced markets in particular increases monotonically as one moves along the conditional productivity distribution.
The second essay (with Jim Markusen, University of Colorado) considers foreign experts as a channel of knowledge transmission. We develop a model in which foreign experts may train domestic workers who work with them. Hypotheses are generated under the assumptions that workers learn from experts (the effect of using an expert is not strictly temporary) and that this learning is embodied in the workers rather than in the firm. We use fixed effects and nearest neighbor matching estimators on a panel of plant-level data for Colombia that identifies the use of foreign experts, to show that these experts have substantial and persistent positive effects (though not always immediate) on the wages of domestic workers and on the value added per worker.
Having shown positive impact of exporting on the plant productivity in Chapter 1, in the third essay, I turn my attention to the instruments of trade promotion and study of the effectiveness of export subsidies in improving plants' exporting performance. Controlling for persistence in exporting behavior, plant heterogeneity and potential dependence of export subsidies on the present and past export performance, I find subsidies to be ineffective in increasing export volumes. The impact is estimated at 0.076 in the GMM specification on the sub-sample of exporters but is not significant at the conventional significance levels.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/18
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1016
2010-09-23T17:02:03Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays on unemployment, marginal attachment and married women in the labor market
Adorna, Luzeta C.
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Discouraged worker
Added worker effect
Passive job search
Propensity score matching
Cyclical labor market
Unemployment
Economics
Labor Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
The research examines the labor market behavior of individuals at the margin of the labor force and that of married women. The first study asks whether discouraged workers and other individuals at the margin should be classified with the unemployed. The second tests whether married women increase their number of hours of work in response to their husbands' unemployment, while a related third paper investigates whether the receipt of unemployment insurance dampens that response. The data used are the short panels of the Current Population Survey and the Survey of Income and Program Participation for the years 1996-2004, permitting analyses of labor market behavior through cyclical changes in labor demand.
Using parametric discrete choice models, the results from the first investigation support the current classification: the unemployed and the marginally attached are highly distinct groups even during the last recession and a separate classification is justified. Nevertheless, the findings suggest that about half of the marginally attached have strong ties to the labor market, and even higher proportion for passive job searchers. Labor market attachment indicators can provide a business cycle sensitive adjustment for the BLS's alternative measures of labor underutilization.
One way families are believed to cope with the income shock from husbands' unemployment is for wives to increase their hours of work. Known as the added worker effect, the second research uses matching to estimate the average response of these wives, comparing them to the wives of men who are always employed. The general findings show a very small average AWE under favorable economic climate, and a totally dominated one in recession. Previous conclusions on couples' shared low propensities for employment appear substantiated among lower educated wives. However, spouses who were previously not working or who worked less than full-time and wives of manufacturing workers exhibit substantial and significant AWE.
Using parametric models, the third research investigates whether the receipt of unemployment insurance influenced the wives' behavior in the previous paper. The evidence is mixed: there is a greater likelihood that wives of recipients would be found working but conditional on working, they put in less hours compared with wives of non-recipients.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/16
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1018
2010-09-23T17:16:50Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Exchange rate policy and international trade linkages and impacts
Al-Shammari, Nayef N.
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Exchange rate policy
Industry specific exchange rate
Monetary policy
International trade
Monetary union
Gravity model
Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
This thesis has studied the issue of exchange rate policy implications in relation to international trade. The dissertation consists of three essays focusing on the monetary union, exchange rates determinants, and industry specific exchange rates. The first essay investigates the impact of the proposed Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) monetary union on trade volume using an augmented gravity model. I find that looking at the sector level, results suggest that the proposed GCC monetary union tends to increase trade among these countries only in sectors requiring low levels of processing.
In the second essay, I examine empirically the determinants of exchange rate regime choices in the Middle East region. My findings show that factors of Optimal Currency Area and risk of currency crisis both increase the likelihood of fixing the exchange rate regimes; however, a larger economy decreases the probability of implementing a fixed exchange rate policy. In addition, there is evidence that the oil sector prefers the adoption of a fixed exchange rate regime, as this sector is a politically powerful sector that benefits from a stable currency. There is also evidence that politically unstable countries in the Middle East seem to be associated with flexible exchange rate policy.
The third essay investigates empirically exchange rate movements in the Middle East region at the industry level. I use a first-differenced model to investigate the impact of exchange rate movements on outputs of six specific Middle Eastern industries using industry specific real exchange rate indices, constructed using Goldberg's (2004) method. Employing a first-differencing technique, my findings show that the impact of the industry exchange rate variable interacted with the exposure to international trade is concentrated mostly on the food industry. The sector least affected by industry exchange rate variability is the transport industry. The explanation for the positive findings is that Middle Eastern firms are more likely to rely on imported intermediate products. Thus when there is an appreciation of their currencies, imported intermediate inputs and imported capital inputs become cheaper to local firms. This may lead final output of some industries to grow as a result of decreasing costs of production.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/14
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1017
2010-09-23T17:03:32Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays on teacher labor markets and educational disparities
Pas, Emily L.
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Class size
Test score gap
Child health
New York
Labor markets
Educational disparities
Economics
Labor Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
In Essay 1, we investigate the determinants of teacher attrition in five large metropolitan areas in upstate New York State. We focus on a teacher's decision to leave a school district or to leave teaching using the Prentice-Gloeckler-Meyer technique for proportional hazards with unobserved heterogeneity. We find that teachers in districts with higher salaries relative to non-teaching salaries in the same county are less likely to leave teaching, and that a teacher is less likely to change districts when he or she teaches in a district near the top of the teacher salary distribution in that county. We also find, however, that very large salary increases would be required to offset the impact of concentrated student disadvantage on the attrition of female teachers.
Starting in 1999, New York State implemented class size reduction policies targeted at early elementary grades. Due to funding limitations, most schools reduced class size in some grades and not others. In Essay 2, I use within school variation in class size induced by the policies to construct instrumental variable estimates of the effect of class size on teacher attrition. I also examine whether class size reduction affected the quality of teacher hires. Teachers with smaller classes were less likely to leave a school in some districts. However, class size reductions increase the share of teachers hired with no previous teaching experience.
In Essay 3, I investigate how physical and mental health effect student performance and whether accounting for health disparities changes the trajectory of the (regression adjusted) black-white test score gap as children age. I use data on a cohort of children in kindergarten, first grade, third grade, and fifth grade from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K). I find that differences in health status partially explain the divergence of black and white test scores as students age. After including socioeconomic background variables, accounting for physical and mental health measures further reduces the black-white test score gap by eight to 31 percent. For third and fifth grade, the largest reduction in the test score gap occurs when student reported mental health measures are included.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/15
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1019
2010-09-24T14:55:32Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Home equity, migration and retirement
Chen, Yong
2006-12-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Stuart Rosenthal
Home equity
Migration
Retirement
Quality of life
Labor Economics
What drives the high mobility of U.S. population and what are its effects on local labor and housing markets? This dissertation firstly studies the overall migration patterns for various population segments. Then, the economic behaviors of elderly population are closely analyzed.
Using 1970-2000 Censuses, measurements of local quality of life and business environment are created for all metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas across the U.S. Evidence indicates that households prefer non-metropolitan areas and cities in warm coastal areas, while firms prefer large, growing cities. Population flow pattern shows that cities with improving business environments acquire increasing shares of workers, especially among highly-educated, while cities with improving consumer amenities acquire increasing shares of retirees.
Examination on household migration pattern reveals: regardless of marital status, young highly-educated households move to places with high quality business environments; after age 55, regardless of education, married couples move away from places with favorable business environments and towards places with high consumer amenities. These patterns have important implications, especially when the baby boomers begin to retire. This includes shifts in the local supply of skilled labor, the level and nature of housing demand, the tax base, and the need for specialized services in different cities.
Within the framework of analyzing migration with households' labor and housing market behaviors, chapter 2 focuses on elderly population to understand why previous literature found no significant labor effect of housing wealth.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/20
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1020
2010-09-28T14:47:36Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Pre-market characteristics, gender wage disparities, and the performance of minorities in the United States labor market: Application and comparison of non-parametric methodologies on a highly-educated sample
Liu, Liqun
2006-05-01T07:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Dan Black
Gender wage disparities
Minorities
Labor market
Wage gap
Discrimination
Econometrics
Gender and Sexuality
Labor Economics
Race and Ethnicity
A large number of studies have investigated the source of gender and racial wage gaps, seeking to distinguish the effect of discrimination from other productivity-related effects, such as the effects of the low educational level and labor force participation rates of women and minorities. Most of the previous studies have largely neglected the importance of restrictive parametric assumptions. If those parametric assumptions did not hold, the estimation would be presumably biased. Against this backdrop, I applied and compared three non-parametric methodologies---exact cell matching, kernel on age cell matching, and local constant kernel regression to estimate the role of pre-market factors in shaping the gender and racial wage differences. These methodologies are carefully applied to the 1993 National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG) for four ethnic groups: whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians.
My estimated results reveal that pre-market factors are very important in explaining both the gender wage gaps and the male racial/ethnic wage gaps. The pre-market characteristics are attributable for 46-54% of the gender wage gap, though the effects vary among ethnicities. When the sample is Surface provides description only. Full text is available to ProQuest subscribers. Ask your Librarian for assistance. to single women, unexplained gender wage gaps shrink significantly for white, black, and Asian women to 75-90%. In terms of the racial wage gap, black highly-educated women earn more than white. My further examination suggests that, rather than the favorable pre-market factors of black women, this difference is more likely the high proportion of inner-racial marriage of blacks (97%) and low income of their spouses. This may explain black women's high labor force participation and high income. Both Hispanic and Asian women earn similar amount as white women. This similarity could be attributable to their assimilation to white women in terms of their English language skills and inter-racial marriage with white men.
The empirical results show that the parametric estimates can be very misleading. The results also indicate the advantages and limitations of each of the methodology. I find that there is a trade-off between bias and variance. Local constant kernel regression does not perform well in the wage decomposition unless I give it some restrictions.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/22
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1021
2010-09-29T15:03:40Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
The effect of child support on family behavior
Ashby, Elizabeth
2006-12-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Dan Black
Child support
Family behavior
Noncustodial parents
Single-mother families
Labor supply
Family, Life Course, and Society
Labor Economics
''The Effect of Child Support on Family Behavior'' consists of three essays which examine various effects of child support on family behavior. Each essay is described below.
''The Effect of Child Support on the Labor Supply of Non-Custodial Fathers'' explores the labor supply response of non-custodial fathers to child support payments. Using data on non-custodial fathers from the 1996 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation, I estimate two models of labor supply: an hours-worked model and a labor-force-participation model. For estimation of each model, instrumental variables are used to account for the endogeneity of child support payments with a noncustodial father's labor supply. The findings of this paper indicate that higher child support payments considerably increase both the number of hours and the probability a non-custodial works. To the extent that child support enforcement policies are effective at forcing non-custodial fathers to pay child support, the results suggest strengthened child support enforcement will have a positive and fairly large effect on the labor supply of non-custodial fathers.
''How Reliable are the Reports of Child Support Payments by Nonresident Fathers in the 1996 SIPP Panel?'' determines the accuracy of self-reported child support payments by nonresident fathers by comparing the reported child support payments by nonresident to reported child support receipt by child-support eligible mothers. The findings of this paper suggest that nonresident fathers report paying more child support on average than mothers report receiving. Additional findings suggest the discrepancy between the reports of mothers and fathers can be attributed to an issue of nonresponse by nonresident fathers to the CSP survey. ''The Effect of Child Support on the Well-Being of Children in Single-Mother Families'' provides a literature review of empirical studies on the effects of child support policy on various family outcomes. These outcomes may directly or indirectly affect the well-being of children in single-mother families. An evaluation of findings in the literature provides some evidence that child support positively affects the well-being of children in single-mother families.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/21
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1022
2010-09-30T17:30:43Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays in trade, development and political economy
Nuchsuwan, Kontee
2005-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Devashish Mitra
International trade
Thailand
Trade
Political economy
Economics
International Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
This dissertation consists of three essays in trade, development and political economy. The first essay looks at the economic effects of trade policies in Thailand, specifically on firm productivity growth and market power. By employing Hall's (1988) growth accounting method, we find linear and robust negative relationships between tariffs and productivity growth across various levels of industry dummy variables. Interestingly, we find that a firm's markup increases with tariff levels, but at some critical point it starts to decrease. This finding fits nicely with the tariff redundancy argument.
The second essay computes the disaggregated import-demand elasticities across each of 28 industries and looks at the economic effects of trade policies in Thailand on the import-demand elasticity. Our estimates of import-demand elasticities come close to unity on average. For the effect of trade policy on import-demand elasticity, our results consistently indicate an increase in these elasticities when the industry adopts a freer trade policy across two measures for trade policy (a trade liberalization dummy and import tariffs).
The third essay explores the political and economic determinants of trade policy in Thailand. The investigation is guided by the Protection for Sale model of Grossman and Helpman (1994). Unlike previous papers that use a discrete method (dummy variable), this paper identifies industries that are organized in a more continuous fashion by counting the number of MPs with business backgrounds to match our Thai-Standard Industry Code (TSIC) industries. The results suggest that politically-organized industries can influence the way a country shapes its trade protection policies. A politically-organized production industry will seek a higher level of protection, while a politically-organized distribution industry will seek a lower degree of protection. In addition, this paper finds consistent outcomes with the prediction of the Grossman and Helpman (G-H) model using Thai data.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/24
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1023
2010-09-30T19:18:57Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Racial and ethnic discrimination in urban housing markets: Evidence from audit studies
Zhao, Bo
2005-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
John Yinger
Racial
Ethnic
Discrimination
Urban
Housing markets
Audit
Economics
Race and Ethnicity
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Sociology
Housing discrimination has historically been important in the United States. If it exists, discrimination is a major barrier to minority homeseekers. Based on national audit data from the 1989 and 2000 Housing Discrimination Studies and three different econometric techniques, this collection of essays examines a variety of discriminatory behaviors of real estate brokers.
The first essay, using a fixed-effects Poisson model, examines discrimination in the number of houses shown to homeseekers in 2000. Unlike previous studies, it takes into account auditors' actual socioeconomic characteristics to minimize the estimation bias. The results indicate that blacks and Hispanics are shown 30 and 10 percent fewer units, respectively, than whites. In contrast, no similar discrimination against Asians and Native Americans is found. The results also show that since 1989, discrimination against blacks has increased by 12 percentage points while discrimination against Hispanics has been unchanged. In addition, this paper finds that brokers discriminate mainly because of white customers' prejudice.
The second essay studies discrimination in discrete choices by brokers in 2000, using a fixed-effects logit model. The data set makes it possible to control for auditors' actual demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, along with the characteristics assigned for the purposes of the audit. The study finds that discrimination continues to be strong but also documents a downward trend in both the scope and incidence of discrimination since 1989. The estimations also identify both brokers' prejudice and white customers' prejudice as causes of discrimination.
In the third essay, a bivariate probit model is used to examine the current status of and recent changes in discrimination motives and brokers' marketing behaviors. The results show that black and Hispanic homebuyers are discriminated against because of the prejudice of both brokers and white customers. In addition, white customers' prejudice has increased over the last decade. Regarding brokers' marketing behaviors, the most striking results points to the existence of and an increasing trend in redlining (i.e., brokers withhold housing units in integrated neighborhoods from homeseekers).
As a whole, this collection of papers updates previous analysis, adds new empirical evidence to the literature, and has important policy implications.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/23
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1024
2010-10-01T14:43:35Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays in development economics
Dammert, Ana C.
2006-06-01T07:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Dan Black
Development economics
Coca
Child labor
Peru
Quantile regression
Nicaragua
Growth and Development
International Economics
Labor Economics
This thesis consists of three essays in development economics. The first essay uses the air-bridge denial policy imposed by Peru in 1995, which shifted the production of coca leaves from Peru to Colombia, to analyze how an exogenous decrease in the demand for coca affects children's allocation of time. The Peruvian Living Standard Measurement Survey allows a comparison before and after the counter-narcotics policy for rural children living in coca-growing regions to children in non-growing regions not able to produce coca leaves due to environmental conditions and thus not affected by the change in policy. After different sensitivity checks, the results indicate that child labor increased in coca-growing states. Work hours and hours engaged in household chores increased as well.
The second essay tests empirically the latest theories in which child labor does not have a linear relation with household income. Using data from Peru and adopting a multivariate nonparametric approach, with continuous and discrete covariates and cross-validation methods for optimal bandwidths, the results reveal interesting patterns not detected in the child labor literature. The estimated elasticities are larger than those from previous studies and suggest that changes in income have a heterogeneous effect on employment and school participation with higher effects for low-income households.
The third essay examines heterogeneous effects of a conditional cash program in Nicaragua, which includes the random assignment of communities to a treatment and control group so that outcome differences represent the true mean impact of the program. Using quantile regression, the results show that the program had heterogeneous effects across the distribution of the untreated outcome distribution. In particular, the program impact in food and total per capita expenditures is lower for households who were at a lower level of expenditures prior to the program. In addition, the program impact is higher for households who had lower levels of food shares prior to the program. Finally, the program has greater impact in increasing schooling for boys and reducing child labor for girls, and children located in a more impoverished comarca received less impact of the program in schooling and greater impact on working hours.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/34
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1025
2010-10-01T14:52:02Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on self-employment
Karahan Piskin, Hatice
2006-12-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Dan Black
Self-employment
Population density
Entrepreneurship
Human capital
Earnings
Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations
Labor Economics
This dissertation is a collection of three essays, each of which examines different aspects of self-employment. The different analyses use different sources of data and various econometric methods to test issues related to US entrepreneurship.
In the first essay, I use NSCG (National Survey of College Graduates) dataset in order to estimate the impact of human capital on the self-employment status of individuals. To capture this effect, I use Probit and Logit techniques separately on men and women and find out that individuals who majored in medicine, law, business, architecture, psychology, fine arts and agricultural sciences are more likely to be self-employed. I do find evidence that women, Blacks and Hispanics have the smallest interest to run their own business. One important finding is that people with degrees in engineering, education and science choose mostly to be wage-employed.
The second essay examines the effect of human capital on self-employment earnings using the same dataset obtained for the first one. To estimate the coefficients on income levels, I take advantage of three different econometric methods, namely OLS, Heckit and matching estimator. Regression results on men show that having higher education brings more success in terms of self-employment earnings. Evidence shows that men do better when they are self-employed whereas women are better off when they are wage workers. The most lucrative majors for the male entrepreneurs are architecture, math, physics, chemistry and most fields of engineering. Women entrepreneurs who enjoy higher earnings are mostly majored in architecture, medicine, law, psychology and counseling. However, no particular education level is found to contribute to female entrepreneurial earnings. Being Asian or in the middle-age category increases the likelihood of having higher self-employment incomes. Marriage is found to considerably contribute to male entrepreneurial earnings whereas it adversely affects female self-employment income.
In the final essay, I look at the effect population density has on US local self-employment rates. The motivation is the existence of a huge variation of population densities and a considerable deviation of self-employment rates across US states and counties. My hypothesis, which stems from the theory of division of labor, is that self-employment rate declines with a greater fraction of the population. Data for this analysis are taken from Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) in year 2000. I employ Probit and Logit models as the empirical strategy, separately on men and women. Results show that a negative and statistically significant impact of population density is present for both sexes.
Hence, people who are located in less crowded areas are more likely to be self-employed. Considering the relatively low availability of good-matching jobs in smaller places, self-employment can be explained as a failure of the size of the market place. This effect is found to be larger for people like physicians and lawyers who are in more specialized occupations, indicating a greater negative impact of the size of the location on the self-employment status of people with higher skills.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/33
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1028
2010-10-01T15:12:40Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays in programme evaluation
Galdo, Jose C.
2006-05-01T07:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Dan Black
Program evaluation
Nonparametric regression
Regression discontinuity design
Unemployment insurance
Econometrics
Labor Economics
This thesis consists of three essays in programme evaluation. The first essay considers a semiparametric matching model with fixed effects that allows the identification and estimation of matching treatment impacts after differencing out the effect of problematic covariates that make the support and balancing test assumptions difficult to achieve. I use an experimental program, the Kentucky Working and Reemployment Services, to validate the effectiveness of the proposed estimator in eliminating selection bias. I find the proposed estimator yields small bias with respect to the benchmark experimental estimates and outperforms "naive" propensity score matching estimates.
In the second essay, which is a joint work with Dan Black and Jeffrey Smith, we use a "tie breaking" experiment, to investigate selection bias in the regression discontinuity approach. Two features characterize this program. First, the treatment is assigned as a discontinuous function of a profiling variable. Second, we deal with a discontinuity frontier rather than a discontinuity point, which allows the identification of treatment effects over a wide range of the support of the discontinuous variable. Using a variety of parametric and nonparametric estimators, we find that the RD estimates are sensitive to the sample used in the estimations, the outcome of interest, and the econometric models.
The third essay considers the problem of estimating optimal bandwidths in the context of average treatment impacts. Because precise estimation of counterfactuals in regions containing much of the probability mass of the treated units is more important than it is in regions where few treated units are located, I re-weight the data such that comparison individuals that get used intensively in the estimation of treatment impacts receive the largest weights in the estimation of the optimum bandwidths. Using standard cross-validation techniques, I applied the proposed method to data from the National Support Work Demonstration Program (NSW). Two main findings emerge. First, the magnitude of the optimal bandwidth varies depending on whether the support problem is considered or not. Second, local constant matching with Gaussian kernel functions yields the smoothest MSE-h relationship, whereas local linear matching with Epanechnikov kernel function yields local minima.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/30
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1027
2010-10-01T15:06:55Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on immigration
Smith, Claudia A.
2006-05-01T07:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Dan Black
Immigration
Family structure
Compensating wage differentials
Marriage
Crime
Econometrics
Labor Economics
Race and Ethnicity
This dissertation is a collection of three essays on immigration. The empirical analyses use different sources of data and econometric techniques to examine the impact of immigration on the wage and family structure of the host country.
The first essay is a literature review on the impact of immigration on the wage and family structure of the host country. Despite the large number of studies, there is not a consensus as to the size of immigration's impact on wages. Examining the impact of immigration on the family structure of the host country, it is found that changes in immigration laws affect the sex ratio which in turn affects U.S. marriage rates.
The second essay estimates compensating wage differentials. Between April and September 1980 approximately 125,000 Cuban immigrants entered the United States. Shortly after the arrival of the Cuban refugees, Miami's violent crime rate rose from 18.8 to 34.2 per 1000 individuals. Using samples from the Current Population Survey and exploiting this exogenous increase in the crime rate, I compare changes in the labor-market outcomes of high-crime-risk workers in Miami and three comparison cities. The empirical analysis suggests that high-crime-risk workers in Miami earned between 3 and 26 percent more relative to high-crime-risk workers in the comparison cities in 1980.
The third essay examines the influence of immigration laws on U.S. marriage rates by using exogenous variation in marriage returns to test empirically the predictions of Becker's marriage model. Using time-series variation and variation in the size of immigrant populations within counties, I analyze the marriage propensity of residents in large, medium, and small immigrant-population counties before and during immigration law changes in 1997 and 2001. The national results indicate a 20.9 and 12.5 percent increase in marriage rates for the 1997 and 2001 immigration law change respectively. Using monthly county level data for five immigrant States from 1990 to 2002, the relative percent change in actual marriages or marriage applications for the 1997 and 2001 immigration law changes ranged from 13.7 to 201.9 and 12.3 to 308.0 respectively.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/31
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1026
2010-10-01T15:21:01Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on the impact of high-skill immigration
Liu, Chung-Chin Eugene
2006-08-01T07:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Jeffrey D. Kubik
High-skill immigration
Immigration
Information technology
Earnings
Econometrics
Labor Economics
Race and Ethnicity
Work, Economy and Organizations
This dissertation contains three essays on the labor market impact of high-skill immigration in the U.S. The first essays treats immigrants and natives with different levels of education and of different gender as distinct factors of production and estimates the degree of substitutability and complementarity between pairs of inputs under the Translog production specification. Using data from the 1997 Economic Census and the 1980 and 2000 Censuses from IPUMS, I find that immigration has different effects on native workers, depending on the educational and gender compositions of both the immigrants and the natives. I also find that the impact of immigration differs across census regions with greater effects felt by native workers in the Northeast and the West. The second and third essays examine the labor market of information technology (IT) in the U.S., which has seen tremendous growth in the number of foreign skilled workers. The second essays assesses the impact of such large inflows of foreign skilled labor on U.S. native IT workers by comparing the native IT workers in the computer industry with the native managers and native secretaries/sales workers in the same industry. The latter two groups experience very little foreign labor inflow as compared with the IT occupation. Using data from the March CPS, I find that the inflow of foreign skilled labor adversely impacted the native IT workers' earnings, probability of employment, and work hours. The third essay is an extension of the second. It seeks to answer the question of whether local labor markets that receive larger amount of IT immigration also have lower average weekly earnings for their IT workers. Using data from the outgoing rotation groups in the Current Population Surveys, I find that native workers residing in areas with higher concentration of IT immigrants see larger reduction in weekly earnings.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/32
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1030
2010-10-01T17:31:31Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on Social Security and retirement
Liang, Xiaoli
2005-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Gary V. Engelhardt
Payroll tax incidence
Covered earnings' cap
Labor force participation
Manufacturing
Social Security
Retirement
Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
The financing problem of the Social Security system has captured great attention. The 2005 OASDI Trustees' Report projects that the combined OASI and DI Trust Funds will become exhausted in 2041. Solutions to this problem include raising the covered-earnings' cap, encouraging people to work longer, or making people postpone their participation in the Old Age program. This dissertation addresses these issues respectively in three essays.
My first essay examines the impact of the increase in the covered-earnings' cap from the 1965, 1972 and 1977 Amendments on the gross wage and employment. An increase in the percentage of workers earning above the pre-law-change cap resulted in a decline in the post-reform gross wage for the three Amendments. I find no employment effect for the 1965 Amendments but negative employment effects for the 1972 and 1977 Amendments. However, the employment effects are sensitive to the specification forms.
In the second essay, I use the geographic variation in manufacturing concentration to examine the impact of de-industrialization on older workers' labor force participation. My results show that a one percentage point decrease in local earnings due to de-industrialization raised older workers' labor force non-participation rate by 0.78, and the probability of leaving the labor force by 0.80. In addition, the labor force participation of older workers fell more than twice as fast in the industrial cities as in the non-industrial cities between 1980 and 1990, a period of rapid decline in manufacturing.
The third essay exploits shocks to the Appalachian coal mining and shocks to US manufacturing to examine the impact of local labor market conditions on Social Security. I find that a 10 percent increase in the growth rate of earnings induced by the coal shocks or the manufacturing shocks resulted in a 1.3 percent decline in the growth rate of Old Age expenditure and a 0.9 percent decrease in the growth rate of recipients. In addition, a one percentage point decrease in local earnings caused by de-industrialization raised the Social Security take-up rate by 0.77, and the probability of participating in Social Security by 0.63.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/28
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1031
2010-10-01T17:33:13Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on the mobility and determinants of trade patterns
Pham, Cong S.
2005-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Mary E. Lovely
Devashish Mitra
International trade
China
Mobility
Trade patterns
Economics
International Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
My thesis empirically investigates the dynamics and determinants of trade patterns, with a special emphasis on the role of emerging economies. In Chapter 1, I find that trade patterns associated with developing countries exhibit higher mobility than trade patterns associated with developed countries. Econometrically, I show that the existing empirical literature is marked by a misinterpretation of transition matrices used to measure the mobility of trade patterns. I also propose two different econometric strategies to get valid conclusions about intra-distribution dynamics of trade patterns.
My second essay investigates how product differentiation and transport costs affect decisions of trading partners to make the following findings. First, when countries enter the U.S. market for the first time , they are more likely to become relatively important exporters in homogeneous products than in differentiated products. All countries in my sample are more likely to exit the export market in homogeneous products than in differentiated products. Also, after their exit, they are more likely to reenter the export market in differentiated products than in homogeneous products. Countries also are found to be more likely to exit the U.S. market and remain non-exporter to the U.S. market after their exit in high-transport-cost products than low-transport-cost products. Finally, independent of product differentiation and transport costs, countries are more likely to exit the U.S. market in sectors in which they have high revealed comparative disadvantages.
My third essay contributes to recent debates on the ability of the Heckscher-Ohlin model to explain trade patterns in a number of ways. First, it sets up a theoretical framework on which we can base the analysis of across-product and within-product specialization. Second, it shows that there is evidence of across-product specialization if we account not only for differences in relative factor endowments but also for differences in technology, economic size and the phenomenon of new products. Third, I show that it is China's trade pattern that is the explanation for Schott's finding of an increasing number of products simultaneously imported by the U.S. from low-wage, middle-wage , and high-wage countries. Finally and most importantly, the paper shows that if within-product specialization takes place, it is the high-wage countries that are the driving force behind it. In other words, differences in relative endowments do matter for within-product specialization of developed countries.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/27
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1029
2010-10-01T17:30:09Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on tax policy, wealth, and entrepreneurship
Choi, Sengeun
2005-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Gary V. Engelhardt
Self-employment
Duration
Deadweight loss
Tax policy
Wealth
Entrepreneurship
Economics
Labor Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Entrepreneurial labor supply involves various decisions on the business environment, costs of business, and hiring employees, and the effect of tax policy on entrepreneurial entry and labor supply is often complicated by many factors. Distortions caused by income tax may be larger for entrepreneurs and the responsiveness of entrepreneurial taxable income to changes in tax rates may be greater than wages and salaries. Taking into account that entrepreneurship is one of the important driving forces of economic growth, the effect of income tax policy on entrepreneurial entry and the magnitude of distortions caused by income tax for entrepreneurs are of interest. The three essays in this dissertation study the impact of income tax policy on entrepreneurial entry, entrepreneurial labor supply and taxable income.
My first essay develops a static model for entrepreneurial entry with explicit entry constraint as well as liquidity constraint. Expanding Evans and Jovanovic (1989) to the model with various taxes and explicit entry constraint, I find that the impacts of individual wealth and taxes on entrepreneurial entry vary by different groups of potential entrepreneurs. There are several implications: Even when potential entrepreneurs do not face liquidity constraint, individual wealth affects entrepreneurial entry, provided that probability of success is low. The income tax provides positive links to entrepreneurial entry, especially for people who are less likely to be selected as entrepreneurs, providing theoretical supports for the hypothesis of tax avoidance, insurance against business risk for less talented potential entrepreneurs who may face binding entry constraint. However, higher income tax rates may not affect truly productive entrepreneurial activities that may boost economic growth, in which case, higher income tax rate would indeed increase the deadweight loss of income tax.
My second essay examines how income tax progressivity affects entrepreneurial entry and the duration of wage jobs. With administrative W-2 Self-Employment Income Records matched with the Health and Retirement Survey, I find that the progressive tax reduces the hazard of entrepreneurial entry. The magnitude of the estimates differs by various transition measures, convexity measures, allowance for multiple spells, and use of instrumental variable. Overall, the estimates suggest that a 1 percentage point change in convexity of tax system reduces the hazard approximately by 11 percent. The paper also finds that the hazard of entrepreneurial entry is relatively constant over time, and the hazard does not differ much between younger and older workers.
My third essay studies the deadweight loss of the income tax on the self-employed and elasticity of self-employment taxable income for the period of 1980 to 1991. I find large responsiveness of self-employment taxable income to changes in marginal tax rates. The estimated elasticity for self-employment income is large, ranging from 1.809 to 3.263. The calculated deadweight loss of income tax is 14 percent to 29 percent of self-employment income tax revenue collected, larger than estimates measured by consumption, capital income, corporate capital income, and labor hours. Overall, the findings of this paper suggest that the changes in marginal tax rates cause other behavioral responses than changes in labor supply measured by hours.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/29
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1032
2010-10-01T17:34:41Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on agent behavior in United States housing market
Choi, Seok Joon
2005-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Jan Ondrich
John M. Yinger
Discrimination
Rental market
Audit
Utility
Agent
Housing market
Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
First two essays examine the incidence and causes of housing discrimination in qualitative treatment by rental agents, using national audit data from the 2000 Housing Discrimination Study. The analysis distinguishes between two kinds of rental agents, brokers and property management agents. Using the fixed-effects logit and random parameter multinomial logit methods, we conduct hypothesis tests for the incidence and causes of discrimination. We find evidence that discrimination is present in the data and is caused by both agents' own prejudice and their response to the prejudice of white clients. In addition, we find that Hispanic rental agents discriminate against black customers more than do other rental agents.
The third essay examines the decision to include utilities in the rent and its effect on rents. We use individual house-level data from the 2000 Housing Discrimination Study (HDS) and 2002 American Housing Survey (AHS). We distinguish between two types of utilities, energy/water and non-energy, because the reasons for including utilities in the rent may differ between these two groups. We find evidence that landlords use the inclusion of utilities in the rent to attract more customers. For the hedonic rent estimation, we find that the decision to include the cost of utilities in the rent raises rent. We also discover that neighborhood characteristics, such as racial composition, median housing value, and percentage of home ownership, significantly affect rents.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/26
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1033
2010-10-01T17:50:23Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Uncertainty, zoning and land development
Cunningham, Christopher Robert
2005-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Stuart Rosenthal
Real options
Growth management
Urban Growth Boundary
Uncertainty
Zoning
Land development
Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Urban Studies and Planning
Theoretical work suggests that land development is akin to exercising a real option to own a building of a given size. The first chapter of the dissertation utilizes a rich dataset of parcel characteristics and real property transactions from the Seattle area to test two predictions of real options with respect to land markets: greater price volatility delays development and raises land prices. Evidence for both predictions is found, suggesting developers consider their real options when deciding to invest.
The second chapter examines the impact of growth controls on development in a real options framework. Uncertainty about housing prices leads to uncertainty about optimum intensity of investment and is thus a deterrent to development. Zoning laws that limit density may reduce uncertainty about what to build and actually accelerate development. This paper examines the imposition of an Urban Growth Boundary around Seattle and finds that the law lowers the likelihood of development outside the boundary between 28 to 39 percent. However, once the boundary is imposed, price volatility, a principal determinant of real-option value, ceases to slow development, suggesting that the law would have been stronger absence of real options considerations.
The third chapter tests whether the existing rate of homeownership in a community affects the intensity of subsequent land development. If homeowners have a greater taste for restrictive zoning then increasing the rate of homeownership, a major policy objective of the federal government, may impede other goals such as limiting sprawl or integrating neighborhoods. Examining new subdivisions in 40 different zoning districts in Greater Seattle, I find evidence consistent with this hypothesis. I also find that regional planning laws, which constrain zoning by cities, may partially ameliorate these tendencies.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/25
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1034
2010-10-01T18:54:54Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
College admissions: The effect of application factors and the quality of applicants
Chapman, Gabrielle Hamil
2004-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Stacy Dickert-Conlin
College admissions
Applicants
Grade point average
Scholastic Aptitude Test
Economics
Education
Social and Behavioral Sciences
This dissertation consists of three chapters on college admission application factors and the implications these factors have on the quality of applicants. All three chapters rely on a unique data set that provides a valuable combination of proprietary admissions data from a selective liberal arts college in the northeast and information from the College Board not previously used in the literature.
The first chapter focuses on the decision of applicants to apply early to college. In particular, I focus on the application process of early versus regular admissions and analyze how the marginal costs and benefits of that decision may play important roles in the student's ultimate admission to college. I emphasize the impact of the binding feature of the early decision contract and identify the differing marginal benefits and marginal costs of applicants as combinations of individual ability, preference, and willingness to pay. Ultimately, I find that the decision to apply early increases the average applicant's probability of acceptance and affects the price the applicant pays to attend.
Chapter 2 looks at the applicants who ultimately enroll at the college and identifies the best pre-college predictor of subsequent first year performance. Using application data, I identify the two key factors in determining whether a college applicant has the potential to be a high achiever: high school grade point average (GPA) and SAT I score. The students enrolled at this school are a very homogeneous group. Therefore, given the lack of variation among their SAT I scores and high school GPAs, I am unable to find conclusive evidence of the best predictor and generalize my findings to the larger college population.
The third and final chapter is co-authored with Michael Conlin and Stacy Dickert-Conlin. We look at the effects of the college's SAT optional policy and conduct an empirical analysis that focuses on the applicant's voluntary decision to reveal their SAT score. The theory of voluntary disclosure suggests that when applicants are given the option to withhold their SAT scores in the admissions process, only the students with the very low SAT scores will do so. Ultimately we find that students with very high SAT scores, even conditional on observables, submit their SAT scores. Yet applicants with relatively low SAT scores are less likely to withhold their scores than students with mid-range SAT scores.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/37
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1035
2010-10-01T19:16:17Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays in international trade theory and political economy
Djeredjian, Daron O.
2004-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Mary E. Lovely
Nash tarriff
Scale economies
International trade theory
Political economy
Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
The focus of this dissertation spans the fields of international trade theory and political economy. Its objective is to identify the role of scale economies, country size, asset inequality and ideology on the determination of equilibrium trade policies. The strategy is to preserve the tractability of general equilibrium modeling but augment it by incorporating economies of scale in production. This adjustment is essential due to significant empirical evidence of scale economies. This exercise is fruitful in at least three dimensions: (i) it enhances our understanding of the prevalent trade barriers around the world; (ii) it makes it possible to disentangle the existing anti-trade bias into political and economic elements; (iii) it helps identify winners and losers from a non-cooperative Nash tariff equilibrium.
The first essay explores new routes by which country size systematically determines the net benefit of retaliation across trading partners. Using models in which one industry exhibits scale economies, the research identifies circumstances under which the ability to win a tariff war shifts in favor of the smaller country.
The second essay bridges an existing gap in the political economy literature by producing equilibrium tariffs, within an international political economy framework, that are compatible with the widespread trade barriers around the world. In addition, it derives several testable hypotheses regarding the role of asset inequality and ideology on the determination equilibrium trade policies.
The third essay empirically tests the following hypotheses established in my second essay: In a pro-worker regime, an increase in asset inequality will lead to more liberal (restrictive) trade policies in the country that imports (exports) the capital intensive good. In a pro-capitalist regime, an increase in asset inequality will lead to more restrictive (liberal) trade policies in the country that imports (exports) the labor intensive good. This paper finds empirical support for these predictions using cross-country data on ideology, inequality and different measures of protection.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/36
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1036
2010-10-01T20:50:06Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Social security, living arrangements, health, and the economics of the family
Meghea, Cristian
2004-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Stacy Dickert-Conlin
Social security
Living arrangements
Health
Family economics
Aging
Mortality
Economics
Family, Life Course, and Society
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Sociology
This dissertation consists of three essays on Social Security, elderly living arrangements, elderly mortality, and the economics of the family. The first essay focuses on the fastest growing and highest poverty group of elderly, the divorced aged women. I use an exogenous shift in benefit generosity for divorced Social Security recipients, following the death of the ex-spouse, to estimate the impact on their living arrangement choice. Unique features of the New Beneficiary Data System allow the identification of divorced benefit recipients and the death of their ex-spouse, based on Social Security administrative data. Previous literature argues that privacy is a normal good for the elderly. With a new approach and a fairly unexplored data set, I find this not to be true for the poorest group of elderly, the divorced retired women. The results suggest that independent living is a constraint for them, and higher income decreases the likelihood of living alone.
The research literature generally agrees on the positive relationship between income and health. However, it is quite difficult to ascertain the causality since income and health are jointly determined. The second essay will bring evidence on the causal effect of income on the mortality of retired elderly. I use the same exogenous shift in benefit generosity for divorced retired women to estimate the impact of income on their mortality. Relying on a previously unused natural experiment and using the New Beneficiary Data System, I bring additional evidence that an increase in income lowers the mortality of the elderly.
The third chapter investigates the effects of economic incentives on divorce and remarriage behavior. Before December 1977, the Social Security law entitled divorcees to claim auxiliary benefits on their ex-spouse's record only if the marriage lasted at least 20 years. One of the 1977 amendments of the Social Security rules shortened the minimum duration of an "eligible" marriage to ten years. Following the passage of the law, we find that the divorce rate at nine years of marriage decreased relative to a control group. However, there is not strong evidence of a corresponding increase in the divorce rate at ten years of marriage. We also find no evidence that the new claim on future Social Security benefits affected divorced women's remarriage probability in the predicted way.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/35
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn-1001
2010-10-05T19:32:28Z
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Taxation and economic development: the state of the economic literature
Wasylenko, Michael J
Article
1997-01-01T08:00:00Z
Economic development; State finance; Taxation
Economics
What conclusions, if any, can be drawn about the impact of state and local tax policy on economic development relative to other factors? What tax characteristics appear to be the most significant determinants? Are certain industries more sensitive to tax policy than others? Are business taxes more important than personal taxes?
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn/2
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn-1002
2010-10-05T20:07:11Z
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Benefit incidence analysis in developing countries
Selden, Thomas Mathiasen
Wasylenko, Michael J.
Working Paper
1992-01-01T08:00:00Z
Economic Theory and Research; Environmental Economics and Policies; Poverty Assessment; Health Economics and Finance; Banks and Banking Reform
Economics
As interesting and difficult as it is to allocate tax burdens to individuals, the profession knows even less about allocating benefits. The authors survey the literature on benefit incidence since DeWulf's (1975) review, focusing on the methodology and results of benefit incidence analysis in developing countries. Research in this area faces all the general-equilibrium difficulties faced by tax incidence analysis as well as the difficult task of measuring benefits from publicly provided goods and services. Despite the inherent pitfalls of this methodology, the authors believe that benefit incidence analysis can provide an important perspective on the budget by combining data on household use with data on project costs. In particular, benefit incidence analyses can help illuminate the distributional impacts of proposed reallocations of government resources among projects. The value of such research is especially high considering the scarcity of recent research in this area. The authors review the existing methodology, survey the available results, and point out areas in which further research might have large payoffs. They also make specific methodological suggestions that might help ensure that future research is as useful for policymakers as possible. For example: Aggregate results based on the zero-government counterfactual rely on strong assumptions about fixed relative prices and incomes, government efficiency, and the relationship between marginal and total benefits. And those studies are often not designed to identify which types of public services benefit the poor. Researchers should focus more on providing benefit incidence studies on specific government functions or programs that can help policymakers reach conclusions about proposed reallocations of resources among government programs. Benefit incidence should be assigned to households based on household survey information on usage rather than on ad hoc assumptions that assign benefits based on income or the number of members in the household. Improved annual cost measures for services need to be developed, particulary for capital inputs. Researchers should group households by deciles and whenever possible should consider other groupings based on household income adjusted for household composition, age, location, and other relevant socioeconomic variables. Careful attention to life-cycle benefits, benefit shifting, rent-seeking, out-of-pocket costs, displacement of private sector efforts, average versus marginal incidence, and several other issues can significantly increase the value of benefit incidence analysis to policymakers.
No 1015, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn/3
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1037
2012-12-11T18:00:12Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on the effect of taxes on economic behavior
Kumar, Anil
2004-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Gary V. Engelhardt
Labor supply
Saving behavior
Taxes
Economic behavior
Economics
Labor Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
<p>Estimation of the effect of tax and transfer policies on economic behavior is a central area of study in the fields of public finance and labor economics. By changing relative prices, policies affect the consumption/saving and labor/leisure choices of individuals and households. The direction and magnitude of such responses are key elements in the effort to measure the overall effect of taxes on economic behavior. The three essays in this dissertation examine two important areas of recent research: the effect of taxes on female labor supply and the effect of subsidies on saving behavior. In the first essay, I estimate female labor supply elasticities in the presence of taxes in a lifecycle-consistent framework, and then calculate the economic cost of taxation. I employ many of the most current econometric techniques to estimate panel data models with fixed effects in the presence of censoring and am able to estimate both intratemporal and intertemporal elasticities for female labor supply. Using data on a panel of married females from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), female labor supply is found to be highly responsive to taxes, while intratemporal and intertemporal elasticities are estimated to be larger than 1. Blomquist and Newey (2002) have proposed a nonparametric estimator for labor supply functions, in the presence of nonlinear budget sets. In the second essay, I extend their nonparametric estimator to censored dependent variables, propose econometric strategies to empirically estimate the model, and estimate female labor supply elasticities taking into account the entire budget set using data from 1987 wave of PSID. I find evidence of an elastic response to taxation with the compensated wage elasticity estimated to be 1.19. In the last essay, Gary Engelhardt and I study the effect of employer matching on 401(k) saving using data from the 1992 wave of Health and Retirement Study (HRS). We derive a lifecycle-consistent theoretical model for 401(k) saving, and structurally estimate behavioral elasticities using unique administrative data on 401(k) plans by laying out the individual's complete budget set. We estimate that the elasticity of 401(k) contributions with respect to the match rate is 0.33.</p>
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/39
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1038
2010-10-05T19:26:24Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on the theory and econometrics of social interactions in the labor market
Grodner, Andrzej
2004-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Thomas J. Kniesner
Econometrics
Social interactions
Labor market
Economics
Labor Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
My dissertation studies the effects of social interactions on the behavior of economic agents. I investigate the phenomenon of interdependence from the theoretical, econometric, and empirical perspectives and propose a framework of modeling and testing for social interactions.
In the first essay I analyze a demand side of a two-good economy where one of the good's demand is affected by social interactions between consumers. I focus on two types of interactions: a spillover effect in the form of a positive externality from other consumers' choices, and a conformity effect representing a need for making similar choices as other people. I show that a positive spillover effect shifts the demand curve for the good with interactions upwards, whereas the conformity effect makes the demand curve to pivot around the average market demand.
In the second essay I use the example of the labor supply based on a Stone-Geary utility function and I introduce social interactions through the parameter representing the behavioral limit on hours of work, gamma(h). Using the information about empirical distributions of wage rate and non-labor income, as well as the estimated parameters of the Stone-Geary utility function from the literature, I simulate observations on wages and non-labor income and compute resulting demands for hours worked and consumption. I find that ignoring social interactions effects in the estimation equation biases the structural parameters but the elasticities are relatively well estimated.
In the third essay I test econometrically whether there are social interactions present in the labor supply model. The interdependence is defined as a response of individual's hours worked to the mean hours worked in his reference group. The reference group is assumed to include the individuals who share similar age, live in similar family structures, and are close in physical distance, all of which jointly determine the economic distance that reflects the cost of interactions. Results from the linear labor supply model proposed in the literature estimated using instrumental variable technique on the Panel Study of Income Dynamics data from year 1976 indicate the presence of positive spillovers in hours worked.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/38
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn-1003
2010-10-05T20:41:10Z
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Health Care and the Looming Fiscal Crisis in the United States
Wasylenko, Michael J.
Article
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
Medicare; Medicaid; Budget gap; Health costs
Economics
The United States spends a sixth of its GDP on health care. The costs of Medicare and Medicaid have grown along with the cost of health care in general in the United States. The paper addresses the large budget gap that will emerge in Medicare and Medicaid in the decades to come. It describes program financing and some of their main features and explains the projections of the U.S. Congressional Budget Office as well as those of the U.S. appointed Board of Trustees of Social Security, Federal Hospital Insurance and Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds. Finally, the article discusses measures that might be taken to close the budget gap facing the Medicare and Medicaid Porgrams.
This paper is based on a lecture given at the University of Chile on August 7, 2006.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn/4
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1039
2010-10-06T15:15:11Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays in international trade, human capital and income distribution
Das, Mohua
2002-12-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
J. David Richardson
International trade
Human capital
Income distribution
Hecksher-Ohlin theorem
Economic Theory
International Economics
Labor Economics
This dissertation attempts to empirically explain the linkage between increasing trade openness and human capital accumulation, and assess the influence of intra-country income inequality on this linkage, among global economies with differential intensities of factor endowments. Analysis is based on the Hecksher Ohlin Samuelson theory, which suggests that trade could perversely shift factor returns (Stoper Samuelson affect of trade on wages) to enlarge inter-country differences in factor endowments and alter incentives for human capital accumulation. The estimation method employed, in this thesis, is fixed-effects panel data regressions, for the period 1960-1995. Only the third essay has an unbalanced panel due to missing information on income inequality for some years.
The first essay poses the question: how does international trade influence schooling enrolment ratios among open economies? We conclude that more trade openness has augmented human capital accumulation, at all levels of education, for skill abundant countries. But for skill-scarce countries, even though trade openness has enhanced human capital accumulation at the secondary and primary levels, it has decreased their tertiary enrolment rates.
The second essay proposes and computes an alternative indicator of human capital--'Sector-Based Skill Premium' that is a price-analog to the enrolment measure of human capital. Econometric estimation of the hypothesis proposed in the first essay, with this new indicator, suggests that increased trade has indeed decreased human capital acquisition for skill-scarce, labor-abundant economies, while contributing to an increase in human capital in skill-abundant economies.
The third essay introduces a new variable--income inequality--to the economic ordering examined in the first essay, by exploring whether egalitarian economies accumulate relatively more human capital with increased international trade openness. Estimation analysis indicates that countries with high inequality in their income distribution will have relatively lower human capital accumulation with increased trade openness because income inequality correlates with access to financial markets that determines individuals' abilities to borrow for investment in skill building.
The central conclusion we draw is that trade is a mixed blessing for most semi-skilled, labor-abundant economies.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/41
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn-1004
2010-10-06T16:42:03Z
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Growth and convergence: A profile of distribution dynamics and mobility
Maasoumi, Esfandiar
Racine, Jeff
Stengos, Thanasis
Article
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
Growth
Convergence
Distribution dynamics
Entropy
Stochastic dominance
Non-Parametric
International cross-section
Economics
In this paper we focus primarily on the dynamic evolution of the world distribution of growth rates in per capita GDP. We propose new concepts and measures of “convergence,” or “divergence ” that are based on entropy distances and dominance relations between groups of countries over time. We update the sample period to include the most recent decade of data available, and we offer traditional parametric and new nonparametric estimates of the most widely used growth regressions for two important subgroups of countries, OECD and non-OECD. Traditional parametric models are rejected by the data, however, using robust nonparametric methods we find strong evidence in favor of “polarization ” and “within group ” mobility.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn/5
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1040
2010-10-07T19:24:48Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Cradle to grave: Three essays on the impact of tax and public policies in the United States
Williamson, James M.
2003-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Thomas J. Kniesner
Essays
Public policies
Tax reform
Economics
Labor Economics
Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration
Public Policy
Social and Behavioral Sciences
My first essay is a study of tax policy and US marital fertility. Marginal tax rate changes have the ability to affect fertility decisions by altering the opportunity cost of time through a change in the after-tax wage. Using a natural experiments framework developed to examine women's labor force participation I investigate the effect of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 on marital fertility. The data were from the March Current Population Survey. I find the women who faced the largest drop in their marginal tax rate increased their fertility by 15 percent after TRA86 relative to a control group who faced a smaller cut.
The second essay examines the change in the mix of income and benefits that older adults receive as the age, with a focus on older women. My study is a cross-national comparison of five OECD countries and the data come from the Luxemburg Income Study. To investigate how private income and social benefits change over time, I create synthetic cohorts and follow them for twenty years on average, depending on the availability of data. What my study reveals is that older women rely heavily on socially provided benefits for a majority of their income, and these benefits are primarily responsible for whether older women find themselves in poverty or not. As a result of my study, I recommend that a policy targeting the very poorest older adults could achieve significant reductions in poverty.
In the third essay I examine the use of home health agency services and allied health services after the implementation of changes to the payment scheme mandated by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. I compare the home health service use of two groups of older adults: Medicare-only eligible population and a dually-eligible population, defined as being eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. The results of my research suggest a small (approximately 2 percent) and statistically insignificant difference in home health care visits between the dually-eligible population and the Medicare-only population. However, the results show that dually-eligible people had far more outpatient department visits post-BBA1997 (approximately 45 percent more) and more office-based visits with a physician.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/40
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1043
2010-10-12T17:13:47Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Two essays on personnel mobility from public schools in New York State
Al-Alawi, Tariq H.
2003-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
John Yinger
Personnel mobility
Public schools
New York
Economics
Education
Educational Administration and Supervision
Social and Behavioral Sciences
In the first chapter, we study teachers in their second spell of teaching. We examine teachers' commitment to stay in the new school and try to relate some of the factors that might have caused teacher mobility from the old school to the new one on the decision to stay in the new school.
In the second chapter, we are interested in examining the factors that might cause principals and assistant principals to leave their school. We use the same method used by Hanushek et al., 2002 to understand the determinants that might influence the mobility of principals and assistant principals. Our study is focused on public schools in New York State for the years 1980-1990. A hazard survival model is used to help us in examining the relationship between the determinants of mobility and the length of stay in the public school.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/44
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1042
2010-10-12T17:07:10Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on the empirical linkage between trade and income
Shuo, Zhang
2003-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
J. David Richardson
Jan Ondrich
Trade
Income
Export openness
Import openness
Economics
International Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
The link between trade, income, and growth has been given increasing attention as countries try to justify their trade-promoting policies. Following the recent cross-country work of Frankel and Romer (1999), the first essay, "Further Investigation of the Link between Trade and Income," explores the sensitivity of the estimating effect of trade on income to heteroscedasticity and sample selection. The results support the hypothesis that trade has a significant and positive, yet relatively small, impact on income.
In the second essay, "The Link between Trade and Income: Export Effect, Import Effect, or Both?" a new framework is presented to evaluate how cross-country differences of export openness and import openness affect the level of real per capita income. Pure instrumental variable estimators extract the exogenous components of total trade and net exports. We build on existing literature on countries' geography as an instrument for total trade openness, and we build on countries' demography and balance of payments features to develop a novel instrument for net export openness. New estimates reveal that export openness alone correlate with income, not import openness.
The third essay, "A Panel Study of the Openness-Income Linkage," explores the role of export openness and import openness in facilitating income growth using country-level data for the period 1970-92. The two-stage model based on the gravity study and the net trade balance determination function is proposed and estimated in the panel framework. The robustness of the openness-income relationship is tested. The main finding is that there is a robust and independent link between the exogenous component of export openness and income. The import openness effect is positive but smaller than the export openness effect.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/45
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1041
2010-10-12T17:04:17Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays in inequality
Schwabish, Jonathan Alan
2003-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Thomas Knicsner
Inequality
Welfare
Compensating differentials
Gender differences
Wage elasticity
Economics
Labor Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
This dissertation is a collection of three essays, each of which examines different aspects of inequality. The different analyses use different sources of data and various econometric techniques to develop and test issues related to inequality, nonwage forms of compensation and public social expenditures.
In the first, I use two data sets and four models to estimate and track wage elasticities for men and women over time. I estimate gross elasticities for both genders and then use an ex ante Slutsky decomposition to estimate income and substitution effects. I then repeat this exercise to include nonworkers as well, essentially combining a three-step Heckit with the Slutsky decomposition. Then, using two separate tests, I check whether the two series converge over the period but find weak evidence for this hypothesis. I do find, however, that female elasticities are falling over the period and are generally larger than the male elasticities.
In the second, I use Surface provides description only. Full text is available to ProQuest subscribers. Ask your Librarian for assistance. fringe benefit data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to examine inequality in nonwage forms of compensation. This data is taken from the survey behind the Employer Cost Index and contains dollar costs of fringe benefits. I calculate the mean fringe benefit value by industry occupation cell and then impute these values onto two household data sets. I then estimate the hedonic model via OLS, Fixed Effects and quantile regression analysis but, as in the previous literature, find no substantial trade-off between wages and fringes. I do find some evidence that workers in the 90th percentile of the wage distribution do trade higher health and life insurance for lower wages.
In the final essay, which is co-written with Timothy Smeeding and Lars Osberg, we look at what effects inequality has on government social expenditures. Our hypothesis is that high levels of income inequality reduce public support for publicly provided goods (such as health care and education) which especially benefit the poor. The results suggest that as the "rich" become more distant from the middle and lower classes, they find it easier to opt out of public programs and to buy substitutes in the private market. Hence, over time, support for those social institutions and goods, which provide upward mobility and equal opportunity for all, such as public health insurance and public education, are eroded. The bottom line is that higher economic inequality has a cost in that it produces lower levels of those publicly shared goods which foster greater upward mobility.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/43
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1044
2010-10-12T18:13:54Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
An examination of the impact of federal disability programs on family labor supply: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study
Giertz, Seth Hyland
2001-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Jan Ondrich
Social Security Disability Insurance
Federal
Disability programs
Family
Labor supply
Health and Retirement Study
Economics
Labor Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
This set of essays recognizes the wide-ranging impact that a disabling condition can have on the family and thus examines the behavioral responses of spouses in addition to the individual with the health condition. The data used for all three essays are from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS)--both the public release data as well as Surface provides description only. Full text is available to ProQuest subscribers. Ask your Librarian for assistance. access earnings histories from the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service.
Essay I uses a panel from the HRS in conjunction with a number of different nonexperimental econometric techniques to analyze the effects of a male's disability application on the wife's earnings and labor force participation. The econometric techniques employed in the essay range from the traditional OLS estimation, which is the most restrictive model, to a fully-interactive nonparametric cell matching technique, which imposes no functional form restrictions on the data.
Essay I finds the impact of the husband's disability application on his spouse's labor supply to be dynamic. Behavioral changes are observed both before and after application and the size of these effects differ depending on the time to application. After accounting for the dynamic effect of disability, the different models provide similar results and follow the same trend. The different dynamic techniques show women reducing their labor supply well before disability application and that this pre-treatment effect increases on through the application date.
Essay II compares the health and demographic backgrounds of successful and unsuccessful applicants to Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income. The essay also looks at the earnings for these groups and their trends in the years leading up to application. It finds that like successful applicants, denied applicants report having health problems at a high rate. In the years leading up to application, denied applicants actually earn and remain in the labor force at substantially lower rates than accepted applicants. Furthermore, after restricting the sample to those with strong earnings histories, a divergence between the two groups is observed as the application date approaches, with earnings for rejected applicants falling at a faster rate than for the accepted group. These patterns hold, even after controlling for health and other observable characteristics.
Essay III once again examines women's responses to declines in their spouses' health. Here the duration from the onset of the male's health condition until the wife changes income categories is examined. A discrete-time proportional hazard model (with and without corrections for heterogeneity) is used to estimate the wife's probability of switching to a lower (or higher) income group in the years following the onset of her husband's condition.
Essay III finds that for those moving from the low to high-income category, the hazard function is initially declining, but there is positive duration dependence for a number of the post-onset years. This pattern is missed with the model that does not account for unobserved heterogeneity. For those moving from the high to low-income category, negative duration dependence prevails.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/42
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1045
2010-10-15T18:13:43Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays on population aging, fiscal policy, and international tax exporting
Tosun, Mehmet Serkan
2001-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Douglas J. Holtz-Eakin
Population aging
Fiscal policy
Tax exporting
International capital flows
Trade liberalization
Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
This dissertation consists of three essays in public economics. In the first two essays, I examine the relationship between population aging, fiscal policy decisions, and open capital markets. The last essay is a study on international taxation.
In Essay I, I consider projected population aging in both developed and developing countries. This paper explores the roles of both a politically responsive fiscal policy and international capital mobility to explain the effects of worldwide population aging trend on growth and welfare of countries. It also has a scenario analysis for the timing of developing country aging. The results show that the interaction of capital mobility and endogenous fiscal policy may reverse the effects of aging on growth and welfare as predicted by closed economy and exogenous fiscal policy models. Furthermore, countries' reactions differ significantly with the timing of the demographic shocks.
Essay II is coauthored by Douglas J. Holtz-Eakin and Mary E. Lovely. We investigate the effect of a demographic transition on the endogenous determination of public spending for education. A demographic transition alters the identity of the median voter, leading to a preference for less education spending. If the public sector is inefficiently small, demographic transition exacerbates the under-provision of human capital. Alternatively, such a shift may trim an inefficiently large government, reduce tax rates and raise capital per worker enough to raise education spending. Thus, there is no automatic link between demographic transition and reduced support for government programs that primarily benefit the young.
The third and the final essay is an empirical study on tax revenue changes and tax exporting incentives. The goal is to provide empirical estimates of the degree to which policymakers take advantage of their ability to substitute exportable domestic taxes for direct taxes on international transactions. I provide evidence that there has been a statistically and economically significant move from international trade taxes to domestic taxes on goods and services in non-OECD countries as a result of significant trade liberalization since mid-1980s. This is particularly important since it may reflect the policymakers' desire to export the taxes on goods and services that cross borders.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/46
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1046
2010-10-18T17:25:00Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays on estimation and testing in nonstationary panel data
Emerson, Jamie Donald
2001-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Chihwa Kao
Estimation
Testing
Nonstationary panel data
Economics
In the first chapter, the limiting distributions for ordinary least squares, fixed effects, first difference, and generalized least squares estimators are studied. A simple linear time trend with a one-way error component model is considered. It is shown that when the disturbances are stationary, the fixed effects estimator is asymptotically equivalent to the generalized least squares estimator. However, when the disturbances are nonstationary, the first difference estimator is asymptotically equivalent to the generalized least squares estimator. The asymptotic distributions for the estimators are also presented for the case when the disturbances are nearly nonstationary. Monte Carlo simulations are employed to compare the performance of the four estimators in finite samples.
In the second chapter, two classes of test statistics for detecting a parameter break at an unknown date are proposed. The model is similar to the one considered in chapter one. The first test is based on the fluctuation test of Ploberger-Kramer-Kontrus, extended to panel data. The second test is based on the mean and exponential Wald statistics of Andrews and Ploberger and the maximum Wald statistic of Andrews, extended to panel data. The limiting distributions of the proposed tests are derived when the disturbances are stationary, nonstationary, and nearly nonstationary. These limiting distributions are then used to simulate the critical values for the tests. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to examine the size and power of the proposed tests in finite samples.
In the third chapter, the following panels of countries are considered: (1) panels based on individual growth rates, (2) OPEC countries, (3) industrialized countries, (4) G7 countries, and (5) panels based on geographic location. The theory from chapters one and two is used to estimate and test for structural change in the annual growth rates of real per capita GDP, real per capita consumption, and productivity in each of the different panels. It is found that industrial countries experienced slowdowns in growth in the early 1970s, whereas less developed countries also experienced slowdowns in growth, but the timing of the slowdowns is in the mid to late 1970s.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/47
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1047
2010-10-19T17:46:13Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on the estate tax
Marples, Donald James
2001-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Douglas Holtz-Eakin
Estate tax
Public finance
Taxation
Economics
Labor Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
The United States estate tax has recently attracted a great deal of popular and professional attention, despite the paucity of information regarding its effects on economics behavior. One possible reason for this void in the literature is that it affects relatively few individuals. Thus, while the high marginal tax rates of the estate tax provide substantial incentive for individuals to alter their behavior, the relatively small numbers make empirical work difficult. This collection of essays, utilizing the Health and Retirement Study and state level estate tax variation, provides insight on three previously unexamined topics.
The first essay, "Labor Supply Effects of the Estate Tax" examines the labor supply responses of individuals to the estate tax. As with the familiar income tax, the predicted impact of the tax is ambiguous, a priori, due to conflicting income (raising the estate tax lowers the purchasing power of assets and endowment) and substitution (the price of inheritances rise) effects. However, after controlling for other aspects of the labor force participation decision and employing an instrumental variables procedure to eliminate endogeneity bias from several sources, I find that the estate tax lowers labor force participation. In particular, a 10 percentage point increase in the estate tax lowers labor force participation by between 1.884 and 2.988 percentage points, corresponding to elasticities ranging from -0.0887 to -0.137.
In the second essay, "Distortion Costs of Taxing Wealth Accumulation: Income Versus Estate Taxes" I develop a framework for computing the deadweight loss of a revenue-neutral switch from an estate tax to a capital income tax, focusing on the potential lifetime behavioral responses in anticipation of paying the estate tax, while requiring relatively few parameters to estimate. I conclude that eliminating the estate tax and replacing the revenue with that from a capital income tax will likely enhance economic efficiency. Specifically, using my baseline parameter estimates I estimate that the mean decrease in deadweight loss is $0.018 per dollar of wealth.
In the final essay, "Estate Taxes and Marginal Incentives: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study" I first design a complex effective estate tax calculator and then apply it to Wave 1 of the Health and Retirement Study. As with more familiar taxes, the effective estate tax rates are less than the statutory estate tax rates that currently frame the policy debate. In particular, I find an effective combined federal and state marginal estate tax rate is 0.53 percent for the sample and 0.85 percent conditional on having a positive expected estate tax liability. Additionally, single individuals face effective estate tax rates over fifty times greater than married couples and entrepreneurs face effective estate tax rates forty percent greater than non-entrepreneurs.
This collection of papers represents a contribution to the literature regarding the effects of taxes on economic behavior. Specifically, these papers substantially broaden the literature on the estate tax and illuminate an identification strategy that can be utilized to further study the estate tax.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/52
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1048
2010-10-19T18:07:06Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on the economics of agglomeration
Sharma, Shalini
2001-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Stuart S. Rosenthal
Agglomeration
City growth
Location
Exporting firms
Scale economies
Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
The essays in this dissertation examine agglomerations from two standpoints. The first is in the context of cities and their growth pattern. The second is at the level of firms that make location decisions that result in spatial clustering while in an open economy.
The first essay uses a time series approach to examine relative city growth patterns. It examines growth rates of city populations using Indian population data from 1901-1991. The goal is to examine evolution of the hierarchy of cities (or relative urban growth) given the effect of time-varying shocks. Unit root tests show that city populations may be nonstationary. Cointegration of city populations and total urban population suggests that the growth of cities is parallel in the long-run. In the short-run there are deviations from the long-term parallel growth of cities due to exogenous shocks that take a little more than a decade to dissipate.
The second essay examines the differences in the location behavior of exporting firms versus non-exporting firms. This essay explores the reasons for which export firms cluster, that are different than those for which non exporters cluster. Using industry data, an index of exporter and non-exporter agglomeration is estimated and regressions are performed using proxies for export-specific localization economies and industry related localization economies as explanatory variables. It is found that export-specific localization economies are an important reason for spatial clustering of exporters.
The third essay examines the correlations in localization economies and natural advantages offered by sites that result in exporters and non-exporters choosing the same location. An estimated index of coagglomeration is regressed on a set of industry characteristics. Localization economies like input sharing and labor pooling are the main reasons for which exporters and non-exporters will choose the same location.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/51
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1049
2010-10-19T18:15:06Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on the behavioral impacts of public policy on health
Baughman, Reagan Anne
2001-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Douglas Holtz-Eakin
Public policy
Insurance
Earned Income Tax Credit
Fertility
Alcohol control
Traffic accidents
Economics
Health Policy
Labor Economics
Public Administration
Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Social Welfare
The first essay explores whether or not recent expansions in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) have enhanced private health insurance coverage for low-income workers. Theoretically, through both a (tax) price and income effect, the credit would be expected to raise private coverage. My results suggest that large EITC expansions between 1994 and 1996--which provide exogenous variation in benefits--lead to increases in employer-based health insurance coverage, but not in privately purchased non-group coverage. From these estimates I calculate that approximately 370,000 individuals gained employer-based coverage as a result of an expanded EITC between 1992 and 1998.
The second essay is a study of the relationship between expansions in public health insurance programs and fertility patterns in the United States. Large expansions of Medicaid and the implementation of state Child Health Insurance Programs during the 1990s increased the availability of publicly subsidized health insurance for pregnancy-related services and child health care. Expanded coverage lowered the costs associated with bearing and raising children, and consequently had the potential to affect fertility behavior. I test this hypothesis using variation birthrates and in Medicaid/CHIP policies across states between 1989 and 1998 and find a 3 percent increase in the national birthrate in response to more generous public health insurance coverage.
The third essay examines whether or not policies that restrict the sales of alcoholic beverages affect motor vehicle accident rates. For the analysis, we use a unique and detailed panel of data with annual observations on 254 Texas counties, each with their own alcohol control policies, over the period 1976 to 1996. After controlling for both county and year fixed effects, we find evidence that: (i) the sale of alcohol for on-premises consumption is associated with a sizeable increase in alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents while sale for off-premises consumption may actually decrease accidents; and (ii) the sale of higher alcohol-content liquor presents greater risk to highway safety.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/50
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1050
2010-10-19T18:49:17Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Welfare implications of a pan-Arab FTA
AlBulaihed, Khaled Saleh
2001-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Mary Lovely
Welfare
Pan-Arab
Arab
Free trade areas
Trade integration
Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
This research provides a comprehensive analysis of Arab countries barriers to intra-regional imports. In view of the Pan-Arab Free Trade Area (PAFTA) liberalization initiative, it assesses welfare gains and losses, terms of trade benefits to domestic producers, the impact on tariff revenues, and thus the net impact on PAFTA members' economies.
Due to data limitations, only seven Arab countries are analyzed: Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia. In sharp contrast with expectations, this research shows a loss of $459M in net welfare for PAFTA, because overall gains are $622M and losses are $1081M.
Analysis of trade integration is performed on a sector-by-sector basis to identify the industries that have the largest impact on members' welfare. The analysis uses SITC 4-digit bilateral trade data and a partial equilibrium approach to estimate three types of elasticities at SITC 2-digit level. Common elasticity estimate is -1.1 for intra-regional imports, 0.59 for interregional exports, and -0.69 for the elasticity of substitution between intra-regional imports and inter-regional imports from the world. Estimated elasticities vary widely across sectors.
Imports projections suggest the PAFTA's trade-diverting impact of $3344M is substantially greater than its trade creating effects of $375M which, respectively, constitute a decrease of 3.4% in inter-regional imports and an increase of 3.2% in intra-regional imports.
Net welfare from PAFTA is negative. The reason is that the impact on imports is larger for trade diversion than that for trade creation. Also, a member country pays a hefty loss in tariff revenue on all existing intra-regional imports whereas it loses tariff revenue on only the diverted imports. However, only four comparative advantage sectors are industries that exhibit economies of scale: organic and inorganic chemicals, fertilizers, and plastics. As such, few industries could exploit the improved market access provided by PAFTA.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/49
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1051
2010-10-20T14:53:36Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Income, spatial competition and welfare
Kwon, Youngsun
2000-06-01T07:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
John Yinger
Income
Spatial competition
Welfare
Wage inequality
Land allocation
Commuting
Economic Theory
Labor Economics
Urban Studies and Planning
This dissertation is comprised of four essays. Chapter II develops a new way to present standard urban models and a new rent function called the rent-commuting cost function. The rent-commuting cost function represents the relationship between rent and total commuting cost, and is advantageous because it is independent of the functional form of the commuting cost function and its gradient falls as household income rises. However, the gradient of the rent-distance function may not fall as income grows if: (1) the income elasticity of marginal commuting cost is greater than the income elasticity of land demand; (2) congestion is considered; and (3) commuting cost is a function of income and distance. Therefore, the gradient of the rent-commuting cost function is an appropriate measure of suburbanization, and the gradient of the rent-distance function is not.
Chapter III examines comparative statics and derives the effects of income on urban characteristics using a closed model. The commuting cost is assumed to be a function of income and distance. As income grows household utility increases but less than it would in the standard model where the commuting cost is solely a function of distance. Also, the length of the border of the city becomes elongates as income grows. In contrast to the Alonso-Wheaton model, land rent at the central business district (CBD) rises as income grows if the time cost of commuting is greater than the operating cost. If an increase in income causes total commuting cost to increase significantly, households' willingness to bid more for land closer to the CBD will be strengthened since they can save more money by doing so. As income grows land demand rises and population density falls at the CBD.
Chapter IV also uses comparative statics to derive the effects of a median preserving increase in wage inequality on the welfare of households. It uses the same model as in Chapter III but with two income classes. An increase in income of the wealthy living in the suburban area can either hurt or improve the welfare of the poor depending on the relative magnitudes of operating cost and time cost. In contrast, an increase in the income of the poor living in the central area of the city always hurts the rich. Generally, if an increase in income of one class intensifies competition for land at the boundary of two classes, it hurts the other. Alternatively, if competition for land at the boundary is reduced, the welfare of the other class is enhanced.
Chapter V assumes a commuting network made up of dense circular streets and finite radial roads. Based on the assumed commuting network, the market and optimal commuting cost functions are derived. Using the Alonso-Wheaton model equipped with new commuting cost functions, the optimal and equilibrium allocations of land between residential and public uses are derived. If households are freely mobile and a city is small, a local government can attain the optimal allocation of land by maximizing population. The optimal allocation of land for roads is the same as the equilibrium allocation.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/48
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1052
2010-10-25T15:05:42Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Simulation analysis on distributional effects of reforming Medicare financing system with fundamental tax reform
Lu, Chunling
2000-08-01T07:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Douglas Holtz-Eakin
Medicare financing
Fundamental tax reform
Welfare effects
Finance
Health Policy
Public Economics
Social Welfare
The Medicare program is a major component of social insurance in the United States. A major concern about Medicare is whether there will be enough resources to meet health care financing needs of the disabled and elderly over time. Some recent studies propose different solutions to avoid bankruptcy of the Medicare program in the long run. In this study, I propose that another alternative to reform the Medicare financing system is to radically alter the revenue base--employing fundamental tax reform. To evaluate this proposal, I examine the changes in welfare within and across generations from a short-run and a long-run perspective by conducting a comparative static analysis.
The simulation results shows that, in the short-run study, when the Medicare program is financed by a flat consumption tax, the current old generation will be hurt and the young generation will benefit. However, the changes in welfare levels are relatively small. In the long run, switching to a flat consumption tax makes the old generations a little bit worse off and the young generation slightly better off. The old generation would consume less health service good besides Medicare service given by the government and more nonhealth good.
A flat income tax produces a small range of gains for both generations. The old generation enjoys welfare gain. The lifetime welfare level of the young generation also improves. With a flat wage tax reform, the old generation enjoys a big welfare, while the young generation suffers loss in the first period of its lifetime. However, taking the loss and gain in two periods into consideration, the lifetime welfare level of the young generations increases slightly.
The above findings indicate that fundamental tax reform would allow keeping the Medicare program while not necessarily providing a hard hit to the old generation. This suggests that concerns over the negative impact of tax reform on the old generations should not stand as an impediment to reform.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/58
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1057
2010-10-25T19:42:53Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Cointegration in panel data
Bangtian, Chen
1998-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Chihwa Kao
Cointegration
Panel data
Economics
Statistics and Probability
This dissertation investigates an asymptotic theory of cointegration in panel data covering spurious regression, residual based tests for cointegration, and estimation and inference of cointegrating regressions, where the cross section and time series dimensions are comparable in magnitude. A fixed effect least squares dummy variable (LSDV) regression model is selected throughout the paper. The error terms are assumed to be identically and independently distributed, so that the law of large numbers and central limit theorem for triangular arrays can be applied in a straightforward way.
We first examine a spurious regression problem in panel data and show that the spurious coefficient estimator is consistent but the conventional t-statistic is divergent. We can derive from the latter that ignoring properties of integrated processes in panel data will lead to false inferences about the relationship among the integrated variables as the sample size becomes large.
Next, we propose several residual-based tests for cointegration with the null hypothesis of no cointegration. The Dickey-Fuller (DF) test and the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test have asymptotic properties very similar to the unit roots based upon raw residuals. Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the ADF test does not improve the DF test in general.
The asymptotic properties of estimation and inference of cointegrating regression are studied. The LSDV estimators based on the ordinary least squares (OLS) have a non-negligible finite sample bias although they are superconsistent (the convergence rate of ${1\over T}$ instead of ${1\over\sqrt T}).$ Monte Carlo simulations find that the bias-corrected OLS estimators do not improve over the simple OLS estimators.
Finally, we apply the asymptotic theory of cointegrating regressions recently developed by Kao and Chiang (1997) to Coe and Helpman's (1995) international R&D spillovers regression. Conventional OLS may lead to false inference about the coefficients. The OLS with bias-correction, and the Fully-Modified (FM) and the Dynamic OLS (DOLS) estimations produce different predictions about the impact of foreign R&D on total factor productivity although all of the estimations support that domestic R&D is related to total factor productivity. Our empirical results tend to reject Coe and Helpman's hypothesis that international spillovers are trade-related.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/53
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1054
2010-10-25T19:19:17Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays on taxation, self-employment, and housing
Bruce, Donald J.
1999-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Douglas Holtz-Eakin
Housing
Taxation
Self-employment
Economics
Labor Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
This dissertation consists of three essays in public and labor economics. In the first two, I examine individual data on transitions into self-employment. Essay I examines whether or not the U.S. tax system discourages individuals from starting new businesses, and Essay II considers the effect of a self-employed husband on the transition decisions of married women. Finally, Essay III presents a dynamic simulation model of the impact of tax reform--specifically, of a Flat Tax--on owner-occupied housing values.
In the first, I estimate random effects probits of whether or not a male wage worker makes a transition into self-employment, controlling for a variety of individual, household, occupational, and regional characteristics. Unique to this study is the use of individual-specific differences in wage-and-salary and self-employment tax rates. Empirical results show that differential taxation has significant effects on the probability of becoming self-employed. Lower average tax rates in self-employment increase the probability of entry, while lower marginal tax rates in self-employment decrease the probability.
The focus in the second essay is on the effect of a husband's self-employment experience. Results show that having a husband with experience in self-employment nearly doubles the probability that a woman will start her own business. The effect is found to be strongest if the husband is actually self-employed at the time the wife is contemplating a transition. A series of robustness checks suggest that family businesses and assortative mating only partially explain this large effect. Intrahousehold human capital transfers might also play a role.
The third essay is co-authored by Douglas Holtz-Eakin. In it, we estimate the effects of a Flat Tax on owner-occupied housing, being careful to disentangle the transitional adjustments from long-run steady-state outcomes. Simulation results using plausible parameter values indicate that such a reform would not have devastating effects on housing values. This divergence is attributed to the business-side tax on new housing, which would make existing housing relatively tax advantaged in the immediate term.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/56
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1055
2010-10-25T19:21:10Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays on wage differentials
Khripounova, Elena Borisovna
1999-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
J. David Richardson
Labor market
International trade
Wage differentials
Economics
Labor Economics
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Why do wages of observationally similar workers vary with their industry of employment? In the literature, this question has been explored along several lines, including a variety of "efficiency wage models" and models with compensating differentials. These theories, which are not mutually exclusive and are often overlapping, account for about half of the overall residual variation of wages in the U.S. economy. My dissertation attempts to shed some light on the unexplained half.
I suggest an alternative approach to explaining industry wage differentials--one based on industry specific human capital. Recognizing the empirical difficulty of identifying specific factors, I develop two cases: (i) where a researcher has perfect knowledge of whether an observation represents a specific or a shared factor, and (ii) where such distinction is not possible and only the industry of this individual's employment is observed. I show that in case (ii), the estimated industry wage differentials are contaminated by the inclusion of the shared factor whose price is equal across industries.
I find empirical evidence of factor specificity in unequal returns to education across industries and occupations, in the expected relationship between labor of differing mobility and industry wage differentials, and in inter-temporal pattern of wage differentials at several levels of aggregation. The assumption of perfect labor mobility is not supported. I argue that industry marginal effects as a measure of industry wage differentials are preferred to traditional differentials in the specific-factors model. I support this argument by comparing the performance of industry marginal effects and traditional differentials as dependent variables in several regression specifications, which themselves contain a number of novel explanatory variables.
The effect of trade on wage differentials is found statistically significant, but its magnitude is small compared to other explanatory factors, such as technological change and industry location. The relationship between industry wage differentials and industry location in a high-wage state is positive, but does not determine the direction of causality: geographical wages dispersion might stem from differences in industrial composition, rather than cause industry wage inequality. In the last part of my dissertation, I explore this issue and find that state wage differentials are indeed influenced by state industry mix.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/55
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1053
2010-10-25T19:17:25Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays in applied microeconometrics
Weathers, Robert Ray, II
1999-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Richard V. Burkhauser
Microeconometrics
Disability
Social Security Disability Insurance
Hazard model
Economics
Labor Economics
This dissertation consists of three essays in applied microeconometrics. In the first essay, I use retrospective data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) together with matching state level data on SSDI allowance rates and individual level Social Security administrative record data on the generosity of SSDI benefits to examine how the Social Security Disability Insurance program affects a person's work behavior following the onset of a disability. A hazard model that allows for both measured and unmeasured heterogeneity is used to estimate the relative importance of policy variables--employer accommodation as well as the relative value and likelihood of acceptance onto the SSDI program--on the timing of SSDI application following the onset of a disability. The results show that employer accommodation significantly slows a worker's application for SSDI benefits while easier access to SSDI benefits and more generous SSDI benefits increase the speed of application following the onset of a health condition.
In the second essay, I develop three approaches that may be used to obtain consistent estimates of the structural parameters in the fixed effects ordered logit model. The first approach uses the adjacent categories form of the ordered logit along with the conditional logit and minimum distance estimator to obtain estimates of the structural parameters. In a second step, the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) is used to estimate the sum of the limit parameters and the fixed effects, and finally the limits are estimated based on the means of the sums. The other approaches interpret fixed effects as random effects. The second approach specifies the fixed effects as omitted variables that raise the variance of the disturbance and bias the logit estimates. A generated regressor is created to allow the bias to be corrected. The third approach generalizes a new method of estimation for the fixed effects logit model to the ordered logit. Specification tests are extended to these estimators and a Monte Carlo experiment is constructed to test the small sample properties of the estimator.
The third essay uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to examine how experience with entrepreneurship--defined as persons who are self-employed--has affected an individual's place in the earnings distribution. The strategy is to follow individuals' positions in the income distribution over time, and to see how their mobility was affected by involvement with entrepreneurship. The results show that for low-income individuals there is some merit to the notion that the self-employed moved ahead in the earnings distribution relative to those who remained wage earners. On the other hand, for those at the upper end of the earnings distribution, those who became self-employed often advanced less in the earnings distribution than their wage and salary counterparts.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/57
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1056
2010-10-25T19:33:31Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Capitalization of local public services into house values
Hamadeh, Mohamed Hussein
1998-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
John Yinger
Capitalization
Public services
House values
Economics
This study tries to measure the effect of local public service quality on house values. Many other studies have attempted to measure this effect, but did not pay a careful attention to the choice of public service. This study estimates a public service index out of an educational cost model. It then uses the index in an hedonic equation to estimate capitalization. This study also uses the index to estimate the demand for education.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/54
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1058
2010-10-26T14:47:26Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays on vertically integrated multinational enterprises: Theory and evidence
Tang, Linghui
1998-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
J. David Richardson
Incomplete contract
Ownership structure
Vertically integrated
Multinational enterprises
Business
Economics
This dissertation investigates, theoretically and empirically, the incentives for vertical integration across borders and the emergence of vertically integrated multinational firms.
Based on incomplete contract theory, chapter one develops a model of an endogenous ownership structure when two firms from two countries have a vertical production linkage. By aligning ownership with the right of control, the model shows how a vertically integrated multinational firm will emerge by comparing the costs and benefits of the integrated ownership structure with the non-integrated one.
Using the data published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, chapter two derives an index to measure the degree of vertical integration for U.S. multinational firms. By comparing the principal industry of U.S. parents and their majority-owned affiliates abroad, the study shows a significant degree of vertical integration for U.S. multinationals. Furthermore, the degree of vertical integration for U.S. firms in developed countries is as high as that in developing countries.
Based on the theoretical model developed in chapter one and the vertical measures derived in chapter two, chapter three examines the correlates of two vertical intensities. One measures the proportion of vertical direct investment to horizontal investment; the other measures the extent of vertical direct investment to firms' other international operations. It is found that parent-affiliate wage differential encourages more vertical direct investment when compared with horizontal direct investment. However, the wage differential is negatively rather than positively correlated with the second vertical intensity. In sum, the measurable theory indicators tend to correspond better to incomplete contract theory than to factor proportions theory.
Chapter four is used as a case study for the non-contractible approach to vertical integration. Based on the current accounting rate system that governs international calls in the telecommunications industry, it is shown that an integrated ownership structure is preferred when one of the two markets is very elastic in demand or is much smaller in market size. On the other hand, a non-equity relationship will dominate when both markets are inelastic and similar in market size.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/60
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1059
2010-10-26T18:25:23Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Pricing the default and prepayment risks of mortgages: An option pricing theoretic approach and an empirical hazard rate analysis
Huang, Wenyi Vivien
1999-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
James R. Follain
Pricing
Default
Prepayment risks
Mortgages
Option pricing
Hazard rate
Business
Economics
Finance and Financial Management
This study proposes a theoretic interpolation-based lattice model to price the prepayment and default option values of a fixed-rate mortgage, and uses a hazard model to empirically investigate the prepayment and default behavior of FHA insured multifamily loans.
A "pure" option-pricing model is used to price the value of prepayment and default options. Prepayment is treated as an American call option and default as a put option. An interpolation-based lattice model is used to solve backward the prepayment and default option values. Unlike the traditional lattice methods, in which the total number of nodes grows geometrically with time steps when stochastic volatility is present, the number of nodes in this model grows linearly with each variable dimension. The common problem of "non-recombination" is handled through interpolation. This approach can easily accommodate early exercise of option, which is one of the important features of mortgage termination. Another advantage of this approach is that it does not require transformation of the original processes. Therefore, alternative underlying processes can be easily adapted to this model. Finally, numerical results are presented and compared with the results of another lattice approach to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the model.
Research under the empirical investigation is to examine the prepayment and default behavior of FHA insured multifamily mortgages. In most literature, analyses of prepayment and default are conducted separately. However, default and prepayment are clearly not statistically independent, and may actually be related. Given the competing nature of prepayment and default risks, a competing risk hazard model is employed to estimate the conditional prepayment and claim rates for multifamily mortgages simultaneously. Furthermore, the risk preferences and idiosyncrasies across borrowers vary widely. This study presents a competing risk hazard model that accounts for the unobserved heterogeneity among borrowers and estimates the unobserved heterogeneity simultaneously with the parameters of the prepayment and default functions. Finally, the study compares and tests the practical importance of incorporating the competing risk feature and the unobserved heterogeneity in the estimation. The data set used in this study includes one of the largest FHA insured multifamily mortgages: the market rate 221d(4) New Constructions and Substantial Rehabilitation program (OMI). The data set includes information on OMI loans originating from 1965 to 1995. Maximum likelihood estimation is used to estimate the hazard model.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/59
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1060
2010-10-28T15:29:45Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays on the measurement and causes of inefficiency in the public sector with application to education
Ruggiero, John Gordon
1995-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Jerry Miner
Economics
Operations research
School finance
Economics
This study consists of five essays examining the measurement and causes of inefficiency in the public sector. Public sector service provision differs from private production theory due to the impact that fixed environmental factors have on production. These essays extend the nonparametric programming technique for frontier estimation to the public sector and provide analyses of the provision of educational services in New York State school districts.
The first essay analyzes the existing nonparametric model that purportedly controls for exogenous inputs; it is shown that this model is flawed, leading to biased efficiency estimates. A new model is developed to properly control for environmental factors. The results of a simulation analysis provide evidence that the new model does a better job controlling for exogenous factors.
The second essay focuses on the conceptual notion of inefficiency; it is shown that the existing radial index of efficiency does not really measure inefficiency since additional slack may exist in some, but not all inputs, after radial efficiency is achieved. A two-stage procedure for efficiency evaluation is suggested as a solution to the problem.
The third essay extends the newly developed model to allow measurement of cost inefficiency, which results if a local government is technically and/or allocatively inefficient. In addition to the cost efficiency index, a new measure is developed that indexes environmental harshness.
Essay four extends my efficiency model to allow measurement of returns to scale in the provision of public services. Due to the presence of exogenous factors of production, returns can be conceptualized not only along but between production frontiers. This essay provides the means to measure scale economies in the public sector. Application to New York State reveals large scale economies; this suggests that school districts which operate along an increasing returns to scale portion of the production frontier would be able to realize larger increases in outcomes for a given amount of state aid ceteris paribus.
Finally, the last essay empirically tests bureaucratic models of supply by linking existing theoretical models with the measurement of cost efficiency. This essay provides useful extensions to both the measurement and theory literature by analyzing the causes of inefficiency.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/65
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1061
2010-10-28T15:48:43Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
An integrated model of mortgage termination, refinancing, and household mobility
Wong, Nelson Chi-Fai
1996-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
James Follain
Economics
finance
mortgages
refinancing
Finance
This study examines mortgage termination in light of the increasing importance and need for a better understanding and estimate of this issue as a result of the rapidly rising share of Mortgage-Backed Securities in the capital market. Most previous studies on mortgage termination employ the option pricing framework that emphasizes the importance of financial incentives in the prepayment decision. Their empirical tests largely rely on mortgage pool data. As a result, individual characteristics of mortgagors are seldom scrutinized. This study attempts to explain mortgage termination from an individual and behavioral approach. It is proposed that mortgage termination is the result of two fundamental decisions: relocation and refinancing. A mortgage is terminated when a mortgagor decides either to move out of its current residence or to refinance; and the decision is made based on the financial incentives and individual/household characteristics that vary across the population. The theoretical model is set up where a mortgage-holding household chooses among three courses of action (namely, to stay, to move, or to refinance) to maximize its expected utility.
The 1983 and 1986 Survey of Consumer Finances conducted by the Federal Reserve Board are used for the empirical work in this study. These two surveys provide ample information on the financial and demographic status of a sample that is representative of the population in the United States.
Two specific hypotheses are tested in this study. The first is the inter-dependency of the moving and refinancing decisions. The second is the importance of individual/household characteristics in the refinancing decision. Dependency between the moving and refinancing decisions is strongly rejected and the refinancing decision is not significantly affected by non-financially related factors. However, it is maintained that mortgagors' characteristics are still important for the study of mortgage termination because their effects are manifested through the moving decision, which contributes to the termination of mortgages.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/64
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1062
2010-10-28T15:54:53Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
The economics of the family from a dynamic perspective
Butrica, Barbara A.
1998-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Economics
Family
Neighborhood quality
Homeowners
Labor supply
Divorce
Economics
My dissertation considers, within a dynamic framework, how actual or predicted changes in individuals' family circumstances influence their behavior and economic well-being. First, I examine the impact that changes in neighborhood quality have on the probability of moving after 1970 for younger and older homeowners in the United States. I use multiperiod data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) linked to neighborhood level variables from Census data and find that a decrease in neighborhood quality increases the probability of moving for younger homeowners, but has no significant impact on the probability of moving for older homeowners.
Second, I compare and contrast the short-term and long-term economic consequences of marital separation on men and women in the United States and Germany. For these analyses I use both the PSID and the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). The findings suggest that women in both the United States and Germany sustain large declines in their household-size adjusted income after divorce, while men in these countries experience only small declines or even increases in their household-size adjusted income. However, group averages mask the great diversity in economic well-being changes after divorce. The short- and long-term economic consequences of divorce vary by education, employment, number of children, income level, remarriage, and cohabitation for both men and women.
Third, I consider the extent to which married women in the United States and Germany anticipate divorce and increase their labor supply in response. I use longitudinal data from the PSID and the GSOEP and find, as do other researchers, that the probability of divorce had a significant and positive impact on labor supply decisions for U.S. married women in the 1970s. However, I find this is no longer the case for U.S. married women in the 1980s. I do find that the probability of divorce positively and significantly influences labor force participation decisions for German married women in the 1980s; however, the results suggest that it does not influence hours decisions.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/63
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1063
2010-10-28T17:11:24Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Understanding the impacts of demand shocks on the price of owner-occupied housing: A study of the supply elasticity of housing
Dreiman, Michelle Harter
1998-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
James Follain
Mortgage
Interest
Tax deduction
Prices
Housing
Supply elasticity
Economics
Most believe that elimination of the mortgage interest deduction will, at least in the short run, decrease the value of owner-occupied housing. What is unknown is the ability of house prices to adjust to such shocks in the long run. The answer to this question depends critically on the supply elasticity of housing and the speed of adjustment of house prices to their steady state values.
The goals of this study are to offer new evidence regarding the supply elasticity of housing, speed of adjustment of house prices to the steady state, and regional variation in the either of these two components. This is accomplished by using vector autoregressions (VAR's), with pooled metropolitan area data. The pools are currently defined by coastal versus non-coastal, constrained versus unconstrained, and all metropolitan areas in the sample. The variables used in the vector autoregressions are chosen based on a simple model of demand and supply, with housing price, housing starts, one exogenous measure of supply (construction wage), and one exogenous measure of demand (either income, user cost, or population). Impulse response functions generated from the VAR's are used to make inferences regarding supply elasticities.
Currently, two major conclusions may be gleaned from these results. The first is that supply elasticity and speed of adjustment vary significantly based on location of metropolitan area. When using either population or income demand variables in pools of coastal/non-coastal or constrained/unconstrained MSA's, supply elasticity is very inelastic and prices are slow to adjust for coastal and constrained areas, versus very elastic and quicker to adjust for non-coastal and unconstrained areas. The second is that pooling at the national level (all metropolitan areas) produced results that would indicate that supply is very inelastic and prices are slow to adjust. The degree of heterogeneity induced by pooling all metropolitan areas together, however, casts suspicion on this particular result.
Finally, new panel bootstrapping techniques are used to produce standard errors and confidence intervals for impulse response functions. Two standard error bands of confidence indicate a high degree of precision of the impulse response functions.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/62
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1064
2010-10-28T17:23:17Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Women's labor supply reactions to divorce and childbirth in Germany
Yang, Qing
1998-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Jan Ondrich
Women workers
Working mothers
Maternity leave
Child care policies
Childbirth
Divorce
Labor Economics
This dissertation examines female labor supply reactions to childbirth and marital separation. Since 1979 German federal maternity leave and benefit policy has, for some period after childbirth, protected the jobs of working mothers who stay home to take care of their newborns and youngest children, and since 1986 this leave and benefit policy was expanded in several ways. Chapter one takes advantage of this natural experiment to examine the effect of maternity leave and child care policies on mothers' returning to work after childbirth. A theoretical model is presented which demonstrates that hazard rates initially decline as protection is lengthened and that cumulative return probabilities at the end of protection can not decline unless the mother re-evaluates the parameters of the process. Using a flexible duration dependence estimation technique for proportional hazards due to Prentice and Gloeckler and applying grouped unemployment durations by Meyer (1990), we estimate post childbirth return to work hazards for women bearing children in Germany in the period 1984-1991. As potential duration increases, the hazard rates confirm the theoretical predictions, while the cumulative return rates suggest that some mothers re-evaluate the relative benefits of day care and mother care as the leave progresses.
Previous studies using American data have found a significant effect of divorce probability on the labor supply of married women. Chapter two of this dissertation examines effect of anticipated divorce on female labor supply using a German panel data set, seeking to both fill the gap in Germany, where similar empirical research on this issue is scarce and to enable a comparison between the United States and a European country with a historically low divorce rate. A duration model with controls for unobserved heterogeneity, rather than only cross-sectional snapshots is utilized to better understand the dynamic process of divorce and infer a probability of separation which is used as a regressor in the ordered probit estimation of labor force participation. Our results strongly support the model that women do anticipate a future separation probability and make labor supply adjustments in the current period.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/61
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1065
2010-10-29T15:11:03Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Alternatives to the current structure of bank taxation in New Jersey: An analysis of the distribution of tax liabilities among bank groups
Madhusudhan, Ranjana Ghoshal
1992-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Michael J. Wasylenko
Economics
Finance
Banking
Economics
This dissertation examines whether New Jersey's current taxation of banking remains consistent with modern banking practices. The research focuses primarily on state tax issues created by interstate banking developments. A review of the existing bank tax structure in New Jersey shows that it is incompatible with recent developments in banking and requires fundamental reforms.
Two distinct reform alternatives are examined for New Jersey. Under the first alternative, the apportionment mechanism would be restructured, and New Jersey would continue to tax banks using a source-based tax. A four-factor formula with payroll, property, receipts, and deposits appears to be the most viable formula for New Jersey.
The second alternative is based on a dual-tax framework, with an excise tax, under which source-based taxation is not used for New Jersey-based banks. Tax avoidance opportunities which are of major concern in the area of bank taxation is significantly reduced under this alternative. Further, major sourcing problems inherent under the source-based approach would not arise. One of the limitations under this alternative, however, is the reduction in inter-industry neutrality between banking and general business corporations.
The study also recommends several essential reform measures for New Jersey. These include: broadening the definition of taxable entities; moving to an "economic presence" basis; changing the NOL provision; adopting alternative tax bases; raising the minimum tax rate; adopting combined reporting; and creating interstate compacts.
Simulations were run to examine the implications of the proposed reform alternatives on the distribution of tax liabilities by bank asset-size groups. The simulations show that the distribution of the tax liabilities among bank groups would tend to depend on, inter alia, the extent of interstate banking activities of these groups. Under the second alternative, New Jersey tax liabilities for banks would depend on any tax credits they may get for other state taxes paid. Major policy issues were mentioned but it was not possible to address each of them separately given the scope of the present study. Enforcement and administrative issues are important policy concerns that need to be examined in greater detail.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/66
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1066
2013-04-29T17:31:02Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays on the accumulation and transfer of wealth at older ages
Phillips, John
1997-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Richard V. Burkhauser
aging
parental transfers
cash transfers
coresidence
bequests
Economics
Labor Economics
<p>This dissertation on the economics of aging uses new data sources to examine the accumulation and transfer of assets by older persons. In Essay 1, I examine the well-being of those first-eligible for early Social Security benefits at age 62. I use the first two waves of the Health and Retirement Study to measure the well-being of individuals in the years just before and just after they are first eligible to receive early Social Security benefits. I find that the well-being of takers and postponers are quite similar. The results hold up when the sample is disaggregated by race, but the overall initial level of well-being for blacks and Latinos is low relative to white respondents. Further, I find health is a better gauge of economic well-being than is taking early Social Security benefits. In Essay 2, I examine parental transfers to children using data from the Assets and Health Dynamics of the Oldest Old Survey. Previous research has focused separately on either cash transfers, coresidence, or bequests. I combine these three sources of transfers as well as deeds to property, life insurance policies, and trust funds to analyze how such transfers are distributed to children with respect to their incomes. I use estimation techniques which estimate the pattern of transfers both within and across families. The findings suggest parents target inter vivos transfers to their relatively poorer children, while transfers made at death tend to be made to all children without regard for income differences among children. In Essay 3, I relax the assumption of independence among transfer equations from chapter two. I use a two-stage technique that accounts for the relationships among transfer types. The results suggest that there are several significant positive correlations between transfers. Failure to account for these relationships when analyzing the distribution of parental resources understates transfer probabilities. Further, I find that children who are poor relative to their siblings have the highest probability of receiving all combinations of transfers, implying that resource transfers reduce within-family income inequality.</p>
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/71
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1067
2010-11-04T16:24:29Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Race, housing prices, and the dynamics of Chicago's housing market, 1975-1979
Chambers, Daniel Nels
1989-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Jan Ondrich
Illinois
Economics
Economics
There is an apparent consensus regarding the effect of race on housing prices: blacks now pay less than whites for housing in most urban ares (or at least they did in the 1970s). The purpose of this dissertation is to reevaluate the consensus of measured racial price discounts by sorting out which of the many possible causes of racial price differentials are dominant. The present study finds that blacks pay less than whites for structurally equivalent housing, as do most other studies. But these discounts are shown to be largely due to (1) non-racial amenities generally omitted from other studies, and (2) temporal changes occurring in the housing market, such as racial transition. Furthermore, since the price differential between blacks and whites varies over racial submarkets and over time, no single and clear conclusion emerges. There is also no clear relationship between housing price and racial concentration, either as a continuous relationship or as an overall price difference between racial submarkets.
The one strong and consistent relationship is the price discount to areas of racial transition. The areas in Chicago with the most racial transition between 1975 and 1979 were found to have housing prices about 8 percent lower for renters than racially stable areas; for owners, housing prices were 23 percent lower. The housing price discounts to racially transitional areas, and an overall fall in housing price in integrated areas relative to the ghetto between 1975 and 1979, are consistent with a housing market loosening to blacks. Data are presented which document that this loosening indeed occurred, in the form of the continued movement of whites to the outer suburbs, with blacks acquiring better housing predominantly by occupying the vacated housing in the inner suburbs and in the City of Chicago. The supply of housing to blacks, though undoubtedly improved via Fair Housing laws, is still dependent on the suburbanization of white households.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/70
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1069
2010-11-04T19:49:14Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
A Theoretical And Empirical Analysis Of Income Tax Evasion And Tax Avoidance
Murray, Matthew Neal
1986-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Roy Bahl
Economics
Economics
The problem of income tax evasion and tax avoidance is one which plagues virtually all organized economies of the world. The most obvious implications of such taxpayer behavior are forgone income and payroll tax revenues. Yet it might also be argued that the problem is indicative of a more severe crisis; a breakdown of the implicit contractual relationship between man and state. As policy makers attempt to cope with this problem, it is imperative that they have a better understanding of the factors which may influence the evasion and avoidance propensities of taxpayers.
In this study, a joint model of the evasion and avoidance choice process of individual taxpayers is put forth. Since both evasion and avoidance behavior may be expected to be influenced by similar factors, it is only natural to model these processes jointly. This allows for substitute and complementary relationships which have largely been ignored in the theoretical and empirical work on tax evasion and tax avoidance as well as in the discussions of tax reform in the U.S. and abroad.
Based on an expected utility model, the factors which influence the evasion and avoidance behavior of taxpayers are identified and specified. These factors are then used in an empirical context to determine the sensitivity of income shares--avoidance (in-kind), evasion and wage income--to variations in such factors. These explanatory variables are alternatively employed as "composite prices" (as suggested by the theoretical model) and independent regressors. Since for many in the sample the relevant income shares (dependent variables) take on limiting values, limited dependent variable techniques are utilized to avoid estimation bias.
The results indicate that compensation shares respond in an intuitive fashion to variations in fiscal and tax administration variables including marginal tax rates, penalties, probabilities of detection and marginal payroll tax benefits. The overall effect of these factors is quite small suggesting that minor manipulation of the tax system will do little to reduce the evasion and avoidance propensities of taxpayers. As such, there is support for major tax reform to combat tax evasion and tax avoidance.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/68
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1068
2010-11-04T19:44:42Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Environmental quality, international trade, and economic development: Theory and evidence
Song, Daqing
1994-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Douglas Holtz-Eakin
Environmental quality
international trade
Economics
This dissertation presents a theoretical model and an empirical investigation of the relationship between environmental quality and economic development, focusing on the impacts of international trade on the development trajectory for environmental quality.
The theoretical model is developed under the assumption that a social planner chooses consumption goods, environmental quality, and pollution abatement to maximize social welfare. The model illustrates an inverted U curve for pollution-GDP trajectory, which is consistent with that derived from many complex dynamic models, and matches empirical evidence. The model also illustrates that when international trade is incorporated pollution (or dirty industries) may flow from richer to poorer countries. The low income countries should import pollution even at prices that are lower than the abatement cost, but only up to the point where a modified Samuelson condition holds.
The empirical study adopts a target adjustment model, in which pollution emission is a function of per capita GDP and international trade. The estimation results confirm the inverted U relationship between environmental pollution and development found in previous studies.
In contrast to previous empirical studies, however, the effects of trade are not limited to uniform shifts in the pollution-GDP trajectory. Rather, the empirical approach allows the impact of trade liberalization to differentially affect pollution levels in low versus high income countries. The point estimates suggest that a rich country may actually pollute more and a poor country pollute less as a country's openness to trade increases. However, these effects are not statistically significant, which provides independent confirmation of previous studies that the linkage of trade liberalization and environment degradation is not significant.
This dissertation also investigates the linkage between non-hazardous municipal solid waste emission and development. Using cross-country time series data, the random-effects estimation lends support to the monotonic relationship between municipal solid waste emission and economic development, suggesting a continuous increase of municipal solid waste emission to date, but with a diminishing marginal propensity to emit.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/69
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1070
2010-11-05T15:51:46Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
A forecasting model of local government finances: A case study approach--Syracuse, New York
Cupoli, Edward Mark
1987-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Roy Bohl
modeling
analyzing
local government's budgetary position.
Finance and Financial Management
This thesis sets forth a process for modeling, forecasting and analyzing a local government's budgetary position. A forecasting model applied to Syracuse, New York is presented and its results are analyzed.
A model of the local government's finances is developed based on the local government's fiscal structure. The components of the model are forecast independently so that the level of one component does not affect any other component. Revenues are modeled and forecast by component as own source revenues (e.g. property tax, sales tax, other taxes) and intergovernmental revenues (e.g. state aid, direct federal aid and indirect federal aid). On the expenditure side current expenditures (locally financed and grant financed) and capital and debt expenditures are modeled and forecast.
The model is estimated using knowledge from an analysis of the local economic base and population. Detailed projections of the future Syracuse budgetary position are developed using separately forecast independent variables over a multi-year time period.
The historical data that exist for the forecast period, 1977-1980, allow a detailed analysis of the sources of forecast error. Actual data make it possible to determine error due to incorrect forecasts of independent variables. Error due to model specification and other factors is treated as residuals.
This dissertation develops a framework and process for a local government to use in formulating and estimating a forecast model. It also presents a method for analyzing the forecast errors so that local officials can identify the most appropriate forecasting model. After establishing an accurate model, forecast results can be used to analyze the locality's future budgetary position.
This thesis presents a framework. It is left to the practitioner to adapt what follows to make it a realistic and valuable planning tool.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/67
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1071
2010-11-09T17:28:04Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Estimates Of Relative Fiscal Burdens And The Influence Of The Composition Of The Property Tax Base On The Demand For Education In New York State School Districts
Malloy, John Francis
1981-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Jerry Miner
Finance
Economics
This research is concerned with three related issues: the stability of price elasticities of demand for education when the composition of a school district's property tax base is interpreted as a price; inferences about which types of local property reduce the local tax price for education; and, whether or not inordinate local noneducation public service needs reduce or impair the ability of New York State school districts to finance education.
Price elasticities of demand for education which view the composition of the property tax base as an indicator of price appear to be quite stable. Several results support this proposition. Price elasticities of demand for New York State school districts are similar to those reported in other studies and are concentrated within the interval -.3 to -.78, depending on which version of the demand equation was examined. Price elasticities do not appear to be sensitive to the functional form imposed during estimation. Elasticities of demand in a Stone-Geary model of demand were similar to elasticities from linear models of demand. Furthermore, Box-Cox estimation of the functional form of demand reveals that elasticities of demand for education are constant for a wide range of price changes.
Research on the second issue examined in this study--which types of property reduce local tax price for education--revealed that industrial property had a consistently greater impact than commercial property in lowering tax price. A partial explanation for the inconsistency of these results and those of prior studies is a strong correlation between tax base composition and intergovernmental grants in New York State.
No evidence to support the relative fiscal burden hypothesis was discovered in this research. The relative burden hypothesis, the third issue studies, posits that unusually high noneducation local public service demands, in some school districts, impair the ability of these school districts to finance education. To test this hypothesis two estimates of needs for noneducation local public services were included in a demand equation for local education. One estimate of needs was derived by estimating how local noneducation revenues per capita vary in response to demographic variables in a linear demand equation. The second estimate used a Stone-Geary model to estimate minimum needs for noneducation local public services. Neither of the two estimates had a significant effect on the demand for local education.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/80
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1072
2010-11-10T15:54:13Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
The growth empirics of the scope of the production scale, time, and trade: Both cross-country and panel studies
Ulusoy, Veysel
1996-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
J. David Richardson
scale economies
steady-state
economics
Growth and Development
The objective of this dissertation is to provide, theoretically and empirically, an interpretation for observed co-movements between the scale of an economy and its growth rate. Scale economies are associated with three modern theories of growth, featuring learning-by-doing, human capital, and specialized inputs to production processes. We pay special attention to the international trade environment by emphasizing the spillover effects of trade intensity on growth.
Chapter two develops and tests three models of the stylized facts of growth between 1976 and 1990 using cross-country data for the overall economy and the manufacturing sector. In all these models, international trade plays an important role in increasing the production scale and providing a fast growth rate for countries. Opening to trade generally increases the size of markets for producers, thus leading to greater specialization and a higher average scale of production. Specifically, we focus on endogenously determined technology and relate differences in growth rates across countries to differences in the scale of production and factor inputs.
Chapter three investigates the scale contribution to growth using a rich panel data set for 62 countries for their overall economy over 15 years, and 33 countries for their manufacturing sector over 10 years. The primary focus of this chapter has been to understand the implications of these models' performances in a panel data environment, if each year was an observation in steady-state growth equilibrium. The power of the scale of human capital increased in explaining the growth process. The other scale factors remain strong with statistically significant outcomes. The international trade environment seem to enhance productivity and growth again through expanded scale.
Chapter four proposes a new approach to the estimation technique. We estimate the system's parameters in and out of steady-state equilibrium using a nonlinear least squares estimation technique. The central point in this chapter is to study the empirics of the convergence to steady-state growth. We derive transitional dynamics of economies towards their balanced growth paths, and relate differences in the levels of technology to the cross-country growth differences, emphasizing national and international scale factors. The estimated values of parameters provide support for the view that these factors (once again) have positive and significant influences on economic growth, whether transitional or steady-state. Given the time required for economies to move halfway to their balanced growth path, this study suggests that one should also pay attention to the transitional dynamics as well because it may provide better explanation than the models that investigate the scale effects on the balanced growth path.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/79
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1073
2010-11-10T19:10:37Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Transfer Pricing In Multinational Enterprises: Empirical Tests
Moore, Craig Thomas
1980-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
James S. Price
Business costs
Taxes
Tariffs
Exchange controls
Riskiness
Economics
The last 20 years have been characterized by a dramatic growth of the multinational enterprise (MNE). As MNE trade expands more trade and pricing will be governed by the multinational and not by the free market. These prices for goods traded by two subsidiaries of the same MNE are called transfer prices. As a result of being internally determined, prices can be altered to shift profits from country to country for the purpose of tax and tariff avoidance, foreign exchange control avoidance, or for competitive reasons. Unfortunately, there is little data available to characterize the MNE's choice of transfer prices, although there have been a number of descriptive studies examining the extent of alleged transfer pricing abuses.
The purpose of this dissertation is to provide empirical evidence on transfer pricing behavior for U.S. imports. The study is concerned with the relationship between the transfer price and taxes and tariffs, exchange controls, riskiness of a country, and extent of MNE trade.
A global profit maximizing MNE is examined showing the influence of relative tax and tariffs on the transfer price. By imposing fiscal bounds on the transfer price, an estimatable equation of MNE behavior is derived. Foreign exchange controls, degree of risk, and the percentage of multinational trade are added to the model in a less formal way.
The model is tested using Census data on U.S. imports for 1978, from which relative transfer prices are determined for each product category and country of export to the U.S. The empirical results find that when the profit maximizing MNE is induced because of tax and tariff reasons to lower the transfer price the data is consistent with a reduction. Exchange controls on capital transactions are not as significant. The risk variable is consistent with the hypothesis that a lower level of profits is shifted through internal transactions out of the riskier countries than out of the less risky ones. Furthermore, the relative transfer price is lower for every increase in the amount of MNE trade within a particular product and country classification.
These empirical results provide support for the belief that differences between the transfer price and the market prices reflect tax, tariff, exchange control, risk and degree of MNE trade factors. However, from an examination of the coefficients of the models, it does not appear as if added controls on the MNE are necessary. No doubt there are some transactions, or industries that do alter transfer prices to a great extent, but on average the MNE appears to keep transfer price alteration--attributable to taxes and tariffs, exchange controls, risk and degree of MNE trade--to a minimum.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/78
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1074
2010-11-11T17:47:13Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
The effect of Indonesia trade liberalization on price-cost margins and technical efficiency
Kristiono, Heri
1997-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
J. David Richardson
Indonesian text
Economics
It is suspected that in a protected market dominated by only a few firms, the domestic market tends to be oligopolistic. This condition permits domestic firms to exercise market power. Trade liberalizaton increases competition, which forces domestic firms to behave more competitively. This argument in fact is a hypothesis about how firms react to change in trade policy. Therefore, testing it carefully requires firm-level data. Moreover, it can be argued that trade liberalization forces domestic firms to improve their technical efficiency to compete with foreign producers, since lacks of competition induce domestic firms not to make enough effort to cut their production costs.
The main purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of trade reforms on price-cost margin as well as on technical efficiency within the context of the Indonesian manufacturing sector using firm-level data for the period 1990-93. To study the competitive effects of trade liberalization, this study uses a structural econometric model to estimate the mark-ups of firms can be calculated from the accounting data. This study finds insignificant negative correlation between import competition and the mark-ups of firms. Thus, this study provides no support for the import-discipline hypothesis. Furthermore, to investigate the effects of trade reform on the technical efficiency of firms, this study uses a stochastic frontier model, and estimates firm time invariant technical inefficiency and regresses this estimate of technical inefficiency of firms on the attributes of firms such as firm size, firm exporting status and firm import competing status. This study finds that big exporters are technically more efficient than small exporters, while firms that operate in extensive import competing industries may be technically more efficient than firms that operate in less extensive import competing sectors. Finally this study attempts to correlate price-cost margin, international competition and technical inefficiency simultaneously. This study finds that in Indonesia, import competition not only forces domestic firms to lower their price, but also forces domestic firms to improve their technical efficiency. These two effects almost cancel each other, leaving little effect on price-cost margin.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/77
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1075
2010-11-12T18:03:30Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
The time costs of consumption: An empirical investigation
Dunsky, Robert Milton
1997-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Donald H. Dutkowsky
shopping
monetary
transaction cost
Economics
In the standard economic model, a representative utility maximizer chooses quantities of consumption, asset holdings and labor force participation without regard to transaction costs. Such an assumption implies that the purchase of goods and services requires only one real resource, money. This research relaxes the assumption of zero transaction costs in consumption such that time resources, in addition to money, are used up when individuals transact in the goods markets.
An intertemporal model of household choice is developed and estimated to measure the responsiveness of transaction costs to changes in consumption and money holdings. Estimates using a two and three year panel from the Surveys of Consumer Finances (1983-1989) suggest that increases in money holdings reduce transaction time. In addition, the existence of economies of scale in consumption may influence transaction cost. The model generates labor and leisure supply elasticities which suggest that households are highly responsive to wage changes in the presence of consumption transaction costs.
The model is also estimated with U.S. time series data over the 1959 to 1994 period. Time series estimates of the recovered transaction technology parameters suggest that time costs are highly responsive to changes in M1 money, yet less responsive to changes in aggregate consumption.
The main contribution to the monetary literature is the estimation of parameters which capture the concavity and degree of homogeneity of the transaction technology. Estimates from the household data suggest that the technology is most likely a member of the constant returns to scale functional family. Estimates from U.S. aggregate time series lack a definitive position on the scale of the transactions technology. The degree of homogeneity of the transaction technology is systematic to the specification of the co-integrating specification.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/76
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1076
2010-11-12T18:27:07Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on public policy simulations
Wittenburg, David Charles
1997-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Richard V. Burkhauser
microsimulation
minimum wage
labor
Economic Theory
Labor Economics
Public Administration
This dissertation is composed of three separate essays that use estimations and simulations to evaluate the impact of various public policies. My first essay focuses on the population with disabilities. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), I compare the labor force activity and economic status of people with disabilities to those without disabilities. I find that while people with disabilities are less likely to work and more likely to receive government transfers, a majority of men with disabilities and a significant share of women with disabilities work and do not receive any form of government transfers. Despite the importance of work for people with disabilities, a large percentage are enrollees in multiple government transfer programs. I find that the high effective tax rates of these programs make it unlikely that enrollees will rejoin the labor market. In the second half of this essay I develop a work-based policy for people with disabilities called the Disabled Worker Tax Credit that would serve as an alternative to some of these long term transfer programs.
In my second essay I analyze the employment and distribution impacts of minimum wage increases. I use an estimating equation from the research of leading proponents of the view that minimum wage increases do not cause employment losses. However, rather than using annual data from one month, I test the employment impacts of minimum wage increases using monthly data from both the SIPP and the Current Population Survey. I find the traditional result that neoclassical theory would predict: minimum wage increases create employment losses concentrated among less valued workers. In the second part of this essay, I shift my analysis to the distributional impacts of minimum wage increases. I find that the majority of benefits from minimum wage increases are not distributed to the working poor when an alternative measure of economic status is used. The overall benefits of these increases are even smaller when the estimated elasticities from the SIPP and CPS are added to control for employment losses.
In the final essay of my dissertation, I develop a microsimulation model to simulate a future population of retirees in the year 2010. The basis of my microsimulation model is a two step panel fixed effects and fixed factor econometric model that controls for individual level heterogeneity and allows for correlations across a series of outcomes. Unfortunately, the microsimulation model based upon this estimation technique produced forecasts that varied widely from actual data. At least part of this difference can be explained from two flaws in my econometric approach. First, the use of fixed effects estimators in unbalanced panels for simulation can distort the expected values of variables in the overall population. Second, the fixed factor equations that simulate the estimated fixed effect in the microsimulation model are not estimated with a great deal of precision. Future work with this microsimulation model calls for a new econometric approach that addresses these issues.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/75
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1077
2013-01-24T18:43:26Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on cointegration in panel data
McCoskey, Suzanne
1997-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Chi-Hwa Kao
econometrics
time series
Economics
Economic Theory
<p>With the advent of the results on non-stationary data in time series econometrics and the increased use of panel data sets, the question is naturally asked: how can these time series developments best be used in a panel data setting, a data set which follows a cross-section of observations over time? This dissertation provides some new results on residual-based testing for cointegration in a panel data setting. Testing for cointegration can be attractive for economists as the presence of a cointegrating relationship between non-stationary variables is interpreted as a long run steady state relationship between these variables. This direct connection between economic theory and statistical application makes the quest for results about cointegration appropriate for applied econometric use particularly exciting. The first chapter of the dissertation provides Monte Carlo results on various tests proposed for cointegration in panel data. In particular, tests for two panel models, varying intercepts and varying slopes and varying intercepts and common slopes, are presented from the literature with a total of five tests being simulated. In all cases results on empirical size and size-adjusted power are given. The second chapter outlines the asymptotic theory for a new test of the null hypothesis of cointegration in panel data, $\overline {LM}$. This test is among those compared in Chapter 1. Because the test is residual-based, the method of estimating the residuals is crucial to the performance of the test. Included in Chapter 2 is a comparison of the results of the test using two different methods for estimating a cointegrated relationship: Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) and Fully Modified (FM). The final chapter, Chapter 3, provides an application of the $\overline {LM}$ test. The application tests the presence of a cointegrating relationship between the natural logs of GDP per worker, capital per worker and urbanization levels for two data groups: developing and developed countries. This relationship had not been previously tested using a cointegration framework. The null hypothesis of cointegration can be rejected for both groups.</p>
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/74
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1078
2010-11-12T18:44:44Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on poverty, inequality and retirement in Central and Eastern Europe
Bailey, Debra Jane
1997-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Douglas Holtz=Eakin
Czech Republic
Hungary
Poland
Slovakia
Economics
Nearly every government has some form of implicit social contract between the government and its citizens. Pressures of globalization, deregulation and demographic change are altering these relationships as we move toward the twenty-first century. There is probably no better place in which to study these changes than in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).$\sp1$ The social contract between the governments and the citizens of former State Socialist CEE countries was such that the State ensured full employment; a strong safety net to protect the aged and those unable to work; and an absence of significant poverty or high levels of inequality. As the CEE goes through a transition from a planed to a market economy, many aspects of this compact no longer apply. These essays document how individuals are responding to these changes and how society itself is changing.
The first essay sets the stage, examining aggregate changes in inequality and poverty in four CEE countries. The second essay uses decomposable inequality measures to compare the distribution of household income in the CEE countries to that of Western countries to find if the sources and levels of inequality are unique to their transition. By decomposing the trend in inequality, this essay also examines the characteristics which are contributing to the widening of the income distribution. The third essay models and empirically examines individuals' labor supply decisions to discover if the uncertainty of the transition influenced hundreds of thousands of Poles to retire early. ftn$\sp1$In particular, the analysis focuses on the Visegrad countries of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/73
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1079
2010-11-12T18:51:57Z
publication:etd
publication:ecn_etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on labor market transitions
Rhody, Stephen E.
1997-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Douglas J. Holtz-Eakin
Self-employment
Income
United States
Germany
Taxation
Labor
Market transitions
Economics
Labor Economics
This dissertation comprises three essays on the subject labor market transitions. The first essay presents an empirical analysis of the self-employment behavior of men and women in the United States for the years 1970 to 1990 using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Using hazard modeling techniques, I determine that age and veteran status are the most important covariates for predicting self-employment quit rates for men, while yearly income is the most significant factor for women.
The second essay presents a theoretical model of the behavior of an entrepreneur who is considering establishing a start-up business based on a new idea. A simple model illustrates the effects of differential taxation on income from self-employment and income from ordinary labor market activity. I find that both small business subsidies and differential taxation of personal and small business income are necessary to achieve a first best outcome.
The third essay presents a cross-national examination of transitions between different income levels in the United States and Germany during the 1980s. The labor earnings mobility of prime age men and women appears similar using a variety of measures, despite major differences in labor market institutions. ARMA models of labor earnings dynamics suggest a great deal of persistence in earnings levels in both countries. For men in the United States and women in both countries, earnings dynamics are driven by permanent individual-specific differences and yearly shocks. Yearly earnings of German, but not American, men have a large auto-regressive component.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/72
oai:surface.syr.edu:socsci_etd-1147
2010-11-16T19:55:40Z
publication:etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:dsocsci
publication:ecn
publication:socsci_etd
publication:decn
An examination of the emergence, development and current state of urban land use theory
Bower, Lewis Lattin
1964-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Social Science (DSS)
Economics
urban land use
Economics
Geography
Political Economy
The traditional theories of uran land use were promulgated in social, economic and political environments markedly different from those of today. The then-existent social philosophy was that of laissez-faire. Collective action (particularly on the part of government) to control land use was minimal.
More recently, however, numberous kinds of collective action have come to play an important role in the determination of urban land use...
The changed circumstances under which urban land use is contolled and determined raises questions as to the operational adequacy and empirical relevancy of the traditional theories of urban land use...
https://surface.syr.edu/socsci_etd/156
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1080
2010-11-17T17:44:18Z
publication:etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn_etd
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Resale Price Maintenance, 1940-1950
Smith, Hilda Chiarulli
1955-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
A. M. McIsaac
United States
Federal law
State law
Economics
This study reviews and evaluates the operation and effects of resale price maintenance in the United States over the ten year period, 1940-1950, in which this practice was permissible in all the states except Texas, Missouri, and Vermont, in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, and in interstate commerce. The study contains a brief history of the activities and forces connected with resale price maintenance before this period, the nature and trends of federal and state laws pertinent to it, the judicial interpretation of its scope, a presentation and and interpretation of some of its institutional aspects, and finally a consideration of its economic implications. Brief reference is made also to British and Canadian experience with resale price maintenance in order to provide a broader perspective. Some of the important events affecting fair trade after the period under consideration are included as they are relevant to the study.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/81
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1081
2010-11-17T18:02:46Z
publication:etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn_etd
publication:ecn
publication:decn
The European Coal And Steel Community: An Evaluation Of Achievements And Future Prospects
Giunta, Agatino John
1956-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Sidney C. Sufrin
Economic theory
European Community
Common Market
Christian Syndicalist doctrine
Economic History
This study attempts to analyze the historical development of the Christian Syndicalist ideology and its application in the economic policies adopted in the European Coal and Steel Community, together with the institutions of the Community and their adherence to the Syndicalist principle.--Preface.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/82
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1082
2010-12-03T13:10:39Z
publication:etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn_etd
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays on trade policy, institutions, and firm behavior
Ahsan, Reshad Nazir
2010-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Devashish Mitra
Trade policy
Institutions
Firm behavior
Export
Economics
The micro benefits of trade have been widely documented. For example, Pavcnik (2002), Topalova (2004), and Amiti and Konings (2007), among others, have shown that trade liberalization leads to significant increases in firm productivity. Similarly, Levinsohn (1993), Harrison (1994), and Krishna and Mitra (1998) demonstrate that the added competition from trade liberalization decreases the price-cost markup charged by firms. Finally, De Loecker (2007), Lileeva and Trefler (2010), and Jing, Park, Shi, and Yang (2010) suggest that entering the export market leads to significant increases in firm productivity. However, with a few exceptions, this literature does not adequately document the manner in which institutional factors distort these gains from trade. Given the important role that institutions play in determining growth and productivity at both the micro and macro level, this is a crucial omission. This dissertation addresses the gap in the literature by examining how institutional factors such as inefficient courts, corruption, imperfect competition, and labor unions distort the behavior of firms. In particular, this dissertation documents the manner in which these institutional factors affect the response of firms to trade policy as well their decision to export.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/83
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1083
2010-12-03T13:43:03Z
publication:etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn_etd
publication:ecn
publication:decn
International trade, domestic institutions and development
Sundaram, Asha
2010-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Devashish Mitra
Trade
India
Poverty
Banks
Firms
Labor
International trade
Domestic institutions
Manufacturing performance
Economics
This dissertation looks at the role of domestic institutions in determining the impact of international trade on poverty and manufacturing performance in developing economies. The first chapter analyzes the impact of trade liberalization on small enterprises in India and investigates how these effects differ with bank presence in area in which enterprises are located. The second chapter studies the differential effects of trade on economically leading and lagging regions in South Asia. The third chapter focuses on the significance of credit market imperfections and labor market rigidities for capital intensities used in manufacturing. My findings highlight the importance of flexible labor markets, financial development and strong transport infrastructure in enabling developing countries to benefit from international trade.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/84
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1085
2010-12-03T14:26:36Z
publication:etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn_etd
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Three essays on international trade, development and the Chinese economy
Ouyang, Puman
2010-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Mary E. Lovely
International trade
Development
China
FDI
Market access
Export
Spillovers
Wage
Economics
This dissertation consists of three essays on economic geography, globalization and the Chinese economy. The theme of the first essay is the inter-regional spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI). This essay examines the extent and possible mechanisms by which FDI spatially concentrated in a few areas boosts economic growth in other regions in a developing country. Applying the two-stage least square fixed effect estimation models to a dataset that covers 96% of Chinese cities from 1996-2004, this essay finds that "inter-regional spillovers" from FDI concentrated in China's coastal regions have a positive and significant effect on the growth of inland regions. A 1 billion yuan increase in effective coastal FDI is associated with almost a 0.058 percentage point increase in the growth rate of an inland city. In addition, such spillovers rely on an inland city's industrial development, consistent with a role for backward and forward linkages. Highly industrialized cities gain most from coastal FDI, while less industrialized cities appear to be unable to absorb spillovers from coastal investment.
The second essay revisits the concept of inter-regional spillovers by estimating whether coastal FDI and export activity have regional spillovers into inland regions in China and how these spillovers depend on different types of FDI and export activity. This essay applies the two-stage least square fixed effect models to two provincial level datasets, one for 1993-2008 and the other for 2002-2007. The results show that on average, coastal FDI has positive impacts on economic growth of inland regions while coastal export activity has negative spillovers into inland regions. Estimated inter-regional spillovers vary by location of activity. Eastern coastal FDI generates the largest positive spillovers into inland regions, possibly due to the type of firms concentrated there. Joint venture FDI has a negative impact on inland GDP while contract cooperative FDI has a positive impact on inland GDP. FDI from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan has a large negative impact on inland GDP. Export activity by domestic firms in coastal provinces appears to have a positive impact on inland economies while foreign firms' export activity does not.
The third paper analyzes how market access affects Chinese individuals' wages and how such impacts change over time by using urban individual survey data in 1995 and 2002.We find positive impacts of market access on wages. Such impacts become larger over time as China becomes more market-oriented. In addition, we find that international market access matters more for Chinese wages than internal market access. However, we find that over time, wages' response to internal market access rises rapidly, as inter-regional trade barriers decrease; while wage response to international market access remains fairly constant over time.
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/85
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1086
2011-09-15T19:46:50Z
publication:etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn_etd
publication:ecn
publication:oa_etd
publication:decn
Essays on Testing Hypotheses When Non-stationarity Exists in Panel Data Models
Na, Sang Gon
2011-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Chihwa Kao
Panel data
Feasible GLS estimator
F-statistic
Factor structure
Economics
<p>This dissertation consists of two essays on testing hypotheses in panel data models when non-stationarity exists in the model. This is done under the high-dimensional framework where both n (cross-section dimension) and T (time series dimension) are large. In the first essay, I discuss the limiting distribution of the t-statistic; using different panel data estimators and propose using the t-statistic based on Feasible GLS estimator. In the second essay, I develop the bootstrap F-statistic for cross-sectional independence in a panel data model with factor structure.</p>
<p>The first essay considers the problem of hypotheses testing in a simple panel data regression model with random individual effects and serially correlated disturbances. Following Baltagi, Kao and Liu (2008), I allow for the possibility of non-stationarity in the regressor and/or the disturbance term. While Baltagi et al. (2008) focus on the asymptotic properties and distributions of the standard panel data estimators, this essay focuses on test of hypotheses in this setting. One important finding, is that unlike the time series case, one does not necessarily need to rely on the "super-efficient" type AR estimator by Perron and Yabu (2009) to make inference in panel data. In fact, I show that the simple t-ratio always converges to the standard normal distribution regardless of whether the disturbances and/or the regressor are stationary. One caveat is that this may not be robust to heteroskedasticity of the error terms, but it is robust to heterogenous AR parameters across individuals. The Monte Carlo simulations in support of all the results are also provided in this essay.</p>
<p>The second essay discusses testing hypotheses of cross-sectional dependence in a panel data model with an introduction of factor structure. Following Bai (2003, 2004, 2009) and Bai, Kao and Ng (2009), I again allow for the possibility of non-stationarity in the regressor and the factor. I give attention to test of hypotheses using F-tests in this setting. The limiting distribution of F-statistics under the high-dimensional framework has not been derived yet in the literature perhaps because of its theoretical complexity. To circumvent this difficulty, this essay suggests the use of wild bootstrap F-tests based on simulation results under various cases where both regressors and factors can be stationary or non-stationary. The Monte Carlo results show that the bootstrap F-tests perform well in testing cross-sectional independence and are recommended in practice. They have the advantage of being feasible even when we do not observe the factors and do not require for formal theoretical approximations. It is also shown that the bootstrap F-tests are robust to heteroskedasticity but sensitive to serial correlation.</p>
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/87
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1087
2011-09-15T19:46:32Z
publication:etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn_etd
publication:ecn
publication:oa_etd
publication:decn
Essays on Foreign Direct Investment, Agglomeration and Productivity
Kamal, Fariha
2011-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Mary E. Lovely
Agglomeration Economies
China
Foreign Direct Investment
Productivity
Economics
<p>This dissertation investigates the role of foreign direct investment and agglomeration economies in the process of industrial development, with a focus on the productivity of manufacturing firms. The first chapter analyzes the importance of the source of foreign direct investment on the performance of domestic Chinese firms. The second chapter studies the interaction between foreign and domestic manufacturing firms operating in the same industry and located within the same Chinese city. The third chapter examines the response of multinational companies to changes in domestic institutions. My findings highlight the importance of the source of foreign direct investment, proximity to economic activity, and strong institutional incentives in enhancing firm performance in developing economies.</p>
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/88
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn_etd-1088
2011-09-06T13:42:23Z
publication:etd
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn_etd
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Essays on the Impact of Trade on Labor Markets and Productivity in Korea
Shin, Jeong Eun
2011-01-01T08:00:00Z
Dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Economics
Devashish Mitra
Jonathan K. Hanson
Trade
Labor markets
Productivity
Korea
Economics
<p>This dissertation consists of three essays. Using firm-level data from Korea, the first chapter studies the impact of trade openness on the share of wages in output. The second chapter examines the impact of trade on firm-level labor-demand elasticities in Korea. The third chapter investigates the impact of exports on firm-level productivity. This dissertation finds some evidence from Korea in support of new channels through which international trade can put pressure on labor markets. However, the dissertation also finds fairly strong evidence that exports lead to an increase in productivity.</p>
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn_etd/89
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn-1005
2011-12-01T20:06:34Z
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Measurement Error in Earnings Data in the Health and Retirement Study
Bricker, Jessie
Engelhardt, Gary V.
Article
2007-10-01T07:00:00Z
tbd
Economics
<p>We provide new evidence on the extent of measurement error in respondent-reported earnings data by exploiting detailed W-2 records matched to older workers in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Our empirical findings are qualitatively consistent with the findings of previous studies. Mean measurement error in the 1991 HRS earnings data for men is somewhat larger than what has been found in other validation studies, but is still modest, averaging about 0.059 log points, approximately 5.9 percent, or $1,500. For women in 1991, it is 0.067 log points, approximately 6.7 percent, or $916. We find a negative correlation between the measurement error and the true value of earnings as measured by the W-2 records, which indicates the presence of non-classical measurement error. For men and women, this error shows little correlation with a standard set of cross-sectional earnings determinants. The one exception is that the measurement error rises with reported education. The bias on the OLS parameter estimate of the impact of having a college degree or higher (relative to a high school drop-out) from using the respondent-reported rather than the W-2 earnings is positive and estimated to be 0.071 log points, or roughly a bias of 7 percent.</p>
<p>This manuscript is from the Social Science Research Network, for more information see <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1297452">http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1297452</a></p>
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn/156
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn-1006
2011-12-01T20:16:26Z
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Option Value and Dynamic Programming Model Estimates of Social Security Disability Insurance Application Timing
Burkhauser, Rickard V.
Butler, J. S.
Gumus, Gulcin
Article
2003-11-01T08:00:00Z
tbd
Economics
<p>This paper develops dynamic structural models - an option value model and a dynamic programming model - of the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) application timing decision. We estimate the time to application from the point at which a health condition first begins to affect the kind or amount of work that a currently employed person can do. We use Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and restricted access Social Security earnings data for estimation. Based on tests of both in-sample and out-of-sample predictive accuracy, our option value model performs better than both our dynamic programming model and our reduced form hazard model. </p>
<p>This manuscript is from the Social Science Research Network, for more information see <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=475024#219907">http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=475024#219907</a></p>
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn/155
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn-1007
2011-12-01T20:24:38Z
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Dynamic Modeling of the SSDI Application Timing Decision: The Importance of Policy Variables
Burkhauser, Rickard V.
Butler, J S
Gumus, Gulcin
Article
2003-11-01T08:00:00Z
tbd
Economics
<p>This paper analyzes the importance of policy variables in the context of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) application timing decision. Previously, we explicitly modeled the optimal timing of SSDI application using dynamic structural models. We estimated these models using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). This paper uses option value model estimates to simulate application timing under alternative SSDI policy formulations. We consider changes in three policy variables: benefit levels, acceptance rates, and employer accommodation. Our simulations suggest all these changes would have substantial effects on expected spell lengths until application and on lifetime application rates, and hence on SSDI caseloads.</p>
<p>This manuscript is from the Social Science Research Network, for more information see <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=475041#198427">http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=475041#198427</a></p>
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn/154
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn-1008
2011-12-01T20:33:12Z
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Pet Econometrics: Ownership of Cats and Dogs
Chatterjee, Patrali
Butler, J S
Article
1997-01-01T08:00:00Z
tbd
Economics
<p>Using a bivariate ordered probit model, this paper examines the effects of house ownership, housing tenure, income, household size and composition, and the occupation and education of the make and female head of household on ownership of cats and dogs. Large households have more of both, but other factors differ between cat and dog ownership. Women's opportunity costs and missing female adults encourage cat ownership. Cats and dogs are slightly complementary. A GMM demographic specification test does not reject normality. The data are taken from a demographic scanner panel data set developed for a marketing study.</p>
<p>This manuscript is from the Social Science Research Network, for more information see <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1861365#613064">http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1861365#613064</a></p>
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn/153
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn-1009
2011-12-01T20:48:41Z
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Slippery When Wet: The Effects of Local Alcohol Access Laws on Highway Safety
Baughman, Reagan Anne
Conlin, Michael
Dickert-Conlin, Stacy
Pepper, John V
Article
2001-05-29T07:00:00Z
tbd
Economics
<p>Using detailed panel data on local alcohol policy changes in Texas, this paper tests whether the effect of these changes on alcohol-related accidents depends on whether the policy change involves where the alcohol is consumed and the type of alcohol consumed. After controlling for both county and year fixed effects, we find evidence that: (i) the sale of beer and wine may actually decrease expected accidents; and (ii) the sale of higher alcohol-content liquor may present greater risk to highway safety than the sale of just beer and wine.</p>
<p>This manuscript is from the Social Science Research Network, for more information see <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=280814#320346">http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=280814#320346</a></p>
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn/152
oai:surface.syr.edu:ecn-1011
2011-12-01T21:10:23Z
publication:maxwell
publication:coscde
publication:ecn
publication:decn
Love at What Price? Estimating the Value of Marriage
Conlin, Michael
Dickert-Conlin, Stacy A
Whitney, Elyse
Article
2003-12-01T08:00:00Z
tbd
Economics
<p>Using a law within Social Security that provides clear financial incentives to delay marriage, we estimate the financial value of a month of marriage. Specifically, the law provides that widows who are eligible for Social Security benefits on their deceased spouse's earnings records are eligible for benefits at age 60, unless they remarry before that age. If they remarry before that age, they cannot claim widow benefits and must wait until at least age 62 to claim spousal benefits on their new husband's record, which are typically less generous than widow benefits. To generate an estimate of what this behavior implies about the value of marriage, we use data from five panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation linked to administrative data from Social Security. We estimate the cost of marrying before age 60 imposed by the Social Security program. We develop a model that reflects the institutional details of Social Security and generate a likelihood function that reflects that model. By taking advantage of the variation in these costs and when or whether widows remarry before age 60, we estimate the benefit of marriage to be $8000/month. These estimates appear to be reasonable in the context of the short length of time widows are willing to wait and the high value of Social Security benefits. </p>
<p>This manuscript is from the Social Science Research Network, for more information see <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1138699#207003">http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1138699#207003</a></p>
https://surface.syr.edu/ecn/150
1460235/qualified-dublin-core/100//