Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Equality – Economic aspects – Econometric models'
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1
Enzinger, Sharn Emma 1973. "The economic impact of greenhouse policy upon the Australian electricity industry : an applied general equilibrium analysis." Monash University, Centre of Policy Studies, 2001. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/8383.
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Wong, Kwok-pun, and 王國斌. "Heterogeneity of competitive behaviour under price taking competition: an empirical study of newspaper hawkers inHong Kong." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2000. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B3195473X.
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Vickers, John. "Patent races and market structure." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1985. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:9e3df3d2-b58a-48cc-b639-78c7c48bd3cd.
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This thesis is a theoretical study of relationships between patent races and market structure. The outcome of a patent race can be an important determinant of market structure. For example, whether or not a new firm enters a market may depend upon its winning a patent race against an incumbent firm already in that market. Moreover, market structure can be a major influence upon competition in a patent race. In the example, the asymmetry between incumbent and potential entrant has an effect upon their respective incentives in the patent race. Chapter I discusses models of R and D with uncertainty. We show that, as the degree of correlation between the uncertainties facing rival firms increases, R and D efforts increase under some, but not all, conditions, and the number of active competitors falls. Chapter II discusses the approach of representing patent races as bidding games. We examine a model in which several incumbent firms compete with a number of potential entrants in a patent race, and ask whether the incumbents have an incentive to form a joint venture to deter entry. They do so if and only if the patent does not offer a major cost improvement. In Chapter III we examine the strategic interactions between competitors during the course of a race, in an attempt to clarify (for different types of race) the idea that a race degenerates when one player becomes 'far enough ahead' of his rivals, in a sense made precise. In Chapter IV we examine the evolution of market structure in a duopoly model when there is a sequence of patent races. The nature of competition in the product market is shown to determine whether one firm becomes increasingly dominant as industry leader, or whether there is 'action - reaction' between firms.
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Aboagye, Anthony Q. Q. "Financial flows, macroeconomic policy and the agricultural sector in Sub-Saharan Africa." Thesis, McGill University, 1998. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=35672.
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This thesis focuses on the effects of development assistance (ODA), private foreign commercial capital (PFX), domestic savings (SAV), the openness of the economy and producer prices on agricultural output, and on export and domestic shares of agricultural output in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This study uses panel data spanning 27 countries and the period 1970 to 1993.The production function is a Cobb-Douglas type. Static export and domestic share equations are derived from a specification of the agricultural gross domestic product function. Transformed auto-regressive distributed-lag versions of the static share models are used to investigate long-run dynamics, persistence and implementation lags in the share response model.
Agricultural output is affected as follows. ODA, PFX and SAV have small positive or negative impact depending on agricultural region or economic policy environment. The impact of openness of the economy is negative in all agricultural regions, however, there is evidence of positive effect of openness within improved policy environment. None of these effects are statistically significant.
Export share is affected as follows. ODA, PFX and SAV have small positive impact in some agricultural regions and policy environments, both in the short-run and in the long-run. PFX is not significant anywhere. ODA is significant only when countries are grouped by policy environment in the short-run. SAV is significant in the short-run only in some regions, and significant in the long-run only in others. Openness has positive impact in the short-run. This is significant in many regions. Its long-run impact is mostly positive but not significant anywhere. The impact of producer price is mostly positive but not significant.
Efforts to encourage economic activities in rural communities such as improvements in domestic terms of trade in favor of agriculture, together with the provision of infrastructure are likely to stimulate output. Strategies to diversify and process agricultural exports in the face of falling agricultural commodity prices should be pursued.
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Ghaswala, Akbar Abdulaziz. "Impact of technology on economies of scale in large US commerical banks." Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/29221.
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Johnson, Adam Michael. "Pricing Genetically Modified Output Traits and Effects on Competing Technologies." Thesis, North Dakota State University, 2007. https://hdl.handle.net/10365/29851.
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This study develops a framework for pricing output traits derived from agriculture biotechnology and the effects on competing technologies post-introduction of the genetically modified (GM) variety. The price impact model determines processor or consumer adoption rates and changes in processor, farmer, and tech firm surplus as a result of the release of the new GM variety. Several implications result from this research. First, adoption of the GM variety may not be as high as expected due to the lower cost of using conventional varieties for processing or consumption inputs. Second, both processors who adopt the GM variety and those who continue to use conventional varieties will have an increase in surplus as a result
of the introduction of the GM variety. Lower costs of conventional varieties will also result in new entrants into the market.
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Lee, Huey-Lin 1974. "Modelling private vehicle use in a computable general equilibrium model of Taiwan." Monash University, Centre of Policy Studies, 2002. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/7895.
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Tsang, Ho Yee. "Analyses of the agricultural production during the era of rural reform in China." HKBU Institutional Repository, 1998. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/126.
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Ngomba, Peter Njoh. "The developmental impact of public investment in education, science and technology in Cameroon, 1960-1980 /." Thesis, McGill University, 1987. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=75784.
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Linking education, science and technology with national development is a subject of increasing concern in many developing countries. In this dissertation, we have studied empirically the contribution, or lack of it, which public investment in education, science and technology has made to the attainment of development objectives in Cameroon since 1960. Using a small computable macroeconometric model of Cameroon incorporating some major relevant quantitative aspects of the knowledge sector, we have investigated the effects on that sector and on the overall economic system of increased education- and research-service resources. We have also analyzed some of the major qualitative factors that are important in this sector.Our results suggest that, given existing patterns of education, science and technology in Cameroon, the contribution of public investment in this sector may be small compared to the potential contribution suggested in the literature. The implications of these results are examined for policy-making and planning at the national level.
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Walker, Sébastien. "Essays in development macroeconomics." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.712398.
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Baldwin, Elizabeth. "Modelling preferences in economics." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8abebfd3-58df-4223-83b8-ce2f43b5dc90.
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This thesis considers the economics of preferences in two different contexts. First it examines damages from climate change. I argue that our ignorance of the welfare implications of higher levels of warming, as well as scientific uncertainty in precisely what might trigger these scenarios, imply that our tastes and beliefs are incomplete (in the sense of Galaabaatar and Karni, 2013). That is, there are many 'plausible' ways to evaluate a given scenario. In Chapter 1, then, I develop this theory, and use it to formally separate climate impacts into three sorts: those understood well, those understood badly, and those representing the worst possible scenario. I provide a generalisation of the 'dismal theorem' of Weitzman (2009a), and address the question of policy choice: prices versus quantities (cf. Weitzman, 1974). Chapter 2 is an example of the analysis propounded in Chapter 1. I explore the sensitivity of the social cost of carbon to assumed damages from 4C warming, to the assumed extent of CO2 emissions, and to the modelling of the climate and carbon cycles. The analysis shows that differing prior assumptions can alter our evaluation of policy by orders of magnitude. The second part of this thesis regards preferences for indivisible goods. In Chapter 3, which is joint work with Paul Klemperer, I introduce to this field the 'tropical hypersurface', being those prices at which an agent's demand changes. Simple geometric features of this set tell us the precise trade-offs that interest the agent. Thus we develop a new taxonomy of valuations, `demand types'; familiar notions such as substitutes and complements are examples. Finally, we provide a necessary and sufficient condition on these `demand types' for existence of competitive equilibrium, which implies several existing results, as well as new and quite different examples.
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Caria, Antonio Stefano. "Efficiency and other-regarding preferences in information and job-referral networks." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:4c243348-af82-4cdc-b402-e75997e4a599.
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In this thesis I study how networks are formed and I analyse the strategies that well-connected individuals adopt in public good games on a network. In chapter one I study an artefactual field experiment in rural India which tests whether farmers can create efficient networks in a repeated link formation game, and whether group categorisation increases the frequency of in-group links and reduces network efficiency. I find that the efficiency of the networks formed in the experiment is significantly lower than the efficiency which could be achieved under selfish, rational play. When information about group membership is disclosed, in-group links are chosen more frequently, while the efficiency of network structure is not significantly affected. Using a job-referral network experiment in an urban area of Ethiopia, I investigate in chapter two whether individuals create new links with the least connected players in the network. In a first treatment, competition for job-referrals makes it in the player's interest to link with the least connected partners. In this treatment, links to the least connected players are significantly more likely than links to better connected individuals. In a second treatment, connections only affect the welfare of the new partner. Choosing the least connected player minimises inequality and maximises aggregate efficiency. This may motivate other-regarding players. In this treatment, however, links to least connected partners are not significantly more likely than links to other players. In chapter three I explore the characteristics that individuals value in the people they approach for advice. Using cross-sectional data on cocoa farmers in Ghanaian villages and a matched lottery experiment, I find an association between the difference in the aversion to risk of two farmers and the probability that one farmer is interested in the advice of the other farmer. In chapter four I study a one-shot public good game in rural India between farmers connected by a star network. Contributions by the centre of the star have a larger impact on aggregate payoffs than contributions by the spoke players. I use the strategy method to study whether the centre of the star contributes more than the average of the spokes. In selected sessions, I disclose participants' expectations about the choices of the centre of star. I find that the centre player contributes just as much as the average of the spokes, and that he is influenced by the expectations that other players hold about his decisions.
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Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum. "Three essays on Ethiopian farm households." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.670231.
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Yan, Yonghe, and 嚴勇河. "A multi-agent based approach to transmission cost allocation." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2000. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B3124256X.
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Glazyrina, Anna. "Contribution of Public Investments and Innovations to Total Factor Productivity." Thesis, North Dakota State University, 2011. https://hdl.handle.net/10365/29848.
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This study examines the importance of public research and development (R&D) expenditures and innovations (prices) to U S agricultural productivity employing panel vector error correction econometric technique Specifically, time-series and panel unit root tests, panel cointegration procedures, panel causality tests, and vector error correction model are used in the analysis. Empirical application to U S state-level data for 1960-2004 suggests positive and statistically significant influence of both supply-side
drivers, in the form of public R&D expenditures, and demand-side drivers, in the form of innovations (prices), on total factor productivity growth.
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Lewis, Andrew Michael. "Using Stochastic Optimization and Real-Options Models to Value Private Sector Incentives to Invest in Food Protection Measures." Thesis, North Dakota State University, 2006. https://hdl.handle.net/10365/29905.
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Agro-terrorism has become a major concern since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks due to characteristics that create unique problems for managing the threat of an agro-terrorist attack. The costs of trucking delays alone were in the tens of millions of dollars. Over the last few years, the government has spent billions of dollars on biological surveillance and record keeping in preventing potential attacks. Several public and private initiatives are currently in use. Examples include 1) the bio-terrorism regulation of 2004 on maintenance of records; 2) establishment of food protection centers for research and teaching excellence; and 3) investments in emerging technology, such as radio frequency monitoring (RFEM) technology, with the potential to track shipments and provide real-time data that can be used to prevent agro-terrorism risks along food supply chains. This thesis addresses the costs and risk premiums associated with alternative tracking strategies, where and when along the milk supply chain these strategies will reduce the most risks, and what policy implications are associated with the most costeffective tracking strategy. To accomplish these objectives, stochastic optimization is used to determine the costs and risk premiums of alternative tracking strategies. Next, the realoptions method along with a portfolio of options, also referred to as the "tomato garden" framework, is used to determine where and when alternative intervention strategies should be implemented to reduce the most risks. Finally, policy implications are derived on the cost-risk tradeoffs, probability of attacks, and containment efforts if there is an attack by using game theory to determine the incentives needed to motivate participants in the milk supply chain to invest in security measures.
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Lewis, Andrew (Andrew Michael). "Using Stochastic Optimization and Real-Options Models to Value Private Sector Incentives to Invest in Food Protection Measures." Thesis, North Dakota State University, 2006. https://hdl.handle.net/10365/29905.
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Agro-terrorism has become a major concern since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks due to characteristics that create unique problems for managing the threat of an agro-terrorist attack. The costs of trucking delays alone were in the tens of millions of dollars. Over the last few years, the government has spent billions of dollars on biological surveillance and record keeping in preventing potential attacks. Several public and private initiatives are currently in use. Examples include 1) the bio-terrorism regulation of 2004 on maintenance of records; 2) establishment of food protection centers for research and teaching excellence; and 3) investments in emerging technology, such as radio frequency monitoring (RFEM) technology, with the potential to track shipments and provide real-time data that can be used to prevent agro-terrorism risks along food supply chains. This thesis addresses the costs and risk premiums associated with alternative tracking strategies, where and when along the milk supply chain these strategies will reduce the most risks, and what policy implications are associated with the most costeffective tracking strategy. To accomplish these objectives, stochastic optimization is used to determine the costs and risk premiums of alternative tracking strategies. Next, the realoptions method along with a portfolio of options, also referred to as the "tomato garden" framework, is used to determine where and when alternative intervention strategies should be implemented to reduce the most risks. Finally, policy implications are derived on the cost-risk tradeoffs, probability of attacks, and containment efforts if there is an attack by using game theory to determine the incentives needed to motivate participants in the milk supply chain to invest in security measures.
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Tongo, Yanga. "Financial sector development and sectoral output growth evidence from South Africa." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002739.
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The goal of the study is to examine the relationship between financial sector development and output growth in the agricultural, mining and manufacturing sectors in South Africa. The analysis is based on the hypothesis that financial development is essential for promoting production growth in an economy. To test the hypothesis, in the South African context, the vector autoregressive model (VAR) framework and Granger causality test are applied to a quarterly data set starting from 1970 quarter one to 2009 quarter four. The results suggest that financial intermediary development (bank based measure) and stock market development (market based measure) have a positive impact on output growth in the agriculture, mining and manufacturing sectors in South Africa. There is evidence of a one way causal relationship between financial sector development and sectoral output growth. Particularly, there is evidence that financial intermediary development and stock market development causes output growth in the agriculture, mining and manufacturing sectors in South Africa. However, there is no evidence showing causality running from sectoral output growth to financial sector development. The results provide evidence supporting the theory which states that financial development is essential to promote output growth in a country i.e. in our case South Africa. Thus an efficient financial system which promotes efficient channeling of resources towards the agricultural, mining and manufacturing sectors should be built.
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Budu, Ben Asare. "Economic feasibility of processing food waste and incorporating processed food waste products in least cost duck feeds." Thesis, McGill University, 2001. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=33067.
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The focus of this thesis was to analyze the least cost of producing rations for ducks in three age categories from a mixture of conventional feed ingredients and three different processed food waste products and to examine the financial and economic feasibility of establishing an industrial plant to produce these food waste products in the Montreal region. The first part of the thesis was investigated through the use of a linear programming model. The effect of recognizing the variability of protein levels in the various feed ingredients was examined through the use of chance-constrained programming.The second part of the thesis was examined using economic and financial analyses for the investment. The basic plant requirements to produce the three processed food waste products were the same, however energy costs were different for the three products. Revenue was generated from tipping fees and the sale of the three processed food waste products. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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Cincera, Michele. "Economic and technological performances of international firms." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/212081.
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The research performed throughout this dissertation aims at implementing quantitative methods in order to assess economic and technological performances of firms, i.e. it tries to assess the impacts of the determinants of technological activity on the results of this activity. For this purpose, a representative sample of the most important R&D firms in the world is constituted. The micro-economic nature of the analysis, as well as its international dimension are two main features of this research at the empirical level.The second chapter illustrates the importance of R&D investments, patenting activities and other measures of technological activities performed by firms over the last 10 years.
The third chapter describes the main features as well as the construction of the database. The raw data sample consists of comparable detailed micro-level data on 2676 large manufacturing firms from several countries. These firms have reported important R&D expenditures over the period 1980-1994.
The fourth chapter explores the dynamic structure of the patent-R&D relationship by considering the number of patent applications as a function of present and lagged levels of R&D expenditures. R&D spillovers as well as technological and geographical opportunities are taken into account as additional determinants in order to explain patenting behaviours. The estimates are based on recently developed econometric techniques that deal with the discrete non-negative nature of the dependent patent variable as well as the simultaneity that can arise between the R&D decisions and patenting. The results show evidence of a rather contemporaneous impact of R&D activities on patenting. As far as R&D spillovers are concerned, these externalities have a significantly higher impact on patenting than own R&D. Furthermore, these effects appear to take more time, three years on average, to show up in patents.
The fifth chapter explores the contribution of own stock of R&D capital to productivity performance of firms. To this end the usual productivity residual methodology is implemented. The empirical section presents a first set of results which replicate the analysis of previous studies and tries to assess the robustness of the findings with regard to the above issues. Then, further results, based on different sub samples of the data set, investigate to what extent the R&D contribution on productivity differs across firms of different industries and geographic areas or between small and large firms and low and high-tech firms. The last section explores more carefully the simultaneity issue. On the whole, the estimates indicate that R&D has a positive impact on productivity performances. Yet, this contribution is far from being homogeneous across the different dimensions of data or according to the various assumptions retained in the productivity model.
The last empirical chapter goes deeper into the analysis of firms' productivity increases, by considering besides own R&D activities the impact of technological spillovers. The chapter begins by surveying the alternative ways proposed in the literature in order to asses the effect of R&D spillovers on productivity. The main findings reported by some studies at the micro level are then outlined. Then, the framework to formalize technological externalities and other technological determinants is exposed. This framework is based on a positioning of firms into a technological space using their patent distribution across technological fields. The question of whether the externalities generated by the technological and geographic neighbours are different on the recipient's productivity is also addressed by splitting the spillover variable into a local and national component. Then, alternative measures of technological proximity are examined. Some interesting observations emerge from the empirical results. First, the impact of spillovers on productivity increases is positive and much more important than the contribution of own R&D. Second, spillover effects are not the same according to whether they emanate from firms specialized in similar technological fields or firms more distant in the technological space. Finally, the magnitude and direction of these effects are radically different within and between the pillars of the Triad. While European firms do not appear to particularly benefit from both national and international sources of spillovers, US firms are mainly receptive to their national stock and Japanese firms take advantage from the international stock.
Doctorat en sciences économiques, Orientation économie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished
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Ajagbe, Stephen Mayowa. "An analysis of the long run comovements between financial system development and mining production in South Africa." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002689.
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This study examines the nature of the relationship which exists between mining sector production and development of the financial systems in South Africa. This is particularly important in that the mining sector is considered to be one of the major contributors to the country’s overall economic growth. South Africa is also considered to have a very well developed financial system, to the point where the dominance of one over the other is difficult to identify. Therefore offering insight into the nature of this relationship will assist policy makers in identifying the most effective policies in order to ensure that the developments within the financial systems impact appropriately on the mining sector, and ultimately on the economy. In addition to using the conventional proxies of financial system development, this study utilises the principal component analysis (PCA) to construct an index for the entire financial system. The multivariate cointegration approach as proposed by Johansen (1988) and Johansen and Juselius (1990) was then used to estimate the relationship between the development of the financial systems and the mining sector production for the period 1988-2008. The study reveals mixed results for different measures of financial system development. Those involving the banking system show that a negative relationship exists between total mining production and total credit extended to the private sector, while liquid liabilities has a positive relationship. Similarly, with the stock market system, mixed results are also obtained which reveal a negative relationship between total mining production and stock market capitalisation, while a positive relationship is found with secondary market turnover. Of all the financial system variables, only that of stock market capitalisation was found to be significant. The result with the financial development index reveals that a significant negative relationship exists between financial system development and total mining sector production. Results on the other variables controlled in the estimation show that positive and significant relationships exist between total mining production and both nominal exchange rate and political stability respectively. Increased mining production therefore takes place in periods of appreciating exchange rates, and similarly in the post-apartheid era. On the other hand, negative relationships were found for both trade openness and inflation control variables. The impulse response and variance decomposition analyses showed that total mining production explains the largest amount of shocks within itself. Overall, the study reveals that the mining sector might not have benefited much from the development in the South African financial system.
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Kurth, Andrew Hamilton. "A Stochastic Simulation of the North Dakota Ethanol Production Incentive." Thesis, North Dakota State University, 2009. https://hdl.handle.net/10365/29635.
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The objective of this research is to determine the effect the North Dakota Ethanol Production Incentive has on ethanol plant survivability. This thesis uses a stochastic simulation to show the financial performance of an ethanol plant with and without subsidy support. Historical corn and ethanol prices are used to simulate market conditions a typical ethanol might face. Using the forecast prices, an ethanol plant balance sheet was created to show how a plant would perform in normal market conditions, as well as how the plant would perform with the Ethanol Production Incentive and also with alternative subsidy structures that were developed. The results showed the Ethanol Production Incentive was the most effective subsidy tested and it does appear to improve plant balance sheets to a certain extent during a downturn.
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Lehrke, Linda. "Determining and Evaluating Cost-Effective Food Safety Risk Reduction Strategies at Retail Meat Facilities." Thesis, North Dakota State University, 2006. https://hdl.handle.net/10365/29906.
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In spite of the documented success of Pathogen Reduction and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (PR/HACCP) at the processing level, farm-level and retail-level application is optional. Several factors impact the gap of food safety regulations from farm to fork. This thesis focuses on the retail level. At the retail level, pathogen survival and the associated ability to cause further disease to humans even after being subjected to certain processing and packaging conditions have varying implications on the probability of sickness or death. This issue also arises over the fact that, sometimes, appropriate handling and processing instructions are not properly followed by consumers. The primary goals of the project are to develop an optimal food safety intervention strategy that incorporates risk, cost, and the value of pathogen reduction with alternative control mechanism. We wish to evaluate incentives for PR/HACCP-like planning and adherence to best management practices that promote safe food production. These incentives will be evaluated for the retail level. In addition, we will develop optimal intervention strategies for ready-to-eat meats and poultry products that incorporate risk assessment, cost of intervention, and the value of risk reduction of alternative strategies for the farm-to-table continuum. The model adopted in this study is an expansion of the stochastic optimization model developed by Nganje, Kaitibie, and Sorin (2005) to include the optimal intervention strategy at the retail ( consumer) level. These components are simulated with firm-level microbial data at the processing and retail level using stochastic optimizer software. Stochastic dominance was also used to compare across the optimal strategies and determine if there is one clear choice that is preferred. This allowed us incorporate risk preferences of firms. The scenario method was used to determine what factors would likely affect the adoption of PR/HACCP at the retail level. Finally, this thesis provides firms and policymakers a direction for future options concerning risk mitigation strategies.
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Verikios, George. "Understanding the world wool market : trade, productivity and grower incomes." University of Western Australia. School of Economics and Commerce, 2007. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2007.0064.
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[Truncated abstract] The core objective of this thesis is summarised by its title: “Understanding the World Wool Market: Trade, Productivity and Grower Incomes”. Thus, we wish to aid understanding of the economic mechanisms by which the world wool market operates. In doing so, we analyse two issues trade and productivity and their effect on, inter alia, grower incomes. To achieve the objective, we develop a novel analytical framework, or model. The model combines two long and rich modelling traditions: the partial-equilibrium commodity-specific approach and the computable-general-equilibrium approach. The result is a model that represents the world wool market in detail, tracking the production of greasy wool through five off-farm production stages ending in the production of wool garments. Capturing the multistage nature of the wool production system is a key pillar in this part of the model . . . The estimated welfare gain for China is 0.1% of real income; this is a significant welfare gain. For three losing regions Italy, Germany and Japan the results are robust and we can be highly confident that these regions are the largest losers from the complete removal of 2005 wool tariffs. In both wool tariff liberalisation scenarios, regions whose exports are skewed towards wool textiles and garments gain the most as it is these wool products that have the highest initial tariff rates. The overall finding of this work is that a sophisticated analytical framework is necessary for analysing productivity and trade issues in the world wool market. Only a model of this kind can appropriately handle the degree of complexity of interactions between members (domestic and foreign) of the multistage wool production system. Further, including the nonwool economy in the analytical framework allows us to capture the indirect effects of changes in the world wool market and also the effects on the nonwool economy itself.
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de, Rassenfosse Gaétan. "Essays on the propensity to patent: measurement and determinants." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/210130.
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Chapter 1 discusses the econometric pitfalls associated with the use of patent production functions to study the invention process. It then goes on to argue that a sound understanding of the invention process necessarily requires an understanding of the propensity to patent. The empirical analysis carried out in Chapter 1 seeks to explain the proportion of inventions patented – a potential metric for the propensity to patent – from an international sample of manufacturing firms. Chapter 2 proposes a methodology to filter out the noise induced by varying patent practices in the R&D-patent relationship. The methodology explicitly decomposes the patent-to-R&D ratio into its components of productivity and propensity. It is then applied to a novel data set of priority patent applications in four countries and six industries.
Chapter 3 takes stock of the literature on the role of fees in patent systems while Chapter 4 presents estimates of the price elasticity of demand for patents at the trilateral offices (that is, in the U.S. Japan and Europe). The estimation of dynamic panel data models of patent applications suggests that the long-term price elasticity is about -0.30.
Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished
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Mantovani, Marco. "Essays in forward looking behavior in strategic interactions." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/209492.
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The general topic of our thesis is forward looking behavior in strategic situations. Mixing theoretical and experimental analysis, we document how strategic thinking is affected by the specific features of a dynamic interaction. The overarching result is that the information regarding decisions that are close to the current one, receive a qualitatively different consideration, with respect to distant ones. That is, the actual decisions are based on reasoning over a limited number of steps, close to actual decison node. We capture this feature of behavior both in a strategic (limited backward induction) and in a non-strategic (limited farsightedness) set up, and we identify relevant consequences on the outcome of the interaction, which powerfullly explain many observed experimental regularities.In the first essay, we present a general out-of-equilibrium framework for strategic thinking in sequential games. It assumes the agents to take decisions on restricted game trees, according to their (limited) foresight level, following backward induction. Therefore we talk of limited backward induction (LBI). We test for LBI using a variant of the race game. Our design allows to identify restricted game trees and backward reasoning, thus properly disentangling LBI behavior. The results provide strong support in favor of LBI. Most players solve intermediate tasks - i.e. restricted games - without reasoning on the terminal histories. Only a small fraction of subjects play close to equilibrium, and (slow) convergence toward it appears, though only in the base game. An intermediate task keeps the subjects off the equilibrium path longer than in the base game. The results cannot be rationalized using the most popular models of strategic reasoning, let alone equilibrium analysis.
In the second essay, a subtle implication of the model is investigated: the sensitivity of the players’ foresight to the accessibility and completeness of the information they have, using a Centipede game. By manipulating the way in which information is provided to subjects, we show that reduced availability of information is sufficient to shift the distribution of take-nodes further from the equilibrium prediction. On the other hand, similar results are obtained in a treatment where reduced availability of information is combined with an attempt to elicit preferences for reciprocity, through the presentation of the centipede as a repeated trust game. Our results could be interpreted as cognitive limitations being more effective than preferences in determining (shifts in) behavior in our experimental centipede. Furthermore our results are at odds with the recent ones in Cox [2012], suggesting caution in generalizing their results. Reducing the availability of information may hamper backward induction or induce myopic behavior, depending on the strategic environment.
The third essay consists of an experimental investigation of farsighted versus myopic behavior in network formation. Pairwise stability Jackson and Wolinsky [1996] is the standard stability concept in network formation. It assumes myopic behavior of the agents in the sense that they do not forecast how others might react to their actions. Assuming that agents are perfectly farsighted, related stability concepts have been proposed. We design a simple network formation experiment to test these extreme theories, but find evidence against both of them: the subjects are consistent with an intermediate rule of behavior, which we interpret as a form of limited farsightedness. On aggregate, the selection among multiple pairwise stable networks (and the performance of farsighted stability) crucially depends on the level of farsightedness needed to sustain them, and not on efficiency or cooperative considerations. Individual behavior analysis corroborates this interpretation, and suggests, in general, a low level of farsightedness (around two steps) on the part of the agents.
Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished
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Smith, Jeremy Paul Duncan. "Aspects of macroeconometric time series modelling." Phd thesis, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/121824.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis contains six chapters which investigate different
areas in applied econometrics. The major focus of the study has been
the application of techniques from the applied econometrics
literature to a study of the Australian macroeconomy.
Chapter Two uses a Vector AutoRegressive (VAR) model and a
structural model of the Australian economy to discover those
variables responsible for the fluctuations which have buffeted the
Australian economy over the last fifteen years. Despite marked
differences in the appearance of the two models, the results are
similar in predicting how the economy responds to certain shocks.
Chapter Three examines the behaviour of the Australian dollar
over the period since float in December 1983. The analysis shows that
the dollar is over-valued, compared with a level that can maintain a
sustainable debt-GDP ratio . The over-valuation has meant that the
Australian dollar is discounted on the forward market and high
domestic interest rates are necessary to offset the depreciation
expected by foreign investors.
Chapter Four conducts a Monte Carlo analysis to investigate the
performance of alternative estimation methods in equations which
include a generated regressor as an explanatory variable. The results
show that while FIML tends to dominate with an increasing sample
size, in small samples FIML standard errors are downward biased,
leaving Correct OLS as the best estimation method.
Chapter Five further examines the generated regressor problem
using Barro’s (1977) New Classical unemployment model and shows that
the results are robust to the estimation method. However, the results
from the larger model suggested by Pesaran (1982) are sensitive to
the estimation procedure from the larger model suggested by Pesaran (1982) are sensitive to the estimation procedure.
Chapter Six evaluates alternative procedures for converting
qualitative expectation responses to quantitative expectations for
the Australian manufacturing sector and finds that a dynamic
nonlinear model which is a generalisation of the model suggested by
Pesaran (1987) is superior in picking up both turn in g points in the
data and in minimising the forecast error.
Chapter Seven further examines the behaviour of the Australian
manufacturing sector using multivariate cointegration and the derived
quantitative expectations of Chapter Six. The analysis shows that the
role of price variables is much more significant than that of output
in determining employment movements.
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"On roommate problem with weak preferences." 2008. http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b5893639.
Full textAbstract:
Wong, Tak Yuen.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 29-30).
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1
Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.6
Chapter 3 --- The Roommate Problem --- p.8
Chapter 4 --- The Existence of Stable Matchings --- p.11
Chapter 5 --- Random Paths to Stability --- p.22
Chapter 6 --- Concluding Remarks --- p.28
29
Spivey, Christy. "Marriage, career, and the city : three essays in applied microeconomics." Thesis, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/2605.
Full text
30
"Intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status and the return to health: evidence from Chinese twins." Thesis, 2008. http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b6074619.
Full textAbstract:
In this thesis, return to health is also estimated. We examine the effects of height on hourly wage, monthly earnings, working hours, and education level. Our results show that height has different causal impacts on women and men. Women benefit from height: taller women earn more, work less, and have more leisure time. However, taller men are more likely to land a job and work longer, largely because they are better endowed. Moreover, the positive effect of height on hourly wage for women is larger than that for men. In general, the findings have contributed new evidence to existing literature that estimates the return to health.This thesis mainly investigates the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status. Specifically, it estimates the effects of family income and parental education on the health status and educational attainment of the next generation using unique twins data collected from urban China. By using twins strategy, we can largely control for unobservables, which may cause biases in estimations. Our results show that the positive correlations of family income and maternal education with child health are largely due to unobserved endowment and family background. However, family income and paternal education do have a positive effect on child education. Overall, our findings suggest that increasing family income and parental schooling do not help in improving child health. However, to reduce the educational gap of the next generation, redistributing income would prove beneficial. The design of government policies is dependent on the policy targets.
Xiong, Yanyan.
Advisers: Hongbin Li; Junsen Zhang.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: 2176.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008.
Includes bibliographical references.
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
School code: 1307.
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Nyasha, Sheilla. "Financial development and economic growth : new evidence from six countries." Thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/18576.
Full textAbstract:
Using 1980 - 2012 annual data, the study empirically investigates the dynamic
relationship between financial development and economic growth in three
developing countries (South Africa, Brazil and Kenya) and three developed countries
(United States of America, United Kingdom and Australia). The study was motivated
by the current debate regarding the role of financial development in the economic
growth process, and their causal relationship. The debate centres on whether
financial development impacts positively or negatively on economic growth and
whether it Granger-causes economic growth or vice versa. To this end, two models
have been used. In Model 1 the impact of bank- and market-based financial
development on economic growth is examined, while in Model 2 it is the causality
between the two that is explored. Using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL)
bounds testing approach to cointegration and error-correction based causality test,
the results were found to differ from country to country and over time. These results
were also found to be sensitive to the financial development proxy used. Based on
Model 1, the study found that the impact of bank-based financial development on
economic growth is positive in South Africa and the USA, but negative in the U.K –
and neither positive nor negative in Kenya. Elsewhere the results were inconclusive.
Market-based financial development was found to impact positively in Kenya, USA
and the UK but not in the remaining countries. Based on Model 2, the study found
that bank-based financial development Granger-causes economic growth in the UK,
while in Brazil they Granger-cause each other. However, in South Africa, Kenya and
USA no causal relationship was found. In Australia the results were inconclusive.
The study also found that in the short run, market-based financial development
Granger-causes economic growth in the USA but that in South Africa and Brazil, the
reverse applies. On the other hand bidirectional causality was found to prevail in
Kenya in the same period.Economics
DCOM (Economics)
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"Welfare effects of trade and environmental policy for a small-polluted economy." 2004. http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b5892257.
Full textAbstract:
Keung Kam-Yin.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-80).
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
Chapter Chapter 1 --- Overview --- p.1
Chapter Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.5
Chapter 2.1 --- Income growth and pollution --- p.5
Chapter 2.2 --- Environmental regulations and comparative advantage --- p.6
Chapter 2.3 --- Welfare implications : Optimal policy in a second-best world --- p.9
Chapter 2.4 --- Unemployment and the Environment --- p.11
Chapter 2.5 --- Labor Union and International Trade --- p.12
Chapter Chapter 3 --- Tariffs and the Environment --- p.14
Chapter 3.1 --- The model --- p.14
Chapter 3.2 --- Resource Allocation -The effects of import tariffs --- p.19
Chapter 3.3 --- National welfare --- p.23
Chapter 3.4 --- Trade Liberalization --- p.26
Chapter Chapter 4 --- Tariffs，Unemployment and the Environment --- p.28
Chapter 4.1 --- The model --- p.30
Chapter 4.2 --- Resource Allocation - The effects of import tariffs --- p.33
Chapter 4.3 --- National Welfare --- p.37
Chapter 4.4 --- Trade Liberalization --- p.40
Chapter Chapter 5 --- "Tariffs, Labor Unions and the Environment" --- p.42
Chapter 5.1 --- The model --- p.43
Chapter 5.2 --- Resource Allocation - The effects of import tariffs --- p.48
Chapter 5.3 --- National Welfare --- p.52
Chapter 5.4 --- Trade Liberalization --- p.54
Chapter Chapter 6 --- Concluding Remarks --- p.57
Appendix I --- p.60
Appendix II --- p.64
Appendix III --- p.67
References --- p.72
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Liu, Jing 1979. "Incomes and outcomes : the dynamic interaction of the marriage market and the labor market." 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/18081.
Full textAbstract:
In this thesis we study the interdependency of individual decisions on work and family, particularly the dynamic interaction of the marriage market and the labor market. My basic idea is that marital status affects individual labor supply decisions, and in turn, labor market condition influences marriage formation and dissolution. While these interactions are evident, the overwhelming majority of research on labor or family economics usually simplifies the individual decision-making by assuming that one of two markets outcomes is given while studying the other one. In the empirical study, endogeneity issues are troublesome, especially under the dynamic setting. My work takes a different approach. I directly model the individual decision-making, which describes how marriage market and labor market interact with each other; and matching with survey data we empirically recover the underlying economic environments that characterize the structure of the marriage market and the labor market. I further examine to what extent my model explains the observed facts. Very few studies have been conducted to explore work and family issues in this direction partly due to its complexity. The structural models, besides the conventional regression, improve our perceptions on how individuals form decisions on work and family, which have far-reaching implications on policy designs and welfare evaluations. In my thesis, I explore all these issues in three steps. In chapter 1, I explain a stylized fact that there exists a positive correlation between rising wage inequality and declining marriage rates. A two-sided matching model is developed to exploit a theoretical channel through which wage inequality affects marriage rates. My model features a steady state equilibrium in which the whole marriage market is divided into groups and only people in the same group will marry each other. Using the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) data from 1970 to 2000, my estimates indicate that a structural change occurs in the U.S. marriage market. The higher matching efficiency and declining elasticity of men suggest that the nowadays marriage market provides more chance to meet and better gender equity, though higher arrival rates also raise the outside options of getting married. Additionally, I find that wage inequality accounts for over 38% of the decline in marriage rate, which is underestimated in Gould (2003). Chapter 2 examines household dynamic labor supply after introducing bargaining between husbands and wives, which has not been thoroughly studied previously in literature. Here bargaining between husbands and wives determines the amount of husbands' earnings that are transferred to wives for their private consumption. A household search model that incorporates the intrahousehold bargaining is developed and estimated using panel data from the year 2001 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). My results show that the portion of household income shared by husbands for private consumption is responsive to their employment status, suggesting the existence of the bargaining between the U.S. couples. My findings also imply that the labor supply of women will increase with higher women wage and lower money transfer from husbands to wives, showing that the income effect dominates for wives. Moreover, the wage frontier of husbands is positively correlated with wives' wages and negatively correlated with husbands' earnings transferred to wives, highlighting that husbands are subject to both the income effect and intra-household bargaining, and their decisions depend on which effect dominates. In the third and the last chapter, I study household unemployment duration. Previously, most studies have addressed the topic of job search at the individual level. This chapter studies job search patterns of married couples and in particular compares couple's unemployment duration given their spousal earnings. A household search model is introduced, which includes the bargaining between husbands and wives. I use the year 2001 panel data Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to estimate the structural model of family decisions. Our findings reveal that there exists a gender asymmetry in job search of the U.S. household: The more husbands earn, the longer wives search for a job; but the more wives earn, the sooner husbands find a job.text
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Akmal, Muhammad. "The structure of energy demand in Australia : an econometric investigation with some economic applications." Phd thesis, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/144955.
Full text
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Kim, Seung-Rae. "Essays on interactions between environmental and fiscal policies: analytical and numerical general equilibrium analyses." Thesis, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/702.
Full text
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De, Cicco Pereira Gustavo Antonio. "Essays in Macroeconomics and Informality." Thesis, 2021. https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-vgs3-3t82.
Full textAbstract:
While the phenomenon of informality in labor markets is pervasive in many parts of the world, its interaction with the aggregate behavior of economies is not well understood. In this dissertation, I explore the connection between informality and the macroeconomy in two main ways. The first way is to augment a search-and-matching model of labor markets in the tradition of Mortensen and Pissarides (1994) with aggregate shocks and an informal sector. The second is to consider an Aiyagari (1994) setting in which the existence of an informal sector feeds back into the labor income risk and savings decisions of heterogeneous agents. The parameters of both models are chosen so as to match features of micro-data I obtain from Brazil. This dissertation is thus divided into three chapters: the first one presents the data and findings from the empirical exploration. The second chapter describes the model of informality over the business cycle and presents its results. The third chapter introduces the heterogeneous agents model with informality and the conclusions derived therefrom.
The first chapter divides the empirical analysis into two components. Firstly, I analyze how informality is distributed over education, income and occupational groups, and how formal-informal income differentials behave over these categories. I find that informality decreases in average income, and that the formal-informal income differential is higher among low income workers. The second component pertains to the evolution of informality over time. I show that, in the time period covered by the data, the rate of informality has a strongly cyclical pattern, which is mostly explained by cyclical variation in formal job creation.
In the second chapter, in co-authorship with Livio Maya, we show in a parsimonious model of business cycles and informal labor markets that the differential risk of formal and informal contracts plays a potentially important role in generating the patterns of job creation found in the data. The main finding is that generating substantial countercyclicality in the informality rate in our calibration requires the price of risk to be highly countercyclical.
In the third chapter, also in co-authorship with Livio Maya, we show the transition path of a policy designed to fight informality in a heterogeneous agents setting. The main finding is that while eliminating the informal sector makes the economy more productive and reduces unemployment in the long run, the short term impact is influenced by general equilibrium effects. In particular, unemployment increases in the short run due to the impact of the policy on interest rates. Moreover, the effects of such policy are sensitive to the assumptions on the destination of the extra tax revenues derived from increased formalization in the transition path.
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Shilongo, Fillemon. "An econometric analysis of the impact of imports on inflation in Namibia." Diss., 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/26869.
Full textAbstract:
This study investigated the impact of import prices on inflation in Namibia, using quarterly time series data over the period 1998Q2-2017Q4. The variables used in the study are inflation rate, M2, real GDP and import prices. The study found that all the variables are integrated of order one (1), and upon testing for cointegration using Johansen test, there was no cointegration. Therefore, the model was analysed using ordinary least squares (OLS) techniques of vector autoregression (VAR) approach, granger causality test and the impulse response function. The results of the study revealed that import prices granger causes inflation at 1% level of significance. Inflation is also granger caused by real GDP and broad money supply (M2) does not Granger cause inflation. The study further revealed that the shocks to import prices are significant in explaining variation in inflation both in the short run and in the long term.Economics
M. Com. (Economics)
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Khurshid, Anjum. "Preventive oral health in underserved populations: an economic analysis." Thesis, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/3277.
Full textAbstract:
Our study adds to the understanding of dental caries prevention in underserved populations. Dental caries is the most common disease of childhood but can be easily prevented. It is therefore essential that policy makers use evidence to promote policies that will help reduce the burden of caries in high-risk children. We collected socioeconomic and demographic data through written surveys from parents of children at the Lyford Consolidated Independent School District in Willacy County. We got a 60% response to our survey. The survey data was matched with dental examination data from a teledentistry project. Only 19% of children in our matched sample had any sealant but 43% had at least one dental caries. Of those without sealants, almost half (49%) had caries while of those with sealants only 19% had any caries. We also found that while half (48%) of those from low-income households (ie, annual income <$25,000) had caries, only a third (34%) of those in high-income households had any caries. Our data analysis involved econometric modeling to study the impact of various factors including dental sealants on the occurrence of dental caries. We assumed dental sealant application to be a proxy for past preventive dental care. We used multivariate probit regression to test for endogeneity in our model. The estimation results from univariate probit models showed a strong and robust preventive effect of dental sealants on dental caries. We used Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), logit, probit, and logistic regressions to confirm the results and obtained similar findings. We used our fitted model to simulate the effect of providing sealants to all children in our sample and found that there will be a 52% - 68% decrease in the mean predicted probability of caries in different scenarios. Finally, we used cost estimates from published studies and the annual survey of dental fee by the American Dental Association to calculate cost-benefit of providing sealants through school-based programs. We found school-based sealant programs to be cost-beneficial. Our analysis leads to a recommendation to promote school-based sealant programs in underserved populations.text
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Benavides, Raul Martinez. "Pricing in a congestible service industry with a focus on the ski industry." Thesis, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/15158.
Full textAbstract:
In 2003, the Centre for Operations Excellence at the University of British Columbia's
Sauder School of Business worked on a project for a company in the resort industry. The
project was an initial attempt to develop and implement a pricing management practice
for the ski lift ticket business of that company. Our main deliverable was the
development of an Excel-based tool with a user-friendly interface that could help the
company in their budgeting of the ski lift ticket business.
After completing the project, we did some further investigation relative to pricing
management techniques that could be applied to this sort of business, namely a
congestible service industry. In this thesis we argue that a revenue management system
could bring substantial benefits if implemented in this industry. We also identify the
requirements and main features of a revenue management system applied to congestible
service industries.
Although revenue management is a very popular system in fields such as the airline, hotel
and car rental industry, none of them can be classified as congestible industries. The ski
lift ticket industry and similar industries possess one characteristic that differentiates
them from the ones previously mentioned, there is no fixed capacity. This is the reason
why we considered important to study the application of revenue management in
congestible service industries.
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Zhou, Yixiao. "Essays on mechanisms of technological catch-up and industrial upgrading in economic development." Phd thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/151520.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines the channels and mechanisms of technological catch-up and industrial upgrading in the context of economic development. Technological progress is critical for a country's sustainable growth and for the successful transition of a country from imitation to innovation. Therefore, to clarify the main channels and mechanisms driving the accumulation of knowledge and technologies in an economy contributes to an understanding of the sources of economic growth. The specific aspects of technological catch-up and industrial upgrading covered in the thesis include inter-sectoral industrial upgrading, the intensification of R&D activities, a country's tapping into foreign sources of knowledge, and a country's changing position in the global value chain. In studying these channels and mechanisms, in-depth theoretical discussion and quantitative methods are applied. In terms of theoretical discussion, the thesis covers many issues relating to the factors contributing to technological progress and draws our attention to the key aspects of such progress. In terms of quantitative methods, advanced econometric methods such as Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), the estimator from Kyriazidou (1997), the Heckman two-step estimator, the Tobit and Probit estimators and various instrumental variable estimators are employed to address different econometric issues and data structures in model estimations. The thesis finds evidence of the critical role of institutional quality in promoting the productive use of scarce tertiary human capital, in stimulating the Research and Development (R&D) investment of firms, and in attracting R&D investment in host countries by multinational enterprises. The thesis also reveals the importance of human capital as an essential input to the process of technological catch-up and industrial upgrading. A case study of Chinese manufacturing firms clarifies the determinants of firm-level R&D investment, which helps us understand and predict the prospects for innovation in the Chinese economy. By linking firm-level production and customs datasets, the thesis probes into the important question of how trade participation affects innovation in the context of the Chinese economy, which is an especially interesting case due to the huge contribution from trade to China's growth miracle to date. The findings draw attention to processing trade and suggest that under some circumstances deep and long-term engagement in processing trade may adversely influence the R&D investment and innovation prospect of firms. This point reflects the difficulty of technological catch-up and industrial upgrading in a world where global production sharing continues to deepen. Based on the results of empirical and quantitative analyses, several policy suggestions are proposed. These include (1) enhancing institutional quality to accompany other growth-promoting policies, (2) encouraging individual and household-level investment in human capital, (3) nurturing domestic R&D stock and research talents at relatively early stages of development and (4) looking beyond the direct targets of industrial and trade policies to take into account the implications for technological catch-up and industrial upgrading when making such policies. The thesis also points out some directions for future research to extract from the dynamics of the world economy those channels and mechanisms of technological catch-up and industrial upgrading yet unclarified by this thesis.
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Nguyen, Thi Hoang Lan. "Essays on the Economics of Education and Market Design." Thesis, 2020. https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-gtxr-tb16.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation consists of three essays on the economics of education and market design. The first two chapters are united in their attention on school choice issues. Chapter 1 considers a specific application, whereas chapter 2 focuses on a matching mechanism widely used in multiple applications. Both chapters 1 and 3 explore equity concerns in education but through very different lenses (affirmative action vs. educational investment) and very different settings (the United States vs. Vietnam).
Chapter 1 addresses the diversity issue that is especially prevalent in elite schools that select students based on exams. Whereas previous studies only consider the direct impact on elite schools, I quantify the effects of two widely-discussed affirmative action plans on both elite and regular schools in New York City. I find that the two plans have quite different effects. First, there is a trade-off between improving diversity and maintaining student quality in elite schools as measured by state test scores in middle school. Despite taking into account the socioeconomic status of students' neighborhoods, the Chicago plan gives rise mostly to reshuffling within elite schools. Thus, both the overall racial composition and quality of incoming students are largely preserved as in the status quo. In contrast, the Top 7% plan, which would accept into the elite sector students in the top 7% by academic performance of each public middle school, causes considerable flows of students between the elite and regular sectors. The elite sector experiences a substantial increase in the proportions of Black and Hispanic students, along with a decrease in average student quality. Analyzing the difference between the outcomes of these two policies provides some insight into how the two objectives—diversity and peer quality in elite schools—might be better balanced in general. The second difference between the plans arises because they transform the distribution of diversity across schools in different ways. The Chicago plan reduces the differences among schools within the elite sector, while the Top 7% plan reduces the gap in diversity between the two sectors even as it increases within-sector dispersion. Both plans result in considerable changes in school assignments in the regular school sector, thus affecting the average student quality in these schools.
Chapter 2, joint work with Guillaume Haeringer and Silvio Ravaioli, uses a lab experiment to study learning dynamics when participants receive feedback in centralized matching mechanisms. Our design allows for two types of learning: to coordinate within the same environment as well as to understand the underlying mechanisms. We provide additional evidence to previous work that the majority of the deviations from truth-telling, the dominant strategy in the Deferred Acceptance mechanism, are those that do not affect payoffs. Furthermore, by explicitly analyzing learning, we can confirm that at least some of the participants learn about the optimality of truth-telling, and their departures from it happen primarily when they face the same environment being repeated. Finally, we find that when learning to coordinate, agents tend to retain their previous strategy when the payoff from this strategy is high. This is suggestive evidence of reinforcement learning.
Chapter 3 documents the pattern of educational investments for high school students across different demographics and their effects on performance on the college entrance exam and in college. Survey data from Vietnam shows that high school students from higher-income households have higher education expenditure and participation in extra classes (both at the extensive and intensive margin). Minority and rural students invest less than their non-minority and urban counterparts even after controlling for income. Out of these investments, only extra classes during the school year education expenditure other than that on extra classes are effective in increasing college entrance exam scores. In terms of college performance, a higher entrance exam score leads to a slightly higher grade point average at graduation, controlling for academic department fixed effects and investments in high school. Neither education expenditure or participation in extra classes in high school show any significant effects on college performance, except that already captured in the entrance exam scores. I record multiple gender differences. Female high school students tend to receive more investments. Even though they perform slightly worse on the entrance exam than their male peers with the same investments, they perform better in college, given the same entrance exam scores.
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Nguyen, Dieu Hoa Thi. "Essays in the Economics of Education." Thesis, 2021. https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-3705-tj25.
Full textAbstract:
Education is at the center of upskilling human capital in developing countries, thereby positively influencing economic growth and development. For decades, many education policies targeted at developing countries have been narrowly focused on improving access to basic education (Barrett et al., 2015). However, access to education does not always translate into educational attainment. Thus, beyond the initial goal of expanding access to education in developing countries, there has been a growing focus on delivering quality education on the development agenda for developing countries in recent years.
One popular policy instrument in enhancing education quality has been school choice. Analysis of school choice and the subsequent academic performance outcomes can provide new insight on the economics of education to policymakers, schools, parents and students alike. This dissertation consists of three essays, which focus on understanding the demand for public schools and the returns to school quality in a merit-based competitive school assignment system. In particular, these papers investigate how positive recognition of ability through awards can affect the students’ decision-making process; what the students might gain from attending a more selective school; and how students balance between their preferences for school characteristics and maximizing their chances of admission in a competitive school choice market. Altogether, this dissertation highlights the role of information as well as educational background in explaining differences in school choice decisions and achievement outcomes.
In chapter 1, I examine the role of positive recognition on students’ school choice decisions and achievement outcomes in the context of academic competitions. Academic competitions are an essential aspect of education. Given the prevalence and the amount of resources spent organizing them, a natural question that arises is the extent of the impact on winners’ education outcomes when their talent is recognized. I exploit the award structure in Vietnam’s annual regional academic competitions to answer this question. By leveraging the pre-determined share of awards, I apply a regression discontinuity design to assess the effects of receiving a Prize and receiving an Honorable Mention. I find that both types of awards lead to improvements in educational outcomes, and the results are persistent after three years. I also find some evidence of specialization associated with receiving a Prize Award. I hypothesize that long-term effects can be partially explained by school choice: winners are significantly more likely to apply to and consequently enroll in higher-quality schools. There are also prominent differences in educational choices and outcomes along gender lines: female students are more sensitive to award receipts than male students. These findings underscore the positive motivational effects of awards, even among the top performers in a highly competitive schooling market.
In chapter 2, I explore the impacts of attending a selective school on students’ educational outcomes. Students in Vietnam are assigned to public high schools based on their performance in a placement exam as well as their ranked choice of schools. Public schools are often oversubscribed, which contributes to exogeneous admission score cutoffs below which students are not considered for admission. By applying a regression discontinuity research design to these admission score cutoffs, I find that students who are marginally admitted to their top-choice public schools are exposed to significantly higher-achieving peers while finding themselves at the bottom of the ability distribution. They experience some improvements in standardized test scores at the end of their high school, but fare worse in school-based achievements and graduation outcomes. These findings highlight the importance of the potential trade-offs between attending more selective schools with better peer quality while receiving a lower ordinal rank in the ability distribution in the assigned school. In addition, the impacts of selective schools on students vary along the lines of the students’ own attitude towards studying as well as their middle school educational background. This substantial heterogeneity collectively highlights the importance of considering the students’ past educational background in interpreting how selective schools might impact students’ outcomes.
In chapter 3, I investigate students’ preferences, strategic behaviors and welfare outcomes under a competitive school choice market by conducting a survey on school choice participants in two school districts in Vietnam. The original survey data on school choice participants, coupled with administrative data, afford me the opportunity to understand true preferences and strategies without involving strong assumptions on the students’ beliefs. In order to balance out their own preferences and chance of admission in such a competitive setting, the majority of students exhibit strategic behaviors. However, students from less advanced educational backgrounds tend to have large belief errors and are more likely to make strategic mistakes. Consequently, these students are at a disadvantage, as they find themselves among lower-achieving peers in their new schools. With preference data from the survey, I estimate the students’ preferences for school characteristics and find evidence of heterogeneity in students’ preferences for school characteristics: students from more advanced educational backgrounds value school selectivity and teacher qualification more than their peers. Using these estimates to evaluate students’ welfare under the current assignment mechanism as well as a counterfactual strategy-proof deferred acceptance algorithm, I find that switching to deferred acceptance algorithm can be welfare-improving, particularly for high-performing students. Overall, this paper provides a starting point to directly study the drawbacks of manipulable assignment mechanisms by using survey data and highlight the potential disparity in preferences and application strategies that can further widen the gap in educational mobility.
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Sarntisart, Saran. "Implications of non-standard preferences on religious giving, alternative banking, and optimal taxation." Phd thesis, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/150633.
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This thesis consists of three papers studying the economic implications of non-standard preferences on religious giving, alternative banking, and optimal taxation. The first paper (Chapter 2) compares a type of religious giving from the rich to the poor with other fiscal policies in terms of economic aggregates and social welfare. The second paper (Chapter 3) aims to answer under what conditions an alternative banking system would arise and what are the growth and welfare implications of these systems. The third paper (Chapter 4) examines the impact of self-control problems on individuals' economic decisions and how public finance instruments could be used to correct anomalies created by temptation. The first paper sets up a framework for an economy with religious giving from the rich to the poor. We highlight its impact on economic aggregates and social welfare. These characteristics are incorporated into an overlapping generations model. We compare religious giving with other intergenerational fiscal policies that have redistributive impact. Results show that when people have standard preferences, Zakat (a type of Islamic religious giving) although enhances redistribution, may not be the choice in terms of total welfare. But when individuals are risk adverse and have After-life concerns, Zakat enhances both redistribution and total welfare due to the higher steady state capital. The second paper examines the issue that a significant number of individuals are unwilling to deposit their savings into the banking sector since it does not operate according to their religious beliefs. In this paper we aim to answer the following questions: First, under what conditions an alternative banking system would arise? Second, what are the growth, and welfare implications of these banking systems? Our model shows that an alternative banking system would arise if individuals have religious concerns. Moreover, we show that in an economy populated with some religiously concerned individuals, the existence of an alternative banking system can generate relatively higher growth and improve welfare. The third paper investigates self-control problems as it is an important determinant of individuals' economic decisions. The decision maker's future utility is affected by unwanted temptation. Various government policies would differ if one incorporates these behavioral aspects. Public finance instruments could, however, be used to correct anomalies created by temptation. In order to capture our agents' temptation towards current consumption, our model makes use of the preference structure pioneered by Gul and Pesendorfer (2001) and further elaborated by Krusell et al. (2010) in the context of optimal taxation. We extend by adding labor choice and besides savings tax, we also analyze capital income tax, consumption tax and labor income tax. Results show that when the analysis is restricted to logarithmic preferences separable in consumption and labor supply, the government should subsidize either capital income or investment as it maximizes both an individual's commitment utility for consumption and labor supply at the same time. Because individuals consume and supply labor more than their commitment utility, subsidizing improves welfare as it makes temptation less attractive.
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Calcaterra, Michela Chiara. "Econometric analysis of the structure of the regional maize sector in Southern Africa." Diss., 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/27787.
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Please read the abstract in the 00front part of this documentDissertation (MSc Agric (Agricultural Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2006.
Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development
unrestricted
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Arora, Vipin. "Macroeconomic policy and oil price dynamics." Phd thesis, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/151203.
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Kinugasa, Tomoko. "Life expectancy, labor force, and saving." Thesis, 2004. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=0&did=765934111&SrchMode=2&sid=1&Fmt=2&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1233338379&clientId=23440.
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Jiang, Qiang. "Three essays on water modelling and management in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia." Phd thesis, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/151262.
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The primary contributions of this thesis are the economic studies of proposed water use reductions and climate change, and the development of an integrated hydro-economic model for the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. This water model not only simulates the land and water use in the Basin, but also optimises these uses for certain targets such as environmental flows. More importantly, this model can be applied to evaluate policy options for the Basin, such as water buybacks, and provide estimates of the possible impacts of climate change.
The thesis consists of three main essays focusing on issues in water modelling and management in the Basin. The first essay describes the development of a water model. This model is applied to estimate the impacts of water use reductions in the second essay; and climate change in the third essay. Other issues related to the Basin's water management, such as a review of existing water modelling, the background of the Basin, water trading, possible policy implementations and future research are also discussed.
The first essay (Chapter 4) describes the construction of the Integrated Irrigated Water Model (IIA WM) including the structure of llA WM and the data sources. Using the latest hydrological data and revised catchment boundaries, llA WM can simulate and optimise land and water use in the Basin. To address the criticism that existing models have failed to consider water trading barriers, the physical constraints on water trading have been incorporated in llA WM. The model can also evaluate various water policies and estimate the impacts of physical condition changes.
The second essay (Chapter 5) evaluates the impacts of proposed water use reductions by the Australian government. To balance the use of water between irrigated industries and environmental purposes, the Australian government draft plan released October 2010 proposed to reduce the volume of used water in the Basin from 3,000 to 4,000 GL/year. Simulations from IIA WM indicate that the impacts from proposed water use reductions will be modest, although there may be substantial impacts in particular locations.
The third essay (Chapter 6) investigates the impacts of climate change in the Basin. A full range of climate change scenarios from modest to severe have been applied using IIA WM. This thesis finds that with water trading, profit reductions are substantially smaller than the water use reductions.
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Abrha, Bihon Kassa. "Factors affecting agricultural production in Tigray Region, Northern Ethiopia." Thesis, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/19072.
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This study investigates the factors affecting agricultural production of farm households in the National Regional State of Tigray, Ethiopia. The major primary sources of data for the study were farm household surveys, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. The study revealed that the annual average crop production of respondents was found to be below the standard annual food requirement recommended by the international organizations. The proportion of irrigated land to total cultivated land was only 11per cent. The proportion of irrigated land in the two districts is lower than 11.27 per cent at the regional level. The utilization of chemical fertilizers for the majority of the respondents was below the recommended standard for the region. Although the farmers were interested in using improved seeds, the supplied varieties were not based on their preferences. Extension agents were mainly engaged in activities which were not related to their professions. The farm income model result showed that landholding size (p<0.0001), possession of oxen(p<0.0001), amount of fertilizer(p=0.010), improved seeds(p=0.002), irrigation(p=0.028), soil quality(p=0.019), village distance to the district market(p=0.066), average distance of plots from the homestead (p=0.023) and crop rotation(p=0.016) were determinant variables. Farmers were engaged in off-farm activities to fulfill the cash requirements in credit constrained conditions. The laws of the region do not allow farmers to be out of their localities for more than two years and the farmerswere restricted to renting out only half of their land. This discouraged farmers from off-farm participation for fear of land confiscation. In the Probit model, the determinant variables of off-farm participation were: irrigation (p=0.001), age (p=0.007), amount of money borrowed (p=0.078), village distance to the wereda market (p=0.055), fear of land confiscation (p=0.023) and access to electricity (p=0.044).
It is recommended that if farmers are to use chemical fertilizers, they should be supplied with High Yielding Varieties (HYV)and enough water through access to irrigation. Furthermore, farmers should be allowed to have long term off-farm employment to augment the farming sector.Development Studies
D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)
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Chisasa, Joseph. "An empirical study of the impact of bank credit on agricultural output in South Africa." Thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/18511.
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In the literature there are mixed results on the link between credit and agricultural output growth. Some authors argue that credit leads to growth in agricultural output. Others view growth as one of the factors that influence credit supply, thus growth leads and credit follows. By and large, studies have not endeavoured to establish the short-run impact of agricultural credit on output. They are generally limited in establishing the long-run relationship between credit and agricultural output and thus present a research gap in this respect.
This study contributes to the existing body of literature by focusing on the finance-growth nexus at sectoral level as a departure from extant literature that has focused on the macroeconomic level. Using South African data, the study investigated the causal relationship between the supply of credit and agricultural output as well as whether the two are cointegrated and have a short-run relationship.
The study found that bank credit and agricultural output are cointegrated. Using the error correction model (ECM), the results showed that, in the short-run, bank credit has a negative impact on agricultural output, reflecting the uncertainties of institutional credit in South Africa. However, the ECM coefficient shows that the supply of agricultural credit rapidly adjusts to short-term disturbances, indicating that there is no room for tardiness in the agricultural sector. The absence of institutional credit will immediately be replaced by availability of other credit facilities from non-institutional sources. Conventional Granger causality tests show unidirectional causality from (1) bank credit to agricultural output growth, (2) agricultural output to capital formation, (3) agricultural output to labour, (4) capital formation to credit, and (5) capital formation to labour, and a bi-directional causality between credit and labour. Noteworthy and significant for South Africa is that for the agricultural sector, the direction of causality is from finance to growth, in other words supply-leading, whereas at the macroeconomic level, the direction of causality is from economic growth to finance, in other words, demand-leading.
Applying a structural equation modelling approach to survey data of smallholder farmers, the positive relationship between bank credit and agricultural output observed from analysis of secondary data was confirmed.Business Management
DCOM (Business Management)
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Kim, Sung-Ju. "The impact of federal government welfare expenditures on state government expenditures and philanthropic giving to human service organizations (HSOs) : 2005-2006." Thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/4523.
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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)A sizeable body of research has attempted to examine the interaction between government spending and private giving known as the crowd-out effect. Most researchers reported that increases of government spending cause decreases of philanthropic giving to different types of nonprofits. However, few studies have attempted to indicate the interaction between government welfare expenditures and private giving to human service organizations even though human service organizations are the most sensitive to the changes of government spending. Additionally, the estimated crowd-out effects with a simple crowd-out model have been criticized for potential endogeneity bias. This paper investigates the total effect of federal government welfare spending on state government expenditures and philanthropic giving to human service organizations (known as joint crowd-out). I used the 2005 wave of the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study (COPPS) to estimate the effect of federal human service grants on state government spending on, and donations to human services. From these reduced-form estimates I infer the levels of simple and joint crowd-out. I found that indicate federal spending on public welfare crowds out private giving to human service organizations while holding control variables constant in the donations equation. However, federal government spending on public welfare crowds in state government spending on public welfare.