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Essays On Oil Price Volatility And Irreversible Investment, Daniel Joseph Pastor

Wayne State University Dissertations

In chapter 1, we provide an extensive and systematic evaluation of the relative

forecasting performance of several models for the volatility of daily spot

crude oil prices. Empirical research over the past decades has uncovered

significant gains in forecasting performance of Markov Switching GARCH

models over GARCH models for the volatility of financial assets and crude

oil futures. We find that, for spot oil price returns, non-switching models

perform better in the short run, whereas switching models tend to do better

at longer horizons.

In chapter 2, I investigate the impact of volatility on firms' irreversible investment decisions using real …

The Cost And Technical Efficiency Of Nursing Homes: Do Five–Star Quality Ratings Matter?, Rajendra Dulal

Wayne State University Dissertations

Chapter 1 examines the determinants of nursing home costs and cost efficiency, and investigates how various measures of nursing home care quality influence both of these. It applies a one-step stochastic frontier approach to a large panel of California nursing homes surveyed between 2009 and 2013. Quality is measured by three different ratings available on the Nursing Home Compare website: rating on quality measures, rating on the health inspection, and rating on staffing levels. Results show that the rating on quality measures, an outcome-based measure of quality, is inversely related to costs but unrelated to mean cost efficiency. In other …

The Relationship Between Healthcare Spending And Gross Domestic Product: A Study From A Sample Of African Countries, Steven Harrington Addo

Wayne State University Dissertations

In this essay I estimate the elasticity of total healthcare expenditures with respect to gross domestic product. I also address the stationary properties of total healthcare expenditures and gross domestic product, and whether these measures are cointegrated. The empirical exercise uses a sample of African countries so that the estimates can be compared to those that have been made using data on OECD countries. To address the issue of possible endogeneity of GDP in the healthcare expenditure equation, I assume that total healthcare expenditures and gross domestic product are simultaneously determined, and using structural equations, I identify instrumental variables for …

Essays On Healthy Aging From The Perspective Of A Health Production Function, Nasim Baghban Ferdows

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation examines the determinants of healthy aging among older adults using Grossman’s framework of a health production function. Healthy aging is produced using a variety of inputs, including some determined in early life, such as health and socioeconomic status as a child, others determined in young adulthood, such as education, others determined in mid-life, such as household wealth, and still others determined in later-life, such as current health habits. A production function for healthy aging is estimated using nationally representative data from the 2010 Health and Retirement Study on non-institutionalized seniors, and positing a simultaneous equations mediation model, recognizing …

Essays In Health Economics, Nayan Krishna Joshi

Wayne State University Dissertations

My dissertation consists of three essays in health economics. In the first essay, I use the matched data set constructed from the Consumer Expenditure Survey and the Survey of Consumer Finances for period 1989-2010 to investigate the impacts of housing and financial wealth on healthcare spending. The results indicate significant housing and financial wealth effects and relatively large housing wealth effects for the pooled sample. Results for each survey years of the Survey of Consumer Finances further suggest that housing wealth effects are significant for all years and relatively large, but financial wealth effects are insignificant in most cases. Analysis …

Parental Schooling And Child Health: Evidence From Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, Udbodha Ushakar Rijal

Wayne State University Dissertations

This study applies bivariate probit models to the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data set to explore the effects of parental schooling on the physical and mental health of child and the underlying mechanism of the transmission of these beneficial effects. Using the perceived physical and mental health status of child as the outcome variable, the results indicate that the benefits of parental schooling increases with levels of parental schooling; mother’s schooling has greater impacts than father’s; and the impacts of parental schooling on physical health of child is slightly larger than on mental health. For instance, relative to having No …

Selection Effect In Medigap Insurance Market With Multi-Dimensional Private Information, Yang Liu

Wayne State University Dissertations

Theoretical models of insurance suggest that when individuals have private information about their risk type alone, insurance coverage will be adversely selected by those riskier individuals due to asymmetric information. In this study we investigate whether individuals have private information of their risk type and riskier individuals are indeed more likely to choose health insurance in the context of Medigap insurance market in the United States where government intervention reinforces information asymmetry. Medigap is supplemental private insurance that optional to those who have Medicare Part A and Part B and it is used to cover some of the cost sharing …