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Economic Determinants Of Quality Of Care In Nursing Homes, Wei Lu

Wayne State University Dissertations

ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF QUALITY OF CARE IN NURSING HOMES

This dissertation examines the factors that will affect nursing home quality of care using several national data sources on market regulation, county demographic characteristics, market structural and the characteristics of different types of long-term care providers in 2010.

The first study examines how nine different measures of nursing home care quality respond to the greater levels of local market competition from these alternative providers of long-term care, as well as other nursing homes. Findings reveal that faced with greater competition from assisted living facilities, nursing homes are left to care for …

Economic Analysis Of Preventive Care Utilization Among Older Adults, Boon Peng Ng

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to examine the economic determinants of the use of preventive services among older adults. It contains two studies that focus on the effects of public health policy and health shocks on the initiation of use of preventive services among older adults.

In January 2005, Medicare began covering a one-time initial preventive physical examination (IPPE), also called a "Welcome to Medicare" visit, for new beneficiaries. This benefit was only available during a beneficiary's first six months after enrolling in Part B. The first study examines the effects of covering an IPPE on the use of mammograms, breast self-exams, …

Can Animal Spirits Solve The Forward Premium Puzzle?, Anthony Paul Shkrelja

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation decomposes, discusses, and ventures to solve an international macroeconomic anomaly known as the "Forward Premium Puzzle" into three main chapters. Chapter 1 explores the state of research pertaining to the Forward Premium Puzzle, which derives from a failure in the Uncovered Interest Parity (UIP). The body of literature is split into three branches i. Those works advocating the presence of an anomaly due to assumption of Rational Expectations, ii. Works preserving the assumption of Rational Expectations and instead discuss a bias due to Risk Premia, and iii. Research focused on econometric implementation of the forward premium estimator. Furthermore, …

Elections And Asset Pricing: The Politically Sensitive Equity Of Us Military Contractors, Matthew Mark Ross

Wayne State University Dissertations

I quantify the relationship between political uncertainty and equity volatility in the months around US elections from 1989-2012. The Economic Policy Uncertainty Index and Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) data are employed to measure political uncertainty faced by military contractors, capitalizing on the unique monopsony-oligopoly business environment of these firms. I employ a GARCH (1,1) model with cross-sectionally correlated moments to produce daily firm-election volatility measures. Volatility increases 11% for local, 27% for midterm, and 43% for presidential elections. These measures demonstrate that all election categories: local, federal, presidential, and midterm exhibit differential effects on equity volatility. My results …

"The Effects Of Competition Policy Changes On International Trade And Export Flows: Canada Case Estimates", Rubin Luniku

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

THE EFFECTS OF COMPETITION POLICY CHANGES ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND EXPORT FLOWS: CANADA CASE ESTIMATES

by

RUBIN LUNIKU

May 2014

Advisor: Assoc. Professor Kevin Cotter

Major: Economics

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

This dissertation investigates whether changes in a country's competition policy affect the flow and direction of its international trade, particularly its exports. We use a monopolistic competition model of trade, which predicts that an increase in domestic firms, resulting from the adoption of a stricter competition policy, has a positive impact on trade volume, including an increase in exports. We empirically test this hypothesis for 14 Canadian manufacturing …

Interdepdence Of Community Mental Health Care Providers In An Urban County: A Spatial Panel Approach, Lizi Wu

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation empirically investigates mental health care expenditures between community mental health care providers, using a spatial panel data model. Specifically, it explores the spatial interdependency in the publicly funded mental health care system of Detroit-Wayne County with a spatial dynamic panel data model with individual effects and other controls. A transformation approach is applied to ensure consistency of the estimates. Results support some degree of interdependence between neighboring sites/clinics and time dynamics in terms of their gross revenue. The study also provides other implications like significance of mental health managed care and Medicaid expansion. As the first study to …

Essays In Fiscal Policy, Edmund Lawrence Matecki

Wayne State University Dissertations

Fiscal policy is investigated in two settings. First, a fully identified neoclassical growth model with rich fiscal policy rules is augmented with non-Ricardian consumers and fit to post-war U.S. data using Bayesian techniques. Allowing transfer payments to directly affect the consumption choices of rule-of-thumb agents permits a new interpretation of time series evidence regarding which fiscal instruments have historically financed government debt. The economic impact of fiscal adjustments is studied for two labor supply specifications. The first specification restricts labor supply by equalizing hours worked across household types. The second relaxes this assumption, allowing for intratemporal optimization by non-Ricardian households. …