Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Three Essays On Understanding Social And Economic Responses To Crisis And Disaster Events, Shahnawaz Mohammad Rafi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation comprises three chapters that analyze the social and economic responses to crises and disasters. In the first chapter, I have investigated whether media affects the US official foreign aid channel or crisis related aid. I have examined natural disaster citations in four mainstream US newspapers to analyze whether they influence the Official Development Assistance (ODA) or the short-term crisis related aid need of a recipient following a natural disaster. I created three new media variables to measure the strength of media effect on US ODA, humanitarian aid, and food aid. The empirical analyses indicate that media citation only …

Three Essays On Trade Policy In A Multi-Country World, Enrique Valdes

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation involves analyzing welfare in developing countries due to a variety of trade policies. Because all three chapters focus on developing countries and their interactions with more developed countries, we need a model that accounts for differences in income between countries, easily extending to more than two countries. For our analysis, we draw on the Ricardian model developed by Matsuyama (2000).

The first chapter investigates the effects tariff wars have on developing countries. We study the effect of a tariff war between two richer countries on a non-participant low-income developing country. Surprisingly, we find that the low-income country can …

Essays On Monetary Policy And International Macroeconomics, Elisa Vilorio Medina

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An understanding how external shocks affect macroeconomic variables is important

for policy implications and sound recommendations. My dissertation analyzes the

impact of exogenous shocks on inflation, exchange rate, and monetary policy in

advanced economies and emerging market economies.

The second chapter explores the extent to which the exogenous shock of the

shale oil revolution explains the missing-puzzle inflation—sluggish price inflation

in the U.S and below the Federal Reserve’s two percent inflation target following

the expansion after the Great Recession. Using a novel identification framework,

I disentangle the shocks by imposing a combination of dynamic sign restrictions,

block exogeneity, and short-run …

Three Essays On Healthcare Economics, Esteban Chinchilla

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation follows a three-essay format. The first chapter examines the impact of a home visiting program on medical expenses and healthcare services utilization implemented by a healthcare maintenance organization. The evaluation uses administrative claims data to estimate the six-month average expenditures following program enrollment. The estimation is carried out by applying a difference-in-differences method to compare spend for patients enrolled in the program to a control group. Estimation using matching methods to address any potential confounding bias is also applied to support estimates and confirms findings. The estimation finds that the program increases average medical expenditures by as much …

Essays On The Economic Effects Of Income Inequality, Adir Dos Santos Mancebo Junior

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Income inequality has been rising throughout the world. In the United States, for example, the income share of the population at the top 10% of the income distribution rose 34% from 1980 to 2019 according to data from the World Inequality Database. This dissertation studies how increasing levels of income inequality might affect the economy.

In the first chapter, I show that changes in the level of income inequality may affect consumption volatility through changes in household aggregate marginal propensity to consume (MPC). I propose a simple theoretical framework to explain this dynamic and evaluate it empirically, combining data from …

International Financial Institutions And Caribbean Development: A Comparison Of Haiti & Jamaica, Alexander Bruno

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The global financial system is based on, and influenced by specific institutions which are controlled by countries in the Global North. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) are two of the institutions whose policies help to shape state behaviors, and reinforce the Global North’s dominance. Thus, the main hypothesis of this study is that institutional policies and programs of the IMF and WB aid and abet the continued underdevelopment of Caribbean island-states. This study examines the impact of IMF and WB policies on the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) measurements in Haiti and Jamaica, and how they …