Economics Commons^™

Three Essays In Labor Economics, Huong Thi Ngoc Axelrod

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation studies two topics in labor economics: the distribution of earnings and the effect of social networks on starting wage.

Chapter 1, co-authored with Professor Hugo Jales, evaluates theoretical models of the distribution of earnings. The shape of the distribution of earnings in a country is informative about income inequality in that country. In most countries, the distribution of earnings is asymmetric and skewed to the right. What are the sources of this right-skewness? All major theories of the distribution of earnings aim at explaining this stylized fact and shedding light on the mechanism giving rise to this feature …

Analysis Of The Failure Of Ivorian Startups In Cote D'Ivoire, Kleyban Sanogo

International Programs

After the post-election crisis of 2011, Cote d'Ivoire has experienced increased economic growth. However, this growth does not benefit local businesses, especially startups. Athough the phenomenon is very trendy, the many startups that are created are struggling to succeed. the founders' motivations are not always good, their knowledge and skills need to be reviewed and the environment is not favorable to them.

Economics For Everyday Life: Opportunity Cost And Marginal Benefit, Christian Palencia

International Programs

Economics is a social science that may feel unreal or even useless for many people. Its concepts and definitions can be abstracts, complex and unpragmatic. However, the comprehend of some ideas of this science can be the key for a success decision making process for normal people’s life.

Contrary to popular belief, the economy is not about money, it is focused on studying the problem of shortage. Resources such as time and money are scarce, consequently, understanding the basic of economics is fundamental for everyone not only for economists. The opportunity cost and marginal benefit are an examples of two …

Three Essays On Causal Inference With Model Averaging, Guanyu Liu

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation contains essays on causal inference with model averaging. The first essay presents a theoretical derivation of a model-averaging-based average treatment effect estimator. The second essay provides comparison of predictability of treated counterfactual outcome between model averaging and other methods. The third essay is an empirical study evaluating the economic impact of Ukraine's 2013 conflict.

The first essay constructs a new average treatment effect estimator based on model averaging in a panel data setting. The estimator is shown to be asymptotically unbiased and consistent. Its asymptotic distribution is derived, which turns out to be non-normal and non- standard. A …

The Conditional Mode Estimator Of Technical Efficiency: Theory And Application To Nyc Public Schools, Yi Yang

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation studies the properties of the conditional mode estimator of stochastic frontier models and applies it to measure technical inefficiency. It consists of two chapters. The first chapter analyzes the conditional mode estimator's closed-form expressions, convergence, near-minimax optimality when interpreted using Lasso, and selection rules. The second chapter applies the true fixed effect stochastic frontier model (Greene, 2005a,b) to analyze the persistent and transient technical inefficiencies of 425 NYC public middle schools for cohorts of students that graduated between 2014 to 2016.

The Political Economy Of Preferential Trade Agreements, Ross Castner Jestrab

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation is comprised of three chapters on preferential trade agreements (PTAs). The first two chapters examine why countries sign PTAs with other countries, while the final chapter studies the effect of PTAs on imports.

The first chapter provides direct empirical evidence that PTAs are consistent with the terms-of-trade theory. In other words, PTAs internalize the temptation to increase tariffs when countries possess importer market power. Using PTAs that occur between 2001-2015, I study the formation of PTAs and the structure of first year PTA tariff cuts. I first show the likelihood of a PTA increases when both countries have …

Three Essays On The Housing Market, Tianyun Zhu

Dissertations - ALL

My dissertation comprises three essays on the housing market. The first two chapters analyze the housing market using the hedonic model. Chapter 1 estimates a semi-nonparametric hedonic regression that provides evidence for the change of bidding and sorting for job-access over time in Buffalo MSA. Based on the estimation result, a decomposition of the price change is implemented to shed light on how bidding and sorting contribute to the price change of a house with different job access respectively. Chapter 2 proposes an alternative approach which yields a likelihood-based estimator for implicit price elasticity of amenity demand. An application of …

Essays On Population And Housing Market In South Korea, Dahae Choo

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation studies important social topics in South Korea. The first two chapters evaluate the effects of a pronatalist policy introduced by local governments in South Korea, a country with one of the lowest fertility rates worldwide. In the first chapter, possible selection into marriage is highlighted considering the low out-of-wedlock births in the country. Also, the policy effects are examined in two different dimensions: changes in the probability of having a child and the time-to-child delivery. The second chapter estimates two important key variables to address the effectiveness of this program. First is the unconditional distribution of the reservation …

Essays On Population And Housing Market In South Korea, Dahae Choo

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation studies important social topics in South Korea. The first two chapters evaluate the effects of a pronatalist policy introduced by local governments in South Korea, a country with one of the lowest fertility rates worldwide. In the first chapter, possible selection into marriage is highlighted considering the low out-of-wedlock births in the country. Also, the policy effects are examined in two different dimensions: changes in the probability of having a child and the time-to-child delivery. The second chapter estimates two important key variables to address the effectiveness of this program. First is the unconditional distribution of the reservation …

The Political Economy Of Preferential Trade Agreements, Ross Castner Jestrab

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation is comprised of three chapters on preferential trade agreements (PTAs). The first two chapters examine why countries sign PTAs with other countries, while the final chapter studies the effect of PTAs on imports.

The first chapter provides direct empirical evidence that PTAs are consistent with the terms-of-trade theory. In other words, PTAs internalize the temptation to increase tariffs when countries possess importer market power. Using PTAs that occur between 2001-2015, I study the formation of PTAs and the structure of first year PTA tariff cuts. I first show the likelihood of a PTA increases when both countries have …

The Conditional Mode Estimator Of Technical Efficiency: Theory And Application To Nyc Public Schools, Yi Yang

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation studies the properties of the conditional mode estimator of stochastic frontier models and applies it to measure technical inefficiency. It consists of two chapters. The first chapter analyzes the conditional mode estimator’s closed-form expressions, convergence, near-minimax optimality when interpreted using Lasso, and selection rules. The second chapter applies the true fixed effect stochastic frontier model (Greene, 2005a,b) to analyze the persistent and transient technical inefficiencies of 425 NYC public middle schools for cohorts of students that graduated between 2014 to 2016.

Three Essays On The Housing Market, Tianyun Zhu

Dissertations - ALL

My dissertation comprises three essays on the housing market. The first two chapters analyze the housing market using the hedonic model. Chapter 1 estimates a semi-nonparametric hedonic regression that provides evidence for the change of bidding and sorting for job-access over time in Buffalo MSA. Based on the estimation result, a decomposition of the price change is implemented to shed light on how bidding and sorting contribute to the price change of a house with different job access respectively. Chapter 2 proposes an alternative approach which yields a likelihood-based estimator for implicit price elasticity of amenity demand. An application of …

Socializing Vacancy: An Architectural Thesis, Greg Winawer

Architecture Senior Theses

A large portion of office space has been left vacant, and thus provides no beneficial program to its remaining occupants or the local urbanity it is surrounded by. When considering what can be done with this vacant space, the primary motivation should be to integrate a program which does the opposite: a program which positively disrupts its existing context to hybridize and improve the current outdated programmatic arrangement. To insert a residential program into an existing office tower both disrupts and enhances the rigorous flows of our working and our domestic lives. The predefined universal concept of the ‘working-day’ is …

New York Camp Econometrics Xv Program, Center For Policy Research

Camp Econometrics-Programs

No abstract provided.

Depth-Weighted Forecast Combination: Application To Covid-19 Cases, Yoonseok Lee, Donggyu Sul

Center for Policy Research

We develop a novel forecast combination based on the order statistics of individual predictability when many forecasts are available. To this end, we define the notion of forecast depth, which measures the size of forecast errors during the training period and provides a ranking among different forecast models. The forecast combination is in the form of a depth-weighted trimmed mean, where the group of models with the worst forecasting performance during the training period is dropped. We derive the limiting distribution of the depth-weighted forecast combination, based on which we can readily construct forecast confidence intervals. Using this novel forecast …

Trimmed Mean Group Estimation, Yoonseok Lee, Donggyu Sul

Center for Policy Research

This paper develops robust panel estimation in the form of trimmed mean group estimation for potentially heterogenous panel regression models. It trims outlying individuals of which the sample variances of regressors are either extremely small or large. The limiting distribution of the trimmed estimator can be obtained in a similar way to the standard mean group estimator, provided the random coefficients are conditionally homoskedastic. We consider two trimming methods. The first one is based on the order statistic of the sample variance of each regressor. The second one is based on the Mahalanobis depth of the sample variances of regressors. …

The Effect Of Industrial Robots On Workplace Safety, Ling Li, Perry Singleton

Center for Policy Research

This study measures the effect of industrial robots on workplace safety at the commuting zone level, exploiting potentially exogenous variation in robot exposure due to technological progress. Workplace safety is measured by workers involved in severe or fatal accidents inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. From 2000 to 2007, we find that one additional robot in exposure per 1,000 workers decreased the OSHA accident rate at the mean by 15.1 percent. We also find that robot exposure decreased OSHA violations and accidents more likely to be affected by robot penetration, specifically those involving machinery or electrical.

The Effect Of Attendance On Home Field Advantage In The National Football League: A Natural Experiment, Justin Ehrlich, Joel Potter, Shane Sanders

Sport Management - All Scholarship

While economists have previously noted that home field advantage is affected by crowd density, isolating this effect is difficult since crowd size is likely endogenous with team ability and game matchup. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a unique natural experiment since local governments have introduced safety protocols that varies widely across the United States. These safety protocols have limited attendance in varying ways for live sporting events, including National Football League games. Given the differential (and exogenous) attendance restrictions, we were able to isolate three broad categories of attendance: 1) games without attendance restrictions (seasons 2016-2019), 2) games with limited …

Dynamic And Non-Neutral Productivity Effects Of Foreign Ownership: A Nonparametric Approach, Yoonseok Lee, Mary Lovely, Hoang Pham

Center for Policy Research

This paper studies two novel productivity characteristics of foreign acquisition on high-tech manufacturing firms: the dynamic and the non-Hicks-neutral effects. A dynamic productivity effect of foreign ownership arises when adoption of foreign technology and management practices takes time to fully realize. Furthermore, these dynamic adjustments may be capital or labor augmenting as adoption of advanced production technologies tends to have non-neutral productivity implications in developed countries. We propose and implement an econometric framework to estimate both effects using firm-level data from China's manufacturing sector. Our framework extends the nonparametric productivity framework developed by Gandhi, Navarro and Rivers (2020), in which …

Technical Efficiency Of Public Middle Schools In New York City, William C. Horrace, Michah W. Rothbart, Yi Yang

Center for Policy Research

Using panel data and a “true” fixed effect stochastic frontier model, we estimate persistent and transient technical inefficiency in mathematics (Math) and English Language Arts (ELA) test score gains in NYC public middle schools from 2014 to 2016. We compare several measures of transient technical inefficiency and show that around 58% of NYC middle schools are efficient in Math gains, while 16% are efficient in ELA gains. Multivariate inference techniques are used to determine subsets of efficient schools, providing actionable decision rules to help policymakers target resources and incentives.

Health Have, Health Have Nots In A Time Of Covid-19, Sandro Galea

Center for Policy Research

In this brief, my goal is to talk about something which has animated a lot of my thinking and writing in the past decade. It is how our health is fundamentally socially patterned and reflects the world around us. This has been true for decades in this country, and one could also argue, globally, however this brief will focus on this topic at the national level. As you will see, I will talk mostly of health haves and health have nots in general, but as we progress, show how COVID-19 has made this evermore apparent.

The Effects Of Vietnam-Era Military Service On The Long-Term Health Of Veterans: A Bounds Analysis, Xintong Wang, Carloa A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes

Center for Policy Research

We analyze the short- and long-term effects of the U.S. Vietnam-era military service on veterans’ health outcomes using a restricted version of the National Health Interview Survey 1974-2013 and employing the draft lotteries as an instrumental variable (IV). We start by assessing whether the draft lotteries, which have been used as an IV in prior literature, satisfy the exclusion restriction by placing bounds on its net or direct effect on the health outcomes of draft avoiders. Since we do not find evidence against the validity of the IV, we assume its validity in conducting inference on the health effects of …

A Panel Data Model With Generalized Higher-Order Network Effects, Badi Baltagi, Sophia Ding, Peter Egger

Center for Policy Research

Many data situations require the consideration of network effects among the cross-sectional units of observation. In this paper, we present a generalized panel model which accounts for two features: (i) three types of network effects on the right-hand side of the model, namely through weighted dependent variable, weighted exogenous variables, as well as weighted error components, and (ii) higher-order network effects due to ex-ante unknown network-decay functions or the presence of multiplex (or multi-layer) networks among all of those. We outline the model, the basic assumptions, and present simulation results.

Health And Profit In Student Housing During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Austin Mcneill Brown

Population Health Research Brief Series

The decision to reopen some U.S. universities during the current COVID-19 pandemic may be tied to private financial interests in student housing.

How Can Mongolia Avoid The Resource Curse?, Batbayar Baatarkhuu

International Programs

The resource curse paradox, i.e., that resource rich countries tend to have weaker economies than no-resource countries, causes challenges for low and middle-income countries, including Mongolia (Moran, 2013). To avoid the resource curse, Mongolia should undertake three policy measures: diversifying its economy, establishing a sovereign wealth fund and imposing import restrictions.

Regional Development Agencies In Turkey, Baris Alan

International Programs

This research examines to what extend (Neoliberal institutional structure of) the regional development agencies were successful in decreasing the regional development disparities between the regions of Turkey

Innovative Solution For Energy Supply In Rural Communities In Africa, Shilda Cardoso

International Programs

This research is a proposition of an innovative solution for energy supply in rural locations across Africa to stimulate social and economic growth. In the continuing unsolved problems in energy supply for rural communities across Africa, an Innovative solutions like solar energy can help change this status quo, and improve the lives of many people throughout the continent.

Genetic Risks, Adolescent Health And Schooling Attainment, Vikesh Amin, Jere R. Behrman, Jason M. Fletcher, Carlos A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, Hans-Peter Kohler

Center for Policy Research

We provide new evidence on the effect of adolescent health behaviors/outcomes (obesity, depression, smoking, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)) on schooling attainment using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. We take two different approaches to deal with omitted variable bias and reverse causality. Our first approach attends to the issue of reverse causality by using health polygenic scores (PGSs) as proxies for actual adolescent health. Second, we estimate the effect of adolescent health using sibling fixed-effects models that control for unmeasured genetic and family factors shared by siblings. We use the PGSs as additional controls in …

Growth Empirics: A Bayesian Semiparametric Model With Random Coefficients For A Panel Of Oecd Countries, Badi Baltagi, Georges Bresson, Jean-Michel Etienne

Center for Policy Research

This paper proposes semiparametric estimation of the relationship between growth rate of GDP per capita, growth rates of physical and human capital, labor as well as other covariates and common trends for a panel of 23 OECD countries observed over the period 1971-2015. The observed differentiated behaviors by country reveal strong heterogeneity. This is the motivation behind using a mixed fixed and random-coefficients model to estimate this relationship. In particular, this paper uses a semiparametric specification with random intercepts and slopes coefficients. Motivated by Lee and Wand (2016), we estimate a mean field variational Bayes semiparametric model with random coefficients …

Labor Market Policies In A Roy-Rosen Bargaining Economy, Hugo Jales, Zhengfei Yu

Center for Policy Research

We study the effects of labor market policies using a bargaining model featuring compensating differentials (Rosen, 1986) and self-selection (Roy, 1951). The framework allows us to create a taxonomy of formal and informal employment. We use the model to estimate the effects of the minimum wage for the Brazilian economy using the “PNAD" dataset for the years 2001-2005. Our results suggest that, although the minimum wage generates unemployment and reallocation of labor to the informal sector, the policy might be desirable if the employment losses are concentrated in jobs characterized by low surplus.