Econometrics Commons^™

The Effects Of Private Equity Ownership Of Acute Care Hospitals On Patient Experience, Abigail M. Huffman

Theses and Dissertations

In 10 years, private-equity firms' share of hospitals has grown from 2-3% to 8%.  Using data from two sources: the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) patient surveys and the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP), I demonstrate a causal effect of private-equity ownership on patient satisfaction using difference-in-difference methods.

The Effect Of Prenatal Substance Use Policies On Women's Well-Being, Zukruf Alam

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the effects of punitive and priority treatment policies relating to the use of illicit substances during pregnancy on women's health and health-related behavior. Punitive interventions criminalize substance use during pregnancy, which can even lead to termination of parental rights. In contrast, priority treatment policies support pregnant women and grant them priority access to substance use disorder treatment programs. I use staggered difference-in-differences methods and data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data from 2004 to 2018 to estimate the impact of prenatal substance use policies on women's mental health, physical health, self-reported poor health, and cigarette …

Air Pollution And Self-Reported Health Outcomes In The United States, Alina Dervisevic

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the relationship between short-term PM2.5 exposure and self-reported health outcomes among U.S. adults using BRFSS data from 2000 to 2012 linked to county-level pollution and weather data. Results show that PM2.5 exposure is associated with worse mental health and gender specific behavioral responses.

Retroactive Eligibility Waivers: Innovative Or Ineffective?, Mohamed Kacem Benyamine

Theses and Dissertations

Medicaid’s retroactive eligibility provision covers medical expenses for beneficiaries up to 90 days before the application date. Retroactive eligibility insulates uninsured, low-income households from expensive healthcare emergencies. New Hampshire, Arkansas, and Iowa recently obtained waivers to end retroactive coverage. Using a difference-in-differences design and data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, I evaluate whether changes in retroactive coverage affect enrollment rates and self-reported health. Removing retroactive eligibility has no statistically significant effects on insurance enrollment or self-reported health. However, it does increase rates of access to a doctor by 1.0% overall and by 1.6% for women. Removing retroactive eligibility …

Behavioral Responses To The Medicare Part D Coverage Gap And Its Closure, Selene Urbatsch

Theses and Dissertations

The author examines how exposure to the Medicare Part D coverage gap affects future prescription drug use and whether the closure of the gap under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) altered beneficiary behavior. Using 2007–2019 MEPS data, the analysis compares Part D enrollees to similarly aged, privately insured individuals, producing first-differences and difference-in-differences estimates. Before the ACA, exposure to the gap was associated with 4.9 fewer prescription fills relative to comparable non-Part D individuals. After the ACA, the effect fell to a reduction of 2.2 generic fills, with no significant decline in branded use. Sudden out-of-pocket cost increases prompted sharp …

Poverty Among New York City’S Most Vulnerable: 2000-2022, Juan Dolores Cerna, Suleyma Vergara-Tapia

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

This report examines the trends of poverty in New York City between the years 2000 and 2022, focusing on economically vulnerable groups such as women, children, and older adults

Methods

This report uses data for the years 2000, 2012, and 2022 released by the U.S. Census Bureau and harmonized for public use by IPUMS USA at the University of Minnesota. See Steven Ruggles, Sarah Flood, Ma hew Sobek, Daniel Backman, Annie Chen, Grace Cooper, Stephanie Richards, Renae Rodgers, and Megan Schouweiler. IPUMS USA: Version 15.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS, 2024. https://www.ipums.org/projects/ipums-usa/d010.V15.0

Discussion

From 2000 to 2022, New York City experienced …

Banking And The Wider Economy: Essays On Capital And Cross-Border Risks, Morgan Hunt

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chapter 1: This paper examines the impact of growth in the banking industry’s capital and assets on real output growth at both aggregate and industry levels using a short-run factor-augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) model across 19 NAICS two-digit industries from 2007Q1 to 2019Q4. Results reveal that changes in capital growth significantly affect output growth in the Manufacturing and Finance industries, while changes in risk-weighted assets impact the Construction, Manufacturing, Real Estate, and Transportation industries. Conversely, output growth in the Manufacturing and Retail Trade industries influences capital growth, while Wholesale Trade output growth affects risk-weighted assets. These relationships are robust …

Essays In Health Economics And Applied Econometrics: Assessing Recreational Marijuana Laws, Dragos Ailoae

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores the diffusion and impacts of state recreational marijuana laws (RML). Chapter 1 examines factors driving state adoption and spread of RML, finding that states with citizen ballot initiatives, expansive legislative capacities, and higher fiscal stress are more likely to enact RML. Ideological proximity, rather than geography, drives policy diffusion, with learning from early adopters likely serving as a key mechanism in the process. Chapter 2 assesses first-order effects of RML on marijuana consumption and drug policing using various econometric methods. Results suggest amplification bias in difference-in-differences point estimates due to an endogenous policy variable. This has economic …

Essays In Machine Learning, Econometrics, And Computational Economics, Lulu Wang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chapter 1 Data-Driven Graph Neural Networks And Realized Volatility Prediction through Graph Discovery: Financial markets’ interconnectedness plays a crucial role in financial predictions. However, existing network structures often fall short in aligning with specific prediction tasks. This paper presents a novel model that integrates graph discovery techniques with Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) to address this challenge, focusing on short-term intraday realized volatility prediction. Our investigation from a graph theory perspective reveals that precision-based graph discovery methods substantially enhance GNNs accuracy by generating meaningful graphs and node embeddings. In contrast, conventional covariance-based approaches exhibit limited effectiveness due to their consideration of …

Essays On Cryptocurrency Assets, Minwoo Song

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chapter 1 - Herd Instinct in the Digital Currency Markets: In this chapter, We establish that the actions of influential opinion leaders in the digital currency markets and potential investors following their lead drive abnormal cryptocurrency returns. We develop a psychological and behavioral factor, named the herd behavior index, that detects the herd instinct of the investors in cryptocurrency markets and captures anomalies in cryptocurrency returns. Our finding shows that the herd behavior index can explain the variation in cryptocurrency returns. Moreover, there exists a time-series relationship between abnormal returns and the investors’ herd instinct, and the herd behavior index …

The Effects Of Pre-Abortion Restrictions On Women's Well-Being, Reesa Sooklall

Theses and Dissertations

Eleven states require women seeking abortions to undergo mandated ultrasounds prior to the procedure while twenty-four states require women to wait either 24, 48 or 72 hours between receiving state mandated counseling and the procedure. I examine the effects of abortion restrictions on health behaviors and health care of women. I apply staggered difference-in-differences to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data to estimate the causal effects of the two-trip mandatory waiting period (MWP) law and mandatory ultrasounds (MUS) law on women’s mental health, use of alcohol and tobacco, and whether women are obtaining routine mammograms and pap smears. The …

Effects Of The Automatic Enrollment Provision Of The Pension Protection Act Of 2006 On Labor Market Outcomes Of Older Americans, Yannis Giannoulakis

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 is to protect pension plans, reinforce individual savings and prepare Americans for retirement. A provision of the act strengthens the 1998-2000 IRS ruling that allows firms to automatically enroll their employees in 401(k) plans by superseding state written permission requirements. Prior to the Pension Protection Act of 2006, several states required written permission from employees to authorize wage deductions and 401(k) enrollments. Single-event difference-in-difference regressions estimate the effects of the Pension Protection Act of 2006’s auto-enrollment provision on labor market outcomes in states that had written permission requirements in the years …

Essays In Macroeconomics And Finance, Archil Dvalishvili

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chapter 1: (A Quantitative Analysis of Interest on Reserves and Reserve Requirements) - I construct a medium scale DSGE model with financial frictions both on the demand (entrepreneurs) and supply (banks) sides of credit to study the costs and benefits of fixed/time-varying minimum reserve requirements and interest paid by the Fed on reserves.The results can be summarized as follows: (1) An optimal time-varying minimum reserve requirement generates substantial welfare gain when compared with a fixed minimum reserve requirement when no interest is paid on reserves. (2) Paying interest on reserves is substantially welfare inferior to a policy with no interest …

Parents, Paths, And Paychecks: Examining Intergenerational Occupational Mobility And Career Choices, Swapnil Landge

Publications and Research

This paper examines the influence of fathers’ and mothers’ occupations on their children’s occupational outcomes, using a self-selection model to analyze intergenerational career mobility. By constructing and analyzing transition matrices, I estimate the extent of positive and negative self-selection for sons and daughters when they follow either their father’s or mother’s occupation. The results reveal distinct patterns for sons and daughters. Sons who follow their father’s occupation tend to avoid negative self-selection, particularly in higher-paying fields such as Professional Occupations and Technicians and Related Support Occupations, where negative self-selection is minimal. Conversely, sons following their mother’s occupation face higher rates …

Does Low-Income Housing Change Neighborhoods? Evidence From The Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program, Maria Dikler

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines how LIHTC developments affect a census tract's characteristics. The results indicate that tracts with LIHTC developments have increased education, poverty, diversity, renters, and multi-family buildings. These tracts also have decreased household incomes and rents. However, the study reveals no significant effects on labor force participation or employment.

Stock Splits And Corporate Peer Effects, Albert J. Saad

Theses and Dissertations

We find that a company’s decision to execute a stock split is affected by the number of stock splits carried out by its peers. Through the use of a broad peer group construction methodology, we also reveal the presence of asymmetric effects with regard to companies of different market capitalization size. In the periods of 1983–1996 and 1997–2009 we find that firms are more likely to split their stock if more of their peers have recently done so. However, in the period of 2010–2019 we see that the opposite is true. These results provide further evidence on social learning from …

Effects Of The Raising The Minimum Legal Purchasing Age For Tobacco On Cigarette, Cocaine And Inhalant Consumption, Ahmed Adil

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past few years, several states have passed laws that increase the minimum legal purchasing age (MLPA) for tobacco from 18 to 21 years. This study examines the impact of statewide MLPA laws on youth tobacco consumption. Using data from the 2009-2019 Youth Risky Behavior Surveys (YRBS) and a difference-in-differences approach, I find that the enactment of MLPA laws is associated with a decrease in tobacco usage among adolescents. I also find that MLPA laws have important spillover effects to other youth risky behaviors. MLPA law adoption is associated with a reduction in cocaine use and inhalant abuse.

Intergenerational Transmission Of Occupation In The United States, Swapnil Landge

Publications and Research

This paper explores the persistence of inequality via intergenerational transmission of occupations using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data from 1968 to 2001 of 56,952 unique parent-child pairs. I find that having a father who is in the top and bottom strata† of the socioeconomic professional category has a positive and significant effect on the probability that a son will follow the same professional category as the father, which supports my main hypothesis of persistence of income inequality concerning the transmission of the occupations. The main concern that has been addressed in this paper is that the intangible …

Essays On Spillover Effects Across U.S And China, Zhuo Xi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chapter1: With the rapid development and continuous advancement of economic globalization, the links between countries around the world have become increasingly tight. Among them, the United States, as the world's largest economy, its monetary policy is bound to cause significant spillover effects on other economies around the world. By constructing a Threshold SVAR model with monthly data from 1996 to 2019, this paper empirically investigates the spillover effects of US monetary policy on China's economy during different U.S policy regimes. The transmission mechanism of such effects has been tested through different channels including policy channel, trade channel, asset value channel …

Essays On Futures Market And Machine Learning, Jonathan J. Lopez Camara

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chapter 1 - Big Data And Machine Learning To Predict Overnight Interest Rates. This paper is a brief introduction to the two main pieces I have elaborated as part of the dissertation. Here, I explain the reasons why I have done my research about predicting the overnight interest rates for Mexico and the United States using big data and machine learning models. I explain the connection between the two research papers, I define some basic concepts such as future contracts and the overnight funding rate for Mexico. There is a summary about the data I use, and the machine learning …

Macroeconomic Adjustments Of Global Convergence: Real Exchange Rate Response Of Asia-Pacific Growth, Kumarappan Annamalai

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters.

Chapter 1 : PURCHASING POWER PARITY, REAL EXCHANGE RATE, PRICE LEVEL INDEX and HARROD-BALASSA-SAMUELSON EFFECT: LITERATURE SURVEY

In the light of the concepts explained in the introduction section, this chapter explores the seminal papers on the Purchasing Power Parity principle, the Real Exchange rate, and the Price Level Index, showing the evolution of PPP and the methodologies adopted in exploring the characteristics of PPP and the real exchange rates. Various characteristics might be stationarity or non-stationarity of the real exchange rates (RER), variance, correlation, half-life measures, linearity versus non-linearity, etc. Various methodologies adopted were …

Essays On Machine Learning Methods In Economics, Mani Bayani

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters on machine learning modeling in economics. Chapter 1 - Robust PCA Synthetic Control: In this chapter, I propose an algorithm for comparative studies called robust PCA synthetic control. My algorithm builds on the synthetic control model of Abadie et al., 2015 and the robust synthetic control model of Amjad et al., 2018. I apply all three methods (robust PCA synthetic control, synthetic control, and robust synthetic control) to answer the hypothetical question, what would have been the per capita GDP of West Germany if it had not reunified with East Germany in 1990? I …

Essays On Impacts Of Women Empowerment On The Health Outcomes Of Children, Sagnik Das

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chapter 1: Taking cognizance of the lack of representation of women in politics, the Indian government in 1993, enacted the 73rd constitutional amendment which led to a sudden increase in the representation of women in the local governments. Exploiting the exogenous variation in the timing of implementation of the 73rd amendment across the states, I study the spillover effects of this mandated empowerment of women on the health outcomes of children by using nationally representative survey data and employing a difference-in-difference estimation strategy. In this study, I find evidence of a positive impact of mandated women empowerment on the survival …

Universal Basic Income And The Alaska Permanent Fund: Impact On Labor Outcomes And Skill Composition, Michele Cafasso

Theses and Dissertations

To analyze the effects of universal basic income on labor supply and human capital, I estimate the effects of Alaska’s Permanent Fund on employment, hours worked, and skills using data from the Current Population Survey and O*NET. My method combines synthetic control and difference-in-differences regressions.

How Federal Pollution Discharge Permits Affect U.S. Water Quality: A Study On Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, Cloe C. Mueller

Theses and Dissertations

This paper uses difference-in-difference regression models to examine how state-level pollution discharge permits on concentrated animal feeding operations affect U.S. water quality. I ultimately deem the permitting to be ineffective at improving water quality, calling attention to the need to re-evaluate the ``socially optimal level of pollution."

Liquidity Commonality With Factor Models, Ernesto Garcia Iii

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Market microstructure research has recently devoted attention to a phenomenon called commonality in liquidity. In this dissertation, I will analyze commonality in liquidity using a novel factor model approach and a generalized definition of commonality in liquidity. This analysis will show that commonality in liquidity is rarely a marketwide phenomenon and is mostly restricted to stocks with a large market capitalization. Additionally, commonality in liquidity is a very recent phenomenon whose appearance coincides with a rise in passive investing after the Dotcom Bubble burst and, more so, after the 2008 Financial Crisis. I will present evidence that suggests commonality in …

Essays On Empirical Asset Pricing Models, Somayeh Ahmadi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines co-movement across industry return and value and momentum asset price anomalies through a new perspective and uses machine learning and spatial econometrics approaches. The first chapter examines the main approaches developed in the cross-section asset pricing literature for finding risk variables. The second chapter focuses on spatial co-movement across US industry returns. We show that spatial co-movement explains the variance in US industry returns after accounting for exposure to common variables, serial dynamics, and industry sector-specific characteristics using a dynamic spatial panel data model. The results show that an investment strategy that buys industry portfolios with high …

Essays In Monetary And Macroprudential Policies, Mikheil Dvalishvili

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chapter 1 Using a medium scale general equilibrium New Keynesian business cycle model with macroprudential policy and news shocks I study the effectiveness of various combinations of the monetary and macroprudential policies. I incorporate defaults both in the banking sector and households. The results show that out of the policy strategies considered the standard Taylor rule combined with the LTV requirement that reacts countercyclically to the deviation of house prices from the steady state yields higher welfare as compared with all the other strategies considered. Additionally, the standard Taylor rule combined with either of the countercyclical LTV requirements mitigates the …

The Effects Of Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility On Financial Returns, Kevin Acevedo

Theses and Dissertations

A major issue concerning companies is global warming and the impact that firms have on the environment. Companies are taking steps towards sustainability, but it is unclear if sustainable business practices are beneficial to companies’ financial performance. This paper examines the effect of environmental corporate social responsibility (CSR) of Fortune 250 companies on financial performance. The analysis reveals significant effects on financial performance, but they are inconsistent and hard to interpret.

Relationship Between Intergenerational Mobility (Igm) And Economic Growth: Evidence From Cross-Country Data, Swapnil Landge

Publications and Research

Inequality of opportunity (IGM) is a major cause of inequality of opportunity in many countries. However, the impact of IGM on economic growth has not been fully explored. In this research project, I first replicated and extended the IMF working paper titled IGM, IGM, and Economic Growth’ by Shekhar Aiyar and Christian Ebeke (2019), which explored the relationship between income inequality and economic growth, utilizing various measures of intergenerational mobility, to confirm that the adverse impact of income inequality on growth is more pronounced when IGM is lower. Then, I used the latest Gini dataset (All the Ginis’) compiled by …