Thesis (Ph.D.) Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Economics and Social Science, 1956. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 172-175. / by Ronald Winthrop Jones. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis is a collection of three empirical essays on economic development and environmental economics. Chapter 1 measures the response of U.S. based multinational firms to the Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA), which dramatically strengthened U.S. environmental regulation. Using a panel of firm-level data over the period 1966-1999, I estimate the effect of regulation on a multinational's foreign production decisions. The CAAA induced substantial variation in the degree of regulation faced by firms, allowing for the estimation of econometric models that control for firm-specific characteristics and industrial trends. I find that the CAAA caused regulated multinational firms to increase their foreign assets by 5.3% and their foreign output by 9%. In aggregate, this increase represents approximately 0.6% of the stock of multinationals' domestic assets in polluting industries. Contrary to common beliefs, I find that heavily regulated firms did not disproportionately increase foreign investment in developing countries. Finally, this paper presents limited evidence that U.S. based multinationals increased imports of highly polluting goods when faced with tougher U.S. environmental regulation. Overall, these results are consistent with the view that U.S. environmental regulations cause U.S. firms to move capital and jobs abroad. / (cont.) Chapter 2 looks at the teacher absence. In the rural areas of developing countries, teacher absence is a widespread problem. This paper tests a simple incentive program based on teacher presence can reduce teacher absence, and whether this has the potential to lead to more teaching activities and better learning. In 60 one-teacher informal schools in rural India, randomly chosen out of 120, a financial incentive program was initiated to reduce absenteeism. Teachers were given a camera that had a temper-proof date and time function, along with instructions to have one of the children photograph the teacher and other students at the beginning and end of the school day. The time and date stamps on the photographs were used to track teacher attendance. A teacher's salary was a direct function of his attendance. The introduction of the program resulted in an immediate decline in teacher absence. The absence rate changed from an average of 42% in the comparison schools to 22% in the treatment schools. When the schools were open, teachers were as likely to be teaching in both types of schools, and the number of students present was roughly the same. / (cont.) The program positively affected child achievement levels: A year after the start of the program, test scores in program schools were 0.17 standard deviations higher than in the comparison schools and children were more likely to be admitted into regular schools. Chapter 3 estimates the labor supply effect of childbirth for Jewish and Muslim women in Israel. As a source of exogenous variation in childbirth I use preferences over the gender composition of children, which vary across the two cultural groups. While Israeli Arabs prefer sons, Israeli Jews have a relative taste for symmetric families (at least one son and one daughter). Highly educated Arabs and Jews appear to prefer small families, but are significantly more likely to have another child if they only have daughters. Using this exogenous variation in fertility, I find that Jewish women work less as a result of having a third child. Arabs work less as result of having a third child; however, this decrease is not significant at conventional levels. When extending the analysis to look at the labor supply response to a fourth child, I find that Jewish women are less likely to work with an additional child, whereas Muslim women are more likely to be employed. However, religious institutions may not be fully responsible for these differences in behavior. / (cont.) Instead, other socioeconomic characteristics may attribute to the observed differences in the labor supply response across religious groups. / by Rema Hanna. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis consists of three independent chapters on nominal exchange rates. The first chapter adds to the forward bias puzzle by noting that while the exchange rate of a small commodity-exporting economy can be closely tied to commodity prices, a portfolio of commodity futures exhibits little if any bias. This is demonstrated for Australia. Using a dependent economy model in which the exchange rate is a function of export prices, three potential explanations for the bias of exchange rate futures, but not commodity futures, are considered. Peso problems do not seem capable of explaining the puzzle. Monetary policy could explain some of the bias, though unlikely the full extent. Systematic expectation errors about the monetary process, while requiring strong assumptions, receive some empirical support from the behaviour of the exchange rate. The second chapter attempts to resolve the endogeneity of exchange rates and central bank intervention. Using a change in Reserve Bank of Australia intervention policy for identification, simulated GMM is used to estimate a model that includes the contemporaneous impact of intervention. Intervention is found to have an economically significant contemporaneous effect. A $US100m purchase of the domestic currency will appreciate the exchange rate by 1.35 to 1.81 per cent. Further, intervention is found to have the majority of its impact during the day in which it is conducted, with a smaller effect on subsequent days. Australian central bank intervention policy is confirmed to be characterised by leaning against the wind. / (cont.) The third chapter estimates the dependent economy model outlined in Chapter 1 for the Australian, Canadian and New Zealand dollars. The model provides a good representation of the exchange rates for all three countries up to 1995. In out-of-sample projections the Australian and Canadian models outperform a random walk. The New Zealand model breaks down during the Asian crisis. Commodity futures are used to construct forecasts of the Australian dollar, which at horizons of around one year are more accurate than no-change forecasts. / by Jonathan Kearns. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2005. / "June 2005." Page 111 blank. / Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis is a collection of three essays analyzing the interplay between aging and the labor market. The first chapter demonstrates that differential treatment by age exists in labor markets and explores different possible explanations for this differential treatment. As the baby boom cohort reaches retirement age, demographic pressures on public programs such as social security may cause policy makers to cut benefits and encourage work at later ages. This chapter reports on a labor market experiment to determine the hiring conditions for older women in entry-level jobs in Boston, MA and St. Petersburg, FL. I find differential interviewing by age for these jobs. A younger worker is more than 40% more likely to be offered an interview than an older worker. I find no evidence to support taste-based discrimination as a reason for this differential and some evidence to support statistical discrimination. The second chapter examines more closely one of the possible reason for this differential treatment. Older workers may cost employers more in terms of potential age discrimination lawsuits. I study the effects of state and federal age discrimination laws between 1968 and 1991. Prior to the enforcement of the federal law, state laws had little effect on older workers, suggesting that firms either knew little about these laws or did not see them as a threat. After the enforcement of the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) in 1979, white male workers over the age of 50 in states with age discrimination laws work fewer weeks per year and are less likely to be hired or separated from their jobs, but are more likely to be retired (perhaps involuntarily). / (cont.) These findings suggest a story in which firms do not wish to hire older workers, are afraid to fire older workers, and remove older workers through strong incentives to retire in states where lawsuits are less of a hurdle for the worker. The third paper, co-authored with Melissa Boyle, explores the relationship between health insurance coverage and labor market efficiencies termed "job-lock." We exploit an insurance option which is bth truly exogenous to work decisions, and of lasting duration. A major expansion in both the services provided and the population covered by the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system allows us to both cleanly estimate the extent of job-lock, and also to study the impact of publicly provided health care on labor supply. Using data from the Current Population Survey, we examine the impact of health care coverage on labor force participation and retirement by comparing veterans and non-veterans before and after the VA expansion. Results indicate that workers are significantly more likely to cease working as a result of becoming eligible for public insurance, and are also more likely to move to part-time work. / by Joanna Nicole Lahey. / Ph.D.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Economics. Thesis. 1968. Ph.D. / Bibliography: l. 136-139. / Ph.D.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Economics. Thesis. 1967. Ph.D. / Missing l. viii. / Bibliography: leaves 262-264. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. / The first essay of this thesis studies within-family decision making regarding investment in income protection for surviving spouses using a simple and tractable Nash-bargaining model. A change in US pension law (the Retirement Equity Act of 1984) is used as an instrument to derive predictions from the bargaining model and to contrast these with the predictions of the classical single-utility-function model of the household. In the empirical part of the essay, the predictions of the classical model are rejected in favor of the predictions of the Nash-bargaining model. Second essay studies married couple's dynamic investment and consumption choices under the assumption that the couple cannot commit across time to not to renegotiate their decisions. The inefficiencies that can arise are characterized. Efficiency properties of different divorce asset division regimes are examined. The effect of inability to commit across time on the savings level is examined under a tractable special case of the model. Third essay is coauthored with Professor Peter Diamond and Professor John Geanakoplos. In this essay we extend Arrow's analysis of portfolio choice in a one-period model to savings and portfolio choice in a two-period model. / by Saku P. Aura. / Ph.D.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Economics, 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis consists of three chapters on consumer financial contracts. Particularly, this thesis focuses on the regulation and design of markets for financial contracts, and their impact on household financial health. The first chapter studies the role of consumer protection law in the function of mortgage markets in the United States. Consumer protection laws are intended to improve consumer outcomes and are becoming more common, particularly in mortgage markets after the 2008 recession. Little empirical evidence exists about the benefits of these laws to consumer outcomes, relative to the potential compliance costs. This chapter studies the effect of two common types of consumer protection laws: seller standards of conduct, enforced through ex post lawsuits by prosecutors and consumers, and mandated disclosures, which require sellers to provide consumers with information to help them make better decisions. Using a natural experiment in Ohio, which introduced the Homebuyer's Protection Act in 2007, 1 study the impact of both seller standards of conduct and mandated disclosures on the performance of loans owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac between 2002 and 2012. I find that imposing standards of conduct on lenders increases borrower defaults in the short term, and is correlated with a drop in foreclosures and fewer mortgage originations. Mandated disclosures decrease mortgage defaults in the short term, and the effect is correlated with smaller transactions, lower interest rates, and higher borrower credit scores. I introduce a simple model of strategic default showing that standards of conduct targeting lenders can provide incentives to lenders to be lenient towards all borrowers, increase borrower default, while mandated disclosure can induce behaviorally biased consumers to default less often. Taken together, the evidence suggests that seller standards of conduct result in lender lenience towards borrowers but operate by shifting the cost of dropping house prices from borrowers onto lenders. On the other hand, carefully designed disclosures can encourage consumers to be more responsible in repayment of loans and can decrease the overall impact of unexpected drops in house prices. The second chapter studies the impact of defined benefit pensions on retirees' consumption patterns. It is authored jointly with Professor Jerry Hausman. Retirees discontinuously decrease their consumption spending upon retirement, a phenomenon described as the retirement consumption puzzle. This chapter studies the impact of defined benefit pensions on the retirement consumption puzzle. Data from the Health and Retirement Survey shows that households with defined benefit pensions experience a significantly smaller drop in consumption spending at retirement. The difference in consumption patterns between households with defined benefit and defined contribution pensions is consistent with a drop in price of home production after retirement. Defined benefit pensions allow households to exert less effort in home production, as well as decreasing the need for precautionary savings, meaning their value is understated if home production is not accounted for. Using HRS data, we estimate the utility value of defined benefit pensions, incorporating both home production and precautionary savings. The results imply that current methods of valuing retirement income products, such as employer provided pensions and private annuities, are biased downward. The third chapter studies the purchase of annuities by retirees in Chile's privatized social security system. It is authored jointly with Gaston Illanes, of Northwestern University Department of Economics. Chile has one of the highest voluntary annuitization rates in the world, with more than 60% of retirees purchasing a private annuity. In contrast, less than 5% of US retirees purchase annuities, despite theoretical predictions that annuity value is high. Annuities in Chile are sold through a unique government-run exchange which decrease search costs and intensifies competition without imposing costs on firms. Chile also has a privatized social security system in which retirees that do not buy an annuity must take a "programmed withdrawal" of their mandated retirement savings that exposes them to more stock market risk than Social Security would. Using novel individual level administrative data and theoretical calibrations, we provide evidence that the high annuitization rate is driven by Chile's unique regulatory regime, rather than by the risk of programmed withdrawal in a privatized system. We document several features of the annuity exchange in Chile. First, annuity prices are low compared to the worldwide average. Second, annuity providers have significant market power. Third, selection exists in the market, both into purchase of annuities, and into searching for better prices. Based on these facts, we calibrate a insurance value of full annuitization compared to the privatized alternative offered by the Chilean government and compare to the value of full annuitization compared to public Social Security, such as that found in the US. The calibration suggests that privatization of social security alone cannot explain the high level of annuitization in Chile. Regulations limiting search costs can cause low prices, lower levels of adverse selection, and high brand preferences that together can explain the high annuitization rate. / by Manisha Padi. / 1. Consumer Protection Laws and the Mortgage Market: Evidence from Ohio -- 2. Pension Plans and the Retirement Consumption Puzzle -- 3. When the Annuity Puzzle Doesn't Exist: Evidence from Chile. / Ph. D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 109-110). / by Benjamin Haïm Cohen. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis brings together three essays on issues in the economics of health insurance. The first study considers the effects of average per-patient caps on Medicare reimbursement for home health care, which took effect in October 1997. I use regional variation in the restrictiveness of per-patient caps to identify the short-run effects of this reimbursement change on home health agency behavior, beneficiary health care utilization, and health status. The empirical evidence suggests that agencies responded to the caps by shifting the composition of their caseload towards healthier beneficiaries. In addition, I find that decreases in home care utilization were associated with an increase in outpatient care, and had little adverse impact on the health status of beneficiaries. In the second paper, I examine the impact of Medicare balance billing restrictions on physician behavior and on beneficiary spending. My findings include a significant decline in out-of-pocket expenditures for medical care by elderly households, but no impact on the quantity of care received or in the duration of office visits. The third paper (written with Jonathan Gruber) explores the causes of the dramatic rise in employee contributions to employer-provided health insurance over the past 20 years. We find that there was a large impact of falling tax rates, rising eligibility for insurance through the Medicaid system and through spouses, and deteriorating economic conditions (in the late 1980s and early 1990s). We also find more modest impacts of increased managed care penetration and rising health care costs. Overall, this set of factors can explain about one-quarter of the rise in employee contributions over the 1982-1996 period. / by Robin Lynn McKnight. / Ph.D.