This dissertation is composed of three essays examining adoption of agricultural technologies in Ecuador and intergenerational mobility in the United States. The first essay entitled 'Does IPM Have Staying Power? Revisiting a Potato-producing Area Years After Formal Training Ended' examines (Integrated Pest Management) IPM spread and adoption several years after formal intensive IPM outreach efforts ceased in a potato-producing region in Ecuador. It describes adoption patterns and sources of IPM knowledge in 2012 and compares them with patterns that existed when outreach ceased in 2003. Results show that IPM adoption continues in the area but with a lower proportion of farmers adopting all practices and a higher proportion adopting low to moderate levels compared to 2003. Farmer-to-farmer spread has supplanted formal training and outreach mechanisms. IPM adoption significantly lowers pesticide use and saves production costs for adopters. The second essay entitled 'Can Text Messages Improve Agricultural Outreach in Ecuador?' seeks to understand how receipt of text messages complements training from a farmer field day. It measures the effect of text message receipt on adoption of (Integrated Crop Management) ICM technologies and knowledge about these technologies. In the first part of the paper, we present a theory of behavioral change and its application to adoption of agricultural technologies. In the second part, we use intention to treat (ITT) and an improved-ITT analyses to measure the impact of the intervention. The results of this essay suggest that as providers of information, text messages have some knowledge building effect leading to the adoption of IPM practices. As reminders, text messages effectively increase adoption of IPM practices, in particular recommended pesticides. The third essay entitled 'Determinants of Absolute Upward Income Mobility: The Hidden Cost of Commuting' focuses on commuting times as a determinant of upward income mobility in the United States. We provide an explanation of the channel through which the effect of commuting times on upward income mobility operates. Additionally, it evaluates empirically the effect of commuting on upward income mobility. The empirical results confirm the theoretical model predictions that commuting times affect negatively upward income mobility. / Ph. D.

This PhD thesis focuses on determinants of labour market outcomes in development economics with a special interest in South Africa and China. After an introduction in chapter 1, the key chapter 2, Ethnic Diversity and Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from Post-Apartheid South Africa joint with Sara Tonini, investigates how ethnic diversity amongst black South Africans affects their employment opportunities in the post-Apartheid era. We find that ethnic diversity has a positive impact on the employment rate of the black South Africans, and it only affects ethnic groups with relatively large population size. To address the endogeneity of ethnic composition, we explore the location of historical “black homelands” and argue that districts more equally distant to multiple homelands are more ethnically diverse. In our instrumental variable regressions, a one standard deviation increase in ethnic diversity index increases employment rate by 3 (5) percentage point in 1996 (2001), which is around 8% (13%) of the average employment rate. We then propose a model of a coordination game to explain these findings. A more ethnically diverse place requires a higher rate of inter-ethnic communication to maintain social connection. As inter-ethnic communication requires more skills than intra-ethnic connection, people in ethnically diverse districts are motivated to invest more in social skills to be able to communicate with those outside their own group. The acquisition of these social skills makes them better equipped for the labour market. The remaining two chapters look into the intergenerational transmission of socio-economic status in South Africa and China. Chapter 3, Returns to Education, Marital Sorting and Family Background in South Africa joint with Patrizio Piraino, applies the model of Lam (1993, JPE) which combines intergenerational transmission of ability and assortative mating to investigate the relative explanatory power of father-in-law’s and father’s background for male wages. In the empirical analysis, after correcting for potential measurement errors in earnings and education, we find that father-in-law’s schooling is more correlated with male workers’ labour market earnings, employment rate and labour force participation than own father’s schooling in contemporary South Africa. This difference is more obvious when parental educational levels are higher. Chapter 4, Higher Education Expansion and Intergenerational Mobility in Contemporary China, studies how higher education affects the upward mobility of people from relatively disadvantaged families. Intergenerational occupational mobility is stimulated when children from different social classes end up in similar occupations. Whether or not they have similar occupational status depends not only on their level of education but also the occupational returns to education. Given there is already a convergence in educational achievements between children from different social classes in contemporary China, in this paper, I focus on their occupational returns to education. Occupational status is measured by the widely-accepted ISEI scaling system ranging from 16 to 90 points with large number indicating higher occupational status. I take advantage of an exogenous college expansion policy in 1999 as a natural experiment and find that one additional year of education increases the occupational status of their first job by 2.243 (2.774) points on average along the ISEI scale in OLS (IV) regressions. And children from upper-class families do not necessarily have higher returns to education than children from other social classes. The average occupational returns to education are higher for the most recent job than the first job, but the difference among social classes is still not significant.

Obiettivo della presente ricerca è quello di studiare la condizione dei giovani in Italia nella prima decade del 2000 e di suggerire qualche policy per intervenire in questa situazione. La decisione di analizzare la povertà urbana e la deprivazione nel primo capitolo, e di analizzare l’equità e la mobilità intergenerazionale nel secondo e nel terzo, è strettamente collegata con la volontà di chi scrive di identificare nuovi strumenti di policy che possono intervenire a vantaggio dell’opportunità e dell’equità dei giovani. Il lavoro si divide in due parti. Nella prima parte si è fatta un'analisi della povertà urbana nella città di Milano: in questo ambito si è analizzato il flusso migratorio nelle zone di Milano considerando la dotazione strutturale delle zone stesse, procedendo con la creazione di indici di misurazione delle public facilities dedicate ai giovani e giovanissimi. In seguito alla creazione di indicatori di misurazione della dotazione di scuole, centri culturali, centri di aggregazione giovanili, centri sportivi, consultori specializzati per giovani, abbiamo individuato una correlazione tra i servizi forniti e la presenza di una specifica coorte di popolazione. Nella seconda parte si è analizzato l’andamento dell’equità intergenerazionale e della mobilità intergenerazionale. Nel secondo capitolo è stata fatta una review della letteratura pre esisteste in materia considerando la trasmissione intergenerazionale della povertà e la mobilità intergenerazionale con lo scopo di analizzare la metodologia di misurazione più appropriato. Inoltre sono stati presi in analisi le principali analisi a livello internazionale, ma si è anche fatto particolare riferimento alla letteratura relativa al caso Italiano. In seguito si è proceduto con un’analisi del livello di equità intergenerazionale in Italia , utilizzando i dati dell’Indagine sui Consumi delle Famiglie della Banca d’Italia. / The aim of the present research is to study the youth condition in Italy in the first decade of 2000 and to suggest some regulatory policy on this situation. The decision to investigate on urban poverty and deprivation in the first chapter, and to analyze intergenerational equity and mobility in the second and in the third chapters, is strictly related to the willingness of the writer to identify new policy instruments that can intervene in favor of young's opportunities and equity. The research is divided into two parts. In the first chapter we have done an analysis of the urban poverty in the city of Milan. To do this we have analyzed the movement of citizens in the different area of Milan, considering the availability of public facilities dedicated to young. After a creation of the indicators to assess the endowment benchmarks for school, cultural structure, Young Meeting Centers, sports centers, health centers specialized for young people, we have detected a connection between the services furnished and the presence of a specific population-based cohort. In the second part we have analysed the trend of intergenerational mobility and intergenerational equity. In the second chapter, we develop a literature review of the primary researches on intergenerational transmission of poverty and intergenerational mobility with the aim to analyze the most appropriate and recognized methodology to measure this data in Italy. In the third paper, we have measured the trend of intergenerational mobility in Italy, considering data from Bank of Italy SHIW.

Στην παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία διερευνήθηκε η επιλογή των πρωτοετών φοιτητών αναφορικά με το τμήμα της πανεπιστημιακής τους εκπαίδευσης στην Ελλάδα. Ειδικότερα, αυτή η επιλογή αξιολογείται μέσω δυο μεταβλητών. Η πρώτη αφορά το αντικείμενο σπουδών με βάση το επιστημονικό περιεχόμενο του προγράμματος σπουδών και η δεύτερη αφορά τις προεξοφλημένες αποδόσεις ανά αντικείμενο σπουδών. Για λόγους εκτίμησης χρησιμοποιήθηκαν δεδομένα για το έτος 2006 από το Ατομικό Δελτίο Φοιτητή-Σπουδαστή της Ελληνικής Στατιστικής Αρχής (Ελ.ΣΤΑΤ) και εφαρμόστηκαν υποδείγματα διακριτής επιλογής με διάταξη (ordered probit) αλλά και χωρίς διάταξη (binary probit). Ως επεξηγηματικές μεταβλητές χρησιμοποιήθηκαν το επίπεδο εκπαίδευσης, το επάγγελμα των γονέων και μια ευρεία δέσμη δημογραφικών μεταβλητών (ηλικία, φύλο, τόπος γέννησης, κ.λπ.). Όπως προέκυψε από τα αποτελέσματα της οικονομετρικής ανάλυσης η επιλογή του πανεπιστημιακού τμήματος (είτε με βάση το αντικείμενο σπουδών είτε με βάση τις προεξοφλημένες αποδόσεις) επηρεάζεται σημαντικά από το οικογενειακό υπόβαθρο (εκπαίδευση, επάγγελμα) του πρωτοετή φοιτητή. Επίσης, διερευνήθηκε η σχέση μεταξύ του οικογενειακού εισοδήματος και της επιλογής πανεπιστημιακού τμήματος με βάση τις μελλοντικές αποδόσεις και βρέθηκε να υπάρχει μια θετική και στατιστικά σημαντική σχέση μεταξύ αυτών των δυο μεταβλητών. Με βάση τα αποτελέσματα της παρούσας εργασίας, η δια-γενεακή κινητικότητα στην Ελλάδα (που σχετίζεται με την επιλογή του πανεπιστημιακού τμήματος από τους πρωτοετείς φοιτητές) αναμένεται να είναι χαμηλή. / In this thesis is investigated the choice of the university major of study of the Greek freshmen. Specifically, this choice of major is assessed through two variables. The first is the object of study based on the scientific content of the curriculum and the second is the discounted returns of education per major of study. For assessment purposes we used data for the year 2006 from the Greek statistic authority (el.stat)and we applied discrete choice models by order (ordered probit) and also without order (binary probit). As explanatory variables are used the educational attainment and occupation of parents as well as a wide range of demographic variables (age,sex,place of birth, etc). As the results of the econometric analysis demonstrate the choice of university department(regardless the type of the discrete choice model we use) is significantly influenced by the family background and their social class. It is also investigated the relationship between family income and choice of university department based on future earnings and is found to be a positive and statistically significant relationship between these two variables. Based on the results of this study the intergenerational mobility in Greece (associated with the major of study the freshmen choose) is expected to be low.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-08T14:45:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 487176 bytes, checksum: 436b120b2cbd4e5857633a395627e183 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-07-05 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Stylized fact is maintaining the rates of income inequality, especially in the 1990s in Brazil. One reason for this relative stability is the low educational intergenerational mobility and income. This dissertation aims to analyze the intergenerational mobility of education and its determinants and intergenerational mobility of income in Brazil comparing the Northeast and Southeast during the period 1992-2008. The dynamic analysis of intergenerational income and education was done through indicators in Markov transition matrices. Moreover, the determinant of intergenerational educational dynamics was obtained through an ordered logit model. The results suggest that during the study period there was a reduction in educational inequality and income in Brazil. In parallel, there is an increase in intergenerational mobility in income and educational characterized. The increase in educational mobility is characterized by an increase in average years of schooling and reduction of educational persistence, of illiterate parents. The growth of income mobility is characterized by an increase in average income and population reduction of the persistence of poor parents. The results of the parametric model indicate that there is a strong influence of geographic location, the issues of race and gender, and educational attributes of parents about the history of education of their children. / É fato consagrado a manutenção dos índices de desigualdade de renda, sobretudo na década de 1990, no Brasil. Uma das razões para esta relativa estabilidade é a baixa mobilidade intergeracional educacional e de renda. A presente dissertação tem como objetivo analisar a mobilidade intergeracional educacional e seus determinantes e a mobilidade intergeracional de renda no Brasil comparando as regiões Nordeste e Sudeste no período 1992 a 2008. A análise da dinâmica intergeracional educacional e de renda foi feita através de indicadores obtidos em matrizes de transição markovianas. Por outro lado, a análise dos determinantes da dinâmica educacional intergeracional foi realizada através de um modelo logit ordenado. Os resultados sugerem que ao longo do período de estudo houve uma redução da desigualdade educacional e de renda no Brasil. Em paralelo, observa-se um aumento da mobilidade intergeracional educacional e de renda caracterizado por uma expansão na média de anos de estudo e uma sensível redução da persistência educacional dos pais analfabetos. Os resultados do modelo paramétrico indicam que existe uma forte influência da localização geográfica, dos aspectos raciais e de sexo, além dos atributos educacionais dos pais sobre a trajetória de educacional dos filhos.

This thesis consists of an introductory part and the following four self-contained papers: In Paper [I] we analyze the implications of social identity and self-categorization for optimal redistributive income taxation. A two-type model is supplemented by an assumption that individuals select themselves into social categories, in which norms are formed and education effort choices partly depend on these norms. The results show, among other things, that externality correction by a welfarist government leads to an element of tax progression that serves to reduce the discrepancy between the effort norm and the actual effort chosen by low-productivity individuals in the high-effort group. Furthermore, if the preference for social identity is sufficiently strong, increased wage-inequality leads to higher social welfare through a relaxation of the selection constraint. It may thus be desirable to use publicly provided education to induce more wage-inequality, even if higher wage-inequality increases the intrinsic utility of a potential mimicker. In Paper [II] I employ high quality register data to present new facts about income mobility in Sweden. The focus of the paper is regional differences in mobility, using a novel approach based on a multilevel model. This method is well-suited when regions differ greatly in population size as is the case in Sweden. The maximum likelihood estimates are substantially more precise than those obtained by running separate OLS regressions. I find small regional differences in income mobility when measured in relative terms. Regional differences are large when adopting an absolute measure and focusing on children with below-median parent income. On the national level I find that the association between parent and child income ranks has decreased over time, implying increased mobility. In Paper [III] I study the long term effects of inter-municipal moving during childhood on income using Swedish register data. Due to the richness of the data I am able to control for important sources of selection into moving, such as parent separation, parents' unemployment, education, long run income, and immigration background. I find that children's long run incomes are significantly negatively affected by moving during childhood, and the effect is larger for those who move more often. For children who move once, I also estimate the effect of the timing and the quality of the move. I measure the quality of each neighborhood based on the adult outcomes for individuals who never move. The quality of a move is defined as the difference in quality between the origin and the destination. Given that a family moves, I find that the negative effect of childhood moving on adult income is increasing in age at move. Children benefit economically from the quality of the region they move to only if they move before age 12 (sons) and age 16 (daughters). In Paper [IV] I study the bias of IGE estimates for different missing-data scenarios based on simulated income processes. Using an income process from the income dynamics and risks literature to generate two linked generations’ complete income histories, I use Monte Carlo methods to study the relationship between available data patterns and the bias of the IGE. I find that the traditional approach using the average of the typically available log income observations leads to IGE estimates that are around 40 percent too small. Moreover, I show that the attenuation bias is not reduced by averaging over many father income observations. Using just one income observation for each generation at the optimal age (as discussed in the paper) or using weighted instead of unweighted averages can reduce the bias. In addition, the rank-rank slope is found to be clearly less sensitive to missing data.

Cette thèse se penche sur plusieurs canaux de transmission intergénérationnelle des inégalités afin d'évaluer la capacité des politiques publiques à accroître la mobilité sociale. A partir d'un panel européen, les deux premiers chapitres mesurent et comparent différents indicateurs de la mobilité sociale intergénérationnelle par pays. La comparaison des résultats d'un pays à l'autre met en lumière la plus grande efficacité des politiques publiques, et en particulier des politiques d'éducation, menées dans les pays nordiques. Les deux derniers chapitres concernent la ségrégation résidentielle, dont la littérature économique a montré qu'elle accentuait la transmission des inégalités. Les déterminants de la ségrégation urbaine en Ile-de-France sont identifiés afin d'évaluer l'effet potentiel de certaines politiques de logement, en particulier de celles visant à promouvoir l'accès à la propriété. / This thesis focuses on several of channels of the intergenerational transmission of inequalities, so as to evaluate the efficiency of public policies in increasing social mobility. From a European panel, the first two chapters measure and compare different mobility indices by country. The cross-country comparison sheds the light on the higher efficiency of the public policies –in particular education policies – implemented in Nordic countries. The last two chapters concern residential segregation, which is shown to accentuate the transmission of inequalities in the economic literature. The determinants of the urban segregation in the Paris region (Ile-de-France) are disentangled in order to evaluate the potential effect of some housing policies, in particular those which aim at promoting homeownership.

This dissertation consists of three essays, taking different perspectives on human capital. The first essay looks at human capital from a growth perspective. Essays two and three focuses on the individual’s occupational decision and its relation to family background. The first essay attempts to capture the effects on long run economic growth and transitional dynamics of the interaction between human capital and R&amp;D. We do this by allowing for endogenous human capital accumulation in an economy where the number of products and technologies expands because profit maximizing entrepreneurs do R&amp;D. We find that, in the absence of scale effects, long run growth is determined by the economy’s capacity to accumulate human capital. A relative lack of R&amp;D capital causes the economy to grow slowly during its transition to the steady state, while a relative abundance of R&amp;D capital gives high growth rates during transition. In the second essay, the classical Roy-model of selection on the labor market is extended in order to analyze intergenerational mobility. This is done through the introduction of ability uncertainty that is linked to family background. In contrast to to additional human capital models of intergenerational mobility, this mechanism rather than differences in access to capital markets links occupational oucomes of offspring to parents. We study the effects of income redistribution on mobility and talent allocation. It is found that redistribution has implications for intergenerational mobility and talent allocation through its influence on individual occupational choices. However, we conclude that the presence of a trade-off between redistribution and intergenerational mobility depends on the extent of similarity of occupations with regard to ability sensitivity and wage rates, and on the degree of individual risk aversion. Whether redistribution occurs only within an occupation or simultaneously within and across occupations is also inportant for the implicatons for mobility and talent allocation. In essay three, a model of occupational choice and human capital investment is developmed and tested. The model allows family background to influence occupational choice through access to economic resources, differences in costs of schooling, and ability uncertainty linked to background similar to that discussed in essay two. It is predicted that life time utility of children from less well-off background is more sensitive to economic incentives when risk aversion is strong. The model also predicts that people are more sensitive to economic incentives when considering occupations distant from their parent occuations. The implications of the theoretical model are tested and largely confirmed on Swedish data using a mixed multinominal logit framework which explicitly accounts for unobserved ability heterogeneity. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 1998</p>

Nowadays, intergenerational mobility and gender equality have captured widespread attention. This study aims to examine the relationship between the two to provide policy insights that benefit both polarized issues. This study reviewed the existing literature and formulated hypotheses that early childhood development has long-lasting impacts on adults' outcomes and is a decisive factor in determining social mobility in adulthood. Gender equality policies play huge roles in this period, mitigating adverse effects from childhood and providing opportunities for disadvantaged children in early childhood development. This study tests the hypotheses with multiple regression and performs sensitivity analysis with an alternative proxy. The result is that public spending on childcare, female labour market participation, and child poverty are statistically significant with social mobility, while weeks of maternity leave and poverty rates of single-earner families are not.

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