Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed August 6, 2007). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Cover title. Photocopy typescript.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 222-230).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (University of Texas Digital Repository, viewed on Sept. 9, 2009). Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--North Carolina State University. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2006. / Title from title screen. Julie L. Hotchkiss, committee chair; Dawn M. Baunach, Erdal Tekin, Jorge L. Martinez-Vazquez, Bruce E. Kaufman, committee members. Electronic text (177 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed June 19, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-176).

This dissertation focuses on two main research questions related to the effect of a factor in a local labor market. Both relate to a finding of Black et al. (2014) that married women are less likely to work in Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) with more traffic congestion. The first essay evaluates the appropriateness of an MSA as a geographical entity in estimating the effect of congestion on labor supply of married women. One concern with such aggregated data is that they do not take into account within-city variation in congestion. In order to address this issue, I replicate the works by Black et al. (2014) at smaller geographical levels. Once the coefficient on commute time at each level is estimated, I compare the coefficients from smaller geographical entities with one from the MSA to examine if they are statistically similar. I find that an MSA is a geographically proper unity when the effect of commute time on the LFP of married women is examined. Additionally, I explore whether commuting time has also a significant effect on other related to labor market issues. First, I find longer commuting time is associated with shorter weekly working time of high school educated women. Secondly, fewer married women are self-employed in the area with longer commuting time. The second essay begins with the possibility of correlation between congestion and the error term in the estimation equation by Black et al. (2014). The coefficient on congestion in their equation might be biased due to the endogeneity problem. I employ a structural approach with a multinomial logit in order to deal with the endogeneity issue. By examining the effect of congestion and its interaction term on city-specific fixed effects that can be estimated using a discrete-choice model of residential decision, I find that the negative relationship between congestion and labor supply of married women discovered by Black et al. (2014) is partially true. The effect of congestion is statistically uncertain or depends on the model specifications, with the exception of a finding that married women with children are especially responsive to the effect of traffic congestion on their willingness to work.

Explicit parameterizations of labor supply are specified and estimated on a sample of single unattached individuals using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and a generalized Tobit maximum likelihood method which is consistent under the assumption that employed hours are exogenous. Results of these estimations are then used to compute triangle approximation and direct closed form solutions for labor market constraint compensation. Underemployment compensation estimates are generated and compared to actual and hypothetical payments which would accrue under the UI systems of representative states. Certain compensation results for overemployment are also offered. Where they are directly comparable, results from Tobit estimation of the basic labor supply relations are found to strictly dominate ordinary least squares (OLS) results in terms of efficiency. While the OLS and Tobit parameter estimates differ dramatically in most cases, the latter are consistent with the bulk of recent empirical labor supply research. A corollary purpose of estimating the several labor supply specifications is the search for an appropriate structure of preferences to be used in modeling the labor-leisure choice problem. Direct likelihood ratio tests yielded no best form, but suggested that more flexible parameterizations are to be desired. Results on compensation amounts tend to support accepted standards of UI benefit adequacy. For all levels of unemployment the direct compensation results suggested that "one-half gross wage replacement" would slightly overcompensate individuals from a utility based perspective.

A informalidade atinge níveis expressivos nos países em desenvolvimento. No Brasil cerca de 50% dos postos de trabalho estão na informalidade, sendo responsáveis por quase 40% do PIB nacional. O modelo de crescimento neoclássico padrão, desenvolvido e aplicado originalmente para países desenvolvidos não é capaz de compreender porque os brasileiros não estão trabalhando menos como conseqüência dos fortes crescimentos das alíquotas tributárias no início dos anos 90. O modelo prevê uma queda dramática do número de horas trabalhadas, entretanto tal fenômeno não é observado nos dados. A informalidade parece uma boa resposta para esse desajuste, pois trabalhadores informais pagam menos impostos e, assim, aumentos nas alíquotas impactariam menos a decisão de ofertar trabalho. O objetivo dessa dissertação é modelar o número de horas trabalhadas pelo brasileiro médio para o período 1986- 1998, adicionando um setor informal no modelo de crescimento neoclássico. A inclusão de um setor informal no modelo diminui o efeito de impostos sobre o número de horas trabalhadas, melhorando assim a aderência do modelo aos dados brasileiros. / The informal sector has reached significant levels in developing countries. In Brazil about 50% of jobs are informal and account for nearly 40% of national GDP. The traditional neoclassical growth model does not explain why, given the significant increase in tax rates in the early 90s, Brazilians did not work less. The traditional model predicts a dramatic drop in the number of hours worked, but such a sharp drop is not observed in Brazilian data. The informal sector seems to be a good explanation for this divergence; informal workers do not pay taxes and so the increases in tax rates should have no impact in ones work-leisure decision. The central aim of this dissertation is to model the number of hours the average Brazilian worked between 1986 and 1998. By including the informal sector, the proposed model predicts a less dramatic change in the number of hours worked in the presence of increasing tax rates. This change makes the predicted number of hours worked closer to the actual behavior found in Brazilian data.

The first chapter investigates whether East German women became used to the requirement of working full-time under communism and thereby continued to work much longer hours than did their counterparts in the West after unification. The second chapter develops a rational habit formation model in labor supply using the idea of habits outlined in the first chapter. I show that the proposed model avoids the extreme behavior observed in the standard model in the literature where in the long-run hours of work could increase indefinitely or decrease to zero over time. The third chapter examines whether disabled elders who have private long-term care insurance consume fewer acute or post-acute Medicare covered services. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2004. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.