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This thesis consists of an introductory part and four self-contained papers related to individual financial behavior and risk-taking in financial markets. In Paper [I] we estimate within-family and community social interaction effects upon an individual’s stock market entry, participation, and exit decision. Interestingly, community sentiment towards the stock market (based on portfolio outcomes in the community) does not influence individuals’ likelihood to enter, while a positive sentiment increases (decreases) the likelihood of participation (exit). Overall, the results stress the importance of accounting for family social influence and highlight potentially important differences between family and community effects in individuals’ stock market participation. In Paper [II] novel evidence is provided indicating that the influence from family (parents and partners) and peer social interaction on individuals’ stock market participation vary over different types of individuals. Results imply that individuals’ exposure to, and valuation of, stock market related social signals are of importance and thus, contribute to the understanding of the heterogeneous influence of social interaction. Overall, the results are interesting and enhance the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of social interaction on individuals’ financial decision making. In Paper [III] the impact of divorce ­­­on individual financial behavior is empirically examined in a dynamic setting. Evidence that divorcing individuals increase their saving rates before the divorce is presented. This may be seen as a response to the increase in background risk that divorce produces. After the divorce, a negative divorce effect on individual saving rates and risky asset shares are established, which may lead to disparities in wealth accumulation possibilities between married and divorced. Women are, on average, shown to not adjust their precautionary savings to the same extent as men before the divorce. I also provide tentative evidence that women reduce their financial risk-taking more than men after a divorce, which could be a result of inequalities in financial positions or an adjustment towards individual preferences.   Paper [IV] provides novel empirical evidence that gender identity is of importance for individuals’ financial risk-taking. Specifically, by use of matching and by dividing male and females into those with “traditional” versus “nontraditional” gender identities, comparison of average risk-taking between groupings indicate that over a third (about 35-40%) of the identified total gender risk differential is explained by differences in gender identities. Results further indicate that risky financial market participation is 19 percentage points higher in groups of women with nontraditional, compared with traditional, gender identities. The results, obtained while conditioning upon a vast number of controls, are robust towards a large number of alternative explanations and indicate that some individuals (mainly women) partly are fostered by society, through identity formation and socially constructed norms, to a relatively lower financial risk-taking.

Les stratégies de lutte contre la pauvreté dans les pays en développement ont été longtemps axées sur les dimensions monétaires de celle-ci en prônant des mesures " pro-croissance " comme la voie la plus fiable et la plus crédible pour éradiquer l'extrême pauvreté. Mais compte tenu de la complexité du phénomène de pauvreté et surtout face à l'insuffisance des résultats constatée après plus de deux décennies d'efforts de financement, on a assisté, au début des années 2000, à une réorientation de l'approche de la pauvreté vers des considérations multidimensionnelles. Depuis lors, la pauvreté n'est plus appréhendée à partir seulement du revenu, mais aussi à partir d'un ensemble d'éléments relatifs aux capacités des individus, aux potentialités ainsi qu'aux opportunités à leur portée. Ce nouveau paradigme, fondé sur la notion de pauvreté des capacités, trouve une traduction opérationnelle dans la stratégie d'intervention du programme " Plateformes Multifonctionnelles " (PTFM). Ce programme est aujourd'hui implanté dans plusieurs pays d'Afrique Sub-Saharienne et soutenu par de nombreux acteurs du développement compte tenu de son rôle potentiel dans la réalisation des OMD. S'inscrivant dans une démarche de "Community Driven Development ", le concept PTFM vise à apporter un élément de réponse aux nombreuses problématiques associées à la faiblesse d'accès à l'énergie. A travers le développement de petites unités de production énergétique en milieu rural, le programme PTFM privilégie une approche fondée sur le genre, le renforcement des capacités et l'autonomisation des femmes. Bien que lancé dans les années 1990 au Mali, ce programme n'avait, jusque-là, fait l'objet d'aucune évaluation d'impact rigoureuse alors que l'exigence d'efficacité est un critère fondamental dans la sélection et le financement de programmes de développement. Partant ainsi d'une démarche d'évaluation, cette thèse vise d'abord à questionner l'efficacité du programme PTFM dans la lutte contre la pauvreté. L'impact potentiel du programme PTFM sur la pauvreté passe théoriquement par un gain de temps qui est ensuite alloué à des activités génératrices de revenus (pour les femmes) et à la formation du capital humain des enfants (santé et éducation). Evaluer la pertinence et l'efficacité d'une telle approche amène à s'interroger en amont sur la nature des comportements et les choix des individus en matière d'allocation du temps. La thèse est organisée en deux parties. Les deux premiers chapitres sont consacrés à l'estimation de l'impact du programme PTFM sur des indicateurs de l'activité économique des femmes et des indicateurs de santé et de scolarité des enfants. Compte-tenu de l'histoire de l'implantation du programme au Mali, deux approches sont utilisées, celle des entrées-échelonnées (pipeline approach) et celle de la Double-Différence. Dans chacune des approches, nous identifions deux types d'effets: l'effet espéré du programme (Intention-To-Treat Effect) et l'effet de la participation au programme (Treatment Effect on Treated). Les différentes estimations réalisées permettent de valider l'hypothèse de gain de temps lié à l'utilisation des plateformes. Nous trouvons, en effet un impact très significatif du programme sur le temps consacré par les femmes aux activités économiques. Nous pouvons également identifier un impact significatif sur la probabilité de scolarisation et le temps 7 d'apprentissage des enfants en âge scolaire. En revanche, l'impact sur les indicateurs du statut nutritionnel des enfants de moins de cinq ans n'est pas concluant du fait de l'ambiguïté du sens de la causalité de ces indicateurs avec nos différentes variables de traitement. Il apparait que ni le gain de temps tiré de l'utilisation des PTFM, ni l'accroissement potentiel de revenus des mères ne sont significativement favorables à l'état nutritionnel des enfants. Dans la seconde partie, nous prolongeons le cadre de l'évaluation pour mieux explorer les mécanismes de choix d'allocation de temps au sein des ménages. Dans le troisième chapitre, nous examinons la relation entre scolarisation et travail des enfants qui sont deux choix distincts d'allocation du temps des enfants entre formation du capital humain et main d'oeuvre pour des besoins productifs du ménage. Le chapitre vise à tester empiriquement le degré d'arbitrage entre ces deux choix compte-tenu du niveau de vie du ménage. Nos résultats montrent une corrélation très fortement négative entre les deux décisions, montrant ainsi une concurrence intrinsèque entre ces choix. S'agissant de l'influence du niveau de vie sur la demande de travail des enfants, nous trouvons que, contrairement aux activités économiques qui apparaissent très flexibles à la variation du niveau de vie du ménage, l'allocation de temps pour les travaux non-économiques est beaucoup plus rigide. Approfondissant la nature des disparités de genre dans l'accès à la scolarisation et la demande de travail des enfants, nous montrons, par une méthode de décomposition à la Oaxaca-Blinder que les disparités observées entre les filles et les garçons dans l'allocation du temps sont essentiellement dues à une préférence inobservable des parents pour la scolarisation des garçons plutôt que des filles. Dans le dernier chapitre, nous analysons les déterminants socioéconomiques de l'allocation du temps des femmes à partir d'une étude de cas. Nous trouvons que la décision des femmes de participer au marché du travail dépend très fortement du niveau d'accès aux infrastructures de base. Bien que l'hypothèse de rationalité économique dans l'allocation de temps ne soit pas rejetée (signal du taux de salaire), nous trouvons que les choix sont fortement influencés par des considérations purement sociales et culturelles. Les principaux résultats obtenus dans cette thèse accréditent l'importance des infrastructures dans la lutte contre la pauvreté. L'effet positif du programme PTFM sur les indicateurs d'activité économique des femmes et sur la scolarisation des enfants justifie la pertinence de l'initiative " PTFM " dans la lutte contre la pauvreté. Le programme PTFM est un outil de développement qui joue un rôle équivalent à celui des infrastructures. Cependant, l'impact positif du programme PTFM est subordonné à la complexité des choix d'allocation de temps dans les ménages, notamment en ce qui concerne les femmes et les enfants. Il apparaît nécessaire d'accompagner l'implantation des PTFM par des politiques éducatives plus contraignantes ou au contraire plus incitatives, afin que les gains de temps obtenus par l'accès à l'énergie mécanique puissent se traduire en des choix en faveur de la scolarisation plus importante des filles.

Asymmetric information is a large potential problem for insurance markets, especially for markets insuring health risk. Despite a large theoretical attention over the last 30 years, the empirical evidence of the extent of the problem is still limited. In part this is due to methodological problems. The fundamental problem being that the private information, on which agents' act, is generally not observable to the researcher. This thesis provides empirical evidence on selection and moral hazard, using a private dental insurance natural experiment that solves many of the methodological problems. The initial decision to select into the insurance is analyzed in the first paper. Interestingly, results indicate both adverse selection and its opposite, advantageous selection, in different parts of the sample. These results are captured in a theoretical model where agents differ in their degree of risk aversion. In the second paper the decision to opt out of insurance is related to new information on risk. Results indicate that updating is asymmetric. Agents do not take the insurer's information fully into account, even though it is public. Finally, the moral hazard effect of dental coverage is analyzed in the last paper. The treatment effect of insurance coverage is separated from self-selection, using propensity score matching, IV and difference-in-differences. The results give strong empirical evidence of moral hazard. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk., 2004 xii s., s. 3-12: sammanfattning, s. 13-104: 3 uppsatser

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Essay I: Employment Security Agreements, which are elements of Swedish collective agreements, offer a unique opportunity to study very early job search counselling of displaced workers. These agreements provide individual job search assistance to workers who are dismissed due to redundancy, often as early as during the period of notice. Compared to traditional labor market policies, the assistance provided is earlier and more responsive to the needs of the individual worker. In this study, I investigate the effects of the individual counseling and job search assistance provided through the Employment Security Agreement for Swedish blue-collar workers on job finding and subsequent job quality. The empirical strategy is based on the rules of eligibility in a regression discontinuity framework. I estimate the effect for workers with short tenure, who are dismissed through mass-layoffs. My results do not suggest that the program has an effect on the probability of becoming unemployed, the duration of unemployment, or income. However, the results indicate that the program has a positive effect on the duration of the next job. Essay II: The well-known positive relationship between the unemployment benefit level and unemployment duration can be separated into two potential sources; a moral hazard effect, and a liquidity effect pertaining to the increased ability to smooth consumption. The latter is a socially optimal response due to credit and insurance market failures. These two effects are difficult to separate empirically, but the social optimality of an unemployment insurance policy can be evaluated by studying the effect of a non-distortionary lump-sum severance grant on unemployment durations. In this study, I evaluate the effects on unemployment duration and subsequent job quality of a lump-sum severance grant provided to displaced workers, by means of a Swedish collective agreement. I use a regression discontinuity design, based on the strict age requirement to be eligible for the grant. I find that the lump-sum grant has a positive effect on the probability of becoming unemployed and the length of the completed unemployment duration, but no effect on subsequent job quality. My analysis also indicates that spousal income is important for the consumption smoothing abilities of displaced workers, and that the grant may have a greater effect in times of more favorable labor market conditions. Essay III: Evidence from around the world suggest that individuals who are awarded disability benefits in some cases still have residual working capacity, while disability insurance systems typically involve strong disincentives for benefit recipients to work. Some countries have introduced policies to incentivize disability insurance recipients to use their residual working capacities on the labor market. One such policy is the continuous deduction program in Sweden, introduced in 2009. In this study, I investigate whether the financial incentives provided by this program induce disability insurance recipients to increase their labor supply or education level. Retroactively determined eligibility to the program with respect to time of benefit award provides a setting resembling a natural experiment, which could be used to estimate the effects of the program using a regression discontinuity design. However, a simultaneous regime change of disability insurance eligibility causes covariate differences between treated and controls, which I adjust for using a matching strategy. My results suggest that the financial incentives provided by the program have not had any effect on labor supply or educational attainment.

Background: Leukocytes in peripheral blood (PB) are prognostic biomarkers in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cancer patients (HNSCC-CPs), but differences between HNSCC-CPs and healthy adults (HAs) are insufficiently described. Methods: 10-color flow cytometry (FCM) was used for in-depth immunophenotyping of PB samples of 963 HAs and 101 therapy-naïve HNSCC-CPs. Absolute (AbsCC) and relative cell counts (RelCC) of leukocyte subsets were determined. A training cohort (TC) of 43 HNSCC-CPs and 43 HAs, propensity score (PS)-matched according to age, sex, alcohol, and smoking, was used to develop a score consecutively approved in a validation cohort (VC). Results: Differences in AbsCC were detected in leukocyte subsets (p < 0.001), but had low power in discriminating HNSCC-CPs and HAs. Consequently, RelCC of nine leukocyte subsets in the TC were used to calculate 36 ratios; receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves defined optimum cut-off values. Binary classified data were combined in a score based on four ratios: monocytes-to-granulocytes (MGR), classical monocytes-to-monocytes (clMMR), monocytes-to-lymphocytes (MLR), and monocytes-to-T-lymphocytes (MTLR); ≥3 points accurately discriminate HNSCC-CPs and HAs in the PS-matched TC (p = 2.97 × 10−17), the VC (p = 4.404 × 10−178), and both combined (p = 7.74 × 10−199). Conclusions: RelCC of leukocyte subsets in PB of HNSCC-CPs differ significantly from those of HAs. A score based on MGR, clMMR, MLR, and MTLR allows for accurate discrimination.

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This study uses the competing Burton Clark's "Cooling Out Theory" and Daniel Bell's "Theory of the Postindustrial Economy" to examine the function that for-profit colleges and universities (FPCUs) play in American higher education and how it is different from non-profit traditional colleges and universities (TCUs). This was done through three sections of analysis. The first examined if students who enroll at these FPCUs are less academically prepared than those attending non-profit traditional colleges or universities. The second tested if academic preparedness is associated with postsecondary performance at FPCUs to the same degree it is at TCUs. The final section of analysis looked at FPCU graduates to see if they have different short-term job outcomes when compared to traditional college graduates. This research utilizes The Beginning Postsecondary Survey 2009- a restricted-use longitudinal data set produced by the National Center for Education Statistics that followed 16,700 first-time college enrollees from 2003 until 2009. This data set includes information on student demographics, academic performance, enrollment history, and job outcomes. The results of this study indicated that when compared to traditional college students, FPCU students are less likely to be academically prepared for college and are more frequently characterized by risk factors that previous research has shown makes it less likely they will complete their degree. This research also found that unlike TCUs, high school academic performance is not associated with post-secondary performance or likelihood of degree attainment at FPCUs. Finally, it was observed that FPCU graduates were less likely to have jobs related to their degree and earned less income than TCU graduates, but had about the same degree of job satisfaction.

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