This thesis aims to examine the economic effect in terms of real GDP at constant 2017 national prices (in mil. 2017 US$) of being a member in the European Union in the case of Sweden. The method used to answer the research question is mainly by the Synthetic Control Method. Difference-in-difference estimations were also conducted as a complement to compare the results between the two methods. Previous literature in the subject has for the most part received results indicating that a membership in the European Union contributes to an increase in certain economic growth aspects for the member countries. The economic theories about common markets points at that a common market can be both advantageous but also disadvantageous depending on the setting. Theories more closely related to the European Union present rather ambiguous answers to certain economic effects of a membership but in some cases, it seems to be possible to assume some positive economic effect from being a European Union-member. The results in this paper seem to be robust in the way that the effect on the real GDP at constant 2017 national prices (in mil. 2017 US$) in Sweden from its membership in the European Union is negative in all estimations that were made. However, none of the results were statistically significant so there is not enough evidence to say that the Swedish real GDP at constant 2017 national prices (in mil. 2017 US$) would have been different to the factual outcome if Sweden did not join the European Union in 1995.

C’est grâce à une initiative de Revenu Québec, avec la collaboration de l’Association des restaurateurs du Québec, que le module d'enregistrement des ventes a été déployé dans le secteur de la restauration, entre le 1er septembre 2010 et le 1er novembre 2011, afin de lutter contre l’évasion fiscale. Jusqu’à ce jour, l’impact de ce projet a seulement été évalué à l’interne par Revenu Québec. Cette étude propose donc une analyse empirique, avec les données publiques canadiennes, afin d’évaluer l’impact de l’implantation du module d'enregistrement des ventes dans le secteur de la restauration au Québec, à l’aide d’un modèle en difference-in-differences et d’un modèle en Premières différences. Plus précisément, nous cherchons à déterminer si la mesure a eu un impact sur le PIB du secteur de l’hébergement et des services de restauration au Québec. Avec l’implantation du module d’enregistrement des ventes, on s’attend à ce que les possibilités d’évasion fiscale soient réduites et que les ventes déclarées augmentent. Les résultats de l’analyse suggèrent des signes potentiels d’effets de la mesure, sans toutefois avoir suffisamment de précision dans les données pour appuyer l’hypothèse avec certitude.

The thesis deals with the estimation of labour supply responses to the personal income tax reform in the Czech Republic adopted in 2008 by applying quasi experimental design known as "difference-in-differences". By exploiting the different change in the effective tax rates for various population subgroups as a natural experiment and using microdata from European Labour Force Sur- vey we constructed the treatment and control groups according to the highest attained level of education serving as a proxy for an income range that assigns an individual to the particular tax bracket before and after policy change. Analysing one-person households we found significant negative effect on the labour force participation and significant positive effect on the hours work of the treated by comparing these outcomes for the treatment and control groups in the baseline and follow up periods before and after the reform. JEL Classification C21, D04, H24, H31, I38, J22 Keywords tax reform, labour supply, natural experiment, difference-in-differences Author's e-mail janxtomo@gmail.com Supervisor's e-mail gebicka@fsv.cuni.cz

Political Finance Reform and Public Procurement:  Evidence from Lithuania. Can political donations buy influence? This paper studies whether firms trade political contributions for public procurement contracts. To answer this question, I focus on the Lithuanian political economy. Combining data on a large number of government tenders, the universe of corporate donors and firm characteristics, I examine how a ban on corporate donations affects the awarding of procurement contracts to companies that donated in the past. Consistent with political favoritism, contributing firms’ probability of winning goes down by five percentage points as compared to that of non-donor firms after the ban. Among different mechanisms, the hypothesis that corporate donors get confidential information on competing bids prevails. The empirical results are in line with predictions from a first-price sealed-bid auction model with one informed bidder. Evidence on firm bidding and victory margins suggests that contributing firms adjust their bids in order to secure contracts at a maximum revenue. I assess that tax payers save almost one percent of GDP thanks to the reform. Gender Quotas and the Quality of Politicians. We analyze the effects of the introduction of gender quotas in candidate lists on the quality of elected politicians, as measured by the average number of years of education. We consider an Italian law which introduced gender quotas in local elections in 1993, and was abolished in 1995. As not all municipalities went through elections during this period, we identify two groups of municipalities and use a difference-in-differences estimation. We find that gender quotas are associated with an increase in the quality of elected politicians, with the effect ranging from 0.12 to 0.24 years of education. This effect is due not only to the higher number of elected women, who are on average more educated than men, but also to the lower number of low-educated elected men. The positive effect on quality is confirmed when we measure the latter with alternative indicators, it persists in the long run and it is robust to controlling for political ideology and political competition. Affirmative Action and the Power of the Elderly. There is evidence that age matters in politics. In this article we study whether implementation of affirmative action policies on gender can generate additional effects on an alternative dimension of representation, namely, the age of politicians. We consider an Italian law which introduced gender quotas in candidate lists for local elections in 1993, and was abolished in 1995. As not all municipalities went through elections during this period, we can identify two groups of municipalities and use a difference-in-differences estimation to analyze the effect of gender quotas on the age of elected politicians. We find that gender quotas are associated with election of politicians that are younger by more than one year. The effect occurs mainly due to the reduction in age of elected male politicians and is consistent with the optimizing behavior of parties or of voters. Let the Voters Choose Women. Female under-representation in politics can be the result of parties' selection of candidates and/or of voters’ electoral preferences. To assess the impact of these two channels, we exploit the introduction of Italian Law 215/2013, which prescribes both gender quotas on candidate lists and double preference voting conditioned on gender. Using a regression discontinuity design, we estimate that the law increases the share of elected female politicians by 22 percentage points. The result is driven by the increase in preference votes cast for female candidates, suggesting a salient role of double preference voting in promoting female empowerment in politics.

O presente estudo buscou compreender os efeitos do uso de incentivos financeiros na produtividade dos beneficiários do Programa de Produtividade em Pesquisa (PPP) da Universidade Federal do Tocantins (UFT), sob a ótica da Economia Comportamental. Teve como objetivos, verificar se através dos incentivos, os indivíduos aumentaram ou não a produtividade em pesquisa. Buscou-se também, identificar quais as características individuais impactaram mais a propensão dos indivíduos a ingressarem no programa, bem como, analisar se os resultados obtidos convergiram ou divergiram da teoria da Economia Comportamental. Para alcançar o intento, foi realizada análise documental (AD), onde foram analisados os currículos lattes dos 125 integrantes da amostra. Em seguida, os dados foram sistematizados e a pontuação atribuída a cada indivíduo foi tabulada. Com os resultados obtidos na AD, utilizou-se os modelos econométricos Propensity Score Matching (PSM) e Diferença em Diferenças (DD) para aferir o efeito do tratamento. Como resultados, verificou-se através do modelo PSM que o efeito do tratamento no período da intervenção foi positivo. Já quando este resultado foi comparado com o período pré-intervenção, através da aplicação do modelo DD, verificou-se que o efeito do tratamento foi negativo. Constatou-se, porém, que o efeito negativo apontado pelo modelo DD decorreu da aproximação de desempenho dos integrantes do grupo controle (aumento de 84,69% na produtividade média do grupo), em relação aos integrantes do grupo de tratamento, e não pela diminuição do desempenho dos tratados, tendo em vista que, houve aumento de 13,68% na produtividade média do grupo, entre um período e outro. Ou seja, durante o período de vigência do programa, houve aumento da média de produtividade nos dois grupos analisados. No geral, os resultados alcançados convergiram com os pressupostos teóricos da Economia Comportamental. / The present study sought to understand the effects of the use of financial incentives on the productivity of beneficiaries of the Research Productivity Program (PPP) of the Federal University of Tocantins from the perspective of Behavioral Economics. The objective was to verify if through the incentives the individuals increased or not the productivity. It was also sought to identify which individual characteristics impacted more the individuals' propensity to enter the program as well as to analyze if the results obtained converged or diverged from the behavioral theory. To reach the intent, a documentary analysis (AD) was carried out, where the lattes resume of the 125 sample members were analyzed. Then the data were systematized and the score attributed to each individual was tabulated. With the results obtained in the AD, the econometric models Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Difference in Differences (DD) were used to gauge the treatment effect. As results, it was verified through the PSM model that the treatment effect in the intervention period was positive. When this result was compared with the pre-intervention period through the application of the DD model, it was verified that the effect of the treatment was negative. It was observed, however, that the negative effect indicated by the DD model resulted from the approximation of the performance of the control group (increase of 84,69% in the average productivity of the group) in relation to the members of the treatment group, since there was an increase of 13,68% in the average of the treated individuals. That is, during the period of validity of the program, there was an increase in the average productivity of the two groups analyzed. In general, the results achieved converged with the theoretical assumptions of Behavioral Economics.

It is generally held that economic sanctions have an adverse effect on human rights in sanctioned countries, but what about the non-sanctioned countries? Previous research has found that human rights sanctions appear to have a deterring effect on non-sanctioned countries in Latin America which, in turn, led to human rights improvements. The assumption from these findings suggests that countries improve their human rights in fear of being sanctioned themselves. Utilising a difference-in-differences method with data from CIRI and PTS for the time period 1977-1996, the present quasi-experimental study attempts to test these findings on Africa and Asia by posing the hypothesis that economic sanctions improve the level of human rights protection in the non-sanctioned countries of the same geographical region. The results show that, while there appears to be a positive effect on some measures of human rights in non-sanctioned countries, these effects are weak. Moreover, the results also show that the improvements correspond with the number of years following a sanction, where 1 year displays the weakest human rights improvements, whilst 10 years displays the strongest. The conclusion is that there, in some cases, appears to be a modest effect which needs to be examined further, but that sanctions, nevertheless, do not improve human rights in neighbouring countries in a meaningful way.

In recent years several municipalities in Sweden have merged their public secondary schools. This has been considered a type of initiative that intends to reduce youth segregation and discrepancies in school quality. This thesis examines in what ways the merging of all public secondary schools in a municipality affects the students’ academic performance and their choice to enroll in the publicschool sector. To do so I use municipality-level aggregate data from the Swedish National Agency for Education on 9th grade students’ academic outcomes and the share of 7th graders enrolled in the public schools. I employ a difference-in-difference approach to estimate the reduced form effect of the school mergers. The control group used in the baseline estimation includes all municipalities that had a constant number of public secondary schools during the time period of my study. I move on to use propensity score matching in order to create a more comparable control group. I then estimate a difference-in-difference regression with match-fixed effects. The results show that the mergers have a negative effect on the municipality-level average GPA. In addition, the municipalities where the mergers have been implemented experience a reduction in the share of students that pass all 9th grade subjects as well as an increase in the share of students who do not have sufficient grades to continue to upper secondary school. The school mergers caused the share of 7th graders enrolled in the publicschool sector to decrease by approximately 10 percentage points. These results indicate that the public secondary school merger is not a panacea for improving student outcomes.

Essay I: In January, 2005, the EU launched the first international emissions trading system (EU ETS), aimed at reducing carbon emissions in a cost-effective way by means of a market-based instrument. In this paper, we use the treatment/control, before/after design of the natural experiment approach to investigate the treatment effect of the EU ETS on the profitability of a sample of Swedish energy firms in 2005 and 2006. We also investigate whether under-cap and over-cap firms respond differently to the EU ETS. The estimation results in general suggest no significant impact in 2005 and a negative significant impact in 2006. The sub-sample analysis suggests that profitability of under-cap and over-cap firms were affected differently by the EU ETS in 2005, but not in 2006. Essay II: The paper empirically explores the possible causes behind electricity price jumps in the Nordic electricity market, Nord Pool. A time-series model (a mixed GARCH-EARJI jump model) capturing the common statistical features of electricity prices is used to identify price jumps. By the model, a categorical variable is defined distinguishing no, positive and negative jumps. The causes for the jumps are then explored through the use of ordered probit models in a second stage. The empirical results indicate that the structure of the market plays an important role in whether shocks in the demand and supply for electricity translate into price jumps. Essay III: Scientific evidence indicates that human development faces multiple and interacting regime-switching environmental thresholds such as climate change, ocean acidification and biodiversity loss. And crossing one or more such thresholds would trigger rapid and large changes in our life-support system with widespread consequences. This paper attempts to study the effects of such thresholds on human well-being in a growth theoretical framework. We derive the accounting prices of pollution stocks such as the concentration of greenhouse gases for the risk of triggering catastrophic events, which are needed for conducting a dynamic cost-benefit analysis. We first analyze a simple model with a single threshold and then extend it to a planar system with correlated double thresholds with a joint probability distribution. the results can be applied for analyzing global climate change and ocean acidification risks, which are highlighted in a Nature article by Rockström et al. (2009). Essay IV: Lump-sum transfers as a means of tackling climate change are mainly perceived as a theoretical construct to achieve the first best Pareto optimum. The previous literature on lump-sum transfers normally focuses on the two polar cases: the absence of lump-sum transfers and perfect or unconstrained lump-sum transfers, leaving the middle way aside. In this paper, we attempt to explore the unmarked part by developing a model where transfer costs are explicitly taken into account. We show that whether the Pareto optimum characterized by the equalization of marginal abatement costs is attainable depends on the formation of transfer costs. When the marginal transfer cost is zero, the separability of equity and efficiency under perfect lump-sum transfers is kept. However, when the marginal transfer cost is positive, the optimum with equalization of marginal abatement costs is neither attainable, nor desirable. We also simulate a policy experiment in China to review the optimal abatement and transfer patterns between China's provinces within a framework of imperfect lump-sum transfers. The highlighted welfare gains is supportive of considering lump-sum transfers as a national climate change policy.

Submitted by Pedro Pires (pedro.olmp@gmail.com) on 2016-05-23T18:31:58Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Pedro_Pires.pdf: 432659 bytes, checksum: 9b8eb74f62fabc404ac017b453279282 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Letícia Monteiro de Souza (leticia.dsouza@fgv.br) on 2016-05-23T20:09:33Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Pedro_Pires.pdf: 432659 bytes, checksum: 9b8eb74f62fabc404ac017b453279282 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-23T21:50:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Pedro_Pires.pdf: 432659 bytes, checksum: 9b8eb74f62fabc404ac017b453279282 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-26 / We analyze the effects of constitutional amendment 72/13 in Brazil, which matched labor rights of domestic workers to those of other employees. We show that, after the legislation, a sizable media coverage and an intensified public interest increased general knowledge of domestic workers' labor rights. As a consequence, non-compliance of labor legislation in the domestic services sector became more difficult. At the same time, the amendment's need for additional regulation caused labor costs to remain mostly unchanged. Using a difference-in-differences approach that compares selected occupations over time, we find that the amendment -- and the discussion it sparked -- caused an increase in formality and wages among domestic workers. Then, using the heterogeneity of the amendment's impact on demographic groups, our results show that domestic employment was reduced and low-skilled women were pushed out of the labor force and into lower quality jobs. Placebo tests and robustness analysis indicate that our results cannot be explained by a number of alternative interpretations. / Nós analisamos o efeito da emenda constitucional 72/13 no Brasil, que igualou direitos trabalhistas de empregadas domésticas a aqueles de outros empregados. Mostramos que, após a legislação, uma considerável cobertura midiática e um interesse público intensificado aumentou o conhecimento geral de direitos trabalhistas de empregadas domésticas. Como consequência, o não-seguimento de legislações trabalhistas no setor de serviços domésticos ficou mais difícil. Ao mesmo tempo, a necessidade de regulamentar adicionalmente a emenda fez com que custos trabalhistas ficassem praticamente inalterados. Usando uma abordagem de diferença-em-diferenças que compara ocupações selecionadas ao longo do tempo, mostramos que a emenda -- e a discussão que ela causou -- levou a um aumento na formalização e nos salários de empregados domésticos. Então, usando a heterogeneidade do impacto da emenda em grupos demográficos, nossos resultados mostram que emprego doméstico foi reduzido e que mulheres pouco qualificadas saíram força de trabalho e foram para empregos de menor qualidade. Testes de placebo e análises de robustez indicam que nossos resultados não são explicados por diversas interpretações alternativas.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2018-07-16T11:47:50Z No. of bitstreams: 1 jessicadeoliveirafernandes.pdf: 1123892 bytes, checksum: 9652809e9b5db221e144e45f16405491 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2018-09-03T16:17:22Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 jessicadeoliveirafernandes.pdf: 1123892 bytes, checksum: 9652809e9b5db221e144e45f16405491 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-03T16:17:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 jessicadeoliveirafernandes.pdf: 1123892 bytes, checksum: 9652809e9b5db221e144e45f16405491 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-06-11 / A avaliação das Unidades de Polícia Pacificadora (UPPs) no crime do Rio de Janeiro é um tema já discutido na literatura, no entanto, os autores tratam do tema não levam em consideração os deslocamentos espaciais de crime potencialmente existentes. Até o ano de 2014, as UPPs haviam sido implementadas em 38 comunidades circunscritas em 26 distritos policiais (DPs). Este trabalho tem o objetivo de avaliar o impacto das UPPs nas taxas de criminalidade entre 2007 e 2016. Para isso, foi realizada uma avaliação de tratamento por meio da abordagem das diferenças-em-diferenças espacial (SDID), método capaz de modelar o deslocamento espacial do crime das regiões tratadas para regiões vizinhas. Os resultados revelam que as UPPs reduziram as taxas de homicídios dolosos, furto a veículos e roubo de veículos nas regiões ocupadas. Além disso, houve um transbordamento dos benefícios da política pública para as regiões vizinhas. / The impact evaluation of Unidades de Polícia Pacificadora (UPPs) in the Rio de Janeiro crime is a topic already discussed in the literature, however, the authors do not take into account the potentially existing spatial displacements of crime. Until the year of 2014, the UPPs have been implemented in 38 communities circumscribed in 26 police districts (DPs). This study is aimed at measuring the impact of the UPPs on crime rates between 2007 and 2016. To do so, a impact evaluation was performed by approaching the spatial difference-in-differences (SDID) which is able to treat crime spatial displacement of regions treated to neighboring regions. The findings reveal that the UPPs have reduced homicide rates, vehicle thefts and vehicles obberies at the occupied regions. Besides, there was a spatial spillover of the benefits of UPPs to the neighboring regions.