This dissertation studies a number of issues related to Development Economics. The first chapter explains how we can use multiple correspondence analysis to calculate an asset index, and then offers an inequality analysis using the asset index. The second chapter provides a theoretical explanation of an odd relationship between child labor and per capita land holding in a household, and then provides empirical evidence for the explanation. Finally, the third chapter represents the results of a study of the behavior of rural households during shocks. Across the entire dissertation, we use three cross sectional surveys, conducted in 2001, 2007-8 and 2010-11 in Zimbabwe. / Ph. D.

Diante do cenário de crise econômica vivenciado no Brasil nos últimos anos, a preocupação em minimizar os seus efeitos na vida financeira da população tornou-se fundamental. Assim, evidenciar fatores que possam ter contribuído para um maior nível de impacto pelo choque é importante para que se formule campanhas de conscientização financeira, visando maior bem estar da população. Com base nisso, este trabalho testa, através de uma regressão logística ordinal, a influência do comportamento do indivíduo no nível de impacto por choques econômicos. Para isso foram utilizados 366 questionários aplicados na região da Grande Porto Alegre. Foram, assim, analisadas e comparadas as principais características de quatro categorias de impacto: não afetados pelo choque financeiro, afetados de forma fraca, moderada e forte. Os principais resultados apontaram diferenças de comportamento significativas entre as pessoas menos afetadas e aquelas mais impactadas no que se refere a lócus de controle e comportamento financeiro, confirmando que as variáveis testadas podem ajudar a explicar o nível de impacto. / Given the economic crisis scenario that Brazil has been facing in recent years, the concern to minimize its effects in the financial life of the population has increased greatly. Therefore, to evidence factors that might have contributed to a higher level of impact caused by its shock is important to create campaigns promoting financial awareness which aim to improve the population's well-being. Thus, the present work aims to analyze, through an ordinal logistic regression, the powerful influence of the behavior in the impact of economic shocks on people. To achieve this purpose, 366 questionnaires were applied in the region of great Porto Alegre. The main characteristics of four impact categories were analyzed and compared: those not affected by the financial shock, those who were weakly affected, those who were partially affected and those who were strongly affected by the financial shock. The main results showed significant differences in behavior among the least affected people and those most impacted regarding the control locus and financial behavior, confirming that the variables tested can help to explain the levels of impact.

The purpose of this thesis is to test the extended industry shock hypothesis, which accounts for a macro-economic capital liquidity element, in determining the drivers of merger waves. Various theories have been extended by the literature and these are broadly classified under the neo-classical theory of merger waves and the behavioural theory of merger waves. Behavioural theories have explained merger waves by taking into account the psychology of stock markets and the occurrence of merger waves during a stock market boom. The industry shock hypothesis (a neo-classical theory) however, argues that merger waves are due to the clustering of industry shocks that affect an industry’s operating environment. Along with this shock, the mis-valuation caused by a stock market boom increases asset values, thereby lowering transaction costs and hence increasing capital liquidity in the economy. This capital liquidity factor causes merger waves to cluster even if industry shocks do not. The findings in this study show that industry level merger waves exist in Australia and they occur when there is sufficient capital liquidity in the economy. The industry shock variables are found to be insignificant; however they do improve the explanatory power of the explanatory variables used in predicting the start of a merger wave. The mis-valuation variables used in this study: market-to-book ratio, 3-year return and standard deviation of the 3-year return, are insignificant and do not have any explanatory powers in predicting the start of a merger wave. Merger and acquisition announcements made to acquire Australian firms listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), are collected and analysed for the period from 1996 to 2007. The methodology used in this study is adopted from Harford (2005), which uses legit models to predict the start of merger waves. The explanatory variables are also adopted from Harford’s (2005) study and include proxies for mis-valuation, industry shock and capital liquidity. Overall, the results obtained for the Australian merger and acquisition data are inconclusive as to whether industry shocks because industry merger waves as Harford (2005) documented for the US merger and acquisition data. However, industry level merger waves do exist, as there is clustering in time of firm-level mergers within industries. Moreover, sufficient capital liquidity must be present to accommodate the necessary transactions.

The purpose of this thesis is to test the extended industry shock hypothesis, which accounts for a macro-economic capital liquidity element, in determining the drivers of merger waves. Various theories have been extended by the literature and these are broadly classified under the neo-classical theory of merger waves and the behavioural theory of merger waves. Behavioural theories have explained merger waves by taking into account the psychology of stock markets and the occurrence of merger waves during a stock market boom. The industry shock hypothesis (a neo-classical theory) however, argues that merger waves are due to the clustering of industry shocks that affect an industry’s operating environment. Along with this shock, the mis-valuation caused by a stock market boom increases asset values, thereby lowering transaction costs and hence increasing capital liquidity in the economy. This capital liquidity factor causes merger waves to cluster even if industry shocks do not. The findings in this study show that industry level merger waves exist in Australia and they occur when there is sufficient capital liquidity in the economy. The industry shock variables are found to be insignificant; however they do improve the explanatory power of the explanatory variables used in predicting the start of a merger wave. The mis-valuation variables used in this study: market-to-book ratio, 3-year return and standard deviation of the 3-year return, are insignificant and do not have any explanatory powers in predicting the start of a merger wave. Merger and acquisition announcements made to acquire Australian firms listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), are collected and analysed for the period from 1996 to 2007. The methodology used in this study is adopted from Harford (2005), which uses legit models to predict the start of merger waves. The explanatory variables are also adopted from Harford’s (2005) study and include proxies for mis-valuation, industry shock and capital liquidity. Overall, the results obtained for the Australian merger and acquisition data are inconclusive as to whether industry shocks because industry merger waves as Harford (2005) documented for the US merger and acquisition data. However, industry level merger waves do exist, as there is clustering in time of firm-level mergers within industries. Moreover, sufficient capital liquidity must be present to accommodate the necessary transactions.

Diante do cenário de crise econômica vivenciado no Brasil nos últimos anos, a preocupação em minimizar os seus efeitos na vida financeira da população tornou-se fundamental. Assim, evidenciar fatores que possam ter contribuído para um maior nível de impacto pelo choque é importante para que se formule campanhas de conscientização financeira, visando maior bem estar da população. Com base nisso, este trabalho testa, através de uma regressão logística ordinal, a influência do comportamento do indivíduo no nível de impacto por choques econômicos. Para isso foram utilizados 366 questionários aplicados na região da Grande Porto Alegre. Foram, assim, analisadas e comparadas as principais características de quatro categorias de impacto: não afetados pelo choque financeiro, afetados de forma fraca, moderada e forte. Os principais resultados apontaram diferenças de comportamento significativas entre as pessoas menos afetadas e aquelas mais impactadas no que se refere a lócus de controle e comportamento financeiro, confirmando que as variáveis testadas podem ajudar a explicar o nível de impacto. / Given the economic crisis scenario that Brazil has been facing in recent years, the concern to minimize its effects in the financial life of the population has increased greatly. Therefore, to evidence factors that might have contributed to a higher level of impact caused by its shock is important to create campaigns promoting financial awareness which aim to improve the population's well-being. Thus, the present work aims to analyze, through an ordinal logistic regression, the powerful influence of the behavior in the impact of economic shocks on people. To achieve this purpose, 366 questionnaires were applied in the region of great Porto Alegre. The main characteristics of four impact categories were analyzed and compared: those not affected by the financial shock, those who were weakly affected, those who were partially affected and those who were strongly affected by the financial shock. The main results showed significant differences in behavior among the least affected people and those most impacted regarding the control locus and financial behavior, confirming that the variables tested can help to explain the levels of impact.

Diante do cenário de crise econômica vivenciado no Brasil nos últimos anos, a preocupação em minimizar os seus efeitos na vida financeira da população tornou-se fundamental. Assim, evidenciar fatores que possam ter contribuído para um maior nível de impacto pelo choque é importante para que se formule campanhas de conscientização financeira, visando maior bem estar da população. Com base nisso, este trabalho testa, através de uma regressão logística ordinal, a influência do comportamento do indivíduo no nível de impacto por choques econômicos. Para isso foram utilizados 366 questionários aplicados na região da Grande Porto Alegre. Foram, assim, analisadas e comparadas as principais características de quatro categorias de impacto: não afetados pelo choque financeiro, afetados de forma fraca, moderada e forte. Os principais resultados apontaram diferenças de comportamento significativas entre as pessoas menos afetadas e aquelas mais impactadas no que se refere a lócus de controle e comportamento financeiro, confirmando que as variáveis testadas podem ajudar a explicar o nível de impacto. / Given the economic crisis scenario that Brazil has been facing in recent years, the concern to minimize its effects in the financial life of the population has increased greatly. Therefore, to evidence factors that might have contributed to a higher level of impact caused by its shock is important to create campaigns promoting financial awareness which aim to improve the population's well-being. Thus, the present work aims to analyze, through an ordinal logistic regression, the powerful influence of the behavior in the impact of economic shocks on people. To achieve this purpose, 366 questionnaires were applied in the region of great Porto Alegre. The main characteristics of four impact categories were analyzed and compared: those not affected by the financial shock, those who were weakly affected, those who were partially affected and those who were strongly affected by the financial shock. The main results showed significant differences in behavior among the least affected people and those most impacted regarding the control locus and financial behavior, confirming that the variables tested can help to explain the levels of impact.

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Les conséquences des chocs économiques négatifs sur les ménages ont été documentés extensivement, mais on en sait beaucoup moins sur la manière dont ces chocs sont transmis aux individus à travers la médiation du ménage. Le ménage contribue-il à modérer l'effet des chocs négatifs ? Dans quelle mesure le choc économique pèse-t-il dans la négociation familiale ? À partir de données sur la crise économique argentine de 2001, je montre d'abord que les femmes en couple ont une plus grande probabilité de devenir actives si leur mari a fait l'expérience d'un choc de revenu. Ensuite, je montre que le cycle économique importe dans les décisions d'investissement en capital humain. Sur le long terme, les profils de salaire et d'employabilité des hommes argentins sont affectés de manière persistante par les conditions économiques initiales au moment de l'obtention du diplôme. Enfin, je considère la dimension “man-cession” de la crise économique de 2009 en Espagne et montre que la part des ressources du ménage reçues par les femmes pour leur consommation privée augmente avec la diminution de l'écart des taux de chômage hommes-femmes, confortant l'hypothèse que les chocs négatifs modifient le pouvoir de négociation des individus au sein du ménage. / The consequences of adverse aggregate shocks on households have been repeatedly documented, but far less has been said on the way they are passed over to individuals through the mediation of the household. Does the household contribute in mitigating the effects? Or does the economic shock rather invite itself at the family negociating table? Using the Argentine 2001 economic crisis as a natural experiment, I first show that married women are more likely to enter the labor market if their husband experienced a loss in income, giving credit to the insurance mechanism. Then, I show that the business cycle matters for investments in education, and that long run labor outcomes of Argentine men are persistently affected by the initial conditions upon graduation. Finally, I consider the “Mancession” dimension of the Great Recession in Spain and demonstrate that the resource share accruing to wives for own consumption increases together with the decreasing unemployment gap, which comes in support to the bargaining hypothesis.