Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / In this study we examine the impact of internet use on the duration of non-sequential search in the housing market. We develop a model of partial equilibrium in the housing market which suggests an ambiguous effect on the search duration when internet resources are employed in the search. In this model, the impact of using the internet can be viewed as increasing the search efficiency, or as altering the distribution of potential matches from which the home buyer can choose. We use data from the 2000 Home Buyer and Seller Survey collected by the National Association of Realtors. While theory suggests there might be an increase or a decrease in search times when using on-line resources in the search, in this data we find a tendency for internet use to increase the duration of home search relative to employing more conventional search methods. We use a simultaneous equations approach for the analysis of the impact of internet listing on the duration until sale in the residential housing market. In this model, the time on the market and the selling price are jointly determined, once asking price and the method used for the listing of the property is chosen by the home seller or agent. We use data from the 2000 Home Buyer and Seller Survey collected by the National Association of Realtors. We find that using the internet to list a house increases its time on the market. The results presented here are consistent our with previous findings pertaining to the use of the internet and the duration of search until a buyer locates a home to purchase. These results, together with the findings of the present study show evidence for a model of the housing market where all buyers are sellers. / (cont.) We investigate the differential propensity of voters in the US to participate in national only versus national and local elections. We use data from the 1987 US General Social Survey to asses the importance of demographic and local community attachment characteristics of voters for this differential voting decision. We find that local community attachment and civic duty play an important role for this voting decision while personal monetary gains and redistributions do not appear to factor into the decision. In particular, education, age of respondent and length lived in community act to lower the costs of voting locally, and influence the voters' decision to participate in local elections as well as in national ones. However, economic incentives such as real estate capital values, local taxes and Social Security allocations do not appear to drive the differential voting decision for participating in local and national elections versus participating in national level elections only. / by Victoria Tanusheva D'Urso. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references. / (cont.) observed in several Western countries. Finally, the third chapter evaluates the labor market effects of public subsidies to families with children. Using variation in the level of benefits provided by a policy reform in the UK that affected differentially what would otherwise be comparable groups of families, I estimate the effect of family allowances (also known as child benefits) on female labor force participation. The results show evidence of negative, yet insignificant and quantitatively negligible, effects of family allowances on female labor force participation. / This dissertation consists of three empirical essays in population and family economics. The first chapter studies ethnic peer effects in the intergenerational transmission of skills. In order to determine whether the correlation between individual measures of human capital and ethnic group averages in the previous generation is not driven by omitted variables and measurement error, I develop an instrumental variables strategy that uses within-group changes in the occupational mix of new immigrants to the US as a quasi-natural experiment, and exploits variation in parental age at arrival to account for the transmission of skills within the family. I find evidence of a significant 'ethnic capital' effect, which contributes notably to the persistence of skill differentials across individuals over time. The results also suggest that geographic concentration and endogamy rates accentuate the effect of ethnic capital by promoting a higher level of interaction among individuals in a given ethnic group. The second chapter examines the negative relationship between fertility and education. Using information on compulsory attendance and child labor laws that affected women's schooling choices in their teenage years, I identify the effect of education on total completed fertility accounting for the endogeneity of schooling, and find that women with 3-4 additional years of schooling have on average one less child than they would have otherwise. Moreover, while there is evidence that education increases childlessness, this fertility-reducing effect of education does not appear to be mediated by a reduction in marriage rates. The results also imply that rising levels of education account for a sizable fraction of the recent fertility declines / by Alexis León. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Angela E. Chang. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2009. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 144-149). / This dissertation consists of three essays that evaluate possible vehicles for financing either retirement consumption or bequests. Chapter 1 compares the use of Roth and tax-deferred retirement accounts for retirement consumption with the use of taxable accounts. Previously, economists have often assumed that retirement savings should be done in a tax-deferred account. However, the advent of Roth-style tax-favored accounts and concerns about the tax implications of increasing retirement income through distributions from tax-deferred accounts warrant revisiting this question. I use data on married couples in the HRS and NBER's TAXSIM model to measure the probability of a household facing a higher tax rate at ages 62, 65, and 69 than the household faced at age 57. When the marginal tax rate is higher, the household could decrease their lifetime tax burden by choosing a Roth-style account over a tax-deferred account. I also measure the probability of facing a marginal tax rate that is sufficiently high that the household minimizes tax payments by using a taxable account rather than a tax-deferred account, when a Roth option is not available. I find that for distributions beginning at age 69, between 10 and 35% of households with taxable income at age 57 should prefer a Roth account to a tax-deferred account, but very few households prefer a taxable account. Chapter 2 models the tax-savings available through the use of tax-favored retirement accounts for bequests. Past research on tax-favored retirement accounts has focused on the incentives and effects of these accounts within the framework of the life-cycle model. / (cont.) However, tax-favored accounts also offer substantial tax savings for bequeathed assets. This chapter examines the incentives tax-favored accounts provide for bequests and simulates models of the available tax savings. The benchmark model calculates that the tax savings associated with a tax-deferred account (TDA) that is used to optimally bequeath assets exceeds the tax savings of a TDA used to produce a steady stream of retirement income by by 27.2%. Use of a Roth account for a bequest increases tax savings by an additional 32% over a bequeathed TDA. Chapter 3, joint work with Hui Shan, considers reverse mortgages as a method of financing retirement consumption. Housing wealth is the most important non-pension wealth component for many elderly homeowners in the United States. Reverse mortgages allow elderly homeowners to consume housing wealth without having to sell or move out of their homes. Though the U.S. reverse mortgage market has grown substantially, very few eligible homeowners use reverse mortgages to achieve consumption smoothing. This chapter examines all Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) loans originated between 1989 and 2007 and insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). It shows how characteristics of HECM loans and HECM borrowers have evolved over time, compares borrowers with non-borrowers, and analyzes loan outcomes using a hazard model. / (cont.) In addition, it conducts numerical simulations of HECM loans originated in 2007 to illustrate how the profitability of the FHA insurance program depends on factors such as termination rates, housing price appreciation, and the schedule of payments. This analysis serves as a starting point in understanding the implications of recent growth in the reverse mortgage market. Our results also suggest caution in predicting the profitability of the current HECM program. / by Tonja L. Bowen Bishop. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-197). / by Stuart W. Elliott. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-133). / This thesis examines the impact of political and legal institutions on economic development. The thesis consists of three studies analyzing specific historical and current institutions. The first chapter examines the impact of colonial rule on economic outcomes. I compare areas in India which were under the direct control of British administrators with areas which were ruled by local Indian rulers under indirect colonial control. Controlling for potential selection bias in British annexation policy, I find that British-ruled areas have significantly lower levels of public goods in the post-colonial period. These differences were present in the colonial period itself, and are narrowing after the end of colonial rule, suggesting the importance of local administrative control in the provision of public goods. The second chapter (co-authored with Abhijit Banerjee) focuses on the land revenue systems instituted by British colonial rulers for the collection of land revenue in India. We find that areas in which proprietary rights in land were historically given to landlords have significantly lower agricultural investments and productivity in the post-colonial period, compared to areas in which land rights were given to the cultivators. We verify that these differences are not driven by omitted variables or endogeneity of the historical institutions. They probably arise because of different post-colonial policy choices: landlord-dominated areas seem to have concentrated more on reducing inequality, while non-landlord areas do better at poverty reduction. The third chapter (co-authored with Quy-Toan Do) examines the impact of the 1993 Land Law in Viet Nam, which gave households the power to exchange, transfer, lease, inherit and mortgage their land-use rights. / (cont.) We use a difference-in-differences estimation strategy to identify the impact of this law, taking advantage of the variation across provinces in the issuance of land-use certificates needed to enforce these rights. Our results indicate that the additional land rights led to significant increases in the share of total cultivated area devoted to multi-year crops, as well as some increase in irrigation investment. Overall, the results suggest a strong and long-lasting impact of property rights institutions and historical factors on economic development. / by Lakshmi Iyer. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 1983. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY / Bibliography: leaves 131-133. / by Kenneth David West. / Ph.D.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Economics. Thesis. 1972. Ph.D. / MICROFICHE COPY ALSO AVAILABLE IN DEWEY LIBRARY. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 243-250. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-121). / by Michael Kende. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-166). / This thesis studies topics in public economics in developed and developing countries, including health insurance regulation, public goods provision and inequality and welfare measurement. The first chapter analyzes the impacts of the managed care backlash in the United States on health care costs in the late 1990s and early 2000s. During the late 1990s, most U.S. states passed a variety of laws in this period that restricted the cost-cutting measures that managed care organizations (HMOs, PPOs and others) could use. I exploit panel variation in the passage of these regulations across states and over time to investigate the effects of the managed care backlash, as proxied by this legislation, on health care cost growth. I find that the backlash had a strong effect on health care costs, and can statistically explain much of the rise in health spending as a share of U.S. GDP between 1993 and 2005 (amounting to 1% - 1.5% of GDP). I also investigate the effects of the managed care backlash on intensity of care, hospital salaries and technology adoption. I conclude that managed care was largely successful in keeping health care costs on a sustainable path relative to the size of the economy. The second chapter attempts to quantify the impact of differences in political factors on economic growth and development, and specifically, assess to what extent variation in public goods provision may be responsible for cross-country differences in income and growth rates. Using a new methodology for the computation of standard errors in a regression discontinuity design with infill asymptotics, I document the existence of discontinuities in the levels and growth of the amount of satellite-recorded light per capita across national borders. Both the amount of lights per capita and its growth rate are shown to increase discontinuously upon crossing a border from a poorer (or lower-growing) into a richer (or higher-growing) country. I argue that these discontinuities form lower bounds for discontinuities in economic activity across borders, which suggest the importance of national-level variables such as institutions and culture relative to local-level variables such as geography for the determination of income and growth. I find that institutions of private property are helpful in explaining differences in growth between two countries at the border, while contracting institutions, local and national levels of public goods, as well as education and cultural variables, are not. The last chapter of my thesis, which I have published in the Journal of Public Economics, investigates the dynamics of the world distribution of income using more robust methods than those in the previous literature. I derive sharp bounds on the Atkinson inequality index for a country's income distribution that are valid for any underlying distribution of income conditional on given fractile shares and Gini coefficient. I apply these bounds to calculate the envelope of possible time paths for global inequality and welfare in the last 40 years. While the bounds are too wide to reject the hypothesis that world inequality may have risen, I show that world welfare rose unambiguously between 1970 and 2006. This conclusion is valid for alternative methods of dealing with countries and years with missing surveys, alternative survey harmonization procedures, alternative GDP series, or if the inequality surveys used systematically underreport the income of the very rich, or suffer from nonresponse bias. / by Maxim L. Pinkovskiy. / Ph.D.