Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-06, Section: A, page: 2560. Adviser: Elizabeth T. Powers. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-163) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Princeton University, 2005. / (UnM)AAI3188656. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-09, Section: A, page: 3394. Adviser: Robert Shimer.

<p> This dissertation is mainly concerned with the distribution of between individuals in the economy. </p><p> The first chapter (Chapter 1) examines the various problems with Gross Domestic Product per capita (GDPpc) as a measure of economic welfare. The chapter proposes the Vast Majority Income (VMI) as a new measure of economic welfare that combines both national income and income distribution in a single, intuitive measure. The VMI measures the average income per capita of the vast majority of the population, defined as the first 80 percent of the population within the income distribution. </p><p> Chapter 2 proposes a model of the labor market that has a statistical equilibrium wage rather than a single point equilibrium wage as in the standard microeconomic model of wage equalization. Using heterogeneous agent-based modeling techniques, the chapter presents a labor market model where wages equalize around an exponential distribution of wages. Compared to previous models of statistical equilibrium in economics, this model does not require a fixed average wage levels. </p><p> Chapter 3 proposes a measure of inclusive growth that is based on the concept and methodology of the VMI discussed in Chapter 1. The growth rate of the VMI across time is proposed as a measure of the inclusivity of growth. We then compare and contrast the growth rate of the VMI to the growth rate of GDP per capita, economic growth. The Chapter shows how the last thirty years were mostly a period of non-inclusive growth in the majority of developing economies. Growth in developing nations was accompanied by a worsening of the equality of income distribution and as a result the growth in the incomes of the vast majority (the bottom 80% of income earners) was 1% less than the growth in GDP per capita for the population as a whole in developing countries. </p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Iowa State University, 2005. / (UnM)AAI3200409. Major Professor: Brent Kreider. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-01, Section: A, page: 0272.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Economics, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Jul 13, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-12, Section: A, page: 4784. Adviser: Gerhard Glomm.

<p> This dissertation examines the intergenerational effects of maternal early health, the intergenerational effects of maternal education and the distributional effects of school size. </p><p> Chapter 1 is an introduction that summarizes the contributions made in this dissertation. Chapter 2 examines a new question with important implications: Does a mother's early health affect her child's human capital development? My coauthor and I use two extremely different and established methodologies to identify variation in mothers' early health: variation in early life disease environment and variation in early life economic environment. We connect children to the environments experienced by their mothers using the state, month and year of maternal birth that appears on each child's birth record. To identify children's outcomes later in life, we connect their birth records to their 3^rd through 10^th grade school records using a high quality algorithm that relies on first and last names, exact dates of birth and social security numbers. We find that a one standard deviation improvement in maternal early health improves 10^th grade test performance in the following generation by .07 to .08 standard deviations. </p><p> Chapter 3 examines the intergenerational effects of maternal education. My coauthor and I use variation in compulsory schooling laws across states and over time to identify exogenous variation in maternal education; we estimate local average treatment effects using Two-Stage Least Squares instrumental variables estimations. We connect children to the environments experienced by their mothers using the state, month and year of maternal birth that appears on each child's birth record. To identify children's outcomes later in life, we connect their birth records to their 3^rd through 10^th grade school records using a high quality algorithm that relies on first and last names, exact dates of birth and social security numbers. We find an additional year of maternal education improves 3^rd grade test performance in the following generation by .31 standard deviations on average and that this relationship is driven by children born to white mothers. </p><p> Chapter 4 uses state-wide, student-level data from Illinois to examine the distributional effects of school size. I apply two established strategies to identify variation in school size; I use population-level panels of data to identify year-to-year changes in enrollment within schools and I exploit variation induced by school openings. I find smaller schools simultaneously improve average ACT achievement in 11^th grade and close achievement gaps between more and less advantaged students. Specifically, a 20 percent decrease in school size improves students' ACT performance by 1 percent on average and improves ACT performance by 1.5 percent on average for African American students that receive free or reduced price lunch.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-07, Section: A, page: 3074. Adviser: Todd Elder. Includes bibliographical references. Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.