It is well established that children’s early life environments can have significant consequences on their long-term outcomes. Yet, there is still limited empirical evidence on the effects that being exposed during the prenatal and early postnatal periods to positive shocks, such as conditional cash transfers, has on long-term cognitive function. By exploiting the initial village-level randomization, I estimate the causal effect on long-term cognitive achievement of prenatal and early postnatal exposure to Oportunidades, Mexico’s conditional cash transfer program. I find that those eligible children born into the program who received its benefits early on have higher standardized assessment scores in mathematics and Spanish in third through sixth grade—up to 15 years after the program began. In line with previous research on CCTs, the effects are largely driven by children living in the poorest villages as measured by a marginalization index. Notably, the effect on these children is large enough to put their cognitive achievement on a par with children from more moderately poor villages.

Why do some workers who apparently perform similar tasks and exercise similar job skills get paid very different wages? And, why do firms have the boundaries we observe; in particular, why do firms using closely related production technologies and serving closely related markets specialize instead of merging? That is, how do labor and product market segments emerge, and why might they persist in a competitive economy? I offer an integrated explanation for the striking case of the emergence of such market segments in for-hire motor freight, after its deregulation in 1980. Using firm-level data, I provide econometric evidence of the survival value of carrier specialization, as a result of either original status or strategic change, into one of two types. I also document the associated bimodal segmentation of the labor market for drivers/freight handlers. I argue that a difference in optimal human resource policies between the two types of firms is an important cause of the parallel segmentations. Differences in how similar production technologies are used to serve the two markets mean that firms have different optimal solutions to the agency problem they face in motivating employees, leading to high powered incentives at reservation wages in one case, and low powered incentives with positive rents in the other. But this difference in compensation schemes sharply increases the agency or transaction costs involved in bringing both types of production under common hierarchical control, due to pay equity effects, while the corresponding benefits are modest, leading most firms to specialize. To formalize this account, I extend a simple version of the standard “risk-sharing” principal agent framework by adding a reciprocity component, producing a new model with endogenous segmentation of the specified type. The new model also provides new hypotheses about the source of union wage differentials, and details a mechanism by which technological change can lead to increasing inequality in labor incomes that is distinct from the usual differential returns to skills account.

This dissertation is constituted by three distinctive chapters or essays, but the unifying theme is how a more careful consideration of female labor supply may better inform assessments of economic growth and structural change. In chapter I, I use the insights of both cooperative and noncooperative bargaining theory to develop a household model of female labor supply. Particular attention is given to how this model applies to the developing world, including how the effects of larger social shifts such as technological change and fertility decline are mediated by bargaining and inequality in the family. In chapter II, I develop a theoretical foundation for analyzing how gender roles in the household affect foreign direct investment in a developing country context. It is argued that the extent to which women and men share the costs of social reproduction at the household level is a central determinant of female labor supply and the profitability of investment. I combine a model of family structure with a structuralist macromodel to investigate the effects of various public policies on women's wages and employment. A major goal is to specify the constraints imposed by international capital mobility on the prospects for increased equality and living standards for women. In chapter III, I reevaluate economic growth in Taiwan between 1965 and 1995 by developing an alternative measure of economic production that accounts for both market and nonmarket production in the form of domestic services provided by women in the home. I find that social services, a category that includes social services provided in the market and the home, is the lead employer of Taiwanese labor between 1965 and 1995. Another key finding is that many of the factors driving growth in the market sector also shape growth in the nonmarket sector. Despite trend declines in the relative size of the nonmarket domestic sector, it has probably continued to grow throughout this period, primarily because of productivity gains in household production and the effects of demographic change.

American companies have experimented with "employee involvement" (EI), also referred to as "workplace democracy," "quality of worklife," and "participatory decision making" since the late 1960's. Results are mixed but interest remains high because organizations that have adapted to this new form are industry leaders. Research of the literature suggested (and this research agrees) that EI will be a long term success when management: (1) shares information and power at all levels of the organizational unit, (2) emphasizes cooperative problem solving to meet organizational goals, and (3) engenders a sense of dignity, meaning and community in every employee in the organizational unit. This study at four manufacturing sites investigates the link between the process of change to EI management and managers' beliefs. In-depth interviews of 25 managers and 8 hourly employees (plus printed matter) provide data for this qualitative research. "Grounded theory" from the data generated five Management Characteristics and seven Antecedents for Change which provide a framework for further analysis of managers' beliefs related to EI. Research sites had different types of manufacturing, different organizational histories, and EI programs were at different stages of development, but 13 themes emerged which were highly consistent (and two themes that were dissimilar were still clearly significant to the change process). The study establishes that both the organizational change process and Antecedents affect a manager's response to EI. Some experiences and beliefs make it easier for a manager to adapt to EI management and some make it more difficult. Antecedents that were shown to have both positive and negative affects on the process include self confidence, family, education, and work experiences, mentors, organizational culture, and personal characteristics, beliefs and values.

Using a large database that covers the United States manufacturing sector over the period 1958-86, this dissertation examines the impact of labor unions on three interrelated measures of economic performance: productivity, productivity growth and profits. During the period 1970-86, fully unionized industries are estimated to have had 11 percent lower productivity, 30 percent lower price-cost margins and annual growth rates almost one percentage point slower than nonunionized industries. Due to the difficulty of controlling for industry-specific effects in this study, these estimates should be viewed as the upper bound of possible union effects. / Results also indicate considerable intertemporal variation. A pattern of positive union productivity effects prior to the early 1970s is replaced by increasingly negative effects thereafter. The trend in growth effects is less clear, but the greatest differential in growth rates is found in the years 1975-82, a period when the economy as a whole grew slowly. Negative union profit effects also have become stronger over time. / These results need to be evaluated within the context of major changes that have occurred both in the strength of the labor movement and in the economic environment within which it operates. Low levels of inflation and unemployment, and growth rates which exceeded the historical norm prior to the early 1970s were replaced by years of inflation and recession. Deregulation, antitrust actions and increased imports created an increasingly competitive economy, while the wage premiums associated with employing a union labor force reached historically high levels. This higher labor cost commitment reduced profits in the unionized sector. More competitive pricing may also be part of the explanation for negative productivity (value-added) effects in that sector. The evidence is also consistent with the argument that this weak economic performance is due to changes in labor-management relations and policies of union avoidance which in turn have resulted from increased pressure on profits. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-09, Section: A, page: 2937. / Major Professor: Barry Hirsch. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the current status of library and information workers in Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion, to project future man-power requirements for the next five years (1997), and to propose recommendations for the future. / Data were collected with (a) a questionnaire sent to respondents in five types of library and information centers and (b) interviews with key officials, head librarians, and directors of libraries and information centers. A manpower forecasting model was used to generate the projections. The findings of the study indicate that the current supply of library and information workers in Kuwait is deficient in number and necessary skills. The majority of library and information center staff are paraprofessionals. / The study projects the manpower requirements for five types of library and information centers at three levels: high, middle, and low projections. / According to the study findings, the shortage of library and information workers in Kuwait is very real and will increase sharply by 1997. To address this shortage a number of changes should occur: (a) The level of library and information science education should improve; (b) Current staff should be given intensive training; (c) Salaries and incentives should be improved; (d) Work conditions and environment should be improved; (e) Professionals and subject specialists from other fields should be recruited; (f) A national committee should be established for information manpower planning. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-10, Section: A, page: 3399. / Major Professor: Charles Wm. Conaway. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

This thesis investigates two issues. The first issue concerns the relation between executive effort, as measured by changes in a firm's market value of equity, and future wage revisions when the executive moves to a new firm of employment. If, as Fama (1980) contends, participants in the managerial labor market formulate compensation on the basis of prior performance, there is little need to design compensation contracts that are sensitive to firm performance. The second issue involves performance persistence in the management of real assets. Prior studies provide weak evidence that performance is persistent in the management of financial assets. Similar evidence is not available for the management of real assets. / The analyses provide two distinct conclusions. First, compensation revisions across firms bear a positive and significant relation to prior changes in shareholder wealth. The magnitude of this relation, however, does not preclude the continued existence of agency problems. Second, executives appear unable to repeat superior performance across firms. Surprisingly, there is evidence of declining performance at executives' second firm of employment. This result is robust to different performance relatives and time horizons. / Thus, the evidence presented suggests that prior performance is not the decisive determinant of the wage revision received by an executive. This seems warranted given that prior performance appears to offer no predictive power for future performance. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-02, Section: A, page: 0793. / Major Professor: James S. Ang. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1996.

Thesis advisor: Alicia H. Munnell / Retirement plans for state employees have over $2 trillion in assets, a significant portion of the U.S. retirement market. In the last 10 years, seven states have transitioned their employee retirement plans from traditional annuity-providing defined benefit pensions to individual account-style defined contribution plans. While private-sector employers save money in transitioning to a defined contribution plan, states actually lose money when switching. Why state governments choose to sponsor retirement plans that cost both the state and its employees money is the central question of this study. Several financial and demographic variables are considered; the only variable that cannot be ruled out is political ideology. The probit panel regression finds that states with Republican-controlled governments are far more likely to switch to a defined contribution plan than states with mixed or Democrat-controlled governments. This conclusion illuminates the central importance of unions in the political process of public plan decision-making and reveals the importance of potential economics losses that result from sponsoring defined contribution plans. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2006. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

This dissertation consists of three chapters. Chapter one is to study the spell of temporary migration in China using a semi-parametric duration model. Empirical analyses are based on a national household survey from the Chinese Household Income Project 1995. The estimated hazard rates generally increase with the spell of migration, suggesting that the longer migrants stay away from home, the more likely they return home. Not only are single, well-educated migrants more likely to migrate, they also stay longer away from home. Although the majority of migrants are male, females tend to stay longer away from home. Further examination shows only single females have longer migration duration. Although household heads are more likely to migrate, they also return home earlier. In order to explain those findings, this chapter focuses on three interactive important aspects: China's ambiguous migration policy, outdated land policy and Chinese traditional family values. Chapter two is to apply a three-stage least squares (3SLS) and non-linear two-stage least squares (2NSLS) to study the impacts of migration on the sending community. Migrant families greatly benefit from migration in regard to household durable consumption and household annual income. Rural-urban migration has no significant effects on agricultural investment. Because land is allocated into small plots, the marginal product of either labor or capital in farming is nearly zero. That may explain why migrant families show no interest in agricultural investment even if they are better off in annual household income. Chapter three is to conduct a preliminary investigation of the link between migration and the informal credit market in developing countries. This is the first research on the link. Using the 1998 Nicaragua Living Standards Measurement Survey, this chapter shows that migrants have a higher probability of participating in the informal credit market than non-migrants. The positive link between migration and the informal credit market furthermore shows that the benefits from migration could then be extended from migrant families to non-migrant families through the informal financial intermediary. Migration could then have a far more reaching impact on the source community in developing countries than we may have expected / acase@tulane.edu

This thesis is composed of three papers in which the research questions are related to the double burden that accrues to Brazilian women. The first and second papers address this issue by looking at expenditure decisions about home production. The first paper examines whether the expenditure decisions about production goods, such as white appliances, relative to entertainment goods, such as TVs, are the outcome of a bargaining process between husbands and wives. The second paper looks at the demand for maid services and for production durable goods, examining the extent to which other household members substitute for maid services and durable goods in home production. The third paper addresses the effects of Brazilian women's double burden on their labor market participation by examining whether the occupational choice of Brazilian women is affected by their gender roles and whether entry into other occupations that are not identified as female occupations has become easier since the introduction of anti-discrimination laws in the labor market. / The first paper combines two Brazilian data sets: a Brazilian household expenditure survey, Pesquisa de Orcamento Familiares (POF), and a Brazilian household survey, Pesquisa Nacional Por Amostra de Domicilios (PNAD). The results of the first paper indicate that the decision about durable goods ownership is the outcome of a bargaining process between husband and wife. The test on the coefficients of the marriage market variable and the indicators of households in which only the wife and households in which only the husband makes expenditure decisions corroborate the expectations about wives' preferences for production goods. / The same data sets as the first paper are used in the second paper. The finding of the second paper indicates that if the marriage market is favorable to women, that is if the ratio of women to men goes from 1.07 to 0.96, the increment in the household probability of owning at least one maid's substitute durable goods is equivalent to 24% the impact of moving a household up one income quintile. Moreover, the results indicate that daughters' time substitutes for wives' time and maid services in home production. Parents may want daughters trained in home production to be able to perform their future role as wives. However, this training comes at a cost to daughters' investment in formal education, narrowing their future career options. / The data used in the third paper come from a Brazilian household survey, Pesquisa Nacional Por Amostra de Domicilios (PNAD). Gender roles are responsible for women to choose female-dominated occupations, married women are 1.14 times more likely to work in female-dominated occupations and having a child six years and older increases on average by 12% the probability that women work in female-dominated occupations instead of gender-integrated occupations in 2001. However, it becomes easier for all types of women to enter into male-dominated and gender-integrated occupations in 2001 compared to 1981.