This dissertation contains 3 essays that analyze different aspects of corporate taxation. The first essay studies optimal corporate taxes using an enhanced version of the Melitz trade model that contains heterogeneous industries and a corporate tax framework. I show that the choice of distribution for firmsâ productivity is critical as different distributions generate optimal tax rates that differ not only quantitatively but also on their qualitative properties. I show welfare losses of using the Pareto distribution, the literature standard, instead of the lognormal distribution, supported by the data. The second essay explores the link between corporate taxes and income inequality in the context of an integrated world via trade in goods and assets. The model used presents an economy with two different households: a worker who doesnât own assets and, a capitalist who owns the assets in this economy. It is shown that changes in corporate taxes lead to asymmetric welfare effects: workers suffer the negative effects for longer periods of time relative to the capitalists. The final essay uses balance sheet data from European countries to calculate their effective corporate tax rate in a way that permit its comparison across countries. Analyzing these effective rates by firm size I show that at the national level there isnât enough evidence to support the claim that larger firms pay less taxes than other firms. However, when the study is carried at the industry level I find that larger firms have a smaller tax liability in several industries, many of which are consistent across the countries included in the sample.

This dissertation comprises of three essays that contribute to the literature on regional economic growth in China. In Chapter 2, I examine the impact of manufacturing growth on employment in the non-tradable sector for prefecture-level cities in China. I find that adding ten manufacturing jobs creates 3.4 additional jobs in the non-tradable sector during 2000-2010. The multiplier is greater for high-technology manufacturing industries, is the largest for wholesale, retail and catering, and is greater in inland regions. In Chapter 3, I explore the role of industry and services in growth. I found that increase in industry output share will lead to subsequent economic growth, but the impact of services on growth in not clear. My findings remain robust when applying alternative measure of economic growth or industrialization, and robust after accounting for spatial spillovers. Chapter 4 models the temporary rural-urban migration in China using a continuous OLG model with heterogeneous agents. An agent determines his migration duration optimally based on his ability, urban/rural wage gap, and urban/rural services price differential. The model features the role of urban/rural services price differential that generates return migration. When the service price differential increases, people tend to increase their saving during migration and reduce their migration duration.

<p> This dissertation examines decisions and belief formation in a variety of experimental settings. Chapter 1 examines how individuals form self-serving beliefs to justify selfish actions against others. The second chapter investigates how social and self-image can affect an individual&rsquo;s decision to be charitable. The third chapter uses the mobile application Prometheus to conduct a field-style experiment to study how individuals search for information, process information and ultimately make a decision using various types of information.</p>

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In this dissertation, I offer two distinct studies on the welfare externalities of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) of India. The MGNREGA is an employment guarantee scheme implemented in rural India since 2006 and is the worlds largest public works project. In the first study, I look at the effects of the MGNREGA on crime in India. I use crime statistics from National Crime Records Bureau of India to create a district level panel between 2002 and 2012 to estimate the effects of the program on various violent and property crimes. I also create a district level panel of annual rainfall and investigate the relationship between rainfall, crime, and the MGNREGA program. In the second study, I use a micro level sample survey called the District Level Household Survey to investigate the effects of the program on use of various methods of contraception among rural couples. I use a difference in difference empirical design to isolate the effect of MGNREGA on contraception.

published_or_final_version / Economics and Finance / Master / Master of Economics

Economic theorists have proposed that the problems created by a Pareto-relevant externality may be solved by market transactions between the involved parties. These market transactions would allow realization of the potential gains from trade which characterize a Pareto-relevant externality. After all potential gains from trade had been realized, a Pareto-efficient solution would, have been achieved. From the literature which has developed in the field, it is possible to distill two propositions which are here called the Weak and the Strong Coasian Hypotheses on Optimum Externality. These Hypotheses require certain assumptions: perfect competition in the markets for all factors and commodities; perfect information in a context of static certainty; secure and well defined property rights for all factors and commodities; and a well defined set of liability rules to serve as a starting point, or status quo point, for negotiations. The Weak Hypothesis states that "(m)arket transactions between individuals or firms involved in an externality situation will result in achievement of a Pareto-efficient solution, regardless of the initial liability rule." The Strong Hypothesis includes the Weak Hypothesis and adds that "(e)xactly the same equilibrium output of externality will be produced, regardless of the status quo liability rule." These Hypotheses are deductively tested, with the aid of simple mathematical models, for several different types of externality situations involving: producers only, consumers only and both producers and consumers; transactions costs equal to zero, and transactions costs greater than zero. For this deductive testing, the static perfect competition framework used in the original papers is retained. It is found that the Strong Hypothesis must be rejected for all cases except that where no consumers are involved, in the externality situation and variable transactions costs are zero. It is argued that situations meeting these criteria are most uncommon in practice, and so the Strong Hypothesis must be rejected for most practical situations. The Weak Hypothesis is not rejected, provided that all of the assumptions (including the crucial assumption of perfect competition in all relevant markets) are met. In situations where the Strong Hypothesis is rejected but the Weak Hypothesis is not, the equilibrium output of externality is different, under each different status quo liability rule. In this case, the selection of a status quo point can greatly affect the equilibrium output of externality, the distribution of income among involved parties and, if the status quo rule has wide application throughout the economy, the values of many other variables such as relative and absolute prices, aggregate consumption, production and investment and real income. Attention is drawn to the role of transactions costs in determining whether a solution can be obtained through market transactions between the involved parties. As the amount of variable transactions costs increases, the disparity between the solutions achieved under different status quo rules increases. Transactions costs are also likely to be greater than zero when some extra-market institutional framework is used to handle externality situations. It is argued that the size.and shape of the transactions cost curve under different institutions is an important variable to consider in institutional choice. Some directions for empirical research into the transactions cost curves are suggested. / Graduation date: 1971

This is a short introduction that reports the Chinese Government launched a special project on modernization and industrilization of TCM in 1999 in an effort to promote traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the global market.

The dissertation examines takeovers and horizontal mergers, considering whether or not current policy seems appropriate. Focus lies on both predicted and actual market performance effects. Horizontal mergers are investigated in a product market context and takeovers in an asset market environment. Horizontal mergers. The horizontal merger research is concerned with the relationship of industry concentration and anticompetitive market outcomes. Historically, economists treat concentration and competitive performance as inversely related, and the Department of Justice Merger Guidelines (DOJMG) continue to do so in the screening of mergers to be challenged. Laboratory analysis allows for direct control of variables such as market definition, scale economies, barriers to entry and concentration, thus permitting tests of the potential tradeoff of anticompetitive outcomes and production efficiency due to merger. The experimental design takes both the DOJMG and economic theory into account. When the merged firm enjoys economies of scale, the merger is observed to have a significant impact on industry performance, namely in the competitive direction. The data suggest that if the antitrust authorities rely on the Herfindahl-Hirshman Index (HHI) as measured by sales as opposed to capacity they inappropriately increase the number of cases to be challenged. It remains to be seen whether or not a more useful predictor of the anticompetitive effects of mergers exists. The data indicate that the HHI based on capacity accompanied by an alteration of the policy demarcation line would improve measurement of the effect. Takeovers. The takeover study focuses on two buyout policies, the tender offer and market takeover. The latter policy represents a prohibition of tender offers, but with acquisition attempts permitted via the asset market. Investment and operating skills of management are controlled for by holding profitability of the target firm constant. Laboratory analysis incorporates treatments of certain versus uncertain dividend values. Results suggest that shareholder value added (SVA) is greater when an acquisition is attempted than in its absence, regardless of takeover method or its success. SVA associated with the tender offer and market treatments do not vary significantly under both the uncertain and certain dividend value treatments.

This research examined the effects of two aspects of health state context, etiology and delay in onset, on preferences for health states. Research questions about the effect of etiology were derived from regret theory and prospect theory, theories of behavioral decision making: (1) Does etiology (iatrogenic versus natural) affect utility for a health state? (2) Does framing iatrogenic morbidity as a transaction cost reduce its disutility? Research questions about delayed health outcomes were based on the theory of intertemporal choice: (1) Does time preference for health differ for health gains and losses? (2) Does the time preference difference between gains and losses apply to both short and long-term changes in health? Each contextual factor was investigated in a separate mixed factorial experimental design. Subjects were randomly assigned to rate three hypothetical health states described in one of three frames: unexplained loss of health, iatrogenic loss of health, or iatrogenic cost of overall health gain, and to evaluate either health gain or loss profiles in which the duration and delay of onset of the health change were manipulated. One hundred and eight volunteers were obtained from a university staff population, and outpatient and volunteer populations of a Veterans Affairs hospital. Data for both studies were collected in one hour interviews. Utilities for health states and health profiles were assessed with the standard gamble and the category rating scale respectively. Inferential tests of hypotheses were based on mixed factorial analyses of variance. In the framing study hypotheses were tested with planned comparison t tests; in the time preference study they were tested with F tests of double and triple interactions. Conclusions were that greater disutility is assigned to iatrogenic morbidity than to natural morbidity, that time preference for health gains differs from time preference for losses, and that devaluation of a delayed health loss is dependent on its duration. The theory of intertemporal choice was supported in the health domain. Conclusions cannot be extended beyond preferences elicited with hypothetical health scenarios. Lack of support for a framing effect for iatrogenic health states was attributed to inadequate statistical power.