This dissertation investigates some of the factors affecting modern household finance decisions in the United States using natural experimental variation and administrative data. In Chapter 1 I estimate the effects of financial education on retirement savings decisions. Between 2007 and 2008 the U.S. Army implemented a mandatory 8 hour Personal Financial Management Course (PFMC) for new soldiers. Staggered implementation across locations and time provides quasi-experimental variation in whether an individual received the training. I find that the course has large and lasting effects on individual retirement savings in the Thrift Savings Plan, a tax-deferred account similar to a 401(k). The course doubles savings, has significant effects throughout the distribution of savings and the effects persist out to two years. The mechanism for the effects is likely a combination of both human capital and behavioral assistance. In Chapter 2 I estimate the effects of financial education on a variety of other economic behaviors. I rely on the same natural experiment as in Chapter 1 but I use individually matched credit data to estimate the effects of financial education on credit scores, credit balances for several types of accounts, monthly payments and adverse legal actions. In some areas I find that the PFMC has beneficial effects, reducing cumulative account balances (especially for automobile accounts) and aggregate monthly payments. In other areas, including credit scores, the probability of being active in the credit market and the number of adverse legal actions, the PFMC has no statistically significant effects on financial behavior. In Chapter 3 I estimate the effects of stress on financial decision-making. I use the natural variation in the casualty rates faced by individuals deploying overseas an exogenous source of stress and I measure the effects of this stress on individuals' participation in the Savings Deposit Program (SDP), a risk-free 10% annual percentage rate savings account. I find a modest and statistically significant negative relationship between the stress of casualties and SDP participation on the order of 5%. Some failures of the randomization test and the confounding effects of overall activity levels and rural locations cannot be eliminated as a source of the observed savings differences and as a result, these results should be considered suggestive evidence of the adverse effects of stress on financial decision-making.

Chapter one shows that US households with high unconditional and cyclical labor income risk are more leveraged and allocate a greater share of their financial assets to stocks. I use self-reported risk preferences to show that rational sorting of risk tolerant workers into risky employment is responsible for this otherwise puzzling result. With risk preferences accounted for, I find evidence that households with greater permanent income variance reduce leverage and stock allocations to an extent consistent with theory. However, household portfolios and employment selection do not respond significantly to any of the other three forms of labor income risk I measure: disaster risk, permanent income cyclicality, and permanent income variance cyclicality. Chapter two reports evidence that individual investors in Indian equities hold better performing portfolios as they become more experienced in the equity market. Experienced investors tilt their portfolios profitably towards value stocks and stocks with low turnover, but these tilts do not fully explain their performance. Experienced investors also tend to have lower turnover and disposition bias. These behaviors, as well as underdiversification, diminish when investors experience poor returns resulting from them, consistent with models of reinforcement learning. Furthermore, Indian stocks held by experienced, well diversified, low-turnover and low-disposition-bias investors deliver higher average returns even controlling for a standard set of stock-level characteristics. Chapter three shows that news reflected by industry stock returns is only gradually incorporated into stock prices in other countries. Information links between cross-border portfolios play a significant role in explaining variation in the speed of this incorporation; responses to industry news are rapid across borders where portfolios share more crosslistings, equity analyst coverage, and a greater common equity investor base. The drift in returns following cross-border industry news has halved in the past 25 years. About half of this change relates to a growth in information links and reductions in expropriations risks facing foreign investors. A simple long-short trading strategy designed to exploit gradual diffusion of industry news across borders appears profitable, but is unlikely to yield returns as high as the 8 to 9 percent annual rate the strategy has returned historically. / Economics

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No description available.

In Malawi 2.5 % of the forest disappears each year. The use of firewood and charcoal, deriving from forest resources, accounts for about 99 % of the household energy demand in Malawi and is a cause to the deforestation. The Government of Malawi recently launched a programme called Promotion of Alternative Energy Sources Programme (PAESP) with the aim to reduce the use of firewood and charcoal. One of the fuels included in the programme is the biomass briquette. The aim with this study is to evaluate the viability of biomass briquettes as a sustainable alternative energy source to firewood and charcoal for households in Malawi. Research for the study was carried out during three months in Malawi. Visits were made to a number of briquette production sites to study the manufacturing methods and to collect briquette samples. The briquettes were tested using various methods and then compared with results for firewood and charcoal. At the moment various production methods are used in Malawi, with a high difference in technical complexity and cost. Machines produced from wood using very basic mechanics can apply similar pressure as more advanced metal pressers. They also seem to be better suited than those made of metal, in terms of price and availability. The majority of the briquette producers in Malawi use waste paper as base material. Although the paper briquettes are good, other raw materials will be needed if the production is supposed to be significantly increased. The briquettes burn well using the most common stoves in Malawi, including the commonly used charcoal stove. While firewood is cheaper to use than other available fuels, the briquettes seem to be able to compete with the fuel costs for charcoal.

The Swedish households’ debt relative to income has increased for some time now, with the Riksbanks’ executive board expressing its concern for the risk it brings. It has been debated whether or not to take the high indebtedness into account when setting the policy rate. There is at the same time no consensus about the relationship between the repo rate and household debt. This study aims to examine the effect of a change in the repo rate on household debt-to-income ratio, using a VAR-model. The result is that a 1 percentage point shock to the repo rate for one quarter will have a negative impact on the household debt-to-income ratio by 1.75 percentage points after about 8 quarters. However this may not decrease the risk associated with the debt due to higher unemployment.

As architects, we cannot resist the opportunity to build good houses on generous budgets to accommodate happy families. We could use this opportunity, however, to reconfigure the detached single-family house for a group of people that are not yet family, let alone happy. These are distressed times for a growing margin of society: seniors are lonely, young families struggle with little household help and middle-aged couples continue to pay large mortgages on their “empty nest” homes. We live in a society that copes. Seniors move into annexes of their children’s homes, two young families share daily chores, and middle-aged couples invest in a property with friends. It is happening all around us, and much can be done to provide the infrastructure to both accommodate and encourage the shift. This work builds the case for a house: a shared house for the emerging demographic of non-autonomous households that fall outside the conventions of the nuclear family. The project is a social experiment that investigates, probes and predicts the dynamics between 7-12 occupants who may be family, friend or stranger. It promises not only to test current proclivities, needs and desires for domesticity and privacy, but begs to be considered as an acceptable, and even preferable, way of living.

<p>The extent of a community experiencing social vulnerability depends on the community&rsquo / s ability to access resources that may contribute to coping mechanisms (either within the household or provided externally by a responsible authority) that decrease the impacts and effects of a disaster. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to identify the existence of social and institutional mechanisms that aim to reduce experiences of water inaccessibility and the causes of social vulnerability, and increase coping mechanisms within Kayamandi. Kayamandi is a low income residential community on the north-westerly periphery of the greater Stellenbosch town in the Western Cape. The research attained&nbsp / responses through questionnaires and surveys from residents, community organisations and responsible personnel. These surveys allowed the researcher to produce raw attribute data for each household that assisted in spatially representing vulnerable households and informing the five priority areas of the Hyogo Framework for Action. Contributing to this method of attaining information, secondary geographic data collection was obtained through the Stellenbosch Local Municipality, the National Geospatial Information Directorate and the National Demarcation Board. The findings of this thesis established that household and public water infrastructure contribute to the risk of experiencing social vulnerability that affects economic standings and quality of health within the community. Contributing to this and due to Kayamandi&rsquo / s politically sensitive and historically fractioned community, social cohesion has also been noted as an area of vulnerability. Although these vulnerabilities are experienced, residents are able to implement technical, social and municipal reliant coping mechanisms. However, although efforts from Stellenbosch Local Municipality do respond to most of the key indicators within the Hyogo Framework for Action, the study found no concrete efforts within the Stellenbosch Local Municipality that illustrate integrated mechanisms to reduce the impacts of disasters and compound effects.</p>

Darbo metu apžvelgti vėjo energijos pagrindiniai parametrai. Atkreiptas dėmesys į vėjo kryptį ir jo įtaką generuojamos elektros energijos kiekiui. Trumpai apžvelgti vėjo išteklių įvertinimo būdai. Šiam tikslui naudojami matematiniai modeliai arba vėjo parametrų duomenų rinkimas pasirinktoje vietovėje. Įvertinami namų ūkio poreikiai tam tikru paros metu ir per metus. Darbo metu susipažinta su dabartine vėjo energetikos padėtimi ir plėtros galimybėmis Lietuvoje. Pateikiamos plėtros galimybės. Apžvelgta vėjo jėgainių tyrimo metodika ir pagrindiniai parametrai. Pasirinkus vėjo jėgainių skaičiavimo programą, atlikta šešių įvairios galios jėgainių skaičiavimai. Pagal aplinkos ir pasirinktos turbinos parametrus buvo apskaičiuotas vėjo turbinų pagamintas elektros energijos kiekis. Vėjo jėgainėje generuojamas energijos kiekis palyginamas su namų ūkio poreikiais ir pateikiama, kada apkrova yra tenkinama. Generuojamos elektros energijos dydis apskaičiuotas kas mėnesį visus metus. Pasinaudojant programa, buvo atlikta atsiperkamumo ir pagamintos elektros energijos optimalios kainos prognozė. Darbe atliktais tyrimais parodyta, kad tik pusė pasirinktų vėjo jėgainių atsiperka. Pateikiami naudingumo faktoriai, kurie parodo kiek laiko per metus procentais dirbs tokia vėjo jėgainė. / During the work was made an overview of the main parameters of wind energy. Attention is drawn to the wind direction and its influence on the amount of electricity generated. A brief overview was made of the wind resource assessment techniques. For this purpose, use of mathematical models and wind parameters collection of data in the target area. Assessed household needs certain time of day during the year. During acquainted with the current situation and wind energy development opportunities in Lithuania. Provided opportunities for development. Made an overview of wind power research methodology and main settings. Selected wind power calculation program conducted six different power plants calculations. According to the environment, and turbine parameters were calculated for wind turbines produced electricity. Wind power plant to generate energy comparable to household needs and provided, when the load is met. Generating electricity is calculated on a monthly basis throughout the year. Taking advantage of the program was carried out and the payback of electricity produced optimal price forecast. The paper studies showed that only half of the selected wind turbine pays off. Capacity factors are presented that shows how much percentage of time during the year will work the wind turbine.

Netiesioginiu mokesčių harmonizavimo proceso įtaka yra aktualiausia visuomenei. Harmonizavimo pasekmės įtakoja vartojimo išlaidas, lemia kainų didėjimą. Lietuvoje taikomi netiesioginių mokesčių tarifai yra derinami su Europos Sąjungoje taikomais minimaliais tarifais. Šio darbo autorius nagrinėja netiesioginių mokesčių harmonizavimo procesą Lietuvoje bei Europos Sąjungoje. Pagrindinis dėmesys skirtas harmonizavimo proceso poveikio namų ūkiams analizei. Palyginti taikomi PVM tarifai ir lengvatos valstybėse narėse. Apibendrinti apmokestinimo akcizo mokesčių pasikeitimai, įstojus į Europos Sąjungą. Išanalizuoti alui, vynui, benzinui, cigarams ir cigarilėms taikomi akcizo mokesčio tarifai valstybėse narėse. Darbo pabaigoje pateiktos išvados ir pasiūlymai. Baigiamajame darbe buvo naudojami empiriniai tyrimo metodai: kontent analizė, tradicinė, dokumentų analizė. Gauti empiriniai tyrimo duomenys apibendrinti lyginimo ir analizės metodais. / The impact of indirect tax harmonization process is the most relevant aspect in respect to the society. Consequences of the harmonization are of the great effect to consumer's expenditures and it leads to an increase in prices. The tariffs of indirect taxes applied in Lithuania are harmonized in accordance with the minimal tariffs applied in the EU. The key aspect of the thesis is addressed towards the analysis of an effect of the harmonization on households.