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Thesis advisor: Arthur Lewbel / This thesis consists of two chapters. In Chapter 1, I studied the consumption inequalities between men and women, as well as boys and girls, within the households in Sierra Leone. Through a collective household model, I found that women on average experience lower levels of consumption than men, with the inequality concentrated in households that are large or consist of more women than men. Moreover, there is little evidence of overall consumption inequality by gender for children, while both boys and girls have very high poverty rates. In addition, I developed a new strategy for understanding who is perceived as a child vs. an adult in a household, which improved the estimation. In Chapter 2, I studied the associations between sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes and adolescent obesity in the US. I found that the taxes were associated with a lower body mass index and a lower probability of being overweight or obese. I found that SSBs and milk consumption had mediating roles, as tax increases were associated with decreases in SSB consumption and increases in milk consumption. Given the limited implementation and recent preemption of SSB taxes across the US, these results would help in understanding the potential benefits of implementing SSB taxes on a larger scale. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

Many private households spend considerable amounts of time accessing water, for instance by walking to and queuing at public access points, or by filling storage vessels at taps with low flow rates. This time has an opportunity cost, which can be substantial and may impact which water services and quantities of water households demand. In a novel form of diary study, we gathered detailed water consumption and time use data from 50 households in five informal settlements of the Indian metropolis Pune, accompanied by a household survey and in-depth interviews. With the data, we characterize water collection behaviors and assign monetary values to water procurement time. We statistically analyze the effects of time cost on consumed quantities in several two-level mixed effect models. Household members in our sample spend up to several hours each day filling storage vessels, even if a private connection to the piped network is available. Average time cost amounted to the equivalent of 4.23–13.81% of monthly household cash income. Our analyses indicate that procurement time reduces quantitative water demand in a significant way. The households incurring the highest per-unit time cost consumed water quantities below minimum levels recommended for human health. This substantiates that time costs can impede access to water and are a relevant issue for water management and policy.

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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In an exploratory study of graduate students moving expectations, a self-administered survey was utilized to examine the compromises and sacrifices they expect themselves or their potential partners to be making in moving decisions, as well as their willingness to sacrifice or ask their partner to sacrifice in a move. This study focuses on this work-life decision due to its being understudied in previous literature; it aims to start to establish migration decisions as an important work-family balance topic as well as explore what role gender plays in expectations and willingness to move, especially regarding who sacrifices in a moving decision. The study focused on the potential impact of gender on migration orientations, comparing men’s and women’s attitudes. It also looked at the influence of gender ideology, program’s gender composition, perceived transportability, salary, partner’s relative salary and Money as Power attitudes as well as some demographic data. Previous literature has suggested that women are more likely to be willing to sacrifice in a moving decision while men are more willing to ask their partners to do so. Findings from this study generally confirm this. Some individual factors related to being willing to ask the partner to sacrifice more were: holding a traditional gender ideology, being in a male-dominated program, having a higher expected salary, belief in money as power, and belief in moving as important to a career. Results also suggest that this is a fruitful area for further study.

Objective: There is little evidence of how fruit and vegetable (FV) household food availability changes over a one-month period among low-income households. The objective of this study was to analyze how FV variety and sustainability changes over a 4-week period. Design: Inventories were conducted in low-income family households (n=49) once a week over a 4-week period. Trained researchers gathered the weights of all FV, including legumes, within the home. Previously determined mean container weights were subtracted to obtain the estimated weight of the FV. All weights were then converted to edible cups of FV, taking into account the weight that is removed when stems, peels, skins, and canning liquid are removed. Analysis: Variety was measured by analyzing the number of kinds of FV within the USDA subgroups (100% fruit juice, citrus fruits, other fruits, dark green vegetables, orange vegetables, dry beans and peas, starchy vegetables, and other vegetables) found in the home. In addition, sustainability was analyzed by the number of days into the future at which households can meet 100% of the FV recommendations. Data were combined for all households, according to the time points with the most amount of FV (HFV), the second-most amount of FV, the third-most amount of FV, and the least amount of FV (LFV) available in the household. Results: Vegetables, specifically canned vegetables, comprised the majority of all measurements taken throughout all inventories. When combined, the kinds of total FV decreased significantly from 25±1.1 kinds on HFV to 21.2±1.1 kinds on LFV (p<.0001). Days into the future at 100% of the fruit recommendation fell significantly from 11.4±0.1 days on HFV to 7.1±0.1 days on LFV (p<.0001). Total vegetables decreased significantly from 25.3±0.1 days on HFV to 19.1±0.1 days on LFV (p<.0001). Even at the peak of FV availability, dark green vegetables remained the lowest subgroup at 2.17±0.1 days and decreased to 1.6±0.1 days at LFV (p=0.01). Conclusions and Implications: Low-income households have greater variety of FV during the times when they have the most food resources compared to when they have the least food resources. The days into the future that the household FV supply could be maintained at 100% of the USDA's subgroup recommendation varies widely between subgroups, from about two days up to more than one month. Further research is needed to determine how to maintain subgroup variety and constancy of a FV supply throughout the month for low-income FV.

There is evidence that household division of labor is associated with marital satisfaction among Chinese populations. However, little research has compared different Chinese societies, as well as non-rural and rural regions. This study compared the division of household labor, and its association with marital satisfaction, between China and Taiwan, between non-rural and rural regions, and between males and females using data from a large, multinational study of countries in East Asia. The moderating effect of gender role ideology was examined as a potential moderating variable, as well. Overall, division of household labor was significantly associated with marital satisfaction. However, gender role ideology was not a significant moderator. Invariance testing revealed no group differences, including China and Taiwan, rural and non-rural, and male and female, in the relationship between division of household labor and marital satisfaction. Additional analysis indicated that gender role ideology was a significant moderator for females in rural China.

The study evaluates sustainability aspects of small scale biogas production in Yogyakarta Province of Indonesia. Growing number of livestock (i.e. cows, sheep, chicken, pigs, and other domestic animals) in the region brings opportunity to produce biogas from livestock manure, leading to improve energy security especially in household, while contributing to renewable energy target which is 31% from Total Primary Energy Demand (TPES) in all sectors by 2050. Biogas potential from cattle, horse, buffalo, pig, sheep, goat, chicken and duck which own by household in all regencies within the province of Yogyakarta (i.e. Bantul, Gunung Kidul, Kulon Progo, Sleman, and City of Yogyakarta) are calculated. Biogas digesters types and options for biogas utilization are evaluated by set of indicators in terms of technical, economic and environmental dimensions. Performance of the four types of digesters (i.e. fixed dome, floating drum, polyethylene tubular and concrete tubular digester) are examined based on the dimensions. For digester assessment, the dimensions are divided into several indicators, such as the lifetime, process efficiency, capital cost, operation and maintenance cost, feed-to-water ratio. The assessment would ensure that installation of biogas have optimum technical performance, attractive investment for the owner, and does not exploit too much natural resources. Equal weighted sum method is used to compare the digesters performance. The second assessment is to evaluate options for off-grid electricity use and cooking based on several indicators which are levelized cost of energy (LCOE), Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), Benefit-to-Cost Ratio (BCR), Payback period and emissions saving. The production of biofertilizer, which is not part of the current system, is taken into account for additional income for biodigester’s user. The study estimates 1,211.35 TJ/year of biogas energy can be produced from livestock manure or equals to 44.72% of the total energy consumption in the household sector in Yogyakarta province in 2013. Gunung Kidul Regency has the most potential biogas from livestock, followed by Kulon Progo, Sleman, Bantul, then City of Yogyakarta. Utilization of biogas for household cooking could reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the province up to 1,260.66 MtCO2e per year while biogas for electricity reduce 1,562.144 3   MtCO2e annually. The fixed dome digester obtains the highest score in the most of indicators assessed. For biogas utilization, biogas for cooking shows better performance in economic and environmental aspects. Biogas for cooking requires lower capital cost (US$ 850 less) and get higher NPV (US$ 2,000 more) than biogas for electricity. Yet, biogas for electricity save 301.48 MtCO2e more GHG emission than biogas for cooking. From digester and biogas utilization assessments, household biogas in Yogyakarta has been used the sustainable option for digester, which is fixed dome digester, and biogas utilization, which is biogas for cooking. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis is done to know parameters that affect NPV for biogas for cooking and biogas for electricity. Biogas yields, fertilizer price, and LPG price are shown as the top three parameters that affect NPV for biogas for cooking utilization. While for biogas for electricity, the affecting parameter are electricity price, biogas yields, fertilizer price, and generator efficiency. From the sensitivity analysis, several recommendations were developed to maximize the current project. The recommendations are improvement of biogas stove efficiency, recommendation for biogas installation system, creating market demand for biogas by diminishing LPG subsidy, suggestion for progress monitoring and institutional recommendation for the program. Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resource done several monitoring to check whether the digester is still operating. However, there is no follow-up action for digester that is not operating anymore. On the other hand, Yayasan Rumah Energi (YRE), the main provider of biogas installation and service in Yogyakarta Province, conduct annual user survey. This survey focuses on satisfaction level of digester’s user after installation. Investigation regarding the impact of biogas project, such as energy shift from LPG to biogas and digestate utilization, is missing. Besides biogas for cooking, there are opportunity to develop biogas for electricity since several regencies in Yogyakarta does not have 100% electrification ratio, such as Gunung Kidul (82%) and City of Yogyakarta (69%). Due to available biogas potential, development of biogas for electricity in Gunung Kidul is more promising than in City of Yogyakarta. Additionally, research of biogas in Indonesia should be integrated with industries and private sector. For instance, by mass production of low cost generator which had been developed by Indonesian Institute for Sciences (LIPI) and by developing mini grid installation for biogas.

This study aims to apply a rural perspective in an area where the politics assume an urban norm. Considering the special circumstances in the rural areas of Sweden in terms of geographics and access to services it is substantial to map in what ways these areas differ from the urban life. Hence, this study constitutes a contribution to crisis management in Sweden by introducing the rural perspective and applying in what ways social capital plays a role in strengthening the community resilience. Previous studies have shown that the informal household preparedness is essential to the rural life and how knowledge and experience makes a difference in how different households prepare for crisis. The study is qualitative with an inductive approach and utilizes both an interview study based on semi structured interviews as the main empirical material, as well as a text study to provide supplementary empirical evidence to the conclusions. The informants that take part in the study provides three different practical perspectives along with further empirical material to broaden the conclusions.

This dissertation studies distributional effect of (un)conventional monetary policies on Japanese household and corporate finances. It puts a special focus on household saving(s) and household income. The dissertation consists of four independent essays. In the first essay “Low Interest Rate Policy and Savings Culture in Japan: Implications for Economic Policy” the change in the savings culture in Japan during more than 30 years of low, zero and negative interest rate policies is examined. It is shown how the Bank of Japan’s persistently loose monetary policy changed the household and corporate savings culture in Japan. The second essay “Japanese Monetary Policy and Determinants of Household Saving” analyzes determinants of the household saving rate in Japan between 1960 and 2019. It finds that the zero-interest rate policy and unconventional monetary policies of the Bank of Japan are associated with the decline in the Japanese household saving rate. In the third essay “Japanese Unconventional Monetary Policy and Household Saving” the impact of expansionary monetary policies on household saving in Japan between 1993 and 2017 is analyzed. It shows that monetary expansion is associated with a widening gap in the wealth distribution through an adverse effect on non-academic households. The fourth essay “The Effects of Unconventional Monetary Policy on Stock Markets and Household Incomes in Japan” studies the distributional effects of monetary policy on Japanese household incomes. It is shown that the Bank of Japan’s unconventional monetary policy has contributed to a widening gap in the income distribution through the portfolio channel