Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The high rate of poverty in Nigeria has reached alarming proportions. Despite average economic growth rates of 6 percent between 2004 and 2010, the incidence of poverty has remained high, increasing from 54.7 percent in 2004 to 60.9 percent in 2010 (Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, 2010). A drop in the poverty rate to an average of 56.1 percent between 1999 and 2007 could be attributed to the measures taken by the civilian government against administrative corruption, increased domestic and foreign investments and some implemented agricultural policies. These efforts were thwarted by subsequent administrations with devastating effects for the Nigerian population. It is in recognition of this that this study examines the political economy of poverty in Nigeria; analyses the variations in poverty and inequality across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria; examines the impact of economic growth on poverty reduction across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria over the period 2010 - 2013; investigates the reasons for the low rates of poverty reduction in Nigeria and analyses whether economic growth in Nigeria was pro-poor.

[pt] A presente dissertação, A permanência de bolsistas ProUni no curso noturno de Pedagogia do Centro Universitário do Norte (UNINORTE/LAUREATE) buscou conhecer a percepção desses alunos em relação ao acesso e à permanência no ensino superior privado. Especificamente, procurou-se conhecer as razões que os levaram a aderir ao ProUni, as principais dificuldades que encontram para se manter no curso com aproveitamento acadêmico e as possíveis estratégias que os mesmos utilizam para lidar com as dificuldades no cotidiano do curso de pedagogia. Para tal, procedeu-se a um estudo de cunho quanti-qualitativo que, após revisão da literatura pertinente ao assunto e levantamento dos bolsistas ProUni no UNINORTE/Laureate, realizou entrevista semiestruturada com 10 alunos bolsistas do referido curso. A análise do material obtido indicou o reconhecimento, pelos entrevistados, da importância do Programa para o acesso ao ensino superior privado dos estudantes em situação economicamente menos favorecida, ao mesmo tempo em que apontou a necessidade de implementação de políticas públicas que garantam ao sujeito de baixa renda a permanência e conclusão do Curso, de forma a promover a superação das situações intersubjetivas decorrentes da sua situação de sujeito pobre. / [en] This dissertation, The permanence of stock ProUni night course in Pedagogy of the University Center North (UNINORTE/ Laureate) sought to ascertain the perception of these students in relation to access and remain in private higher education. Specifically, we sought to ascertain the reasons that led them to join the ProUni, the main difficulties they encounter to stay on course with academic achievement, and the possible strategies that they use to deal with the daily difficulties of the pedagogy course. To this end, we carried out a study of quantitative and qualitative nature that after review of the literature pertaining to the subject and a survey of Fellows in ProUni UNINORTE / Laureate, held semi-structured interviews with 10 scholarship students of that course. The analysis of material obtained indicated the recognition of the importance of the Program for access to private higher education of students in economically less-favored status at the same time, which identified the need to implement public policies that guarantee the permanence and completion of the course subject that belongs to the class-who-lives-of-work, in order to promote the overcoming of intersubjective situations due to its poor state of the subject.

[pt] Essa pesquisa analisou de que forma a participação em determinada rede religiosa pode se constituir um fator relevante para garantir acesso e permanência em unidades escolares com bons resultados em avaliações externas. Os objetivos eram identificar possíveis influências das redes religiosas nas estratégias familiares de escolha do estabelecimento de ensino, e verificar em que medida práticas familiares que favorecem a escolarização bem sucedida dos filhos estão relacionadas à participação das famílias nestas redes. A análise quantitativa foi realizada com base em dados nacionais de domínio público, fornecidos a cada dois anos em relação ao desempenho escolar das escolas municipais, em particular as de um conjunto bastante diversificado de bairros e escolas das zonas norte e sul da cidade do Rio de Janeiro. A partir de então, foram selecionadas quatro escolas, que oferecem o quinto ano do Ensino Fundamental, em função de seus resultados no IDEB. Um perfil das unidades escolares foi traçado através de entrevistas com gestores e professores no intuito de complementar a investigação quantitativa com uma análise das percepções dos agentes escolares sobre o tema. A partir de entrevistas com os familiares dos alunos e dos dados das fichas de matrícula nas escolas fornecidos pela Secretaria Municipal de Educação do Rio de Janeiro, foi possível construir um perfil das famílias cujos filhos são atendidos nessas escolas, investigando as possíveis correlações entre fluxo escolar, práticas familiares e filiação religiosa. A consolidação dos dados sobre as escolas estudadas indicou que a concentração de alunos de uma mesma religião nas unidades com bons resultados em avaliações externas está fortemente associada ao nível socioeconômico e ao tipo de arranjo familiar. / [en] This research examined how participation in certain religious network can be a relevant factor to ensure access and retention in school units with good results in external evaluations. The goals were to identify possible influences of religious networks into the familys strategies of choosing the educational establishment and to verify in which level the family practices related to a successful education of the children are related to the participation of the respective families in these networks. Quantitative analysis was performed based on national data of public domain provided every two years about school performance on the municipal schools, in particular those of a very diverse set of neighborhoods and schools in the northern and southern areas of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Since then, four schools, which offer the 5th year of elementary school, were selected according to their performance (results in IDEB). A profile of these school units was charted through interviews with administrators and teachers in order to complement the quantitative research with an analysis of the perceptions of school stakeholders on this issue. From interviews with the students families and data records of the school enrollment, provided by the Municipal Secretariat of Education of the City of Rio de Janeiro, it was possible to build up a profile of the families whose children are attended by these schools, investigating possible correlations among school flow, family practices and religious affiliation. The consolidation of the data obtained in these studied schools indicated that the concentration of students in the same religion in units with good results in external evaluations is strongly associated with socioeconomic status and type of family arrangement.

[pt] O presente estudo busca abordar o tema da inserção dos discentes ingressantes pela reserva de vagas na Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), no ano de 2012, enfatizando a vivência destes estudantes no interior da universidade e valorizando a fala dos mesmos na construção do nosso estudo. Embora a Educação se constitua em um importante direito social regido pelo princípio da igualdade, o que verificamos ao longo da história da Educação em nosso país é uma trajetória de desigualdades, vivenciada pelos diferentes grupos sociais no que diz respeito ao acesso e permanência, tanto em termos quantitativos como em termos qualitativos, constituindo-se em um importante condicionante da demarcação dos lugares sociais. Deste modo, a implementação das ações afirmativas, no que tange ao ensino superior, traz uma nova dinâmica às universidades, pois busca alterar o perfil do corpo discente e avança no processo de democratização do acesso a este nível de ensino. Entretanto, além do acesso deve-se avançar em relação à permanência, pois um complementa o outro no alcance à conclusão do ensino superior e, deste modo, possibilita a real democratização do ensino. Assim, sendo a adoção das ações afirmativas algo recente na UFRJ, iniciada em 2011, nosso estudo objetivou trazer as questões vivenciadas pelos estudantes ingressantes por reserva de vagas e que se constituem como aspectos facilitadores e dificultadores encontrados na vivência universitária, buscando compreender como tem ocorrido este processo pelo olhar dos sujeitos de nosso estudo. Nosso trabalho contou com dez entrevistas realizadas com discentes pertencentes a diferentes cursos de graduação no final do ano de 2013. Através desta reflexão, busca-se contribuir no entendimento sobre as alterações que vêm ocorrendo neste nível de ensino e no que ainda é necessário se avançar para obter uma maior democratização do ensino superior. / [en] This paper aims to go into the subject of the insertion of students, who were admitted through the system of quotas at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in 2012, emphasizing their experience on the university and valuing their speech throughout our study. Although education is an important social right guided by the principle of equality, a path of inequalities experienced by various social groups regarding access and permanence is noticeable, in both qualitative and quantitative terms throughout the history of education in our country, constituting an important compelling factor of the demarcation of social roles. Thus, the implementation of affirmative actions regarding the higher education admittance brings a new dynamic to the university, diversifying the student’s body profile and advancing toward a democratization process. However, in addition to admittance, it is necessary to make progress when it comes to permanence, since these are complementary factors when it comes to the conclusion of higher education, which therefore make the democratization of education possible. Hence, considering that the adoption of affirmative actions in UFRJs admittance process is recent - since 2011 - our study strived to come up with the issues experienced by the students who were admitted at the university through these affirmative actions and analyze positive and negative aspects of their academic life in order to comprehend how this process has been perceived by the subjects of our research. Our study was based in ten interviews with higher education students of different courses at the end of 2013. Through this reflection we intend to contribute to the understanding of changes that have been occurring at this level of teaching and also to ponder about what is still necessary to be changed to reach a larger democratization regarding higher education.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences of social workers working with unaccompanied children within municipal social service in Sweden. In particular, this study seeked better understanding of the possibilities and challenges social workers experience in their work and also highlight the differences and similarities in the work with unaccompanied children and children who are not unaccompanied. An abductive approach was used, moving between empirics and theories. The empirical data was collected through qualitative interviews with ten social workers with experience of working with both unaccompanied and children who are not accompanied. The results showed that the social workers working with the target group unaccompanied children felt that the work was more rewarding, in comparison to those who didnt work with the target group. Further, the social workers experienced that the unaccompanied children were not as prioritised as other children and that the language within the social services categorized the unaccompanied children as an own group. Accordingly the social workers felt there were more challenges in working with unaccompanied children. The hope is that this study will be an eye opener for the social work, and stop the separation of unaccompanied children into its own group.

Cette thèse de doctorat contribue à la littérature sur l'économie des ménages, sur la mesure de la pauvreté et sur l'avortement sélectif. Lorsque les normes sociales et les préférences favorisent les hommes par rapport aux femmes, les inégalités entre les sexes peuvent se retrouver dans différentes dimensions. Dans le premier chapitre j'étudie la norme de patrilocalité et je me demande comment la structure du ménage affecte les prises de décision de la belle-fille et son autonomie. En utilisant des données de panel au niveau des ménages en Inde, j'estime un modèle de différences en différences qui compare entre 2005 et 2012 les groupes qui subissent un décès du beau-père ou de la belle-mère et ceux qui n’ont pas de décès. Je trouve que le statut de la belle-fille s'améliore après le décès du fait de la redistribution du pouvoir entre les membres du ménage. Cependant, les résultats ne sont pas compatibles avec le fait que le canal conventionnel de la belle-mère soit la seule autorité sur la belle-fille. Le deuxième chapitre étudie la mesure de l'avortement sélectif des femmes et demande s'il y a des avortements répétés entre deux naissances consécutives. Cette question ne pouvant être résolue en utilisant des méthodes existantes, l'article propose de nouveaux tests et une méthodologie pour estimer les fractions de la population subissant des avortements sélectifs. En appliquant cette méthodologie à des données indiennes, nous trouvons que les avortements sont pratiqués de manière répétée. Le troisième chapitre propose une nouvelle approche de la mesure de la pauvreté absolue. Cela se fait de deux manières, d'abord en suggérant une manière d’individualiser les prix de référence, et deuxièmement en définissant des lignes de pauvreté propres à chaque groupe/région. En comparant notre approche les uns aux autres, pour l'Inde, nous constatons que les différentes approches conduisent à différentes conclusions sur la pauvreté. Ne pas prendre en compte les préférences des individus surestime la part des personnes rurales (jeunes et âgées) dans la population pauvre. / This PhD dissertation contributes to the literature on household economics and the measurement of poverty & sex-selective abortion. When social norms and preferences favour males over females, outcomes can reflect gender inequalities across various dimensions. I study the norm of patrilocality in the first chapter and ask how the household structure of four adult members affects the daughter-in-law's decision-making-say and autonomy outcomes. Using household level panel data from India, I estimate a difference-in-difference model comparing groups between 2005 and 2012 that experience a death of the father-in-law or mother-in-law and those that do not. I find that the status of the daughter-in-law improves after death as power is redistributed among the members. However, the findings are not consistent with the conventional channel of the mother-in-law being the sole and strongest authority over the daughter-in-law. The second chapter studies the measurement of female sex-selective abortion and asks if there are repeated abortions between two consecutive births. As this question cannot be answered using existing methods, the paper proposes novel tests and methodology to estimate the fractions of the populations undergoing sex-selective abortions. Applying our methods to Indian data we find first quantitative evidence of repeated abortions. The third chapter proposes a new approach of absolute income poverty measurement that takes preference into account when agents differ in preferences and face different prices. This is done in two ways, first by suggesting a way to use individualised reference prices, and second by defining group/region specific poverty lines.Comparing our approach with conventional ones, for India, we find that the different approaches lead to different poverty conclusions. Not taking preferences into account overestimates the share of Old-Rural and Young-Rural in the poor population.

Thesis advisor: Arthur Lewbel / The thesis includes two essays. The first essay, Inequality Moments in Estimation of Discrete Games with Incomplete Information and Multiple Equilibria, develops a method for estimation of static discrete games with incomplete information, which delivers consistent estimates of parameters even when games have multiple equilibria. Every Bayes-Nash equilibrium in a discrete game of incomplete information is associated with a set of choice probabilities. I use maximum and minimum equilibrium choice probabilities as upper and lower bounds on empirical choice probabilities to construct moment inequalities. In general, estimation with moment inequalities results in partial identification. I show that point identification is achievable if the payoffs are functions of a sufficient number of explanatory variables with a real line domain and outcome-specific coefficients associated with them. The second essay, Tenancy Rent Control and Credible Commitment in Maintenance, co-authored with Richard Arnott, investigates the effect of tenancy rent control on maintenance and welfare. Under tenancy rent control, rents are regulated within a tenancy but not between tenancies. The essay analyzes the effects of tenancy rent control on housing quality, maintenance, and rehabilitation. Since the discounted revenue received over a fixed-duration tenancy depends only on the starting rent, intuitively the landlord has an incentive to spruce up the unit between tenancies in order to show it well, but little incentive to maintain the unit well during the tenancy. The essay formalizes this intuition, and presents numerical examples illustrating the efficiency loss from this effect. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

Under 2000-talets början har inkomstojämlikhet ökat i världen. Det är omdebatterat vilka faktorer som ligger bakom och vilka medel som ska hantera problematiken. Uppsatsen undersöker ett av de vanligaste verktygen för att stävja inkomstojämlikhet, nämligen inkomstskatt. Syftet är att mäta vilken effekt inkomstskatt har på inkomstojämlikhet. För att uppfylla syftet tillämpas en instrumentvariabel regressionsanalys för att studera om inkomstskatt kan förklara inkomstojämlikhet i svenska kommuner under tidsperioden 2003–2017. Studien utmärker sig från tidigare studier inom området då en instrumentvariabel regressionsanalys använts för att exkludera att inkomstojämlikhet kan påverka nivå av inkomstskatt i en region. Statistiskt signifikanta resultat påvisar att inkomstskatt har negativ effekt på inkomstojämlikhet. Där en 1 procentenhets ökning i inkomstskatt leder till 2,08 procents minskning i inkomstojämlikhet. / During the beginning of the 21st century, income inequality has risen in most countries. What has caused this and how it should be solved is well debated. This paper intends to research one of the most well-known instruments to decrease income inequality, income tax. Our aim is to measure what effect income tax has on income inequality. To reach this aim we have applied an instrument variable regression analysis on income tax and income inequality, with Swedish municipalities during the timespan 2003-2017 as our selection group. This study distinguishes itself from previous studies in the area since we have used an instrument variable analysis to exclude the fact that income inequality can affect the level of income tax in a region. We have found significant results that income tax have a negative effect on income inequality and have concluded that a 1 percent increase in income tax will decrease income inequality with 2,08 percent.

Cette thèse consiste en trois essais sur les réponses des individus aux systèmes fiscaux et à la taxation. Le premier chapitre, "Partial Unemployment Insurance and Hour Decisions", mesure l'impact des incitations contenues dans le programme d'activité réduite. L'activité réduite (AR) permet aux chômeurs qui travaillent de garder leurs allocations chômage sous conditions. Nous exploitons comme quasi-expérimentation la réforme de 2006 en France, qui consiste en une baisse de 20% du seuil horaire. La réforme a significativement augmenté la probabilité conditionnelle de choisir une AR peu intensive. Le second chapitre, "Potential Drivers of Undeclared Work", explore les déterminants potentiels de l'activité dissimulée en France et en Europe. Cette étude utilise une enquête pilote examinant les comportements d'activité dissimulée des ménages en France (EPMF). Nos résultats montrent que l'hétérogénéité individuelle (la perception de l'entourage, les sanctions et les valeurs civiques) sont positivement corrélées à l'activité dissimulée. A l'aide d'une enquête semblable, nous obtenons des résultats comparables au niveau européen. Le troisième chapitre, "Top-income tax avoidance and preferences for redistribution: Evidence from the Panama Papers" explique l'impact des scandales sur les préférences pour la redistribution. Les Panama Papers sont utilisés comme quasi-expérimentation: ce scandale exogène a mis en lumière les comportements d'optimisation fiscale des ménages. Après le scandale, les individus sont plus en faveur des politiques de redistribution: les scandales financiers encouragent une mise à jour de la perception des inégalités. / This dissertation gathers three essays on behavioral responses to fiscal systems and benefits.The first chapter, ``Partial Unemployment Insurance and Hour Decisions", measures how financial incentives in Partial Unemployment Insurance (PUI) programs affect job uptake. PUI programs allow jobseekers to keep their benefits when working if the job abides by eligibility conditions. We exploit as a quasi-experiment the 2006 French PUI reform consisting in a decrease in the hour threshold. The main finding is that the reform significantly increased the conditional probability to take up a PUI job below the new hour threshold. A narrowed benefit availability contributes to a decline in worked hours for PUI claimants.The second chapter, ``Potential Drivers of Undeclared Work", investigates undeclared work in France and Europe. This study exploits a unique pilot survey on supply and demand of households. We find that the social circle, autoestimated risk and sanctions and civic values are strongly correlated with undeclared work. Individual heterogeneity adds up but is not substitutable to standard socio-demographic variables. Using the Eurobarometer survey, we find comparable estimates at the European level.The third chapter, ``Top income tax evasion and redistribution preferences: Evidence from the Panama Papers" attempts to explain changes in perceived inequality after worldwide fiscal scandals. I exploit as an exogeneous shock the 2016 Panama Papers scandal revealing top-income households' tax avoidance. I find that, post-scandal, stated preferences for redistribution strongly increases. Using additional data, I find consistent results at the European level.

We construct a new dataset of inequality in educational attainment by age and sex at the global level. The comparison of education inequality measures across age groups allows us to assess the effect of inter-generational education attainment trends on economic growth. Our results indicate that countries which are able to reduce the inequality of educational attainment of young cohorts over time tend to have higher growth rates of income per capita. This effect is additional to that implied by the accumulation of human capital and implies that policies aiming at providing broad-based access to schooling have returns in terms of economic growth that go beyond those achieved by increasing average educational attainment. / Series: WWWforEurope