Thesis advisor: Peter Gottschalk / Thesis advisor: Shannon Seitz / This dissertation contains two essays in labor economics. It provides a descriptive analysis on income volatility and develops a microeconomic model to study how married couples make joint decisions in response to such income volatility. The first essay examines the recent trends in household income volatility in the United States, West Germany and Great Britain, and compares household income volatility with individual income volatility. I estimate a formal error components model using the Cross-national Equivalence File from 1979 to 2004. I find that household income volatility, measured by the transitory variance of household income, accounts for more than half of the total income variance for all three countries. Despite the differences in the total household income variances among the three countries, the permanent variances converges since the late 1990s. The household earnings volatility is always lower than the individual earnings volatility for married couples, which suggests some evidence of intra-household insurance. In the second essay I examine whether married couples make joint labor supply decisions in response to each other's wage shocks. The study of this question aids in understanding the link between the recent rise in earnings volatility and household joint decisions. I develop an intra-household insurance model based on the collective framework, which allows for insurance against both permanent and transitory wage shocks from both partners. Estimation using Survey of Income and Program Participation shows that individuals increase labor supply in response to spouse's adverse wage shocks and such labor supply responses are larger when shocks are permanent than transitory. A household makes less transfer to the individual with more volatile income, which can be considered as a price for insurance.This intra-household insurance reduces earnings volatility by about 1.2% to 7.7%. These results suggest that joint labor supply decisions provide a smoothing effect on shocks to earnings and household income. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

This Thesis uses several forms of a single-period option-based model to analyze the incidence of income tax under uncertainty, focusing on the various effects of tax asymmetries and observing the distinct features of individual and corporate taxation. Two particular applications are being advanced. The one strives to establish the economic effects of tax-deductibility, motivated initially by a thin-capitalization measure brought forth under the framework of the recent Czech public-finance reform. The pother one compares the terms of three distinct personal income-tax schedules, as they have been recently applied in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, investigating particular issues such as tiered rates, mandatory minimum tax, bracket creep, social taxes, as well as tax incidence in general. On the whole, we find that option-based models are well suited for miscellaneous forms of economic analysis under dynamic assumptions, overcoming the inherent limitations of comparative statics routinely used by mainstream economics. We also conclude that the Czech tax reform of 2008 has failed to achieve the level of economic neutrality and simplicity, characteristical for the Slovak flat-tax schedule of 2004. There are cases, where it has actually contributed to the emergence of new asymmetries.

A presente pesquisa objetivou verificar se medidas contábeis calculadas por meio do lucro abrangente e de seus componentes são relevantes na explicação do risco das empresas. Para isso, analisou-se amostra composta por 105 companhias brasileiras de capital aberto com ações negociadas na BM&FBovespa. Foram selecionadas empresas não financeiras com dados disponíveis no período compreendido entre o primeiro trimestre de 2011 e o primeiro de trimestre de 2015, sendo excluídas empresas com ações de baixa liquidez. Inicialmente, avaliou-se por meio de análise de estatísticas descritivas e do Teste de Wilcoxon se o lucro abrangente é mais volátil que o lucro líquido. Esta primeira hipótese de pesquisa não foi refutada e se constatou que, para as empresas que compõem a amostra estudada, a volatilidade do lucro abrangente foi 30,84% superior à volatilidade do lucro líquido, evidenciando que a análise focada única e exclusivamente no lucro líquido induziria o usuário da informação contábil a ignorar possíveis fontes de risco da empresa. Para a análise da relevância do lucro abrangente e de seus componentes na explicação do risco, foi feita análise de regressão com dados em painel por meio de oito modelos estimados, cada qual com diferentes variáveis explicativas e abordagens de risco, estimado por meio da volatilidade dos retornos das ações (risco total) e do beta de mercado (risco sistemático). Os resultados apresentados evidenciaram que a relação entre a volatilidade do lucro abrangente e o risco da empresa é superior àquela observada entre a volatilidade do lucro líquido e o risco, porém tal relação não se mostrou estatisticamente significante. Todavia, verificou-se que a volatilidade do valor referente a outros resultados abrangentes possui relação negativa e estatisticamente significante com seu risco sistemático. Ganhos e perdas com hedges de fluxo de caixa e com ativos financeiros classificados como disponíveis para venda apresentaram relação negativa e estatisticamente significante com o risco da empresa, o que, de acordo com estudos anteriores, deve-se ao fato de que resultados não realizados estariam além do controle dos gestores. As evidências apresentadas pelo presente estudo corroboram a importância do assunto, fornecendo insumos para discussões sobre políticas contábeis relacionadas ao lucro e para o desenvolvimento de métricas contábeis para a avaliação do risco das empresas. / This research aimed to verify if the comprehensive income and its components are relevant in explanation of the firm risk. Thus, it analyzed sample of 105 Brazilian public companies listed on the BM&FBovespa. Non-financial companies with available data from the first quarter of 2011 to first quarter of 2015 were selected, being excluded companies with low stock liquidity. Initially, it was evaluated by analysis of descriptive statistics and the Wilcoxon test if the comprehensive income is more volatile than net income. This first research hypothesis was not refuted and found that for the companies in the sample, the volatility of comprehensive income was 30.84% higher than the volatility of net income, showing that an analysis focused exclusively on net income induce the accounting information user to ignore possible sources of firm risk. For the analysis of the relevance of comprehensive income and its components in risk explanation, regression analysis was done with panel data through eight estimated models, each with different explanatory variables and risk approaches, estimated by the volatility of stock returns (total risk) and market beta (systematic risk). The results showed that the relationship between the volatility of comprehensive income and the company\'s risk is greater than that observed between the volatility of net income and risk, but this relationship was not statistically significant. However, it was found that the volatility of the value related to other comprehensive income has negative and statistically significant relationship with its systematic risk. Gains and losses from cash flow hedges and financial assets classified as available for sale showed a negative and statistically significant relationship to the risk of the firm, which, according to previous studies, is due to the fact that unrealized results would be beyond the control of managers. The evidence presented in this study confirm the importance of the subject, providing inputs for discussions on accounting policies related to income and to the development of accounting metrics for risk assessment of companies.

Income growth is much more volatile in developing countries than in developed ones. One argument is that weak legal and political institutions exacerbate macroeconomic shocks precipitating the economy into widespread crises. The first chapter of my thesis focuses on sovereign debt crises and discusses how government default in bad times can trigger a liquidity crisis within the economy even in absence of classic foreign penalties. The second chapter takes a complementary perspective and emphasizes the role of sectoral specialization as a source of the higher volatility of emerging markets, much in line with recent empirical evidence. En las ultimas décadas el crecimiento de la renta en los países en desarrollo ha sido mucho más volátil que en los desarrollados. Un explicación es que la debilidad de las instituciones jurídicas y políticas agravan las crisis macroeconómicas precipitando la economía en una crisis generalizada. El primer capítulo de mi tesis se centra en la crisis de la deuda soberana y analiza cómo la insolvencia del gobierno puede desencadenar una crisis de liquidez en la economía, incluso en ausencia de sanciones desde el extranjero. El segundo capítulo adopta una perspectiva complementaria y destaca el papel de la especialización sectorial como fuente de la mayor volatilidad de los mercados emergentes, en consonancia con una reciente evidencia empírica.

A presente pesquisa objetivou verificar se medidas contábeis calculadas por meio do lucro abrangente e de seus componentes são relevantes na explicação do risco das empresas. Para isso, analisou-se amostra composta por 105 companhias brasileiras de capital aberto com ações negociadas na BM&FBovespa. Foram selecionadas empresas não financeiras com dados disponíveis no período compreendido entre o primeiro trimestre de 2011 e o primeiro de trimestre de 2015, sendo excluídas empresas com ações de baixa liquidez. Inicialmente, avaliou-se por meio de análise de estatísticas descritivas e do Teste de Wilcoxon se o lucro abrangente é mais volátil que o lucro líquido. Esta primeira hipótese de pesquisa não foi refutada e se constatou que, para as empresas que compõem a amostra estudada, a volatilidade do lucro abrangente foi 30,84% superior à volatilidade do lucro líquido, evidenciando que a análise focada única e exclusivamente no lucro líquido induziria o usuário da informação contábil a ignorar possíveis fontes de risco da empresa. Para a análise da relevância do lucro abrangente e de seus componentes na explicação do risco, foi feita análise de regressão com dados em painel por meio de oito modelos estimados, cada qual com diferentes variáveis explicativas e abordagens de risco, estimado por meio da volatilidade dos retornos das ações (risco total) e do beta de mercado (risco sistemático). Os resultados apresentados evidenciaram que a relação entre a volatilidade do lucro abrangente e o risco da empresa é superior àquela observada entre a volatilidade do lucro líquido e o risco, porém tal relação não se mostrou estatisticamente significante. Todavia, verificou-se que a volatilidade do valor referente a outros resultados abrangentes possui relação negativa e estatisticamente significante com seu risco sistemático. Ganhos e perdas com hedges de fluxo de caixa e com ativos financeiros classificados como disponíveis para venda apresentaram relação negativa e estatisticamente significante com o risco da empresa, o que, de acordo com estudos anteriores, deve-se ao fato de que resultados não realizados estariam além do controle dos gestores. As evidências apresentadas pelo presente estudo corroboram a importância do assunto, fornecendo insumos para discussões sobre políticas contábeis relacionadas ao lucro e para o desenvolvimento de métricas contábeis para a avaliação do risco das empresas. / This research aimed to verify if the comprehensive income and its components are relevant in explanation of the firm risk. Thus, it analyzed sample of 105 Brazilian public companies listed on the BM&FBovespa. Non-financial companies with available data from the first quarter of 2011 to first quarter of 2015 were selected, being excluded companies with low stock liquidity. Initially, it was evaluated by analysis of descriptive statistics and the Wilcoxon test if the comprehensive income is more volatile than net income. This first research hypothesis was not refuted and found that for the companies in the sample, the volatility of comprehensive income was 30.84% higher than the volatility of net income, showing that an analysis focused exclusively on net income induce the accounting information user to ignore possible sources of firm risk. For the analysis of the relevance of comprehensive income and its components in risk explanation, regression analysis was done with panel data through eight estimated models, each with different explanatory variables and risk approaches, estimated by the volatility of stock returns (total risk) and market beta (systematic risk). The results showed that the relationship between the volatility of comprehensive income and the company\'s risk is greater than that observed between the volatility of net income and risk, but this relationship was not statistically significant. However, it was found that the volatility of the value related to other comprehensive income has negative and statistically significant relationship with its systematic risk. Gains and losses from cash flow hedges and financial assets classified as available for sale showed a negative and statistically significant relationship to the risk of the firm, which, according to previous studies, is due to the fact that unrealized results would be beyond the control of managers. The evidence presented in this study confirm the importance of the subject, providing inputs for discussions on accounting policies related to income and to the development of accounting metrics for risk assessment of companies.

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