Much debate surrounds the effect the minimum wage has on employment. Economic theory suggests that the minimum wage acts as a price floor in the labor market and thus leads to disemployment. However, empirical evidence from a variety of industries, states, and age groups suggests that the minimum wage has negative, negligible, and even positive effect on employment. This Economics/Public Policy Analysis thesis is the first study to analyze the effect the minimum wage has on employment in the informal sector. I apply four OLS regressions with various levels of specifications on five dependent variables: hourly wage, log hourly wages, hours worked, log daily income, and percentage working. My results suggest that economic theory holds true in the informal sector with regards to the California minimum wage mandate of 2016: the minimum wage had a positive and statistically significant effect on hourly wage, with average hourly wages increasing by $1.88; the minimum wage had a negative and statistically significant effect on percentage working, with average number of workers dispatched to jobs decreasing by 15%.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Economics / Dong Li / Wayne Nafziger / The dissertation includes three essays on development and regional economics. Son preference prevails among Indian couples. I test the hypothesis that women who bear sons experience an elevated status within the household, which translates into their increased role in decision-making. The first essay empirically examines the issue. Using data from the Indian Human Development Survey, I find that women who have given birth to at least one son show greater participation in the household’s financial decisions as well as other decisions in a household. Presence of a senior member in the household, however, reduces the women’s relative household bargaining strength. The second essay examines the wage differentials of natives, naturalized citizens, and immigrants on the basis of gender, and for the latter two categories, on the basis of region of origin. This paper argues that the assimilation effect for naturalized citizens should be stronger than that for immigrants since a naturalized citizen, on an average, spends more than 15 years in the country, much higher than immigrants. I find that immigrants experience higher increase in wages than naturalized citizens with longer stay in the United States. The essay concludes that this trend in wages cannot be explained by the assimilation argument alone. We also report that naturalized citizens command higher returns to higher education than immigrants. The third essay explores issues in regional economics. Kansas has the third largest public highway miles and one of the highest miles per person in the country. Due to declining rural population, counties lack the required tax base and fiscal health to support their large ailing rural road infrastructure. The average farm size is increasing and so is the size of vehicles using the rural roads. This paper suggests removing some rural low volume roads from the county road network as one option. I study three Kansas counties to analyze the cost-benefit of reducing low volume road miles. I find that rural counties will be able to save money by closing some low volume roads.

Os três artigos desta tese focam no mercado de trabalho. O primeiro artigo calculou a probabilidade com que um trabalhador deixa o emprego e a probabilidade com que um desempregado encontra trabalho no Brasil. A metodologia utilizada foi a desenvolvida por Shimer (2012). O objetivo foi determinar qual destes dois fatores seria o mais importante para explicar as flutuações da taxa de desemprego no Brasil. Os resultados mostraram que é a dinâmica da probabilidade com que um desempregado encontra emprego que explica o comportamento da taxa de desemprego. Este resultado é distinto daquele encontrado normalmente na literatura. No segundo artigo, log-linearizamos e estimados o modelo de Christiano, Eichenbaum e Trabandt (2013) para o Brasil. Este modelo difere dos modelos novos keynesianos tradicionais ao colocar uma estrutura de searching (busca) para o mercado de trabalho. A ideia foi comparar este modelo com o modelo de rigidez de preços e salários tradicional e analisar se esta estrutura para o mercado de trabalho é capaz de fazer o papel das rigidezes tradicionais, no que se refere a propagação dos choques na economia. As funções impulso resposta a um choque contracionista de política monetária mostraram que o modelo explicou o comportamento esperado para variáveis como PIB, inflação e taxa de desemprego. Ainda, a estimação do modelo mostrou, no geral, que os preços no Brasil são reajustados com uma frequência menor do que a frequência indicada pelos modelos novos keynesianos com rigidez de preços e salários. Por sua vez, ao desligar a rigidez da utilização do capital e a do working capital channel, este modelo mais completo, maior e mais detalhado para mercado de trabalho pareceu não ser capaz de dar conta do movimento inercial e persistente observado para as variáveis macroeconômicas como PIB e inflação. Por fim, no terceiro artigo, estimamos novamente o modelo Christiano, Eichenbaum e Trabandt (2013), mas agora para os Estados Unidos. Entretanto, adotamos uma estratégia de estimação diferente: optamos por primeiro log-linearizar o modelo para depois fazer a estimação, para dois períodos: até 2008, assim como no artigo original, e até 2014. O objetivo principal foi comparar os resultados da nossa estimativa com os resultados de Christiano, Eichenbaum e Trabandt (2013). Para o conjunto de dados até 2008, os resultados indicam que os valores estimados estão em linha com os encontrados na literatura e, no geral, não estão muito distantes das estimações do artigo original. Mas, os parâmetros estimados apontaram para um modelo com um pouco mais de rigidez de preços, uma maior persistência de consumo e com uma regra de política monetária um pouco menos inercial em relação à do artigo original. Entretanto, esta regra mostrou uma reação muito maior à inflação do que ao produto, assim como em Christiano, Eichenbaum e Trabandt (2013). Considerando a amostra toda, isto é, até o final de 2014, observamos que o modelo estimado continuou a ter uma maior rigidez de preço em relação ao modelo original e uma regra de política monetária menos inercial. Além disso, os dados mais recentes afetaram de modo mais expressivo os valores estimados para variáveis do mercado de trabalho. Por sua vez, as funções impulso resposta refletiram esta menor inércia da política monetária e, no geral, apresentaram as trajetórias esperadas. / The three articles of this thesis focus on the labor market. The first article calculated the probability of a worker leaving his job and the probability of an unemployed person finding a job in Brazil, using the methodology developed by Shimer (2012). The aim was to determine which of these factors was the most important to explain the unemployment rate fluctuations. The results showed that the probability of an unemployed worker finding a job is more important to explain the dynamic of the unemployment rate. Commonly, the literature has found an opposite result in Brazil. In the second article, we log linearized and estimated the model built by Christiano, Eichenbaum and Evans (2013) for Brazil. This model is different from the traditional New Keynesian models because it has a structure of searching in the labor market. The idea was to compare this model with the traditional one with sticky wage and sticky prices. Moreover, the idea was to analyze if this model with searching structure in the labor market was able to substitute some traditional rigidity when the concern is the propagation of shocks. The impulse response functions to a contractionist monetary policy shock showed that this model explains the dynamic that is normally found in GDP, inflation and unemployment rate. Furthermore, the estimation showed that, in general, the prices are readjusted less frequently than the frequency estimated by New Keynesian models with sticky wage and sticky prices. Besides, when the rigidities (capital utilization and working capital channel) are eliminated, this model did not properly explain the inertial and persistence dynamic of the macroeconomics variables, such as GDP and inflation. Finally, in the last article, we estimated the Christiano, Eichenbaum and Trabandt (2013) model for the United States, but we adopted a different estimation strategy. We log linearized the model and estimated it with Bayesian methods. Moreover, we estimated for two different periods. The aim was to compare our results with the original model. When the model was estimated with data up to 2008, the results showed that the estimations were in line with the values found in the literature and, in general, they were not too far from the values estimated in the original article. However, the parameters estimated showed a model in which the prices are more rigid, the consumption habit is higher and the monetary rule is less inertial than observed in the original model. However, the monetary authority reacted much more to inflation than GDP, as it happened in the original article. When we considered the data until 2014, we observed that the estimated model remained with more sticky prices and a more inertial monetary rule. Moreover, we noted that this more recent data affected more expressively the estimated values of the labor market. The analysis of impulse response function showed this less inertial dynamic of the monetary rule and, overall, they followed the expected dynamics

This thesis develops a new theoretical perspective (i.e., the resource synergy perspective) to explain how women in the workforce may help improve organization performance. Drawing upon this theoretical perspective, I study how women, as an important strategic human resource, can be better utilized with the resource synergy generated between women resources and certain synergy-relevant variables. Among the synergy-relevant variables, this perspective highlights the importance of organization strategy and leadership, because these two variables are developed based on organizational resources and should be contingent on the environmental and situational factors that are partly uncontrollable by an organization. In addition, the roles of organization culture as a type of environmental factor and task characteristics as a situational factor are also considered. To realize the research goals, I conduct two studies at different levels. In study 1, I propose that organizations can take advantage of women resources by increasing the proportion of women in the employees at the macro level. Moreover, I propose that organization strategy, culture, and task characteristic have coordinative and supportive effects on the increase of the proportion of women, leading to the generation of resource synergy. Specifically, I seek to prove that, with the coordination and coherence of these synergy-relevant variables (i.e., customer-oriented strategy), the culture of collectivism, and task complexity, women‘s resources can be better utilized. Thus, the generated synergy can bring greater competitive advantages for organizations and thus lead to higher organization financial performance. In study 2, I proceed to suggest that making full use of women resource at the micro level is also important. The resource synergy perspective provides a new explanation for the roles of inequality and leadership in the utilization of women resources in organizations. This study proposes that women‘s inequality perceptions have negative effects on their performance in organizations, thus preventing organizations from making full use of its important strategic resources and generating synergy. With these damaging effects, it is difficult for an organization to make full use of women resources and achieve competitive advantages. However, with a high level of leader-member exchange (LMX), which indicates high quality in leader-member relationships, female employees may still have the motivation to perform well. Thus, the negative effects of inequality can be attenuated and women resources can be better utilized with the synergistic effects of LMX. To test the above hypotheses, I conduct two empirical studies in China. The sample of study 1 includes 132 organizations from the service industry. Results of the hierarchical regression analysis support the positive effects of increasing the proportion of women on the organization‘s return on assets (ROA) but fail to support its positive relationship with market growth. The results also reveal that organization synergy-relevant variables such as customer-oriented strategy, the culture of collectivism, and task complexity do generate synergy with women resources. In other words, with the existence of these variables, the positive effects of the proportion of women on ROA and market growth are both enhanced. Study 2, which is conducted in organizations from four industries in China (i.e., chemistry, electronic, manufacturing, and hospitality), consists of 190 female employees and 51 matched leaders. Results of the hierarchical regression analysis show that organization inequality is negatively related to women‘s job-related performance and positively relates to their turnover intentions. In addition, LMX is found to positively moderate the effects of inequality on women‘s job-related performance and negatively moderates the effects on their turnover intentions. At the end of this thesis, the research‘s theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. This thesis makes six contributions to the literature: 1) It is among the first to specify that women are a type of strategic resource for organizations and provide systematic investigations on how to make full use of this resource. 2) This research deepens the understanding of women as a type of resources by identifying certain boundary conditions; i.e., the synergy-relevant variables. 3) This research develops a new perspective (i.e., the resource synergy perspective) to study the utilization of women as a strategic resource for organizations at multi levels. 4) This research should extend the literature of culture by identifying the role of collectivism in making use of women as a resource. 5) This research can also add to the literature of leadership by examining the role of LMX in making use of women resources. 6) This research provides a new theoretical perspective for the relationship between employees‘ inequality perceptions and their job performance. In addition to the theoretical implications, this research also provides useful knowledge for the management in organizations. First, based on the research findings, organizations should provide equal opportunity in employment for women and include more women in the workforce. Second, it is also critical to retain the existing female workforce through better talent management, thereby providing a work environment supporting the utilization of women resources. Based on the synergy relevant variables examined in this research, organizations should pay attention to their strategy, culture and task characteristics. It is important for organizations to consider about whether their culture supports the utilization of women resources or not. By the culture of high collectivism, organizations can provide a favorable work environment where women are more likely to be accepted and respected. Moreover, a strategy of customer orientation is beneficial for women resource to be deployed fully. Also organization should pay attention to place women in appropriate tasks. Third, this research highlights the importance of women‘s individual performance in realizing their value in organizations. It is vital for organizations and managers to improve women‘s equality perceptions within organizations. Moreover, managers and organizations should take measures to enhance the quality of leader-subordinate exchange relationship. Moreover, the strength and limitations of this research are also discussed. The research has several strengths. First, this research is theory-driven. Second, I conduct two empirical studies at multi-levels to address the issue of making full use of women in organizations. Third, the sample size is large in both studies (study 1, 132 organizations; study 2, 190 female employees and 51 matched leaders). Fourth, the threat of common method bias is further minimized because I collect the data of study 2 from both employees and their immediate supervisors. Fifth, I adopted the appropriate approaches to analyze the data and test the hypotheses. Finally, I try to suggest possible directions for future research on the utilization of women resources in organizations. Keywords: utilization of women resources, the proportion of women, inequality, resource synergy, performance

O Brasil concentra um quinto dos dentistas do mundo, entretanto esse dado não reflete, necessariamente, em bons indicadores de saúde bucal para população, tão pouco em uma distribuição geográfica homogênea desses profissionais, resultando em vazios assistenciais, que são reflexos do desenvolvimento desordenado e da falta de regulamentação especifica da profissão e do mercado em odontologia. A Odontologia por muito tempo evoluiu em direção a um modelo de atenção privado, com um aumento do número de profissionais especializados. Esse estudo tem o objetivo de identificar e analisar características dinâmicas da força de trabalho em saúde bucal no Brasil, no que diz respeito à: 1. Perfil sócio demográfico; 2. Característica do aparelho formador; 3. Características do estoque da força de trabalho no país. Foi realizada uma pesquisa em base de dados de órgãos oficiais do Conselho Federal de Odontologia, Ministério da Saúde, Cadastro Nacional de Estabelecimentos de Saúde - CNES, IBGE, SIGRAS/INEP/MEC. Os resultados das diferentes fontes de consulta foram organizados em planilhas do Microsoft Excel e analisados por meio de estatística descritiva, com dados absolutos e relativos. Este projeto foi aprovado pelo Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa da Universidade de São Paulo, sob o protocolo nº 754.608/2014. Em junho de 2017 o Brasil registrava 286.926 profissionais ativos, a maioria jovem (entre 25 e 35 anos) e do sexo feminino. A migração foi observada em 13% do estoque e sudeste é a única região que perde profissionais mais do que recebe. A distribuição espacial dos dentistas pelo território permanece desigual, com grande concentração nas regiões Sul e Sudeste, em detrimento das regiões Norte e Nordeste e o aparelho formador acompanha a mesma tendência. O Brasil possui 230 faculdades de odontologia, a maioria delas (71%) de natureza privada. Anualmente cerca de 15.000 profissionais são disponibilizados para o mercado de trabalho. O estoque de dentistas no país continua crescendo, cerca de 1/3 do total de profissionais tem pelo menos uma especialidade, sendo a ortodontia a com maior número de profissionais.Para enfrentar as desigualdades identificadas nesse estudo, será necessário investimento do Estado, no que diz respeito à Formação, regulação de fluxo, distribuição e eficiência do estoque e regulação dos setores privado e público. O modelo conceitual aplicado neste estudo permite afirmar que para que se estabeleçam políticas de intervenção em Recursos Humanos, faz-se necessários ciclos periódicos de monitoramento e avaliação para subsidiar a tomada de decisão por parte dos gestores, portanto estudos como este precisam ser constantemente realizados para compor análise situacional e o planejamento de tais políticas. / Brazil is home to one-fifth of the world\'s dentists. However this data does not necessarily reflect good oral health indicators for the population or a homogeneous geographical distribution of these professionals. This reality leads to a lack of services as a result of the disorderly development of the profession in the face of no specific intervention regarding the regulation of the dentistry profession and market. Dentistry has for a long time evolved towards a model of private care, showing an increase in the number of specialized professionals. This study aims to identify and analyze the dynamic characteristics of the oral health workforce in Brazil, regarding: 1. Socio-demographic profile; 2. Characteristics of education sector; 3. Characteristics of the labor force in the country. This study utilized the databases of the Brazilian Federal Council of Dentistry, Ministry of Health and National Register of Health Establishments - CFO, CNES, IBGE, SIGRAS / INEP / MEC. The results of the different query sources were organized into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and analyzed using descriptive statistics, with absolute and relative data. This project was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the University of São Paulo, under protocol no. 754608/2014. In June 2017, Brazil registered 286,926 active professionals, most of whom are young (between 25 and 35 years old) and female. Migration was observed in 13% of the stock with the Southeast region demonstrating more loss of professionals than it receives. The spatial distribution of dentists across the territory remains unequal, with a great concentration in the South and Southeast regions. This is to the detriment of the North and Northeast regions. It was also noted that the concentration of dental schools follows the same trend. Brazil has 230 dental schools, most of which (71%) are private institutions. Annually about 15,000 professionals are available to the job market. The stock of dentists in the country continues to grow with about 1/3 of the total number of professionals having at least one specialty. Data shows that a majority of the specialists in Brazil are orthodontists. In order to confront the inequalities identified in this study, it will be necessary for the State to invest in training, regulation of flow, distribution and efficiency of the work force. Additionally, further regulation of the private and public sectors are vital. The conceptual model applied in this study allows us to affirm that for the establishment of intervention policies in human resources, periodic cycles of monitoring and evaluation are necessary to aid in decision making by regulators. This therefore proves that studies like this need to be constantly carried out to compose analysis and planning of such policies.

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate whether referral hiring leads to better job search and labor market outcomes for immigrants in São Paulo. To do so, we use a proxy for referral hiring, the share of same nationality workers in a firm one year before hiring, and estimate wage and turnover regression with a matched employer-employee dataset (RAIS). We find that referral hiring lower immigrant\'s wages at hiring, that is, if the proposed proxy increased by 10 p.p., wages would decrease by 1.9%. We also devise a couple of placebo test that reinforce the results we have found. We identify that nationalities with low education workers absorb all the negative impact. Other possible channels could be the size of immigrant networks and immigration age of nationalities, but we find no impact, although these exercises have several identification problems. Future steps include developing a theoretical framework that can rationalize the results. / O objetivo dessa dissertação é investigar se a contratação por indicação leva a uma melhor busca por trabalho e melhores resultados no mercado de trabalho de imigrantes na cidade de São Paulo. Utilizamos uma proxy para a contratação por indicação, a proporção de trabalhadores da mesma nacionalidade um ano antes da contratação, e estimamos uma regressão de salários e demissões com a RAIS, um painel de firmas e trabalhadores formais. Nossos resultados mostram que a contratação por indicação diminui o salário do imigrante quando da contratação, isto é, se a proxy aumentasse em 10 p.p., salários cairiam em 1,9%. Também elaboramos alguns testes de placebo que reforçam nossos resultados. Identificamos que nacionalidades com trabalhadores menos educados são os que mais sofrem impacto negativo. Outros possíveis canais seriam o tamanho da rede de imigrantes e a idade de imigração das nacionalidades, mas não achamos nenhum impacto, apesar desses exercícios sofrerem de diversos problemas de identificação. Passos futuros seriam desenvolver um modelo teórico que racionalize os resultados.

This dissertation examines how matching -- in marriage markets and labor markets -- can change under certain market circumstances and under different information provisions. The first two chapters analyze marriage market, with a particular focus on the impacts of cross-border marriage in marriage markets. Given the severely male-biased sex ratios in many Asian countries including China and India, demands for foreign brides are expected to grow in the near future. In the first chapter, I theoretically investigate the impacts of cross-border marriage on marital patterns and surplus division of couples. I use a frictionless transferable utility matching framework to analyze how cross-border marriage affects matching patterns and marital shares for couples. In the second chapter, I test the model's predictions, focusing on Taiwan (a wealthier side with male biased sex ratios) and Vietnam (a poorer side with balanced sex ratios in the marriage market). I find that cross-border marriages are predominantly made up of Taiwanese men and Vietnamese women; Taiwanese men are selected from the middle level of the socioeconomic status distribution, and Vietnamese women are positively selected. Moreover, cross-border marriage significantly affects men and women who stay in their own countries without engaging in cross-border marriage, by altering marriage rate, matching partners, and intra-household allocations within the households. My results suggest that changes in trade and immigration policies can have far-reaching implications on marital outcomes and women's bargaining power. The third chapter investigates job and jobseeker matching in labor market. Specifically, it explores whether inaccurate expectations of job seekers about their competitiveness contribute to poor job matching in developing countries. We utilize the largest online job portal in the Middle East and North Africa region to evaluate the effect of an intervention providing information about own competitiveness to job applicants. Providing information about the relative fit of an applicant's background for a particular job causes job seekers to apply for jobs that are better matches given their background. The effects of information are the largest among entry-level workers with higher levels of education, who generally face the highest unemployment rates in the region. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that changes over time in demand for skills in the job market may lead to inaccurate expectations that hinder labor market matching. Improving the efficiency of online job search may be particularly welfare-enhancing in the Middle East and North Africa region given that the young, highly-educated subpopulation that faces the greatest labor market hurdles also has the highest level of internet connectedness.

Os três artigos que compõem esta Tese possuem em comum a discussão da macroeconomia e o mercado de trabalho, para a investigação de problemas específicos. Desta forma, esta Tese busca preencher importantes lacunas presentes na literatura nacional e internacional. O primeiro artigo analisa os ciclos do desemprego brasileiro a partir de dados de fluxo de trabalhadores obtidos a partir da Pesquisa Mensal de Emprego (PME-IBGE). Usamos a abordagem proposta por Shimer (2007), que tenta controlar para eventual viés decorrente da agregação temporal nos dados do mercado de trabalho. Os dados brasileiros sugerem que a margem de ingresso para o desemprego (margem de separação) tem grande relevância para explicar os ciclos da taxa de desemprego no Brasil no período de março de 2002 a dezembro de 2010. Tais resultados indicam que o Brasil, relativamente a alguns países desenvolvidos, apresenta um mercado de trabalho com características mais próximas de um contexto com baixa regulamentação, ou seja, que o ingresso (e não a saída) no desemprego seria o principal responsável por sua flutuação. Além disso, a dinâmica da margem de separação, em relação a indicadores de atividade (PIB e Taxa de Desemprego), tem um comportamento claro (anticíclico e pró-cíclico, respectivamente), respondendo com um trimestre de antecedência com relação à taxa de desemprego. O segundo artigo analisa o papel da heterogeneidade no mercado de trabalho ao longo dos ciclos de negócio no Brasil. O comportamento cíclico da mão de obra dá sinais de mudanças em sua composição qualitativa. Tais indícios, encontrados na PME, se basearam no comportamento cíclico relativo de emprego e salário real/hora a partir de diferentes coortes: grau de escolaridade, tempo de trabalho e idade. Usando um arcabouço de busca de emprego com destruição endógena, nos moldes de Mortensen e Pissarides (1994), ilustramos que quanto maior a heterogeneidade na economia menor será a correlação entre salário real e desemprego. Por fim, o último artigo utiliza o modelo de DSGE proposto por Galí et al. (2011) - que faz o uso da taxa de desemprego e, assim, evita a Crítica de Lucas - a fim de (i) identificar quais fricções são importantes para captar as flutuações das séries macroeconômicas no Brasil, em especial da taxa de desemprego; (ii) averiguar se a série de desemprego traz informações úteis ao modelo; e (iii) discutir como choques de produtividade se manifestam sobre a taxa de desemprego. Os resultados sugerem, em relação aos dados da economia brasileira, melhor acurácia do modelo com todas as fricções (exceção às indexações salariais). Além disso, a presença da taxa de desemprego muda a ordem de importância das fricções, dando maior importância às fricções reais. As decomposições de variância realizadas indicam que choques de markup salarial perdem importância à custa, principalmente, dos choques de prêmio de risco. O uso da taxa de desemprego permite que choques de preferência sejam identificados e passem a explicar os ciclos. Por fim, funções de resposta ao impulso bayesianas sugerem que o desemprego é negativamente afetado por choque de produtividade, resultado decorrente de reduções da demanda de trabalho. / The three articles that compose this thesis have in common the discussion of macroeconomics and the labor market, for the investigation of specific problems. Thus, this thesis seeks to fill important gaps in the national and international literature. The first article analyzes the cycles of Brazilian unemployment from workers flow data obtained in Pesquisa Mensal de Emprego (PME-IBGE). We use the approach proposed by Shimer (2007) that attempts to control for possible bias due to temporal aggregation in labor market data. Brazilian data suggest that the margin of entry into unemployment (separation margin) has great relevance to explain the cycles of unemployment rate in Brazil from March 2002 to December 2010. These results indicate that Brazil, relatively to some developed countries, has a labor market with characteristics much closer to a context with low regulation, that is, entering (not leaving) unemployment would be primarily responsible for its fluctuation. Moreover, the dynamics of the separation margin, in relation to activity indicators (GDP and Unemployment Rate), has a clear behavior (anti-cyclical and procyclical, respectively), responding with a quarter in advance regarding the unemployment rate. The second article examines the role of heterogeneity in the labor market over the business cycle in Brazil. The cyclical behavior of the labor-work gives signs of qualitative changes in its composition. Such indications, found in the PME, were based on the cyclical behavior of employment and real wage/hour from different cohorts: level of education, tenure and age. Using a framework of job search with endogenous destruction, along the lines of Mortensen and Pissarides (1994), we illustrate that the greater heterogeneity in the economy, the lower the correlation between real wages and unemployment. Finally, the last article uses the DSGE model proposed by Galí et al. (2011) - which makes use of the unemployment rate and thus avoid the Lucas Critique - in order to (i) identify which frictions are important to capture the fluctuations of the series of macroeconomic fluctuations in Brazil, especially in the unemployment rate; (ii) determine whether the series of unemployment brings useful information to the model, and (iii) discuss how productivity shocks manifest themselves on the unemployment rate. The results suggest, in relation to the data of the Brazilian economy, the better accuracy of the model with all frictions (except for wage indexation). Moreover, the presence of unemployment rate changes the order of importance of frictions, giving greater weight to real frictions. The variance decompositions performed indicate that wage markup shocks become less important at the expense mainly of the risk premium shocks. The use of the unemployment rate allows preference shocks to become identified and to explain the cycles. Finally, impulse response functions Bayesian suggest that unemployment is negatively affected by productivity shock, a result due to reductions in labor demand.

This dissertation contains four essays on human capital, labor and development economics. The first two chapters study how exposure to particular labor markets during childhood determines the formation of industry-specific human capital generating longterm consequences in terms of adult criminal behavior, labor outcomes and state legitimacy. The third chapter explores how criminal capital developed during childhood can be exported to other locations generating spillover effects on human capital accumulation. Finally, the last chapter studies how improving access to justice for women affects children’s outcomes. Chapter 1, “Making a Narco: Childhood Exposure to Illegal Labor Markets and Criminal Life Paths”, shows that exposing children to illegal labor markets makes them more likely to be criminals as adults. I exploit the timing of a large anti-drug policy in Colombia that shifted cocaine production to locations in Peru that were well-suited to growing coca. In these areas, children harvest coca leaves and transport processed cocaine. Using variation across locations, years, and cohorts, combined with administrative data on the universe of individuals in prison in Peru, affected children are 30% more likely to be incarcerated for violent and drug-related crimes as adults. The biggest impacts on adult criminality are seen among children who experienced high coca prices in their early teens, the age when child labor responds the most. No effect is found for individuals that grow up working in places where the coca produced goes primarily to the legal sector, implying that it is the accumulation of human capital specific to the illegal industry that fosters criminal careers. As children involved in the illegal industry learn how to navigate outside the rule of law, they also lose trust in government institutions. However, consistent with a model of parental incentives for human capital investments in children, the rollout of a conditional cash transfer program that encourages schooling mitigates the ef- fects of exposure to illegal industries. Finally, I show how the program can be targeted by taking into account the geographic distribution of coca suitability and spatial spillovers. Overall, this paper takes a first step towards understanding how criminals are formed by unpacking the way in which crime-specific human capital is developed at the expense of formal human capital in “bad locations.” While my first chapter focuses on low-skilled labor and criminal capital, my second chapter studies the expansion of high-skilled labor markets. In Chapter 2, “Long-term Effects of Temporary Labor Demand: Free Trade Zones, Female Education and Marriage Market Outcomes in the Dominican Republic”, I exploit the sudden and massive growth of female factory jobs in free trade zones (FTZs) in the Dominican Republic in the 1990s, and subsequent decline in the 2000s, to provide the first evidence that even relatively brief episodes of preferential trade treatments for export industries may have permanent effects on human capital levels and female empowerment. Focusing on a sample of provinces that established FTZs and exploiting variation in the opening of zones and age of women at the time of opening, I show that the FTZs’ openings led to a large and very robust increase in girls’ education. The effect persists after a decline in FTZs’ jobs in the 2000s following the end of a trade agreement with the U.S. and an increase in competition from Asia. The reason appears to be that the increase in some girls’ education changed marriage markets: girls whose education increased due to the FTZs’ openings married later, had better matches with more stable marriages, gave birth later, and had children who were more likely to survive infancy. In sum, the evidence in this paper indicates that labor markets can improve female outcomes in developing countries through general equilibrium effects in the education and marriage markets. Another question I address in my dissertation is whether criminal capital developed during childhood can be exported to other locations. In the first chapter, I find that individuals take skills related to the illegal drug industry with them when they move to other districts, even when they move to districts without significant illegal industries. Chapter 3, “Exporting Criminal Capital: The Effect of U.S. Deportations on Gang Expansion and Human Capital in Central America”, provides new evidence on how an increase in criminal capital due to deportations from the US affects human capital investments in El Salvador. In 1996, the U.S. Illegal Immigration Responsibility Act drastically increased the number of criminal deportations. In particular, the leaders of large gangs in Los Angeles were sent back to their countries. In addition to having a direct effect, the arrival of individuals bringing criminal skills and connections may have generated important spillover effects. We exploit this policy to look at the impact that deportation policies and the subsequent arrival of criminal capital to El Salvador had on several educational and economic outcomes. Using the 1996 policy and geographical variation in the exact location and delimitation of different gang groups, we find that criminal deportations led to large increase in crime and decrease in human capital accumulation for children living in these areas. Overall, this project helps to understand one of the reasons why El Salvador is among the world’s most violent peacetime countries. Understanding these effects is crucial for public policy to successfully incorporate deported criminals back into society. While my work in the Dominican Republic and the previous literature has shown that increasing the returns to education for women incentivizes schooling, there is little evidence on how domestic violence affects human capital development and whether improving access to institutions for women can address these issues. During my field work in rural areas of Peru, I found that institutions do not usually address the problems facing women or ethnic and religious minorities. For example, the police do very little to stop domestic violence. Moreover, in many cases, women do not even trust these institutions enough to report these issues. Chapter 4, “Inter-Generational Impacts of Improving Access to Justice for Women: Evidence from Peru”, exploits the introduction of women’s justice centers (WJCs) in Peru to provide causal estimates on the effects of improving access to justice for women and children. Our empirical approach uses variation over time in the distance from schools and households to the nearest WJC together with province- by-year fixed effects. After the opening of WJC, we find that primary school enrollment increases at schools that are within a 1km radius of a WJC and the effect decreases with distance. In addition, we also find that primary school second graders have better test scores in reading and mathematics. Moreover, we find that children in primary school living in household’s located near a WJC are more likely to attend school, to pass a grade and they are also less likely to drop out of school. We also provide some evidence that these improvements might be driven by an increase in the bargaining power of women inside the household and decrease in domestic violence. In sum, the evidence in this paper shows that providing access to justice for women can be a powerful tool to reduce domestic violence and increase education of children, suggesting a positive inter-generational benefit.

This thesis focuses on corelation between unemployment and gross domestic product in the Czech Republic and Poland during the period 1990 - 1998. It analyses an empirically observed relationship relating change in unemloyment rate to change in GDP -- Okun's law. After presenting aproaches of different economic schools to unemployment, this work analyses and compares changes in unemployment and labour market as well as identifies the main factors of economic growth and unemployment rate. It faces a problem of discrepancy and inaccuracy of statistical data from the transformation period as well as rapidly changing factors that influenced the natural rate of unemployment and potential output. These reasons made it impossible to uniquely determine validity of Okun's law during transformation period in the Czech Republic and Poland.