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This study was done to see the effects of a war on the economy and the internal politics of the United States. In selecting the engagement, we would study we agreed the Iraq War would be aided by a large amount of sampling of public opinion that was more nuanced than in previous wars. The Iraq War was a very complicated war, as it was controversial from the beginning and became a political issue while continuing to be a war fought by Americans abroad. Based on the literature, there were many starting effects and assumptions that were accounted for such as the ‘rally round the flag effect.' As a historical landmark, the Iraq War is important for being a significant conflict after the Vietnam War, another very controversial conflict in the eyes of the American public. The hypothesis that I presented were not supported by the data. The impact of the war on the economy was not strong enough that it would create pressure for the sort of model I created to apply. In this model the economic problems faced domestically could lead to more unemployment and therefore to higher military recruitment rates. While this was partially true in 2008, the consequence was not a significantly higher amount of people in the military. Ultimately, this project requires to be done in a more thorough setting where effects may be compared with those of other similar countries in similar scenarios.

Local government policy often relies on taxation to address the central concern of ensuring municipal growth. This paper uses a measure of taxes compiled by the Rose Institute of State and Local Government called the Kosmont Cost of Doing Business rating to discuss the effects of tax policy on growth. The goal of this paper is to use the spatial equilibrium model to estimate the correlation between the cost of doing business and certain basic observable outcomes. These outcomes are reflected in wage, population, and price levels. The underlying spatial equilibrium model leads to “deep effects” equations, which are used to connect these observable correlations to more tangible measures of growth. Through the deep effects equations, we analyze the effect of the cost of doing business on the productivity, amenities, and economic success of California’s cities. We find that a higher cost of doing business does not lead to lower productivity and amenities, but rather improves amenities and maintains steady levels of productivity under a long-term equilibrium.

Questa tesi è una raccolta di due capitoli che indagano due temi distinti di ricerca in economia del lavoro e dell'istruzione. Nel primo capitolo, si studiano gli effetti causali di una nuova politica di ammissione selettiva introdotta presso il Dipartimento di Economia di una importante università private situata nel nord d'Italia. Si trovano significativi miglioramenti nei risultati accademici degli studenti del primo anno che sono esposti alla nuova politica di ammissione in termini di una riduzione del tasso di abbandono scolastico e di un aumento dei crediti compiuti. Nel secondo capitolo di questa tesi, da un'altra parte, si fornisce un'evidenza recente sulla struttura dinamica e di autocovarianza del reddito di lavoro maschile italiano e si caratterizzano gli shock sul reddito del lavoro per tutto il ciclo di vita sfruttando dei dati amministrativa di grande scala provenienti dagli archivi dell'INPS. Osserviamo un aumento sostanziale della varianza del reddito degli individui di età compresa tra 50 e 60 anni. Tali risultati suggeriscono che questo aumento della varianza è guidato dall'aumento della varianza sia del componente transitorio che permanente della disuguaglianza di reddito. Tuttavia, l'accelerazione per gli individui sopra i 50 anni è causato dalla fluttuazione della varianza dei shock transitori. / This thesis is a collection of two chapters that investigate two different research topics in labor and education economics. In the first chapter, we study the causal effects of a new selective admission policy introduced in the Department of Economics at a leading private university located in the North of Italy. We find significant improvements in the academic outcomes of first year students who are exposed to this new admission policy in terms of reduction in the drop-out rate and increase in the average credits. In the second chapter of this thesis, on the other hand, we provide up-to-date evidence on the dynamic and autocovariance structures of Italian males' labor income and characterize labor income shocks over the life-cycle by exploiting a large-scale administrative data from the archives of Italian Social Security Administration (INPS). We observe a substantial increase in the variance of log-incomes of individuals between the ages of 50 and 60. Our results suggest that the latter increase in the variance is driven by the increases in the variances of both transitory and permanent components of income inequality. However, the accelerating pattern after age 50 is caused by the fluctuations in the variance of transitory shocks.

M.Com. (Economics) / Inflation is the continuous, meaningful increase in the price level of an economic system. A distinction can be drawn between demand-pull factors (where demand exceeds the supply) and cost-push factors (prices are pushed higher by an increase in wages or input prices) as causes of inflation. Cost-push inflation is the result of the exercising of bargaining power by certain groups, e.g. trade unions. Prices can escalate as a result of competition between trade unions and firms for higher wages or competition between trade unions for a bigger portion of the national income. The aim of trade unions is to maintain the standard of living of their members, whose only source of income is the sale of their labour. Trade unions have a number of mechanisms, e.g. strikes and the withdrawal of co-operation, by means of which they can force an employer to meet their demands. Trade unions usually bargain collectively with employers regarding their wage demands. There are great differences of opinion among economists whether trade unions are the cause of inflation or whether they only contribute to inflation. Trade unions grouped themselves in organisations to look after the concerns of their members while employers have also grouped themselves in organisations. The government also plays an important role in the labour market, especially because' of the payment of unemployment benefits. Trade unions can contribute to inflation because wage increases are declared nationally, trade unions refuse to· accept any cuts in wages, contracts between employers and employees make provision for increases in salaries and also include a stipulation regarding cost of living adjustments. Trade unions can increase wage demands by being more militant, the spillover effect and wage imitation. The first white trade unions were established in the second half of the previous century and black trade unions in the early 1900' s. The numbers of especially the black trade unions increased considerably during the seventies and eighties, to such a degree that black trade unions have almost 3 million members and consist of 23,9 percent of the total economically active population. As a result of their great numbers, strikes have also shown an escalating tendency (there were 908 strikes per year during the period 1987 to 1992). The annual average inflation rate in South Africa reached double figures in 1974 and has not moved back to single figures since. If wage demands since 1985 are compared to this, the wage demands from 1987 to 1991 were higher each year than the inflation rate. Trade unions definitely have an influence on wages as the increase in minimum wages of unskilled labourers were mostly higher than. that of skilled workers. The increase in productivity has however, not kept up to date with the increase in wage rates.

<div>This dissertation consists of three chapters regarding labor economics. The first chapter studies the relative preference men and women have for working with coworkers of the same or opposite sex. The second chapter develops a conceptual framework for estimating the distribution of perceived returns to investments conditional on observed characteristics. The third chapter applies the methods described in the second chapter to estimate perceived returns to college and discusses policy implications.</div><div><br></div><div>The first chapter analyzes the effect of occupational gender composition on job-specific labor supply for workers of each gender. I construct a static model of job selection wherein preferences regarding coworker gender composition produce gender-specific compensating differentials. I estimate the model to identify the underlying coworker gender preference parameters. Based on estimated compensating differentials, men's preference is highest for occupations that are 60% female and lowest for female-dominated occupations. Women prefer jobs that are female-dominated, and are least satisfied with jobs that are 25% male all else equal.</div><div><br></div><div>The second chapter describes a conceptual framework for inferring agents' perceived returns to college by exploiting the dollar-for-dollar relationship between perceived returns and tuition costs in a binary choice model of college attendance. This approach has four attractive features. First, it provides estimates of perceived returns in terms of compensating variation, which directly inform financial policies that seek to (dis)incentivize the investment. Second, it provides very fine continuously-heterogeneous estimates conditional on a large set of observed characteristics, allowing for differential predictions for how selective, well-publicized policies are likely to affect different types of individuals. Third, because it obtains type-specific perceived returns distributions instead of point elasticities, it provides differential predictions for the effects of type-specific financial interventions depending on the magnitude of the intervention. Finally, the estimates are obtained assuming rational expectations only on prices (one component of returns) rather than on returns as a whole.</div><div><br></div><div>The third chapter applies the method described in the second chapter to estimate perceived returns to college using NLSY79 data. Estimating the model using both maximum likelihood and moment inequalities, I find that the scale of the distribution of perceived returns is an order of magnitude lower than past work has found when assuming rational expectations on income returns. The low variance I find in perceived returns implies high responses to financial aid. I predict a 2.6 percentage point increase in college attendance from a $1,000 universal annual tuition subsidy, which is consistent with quasi-experimental estimates of the effects of tuition assistance on college attendance. Adapting the difference-in-difference estimation performed by Dynarski (2003) on the effect of the Social Security Student Benefit to the current setting, I find that the policy increased perceived returns to college by $23,800, compared to an average aid amount of $6,700 per year ($26,800 per four years) (year 2000 dollars). Using the estimated distribution of perceived returns, I perform a counterfactual policy experiment that induces a set percentage of the population to attend college at minimal cost to the government.</div>

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2016-08-23T17:41:10Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Eline Emanoeli.pdf: 1347275 bytes, checksum: d13bb37042885eb9388badb344b89890 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-23T17:41:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Eline Emanoeli.pdf: 1347275 bytes, checksum: d13bb37042885eb9388badb344b89890 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-31 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo / This research has the objective of analyze the worker qualification starting the point of view of the economic literature and others fields of knowledge, like the education and the labor sociology, as well as everyday perspective of the workers. The concepts of qualification itself and how it relates to technologies, mainly the new ones, of microelectronics basis will be discussed. It starts from the premise that it’s important understand which are the concepts of qualification adopted by the theories to elect that one most meets the observable reality of the workers and, with that, to have a more appropriate vision of the labor market and the circumstances proportioned by the technical progress and the insertion of new technologies on labor environments. To reach the objective of this study, it was necessary, in a first moment, to recover the history of the labor organization and its relationship with the technologies, with emphasis on the process of transition of the knowledge control from the hands of the worker to the employer, owner of the capital. Then it’s presented the debate about the conceptualization of labor qualification inside the Marxist and the Neoclassical economics perspective. After, it discourses about the qualification requirements that was taken in Brazil after the productive restructuring and the concept of qualification from the vision of the worker, having as basis the results got from important investigators, that performed direct interviews with workers from some manufacturing sectors. Some notes obtained by intreviews realized with professionals from union area and human resources are summed with those informations. Finally, we realize that the versatility required to the workers to use the new technologies doesn’t mean better qualification. And we infer that the workers, in general, dissociate the notion of qualification from the control of the process of production. It occurs because the capital only recognizes the worker’s qualifications when it considers them important to increase productivity, it does that workers nowadays rate themselves as qualified only when they consider that their abilities turn them “employable” for this capital / Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a qualificação do trabalhador a partir do ponto de vista da literatura econômica e de outras áreas do conhecimento, tais como a educação e a sociologia do trabalho, bem como da perspectiva cotidiana dos trabalhadores. São discutidos os conceitos de qualificação propriamente dita e como ela se relaciona com as tecnologias, principalmente as novas, de base microeletrônica. Parte-se da premissa de que é importante entender quais são os conceitos de qualificação adotados pelas teorias para que se possa eleger aquela que mais atende à realidade observável dos trabalhadores e, com isso, ter uma visão mais adequada do mercado de trabalho e das circunstâncias proporcionadas pelo progresso técnico e pela inserção de novas tecnologias nos ambientes de trabalho. Para atingir o objetivo do estudo, fez-se necessário, num primeiro momento, recuperar o histórico da organização do trabalho e de sua relação com as tecnologias, com ênfase no processo de passagem do controle do saber das mãos do trabalhador para o empregador, detentor do capital. A partir daí, é apresentado o debate acerca da conceituação da qualificação do trabalho dentro das perspectivas econômicas marxista e neoclássica. A seguir, discorre-se sobre as exigências de qualificação, no Brasil, após a reestruturação produtiva, e o conceito de qualificação a partir da visão do trabalhador, tendo como base os resultados obtidos por importantes investigadores, que realizaram entrevistas diretas com trabalhadores de alguns setores fabris. Somam-se a essas informações algumas notas obtidas mediante entrevistas realizadas junto a profissionais ligados às áreas sindical e de recursos humanos. Por fim, notamos que a polivalência exigida ao trabalhador para operar com as novas tecnologias não significa maior qualificação. E inferimos que os trabalhadores, no geral, dissociam a noção de qualificação ao controle do processo de produção. Isso ocorre porque o capital só reconhece as qualificações do trabalhador quando as considera importantes para o aumento de produtividade, o que faz com que os trabalhadores atualmente se avaliem como qualificados apenas ao considerarem que suas habilidades o tornam “empregáveis” por este capital

Denna uppsats studerar hur de tillfälliga uppehållstillstånden påverkar nyanländas incitament att ta sig in på den svenska arbetsmarknaden. En av motiveringarna bakom den tillfälliga lagen var – förutom att ge svenskt flyktingmottagande ett andrum – att ge nyanlända personer starkare drivkrafter att komma in på arbetsmarknaden. För att undersöka detta görs en brytpunktsanalys (Regression Discontinuity design) där individer som registrerat sin asylansökan hos Migrationsverket före och efter den 24 november 2015 jämförs. Detta datum avgör om barn och barnfamiljer behandlas enligt den gamla eller den tillfälliga lagen, och därmed om de har möjlighet att få permanenta eller tillfälliga uppehållstillstånd. Resultaten visar att individer på olika sidor om datumgränsen inte verkar skilja sig åt i förutbestämda variabler, vilket tyder på att de inte har haft möjlighet att bestämma vilken sida av datumgränsen de hamnat på. Individer som passerat gränsen har signifikant lägre sannolikhet att få permanenta uppehållstillstånd, minskningen är dock marginell. Det beror troligen på att uppföljningsperioden är kort. Som indikation på hur incitamenten att komma in på arbetsmarknaden påverkas av reformen studeras invandrartäthet samt arbetslöshetsnivå i de län som sökande bor i ett år efter ankomsten. Resultaten tyder på att individer som fick sin ansökan registrerad efter brytpunkten inte bor i län där invandrartätheten eller arbetslösheten är annorlunda. Även detta kan bero på att det än så länge gått för kort tid för att kunna se några effekter. / This paper studies how the temporary residence permits affects immigrants’ incentives to enter the Swedish labor market. One of the reasons behind the adoption of the temporary permits was – in addition to provide Swedish refugee reception a relief – to give immigrants stronger incentives to enter the labor market. To study this, a Regression Discontinuity design study is done, where individuals who had their asylum application registered at the Swedish Migration Agency before and after November 24, 2015 are compared. This date will determine if children and families are treated by the old or the temporary law, and thus if they can get permanent or temporary residence permit.   The results show that individuals on different sides of the dateline do not seem to differ in predetermined variables, suggesting that they have not been able to decide which side of the dateline they are on. Individuals who crossed the threshold are significantly less likely to have permanent residence permits, the decrease is however marginal. This is probably because the follow-up period is short. As an indication of how the incentives to enter the labor market are affected by the reform, immigrant density and unemployment rate in the county that the applicant lives in a year after the arrival is used. The results suggest that individuals who registered their applications after the threshold does not live in counties with a different immigrant density or unemployment rate. This as well can be due to that the follow-up period is short.

The problem arising from the study of the student worker may be considered under the following divisions: 1. To recognize the attempts that have been made to provide an educational program agreeable to both church and college. 2. To make a study of the student worker, considering his qualifications, his duties, his age, and his salary; to discover the number of student workers placed on Southern state college campuses by the Baptist, Episcopalian, Methodist and Presbyterian denominations; and to list as accurately as possible these student workers, indicating whether they are full-time or part-time workers, stating the college or university in which they work and giving the denomination which employs them. 3. To state the conclusion and outlooks resulting from the study of the student worker.

This dissertation investigates food safety regulations and international trade of agricultural products dividing into three aspects: the signalling effect from U.S. strict food safety regulations on U.S. vegetable exports, political determinants of sanitary and photosanitary non-tariff barriers, and the impact of trade barriers on employment in developing countries. In chapter 2, we investigate the impact of high U.S. maximum residue limit (MRL) standards on U.S vegetable exports to 102 countries utilizing the hierarchical model. MRL, which is one of non-tariff barriers with respect to food safety, is applied to home and foreign countries at the same time. Thus, firms in countries with higher food safety standards are expected to have a competitive advantage from the ‘signalling effect’. The results show that high MRL standards in the U.S. have a positive impact on U.S. vegetable exports, indicating the ‘signalling effect’ from the strict U.S. domestic MRL standards. The results provide policy makers with insights into how strict food safety regulations of the home country can be considered as a catalyst for increasing competitiveness in international markets. In chapter 3, we examine the political determinants of SPS notifications using a nonlinear threshold model with possible threshold variables (GDP per capita and tariff rate). This article finds no threshold values in both variables of GDP per capita and tariff rate. Our results also show that GDP per capita has a positive relationship with SPS notifications that are one of proxy variables for food quality. That implies the importance of quality competition in agriculture and food sectors. Our finding also represents no significant effect of tariff on SPS notifications. This indicates that a law of constant protection, presenting an inverse relationship between tariff and non-tariff barriers, is not satisfied in the agricultural and food sectors. In chapter 4, we investigate the impact of tariff and SPS barriers on food manufacturers’ skilled and unskilled employment in developing countries utilizing a structural equation model. Results show that both tariff and SPS barriers have a positive effect on unskilled labor employment in developing countries, while trade barriers are not associated with skilled labor employment. This implies that Hecksher-Ohlin theory, presenting labor abundant countries have a comparative advantage in labor-intensive industries such as food, explains well our results since developing countries are abundant in low-skilled labor. We also find that the age of food firm in developing countries is positively related to skilled employment; however, no relationship with unskilled employment. This implies that older food firms change their production process from labor intensive to capital or machine intensive.