In the labor market, workers can increase their chances of meeting potential employers through costly search. My first chapter aims to empirically quantify the search intensity of workers, both employed and unemployed. My second chapter develops a theoretical model to study the optimal unemployment insurance with search intensity endogenously chosen by unemployed workers. I devote my third chapter to empirical identification of whether major illness leads to persistent household poverty in rural China. My first chapter studies the search behaviors both on and off the job, and the effect of search intensity on wage determination. Four determinants of wages are considered: productivity, workers’ bargaining power, competition between employers due to on-the-job search, and search intensity. I estimate the structural model using the 2001 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), together with supplementary information from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). The empirical results demonstrate that search intensity declines as the worker gets a wage rise from her current job. My second chapter addresses the efficiency issues arising from the externalities and hidden-action features of search effort. The solution to the social planner’s problem may not be decentralized in a competitive market. Calibration shows that the current US unemployment insurance (UI) system generates an 8.07% welfare loss relative to the socially optimal allocation. In the third chapter, I use a unique dataset on Chinese rural households to test whether severe illness can cripple a rural household’s economic resources leading to temporary and/or persistent poverty. When health shocks are assumed to be exogenous, in the sense that households cannot control the arrival rate of adverse health shocks by choosing the amount of medical expenditures, a Markov regime-switching regression model reveals no significant evidence that a severe illness causes persistent household poverty. To endogenize health shocks and choices on medical expenses, a dynamic structural model is employed. The structural estimates support the view that major illness leads to persistent household poverty. / text

The allocations of health care resources in Bangladesh are not based on the needs of the population. Equality in health care expenditure can be achieved by the use of needs-based resource allocation formulae. Applying such methods in Bangladesh can provide an essential guideline to achieve equality in resource allocation. This thesis examines the prospect of developing a needs-based allocation of health care resources. It attempts to address the counterfactual question of what would have been the allocation to each district had the needs of the population been accounted for. Two alternative approaches are considered. The first uses a simple capitation formula in which weights for the adjustment of the current allocation are generated directly based on the relative values of proxies for needs. The second approach predicts adjustment weights from the estimation of a standard econometric model of needs, controlling for a range of determinants including individual, household and district characteristics. Important predictors of current allocation were found to be the number of hospital beds and health workers rather than need factors. Important predictors of needs include demographic and socio-economic characteristics. The findings suggest that a needs-based allocation can be developed for Bangladesh. This research provides an alternative approach to generating weights showing systematic relationships between the need adjustment factors. The robustness of the methods used will be sensitive to the quality of the data and the assumptions of the models. As these approaches are based on sound economic analysis and are open to independent assessment, they will help to inform policy debate and can reduce the influence of politically motivated allocations. A gradual process of implementation and regular review of the methods used would be a way forward. Future areas of research may include: re-analysing data at smaller area level and use of different components of allocations.

published_or_final_version / Social Sciences / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2007. / "August, 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-52). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Auburn University, 2005. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-181).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed June 16, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-113).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1932. / Vita. Published also without thesis note. Bibliography: p. [89-91].

Thesis (D.P.H.)--University of Michigan, 1945. / Typewritten (carbon copy). Vol. II, with title ... Illustrative index, contains various letters and documents, most of which are mounted photostatic copies. Bibliography: v. 1, leaves 367-372.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in Economics." Includes bibliographical references (p. 81-89).