This thesis examines the labor force participation decisions of married couples, and special attention is paid to a spouse’s health conditions affecting their own and the spouse’s labor force participation decision. I used the Health and Retirement Study survey data and estimated a seemingly unrelated bivariate probit model. A number of variables besides health condition were added: age, education level, and family unearned income. The results of this research paper support the findings from the relevant literature that the labor supply decisions of the husband and wife are related. The oldest age group is least likely to work. The younger the husband, the more likely it is that the husband will work. At the ages between 40 and 49, wives have the biggest probability to work. The higher the education level, the more likely it is that a spouse is going to work. The more total family unearned income, the less probable the spouse will go to work. Poor health has a negative effect on labor force participation and a positive effect for the spouse’s labor force participation.

This thesis examines the labor force participation decisions of married couples, and special attention is paid to a spouse’s health conditions affecting their own and the spouse’s labor force participation decision. I used the Health and Retirement Study survey data and estimated a seemingly unrelated bivariate probit model. A number of variables besides health condition were added: age, education level, and family unearned income. The results of this research paper support the findings from the relevant literature that the labor supply decisions of the husband and wife are related. The oldest age group is least likely to work. The younger the husband, the more likely it is that the husband will work. At the ages between 40 and 49, wives have the biggest probability to work. The higher the education level, the more likely it is that a spouse is going to work. The more total family unearned income, the less probable the spouse will go to work. Poor health has a negative effect on labor force participation and a positive effect for the spouse’s labor force participation.

Master of Arts / Department of Economics / William F. Blankenau / This paper describes the socioeconomic determinants of school dropout for Vietnamese children aged 11-18. It seeks to answer the following two questions: 1) What is the magnitude of the dropout rate for children between the ages of 11-18 and how does this figure change over time? 2) What are the determinants that affect the decision to drop out of school? This paper is based largely on the two Vietnam Living Standard Surveys (VLSS) conducted in 2004 and 2006. A probit model is used to ascertain the major determinants affecting the probability to drop out of school. The decision to drop out of school is affected by key factors including the child’s demographic characteristics (such as age, gender, ethnicity, and regions where they are living) and the child’s household’s situation (such as income per capita, cost of schooling, household size, and parental education). In particular, age and household size have significantly positive effects on the dropout probability. The dropout rate is also shown to vary between girls and boys, but this gender gap has narrowed substantially. Minority girls face more obstacles in staying school than minority boys. The school dropout rate is also very sensitive to changes in the household’s income and cost of schooling. However, the cost of schooling has different impacts on families in different quintiles. Region is another determinant affecting child’s decision to drop out of school. Vietnam’s population is unequally distributed in 8 regions with different socio-economic conditions, and hence the dropout situation is also regionally specific. Moreover, the parents’ perception of the value of education may increase the child’s probability of school retention. Since it is difficult to measure parental attitude to schooling, the paper uses parents’ education level instead, assuming that parents who have more education will appreciate education more.

Using a unique panel data set for German grocery prices we find significant price synchronization within food retail chains as well as within individual food stores (between products). Price synchronization between chains appears to be less pronounced. Common shocks can only explain some synchronization, indicating that strategic motives as well as menu costs are of significant importance. (author's abstract) / Series: Working Papers Series "Growth and Employment in Europe: Sustainability and Competitiveness"

With evidence of increasing hurricane risks in Georgia Coastal Area (GCA) and Virginia in the U.S. Southeast and elsewhere, understanding intended evacuation behavior is becoming more and more important for community planners. My research investigates intended evacuation behavior due to hurricane risks, a behavioral survey of the six counties in GCA under the direction of two social scientists with extensive experience in survey research related to citizen and household response to emergencies and disasters. Respondents gave answers whether they would evacuate under both voluntary and mandatory evacuation orders. Bivariate probit models are used to investigate the subjective belief structure of whether or not the respondents are concerned about the hurricane, and the intended probability of evacuating as a function of risk perception, and a lot of demographic and socioeconomic variables (e.g., gender, military, age, length of residence, owning vehicles).

Yes / Despite a growing literature, the relationship between financing constraints (FC), intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and firm innovation remains unclear within the transitional country context. Drawing on endogenous growth theory and extending the Gorodnichenko and Schnitzer (2013) framework, we hypothesize that in addition to firm-specific factors, country-level variables manifested within FC hamper incremental innovation, albeit in varying degrees due to industry heterogeneity. Secondly, as opposed to previous studies that solely focus on FC affecting firm innovation, we propose that due to resource constraints, firms in transition economies tend to follow an imitational innovation strategy, and therefore, from this perspective, IPR protection can be crucial for firm-level innovation within those economies. Using data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) consisting of information for about 21,960 firms from 27 Eastern European and Central Asian transition countries and employing a two-step probit model with endogenous regressors, we find that adverse effects of FC and IPR on firms' innovation activities are driven from within as well as between industries. Focusing on the differential impacts of FC and IPR protection across industries, we direct potential causal pathways from easing FC and optimal IPR protection to encourage firms' innovation. Based on the findings, while very strict IPR protection is detrimental to firms' product and process innovation in industries with limited resource and skill capabilities, it is nevertheless helpful for research and development (R&D) activities in industries characterised by strong R&D and IP capacities. Our results offer useful insights for policymakers to support incremental innovation as well as boost invention. IPR protection policies require to be customised to the industries and firms, since invariably tight or lax IPR enforcement can be discouraging to both incremental and radical innovation, causing all industries suffering from the same treatment.

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本文利用行政院衛生署國民健康局於民國92 年所進行之「台灣地區 中老年身心社會生活狀況長期追蹤第五次調查」資料，實証模型採用 Orderd Probit Model，分別檢驗全體樣本以及依所有權屬分類的樣本(房 屋自有者、房屋子女所有者、租屋者)，探討個人特性、房屋所有權屬、 房屋及周遭環境特性對於台灣地區老年人房屋滿意度的影響。 全體樣本實証結果顯示，在個人特性變數中，年齡愈大、教育年數愈 長、有伴侶、自覺健康狀況較佳及滿意居住安排者，對於房屋滿意度有顯 著正向的影響，而男性及外省籍則對房屋滿意度有顯著負向的影響。而在 所有權屬的不同來源中，有趣的發現是部分自己購買比全額自己購買影響 程度為大，全額資助子女比部分資助子女影響程度為大。在房屋及周遭環 境特性上，居住在鄉鎮、平均每人坪數愈大、居住時間四年以上、覺得居 住環境安全有保障、滿意周遭環境、參與社會活動皆對於房屋滿意度有顯 著正向的影響。 在不同樣本群的房屋滿意度，構成自有屋主的滿意度因素，與全體樣 本的因素相差不遠。而在房屋為子女所有以及租屋者的樣本群，顯著影響 的變數則不太相同，這顯示了構成不同樣本群房屋滿意度的因素並不相 同。 關鍵字：房屋滿意度、所有權屬、Orderd Probit Model

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of the Business Opportunity Projects (BOPs) that the Swedish Trade Council uses when promoting export for small enterprises. The Business Opportunity Projects have the same type of setup for all offices where the Swedish Trade Council is established and are subsidized by 60 percent from the government. A dataset on firms’ financial state on a ten year basis is used and survey interviews conducted in 2005/06 and 2007/08. From this data three types of methods are used; a calculations on expected values of return; a panel data model and a probit model.The results show that the expected return of one project is around 250 000 SEK and if the project is successful the average return is around 1 000 000 SEK. The governmental return is around 22 times the invested money. The probability of creating business volume directly or indirectly is around 45 percent. It is also shown that the projects have an impact on the export turnover of the participating firms. The effect comes after two years and it increases until four years after the BOP. The interpretation of the exact effect should be made with caution due to estimation issues. The result also indicates that the BOP generates around 1.5 employees on averages.The results show that the participating firms do not have advantage being larger, or being from the middle region of Sweden nor in a specific branch in order to have a successful project. Firms from north part of Sweden that have a slightly smaller chance of having a successful project, if the project is made in Western European offices, the firms have a higher probability to succeed compared to other offices.

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