Submitted by isabela.moljf@hotmail.com (isabela.moljf@hotmail.com) on 2016-08-10T12:20:58Z No. of bitstreams: 1 luiscarlosfalcaocorreia.pdf: 1354537 bytes, checksum: 9923b5e459d1530ba2234ee5be8348b0 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-08-10T13:03:22Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 luiscarlosfalcaocorreia.pdf: 1354537 bytes, checksum: 9923b5e459d1530ba2234ee5be8348b0 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-10T13:03:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 luiscarlosfalcaocorreia.pdf: 1354537 bytes, checksum: 9923b5e459d1530ba2234ee5be8348b0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-05-10 / O objetivo desta dissertação é compreender os efeitos do Programa Bolsa Família (PBF) sobre o mercado de trabalho de seus beneficiários e analisar alguns de seus possíveis efeitos adversos. O PBF é uma transferência de renda destinada às famílias de baixa renda com o intuito de aliviar a condição de pobreza extrema e gerar capital humano por meio das condicionalidades. Utilizou-se nas análises um painel longitudinal de dados provenientes das duas rodadas da Pesquisas de Avaliação de Impacto do Programa Bolsa Família (AIBF I e II, conduzidas nos anos de 2005 e 2009, respectivamente) realizada por contratação do Ministério de Desenvolvimento Social e Combate à Fome (MDS). A metodologia empregada teve como base o método das diferenças em diferenças concomitante ao pareamento por escore de propensão. Os resultados empíricos obtidos ajudam a refutar a hipótese do “efeito preguiça”, demonstram um incentivo à sub-declaração da renda dos beneficiários; um aumento da informalidade laboral e um desincentivo à procura por trabalho dos indivíduos beneficiários. / The aim of this dissertation is to understand the effects of the Bolsa Familia Programme (PBF) over the labor market of its beneficiaries and analyze its likely adverse effects. The PBF is a conditional cash transfer designated to low income household in order to alleviate extreme poverty and generate human capital through its conditionalities. It was used a longitudinal panel data made of first and second PBF impact evaluation surveys (held in 2005 and 2009, respectively) performed by hiring of the Ministry of Social Development and Fight against Hunger (MDS). The methodology applied was the difference in differences combined with the propensity score matching. The empirical results obtained, help to disprove the hypothesis of "laziness effect", demonstrate an incentive to under-reporting of income of the beneficiaries; an increase in labor informality and a disincentive to looking for new jobs for the beneficiary individuals.

Submitted by Caroline Xavier (caroline.xavier@pucrs.br) on 2017-08-07T13:36:00Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DIS_OTAVIO_CANOZZI_CONCEICAO_COMPLETO.pdf: 1480241 bytes, checksum: 6c742bea6a2e5e1360c0f6751123d488 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-07T13:36:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DIS_OTAVIO_CANOZZI_CONCEICAO_COMPLETO.pdf: 1480241 bytes, checksum: 6c742bea6a2e5e1360c0f6751123d488 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-23 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior - CAPES / The present dissertation evaluates the Science without Borders program focusing on three outcome variables. To achieve this goal, the work is divided into two essays. The first essay addresses the causal impact of the program on the performance of CsF alumni from the 2013 National Student Performance Exam (ENADE) microdata. The results are compared with two control groups: the first composed by students who also made international academic mobility, but through other initiatives and the second by the non-exchange students. The strategy of comparing the CsF?s alumni with the exchange students aims to mitigate the problems of self-selection, because we can expect more similar characteristics between these groups, both with regard to motivation to study abroad and observable characteristics. The methodology used was the Propensity Score Matching (PSM), using different pairing algorithms to check the validity of the findings. The results show that the alumni of the program present better grades than the exchange students, both in the general formation part and in the specific component of the ENADE exam. The second essay examines dropout and completion rates in the CsF students? course from the microdata of the Higher Education Census of 2014 and 2015. For this purpose, a panel of students was constructed, divided into the same groups of the first essay, which allowed to identify their trajectories in the course. The methodology used involved two techniques: a multinomial logit and the Markov transition matrices. The evidence found shows that CsF students evades more the course and conclude it at lower rates in the expected time, according to the serial grade of the course, than both comparison groups. The results of the multinomial logit model, controlling characteristics of individuals, institutions, courses and regions, suggest that the program has a ceteris paribus effect on the extension of student time in the university. / A presente disserta??o avalia o programa Ci?ncia Sem Fronteiras (CsF) com foco em tr?s vari?veis de resultado. Para atingir esse objetivo, o trabalho est? dividido em dois ensaios. O primeiro ensaio trata do impacto causal do programa sobre o desempenho dos ex-bolsistas do CsF a partir dos microdados do Exame Nacional de Desempenho dos Estudantes (ENADE) de 2013. Os resultados s?o analisados comparativamente a dois grupos de controle: o primeiro composto por estudantes que tamb?m realizaram interc?mbio acad?mico internacional, por?m por interm?dio de outras iniciativas e o segundo por n?o intercambistas. A estrat?gia de compar?-los com os intercambistas visa mitigar os problemas de autossele??o, porque se espera caracter?sticas mais semelhantes entre esses grupos, tanto no que tange ? motiva??o para estudar no exterior quanto em caracter?sticas observ?veis. A metodologia empregada foi o Propensity Score Matching (PSM), sendo utilizados diferentes algoritmos de pareamento para conferir validade aos achados. Os resultados revelam que os ex-bolsistas do programa apresentam melhores notas que os intercambistas, tanto na parte de forma??o geral quanto no componente espec?fico da prova do ENADE. O segundo ensaio analisa a evas?o e a taxa de conclus?o no curso de alunos do CsF a partir dos microdados do Censo da Educa??o Superior de 2014 e 2015. Para tanto, construiu-se um painel de estudantes, divididos de acordo com os mesmos grupos do primeiro ensaio, que permitiu identificar suas trajet?rias no curso. A metodologia utilizada envolveu duas t?cnicas: um logit multinomial e as matrizes de transi??o de Markov. As evid?ncias encontradas mostram que os alunos do CsF trancam mais o curso e se formam a menores taxas no tempo esperado, de acordo com a grade seriada do curso, do que ambos os grupos de compara??o. Os resultados do modelo logit multinomial, controlando caracter?sticas dos indiv?duos, das institui??es, cursos e regi?es, sugerem que o programa tem um efeito ceteris paribus sobre a prorroga??o do tempo do aluno na universidade.

This thesis consists of three essays that examine issues on university attendance behavior, factorsof university completion, and the labor market value of a university diploma in Sweden. Essay [I] analyzes how the rapid expansion of higher education that increased the geographicalaccessibility to higher education in the 1990s affected university enrollment decisions amongvarious socioeconomic groups of young adults in Sweden. The empirical findings show that theprobability of enrollment in university education increases with accessibility to universityeducation. The results also indicate that accessibility adds to the likelihood of attending auniversity within the region of residence. Access to higher education more locally seems to havedecreased the social distance to higher education, meaning that the option of attending highereducation, as compared to entering the local labor market after upper secondary school, hasbecome a more common and a more natural alternative for more socioeconomic groups insociety. Essay [II] compares the performance of students in universities built before and after the largedecentralization and expansion of the higher educational system in Sweden, starting in the late1970s. Two outcome measures are used: (i) whether or not the student has obtained a degreewithin seven years after she initiated her studies; and (ii) whether or not she obtained 120 creditpoints (the requirement for most undergraduate degrees) within seven years. Controlling forseveral background variables as well as GPA scores in a binomial probit model, we show thatstudents at old universities are about 5 percentage points more likely to get a degree and about 9percentage points more likely to obtain 120 credit points. However, in an extended bivariatemodel where we consider selection on unobservables into university type, we cannot reject thepossibility of no difference in performance between the two university types. Essay [III] analyzes the labor market value of a university diploma (sheepskin) in Sweden. Incontrast to previous studies, this study only focuses on Swedish university students who havethree years of full time university education or more − where some have obtained a universitydegree, others not. The results show that for male students, the wage premium of possessing adegree, i.e. the sheepskin effect, is roughly 5-8 percent. For women, it is about 6-7 percent forthose who have completed four years of fulltime or more. For students who attended a moreprestigious university in the metropolitan areas in Sweden and majored in the natural sciences, asheepskin effect of roughly 13 percent for men and 22 percent for women is traced. However,this result did not hold among students who attended. Keywords: Higher education, university enrollment; university choice; accessibility; universitycompletion; selection bias; propensity score matching, sheepskin, human capital.

Questo lavoro analizza le determinanti dell’abbandono scolastico nel settore della Further Education in Inghilterra. In particolare, il primo capitolo descrive i modelli teorici per l’analisi dell’abbandono scolastico e fornisce una revisione della letteratura sulle principali determinanti dell’abbandono scolastico. Il secondo capitolo si concentra sugli effetti della dimensione delle scuole e delle aree di insegnamento sulla probabilita’ di abbandono parziale e totale. Introduce il concetto di abbandono parziale, dimostrando che gli studenti che hanno abbandonato lo studio di alcune ma non tutte le materie a cui si erano iscritti reagiscono a cambiamenti nella dimensione delle scuole e delle aree di insegnamento in maniera simile agli studenti che abbandonano completamente gli studi. Il terzo capitolo analizza l’effetto causale dell’iscrizione a istituzioni di Further Education che sono state recentemente fuse sulla probabilita’ di non completare gli studi. Utilizziamo la tecnica del propensity score matching e controlliamo la qualita’ del matching e la sensibilita’ delle stime al fallimento dell’assunzione di unconfoundedness. I nostri risultati dimostrano che iscriversi ad una scuola oggetto di fusione riduce la probabilita’ di abbandonale gli studi. / This work analyses the determinants of dropout behavior in the Further Education sector in England. More specifically, the first chapter describe the theoretical framework for the analysis of student withdrawal and provides a review of the literature on the main determinants of dropout behavior. The second chapter focuses on the effect of college and programme area size on the probability of dropping out both partially and completely. It introduces the concept of partial dropout showing that students that dropped out of some modules but not all the ones they were enrolled on react to changes in college and programme area size similarly to the ones that dropped out completely. The third chapter analyses the causal effect of enrolling in a recently merged Further Education college on the probability of dropping out. We employ the propensity score matching approach and check the quality of our matching and the sensitivity of the estimates to the failure of the unconfoundedness assumption. Our findings show that enrolling in a merged college reduces the probability of dropping out.

An awareness of the effect of agricultural production on the environment has led to the development of policies to mitigate its adverse effects. This dissertation provides analyses of agri-environmental policies designed to protect environmental assets, as well as analytical decision-making tools useful for conducting policy evaluations. The first essay employs propensity score matching techniques to estimate the additionality of federal agricultural conservation programs for six conservation practices for farmers in Ohio. Additionality is an important measure of the effectiveness of conservation programs in inducing an increase in the conservation effort of farmers. Results suggest that additionality is positive and statistically significant for all six conservation practices. However, while programs achieve positive additionality for all practice types, a comparison between conservation practices reveals that certain practice types achieve higher percent additionality than others. Such results, coupled with information on the environmental benefits obtained per practice, could prove useful to program managers for improving the effectiveness of conservation programs. The second essay develops a new methodology to decompose the additionality measure into the two effects induced by conservation programs: expansion versus the new adoption of conservation practices. To do so, the relative contributions of two types of farmers, prior-adopters and new-adopters, are estimated. Results of the decomposition reveal that the additionality for prior-adopters is not significant for all practice types. Instead, additional conservation effort comes from new-adopters adopting new practices. Second, decomposition estimates suggest that practice types with a greater fraction of enrolled farmers that are new-adopters achieve greater percent additionality than those with greater proportions of prior-adopters. This suggests that a farmers? history in conservation adoption has a significant influence on additionality levels. The final essay analyzes the effect of recent instream flow diversion-guidelines on agricultural water security and streamflows within a decentralized water management regime. Spatially-explicit economic and hydrologic models are integrated to evaluate the tradeoffs between salmon bypass-flows and agricultural water security for three different diversion-guidelines within a northern-California watershed. Results indicate that the most restrictive diversion-guideline provides the greatest protection of bypass-flow days within smaller watersheds; however, within larger watersheds protection is not as significant. Water security, however, decreases sharply under the strict and moderate diversion-guidelines, especially during dry years. Overall, results indicate that greater focus should be given to protecting streamflows in the smallest watersheds, and meeting human water needs during dry years, when agricultural water security is impacted the most.

This thesis estimates the treatment effect of inflation targeting adoption on inflation, inflation variability, output, and output variability for 25 explicit inflation targeting countries. I implement the propensity score matching methodology that takes into account the problems of non-experimental nature, such as selection bias or selection on observable, and allows me to effectively mimic properties of randomized experiment and compute unbiased treatment effect estimates. I introduce a variety of propensity score matching methods that were recently developed in the treatment effect literature, including Nearest Neighbor, Radius matching, Kernel matching, and Inverse Probability Weighting. The results indicate that both industrial and developing inflation targeting countries exhibit lower inflation levels and at the same time higher output growth than non-targeting countries. The estimates are however in most cases statistically insignificant. Moreover, it appears that both industrial and developing countries achieve combination of lower inflation variability and output variability compared to non-targeting countries. Nonetheless, majority of the estimates are again statistically insignificant. The results are to a small extent sensitive to the choice of propensity score matching method. Radius matching with tight calipers (r=0.005, r=0.001) tends to provide the most reliable estimates. Balancing properties of the models are reasonable and compared to the previous research the standardised biases are quantitatively better.

Independent and supplementary prescribing are the two main forms of non-medical prescribing (NMP) that have been practised in the UK since 2006. Most available studies have qualitatively investigated the impact of NMP, especially in primary care. This may be due to the fact that prescriptions are issued mainly by general practitioners in primary care. This PhD thesis aimed at investigating the clinical effectiveness of independent pharmacist and diabetes specialist nurse (DSN) prescribers in the management of patients with type 2 diabetes at outpatient clinics in hospitals. A literature review was firstly conducted to explore the current research on NMP around the world and the UK. A systematic review of the previously published randomised control trials (RCT) and non-RCT studies that focused on prescribing interventions of nurses and pharmacist was also conducted to explore the impact of their prescribing interventions in treating type 2 diabetes using HbA1c level as the primary outcome. A programme of work of three retrospective comparative database analytical studies was then carried out to investigate the impact of independent NMPs in type 2 diabetes care. This programme of work used electronic medical records of patients attending outpatient clinics of diabetes centres in two teaching hospitals in Manchester; one employed an independent pharmacist and the other employed DSN prescribers. A group of subjects seen by an NMP in place of a doctor during the study period were the study group and the control group were those who seen only by doctors. The primary outcome was the average yearly change of HbA1c amongst the two groups. Secondary outcomes were yearly change of total cholesterol, blood pressure and serum creatinine as well as body mass index. Five statistical models, which included multivariable regression, propensity score matching and sensitivity analyses, were utilised to control for confounding effects, and the nature of selection bias in the retrospectively comparative effectiveness research using secondary database resources. A total of 330 patients seen by a team including a pharmacist versus 975 by doctors only between January 2006 and January 2013 at one site; and 656 by a team including DSNs versus 3,746 patients seen by doctors only between January 2007 to December 2013 at the other. The studies found both prescribing pharmacists and DSNs are capable of achieving at least non-inferior improvements in diabetes outcome compared to doctors. The pharmacist achieved a mean 0.01% reduction in HbA1c level versus doctors who achieved slight increase (p<0.4). DSNs also achieved a mean 0.07% reduction compared to doctors. However, after adjustment with multivariate and propensity score as well as with propensity score matching, there were no significant differences between the two groups. These findings were consistent with the findings in the systemic review. Although an RCT is the only method that by definition would produce unbiased treatment effects, the use of propensity score methods here, have reduced the potential for bias that may remain unaccounted for in multivariate models without propensity scores. Adjusting for propensity scores using two different methods also gives more confidence that the results are as unbiased as possible. Nonetheless, caution in generalising the results is necessary because of the retrospective nature of the studies and deficiencies in the database used.

La presente investigación, ganadora del Concurso Anual de Investigación CIES 2018, cuenta con el auspicio de Global Affairs Canada (GAC), el Centro Internacional de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo (IDRC, por sus siglas en inglés), la Fundación Manuel J. Bustamante De la Fuente y la Superintendencia Nacional de Aduanas y de Administración Tributaria (SUNAT). / Este documento examina el impacto de la membresía cooperativa agropecuaria sobre los rendimientos financiero y productivo en los años 2015 y 2016. Empleamos los modelos Propensity Score Matching y Pooled OLS sobre los datos del Censo de Cooperativas y de la Encuesta Nacional Agropecuaria. Nuestro análisis revela que la membresía cooperativa afecta positivamente los rendimientos en los sectores agrario y agropecuario, pero no en el sector pecuario. Dicho impacto supera los impactos estimados para otras formas de asociatividad. Asimismo, se encuentra un efecto spillover positivo de una localidad con alta presencia cooperativa sobre localidades aledañas. Finalmente, se descubre que la participación femenina en directorios cooperativos agropecuarios también influye positivamente sobre los rendimientos de los productores agropecuarios. / This research examines the impact of agricultural cooperative membership on financial and productive performance in 2015 and 2016. We use the Propensity Score Matching and Pooled OLS models on the data from the Cooperative Census and the National Agricultural Survey. Our analysis reveals that cooperative membership positively affects yields in the agrarian and agricultural sectors, but not in the livestock sector. This impact exceeds the estimated impacts for other types of associativity. Likewise, there is a positive spillover effect of a locality with high cooperative presence over nearby localities yields. Finally, it is discovered that the participation of women in agricultural cooperative directories also positively influences the yields of agricultural producers.

Studier visar att strokesjukvården i Sverige har en ojämn kvalitet. Denna studie syftar till att vidare undersöka möjliga ojämlikheter i strokevården. I uppsatsen undersöktes huruvida födelseland påverkar hur patienter som insjuknat i stroke skattar sin hälsa, nöjdhet med vården och nedstämdhet. Därtill jämfördes två statistiska metoder som kan hantera skillnader i patientsammansättning (t.ex. ålder och andra bakgrundsfaktorer), vilka var multipel logistisk regression och propensity score matching följt av konditionell logistisk regression. Båda metoderna gav signifikanta resultat. Resultatet visade att det är troligare att uppskatta sin allmänna hälsa som dålig, vara missnöjd med vården och vara nedstämd ofta eller ständigt för patienter födda utanför Sverige jämfört med de födda i Sverige, oberoende av vilken metod som användes. Propensity score matching visade större påverkan av födelseland på de undersökta responsvariablerna jämfört med multipel logistisk regression. Däremot var resultaten från multipel logistisk regression mer precisa.

<p>This dissertation investigates whether dual credit students' academic performance in subsequent university courses is comparable to that of non-dual-credit students. The study uses data from a Midwest regional public university over a ten-year period and employs propensity score matching and proportional odds ordinal logistic regression to create balanced comparison groups and analyze the results. The findings indicate that students who completed the prerequisite course as dual credit have similar grades in subsequent university courses as those who completed the prerequisite course as a university student. The study also identifies significant predictors of academic performance in subsequent university courses, such as sex, historically underserved groups status, high school GPA, and course subject, regardless of dual credit status. However, first-generation status, SAT scores, and the time between courses are not statistically significant predictors. These results suggest that dual credit students are as prepared for subsequent university courses as non-dual-credit students. Nevertheless, academic outcomes differ based on certain factors, which should be considered when designing student success initiatives and allocating resources.</p>