This dissertation investigates the political incentives for redistribution of income and allocation policies in competitive democracies. In Chapter 2, I examine incentives for political redistribution through in-kind transfers. By analyzing the political game between office-motivated politicians and self-interested citizens, I first show that in economies with competitive markets in-kind transfers are not required. Politicians can win elections targeting groups of voters with differential cash transfers. However, in-kind transfers arise in the presence of externalities in consumption. In that case, targeting groups of voters with in-kind rather than cash transfers allows politicians to attract simultaneously voters in additional groups with the same amount of resources. Politicians undertake political redistribution depending on the expected electoral returns obtained from targeting both cash and in-kind transfers into different groups. Furthermore, electoral competition leads the economy to achieve Pareto efficient allocations that markets cannot reach. Politicians internalize the presence of external effects when competing for marginal voters who could swing their vote. In Chapter 3, this dissertation investigates the politicians' incentives to pursue income redistribution when governments are constrained to levy taxes on labor income and this creates distortions. Politicians who strive to be elected may strategically redistribute through in-kind rather than cash transfers and overprovide consumption of goods. I show that the overprovision of in-kind transfers reduces the disincentive effects of taxation in labor effort and enlarges the pool of resources for political redistribution. As a result, politicians are able to implement larger redistributive transfers and improve the well-being of swing voters. Hence, electoral competition for pivotal voters provides politicians incentives to implement redistributive schedules that reduce distortions in labor markets and improve the efficiency of the taxation system. In Chapter 4, I investigate the effect of ideological preferences over the public provision of goods on the scope of government and the political redistribution of income. I first point out that the presence of both ideological politicians who compete for office and electoral uncertainty generates a partisanship effect. In particular, I show that pro-market (right-wing) politicians commit to lower public provision of goods and taxation schedules that implement larger income inequality than pro-government (left-wing) politicians. Furthermore, I find out that the public funding of goods through income taxation confers an electoral advantage to pro-market ideological positions. In fact, pro-market politicians can court moderate pro-leftist voters by promises of higher income which pro-government politicians are not willing to fund completely. As a result, right-wing party exhibits larger chances of winning elections and its proposal supports lower ideological sacrifice than the left-wing party.

This dissertation explores the behavior of health care providers and consumers, with a focus on understanding how changes in health policies affect the efficiency and quality of care of health care systems. Chapter 1 evaluates the impact of a change in Medicare reimbursements for nursing wages on hospital production decisions. Chapter 2 evaluates the impact of Medicare coverage policies on the utilization of cardiac catheterization and coronary angiography. Chapter 3 evaluates the impact of receiving treatment with antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS on the demand for substance use.

In the first chapter, I measure the impact of student loan debt on young, college-educated workers' decisions regarding labor supply and enrollment in graduate school. I exploit variation in student loan debt driven by the formulas that determine Federal Student Aid in order to identify these effects. Instrumental variable estimates indicate that in the initial years following graduation student loan debt seems to raise the likelihood of employment; the effect is most pronounced for female graduates. However, the evidence does not indicate that debt causes workers to opt into different types of occupations, as has been shown to be true among certain populations. Student loan debt also seems to lower the likelihood that an individual will obtain a graduate degree. These effects are too large to be consistent with the permanent income model, which predicts that graduates will effectively spread loan repayment over their lifetimes, causing only negligible changes in behavior during any single period. In the third chapter I examine lending mechanisms in the federal student loan program. Since the passage of the Higher Education Act in 1965, American students have been able to finance post-secondary education with federally subsidized loans. Until very recently students were able to access this credit through two channels; directly from the federal government or as a guaranteed loan from a private lender. The objective of this paper is to estimate the difference in loan default rates across the two lending programs. Since the programs serve distinct groups of students quasi-experimental estimation techniques are used to estimate this difference. The estimates suggest that the moral hazard created by the loan guarantee leads private lenders to generate higher rates of student loan default than direct lending. In the final chapter, I estimate the temporal pattern of earnings losses faced by displaced workers eligible for the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program. Data from the 2001 Survey of Income and Program Participation and is used to perform an event study analysis. The resulting evidence indicates that displaced workers face decrease earnings in the months prior to displacement, a large drop in earnings during the month of displacement and losses that persist up to 6 months after displacement. Displaced workers eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance face a similar pattern of earnings loss, but experience less loss during the period of displacement and greater losses during the period following displacement. Beyond the first month after displacement workers eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance do not experience losses in excess of other displaced workers. I also find that workers Eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance face higher rates of unemployment in the first three months following a displacement. By the fourth month the rate of unemployment is not different from other displaced workers. This evidence suggests that the additional benefits provided to unemployed workers under the Trade Adjustment Assistance program may not be warranted; these workers do not face persistent losses that exceed the losses experiences by other displaced workers.

The dissertation analyzes public policies of subsidization and regulation in three contexts. Chapter 1 develops a dynamic bunching empirical design and uses it to estimate the compliance cost that IRS reporting requirements impose on public charities. Chapter 2 estimates the effects of tax and enforcement provisions of the Tax Reform Act of 1969 on charitable foundations and their donors. Chapter 3 estimates the impact of Pell Grant aid on student attainment and borrowing.

Thesis (MA)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2008. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Billy Smith. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-108).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1964. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-119).

Thesis (Juris Doctor)--University of California, Berkeley, May 1911. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 53).

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1989. / Cover title. Also available in print.

In my dissertation, I examine the impacts of the local urban environment on health in the developed and developing world. By 2008, more than half the global population resided in urban areas, yet many questions regarding the health impact of urban environmental factors remain unanswered. I use large, unique micro data sets on fetal health in New York City, where 8 million people reside, to observe the impacts of air pollution and extreme weather events on birth outcomes. Previous work has shown that fetal health can affect long-run outcomes, like educational attainment or income, so it is necessary to understand how exposure to various environmental factors might affect fetal health. In contrast to the U.S. where air quality regulations have been implemented since the 1960's, I also observe air pollution in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya and home to 3.1 million residents. Currently, there are no air quality regulations enforced in Kenya, nor any long-term consistent pollution monitoring, though by 2020, more than half of Kenya's population is expected to reside in urban areas. Additionally, few studies have examine urban air pollution in sub-Saharan Africa. So in another chapter, I measure occupational exposure levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) for individuals who work by roadways and inside informal settlements. These chapters incorporate elements from economics, public health, and atmospheric science to better understand these issues and the potential policies needed to reconcile problems of urban development and sustainability. In my first chapter, "Transit buses and fetal health: Evaluating the impacts of bus pollution policies in New York City," I provide the first estimates of the impacts of diesel vehicles on fetal health using quasi-experimental analysis. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) re- duced emission standards for transit buses by 98% between 1988 and 2010. I exploit the variation induced by these policy changes over time to evaluate the impacts of transit bus pollution policies on fetal health in New York City (NYC). I use bus vintage as a proxy for street-level bus emis- sions and construct a novel panel data set for the NYC Transit bus fleet that allows me to assign maternal exposure to bus pollution at the census block level. Results show a 10% reduction in emission standards for particulate matter and nitrogen oxides during pregnancy increased infant Apgar 5 scores by 0.003 points and birth weight by 6.2 grams. While the impacts on fetal health are modest, the sensitivity of later-life outcomes to prenatal conditions suggests improved emission standards between 1990 and 2009 increased total earnings for the 2009 birth cohort by at least $51 million. In my second chapter, "Occupational exposure to PM2.5 from roadways and inside informal settlements in sub-Saharan Africa: A pilot study in Nairobi, Kenya," I observe the impacts of exposure to PM2.5 for at-risk populations. Few studies examine urban air pollution in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), yet urbanization rates there are among the highest in the world. In this study, we measure 8-hr average occupational exposure levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), black carbon, UV-PM, and trace elements (Al, Si, P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, V, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Se, Br, and Pb) for individuals who work along roadways in Nairobi, specifically bus drivers, garage workers, and street vendors. As a comparison group we also measured exposure levels for women who reside and work inside informal settlements in Nairobi and who may also be exposed to high levels of urban air pollution. First, we find strong correlations among sources of roadside dust and vehicle exhaust across all groups. Second, we find bus drivers in Nairobi experienced 2 to 5 times the PM2.5 levels as bus or truck drivers in U.S. or European cities. Additionally, exposure levels for garage workers, street vendors, and women in Mathare were not statistically different from each other, suggesting residents in informal settlements in SSA also experience high exposure levels. These results suggest major health benefits from regulations targeting diesel exhaust emissions and roadside dust for the large portion of Nairobi residents who walk and work along roadways. We also find that improved cook stove programs could reduce PM2.5 exposure levels for informal settlement residents, particularly women. This is the first study to measure occupational exposure to urban air pollution in SSA and results from this suggest that roadway emissions are a serious concern. In my third chapter, "The relationship between temperature and fetal health in cities," I observe the impact of extreme weather events on fetal health in New York City. Climate change is projected to increase the duration, intensity and frequency of heat waves, but few studies have examined this relationship, which is of particular concern in cities where the urban heat island effect could exacerbate impacts. In this study, I combine average daily temperature from 1985-2010 with detailed birth certificate data in New York City and flexibly estimate the impact of an increase in maternal exposure to moderate and extreme temperatures. I find exposure to a day where temperature is greater than 85 degrees F is associated with a 0.37 to 1.14 g reduction in birth weight. However, I find no effect on gestational age. The effect on birth weight is modest, but using projections on how climate change might affect future heat waves, I find birth weight could reduce by 8.5 to 26.2 grams in the future, or about six times the current impact.

This study examines the effects of family leave policy on eight child health outcomes - five age specific child mortality rates (infant, perinatal, neonatal, post-neonatal, and child mortality rates), low birth weight, and immunization rates for measles and DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus) across 19 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from 1969 to 2010. In addition, this dissertation investigates the extent to which the effects of leave policy vary by period and across welfare regimes. This research contributes to the existing literature (Ruhm, 2000; Tanaka, 2005) by including one additional country, South Korea, a highly developed but considerably understudied country, and by incorporating data from 2001 to 2010. I use data on family leave policy from Ruhm (2000) and Tanaka (2005) and extend it using data from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Health Organization (WHO), International Labour Organization (ILO), and World Bank. Additional data sources include the United States Social Security Administration (SSA), International Social Security Association (ISSA), and various government sources. I estimate the effects of family leave policy (specially, number of weeks provided) - considering both job protected paid leave and other leave (unpaid or non-job protected leave) - on child health using ordinary least squares (OLS) models. I control for other relevant variables including gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, health expenditures, healthcare coverage, dialysis patients, and fertility and female employment rates. I also include: (1) country fixed effects; (2) year fixed effects; and (3) country-time trend interactions. Missing values are imputed 20 times using the predictive mean matching method. The results suggest job protected paid leave significantly reduces infant mortality (deaths less than 1 year of age) and post-neonatal mortality (deaths between 1 month and 1 year of age). In particular, the largest effects of job protected paid leave are found in reducing post-neonatal mortality; the effects are robust throughout all model specifications. Comparing the effects of other leave (unpaid or non-job protected) and job protected paid leave, other leave has no significant effects on any of the outcome indicators. This suggests that parents do not respond to leave provided without adequate payment benefits or job protection, and mothers may return to work early. As a result, other leave does not have any significant effects on infant health. When investigating the effects of family leave policy by period with models estimated separately by two time periods, somewhat larger effects of job protected paid leave on post-neonatal mortality are found in the earlier period (1969-1989) compared to the later period (1990-2010); however, the difference in the policy effects between the two periods is not statistically significant. This difference may be explained by the fact that it was during the earlier period when most OECD countries provided leave for the first critical weeks and months after birth. In addition, when examining the effects of leave policy by welfare regime type with models estimated separately by regime type, larger effects of job protected paid leave on post-neonatal mortality are found in the Social Democratic and Conservative regimes than in the other regime types; however, the difference in the policy effects across regime types is not statistically significant. This difference may be explained partly by the fact that overall Social Democratic and Conservative welfare state countries provide more generous payment benefits for parents on leave. The concluding section discusses how these findings compare to previous research and explores future research and policy implications.