This thesis analyses the sociological and historical genesis of enterprise skill formation in South Africa and its effective coordination. South Africa’s late nineteenth century development as an emerging economy contributed to the state often taking the lead and being at the forefront of efforts to ensure coordination in enterprise skill formation. But gradually, concerns shaped by issues related to labour supply motivated leaders in firms and enterprises to forge their own imprint on the coordination of enterprise skill formation. The thesis also shows how these concerns with the coordination of enterprise skill formation involved intellectuals and professionals who attempted to intervene on these matters. The thesis proceeds to elaborate the unique institutional architecture which was constructed at various junctures in the history of South Africa’s human resource and skill formation journey. Furthermore the thesis gives an insight into the coordination of enterprise skill formation which occurred in the period of apartheid induced reforms. The evidence however shows that even when regimes change and new political orders are established, it does not end the necessity for continuity in the coordination of enterprise skill formation. As is to be expected, the institutional, regulatory and instrumental content of the coordination of enterprise skill formation is more complex in the contemporary period (circa. 2017) than it was in the 1920s and 1930s. However, the goal striven toward then was for a more streamlined process which could contribute to a change and improvement in the existing practice of enterprise skill formation. Evidence shows that this has been ongoing for over a century. The thesis gives an intricate and detailed insight into the process of building a new coordinated skills development system that was intended to ensure the coordination of enterprise skill formation under a democratic post-apartheid political dispensation. In this period a levy-grant system underwritten by a national skills levy has been a central instrument of direct coordination into enterprise skill formation. The analysis that is provided traces the iterative steps that were treaded by policy makers and policy thinkers from at least the early 1920s as they confronted what may have appeared as an elusive enterprise skill formation process. This analysis is done with a great deal more depth for the period since the early 1990s.

This thesis explores learning and formation of cognitive and non-cognitive skills within formal and non-formal environments, as well as the impact of migration on fertility behaviour in three separate empirical studies. In two of the papers (Chapters 2 and 4) I utilise a 13 year individual-level panel data-set from rural Tanzania, while the third one (Chapter 3) is based on cross-sectional data that I collected in urban Bombay slums in 2007. I consider skill acquisition and learning in a number of spheres. First, I adopt the conventional notion of school-based learning and examine the role of income shocks in evolution of schooling inequalities, in rural Tanzania. I find evidence of shock-induced permanent changes in the schooling of those affected by the shocks in later childhood (age 7-13), 10-13 years later. Further, I find suggestive evidence that the household short-term labour response may to be one of the mechanisms for these long-term effects. Next, I broaden the definition of learning to include acquisition of non-cognitive skills. Although there is growing recognition of the importance of these, there is no evidence, within a developing country context, on effectiveness of interventions targeting them. The second paper is an evaluation of a long-term non-formal schooling intervention in Bombay slums, which works on raising non-cognitive skills, including self-esteem, a sense of agency, and aspirations of children. It shows that, like cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills can be effectively raised through sustained intervention, offering evidence of substantial positive programme effects. The final paper turns to examining the impact of migration among young women on fertility behaviour. Econometric panel data methods are combined with an instrumenting strategy to offer evidence of a causal positive impact of migration on the age at which women start having children, which is shown to be likely to have permanent effects on total fertility. The findings are most consistent with the presence of temporary post migration disruption effects.

abstract: This dissertation comprises three chapters. In chapter one, using a rich dataset for the United States, I estimate a series of models to document the birth order effects on cognitive outcomes, non-cognitive outcomes, and parental investments. I estimate a model that allows for heterogeneous birth order effects by unobservables to examine how birth order effects varies across households. I find that first-born children score 0.2 of a standard deviation higher on cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes than their later-born siblings. They also receive 10\% more in parental time, which accounts for more than half of the differences in outcomes. I document that birth order effects vary between 0.1 and 0.4 of a standard deviation across households with the effects being smaller in households with certain characteristics such as a high income. In chapter two, I build a model of intra-household resource allocation that endogenously generates the decreasing birth order effects in household income with the aim of using the model for counterfactual policy experiments. The model has a life-cycle framework in which a household with two children confronts a sequence of time constraints and a lifetime monetary constraint, and divides the available time and monetary resources between consumption and investment. The counterfactual experiment shows that an annual income transfer of 10,000 USD to low-income households decreases the birth order effects on cognitive and non-cognitive skills by one-sixth, which is five times bigger than the effect in high-income household. In chapter three, with Francesco Agostinelli and Matthew Wiswall, we examine the relative importance of investments at home and at school during an important transition for many children, entering formal schooling at kindergarten. Moreover, our framework allows for complementarities between children's skills and investments from schools. We find that investments from schools are an important determinant of children's skills at the end of kindergarten, whereas parental investments, although strongly correlated with end-of-kindergarten outcomes, have smaller effects. In addition, we document a negative complementarity between children's skills at kindergarten entry and investments from schools, implying that low-skill children benefit the most from an increase in the quality of schools. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Economics 2018

The development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been associated with its growing petroleum industry since late 1930s. This development has created a sudden wealth in the country that shaped its labour market as well as its skill formation systems in the years after. It has also, thanks to the government involvement, developed the country’s world class economy and its evolving private sector. However, this involvement has also created a duel labour market in which Saudis expect employment in the government while expatriates are continuously employed in private organizations. Employment in the government was always available to Saudis regardless of their qualifications which are dominated by theoretical literary majors over scientific and technical degrees. In the early days of the country’s development this did not produce major concerns to the government nor to Saudis. However, the country is producing one of the highest growth rates in the world with the majority of its citizens are under the age of 19. Government employment is always limited as the majority of employment opportunities are available in the country’s private sector. Since the late 1980s, this has generated high rates of unemployment among Saudis as government employment reached its peak and as the private sector continues in recruiting millions of cheap expatriates to increase its profits and competitiveness. This is creating an unbalanced labour market structure as well as economic, political and social problems. A number of government initiatives have been introduced to rectify such dilemma. One of which is Saudization to replace the country’s 4.7 million of expatriates recruited mainly (95%) in the private sector with as many qualified Saudis as possible. However, such efforts has not yet produced fruitful results as the private sector is still recruiting expatriates and as skill formation systems are still producing Saudis with incompatible skills, knowledge and attitudes with the private labour market needs. This research assumes that ineffective Saudization in the private sector is not the core problem of the employment process in Saudi Arabia. In fact it is the outcome of the government’s heavy and unnecessary involvement and control over skill formation systems in the Kingdom especially over the General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training (GOTEVT) which is the main skill formation provider for the private labour market This involvement imposes the government’s rigid bureaucracy and limited funding on a very dynamic, flexible and self-sufficient economy like the private market in Saudi Arabia that is operating in a very competitive and changeable environment. Investigation of such argument against empirical findings from interviews with a number of government, quasigovernment and private sector managers supports such conclusion. It even illustrates that government involvement and bureaucratization is hindering the implementation of Saudization strategy itself in private organizations. Recommendations are made about changing the role of GOTEVT to create industry-led training organizations to serve and link the outcomes of this skill formation organization to the employment needs of the labour market and to the needs of the economy in general.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-07-04T20:00:32Z No. of bitstreams: 1 igorvieiraprocopio.pdf: 1465865 bytes, checksum: 11447605d270b9e74680e8c245e7a913 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-07-13T16:23:03Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 igorvieiraprocopio.pdf: 1465865 bytes, checksum: 11447605d270b9e74680e8c245e7a913 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-13T16:23:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 igorvieiraprocopio.pdf: 1465865 bytes, checksum: 11447605d270b9e74680e8c245e7a913 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-16 / CNPq - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / O objetivo desta dissertação é investigar os principais determinantes da desigualdade educacional brasileira, tendo em vista a relação entre nível educacional e sucesso individual no mercado de trabalho e em outros aspectos socioeconômicos. Utiliza-se um banco de dados proveniente do Projeto GERES – Geração Escolar 2005– onde uma amostra de crianças foi acompanhada durante os quatro primeiros anos do ensino fundamental. Partindo da Teoria do Ciclo de Vida da Formação de Habilidades (Cunha e Heckman, 2007) analisa-se o papel da escola e da pré-escola no nível de proficiência das crianças. Paralelamente, também é investigada a relação entre origem social e nível de proficiência, sob a ótica da Teoria de Igualdade de Oportunidades (Roemer, 1998). A dissertação consiste em dois ensaios organizados sob a forma de capítulos, além de um capítulo introdutório e de um capítulo de conclusão. O primeiro ensaio investiga o papel da escola no processo de geração/redução das desigualdades de habilidades entre os indivíduos, com base na hipótese de que a desigualdade de habilidades em que as crianças iniciam o ensino fundamental limita o papel da escola na formação de habilidades. Especificamente, o primeiro estudo objetiva (i) medir a evolução da desigualdade e do efeito das escolas sobre as oportunidades na formação de habilidades e (ii) encontrar evidências empíricas para o Brasil do processo de dinâmica do aprendizado. O primeiro ponto é realizado comparando a evolução do aprendizado para grupos com características socioeconômicas distintas e através da decomposição da desigualdade de proficiência com a utilização do índice de Theil-T. Já no segundo ponto, utilizam-se técnicas de painel dinâmico para as estimações. Os resultados encontrados indicam uma relação entre nível de habilidades e origem socioeconômica. Além disso, há evidências de um efeito dinâmico da aprendizagem, dado o impacto do nível de habilidades de períodos anteriores sobre o desempenho presente. O segundo ensaio estima o efeito da pré-escola sobre o nível de proficiência de alunos do primeiro ciclo do ensino fundamental. O efeito da pré-escola foi estimado através de uma função de produção educacional considerando o processo dinâmico de aprendizado, conforme Cunha e Heckman (2007) e Todd e Wolpin (2003). Os resultados encontrados indicam o efeito cumulativo dos insumos e a presença de heterogeneidade individual. Para Matemática o efeito direto encontrado foi positivo e significativo. Já para português, os coeficientes de pré-escola apresentaram resultados não significativos, indicando que não há efeito direto sobre as habilidades em português. O efeito indireto, manifestado através da proficiência inicial, foi positivo e crescente ao longo dos anos para Matemática. Por outro lado, os estudantes com maiores habilidades em linguagem no início do ensino fundamental aumentam suas diferenças comparativamente aos menos habilidosos, mas esse efeito se inverte ao longo dos anos, indicando que a desigualdade de habilidades em Português pode ser reduzida durante o período escolar. Considerando os resultados dos dois ensaios, conclui-se que parte da desigualdade educacional brasileira é em função da diferença dos insumos escolares recebidos pelas crianças. No entanto, as habilidades com que as crianças iniciam o período escolar limitam o papel da escola em reduzir as desigualdades de habilidades, sendo, portanto, necessários investimentos na primeira infância, como, por exemplo, uma política de ampliação das matrículas na pré-escola. / The aim of this thesis is to investigate the most important determinants of the Brazilian education inequality, due to the relationship of educational attainment and individual social and economic success. The data set used comes from the GERES Project – Educational Generation 2005 – in which a sample of children was tracked during the first four years of elementary school. Following the Theory of the Life Cycle of Skills Formation (Cunha and Heckman, 2007) this study analyzes the role of school and preschool in the children’s proficiency achievement. This study also investigates the relationship among social origin and children’s proficiency achievement, based on the Theory of Equality of Opportunity (Roemer, 1998). This thesis is composed by two independent essays which are organized as chapters, besides an introductory chapter and a chapter of conclusion. The first essay investigates the schools’ role in the generation/ reduction of inequalities of students’ skills. The central assumption is that the initial level of skills inequality limits the effects of schools’ intervention in skills formation. Specifically, this study intends to (i) measure the evolution of inequality and the effect of schools on the opportunities in skills formation and (ii) find empirical evidence for Brazil' dynamic process of learning. The first goal is performed by comparing the evolution of learning for groups with different socioeconomic characteristics and by the decomposition of inequality of proficiency using the Theil-T index-, while the second point applies techniques of dynamic panel, based on the model of technology of skill formation (Cunha and Heckman, 2007). The results indicate a positive relationship between skill level and socioeconomic background. They also show evidence of the dynamic effects of learning, highlighting the role of previous skill level. These findings shed some light on the limited role of the regular schooling reducing inequalities of skills and the importance of investments in early childhood education. The second essay estimates the preschool effect on the child’s proficiency level of students from the first four years of elementary school. Following Cunha & Heckman (2007) and Todd & Wolpin (2003), the preschool effect is estimated through an educational production function that incorporates a dynamic process of learning. The empirical analysis shows evidence of cumulative effect of inputs and the presence of individual heterogeneity. In the case of Mathematics the direct effect of preschool on child’s proficiency was positive and significant, while in Portuguese, there is no direct effect. Furthermore, the indirect effect shown by the coefficient of initial proficiency is positive and increases over the years for Math. On the other hand, the students with higher skills in language at the beginning of elementary school expand their differences in relation to less skilled students, but this effect inverts over the years, indicating that the inequality of skills in Portuguese can be reduced during the scholar period. Finally, the overall results point that the educational inequality is partially explained by the difference in the school resources. However, the initial level of children’s skills limits the role of schools in reducing the inequality of abilities. Therefore, investing in the young children - like an increasing in preschool attendance - can contribute to reduce the educational inequality.

In this thesis, I examine whether unconditional cash transfers to poor femaleheaded households have an effect on children’s educational attainment. Using a historical Swedish child allowance policy that targeted unconditional cash transfers to widow mothers with an income below a poverty threshold, I lay out a credible identification strategy, to test the hypothesis with a regression kink design. The results, although statistically underpowered and thus to be taken with a pinch of salt, point towards that cash transfers at the extensive margin increased the probability of continuing school another year to eighth grade. While this tendency can not alone be interpreted causally, the method developed can be extended in future work. With the collection and matching of two uniquely rich micro datasets tracking individuals over their life trajectory, combined with this natural experiment setting, my study contributes to building the path to understanding the link between cash transfers and human capital development in childhood. Ultimately, it could add to the policy guidance literature.

A central theme in the comparative political economy of the welfare state is the complementaries between political institutions, social policy, and labour markets. Yet little has been written to uncover this political-economic nexus in China, the world’s second largest economy. This thesis partly addresses this gap by studying the country’s public pension arrangement, the most expensive component of the Chinese welfare state. It reveals the working of the political-economic nexus in contemporary China by showing how it leads to two puzzling characteristics of the Chinese pension system, namely the rapid expansion in the absence of electoral pressures and the persistent regional fragmentation despite an authoritarian central government. It argues that the decentralised authoritarianism, in which China’s authoritarian central state delegates to regional governments and motivates them to achieve its developmental goals, drives municipal authorities to compete with each other in generating economic growth. In the inter-municipal economic competition, local leaders adopt an expansionary yet localising pension policy. This facilitates the formation of specific industrial skills, which are productive for particular local industries, and the retention of skilled industrial workers. All of this is important to local economic development in a context of industrial upgrading and labour market tightening. It is argued this is the political-economic logic of China’s pension system.

Im Zentrum der Studie stehen erfolgreiche betriebliche Anpassungsprozesse im Prozess der ostdeutschen Industrietransformation. Trotz einer breiten Forschung zur ostdeutschen Transformation ist dieses Phänomen bislang weitgehend ununtersucht. Während die Transformationsforschung in weiten Teilen vor allem von der Erwartung einer Angleichung der ostdeutschen an die westdeutschen Strukturen geprägt ist, folgen die realen Anpassungsprozesse im Zuge der ostdeutschen Industrietransformation einer eigenen, durch die spezifischen ostdeutschen Problemlagen bestimmten Logik. Auf der Mikroebene der Unternehmen entwickelte sich so eine Unternehmenslandschaft mit spezifischen Strukturmerkmalen und Eigenheiten der von den Unternehmen verfolgten Geschäftsmodelle. Auf der Makroebene sind die Unternehmen mit aus Westdeutschland transferierten Institutionen konfrontiert, die im ostdeutschen Kontext teils nur schwach institutionalisiert und begrenzt funktionsfähig sind, auch wenn der Institutionentransfer formal als gelungen gilt. Dies gilt insbesondere für die industriellen Beziehungen und die duale Berufsausbildung als Kerninstitutionen des (west-) deutschen Kapitalismusmodells. Die Studie untersucht anhand von zwölf Unternehmensfallstudien die Entwicklung und Ausprägung erfolgreicher betrieblicher Anpassungsstrategien sowie die institutionelle Einbettung der von den Unternehmen verfolgten Geschäftsmodelle. Die Arbeit stellt dabei die ostdeutschen Akteure und ihr strategisches Handeln ins Zentrum der Forschungsperspektive. Sie vertritt die These, dass die besonderen ostdeutschen Rahmenbedingungen das Handeln der ostdeutschen Akteure wesentlich stärker prägen, als dies von der Transformationsforschung wahrgenommen wird. Auf der Mikroebene müssen Unternehmen und Betriebe sich mit eigenen Strategien insbesondere auch gegen westdeutsche Wettbewerber durchsetzen. Bei der Entwicklung von Wettbewerbsstärken sind sie vor allem auf vorhandene, zu DDR-Zeiten herausgebildete industrielle Kompetenzen verwiesen, die die Transformationsforschung überhaupt nicht als betriebliche Ressource anerkennt. Auf der Makroebene müssen sie mit Institutionen umgehen, die zwar dem westdeutschem Vorbild nachgebildet wurden, aber in Ostdeutschland nicht dieselbe Funktionalität entfalten. Trotzdem unterfüttert die institutionelle Einbettung ihrer Geschäftsmodelle die von den Unternehmen verfolgten Strategien. Abschließend diskutiert die Arbeit, inwiefern das komplementäre Zusammenspiel originärer Geschäftsmodelle und spezifischer Formen der Institutionalisierung für Ostdeutschland einen eigenen sozioökonomischen Entwicklungspfad begründet.