This study explores the impact of incorporating Food-away-from-Home (FAFH) into the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP). The new model of this study, FLEX, uses similar sets of datasets on prices, nutrition and average consumption pattern as those used in the TFP model. The 2001-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data is used to generate average consumption and nutrient profiles. The relative price ratio of FAFH to FAH is assumed and fixed at 1.77. We compared nutrient intake, food intake and food expenditure amount across the FLEX, TFP, and the current low-income consumers' consumption pattern. The overall finding is that moderate amount of FAFH can be a part of a balanced and nutritious diet and allowing FAFH as another food sources makes the diet recommendations relatively easier to follow. With the relative price assumption used in this study, considering FAFH does not make the diet plan unaffordable. / Master of Science

Thesis advisor: Fabio Schiantarelli / This thesis includes two essays that analyze growth implications of emigration and immigration. The first chapter studies the impact of emigrants with different education levels on their home countries' GDP per worker and its factors obtained by a production function decomposition. It uses migration data from 195 countries of origin to 30 major destination OECD countries in 1990 and 2000 and applies an instrumental variable approach to correct for endogeneity bias in estimating this impact. Pull factors of migration such as demand for emigrants' labor in destination countries and migrants' networks serve as a basis for instrument construction. Estimation results indicate that growth in emigration rates increases growth in GDP per worker in low and lower-middle income countries for all education groups of emigrants, primarily driven by improvements in total factor productivity (TFP). In contrast, there is no robust significant impact of emigration on other components of GDP. The second chapter studies the impact of immigrant labor on GDP per worker in the U.S. and its components obtained by a production function decomposition, including total factor productivity (TFP), the capital-output ratio, average hours worked, and skill intensity, defined as a productivity-weighted Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES) function of high-skill and low-skill workers. It uses industry-level data over the period of 1960-2005 and applies two-step Difference Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) with instruments constructed using past distributions of immigrants across industries. The estimation results show that GDP per worker in an industry increases by about 2.24-2.63 percent in response to a one percent increase in the share of immigrants in total employment of the industry. These results are primarily driven by TFP growth with a magnitude of 2.08-2.21 and average hours worked: 0.23-0.29. However, these results are not robust to inclusion of the lagged dependent variables. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

Data över arbetsproduktivitet och arbetslöshet för Sverige de senaste årtiondena ger skäl att på nytt undersöka om teknologisk utveckling leder till arbetslöshet genom att minska behovet av arbetskraft. Arbetsproduktivitetens lämplighet som mått på teknologisk utveckling diskuteras och den totala faktorproduktiviteten (TFP) bedöms vara mer passande. Ekonomisk teoribildning tillsammans med tidigare empiriska undersökningar på området används för att beskriva de mekanismer via vilka teknologisk utveckling kan tänkas påverka arbetslöshet på kort och lång sikt. Dessa mekanismer beskrivs med begreppen jobbförstörelse, jobbskapande och matchningseffektivitet. Mekanismerna undersöks genom grundläggande statistisk behandling av data för Sverige de senaste årtiondena, främst mellan åren 1994 och 2007. Empirin ger möjligt stöd för att både jobbskapande och jobbförstörelse har ökat vid hastigare teknologisk utveckling, men ingen effekt på arbetslösheten kan påvisas. Även om inga statistiska tester kopplat samman begreppen förefaller det rimligt att den teknologiska utvecklingen uppvisat kompetens-bias under perioden. Därmed skulle den ha bidragit till en höjning av kompetenskraven på arbetskraften; något som försvårar matchningen mellan arbetstagare och arbetsgivare.

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Total factor productivity (TFP) growth allows for additional health care services under restricted resources. We examine whether hospital policy can stimulate hospital TFP growth. We exploit variation across German federal states in the period 1993 to 2013. State governments decide on hospital capacity planning (number of hospitals, departments and beds), ownership, medical students, and hospital investment funding. We show that TFP growth in German hospital care reflects quality improvements rather than increases in output volumes. Second-stage regression results indicate that reducing the length of stay is generally a proper way to foster TFP growth. The effects of other hospital policies depend on the reimbursement scheme: under activity-based (DRG) hospital funding, scope-related policies (privatization, specialization) come with TFP growth. Under fixed daily rate funding, scale matters to TFP (hospital size, occupancy rates). Differences in capitalization in East and West Germany allows to show that deepening capital may enhance TFP growth if capital is scarce. We also show that there is less scope for hospital policies after large-scale restructurings of the hospital sector.

銀行為資金融通的中介，在經濟體中佔有舉足輕重的地位。過去多使用Malmqusit 總生產力指數來衡量生產力的變化，然而Malmquist 總生產力指數雖易於分解，卻不具相乘完整性（multiplicatively complete），可能產生偏誤的情況，因此本文採用具有相乘完整性之Hicks-Moorsteen 總生產力指數，並根據O’Donnell所提出的分解方式，將生產力變動分解為技術變動、效率變動、規模效率變動與組合變動，同時總生產力指數與交易條件指數的乘積為利潤力指數，有助於了解在交易條件改變時會如何影響廠商的生產決策。 本文研究發現台灣銀行業在追求產出極大、投入極小，以提升經營績效時，卻因交易條件逐年惡化，導致利潤力呈現衰退，因此相對於總生產力，台灣銀行業的交易條件及利潤力還有待改善。生產力指數的各拆解項在2004-2005年交易條件指數大幅成長時呈現衰退，2008-2009年交易條件指數衰退時，產出技術效率指數、產出組合效率指數及殘餘組合效率指數為成長，其中產出組合效率、剩餘產出組合效率的變動與產出、投入數量有關，因此也與交易條件指數關係密切。最後根據統計檢定結果顯示Hicks-Moorsteen總生產力指數及Malmquist 總生產力指數具有顯著的差異性。

The objective of this thesis is to compare performances of companies operating in regulated industries.The selected industries are natural gas and electricity distribution, water and sewerage systems operation and railway maintenance. Two methodological approaches are used throughout the thesis, each in its own part. The first one focuses on the financial analysis, while the other one uses the total factor productivity analysis. The latter is based on physical units typical for their respective sectors. As the conclusion of this thesis both approaches and the results of individual companies are compared.

This thesis consists of two self-contained empirical essays. Essay I investigates the impact of labor subsidies on TFP, and profit per employee is included as a second outcome. Coarsened exact matching (CEM) is performed on the key variables. After matching, a difference-in-difference (DID) model is applied. The study shows that firms employing workers with wage subsidies experience negative and significant effects on both TFP and profit per employee. Heterogeneity is, however, observed; the only sector to show a deficit in both TFP and profit per employee is wholesale. During the second year with a subsidy, a negative impact can be observed on the profit per employee but not on TFP. The policy conclusion from the analysis is that subsidizing individuals from particular groups is necessary to induce firms to hire workers from these groups. However, the time period for which a single firm is subsidized should be considered. Essay II (with Jonas Månsson from Linnaeus University and the Swedish National Audit Office (SNAO), Christian Andersson from SNAO and Fredrik Bonander from SNAO) measures TFP of the Swedish district courts by applying data envelopment analysis (DEA) to calculate the Malmquist productivity index for 48 Swedish district courts from 2012 to 2015. This study uses a fully decomposed Malmquist index. A bootstrapping approach is further applied to compute confidence intervals for each decomposed factor of TFP as well as for TFP. The study shows an average annual of TFP by 0.7%. However, a substantial variation between years is observed both with regards to the number of statistically significant courts below and above unity. The negative impact is mainly driven by pure technical regress. Large variations are also observed over time where the small courts have the largest volatility. The TFP change is positively correlated with the rate of change in the caseload. Two recommendations are: 1) that district courts with negative TFP growth could learn from those with positive TFP growth and 2) that a back-up force could be developed to enhance flexibility.

Total factor productivity (TFP) growth allows for additional health care services under restricted resources. We examine whether hospital policy can stimulate hospital TFP growth. We exploit variation across German federal states in the period 1993 to 2013. State governments decide on hospital capacity planning (number of hospitals, departments and beds), ownership, medical students, and hospital investment funding. We show that TFP growth in German hospital care reflects quality improvements rather than increases in output volumes. Second-stage regression results indicate that reducing the length of stay is generally a proper way to foster TFP growth. The effects of other hospital policies depend on the reimbursement scheme: under activity-based (DRG) hospital funding, scope-related policies (privatization, specialization) come with TFP growth. Under fixed daily rate funding, scale matters to TFP (hospital size, occupancy rates). Differences in capitalization in East and West Germany allows to show that deepening capital may enhance TFP growth if capital is scarce. We also show that there is less scope for hospital policies after large-scale restructurings of the hospital sector.