Mental accounting is a technique for asserting self-control in the face of consumption decisions, functioning as a categorization system for income and expenses. A body of evidence supports the concept that consumers are driven by perception and emotion, not rational economic thought. Mental accounting is subject to the effects of cognitive biases, leading to imperfect financial behavior. In the following paper, I present a proposal for three consecutive experiments designed to investigate the influence that advanced planning (the formation of mental budgets) and unexpected financial shocks (windfalls) can have on our use of mental accounting to regulate spending. The dependent variable is a dollar measure of how much consumers indicated they are “willing to pay” (WTP) to hypothetically purchase a typical good. The experiments share an intertemporal manipulation of a monthly budget creation task. Experiment one investigates the combined effects of positive and negative windfalls and budget creation on WTP. Experiment 2 explores boundary conditions of timing on loss aversion by manipulating the length of the time period that separates a negative windfall from the WTP task. Experiment 3 focuses on one time period, manipulating wording of a negative financial shock to focus on framing effects. The three experiments, if carried out, should reveal significant effects on WTP, suggesting that manipulations of framing and timing can lead to inconsistent spending behaviors even in the presence of a self-control tool (the mental budget).

This thesis is a collection of three essays that examine the macroeconomic impact of natural resource windfalls and the microeconomic impact of Chinese development finance. The aim is to understand how fiscal windfalls largely driven by events in the world affect economic development. The first chapter studies the impact of commodity related income gains on the number of exporters and the average export value per exporter within the manufacturing sector. A large body of theoretical and empirical literature showed that these windfalls could be detrimental to the manufacturing sector, but none untangled the margins through which the exports from the manufacturing sector adjusts to these windfalls. I exploit the exogenous variation in the windfalls generated by the increase in prices of all major commodities during the early 2000s to fill this gap in the literature. First, I find that manufacturing industries that historically had a relatively higher share of exports to value added ratio (more exportable) tend to be negatively affected relative to the other manufacturing industries at both margins. Secondly, the extensive margin is largely driven by entrants. i.e., the number of new exporting firms that enter more exportable industries decline relative to the less exportable industries. Thirdly, for the more exportable industries, the average export value per incumbent exporters industries decline while that of the new exporters increases relative to the less exportable industries. It has often been argued that countries that produce natural resources mobilize less non-resource tax revenues than other countries. In the second chapter, I exploit the arguably exogenous variation in the timing of giant oilfield discoveries to examine the impact of natural resource abundance on non-resource tax revenue. The timing of giant oilfield discoveries is arguably exogenous and thus renders them appealing to empirically examine this argument. This allows me to examine the performance of non-resource tax revenue effort before and immediately after discovery as well as the period corresponding to the inflow of revenues from the production. I find that non-resource tax revenues tend to increase in the period following the discovery before the onset of production and after production commences. This effect is due to an increase in non-resource indirect tax revenues. Further analysis shows that both the total and indirect non-resource tax revenues, experience an increase in only low- middle income countries. This effect is largely driven by an increase in the consumption of goods and services. Improvement in agricultural productivity plays a key role in the process of economic development. Investment in critical infrastructure has been documented in the literature as one of the pathways to boost agricultural productivity. In the third chapter, I study the causal impact of Chinese development finance on agricultural productivity in Tanzania, at the sub-national level. I combine household panel data with rich farm level information with geocoded Chinese development projects. I then exploit the within village level variation in the total number of Chinese financed development projects in a panel fixed effects model to examine their effects on agricultural productivity. I find a positive effect on agricultural productivity in villages that are located within 25 km of these projects. This is largely driven by economic infrastructure. The results are robust to alternative definitions of Chinese financed development projects. I also find that the potential mechanisms driving the results are agricultural commercialization and access to improved seeds. This suggests that these projects connect farmers to input and output markets.

Magistro darbe tiriama 2010 m. 08 mėn. praūžusios audros padariniai Varėnos miškų urėdijos Glūko girininkijoje. Darbo objektas – Varėnos miškų urėdijos Glūko girininkijos vėjavartų pažeisti medynai. Darbo tikslas – Ištirti 2010 m. audros padarinių išplitimą bei atlikti pažeistų medynų kiekybinių rodiklių analizę Varėnos miškų urėdijos Glūko girininkijoje. Darbo metodai – Panaudojus planinę medžiagą bei GIS miškų žemėlapį, natūroje buvo patikslintos vėjavartų pažeidimų apimtys. Vėliau, vadovaujantis inventorizacine medžiaga, buvo įvertintas pažeistų medynų plotas. Tyrimams naudoti 414 medynų dendrometriniai rodikliai: rūšinė sudėtis, amžius, vidutinis aukštis, skalsumas ir augavietė. Minėti rodikliai buvo grupuojami, apdorojami MS Excel programa. Nesutvarkytuose po vėjavartų 6 medynuose atrankinės apskaitos metu įvertinta sanitarinė būklė. Darbo rezultatai. Varėnos miškų urėdijos Glūko girininkijoje 2010 m. 08 mėn. audra pažeidė 1361,3 ha miškų (41,5 % visų miškų). Didžiausi pažeidimai grynuose (9 –10 P), pusamžiuose (65,9 %), 0,8 – 0,9 skalsumo (64,7 %) pušynuose, augančiuose Nb augavietėje (89,5 %). Pažeistų pušynų vidutinis aukštis 16 – 20 m. Vėjavartos juodalksnynuose sudarė 1.1 %, beržynuose 0,8 %, eglynuose 0,5 % ir liepynuose 0,1 %. 2011 m. buvo įvertinta pušynų sanitarinė būklė atsitiktinai pasirinktuose 6 nuo pažeistuose bei vienerius metus netvarkytuose medynuose, kuriuose buvo numatyti atlikti plynuosius ir neplynuosius sanitarinius kirtimus. Medynuode kur buvo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The main purpose of this master thesis is to evaluate the influence of August 2010 storm in Varėna‘s Enterprise, Glūko‘s foreststry. Study object: demaged stands in Varėna‘s Enterprise, Glūko‘s foreststry. Study aim: to investigate the consequences of August 2010 storm and perform quantitative analysis of damaged stands in Varėna‘s Enterprise, Glūko‘s foreststry. Methodology: Volume of windfalls were adjusted using cartographic material and GIS map of forests. Then, according to forest inventory database, damaged area was assessed. 414 dendrometric indicators were used: species composition, age, average height, stocking level and sites. These indicators were grouped, processed by MS Excel. Sanitary conditions were evaluated within sample plots established in 6 indisposed stands. Results. 1361,3 ha (41,5 % of total forests) of forests were damaged in Varėna‘s Enterprise, Glūko‘s foreststry by August 2010 storm. Pure (9 – 10 P), middle-aged (65,9 %), 0,8 – 0,9 stocking level (64,7 %) pinewoods in Nb sites (89,5 %) were the most damaged. Middle height of pinewoods – 16 – 20 m. 1,1 % of alder woods, 0,8 % of birch woods, 0,5 % of fir woods and 0,1% of linden woods were damaged. Sanitary conditions were investigated in 6 randomly selected stands, which were damaged by storm and planned clear-cut and non-clear cut. Trees’ condition was evaluated in 12 classes of sanitary. 4 – 16 % relatively healthy, 8 – 13 % damaged and 70 – 88 % destroyed trees were indentified in plots, where... [to full text]

Esta dissertação de mestrado em teoria econômica tem como objetivo verificar se a Compensação Financeira pela Utilização de Recursos Hídricos (CFURH) paga a municípios que abrigam usinas hidrelétricas ou reservatórios impacta seu esforço arrecadatório. A importância dessa análise vem do fato de que um possível relaxamento fiscal por parte deles pode por em risco o seu desenvolvimento, dado que a compensação pode sofrer variações no tempo, e dado que sua duração depende da vida útil das usinas. Será utilizada a metodologia de fronteira estocástica, com base em um painel de dados relativo aos municípios brasileiros entre 2007 e 2012 Os resultados mostram que, em geral, os municípios beneficiários são menos eficientes na arrecadação de tributos do que os não beneficiários. / This Master\'s dissertation in Economic Theory aims to verify whether the water windfalls paid to municipalities that hold hydroelectric power stations or water reservoirs have any impact on their fiscal effort. The issue is relevant since a reduced tax effort may pose a threat to the municipalities\' development, since these resources can vary in time and since it may have an end due to the power plant\'s useful life. It will be used the stochastic frontier technique applied to a panel data of Brazilian municipalities between 2007 and 2012. The results show that, in a general way, the municipalities that benefit from the water windfalls are more inefficient than those which don\'t receive these resources

Esta dissertação de mestrado em teoria econômica tem como objetivo verificar se a Compensação Financeira pela Utilização de Recursos Hídricos (CFURH) paga a municípios que abrigam usinas hidrelétricas ou reservatórios impacta seu esforço arrecadatório. A importância dessa análise vem do fato de que um possível relaxamento fiscal por parte deles pode por em risco o seu desenvolvimento, dado que a compensação pode sofrer variações no tempo, e dado que sua duração depende da vida útil das usinas. Será utilizada a metodologia de fronteira estocástica, com base em um painel de dados relativo aos municípios brasileiros entre 2007 e 2012 Os resultados mostram que, em geral, os municípios beneficiários são menos eficientes na arrecadação de tributos do que os não beneficiários. / This Master\'s dissertation in Economic Theory aims to verify whether the water windfalls paid to municipalities that hold hydroelectric power stations or water reservoirs have any impact on their fiscal effort. The issue is relevant since a reduced tax effort may pose a threat to the municipalities\' development, since these resources can vary in time and since it may have an end due to the power plant\'s useful life. It will be used the stochastic frontier technique applied to a panel data of Brazilian municipalities between 2007 and 2012. The results show that, in a general way, the municipalities that benefit from the water windfalls are more inefficient than those which don\'t receive these resources