In the last 30 years the Jamaican government has invested substantially in education at the primary and secondary levels by providing a large number of inputs, including trained teachers. Still, many children are illiterate after completing primary school, and a large number of teenagers leave secondary school without acquiring a skill. The educational attainment of Jamaican children is low in absolute terms, and in comparison to other Caribbean nations. This breakdown in the uptake of education cannot be explained by lack of physical inputs. This dissertation focuses on the dynamics of the household by posing the question: Is the educational achievement of children with unmarried mothers different than that of children with married mothers? This is a potentially important question for Jamaica, since 80% of children are born out of wedlock and the probability of having married parents at age 15 is just 50 percent. It was found that children whose mothers are unmarried had lower cognitive achievement than children with married mothers, that in certain cases the disparity accentuates over time, and that children with unmarried mothers are also less likely to be attending high school. A large number of women in Jamaica complete most or all of their fertility out of wedlock. Yet, many of these women enter marriages at a late age (between 35 and 50 years old). These marriages sometimes evolve from current domiciliary relationships, but quite often they do not. In this study, one possible motivation for these late marriages is explored. It is proposed that women with smart children enter late marriages as a way of securing funds to invest in the education of these children. They are motivated to do so because, in the absence of old-age protection in Jamaica, smart children are a good way to store consumption for one's old age. This hypothesis was supported by the data. / Ph. D.

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O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar a relação entre práticas de governança corporativa e desempenho de 370 empresas brasileiras de capital aberto no período de 1997 a 2007. O banco de dados utilizado foi construído a partir de dados extraídos dos relatórios Informativos Anuais (IAN), fornecidos pela Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM) e pela base de dados do Economática®. Para considerar a causalidade reversa entre as variáveis de governança e desempenho e tendo em vista a presença de endogeneidade, utilizou-se um sistema de equações simultâneas composto por quatros equações. Neste sistema as variáveis de governança corporativa, estrutura de capital, estrutura de propriedade e desempenho foram consideradas endógenas. Os parâmetros do modelo foram estimados com a utilização do método de mínimos quadrados de dois estágios (MQ2E) e de mínimos quadrados de três estágios (MQ3E). O teste de Hausman sugere que as estimativas obtidas por meio de mínimos quadrados de três estágios são mais apropriadas para as inferências estatísticas. Os principais resultados indicaram que a diferença entre o direito de voto e o direito de fluxo de caixa em posse do maior acionista último é negativamente relacionada com o desempenho operacional da empresa. Isto indica que empresas com maior potencial de expropriação dos acionistas minoritários pelos majoritários tendem a apresentar menor desempenho. Esse resultado confirma a hipótese de que uma maior qualidade de governança corporativa impacta positivamente no desempenho da firma. Com a utilização da metodologia empregada, também foi possível analisar a influência do desempenho da firma sobre aspectos de governança corporativa. Os resultados apontaram que, quanto maior o desempenho maior a diferença entre o direito de voto e direito de fluxo de caixa do maior acionista último. Assim, os resultados evidenciam que a adoção de práticas de governança é importante para explicar o desempenho da firma, e também indicam a existência de inter-relação entre as variáveis testadas no modelo. / The objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between corporate governance practices and performance of 370 Brazilian companies traded in the period of 1997 to 2007. The used data base was created from extracted data of Informative Annual reports (IAN), provided by Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM) and by the data base of Economática®. To consider the reverse causality between governance variables and performance and in view of the presence of endogeneity, we used a system of simultaneous equations consisting of four equations. In this system, the corporate governance variables, capital structure, ownership structure and performance were considered endogenous. The model parameters were estimated using the method of two-stage least squares (2SLS) and three-stage least squares (3SLS). The Hausman test suggests that the obtained estimates through the tree-stage least squares are more appropriate for statistical inferences. The main results indicate that the difference between voting right and cash flow right at the possession of the last largest shareholder is negatively related to the company\'s operating performance. This result indicates that firms with greater potential for expropriation of minority shareholders by majority shareholders tend to have lower performance which confirms the hypothesis that a higher quality of corporate governance has a positive impact on firm performance. Using this methodology, it was also possible to analyze the influence of the firm performance on aspects of corporate governance. The results support that, the higher the performance the greater the difference between voting rights and cash flow right to the last major shareholder. Thus, the results indicate that the adoption of governance practices is important to explain the performance and also indicate the existence of inter-relationship between the studied variables.

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O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar a relação entre práticas de governança corporativa e desempenho de 370 empresas brasileiras de capital aberto no período de 1997 a 2007. O banco de dados utilizado foi construído a partir de dados extraídos dos relatórios Informativos Anuais (IAN), fornecidos pela Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM) e pela base de dados do Economática®. Para considerar a causalidade reversa entre as variáveis de governança e desempenho e tendo em vista a presença de endogeneidade, utilizou-se um sistema de equações simultâneas composto por quatros equações. Neste sistema as variáveis de governança corporativa, estrutura de capital, estrutura de propriedade e desempenho foram consideradas endógenas. Os parâmetros do modelo foram estimados com a utilização do método de mínimos quadrados de dois estágios (MQ2E) e de mínimos quadrados de três estágios (MQ3E). O teste de Hausman sugere que as estimativas obtidas por meio de mínimos quadrados de três estágios são mais apropriadas para as inferências estatísticas. Os principais resultados indicaram que a diferença entre o direito de voto e o direito de fluxo de caixa em posse do maior acionista último é negativamente relacionada com o desempenho operacional da empresa. Isto indica que empresas com maior potencial de expropriação dos acionistas minoritários pelos majoritários tendem a apresentar menor desempenho. Esse resultado confirma a hipótese de que uma maior qualidade de governança corporativa impacta positivamente no desempenho da firma. Com a utilização da metodologia empregada, também foi possível analisar a influência do desempenho da firma sobre aspectos de governança corporativa. Os resultados apontaram que, quanto maior o desempenho maior a diferença entre o direito de voto e direito de fluxo de caixa do maior acionista último. Assim, os resultados evidenciam que a adoção de práticas de governança é importante para explicar o desempenho da firma, e também indicam a existência de inter-relação entre as variáveis testadas no modelo. / The objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between corporate governance practices and performance of 370 Brazilian companies traded in the period of 1997 to 2007. The used data base was created from extracted data of Informative Annual reports (IAN), provided by Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM) and by the data base of Economática®. To consider the reverse causality between governance variables and performance and in view of the presence of endogeneity, we used a system of simultaneous equations consisting of four equations. In this system, the corporate governance variables, capital structure, ownership structure and performance were considered endogenous. The model parameters were estimated using the method of two-stage least squares (2SLS) and three-stage least squares (3SLS). The Hausman test suggests that the obtained estimates through the tree-stage least squares are more appropriate for statistical inferences. The main results indicate that the difference between voting right and cash flow right at the possession of the last largest shareholder is negatively related to the company\'s operating performance. This result indicates that firms with greater potential for expropriation of minority shareholders by majority shareholders tend to have lower performance which confirms the hypothesis that a higher quality of corporate governance has a positive impact on firm performance. Using this methodology, it was also possible to analyze the influence of the firm performance on aspects of corporate governance. The results support that, the higher the performance the greater the difference between voting rights and cash flow right to the last major shareholder. Thus, the results indicate that the adoption of governance practices is important to explain the performance and also indicate the existence of inter-relationship between the studied variables.

This thesis consists of three essays on the determinants of and returns to volunteering. The first essay, ‘volunteer opportunities and volunteering’ examines the relationship between physical access to charitable organizations and volunteering. Formal volunteer activities usually take place within a charitable or non-profit organization. While the physical presence of these organizations is required for citizens who want to contribute to their communities, the availability of charitable organizations (number and type) varies from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. Until now, no one has examined the role played by charity proximity on volunteer decisions. In this paper I use information on the location of registered charities in Canada (from the CRA T3010 registered charity returns) merged with survey information on volunteering (from General Social Surveys conducted by Statistics Canada) to examine how physical access affects volunteer behaviour. Careful attention is paid to the possibility that the measure of access might be endogenous: organizations and individuals may respond to the same unobservable factors when deciding where to locate. Various strategies including an instrumental variables procedure are undertaken to deal with this possibility. My results suggest that access does matter for the decision to volunteer as well as for the amount of time devoted to volunteering. My estimates imply that increasing the number of charitable organizations within a one-kilometre buffer around an individual’s place of residence by 6% (the growth rate of the number charities in Canada (between 2003 to 2009), increases the predicted probability of volunteering by 5%. The second essay, ‘the returns to working for free’ examines the relationship between volunteering and income. Previous studies have shown volunteering to be associated with an earnings premium, but many of these studies fail to take into account the possible endogeneity between volunteering and income. Using data from the General Social Surveys (2003, 2005, 2008, 2010 and 2013), I investigate the causal relationship between volunteering and income. I employ a novel instrument, a measure of access to charitable organizations around an individual’s place of residence, along with more conventional ones, like membership or participation in different groups or organizations, to examine this relationship and try to understand how volunteering might affect earned income. Identifying the effect of volunteering of the different subgroups affected by the different instruments provides a (surprisingly) large range of estimates. For example estimates in the upper range found in the literature (53%) are found for individuals who are induced to volunteer because of their membership or participation in sport or recreational organizations, no returns are found for those induced to volunteer because of their membership or participation in school or civic groups, negative returns (22%) are found for those induced to volunteer because of their membership or participation in religious affiliated groups and very large (47%), but imprecise estimates are found for those induced to volunteer because of proximity to charitable organizations. The third essay, ‘doing good, feeling good: causal evidence from Canadian volunteers’ examines the relationships between volunteering and health, and volunteering and life satisfaction. A literature suggests that volunteers are healthier and happier than their non-volunteering counterparts. But this ‘observation’ is fraught with problems of endogeneity. Some papers have addressed the endogeneity problem with an instrumental variable technique; mostly relying on measures of ‘religiosity’ as instruments. However, no studies of such nature have been conducted in Canada. Using data from the General Social Surveys, I again employ the measure of physical access to charitable organizations within a three-kilometer radius of an individual’s place of residence as the main identifying instrument to examine the causal relationship between volunteering, health and life satisfaction for individuals aged 15 years old and over. Employing a conditional mixed process (CMP) to estimate the model, I conclude that volunteering is a significant predictor of health, and it has a statistically significant effect on life satisfaction for female and middle-aged individuals.

The rapid soaring housing prices in Chinese residential property market have attracted increasing worldwide attention in recent years. Facing the rising concerns about both the stability and sustainability of Chinese housing market prices dynamics, this study aims at investigating the impacts of changes in housing wealth on consumption in China. Previous studies on this subject usually use country level data with relatively shorter sample period, or individual time series for a single or a few cities. Recent development in literatures suggests that panel data have the more heightened capacity for modeling the complexity of human behavior than a single cross-section or time series data can possibly allow. In this study, in order to identify both long-term and short-term elasticity of consumption with respect to housing wealth, panel framework of ECM is constructed, with quarterly data from 23 cities throughout China, covering the period of 2005Q1-2010Q4. The estimation results confirm large and highly significant positive housing wealth effect on consumption in both long-run and short-run for China. Furthermore, due to the potential endogeneity problem driven by the fact that housing prices are highly correlated with income, instrumental variable estimations are also implemented. The resulting empirical findings confirm that changes in housing values can exert large and positive impacts on household consumption, even after this potential endogeneity bias is controlled for.

Child labour is closely associated with poverty. However, the direction of causality is an empirical question. There is need to control for potential endogeneity in order to be able to adequately estimate the factors that determine child labour. This study proposed a model of an agricultural household to explain the factors that affect the household's decision to involve their children in child labour and the type of influence each factor has on the household. These factors include household resources, child characteristics, community characteristics, school availability, etc. The data was analysed using both Tobit and Logit models. The Tobit model was used to find the relationship between the factors and duration of child work while the Logit model was used for the participation of the child in farm work. The outcome of the analysis showed that among agricultural households in Ethiopia, child labour is a normal good increasing with income. However, the impact on the male child was different from that of the female child, suggesting that gender bias with respect to child labour might exist in Ethiopia. The male child is made to participate more in farm work than the female child, though the females responded more to household land holding (size). This can be attributed to the need for the household decision maker to substitute household chores performed by the female child for farm work. The substitution effect of increase in income on household decision on child farm work is higher than the income effect, irrespective of the gender of the child, although the effect was significant for the male child but not significant for the female child. Also, school availability is a very important factor for both the male and the female child. The impact of household size in this analysis suggests the presence of division of labour, and the significance of the mother's education on the female child's response suggests that the effect of cultural belief system changes with the mother's education. / Dissertation (MSc (Agric))--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / MSc (Agric) / Unrestricted

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In this dissertation, a potential outcomes (PO) based framework is developed for causally interpretable treatment effect parameters in the multinomial dependent variable regression framework. The specification of the relevant data generating process (DGP) is also derived. This new framework simultaneously accounts for the potential endogeneity of the treatment and loosens inter-category covariance restrictions on the multinomial outcome model (e.g., the independence from irrelevant alternatives restriction). Corresponding consistent estimators for the “deep parameters” of the DGP and the treatment effect parameters are developed and implemented (in Stata). A novel approach is proposed for assessing the inter-category covariance flexibility afforded by a particular multinomial modeling specification [e.g. multinomial logit (MNL), multinomial probit (MNP), and nested multinomial logit (NMNL)] in the context of our general framework. This assessment technique can serve as a useful tool for model selection. The new modeling/estimation approach developed in this dissertation is quite general. I focus here, however, on the NMNL model because, among the three modeling specifications under consideration (MNL, MNP and NMNL), it is the only one that is both computationally feasible and is relatively unrestrictive with regard to inter-category covariance. Moreover, as a logical starting point, I restrict my analyses to the simplest version of the model – the trinomial (three-category) NMNL with an endogenous treatment (ET) variable conditioned on individual-specific covariates only. To identify potential computational issues and to assess the statistical accuracy of my proposed NMNL-ET estimator and its implementation (in Stata), I conducted a thorough simulation analysis. I found that conventional optimization techniques are, in this context, generally fraught with convergence problems. To overcome this, I implement a systematic line search algorithm that successfully resolves this issue. The simulation results suggest that it is important to accommodate both endogeneity and inter-category covariance simultaneously in model design and estimation. As an illustration and as a basis for comparing alternative parametric specifications with respect to ease of implementation, computational efficiency and statistical performance, the proposed model and estimation method are used to analyze the impact of substance abuse/dependence on the employment status using the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) data.

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