Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T21:00:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 andrekitaharaturma2004.pdf.jpg: 11588 bytes, checksum: cbc5e333573c742bd52864288a94667f (MD5) andrekitaharaturma2004.pdf: 562754 bytes, checksum: 6cc4c9638200f54cfb2ba073fa6c64d5 (MD5) andrekitaharaturma2004.pdf.txt: 58696 bytes, checksum: 5701a6ee0c061a04665a66a87e5f88d3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-03-06T00:00:00Z / O presente trabalho utiliza a teoria do crescimento econômico a fim de analisar a relação das taxas de investimento em capital fixo e a evolução da produtividade total dos fatores no Brasil a partir de 1950 ate 2005. A partir de pesquisas bibliográficas abordam-se os estudos de Romer, Arrow, Pires, Solow se apresenta conceitos como o "learning by doing", "spillovers" e decomposição da produtividade a fim de embasar teoricamente o estudo. As pesquisas apontam a importância da variável eficiência sobre a produtividade total dos fatores no caso brasileiro, principalmente durante os anos de incidência de inflação elevada. A metodologia aplicada no trabalho se utiliza dos dados coletados junto ao IPEAdata e Pen World Tables para formação bruta de capital fixo, produto interno bruto e dados populacionais para o cálculo da produtividade total dos fatores seguindo a metodologia proposta por Solow. Utilizam-se os dados calculados para se extrair uma relação matemática entre a produtividade total dos fatores e ao nível de estoque de capital físico. O estudo comprova a relação entre a produtividade e o investimento em capital físico, também fica demonstrada a grande importância da eficiência sobre a produtividade no caso brasileiro. / This work uses the theory of economic development to analyze the relation between capital investment and total factor productivity in the Brazilian economy from 1950 to 2005. Using bibliographic research are found studies of Romer, Arrow, Pires, Solow and present concepts like ìlearning by doingî, ìspilloversî and decomposition of productivity aiming to create some foundation to the study. The research point out the importance of the efficiency over total factor productivity in the Brazilian case, principally over the years of high inflation rates. The applied methodology uses data collected on the IPEAdata database to physical capital formation, gross domestic product, and demographic data to calculate the total factor productivity under Solowës method. The study uses data calculated to extract a mathematical relation between total factor productivity and the level of physical capital. The study shows that in Brazil this relation between investment and productivity do exists and shows also great relevance of efficiency over productivity in the Brazilian case.

The aim of the Diploma´s work was to explain the concept of corporate and regional productivity and possibility of evaluation. Furthermore to analyze the development of value added on the basis of the specific enterprise data and at the regional level. The theoretical part described the concept of productivity and factors of production. Then followed a description of the business concept of productivity, the possibility of evaluation and rating of regional productivity. In the practical part was characterized selected company. Followed economic data needed to calculate productivity at the enterprise level. The productivity was significantly affected by the economic crisis of 2009. Another part of work was devoted to evaluation of regional productivity. In the last section were compared corporate productivity and regional productivity in the years 2005 - 2011. The comparison showed that labor productivity in enterprise is on a lower level than the sector average. Conversely capital productivity was higher in the enterprise. Another finding was significant annual changes in enterprise productivity compared to the relatively stable of sector development.

A década de 1990 foi marcada por importantes transformações de caráter estrutural ocorridas no ambiente econômico e institucional brasileiro que estiveram ligadas tanto ao novo conjunto de políticas macroeconômicas adotado, quanto à implementação de reformas de cunho liberalizante. O objetivo das medidas adotadas era de estabelecer condições para a retomada do crescimento da economia, de forma a que a crise da década anterior fosse superada. Apesar de um grande salto no crescimento não ter sido observado, houve uma relativa recuperação das taxas de crescimento na década de 1990 e no início dos anos posteriores. Com foco nas reformas liberalizantes que foram implementadas, esta dissertação procura investigar a maneira e os meios pelos quais as mudanças verificadas nas principais áreas reformadas geraram impacto sobre o desempenho econômico do país. Para tanto, utiliza-se dois referenciais teóricos: (i) a nova economia institucional, que fornece o substrato para a interpretação do caráter institucional das reformas; e (ii) a teoria de crescimento econômico com base nos modelos de crescimento neoclássicos, que permitem a investigação empírica acerca dos efeitos das reformas sobre a taxa de crescimento da economia. A análise empreendida verificou, primeiramente, que, de acordo com o exercício de decomposição da taxa de crescimento realizado para o período considerado de 1960 a 2005, o elemento cuja variação mais contribuiu para a variação da taxa de crescimento dos anos em questão foi a produtividade total dos fatores descontada da fronteira tecnológica (PTFD). Com base neste resultado, realizou-se a aplicação de um modelo econométrico em que a PTFD foi a variável dependente e os índices de reforma construídos as variáveis explicativas. O resultado final a que se chegou mostrou que apenas a abertura comercial e a reforma do setor financeiro nacional, dentre as quatro áreas reformadas aqui consideradas, estiveram associadas ao comportamento da PTFD no período analisado, especialmente na década de 1990, indicando que um meio pelo qual essas duas reformas geraram impactos sobre a taxa de crescimento da economia parece ter sido a PTFD. / The 1990's were characterized by important structural changes in the economic and institutional Brazilian environment, and these changes were associated to a new macroeconomic policy regime and to the implementation of economic reforms based on a liberal set of rules. The main objective behind the measures that were taken was to establish basic conditions to foster economic growth rate recovery. Although a great increase in the growth rate had not been verified, there was a relative recovery of the economic performance in the 1990's and in the beginning of following years. This thesis focus on the analysis of liberalization reforms implemented in the 1990's, and investigates the ways through which they had affected economic growth in Brazil. In this way, the study was build upon two theoretical bases: (i) the new institutional economics, which gives us the substratum to the interpretation of the institutional nature of reforms; and (ii) the economic growth theory on the bases of neoclassical growth models, which allows the empirical inquiry concerning the impact of the reforms on the rate of economic growth. The undertaken analysis in this research has shown, first of all, that, in accordance to the growth rate decomposition exercise, carried out through the years of 1960's to 2005, the element whose variation rate had most significant contribution to the variation of growth rate was the total factor productivity discounted by the technological frontier (TFPD). Based on this preliminary result, the econometric analysis took into account a model in which TFPD was the dependent variable, and the structural reforms indicators the independent variables. The final result showed that only opening trade and financial reforms, amongst the four reformed areas considered in this study, had been associated to the behavior of TFPD in the analyzed period, especially in the 1990's, indicating that the way through which these two reforms had affected the economic performance seems to have been the TFPD.

Considerando as micorregiões do Censo Agropecuário de 1995-1996 e dos Censos Demográficos de 1991 e 2000, este trabalho estima, primeiramente, uma função de produção Cobb-Douglas. Para tal, controla-se o efeito dos preços regionais sobre o valor da produção. São levados em conta fatores tradicionais (mão-de-obra, terra, insumos químicos e capital) e o capital humano (nível de escolaridade formal e conhecimento de mercado). A estimativa foi obtida através do método de mínimos quadrados em três estágios – MQ3E. O método se justifica pelo modelo econômico proposto ser um sistema de equações (estima-se também a demanda por capital e o custo relativo da utilização deste fator) e pela forte presença de heteroscedasticia na estimação em mínimos quadrados ordinários – MQO. Em seguida, estima-se a Produtividade Total dos Fatores – PTF por estado, verificando-se a contribuição relativa do capital humano. / Using data from the Agricultural Census of 1995-96 and the Demographic Censuses of 1991 and 2000, this dissertation first estimate a Cobb-Douglas production function. The value of production is calculated in order to control the effect of regional prices. Traditional factors (labor, land, fertilizers and capital) and human capital (years of schooling and market knowledge) are used as explanatory variables in the production function. The economic model is a simultaneous equations system that considers both decisions to produce and maximize profits. Results of the proposed economic model are obtained by using the three-stage least squares (3-SLS) method due to presence of heteroskedasticity. Afterwards, total productivity factor (TFP) is estimated to each of the Brazilian states and the relative contribution of human capital is analyzed.

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / Esta dissertaÃÃo à composta por trÃs artigos que visam ao estudo sobre produtividade total dos fatores (PTF). O primeiro capÃtulo trata da produÃÃo agrÃcola latino-americana. Na anÃlise do desempenho econÃmico dos paÃses, utiliza-se a abordagem paramÃtrica da fronteira estocÃstica de produÃÃo. Verifica-se que todos os paÃses apresentaram variaÃÃo da PTF positiva para o perÃodo de 1961 a 2010, ou seja, apresentaram crescimento do produto, assim como progresso tÃcnico positivo. A maior variaÃÃo da PTF corresponde ao Brasil, 55,73%; jà a menor variaÃÃo apresenta-se para Trinidad e Tobago, 42,06%. Contudo, a mudanÃa na eficiÃncia tÃcnica mostrou-se decrescente para quase 50% da totalidade dos paÃses. Tratando-se de eficiÃncia de escala, apenas Argentina, Brasil e Uruguai apresentaram mÃdias positivas para o perÃodo. Em relaÃÃo à mudanÃa na eficiÃncia alocativa, todos os paÃses mostraram-se decrescentes. Jà o segundo capÃtulo estuda a PTF e sua decomposiÃÃo na agropecuÃria brasileira no perÃodo entre os anos de 1970 e 2006, a partir dos dados do Censo AgropecuÃrio, tambÃm por meio do modelo economÃtrico de fronteira estocÃstica de produÃÃo, para assim analisar a contribuiÃÃo da PTF agrÃcola. As fronteiras de produÃÃo estimadas foram utilizadas para calcular as variaÃÃes no Ãndice de produtividade total de Malmquist, decomposto dos Ãndices de variaÃÃo de eficiÃncia e variaÃÃo tecnolÃgica. Os resultados apontaram uma variaÃÃo na PTF agropecuÃria brasileira positiva, tendo o estado do Mato Grosso expressado maior variaÃÃo, seguido por Rio Grande do Norte, Amapà e PiauÃ. Estados importantes para a agropecuÃria brasileira, como Bahia, Minas Gerais e SÃo Paulo, permaneceram com as variaÃÃes na PTF positivas. EspÃrito Santo e Minas Gerais foram os Ãnicos estados que apresentaram variaÃÃo maior que um em relaÃÃo à eficiÃncia tÃcnica, efeito cathing-up. Tratando-se das regiÃes, o Centro-Oeste apresentou maior ganho de produtividade total dos fatores, seguido pelo Nordeste e Norte. No terceiro capÃtulo, as medidas de eficiÃncia tÃcnica foram estudadas na produÃÃo de mangas no semiÃrido brasileiro, especificamente no Vale do SubmÃdio SÃo Francisco. O estudo das variÃveis deu-se tambÃm por meio da estimaÃÃo do modelo economÃtrico paramÃtrico de funÃÃo de produÃÃo estocÃstica. Concluiu-se que apenas sete (7) produtores de setenta e trÃs (73) lotes pesquisados mostraram-se tecnicamente eficientes; dado preocupante, visto que o grau de ineficiÃncia foi de mais de 90%. / This thesis consists of three articles which aimed the study of total factor productivity (TFP). The first one deals with the Latin American agricultural production, and analysis of the economic performance of countries, it is used the parametric approach of stochastic frontier production. It is observed that all country had positive TFP change in the period 1961-2010, which showed product growth as well as positive technical progress. The greatest TFP variation in Brazil is 55,73%, while the smallest change is in Trinidad and Tobago, 42.06%. However, the change in technical efficiency was decreased to nearly 50% of all countries. In the case of scale efficiency, only Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay had positive average for the period. Regarding the change in allocative efficiency, all countries were decreased. The second chapter studies the TFP and its decomposition in Brazilian agriculture from 1970 to 2006, using the Agricultural Census data and also by means of econometric model of stochastic frontier production to analyze the contribution of TFP agriculture. The estimated production boundaries were used to calculate the variation in total productivity Malmquist index, decomposed from varied levels of efficiency and technological change. The results showed a variation in positive Brazilian agriculture TFP, where Mato Grosso state expressed greater variation followed by Rio Grande do Norte, Amapà and PiauÃ. Important states for Brazilian agriculture as Bahia, Minas Gerais and SÃo Paulo remained positive with the changes in TFP. EspÃrito Santo and Minas Gerais were the states that showed variation bigger than one in relation to technical efficiency, cathing-up effect. In the case of the regions, the Midwest showed greater gains in total factor productivity, followed by the Northeast and North. In the third chapter, the technical efficiency measures were studied the production of mangoes in Brazilian semi-arid region, in particular in SubmÃdio SÃo Francisco Valley. The study of the variables has also occurred by the estimation of the econometric model parametrics to chastic production function. It was concluded that only seven (7) producers from seventy-three (73) lots studied demonstrated technically efficient, bad statistic, since the in efficiency degree was over 90%.

A década de 1990 foi marcada por importantes transformações de caráter estrutural ocorridas no ambiente econômico e institucional brasileiro que estiveram ligadas tanto ao novo conjunto de políticas macroeconômicas adotado, quanto à implementação de reformas de cunho liberalizante. O objetivo das medidas adotadas era de estabelecer condições para a retomada do crescimento da economia, de forma a que a crise da década anterior fosse superada. Apesar de um grande salto no crescimento não ter sido observado, houve uma relativa recuperação das taxas de crescimento na década de 1990 e no início dos anos posteriores. Com foco nas reformas liberalizantes que foram implementadas, esta dissertação procura investigar a maneira e os meios pelos quais as mudanças verificadas nas principais áreas reformadas geraram impacto sobre o desempenho econômico do país. Para tanto, utiliza-se dois referenciais teóricos: (i) a nova economia institucional, que fornece o substrato para a interpretação do caráter institucional das reformas; e (ii) a teoria de crescimento econômico com base nos modelos de crescimento neoclássicos, que permitem a investigação empírica acerca dos efeitos das reformas sobre a taxa de crescimento da economia. A análise empreendida verificou, primeiramente, que, de acordo com o exercício de decomposição da taxa de crescimento realizado para o período considerado de 1960 a 2005, o elemento cuja variação mais contribuiu para a variação da taxa de crescimento dos anos em questão foi a produtividade total dos fatores descontada da fronteira tecnológica (PTFD). Com base neste resultado, realizou-se a aplicação de um modelo econométrico em que a PTFD foi a variável dependente e os índices de reforma construídos as variáveis explicativas. O resultado final a que se chegou mostrou que apenas a abertura comercial e a reforma do setor financeiro nacional, dentre as quatro áreas reformadas aqui consideradas, estiveram associadas ao comportamento da PTFD no período analisado, especialmente na década de 1990, indicando que um meio pelo qual essas duas reformas geraram impactos sobre a taxa de crescimento da economia parece ter sido a PTFD. / The 1990's were characterized by important structural changes in the economic and institutional Brazilian environment, and these changes were associated to a new macroeconomic policy regime and to the implementation of economic reforms based on a liberal set of rules. The main objective behind the measures that were taken was to establish basic conditions to foster economic growth rate recovery. Although a great increase in the growth rate had not been verified, there was a relative recovery of the economic performance in the 1990's and in the beginning of following years. This thesis focus on the analysis of liberalization reforms implemented in the 1990's, and investigates the ways through which they had affected economic growth in Brazil. In this way, the study was build upon two theoretical bases: (i) the new institutional economics, which gives us the substratum to the interpretation of the institutional nature of reforms; and (ii) the economic growth theory on the bases of neoclassical growth models, which allows the empirical inquiry concerning the impact of the reforms on the rate of economic growth. The undertaken analysis in this research has shown, first of all, that, in accordance to the growth rate decomposition exercise, carried out through the years of 1960's to 2005, the element whose variation rate had most significant contribution to the variation of growth rate was the total factor productivity discounted by the technological frontier (TFPD). Based on this preliminary result, the econometric analysis took into account a model in which TFPD was the dependent variable, and the structural reforms indicators the independent variables. The final result showed that only opening trade and financial reforms, amongst the four reformed areas considered in this study, had been associated to the behavior of TFPD in the analyzed period, especially in the 1990's, indicating that the way through which these two reforms had affected the economic performance seems to have been the TFPD.

A agropecuária brasileira tem crescido nas últimas décadas e os ganhos de produtividade tem sido importante neste bom desempenho do setor. O presente trabalho tem dois objetivos principais. O primeiro deles foi mensurar o crescimento desta produtividade total dos fatores na agropecuária brasileira estadual, decompondo o crescimento da PTF em progresso tecnológico e eficiência técnica. O segundo objetivo foi analisar o efeito do crescimento da PTF da agropecuária brasileira sobre os preços agrícolas, no Brasil, de 1970 a 2006. O crescimento desta produtividade foi mensurado a partir dos insumos terra, trabalho e capital na função de produção translog sob orientação do produto, a partir do método de Fronteira Estocástica de Produção e do índice de produtividade de Malmquist. Para avaliar o efeito do crescimento da PTF sobre os preços agrícolas foi construído o índice de preços agrícolas utilizando-se o Índice de preços de Laspeyres para estimar o vetor autoregressivo em painel (panel- VAR), acrescentando as variáveis produtividade total dos fatores (PTF), salário rural, financiamento agrícola e renda per capita domiciliar. Além disso, foi aplicado o teste de causalidade, no sentido de Granger, e estimada a função impulso resposta. A base de dados utilizada foi, obtida do Censo Agropecuário, a nível estadual, para os anos de 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1995 e 2006. Os resultados indicaram que a taxa de crescimento da PTF foi crescente no Brasil e nos estados, sendo que, na maior parte das vezes, é explicada pelo progresso tecnológico, positivo e crescente para todos os estados. A eficiência técnica variou ao longo dos anos, apresentado taxas de crescimento médias positivas para a maioria dos estados. Em média, os estados estiveram situados abaixo da fronteira de produção da agropecuária brasileira. São Paulo foi o estado com maior nível de eficiência técnica. Embora a taxa de crescimento médio anual tenha sido positiva ao longo do período analisado, a eficiência reduziu para todos os estados analisados em 2006. Da análise dos efeitos do crescimento da PTF sobre os preços agrícolas, a PTF tem causalidade, no sentido de Granger, sobre os preços agrícolas. Na função impulso resposta, o choque inicial na variável PTF reduziu os preços nos primeiros anos. Assim, o crescimento da PTF do setor agropecuário contribuiu para o aumento da oferta de produtos, reduzindo os preços agrícolas. A maior disponibilidade de alimentos e, com a redução dos preços dos alimentos, os consumidores, principalmente os de renda mais baixa puderam ter maior acesso aos alimentos. / The Brazilian agriculture has grown in recent decades and productivity gains have been important in this good performance of the sector. This work had two main objectives. The first one was measure the growth of this total factor productivity in agriculture by the Brazilian\'s states, decomposing TFP growth by technological progress, technical efficiency and economies of scale. The second objective was to analyze the effect of TFP growth of Brazilian agriculture on agricultural prices. The growth in productivity was measured from the inputs like labor, gross and capital in the translog production function, from the Stochastic Frontier Analysis and of the outputoriented Malmquist productivity index. To analyze the effect of TFP growth on agricultural prices was constructed an index of agricultural prices through the Laspeyres price index to estimate the vector autoregressive panel (panel-VAR) and establish the relationships between TFP, rural wages, agricultural finance and income per capita household. The Granger causality test and the impulse response function were used to the data panel. The database used obtained from the Agricultural Census, at the state level for the years 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1995 and 2006. The results showed that the growth rate of TFP has been growing in Brazil and in the states, and technological progress explained most of the growth being positive and growing for all states. Technical efficiency varied over the years, presented positive average growth rates for most states. The states were located below the production frontier of Brazilian agriculture and São Paulo was the state with the highest level of technical efficiency. Although the average annual growth rate has been increasing over the period analyzed, the efficiency decreased to all state analyzed in 2006. The results also showed that TFP growth has causality in the sense of Granger, on agricultural prices. In the impulse response function, the initial shock in TFP decreased prices in the early years. Thus, TFP growth of the agricultural sector contributed to the increased supply of agricultural products, reducing agricultural prices. The greater availability of food and with reducing food prices, consumers, especially those from lower income might had greater access to food.

A partir des années quatre-vingt, la manière d’appréhender les investissements directs étrangers (IDE) a basculé. Les firmes multinationales (FMN) sont perçues progressivement comme les acteurs centraux du processus de globalisation. Une littérature abondante commence à émerger et décrit le rôle des IDE comme composante non négligeable dans la stratégie de développement industriel d’un pays. Comprendre par quels mécanismes les IDE interviennent dans la dynamique industrielle d’une économie signifie qu’ils sont susceptibles de générer des retombées positives, autrement dit des spillovers sur celle-ci. Etudier l’impact des IDE sur la dynamique industrielle d’une économie en transition, telle que la République tchèque devient donc une question pertinente. L’objectif de notre travail est de comprendre l’impact des IDE sur les économies en transition à travers l’étude de la productivité totale des facteurs (PTF) et des spillovers (autrement dit des externalités positives). Les questions sous-jacentes sont les suivantes : les IDE induisent-ils un effet d’entraînement ou un effet d’éviction de l’investissement local? Quel est l’impact des IDE sur la productivité du pays d’accueil ? Observe-t-on des spillovers en matière de transfert de technologie vers les entreprises locales ? Précisons toutefois que la littérature théorique et empirique est très riche. Se concentrer uniquement sur la PTF et sur les spillovers comme nous le faisons ne permet pas de conclure précisément sur l’impact des IDE ; il existe, en effet un grand nombre d’impacts que nous ne traitons pas. Nous arrivons toutefois à étudier l’impact des IDE sur la structure industrielle de la République tchèque à travers l’analyse de la PTF et des spillovers. Nos résultats nous permettent aussi de réfléchir aux implications en termes de politiques incitatives à l’égard des IDE ainsi qu’en termes de déterminants incitant les FMN à investir. Nous essayons enfin de comprendre de quelle manière la République tchèque peut décider de politiques publiques visant à rendre ses entreprises plus compétitives face aux FMN. / Since the 1980s, the approach to foreign direct investment (FDI) has changed. Multinational companies (MNCs) are viewed incrementally as the central actors of the globalization process. Extensive literature is emerging, which describes FDI as a significant component of a country’s industrial development strategy. The understanding of the mechanisms by which FDI intervene in industrial dynamics of an economy has shown that they are likely to generate benefits, in other words, spillovers. Studying the impact of FDI on industrial dynamics of a transition economy, such as the Czech Republic, thus becomes a relevant issue. The aim of our work is to understand the impact of FDI on transition economies through investigating total factor productivity (TFP) and spillovers (i.e. positive externalities). The underlying questions are: Do FDI cause a knock-on effect or crowding out of local investment? What is the impact of FDI on the productivity of the host country? Are spillovers observed in terms of technology transfer to local businesses? Herein we carefully investigated the impacts of FDI on the industrial structure of the Czech Republic through the analysis of TFP and spillovers. Although extensive theoretical and empirical literature exists; focusing exclusively on TFP and spillovers does not allow direct conclusion on the impact of FDY, since different other factors were not examined. Nevertheless, our results also enable to deliberate on the implications of incentive policies towards FDI and determinants encouraging MNCs to invest. Eventually, we evaluate how the Czech Republic may set public policies to make its companies more competitive against FMN.

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.

This thesis consists of three essays in applied microeconomics: First, heat and school absence: evidence from a survey of Indian children. Second, heatwaves and short-term morbidity in India. Third, intra-family marriage and pregnancy outcomes. Chapter 1. India is the second most populous country on earth with young people representing a significant number of the population resulting in data that indicates such figures at 38 per cent. With such high numbers, major consideration must be given into developing informed and targeted policies to ensure positive educational outcomes for young people. This paper contributes to existing literature by investigating the impact of high temperatures on students’ rates of absenteeism, relying on the short-term exogenous variation in daily maximum temperatures. The paper highlights the heterogeneity of the effect of temperature by climate zone. To create data, we link information on children’s school absences from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS-II) in combination with meteorological data from the ERA-Interim archive taken from a thirty day period prior to individual interview dates. Our findings suggest that high temperatures have a substantial negative impact on students’ attendance in rural areas. However, limited evidence of such an effect is found in urban areas. Our results therefore indicate a need to implement future in-depth studies. Chapter 2. Within this chapter, we investigate the impact of prolonged heat exposure on individuals short-term morbidity rates over a thirty day period prior to the interview date. We work with a broad dataset and use an econometric model that utilizes plausibly exogenous variation in high weather temperatures. We implement the percentile-based approach and three different heatwave metrics as a innovative way of defining and capturing the impact of heatwaves on health outcomes. Our results show that heatwave intensity of the eighty-fifth percentile over the duration of three consecutive days of extensive heat has a significant adverse effect on individuals short-term morbidity. More so, our findings indicate a disparity between genders in relation to the impact of heatwaves. Finally, it can be suggested that individuals having to travel an extensive distance in order to access water are most affected by high temperatures. Chapter 3. Millions of people worldwide are married to their blood relatives, yet the resulting impact on offspring health continues to be debated. Within this paper, we provide evidence around this debate by studying the birth outcomes from a large, representative sample of Indian women in varying marital circumstances. We explore the impact of intra-family marriage on negative pregnancy outcomes including stillbirth, miscarriage, and child death after birth. We utilize an ordinary least squares model (OLS), which controls for a wide range of financial and family factors. The results show that being a woman related to her husband by blood increases the probability of experiencing negative pregnancy outcomes by 2.8 percentage points. Our finding is robust using the instrumental variable approach (IV). The instrumental variable represents the ambient level of violence against women, which positively affects the probability of consanguineous marriage. The IV approach leads to a slightly smaller adverse impact of 2.2 percentage points. In addition, the OLS results provide suggestive evidence that intra-family marriage has no heterogeneous impact across religion types.