Ever since the big recession of the world economy 2007, the central banks in Europe have struggled to regain financial stability. Their goals have been hard to reach and 2014 The European Central bank (ECB) introduced negative interest rates for the first time in the world history. However, today, year 2016, many countries still have not been able to reach their inflation target. During this time with expansive monetary policies, many European Union (EU) members have faced rising level of household debts to GDP. This study focus on EU-members and uses a Vector Autoregressive method, Granger causality test and an impulse-response test to give a greater understanding about the association between the level of household debt and interest rate. Further, it aims to investigate if the negative interest rate has an impact on that association. However, our empirical results show that there is a significant negative association between the level of household debt and the interest rate in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. Further, they show that there is a granger causality from the interest rate to the level of household debt for Belgium, Finland, Germany, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden. For all these countries, our findings show that a shock in the interest rate have a short-term effect on the level of household debt. Lastly, we found no statistical significant evidence for that the negative association between the interest rate and the level of household debt does increase when the interest rate is negative.

The start point of this project is the research of single person household. According to a presentation from the Swedish government, in Sweden, the family structure is changing as time goes by. After 40 years, there will be more than 40% of household are single person households. In addition, The project aims to create a sharing furniture, which used in living room, for young single person households. By using this furniture, they can enjoy the time being alone at home and also enjoy the leisure time with others, for example, through the Swedish social phenomena - fika. The delineation of study and research of my project is furniture design towards single person households and fika. The theories I applied include sustainability, life cycle, human needs, and design methodologies. Sustainable design put sustainable development theory into the design process, let the ecological environment and economic development connected as an the reciprocal causation. It lead to the use of energy resources effectively, and reduce the environmental pollution to the lower degree. To achieve sustainable design theory, each steps within product life cycle need to be considered in a sustainable development way. Sustainable design principles not only refer to the design process, also stressed in engineering process, the production process, the sales process, the use process, the storage process, the maintenance/repair process and retirement process, to reduce resource consumption, to build a new production and consumption oriented concepts to achieve sustainable design. The main practical methodology within the entire project and process is participatory design. Participatory design encourages all the users to directly design by using the simple tools, then do creative jobs by themselves and make own improvements during the process of practice. Furthermore, the participatory design can promote the users to realize the true value of designers, and finally they can also enjoy the conveniences which are brought by these designs.

Scholars have characterized as “extreme” the intersection of work and family in military service (MacDermid Wadsworth & Southwell, 2011) and periods of deployment involve further stress for partners of military members (e.g. Not having enough personal time, having too many responsibilities at home, changing marital roles, and parenting hassles) that may make managing both work and family life more difficult (Chandra et al., 2011). Research with partners of deployed service members has focused primarily on mental health (Donoho et al., 2018; Mansfield et al., 2010) as well as parenting and household responsibilities (Chandra et al., 2011), but less is known about partners’ employment related outcomes. In the current study, both role strain and role enhancement processes were tested over time in a sample of employed partners of deployed Army National Guard Members (GMs) and a comparison group composed of partners of non-deploying GMs. In accordance with theories of work-family conflict (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985) and resource drain theory (Rothbard, 2001), a model utilizing two waves of data was tested; household challenges experienced by at-home partners were hypothesized to be related to more negative family-to-work spillover, and ultimately associated with less job engagement and more depressive symptoms. In addition theories of work-family facilitation (Grzywacz & Butler, 2005) and work-family enrichment (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006) were utilized to test whether family strengths (e.g. effective family functioning and military spouse role satisfaction) in the face of deployment were associated with positive FTW spillover, and ultimately with more job engagement and fewer depressive symptoms. Results revealed that household challenges were related to more negative family-to-work spillover, more depressive symptoms, and less job engagement. Effective family functioning was related to more positive FTW spillover, which was related to more job engagement. Results were consistent across the deploying and non-deploying group with the following exception: in the deploying group only, negative FTW spillover was associated with more depressive symptoms. The current study has implications for the field of work and family research, employers, and military family service providers. First, the current study provided evidence of cross-domain work-family conflict and work-family enrichment in a sample of partners of National Guard members. Second, the study highlighted numerous consequences for employees facing significant household challenges. The role of household challenges in employees’ lives may have implications for how employers should structure workplace culture and the employee supports they offer. Finally, only partners of deployed GMs experienced more depressive symptoms associated with negative FTW conflict. Military family service providers may use that information to better serve partners of deploying service members who are at risk of mental health concerns during deployment.

Thesis advisor: Arthur Lewbel / Thesis advisor: S Anukriti / In this dissertation, I attempt to better understand the inner workings of the household: Do parents favor certain types of children? When do parents decide to have their children work? How can we identify inequality within the household? These issues are fundamental to economic development and closely related to individual welfare. However, studying these questions is difficult since the household is in many ways a blackbox to economists; consumption data is typically collected at the household level, and concepts like bargaining power are not observable. My research examines these questions in a variety of different contexts in the developing world. In Chapter 1, I test for consumption inequality between foster and non-foster children in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Chapter 2, I examine the relationship between child labor and fertility in Nigerian households. Lastly, I study the identification of intrahousehold inequality in collective households in Chapter 3. Chapter 1: In “Consumption Inequality Among Children: Evidence from Child Fostering in Malawi", I study how resources are allocated among foster and non- foster children in Malawi. Child fostering is widespread in parts of Africa and the wellbeing of these children, who may be particularly vulnerable to impoverishment, is not well known. However, identifying individual-level consumption is difficult, since goods are shared and consumption is measured at the household level. Recent work on intrahousehold resource allocation has inferred child consumption from household- level spending on child-specific goods (e.g., child clothing). This literature is often dependent on the existence of goods in the data that are consumed exclusively by a particular type of person in the household. These studies are therefore limited by the level of assignability of goods within the consumption survey. Stated differently, to identify inequality between foster and non-foster children using existing techniques, I would need to observe expenditure on a good that is consumed separately by foster and non-foster children. Because I do not, I develop a new methodology using the collective framework to measure consumption inequality between foster and non-foster children. I find little evidence of inequality between foster and non-foster children. I then divide foster children by whether the child is orphaned, and I find that orphan-foster child consumption is 23 percent less than non-orphan foster child consumption. The results of this paper suggest that policymakers should design programs to improve the relative standing of orphan-foster children in the household. The methodological contribution of this paper is applicable to other contexts as intrahousehold inequality among children is widespread. Chapter 2: In “Child Labor Laws and Household Fertility Decision: Evidence from Nigeria" I study the Child Rights Act of Nigeria (CRA). In 2003, the Nigerian National Assembly implemented this law, which codified existing child labor standards and dramatically increased the penalties for employing children. I exploit the Child Rights Act to both understand the employment consequences of a child labor legislation, and to analyze the effect of lowering the economic value of children on fertility rates. Identification comes from variation in the timing of when each Nigerian state adopted the law, and from variation in the law’s age restrictions. Consistent with recent theoretical and empirical evidence, I find the Child Rights Act increased child employment at both the intensive and extensive margins. I then model household fertility decisions to demonstrate that the demand for children is increasing in child wages and therefore influenced by changes in the child labor market. I empirically test the model implications by examining the effect of the Child Rights Act on fertility rates, but find little to no effect. Chapter 3: In “Identification of Resource Shares with Multiple Assignable Goods" (with Caitlin Brown and Rossella Calvi), we study intrahousehold inequality. We develop a new methodology using the collective framework to identify resource shares, defined as the fraction of household resources consumed by each household member. We build upon recent work by Dunbar, Lewbel, and Pendakur (2013) (DLP) who identify resource shares by observing how expenditure on a single private assignable good varies with household income and size. They achieve identification by making semi-parametric restrictions on preferences across either household members or household sizes. Because our data contain multiple private assignable goods, we are able to employ this additional data to weaken the DLP preference restrictions using a different approach, which we call “Differenced-Similar Across People" (D-SAP). Under D-SAP, preferences for the assignable goods are allowed to differ entirely across both household members. However, we introduce a weaker restriction that requires that preferences differ across people in a similar way across goods. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

The aim of this study is to investigate the outcomes of the Land Consolidation Programme (LCP) in household food productivity. The implementation of the 2004 Rwandan National Land Policy (which incorporates LCP) has been one of the Rwandan government strategic attempts to improve the livelihood of the Rwandans. In this study we look at some of the social-economic factorsbenefited by household farmers through the LCP since its implementation in 2007. In Sub-Saharan Africa many people depend on land for their livelihood and consequently, one of the obvious negative impacts has been the fragmentation of land. Historically the customary land management, in which inheritance is the major mode of land acquisition, has been the main way of allocating land in African societies. This communal tenure is viewed as unstable and leads to detrimental implications, in the form of mismanagement and overexploitation of the available land. The demographic pressure has also aggravated the issue of land scarcity and land fragmentation. The latter has consequences on agricultural productivity since it makes harder the efficient use of land. In this study the researcher explores the outcomes of the LCP in Rwanda as a type of land reform that aims at preventing fragmentation of land and enhancing the livelihood of household farmers. For achieving this objective, the study used a case study of household farmers from Gisenyi village of Bugesera district (in Rwanda) who are involved in the LCP since its implementation. Empirical data was obtained through in-depth interviews with 20 household farmers and 8 key informants. The emphasis in the study was put on investigating the state of household food productivity in Gisenyi. The study was guided by the property right theory and its basic conceptual assumption of enhancing the income through credit access. The findings of the study demonstrate that household farmers in Gisenyi village have benefited from the LCP. Household farmers confirmed that agricultural productivity has increased due to the new farming techniques brought by the programme. The study concludes that once the programme is properly and fully implemented, the LCP will highly enhance food self-sufficiency situation in Rwanda, improving also the livelihood of rural areas through other benefits such as infrastructure development.

Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2013. / Savings are vital in the functioning of any economy as the level of savings in an economy determines the resources available for investment. If firms plan to invest more than households save in an open economy, resources will have to be borrowed from overseas. Savings flow into the financial system and help provide funds for investment spending by firms. This study draws a comparison between the determinants of household discretionary savings in South Africa and China. This study as well investigates the effect of household savings on the stock market in South Africa and China. Empirical analysis was performed inorder to determine the relationship between household savings and various variables, and the effect of household savings on the stock market. Money and quasi money (M2) is the only significant variable and having a negative relationship with household savings in South Africa yet in China, inertia is present the lagged household saving rate is significant. In-order to figure out the impact of household savings on the stock market, we regressed household savings against stock market capitalization. The regression results revealed significance of the explanatory variable household saving in South Africa and insignificance in China. Household savings have an effect on the level of stock market capitalization in South Africa but not in China.

O aumento da população nas áreas urbanas associada ao crescimento e mudança no padrão de consumo resulta numa maior geração de Resíduos Domiciliares (RD). A Política Nacional de Resíduos Sólidos prevê a obrigatoriedade dos municípios elaborarem Planos Municipais de Gestão Integrada de Resíduos Sólidos, os quais devem ter como um dos conteúdos mínimos a caracterização física dos RD. Assim, o objetivo deste trabalho foi atualizar a gravimetria do município, para dar suporte à elaboração do Plano e identificação de potencialidades e fragilidades na gestão de resíduos sólidos. Além disso, este trabalho usou uma metodologia baseada na NBR 10.007 e normas internacionais para realizar a caracterização física dos RD no aterro sanitário. As análises para verificar a influência do clima e da presença de coleta seletiva foram feitas pelo teste Mann-Whitney, enquanto que a relação da gravimetria com aspectos socioeconômicos foi feita pela correlação de Spearman. Por fim, realizou-se a análise de agrupamento hierárquica aglomerativa para formar grupos de setores similares, e assim, estimar a gravimetria do município considerando um setor de cada grupo formado. A estimação da gravimetria de São Carlos em 2018 foi: 37,48% de Matéria Orgânica; 5,13% de Papel; 4,59% de Papelão; 6,51% de Plástico filme; 7,25% de Plástico rígido; 3,10% de Vidro; 1,73% de Metais; 1,46% de Embalagem longa vida; 4,72% Têxteis, couro e borracha; 0,68% Resíduo eletroeletrônico; 0,99% Medicamentos, curativos e embalagens de medicamentos e cosméticos; 0,47% Embalagens de tintas, esmaltes, aerossóis e inseticidas; 25,89% de Rejeitos. Concluiu-se que houveram mudanças no padrão de consumo da população se comparada com estudos anteriores e que a coleta seletiva se encontra em uma situação regular no município. Também constatou-se que não há evidências estatísticas de diferença da gravimetria entre as estações climáticas e entre os setores com e sem coleta seletiva. Contatou-se também que é possível estimar a gravimetria por menos e que a combinação ideal variou com a estação da coleta de dados. / The population growth in the urban areas associated to the increase and change in the consumption pattern results in a greater generation of Household Waste (HW). The National Solid Waste Policy foresees the obligation of the municipalities to elaborate Municipal Integrated Solid Waste Management Plans, which should have as one of the minimum contents the gravimetry of the HW. In this way, the objective of this work was to update the municipality\'s gravimetry, aiming the elaboration of the Plan and identification of potentialities and weaknesses in solid waste management. In addition, this work used a methodology based on NBR 10.007 and international standards to perform the physical characterization of HW in the landfill. The analyzes to verify the influence of the climate and the presence of selective collection were done by the Mann-Whitney test, whereas the relation of gravimetry with socioeconomic aspects was made by the Spearman correlation. Finally, agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis was performed to form groups of similar sectors, and in sequence make combinations considering one sector of each group, to propose a set of reduced sectors to facilitate monitoring or to determine future gravimetrics of the municipality. The estimation of the gravimetry of São Carlos in 2018 was: 37,48% of Organic matter; 5,13% Paper; 4,59% Cardboard; 6,51% Soft plastic; 7,25% Hard plastic; 3,10% Glass; 1,73% of Metals; 1,46% of Multilayers packaging; 4,72% Textiles, leather and rubber; 0,68% Electronic waste; 0,99% Medicines, packaging of medicines and cosmetics; 0,47% Packaging of paints, enamels, aerosols and insecticides; 25,89% of Rejects. It was concluded that there were changes in consumption pattern of the population compared to pasts studies and that the selective collection is in a regular situation in the municipality. It was also verified that statistically there is no difference evidence of the gravimetry between the climatic seasons and between the sectors with and without selective collection. In relation to gravimetry estimation by less sectors, it was verified that it is possible and that the ideal combination varied with the climatic season that the data was collected.

A poeira doméstica tem sido identificada como um importante vetor de exposição por substâncias inorgânicas e orgânicas, potencialmente tóxicas, em crianças e adultos. A composição da poeira tem uma forte influência de contaminantes provenientes de ambientes internos e externos. Durante o uso normal ou por intempéries, de uma variedade de artefatos e materiais, as substâncias químicas são desincorporadas para o meio ambiente. Uma vez liberadas, elas tendem a se acumular e enriquecer na poeira doméstica; e por meio de exposição contínua (mecanismos de inalação, ingestão e contato direto com a pele) afeta a saúde humana. Neste trabalho, foi realizada uma avaliação da contaminação por constituintes inorgânicos e ésteres ftálicos em poeira doméstica; e a correlação com as prováveis fontes antropogênicas. As amostras de poeira foram coletadas de 69 residências, nos bairros Pirituba, Freguesia do Ó, Jaraguá e Perus, da região metropolitana de São Paulo, entre 2006 e 2008. As amostras foram separadas nas frações: 850, 850-300, 300-150, 150-75, 75- 63 e <63 &mu;m. A análise por fluorescência de raios X (WDXRF) mostrou a presença de Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Br, Rb, Sr, Zr e Pb. A análise por cromatografia de fase gasosa acoplada o espectrômetro de massa (GCMS) a presença de ésteres ftálicos (DEHP, DnBP, DEP, DEHA, BBP e DMP). A partir do fator de enriquecimento (FE), os elementos P, S, Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn e Pb foram classificados como sendo significantemente e extremamente enriquecidos na poeira. As contribuições naturais e antropogênicas foram identificadas por meio de ferramentas estatísticas como análise de fatores (AF) e cluster (AC). Os elementos Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn e Pb foram encontrados em concentrações significativamente elevadas com relação aos valores de exposição total (ingestão, inalação e contato dérmico) e de risco. / Household dust has been identified as an important vector of exposure by inorganic and organic substances potentially toxic in children and adults. The dust composition has a strong influence of contaminants provided from internal and external environments. During the natural process of wearing or weather incidents of artifacts and materials variety, the chemical substances are released into the environment in the steam form or by leaching from final products. Once released, they can be accumulated and enriched in the dust; and by continuous exposure (inhalation, ingestion and dermal contact mechanisms), these substances are harmful to human health. In this work, a study to determine the inorganic constituents and phthalate esters concentrations in residential indoor environment dust samples, correlating them with the probable anthropogenic sources was proposed. Dust samples were collected from 69 residences in neighborhoods Pirituba, Freguesia do Ó, Jaraguá and Perus of the São Paulo metropolitan region, using a domestic vacuum cleaner, between 2006 and 2008. The samples were sieved in the fractions of 850, 850-300, 300-150, 150-75, 75-63 and <63 &mu;m. The analysis by X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF) showed the presence of Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Br, Rb, Sr, Zr and Pb. The presence of phthalate esters (DEHP, DnBP, DEP, DEHA, DMP and BBP) was detected, by GCMS analyses. From the enrichment factor (EF), the elements P, S, Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn and Pb were classified as being significant and extremely enriched in the dust. The natural and anthropogenic contributions by statistical tools as factor analysis (AF) and cluster were identified. The elements Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn and Pb were present significantly elevated concentrations in relation to the total exposure values (ingestion, inhalation and skin contact) and to risk.

O estudo busca identificar como a expansão do mercado de crédito brasileiro pode amenizar o problema de déficit habitacional no país através da criação de mais moradias. Entre 2000 e 2010, o país adotou novas regras institucionais que permitiram um aumento da oferta de crédito. Dentre elas podemos citar a lei de alienação fiduciária e mudanças na lei de direcionamento de crédito que expandiram o volume de financiamento habitacional. Comparando os dados do Censo 2000 com o Censo 2010, também é possível perceber que houve alguma melhora no problema de déficit habitacional, uma vez que houve redução do número médio de moradores por domicílio e por dormitório. Uma maneira de verificar como a expansão do mercado de crédito esteve relacionada a essa melhora, é identificar qual o impacto do financiamento na criação de moradias. Esse estudo utilizou dados dos municípios brasileiros nos anos de 2000 e 2010 para tentar responder essa questão empiricamente. Os resultados indicam que uma expansão de 100% do volume de financiamento aumenta em cerca de 10% o número de domicílios. Esse resultado foi obtido utilizando o método de variável instrumental, pois é possível que crédito seja uma variável endógena devido a uma características locais não observadas, como o preço dos imóveis. A variável instrumental proposta foi crédito para empresas, pois existem aspectos locais que devem expandir o crédito em diversas modalidades. Para embasar a análise empírica, foi desenvolvido um modelo teórico que destacou a importância de controlar por fatores como renda e demografia. Na análise empírica, a estrutura etária da população demonstrou ter um papel relevante na demanda por moradias. Por fim, esse resultado permaneceu robusto controlando por outras fontes de heterogeneidade local. / The study seeks to identify how the expansion in Brazilian credit market can relieve the problem of housing shortage by creating more housing. Between 2000 and 2010, the country adopted new institutional rules that allowed an increase in credit supply. Among them we can mention the fiduciary law and changes in non-earmarked credit regulation that expanded the volume of mortgage. Comparing the data from the 2000 census with the 2010 census, we can see that there was some improvement in the problem of housing shortage, since there was a reduction in the average number of residents per household and per bedroom. One way to verify how the credit market expansion was related to this improvement is to identify how mortgage impacts on household formation. This study used data from municipalities for the years 2000 and 2010 to try to answer this question empirically. The results indicate that an increase of 100% in credit volume increases by 10% the number of households. The results indicate that an increase of 100% in outstanding credit increases by about 10% the number of households. This result was obtained using an instrumental variable, since it is possible that credit is an endogenous due to unobserved local characteristics, such as real estate prices. Credit for legal entities was proposed as an instrumental variable, since there are local aspects that may expand credit in general. To support the empirical analysis, it was developed a theoretical model that emphasized the importance of controlling for factors such as income and demographics. In empirical analysis, age has shown to performance a decisive role for determining housing demand. Finally, this result remained robust after controlling for other kinds of local heterogeneity.

After discussing the Malawian context and summarising the remittance research, I focus on remittances in rural Malawi. I follow remittances from the giver’s motivations through to the receiver’s view of remittances and how the receiver uses them and finally to their impact as a means of moderating the effect of negative shocks on the receiving household. Results show that parents remit to respondents for altruistic purposes, or for insurance motivations (e.g. to help out the respondent if they are sick). Respondents remit to parents for altruistic motivations and inheritance. There is strong bi-directionality in the remittance flows. Children remit to respondents as an “insurance premium”, and for inheritance motivations. Altruism motivates respondents to give to their children. There is strong evidence of co-insurance between respondents and their siblings with both insurance payouts and premiums being paid. Respondents and their siblings also remit to each other for altruistic motivations. There is strong evidence of “mental accounting” amongst both male and female headed households. Remittances exhibit a much lower MPC than salary and farming income. Male and female headed households differ in their use of income from different sources, however one result is consistent: remittances are used for education. Probit models indicate that households are more likely to receive remittances from local areas if someone in the household is sick (local remittances insure a health shock). Households that suffer from drought are more likely to receive remittances from more distant areas (other districts, a city, abroad). Drought has a major negative impact on consumption levels but distant remittances insure affected households who suffer from these. Local remittances, which make up most remittance flows, are unable to insure these community shocks. Only around 10 per cent of households receive remittances from outside their home district however. Remittances help to insure household consumption against health shocks, but only food consumption is insured.