Alcohol consumption may affect labor market outcomes directly through a reduction in productivity and indirectly through human capital accumulation. However, empirical results from previous studies in the economics literature are mixed and inconclusive. While some researchers found negative effects of alcohol use on labor market outcomes, quite a few studies found either positive or insignificant effects. The purpose of this dissertation is to estimate causal effects of alcohol consumption on employment status. It uses three data sets previously unexploited for this purpose and attempts to eliminate any potential estimation problems from previous studies. The results show that previous problematic heavy drinking, i.e. clinically-defined alcohol abuse and/or dependence, has no significant direct effects, but has significant indirect effects on current employment propensity for both genders through human capital components, specifically educational attainment and health status. While general alcohol consumption has only an indirect effect on employment status for females, it has both direct and indirect effects on employment status for males, though the direct effect is very small.

This dissertation consists of three essays in labor economics and contract theory. The first essay examines whether one’s wage is based on information about the performance of one’s personal contacts. I study wage determination under two assumptions about belief formation: individual learning, under which employers observe only one’s own characteristics, and social learning, under which employers also observe those of one’s personal contacts. Using data on siblings in the NLSY79, I test whether a sibling’s characteristics are priced into one’s wage. If learning is social, then an older sibling’s test score should typically have a larger adjusted impact on a younger sibling’s log wage than vice versa. The empirical findings support this prediction. Furthermore, I perform several exercises to rule out other potential factors, such as asymmetric skill formation, human capital transfers, and role model effects. The second essay analyzes the influence of macroeconomic conditions during childhood on the labor market performance of adults. Based on Census data, I document the relationship of unemployment rates in childhood to schooling, employment, and income as an adult. In addition, a sample from the PSID is used to study how the background attributes of parents raising children vary over the business cycle. Finally, information from the NLSY79-CH is examined in order to characterize the impact of economic fluctuations on parental caregiving. Overall, the evidence is consistent with a negative effect of the average unemployment rate in childhood on parental investments in children and the stock of human capital in adulthood. The third essay studies the bilateral trade of divisible goods in the presence of stochastic transaction costs. The first-best solution requires each agent to transfer all of her good to the other agent when the transaction cost reaches a certain threshold value. However, in the absence of court-enforceable contracts, such a policy is not incentive compatible. We solve for the unique maximal symmetric subgame-perfect equilibrium, in which agents can realize some gains from trade by transferring their goods sequentially. Several comparative statics are derived. In some cases, the first-best outcome can be approximated as the agents become infinitely patient. / Economics

Η ζήτηση για την απόκτηση διδακτορικού διπλώματος στην Ελλάδα κατά την τελευταία τριακονταετία αυξάνεται με εντυπωσιακούς ρυθμούς. Το εν λόγω ερευνητικό έργο διερευνεί την ελληνική αγορά εργασίας των κατόχων διδακτορικού διπλώματος και τις συνθήκες απασχόλησης τους. Ειδικότερα, με τη χρήση πρωτογενών δεδομένων όπως η Απογραφή της Ελλάδος του έτους 2001, η Έρευνα Εργατικού Δυναμικού 1998-2013, οι Κοινοτικές Στατιστικές για το Εισόδημα και τις Συνθήκες Διαβίωσης 2003-2008 καθώς και η Στατιστική της Εκπαίδευσης 1981-2010, διερευνήθηκαν:1)Οι προσδιοριστικοί παράγοντες της απασχόλησης ανά κλάδο οικονομικής δραστηριότητας, η επαγγελματική επιλογή, η απασχόληση στον ακαδημαϊκό τομέα και ο προσδιορισμός των αμοιβών για τους κατόχους διδακτορικού διπλώματος, 2)Οι διακρίσεις και οι διαφοροποιήσεις στην αγορά εργασίας ανά φύλο, εργασιακή εμπειρία, απασχόληση στον ακαδημαϊκό και μη ακαδημαϊκό τομέα, ιδιωτικό και δημόσιο τομέα, καθώς και ο προσδιορισμός των πηγών διάκρισης και 3)Οι προσδιοριστικοί παράγοντες της αντιστοίχησης αντικείμενου σπουδών και ασκούμενου επαγγέλματος, καθώς και οι προσδιοριστικοί παράγοντες που επηρεάζουν τη ζήτηση για διδακτορικά διπλώματα, όπως η επίδραση θεσμικών παρεμβάσεων και η πρόσβαση σε ερευνητικούς πόρους. / The number of Ph.D. graduates in Greece has been growing continuously over the last thirty years. The objective of this research is to investigate the labour market of Ph.D. holders in Greece. Using data of Greek Census 2001, LFS 1998-2013 and EU-SILC 2003-2008, as well as the Statistics of Education 1981-2010, we investigate: 1) the factors influencing the employment in industry, the occupational choice, the employment in academia, and the factors affecting earnings for Ph.D. holders in Greece, 2) wage discrimination by gender, experience, employment in academic and non-academic sector, as well as by employment in private and public sector, and 3) the factors influencing the education and job matching, as well as the factors influencing the demand for Ph.D.s.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether an increase in the level of human capital and reduction of gender inequality in the labor market affect developing nation’s growth rate and welfare. The data used in this thesis cover 74 emerging and developing countries for the years of 2001 and 2007. Solow’s augmented growth model has been used to estimate how increased rates of females and males completing primary school effects economic growth in order to see what effect the Millennium Development Goal’s (MDG) target of universal primary education has on the economy. The rates of female and male participation rates in the labor force are also tested for to see if one can determine how reduced gender inequality affects economic growth. The main findings are that increased female and male completion rates in primary school do affect economic growth positively as expected. However, what was not expected was that an increased participation rate of female and male in the labor force affect economic growth negatively. The conclusion is that increased levels of primary education among males and females will increase economic growth. Hence the MDGs of achieving universal primary education and homogenous education between females and males in 2015 are important for economic growth and increase of welfare.

This paper examines the effect of foreign direct investments, FDI, on economic growth in developing countries. This is done by the presentation of a theoretical framework, in which technological transfer and the learning of new technologies is considered to be the engine of growth along with a critical examination of a number of empirical studies on the subject. I will later on perform a discussion of the underlying conditions for FDI to work efficiently along with the implications for Sub-Saharan Africa regarding FDI inflows. The implications are studied within a framework that considers human capital as an important channel through which the potential benefits arising from FDI may be realized.

Magistro baigiamojo darbo tikslas – išanalizuoti investicijas į žmogiškąjį kapitalą ir įvertinti jų grąžą Lietuvoje, remiantis atlikta mokslinės literatūros analize. Konceptualiojoje darbo dalyje žmogiškojo kapitalo bei investicijų į jį diskusiniai klausimai aptariami teoriniu aspektu remiantis lietuvių bei užsienio autorių darbais. Analitinėje – tiriamojoje darbo dalyje pateikta investicijų į žmogiškąjį kapitalą kaštų ir naudos, grynosios dabartinės vertės, atsipirkimo periodo ir pajamų normos analizė. Skaičiavimais gauti rezultatai lyginami su kitų šalių rodikliais, siekiant objektyviai įvertinti investicijas į aukštąjį išsilavinimą ir jų grąžą Lietuvoje. Trečioji darbo dalis apima investicijų į žmogiškąjį kapitalą tobulinimo krypčių numatymą. / The aim of this final Master paper is to analyze the investment to human capital and evaluate its return and effectiveness in Lithuania according to the scientific literature. Conceptual part of this paper discloses the debatable questions of human capital and investment to it based on literature of Lithuanian and foreign authors. Analytical part of the paper investigates costs and benefit, net present value, payback period and rate of return of investment to human capital. Results according to main calculations are compared with foreign countries in order to be objective when evaluating the return rate of investment in human capital in Lithuania. Main trends for improvement are included in the third part of the paper.

In this master’s paper the rate of return on investments into human capital has been calculated. Referring on records from Lithuanian Statistical Department as well as on research’s data, the following indexes: 1) the rate of return of individual university education, studying in a place supporting of state in Lithuania; 2) the rate of return of individual university education, studying in paid place in Lithuania; 3) men’s and women’s rate of return of individual university education; 4) the private rate of return of university education according to economical activities; 5) the rate of return of university education among personnel from companies engaged in metal and metal ware. Calculated indexes the rate of return of education have been analyzed and compared with each other and with indexes of foreign countries. .

The three chapters of my dissertation examine immigrant assimilation in the Canadian labour market. Through three levels of analysis, which are distinguished by the sample restrictions that are employed, I investigate immigrant labour force and job dynamics, immigrant propensity for self-employment, and immigrant wage assimilation, respectively. In the first chapter, I exploit recently-introduced immigrant identifiers in the Canadian Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the longitudinal dimension of these data to compare the labor force and job dynamics of Canada's native-born and immigrant populations. I am particularly interested in the role of job, as opposed to worker, heterogeneity in driving immigrant wage disparities and in how the paths into and out of jobs of varying quality compares between immigrants and the native-born. The main finding is that the disparity in immigrant job quality, which does not appear to diminish with years since arrival, reflects a combination of relatively low transitions into high-wage jobs and high transitions out of these jobs. The former result appears about equally due to difficulties obtaining high-wage jobs directly out of unemployment and in using low-wage jobs as stepping-stones. I find little or no evidence, however, that immigrant jobseekers face barriers to low-wage jobs. We interpret these findings as emphasizing the empirical importance of the quintessential immigrant anecdote of a low-quality "survival job" becoming a "dead-end job". The second chapter analyzes immigrant choice of self-employment versus paid employment. Using the Canadian Census public use microdata files from 1981 to 2006, I update the Canadian literature on immigrant self-employment by examining changes in the likelihood of self-employment across arrival cohorts of immigrants and how self-employment rates evolve in the years following migration to Canada. This study finds that new immigrants, who arrived between 1996 and 2005, turned to self-employment at a faster rate than the earlier cohorts and that immigrants become increasingly likely to be self-employed as they spend more time in Canada. More important, I examine immigrant earnings outcomes relative to the native-born, instead of within, sectors and thus explore the extent to which a comparative advantage in self-employment, captured by the difference in potential earnings between the self- and paid-employment sectors, can explain the tremendous shift toward self-employment in the immigrant population. The results show that the earnings advantage between the self- and the paid-employment sectors accounts for the higher likelihood of self-employment for traditional immigrants in the years following migration. However, the potential earnings difference cannot explain the reason that non-traditional immigrants are more likely to be self-employed as they consistently lose an earnings advantage in the self-employment sector relative to the paid-employment sector. My paper suggests that immigrants may face barriers to accessing paid-employment, or immigrants are attracted to self-employment by non-monetary benefits. Lastly, in the third chapter, studies which estimate separate returns to foreign and host-country sources of human capital have burgeoned in the immigration literature in recent years. In estimating separate returns, analysts are typically forced to make strong assumptions about the timing and exogeneity of human capital investments. Using a particularly rich longitudinal Canadian data source, I consider to what extent the findings of the Canadian literature may be driven by biases arising from errors in measuring foreign and host-country sources of human capital and the endogeneity of post-migration schooling and work experience. The main finding is that the results of the current literature by and large do not appear to be driven by the assumptions needed to estimate separate returns using the standard data sources available.

Aukšto lygio žmogiškas kapitalas gamina didelės pridėtinės vertės turtą – pasaulyje paklausias prekes. Visuomenės gerovę pirmiausia lemia investicijos į žmones ir jų žinias. Žmonių įgujamu sugebėjimai – jų išsimokslinimas, patirtis, įgūdžiai, sveikata – yra svarbiausi siekiant ekonominės pažangos. Bet kurios visuomenės pagrindinis turtas yra žmonės, o ekonominio-socialinio progreso galutinis kriterijus yra žmogus ir jo poreikių platesnis patenkinimas. Žmogiškasis kapitalas yra vertingiausias šiuolaikinės visuomenės resursas, svarbesnis už gamtos turtus ar žmonių sukauptą materialinį turtą. Šiuolaikinėje visuomenėje, padidėjus žinių vaidmeniui, automatiškai sutelkiamas asmenų ir visos šalies konkurencingumas tam, kad būtų stiprinami svarbūs žmogiškojo kapitalo raiškos komponentai, konkrečiai, aukštasis išsimokslinimas. Darbo tikslas: įvertinti aukštojo išsilavinimo, kaip investavimo į žmones reikšmę bei nagrinėti kaip žmogiškojo kapitalo raiška sąveikauja su karjera ir jos realizavimu Lietuvoje. Empirinio tyrimo tikslas: įvertinti studijuojančių žmonių nuostatas į aukštąjį mokslą kaip investiciją į žmones, bei nustatyti tų nuostatų pokyčius profesinės karjeros planavimo aspektu. Tyrimo dalykas: respondentų nuomonės ir nuostatos žmogiškojo kapitalo raiškai bei profesiniam realizavimui įvertinimas. Tyrimo objektas: Studijuojančio jaunimo žmogiškojo kapitalo profesinio realizavimo problemos ir panaudojimo galimybės Lietuvoje. ... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The main property of any society is human beings while the final criterion of economical social progress is an individual and wider satisfaction of his needs. Human capital is the most valuable recourse of modern society, even more important than natural resources or material capital pilled up by human beings. In modern society when the role of knowledge is increased, the competition of people and all country is concentrated in order to strengthen the components of human capital expression, especially higher education. The aim of the thesis: to evaluate the importance of high education as the investment in human capital and to research how this aspect influence the carrer and its realisation in Lithuania The aim of the empirical research: to evaluate the point of view of studying persons towards high education as investment in people and how this investment could influence their professional carrer in Lithuania. The subject of the research: the evaluations of the opinions of interviewed students. The object of the research: the problems of professional realisation and employment possibilities of studying persons in Lithuania. The main tasks of the thesis: 1. to ground the meaning of human capital. 2. to ground theoreticaly the importance of higher education in the formation and expression of human capital. 3. according the analysis of statistic data to evaluate the expression of social aspects in human capital, specificaly the role of high education in... [to full text]

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