Youth unemployment has been a persistent problem in the European Union for many years and the affected countries spend a substantial part of their budget on active labour market policies, with the aim to integrate young unemployed workers into the labour market. Employment subsidy programmes are one type of active labour market policies that have been implemented. Although important amounts of money have been spent for these programmes, little is known about the effects of participation in subsidised employment on the labour market transitions. This thesis incorporates several studies that aim to estimate the effect of a subsidised employment programme. The programme provides a reduction of the social insurance contribution for employers that hire eligible workers. All three studies provide estimates for the participation of long term unemployed school leavers. In order to evaluate whether programme participation is useful for their integration into the labour market, the effect on different duration outcomes has been investigated. A major difficulty in causal analysis with non-experimental data is that the characteristics of the group of participants may by systematically different from those of the group of non-participants. Estimates may therefore reflect both the effect of participation as well as the particular selection of participants. To control for this selection bias, multivariate mixed proportional hazard models have been applied and a large number of control variables have been incorporated. The results of this thesis show that participation in the employment subsidy programme accelerates the transitions into regular, non-subsidised employment. Moreover, the employment duration is increased, compared to a regular employment spell. Finally, the estimates show that the effect of a former participation on the duration of a subsequent unemployment spell is similar to the effect of a former regular employment spell.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OFThaman Bastola, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Economics, presented on April 2, 2024, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: REMITTANCES IN NEPAL; LANDLOCKEDNESS AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Sajal LahiriThis dissertation concentrates on two key economic areas: trade and remittances. Executing many empirical models using relevant data and estimation techniques on each of these topics, we provide some novel findings about trade in landlocked countries and micro-level determinants of remittances in a landlocked country. The international trade of landlocked countries is critical, experiencing adverse geographical effects for exporting or importing. The first paper of this dissertation focuses on analyzing the impact of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) on the trade of landlocked countries. We find the more significant positive impact that calls for a strategy to join a PTA to address poverty and speed up the growth process through trade in landlocked developing countries. The second paper attempts to determine the probability of remittances related to micro-socioeconomic factors in a landlocked country, Nepal. The results show that gender, caste and ethnicity, income, language, religion, household size, wealth, age, and employment affect the probability of domestic or foreign remittances. The third paper is an extension of the second one, which examines Nepal's extensive and intensive margins of remittances. Most variables exhibit an opposite sign for foreign remittances between the extensive and intensive margins. Groups of households that display a higher rate of migration receive lower amounts of foreign remittances and vice-versa. On the other hand, the results somewhat diverge for domestic remittances, such as wealth have a positive effect in both margins but gender have a opposite effect between two margins; even though many variables are statistically insignificant, either extensive or intensive margins of remittances.

La presente investigación tiene como objetivo estimar y analizar si la producción de agua embotellada en la Corporación Lindley se lleva a cabo bajo economías de escala y así, en niveles óptimos, con el fin de hacer un uso adecuado de los recursos de la empresa. En el primer capítulo, presentamos fundamentos teóricos y el marco institucional. Específicamente, presentamos información de la empresa, mercados y la industria bajo estudio, también los conceptos de la teoría económica, para propósitos de organización metodológica y análisis empírico. En el segundo capítulo, desarrollamos el problema de estudio, del que derivamos los objetivos y las hipótesis de esta investigación. Este capítulo establece el terreno, tanto para desarrollar el modelo micro-econométrico de los costos de producción, como para su estimación estadística usando el análisis de regresión clásica. En el tercer capítulo, presentamos el modelo estimado y sus principales estadísticas. Puntualmente, encontramos que la Corporación Lindley tendría cómo incrementar su producción de agua embotellada. Técnicamente, ello lo podría llevar a cabo sin tener que incrementar su capacidad instalada. En sus nuevas plantas, construidas en antelación a mayores mercados, parece existir capacidad instalada ociosa. La presencia de economías de escala, nos permiten inferir que la producción de corto plazo en esta empresa sería económicamente sub-óptima, toda vez que la existencia de dichas economías sugiere una producción inconsistente con la maximización de beneficios de largo plazo. Estos hallazgos se presentan en el capítulo cuarto, en el que concluimos nuestro estudio con algunas recomendaciones y una agenda de investigación futura. / The present research aims to estimate and analyze whether the production of bottled water in the Lindley Corporation is carried out under economies of scale and thus, at optimal levels, in order to make adequate use of the company's resources. In the first chapter, we present theoretical foundations and the institutional framework. Specifically, we present information on the company, markets and the industry under study, as well as concepts from economic theory, for purposes of methodological organization and empirical analysis. In the second chapter, we develop the study problem, from which we derive the objectives and hypotheses of this research. This chapter sets the stage, both for developing the micro-econometric model of production costs, and for its statistical estimation using classical regression analysis. In the third chapter, we present the estimated model and its main statistics. Specifically, we found that the Lindley Corporation would have a way to increase its production of bottled water. Technically, this could be done without having to increase its installed capacity. In its new plants, built in advance of larger markets, there seems to be idle installed capacity. The presence of economies of scale allows us to infer that the short-term production in this company would be economically suboptimal, since the existence of these economies suggests a production inconsistent with the maximization of long-term benefits. These findings are presented in the fourth chapter, in which we conclude our study with some recommendations and a future research agenda. / Tesis