Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-08T14:44:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 332765 bytes, checksum: afdc7e0f8a3f6259e47fc01ea9a857ca (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-10 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study measures the influence that parents' education has on the effort and the level of income earned by individuals. The effort will be approximated by education levels, dividing the individuals into two groups, ie, no upper level ("Low"), representing individuals who play a lesser effort, and higher level ("High") indicating a higher effort. The empirical estimation strategy was based on three steps: i) estimating the average effect of conventional treatment by different methods, following Heckman and Honore (1990) and Heckman and Vytlacil (1999), ii) the bounds of variation of Shaikh and Vytlacil (2004) for the impact of treatment and iii) a test of robustness for estimating instrumental variable that includes the unemployment rate as a way to endogenize the years of schooling of individuals. The results, based on data from the National Sample Survey (PNAD) of 1996, indicate a significant effect of education of father and mother, especially in less educated individuals.This can be explained, among other factors, by the lower level of income and consequently a higher degree of dependence on these individuals of their family background, following the assumptions of unequal opportunities. Finally, the non-use of instrumental variable coefficients tends to overestimate the effect of treatment, especially education of the father rather than the mother's education. / Este estudo mensura a influencia que a educação dos pais exerce sobre o esforço e sobre o nível de rendimento auferido pelos indivíduos. O esforço será aproximado através do nível de escolaridade, dividindo os indivíduos em dois grupos, i.e, sem nível superior ( Baixo ) representando indivíduos que desempenham um menor esforço e com nível superior ( Alto ) indicando um esforço mais elevado. A estratégia empírica de estimação foi baseada em três passos: i) a estimação do efeito de tratamento médio convencional por diferentes métodos, seguindo Heckman e Honoré (1990) e Heckman e Vytlacil (1999); ii) os bounds de variação de Shaikh e Vytlacil (2004) para o impacto do tratamento e iii) um teste de robustez para as estimativas que inclui a variável instrumental taxa de desemprego como forma de endogeneizar os anos de estudo dos indivíduos. Os resultados, tendo como base os dados da Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD) do ano de 1996, indicam um efeito significativo da educação do pai e da mãe, sobretudo nos indivíduos menos escolarizados. Isso pode ser explicado, entre outros fatores, pelo menor nível de renda e consequentemente um maior grau de dependência desses indivíduos do seu background familiar, seguindo os pressupostos da desigualdade de oportunidades. Por fim, a não utilização da variável instrumental tende a superestimar os coeficientes do efeito de tratamento, sobretudo a educação do pai em detrimento da educação da mãe.

O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar como o nível de recursos escolares e a sua distribuição entre os estudantes afetam o desempenho acadêmico dos alunos brasileiros da rede pública de ensino. Para atingir tal objetivo, utilizou-se duas óticas de análise: uma análise descritiva e uma análise econométrica, ambas com base em dados do Censo Escolar e da Prova Brasil de 2013. Sob a ótica descritiva, parte-se da constatação de que as escolas públicas de Ensino Fundamental apresentam desigualdades nos patamares de recursos escolares conforme a região em que a escola se localiza. Em especial, as crianças de regiões mais empobrecidas tendem a enfrentar restrições de oferta de escolas públicas com maiores dotações de equipamentos pedagógicos, de instalações e de qualificação docente. A fim de avaliar apropriadamente a relação entre os recursos escolares e os resultados acadêmicos dos alunos no contexto brasileiro, tal distribuição não aleatória de recursos escolares entre os alunos foi considerada na análise econométrica. Nesta ótica de análise, por sua vez, foi estimado um modelo de correção em dois estágios que identificou os efeitos dos recursos escolares nas notas de Português e de Matemática dos alunos de 5º ano/4ª série do Ensino Fundamental das escolas públicas brasileiras, considerando a restrição de oferta de escolas com maior nível de recursos por meio do emprego de variável instrumental. Os resultados encontrados apontaram para a existência do efeito positivo que escolas mais bem equipadas em termos de recursos escolares têm sobre o desempenho escolar dos alunos, sendo esse efeito maior para as notas de Matemática e para a subpopulação de alunos oriundos de municípios com maior restrição de oferta de escola de alto nível de recursos. / The aim of this study is to analyze how the level of school resources and its distribution among the students affect the academic performance of Brazilian students from public schools. To achieve this goal, we used two analytical forms: a descriptive and an econometric analysis, both based in the Brazilian School Census and Prova Brasil data of 2013. Under the descriptive point of view, it is observed that public schools of Ensino Fundamental have inequalities in school resource levels depending on the region where the school is located. In particular, children from the poorest regions tend to face supply constraints of public schools with larger endowments of teaching equipment, facilities and teaching qualification. In order to properly evaluate the relationship between school resources and academic achievement of students in the Brazilian context, such non-random distribution of school resources among students was considered in the econometric analysis. In this analytical form, in its turn, a two-step correction model was estimated which identified the effects of school resources in the results of test scores in Portuguese and Math of 5th year/4th grade students of Ensino Fundamental education in Brazilian public schools, accounting for the supply restriction of schools with high level of resources using an instrumental variable. The findings pointed to the existence of the positive effect that the best equipped schools in terms of school resources have on school performance of students. This effect is particularly greater in Math scores and for the subpopulation of students from municipalities with the highest supply restriction of high quality schools.

Submitted by Marilene Donadel (marilene.donadel@unioeste.br) on 2018-11-28T20:45:44Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Lendro_Santos_2018.pdf: 2110024 bytes, checksum: a3bb0cbb03eacc87a8ea1de3e0c92eca (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-11-28T20:45:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lendro_Santos_2018.pdf: 2110024 bytes, checksum: a3bb0cbb03eacc87a8ea1de3e0c92eca (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-24 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The motivation for this research arose from the interest in studying the possible impact of participation in collective actions on the level of sustainability of agricultural producers. Specifically, the purpose was to estimate the impact of participation in cooperatives and associations. The literature that deals with the possible benefits derived from participation in collective actions has progressed. In this context, an empirical work that examines the impact of participation in collective actions on the sustainability of agricultural producers is important, considering the three dimensions of sustainability, that is, the economic, social and environmental dimensions. In particular, in terms of scope, the work was carried out in the agricultural productive sector of fruits and vegetables of the microregion of Toledo, PR, and the level of sustainability of the producers was measured through 16 indicators of sustainability in agriculture, selected with based on the literature on the subject. In this sense, the objective of this work was to analyze the impact of participation in collective actions at the level of economic, social and environmental sustainability of the agricultural producers of fruits and vegetables of the microregion of Toledo, PR. Empirical data were obtained through the application of questionnaires and interviews with these agricultural producers. For the analysis of the data collected, the cross-sectional data analysis with the IPWRA (Inversity Probability Weight Regression Adjustment) method was used to estimate the average treatment effect, in this case, the participation in cooperatives or producer associations. The analysis was complemented, in a qualitative perspective, with the answers to the open questions that compose the applied questionnaire, as well as the direct observation of the researcher in the visits made. The results of the research indicated that in the productive sector of fruits and vegetables in the microregion of Toledo-PR, participation in collective actions has a positive impact on the level of sustainability of farmers. However, the effect was verified in a differentiated way between the dimensions, being stronger in the economic dimension and weaker in the social and environmental dimensions. These results contribute to the consolidation of the literature that has demonstrated the economic benefits of participating in collective actions and also allows the cooperatives and associations of agricultural producers of fruits and vegetables of the microregion of Toledo, PR to incorporate into their guidelines new matter that can bring improvements in the levels of social and environmental sustainability for the sector. / A motivação para a realização desta pesquisa surgiu do interesse em estudar o possível impacto da participação em ações coletivas no nível de sustentabilidade de produtores agrícolas. Especificamente, o intuito foi estimar o impacto da participação em cooperativas e associações. A literatura que trata dos possíveis benefícios oriundos da participação em ações coletivas tem progredido. Neste contexto, torna-se importante um trabalho de cunho empírico que busque examinar o impacto da participação em ações coletivas na sustentabilidade dos produtores agrícolas, considerando as três dimensões da sustentabilidade, ou seja, as dimensões econômica, social e ambiental. De maneira particular, em termos de escopo, o trabalho foi realizado no setor produtivo agrícola de frutas, verduras e legumes da microrregião de Toledo, PR, e o nível de sustentabilidade dos produtores foi mensurada através de 16 indicadores de sustentabilidade na agricultura, selecionados com base na literatura que trata do tema. Neste sentido, este trabalho teve como objetivo analisar qual o impacto da participação em ações coletivas no nível de sustentabilidade econômica, social e ambiental dos produtores agrícolas de frutas, verduras e legumes da microrregião de Toledo, PR. Os dados empíricos foram obtidos através da aplicação de questionários e entrevistas com esses produtores agrícolas. Para análise dos dados coletados, utilizou-se a análise de dados de corte transversal com método econométrico IPWRA (Inversity Probability Weightinh Regression Adjustment) para estimação do efeito médio do tratamento que, neste caso, é a participação em cooperativas ou associações de produtores. A análise foi complementada, numa perspectiva qualitativa, com as respostas às perguntas abertas que compõem o questionário aplicado, bem como da observação direta do pesquisador nas visitas realizadas. Os resultados da pesquisa indicaram que no setor produtivo de frutas, verduras e legumes na microrregião de Toledo-PR, a participação em ações coletivas tem impacto positivo no nível de sustentabilidade dos agricultores. Destaca-se, entretanto, que o efeito foi verificado de forma diferenciada entre as dimensões, sendo mais forte na dimensão econômica e mais fraca nas dimensões social e ambiental. Estes resultados colaboram para a consolidação da literatura que tem demonstrado os benefícios econômicos da participação em ações coletivas e, também, abre espaço para que as cooperativas e associações de produtores agrícolas de frutas, verduras e legumes da microrregião de Toledo, PR incorporem nas suas pautas de atuação, novas matérias que possam trazer melhorias nos níveis de sustentabilidade social e ambiental para o setor.

This thesis investigates the impacts of user choice in Swedish elderly care on quality and cost as well as the impact of marketisation on the Covid-19 death toll. In the last three decades welfare service provision in Sweden has been increasingly marketised. Since 2009, Swedish municipalities have been able to introduce user choice in elderly care and it has been widely adopted in home care. To investigate the impact of introducing user choice, new insights from econometrics literature is used to estimate a staggered Difference-in-Difference model, using panel data for the years 2003-2019 and the 290 Swedish municipalities. The impact of marketisation on the Covid-19 death toll is estimated through Ordinary Least Squares using a cross-sectional data set. There are three main findings of this thesis. (i) The impact on quality and cost of the introduction of user choice has had heterogeneous effects across adoption groups, calendar time, and exposure length of treatment, and hence, the standard Difference- in-Difference approach is likely to provide biased estimates in this setting. (ii) The introduction of user choice has no clear effect on non-contractible quality measured by mortality rate and fall accidents, nor on cost. However, user choice has increased subjective quality, as measured by user satisfaction. (iii) A higher degree of marketisation in home care is associated with a higher Covid-19 death toll amongst those which had home care.

Introducing new financial legislation to financial markets require caution to achieve the intended outcome. This thesis aims to investigate whether or not the newly installed revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive- the MIFID II regulation - temporally influenced the trading stock volume levels of Nasdaq Stockholm during its introduction to the Swedish stock market. A first approach of a generalized Negative Binomial model is carried out on aggregated data, followed by an individual Fixed Effects model in an attempt to eliminate omitted variable bias caused by missing unobserved variables for the individual stocks. The aggregated data is attained by taking the equally weighted average of the trading volume and adjusting for seasonality through Seasonal and Trend decomposition using Loess in combination with a regression model with ARIMA errors to mitigate calendar effects. Due to robustness of the aggregated data, the Negative Binomial model manage to capture significant effects of the regulation on the Small Cap. segment, even though clusters of the data show signs of divergent reactions to MIFID II. Since the Fixed Effects model operate on non-aggregated TSCS data and because of the varying effects on each stock the Fixed Effect model fails in its attempt to do the same. / Implementation av nya finansiella regelverk på finansmarknaden kräver aktsamhet för att uppnå de tilltänka målen. Det här arbetet undersöker huruvida MIFID II regleringen orsakade en temporär medelvärdesskiftning av de handlade aktievolymerna på Nasdaq Stockholm under regelverkets introduktion på den svenska marknaden. Först testas en generaliserad Negative Binomial regression applicerat på aggregerad data, därefter en individuell Fixed Effects modell för att försöka eliminera fel på grund av saknade, okända variabler. Det aggrigerade datasettet erhålls genom att ta genomsnittet av handelsvolymerna och justera dessa för sässongsmässiga mönster med metoden STL i kombination med regression med ARIMA residualer för att även ta hänsyn till kalender relaterade effekter. Eftersom den aggrigerade datan är robust lyckas the Negative Binomial regressionen fånga signifikanta effekter av regleringen för Small Cap. segmentet trots att datat uppvisar tecken på att subgrupper inom segmentet reagerat väldigt olika på den nya regleringen. Eftersom Fixed Effects modellen är applicerad på icke-aggrigerad TSCS data och pågrund av den varierande effekten på de individuella aktierna lyckas inte denna modell med detta.

This thesis studies regression discontinuity designs with the use of additional covariates for estimation of the average treatment effect. We prove asymptotic normality of the covariate-adjusted estimator under sufficient regularity conditions. In the case of a high-dimensional setting with a large number of covariates depending on the number of observations, we discuss a Lasso-based selection approach as well as alternatives based on calculated correlation thresholds. We present simulation results on those alternative selection strategies.:1. Introduction 2. Preliminaries 3. Regression Discontinuity Designs 4. Setup and Notation 5. Computing the Bias 6. Asymptotic Behavior 7. Asymptotic Normality of the Estimator 8. Including Potentially Many Covariates 9. Simulations 10. Conclusion

The main purpose of the study is to identify household characteristics which can 1) distinguish between the chronic poor and transient poor and 2) be feasibly implemented as targeting criterion in poverty interventions. Data for this study was drawn from Mozambique's 2008/09 Household Budget Survey and consisted of 10,832 observations. This study fills a gap in the literature by structurally determining the impact of common shocks (drought, floods and cyclones, agricultural pests, illness, death, and theft) on 1) food expenditures at the household level and 2) poverty rates at the national level. The results of the study indicate that shocks are one of the key determinants of household food expenditures. The expected impact of shocks in aggregate increases the national poverty rate by 9%. However, the impact of specific shocks on household food expenditures varies across regions and households. Further, the variables which are strongly correlated with chronic poverty differ from the variables strongly correlated with transient poverty. These results suggest the need to both more rapidly identify and enroll households exposed to shocks in short-term social protection programs and continue to improve methods targeting the chronic poor in long-term programs. / Master of Science

This thesis consists of four independent chapters on bank capital regulation and the issue of unsolicited ratings.<p> The first chapter is introductory and reviews the motivation for regulating banks and credit rating agencies while providing a detailed overview of the thesis.<p> The second chapter uses a simultaneous equations model to analyze how banks from six G10 countries adjusted their capital to assets ratios and risk-weighted assets to assets ratio between 1988 and 1995, i.e., just after passage of the 1988 Basel Accord. The results suggest that regulatory pressure brought about by the 1988 capital standards had little effect on both ratios for weakly capitalized banks, except in the US. In addition, the relation between the capital to assets ratios and the risk-weighted assets to assets ratio appears to depend not only on the level of capitalization of banks, but also on the countries or groups of countries considered.<p> The third chapter provides Monte Carlo estimates of the amount of regulatory capital that EMU banks must hold for their corporate, bank, and sovereign exposures both under Basel I and the standardized approach to credit risk in Basel II. In the latter case, Monte Carlo estimates are presented for different combinations of external credit assessment institutions (ECAIs) that banks may choose to risk weight their exposures. Three main results emerge from the analysis. First, although the use of different ECAIs leads to significant differences in minimum capital requirements, these differences never exceed, on average, 10% of EMU banks’ capital requirements for corporate, bank, and sovereign exposures. Second, the standardized approach to credit risk provides a small regulatory capital incentive for banks to use several ECAIs to risk weight their exposures. Third, the minimum capital requirements for the corporate, bank, and sovereign exposures of EMU banks will be higher in Basel II than in Basel I. I also show that the incentive for banks to engage in regulatory arbitrage in the standardized approach to credit risk is limited.<p> The fourth and final chapter analyses the effect of soliciting a rating on the rating outcome of banks. Using a sample of Asian banks rated by Fitch Ratings, I find evidence that unsolicited ratings tend to be lower than solicited ones, after accounting for differences in observed bank characteristics. This downward bias does not seem to be explained by the fact that better-quality banks self-select into the solicited group. Rather, unsolicited ratings appear to be lower because they are based on public information. As a result, they tend to be more conservative than solicited ratings, which incorporate both public and non-public information.

Dans cette thèse, je me suis interessé à l’identification partielle des effets de traitements dans différents modèles de choix discrets avec traitements endogènes. Les modèles d’effets de traitement ont pour but de mesurer l’impact de certaines interventions sur certaines variables d’intérêt. Le type de traitement et la variable d’intérêt peuvent être défini de manière générale afin de pouvoir être appliqué à plusieurs différents contextes. Il y a plusieurs exemples de traitement en économie du travail, de la santé, de l’éducation, ou en organisation industrielle telle que les programmes de formation à l’emploi, les techniques médicales, l’investissement en recherche et développement, ou l’appartenance à un syndicat. La décision d’être traité ou pas n’est généralement pas aléatoire mais est basée sur des choix et des préférences individuelles. Dans un tel contexte, mesurer l’effet du traitement devient problématique car il faut tenir compte du biais de sélection. Plusieurs versions paramétriques de ces modèles ont été largement étudiées dans la littérature, cependant dans les modèles à variation discrète, la paramétrisation est une source importante d’identification. Dans un tel contexte, il est donc difficile de savoir si les résultats empiriques obtenus sont guidés par les données ou par la paramétrisation imposée au modèle. Etant donné, que les formes paramétriques proposées pour ces types de modèles n’ont généralement pas de fondement économique, je propose dans cette thèse de regarder la version nonparamétrique de ces modèles. Ceci permettra donc de proposer des politiques économiques plus robustes. La principale difficulté dans l’identification nonparamétrique de fonctions structurelles, est le fait que la structure suggérée ne permet pas d’identifier un unique processus générateur des données et ceci peut être du soit à la présence d’équilibres multiples ou soit à des contraintes sur les observables. Dans de telles situations, les méthodes d’identifications traditionnelles deviennent inapplicable d’où le récent développement de la littérature sur l’identification dans les modèles incomplets. Cette littérature porte une attention particuliere à l’identification de l’ensemble des fonctions structurelles d’intérêt qui sont compatibles avec la vraie distribution des données, cet ensemble est appelé : l’ensemble identifié. Par conséquent, dans le premier chapitre de la thèse, je caractérise l’ensemble identifié pour les effets de traitements dans le modèle triangulaire binaire. Dans le second chapitre, je considère le modèle de Roy discret. Je caractérise l’ensemble identifié pour les effets de traitements dans un modèle de choix de secteur lorsque la variable d’intérêt est discrète. Les hypothèses de sélection du secteur comprennent le choix de sélection simple, étendu et généralisé de Roy. Dans le dernier chapitre, je considère un modèle à variable dépendante binaire avec plusieurs dimensions d’hétérogéneité, tels que les jeux d’entrées ou de participation. je caractérise l’ensemble identifié pour les fonctions de profits des firmes dans un jeux avec deux firmes et à information complète. Dans tout les chapitres, l’ensemble identifié des fonctions d’intérêt sont écrites sous formes de bornes et assez simple pour être estimées à partir des méthodes d’inférence existantes. / In this thesis, I have been interested in the nonparametric (partial) identification of structural potential outcome functions and Average Treatment Effect (ATE) in various discrete models with endogenous selection and treatment. This topic of treatment effect concerns measuring the impact of an intervention on an outcome of interest. The type of treatments and outcomes may be broadly defined in order to be applied in many different contexts. There are many examples of treatment in economics (Labor, health, education, trade, industrial organization) such that Job training programs, surgical procedures, higher education level, research and development investment, being a member of a trade union etc. The decision to be treated or not, is usually not random but is based on individual choices or preferences. In such a context, determining the impact of the treatment becomes an important issue since we have to take into account the selectivity bias. The parametric version of such models has been widely studied in the literature, however in models with discrete variation, the parametrization is a strong source of identification. Then, we don’t know if the empirical results we obtain, are driven by the data or by the parametrization imposed on the model. I propose to look at a fully nonparametric version of those models, in order, to have more robust policy recommendations. The central challenge in this nonparametric structural identification is that the hypothesized structure fails to identify a single generating process for the data, either because of multiple equilibria or data observability constraints. In such cases, many traditional identification techniques become inapplicable and a framework for identification in incomplete models is developing, with an initial focus on identification of the set of structural functions of interest compatible with the true data distribution (hereafter identified set). Therefore, in the first chapter, I provide a full characterization of the identified set for the ATE in a binary triangular system. In the second chapter, I consider a model with sector specific unobserved heterogeneity. I provide the full characterization of the identified set for the structural potential outcome functions of an instrumental variables model of sectoral choice with discrete outcomes. Assumptions on selection include the simple, extended and generalized Roy models. In the last chapter, I consider a binary model with several unobserved heterogeneity dimensions, such as entry and participation games. I provide the full characterization of the identified set for the payoffs in 2 2 games with perfect information, including duopoly entry and coordination games. In all chapters, the identified set of the functions of interest are nonparametric intersection bounds and are simple enough to lend themselves to existing inference methods.

This thesis consists of four self-contained essays. The first essay concerns educational choice and the returns to college in Sweden. I apply a recently introduced econometric framework that allows for self selection and treatment effect heterogeneity. I also examine the influence of cognitive and noncognitive ability on college choice and the returns to college. Essays two through four concern different aspects of intergenerational income mobility. In the second essay, we study the impact on mobility estimates from heterogeneous income profiles and, more specifically, life-cycle bias. We use nearly career-long income measures for both fathers and sons to give a detailed account of this bias and assess recent methods to deal with it. In the third essay, we present a simple model of intergenerational transmission and use it to analyze the dynamic behavior of the intergenerational income elasticity following structural changes. We find that past structural frameworks, for example in the form of past policies or institutions, matter for current trends in mobility. The fourth essay provides a cross-country perspective on intergenerational income mobility. We construct comparable data sets for Sweden and the UK and account for country differences in the role of parental income for various productivity traits of children. Finally, we examine whether such differences can explain the country difference in intergenerational income mobility.