Chapter 1: We provide first evidence of a link from daily air pollution exposure to sleep loss in a panel of Chinese cities. We develop a social media-based, city-level metric for sleeplessness, and bolster causal claims by instrumenting for pollution with plausibly exogenous variations in wind patterns. Estimates of effect sizes are substantial and robust. In our preferred specification, a one standard deviation increase in AQI causes an 11.6% increase in sleeplessness. The results sustain qualitatively under OLS estimation but are attenuated. The analysis provides a previously unaccounted-for benefit of more stringent air quality regulation. It also offers a candidate mechanism in support of recent research that links daily air quality to diminished workplace productivity, cognitive performance, school absence, traffic accidents, and other detrimental outcomes. Chapter 2: We provide linear and non-parametric estimates of the causal impact of short-term exposure to polluted air on the prevalence of cough in a panel of a hundred Chinese cities. In our central estimate, which exploits plausibly-exogenous variations in the number of agricultural fires burning in the vicinity as an instrument, we find that a one standard deviation increase in airborne pollution causes a roughly 5% increase in the prevalence of cough in the affected city. Amongst pollutants the effect can be tied specifically to particulate matter (PM2.5). The results prove resilient in a series of robustness tests and falsification exercises. Chapter 3: We provide the first study of the relationship between air pollution and students' migration intentions for higher education. Young people's interest in local study is proxied by their Baidu search index for local universities. The IV method is supplemented to identify the causal link by instrumenting for particular matter with plausibly exogenous variations in temperature inversion strength. The estimates of effect sizes are substantial and robust. When air quality in Beijing moves from good-day level to moderately-polluted level, people's search for local education decreases by 3.8% under OLS and 11.8% under IV. The results release the signal that people lost their interest in local universities due to the elevated air pollution. There could be future out-migration to cleaner cities for higher education.

國家的強制權力創造了龐大的租利(rent)。個人或團體往往投入時間、金 錢或其他努力以獲取這些租利；這些追逐爭利的過程，稱為「競租活動 」。研究這些租利的形成、尋求、防禦、規避及它對社會產生的成本、效 益的一些理論及實證分析，統稱為「競租理論」(theory of rent-seek- ing)。本文將運用「利益團體模型」及「競租理論模型」將利益團體－管 制政策－社會福利成本三者之間的關係串聯起來。最後以Mohammad與 Walley對印度競租成本估計模式為架構，以台灣現有資料做一估計，探究 台灣因管制活動造成社會福利成本究竟有多大。本文共分五章。第一章緒 論；第二章為政治決策與競租活動；第三章為競租理論與福利成本之估計 （一）；第四章為競租成本的衡量（二）；第五章為結論及建議。

Desde o trabalho de Lucas (1987), diversos autores se dedicaram a medir o custo de bem-estar dos ciclos econômicos. Embora a literatura desse tema para os Estados Unidos seja extensa, há poucos estudos para países em desenvolvimento. O objetivo do presente trabalho é estimar este custo para uma amostra de países latino-americanos e compará-lo ao custo obtido dos dados da economia dos Estados Unidos. É utilizada a metodologia proposta por Reis (2009), que assume que o consumo segue um processo ARIMA(p,1,q), que tem as ordens selecionadas com base no critério de informação bayesiano. Os resultados obtidos indicam que, sob todos os processos assumidos para as série de consumo, os países latino-americanos possuem custo consideravelmente maior do que o dos Estados Unidos. Entretanto, quando se assume a estrutura ARIMA, a diferença entre os custos dos países latino-americanos e dos Estados Unidos é a menor. / Since the work of Lucas (1987), several authors have dedicated to measure the welfare costs of business cycle. Although the literature on this subject is extensive for the United States, few studies were made considering developing countries data. The objective of this study is to estimate this cost for a sample of Latin American countries and compare it to the cost obtained from the US economy data. The methodology proposed by Reis (2009) is used. It assumes that consumption follows an ARIMA (p,1,q) model, and the p and q orders are selected based on the Bayesian information criterion. The results indicate that, in all processes assumed for the consumption series, Latin American countries have considerably higher welfare costs than the US. However, when the ARIMA structure is assumed, the difference between the costs of Latin American countries and the United States is the smallest.

Desde o trabalho de Lucas (1987), diversos autores se dedicaram a medir o custo de bem-estar dos ciclos econômicos. Embora a literatura desse tema para os Estados Unidos seja extensa, há poucos estudos para países em desenvolvimento. O objetivo do presente trabalho é estimar este custo para uma amostra de países latino-americanos e compará-lo ao custo obtido dos dados da economia dos Estados Unidos. É utilizada a metodologia proposta por Reis (2009), que assume que o consumo segue um processo ARIMA(p,1,q), que tem as ordens selecionadas com base no critério de informação bayesiano. Os resultados obtidos indicam que, sob todos os processos assumidos para as série de consumo, os países latino-americanos possuem custo consideravelmente maior do que o dos Estados Unidos. Entretanto, quando se assume a estrutura ARIMA, a diferença entre os custos dos países latino-americanos e dos Estados Unidos é a menor. / Since the work of Lucas (1987), several authors have dedicated to measure the welfare costs of business cycle. Although the literature on this subject is extensive for the United States, few studies were made considering developing countries data. The objective of this study is to estimate this cost for a sample of Latin American countries and compare it to the cost obtained from the US economy data. The methodology proposed by Reis (2009) is used. It assumes that consumption follows an ARIMA (p,1,q) model, and the p and q orders are selected based on the Bayesian information criterion. The results indicate that, in all processes assumed for the consumption series, Latin American countries have considerably higher welfare costs than the US. However, when the ARIMA structure is assumed, the difference between the costs of Latin American countries and the United States is the smallest.

晚近對於應否將金融服務納入消費稅基，及其稅率如何訂定的相關討論，大都從“金融服務為非最終消費”的角度出發，然而這樣觀點並不適用於所有種類之金融服務；將全部的金融服務視為一體來探討此一課題並不恰當，其結果也可能有所偏頗。 此外，以消費者的個人效用極大化問題來討論將金融服務納入消費稅基雖為正確作法，但卻忽略了政府在經濟體系中所扮演的角色及消費者行為可能對社會福利造成的影響。Rousslang（2002）認為，由於政府也是金融服務的使用者之一，而所面對的使用成本卻可能與消費者不同，在此種模型下，個人追求效用極大的行為會經由不同的租稅政策而產生不同的社會成本。 本文以Rousslang（2002）為基礎，將金融服務的性質分為最終消費與非最終消費兩種，研究發現，在金融課稅採總額型下，金融服務應否課稅及其稅率高低，與政府使用金融服務的成本，以及非最終消費性質之金融服務佔整體服務之比例息息相關。 此外，不同的課稅方式可能會對私人選擇及社會成本有不同的影響 ，進而影響最適租稅政策。吾人試圖將模型延伸，將金融課稅改為加值型，並與總額型之結果作一比較，結果發現：當政府與私人面對相同的金融服務使用成本時，兩者最適稅率之訂定相同，而當政府使用金融服務不需付費時，加值稅制下最適稅率之訂定會受金融機構本身生產成本及報酬的影響。

Submitted by David Turchick (davidturchick@fgvmail.br) on 2011-03-28T21:58:20Z No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_dout_david.pdf: 1028717 bytes, checksum: ebae39f4145a0e8d55de18fe3b119f10 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Andrea Virginio Machado(andrea.machado@fgv.br) on 2011-03-29T11:47:06Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_dout_david.pdf: 1028717 bytes, checksum: ebae39f4145a0e8d55de18fe3b119f10 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-03-31T17:21:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_dout_david.pdf: 1028717 bytes, checksum: ebae39f4145a0e8d55de18fe3b119f10 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-09-24 / This thesis collects four papers on monetary economics written under the supervision of Professor Rubens Penha Cysne. The first of these papers assesses the bias occuring in welfare-cost-of-inflation measures due to failing to take into consideration the substitution potential of interest-bearing monies such as bank deposits. The second one tackles the theoretical issue of comparing the generality of the money-in-the-utility-function- and the shopping-time models by studying the properties of the demand curves they generate. The third of these works revisits a classic paper by Stanley Fischer on the correlation between the growth rate of money supply and the rate of capital accumulation on the transition path. Finally, the fourth one concerns the relative standing of each one of six measures of the welfare cost of inflation (one of which is new) with respect to the other five, and an estimate of the maximum relative error one can incur by choosing to employ a particular welfare measure in place of the others. / Esta tese é uma coleção de quatro artigos em economia monetária escritos sob a supervisão do Professor Rubens Penha Cysne. O primeiro desses artigos calcula o viés presente em medidas do custo de bem-estar da inflação devido a não se levar em conta o potencial substitutivo de moedas que rendem juros, como depósitos bancários.[1] O segundo se concentra na questão teórica de se comparar os escopos dos tradicionais modelos money-in-the-utility-function e shopping-time através do estudo das propriedades das curvas de demanda que eles geram.[2] O terceiro desses trabalhos revisita um artigo clássico de Stanley Fischer sobre a correlação entre a taxa de crescimento da oferta monetária e a taxa de acumulação de capital no caminho de transição.[3] Finalmente, o quarto diz respeito à posição relativa de cada uma de seis medidas do custo de bem-estar da inflação (uma das quais é nova) em relação às outras cinco, e uma estimativa do erro relativo máximo em que o pesquisador pode incorrer devido a sua escolha de empregar uma dessas medidas qualquer vis-à-vis as outras.