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1.
  • Ahlerup, Pelle, 1977 (författare)
  • Essays on Conflict, Institutions, and Ethnic Diversity
  • 2009
  • Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • The thesis consists of five self-contained papers. Paper 1: Social Capital vs Institutions in the Growth Process Is social capital a substitute or a complement to formal institutions for achieving economic growth? Research on the impacts of social capital and formal institutions on economic development have so far mainly emerged as two distinct …elds. In the social capital literature, trust, networks, social norms, and associational activity are believed to be central aspects of successful economies. Although micro studies suggest that social capital has a larger e¤ect on economic performance when formal institutions are weak, this has not been con…rmed at the macro level. In the institutional literature, it is emphasized how formal institutions such as those regulating the strength of property rights, the constraints against the executive, and the power of courts, are fundamental determinants of long-run growth (North 1990, Acemoglu et al. 2001). These studies, however, never attempt to quantify the e¤ect of informal institutions such as inter- personal trust. Based on the micro evidence, we outline an investment game between a producer and a lender in an incomplete-contracts setting. The key insight from the model is that social capital may have its greatest positive impact on the total monetary surplus from the game (economic growth) at lower levels of institutional development, and that the positive impact eventually vanishes if institutions become strong enough. This basic prediction about substitution …nds support in a cross-country growth regression the marginal impact of our proxy for social capital (interpersonal trust) decreases with the quality of formal institutions. This implies that attempts at building social capital create, if successful, a pro-growth potential for countries with bad institutions. Paper 2: The Roots of Ethnic Diversity The level of ethnic diversity is believed to have consequences for economic and political development. Accepting this observation naturally leads to the question: Why are some countries more ethnically fractionalized than others? For instance, why is the probability that two randomly chosen individuals belong to di¤erent ethnic groups roughly 93 percent in Uganda but only 0.2 percent in South Korea? In the paper, we explore the two main hypotheses regarding the formation of ethnic identities. The constructivist”view is that ethnic identi…cations are socially constructed phenomenon appearing during modernity (Gellner 1983, Tilly 1992). The evolutionary view contends that ethnic divisions have deep roots in history and ecology and should be analyzed in an evolutionary framework. Ethnic identification is here regarded as a x natural and evolutionarily successful behavior that has existed throughout history. The process of evolution is tied to the geographical context, and in the paper we discuss the implications for ethnic diversity from a number of stylized ecological facts. We develop a formal model where ethnic groups endogenously emerge among periph- eral populations in response to an insu¢ cient supply of public goods. A key prediction is that the current level of ethnic fractionalization in a given area should be positively correlated with the antiquity of human settlement. Our empirical analysis introduces the historical duration of human settlements for all countries in the world. The dating is based on research in genetics, archeology, climatology and on fossils, as synthesized by primarily Oppenheimer (2003). The theoretical prediction of a positive e¤ect of the historical duration of human settlements on ethnic diversity receives strong empirical support, and there are clear indications that ethnic diversity is higher where geographical conditions have favoured isolation, and lower where early civilization proved more successful, and where the state was stronger during the modern nation-state era. Hence, a genuine understanding of ethnic diversity requires a synthesis of evolutionary and constructivist arguments. Our results have implications for how social scientists investigate the e¤ects of eth- nic diversity. An often employed method for assessing the e¤ect of ethnic diversity on economic and political development has been to treat ethnic diversity as an exogenous determinant. Since a stronger state in the nation-state era is associated with having less ethnic diversity, and there is a positive correlation between indicators of this state strength and several indicators of economic and political development, the negative coe¢ cient on ethnicity obtained in these regressions could re‡ect an omitted variable bias. Paper 3: The Causal E¤ects of Ethnic Diversity: An Instrumental Variables Approach High levels of ethnic diversity have been linked to various poor economic and political outcomes, e.g., lower income levels, poor economic growth, more corruption, and a lower provision of public goods (Easterly and Levine 1997, La Porta et al. 1999). The standard approach in this literature has been to treat ethnic diversity as if it were exogenous to economic development, but that is a misspeci…cation. The historical literature has documented how populations in more developed countries have become more homogenous over time, and increasingly so during the last couple of centuries, through a combination of deliberate homogenizing e¤orts and endogenous processes (Gellner 1983, Tilly 1992). Recent research has found that ethnic diversity is determined both by historical forces and by geographical factors: Ethnic diversity is higher in countries with a longer duration of human settlement, and in countries that have a naturally fragmented geography, that lie closer to the equator, and that have had low levels of territorial state capacity during the modern era. xi In the paper we discuss how previous studies on ethnic diversity and long-run devel- opment may have obtained biased estimates due to omitted variables, simultaneity, or measurement error, but also that the use of instrumental variables allows us to deal with exactly these problems. Our main instruments capture the historical duration of human settlements, the degree of geographical fragmentation, and the number of years since the date of independence. With these at hand, we …nd that high levels ethnic diversity is associated with lower income levels, poor economic growth, more corruption, and poor provision of public goods, and that results obtained in OLS may underestimate the true e¤ects. While previous studies have shown signi…cant partial correlations between ethnic diversity and economic outcomes, the present paper demonstrates that there indeed are causal e¤ects of ethnic diversity. We also …nd that the e¤ects of ethnic diversity and property rights institutions on economic development among former European colonies can be separated from each other. This suggests that countries that have problems due to high levels of ethnic diversity could alleviate these problems by improving the quality of their formal institutions. On a more general level, the results presented in the paper promise that an acceptance of the endogenous nature of ethnic diversity does not preclude meaningful empirical analyses of the long-run e¤ects of ethnic diversity. Paper 4: Nationalism and Government E¤ectiveness Nation-building, which generally refers to a process of unifying the population in a country by constructing a national unity, is believed to have positive e¤ects on aggregate performance, and has been proposed as a possible remedy against problems associated with high levels of ethnic fractionalization (Miguel 2004). However, systematic empirical evidence that the creation of a national unity is a worthwhile policy is still largely absent, and nationalism, an indicator of successful nation-building, has been empirically linked to protectionism and intolerance, which suggests that dismal performance is a more likely outcome. Furthermore, there is an obvious problem with the idea that the unity of a country’s population can be enhanced by encouraging nationalism –a national identity is created in relation to other national identities, and for there to be an “us”there has to be a “them.” The paper investigates whether nationalism a¤ects the ability of governments to e¤ec- tively formulate and implement good policies, i.e., government e¤ectiveness, and whether it mitigates the negative e¤ects of ethnic fractionalization, or is associated with less trade openness. We discuss how nationalism may have a positive e¤ects, as it can increase in- group altruism, trustworthiness, and state authority, and how it may have negative e¤ects, as it can breed prejudice, out-group animosity, and skepticism of new ideas, implementa- xii tion techniques, and goods, if these are not of national origin or are not considered to be in line with national traditions. We hypothesize that the positive e¤ects will dominate at low levels of nationalism but that the negative e¤ects will dominate at higher levels of nationalism. The empirical analysis con…rms that nationalism has an inverted U-shaped e¤ect on government e¤ectiveness, and also shows that this e¤ect does not capture the in‡uence of factors such as income, economic growth, democracy, and income inequality. Comfort- ingly, the qualitative result is the same also when we instrument for nationalism, with instruments that represent a number of historical and cultural circumstances. Further- more, nationalism can mitigate the negative e¤ects of ethnic fractionalization in former colonies, but has no clear e¤ect on trade openness. Taken seriously, the results suggest that most countries already have too nationalistic populations, and probably would function better if these sentiments where downplayed. Paper 5: Earthquakes and Civil War There are two diametrically opposing views in the literature on natural disasters and
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2.
  • Alem, Yonas, 1974 (författare)
  • Essays on Shocks, Welfare, and Poverty Dynamics: Microeconometric Evidence from Ethiopia
  • 2011
  • Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • Five self-contained papers constitute this thesis. Paper 1: Does fertilizer use respond to rainfall variability? Panel data evidence from urban Ethiopia In this article, we use farmers’ actual experiences with changes in rainfall levels and their responses to these changes to assess whether patterns of fertilizer use are responsive to changes in rainfall patterns. Using panel data from the Central Highlands of Ethiopia matched with corresponding village-level rainfall data, the results show that the intensity of current year’s fertilizer use is positively associated with higher rainfall levels experienced in the previous year. Rainfall variability, on the other hand, impacts fertilizer use decisions negatively, implying that variability raises the risks and uncertainty associated with fertilizer use. Abundant rainfall in the previous year could depict relaxed liquidity constraints and increased affordability of fertilizer, which makes rainfall availability critical in severely credit-constrained environments. In light of similar existing literature, the major contribution of the study is that it uses panel data to explicitly examine farmers’ responses to actual weather changes and variability. Paper 2: Household-level consumption in urban Ethiopia: The effects of a large food price shock We use survey data to investigate how urban households in Ethiopia coped with the food price shock in 2008. Qualitative data indicate that the high food price inflation was by far the most adverse economic shock between 2004 and 2008, and that a significant proportion of households had to adjust food consumption in response. Regression results indicate that households with low asset levels, and casual workers, were particularly adversely affected by high food prices. We interpret the results as pointing to the importance of growth in the formal sector so as to generate more well-paid and stable jobs. Paper 3: The impact of food price inflation on consumer welfare in urban Ethiopia: A quadratic almost ideal demand system approach This paper investigates the impact of food price inflation on consumer welfare in urban Ethiopia 2004-2009. A quadratic almost ideal demand system (QUAIDS) is estimated using data from 2000 to 2009. Statistical tests suggest the QUAIDS is preferred over the conventionally used AIDS model. Compensating variation calculated using estimated price elasticities shows that from 2004 to 2009, households in urban Ethiopia lost an equivalent of 15 percent of their food budget annually due to the unprecedented food price inflation. Poor households, who spend a higher proportion of their budget on food, were affected more adversely than non-poor households. Moreover, with a more or less uniform increase in the price of major food items, households in urban Ethiopia appear to have limited options for substitution. These findings can provide important information to policy makers and can help aid organizations design and implement better social assistance schemes in the future. Paper 4: What do policy makers know about the factors influencing citizens’ subjective well-being? In light of the increased interest in using subjective well-being as an outcome variable beyond GDP, as for example argued by the Stiglitz Commission, there is an interest in analyzing policymakers’ knowledge on what variables influence citizens’ subjective well-being. We elicit what policymakers guess influence citizens’ subjective well-being with a focus on environmental variables. Our study, conducted on policymakers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, shows large heterogeneity in their guesses. Overall, we find that the factors that correlate with citizens’ subjective well-being in Addis Ababa are similar to those found in rich Western countries. Moreover, there is a low correlation between what policymakers guess affects citizens’ subjective well-being and our empirical findings on the matter. As an alternative check for the similarities between citizens’ and policymakers’ preferences, we also undertook a ranking exercise of setting priority areas. Compared to the citizens, policymakers put more weight on longer-term projects. By and large, our study indicates that policymakers have a heterogeneous, and hence a non-negligible proportion of them have a fairly poor understanding of what correlates with citizens’ subjective well-being. Paper 5: Poverty dynamics and intra-household heterogeneity in occupations: Evidence from urban Ethiopia Using five rounds of panel data spanning 15 years, this paper investigates the dynamics and persistence of poverty in urban Ethiopia with a particular focus on the role of intra-household heterogeneity in occupations. Urban poverty measured by the head count index declined from 52 to 34 percent from 1994 to 2009. Regression results from dynamic probit models provide strong evidence of state dependence and show that education, labor market status of household heads, international remittances, and household demographic characteristics are important determinants of poverty. The paper also finds strong evidence of the role of labor market status of non-head household members. Regression results from discrete-time proportional hazard models of poverty spells also confirm the importance of labor market status of household members and remittances in determining poverty exit and re-entry rates of households. In addition to investigating the trends, dynamics and persistence of poverty in urban Ethiopia, the paper discusses important policy implications that can be useful for designing effective policies for poverty reduction and targeting.
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3.
  • Andersson, Fredrik W., 1974 (författare)
  • Essays on Social Comparison
  • 2011
  • Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • Paper 1: By using hypothetical choice experiments, this paper presents evidence that individuals’ concern for relative consumption depends on their relative consumption. Individuals with consumption levels above society’s average consumption level tend to have, in general, lower concern for relative consumption. This supports Duesenberry’s (Duesenberry, 1949) notion that people are more concerned with upward social comparison than with downward social comparison. Paper 2: This paper presents a closed form consumption function for an individual when his utility depends both on his own current and previous consumption and on the consumption by his relevant others. Given this model, I argue that we can introduce an alternative definition of marginal propensity to consume (MPC) in addition to the traditional definition. This alternative definition can be called the individual’s total MPC, which I show is smaller than the traditional MPC. Paper 3: Based on Swedish survey evidence, professors are happier than lecturers; but employed academics with better self-reported publication lists are not happier than their colleagues. Both absolute wage and relative wage seem to affect happiness. Employed academics who earn more than faculty colleagues with the same academic position and gender are also happier. For those who just started their academic careers, the results show that students with relatively better exam results are not happier than their classmates. Moreover, it seems optimal for students’ happiness to study 30-40 hours per week. Employed academics with average or worse self-reported publication lists are more likely to think they will be happier in the future than colleagues with better self-reported publication lists. This finding is similar for students: Students with worse exam results are more likely to think they will be happier in the future than their classmates with better or average exam results. Hence, while relative academic performance does not seem to affect current happiness, it does seem to be negatively correlated with expected future happiness. Paper 4: Campbell and Mankiw’s(1990) lambda model has frequently been used to estimate the fraction of rule of thumb consumers (i.e., consumers who do not smooth their consumption). However, the present note shows theoretically, as well as with a numerical illustration, that existing empirical applications of the lambda model imply a systematic under estimation of this fraction. The reason is that per capita values instead of aggregate values (which the model is designed for) are used. Paper 5: Being sick listed is not always identical to being ill; it is rather a behaviour associated with illness. In this paper we have analysed whether there is a higher risk of becoming sick listed if a family member has been sick listed earlier – partly a family phenomenon. This aspect of sick listing has never been investigated before. Our results indicate that an individual’s risk of being sick listed in 2007 was higher if he/she had family members who had been sick listed in 2006. This may be a sign for an existing “sick listing culture” – social norms within families.
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4.
  • Andersson, Lisa, 1982 (författare)
  • Essays on Development and Experimental Economics: Migration, Discrimination and Positional Concerns
  • 2013
  • Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • Paper 1: A Field Experiment of Discrimination in the Norwegian Housing Market: Gender, Class, and Ethnicity We test for gender, class, and ethnic discrimination in the Norwegian rental housing market using fake application letters. Females, individuals with high job status, and ethnic Norwegians are more likely to receive positive responses. For example, being an Arabic man and working in a warehouse is associated with a 25 percentage point lower probability of receiving a positive response when showing interest in an apartment as compared to an ethnically Norwegian female economist. We conclude that gender, class, and ethnic discrimination do exist in the Norwegian housing market, and ethnic discrimination seems to be the most prevalent form of discrimination. Paper 2: Positional Concerns among the Poor: Does Reference Group Matter? Evidence from Survey Experiments In general, previous research on positional concerns suggests a lower degree of positional concerns among people from poor countries. Yet the evidence is limited and most often builds on the assumption that people’s reference groups are given, (often referring to other people in the society) and are the same across all individuals. In this paper, we test if low positional concerns found in the literature may be due to misspecification of the reference groups. We contribute to the limited literature by estimating the positional concerns in a low-income country considering various reference groups. We do so by testing the effect of different reference groups on the positional concerns of a representative sample of individuals in urban Ethiopia. We use a tailored survey experiment that is modified to include multiplicity of reference groups. The results show a low degree of positional concern for income, and that the degree of positional concern is highly stable across different reference groups. Paper 3: Migration, Remittances and Household Welfare in Ethiopia This paper investigates the effect of international remittances and migration on household welfare in Ethiopia. We employ both subjective (a household’s subjective economic well-being) and objective measures (asset holdings and asset accumulation) to define household welfare. A matching approach is applied to address self-selection, and by exploiting information before and after the households began receiving remittances, the study sheds light on the changes in welfare associated with international migration and remittances. The results reveal that remittances have a significant impact on a welfare variable that has previously not received much attention in the migration literature, namely household subjective economic well-being. In addition, we find that remittances have positive effects on consumer asset accumulation, especially in rural areas, but no effect on productive assets. Paper 4: Do International Remittances Stimulate Private Transfers? Panel Data Evidence from Urban Ethiopia International remittances can have important impacts on the households who receive them. However, the effects of remittances might also carry trickle-down effects on other households in the migrant origin country through informal systems of private transfers. Using rich panel data from urban Ethiopia spanning more than a decade, we investigate how international remittances affect the sending of private transfers. The results show that receiving international remittances increases the likelihood of sending internal transfers among low-educated households, while the same effect is not found for highly educated households. The difference in transfer response to remittances between low-educated and highly-educated households seems to be partly driven by differences in transfer behaviour during an adverse economic shock.
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5.
  • Belu, Constantin, 1977 (författare)
  • Essays on Efficiency Measurement and Corporate Social Responsibility
  • 2009
  • Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • Paper 1: Ranking corporations based on sustainable and socially responsible practices. A Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach This study ranks publicly listed corporations based on social and environmental (i.e. sustainable) achievements in relation to financial results, by using a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach with financial performance indicators (return on assets, return on equity and yearly stock return) as inputs and sustainability scores as outputs. The sustainability scores cover a wide range of sustainable practices and were provided by a specialized screening company. Our calculated DEA indices provide a measure of the commitment of firms towards sustainable practices. The main findings are that many companies are positioned well below best practice in their respective industries. Industry sectors that are less scrutinised by the public (e.g. banking) are found to be less competitive in terms of sustainable practices. Paper 2: Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility and Economic Performance This paper studies the link between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and economic performance of companies. Acknowledging the argument that companies might behave socially responsible strategically, i.e. favoring the CSR dimensions that provide competitive advantages, we construct a novel CSR index based on a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model. We argue that this index accounts for CSR achievements from a strategic perspective, and use it to analyze the link between CSR and economic performance expressed by Return on Assets (ROA). When explicitly accounting for strategic behavior of companies, our findings reveal a significant positive relationship between CSR and economic performance. Paper 3: The effect of IT capital on the efficiency of Swedish banks This paper uses a balanced panel of 85 banks during 1999-2003 to analyze the impact of Information Technology (IT) on the technical efficiency of Swedish banks. Employing a stochastic frontier production function that allows for time-varying technical efficiencies shows that the efficiency increased with the amount of employed IT expenditure i.e. IT capital had an exogenous positive effect on the technical efficiency of Swedish banks despite a downward shift in the production frontier, during the period analyzed. Paper 4: Are all DMUs efficient in DEA? DEA meets the vintage model. In this paper I develop a model of capacity expansion that accounts for differences in the productivity of the installed capital due to technical progress exhibited by the ex ante production function. A putty-clay set-up is assumed, meaning flexible input coefficients and substitution possibilities ex ante, but fixed input coefficients ex post. Based on the model, I generate a capacity distribution of DMUs (vintages) for a homogenous industry and perform an efficiency analysis employing data envelopment analysis, a popular non-parametric method for estimating efficiency. The results show that in some circumstances older vintages might appear on the efficiency frontier, unlike some newer vintages that are found to be inefficient, despite benefiting from the advancement of the technology.
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6.
  • Boman, Anders, 1976 (författare)
  • Geographic Labour Mobility - Causes and Consequences
  • 2008
  • Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • This thesis consists of three self-contained chapters. The first chapter studies the causes of internal migration, the second studies the earnings effects of internal migration, and the third analyses what could be perceived as an effect of mobility but is in fact not. Chapter 1: The Mobility of Immigrants and Natives: Evidence from Internal Migration Following Job Displacement Human capital migration theory presents two conflicting hypotheses on immigrant mobility. One is based on immigrants having less location-specific human capital, reducing the costs of migration and increasing the probability of migration. The other is based on ethnicity: immigrants living in ethnic enclaves have higher costs of leaving the enclave, reducing the probability of migration. This paper disentangles and finds support for both hypotheses using high-quality data on a wide range of human capital, family and labour market variables, as well as on previous migration of essentially all individuals involuntarily displaced due to closures or substantial cutbacks of Swedish workplaces in 1987 and 1988. Chapter 2: Does Migration Pay? Earnings Effects of Geographic Mobility Following Job Displacement Displaced workers are followed for ten years in order to analyse the earnings effects of internal migration. I utilise a large dataset containing all workers in Sweden who were involuntarily displaced from work due to closures or substantial cutbacks of Swedish workplaces in 1987 or 1988. The effects are investigated controlling for human capital, family and labour market characteristics. Substantial gender differences in earnings effects of internal migration are found: men generally have positive effects, while the consequences for women are negative. Chapter 3: They seek it here, they seek it there, they seek it everywhere. But where is employment found? This paper uses a unique possibility to link unemployed individuals’ stated willingness to move with administrative data, giving us the possibility to analyse the effects of mobility on labour market outcome. Furthermore, we can do this not only for those who actually move, but also for non-movers. I find that those who extend their search area in job search geographically do have a higher probability of escaping unemployment. However, this positive effect is not only present for jobs outside the local labour market, as would be expected, but the greatest effect is found on the local labour market. This indicates positive selection; i.e. it is not so much the increased geographic scope per se that increases the likelihood of escaping unemployment, but mainly differences in unobservable characteristics between those who choose to use a larger search area and those who do not.
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7.
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8.
  • Erlandzon, Karl, 1977 (författare)
  • Retirement Planning: Portfolio Choice for Long-Term Investors
  • 2008
  • Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • This thesis consists of four papers. Common to the first three papers is the framework for analysis; a life-cycle model of a borrowing-constrained individual's consumption- and portfolio choices in the presence of uncertain labour income. The income process, taxes and pension systems are also realistically calibrated. The first paper investigates some welfare effects of forced saving through a mandatory pension scheme. Pension benefits stem from both a defined benefit and a notionally defined contribution part, the latter indexed to stochastic aggregate labour income. It is shown that, early in life, individuals attribute little value to their pension savings. Furthermore, for individuals in mid-life, the welfare loss associated with the dependency between pension returns and labour income growth is estimated to 1.2% of annual consumption. The second paper investigates the diversification demand of an individual faced with the alternative, through an individual account in a mandatory pension scheme, of exchanging aggregate labour income risk for equity exposure. It is shown that, depending on age and exchange premium, individuals will be either buyers or sellers of such swaps, and that inter-generational risk sharing can therefore be achieved. The third paper explores the recent transition from defined benefit to defined contribution for white-collar workers in Sweden. The main result is that individuals with the characteristic of a low expected pre-retirement income relative to average income during working life and high variance in earnings are winners (typically, men with university degree in the private sector), and that those with the opposite characteristic (typically, women with university degree in the public sector) would be losers. The aim of the fourth and final paper is to determine whether there is a home bias among the newly established Swedish National Pension Funds. Estimation errors in historical estimates of return moments make traditional analysis of the home bias puzzle work poorly. Therefore, this paper takes another approach by using the information available to the fund. The results demonstrate a significant bias towards domestic equities that cannot be explained by informational advantage or any other risk and return based explanation.
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9.
  • Hansson, Gustav, 1977 (författare)
  • Essays on Social Distance, Institutions, and Economic Growth
  • 2008
  • Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • Paper 1: Country Size and the Rule of Law: Resuscitating Montesquieu In this paper, we demonstrate that there is a robust negative relationship between the size of country territory and a measure of the rule of law for a large cross-section of countries. We outline a theoretical framework featuring two main reasons for this regularity; firstly that institutional quality often has the character of a local public good that is imperfectly spread across space from the core of the country to the hinterland, and secondly that a large territory usually is accompanied by valuable rents and a lack of openness that both tend to distort property rights institutions. Our empirical analysis further shows some evidence that whether the capital is centrally or peripherally located within the country matters for the average level of rule of law. Paper 2: Nationalism and Government Effectiveness The literature on nation-building and nationalism suggests that nation-building affects economic and political performance, mitigates the problems associated with ethnic heterogeneity, but that nationalism, an indicator of successful nation-building, is linked to dismal performance via protectionism and intolerance. This paper shows that there is a nonlinear association between nationalism and government effectiveness, that nationalism leaves no imprint on the effects of ethnic heterogeneity but may be a positive force in former colonies, and that actual trade flows are independent of the level of nationalism in the population. Paper 3: Same Same but Different? A Comparison of Institutional Models In the growing literature on the creation of institutions, the theories emphasizing colonial and legal origin, religious affiliation, Western European influence, and settler mortality, have been especially influential. The influence of these studies rests heavily on empirical modeling, which, since the theories are obviously closely related, might actually capture the same primary mechanism. It is therefore unclear whether the empirical relationships found are the same or if they are different. Therefore, this paper takes the empirical models seriously and discriminates amongst the existing models by using modeling selection criteria, tests of encompassing, and modeling selection. Paper 4: Where Did All the Investments Go? New Evidence on Equipment Investment and Economic Growth Equipment investment is one of the very few variables claimed to be robustly related to economic growth. This paper examines new empirical evidence on the robustness of this relation. Firstly, the main result from DeLong and Summers (1991) is extended and tested. Secondly, the investment growth nexus is examined in a panel data setting. Thirdly, the paper relates the investment-growth relationship to recent findings on investment prices and economic development. The results repeatedly refute that there is a strong robust correlation between investment and income growth.
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10.
  • He, Haoran, 1981 (författare)
  • Environmental and Behavioral Economics - Applications to China
  • 2010
  • Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • Paper 1: “The Effects of an Environmental Policy on Consumers – Lessons from the Chinese Plastic Bag Regulation.” To reduce plastic bag litter, China introduced a nationwide regulation requiring all retailers to charge for plastic shopping bags on June 1, 2008. By using the policy implementation as a natural experiment and collecting individual-level data before and after the implementation, we investigate the impacts of the regulation on consumers’ bag use. We find that the regulation implementation caused a 49% reduction in the use of new bags. Besides regulation enforcement, consumers’ attitude toward the regulation and some consumers’ socioeconomic characteristics also affected bag consumption. However, the regulation effects differ largely among consumer groups and among regions and shopping occasions. Paper 2: “Can Stated Preference Methods Accurately Predict Responses to Environmental Policies? The Case of a Plastic Bag Regulation in China” investigates the validity of using stated preference (SP) estimates to predict policy effects on plastic bag consumption. Before implementation of a plastic bag regulation, when bags were still free of charge, we utilized an SP survey to elicit consumers’ contingent bag consumption in certain possible pricing scenarios. Following implementation of the regulation mandating charging for bags, we conducted another survey to collect actual consumption information. We thus have unique data to compare stated and revealed consumption. The comparison results show that consumers’ behavioral reactions to a policy change can be predicted reasonably well with SP techniques. Paper 3: “Household Decision-making in Rural China: Using Experiments to Estimate the Influence of Spouses.” Many economic decisions are made jointly within households. This raises the question about spouses’ relative influence on joint decisions and the determinants of relative influence. Using a controlled experiment (on inter-temporal choice) we let each spouse make first individual decisions and then joint decisions with the other spouse. We use a random parameter model to measure the relative influence of spouses on joint decisions. In general, husbands have a stronger influence than wives. However, in richer household and when the wife is older than the husband, we find a significantly stronger influence of the wife on joint decisions. Paper 4: “Easy Come, Easy Go – The Role of Windfall Money in Lab and Field Experiments” investigates the influence of windfall and earned endowment on behavior by conducting a dictator game, where the recipient is a charity organization, in exactly the same way in the laboratory and in the field. We find subjects donate more in both environments if the endowment is a windfall gain. Thus, windfall money is important not only in a lab environment. However, even for earned endowment, there is a significant difference in behavior between the lab and the field. Although the experimental design was intended to control for all other effects except environment, we still find differences. This points to the importance of discussing the environment when interpreting both laboratory and field experiment results as well as of conducting replication studies. Paper 5: “Windfall vs. Earned Money in the Laboratory: Do They Affect the Behavior of Men and Women Differently?” experimentally investigates how windfall and earned endowments affect behavior differently between genders using a dictator game. In line with previous studies, we find that windfall endowments significantly increase the amount donated. The impact of moving from earned to windfall endowment on behavior is larger for females, yet the gender difference is statistically insignificant. Thus, we do not find evidence that the change in how the endowment is obtained in a laboratory experiment affects male and female behavior differently.
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