| 1. |
- Bjuggren, Carl Magnus
(författare)
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Family Matters : Essays on Family Firms and Employment Protection
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is a study of firm dynamics, family ownership, and employment protection. It addresses the implications of employment protection on firm productivity and how family owned firms react differently with regard to economic shocks. It also investigates whether family ownership matters for the probability of exhibiting high growth. By using a novel data identification strategy, family ownership is identified in full population register data. The thesis also highlights some important caveats in the official statistics on self-employment.
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| 2. |
- Otto, Opira
(författare)
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Trust, identity and beer : institutional arrangements for agricultural labour in Isunga village in Kiryandongo district, midwestern Uganda
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis explores the role and influence of institutions on agricultural labour transactions in Isunga village in Kiryandongo District, Midwestern Uganda. It primarily focuses on how farmers structure, maintain and enforce their labour relationships during crop farming. The study is based on semi-structured interviews of twenty households and unstructured interviews with representatives of farmers associations. These interviews show that other than household labour, the other common labour arrangements in the village include farm work sharing, labour exchanges and casual wage labour. Farm work sharing and labour exchanges involve farmers temporarily pooling their labour into work groups to complete tasks such as planting, weeding or harvesting crops on members' farms in succession. This is done under strict rules and rewarded with 'good' beer and food. Against this background, the study asks what institutions really are, why they matter and what we can learn about them. Literature suggests that institutions influence labour transactions by their effects on transaction costs and the protection of contractual rights. However, literature does not suggest which institutions are best for agricultural labour transactions. Taking institutions to be the 'rules of the game', with farmers as 'players' who strategically use these rules to their advantage, the study focused on the interaction between institutions and farmers. The major findings of the study are: (a) farmers' choices of institutions are influenced by the characteristics of transactions, the costs of using institutions for handling labour dealings, the fairness and predictability of the outcome of contract enforcement mechanisms, and socio-cultural factors such as kin/ethnic status, morality and affection, (b) formal institutions in Isunga are either weak, ineffective or absent. So, farmers rely heavily on institutions embedded in social norms and networks to structure their transactional relationships, to ensure the performance of the respective parties, and to settle disputes if they arise. The study concludes that agricultural labour transactions in Isunga involve judgements of personal characteristics and social roles expressed as reputation and trustworthiness.
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| 3. |
- Andersson, Lisa, 1982
(författare)
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Essays on Development and Experimental Economics: Migration, Discrimination and Positional Concerns
- 2013
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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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| 4. |
- Desjardins, Richard
(författare)
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Rewards to skill supply, skill demand and skill match-mismatch: Studies using the Adult Literacy and Lifeskills survey
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is a collection of three independent but closely related studies. The focus is on the potential causes of skill mismatch, the extent of skill mismatch, the socio-demographic make-up of skill mismatch, and the consequences of skill mismatch in terms of earnings as well as employer sponsored adult education/training. A distinction is made between skill mismatch and education mismatch. All three studies use data from the Adult Literacy and Lifeskills Survey (ALLS) to investigate the relationships between select outcomes and skill supply-demand characteristics as well as their interactions which materialize into skill match-mismatch situations. The dataset contains direct measures of literacy skills as well as measures of the use of these skills at work which allow for a direct measure of literacy match-mismatch. The analysis points to the complex ways in which mismatch is generated and the need for an accurate and up to date measure of mismatch, one that reflects the possibilities for skill gain and skill loss over the lifespan, and reflects differences in the quality of qualifications. It also emphasizes that addressing mismatch requires a careful consideration of both the demand and supply sides of the labour market, so as to understand better the variety of factors which may have a negative impact on the effectiveness of skill formation, skill maintenance, and also skill use. Among the key findings: Skill demand characteristics appear to be as important as skill supply characteristics in explaining observed variation in earnings. There is a substantive association between the requirement to read at work and earnings, which is independent of whether individuals have high or low levels of literacy proficiency. Premiums associated with literacy skills are strongest in occupation types where they are most relevant, but premiums associated with the requirement to use those skills are nevertheless found to be strong within all occupational groups. The requirement to read at work seems to have a strong association with the incidence of participation in employer supported adult education/training. This has important implications for understanding better the relationship between how work is organized and the decision to further invest in human capital.
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| 5. |
- Halvarsson, Daniel
(författare)
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Firm Dynamics : The Size and Growth Distribution of Firms
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is about firm dynamics, and relates to the size and growth-rate distribution of firms. As such, it consists of an introductory and four separate chapters. The first chapter concerns the size distribution of firms, the two subsequent chapters deal more specically with high-growth firms (HGFs), and the last chapter covers a related topic in distributional estimation theory. The first three chapters are empirically oriented, whereas the fourth chapter develops a statistical concept.
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| 6. |
- Johansson, Åsa, 1969-
(författare)
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Essays on macroeconomic fluctuations and nominal wage rigidity
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis consists of four essays on labor market and monetary policy.The essay ”The Interaction Between Labor Market Policy and Monetary Policy: An Analysis of Time Inconsistency Problems” studies the interaction between time inconsistency problems in labor market policy and monetary policy. When both policies are discretionary, there is a positive inflation bias, whereas the bias in labor market programs may be either positive or negative. A commitment of labor market programs to zero increases inflation, as compared to the case when both labor market policy and monetary policy are discretionary. Delegation of labor market policy to a liberal labor market board may improve the discretionary outcome, even if labor market programs crowd out regular employment. A conservative central bank always reduces the social loss.The essay ”Nominal Wage Flexibility, Wage Indexation and Monetary Union” argues that membership in a monetary union (EMU) is likely to imply stronger incentives for nominal wage flexibility in the form of wage indexation or shorter contract length than non-membership. For example, EMU entry may cause a move from a non-indexation to an indexation equilibrium. But more wage flexibility is only an imperfect substitute for an independent monetary policy for each country. It is possible that an increase in wage flexibility is welfare-decreasing, because of the accompanying rise in price variability. If indexation occurs outside the EMU, there may be multiple equilibria.The essay ”Bargaining Structure and Nominal Wage Flexibility” shows in a model with heterogenous agents, wage setting by monopoly unions and monetary policy conducted by a central bank, that the duration of nominal wage contracts is u-shaped in the degree of centralization, with intermediate bargaining systems yielding contracts of shorter duration and thus, more flexible nominal wages than both decentralized and centralized systems. The essay also finds the optimal degree of centralization of wage bargaining to be negatively related to the degree of heterogeneity in the economy. The theoretical predictions of the model are tested on OECD data, and there is empirical support for the main results regarding contract length.The essay on ”Unemployment Benefits, Contract Length and Nominal Wage Flexibility” shows in a union-bargaining model that a decrease in the unemployment benefit level does not only increase equilibrium employment, but also nominal wage flexibility, and thus, reduces employment variations in the case of nominal shocks. Long-term wage contracts lead to higher expected real wages and hence, higher expected unemployment than short-term contracts.Therefore, lower benefits reduce the expected utility gross of contract costs of a union member more with long-term than with short-term contracts and thus create an incentive for shorter contracts. Incentives for employers work in the same direction. Lower taxes associated with lower benefits also tend to make short-term contracts more attractive.
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| 9. |
- Sundberg, Marcus, 1975-
(författare)
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Essays on Spatial Economies and Organization
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis concerns both static and dynamic modeling in a spatial computable general equilibrium setting. First, we have applied a static framework for the assessment of economic impacts of the Öresund bridge. Secondly, we make an attempt to enhance the static framework through the introduction of economic dynamics. Third, we introduce the STRAGO model, incorporating monopolistic competition, dynamics and additive transport costs. STRAGO is applied to the analysis of effects from a kilometer tax on freight. The last paper presents a framework for studying the division, or fragmentation of production. This framework uses the standard theory of monopolistic competition, with a production chain extension, through a recursive view of markets. The optimal level of fragmentation in such industries is studied.
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| 10. |
- Uddin, Gazi Salah
(författare)
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Nonlinear and Nonparametric Dynamical Methods in Economics and Finance
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The objectives of the thesis - which comprises six parts – can be summarized in i) implementing linear and nonlinear/nonparametric approaches toward detecting, measuring and analyzing the nature and directionality of causal relationships in financial markets, ii) elaborating on modern topics in financial investment analysis, iii) probing into the role of commodity futures in constructing optimal portfolios as well as iv) investigating growth dynamics via aggregated and disaggregated indices.The first paper named “Analyzing causal interactions between sectoral equity returns and commodity futures returns in the aftermath of the global financial crisis: The case of the US and EU equity returns”, aims to explore and compare the dependence and co-movement structure between commodity and various asset classes’ returns including the USA and EU stock markets via the use of linear and non-linear causality testing in a comparative context with the additional adjustment for cointegration and conditional heteroscedasticity. The findings provide important implications for optimal asset allocation and portfolio diversification with respect to various market conditions, namely both in “good” and “bad” (crisis) times.The second paper is entitled “On the time scale behaviour of Equity-Commodity links: Implications for Portfolio Management”, and has been published in the Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money (2016). The study is co-authored with Professors S. Bekiros, D.K. Nguyen, and B. Sjö. It develops a holistic framework for the investigation of the multi-horizon and intra-frequency causal directionalities of various asset classes, by means of multi-resolution analysis. The results verify the assumption that financial markets exhibit time-varying co-movement patterns, which are fundamentally important in a) generating profitable trading strategies according to different investor horizon expectations and b) decoding the financialization mechanism across various asset classes.The third paper entitled “Business Cycle (de) Synchronization in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis: Implications for the Euro Area”, was published at Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics and Econometrics (2015) and is co-authored with S. Bekiros, D.K Nguyen and B. Sjö. In this work, the scale-dependent time-varying (de)synchronization effects between the Eurozone and the broad Euro area business cycles are revealed, before and after the global financial crisis. The results, which point towards an increased observed comovement during the crisis period for the Euro area, could be catalytic for the introduction of a more efficient monetary policy by EU institutions and in particular by the European Central Bank.In the fourth paper, “Do financial stress and policy uncertainty have an impact on the energy and metals markets? A quantile regression approach”, which was published in the International Review of Economics and Finance (2016) and co-authored with J.C. Reboredo, the financial and policy uncertainty is investigated in relation to the price dynamics of energy and metal commodity futures’ markets. This work lead to the analysis of the asymmetric interrelationships with respect to changes in the perceptions of various risk measures, covering various periods, i.e., “normal” vs. “turbulent” such as upward or downward market episodes.The fifth paper, co-authored with P. Andreasson, S. Bekiros and D.K. Nguyen, is entitled “The impact of speculation and economic uncertainty on commodity markets”, and is published in the International Review of Financial Analysis (2016). This paper attempts a novel methodological approach to measuring speculation in commodity markets, in particular whether market speculation drives agricultural commodity prices or viceversa. The assessment of the empirical analysis demonstrates that agricultural prices are not affected by speculation.Finally, the sixth paper “Energy and Output Dynamics in Bangladesh”, co-authored with B.P. Paul, was published in Energy Economics (2011) and explores the relationship between energy utilization and economic growth in Bangladesh. Specifically, it deals with the important issue of whether energy consumption can be reduced without affecting economic growth while at the same time implicitly may lead to poverty reduction. The findings substantiate the fact that a) energy usage has become more efficient in recent times, as well as indicate that b) fluctuations in energy consumption did not have a significant impact on economic output.
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