| 11. |
- von Greiff, Camilo, 1978-
(författare)
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Income Redistribution, Educational Choice and Growth
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis contains three theoretical essays on public economics and economics of education. They all focus on different types of redistribution of labor income between individuals and their consequences for income distribution and economic growth.Effects of Redistribution Policies – Who Gains and Who Loses?:In this paper, I analyze whether redistribution of labor income is reinforced or counteracted by general equilibrium effects on wages for unskilled and skilled workers. Earlier studies have found redistribution to be reinforced. In this paper, the stocks of worker types are endogenized. Redistribution will decrease the stock of skilled workers while the number of unskilled workers will increase. This will lead to a decrease in unskilled workers’ wage rate and an increase in skilled workers’ wage rate. Thus, in addition to the wage effect reinforcing the fiscal redistribution showed in earlier studies there is another wage effect counteracting fiscal redistribution. Simulations show that the effect introduced in this paper is likely to outweigh the former effect. Thus, fiscal redistribution is counteracted by the net effect of two counteracting general equilibrium effects.Enrollment in Higher Education, Ability and Growth:One suggestion for why the government should subsidize higher education is that a large share of high-skilled workers increases the number and quality of innovations and skills to adapt the production process to the innovations of other workers. This will increase economic growth, which arguably also benefits low-skilled individuals. This paper introduces a heterogeneous consumption value of education depending on family background. If the education decision is not only based on ability but also on such a consumption value, it will no longer be the case that the individuals enrolled in higher education are those with highest ability. I show that whether low-skilled individuals will benefit from contributing to the financing of subsidies to high-skilled individuals will depend on whether the individuals attracted by the subsidy have a sufficiently high ability to significantly increase the growth rate.Specialization in Higher Education and Economic Growth:This paper presents a new dimension of higher education, namely the degree of specialization in the education. Labor market transformation may make some individuals opt for a non-specialized education in order to broaden their future career possibilities. This may, however, harm economic growth since the theory of division of labor suggests growth to mainly be driven by specialized workers performing specialized tasks. I show that the government could alter the incentives for specialized education types by targeting the subsidies to the individuals with specialized education types. In this way, growth is increased. At the same time, however, the individuals with broad educations have contributed to the financing of the subsidy without being entitled to it. I show the conditions where this government intervention is Pareto improving and characterize the social optimum of the subsidy.
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| 12. |
- Wiberg, Magnus, 1971-
(författare)
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Essays on the Political Economy of Protection and Industrial Location
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis consists of three essays in the fields of the political economy of international trade.Location Equilibrium with Endogenous Rent Seeking:This paper analyzes the location of manufacturing activities when regional policy is determined by endogenous rent seeking. Once lobbying for government transfers to regions is included in an economic geography framework with size asymmetries, the standard prediction that the larger region becomes the core when trade barriers are reduced no longer holds. The establishment of manufacturing production in the economically smaller region is increasing in the level of regional integration once trade becomes freer than a certain threshold value. When free trade prevails, the relocation of industry takes place up to the point where there are as many firms operating in the South as in the North. Furthermore, lobbying slows down the agglomeration process, whereas the home market magnification effect (Baldwin, 2000) becomes weaker.Endogenous Tariff Formation and the Political Economy of Trade Retaliation:This paper extends the notion of endogenous tariff formation under representative democracy by allowing for strategic interaction between governments. The model developed suggests that the ideological distribution in the electorate within a country affects the tariff setting behavior among its trading partners. The equilibrium tariffs in a country depend on the trade policy preferences of the ideologically neutral voters among such partners as well as on the distribution of their sector-specific factor ownership. Ideological shifts in the population which systematically alter the political power of different voter groups, or types of factor owners, in one country thus influence the tariff setting behavior in competing trading nations.On the Indeterminacy of Trade Policy under Different Electoral Rules:Current research has found ambiguous results with respect to the effects of the type of electoral regime on trade policy. The present paper proposes a solution to this indeterminacy. It is shown that the equilibrium level of trade protection can be relatively higher, as well as lower, under a majoritarian electoral rule compared to proportional representation. The framework developed in this paper thus includes as special cases earlier models reported in the literature. The equilibrium outcome is shown to depend on the number of voters in swing districts who own a factor specific to the exporting industry in relation to those who possess claims to the specific input employed by the import-competing sector. Using a cross section of countries, empirical evidence is consistent with this hypothesis.
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| 13. |
- Zagaglia, Paolo, 1975-
(författare)
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The Macroeconomics of the Term Structure of Interest Rates
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis consists of four papers, summarized as follows. "The Term Structure of Interest Rates and the Monetary Transmission Mechanism" This paper provides empirical evidence that the term structure of interest rates is an integral part of the monetary transmission mechanism. We amend the standard New Keynesian model to generate an endogenous term structure where movements in the term structure have a direct effect on agents' spending decisions. The model features bond market segmentation through adjustment costs for bond holdings and transaction costs between money and bonds. The model is able to replicate the main stylized facts concerning the relation between output and the yield spread. "Monetary Aggregates, Long-Term Interest Rates and the Monetary Transmission Mechanism in the Euro Area" We study the relation between money demand shocks and bond yields in the Euro area. We use Bayesian methods to estimate the general-equilibrium model of Marzo, Söderström and Zagaglia where bond prices are an integral part of the monetary transmission mechanism. Taking into account the impact of bond yields on the macroeconomy generates superior in-sample and out-of-sample forecasts for output, inflation and bond yields. The paper also shows that money velocity shocks matter for explaining the dynamics of long-term rates. "Determinacy of Interest Rate Rules with Bond Transaction Services in a Cashless Economy" We consider a cashless New Keynesian model with two types of government bonds. One bond provides transaction services, whereas the other is used only as a store of value. Contrary to Canzoneri and Diba (2005), we show that the Taylor principle is still sacrosant. In general, the results of Leeper (1991) are confirmed. "Money-market segmentation in the Euro area: What has changed during the turmoil?" This paper studies how the pattern of segmentation in the Euro area money market has been affected by the recent turmoil in financial markets. I use nonparametric estimates of realized volatility to test for volatility spillovers between rates at different maturities. Exogeneity tests from VAR models suggest that the transmission channel from longer maturities to the overnight disappears from August 9, 2007. Quantile measures of comovements report evidence of an increase in contagion within the longer end of the money market curve.
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| 14. |
- Åhlén, Sara, 1977-
(författare)
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Firms, Employment and Distance: Essays on the Swedish Regional Economy
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis consists of three essays on the spatial relationships of economic activities in Swedish regions."Governmental Interventions and Market Potential - Determinants of Regional Variations in Firm Births"This paper examines determinants of regional variations in Swedish firm births over the period 1992-2002. I examine the role of self-employment grants, regional policy payments and market potential in a fixed effects regression model. Aggregate sector level regressions show that both self-employment grants and market potential have positive effects on firm birth. Regional policy effects are instead insignificant. The results are not sensitive to how we choose to define a new firm but differ between sectors when we introduce data on a disaggregated sector level."Which Economic Structures Foster Job Growth?"This paper is an empirical evaluation of how spatial structures affect dynamic externalities and their implication for job growth in different sectors. A model including local economic variables, natural advantages and unobserved regional differences is used to identify the underlying reasons for Swedish employment concentrations between the years 1993 and 2004. The relationship between economic structures and local labor growth is investigated in a municipality setting in order to capture labor transfers and spillovers with limited geographical reach. Special focus is given to the importance of municipal diversity, specialization and market potential. Sectoral regressions are executed in two steps; first by examining structures within the own region and then by including close municipalities to also account for spatial effects."How Good an Approximation to Actual Distance is Crow Distance?"This paper examines the importance of how distance is measured. I use a Swedish data set of distance between municipalities and compare four different location and distance collecting methods which are all used in empirical analysis. The first two data sets are given as crow distance between locations and differ in the way we choose to impose a municipality center. I also introduce two journey based distance approaches; shortest road travel distance and travel time. The focus of the paper is to investigate whether the latter more detailed distance data makes a difference to economic empirical research on market potential and regional wage differences. I start the study with an examination of distance differences and continue with an analysis of the impact of distance on total market access measurements. The impact of the different measures is also investigated in a simple wage equation. Due to great data similarities in both market potential and throughout all regressions, I conclude there to be no strong case for not using a simple crow distance measure in this type of regional analysis.
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| 15. |
- Åkerman, Anders, 1977-
(författare)
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Essays on International Trade, Productivity and Firm Heterogeneity
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis consists of three papers, summarized as follows.”Trade, Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Productivity: A Bridge between Theory and Data in Öresund”The paper aims at estimating the causal effect of trade liberalisation on aggregate productivity through firm selection as in Melitz (2003). The natural experiment used is the construction of a bridge in the year 2000 across the Öresund Strait linking Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, with Malmö, the third largest city in Sweden. Substantial, though not entirely conclusive, evidence is found for the model. Firms based in Malmö raise their exports substantially, mainly by firms selecting into exporting. There is also an increase in the aggregate productivity in Malmö and this is mostly due to the reallocation of production from less productive to more productive firms.”Country Size, Productivity and Trade Share Convergence: An Analysis of Heterogenous Firms and Country Size Dependent Beachhead Costs”This paper introduces a market size dependent firm entry cost in the Melitz (2003) model, which leads to several new predictions that are in line with the data. Exporters as well as non-exporters based in a large market are, on average, more productive than those based in a smaller market. Moreover, as the fixed entry cost of exporters into each market declines, for instance as the result of economic integration, export shares converge. This result is supported by the empirical part of this paper. Finally, we use a multicountry version of our model to derive a gravity equation.”Industry Location in Export Processing Zones with Vertical Linkages and Agglomeration”This paper provides a rationale for the common use of Export Processing Zones (EPZs) in third world countries, as an alternative to liberalising foreign trade for all regions. Using a model from the New Economic Geography literature with vertically linked industries (to account for the fact that EPZ industry is typically characterised by the assembly of intermediate goods), I analyse the effect of an EPZ policy on the location of industry.
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