| 11. |
- Thornquist, Tamara, 1988-
(författare)
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Essays in economics : The impact of changes on the labor market induced by structural change, the adoption of a new computer-based technology and economic slowdowns on family formation, family fertility outcomes and new careers
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Childlessness, Number of Children and The Labor Market at the Time of a New Technology, the US 1980-2018The adoption of a new computer-based technology in the US in the late 1970s resulted in broad changes on the labor market that can be described by two major phenomena - job polarization and a shift in the relative returns to skill. A well established theoretical and empirical literature shows that commuting zones with a historically greater specialization in routine task intensive occupations adopted the new computer-based technology faster and subsequently saw greater changes on the local labor markets. In this paper, I build on the previous literature and analyze the relationship between the historical specialization of commuting zones in routine task intensive occupations and the change in family fertility outcomes in the US 1980-2018. The prediction is that commuting zones with a greater initial routine task specialization adopted the new technology faster and thereafter saw greater changes on the local labor markets, which further led to greater changes in the fertility outcomes. The estimation results suggest that among women in the age group 20-39 of any educational level, the shares of women with at least one child and at least two children decreased by more in commuting zones with a historically greater routine task employment. The result is driven by college educated women.Marital economic homogamy and earnings polarization, the US 1970-2018In this paper I analyze what impact the polarization of earnings had on a rise in the economic resemblance between marriage partners aged 27-36 in the US 1970-2018. An earnings polarization means that the relative earnings gap at the upper end of the earnings distribution has been widening, while the relative earnings gap at the lower end of the earnings distribution has been narrowing in the US since the 1950s-1960s. I employ a structural change driven explanation of labor market polarization and the instrumental variable technique to identify the causal effect of interest. The estimation results show that the marital economic resemblance increases on the widening relative earnings gap at the upper/lower part of the earnings distribution and decreases on the narrowing relative earnings gap at the upper/lower part of the earnings distribution. Keeping all else equal, the polarization of earnings would account for 19 to 25 percent of the rise in the coefficient of marital sorting in the US between 1970 and 2018.New Careers, Labor Market Turmoil and Gender: Evidence from Russia 2000-2016 In this paper I study what was the effect of entering the labor market under adverse economic conditions on the career development of college educated men and women in Russia 2000-2016. The instrumental variable technique is used to identify the causal effect of interest. I find a negative immediate effect of graduating in a bad economy on the log hourly wage among all college graduates and among college graduate men. Although the negative effect gradually dissipates as the economy picks up, it remains present years after graduation. When it comes to college women, no immediate effect of graduating in a bad economy on the hourly wage is identified. The negative effect on the hourly wage among women first pops up three to five years after graduation. College men and women who graduated in a bad economy do, on average, have lower quality jobs which might explain negatively affected hourly wages.
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| 12. |
- Wikström, Jens, 1989-
(författare)
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Essays on Health Economics and the Economics of Social Security
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Liquidity Effects in Healthcare Consumption: Evidence from Swedish Disability Insurance RecipientsThis paper studies the role of liquidity constraints in healthcare consumption. Combining administrative data on monthly income, liquid assets, prescription drug purchases, and healthcare utilization for the universe of Swedish disability insurance recipients, I find that liquidity-constrained individuals time prescription drug purchases to paydays and reduce prescription purchases more in response to higher prices compared to unconstrained households with similar monthly income. Moreover, the results suggest that low liquidity, but not low income in general, is associated with lower annual prescription drug expenditure and higher hospitalization rates. These results have important implications for the design of health insurance policies. If demand responses to subsidized healthcare prices can be partially attributed to positive liquidity effects, previous assessments of welfare losses associated with providing generous insurance coverage may be overestimated. Therefore, it is essential to consider the impact of liquidity constraints when evaluating the welfare effects of healthcare policies and to take into account how cash-on-hand may shape consumers' responses to changes in healthcare prices.Does it matter who cares? Formal vs. informal care of the elderlyIn this paper, we estimate the effect of subsidizing formal elderly care fees on seniors' utilization of formal care services, seniors’ health outcomes, and the labor supply of their potential caregivers: their children. Leveraging a Swedish reform in a difference-in-differences design, we find that decreasing the fee for formal elderly care is associated with increased utilization of formal elderly care, reduced healthcare utilization among affected seniors, and increased labor supply of their children. We evaluate the welfare implications of the reform using Marginal Value of Public Funds framework. The result shows that the reform becomes self-financing six years after the implementation. This is because children remain attached to the labor market even after the death of their parent.The Long-Run Effect of Stricter Eligibility Rules in Short-Term Disability InsuranceCan duration-dependent eligibility criteria - increasing the strictness for eligibility over time - in Short-Term Disability Insurance (STDI) reduce STDI duration while improving long-run labor market outcomes? To answer this question, I leverage a reform in Sweden that introduced duration-dependent eligibility criteria for STDI. The results show that individuals who are screened out by the stricter eligibility criteria have lower labor force participation during the following four years after the STDI spell. Conversely, the probability of being dependent on unemployment insurance or being non-employed increases. Calculating the net effect on the government's budget for the STDI recipients who are screened out suggests large savings in the short run, but net losses after four years. The findings suggest that policymakers need to carefully consider the potential trade-offs between the direct short-run fiscal savings from policies aiming to shorten STDI duration and the potential long-run costs from unintended changes in labor supply and benefit substitution when designing eligibility criteria for STDI.
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| 13. |
- Yuan, Yangzhou, 1985-
(författare)
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Policy, Institutions and Misallocation
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis contains three models. Chapter 1 illustrates financial market incompleteness causes misallocations and fluences international trade pattern. Countries with more complete markets tend to specialize in risky sectors. Chapter 2 sets up a cross-generation utility function. Results show fertility constraints harm social mobility and create misallocations through multiple channels. Chapter 3 shows financial segmentation in China is the cause of housing bubbles and creates misallocations. Bubbles improve allocations by crowding out inefficient investments.
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