Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Income – Kenya – Econometric models'

Explicit parameterizations of labor supply are specified and estimated on a sample of single unattached individuals using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and a generalized Tobit maximum likelihood method which is consistent under the assumption that employed hours are exogenous. Results of these estimations are then used to compute triangle approximation and direct closed form solutions for labor market constraint compensation. Underemployment compensation estimates are generated and compared to actual and hypothetical payments which would accrue under the UI systems of representative states. Certain compensation results for overemployment are also offered. Where they are directly comparable, results from Tobit estimation of the basic labor supply relations are found to strictly dominate ordinary least squares (OLS) results in terms of efficiency. While the OLS and Tobit parameter estimates differ dramatically in most cases, the latter are consistent with the bulk of recent empirical labor supply research. A corollary purpose of estimating the several labor supply specifications is the search for an appropriate structure of preferences to be used in modeling the labor-leisure choice problem. Direct likelihood ratio tests yielded no best form, but suggested that more flexible parameterizations are to be desired. Results on compensation amounts tend to support accepted standards of UI benefit adequacy. For all levels of unemployment the direct compensation results suggested that "one-half gross wage replacement" would slightly overcompensate individuals from a utility based perspective.

This thesis develops empirical econometric models of the private sector aggregate demand for real and financial assets in Kenya over the period 1973 to 1990. Single-equation error-correction models of the demand for money are estimated using systems cointegration methods developed by Johansen (1988). The models are found to be statistically stable functions throughout the period, and are capable of encompassing existing studies. Across a range of monetary aggregates, including a Divisia index aggregate for broad money, the models describe demand for money functions in which inflation and illegal foreign currency substitution are significant determinants of money holdings, and where the private sector adjusts rapidly to deviations from its stable longrun equilibrium real money demand. The demand for money is then integrated within a neo-classical model of asset demands, which examines the behaviour of the aggregate private sector asset portfolio in response to changes in relative prices between assets and to external shocks to the economy, principally the 1976-77 coffee boom. A variant of the Almost Ideal Demand System model developed by Deaton and Muellbauer (1980) is estimated for a class of six assets: base money, banking system deposits, government securities, tradable capital, nontradable capital and inventories. The asset substitution model, which also takes an errorcorrection form, and which allows for credit rationing, generates results which are consistent with the earlier demand for money models, where private agents are also denied access to foreign-denominated assets. Using this model, the maintenance of policies of financial repression are shown to cause the private sector to offset inflationary shocks through the accumulation of real assets, principally in the form of non-tradable capital in the construction and property sectors. The evidence from the two models is used to analyze the fiscal effects of the inflation tax and financial repression measures. Policies of financial liberalization are shown to reduce the revenue maximizing rate of inflation (estimated to be 14% per annum) and the implicit tax on domestic holders of government liabilities. This dampens asset substitution in response to inflationary shocks and offsets the adverse effects of "construction-boom" investment on non-tradable capital prices.

In 1993, Kenya liberalised its trade policy and allowed the Kenyan Shillings to freely float. This openness has left Kenya's domestic prices vulnerable to the effects of exchange rate fluctuations. One of the objectives of the Central Bank of Kenya is to maintain inflation levels at sustainable levels. Thus it has become necessary to determine the influence that exchange rate changes have on domestic prices given that one of the major determinants of inflation is exchange rate movements. For this reason, this thesis examines the magnitude and speed of exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) to domestic prices in Kenya. In addition, it takes into account the direction and size of changes in the exchange rates to determine whether the exchange rate fluctuations are symmetric or asymmetric. The thesis uses quarterly data ranging from 1993:Ql - 2008:Q4 as it takes into account the period when the process of liberalization occurred. The empirical estimation was done in two stages. The first stage was estimated using the Johansen (1991) and (1995) co integration techniques and a vector error correction model (VECM). The second stage entailed estimating the impulse response and variance decomposition functions as well as conducting block exogeneity Wald tests. In determining the asymmetric aspect of the analysis, the study followed Pollard and Coughlin (2004) and Webber (2000) frameworks in analysing asymmetry with respect to appreciation and depreciation and large and small changes in the exchange rate to import prices. The results obtained showed that ERPT to Kenya is incomplete but relatively low at about 36 percent in the long run. In terms of asymmetry, the results showed that ERPT is found to be higher in periods of appreciation than depreciation. This is in support of market share and binding quantity constraints theory. In relation to size changes, the results show that size changes have no significant impact on ERPT in Kenya.

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship that exists between education, income, standard of living and food security amongst Mhlontlo local municipality citizens. For this purpose, data was collected from citizens of the Mhlontlo municipality in the Eastern Cape. A sample of 101municipality citizens was drawn from the population. Results of the study indicated that the study variables are significantly negatively correlated with one another. The findings of this study are helpful in providing support to policy makers and social security agencies to have a better understanding of food security and indicate one important avenue to reduce food insecurity in Mhlontlo municipality and the Eastern Cape at large.

Orientador: Rodolfo Hoffmann<br>Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Economia<br>Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-24T21:36:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Oliveira_RegisBorgesde_D.pdf: 3846657 bytes, checksum: 6669c57606c98d3daae27bdc6afbce44 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014<br>Resumo: Este trabalho analisa o impacto do salário mínimo sobre a distribuição dos rendimentos no setor agrícola brasileiro entre os anos de 1995 e 2012. Mais precisamente, estuda o efeito do salário mínimo na determinação do rendimento de diferentes categorias de trabalhadores agrícolas, quais sejam: empregados permanentes com ou sem carteira, empregados temporários com ou sem carteira e trabalhadores por conta-própria. Nos últimos 18 anos, o salário mínimo real apresentou crescimento sistemático com efeitos importantes sobre os rendimentos no mercado de trabalho. Paralelamente, observou-se, no Brasil, um movimento sem precedentes, que combinou o crescimento econômico com a redução da desigualdade, tanto quando se analisam os rendimentos do trabalho como o rendimento domiciliar per capita. Evidências empíricas mostraram que o SM foi um dos fatores que contribuiu para a redução da desigualdade, porém seu efeito é distinto quando são considerados as categorias de empregados agrícolas. Utilizando estatísticas descritivas e dois métodos não-paramétricos (densidades de kernel e regressões quantílicas) aplicados aos dados da PNAD/IBGE, o trabalho mostra que para os empregados sem carteira no setor agrícola o SM tem impacto concentrador, na medida em que afeta com mais intensidade os rendimentos localizados na parte superior da distribuição. Chama-se a atenção para a necessidade de aumento da formalização das relações de trabalho no setor, garantindo que os trabalhadores mais pobres sejam beneficiados pelos aumentos reais do salário mínimo<br>Abstract: This study aims to analyze the impact of the minimum wage on the wage distribution in the Brazilian¿s agricultural sector over the period 1992-2012. More precisely, we study the effect of the minimum wage policy in determining the wage of different categories of agricultural workers, as follows: permanents employees with or without register, temporaries employees with or without register and self-employed workers. Over the past 18 years the real value of the minimum wage has been increased systematically with important effects in the labor market. At the same time, the Brazilian economy has experienced an unprecedented tendency, which combined economic growth with reduced inequality when analyzing both the labor income and the per capita household income. Empirical evidences have showed that the minimum wage was one of the factors that contributed to the fall on inequality, but its effect is different when considering the agricultural employees' categories. Using descriptive statistics and two non-parametric methods (kernel density functions and quantile regressions) applied to the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD/IBGE) data, this work shows that for unregistered workers in the agricultural sector the real minimum wage growth has increased inequality, as far as it affects more intensely the upper tail of the wage distribution. We highlight the necessity of increasing the formalization among agricultural employees, ensuring that the poorest workers also be benefited by the real minimum wage increase<br>Doutorado<br>Desenvolvimento Economico, Espaço e Meio Ambiente<br>Doutor em Desenvolvimento Economico

My thesis contains essays on voting theory, market structures and fiscal federalism: (i) One Person, Many Votes: Divided Majority and Information Aggregation, (ii) Runoff Elections and the Condorcet Loser, (iii) On the Influence of Rankings when Product Quality Depends on Buyer Characteristics, and (iv) Redistributing Income under Fiscal Vertical Imbalance.<p><p>(i) One Person, Many Votes: Divided Majority and Information Aggregation (joint with Micael Castanheira)<p>In elections, majority divisions pave the way to focal manipulations and coordination failures, which can lead to the victory of the wrong candidate. This paper shows how this flaw can be addressed if voter preferences over candidates are sensitive to information. We consider two potential sources of divisions: majority voters may have similar preferences but opposite information about the candidates, or opposite preferences. We show that when information is the source of majority divisions, Approval Voting features a unique equilibrium with full information and coordination equivalence. That is, it produces the same outcome as if both information and coordination problems could be resolved. Other electoral systems, such as Plurality and Two-Round elections, do not satisfy this equivalence. The second source of division is opposite preferences. Whenever the fraction of voters with such preferences is not too large, Approval Voting still satisfies full information and coordination equivalence.<p><p>(ii) Runoff Elections and the Condorcet Loser<p>A crucial component of Runoff electoral systems is the threshold fraction of votes above which a candidate wins outright in the first round. I analyze the influence of this threshold on the voting equilibria in three-candidate Runoff elections. I demonstrate the existence of an Ortega Effect which may unduly favor dominated candidates and thus lead to the election of the Condorcet Loser in equilibrium. The reason is that, contrarily to commonly held beliefs, lowering the threshold for first-round victory may actually induce voters to express their preferences excessively. I also extend Duverger's Law to Runoff elections with any threshold below, equal or above 50%. Therefore, Runoff elections are plagued with inferior equilibria that induce either too high or too low expression of preferences.<p><p>(iii) On the Influence of Rankings when Product Quality Depends on Buyer Characteristics<p>Information on product quality is crucial for buyers to make sound choices. For "experience products", this information is not available at the time of the purchase: it is only acquired through consumption. For much experience products, there exist institutions that provide buyers with information about quality. It is commonly believed that such institutions help consumers to make better choices and are thus welfare improving.<p>The quality of various experience products depends on the characteristics of buyers. For instance, conversely to the quality of cars, business school quality depends on buyers (i.e. students) characteristics. Indeed, one of the main inputs of a business school is enrolled students. The choice of buyers for such products has then some features of a coordination problem: ceteris paribus, a buyer prefers to buy a product consumed by buyers with "good" characteristics. This coordination dimension leads to inefficiencies when buyers coordinate on products of lower "intrinsic" quality. When the quality of products depends on buyer characteristics, information about product quality can reinforce such a coordination problem. Indeed, even though information of high quality need not mean high intrinsic quality, rational buyers pay attention to this information because they prefer high quality products, no matter the reason of the high quality. Information about product quality may then induce buyers to coordinate on products of low intrinsic quality.<p>In this paper, I show that, for experience products which quality depends on the characteristics of buyers, more information is not necessarily better. More precisely, I prove that more information about product quality may lead to a Pareto deterioration, i.e. all buyers may be worse off due.<p><p>(iv) Redistributing Income under Fiscal Vertical Imbalance (joint with Marjorie Gassner and Vincenzo Verardi)<p>From the literature on decentralization, it appears that the fiscal vertical imbalance (i.e. the dependence of subnational governments on national government revenues to support their expenditures) is somehow inherent to multi-level governments. Using a stylized model we show that this leads to a reduction of the extent of redistributive fiscal policies if the maximal size of government has been reached. To test for this empirically, we use some high quality data from the LIS dataset on individual incomes. The results are highly significant and point in the direction of our theoretical predictions.<p><br>Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion<br>info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Trade liberalization in Kenya started in the early 1980s with the structural adjustment programmes, and continued under the multilateral framework of the WTO. During the same period, the incidence of poverty and level of inequality also worsened. The government’s focus on trade negotiations has been to ensure that there is policy space for the daily running of the economy even though welfare impacts are also important. Non-state actors have argued that trade liberalization has negatively affected the poor; particularly the farmers, since they cannot compete with the developed countries whose farmers enjoy significant government support through subsidies, making their products much cheaper in the world market. Government officials, on the other hand, contend that trade liberalization is good as it brings in competition and transfer of technology which is good for an economy. It is important to examine how trade liberalization has affected household’s welfare in Kenya, given that this kind of analysis has not been conducted in Kenya. This study is unique because it does not assume the existence of a trade liberalization– poverty relationship, unlike most studies. It uses a multi-method approach to first test the hypothesis that there is no statistically significant relationship between trade liberalization and poverty, it further tests for multiplier effects of trade liberalization on poverty determinants. Trade Liberalization and poverty is found to have a stochastic relationship, furthermore investments and capital stock were found to significantly affect poverty determinants in the stochastic model. Due to unavailability of household welfare measure data in time series, a CGE model was used to establish the dynamics of trade liberalization on poverty at a point in time using the 2003 Social Accounting Matrix Data for Kenya. Overall, trade liberalization accompanied by FDI had the greatest impact on household welfare. Trade liberalization had a positive impact on household welfare since household incomes and consumption increased. Micro simulations results, based on changes in consumption, also showed that poverty incidence reduced for all households, even though the urban households experienced higher decreases. The study found that there was little difference in protecting sensitive products and not protecting them; secondly, trade liberalization accompanied by foreign direct investment had greater impact on improving the household welfare. Consumption and incomes increased, resulting in overall poverty reduction. The welfare of urban households was much higher than rural households in terms of income and consumption increases. However, income inequality was much higher in urban than rural areas.<br>Economics<br>D. Litt. et Phil. (Economics)

Ng, Shou Zhong.<br>Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007.<br>Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-77).<br>Abstracts in English and Chinese.<br>ABSTRACT --- p.ii<br>ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.iv<br>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS --- p.vii<br>LIST OF TABLES --- p.viii<br>Chapter 1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1<br>Chapter 1.1 --- MOTIVATIONS<br>Chapter 1.2 --- OBJECTIVES<br>Chapter 2 --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.12<br>Chapter 3 --- DATA DESCRIPTION --- p.22<br>Chapter 4 --- METHODOLOGY --- p.25<br>Chapter 4.1 --- Cross-Section Dispersion of Per Capita Real Income<br>Chapter 4.2 --- Stochastic Convergence of the 17 OECD Countries<br>Chapter 4.3 --- Time-Varying Parameters Model on Convergence<br>Chapter 4.4 --- Unobserved Components Structural Time Series Models on Converging Economy<br>Chapter 5 --- ESTIMATION RESULTS --- p.40<br>Chapter 5.1 --- Cross-Section Dispersion of Per Capita Real Income<br>Chapter 5.2 --- Stochastic Convergence of the 17 OECD Countries<br>Chapter 5.3 --- Time-Varying Parameters Model on Convergence<br>Chapter 5.4 --- Unobserved Components Structural Time Series Models on Converging Economy<br>Chapter 6 --- CONCLUSIONS --- p.64<br>APPENDICES --- p.67<br>BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.71<br>ILLUSTRATIONS --- p.78<br>TABLES --- p.87

How important are the distributional effects of international trade? This has been one of the most central questions pursued by international economists, particularly because much of the public opposition towards increased openness is due to the belief that welfare changes are unevenly distributed. In this dissertation, I rely on counterfactual analysis and natural experiments to study topics of international trade, welfare and inequality in the context of both developing and developed economies. In particular, I combine theoretical modeling and empirical analysis to examine the effects of international trade on (1) real wages of individuals within and across countries; (2) within-sector wage dispersion caused by heterogeneous responses of firms with different productivity levels to cheaper imported inputs. In each of the three chapters, I contribute to the existing literature by relaxing simplifying assumptions that have proved to be inconsistent with data and exploring new mechanisms that link international trade to inequality. Chapter 1, “Trade and Real Wages with Demand and Productivity Heterogeneity,” presents a general equilibrium model that incorporates the effects of trade liberalization on both an individual’s nominal wage and consumer price index. A vast majority of the literature focuses on the income channel, which is its effect on the distribution of nominal wages across workers. A small number of studies consider the expenditure channel, which is its differential impact on consumer price indices. It is well known that the consumption baskets of high-income and low-income consumers look very different. To our knowledge, there are only three case studies that have looked at these two channels jointly for individual countries, Argentina, Mexico and India. We provide a unified framework incorporating both channels by allowing for non-homothetic preferences and worker heterogeneity across jobs. In spite of its many dimensions of heterogeneity at the individual level, the model remains tractable enough that allows us to estimate its key parameters and perform counterfactuals. Chapter 2, “Trade and Real Wage Inequality: Cross-Country Evidence,” addresses the following question: what is the impact of trade liberalization on the distribution of real wages in a large cross-section of countries? Trade liberalization affects real-wage inequality through two channels: the distribution of nominal wages across workers and, if the rich and the poor consume different bundles of goods, the distribution of price indices across consumers. Prior work has focused mostly on one or the other of these channels, but no paper has studied both jointly for a large set of countries. Based on the theoretical framework in Chapter 1, I measure the distributional effects of trade liberalization incorporating both channels for a sample of 40 countries. More specifically, I parametrize the model using sector-level trade and production data. Because skill-intensive goods are also high-income elastic in the data, I find an intuitive, previously unexplored, and strong interaction between the two channels. According to my counterfactual analysis, trade cost reductions generate dramatically different results for both nominal wage inequality and price index inequality than what previous research has obtained by focusing on either channel alone. I find that trade cost reductions decrease the relative nominal wage of the poor and the relative price index for the poor in all countries. On net, real-wage inequality falls everywhere. Chapter 3, “Imported Inputs and Within-Sector Wage Dispersion,” proposes a new mechanism through which trade liberalization affects income inequality within a country: the use of imported inputs. Intuitively, a firm with higher initial productivity is better at using higher quality foreign inputs. This justifies paying the fixed costs for a larger set of imported inputs when input tariff liberalization decreases their relative price. The firm becomes more import intensive, which enhances its productivity advantage. As a result, the firm hires higher quality workers, produces higher quality products and pays higher wages to its workers, increasing within-sector wage dispersion. We find that both the mean and the dispersion of the distribution of firm productivity, markup and size went up during a period when China reduced its tariffs on imported inputs. More importantly, these results still hold when we consider the subset of firms that survived throughout the sample period, from 1998 to 2007. In addition, we develop a partial-equilibrium, heterogeneous-firm model with endogenous imported inputs and labor quality choice that is consistent with these observations. Finally, we provide empirical evidence that supports the model’s prediction that the differential change in the import intensity of firms with different productivity levels explains these patterns.

本文主要研究實際匯率出口彈性對中國貧富懸殊的影響。我們使用了二十八個省份從1995年至2008年的數據。結果顯示實際匯率出口彈性愈高的省份其城鄉收入差距就會愈廣。另外，我們使用了各省的加工出口比例作為實際匯率出口彈性的工具變量。<br>本文主要的貢獻在於分別地考慮出口數量和出口的商品種類來研究開放度對貧富懸殊的關係。在分開了出口數量和出口商品的種類對貧富懸殊的影響後，我們發現數據中呈現的中國對外開放度和貧富懸殊的正向關係，是基於出口商品的種類改變，而非如以前的文獻所說，是基於出口量的增長。因此，要決定一個省份的城鄉收入差距，該省份生產甚麼比其生產數量更重要。<br>This paper investigates the effect of export elasticity to real exchange rate and on urban-rural income disparity in China. We use annual data from 28 provinces from 1995 to 2008. The main finding is that provinces producing more elastic exported goods would have a higher urban-rural income inequality. We also construct the processing export ratio as an instrumental variable for the elasticity terms.<br>One main contribution of this paper is to consider separately the effect of export value and the composition of exports when we examine the relationship between openness and income inequality. After separating the effect of export value and the composition of exports, we find that the positive relationship between openness and income inequality mentioned in previous literature is caused by a change in export composition, rather than in export value. Hence, what the provinces produce matters much more than how much they produce when we determine urban-rural income inequality.<br>Detailed summary in vernacular field only.<br>Detailed summary in vernacular field only.<br>Chan, Ying Tung.<br>Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012.<br>Includes bibliographical references (leaves 32-34).<br>Abstracts also in Chinese.<br>ABSTRACT --- p.II<br>摘要 --- p.III<br>ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --- p.IV<br>Chapter 1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1<br>Chapter 1.1 --- OPENNESS AND INEQUALITY --- p.1<br>Chapter 1.2 --- COMPOSITION OF INCOME INEQUALITY IN CHINA --- p.2<br>Chapter 2 --- LITERATURE REVIEWS --- p.4<br>Chapter 2.1 --- LITERATURE ON THE CAUSE OF INCOME INEQUALITY IN CHINA --- p.4<br>Chapter 2.2 --- LITERATURE ON THE EFFECT OF OPENNESS ON INCOME INEQUALITY IN CHINA --- p.6<br>Chapter 2.3 --- LITERATURE ON THE COMPOSITION OF EXPORTS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN CHINA --- p.9<br>Chapter 3 --- DATA --- p.11<br>Chapter 4 --- REGRESSION MODEL --- p.12<br>Chapter 4.1 --- REGRESSION RESULT (WITHOUT THE ELASTICITY TERM) --- p.15<br>Chapter 4.2 --- ROLLING REGRESSION FOR ESTIMATING THE ELASTICITY TERMS --- p.17<br>Chapter 4.3 --- REGRESSION RESULT OF REGRESSION (1) --- p.19<br>Chapter 4.4 --- INSTRUMENTAL VARIABLE FOR THE ELASTICITY TERM --- p.20<br>Chapter 4.5 --- REGRESSION RESULT AFTER USING TWO-STAGE LEAST SQUARE (2SLS) --- p.23<br>Chapter 5 --- DISCUSSION --- p.24<br>Chapter 6 --- CONCLUSION --- p.29<br>REFERENCES --- p.32

While the phenomenon of informality in labor markets is pervasive in many parts of the world, its interaction with the aggregate behavior of economies is not well understood. In this dissertation, I explore the connection between informality and the macroeconomy in two main ways. The first way is to augment a search-and-matching model of labor markets in the tradition of Mortensen and Pissarides (1994) with aggregate shocks and an informal sector. The second is to consider an Aiyagari (1994) setting in which the existence of an informal sector feeds back into the labor income risk and savings decisions of heterogeneous agents. The parameters of both models are chosen so as to match features of micro-data I obtain from Brazil. This dissertation is thus divided into three chapters: the first one presents the data and findings from the empirical exploration. The second chapter describes the model of informality over the business cycle and presents its results. The third chapter introduces the heterogeneous agents model with informality and the conclusions derived therefrom. The first chapter divides the empirical analysis into two components. Firstly, I analyze how informality is distributed over education, income and occupational groups, and how formal-informal income differentials behave over these categories. I find that informality decreases in average income, and that the formal-informal income differential is higher among low income workers. The second component pertains to the evolution of informality over time. I show that, in the time period covered by the data, the rate of informality has a strongly cyclical pattern, which is mostly explained by cyclical variation in formal job creation. In the second chapter, in co-authorship with Livio Maya, we show in a parsimonious model of business cycles and informal labor markets that the differential risk of formal and informal contracts plays a potentially important role in generating the patterns of job creation found in the data. The main finding is that generating substantial countercyclicality in the informality rate in our calibration requires the price of risk to be highly countercyclical. In the third chapter, also in co-authorship with Livio Maya, we show the transition path of a policy designed to fight informality in a heterogeneous agents setting. The main finding is that while eliminating the informal sector makes the economy more productive and reduces unemployment in the long run, the short term impact is influenced by general equilibrium effects. In particular, unemployment increases in the short run due to the impact of the policy on interest rates. Moreover, the effects of such policy are sensitive to the assumptions on the destination of the extra tax revenues derived from increased formalization in the transition path.

In this thesis we study the interdependency of individual decisions on work and family, particularly the dynamic interaction of the marriage market and the labor market. My basic idea is that marital status affects individual labor supply decisions, and in turn, labor market condition influences marriage formation and dissolution. While these interactions are evident, the overwhelming majority of research on labor or family economics usually simplifies the individual decision-making by assuming that one of two markets outcomes is given while studying the other one. In the empirical study, endogeneity issues are troublesome, especially under the dynamic setting. My work takes a different approach. I directly model the individual decision-making, which describes how marriage market and labor market interact with each other; and matching with survey data we empirically recover the underlying economic environments that characterize the structure of the marriage market and the labor market. I further examine to what extent my model explains the observed facts. Very few studies have been conducted to explore work and family issues in this direction partly due to its complexity. The structural models, besides the conventional regression, improve our perceptions on how individuals form decisions on work and family, which have far-reaching implications on policy designs and welfare evaluations. In my thesis, I explore all these issues in three steps. In chapter 1, I explain a stylized fact that there exists a positive correlation between rising wage inequality and declining marriage rates. A two-sided matching model is developed to exploit a theoretical channel through which wage inequality affects marriage rates. My model features a steady state equilibrium in which the whole marriage market is divided into groups and only people in the same group will marry each other. Using the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) data from 1970 to 2000, my estimates indicate that a structural change occurs in the U.S. marriage market. The higher matching efficiency and declining elasticity of men suggest that the nowadays marriage market provides more chance to meet and better gender equity, though higher arrival rates also raise the outside options of getting married. Additionally, I find that wage inequality accounts for over 38% of the decline in marriage rate, which is underestimated in Gould (2003). Chapter 2 examines household dynamic labor supply after introducing bargaining between husbands and wives, which has not been thoroughly studied previously in literature. Here bargaining between husbands and wives determines the amount of husbands' earnings that are transferred to wives for their private consumption. A household search model that incorporates the intrahousehold bargaining is developed and estimated using panel data from the year 2001 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). My results show that the portion of household income shared by husbands for private consumption is responsive to their employment status, suggesting the existence of the bargaining between the U.S. couples. My findings also imply that the labor supply of women will increase with higher women wage and lower money transfer from husbands to wives, showing that the income effect dominates for wives. Moreover, the wage frontier of husbands is positively correlated with wives' wages and negatively correlated with husbands' earnings transferred to wives, highlighting that husbands are subject to both the income effect and intra-household bargaining, and their decisions depend on which effect dominates. In the third and the last chapter, I study household unemployment duration. Previously, most studies have addressed the topic of job search at the individual level. This chapter studies job search patterns of married couples and in particular compares couple's unemployment duration given their spousal earnings. A household search model is introduced, which includes the bargaining between husbands and wives. I use the year 2001 panel data Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to estimate the structural model of family decisions. Our findings reveal that there exists a gender asymmetry in job search of the U.S. household: The more husbands earn, the longer wives search for a job; but the more wives earn, the sooner husbands find a job.<br>text

In this thesis, return to health is also estimated. We examine the effects of height on hourly wage, monthly earnings, working hours, and education level. Our results show that height has different causal impacts on women and men. Women benefit from height: taller women earn more, work less, and have more leisure time. However, taller men are more likely to land a job and work longer, largely because they are better endowed. Moreover, the positive effect of height on hourly wage for women is larger than that for men. In general, the findings have contributed new evidence to existing literature that estimates the return to health.<br>This thesis mainly investigates the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status. Specifically, it estimates the effects of family income and parental education on the health status and educational attainment of the next generation using unique twins data collected from urban China. By using twins strategy, we can largely control for unobservables, which may cause biases in estimations. Our results show that the positive correlations of family income and maternal education with child health are largely due to unobserved endowment and family background. However, family income and paternal education do have a positive effect on child education. Overall, our findings suggest that increasing family income and parental schooling do not help in improving child health. However, to reduce the educational gap of the next generation, redistributing income would prove beneficial. The design of government policies is dependent on the policy targets.<br>Xiong, Yanyan.<br>Advisers: Hongbin Li; Junsen Zhang.<br>Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: 2176.<br>Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008.<br>Includes bibliographical references.<br>Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.<br>Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.<br>Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.<br>Abstracts in English and Chinese.<br>School code: 1307.

This study investigated the impact of import prices on inflation in Namibia, using quarterly time series data over the period 1998Q2-2017Q4. The variables used in the study are inflation rate, M2, real GDP and import prices. The study found that all the variables are integrated of order one (1), and upon testing for cointegration using Johansen test, there was no cointegration. Therefore, the model was analysed using ordinary least squares (OLS) techniques of vector autoregression (VAR) approach, granger causality test and the impulse response function. The results of the study revealed that import prices granger causes inflation at 1% level of significance. Inflation is also granger caused by real GDP and broad money supply (M2) does not Granger cause inflation. The study further revealed that the shocks to import prices are significant in explaining variation in inflation both in the short run and in the long term.<br>Economics<br>M. Com. (Economics)

Using 1980 - 2012 annual data, the study empirically investigates the dynamic relationship between financial development and economic growth in three developing countries (South Africa, Brazil and Kenya) and three developed countries (United States of America, United Kingdom and Australia). The study was motivated by the current debate regarding the role of financial development in the economic growth process, and their causal relationship. The debate centres on whether financial development impacts positively or negatively on economic growth and whether it Granger-causes economic growth or vice versa. To this end, two models have been used. In Model 1 the impact of bank- and market-based financial development on economic growth is examined, while in Model 2 it is the causality between the two that is explored. Using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration and error-correction based causality test, the results were found to differ from country to country and over time. These results were also found to be sensitive to the financial development proxy used. Based on Model 1, the study found that the impact of bank-based financial development on economic growth is positive in South Africa and the USA, but negative in the U.K – and neither positive nor negative in Kenya. Elsewhere the results were inconclusive. Market-based financial development was found to impact positively in Kenya, USA and the UK but not in the remaining countries. Based on Model 2, the study found that bank-based financial development Granger-causes economic growth in the UK, while in Brazil they Granger-cause each other. However, in South Africa, Kenya and USA no causal relationship was found. In Australia the results were inconclusive. The study also found that in the short run, market-based financial development Granger-causes economic growth in the USA but that in South Africa and Brazil, the reverse applies. On the other hand bidirectional causality was found to prevail in Kenya in the same period.<br>Economics<br>DCOM (Economics)

This study investigates the factors affecting agricultural production of farm households in the National Regional State of Tigray, Ethiopia. The major primary sources of data for the study were farm household surveys, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. The study revealed that the annual average crop production of respondents was found to be below the standard annual food requirement recommended by the international organizations. The proportion of irrigated land to total cultivated land was only 11per cent. The proportion of irrigated land in the two districts is lower than 11.27 per cent at the regional level. The utilization of chemical fertilizers for the majority of the respondents was below the recommended standard for the region. Although the farmers were interested in using improved seeds, the supplied varieties were not based on their preferences. Extension agents were mainly engaged in activities which were not related to their professions. The farm income model result showed that landholding size (p<0.0001), possession of oxen(p<0.0001), amount of fertilizer(p=0.010), improved seeds(p=0.002), irrigation(p=0.028), soil quality(p=0.019), village distance to the district market(p=0.066), average distance of plots from the homestead (p=0.023) and crop rotation(p=0.016) were determinant variables. Farmers were engaged in off-farm activities to fulfill the cash requirements in credit constrained conditions. The laws of the region do not allow farmers to be out of their localities for more than two years and the farmerswere restricted to renting out only half of their land. This discouraged farmers from off-farm participation for fear of land confiscation. In the Probit model, the determinant variables of off-farm participation were: irrigation (p=0.001), age (p=0.007), amount of money borrowed (p=0.078), village distance to the wereda market (p=0.055), fear of land confiscation (p=0.023) and access to electricity (p=0.044). It is recommended that if farmers are to use chemical fertilizers, they should be supplied with High Yielding Varieties (HYV)and enough water through access to irrigation. Furthermore, farmers should be allowed to have long term off-farm employment to augment the farming sector.<br>Development Studies<br>D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)