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Environmental Woes and Their Economic Echoes
No full textPh.D.This dissertation is a compilation of three essays on the economic consequences of environmental shocks.In the first chapter, No Point Crying over Spilled Oil: Impact of Crude Oil Spills on Out-Migration in Nigeria, I study adaptation measures adopted by households in the face of land pollution shocks, namely crude oil spills. I use a staggered difference-in-differences framework to find that exposure to crude oil spills increases the likelihood of out-migration. A sub-group analysis helps me investigate the causal mechanism driving my results. I find that oil spills are linked to migration only for those who resided in households that practiced agriculture at baseline. They report fewer hours worked in cultivation and weak evidence suggests that rural household members migrate to urban areas as a consequence of oil spill exposures, indicating a substitution away from their farms. Reported short-term migration responses to oil spill exposure are often marriage-related, while longer-term migrations are reportedly driven by work and education pursuits, predominantly among female members. Thus, persistent exposure to land pollution shocks can prompt agriculture-dependent households to resort to out-migration as a coping strategy.The second chapter, High Temperature and Learning Outcomes: Evidence from Ethiopia, ---co-authored with Kibrom Tafere and A. Patrick Behrer--- investigates the impact of high temperatures on the test scores of students in high-stakes examinations in Ethiopia. We rely on quasi-random variation in daily temperature during the year preceding an exam for identification. Our results indicate that an additional day with maximum temperature exceeding 33°C leads to a significant decrease in students' total test scores by 0.009 standard deviations. We also find meaningful heterogeneity in effects based on the gender of students. Specifically, female students' exam scores appear to be less influenced by high temperatures, implying that climate change has differential impacts by gender. Additionally, we find that students from schools located in hotter regions can better cope with higher temperatures as compared to their counterparts from cooler regions. We posit this as suggestive evidence of heat acclimatization since Ethiopian schools have negligible adoption of cooling technologies.In the third chapter, Agriculture Production Potential of Groundwater Irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa, ---co-authored with Ifeanyi N. Edochie, Aparajita Goyal, and Andrew Dabalen--- we investigate the potential of the vast under-utilized groundwater reserves available in Sub-Saharan African countries to increase agricultural production and resilience. By combining a novel groundwater aquifer database with geo-spatial agriculture productivity data, we simulate the gains from expanding groundwater access-- ensuring access is kept within sustainable limits-- on agriculture productivity and production and find substantial gains. This analysis is particularly relevant against the backdrop of climate change and the impending disruption to rain-fed agriculture
Unlocking Potential: The Effect of Early Childhood Education on Crime
No full textM.P.P.For decades, U.S. politicians have instituted punitive policies that have led to incomparable incarceration rates while doing little to disincentivize crime. An important question for policymakers is whether investments in social programs are more successful in preventing crime. One such investment is expanding access to quality early childhood education programs. My thesis explores whether individuals enrolled in early childhood education programs are less likely to be involved in crime as adults. Previous studies focused on Head Start find that the program may reduce crime in the long run, particularly among Black Americans. My paper contributes to the current literature by studying early childhood education more broadly. Using panel data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979, this review explores the impact of early childhood education, including preschool and Head Start, on the later life involvement in crime of 1,646 individuals across the United States. I find some evidence that enrollment in early childhood education reduces the likelihood of individuals later being involved in crime, particularly for Hispanic individuals. My results underscore the importance of access to early childhood and the need for future research to evaluate how social investments in education can reduce crime
The Effect of Guideline Education on Anticoagulation Management and Professional Collaboration in ECMO Patients
No full textD.N.P.This project aims to assist nurses and advanced practice nurses in preventing thrombosis and bleeding during ECMO treatment. It suggests following established anticoagulation guidelines, providing comprehensive education, and promoting teamwork among healthcare professionals. This approach can enhance patient outcomes by increasing knowledge and collaboration, ultimately leading to optimal administration of unfractionated heparin.Over approximately 20 weeks, the project was undertaken to enhance knowledge pertinent to anticoagulation management in patients undergoing Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO). This initiative involved facilitating educational sessions tailored for nurses and Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) and focused on improving collaborative processes between these healthcare professionals.
The data for the project was collected through electronic surveys for education and the Collaboration and Satisfaction about Care Decisions (CSACD) tool to evaluate collaboration. Paired sample t-tests were used to compare the education results. The analysis revealed that the education sessions significantly impacted knowledge of medication compatibility, laboratory testing, and safety protocols with a p-value of 0.024, which was statistically significant at the project's significance level of 0.05. However, the results did not show statistical significance for collaboration, with Z values ranging from -1.717 to -0.103 and p-values ranging from 0.086 to 0.918.
After conducting a comprehensive review of the collaboration data, it was discovered that even though the initial collaboration scores were promising, none of the p-values attained the necessary level of statistical significance (
What Is the Effect of Male Out-Migration on the Autonomy of Married Women Left Behind in Indian Households?
No full textM.P.P.The COVID-19 pandemic revealed deep crevices in India’s predominantly informal economy, the extent of urban dependence on low-income migrant workers, and the consequent impact on the livelihood of India’s sizable migrant population. Much of the literature on migration has focused on migration patterns, the push and pull factors that influence migration decisions and the economic benefits of remittances sent back home. However, the impact of migration goes beyond economic gains. There are consequent changes in the role of the household members left behind. This thesis examines whether male out-migration has an impact on the autonomy of married women left behind in households using the Indian Human Development Survey-II from 2011-2012. Our risk-adjusted results suggest a positive relationship between male out-migration and physical autonomy and the decision-making autonomy of married women within households. There is a negative relationship between male out-migration and the political autonomy and economic autonomy of married women. However, the statistical significance of these relationships varies for different dimensions of autonomy
The Immediate Impact of a Conflict Shock on Household Consumption: Evidence from Nigeria in 2015-2016
No full textM.P.P.Violent conflict has claimed at least 60,000 lives in Nigeria in the past decade. In a country where the poverty rate is nearly 40%, violent conflict has had debilitating effects on all aspects of household well-being, including consumption expenditure. Past research has demonstrated the long- and medium-term ramifications of conflict on household consumption in Nigeria. This paper attempts to build on this literature by examining the immediate impact (around two to three months) of a conflict shock on household consumption in Nigeria in 2015/16 using a difference-in-difference strategy. I do not find a statistically significant effect of a conflict shock on household consumption in this study, regardless of my sample construction. However, I argue that these null results need to be interpreted within the context of this study’s limitations. I end with suggesting strategies to address these limitations, thus highlighting avenues for future research
Does Flood Risk Awareness Lead to Risk Reduction? Measuring the Effect of Flood Insurance Rate Map Adoption on Local Flood Loss Reduction Outcomes
No full textM.P.P.Floods are the costliest natural disaster in the United States. As climate change continues to increase the frequency and severity of natural disasters, flood losses are expected to rise. Each year, the United States spends millions of dollars providing subsidized flood insurance to communities that participate in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), as well as a suite of programs and services designed to reduce and mitigate flood hazards (e.g., flood mapping, hazard mitigation grant funding, and floodplain management regulatory design and support). With the rising threat of flooding, coupled with the increasing financial instability of the NFIP, it is vital for policymakers to understand whether the current design and implementation of the NFIP achieves desired flood loss reduction outcomes. To address this urgent imperative, this thesis explores the effect of an NFIP participating community adopting a new Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) into its local ordinance on average annualized flood insurance claims. It tests whether average annualized claims are lower in years after a community receives a new flood mapping study. Results provide some evidence that map adoption is associated with a reduction in flood losses. However, given data limitations and the absence of certain control variables, results should be interpreted cautiously and not construed as implying causality
Droughts and the Child Support Grant: Impacts on the Well-Being of Working-Age Adults in South Africa
No full textM.P.P.Comprehensive social protection systems have the potential to eradicate poverty and reduce inequalities. Moreover, they can contribute to economic growth and promote active participation in the workforce, while also strengthening the ability to withstand recurring crises. South Africa boasts an extensive social protection system, which becomes crucial in light of the significant impact that climatic events have on the economy. It is essential to examine how this current system safeguards the adult population against such shocks to ensure fiscal sustainability and allocate resources effectively towards assisting communities in coping with the increasing prevalence of climatic shocks within the country. The purpose of this study is to gain insights into how the Child Support Grant (CSG) affects resilience and vulnerability reduction among working-age adults impacted by drought in South Africa. By examining the relationship between CSG disbursement and socioeconomic outcomes, this paper aims to provide valuable information for policy interventions that can improve disaster preparedness, response, and recovery efforts in light of increasing climate risks
An Empirical Study of the Relationship Between Renewable Energy Deployment and Electrical Reliability in the U.S. Bulk Power System
No full textM.P.P.Global climate change is accelerating the need for utility-scale clean energy systems that can rapidly and reliably meet the electrical demands of our growing society. Variable renewable energy technologies (VREs) such as wind and solar power have often been quoted in the public debate as a solution to our climate woes. However, concern among policymakers and the public about whether VREs can provide similar electrical reliability to their fossil fuel counterparts has impeded their deployment at the utility scales needed to stem climate change. In this paper, I examined the relationship between electrical reliability and VRE deployment empirically with a focus on the mean duration and total frequency of power outages in the United States using data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s eGRID database and the U.S. Energy Information Agency’s Table 2b of electrical disturbances. My results suggest that there may be a quadratic relationship between electrical reliability and clean energy systems wherein reliability decreases at low- and mid-levels of VRE deployment and then improves once it is supplying the majority of power in a grid. However, these results may be biased given that there is heavy clustering around the mid-range of renewable energy usage among U.S. states. If proven through further research, these findings would echo those of Harker Steele et al., Eto et al., and other researchers. Additionally, my results resoundingly found that VRE systems used in tandem with nuclear power were just as reliable as entirely fossil fuel-based systems. Finally, my results indicate that further research is needed to understand how electrical reliability changes depending on the demographic makeup of a state. Given these findings, I recommend increasing investment in flexible carbon-neutral generation sources such as nuclear power, green hydrogen, or synthetic gases with carbon capture and storage, creating policy supports for mid- to large-scale VRE projects that can meet the size requirements of the quadratic relationship, and promoting innovation in battery technologies to balance the variability of renewables in the low- and mid-range scales
Testimonial Knowledge in Medical Discourse
No full textPh.D.Medical discourse is a keystone in the provision of healthcare, serving many different functions. The medical interview is one part of medical discourse and is unique in its highly structured format, its division of roles and control between physician and patient, and the testimonial knowledge that it generates. The testimonial knowledge generated by patients in the medical interview is epistemically interesting in both its generation and uptake. For one, testimonial knowledge is a distinctly different kind of knowledge than other kinds of knowledge produced in medical settings, such as the knowledge generated by lab tests, physical observation, or medical imaging. Further, medical contexts have existing epistemic standards and processes for the evaluation and ranking of different kinds of evidence. Finally, there has been a recent surge of literature and online discourse on patients feeling unheard by medical practitioners, suggesting that something may be going awry between the generation of testimonial knowledge from patients and the uptake of said testimonial knowledge.This project aims to explore these dynamics by bringing tools and concepts from the epistemology of testimony into the specific context of patients presenting unknown medical problems to clinicians in primary care settings. While extensive scholarship has been done on medical discourse in the domains of linguistics and health communication, less work has been done on the medical interview with a social epistemology angle. In this project, I cross-pollinate contemporary work in social epistemology with scholarship on patient-provider communication, health communication, and work on evidence-based medicine. I make extensive use of physician accounts of the process for trusting or distrusting patient testimony, as well as work in the philosophy of medicine on evidence hierarchies and how these structure the epistemic environment of medicine.In doing this, I generate four distinct, but interrelated, key findings. First, that patient presentations of unknown problems in primary care tend to take the form of narrative testimony, a distinct type of testimonial knowledge with idiosyncratic epistemic dimensions. Second, I identify and illustrate the phenomenon of testimonial compression. I use several real and fictional samples from medical discourse to explicate this concept and discuss several epistemic and ethical consequences that can follow from the use of testimonial compression in medical contexts. Third, I show how evidence-based medicine has established an evidentialist approach to the assessment of patient testimony, and detail the ways in which this can be both successful and unsuccessful. Finally, I show how the existing literature on medical gaslighting is inconsistent and at times contradictory. To ameliorate some key problems that I identify across various accounts, I propose an account of medical gaslighting that can add conceptual clarity to the scholarship on this topic
Latino Home Valuations in the United States, 2017-2021
No full textM.P.P.Racism in housing has severely and negatively impacted ethnic and racial minorities in the United States. It has resulted in concentrated poverty, provided barriers to accessing new opportunities, and inflicted harm on people. Newer research is now measuring the ways that implicit racism impacts minorities not just by segregating communities away from more affluent, whiter communities—but by devaluing communities with similar amenities when the only difference is the racial composition. This paper adds to the literature by further investigating how this plays out in Latino communities by looking at how Latino communities may be valued compared to non-Latino communities in the United States. Interestingly, I find that homes in Latino communities on average are worth nearly 37% more than homes in non-Latino communities in the United States. Additional analysis reveals that homes in Black communities are worth 35% less than homes in non-Black communities