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Replication Data for: Health Certification in Sex Markets: A Field Experiment in Dakar, Senegal
No full textReplication files for "Health Certification in Sex Markets: A Field Experiment in Dakar, Senegal." Abstract: "Legalization and regulation" is a common approach to sex work regulation that eliminates some criminal penalties if sex workers obtain government health certification. In theory, by allowing sex workers to credibly disclose their health status, certification should enable higher prices. Yet certification rates in developing countries are typically low. I explore barriers to certification in Dakar, Senegal. I randomly offered uncertified sex workers information and an incentive covering the monetary cost of certification. This incentive only marginally increased certification. Individual- and transaction-level analysis show no evidence for a certification price premium and reveal that internalized stigma deters certification
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Impacts of recriminalizing sex work
Get PDFWith few exceptions, prostitution is illegal throughout the United States. These laws have remained largely the same across state and time, making an empirical analysis of decriminalizing prostitution difficult. An unexpected court ruling of a Rhode Island judge in 2003 effectively decriminalized all indoor prostitution in the state until 2009. This paper replicates findings that the decriminalization reduced per capita rape offenses. In addition, it adds to the existing literature by empirically estimating the impacts of reversing this ruling in 2009. The synthetic control model used finds a reduction in rape offenses per capita of 26.4% in the 2009-2014 post recriminalization period compared to the initial criminalized period. Gonorrhea rates are reduced by 43.5% compared to the criminalized period
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THREE ESSAYS ON THE IMPACT OF SCHOOL CLOSURES IN YEARS 2020-21 ON PARENTS AND CHILDREN
Get PDFMy dissertation is a series of papers that study the effects of school closures in years 2020-21 on parental labor-market outcomes and educational outcomes of secondary and post-secondary students. My first chapter shows that k-12 school and childcare facility closures affect both the mothers and fathers of pre-school and school-age children through a reduction in their work hours, and in some cases earnings. These effects are concentrated among parents without a college degree, parents working in occupations that do not lend themselves to telework, and parents without other family members living at home. My second chapter finds that while high school graduation rates remained stable when schools closed, math proficiency rates suffered, particularly among vulnerable student groups, whereas reading/language and arts proficiency rates saw some improvements. My third chapter shows that university and college closures, coupled with social distancing mandates, led to a decline in both overall and in-state enrollments, with out-of-state enrollments also diminishing in some instances
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The Economics of Livestock Health, Disease, and Production
Get PDFThe economic implications of livestock health and disease have wide-ranging effects across commercialized production systems in developed markets and household production and consumption in underdeveloped markets. Chapter 1 focuses on livestock health in developed markets. Chapters 2 and 3 focus on the intersection between human and livestock health in underdeveloped markets.In Chapter 1 I develop a theoretical environment that evaluates how asymmetric information on calf health impacts producer welfare in the supply chain. I propose a price premium mechanism consistent with contract theory for revealing private health information and find theoretical profit-maximizing conditions. I empirically test theoretical conditions using commercial feedlot data in a simulated environment and find support for theoretical conditions.In Chapter 2 I evaluate household, socioeconomic, and environmental impacts on child height growth in Western Kenya, which is a determinant of health. With individual nutritional intake and height data I estimate height growth efficiency using data envelopment analysis, and then use supervised machine learning methods to determine associated impacts of features on height growth efficiency. I find that optimal labor and land resource allocation decisions are important for increasing height growth efficiency, as well as household educational attainment and having access to electricity and reliable water.In chapter 3 I evaluate impacts of livestock health on livestock production and welfare for agricultural households in Western Kenya. I estimate livestock production inefficiency using stochastic frontier analysis and then normally approximate a probability model in a Bayesian environment. I use the probability model to determine associated odds of production becoming more inefficient during decreased livestock health events. I construct a counterfactual environment with healthy livestock and efficient production, and estimate welfare loss attributed to decreased livestock health for a representative household using information from the probability model. I find that general livestock illness, as well as livestock respiratory or skin diseases are associated with increased production inefficiency. I also find that during livestock illness events, households having no education is associated with even greater production inefficiency. Welfare loss results reveal that sizable market imperfections due to decreased livestock health exist in representative underdeveloped areas
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THREE ESSAYS ON FERTILITY BEHAVIOR AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Get PDFThis dissertation contains three distinct papers on fertility behavior and domestic violence. Chapter one examines the effectiveness of the policy on fertility, proportion of male children, and female infant mortality. We utilize data from the fourth round of the National Family Health Survey (2015-2016) and use propensity score matching models to examine whether the policy influences household fertility behavior. First, fertility behavior of women residing in the policy states who married before the mandate are compared to those who married after the mandate implementation. Second, fertility behavior of women residing in the policy states are compared to those living in non-policy states. While the policy is found to lower the number of children in a household, there is no significant change in the proportion of male children in a household or in female infant mortality. However, pre-policy absence of a male child is positively and statistically significantly associated with excess fertility.Chapter two examines inconsistencies between an individual’s expectations regarding an ideal number of children and their current desire for children. The results show that societal influence does affect an individual’s fertility decision-making process and that knowledge of modern contraceptive methods has a significant impact on both spouses’ inconsistency between ideal and current desire for children. Inconsistency is significantly associated with number of children and proportion of male children in family. However, causal pathways between inconsistency and fertility outcomes may not be established using cross-sectional data and when implementing OLS estimation.Chapter three studies the causal effect of acceptance of domestic violence on actual physical and sexual abuse incidence. Both spouses’ attitudes toward the issue are analyzed. Results indicate that both husband and wife’s attitudes toward the issue are positively and significantly associated with domestic violence incidence. However, results from the IV estimation indicates only wife’s attitude have positive causal effect on husband’s abuse behavior in rural area. I also find that there is a high rate of cross generational transmission of attitudes towards domestic violence from results of the first stage regressions of the IV probit model. The results are in general consistent across different income and caste and religion groups
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Three Essays on Health Economics
Get PDFThis dissertation contains three distinct papers in health economics. Chapter one examines the heterogeneous effects of childhood bullying and chronic bullying on a wide range of outcomes using Ordinary Least Squares and Propensity Score Matching. We find that exposure to childhood bullying and chronic bullying negatively affects youths' physical and mental health. Victimized individuals are more likely to engage in risky behaviors. The adverse effects tend to increase with chronic bullying. We find no causal effects of childhood or chronic bullying on educational attainment. Childhood bullying is positively associated with social skills, whereas chronic bullying victimization is not related to cognitive or social skills. Individuals who were exposed to childhood or chronic bullying join the labor market at earlier ages than non-victims. Finally, chronic bullying victimization increases the likelihood of utilizing mental health services and experiencing life-disrupting emotional problems in adulthood. Being a victim of childhood bullying increases the likelihood of having emotional problems later in life; however, the effect is smaller than chronic victims.Chapter two focuses on measuring the direct and indirect effects of chronic bullying victimization on labor market outcomes. We find that chronic bullying victimization is directly associated with lower wages. The indirect wage penalty is driven by education, work experience, and occupational outcomes. Chronic bullying victimization is associated with fewer years of education and work experience. Victims of chronic bullying victimization work in occupations that require lower interpersonal, leadership, and independence skills. Our findings indicate that chronic bullying victimization may have a substantially larger total effect on wages due to the indirect effects than what previous studies document.Chapter three examines the relationship between a woman's mental health state and her fertility behavior. We use the discrete-time hazard model and Poisson regression to estimate the effect of mental health on the age at the first birth and the number of children. Our results show that better mental health is associated with an earlier transition into motherhood. We provide evidence that women with better mental health have fewer children. We discuss the potential implications of these results to post-pandemic fertility and future research
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Essays on Development Economics and Consumer Demand Evidence from Primary Data
Get PDFMy dissertation consists of three essays on Development Economics and consumer demand for food products produced using innovative technologies. I collected primary data separately for the three chapters. My first chapter is on gender gap in intergenerational educational mobility in India and the underlying factors that affect such gender gaps. My second chapter is on consumer demand for a ready-to-eat meal food produced using an innovative food processing technology called Microwave Assisted Thermal Sterilization. My third chapter centers on consumers acceptance table grapes produced using an innovative breeding technology called gene editing. My first chapter establishes the existence of a gender gap in intergenerational educational mobility in India. Creating a unique father-child pairs matched dataset, I examine whether a son or a daughter is more likely to attain higher education than the father. Results from the latent class analysis suggests that the male-bias gender norms do not predict a gender gap in intergenerational educational mobility.My second chapter uses data collected via an online survey to estimate consumers’ willingness to pay for the attributes of organic, clean label, and processed with a new food technology in a ready meal. My findings suggest that consumers who frequently purchase ready meals prefer a clean label over the organic certification, highlighting the importance of technological innovations and the need to present consumers with complete information on the new food technologies to mitigate potential neophobias due to unfamiliarity.My third chapter estimates consumers’ willingness to pay for specific product (quality) and process (agronomic) attributes of table grapes, including taste, texture, external appearance, expected number of chemical applications, and the breeding technology used to develop the plant. Considering varietal traits, on average our survey respondents were willing to pay the highest price premiums for specific offers of improvements in table grape taste and texture, followed by external appearance and expected number of chemical applications. Considering breeding methods, on average our respondents were willing to pay a small premium for table grapes developed using conventional breeding rather than gene editing
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Essays in Environmental and Development Economics
Get PDFThis dissertation addresses three issues in environmental and development economics using agent-based modeling with a game-theoretical approach, applied econometrics, and statistical methods. Chapter One presents an economic framework for policymakers to compare the effectiveness of traditional abatement and carbon dioxide removal techniques for reducing emissions and the associated environmental policies, considering the strategic interactions between polluting firms and regulators. Under the traditional abatement technique, the results suggest that there is a lower level of business-as-usual emissions, a higher level of abatement, a reduction in environmental damage, and an increase in social welfare, but the firm's profit is lower in the lobbying equilibrium. Under the CDR technique, the results show that lobbying leads to a reduction in emissions fees, higher subsidies, and a reduction in environmental damage, which increases social welfare. The study also compares the social welfare of adopting traditional abatement versus CDR techniques for reducing emissions and finds that social welfare is higher with CDR than traditional abatement, regardless of whether emissions captured are utilized for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) or not.Chapter Two explores the influence of the female gender on firms' environmental strategies to reduce pollution. The study shows that having female top managers in a firm is causally associated with lower levels of pollution, especially in terms of coal consumption, solid waste generation, and petroleum consumption. However, the relationship between female top managers and pollution levels varies depending on the type of pollution and the size and context of the firm. In the manufacturing sector, firms with a higher proportion of female top managers tend to consume less petroleum, and having a female top manager is causally associated with lower levels of solid waste and petroleum consumption in both manufacturing and retail/services sectors. In small-sized firms, having a female top manager is causally associated with lower levels of coal consumption, solid waste generation, and petroleum consumption. Overall, this study suggests that promoting gender diversity in top management may lead to a more sustainable and environmentally friendly business operation.Chapter Three investigates the relationship between air pollution, COPD mortality, and internal migration patterns. The study finds that PM2.5, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) mortality, and environmental factors like temperature, relative humidity, and precipitation are significant determinants of internal migration. The effects of these factors differ between males and females and between racial groups. The study suggests that policymakers need to address air pollution and health outcomes like COPD mortality and consider targeted interventions that account for differences in how different groups perceive and respond to environmental factors. Additionally, policymakers need to consider climate-related factors such as temperature and precipitation and promote sustainable land use practices to protect public health
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ESSAYS IN ECONOMICS OF LABOR, TECHNOLOGY, AND DEVELOPMENT
Get PDFThis thesis addresses various issues within the realms of the economics of technology, labor economics, and development economics. It applies several empirical methods in econometrics, and statistics to carry out substantial results and economic analysis aimed at guiding policy decisions. The first chapter explores the decay and diffusion rates of technological knowledge in manufacturing, specifically focusing on four out of twenty-five subsectors. Spanning the period 1995-2012, the study adopts a sampling method to gather patents and citations within the aerospace, computer, food, and motor vehicle industries. In addition, the study investigates the link between patent claims, citations, and knowledge stock across the manufacturing industries. Applying the double exponential specification coined by Caballero and Jaffe (1993), the study finds decay and diffusion rates of 0.0741 and 0.00022 for the entire sample. The aerospace subsector exhibits the highest decay (0.167), while the computer industry shows largest diffusion parameter (0.00063). Despite its low decay parameter (0.041) and relatively high diffusion rate (0.0005), due to fewer annual patents granted, the food subsector displays the lowest technological knowledge. The computer ranks highest in technological knowledge, and the aerospace lowest despite its relatively substantial number of patents. The findings highlight the sensitivity of obsolescence and diffusion on technological knowledge across subsectors. Further, the results reveal patent claims impact citations, especially backward citation which is a key determinant of knowledge stock. The research pinpoints the importance of both quantity and notably quality of patents in determining the level of technological knowledge.The second chapter examines the effect of computer technology on the real average wages across 455 U.S. manufacturing subsectors spanning from 2007 to 2012. This study explores the wage disparities across subsectors while focusing on size, capital intensity, professional and technical services, and labor productivity. To spell out the causal effects and describe the mechanisms through which computer technology explains the average wages, I carry out a two-stage least-squares (2-SLS) model with a two-way fixed effects approach. I consistently estimate the model in using for instrument a knowledge stock index derived from patent citations and authentic decay and diffusion rates of the manufacturing sector. My findings reveal a positive elasticity of computer technology on average wages ranging from 11.6% to 12.9% for hardware, and 15.7% to 18.3% for software across the high-tech subsectors. This positive linkage suggests more adoption of computers and related products at the workplace is associated with higher average wages. Further, the results display greater marginal effects of technology on wages for labor-productive, capital-intensive, and technology-intensive subsectors. Overall, the paper supports the skilled-biased technological change (SBTC) argument, which illustrates technological advancements create opportunities that benefit the high skilled while disadvantaging the low skilled workers.The third chapter examines the societal welfare adopting an inequality adjusting global wellbeing index derived from a principal component analysis (PCA). This index is developed using a data-driven approach which retains nine composite indicators encompassing various social and economic attributes across 178 countries. The method used is similar to previous studies but extends them by incorporating weights of variables, and inequality across countries. In addition to the classic dimensions of human development - health, education, access to resources - the study focuses on gender empowerment, environment, and social lifestyle indicators. The findings suggest countries excelling in health tend to perform well in other socioeconomic areas. Results also suggest the broad development story needs to incorporate more specific social and ecological dimensions. This new inequality-adjusted index (IAGWI) is compared to traditional development indices such as HDI, IHDI, and PHDI. They display similarities but also significant ranking dispersions across countries for several dimensions. Essentially, this research underscores a complexity of societal welfare, emphasizing the need for consideration from multiple social and economic perspectives
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ESSAYS IN DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS
Get PDFThis dissertation comprises one chapter in Environmental Economics and two chapters in Development Economics. The Development Economics chapters address cattle health and production challenges in Kenya, aiming to improve economic well-being through framed field experiments and impact evaluation methods. The Environmental Economics chapter focuses on sustainability, examining quality–quantity issues in common pool resources CPR.The first chapter examines a CPR where appropriations deteriorate the quality of the resource and, thus, its impact on the exploitation of the CPR. Findings reveal that (i) higher quality of the CPR could induce firms to overuse the resource and (ii) first-period appropriations with abatement decrease in the regeneration rate. However, abatement induces an overuse of the resource when the quality of the CPR improves.The second chapter examines how women's empowerment influences livestock management and household well-being in Kenya, focusing on East Coast Fever (ECF) vaccination. Using a lab-in-field experiment, the study analyzes how decision-making autonomy and control over income affect vaccination choices. The results highlight the importance of resource ownership and suggest that policies promoting joint ownership and income rights can strengthen women’s decision-making and economic security.The third chapter provides market-based estimates of demand for the ITM vaccine against ECF in Narok County, Kenya. Using observational data, the analysis shows that demand is highly price-sensitive once endogeneity is addressed, with herd size emerging as a consistent driver of adoption. Remote households appear to mitigate higher access costs through bulk purchasing, highlighting economies of scale in vaccine use. These findings suggest that affordability, distribution constraints, and batch-size requirements remain key barriers to adoption
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