37 research outputs found
ILRR_845861_Supplemental_Online_Appendix – Supplemental material for Minimum Wages and Retirement
No full textSupplemental material, ILRR_845861_Supplemental_Online_Appendix for Minimum Wages and Retirement by Heepyung Cho and Mark Borgschulte in ILR Review</p
Essays in health economics and public policy
No full textThis dissertation consists of three papers that, together, analyze the role of healthcare institutions in rural economies and evaluate how access to health insurance for low-income individuals impacts mortality and risky behavior.
In Chapter 1, I study the local economic impacts of rural hospital closures in the United States. The analysis begins with a difference-in-differences approach using county-by-year panel data on all hospital closures from 2003 through 2017. The results indicate that closures adversely affect employment, income, labor force participation, establishments, population, housing prices, and the unemployment rate. Estimated effect sizes grow over time and are explained largely by rural counties that lose their only hospital and in counties where hospitals occupy a large share of the local labor market. While there is little or no evidence of pre-trends, I estimate a range of robustness checks designed to further address endogeneity concerns, such as forward-looking behavior among hospital owners. The results are consistent across these specifications. I also document spillovers, as evidenced by a 1.8 percent decrease in non-hospital employment, an effect that explains 40 percent of the total employment loss. To characterize the significance of the adverse effects, I combine the reduced-form estimates with a spatial equilibrium model of various agents in a local economy. Analysis of the model indicates that rural hospital closures significantly harm welfare, an outcome that is internalized by workers, older residents no longer in the labor force, and landowners.
In Chapter 2, co-authored with Mark Borgschulte, we estimate the effect of the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion on county-level mortality in the first four years following expansion using restricted-access microdata covering all deaths in the United States. To adjust for pre-expansion differences in mortality rates between treatment and control, we use a propensity-score weighting model together with techniques from machine learning to match counties in expansion and non-expansion states. We find a reduction in all-cause mortality in ages 20 to 64 equaling 11.36 deaths per 100,000 individuals, a 3.6 percent decrease. This estimate is largely driven by reductions in mortality in counties with higher pre-expansion uninsured rates and for causes of death likely to be influenced by access to healthcare. A cost-benefit analysis shows that the improvement in welfare due to mortality responses may offset the entire net-of-transfers expenditure associated with the expansion.
In Chapter 3, I investigate the causal relationship between access to health care and crime following state decisions to expand Medicaid coverage after the Affordable Care Act. I combine state-level crime data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reports with variation in insurance eligibility generated by state decisions to expand Medicaid between the years 2009 and 2018. Using a difference-in-differences design, my findings indicate that states that expanded Medicaid have experienced a 5.3 percent reduction in annual incidents of violent crime relative to non-expansion states. This effect is explained by decreases in aggravated assaults and corresponds to 17 fewer incidents per 100,000 people. The estimated decrease in reported crime amounts to an annual cost savings of approximately $4 billion.Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2020-08-25 without embargo termsThe student, Jacob Vogler, accepted the attached license on 2020-04-24 at 17:43.The student, Jacob Vogler, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2020-04-24 at 17:56.This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2020-04-27 at 11:02.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #15068 on 2020-08-25 at 17:08:23Made available in DSpace on 2020-08-26T21:54:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3
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Three essays in labor and development economics
No full textSubmission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2024-05-01The student, Yuhao Yang, accepted the attached license on 2022-04-13 at 13:59.The student, Yuhao Yang, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2022-04-13 at 14:13.This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2022-04-14 at 10:55.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #17656 on 2022-11-11 at 11:56:11This study consists of chapters that focus on three topics in labor and development economics. The first chapter was co-authored with Xinze Li, where we studied the long-run effects of a payment to ecosystem services program in China on household and village outcomes. The second chapter was co-authored with Mark Borgschulte, in which we documented a “younger-wife-older-husband” gender norm in the marriage market. Additionally, we empirically estimated the existence of norms on schooling, income, labor market outcomes, and fertility of wife and husband. In the third chapter, I investigated the effects of college openings on local violent and property crimes in the short- and long-run.
In chapter one, we evaluate the effects of a payment to ecosystem services program, the “Grain-for-Green” in China, on household income, and allocation of labor and agricultural inputs in the long run. Our empirical strategy of using Difference-in Differences suggests that enrolled and nonenrolled households were comparable before the program. We find that households reallocate labor to non-agricultural employment and increase agricultural inputs as they enroll in the program. However, there is no evidence that these programs increase household income or total crop production. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that household income level is a significant determinant of adaptation strategies in response to cropland loss.
In chapter two, we provide evidence of an “older husband-younger wife” social norm in the marriage market. We use a regression kink estimator to describe the distribution of relative marital ages that arises as a consequence of the norm. Three main sets of results emerge. First, we document that the norm appears to varying degrees in new marriages throughout the lifecycle in the United States. Second, in households that violate the norm, we show wives are relatively more educated and work more hours than their husbands. As a consequence, the gender gap in total personal income is $3700 smaller in households where the wife is one year older than her husband, compared to households with equal ages or a slightly older husband. Third, we examine this norm in four representative countries across the continents and in historical data of the United States. The norm appears to varying degrees in these settings but is largest in the present-day U.S.
In chapter three, I utilize nationwide variations in college construction to determine whether the opening of a college reduces local violent and property crimes. To address the endogeneity of college location, I employed event study, difference-in-difference, and instrumental variable strategies. The difference-in-difference estimates indicate that opening a new college in the metropolitan commuting zone may reduce violent crime by six percent and property crime by 10% in the short run. In the long run, college openings will likely account for a 3.6% reduction in violent crime and a 0.9% reduction in property crime in the non-metropolitan commuting zone. The improved local socioeconomic conditions likely explain the decline in property crime, whereas the decline in violent crime is attributable to an intergenerational channel. This study complements existing literature by providing the first evidence of the effects of college openings on local crime and the mechanisms behind these effects
Essays on the provision and regulation of healthcare services
No full textChanges in healthcare regulation can have unintended consequences on the provision of healthcare services and health outcomes of individuals. This dissertation quantifies the indirect effects of changes in healthcare regulation in three different settings. In the first chapter, I examine the effects of an increase in Medicare fees on nursing homes' willingness to treat Medicaid beneficiaries. Both Medicare and Medicaid offer health insurance, but they cover different services and pay healthcare providers at varying levels of fees. The divergence between the payment structures of the programs can create conflicting incentives for nursing homes, as Medicaid fees are less generous than Medicare fees. In the case of nursing homes, Medicare pays for skilled nursing care and up to 100 days of residency, while Medicaid pays for custodial care and until the resident dies or her condition improves. Thus, admitting a Medicaid resident has dynamic implications for future capacity constraints on nursing homes, as assigning a bed to a Medicaid resident will prevent the facility from using the bed for future highly profitable, Medicare residents. I find that capacity-constrained nursing homes respond to an overly generous Medicare fee by substituting away from Medicaid patients, who are low-profit patients. I exploit variation in the number of certificate-of-need and moratorium laws across states to approximate for the severity of capacity constraints. The chapter provides empirical evidence pertaining to indirect effects of Medicare policy on the healthcare utilization of non-Medicare beneficiaries and enriches the ongoing debate over the conflicting incentives between the Medicare and Medicaid programs and how this disconnection affects beneficiaries.
In the second chapter I study the impact of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) on suicides. PDMPs aim to discourage prescription drug abuse and diversion by requiring pharmacies to report the names of both patients and prescribers to a central database when dispensing controlled-substance drugs such as OxyContin. The recent empirical evidence supports the critical role PDMPs play in reducing opioid prescriptions, especially those with the highest potential for abuse. In this study, we hypothesize that a negative supply shock to the market for diverted drugs, like the implementation of a PDMP, has differential effects on the total number of suicides. We first develop a dynamic model of addicts' choice between continued drug use, exerting effort to quit drugs, or committing suicide. In the absence of drug treatment services, a negative shock to the supply of prescription drugs makes a drug habit unsustainable, and thus the addict commits suicide. On the other hand, in places with strong addiction-help networks, the productivity of a unit of effort towards recovery is higher. In this case a negative supply shock boosts the incentive to seek treatment. We test the predictions of our model using information regarding the number of suicides and treatment facilities at the county level and find that PDMPs reduce suicides in counties with strong addiction-help networks. A major policy implication of this study is that access to drug treatment centers is an important factor in the fight against the opioid epidemic.
Finally, in the third chapter I explore the responses of pediatricians to the implementation of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1997. The findings reinforce prior evidence that pediatricians decrease their work hours in response to increases in the number of Medicaid- enrolled children. This is consistent with CHIP crowding out private insurance for children. I provide evidence that the response is due in part to changes in the extensive margin, as physicians in high-expansion states are more likely to move from solo practices to large practices such as group practices and hospitals. The latter results suggest that expansions in public health insurance can change the labor supply of physicians as well as the market structure of healthcare markets.Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2021-05-01The student, Adriana Corredor Waldron, accepted the attached license on 2019-04-12 at 09:31.The student, Adriana Corredor Waldron, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2019-04-12 at 09:44.This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2019-04-12 at 13:53.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #13578 on 2019-08-22 at 16:21:03Made available in DSpace on 2019-08-23T20:44:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Essays in immigration economics
No full text"The first essay analyzes how allowing undocumented immigrants to legally obtain driver's licenses shifts commuting patterns, increases job accessibility, and improves labor market outcomes. Using state- and nativity-level variation in reforms, I show that granting driving privileges to undocumented immigrants increases vehicle ownership and the probability of car commute by 2.5 percentage points. This improvement in accessibility leads to a 0.8 percentage point increase in the employment rate for undocumented immigrants. The effects of license reforms on the undocumented are larger in low-accessibility localities, which are more rural and entail longer commuting times, particularly for undocumented workers. Undocumented immigrants exhibit stronger positive employments effects in more car-dependent occupations, shifting away from less car-dependent occupations. These findings highlight the quantitative importance of transportation barriers in determining the labor market outcomes of minority workers.
The second essay introduces a novel instrument for immigration, which is the predicted number of immigrants from the push factors of origin countries that induce emigration. The construction of the instrument uses the fact that when a push factor “raises the tide of immigration” from a country of origin, it does not lift all “boats” of immigrants to given cities the same. Using a mixed effects model that incorporates both fixed and random effects, the actual number of immigrants in each city of the United States is regressed on the push factors of the origin countries. Then, the predicted number of total immigrants in each city is obtained by the fitted values of the regression, which is used as an instrument for immigration. I show that the instrument strongly predicts current immigrant population and is less correlated with local labor demand shocks compared to the widely used shift-share instruments. The causal estimates using the new instrument imply that immigration has non-negative effects on labor market outcomes of natives and past immigrants.
In the third essay, I analyze the effects of border patrols' immigration enforcement on sorting and employment of Hispanics. This quasi-experimental empirical approach is based on the ""100-Mile Border Zone,'' which permits border patrols to conduct warrantless searches and operate checkpoints within 100 air miles from any external boundary of the United States. Using a regression discontinuity design based on distance from the border, I find that the share of Hispanics in every Southwestern state increases sharply outside the border zone, at the 100-mile cutoff. This pattern does not disappear even after excluding large metropolitan areas or controlling for commuting zone fixed effects. The share of immigrants, especially recent migrants, also increases significantly outside the border zone. Finally, there is a rise in employment of Hispanics outside the border zone, while non-Hispanic whites do not exhibit significant difference in employment rate."Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2022-05-01The student, Heepyung Cho, accepted the attached license on 2020-04-29 at 17:16.The student, Heepyung Cho, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2020-04-29 at 17:31.This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2020-05-01 at 09:39.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #15122 on 2020-08-25 at 17:42:08Made available in DSpace on 2020-08-27T00:50:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Essays on the economics of population health
No full textThis dissertation consists of three essays on the economics of population health. In Chapter 2, I study employment shocks and demand for pain medication. Declining economic opportunity is often portrayed as one of the drivers of the opioid epidemic. Better employment conditions can, however, affect opioid use through two channels: increasing physical pain from working or reducing mental distress that can contribute to substance abuse. I use a large dataset of opioid and over-the-counter (OTC) painkiller sales to measure the effect of employment shocks on demand for pain medication. To separate the channels, I contrast the effect of labor demand shocks on the use of opioids with the effect on the use of OTC painkillers---which address pain but not mental health---allowing for the effects to depend on the injury rate of local industries. I find that a 1 percent increase in the employment-to-population ratio decreases the per-capita demand for opioids by 0.20 percent, while it increases the per-capita demand for OTC painkillers by 0.14 percent. To decompose the effect of employment on opioid use in the two channels, I calculate the substitution between these pain medications, exploring the introduction of a policy that increased requirements to prescribe opioids. My findings show that during local economic expansions, the decline in opioid abuse is 40 percent larger than the total effect on use while, at the same time, the demand for pain relief medication increases and is related to jobs in high injury industries.
In Chapter 3, I study how women learn they are pregnant and pregnancy uncertainty. The earlier a woman learns about her pregnancy status, the sooner she can make decisions about her own and infant’s health. This paper examines how women learn about their pregnancy status and measures how access to pregnancy tests affects earlier pregnancy knowledge. Using ten years of individual-level monthly panel data in Nepal, we find that, on average, women learn they are pregnant in their 4.6th month of pregnancy. Living approximately a mile further from a clinic offering pregnancy tests increases the time a woman knows she is pregnant by one week (5\% increase) and decreases the likelihood of knowing in the first trimester by 4.5 percentage points (16.1\% decrease). Women with prior pregnancies experience the most substantial effects of distance within the first two trimesters, while, for women experiencing their first pregnancy, distance does not affect knowledge. This difference suggests that access to pregnancy tests is a binding constraint only after women’s beliefs, or symptoms, about being pregnant are strong enough.
In Chapter 4, I study how election outcomes affect alcohol drinking. The growing political polarization and the increasing use of social media have been linked to straining social ties worldwide. The 2016 presidential elections in the United States reflected this trend, with reports of fear and anxiety among voters. We examine how election results can be linked to episodes of anxiety and the use of alcohol for self-medication. We analyze a daily dataset of household purchases of alcohol in the weeks following presidential elections. We find that, within 30 days from Election Day, a 10 percentage point increase in support for the losing candidate increases alcohol expenditure by 1.1\%. The effect is driven by counties with more immigrants, higher income, higher unemployment, and higher levels of education. Suggestive evidence shows that the number of fatal car crashes also increases in counties with a higher share of losers. These two effects are present in the 2016 elections and absent in previous years.Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2022-05-01The student, Isabel Ferraz Musse, accepted the attached license on 2020-04-23 at 16:06.The student, Isabel Ferraz Musse, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2020-04-23 at 16:41.This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2020-04-24 at 17:10.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #15053 on 2020-08-25 at 17:40:50Made available in DSpace on 2020-08-27T00:50:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3
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Three essays on the family gap and child education
No full textThis dissertation focuses on two important topics in family economics, the family gap and children’s education. The first two chapters discuss the difference in wages between mothers and non-mothers, known as the family gap or the motherhood wage gap, and the last chapter discusses child education and parenting. In the first chapter, I analyze recent trends in the motherhood wage gap, taking into account heterogeneity in trends across the women’s wage distribution. Using the unconditional quantile regression method, I find that the motherhood wage gap greatly declines in the mid-1990s, especially for high-wage mothers, and mothers who earn below the median wage have experienced a smaller than average convergence of the motherhood wage gap. High-wage mothers earn higher wages than non-mothers, known as the motherhood premium, from the mid-1990s. I also present that the heterogeneous trends in first-birth timing, marriage, and long work hours are major drives of this heterogeneously changing motherhood wage gap.
The second chapter focuses on a specific factor which contributes to improving maternal relative wages. I examine how the supply of low-skilled workers affects high-skilled women’s work hours, likelihood of working long hours, and wages by motherhood status. Using the famous “enclave instrument”, I find that an increase in low-skilled workers increases the probability of working long hours and the wage rates of high-skilled native-born women. This positive effect on the likelihood of working long hours is greater for non-mothers than mothers, and the positive effect on wages is greater for mothers. Based on theoretical and empirical analyses, I conclude that an increase in low-skilled labor supply narrows the gender wage gap for high-skilled women as well as improves the relative wage of high-skilled mothers.
In the third chapter, we identify the causal effects of children’s school tenure on parenting, using school-entry-age rules. We find that beneficial aspects of parenting, affection and behavioral control, increase with tenure-for-age in a nationally representative sample. These effects are highly heterogeneous with respect to child, maternal, and household characteristics. Effects are most salutary for younger siblings and the effects fade away by middle school. The positive effects of children’s school experience on parenting are larger for low-SES households (low-education, low-income, and single mothers). Based on our findings, we conclude that developing an early education system may generate large collateral benefits by improving parenting and reducing parenting inequality.Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2021-05-01The student, Eunhye Kwak, accepted the attached license on 2019-04-15 at 17:08.The student, Eunhye Kwak, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2019-04-15 at 17:42.This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2019-04-16 at 16:21.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #13649 on 2019-08-22 at 15:06:31Made available in DSpace on 2019-08-23T20:35:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Microeconomic implications of trade shocks in developing countries
No full textThis dissertation investigates individual- and firm-level responses to trade and local labor market shocks in developing countries.
The first chapter studies the effect of a trade-induced negative shock to manufacturing employment on leading causes of mortality in Mexico between 1998 and 2013. I exploit cross-municipality variation in trade exposure based on differences in industry specialization before China's accession to the WTO in 2001 to instrument for changes in local manufacturing employment. I find trade-induced job loss increased mortality from diabetes, raised obesity rates, reduced physical activity, and lowered access to health insurance. These deaths were offset by declines in mortality from alcohol-related liver disease and ischemic heart disease. These findings highlight that negative employment shocks have heterogeneous impacts on mortality in developing countries, where falling incomes lead to less access to health care and nutritious food, but also reduce alcohol and tobacco use.
The second chapter examines the effect of trade-induced changes in Mexican labor demand on population growth and migration responses at the local level. I exploit cross-municipality variation in exposure to a change in trade policy between the U.S. and China that differentially exposed Mexican municipalities based on their industry structure. In the five years following the change in trade policy, most exposed municipalities exhibit increased population growth, driven by declines in out-migration. Conversely, six to ten years after the plausibly exogenous change in trade policy, exposure to increased trade competition is associated with decreased population growth, driven by declines in in-migration and returned migration rates, and increased out-migration. I show that accounting for changes in population growth and migration response is relevant to analyze the effect of employment shocks on outcomes that are calculated using population estimates, such as mortality rates.
The third chapter explores the relationship between quality adoption, product differentiation, and export performance. Through tax identification numbers, I match firm-level survey data to administrative customs records containing information about each firm's total value of exports by product type and country of destination. I classify products into differentiated and non-differentiated, and I use ISO 9001 certification as a proxy for firms' ability to produce high-quality products. First, I show that firm-product-destination-year unit values are higher for high-quality firms, on average. Second, using the 2002 Argentine exchange rate devaluation as a source of variation in export demand, I find that initially high-quality firms increased total export value, export value of differentiated goods to high-income destinations, and investments in R&D more than low-quality firms after the devaluation. These results imply that policies promoting quality adoption may increase firms’ exports to high-income markets and help develop a comparative advantage in differentiated products.Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2022-08-01The student, Sofia Fernandez Guerrico, accepted the attached license on 2020-07-08 at 18:21.The student, Sofia Fernandez Guerrico, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2020-07-08 at 18:48.This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2020-07-10 at 08:09.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #15535 on 2020-10-02 at 15:50:04Made available in DSpace on 2020-10-07T22:49:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Essays in education, gender, and political economy
No full textSubmission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2025-12-01The student, Irina Valenzuela Ramirez, accepted the attached license on 2023-11-27 at 21:10.The student, Irina Valenzuela Ramirez, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2023-11-27 at 21:24.This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2023-11-29 at 13:30.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #20033 on 2024-03-01 at 13:31:15This dissertation contains three chapters that study topics on education, gender, and political economy. The first chapter studies the impact on student achievement of a nationwide monitoring program implemented in Peruvian public schools in 2015. Using standardized test scores in reading and math from 2010 to 2015, I perform a difference-in-difference analysis to show that, after the first year of the program, reading and math z-scores and the proportion of students at satisfactory levels exhibit an increase. This improvement in learning outcomes is primarily attributed to the schools that underwent high-intensity monitoring, involving two or more visits. The second chapter documents gender disparities favoring girls over boys at early ages. We use data from the Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys across 25 Sub-Saharan African countries from 2011 to 2019 and compare mothers’ reports of preschool readiness skills of boys and girls ages 3–4. We find that girls are 2 percentage points more likely to both identify ten letters of the alphabet and identify the first ten numbers, while we find no difference in reading four words. We also find that girls are more likely to attend early childhood education programs and be engaged in parent-child interactions at home. Both early childhood education and home stimulation activities are positively related to early literacy and numeracy skills with early childhood education having a stronger effect for girls compared to boys. Mother's literacy has a positive effect on their children's outcomes, with a greater magnitude for girls than boys. The third chapter investigates the impact of political corruption on individuals’ attitudes toward political institutions and democracy. I address this question within the Peruvian context by leveraging the corruption shock triggered by the Odebrecht case, which exposed the involvement of high-ranking politicians in corrupt practices during the tendering process for major infrastructure projects. Utilizing household survey data collected during the unexpected Odebrecht scandal, I follow a quasi-experimental approach. The results indicate a significant decline in people's confidence in various political institutions and the democratic system after the revelation of government officials' corruption. These findings align with the prevailing perception of an increase in corruption following the scandal
Three essays in applied economics
No full textSubmission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2024-09-16 without embargo termsThe student, Allen Hardiman, accepted the attached license on 2024-04-10 at 18:19.The student, Allen Hardiman, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2024-04-10 at 18:27.This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2024-04-12 at 09:49.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #20352 on 2024-09-16 at 00:33:56This dissertation consists of three distinct chapters on applied economics. Chapter 1 examines the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansion on individual consumption in the United States. Utilizing nationally representative panel data of near-elderly adults and a difference-in-difference approach, the study finds that the ACA Medicaid expansion leads to a significant increase in total monthly consumption, primarily driven by a rise in non-durable spending and housing consumption. The expansion also results in a higher likelihood of homeownership. These results are driven by a reduction in out-of-pocket medical spending and an improvement in financial well-being. Chapter 2 investigates the relationship between providing care for older parents or parents-in-law and labor supply among middle-aged individuals in Colombia, Indonesia, Poland, and Egypt. The findings reveal a significant reduction in the probability of employment, weekly hours worked, and annual earnings for caregivers, with the decline being more pronounced among women and intensive caregivers. Chapter 3 explores the causal impact of rainfall shocks on crime rates in Indonesia using two different data sources: newspaper reports and crime victimization data from household surveys. The results show mixed findings, with no relationship between rainfall shocks and crime incidents in newspaper reports, but a significant reduction in the probability of becoming a victim of economically motivated crimes following positive rainfall shocks in the household survey data. Overall, this dissertation provides valuable insights into the effects of public policies, health, and environmental factors on consumption, labor supply, and crime rates
