The first chapter of this dissertation examines the effect of insurance mandates on infant immunization rates. Immunizations are one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century. While US infant immunization rates have been increasing in the last 20 years, the cost of fully immunizing a child with all recommended vaccines has almost tripled. This is partly due to new additions in the list of recommended vaccines, but also due to the use of new, safer, but more expensive technologies in vaccine production and distribution. In recent years, many states have mandated that recommended childhood vaccines be covered by private health insurance companies. Currently, there are 33 states with such a mandate. In this paper, I examine whether the introduction of mandates on private insurers affected immunization rates. Using state and time variation, I find that mandates increased the immunization rate for three vaccines — the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, polio and measles vaccines — by about 1.8 percentage points. I also find evidence that the mandates shifted some vaccinations from public to private sources. The second chapter of this dissertation studies the issue of whether concerns about autism affected vaccine takeup. In the wake of strong claims that there existed a link between autism and the measles-mumps-rubella MMR) vaccine, which was refuted by later research, I examine whether fewer parents immunized their children. This task becomes difficult as the timing of the controversy in the US coincided with expansions in medical access for children and other programs that affect childhood immunizations, as well as another controversy regarding mercury containing preservatives in childhood vaccines. Using a time trends analysis and a few differencing strategies that compare the take up of MMR to other vaccines, I find that the MMR-autism controversy led to a decline of about 2 percentage points in the take up of MMR and a negative spillover on other vaccines. I find some evidence that more educated mothers responded more to the controversy, which is consistent with more educated individuals absorbing health information more quickly. However, this disparity persisted even after new research and information about the lack of such link became widespread in the media. The third chapter of this dissertation analyzes the effectiveness of a peer counseling breastfeeding support program for low income women in Michigan who participate in the Women, Infants and Children WIC) program. Because there was excess demand for services provided by the program, many women who requested to participate were not subsequently contacted by the peer counselors. We compare the breastfeeding outcomes between the two groups and identify the effectiveness of the program based on the differences between the women who requested to participate and were enrolled relative to those who requested participation, but were not contacted due to lack of capacity. Our analysis uses survey data from the program as well as administrative data from Vital Records, Medicaid, and WIC from the state of Michigan. After providing evidence that our key assumption in identifying the effect if program is consistent with the data, we estimate that the program caused the breastfeeding initiation to increase by about 27 percentage points and the mean duration of breastfeeding to increase by more than 3 weeks. The support program we evaluated was very effective at increasing breastfeeding among low income women who participate in WIC, a population that nationally breastfeeds at rates well below the national average and below what is recommended by public health professionals.
Author Archive:
Technology and Social Process: Oscillations in Iron Age Copper Production and Power in Southern Jordan
Records of technological practice provide an important lens for studying societies and cultures across time and space. This dissertation takes a diachronic view of the role of ancient copper production in the formation and oscillations of power when historical ‘state’ level societies emerged during the late 2nd — 1st millennium BCE in the southern Levant. The primary study area is Jordan’s Faynan district that contains the richest copper ore deposits in the southern Levant and constitutes one of the best preserved records of ancient copper extraction in the world. As demonstrated here, ancient metallurgy played a major role in socio-political processes for south Levantine complex societies during the Iron Age (12th — 6th centuries BCE). The core of this study is the identification of detailed chaines operatoires of changing Iron Age copper production systems. Based on newly excavated archaeometallurgy material culture, surveys, analyses of large technology-related assemblages, and previously published data, the basic components of the changing production systems are defined, and social meanings are extracted.
Three essays on property taxation, income taxation, and vertical integration
In the first chapter I study the effect of Proposition 13 on household mobility. Proposition 13, approved in California in 1978, limits the annual increase in property taxes for households staying in their homes. Because this is an annual limit, the annual tax savings increase over time. On moving, a household loses this favorable tax treatment. I estimate the extent to which these tax savings reduce household mobility. The study contributes to previous studies because: 1) I use a duration model to describe the decision to stay in ones home, and 2) I correct for a series of data imperfections. My analysis finds that the hazard rate of duration decreases by 3.6% for each $100 of annual taxes which are saved if the household stays in his home. In the second chapter I derive the optimal income tax schedule on imperfect labor markets with search. In the search framework workers and vacancies decide how intensively to search for partners, and whether to match with a potential partner when they meet one. Externalities created by workers and vacancies, in their choice of how intensively to search, create frictions on the labor market. This leads to suboptimal matches between workers and vacancies, and as a result suboptimal levels of output. I characterize the optimal income tax system, designed to both control for externalities and raise positive government revenue. In the third chapter I study the incentives of competing retailers to sign exclusive contracts for the provision of credit card services. In my model both the upstream market of credit card provision and the downstream retail market are competitive. All players on the market—credit card providers, merchants, and consumers/cardholders—act strategically. I find that exclusive contracts increase the perceived by consumers differentiation between retailers, and merchants profits. Exclusive contracts, however, are only feasible if a merchant can credibly threaten to expand into the credit card industry.
The microeconomics of hard times: A study of the effect of the 2002 Argentinean crisis on households and firms
This is an empirical study of how consumers and firms adjust their behavior during hard economic times. I use micro household data from the 2002 Argentinean large devaluation. A large devaluation is mainly a big negative income shock, triggered by a highly inflationary process. The first chapter of this study identifies five stylized facts of the aftermath of the devaluation. The second chapter estimates the evolution of a multi-product demand system for the soft drink category, providing some relevant applications and policy implications. The third chapter studies the role of liquidity constraints in the purchasing pattern within a month.
Essays on topics in international trade and affiliate production of business services
Trade in services and foreign affiliate sales of services have grown tremendously over the last decade. The chapters within this thesis look at the differences needed in modeling trade and investment in professional and business services Chapter 3), the impacts of country level regulatory and investment barriers Chapter 2), methods of utilizing CGE modeling to simulate welfare gains from changes to the various types of regulatory costs operating costs, entry costs, fixed costs for establishment abroad) while incorporating the observed complex investment and trade Chapter 4) and finally also looking at the relationship between trade, foreign affiliate sales and the barriers to supplying services abroad Chapter 5). Barriers to trade in services are higher than for trade in goods. These include restrictions on foreign investment, restrictions on temporary movement of natural persons and regulatory measures that affect the entry and operations of foreign firms. Regulation can be discriminatory or non-discriminatory, but even in the latter case foreign services providers may face higher costs than local firms in complying with regulation. The papers in this dissertation contribute new modeling techniques as well as new methods of looking at the available data.
Pathways of local economic development: Tales of cities in the United States and South Korea
Local economic development may be defined as increases in the “local economys capacity to create wealth for local residents.” With current unlimited competitiveness in the international market, cities have become not only a place to produce goods but also a spatial consideration for current and future workers everyday lives. However, not every city can achieve its desired economic success, and the pathways toward economic prosperities are diverse. How to accomplish the desired level of economic development and what to develop are two different but intertwined issues that should be understood based on political, economic, and social conditions in localities. Variations in local economic development have been explained by the international, national, and local contexts. These political and economic contexts are shaped by the nation states political structure, the structure of industry in localities, and determining local governance structure. What are the determinants of the type of local economic development in the manufacturing industry cities in different political settings? This research focuses on the impacts of political and economic contexts of cities and their local economic development pathways, conducting in-depth case studies of industrial cities in the United States and South Korea: the City of Detroit, the City of Pittsburgh, Ulsan Metropolitan City, and the City of Pohang. The research is validated by the process-tracing method with document research and archive research, including various years of government reports, organizations special reports, annual White papers, census data, and each citys statistical data. Determinants of local economic development in two different political settings can be understood with international market force, characteristics of political institutional structure, and the role of asset specificity in the region. International market change provides a more direct impact on a single dominant industry-oriented city such as Detroit than on cities of fragmented industry structure like Pittsburgh. Korean cases show a mixed picture of interplay among international market forces, national government, and industry structure, which differs from the United States. While the decentralization process in Korea provides positive opportunities to enhance the local capacity to Ulsan Metropolitan City for overcoming the international marketforce, the same process can be a constraint in the city of Pohang due to its single dominant industry structure. The nature of national political institutions influences the variation in local economic development patterns. In general, the federal system as compared to a unitary system) tends to create more competition among local governments for government resources. With the insight of transaction cost approach, characteristics of asset specificity in a region explain the diverse impact of each asset specificity in the region. Level of asset specificity plays a negative role in the local governments flexible decision making on local economic development. Traditionally, in top-down development approaches and bottom-up development approaches— but even bottom-up development approaches— it is hard to ignore the role of the higher level of governments. Some localities more rely on the higher level of government support in order to reorganize and enhance the local economy. Asset specificity is not fixed and constantly transforms based on the mobility of capital and labor. If asset specificity is high in a region, firms do not want to move from the region unless they are willing to accrue substantial cost, and thus asset specificity becomes a strong bargaining tool when the relationship with local government needs to be negotiated. In the case of the developmental state, asset specificity in certain a locality is heavily embedded over time due to the national economic development plan. For example, Ulsan and Pohang had been designated as “targeted” growth poles for national economic development over three decades with specific manufacturing industries such as automobile, petrochemical, shipbuilding, and steel industry.
Human-environment interactions and sustainable urban development: Spatial modeling and landscape prediction the case of Nang Rong town, Thailand
It is now well-recognized that, at local, regional, and global scales, land use changes are significantly altering land cover, perhaps at an accelerating pace. Further, the worlds scientific community is increasingly recognizing what, in retrospect, should have been obvious, that human behavior and agency is a critical driver of Land Cover and Land Use Change. In this research, using recently developed computer modeling procedures and a rich case study, I develop spatially-explicit model-based simulations of LULCC scenarios within the rubric of sustainability science for Nang Rong town, Thailand. The research draws heavily on recent work in geography and complexity theory. A series of scenarios were built to explore different development trajectories based upon empirically observed relationships. The development models incorporate a) history and spatial pattern of village settlement； b) road development and changing geographic accessibility； c) population； d) biophysical characteristics and e) social drivers. This research uses multi-temporal and spatially-explicit data, analytic results, and dynamic modeling approaches combined with to describe, explain, and explore LULCC as the consequences of different production theories for rural, small town urbanization in the South East Asian context. Two Agent Based models were built: 1) Settlement model and 2) Land-use model. The Settlement model suggests that new development will emerge along the existing road network especially along the major highway and in close proximity to the urban center. If the population doubles in 2021, the settlement process may inhibit development along some corridors creating low density sprawl. The Land-use model under the urban expansion scenario suggests that new settlements will occur in close proximity to the town center and roads； even though, the area is suitable for rice farming or located on a flood plain. The Land-use model under the cash-crop expansion scenario captures that new agriculture will occur on the flood plain and other areas suitable for rice farming. The Land-use model under the Kings Theory scenario suggests that agriculture agents occupied more disperse lands than the cash-crops scenario. In addition, the Kings Theory scenario provided more access to water surface than other scenarios and was the most sustainable development plan. These products offer a better understanding of the urban growth and LULCC at a regional scale and will potentially guide more systematic and effective resource management and policy decisions. Although this research focuses on a specific site, the methods employed are applicable to other rural regions with similar characteristics.
Essays in health economics
This dissertation consists of three essays on empirical issues in health economics. The first essay considers the selection-efficiency trade-off in competitive health insurance markets, where insurers face incentives to exploit unpriced heterogeneity by selecting low-risk individuals “cream-skimming”). The German Social Health Insurance does not adjust payments to sickness funds for geographic differences in costs, thereby generating incentives for funds to select against relatively more expensive areas, such as West Germany. In an audit study I present funds with fictive applicants from different locations and infer recruitment efforts by measuring callback for letters, emails and phone calls. The findings suggest that sickness funds are less responsive to requests from West German applicants, a result consistent with cream-skimming in this market. The second essay evaluates the impacts of two school nutrition policies, Californias state-wide beverage policy and Los Angeles Unified School Districts food-and-beverage standards of 2004, on adolescent dietary behavior and obesity. Two large datasets on physical measures and food intake facilitate the construction of reliable control groups, including a “synthetic” control unit consisting of unaffected districts that are reweighted to closely resemble Los Angeles in the pre-intervention period. Both policies are found ineffective at reducing the prevalence of overweight or obesity. However, the district policy decreased consumption of its key targets, soda and fried foods. The third essay examines the reliability of self-reported data in empirical analysis. Self-reported data is prone to systematic measurement error that may be constant or change in response to external events. The essay illustrates these issues with data on self-reported and measured overweight/obesity status, and BMI, height and weight z-scores of public school students in California from 2004 to 2006. In the cross-section, the prevalence of overweight/obesity is significantly lower in self-reported data relative to measured data. A district nutrition policy changed the reporting bias differentially in the treatment and control districts, so that program evaluations could find spurious positive or mill impacts of the intervention.
The ‘eternal return’ of the Byzantine icon: Sacred and secular in the art of Photis Kontoglou
This dissertation focuses on the secular painting of Photis Kontoglou (1895-1965). Although Kontoglou is best known for leading a revival of Byzantine religious painting, he also produced a number of secular paintings which were rendered in the style of religious icons. In the course of my study, I suggest that these “secular icons” can only be understood by exploring his conception of the sacred. I show that the sacred for Kontoglou was not limited to the life of the Greek Orthodox Church but included a Romantic conception of Greek nationalism grounded in folk culture. I argue that Kontoglou’s view of the sacred was broad enough to encompass numerous instances of pre-modern life and society, many of which were not confined to the Greek nation. The dissertation is organized in the following way. In Chapter 1, I explore the meaning of the term ‘icon’ within the theoretical framework of discussions about the categories of ‘sacred’ and ‘secular,’ especially those of Mircea Eliade. In the next section, I examine the wider context out of which Kontoglou’s artistic views took shape. Chapter 3 explores Kontoglou’s theory of Greek national continuity. Chapter 4 focuses on Kontoglou’s conception of icon painting. Finally, Chapter 5 includes an analysis of five of Kontoglou’s so-called ‘secular icons’ and seeks to account for the resemblance of these works to conventional religious icons.
Aid and comfort to the enemy? International news media, cost sensitivity, and interstate war
This dissertation examines the question: To what extent does the international news media influence the outcome of interstate wars? It considers the longstanding charge that media reports of public debates about foreign policy provide aid and comfort to the enemy. New theory is proposed that addresses this policy problem facing democracies, and also addresses gaps in the theoretical literature on the causes of war. The theory advanced in this dissertation is that the presence of the international news media influences the outcome of wars by providing an additional channel through which information about leaders cost sensitivity is revealed and by reciprocally influencing the beliefs and behavior of leaders and their foreign adversaries in the conduct of wars. Novel variables representing major phases in the emergence of the international news media are defined. Original research is conducted using primary and secondary sources to characterize the media by year in individual states. The novel media variables are combined with variables from other studies to create a dataset spanning 90 interstate wars involving 51 different states from 1823 through 1990. Hypotheses based on the theory are tested using a multinomial logistic regression model. The results of this study partially support the theory in that the type of media in a war initiator state is strongly and significantly associated with a higher probability of winning. Unexpected findings regarding the influence of media speed on the probability of winning, and a failure to find a relationship between media and the probability of losing require further investigation. Overall, however, the presence of the international news media appears to influence the outcome of interstate wars. The results have important implications for future theoretical research as well as for policy choices regarding the proper role of domestic debates and media reporting thereof. Additional research is required to confirm the findings, examine the unexpected findings, and to examine the relevance of the findings in other eras and other phases of war. Deeply rooted assumptions within society that media reporting on wars conflicts with national security interests must be revisited as part of an examination of policy implications of the findings.
