Defence date: 26 March 2007 ; Examining board: Prof. Giancarlo Corsetti, EUI, Supervisor ; Prof. Morten Ravn, EUI ; Dr. Jeffrey Campbell, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago ; Prof. Roel Beetsma, University of Amsterdam ; There is little doubt that fiscal policy plays an important role in business cycle fluctuations; however, the ability of fiscal policy measure to work as a countercyclical stimulus has recently been questioned (see Taylor, 2000), in light of the efficiency and transparency of monetary policy interventions. Far from postulating a definitive answer to the debate, the objective of this dissertation is to contribute to a better understanding of the transmission mechanism of fiscal policy shocks, through their interaction with the consumption behaviour of private agents. The fundamental contribution of this thesis is the introduction of different forms of households' heterogeneity in the analysis of the effects of government expenditure shocks and tax cuts.
Purpose: Examine dependencies between the size and the structure of directional household expenditure on consumption and the amount of VAT tax revenue for the state budget in Poland, in connection with the explanation of fluctuations of households' VAT contributions per capita. Design/methodology/approach: The study used the following methods: literature review, methods applied in descriptive statistics, linear models of multiple regression, factor analysis using the method of main components, and a single-factor variance analysis (ANOVA). Detailed analyses were conducted based on own calculations using analytical software SPSS (Predictive Solutions), Statistica and MS Excel calculation sheet. Findings: Our results show: 1) household consumption, understood as incurring expenses to purchase goods and services which takes place in the economy of a state, is the principal creator of state budget revenue based on VAT; 2) the level of VAT revenue from household consumption depends on the financial resources at the households' disposal, the way they spend them and the structure of such expenditure; 3) households are very diverse internally, while the size and structure of their purchases varies in time and is determined by many factors; 4) a diversified rate of VAT on particular goods and services purchased by households has a major impact on the level of state budget revenue from VAT returns; 5) financial transfers to households, which express a variety of social policy instruments applied by the state, including the pro-family policy, result in the increase of the state revenue from VAT; the effectiveness of such transfers – both for the realisation of state policy, as well as the increase of its tax revenue – can be stimulated by the appropriate matrix of VAT rates; 6) the limited availability or the lack of particular statistical data regarding the VAT burden on household expenditure, and the structure of state budget revenue based on VAT in the cross-section of tax rates, decreases analytical potential and the possibilities of drawing conclusions. Practical Implications: The conclusions drawn from the conducted analyses and research can be useful for the state when selecting the tools which not only will allow for the increase of its budgetary revenues, but also the effective realization of the aims of its social policy. Originality/value: Extending the research on VAT with the analysis of the tax potential of households' purchasing decisions with the inclusion of the VAT matrix as well as the fiscal and non-fiscal objectives of state policy. The proposed methodological path allows for its popularisation with the use of panel data. ; peer-reviewed
This dissertation uses search theory to study a variety of macroeconomic issues with microfoundation, which features theoretical study with three relatively independent essays. The first essay is about work hour, unemployment and wage dispersion under labor market search friction. The second essay explores the decentralized equilibrium with labor market heterogeneity and workers' education choice. The third essay investigates China's educated unemployment problem with a search theoretic view. In Chapter 2, we embed a competitive search model with wages determined by ex post bidding into a mainstream macroeconomic models in which households choose consumption and leisure. In addition, each firm requires only one worker to operate the technology, but we incorporate the choice of capital and the demand for labor hours by firms. We derive explicitly a steady state wage dispersion, consumption dispersion, and work hour dispersion. However, saving from households remain degenerate and matches the unique capital acquired by firms before the matching process to find workers. Chapter 3 studies the role of education in a wage posting model with double-sided heterogeneity. The model features large market with large number of participants. I formulate the decentralized equilibrium framework and show that the weak PAM pattern maintains with workers' choice of education. I design a possible PAM equilibrium with workers' linear job application strategy before presenting the equilibrium outcomes. Some qualitative aspects are also under discussion. Chapter 4 investigates the labor market reform and educated unemployment issue in China. By construction of a two period model with market duality and labor mobility control, I show that as the government easing control on labor mobility, more workers from inferior market will choose education as their optimal strategy to search in high return market and educated unemployment in high return market will increase before decrease. The study also suggests that easing mobility control by ...
2010 Summer. ; Includes bibliographical references. ; Consumption is part of everyone's lives. Throughout history the act of consumption was used exclusively for material needs satisfaction and, for some, as a mechanism to display wealth. However, in contemporary society, an increasing number of people are using consumption choices to support issues and causes. This growing trend is often referred to as ethical consumption. This study explores who participations in ethical consumption and why they choose to do so. I recommend a new methodological approach for the study of ethical consumption that focuses on ethical behaviors and the motivations for that behavior. I demonstrate that ethical consumption is prevalent in Colorado using a state-wide mail survey and focus groups. Bivariate and multivariate analyses of survey data and focus group discussions show that liberal political affiliation, higher levels of education and holding postmateralist values are significantly related to higher levels of participation in ethical consumption. The findings also highlight the different motivations of individuals for engaging in ethical consumption. I find two major categories of values-based consumers: ethical consumers who use their purchasing decisions to support broad issues and more directed political consumers who strive to create social change with their consumption choices. Finally, I discover that some ethical consumers create a collective identity with other ethical consumers. The results highlight how many individuals use non-economically rational consumption choices to engage with social issues.
Biofuel production has grown considerably between 2004 and 2009. Global ethanol production more than doubled from 30 to 76 billion litres (1,609 PJ1) while global biodiesel grew eight-fold from 2 to 17 billion litres (550 PJ2) (REN21 Secretariat 2010, 13). In 2008, biofuels provided 2,109 PJ of fuel consumption, while global oil and natural gas consumption for the transport sector amounted to 93,282 PJ (International Energy Agency 2010). Mandatory blending of biofuels has been enacted in at least 41 states/provinces and 24 countries at the national level in 2009, and the EU Directive 2009/28/EC mandates the member states to ensure that at least 10% of the final consumption of energy in transport shall come from renewable sources (European Parliament 2009). Although specific framework conditions and objectives of these programmes differ from country to country, the following overall driving forces can be identified since they represent global challenges (International Transport Forum of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2008a, 4). [. aus der Einleitung]
International audience ; A model which formalizes the interplay between green consumer culture and sustainable technology is used to revisit the trade-off between economic growth and environmental preservation. The theory includes (i) green preferences formed through cultural transmission which involves rational socialization actions, (ii) innovation endogenously directed to sustainable or unsustainable sectors depending on culture through market size effects. The model captures an important feature of sustainable innovation processes which is the existence of path dependency. The approach allows to examine implications for both market-based instruments (i.e., environmental taxes) and non-monetary interventions (i.e., environmental education). The two types of policies are either complements or substitutes depending on the substitutability between clean and dirty goods. Finally, an important disregarded issue is examined: the political sustainability of environmental taxes.
International audience ; A model which formalizes the interplay between green consumer culture and sustainable technology is used to revisit the trade-off between economic growth and environmental preservation. The theory includes (i) green preferences formed through cultural transmission which involves rational socialization actions, (ii) innovation endogenously directed to sustainable or unsustainable sectors depending on culture through market size effects. The model captures an important feature of sustainable innovation processes which is the existence of path dependency. The approach allows to examine implications for both market-based instruments (i.e., environmental taxes) and non-monetary interventions (i.e., environmental education). The two types of policies are either complements or substitutes depending on the substitutability between clean and dirty goods. Finally, an important disregarded issue is examined: the political sustainability of environmental taxes.
International audience ; A model which formalizes the interplay between green consumer culture and sustainable technology is used to revisit the trade-off between economic growth and environmental preservation. The theory includes (i) green preferences formed through cultural transmission which involves rational socialization actions, (ii) innovation endogenously directed to sustainable or unsustainable sectors depending on culture through market size effects. The model captures an important feature of sustainable innovation processes which is the existence of path dependency. The approach allows to examine implications for both market-based instruments (i.e., environmental taxes) and non-monetary interventions (i.e., environmental education). The two types of policies are either complements or substitutes depending on the substitutability between clean and dirty goods. Finally, an important disregarded issue is examined: the political sustainability of environmental taxes.
International audience ; A model which formalizes the interplay between green consumer culture and sustainable technology is used to revisit the trade-off between economic growth and environmental preservation. The theory includes (i) green preferences formed through cultural transmission which involves rational socialization actions, (ii) innovation endogenously directed to sustainable or unsustainable sectors depending on culture through market size effects. The model captures an important feature of sustainable innovation processes which is the existence of path dependency. The approach allows to examine implications for both market-based instruments (i.e., environmental taxes) and non-monetary interventions (i.e., environmental education). The two types of policies are either complements or substitutes depending on the substitutability between clean and dirty goods. Finally, an important disregarded issue is examined: the political sustainability of environmental taxes.
International audience ; A model which formalizes the interplay between green consumer culture and sustainable technology is used to revisit the trade-off between economic growth and environmental preservation. The theory includes (i) green preferences formed through cultural transmission which involves rational socialization actions, (ii) innovation endogenously directed to sustainable or unsustainable sectors depending on culture through market size effects. The model captures an important feature of sustainable innovation processes which is the existence of path dependency. The approach allows to examine implications for both market-based instruments (i.e., environmental taxes) and non-monetary interventions (i.e., environmental education). The two types of policies are either complements or substitutes depending on the substitutability between clean and dirty goods. Finally, an important disregarded issue is examined: the political sustainability of environmental taxes.
International audience ; A model which formalizes the interplay between green consumer culture and sustainable technology is used to revisit the trade-off between economic growth and environmental preservation. The theory includes (i) green preferences formed through cultural transmission which involves rational socialization actions, (ii) innovation endogenously directed to sustainable or unsustainable sectors depending on culture through market size effects. The model captures an important feature of sustainable innovation processes which is the existence of path dependency. The approach allows to examine implications for both market-based instruments (i.e., environmental taxes) and non-monetary interventions (i.e., environmental education). The two types of policies are either complements or substitutes depending on the substitutability between clean and dirty goods. Finally, an important disregarded issue is examined: the political sustainability of environmental taxes.
Developed countries have well-designed and developed economies in macroeconomic terms. However, not all countries benefit from the fruits of such an economy. Therefore, some countries are still faced with an economy that requires macroeconomic restructuring and development. People in these countries face high unemployment, evolving fiscal and monetary policies. The state is forced to borrow either internally or externally, where the latter is usually preferred. This paper aims to show the effects of government debt on private consumption with a particular focus on transition countries. Thereby explaining the factors that influence private consumption and the types of debt that governments take into account. The countries in regions, which are facing this problem, will be analysed in more detail. Kosovo is one such country, which will be analysed in detail, particularly the relationship between national debt and private consumption. This study is carried out using the statistical software STATA, whereby private consumption is a dependent variable, whilst national debt, gross fixed capital formation, foreign direct investment, consumer price index, export of goods and services and GDP growth are our independent variables. This paper is a compilation of information from multiple sources to describe the reality that transition countries are faced with when borrowing. ; peer-reviewed
[eng] This thesis is about grassroots strategies of material and political extraversion. It is an ethnography of the provisioning of clothing goods in Equatorial Guinea and it bridges the everyday lives of ordinary people with issues related to political economy and power configurations. Based on more than twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork, mainly localised at Malabo's principal marketplace but also complementarily carried out in Spain, it describes the strategies Guineans engage with in order to generate livelihoods but also to be able to make material statements about their self-worth in a context of uncertainty and precariousness. The exploitation of off-shore oil wells in the mid-nineties has provided an injection of resources to a regime that has been able to consolidate its power and an outside-oriented economy. While the extraversion strategies of the political elite are known and described in the political economic analyses of the country's contemporary situation, studies about how ordinary Guineans deal and engage with this extravert system, an intended contribution of this thesis, are practically non-existent. The protagonists of my ethnography are market women, who have made from clothing provisioning both their source of livelihood and also their mechanism for social inclusion and political participation. The argument begins with a historical account, showing how rentist capitalism and extraversion strategies are not a recent phenomenon related to oil exploitation but have a longer trajectory in Equatorial Guinea. This process has signified the production of specific idioms for wealth and power that are deeply gendered and that make comment upon differential access to foreign rents and goods. These understandings of wealth and power are also associated with particular ideas about space that draw upon specific substantial and imagined geographies. These geographies are reproduced in the provisioning and valuation of foreign goods, but also by keeping trading routes and networks, which I describe for the two main categories of clothing goods consumed in Equatorial Guinea. By accessing valuable geographies and managing rents, market women manage to contest gender roles, reach certain levels of public participation and generate political debates. This participation, however, is co- opted by the elite and more specifically by the first lady who, through a non-profit organisation, offers her protection to female petty traders in exchange for political support. The ethnography of the everyday of these women reveals how, by engaging with rent managing strategies and by connecting with the powerful elite market, women are able to source their households. However, their capacity to generate income, to make political claims, and to gain access to certain levels of power is limited by a hierarchy that is ultimately maintained by such extraversion strategies. The dissertation contributes to debates within economic and political anthropology surrounding rentist capitalism and extraversion, but also about markets and consumption. While it questions extraversion as totalizing theory, and as a particularity of African states and elites, it recovers it as a concept useful to explain processes of active material and political dependency. ; [spa] Esta tesis presenta una etnografía del aprovisionamiento de productos textiles en Guinea Ecuatorial, vincula la vida cotidiana de la gente común con cuestiones relacionadas con la economía política y las configuraciones de poder. Basada en más de doce meses de trabajo de campo etnográfico localizado en el mercado principal de Malabo, pero también complementario en España (Madrid y Elche), describe estrategias ingeniadas por las guineanas para generar medios de vida, pero también para hacer declaraciones materiales sobre su valía personal en un contexto de incertidumbre y precariedad. La explotación de pozos petrolíferos off-shore a mediados de los noventa ha proporcionado una inyección de recursos a un régimen que ha podido consolidar su poder y una economía orientada hacia el exterior. Mientras que las estrategias de extraversión de la élite política son conocidas y descritas en los análisis político-económicos de la situación contemporánea del país, prácticamente no existen estudios sobre cómo las guineanas corrientes se relacionan con este sistema extravertido. Las protagonistas de mi etnografía son las mujeres del mercado, que han hecho de la provisión de ropa su fuente de sustento, pero también su mecanismo para la inclusión social y la participación política. El argumento comienza con un relato histórico que muestra cómo el capitalismo y las estrategias de extraversión rentistas no son un fenómeno reciente relacionado con la explotación petrolera sino que tienen una trayectoria más larga en Guinea Ecuatorial. Este recorrido histórico ha generado ideas particulares sobre el poder y la riqueza que tienen un componente de género importante y que dibujan unas geografías tanto imaginadas como sustanciales. Estas geografías se reproducen en el aprovisionamiento y valoración de mercancías extranjeras, pero también mediante el mantenimiento de rutas y redes comerciales, que describo para las dos principales categorías de artículos de prendas de vestir consumidos en Guinea Ecuatorial. Al acceder a geografías valiosas y gestionar rentas, las mujeres del mercado logran impugnar los papeles de género, alcanzar ciertos niveles de participación pública y generar debates políticos. Esta participación, sin embargo, es cooptada por la élite y más específicamente por la primera dama que, a través de una organización sin fines de lucro, ofrece su protección a las pequeñas comerciantes a cambio de apoyo político. La etnografía de la vida cotidiana de estas mujeres revela cómo al comprometerse con las estrategias de gestión de rentas y al conectarse con la poderosa élite las mujeres son capaces de abastecer a sus hogares. Sin embargo, su capacidad para generar ingresos, hacer reivindicaciones políticas y acceder a ciertas cotas de poder está limitada por una jerarquía que las estrategias de extraversión sólo ayudan a mantener. La tesis contribuye a los debates de antropología económica y política sobre el capitalismo y la extraversión rentistas, pero también sobre los mercados y el consumo. Si bien cuestiona la extraversión como teoría totalizadora y como particularidad de los estados y élites africanos, la recupera como un concepto útil para explicar los procesos de dependencia política y material.
This dissertation contains three essays on labor economics and development economics.In the first and second chapters, I examine determinants and consequences of alcohol consumption in Russia and quantify the effects of various public policies on mortality rates and on consumer welfare. For the past twenty years, Russia has confronted the Mortality Crisis - the life expectancy of Russian males has fallen by more than five years, and the mortality rate has increased by 50%. Alcohol abuse is widely agreed to be the main cause of this change.In the first chapter, I employ a rich dataset on individual alcohol consumption to analyze the determinants for heavy drinking in Russia, including the price of alcohol, peer effects, and habits. I exploit unique location identifiers in my data and patterns of geographical settlement in Russia to measure peers within narrowly-defined neighborhoods.This definition of peers is validated by documenting a strong increase in alcohol consumption around the birthday of peers. With natural experiments, I estimate the own price elasticity of the probability of heavy drinking using variation in alcohol regulations across Russian regions and over time. From these data, I develop a dynamic structural model of heavy drinking to quantify how changes in the price of alcohol would affect the proportion of heavy drinkers among Russian males (and subsequently also affect mortality rates). I find that that higher alcohol prices reduce the probability of being a heavy drinker by a non-trivial amount. An increase in the price of vodka by 50% would save the lives of 40,000 males annually, and would result in an increase in welfare. Peers account for a quarter of this effect.The second chapter analyzes the consequences of government policy towards light alcohol drinks. Light drinks are commonly viewed as stepping stone to harder drinks, but also as safer substitutes for them. Here, I analyze this trade-off by utilizing micro-level data on the alcohol consumption of Russian males. I find, first, that beer is a safer drink compared to hard alcohol beverages, in the sense that consumption of hard beverages increases the hazard of death while consumption of beer does not. Second, I find that beer is a substitute for vodka: there is significant positive cross-price elasticity of vodka consumption with respect to beer price. I find also little evidence that beer consumption actually serves as stepping stone for vodka consumption. Initiation of beer consumption instead forms habits for the further consumption of beer. Drinking beer at earlier ages results in higher beer consumption and higher overall alcohol intake in older years, but also results in reduced consumption of hard drinks compared to vodka drinkers and to non-abstainers. Finally, I estimate a multivariate model of consumer choice, and quantify the effect of different government policies on mortality rates, drinking patterns, and consumer welfare. I find that the taxation of beer may decrease consumer welfare and increase mortality rates. In contrast, subsidizing beer consumption will increase consumer welfare and even slightly decrease mortality rates.The third chapter of my dissertation documents the unequal enforcement of liberalization reform of business regulation across Russian regions with different governance institutions, which leads to unequal effects of liberalization. National liberalization laws were enforced more effectively in sub-national regions with a more transparent government, more-informed population, higher concentration of industry, and stronger fiscal autonomy. As a result, in regions with stronger governance institutions liberalization had a substantial positive effect on the performance of small firms and on the growth of the official small-business sector in general. In contrast, in regions with weaker governance institutions there is no effect from the reform, and in some cases even a negative effect is observed.
Price Level Determination When Tax Payments Are Required in Money. We formalize the idea that the price level can be determined by a requirement that taxes be paid in money. We show that if households have to pay a money tax of a fixed real value and the money supply is constant, there is a unique stationary price level, and a continuum of non-stationary deflationary equilibria. The non-stationary equilibria can be excluded if we introduce an arbitrarily lax borrowing constraint. Thus, in the basic model, tax requirements can uniquely determine the price level. When money has liquidity value, tax requirements can exclude self-fulfilling hyperinflations. The New Keynesian Transmission Mechanism: A Heterogeneous-Agent Perspective. We argue that a two-agent version of the standard New Keynesian model - where a "worker'' receives only labor income and a "capitalist'' only profit income - offers insights about how income inequality affects the monetary transmission mechanism. Under rigid prices, monetary policy has no effect on output as workers choose not to change their hours worked in response to wage movements. In the corresponding representative-agent model, in contrast, hours do rise after a monetary policy loosening due to a wealth effect on labor supply: profits fall, thus reducing the representative worker's income. If wages are rigid too, however, the monetary transmission mechanism is active and resembles that in the corresponding representative-agent model. Consumption Dynamics under Time-varying Unemployment Risk. We argue that adjustment frictions for durable goods generate a powerful amplification channel from fluctuations in unemployment risk to aggregate consumption demand. First, we use survey data to document that durable expenditures react strongly to increased unemployment risk, while the effect on nondurable expenditures is indistinguishable from zero. Second, we propose and calibrate a buffer-stock savings model that includes adjustment frictions for durable goods. Although not targeted in the calibration, we find that the model reproduces the semi-elasticities of expenditures to unemployment risk estimated in the data. Using the model, we find that the inclusion of adjustment frictions raises the aggregate demand response of durable goods to fluctuations in perceived unemployment risk by approximately 200 percent. Moreover, upon experiencing an adverse risk shock, the responsiveness of aggregate demand for durable goods to the interest rate and transitory income shocks is dampened. Consumption Dynamics under Time-varying Unemployment Risk: Evidence from Time Series Data. We investigate the relationship between consumption expenditures and unemployment risk using aggregate time series data for the US and ten EU countries. As a proxy for perceived unemployment risk, we use data on households' subjective expectations over the future unemployment rate. First, we employ a single-equation framework to test whether subjective unemployment expectations predict aggregate consumption growth when controlling for predicted aggregate income growth. Second, we exploit the timing of the survey interviews in relation to the publication of official statistics to isolate exogenous innovations to unemployment expectations in a small-scale vector autoregression. For the US, both methods suggest that there is a large effect of unemployment risk on aggregate consumption. For the ten EU countries, the evidence is mixed.
