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This thesis provides an empirical investigation of externalities and social interaction mechanisms in various settings. In the first chapter, I show how input heterogeneity triggers productivity spillovers at the workplace. I find that the exogenous assignment of inputs of heterogeneous quality allows workers to free ride on each other, yielding negative productivity spillovers. In the second chapter, I investigate the impact of violent conflict on firm behavior. I show how conflictinduced distortions in the accessibility of foreign markets force Palestinian firms to substitute imported materials with domestically produced materials, diminishing their output value. In the third chapter, I explore the relationship between ethnic diversity and conflict in contemporary South Africa. Results show that ethnic diversity within the black majority was highly correlated with conflict incidence during the democratic transition. In the fourth chapter, I study spillovers among potential victims from investment in crime protection technologies. I find that burglary protection investment of neighbors significantly increases the likelihood of a given household of investing in the same technology. ; Esta tesis es un estudio empírico de externalidades y mecanismos de interacción social en varios contextos. En el primer capítulo muestro como heterogeneidad en la calidad de los insumos genera efectos derrame en el puesto de trabajo. Encuentro que la asignacíón exógena de los insumos genera un problema de free riding, con efectos de derrames negativos sobre productividad. En el segundo capítulo, investigo el impacto de un conflicto violento sobre la actividad de las empresas. Los resultados muestran como el conflicto genera distorsiones en el acceso a los mercados extranjeros, forzando las empresas palestinas a substituir materiales importados con materiales locales, con una consecuente disminución del valor de su producción. En el tercer capítulo, exploro la relación entre diversidad étnica y conflicto en el el Sudáfrica ...

This thesis is composed of three independent articles. The first chapter studies a nationwide teacher pay-for-performance program in Peru, and shows that it had a precisely estimated null impact on student learning. I provide suggestive evidence that some of the program's characteristics might have hindered teachers' ability to improve the incentivized outcome or infer their probability of winning the bonus, explaining this zero effect. In the second chapter, I examine the impact of compulsory voting laws in Austria, and show that while these laws led to significant increases in turnout, they had no impact on government spending patterns or electoral outcomes. Individual-level data suggests these results occur because individuals swayed to vote due to compulsory voting are more likely to be non-partisan and uninformed, and have less interest in politics. In the final chapter, I study how income inequality affects growth in Brazil, and find that places with higher initial inequality exhibit higher subsequent growth. I show that this effect is entirely driven by inequality originating in the left tail of the income distribution, and provide evidence on channels consistent with credit constraints and setup costs for human and physical capital investments, as well as an increasing and concave individual propensity to save. ; Esta tesis se compone de tres artículos independientes. El primer capítulo estudia un programa nacional de remuneración basado en el desempeño en el Perú, y muestra que tuvo un efecto nulo y precisamente estimado sobre el aprendizaje estudiantil. Proporciono evidencia sugiriendo que algunas de las características del programa podrían haber limitado la capacidad de los docentes de mejorar en términos del indicador incentivado o inferir su probabilidad de ganar el bono, explicando así este efecto nulo. En el segundo capítulo, examino el impacto de las leyes de voto obligatorio en Austria, y muestro que aunque estas incrementaron considerablemente la participación electoral, no tuvieron impacto ...

Applied Stochastic Processes uses a distinctly applied framework to present the most important topics in the field of stochastic processes. Key features: -Presents carefully chosen topics such as Gaussian and Markovian processes, Markov chains, Poisson processes, Brownian motion, and queueing theory -Examines in detail special diffusion processes, with implications for finance, various generalizations of Poisson processes, and renewal processes -Serves graduate students in a variety of disciplines such as applied mathematics, operations research, engineering, finance, and business administration -Contains numerous examples and approximately 350 advanced problems, reinforcing both concepts and applications -Includes entertaining mini-biographies of mathematicians, giving an enriching historical context -Covers basic results in probability Two appendices with statistical tables and solutions to the even-numbered problems are included at the end. This textbook is for graduate students in applied mathematics, operations research, and engineering. Pure mathematics students interested in the applications of probability and stochastic processes and students in business administration will also find this book useful.

What do human rights look like when we present them as action-based, bottom-up concepts, and not exclusively as legal items? After all, when we narrow down human rights to a legal concept only, we do not do justice to its meaning. In many professions and branches the idea of human rights is used in jargon, as guiding principles and as a source of inspiration. Human rights make a difference, albeit not necessarily as an enforceable legal concept. This facet of human rights - its practical application beyond lawmakers and lawyers - is deeply underexplored and deserves much more attention. Applied human rights are not per se a matter of lawmaking and enforcement only: it can be part of a mission and vision of companies, it is sometimes at the core of artistic work, it can be a leading principle in social work - especially considering the rights of the child, and it is used as a guiding principle in technological innovation. Human rights are not just for lawyers, but also for managers, engineers, social workers, musicians, local governments, law enforcers, designers and business people. However, and not surprisingly, in each branch the impact and implications of human rights differ. Therefore, it is time for a comprehensive textbook in which the idea of human rights is not exclusively explored as a legal concept, but instead discussed from various applied perspectives. In this book, we explore human rights as an applied concept: as something we do. The chapters are written by an international group of leading experts in a wide range of disciplines and themes, including technology development, social studies, pedagogy, business strategy, public governance, the arts, philosophy and law

This textbook offers a complete course in applied macroeconomics at the intermediate level that emphasizes the application of economic theory to real-world data and policy.

This textbook offers a complete course in applied macroeconomics at the intermediate level that emphasizes the application of economic theory to real-world data and policy.

The present thesis is made up by three separate chapters in applied microeconomics touching the realms of labor, health and family economics. The first one considers individual genetic information to explore the interplay between genes and environmental factors in shaping individual labor outcomes. The second one looks at old age health and provide an estimate of the causal effect of retirement on a syndrome of health deficit accumulation known as frailty. The third one investigates and describes the role of preferences in the screening and matching process of child adoption with the use of a novel dataset.