On using data to design policy when agents search or are not fully rational
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation contains three papers that use novel data to shed light on the impact of policy on economic outcomes. In Essay 1, I use new data on search and communication behavior from a large online marketplace to study what market characteristics determine the matching rate. I show that informational frictions significantly lower the matching rate and surplus in the marketplace. I the use the data to design ranking algorithms that improve outcomes in the online marketplace. In Essay 2, we study the effect of unemployment insurance of job search effort. We first demonstrate the validity of a new proxy for job search effort based on Google searches for the term "jobs". We use the proxy to show that job search exhibits a small and temporary response to unemployment insurance. Lastly, we show that the drop in job search explain little of the increase in unemployment during the recession of 2007 - 2009. In Essay 3, we study how the default contribution to a savings plan should be set. We estimate a model in which savings decisions in the presence of defaults are affected by behavioral considerations such as time-inconsistency, inattention, and anchoring. We show how the optimal default, the magnitude of the welfare effects, and the degree of normative ambiguity depend on the behavioral model, the scope of the choice domain deemed welfare-relevant, the use of penalties for passive choice, and other 401(k) plan features.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2014 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Fradkin, Andrey |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Economics. |
| Primary advisor | Levin, Jonathan |
| Thesis advisor | Levin, Jonathan |
| Thesis advisor | Einav, Liran |
| Thesis advisor | Hoxby, Caroline Minter |
| Thesis advisor | Pistaferri, Luigi |
| Advisor | Einav, Liran |
| Advisor | Hoxby, Caroline Minter |
| Advisor | Pistaferri, Luigi |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Andrey Fradkin. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Economics. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2014. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2014 by Andrey Fradkin
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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