Three essays in applied economics
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The chapters of this dissertation deal with three different topics in applied economics. In Chapter 1, I investigate whether the government of Japan was able to use industrial policy to accelerate economic growth. To do so, I estimate the magnitude of external economies of scale and external learning by doing in each major manufacturing industry in postwar Japan. I find evidence that external economies of scale were relatively large and significantly different across industries, while external learning by doing was not. I then evaluate the industrial policy of postwar Japan by comparing estimates of technological externalities to measures of government intervention across industries and over time. I find evidence that industrial policy favored industries with stronger (more positive) external economies of scale but weaker (more negative) external learning by doing. In Chapter 2, I investigate the economic consequences of a hypothetical Catalan secession. I perform an event study to analyze the behavior of stock prices of publicly-traded firms operating in Catalonia in the days before and after a referendum on independence that took place on November 9 of 2014. I find that stock prices of publicly-traded firms operating in Catalonia did not react to the referendum. Assuming that the celebration of the referendum or its outcome allowed investors to update their priors on the likelihood of secession, these results suggest that investors do not associate large economic gains or losses to a hypothetical Catalan secession. In Chapter 3, I investigate the economic mobility within generations in the United States by the end of the 19th century, in an attempt to explain current preferences for low redistribution. I find that the United States had lower economic mobility within generations than Great Britain, but this fact was driven entirely by farmers. For non-farmers, economic mobility within generations was higher in the United States than in Great Britain, which might explain current preferences for low redistribution in the United States.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2018; ©2018 |
| Publication date | 2018; 2018 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Pons-Benaiges, Oriol |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Abramitzky, Ran |
| Thesis advisor | Abramitzky, Ran |
| Thesis advisor | Donaldson, Dave, 1978- |
| Thesis advisor | Klenow, Peter J |
| Degree committee member | Donaldson, Dave, 1978- |
| Degree committee member | Klenow, Peter J |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Economics. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Oriol Pons-Benaiges. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Economics. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2018. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2018 by Oriol Pons Benaiges
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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