Essays in public economics
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- In this dissertation, I study four related topics in the economics of optimal government policy. Chapter 1 explores the employment effect of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This act included $88 billion of aid to state governments that was administered to state governments though the Medicaid system. We examine the effect of these transfers on states' employment. Because state fiscal relief outlays are endogenous to a state's economic environment, OLS results are biased downward. We address this problem by using a state's pre-recession Medicaid spending level to instrument for ARRA state fiscal relief. In our preferred specification, a state's receipt of a marginal $100,000 in Medicaid outlays results in an additional 3.8 job-years, 3.2 of which are outside the government, health, and education sectors. Chapter 1 is a joint project with Gabriel Chodorow-Reich, Laura Feiveson, and Zachary Liscow. Chapter 2 explores the theory of optimal taxation in labor markets with rationing. We show that considering the differing values that job-seekers place on employment has important implications for labor market policy during recessions, when scarce jobs may be allocated inefficiently. In our model, some of the unemployed have high surplus from employment (e.g., those with a mortgage, three children, and a non-working spouse), while some of the employed do not. In this context, three policies improve well-being: (i) subsidizing non-employment, (ii) taxing employees, and (iii) subsidizing employers. These policies make "space" for those who really need jobs. Chapter 3 is a joint project with Zachary Liscow. Chapter 3 explores the educational choices of undocumented immigrants in the United States. Of the estimated 11.1 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., 1.1 million are children. Due to differential treatment in the labor market, teenage illegal immigrants face low returns to schooling. To measure the effect of illegality on the educational choices of Hispanic teenagers, I compare siblings who differ in their legal status due to their birth country. Using proxies for legal status in U.S. census, I show that illegality increases the probability that a Hispanic teenager is not in school by 1.9 - 2.4 percentage points. Alternative explanations, such as differences in health or English ability, appear unable to explain this result. Chapter 4 explores how governments should pay private Medicare providers. Since the 1980s, Medicare beneficiaries have had the choice between enrolling in a traditional government sponsored fee-for-service plan (FFS) and a private plan, known today as Medicare Advantage (MA). To account for the geographic heterogeneity in health care spending, payments to MA plans are adjusted using county benchmarks. Between 1998 and 2004, county benchmarks were set independently of a county's contemporary FFS spending ("cost independent pricing"). Starting in 2004, these benchmarks were set equal to the mean FFS spending in some counties ("cost dependent pricing") but not in others. If MA plans can influence the characteristics of patients who enroll in their plans, they can indirectly control the mean FFS spending in their county of operation and hence the payments they receive under cost dependent pricing. Economic theory predicts that the incentive to engage in this behavior is stronger in more highly concentrated markets. Using a differences-in-differences framework with carefully defined treatment and control groups, I show that FFS costs in counties that adopt cost dependent pricing increase faster than otherwise similar control counties, especially in concentrated markets.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2012 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Woolston, William Atlee |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Economics |
| Primary advisor | Hoxby, Caroline Minter |
| Thesis advisor | Hoxby, Caroline Minter |
| Thesis advisor | Abramitzky, Ran |
| Thesis advisor | Einav, Liran |
| Advisor | Abramitzky, Ran |
| Advisor | Einav, Liran |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | William Woolston. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Economics. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2012. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2012 by William Atlee Woolston
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC-ND).
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