ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
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Description
This dissertation focuses on democracies governed by a Parliament. In such democracies, the executive branch consists of a subset of parties in the Parliament, called the Government. A key feature is that the Government is only indirectly determined by the voters' electoral decisions. This dissertation address how parliamentary characteristics and institutions influence the composition of the Government and government outcomes. The composition of the Government reflects the size and ideological make-up of the Government. Government outcomes reflect the length the Government survives and the policy consequences of the Government. The literature focuses on the former criterion. The view is that, in parliamentary democracies, longer Government duration should be associated with stability and better policies. The latter is important from the perspective of directly evaluating whether Governments make good or bad decisions from the perspective of voters. The first chapter of this dissertation develop a model of the government formation process, where parties care about and bargain over both policy and office benefits. The model generate predictions that matches important features of the data. The second chapter uses data from western European parliamentary democracies to estimate the parameters of the model in chapter one. The estimation results suggest that coalitions care about both ideology and office benefits, but more about office benefits. The third chapter studies which (existing) institutional environments lead to `good' government outcomes. The results have a number of important implications for constitutional design.
ContributorsHu, Lin, Ph.D (Author) / Hu, Lin (Thesis advisor) / Friedenberg, Amanda (Committee member) / Manelli, Alejandro (Committee member) / Chade, Hector (Committee member) / Silverman, Dan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
I study the design of two different institutions to evaluate the welfare implications
of counterfactual policies. In particular, I analyze (i) the problem of assigning
students to colleges (majors) in a centralized admission system; and (ii) an auction
where the seller can use securities to determine winner’s payment, and bidders
suffer negative externalities. In the former, I provide a novel methodology to
evaluate counterfactual policies when the admission mechanism is manipulable.
In the latter, I determine which instrument yields the highest expected revenue
from the class of instruments that combines cash and equity payments.
of counterfactual policies. In particular, I analyze (i) the problem of assigning
students to colleges (majors) in a centralized admission system; and (ii) an auction
where the seller can use securities to determine winner’s payment, and bidders
suffer negative externalities. In the former, I provide a novel methodology to
evaluate counterfactual policies when the admission mechanism is manipulable.
In the latter, I determine which instrument yields the highest expected revenue
from the class of instruments that combines cash and equity payments.
ContributorsHernandez Chanto, Allan Roberto (Author) / Manelli, Alejandro (Thesis advisor) / Friedenberg, Amanda (Committee member) / Chade, Hector (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
I study split-pie bargaining problems between two agents. In chapter two, the types of both agents determine the value of outside options -- I refer to these as interdependent outside options. Since a direct mechanism stipulates outcomes as functions of agents' types, a player can update beliefs about another player’s type upon receiving a recommended outcome. I term this phenomenon as information leakage. I discuss binding arbitration, where players must stay with a recommended outcome, and non-binding arbitration, where players are not obliged to stay with an allocation. The total pie is reduced if the outcome is an outside option. With respect to efficiency, I derive a necessary and sufficient condition for first best mechanisms. These are mechanisms that assign zero probability to outside options for every report received. The condition describes balanced forces in conflict (outside options) and is the same in the cases of binding and non-binding arbitration. I also show a strong link between conflict and information: when conflict exists, information leakage occurs. Hence, non-binding arbitration may seem more restrictive than binding arbitration. To analyze why this is the case, I solve for second best mechanisms with binding arbitration and find a condition under which they can be implemented under non-binding arbitration. Thus, I show that non-binding arbitration can be as effective as binding arbitration in terms of efficiency. I also examine whether the equivalence between binding and non-binding arbitration can cease to hold, and provide analysis of why this happens. In chapter three, the bargaining problem entails no uncertainty but rather envy. Players can feel envy about the allocation of the other player. The Nash Bargaining solution is obtained in this context and some comparative statics are shown. The introduction of envy makes the more envious party a tougher negotiator.
ContributorsGonzalez Sanchez, Eric Patricio (Author) / Manelli, Alejandro (Thesis advisor) / Chade, Hector (Committee member) / Schlee, Edward (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
A central concern for modern macroeconomics is incorporating and understanding worker heterogeneity. The following two essays explore labor market dynamics along the dimensions of worker heterogeneity, search frictions, and policy. In each essay, I construct a macroeconomic model of the labor market, calibrate the model using micro data, and use the model to interpret labor market outcomes and evaluate policy. In the first chapter, I build an equilibrium lifecycle model of wages in which heterogeneous workers endogenously invest in human capital accumulation and on-the-job search effort while firms post jobs. I discipline the model using microdata from the Survey of Income and Program Participation. The calibrated model shows that on-the-job search drives lifecycle wage growth while heterogeneous human capital accumulation drives lifecycle wage dispersion. Then, I use the model as a laboratory to study the effects of tax and transfer progressivity. An increase in progressivity decreases wages, primarily due to reduced on-the-job search effort. Interactions between human capital, search, and job posting amplify the decrease in wages. Surprisingly, an increase in progressivity has little effect on wage dispersion because the effects from the human capital and search channels offset each other. The second chapter deals with the persistence of the unemployment rate over the business cycle. Standard search models contain little internal propagation and predict that, after shocks, the unemployment rate quickly converges to its steady state level. I show that duration dependence in unemployment (the fact that unemployed workers with longer unemployment spells are less likely to find jobs) helps explain the persistence of the unemployment rate. I embed duration dependence in an otherwise standard search model and show that it significantly increases the unemployment rate persistence, reconciling the model to the data. Intuitively, after recessions, the composition of the unemployment pool shifts to the long-term unemployed. Because of duration dependence, the long-term unemployed have lower job finding rates, and the shift in composition decreases the aggregate job finding rate, slowing recovery. The magnitude of the effect depends on the extent to which duration dependence is causal rather than a consequence of worker heterogeneity.
ContributorsMillington, Matthew John (Author) / Ferraro, Domenico (Thesis advisor) / Ventura, Gustavo (Committee member) / Chade, Hector (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024