This dissertation consists of three chapters covering topics in poverty, inequality, and political economy. The first chapter Lifting the Floor? Economic Development, Social Protection, and the Developing World’s Poorest, ...

This dissertation consists of two chapters on the economics of voting. In the first chapter, Courting Legal Change: Dynamics of Voting on the U.S. Supreme Court, I formulate and structurally estimate a dynamic game-theoretic ...

Mortgage is a major part of debt for households and one of the core businesses for financial institutions. The disruption of mortgage market during 2007-2008 put both households and financial institutions in distress. ...

The first chapter focuses on the relationship between two important technological drivers that affect labor market outcomes. There has been polarization in employment shares across different types of occupations; at the ...

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between crime and unemployment in Italy. I set out to do so using data on crime, unemployment, and a variety of control variables retrieved from Italy’s Istituto ...

It is well established that a major contributing factor to the high incarceration rate of the United States is recidivism and that an important factor in its prevention is access to quality employment opportunities. However, ...

I provide an explanation for the counter-cyclical price growth dispersion. I document two facts: (1) consumers switch more across sellers during a recession, and (2) sellers set higher prices after a growth in the customer ...

This dissertation studies the role of capital requirements in combating excessive risk-taking incentives of banks in two settings.

In this dissertation I use administrative tax data to evaluate two policies in the fields of low income housing and retirement. In particular, I construct novel data sets to assess whether growing up in housing constructed ...

Trade policies in developing countries have a significant impact on economic growth and welfare, especially after the trade liberation in China and India. The labor markets are highly influenced by different trade policies ...