The first chapter evaluates the short- and long-term effects of the program... ]]> Zhi Su http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/12 http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/12 Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:30:48 PST While previous theoretical analysis suggests that racial differences in death rates might play an important role in explaining the black-white education gap in the U.S., there is little empirical research to test this implication. This paper estimates the extent to which differences in expected mortality risks prior to entering college can explain differences in adult educational attainment in the 2000s, using data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). This study finds that the impact of mortality is not as important as suggested by prior research. Specifically, of the total black-white education gap (roughly 1.12 schooling years), only... ]]> Man Jia http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/11 http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/11 Wed, 19 Dec 2012 13:54:18 PST My dissertation investigates the effect of three important public policies on labor market and health outcomes. The first chapter of my dissertation uses a regression discontinuity design to estimate the impact of the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) laws on alcohol consumption and labor market outcomes of young adults. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1997 Cohort), I find that granting legal access to alcohol at age 21 leads to an increase in several measures of alcohol consumption. In particular, I document that those who are slightly older than 21 are 7 percent more likely to consume... ]]> Ceren Ertan Yörük http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/10 http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/10 Tue, 18 Dec 2012 06:00:24 PST My dissertation investigates the effect of three important public policies on labor market and health outcomes. First chapter of my dissertation uses a regression discontinuity design to estimate the impact of the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) laws on alcohol consumption and labor market outcomes of young adults. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1997 Cohort), I find that granting legal access to alcohol at age 21 leads to an increase in several measures of alcohol consumption. In particular, I document that those who are slightly older than 21 are 7 percent more likely to consume alcohol... ]]> Ceren Ertan Yörük http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/9 http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/9 Fri, 02 Nov 2012 06:31:10 PDT This section provides abstracts of the three chapters of my doctoral dissertation titled "Three Essays in Industrial Organization and Applied Econometrics." The first chapter is titled "Promotion of Prescription Drugs to Consumers and Physicians: Analysis of Strategic Firm Behavior" and is co-authored with John Kwoka. The paper focuses on the promotion of prescription drugs to consumers and physicians and analyzes it through the prism of strategic firm behavior. While the common method of exploring the impacts of prescription drug advertising has focused on consumer and physician choice of prescriptions, we choose a different approach. Our analysis casts the issue as... ]]> Kamen P. Madjarov http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/8 http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/8 Wed, 08 Aug 2012 08:44:49 PDT The effects of mergers, including mergers in the airline industry, have been examined in a number of papers, but none has directly estimated the effect of a merger that eliminates a potential competitor. The first chapter of my dissertation examines this type of mergers by analyzing the 1987 merger of USAir and Piedmont. Comparing several quarters of operation before and after the merger, we find that elimination of a potential competitor permits a 5.0 to 6.0 percent price increase - less than the 9.0 to 10.2 percent increase where they were direct competitors, but important nonetheless. The results of this... ]]> Evgenia Shumilkina http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/7 http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/7 Mon, 23 Jul 2012 10:21:44 PDT Chapter 1: What Does Bankruptcy Tell an Employer About a Potential Employee?

Consumer bankruptcy is often considered in hiring and promotional decisions to be a productivity indicator; however, there is insubstantial quantitative research on whether bankruptcy is indicative of qualities not desirable in an employee. Bankruptcy history's ability to predict characteristics that employers care about is tested. The characteristics considered include intelligence, job turnover, health, drug use, and imprisonment. Logistic regressions and ordinary least squares are employed. Knowing whether the candidate filed for bankruptcy provides limited information on an applicant's intelligence, drug usage, and trouble with the law. However, it... ]]> Tess Forsell http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/6 http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/6 Mon, 25 Jun 2012 12:43:23 PDT This doctoral dissertation analyzes transitioning to restructured electricity markets, drivers underlying restructuring choice in the U.S., opportunities for suppliers' strategic behavior created by restructuring of electricity markets, and effect of restructuring and suppliers' strategic behavior on wholesale and retail electricity prices. The following are abstracts of the three chapters of my doctoral dissertation entitled "Three Essays on Strategic Behavior, Information Revelation and Restructuring in the U.S. Electricity Markets."

The first chapter of this dissertation, "Price Spikes in Energy Markets: "Business by Usual Methods"or Strategic Withholding?" focuses on one phenomenon in restructured electricity markets, called price spikes. There are two divergent... ]]> Vladlena Sabodash http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/5 http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/5 Tue, 01 Nov 2011 05:47:05 PDT The first chapter is titled "Competition and Service Quality: New Evidence from the Airline Industry." This paper examines the relationship between competition and service quality in the airline industry. Using panel data and two different instrumental variable (IV) strategies, it directly addresses potential biases in previous studies. One of the IV strategies exploits changes in local market structure generated by a merger between two airlines that operate on a global scale. While this variation in market structure does not occur in a controlled environment, its source, if not random, differs from the variation in market structure otherwise observed in the... ]]> Daniel Greenfield http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/4 http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/4 Wed, 22 Dec 2010 11:46:05 PST Trade unions and gender discrimination are generally considered as sources of labor market imperfections. My dissertation is a study of the effects of these distortions on three specific outcomes: occupational injuries, earnings of injured workers, and gender pay differentials in the arts occupations. The first chapter of my dissertation investigates the relationship between union coverage and work-related injuries. Trade unions play a central role in establishing a safe work place at the firm level. Union representatives ensure the implementation of safety standards set by the Occupational and Safety Health Administration (OSHA) and provide employees in bargaining units with education on... ]]> Andrea Germiniasi Manpower policy Industrial accidents - Economic aspects http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/3 http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/3 Wed, 22 Dec 2010 11:30:37 PST My dissertation is centered around issues in antitrust, specifically the estimation and prediction of merger effects and pass-through rates in various industries. The first chapter analyzes merger effects in the academic journal publishing industry. The second chapter estimates the pass-through rate of fuel costs in the passenger airline industry. The final chapter returns to mergers and compares the ex ante predictions of merger effects by alternative models to ex post results in the asphalt industry to determine which ex ante model yields the best prediction. Academic journal price increases over the past two decades have placed a significant strain on... ]]> Renée Michelle Duplantis Consolidation and merger of corporations - Economic aspects http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/2 http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/2 Wed, 29 Sep 2010 06:03:49 PDT The following are abstracts of the three chapters of my doctoral dissertation entitled "Three Essays on Buyer Power Theory, Dominant HMOs, and Technology Transfer." The first chapter of my dissertation is an investigation into technological transfer efficacy, with success defined at specific levels culminating in revenue generation via licensing or a university-based start-up. Licensing revenue and new venture spin-offs as driven through U.S. university technology transfer offices have been a predominant goal for funded research and development over the last twenty-five years. However, as opposed to patent generation, investigation into the translation of research into viable revenue generation is somewhat... ]]> Megan Gay Health maintenance organizations - Finance Medical economics http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/1 http://iris.lib.neu.edu/econ_diss/1 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:54:47 PST The traditional structure of the electricity sector in the U.S. has been that of large vertically integrated companies with sole responsibility for distributing power to end users within a franchise area. The restructuring of this sector that has occurred in the past 10-20 years has profoundly altered this picture. This dissertation examines three aspects of that restructuring process. First chapter of my dissertation investigates the impacts of divestitures of generation, an important part of the process of restructuring, on the efficiency of distribution systems. We find that while all divestitures as a group do not significantly affect distribution efficiency, those... ]]> Sanem I. Sergici Electric utilities--Mergers Electric utilities--U.S. states Electric utilities--U.S. states--Management