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Browsing by Author "Fan, Chuen-Mei, advisor"

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    Brain drain and reverse brain drain: individual decision making and implications for economic growth
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Hua, Kuo-Ting, author; Fan, Chuen-Mei, advisor; Cutler, Harvey, committee member; Kling, Robert W., committee member; Loomis, John B., committee member
    In two models, this dissertation explores two different but related topics in the international migration of skilled individuals, namely, the possibility of beneficial brain drain arises from the out-migration of skilled individuals and the potentially economic incentives for the emigrants to return to their homeland. The first model is a R&D and human capital accumulation hybrid endogenous growth model with a modified human capital accumulation behavior. It shows that an individual learns from previous innovations and that human capital accumulation fuels improvement in the quality of goods to promote economic growth. Since the ability of an individual is the key to the formation of human capital, the economic growth rate is tied to the representative individual's ability. It also shows that, with the presence of uncertainty about the opportunity of migration, the sending country could benefit from brain drain even without the scale effect. The second model is a two-period overlapping generation human capital growth model with a common self-selection fashion. Each individual optimally chooses his human capital level and the location he works. It shows that an increase in the probability of migration induces human capital accumulation in the sending country resulting from more individuals becoming potential returnees, and each potential emigrant or returnee acquiring more education. It also shows that the domestic investment opportunity could further increase human capital acquisition for an potential returnee while the wage premium couldn't.
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    Moral hazard in health care: case study of Taiwan's national health insurance
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Lin, Chun-Wei, author; Fan, Chuen-Mei, advisor; Mushinski, David, committee member; Pena, Anita Alves, committee member; Loomis, John B., committee member
    My research examines the moral hazard phenomenon under Taiwan's National Health Insurance system theoretically as well as empirically. The objective is to investigate the effects of universal health insurance on individual lifestyle behavior such as smoking and alcohol consumption. In the analytical section, I incorporate the individual's copayment rate, the premium, and the payroll tax rate in a moral-hazard model of national health care insurance plan. The two-stage for individual decision is applied to an extension of the moral hazard model originally proposed by Ehrlich and Becker (1972) and Stanciole (2007). In stage one, an individual moves first and decides his / her optimal unhealthy behavior before knowing the health status. In stage two, once the health status is revealed, he/she will move to choose the optimal amount of medical care after stage one. By applying the backward induction method, I show that after individuals falling sick in stage two, the optimal demand for medical service decreases when faced with a higher payroll tax rate, a higher copayment rate, a higher premium, and a higher medical service price. However, an individual's optimal demand for medical service increases with the individual's income level, poor health status and with the addiction of unhealthy behavior. In stage one, the individual's optimal unhealthy behaviors decrease with a higher copayment rate, a higher payroll tax rate, a higher premium, a higher medical price and with poor health status; but increase with income level. The effect from medical service is ambiguous. I also examine how three government policy parameters -copayment rate, premium, and payroll tax rate - affect individual's welfare given his/her lifestyle under the universal health insurance system. My model results suggest that the copayment rate has an ambiguous effect on individual's well-being. Payroll tax rate and Premium have positive effects on the individual's well-being. In my empirical investigation, I use two waves of the Health and Living Status of the Middle- Age and Elderly (SHLS) survey in Taiwan (1993 and 2007). Lifestyle behaviors (smoking and alcohol consumption) are employed as dependent variables. In my econometric model, I use a univariate Probit model and a seemingly unrelated bivariate Probit model to measure the determinants of unhealthy lifestyle behavior in 1993 and 2007. Two lifestyle behaviors - smoking and alcohol consumption - are employed as dependent variables in my model. Lastly, I apply a difference-in-difference (DD) methodology to compare how these effects change before and after implementation of Taiwan's national health insurance system. The result shows a lack of evidence in my data for the effect of national health insurance, implying no moral hazard effect is found under Taiwan's National Health Insurance.
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    The development of a multisectoral model for the Thai economy (MUTE)
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2008) Suebpongsakorn, Auttapol, author; Fan, Chuen-Mei, advisor
    The MUTE model is a multisectoral model developed for the Thai economy. The structure of the MUTE model resembles 1NFORUM type models consisting of 3 main modules, namely, (1) the real side which estimates 7 components of the final demand, (2) the price - income side which calculates the 5 value added components, and (3) the accountant which includes the identity equations and some important behavioral equation in order to link both the real side and the price - income side. The major difference of the MUTE model from the INFORUM models, especially a Thai Interindustry Dynamic Model (TIDY) is the inclusion of a dummy variable representing the event of the political disorder, which is widely believed as one of the non-economic factors affecting the performances of the economy. Moreover, the use of the time-series technique called AICc to forecast some series (when the explanatory variables are non-stationary and the cointegration test reports the nonexistence of the cointegrating vector), the use of the RAS technique instead of Across the Row method in estimating the direct input requirement matrices, and the application of the ADF and the cointegration tests for all equations are among the new contributions aimed at improving the model reliability. Finally, the model is employed to forecast the performances of the Thai economy from 2005 to 2020 under the impacts of the Baht appreciation and the political disorder. The results show that these two impacts will adversely cause the growth rate of GDP to slowdown. The Baht appreciation against U.S. dollar worsens the net export, while the political disorder causes both consumers and producers to lose their confidences in the Thai economy, which results in the reduction in the personal consumption expenditure and the gross fixed capital formation. However, both impacts do not affect the income and output structures of the Thai economy. The Thai economy still moves toward the industrialized country by reckoning on manufacturing and service sectors as the main sources for generating income and employment with or without the presence of these two impacts.
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    The value added tax: annual vs. lifetime perspective evidence from Tanzania household data
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2009) Mushi, Delphina Prosper, author; Fan, Chuen-Mei, advisor
    The study compares the annual vs the lifetime perspective of the Value Added Tax (VAT) using the Tanzania Household Budget Survey of 2000/2001. The impact of exemptions on both government revenue and distribution of the tax burden is examined. The "distributional characteristics approach" is used to find whether exemptions are justifiable on distributional grounds. Finally the study examines changes in vertical equity of moving from the previous sales tax to the VAT. Results show that when annual income is used to measure well being, the VAT looks very regressive, while using "lifetime income" makes the VAT proportional. With lifetime income as a measure of ability to pay, incorporating exemptions into the analysis makes the VAT slightly progressive while several alternatives to exemptions could make the VAT more progressive and improve revenue performance. The distributional characteristics of exempted items show that unprocessed food, public transport and petroleum products are mostly consumed by the relatively poor. On the other hand, the rich consumes postal supplies, books, newspapers, and others. Comparing VAT and the previous sales tax shows VAT to be less progressive, even though it is not regressive.
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    Women's labor supply: a cross-country study
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2007) Altarawneh, Yaseen Mamdouh, author; Fan, Chuen-Mei, advisor
    This study aims at analyzing the cross-country variations in women's participation rates (WPRs) and the gender-gap in economic activity. It covers 45 countries over 1970-2002, 15 countries from each group: low income countries (LICs), middle income countries (MICs), and high income countries (HICs). The study employs the Seemingly Unrelated Regression Model in conjunction with the Fixed Effects Model to guarantee the individuality of each country and to control for spatial autocorrelation. Several factors such as GDP growth, GDP/capita, education, fertility, urbanization, government's role, and cultural factors are used as explanatory variables.