Browsing by Author "Pena, Anita Alves, advisor"
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Item Open Access Essays on financing reform and the provision of local public education(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Li, Li, author; Cutler, Harvey, advisor; Pena, Anita Alves, advisor; Mushinski, David, committee member; Kroll, Stephan, committee memberThis dissertation investigates the provision of local public education from both theoretical and empirical aspects. In the theoretical sections, the existence of Pareto-improving reform (to redistribute education resources away from the rich community and toward the poor community) is examined under the current public education financing system. In the empirical section, the state financing system on public education in the state of Colorado is tested. Chapter 1 introduces the importance and motivation of my research topic. Chapter 2 directly follows the theoretical framework in Fernandez and Rogerson (1996). As far as I know, they are the first to examine the provision of public education under a multi-community and multi-income-group model and discuss reforms which might be Pareto-improving. By adding additional assumptions on population distribution and individuals’ preferences, I analytically show that under a two-community and three-income-group model, when local public education is financed by an income tax, the reform “to redistribute a fraction of education expenditures away from the rich community toward the poor community” is Pareto-improving. Since public education is mainly financed by a property tax, a general housing market with an upward sloping supply curve is introduced in Chapter 3. Simulations show that when local public education is funded by a housing property tax, the reform posed in Chapter 2 may still work. The redistributive fraction chosen by the state government determines whether the reform is Pareto-improving or not. In the empirical section, Chapter 4, I develop four regression models to examine the effects of the state financing policy on public education in Colorado. The results show that the Colorado state government is reducing disparity in per student spending across school districts. However, the current policy is not potentially Pareto-improving according to the theory developed in Chapter 2. Thus, policy suggestions are made. Chapter 5 summarizes and concludes my dissertation.Item Open Access Essays on fiscal decentralization and taxation(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Fitrady, Ardyanto, author; Cutler, Harvey, advisor; Pena, Anita Alves, advisor; Mushinski, David, committee member; Kroll, Stephan, committee memberThis dissertation investigates two important topics in economics. First, the impacts of spillovers of public goods on the potential benefits from decentralization in an urban economy. Second, the role of tax evasion and uncertainty on the optimal taxation for two-class economy. Theoretical model and numerical simulations are used to study the first topic in Chapter 2. The results from the numerical simulation shows that the spillover level has an impact on the potential gain of decentralization. The general results of the numerical simulations demonstrate that as the degree of spillovers increases, the potential gain of decentralization over centralization diminishes in both cases of metropolitan areas in developed and developing countries. These results celebrate Oates' decentralization theorem where decentralization is more beneficial when spillovers among jurisdictions are relatively low. However, the result also shows that the impact of the spillover level on the potential gain of decentralization varies across different levels of income vis-a-vis income inequality. It shows that a metropolitan area with lower mean income will be suffer more from the spillover than a metropolitan area with higher mean income. The numerical simulation also shows that a higher level of inequality amplifies the benefit of decentralization. It illustrates that the developed country--in this case the United States--that generally has higher income inequality, potentially gains more benefits from decentralization. Theoretical models are used in Chapter 3 to examine the importance of tax evasion in the optimal taxation theory that are built based on previous studies. Although one can find that most of the results are intuitive, the model shows that considering tax evasion and uncertainty is important in implementing tax policies, particularly in the process of setting the tax rates for income tax and sales tax. The income tax for the high-type individual will be higher as the degree of tax evasion increases and the income tax of the low-type individual decreases as the probability of being detected for the high-type increases, ceteris paribus. The result also shows that the optimal income tax rate for the low-type individual increases as the marginal utility of mimicking the low type or the marginal utility of income for the mimicker increases, ceteris paribus. In other words, income tax for the low-type will increase if the high type has more incentive to mimic the low-type.Item Open Access Essays on regional economic development: finance, growth, and income distribution(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Petach, Luke, author; Pena, Anita Alves, advisor; Tavani, Daniele, advisor; Weiler, Stephan, committee member; Opp, Susan, committee memberThis dissertation explores the relationship between financial markets and economic activity across regions within the United States. In particular, it examines how regional variation in financial markets may affect variables that play an important role in regional economic growth and income distribution. Despite the way the Great Recession of 2007-2009 made manifest the importance of financial markets in the determination of real economic outcomes, there is still much that is not understood about the relationship between financial markets and the rest of the economy. Financial markets may affect household decision making either indirectly via their influence over institutional arrangements and social norms, or directly via their influence over who can obtain access to the credit needed to start a business, purchase a home, or invest in human capital. These changes will alter the distribution of income—both directly via the re-distribution of funds through credit markets, and indirectly via the outcomes that access to credit (or lack there-of) engender.Item Open Access Socioeconomics of modern-day migration within the United States: determinants and economic implications across race and ethnicity(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Duca, Bryanna, author; Pena, Anita Alves, advisor; Bernasek, Alexandra, committee member; Weiler, Stephan, committee member; Kim, Joon K., committee memberThere have been, and continue to be, inequalities based on race, ethnicity, and gender. This dissertation explores the racial and ethnic gaps in internal migration within the U.S. in addition to wage outcomes as a result of these differences in internal migration decisions. It provides an overview of economic and sociology literature in addition to historical findings in order to further analyze differences in behaviors by race and ethnicity. Chapters 2 and 3 will explore how the determinants of internal migration and location characteristics differ between Black non-Hispanics, White non-Hispanics, and Hispanics using micro-level restricted-use American Community Survey (ACS) data. These chapters extend the discussion of internal migration by not only observing the relationship between economic and noneconomic factors with the propensity to migrate, but how the relationship differs across race and ethnicity within smaller geographies than have been explored in previous literature. Using the same data, the fourth chapter explores the relationship between the propensity to move or migrate and wages, in turn providing an additional explanation to the racial and ethnic wage gap.Item Open Access State correctional spending and the private prison industry(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) White, Weston, author; Pena, Anita Alves, advisor; Weiler, Stephan, committee member; Mushinski, David, committee member; Suter, Jordan, committee memberThe efficacy of using private contractors to house prisoners has been debated since the first private prison was built in the 1980's. Most of the previous research on private prison costs has focused on case study analysis and has failed to reach a conclusive decision on whether any savings accrue from contracting with private companies. This paper contributes to economic research by examining data over seventeen years across 50 states on their correctional expenditures and the percent of prisoners they have in private prisons to determine whether private prisons are actually cost saving for states to use. To do this, I make use of a fixed effects econometric model to examine if there are any savings associated with contracting out prison services. This paper also examines the effects of other factors have on correctional expenditures and with prison privatization. The results suggest that privatization has little effect on correctional expenditures and other factors impact correctional expenditures in a statistically significant degree such as poverty and the government ideology of a state.Item Open Access Suicide mortality, economics and subgroup segregation(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Briggs, Thomas, author; Pena, Anita Alves, advisor; Bernasek, Alexandra, advisor; Zahran, Sammy, committee member; Canetto, Silvia, committee memberIn the United States, suicide is typically theorized as an individual act, and as symptom of a mental disorder. However, evidence shows that those who die of suicide (e.g., by sex, race) varies depending on cultural, social and economic factors. Research on the contexts of suicide has been marked by several limitations, including a tendency to analyze social and economic factors separately, and also a disregard for the combined role of sex and ethnicity in the relationship between social and economic factors and suicide. This study compares current statistics with past research and offers a different methodology in the estimation and model construction of the socioeconomic determinants of suicide. By examining the association between social and economic indicators and suicide among African descent men and women, as compared to European descent men and women in the United States, this study isolates the impact of business cycle fluctuations (as indicated by the unemployment rate) on socioeconomic flows in marital, educational and age groups. The first chapter compares previous research on suicide mortality conducted in Ruhm, (2000) over business cycles by exploiting socioeconomic data from 2005-2012. Using detailed suicide mortality data, I observe that previous trends in state level suicide determination via the unemployment rate, hold over this time period. My research also expands upon Ruhm (2000) by accounting for race and gender specific socioeconomic means and suicide rates, I determine that the strong correlation between the unemployment rate and the suicide rate, only holds for whites, in particular white males. The association is insignificant for every other demographic at the state level. I also estimated the association at the county level. In a comparison of the regions, county level aggregates found significance for each subgroup. A significant and negative association was found for blacks and significant and positive for whites. These results suggest that the detrimental effects of unemployment (alone) only affects whites, although the mechanism that increases suicide for blacks could be through other socioeconomic variables that are themselves impacted by the unemployment rate. The findings imply that the modeling technique used in previous research is not sufficient to obtain the appropriate results for every demographic subgroup or subregion. The second chapter studies the impact of socioeconomic status variables such as marital status, educational attainment, income level and inequality on the suicide count as well as regional controls on gun ownership and level of unemployment insurance. This section employs a zero-inflated negative binomial model, with modification for panel data. Results indicated that unemployment was significantly positive only for white males. Marriage has a significant and negative impact on every demographic subgroup with the exception of black females. The impact of inequality on black males and females was much more positive and significant by magnitude than that for white males and females. These findings suggest inequality as a significant factor on suicide during economic downturns, especially for blacks. Furthermore, these results suggest that business cycle fluctuations impact the black suicide rate through inequality thus, not through unemployment directly. The third chapter addresses economic frustration as a reason for the notable increase in suicide rates, particularly amongst poor whites. It is argued that the externalization of economic frustration by poor whites once led to homicide of blacks. Through changing social norms and penal consequences current economic and social frustration is internalized and leads to increased morbidity and suicide mortality in whites. I refer to the past perspective of one of the most influential black leaders, W.E.B. Dubois. I also provide a history of economic violence and analyze current phenomena using the philosophies of Dubois and add further evidence of the current state of affairs offered by Jonathan Metzl. Together these chapters suggest an alternative reasoning for increased suicide mortality in the U.S. As demonstrated, the current etiology does not universally account for the socioeconomic determinants of suicide mortality in the United States by subgroup or subregion. Furthermore, there has been s substantial disregard for the cultural changes in America that may account for rising suicide mortality in America, such as racial/ethnic saturation and the internalization of economic frustration in economic analysis.Item Open Access The broken promise of mobility: higher education's funding impact on poverty and college debt(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Singleton, John, author; Pena, Anita Alves, advisor; Fremstad, Anders, committee member; Sharp, Ben, committee memberFollowing findings of increased poverty over time among Coloradans with college experience, I estimate the impact of Higher Education spending on poverty and debt outcomes for groups of individuals who have completed at least their post-secondary bachelor's degree. I hypothesize that the current level of Higher Education funding at the state level has contributed to the growing poverty and student debt. Using regression models with state and year fixed effects for poverty and additional institution-level fixed effects for debt, I find that an increase of $1 in spending on per capita Higher Education would reduce poverty by 0.03% and debt by $1.18 per student each year. The reduction in debt per student would be both proactive in reducing future debt and contribute to reducing current debt every fiscal cycle. Additionally, the relationship between debt and state spending indicates that growth in GDP and median income would reduce both the poverty rate and personal debt for college graduates. The impact of state supports on debt, in particular, validates the hypothesis that state spending on post-secondary institutions is currently failing to address the shifting cost-benefit value of a degree.Item Open Access Three essays in social economics: social perspectives on international environmental agreements and space tourism(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Houston, Mimi, author; Pena, Anita Alves, advisor; Fremstad, Anders, committee member; Bernasek, Alexandra, committee member; Malin, Stephanie, committee memberThe social realm is an important locus of insight to understand economic behavior. Social economics recognizes that behavior is a "result of complex social interactions with ethical consequences" (ASE, 2023), that not only informs theory, but also broadens the available policy space. Most importantly, it allows for ethical values to enter the study of economics, giving space for considerations such as equity and justice that are inextricably interrelated to economic phenomena and policy outcomes. One area of study where this interdependence is especially pertinent is in the literature exploring country behavior in global environmental negotiations. The transboundary nature of many environmental issues, especially climate change, warrants international cooperation in the form of international environmental agreements (IEAs). In the field of economics, theoretical models of IEA formation (mostly in the for of non-cooperative game theory) suggest that IEAs should be few and far between. However, the post WWII era, especially the last few decades of the 20th Century, have seen a rapid increase in the number of IEAs ratified and entered into force. In the 1990s alone, over 300 IEAs were signed, and since the turn of the twenty-first century, almost 400 new IEAs have been signed. Empirical work has emerged looking to explain why countries sign and ratify IEAs. Chapter 1 expands and contributes to this body of work by taking a closer look at how international ties, in the form of intergovernmental organization membership, formal alliances, and diplomatic exchanges, affect countries' propensity to sign an IEA and by exploring cross- disciplinary theories on the role of socialization in influencing this behavior. Data is compiled from Mitchell's IEA Database along with Correlates of War Project data on the abovementioned international relations metrics. A negative binomial model is fit to a panel of the count of IEA signatures from 151 countries over the years 1960-2005. Results suggest that global relations matter in countries' IEA signature behavior—with intergovernmental organization membership and diplomatic exchanges increasing the number of signatures, while formal (military) alliances have a negative effect. Looking to inform the theoretical side of the economics of IEAs, Chapter 2 takes a feminist epistemological perspective to critique and expand this area of study. Feminist philosophy, namely feminist standpoint epistemology, points to the epistemic effects of social stratification and highlights the influence of Western, masculinist ideals on the economic study of IEAs and the policy space that it informs. It points to the possible role of geopolitical power relations that favor the global North and their economic and environmental ideologies. As a poignant and timely example, the history of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is used to demonstrate these points. To conclude and move us "toward a feminist foundation of the economics of IEAs," this chapter explores how feminist philosophy and economics offers a more expansive framework to understand country behavior and power relations in this context. Such approaches allow for salient ethical considerations, like equity and justice, that are increasingly recognized as inextricable from environmental policymaking today. The final chapter pivots from the discussion of IEAs toward consideration of expanded worldviews associated with the planet as our environment. This chapter explores a unique set of data from the newly established space tourism market. Specifically, it seeks to learn more about potential positive externalities associated with a changed worldview that astronauts reportedly experience. Using "citizen astronaut" data from nonprofit Space for Humanity's 2019 application round for a sponsored trip to space, this chapter employs a probit model to explore the influence of demographics on the propensity for citizen astronauts to choose environmental aims as their focus for humanitarian work. It is shown that there are complex correlations between region, age, and gender that affect these altruistic aims. The topics explored in this dissertation work together to exemplify the relevance of the social sphere in economics studies. By empirically establishing that global social relations matter (Chapter 1), to exploring how feminist philosophy helps to understand these relationships (Chapter 2), and lastly, by examining prosocial motivations in the space tourism market (Chapter 3), this dissertation represents a key contribution to their respective literatures and to social economics as whole.Item Open Access Three essays on development: access to services in developing countries(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Mudenda, Lackson D., author; Pena, Anita Alves, advisor; Miller, Ray, advisor; Bernasek, Alexandra, committee member; Roberts, Anthony, committee memberThis dissertation aims to contribute to development economics related to sanitation and poverty in some selected developing countries using microdata. The focus is on Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam, chosen for various reasons. This culminates into three distinct essays. The first and second chapters use the Young Lives Study (YLS) data, a unique longitudinal dataset that follows a set of 12,000 children. The rationale for choosing Vietnam, India, Peru, and Ethiopia as interest countries for the YLS emerges from the desire to address child poverty effectively. This selection is guided by the substantial levels of child poverty in these regions, their cultural diversity, and the potential to generate policy-relevant recommendations. By considering these factors, the YLS ensures a comprehensive examination of child poverty within diverse contexts and in line with the tracking of progress towards the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), paving the way for evidence-based policy recommendations to improve the lives of children in these countries (Barnett et al., 2013). The final chapter uses the World Bank's Living standard measurement survey, the Ethiopian Socioeconomic Survey (ESS). The first chapter of this dissertation uses the unique longitudinal data from four low- and middle-income countries to examine the relationship between early-life access to sanitation services and children's cognitive development. The primary focus of this chapter is directed towards the younger cohort rather than the older cohort of the YLS, as it is exclusively within the younger cohort that we can ascertain early exposure to sanitation practices occurring between the age range of 6 to 18 months. Conversely, the youngest child within the older cohort is approximately 5 years old, rendering it insufficient for observing the said early access to sanitation. Therefore, chapter one tracks 8,062 children over 15 years and uses a fixed effects model to analyze the impact of early access to flush toilets and pit latrines on their vocabulary, math scores and health indicators, including height-for-age and BMI-for-age z-scores. The study also uses the hierarchical linear models (HLMs) to investigate the presence of community spillovers. The treatment variable in this chapter is early life access to sanitation both at the household and the community levels. The findings suggest a significant positive correlation between early access to sanitation services and children's cognitive development, although the results vary across countries. The study also supports a health mechanism: early access to flush toilets is significantly associated with improved height-for-age and BMI-for-age z-scores. Additionally, the study finds evidence of community spillovers for vocabulary but not math. The second chapter examines the relationship between access to private sanitation facilities at home and psychosocial development among adolescents aged 12-22 in India and Ethiopia. In this study, the focus is on both the younger and older cohorts limited to rounds 4 and 5 of the YLS as they specifically encompass the adolescent phase and when extensive psychosocial outcomes were collected for both cohorts. Psychosocial outcomes were also collected using a smaller and modified set of statements in round 3, but in round 4, they were expanded and updated to better reflect validated scales and cater to older children (Ogando and Yorke, 2018). The treatment variable in this chapter is private sanitation in the household. Using a longitudinal two-way fixed effects model, the study finds that access to private sanitation (flush toilets or pit latrines in the household) is associated with significantly higher self-efficacy and self-esteem for adolescent girls but not boys. Associations are stronger for girls who live in communities with higher overall access to private sanitation, suggesting relative access may matter more for psychosocial development than absolute access. There is also evidence of a significant correlation with improved peer relations for girls in early (age 12 to 15) but not late (age 19 to 22) adolescence. The results do not portray evidence that the findings are operating through improved physical health, suggesting there may be a direct impact of private sanitation facilities at home and psychosocial development in adolescent girls. These findings suggest interventions should consider the health benefits of hygienic waste management, the potential gains from improved sanitation experiences for women and girls, and the potential unintended spillover effects of inequitable roll-out. Ethiopia is one country that has been unfortunate enough to experience severe drought in the last few decades. This has affected life in Ethiopia at so many levels. Specifically, the challenges of access to clean drinking water and cooking fuels have disproportionately impacted females as they spend more time collecting these resources. This has had the negative consequence of perpetuating time poverty among this group of people, and thereby their inability to participate in the labor market for paid work fully. Following an unbalanced panel of households from the World Bank's living standards measurement survey, this chapter uses the Ethiopian Socioeconomic Surveys (ESS) between 2012 and 2016 to investigate the determinants of households' choice of cooking fuel and drinking water sources in rural and small towns of Ethiopia. The final chapter investigates the factors influencing households' decisions regarding choices of cooking fuel and drinking water sources in rural and small towns of Ethiopia. The study employs probit models (ordered and regular) to examine the effects of improved fuel and water sources on labor outcomes by leveraging variations in access. The findings are that household size, asset ownership, and the education level of the household head as well as their ages, are key determinants influencing the choice of cooking fuel and drinking water. Furthermore, adopting improved water sources significantly and positively impacts family business labor, while using improved cooking fuels significantly enhances agricultural labor. These findings demonstrate the potential benefits of transitioning to improved fuel and water sources in rural Ethiopia, emphasizing the importance of considering social and economic factors in sustainable development initiatives.Item Open Access Three essays on labor, gender and development(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Sedai, Ashish Kumar, author; Vasudevan, Ramaa, advisor; Pena, Anita Alves, advisor; Miller, Ray, committee member; Bhattarai, Niroj, committee member; Kroll, Stephan, committee memberIn my PhD dissertation, I write three research essays on labor, gender and development in India. These essays are based on applied economic research and use longitudinal data estimation techniques. These essays relate to my overall interest in topics surrounding inadequate access to basic infrastructures–electricity, water and credit–and their impact on gender inequities, development opportunities, health, education and labor force participation in India. The first essay focuses on informal finance and women empowerment from an economic and non-economic standpoint. The second essay examines reliable electrification and gender differences in employment, health and household decision making. The third chapter discusses access to piped water and gender differences in employment, health, education and household decision making. The first essay titled, Friends and Benefits? Rotating Savings and Credit Associations as Alternative for Women's Empowerment in India, co-authored with Ramaa Vasudevan and Anita Alves Pena, builds on a theoretical model of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs). In informal social and financial organizations like ROSCAs, members contribute to a common pot of money that is awarded to a different member at each meeting randomly or through a bid. This study examines the effects of ROSCA on women's socio-economic freedom and autonomy at the national level in India. We compare ROSCAs to agency based micro-credit schemes and analyze their effects using nationally representative longitudinal gender-disaggregated data from 2005-2012. Building on a theoretical model of household savings and spousal bargaining power, we use individual fixed effects and instrumental variable regressions to test the theoretical predictions. Among others, results show that ROSCA membership increases the likelihood of women's cash in hand for expenditure by 1.7 percentage points, say in major purchase decisions by 3.9 percentage points and fertility choice by 4.7 percentage points. These margins exceed those for exogenous micro-credit schemes and are robust to sensitivity tests. This study is the first to contrast ROSCAs with other micro-credit schemes at the national level. We propose scaling up and associating longstanding ROSCAs with self-help groups for more inclusive development. The second essay titled, Does Reliable Electrification Reduce Gender Differences: Evidence from India, co-authored with Ramaa Vasudevan, Anita Alves Pena and Ray Miller, looks at the issue of the lack of reliable electrification in India despite massive improvements in electricity access in the past decade. We argue that reliable electricity could reduce the time allocated to home production thereby increasing labor market participation, more for women than men. This essay is purely empirical in nature and revolves around the issue of electrification and gender differences in India. We analyze the effect of quality of electricity on gender differences using a comprehensive set of labor and non-labor market outcomes in India viz. labor force participation (usual status and usual principal status of employment), fuel and water collection, decision making for women and choices of fuel and energy for the household. Using the temporal variation in household electricity hours from the India Human Development Survey (2005-2012), we use individual fixed effects and instrumental variables regressions. Our analysis reveals contrasting trends with significant progress at the extensive margin of electricity access, but little progress at the intensive margin of quality, hours of electricity. We find that reliable electrification improves socio-economic status of women relative to men through increased employment opportunities and reduced time allocation to home production. For instance, 10 more hours of electricity increases the likelihood of employment in the 'usual status' by 2.1 pp for men, and 3.9 pp for women. The study recommends considering electricity as a right, and as part of the broader strategy for reducing gender disparities in India. The third essay titled, Who Benefits from Piped Water? Evidence from a Gendered Analysis in India looks at the effect of access to piped water on employment in farm work, wage/salary work, work days, earnings, health and education outcomes by gender in India. Developing countries, including India, have made impressive progress in providing households with piped water in the last two decades. Yet, access and quality of water available for daily use remains very low. Given the disproportionate burden of home production, the 'hidden' agricultural labor of women, and the fact that India has inadequate access to clean water for daily use, intra-household labor and health inequality could be larger in the absence of piped water access. The disproportionate burden on women of water collection and distribution in the household in developing economies calls for a study on the relationship between piped water supply and gender differences in employment, women's health, child health and education. I use spatiotemporal data from the largest gender disaggregated human development survey in India, 2005–2012, and carry out econometric analyses using individual fixed effects, village fixed effects and instrumental variable regressions to evaluate the effects. Results show that household access to piped water increases the likelihood of wage/salary employment by 11 percent, and annual earnings increase by 14 percent for women, comparatively higher than men, but only in rural areas. In urban areas, there is no effect of pipe water on women's employment. With piped water, women's self-reported health improves; child's health and education outcomes also improve. The study recommends evaluating the social demand curve for piped water supply, and the consideration of piped water supply as necessity, as part of a broader strategy to reduce gender differences and minimize poverty. Overall, these essays are motivated by the lack of emphasis and policy action on micro-credit and basic infrastructures for the poor and the disadvantaged, especially in rural India. Therefore, all three papers in this dissertation provide policy recommendations to problems of India's economic development relating to gender inequity, marginalization, unemployment, education and health, which thread the three essays together.Item Open Access Three essays on public policies in Indonesia(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Tampubolon, Devanand Pandapotan, author; Pena, Anita Alves, advisor; Braunstein, Elissa, committee member; Cutler, Harvey, committee member; Seidl, Andrew, committee memberThis dissertation studies tax burden, tax compliance, and cooking fuel choice and energy policy in Indonesia. The three papers observe the impact of recent public policy changes in taxation and cooking fuel. The first paper comprehensively analyzes the burden of Value-Added Tax (VAT), focusing on current exemptions. This paper uses expenditure as the proxy of income or welfare to examine the VAT burden. This paper finds that the effective VAT rate is 4.51 percent nationally and weakly progressive. The effective VAT rate is relatively similar to other developing countries, but only half of the developed countries. The VAT burden is lower and more progressive in rural areas than in urban areas. The tax burden on food consumption is lower and regressive, while higher and progressive for nonfood consumption. While households in non-Java islands spend more than households in Java, this paper finds that the effective tax rate in non-Java is less than in Java. The first paper also simulates the impact of the VAT reform implemented in April 2022. The result shows that if the exempted items are maintained (by only changing nontaxable to taxable but still excused from VAT) and the tax rate increase from 10 percent to 11 percent, the tax burden will increase proportionally to all expenditure deciles by 10 percent. However, the calculations suggest that if all exemptions are excluded, the tax burden will be double that of the previous tax regime and the poorest households will get hit more than the richest. The second paper studies the impact of the high VAT threshold introduced in 2014 on small firms' reported revenues. The threshold is set to help both the tax authorities and small businesses. However, the existence of a threshold will be counterproductive in its strength of providing transaction information. Due to a lack of trading information, the tax authority will have more difficulties assessing the tax obligation owed by the taxpayers. This paper utilizes quasi-natural experiments and Difference-in Difference regression to explore the treatment effect. The treatment group is wholesale firms, and the control group is retail firms. This paper finds that wholesale reports lower revenues by 58-70 percent for four years than those in the retail sectors. This paper also finds that the decrease in reported revenues is larger than the reported costs. This may lead us to conclude that the lower reported revenues are due to underreporting revenues. The third paper studies the determinants of cooking fuel choices and energy policy in Indonesia amid the zero kerosene program. This study finds that government policy is important for the transition to clean energy. One percent increase in the distribution of LPG Kits increases the probability of clean energy usage by 2%. The impact is almost double in urban areas compared to rural areas. All socioeconomic and demographic factors significantly influence the household choice of cooking fuel. Households with higher income and wealth, better house infrastructure, formal education, electric network, and mobile phone are more likely to be clean energy users. On the other hand, working women, household heads working in agriculture, and bigger household sizes are identic to unclean energy. The age and gender of the head have different effects on urban and rural households. In line with the findings of previous studies, household income is still the main determinant of clean energy. One percent increase in income will impact the probability of clean energy by 10 to 13 percentage points. With steady GDP growth of around 5-6% yearly, Indonesia has a good path to transition to clean energy. The three essays complement each other to strengthen Indonesia's economic development. Taxation is essential for adequate and sustainable public funding and clean energy is for better living and productivity. Chapter One provides insight into estimates of the VAT burden in society. This will help the government to improve VAT revenue with a less negative impact on society, especially for low-income people. Chapter Two provides insight for government to improve the utilization of information from the VAT system and tax compliance. Adequate and sustainable self-funding through taxation will enable the government to provide sustainable clean cooking fuel, which may help society become healthier and more productive. Chapter Three has the implication that tax policy can be used to promote clean cooking fuel. The current VAT exemption on households that use electric power up to 6600 VA should be maintained to encourage low-income families to use clean cooking fuel.Item Open Access What factors affect school attendance? Quantitative and qualitative study of evidence from Nepal(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Bhattarai, Niroj Kumar, author; Bernasek, Alexandra, advisor; Pena, Anita Alves, advisor; Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee member; Kent, Suzanne, committee member; Canetto, Silvia, committee memberThere exist many factors that impact school attendance of students in developing countries. Factors range from the distance to school from a student's home to the availability of gender-specific restrooms. A project in the south east part of Nepal that built gender-specific restrooms and brought running water to the school increased enrollment and attendance of the students, particularly of girls. To study what other factors impact attendance, a survey was conducted in and around Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. An econometric study of the data generated by the survey showed that time spent studying at home, having an educated mother and an employed mother, all had positive effect on students' attendance. Distance to school, presence of siblings, and lack of computers had negative effects on attendance. The data also demonstrated gender differences in what and how various factors affected attendance at the secondary level of education in Nepal.