Understanding the Political Motivations That Shape Rwanda's Emergent Developmental State

Twenty years after its horrific genocide, Rwanda has become a model for economic development. At the same time, its government has been criticised for authoritarian tactics and the use of violence. Missing from the often polarised debate are the connections between these two perspectives. Synthesising existing literature on Rwanda in light of a combined year of fieldwork, we argue that the Government of Rwanda is using the developmental infrastructure to deepen state power and expand political control. We first identify the historical pressures that have motivated the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) to reimagine the political landscape. Sectarian unrest, political rivalry, wider regional insecurity and aid withdrawal have all pressured the RPF to identify growth as strategic. However, the political transformation extends beyond a prioritisation of growth and encompasses the articulation of ideologies and new mindsets, the provision of social services and infrastructure and the reordering of the social and physical layout of the territory. Growth and social control go hand in hand. As such, this paper's main contribution is to bring together the two sides of the Rwandan debate and place the country in a broader sociological literature about the parallel development of capitalist relations and transformations in state power.     

Modelling the sectoral allocation of labour in open economy models

Indivisible labour is not the only type of non‐convexity affecting labour supply decisions. Another type of non‐convexity arises in economies with sectors whenever individuals can work in only one sector at a time. I introduce this restriction into an open economy model with a tradeable and a non‐tradeable sector, and I use lotteries to convexify the consumption possibilities set. This approach implies that the aggregate elasticity of labour supply becomes infinite. I compare the performance of the model with an analogous model in which the labour supply elasticity is finite. I find that there is a disconnect between the response of wages to monetary shocks and the open economy variables. The labour supply elasticity plays a more important role in the transmission of technology and government expenditure shocks to the real exchange rate and the terms of trade.     

The relative performance of foreign-owned subsidiaries and domestic companies

The paper investigates the financial performance of the largest firms in Romania, by comparing foreign-owned subsidiaries (FOS) and domestic companies (DCs) over a decade. As such, the paper contributes to the literature on foreign direct investment (FDI) in transition economies, focusing on a country where few such studies have been conducted previously. Whereas most microeconomic research about Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies is concerned with the effects of FDI, this paper fills a gap in the literature by comparing the evolution of FOS and DCs performance during 2003–2012. This matter is approached in a novel methodological way, by applying the multiple correspondence analysis to explain the complex relationships between ownership, modes of entry and performance, as reflected in turnover and profit margins. One result is that FOS replaced DCs in top national positions, when taking into account size and turnover. However, although FDI via acquisitions financially outperformed DCs, the latter did better than greenfield FDI after the global economic crisis. Of all the factors analysed, the sector of activity resulted as having by far the most important influence on financial performance. The results have implications for policymakers who design FDI programmes for economic development.     

DOES TIME TO WORK LIMIT TIME TO PLAY?: ESTIMATING A TIME ALLOCATION MODEL FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS BY HOUSEHOLD SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS

We use data from the 2003 to 2014 American Time Use Survey to estimate substitution between working and extracurricular time for high school students, which may have long‐run educational and labor market consequences. We find that working students are 5 percentage points less likely to participate in extracurricular activities and spend 40 minutes less on extracurriculars per day. We estimate heterogeneous effects by socioeconomic indicators to test whether disadvantaged students are more or less likely to substitute time away from extracurriculars. We find the largest interaction effects by paternal education, where working students with low paternal education are 0.5 percentage points more likely to engage in extracurriculars and increase extracurriculars by 15 minutes per day. (JEL I2, J22, J24)     

Exchange Rules and the Incentive Compatibility of Choice Experiments

The incentive properties of stated-preference surveys continue to be a central debate in the valuation of public goods. The majority of empirical studies have focused on incentive properties of contingent valuation questions in relation to situations where answers have monetary consequences. This research explores the incentive properties of repeated, attribute-based choice questions when subjects are provided with an explicit connection between choices and outcomes. Two market/provision-rules are investigated: a posted-price market and a plurality-rule vote. These two provision rules are contrasted to treatments in which no provision rule is discussed—subjects are simply asked to choose their preferred alternative. These three hypothetical choice treatments are compared with a binding choice treatment. While none of the public good treatments are theoretically incentive compatible, we include a comparison of hypothetical and binding choices for a private-good that is incentive compatible. The private good experiments indicate that marginal willingness to pay (WTP) estimates from the hypothetical treatment are larger, but not statistically different than corresponding estimates in the binding choice treatment. Results for the public good experiments indicate that marginal WTP estimates from the hypothetical treatments are much larger, and statistically different than corresponding estimates in the binding choice treatment. The bias is largest when no provision rule is discussed. The bias is reduced with the inclusion of a provision rule, but surprisingly, there was no difference across provision rule treatments. Overall, our results indicate that choice experiments involving a public good should include a provision rule to reduce bias, but the resulting marginal WTP estimates may still be more biased, on average, than those arising from contingent valuation survey formats.     

Marriage equality and interstate migration

This study examines the impact of state imposed, marriage equality laws on interstate migration prior to the 26 June 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling to legalize same-sex marriage in all states. Results of the estimation of a series of probit models suggest that all head of households are more likely to leave states without marriage equality. This estimated impact is significantly larger for household heads in same-sex relationships. When examining the migration choices separately by both sex and relationship type, this result remains significant for female heads of households in different-sex relationships and male heads of households in same-sex relationships. Simulations, using the results of the probit estimations, the analysis of regional trends, and recent rebellions against the Supreme Court ruling indicate that state level, marriage equality laws may be aggravating the imbalanced distribution of same- and different-sex couple households across the country.     

Trust, trustworthiness, and risk in rural Paraguay

This dissertation looks at the relationship between trust, trustworthiness, and risk aversion in a rural Paraguayan setting. The first chapter of this dissertation looks at theft between farmers. Rural areas of developing countries often lack effective legal enforcement. However, villagers who know each other well and interact repeatedly may use implicit contracts to minimize crime. I construct a dynamic limited-commitment model in which a thief cannot credibly commit to forego stealing from his fellow villagers but may be induced to limit his stealing by the promise of future gifts from his potential victim. Using a unique survey from rural Paraguay which combines traditional data on production with information on theft, gifts, and trust, as well as with experiments measuring trust and trustworthiness, I test whether the data is consistent with predictions from the dynamic model. The results provide evidence that, in contrast with predictions from a one-period model with an anonymous thief, farmers do implicitly contract with one another to limit theft. Farmers who have more close family members in their village give fewer gifts, and farmers with plots which are more difficult to steal from give fewer gifts, experience less theft, and trust more. Gift-giving increases when trust is lower and the threat of theft is greater, turning the social capital literature on its head. The second chapter of this dissertation looks at a different linkage between trust, trustworthiness, and risk. Trusting behavior in general and play in the traditional trust experiment specifically depend both on trust beliefs and on levels of risk aversion. I ran two experiments with a diverse set of subjects in fifteen villages of rural Paraguay, the traditional trust experiment and a new experiment measuring only risk aversion. I find that risk attitudes are highly predictive of play in the trust game. In addition, omitting risk aversion as a regressor in trust regressions significantly changes the coefficients of important explanatory variables such as gender and wealth. The chair of this dissertation committee was Ethan Ligon and the other committee members were George Akerlof and Elisabeth Sadoulet.     

Occupational Careers and Longitudinal Data: Tools and Perspectives of Research

Over the last years, the start of an increasing number of longitudinal researches and the development of suitable techniques of analysis have made possible the study of an increasing number of questions about social mobility and individual careers. Yet there is not just one way to face the study of careers. For the richness of the information they contain, longitudinal data offer the possibility to carry out different types of analysis according to the different questions of research. In this article four different approaches to the study of work-life careers will be introduced. The objective is twofold. On one hand, the study intends to offer a brief introduction to the most recent and sophisticated techniques that can be used for the analysis of careers. On the other hand, the article aims to point out the theoretical contribution that each technique can give to the debate on social mobility. The main potentialities and limits of the techniques will be stressed too.The techniques introduced in this article represent a fruitful approach for the study of work-life histories and occupational careers. Nevertheless they can be used for the analysis of all kinds of social careers.     

Disease management primer: managing dollars by managing disease

The costliest participants to treat are those with chronic and serious, acute conditions that are often preventable. Developing programs aimed at patients with chronic conditions could be the key to getting control of health care costs. Disease management programs seek to alleviate some of this expense by better managing chronic illnesses and improving the overall health care of employees.