Two Essays On Spatial Econometrics And An Essay On Pre Employment Credit Checks

This dissertation consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 discuss two topics in spatial econometrics. Chapter 3 discusses one topic on pre-employment credit checks in job markets.

Abstract: The first essay explores the consequences of misspecified spatial interdependence structure in SAR models with a row-normalized weight matrix. I provide the analytical formulae for the asymptotic biases of the OLS estimator when a spatial weight matrix is over-specified, under-specified, or omitted in a simple linear regression model. I then design Monte Carlo experiments to study how a misspecified spatial weight matrix in the SAR model might impact the finite sample properties of the 2SLSE and MLE. The major finding is that an "over-specification" of the weight matrix causes less bias in 2SLSE and MLE as well as lower RMSE than an "under-specification." The results also strongly suggest that goodness of fit measures such as adjusted R-square and log-likelihood can serve as selection criteria for the choice of a spatial weight matrix. In the second essay, I consider the effectiveness of Wald, distance difference, minimum Chi-square, and gradient tests within GMM framework in selecting different specifications of spatial weights in SAR models. The two major results I obtain are (1) that for each of the five tests, GMM framework significantly improves the empirical power of the tests over 2SLS framework, and (2) that when performed in GMM framework, all five tests have suitable empirical size and power with similar performance outcomes. Finally, the third essay investigates the nature of competition in the retail gasoline market using a two year panel data of weekly prices for gas stations in San Diego County. I use IV methods to estimate several spatial autoregressive (SAR) models of stations' price reaction functions after specifying spatial weights based on distance between stations. By using the SAR model, I am able to identify that the brand of competing stations and their relative geographic proximity to the original station are important factors in explaining price variation across gasoline stations, as opposed to just the number of competing stations.

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In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

A Turing Award-winning computer scientist and statistician shows how understanding causality has revolutionized science and will revolutionize artificial intelligence "Correlation is not causation." This mantra, chanted by scientists for more than a century, has led to a virtual prohibition on causal talk. Today, that taboo is dead. The causal revolution, instigated by Judea Pearl and his colleagues, has cut through a century of confusion and established causality -- the study of cause and effect -- on a firm scientific basis. His work explains how we can know easy things, like whether it was rain or a sprinkler that made a sidewalk wet; and how to answer hard questions, like whether a drug cured an illness. Pearl's work enables us to know not just whether one thing causes another: it lets us explore the world that is and the worlds that could have been. It shows us the essence of human thought and key to artificial intelligence. Anyone who wants to understand either needs The Book of Why.

Gregory Bateson was a philosopher, anthropologist, photographer, naturalist, and poet, as well as the husband and collaborator of Margaret Mead. This classic anthology of his major work includes a new Foreword by his daughter, Mary Katherine Bateson. 5 line drawings.

The winners of the Nobel Prize show how economics, when done right, can help us solve the thorniest social and political problems of our day. Figuring out how to deal with today's critical economic problems is perhaps the great challenge of our time. Much greater than space travel or perhaps even the next revolutionary medical breakthrough, what is at stake is the whole idea of the good life as we have known it. Immigration and inequality, globalization and technological disruption, slowing growth and accelerating climate change--these are sources of great anxiety across the world, from New Delhi and Dakar to Paris and Washington, DC. The resources to address these challenges are there--what we lack are ideas that will help us jump the wall of disagreement and distrust that divides us. If we succeed, history will remember our era with gratitude; if we fail, the potential losses are incalculable. In this revolutionary book, renowned MIT economists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo take on this challenge, building on cutting-edge research in economics explained with lucidity and grace. Original, provocative, and urgent, Good Economics for Hard Times makes a persuasive case for an intelligent interventionism and a society built on compassion and respect. It is an extraordinary achievement, one that shines a light to help us appreciate and understand our precariously balanced world.