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dc.contributor.advisorAbhijit V. Banerjee and Joshua Angrist.en_US
dc.contributor.authorDuflo, Esther, 1972-en_US
dc.contributor.otherMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Economics.en_US
dc.date.accessioned2005-08-22T18:58:34Z
dc.date.available2005-08-22T18:58:34Z
dc.date.copyright1999en_US
dc.date.issued1999en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/9516
dc.descriptionThesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, c1999.en_US
dc.descriptionIncludes bibliographical references.en_US
dc.description.abstractThis thesis is a collection of three essays in empirical development economics. The first chapter evaluates the effects on education and wages of a large school construction program undertaken by the Indonesian government between 1973 and 1978. I evaluate the effect of this program on education and wages by combining differences across regions in the number of schools constructed with differences across cohorts induced by the timing of the program. The estimates suggest that the construction of primary schools led to a substantial increase in education and earnings. These estimates implie returns to education ranging from 6.4% to 9.1%. This second chapter studies the impact of household resources on child nutrition in South Africa. In the early 1990s, the benefits and coverage of the South African social pension program were dramatically expanded for the black population. About a third of black South African children under age 5 live with an elderly person. This chapter examines whether this large positive income shock was followed by an improvement of anthropometric status. Estimates suggest that pensions received by women had a large and significant impact on the anthropometric status of girls and a smaller and insignificant effect on that of boys. I found no effect of the pension on child nutrition when it is received by men. The third chapter examines the role that reputation plays in determining contractual outcomes, using a data set containing detailed information about 230 projects carried out by 125 software firms that I have collected for this purpose. Ex ante contracts as well as the outcome after ex post renegotiation vary with firms' characteristics plausibly associated with reputation. I propose a model of the industry where reputation determines contractual outcomes, whose predictions are consistent with several facts observed in the data.en_US
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityby Esther Duflo.en_US
dc.format.extent183, [14] p.en_US
dc.format.extent16334956 bytes
dc.format.extent16334713 bytes
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherMassachusetts Institute of Technologyen_US
dc.rightsM.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.en_US
dc.rights.urihttp://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582
dc.subjectEconomics.en_US
dc.titleEssays in empirical development economicsen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.description.degreePh.D.en_US
dc.contributor.departmentMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economicsen_US
dc.identifier.oclc43839347en_US


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