Essays in Labor Economics
| dc.contributor.advisor | Hansen, Benjamin | |
| dc.contributor.author | McNichols, Drew | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-09-18T19:21:12Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2019-09-18T19:21:12Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2019-09-18 | |
| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation includes three essays in labor economics. Youth Employment Opportunities and Crime: Criminal involvement has been shown to peak at a young age. While Becker's theory of the rational criminal is often referenced as a justification for increasing punishments and policing, his model also suggests that improving labor market options reduces criminality. For this reason, I estimate the impact of youth labor market opportunities on arrest rates. I instrument for shocks in local employment demand with national industry trends using a shift share approach. My estimates suggest that a 1 percent increase in labor market opportunities leads to a 1.08 percent decrease in arrests for 14-18-year-olds. Information and the Persistence of the Gender Wage Gap; Early Evidence from California's Salary History Ban: Reductions in wage disparities across race and gender have stagnated in the recent decades. Recent popular focus on these inequalities has led to demands for policy interventions to reduce pay gaps. The most recent legislation intended to improve wage equality prohibits employers from asking about previously earned salaries. The intent of this legislation is to redress persistent pay inequalities. Salary history bans (SHBs) have been implemented in varying degrees (public and private) in multiple cities and states. I use a synthetic control approach to measure the impact of a statewide SHB in California. After the passing of a statewide SHB, statewide female-male earnings ratios increased from 0.77 (where they have been stagnant for the last 12 years) to 0.81. Moreover, I find these results are driven by an increase of the earnings ratio in male-dominated industries. Marijuana Legalization and Violent Crime: Marijuana legalization has spread rapidly across the United States. Recently, after decades of decreases, violent crime rates have rebounded slightly in the United States. We test whether marijuana legalization has contributed to increased violence using a synthetic control design approach using the first two recreational marijuana adopters: Colorado and Washington. Using data from the Supplemental Homicide Reports and Uniform Crime and Reports, we largely find evidence that crime trends closely follow those predicted by synthetic control methods. This dissertation includes previously unpublished co-authored material. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1794/24875 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.publisher | University of Oregon | |
| dc.rights | All Rights Reserved. | |
| dc.subject | Labor Economics | en_US |
| dc.title | Essays in Labor Economics | |
| dc.type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Department of Economics | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Oregon | |
| thesis.degree.level | doctoral | |
| thesis.degree.name | Ph.D. |
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