Between Dec 19, 2024 and Jan 2, 2025, datasets can be submitted to DRUM but will not be processed until after the break. Staff will not be available to answer email during this period, and will not be able to provide DOIs until after Jan 2. If you are in need of a DOI during this period, consider Dryad or OpenICPSR. Submission responses to the UDC may also be delayed during this time.
 

Essays on the Microeconomics of Development in the Middle East and North Africa

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Persistent link to this item

Statistics
View Statistics

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Title

Essays on the Microeconomics of Development in the Middle East and North Africa

Published Date

2015-08

Publisher

Type

Thesis or Dissertation

Abstract

This dissertation explores a variety of issues in the microeconomics of development, specifically in terms of labor and human development in the Middle East and North Africa. The three essays in this dissertation address a diverse array of development challenges through microeconomic and microeconometric analysis. The first essay investigates the returns to vocational secondary schooling as compared to other routes to vocational skills, such as apprenticeships, in Egypt. A longitudinal dataset allows for causal inference about returns by comparing siblings. The essay shows that, for recent cohorts, the estimated returns to vocational secondary education are the same as attaining no formal education, while the returns to skills obtained outside of formal education are substantial. The second essay first demonstrates that fertility has recently risen in Egypt and then investigates whether declining employment opportunities for women, and therefore lower opportunity costs for childrearing, may have contributed to the increase in fertility. Discrete-time hazard models are used to estimate the relationship between employment and childbearing, variously incorporating instrumental variables and fixed effects to address the endogeneity of employment. Results suggest that declining public sector employment, which is particularly appealing to women, contributed to the rise in fertility. The third essay identifies large socio-economic disparities in child health and nutrition in Jordan and investigates the factors contributing to inequality in children's height and weight, including parental health knowledge, food quantity and quality, health conditions, the health environment, and prenatal development. This essay demonstrates that the health environment and feeding contribute to inequality in child health but that these effects mediate only a small part of socio-economic disparities. Much of the inequality in children's health is determined prenatally, for instance through disparities in fetal growth. Overall, the findings of these three essays indicate important directions for future policies and programs to promote human and economic development.

Description

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. August 2015. Major: Applied Economics. Advisor: Paul Glewwe. 1 computer file (PDF); x, 230 pages.

Related to

Replaces

License

Collections

Series/Report Number

Funding information

Isbn identifier

Doi identifier

Previously Published Citation

Other identifiers

Suggested citation

Krafft, Caroline. (2015). Essays on the Microeconomics of Development in the Middle East and North Africa. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/175215.

Content distributed via the University Digital Conservancy may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor. By using these files, users agree to the Terms of Use. Materials in the UDC may contain content that is disturbing and/or harmful. For more information, please see our statement on harmful content in digital repositories.