Patiño Peña, Fausto2019-12-112019-12-112019-08https://hdl.handle.net/11299/209125University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. August 2019. Major: Economics. Advisor: Ellen McGrattan. 1 computer file (PDF); v, 98 pages.This dissertation studies the effects of government policies on macroeconomic aggregates. Chapter 1 evaluates the impact of occupational licensing on consumer welfare, the allocation of labor, and the wage premium between licensed and unlicensed workers. In the United States, workers must undergo training and pay a fee to become licensed. Licensing policy protects consumers by alleviating an information asymmetry in the product market. However, it is an entry barrier that distorts the occupational choice of workers in the labor market. To analyze this trade-off, a framework with adverse selection in the product market and occupational choice in the labor market is developed. The model is calibrated to the US labor market using worker level micro-data. Removing licensing training requirements leads to a 4 percent reduction in consumer welfare and the wage premium falls by more than half. Chapter 2 is written jointly with Marcos Dinerstein. This chapter studies the effect of corporate taxes on aggregate total factor productivity (TFP). Using Chilean manufacturing data, this chapter documents that there is large dispersion in the effective tax rate and there is a large mass of firms facing a 0 percent tax rate. These features are used to develop and discipline a standard monopolistic competition model with corporate tax rates. When corporate taxes are eliminated, TFP increases between 4 and 11 percent. However, when all firms face the Chilean statutory tax rate, TFP decreases despite the fact that the dispersion in tax rates is eliminated. Chapter 3 is coauthored with Guillermo Cabral. This chapter analyzes the role of demographics in explaining the trends of real variables after the Great Recession. An important reason why demographics play an important role during the crisis's recovery period is that the Great Recession coincides with the “baby boomers” entering retirement age. This chapter documents that employment is converging to a different trend relative to its pre-crisis long term trend. A standard growth model with demographic features is calibrated in order to quantify the effect of demographics on output after the Great Recession. Demographics account for 35% of the change in the trend of output after 2008.enAllocation of ResourcesCorporate Tax RatesDemographicsGovernment PolicyOccupational LicensingThesis or Dissertation