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Essays in Applied Econometrics
Bělín, Matěj ; Jurajda, Štěpán (advisor) ; Guzi, Martin (referee) ; Böheim, René (referee)
These three chapters contain three applications of econometric techniques on empirical data describing the behavior of networks of actors. Chapter 1 shows that much of the commonly reported decline in international trade associated with increasing distance between countries is attributable to cultural (in-)compatibility among trading partners. The estimates show that cultural closeness is nearly as important for trade as is geographical proximity. Chapter 2 investigates the imposition of sanctions by the Western coalition against Russia over the annexation of Crimea, showing their limited impact compared to Russian counter-sanctions. These results align with the theoretical literature emphasizing the difficulty of balancing political interests in punishing the target country and the economic interests of domestic voters and firms. The final chapter studies small groups of prisoners during WWII and reveals how the presence of friends increased chances of surviving in concentration camps.
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Essays on Citizenship Policies and Immigrant Integration
Sargsyan, Vahan ; Hanousek, Jan (advisor) ; Guzi, Martin (referee) ; Elsner, Benjamin (referee)
Differential treatment towards minority groups in host societies and labor markets may be a result of both a governmental registration system that fosters unequal rights based on the origins of individuals and the disadvantageous attitude of local employers and the general population towards non-locals. In the first chapter, I test for differential treatment in the Chinese labor market towards rural migrants with and without urban registration, using data from the Rural to Urban Migration Survey in China. The findings indicate that despite its often-assumed large impact on the differential treatment towards rural migrants, the type of household registration (hukou) is not entirely responsible for the local-migrant differences in the total hourly earnings that are not attributable to personal characteristics. The results suggest that even the complete abolishment of the hukou system may at most eliminate only a portion of the disadvantageous treatment towards rural female migrants that is not attributable to differences in personal characteristics, and may even have no measurable impact on rural male migrants working in the paid-employment sector in Chinese urban labor markets. In the second chapter, I conduct an empirical study in order to estimate the impact of naturalization on the labor market...
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Essays on Access to Higher Education, Welfare Traps, and Welfare Migration
Guzi, Martin ; Münich, Daniel (advisor) ; Herbst, Mikolaj (referee) ; Moritz, Michael (referee)
Introduction The research conducted for my dissertation covers topics from labor economics and consists of three empirical papers. In the first chapter, co-authored with Michal Franta, we analyze the demand for tertiary education in the Czech Republic depending on university proximity. The study explores the difference in the probability of entering tertiary education for two secondary school graduates who differ only in that the first one resides within commuting distance to a university while the other one does not. We presume that the advantage of having access to a local university follows in two ways: first, attending a non-local university is associated with costs, either for monetary or non-monetary reasons. These include direct costs (travel costs, accommodation outside the parental home) and indirect costs (opportunity costs). If individuals are cost sensitive, these extra costs may affect their decision to attend a university and which particular university to attend. Second, informational advantages from a university environment are beneficial in the enrollment process to a university. The information advantage to a potential applicant transfers through face-to-face contacts with university students and easier access to preparatory courses organized by local faculty for applicants, etc. We...
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