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Three essays on Policy Evaluation and Analysis
Kopečná, Vědunka ; Baxa, Jaromír (advisor) ; Steininger, Karl (referee) ; Brůha, Jan (referee) ; Janda, Karel (referee)
Three essays on policy evaluation and analysis Author Mgr. Vědunka Kopečná Year 2021 Advisor PhDr. Jaromír Baxa, Ph.D. No. of pages 164 This thesis consists of three articles sharing the main theme - evaluation of policies related to current issues both from micro and macroeconomic perspectives. The dissertation aims at the central European region. The first article presents a novel methodology of a hybrid dynamic computable general equilibrium model used to quantify socio-economic impacts of an emission abatement driven policy focused on adoption of electric vehicles in personal transport on the example of Austria. Heterogeneous micro-founded preferences are integrated into a dynamic computational general equilibrium model which is further linked to a bottom-up technology-rich electricity model and a stock-flow vehicle accounting model. Endogenously determined emissions from vehicle use, electricity generation, and production provide an input to quantify external costs attributable to air quality and carbon emissions using the Impact Pathway Analysis. The second article estimates the elasticity of substitution between capital, labour, energy and materials in the constant elasticity of substitution production function, which is being used in a majority of general equilibrium models. We use a non-linear...
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Optimal menu when agents make mistakes
Mikhalishchev, Sergei
This paper studies a welfare maximization problem with heterogeneous agents. A social planner designs a menu of choices for agents who misperceive either the properties of options or their own preferences. When agents misperceive the true properties of alternatives, it is optimal to limit a menu when the probability of a mistaken choice is moderately high. Additionally, it could be optimal to construct the menu with more distinct alternatives. However, when agents misperceive their own tastes, it is optimal to limit choice only when agents choose randomly, and to propose alternatives that are more similar when there is a greater probability of agents making a mistake.
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Attentional role of quota implementation
Matveenko, Andrei ; Mikhalishchev, S.
This paper introduces a new role of quotas, e.g., labor market quotas: the attentional role. We study the effect of quota implementation on the attention allocation strategy of a rationally inattentive (RI) agent. Our main result is that an RI agent who is forced to fulfill a quota never hires the candidates without acquiring information about them, unlike an unrestricted RI agent\nwho in some cases bases her decision on prior belief only. We also show that in our context quotas are equivalent to other types of affirmative policies such as subsidies and blind resume policy. We show how our results can be used to set a quota level that increases the expected value of the chosen candidate and also decreases statistical discrimination and discrimination in terms of how much attention is paid to each applicant. At the same time, quota implementation could be destructive if the social planner has imperfect information about the parameters of the model.\n
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Determinants of Stocks' Choice in Portfolio Competitions
Šmíd, Martin ; Kuběna, Aleš Antonín
We study investment competitions in which the players invest a virtual amount of money into financial asset and those with highest returns, measured by the actual prices, are rewarded by fixed prizes. We show that the competition, seen as a game, lacks a pure equilibrium and that the ``max-min'' solution of the game lies in the extremal point of the feasible set having maximal probability of victory. We show further that if a mixed equilibrium exists then its atoms lie exactly in the extremal points with a non-zero probability of victory and its weights are close to corresponding probabilities of victory. We analyse empirically a portfolio competition held recently by the Czech portal ``lidovky.cz''; we find that the majority of people do not behave according to the game-theoretic conclusions. Consequently, searching for factors influencing a choice of particular stocks, we find that the participants' choice may be explained by several stock traits to a certain extent. We also show that participants tend to choose negatively diversified portfolios.
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Assessing the influence of sickness benefits on worker absenteeism: An empirical analysis based on panel data
Kureková, Lucie ; Čermáková, Klára (advisor) ; Chytilová, Helena (referee)
The influence of economic variables on the probability of being absent was analyzed using longitudinal data on work absence behaviour for each day during 2006 and 2009. Panel data contain everyday information about work attendance of each employee working in the company in South Bohemia, the final sample has 43 800 observations. During the observed period, there were a number of reforms of the sickness insurance in the Czech Republic performed and such reforms affected primarily the replacement level of earnings and influenced the period guaranteeing sickness benefits for an employee. The method used by Johansson and Palme (2002) has been followed. As them, I as well distinguish between the dynamic dependence varying in the fact whether the worker is in the work presence state or in the work absence state. Empirical results show that the worker's costs arising from being absent have a significant effect on work absence behaviour.
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Rational inattention to discrete choices: a new foundation for the multinomial logit model
Matějka, Filip ; McKay, A.
Often, individuals must choose among discrete alternatives with imperfect information about their values, such as selecting a job candidate, a vehicle or a university. Before choosing, they may have an opportunity to study the options, but doing so is costly. This costly information acquisition creates new choices such as the number of and types of questions to ask the job candidates. We model these situations using the tools of the rational inattention approach to information frictions (Sims, 2003).
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