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ESSAYS ON THE ECONOMETRICS OF PROGRAM EVALUATION
by
Kannika Damrongplasit
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(ECONOMICS)
December 2007
Copyright 2007 Kannika Damrongplasit
Object Description
| Title | Essays on the econometrics of program evaluation |
| Author | Damrongplasit, Kannika |
| Author email | kannikad@gmail.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Economics |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2007-06-18 |
| Date submitted | 2007 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2007-08-30 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Hsiao, Cheng |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Nugent, Jeffrey Nichol, Michael |
| Abstract | Through two empirical studies, we explore various methods that can be used to estimate the average treatment effect of a dichotomous policy variable. The first essay uses many cross-sectional program evaluation techniques and applies them to a micro-level data set. The second essay assesses the effect of a macro-level intervention on outcome variables with the use of time-series approaches.; In the first study, we use the 2001 wave of National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS) to assess the impact of marijuana decriminalization policy on marijuana smoking prevalence in Australia. Both parametric and nonparametric methods are used. The parametric approach postulates an endogenous probit switching model and its nested binary probit, endogenous bivariate probit and two-part models. The nonparametric approach uses the propensity score stratification matching to compute alternative measures of the treatment effect. Specification analyses are also conducted. We use likelihood ratio test to choose among nested parametric models, then construct a nonparametric kernel-based test to select between a parametric null model and its nonparametric alternative. Both normal and bootstrap empirical distributions are used to approximate the null distribution of the test statistic. Our specification analyses demonstrate that the endogenous probit switching model is superior to other models, which suggests that decriminalization raises the probability of smoking marijuana by 16.3%.; The second study uses monthly data from January 1993 to June 2005 to assess the effectiveness of capital controls in restoring the Malaysian economy as compared to the IMF programs used in Indonesia, Korea, and Thailand. We analyze various aspects of the economy by employing both conventional and time-shifted difference-in-difference estimations. To evaluate the effects in the short, medium, and long runs, this study includes one to six years of treatment periods. Our estimation results from the time-shifted approach favor capital controls as a more effective crisis' solution than the IMF programs in the short and medium runs. However, when the conventional method is used, the performance of capital controls relative to the IMF programs is found to vary depending on the economic measure of interest, the treatment period considered and the set of IMF countries used for comparison. |
| Keyword | average treatment effect; capital controls; decriminalization; difference-in-difference estimation; endogenous probit switching; nonparametric kernel-based test; propensity score matching |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m802 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Damrongplasit, Kannika |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | http://www.usc.edu/isd/libraries/services/ask_a_librarian/email/ |
| Filename | etd-Damrongplasit-20070830 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume29/etd-Damrongplasit-20070830.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Full text | ESSAYS ON THE ECONOMETRICS OF PROGRAM EVALUATION by Kannika Damrongplasit A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (ECONOMICS) December 2007 Copyright 2007 Kannika Damrongplasit |
