The deteriorating labor market position of young men has arguably played an important role in later and less frequent marriage since the 1970s. This dissertation examines the relationship between men’s socioeconomic characteristics and marriage formation and the labor market causes of marriage...

In most countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, the transition to market led to the emergence of a private sector and open unemployment. The Belarusian labor market is characterized by low official unemployment, combined with a low share of the private...

The first two essays of this dissertation use policy experiments to show that low-skilled newly arriving immigrants help keep the economy in geographic equilibrium by differentially selecting destinations that provide better labor market prospects. The first essay finds that immigrants choose...

In three chapters I study the formation of social networks, and the impact the structures that arise may have in various economic settings. First, I develop a model of social network formation with heterogeneous agents and incomplete information. The model predicts an equilibrium in which agents...

There are a number of reasons to expect that incarceration will have long-term, negative consequences for economic/labor market success, and that the consequences may be especially acute for minority ex-offenders. This study replicates and extends Bruce Western's research on the impact of...

Space Solar Power (SSP) is a concept to beam energy from space to terrestrial power grids that could be feasible in about twenty to forty years. Due to the current climate of limited government funding for such large-scale space projects, NASA would prefer more industry involvement (technically...

Background: Health-care institutions have looked to business for models to respond to the requirement for reform. This has changed the perspective of institutions that were founded on charitable principles, and managed with liberal employment policies and deficit budgeting. Using lesions from...

The following appendices have been prepared by a team of subject-matter experts at theSchool of Public Policy at George Mason University (GMU) under a contract with thePostal Regulatory Commission (PRC).Section 702 of the Postal Enhancement and Accountability Act (PAEA) required thePostal...

In the Fall of 1978, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) initiated a program for the design and evaluation of alternate cogeneration systems. The primary objective of the study is to analyze the overall system value of cogeneration. A portion of the study involved the development of a...