A number of recent papers using a linear specification have indicated that private property institutions are a fundamental determinant of growth. In my first paper, I use a semi-nonparametric partially linear model to provide evidence against a linear specification and to support nonlinearities...

We estimate the effect of household appliance ownership on the labor force participation rate of married women using micro-level data from the 1960 and 1970 U.S. Censuses. In order to identify the causal effect of home appliance ownership on married women's labor force participation rates, our...

An instrumental variables strategy is employed to determine whether the observed association between individual human capital and average skills in ethnic groups (ethnic capital), even after conditioning on parental skills, is due to ethnic peer effects. The instrument for ethnic capital is...

We see industrialization in China the last 150 years as an ongoing process through which firms acquired and deepened manufacturing capabilities. Two factors have been consistently important to this process: openness to the international economy and domestic market liberalization. Openness and...

The theme of my dissertation is emerging capital markets behavior. I utilize three approaches: institutional, experimental and econometric to study the impact of reforms on capital allocation and stock market operation.In Chapter one, using a unique data set on Chinese provincial savings and...

Tunneling behavior, which is defined as the transfer of assets and profits out of a firm for the benefit of the firms controlling shareholders, has become the focus of increasing attention in the theoretical and empirical literature. There are some corporate governance procedures, however, that...