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Essays in public and labor economics
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Tsankova, Teodora (2020) Essays in public and labor economics. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3714552~S15
Abstract
This thesis explores topics in public and labor economics summarized below.
Chapter 1 explores drivers of native support for immigration. It studies the importance of labor market concerns and the role of labor protection in shaping native preferences over migration policies. We look at the Swiss context and national votes which took place in the period from 2000 to 2014. Our results show that a higher migrant exposure reduces pro-immigrant vote shares in municipalities with a relatively low-skilled native population. The negative response is mitigated under higher levels of labor market protection as measured by collective bargaining coverage. Consistent with labor market concerns driving support for immigration, we find that immigration reduces wages of low-skilled natives, but this effect is weaker under higher collective bargaining coverage.
Chapter 2 investigates how the introduction of free movement of workers affects enrolment of natives in tertiary education. We exploit a Swiss policy change that led to a significant increase in the share of cross-border commuters in local employment in border regions of Switzerland. Our results show a rise in enrolment in affected relative to non-affected regions in the post-reform period driven by universities of applied sciences. Consistent with returns to education driving enrolment decisions, we observe a decrease in wages to upper-secondary degrees and a rise in wages for tertiary educated workers. Furthermore, we link occupations to study fields and divide subjects according to how much they are affected by the inflow of commuters. Our results show that enrolment in less affected fields rises. These are non-STEM subjects which build skills that are less likely to be transferable across borders.
Chapter 3 studies the impact of simplification, deterrence and tax morale on tax compliance. We ran five natural field experiments varying the communication of the tax administration with the universe of income taxpayers in Belgium throughout the tax process. A consistent picture emerges across experiments: (i) simplifying communication substantially increases compliance, (ii) deterrence messages have an additional positive effect, (iii) invoking tax morale is not effective, and often backfires. A discontinuity in enforcement intensity, combined with the experimental variation, allows us to compare simplification with standard enforcement measures. We find that simplification is far more cost-effective, allowing for substantial savings on enforcement costs.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HJ Public Finance J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Labor economics, Labor market -- European Union countries, Emigration and immigration -- European Union countries -- Economic aspects, Foreign workers -- European Union countries -- Social aspects, Freedom of movement -- European Union countries -- Economic aspects, Taxpayer compliance -- European Union countries | ||||
Official Date: | July 2020 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of Economics | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Imbert, Clément (Postdoctoral researcher) ; Mukand, Sharun W. | ||||
Format of File: | |||||
Extent: | vi, 146 leaves : illustrations (some colour) | ||||
Language: | eng |
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