Browsing by Subject "Infrastructure"

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Sustainable human development at the municipal level: A data envelopment analysis index
(2022) Lima, Pedro A. B.; Paião Júnior, Gilberto D.; Santos, Thalita L.; Furlan, Marcelo; Battistelle, Rosane A. G.; Silva, Gustavo H. R.; Ferraz, Diogo; Mariano, Enzo B.
The development of indexes for human development and environmental sustainability issues are an emerging topic in the current literature. However, the literature has put less emphasis on municipal indexes, which is the focus of this research. In this paper, we considered municipal environmental management as the adoption of environmental activities and the development of infrastructural and technical capacities in municipalities. This article aims to create a sustainable human development index with municipal data from the state of São Paulo in Brazil. Using information from the Municipal Human Development Index (IDHm) and the GreenBlue Municipal Program (PMVA), we applied the data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique to connect human development and environmental sustainability in 645 Brazilian municipalities. Our findings show that regions with higher human development present better DEA scores on the Sustainable Human Development Index. In contrast, regions with a low or a middle level of human development do not present significant change considering both dimensions. Moreover, our findings reveal that PMVA certification has a different and statistically significant impact on the DEA score considering certified, qualified, or not qualified regions. We found similar results for urbanized and service-oriented municipalities. Our indicator is an essential and straightforward tool for regional policymakers, helping to allocate resources and to find human development and environmental sustainability benchmarks among developing regions.
Three essays in empirical economics
(2019) Seiffert, Sebastian Daniel; Beißinger, Thomas
In the preface of one of the most established textbooks "Economics" by Samuelson and Nordhaus (1998), the authors state that the ultimate goal of economics is to improve the living conditions of people in their everyday life". In this spirit, the underlying thesis empirically assesses three heterogenous topics which all can be linked via their impact on (economic) well-being. It contributes to the scientific landscape by tackling the questions at hand utilising novel and newly constructed data sets which have not been commonly used in economic research. The thesis comprises three chapters which will be summarised in the following. Gun Violence in the US: Correlates and Causes This chapter provides a county-level investigation of the economically-motivated gun violence in the US. To guide our empirical analysis, we develop a simple theoretical model which suggests that firearm-related robberies in a given county increase with the number of illegal guns and decrease with social capital and police intensity. Using detailed FBI data from 1986-2014, we find empirical evidence for the role of illegal guns, social capital, and police intensity in line with our theoretical predictions. To investigate the causal effect of illegal guns, we exploit plausibly exogenous variation in illegal firearm supplies due to gun thefts in contiguous states. The Size of the Middle Class and Educational Outcomes: Theory and Evidence from the Indian Subcontinent This chapter proposes a stylised model to derive the effect of a sizeable middle class on average educational outcomes. Under the reasonable assumptions, the model predicts that the spending share on education increases if the middle class becomes larger such that the size of the middle class has a positive impact on education. We test the relationship empirically by using village/neighbourhood level data from Indian household surveys. To tackle the the issue of potential endogeneity of the middle class share of the population, we propose a novel instrument that relies on the fraction of the population belonging to the third (middle) caste ("sudra"). Using this IV strategy, our empirical results support a positive effect. Go East: On the Impact of the Transsiberian Railway on Economic Development in Eastern Russia This chapter addresses the question whether or not large-scale infrastructure investments have a causal effect of local economic development. By using a novel instrumental variable approach based on historical trade and travel routes across the Russian East, I am able to identify a causal and negative effect of remoteness to the Transsiberian Railway on local economic activity as measured by nocturnal lights emission.