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Illuminating the Economic Costs of Conflict: A Night Light Analysis of the Sri Lankan Civil War

by Nicholas Kiran Wijesekera

Abstract 

This paper investigates the economic consequences of the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983-2009) by using event-based data on civilian and combatant fatalities in addition to night light imagery as a proxy for economic activity. By looking at regional economic activity across the island of Sri Lanka, this paper
seeks to identify how violence led to declines or undershoots of economic activity in the areas in which it was most prevalent. The use of night light data gives a
hyper-localized proxy measurement of this activity for each year of the war. The investigation finds that government and rebel deaths have strong, negative effects on economic activity, and that these effects spill over across time and space. Additionally, the manner in which civilian deaths occur is an important determinant of their subsequent economic impact. The paper offers new findings on the economic legacy of the Sri Lankan Civil War and extends existing work on the use of night light data to measure economic activity during conflict.

Charles Becker, Faculty Advisor
Michelle Connolly, Faculty Advisor

JEL Codes: H56, N45, O53

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Subprime’s Long shadow: Understanding subprime lending’s role in the St. Louis vacancy crisis

By Glen David Morgenstern

Abstract
Using loan-level data, this analysis attempts to connect the events of the subprime home loan boom to the current vacancy crisis in St. Louis, Missouri. Borrowers in Black areas in the north of St. Louis City and St. Louis County received subprime home loans at higher rates during the subprime boom period of 2003-2007 than those in White areas, with differences in balloon loans especially stark. Specifically, borrowers in Black neighborhoods received subprime loans more frequently than those with equal FICO scores in White neighborhoods. As a result of these differential loan terms, North City and inner ring “First Suburb” areas saw more foreclosure and
borrower payment delinquency, which in turn were highly associated with home vacancy, controlling for other risk factors. However, foreclosure was no longer a significant predictor of home vacancy
after controlling for demographic factors and FICO score, indicating that the unequal loan terms may have driven much of the increase in home vacancy in the St. Louis area since the Great Recession.

Professor Charles Becker, Faculty Advisor

JEL classification: R1; R3; R11; R31; J1; J15

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Economic Effects of the War in Donbas: Nightlights and the Ukrainian fight for freedom

By Riad Kanj

Abstract
The conflict in Eastern Ukraine began in 2014, and it has now turned into a full-scale
invasion. The separatist areas of Donetsk and Luhansk have remained isolated for the last eight
years while fighting between rebels and the Ukrainian government has continued at a low but
regular level since then. Previous studies analyze the impact of the war in Donbas on the
economic situation in the region, such as the industry and GRP growth. However, this research
uses data solely from the initial part of the conflict (2014-2016) and does not take into account the
severity of the fighting. By using both the DMSP-OLS and VIIRS data as an approximation of
economic activity in addition to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) casualty numbers,
the analysis explores the effects of violent conflict on economic activity over a longer period of
the Donbas war.
This paper uses both yearly and monthly satellite data in analyzing the general progression
of the conflict in addition to the monthly progression. Furthermore, nightlight data of Ukrainian
municipalities outside of Donbas are used in computing the Donbas region’s nightlight data across
several years. The UCDP data for civilian and battle-related casualties are used separately to show
the causal effects of the different fighting severities. A Two-Stage Least Squares regression is
used to see the effects of battle severity on economic outcomes.

Professor Charles Becker, Faculty Advisor
Professor Grace Kim, Faculty Advisor

JEL classification: F51; H56; O52; N44

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The Russian Maternity Capital Policy: Two Models

By Jackson Cooksey

Abstract
Between 1991 and 2007 the Russian Federation experienced a decrease in population
and a drop in total fertility rate below population replacement levels. In 2007 the
government, citing the importance of forestalling this decline, implemented the Russian
Maternity Capital Policy, a one-time subsidy to those families who have a second or
higher order birth. Study aims to analyze the impact of this policy on the total fertility
rate of the Russian Federation to better understand post-Soviet trends in fertility and
gain insight into how effective similar policies will be in the future if implemented
elsewhere. This study uses two models to assess the policy. First, a novel difference-indifference-
in-difference model is developed to add to existing literature on the policy.
Second, a synthetic control model is developed generate a counterfactual to measure
causal effects of the policy on total fertility rate in Russia. Difference-in-difference-indifference
estimations show the policy having a 0% to 3.5% positive effect on fertility,
and the synthetic control model results show that the policy had a large impact on
fertility in the mid-2010s but this change has declined since 2019.

Professor Charles Becker, Faculty Advisor

JEL Classification: J, J1, J11, J12, J13

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Is Affordable Housing Moving Mobile? Analyzing the Impact of COVID-19 on Demand for Manufactured Housing

By Jair Coleridge Soman Alleyne

As demand for affordable housing continues to increase in America, manufactured homes provide a private solution to this problem. Research has shown that manufactured home prices are largely dependent on the price of local housing substitutes as well as other geographic hedonic factors. This paper looks at the impact of Covid-19 on the manufactured housing market to determine the effects that economic shocks have on the demand for manufactured housing. Conditional on wanting to buy a house, we use a logistic model to examine the probability that an individual purchases a manufactured home and whether this probability increases at times of high unemployment and economic uncertainty. Due to the nature of our data, although the impact of Covid as a disease is difficult to measure, we do find decreased income and increased unemployment to be a factor increasing the likelihood of purchasing a manufactured home. We also find that in 2020, demand for manufactured housing increased significantly compared to the years prior.

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Advisors: Professor Charles Becker, Professor Michelle Connolly | JEL Codes: R2, R21, I32

The Impact of Conflict on Economic Activity: Night Lights and the Bosnian Civil War

by Stephanie Dodd

The tendency of violent conflict to suppress economic activity is well documented in the civil war economic literature. However, differential consequences resulting from distinct characteristics of conflicts have not been rigorously studied. Utilizing new conflict data on the 1992-1995 Bosnian civil war from Becker, Devine, Dogo, and Margolin (2018) and DSMP-OLS night light data as a proxy for economic activity, this paper investigates the disparate economic impacts that different types of conflict have on Bosnia’s municipalities.

This investigation first uses data from other Yugoslavian countries to impute pre-war night light values for conflict-affected Bosnian municipalities. Next, a spatial autocorrelation model with fixed effects is used to determine if and how the occurrence of different types of violence vary in their implications for economic activity. This analysis finds that the five types of warfare identified in the context of the Bosnian Civil war have different impacts on night lights and economic activity.

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Advisors: Professor Charles Becker, Professor Grace Kim  | JEL Codes: F52, H56, O52

Myocardial Infarction, Health Behavior, and the Grossman Model

by Emma Mehlhop

This paper contributes an empirical test of Michael Grossman’s model of the demand for health and a novel application of the model to myocardial infarction (MI) incidence. Using data from the University of Michigan’s Health and Retirement Study (HRS), I test Grossman’s assumptions regarding the effects of hourly wage, sex, educational attainment, and age on health demand along with the effects of new variables describing health behaviors, whether or not a respondent is insured, and whether or not they are allowed sufficient paid sick leave. I use logistic regression to estimate health demand schedules using five different health demand indicators: exercise, doctor visits, drinking, smoking, and high BMI. I apply the Cox Proportional Hazard model to examine two equations for the marginal product of health investment both in terms of propensity to prevent death and to prevent MI, one of the leading causes of mortality in the United States. This study considers the effects of the aforementioned health demand indicators, among other factors, on the marginal product of health investment for the prevention of death compared to the prevention of MI. Additionally, there is significant evidence of a negative effect of health insurance on likelihood of exercising regularly, implying some effect of moral hazard on the health demand schedule.

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Advisors: Professor Charles Becker, Professor Grace Kim, Professor Frank Sloan | JEL Codes: I1, I10, I12

The Impact of Agglomeration Externalities on Product Innovation Output in Chinese Industrial Firms

By Cindy Feng  

Agglomeration externalities is defined as the economic benefits from concentrating firms, housing, and output. This study investigates the impact of agglomeration externalities of industrial firms on product innovation output in China. In the research, I specified the impact of agglomeration into three types: Marshallian or localization externalities, defined as the impact of collocating with same-industry firms; Urbanization economies, defined as the impact of collocating with different-industry firms, and Porter externalities, the impact of competing with same-industry firms as a result of localization. My result suggests endogenous spatial selection of firms account for most of the agglomeration impacts we observe. Despite so, urbanization economies is still impactful in boosting a firm’s innovation performance, and should be taken into account as the government implements policies that boost firm performance.

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Advisors: Professor Charles Becker, Professor Kent Kimbrough | JEL Codes: R3, D24, R50

The Impact of Medicare Nonpayment: A Quasi-Experimental Approach

By Audrey Kornkven   

In October 2008, a provision of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 known as Medicare “Nonpayment” went into effect, eliminating reimbursement for the marginal costs of  preventable hospital-acquired conditions in an effort to correct perverse incentives in hospitals and improve patient safety. This paper contributes to the existing debate surrounding Nonpayment’s efficacy by considering varying degrees of fiscal pressure among hospitals; potential impacts on healthcare utilization; and differences between Medicare and non-Medicare patient populations. It combines data on millions of hospital discharges in New York from 2006-2010 with hospital-, hospital referral region-, and county-level data to isolate the policy’s impact. Analysis exploits the quasi-experimental nature of Nonpayment via difference-in-differences with Mahalanobis matching and fuzzy regression discontinuity designs. In line with results from Lee et al. (2012), Schuller et al. (2013), and Vaz et al. (2015), this paper does not find evidence that Nonpayment reduced the likelihood that Medicare patients would develop a hospital-acquired condition, and concludes that the policy is not likely the success claimed by policymakers. Results also suggest that providers may select against unprofitable Medicare patients when possible, and are likely to vary in their responses to financial incentives. Specifically, private non-profit hospitals appear to have been most responsive to the policy. These findings have important implications for pay-for-performance initiatives in American healthcare.

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Advisors: Professor Charles Becker, Professor Frank Sloan, Professor Grace Kim| JEL Codes: I1, I13, I18

Female Labor Force Participation in Turkic Countries: A Study of Azerbaijan and Turkey

By Natasha Jo Torrens

Encouraging female labor force participation (FLFP) should be a goal of any country attempting to increase their productive capacity. Understanding the determinants and motivations of labor force participation requires isolating the factors that influence a woman’s decision to enter or leave formal employment. In this thesis, I utilize data from the Demographics and Health Surveys to explain the role of social conservatism in promoting or limiting participation in the labor force. I focus on ever-married women in Azerbaijan and Turkey to provide a lens through which to explain the unexpectedly low FLFP of Turkey. Though most prior research attempts to explain Turkey’s low FLFP rate by comparisons to other OECD countries, my study looks at Turkey through the context of other Turkic cultures to explore cultural factors driving labor force participation for ever-married women. This study finds a negative correlation between conservatism and the likelihood of participating in the labor force for ever married women in Azerbaijan, and a larger, positive relationship in Turkey.

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Advisors: Professor Charles Becker, Professor Didem Havlioğlu, Professor Kent Kimrbough | JEL Codes: C50, J16, N95

Questions?

Undergraduate Program Assistant
Matthew Eggleston
dus_asst@econ.duke.edu

Director of the Honors Program
Michelle P. Connolly
michelle.connolly@duke.edu