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Essays on Productivity and Consumption Smoothing Under Imperfect Markets
Essays on Productivity and Consumption Smoothing Under Imperfect Markets
Essays on Productivity and Consumption Smoothing Under Imperfect Markets

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자료유형  
 학위논문 서양
최종처리일시  
20250211151456
ISBN  
9798384447610
DDC  
310
저자명  
Silver, Jedediah.
서명/저자  
Essays on Productivity and Consumption Smoothing Under Imperfect Markets
발행사항  
[Sl] : University of California, Berkeley, 2024
발행사항  
Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2024
형태사항  
163 p
주기사항  
Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 86-04, Section: B.
주기사항  
Advisor: Ligon, Ethan.
학위논문주기  
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, Berkeley, 2024.
초록/해제  
요약Perhaps the most central insight of development economics is that, absent a complete set of perfect markets, households' economic activities cannot be neatly "separated" into those of a profit-maximizing firm and a utility-maximizing consumer (Singh et al., 1986). In particular, risk-averse farm households face a tradeoff between maximizing farm profits and smoothing consumption across states of the world. Balancing these motives is important not only for these households, who constitute a massive share of the world's poor, but for aggregate productivity as well. However, little is known about how to diagnose the market failures that create these tradeoffs, quantify their costs, and prescribe robust policies to address them. This dissertation seeks to provide methodological and empirical progress from the micro to the macro levels.Chapter 1 focuses on identifying how distinct market failures affect aggregate productivity in Thai agriculture. Agricultural markets often fail to allocate resources efficiently across farm households in developing countries. However, policymakers require knowledge of which markets fail and how the distortions they generate are correlated. In this chapter, I use data from rural Thailand to characterize how distortions in land, labor, credit, and insurance markets each contribute to factor misallocation. I use moments in household consumption and production data to separately identify these distortions and then quantify their impacts on aggregate productivity through an equilibrium model of misallocation. I find that the efficient allocation would increase aggregate productivity by 31% relative to the status quo, while only 15% (7%) gains could be achieved by eliminating financial (input) distortions in isolation. Positive interaction effects from addressing multiple distortions simultaneously account for the remaining 9% TFP gains. Meanwhile, other common methods would produce larger estimates of misallocation and suggest that a financial market intervention would decrease aggregate productivity. Accounting for multiple correlated distortions is therefore crucial for measuring misallocation and designing policies to address it. In Chapter 2, coauthored with Ethan Ligon, we move from Thailand to Northeastern Nigeria and move from the growing season to the lean season spanning harvests to study another important tradeoff between consumption smoothing and investment. In particular, we conduct a randomized control trial offering postharvest loans (PHLs) to farm households in Gombe State. The purpose of these loans is to enable households to shift from exhausting grain stocks and buying them back at high prices to becoming net arbitrageurs. While such programs have increased household incomes in Kenya (Burke et al., 2019) and Tanzania (Channa et al., 2022), their theory of change relies on grain prices rising, which is a highly uncertain proposition across sub-Saharan Africa. During our study period, prices of maize and other major crops stayed flat. While we find that the loans induced households to store more crops later into the season, we do not find significant effects on sales or overall welfare. While this is an example of the downside risk of PHLs being realized, we also use a simple model of intertemporal arbitrage to show how ex ante risk can have ambiguous effects on the demand for PHLs, depending on whether households are more vulnerable in states with high vs. low prices.Chapter 3, based in part on work coauthored with Ethan Ligon, focuses on production function estimation when input choices are distorted. These estimators, which are used to estimate the production function in Chapter 1, extend the canonical approach in industrial organization (Ackerberg et al., 2015; Gandhi et al., 2020) to risk-averse producers facing imperfect markets. In particular, they proxy for unobserved productivity by inverting the demand function for a flexible input from the setting with profit-maximizing firms in competitive markets to risk-averse households, possibly facing distorted input markets. The method involves combining consumption and production data to model input demands as a function of unobserved productivity and a stochastic discount factor, which includes the covariance between production shocks and consumption at harvest. Essentially, the consumption side of the household's problem provides information to help us identify the production side. Three main specifications are considered: the canonical Cobb-Douglas with Hicks-neutral shocks, a heteroskedastic generalization of Cobb-Douglas that allows for differentially risky inputs, and a dynamic multi-stage Cobb-Douglas featuring sequential shocks. The differences across specifications show the importance of accounting for risk, both overall and input- and stage-specific, to consistently estimate production functions and draw inferences about efficiency and misallocation.Together, these three chapters show how better understanding households' tradeoffs between productivity and consumption smoothing can improve policies to address both micro-level food insecurity and macro-level productivity.
일반주제명  
Statistics
키워드  
Arbitrageurs
키워드  
Farm households
키워드  
Misallocation
키워드  
Nigeria
키워드  
Production function
키워드  
Thailand
기타저자  
University of California, Berkeley Agricultural & Resource Economics
기본자료저록  
Dissertations Abstracts International. 86-04B.
전자적 위치 및 접속  
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MARC

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■1001  ▼aSilver,  Jedediah.
■24510▼aEssays  on  Productivity  and  Consumption  Smoothing  Under  Imperfect  Markets
■260    ▼a[Sl]▼bUniversity  of  California,  Berkeley▼c2024
■260  1▼aAnn  Arbor▼bProQuest  Dissertations  &  Theses▼c2024
■300    ▼a163  p
■500    ▼aSource:  Dissertations  Abstracts  International,  Volume:  86-04,  Section:  B.
■500    ▼aAdvisor:  Ligon,  Ethan.
■5021  ▼aThesis  (Ph.D.)--University  of  California,  Berkeley,  2024.
■520    ▼aPerhaps  the  most  central  insight  of  development  economics  is  that,  absent  a  complete  set  of  perfect  markets,  households'  economic  activities  cannot  be  neatly  "separated"  into  those  of  a  profit-maximizing  firm  and  a  utility-maximizing  consumer  (Singh  et  al.,  1986).  In  particular,  risk-averse  farm  households  face  a  tradeoff  between  maximizing  farm  profits  and  smoothing  consumption  across  states  of  the  world.  Balancing  these  motives  is  important  not  only  for  these  households,  who  constitute  a  massive  share  of  the  world's  poor,  but  for  aggregate  productivity  as  well.  However,  little  is  known  about  how  to  diagnose  the  market  failures  that  create  these  tradeoffs,  quantify  their  costs,  and  prescribe  robust  policies  to  address  them.  This  dissertation  seeks  to  provide  methodological  and  empirical  progress  from  the  micro  to  the  macro  levels.Chapter  1  focuses  on  identifying  how  distinct  market  failures  affect  aggregate  productivity  in  Thai  agriculture.  Agricultural  markets  often  fail  to  allocate  resources  efficiently  across  farm  households  in  developing  countries.  However,  policymakers  require  knowledge  of  which  markets  fail  and  how  the  distortions  they  generate  are  correlated.  In  this  chapter,  I  use  data  from  rural  Thailand  to  characterize  how  distortions  in  land,  labor,  credit,  and  insurance  markets  each  contribute  to  factor  misallocation.  I  use  moments  in  household  consumption  and  production  data  to  separately  identify  these  distortions  and  then  quantify  their  impacts  on  aggregate  productivity  through  an  equilibrium  model  of  misallocation.  I  find  that  the  efficient  allocation  would  increase  aggregate  productivity  by  31%  relative  to  the  status  quo,  while  only  15%  (7%)  gains  could  be  achieved  by  eliminating  financial  (input)  distortions  in  isolation.  Positive  interaction  effects  from  addressing  multiple  distortions  simultaneously  account  for  the  remaining  9%  TFP  gains.  Meanwhile,  other  common  methods  would  produce  larger  estimates  of  misallocation  and  suggest  that  a  financial  market  intervention  would  decrease  aggregate  productivity.  Accounting  for  multiple  correlated  distortions  is  therefore  crucial  for  measuring  misallocation  and  designing  policies  to  address  it. In  Chapter  2,  coauthored  with  Ethan  Ligon,  we  move  from  Thailand  to  Northeastern  Nigeria  and  move  from  the  growing  season  to  the  lean  season  spanning  harvests  to  study  another  important  tradeoff  between  consumption  smoothing  and  investment.  In  particular,  we  conduct  a  randomized  control  trial  offering  postharvest  loans  (PHLs)  to  farm  households  in  Gombe  State.  The  purpose  of  these  loans  is  to  enable  households  to  shift  from  exhausting  grain  stocks  and  buying  them  back  at  high  prices  to  becoming  net  arbitrageurs.  While  such  programs  have  increased  household  incomes  in  Kenya  (Burke  et  al.,  2019)  and  Tanzania  (Channa  et  al.,  2022),  their  theory  of  change  relies  on  grain  prices  rising,  which  is  a  highly  uncertain  proposition  across  sub-Saharan  Africa.  During  our  study  period,  prices  of  maize  and  other  major  crops  stayed  flat.  While  we  find  that  the  loans  induced  households  to  store  more  crops  later  into  the  season,  we  do  not  find  significant  effects  on  sales  or  overall  welfare.  While  this  is  an  example  of  the  downside  risk  of  PHLs  being  realized,  we  also  use  a  simple  model  of  intertemporal  arbitrage  to  show  how  ex  ante  risk  can  have  ambiguous  effects  on  the  demand  for  PHLs,  depending  on  whether  households  are  more  vulnerable  in  states  with  high  vs.  low  prices.Chapter  3,  based  in  part  on  work  coauthored  with  Ethan  Ligon,  focuses  on  production  function  estimation  when  input  choices  are  distorted.  These  estimators,  which  are  used  to  estimate  the  production  function  in  Chapter  1,  extend  the  canonical  approach  in  industrial  organization  (Ackerberg  et  al.,  2015;  Gandhi  et  al.,  2020)  to  risk-averse  producers  facing  imperfect  markets.  In  particular,  they  proxy  for  unobserved  productivity  by  inverting  the  demand  function  for  a  flexible  input  from  the  setting  with  profit-maximizing  firms  in  competitive  markets  to  risk-averse  households,  possibly  facing  distorted  input  markets.  The  method  involves  combining  consumption  and  production  data  to  model  input  demands  as  a  function  of  unobserved  productivity  and  a  stochastic  discount  factor,  which  includes  the  covariance  between  production  shocks  and  consumption  at  harvest.  Essentially,  the  consumption  side  of  the  household's  problem  provides  information  to  help  us  identify  the  production  side.  Three  main  specifications  are  considered:  the  canonical  Cobb-Douglas  with  Hicks-neutral  shocks,  a  heteroskedastic  generalization  of  Cobb-Douglas  that  allows  for  differentially  risky  inputs,  and  a  dynamic  multi-stage  Cobb-Douglas  featuring  sequential  shocks.  The  differences  across  specifications  show  the  importance  of  accounting  for  risk,  both  overall  and  input-  and  stage-specific,  to  consistently  estimate  production  functions  and  draw  inferences  about  efficiency  and  misallocation.Together,  these  three  chapters  show  how  better  understanding  households'  tradeoffs  between  productivity  and  consumption  smoothing  can  improve  policies  to  address  both  micro-level  food  insecurity  and  macro-level  productivity.
■590    ▼aSchool  code:  0028.
■650  4▼aStatistics
■653    ▼aArbitrageurs
■653    ▼aFarm  households
■653    ▼aMisallocation
■653    ▼aNigeria
■653    ▼aProduction  function
■653    ▼aThailand
■690    ▼a0501
■690    ▼a0503
■690    ▼a0463
■71020▼aUniversity  of  California,  Berkeley▼bAgricultural  &  Resource  Economics.
■7730  ▼tDissertations  Abstracts  International▼g86-04B.
■790    ▼a0028
■791    ▼aPh.D.
■792    ▼a2024
■793    ▼aEnglish
■85640▼uhttp://www.riss.kr/pdu/ddodLink.do?id=T17161873▼nKERIS▼z이  자료의  원문은  한국교육학술정보원에서  제공합니다.

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