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Essays on Economics of Education and Health Policy

WANG, BO
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1619050919684891

Abstract Details

2021, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Consumer Sciences.
This dissertation consists of three chapters. Chapter one explores the causal relationship between adverse health conditions and research-related activities/career outcomes by assessing the dynamic impacts of functional limitations for the U.S. trained doctoral recipient population. Using the restricted Survey of Earned Doctorates and Survey of Doctoral Recipients from the National Science Foundation, I apply an event study method and propensity score matching model to examine the causal effect of functional limitations on both near-term job market performances and a series of long-term research-related career outcomes. I find that functional limitation reduces near-term salary, the probability of being employed, and significantly delays the time to degree. The magnitude of the impacts depends on the severity and the onset year of functional limitation. The findings based on the event study model show that there are sharp increases in computer programming-related and management-related activities following a functional limitation. The probability of job mismatch has significantly increased, while the overall job satisfaction rate and geographic mobility are significantly reduced. However, unlike most existing literature, I find no significant losses in long-run annual salary, weekly working hours, and time on conducting research, suggesting that human capital and knowledge gained in PhD study may serve as a buffer to mitigate the negative impact of health conditions through efficient reallocation of labor time across work activities. The chapter two aims to investigate how additional pension income from public pension program influences health outcomes of the elderly in rural China. Previous literature shows mixed results on the effects of exogenous income on health, we use the introduction of the New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS) in China as a policy experiment to estimate the causal effect of additional pension income on the health and wellbeing of the elderly population. Using China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), we apply both regression discontinuity design and triple-difference method to explore the causal link between pension benefit and health outcomes of elderly people living in rural China. Preliminary results show that NRPS significantly increased self-reported health status, and the improvement in health condition stems mostly from reducing symptoms caused by minor illness but not from reducing symptoms caused by critical diseases. This study confirms with findings of previous studies that additional pension benefit has a positive effect on health outcomes for the elderly. Moreover, it provides policy implications for the ongoing pension reform in China. The chapter three explores the role of peers from the same country of origin on post-graduation location choices. Doctoral recipients are the main source of international high-skilled labor supply in the U.S. In order to retain high-skilled workers, policy makers need a better understanding about their incentives to choose their long-term career locations after graduation. Unlike prior literature which mainly focused on the impact of demographic characteristics as well as macroeconomic conditions on doctoral students’ career location choices, this project tries to provide a different perspective, shifting the focus from socioeconomic characteristics to the role of PhD research environment. Using the Survey of Earned Doctorates from 1991 to 2018, I implement both linear-in-means model and spatial autoregressive model to answer the question of whether intent-to-stay in the U.S. decisions of peer cohorts from the same country of origin could influence a doctoral student’s own choice for the foreign-born doctoral recipient population. I find strong evidence that doctoral recipient’s own location choice is significantly affected by her peer cohorts from the same country of origin. It suggests that interaction between peers of the same country of origin in PhD programs creates an important information channel through which the post-graduation outcomes could be strongly affected. The findings also suggest that professional job market guidance is needed in order to provide a correct information channel through which PhDs can make better post-graduation decisions.
Andrew Hanks (Advisor)
Lauren Jones (Committee Member)
Robert Scharff (Committee Member)
Labor Economics
Doctoral Recipients; High-skilled Workforce; Functional Limitation; Disability; Peer Effects; Location Choice; Pension; NRPS; Health Policy in China

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Citations

  • WANG, B. (2021). Essays on Economics of Education and Health Policy [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1619050919684891

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • WANG, BO. Essays on Economics of Education and Health Policy. 2021. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1619050919684891.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • WANG, BO. "Essays on Economics of Education and Health Policy." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1619050919684891

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1619050919684891
124
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.