Essays In Health Economics

My dissertation consists of three essays in health economics. In the first essay, I use the matched data set constructed from the Consumer Expenditure Survey and the Survey of Consumer Finances for period 1989-2010 to investigate the impacts of housing and financial wealth on healthcare spending. The results indicate significant housing and financial wealth effects and relatively large housing wealth effects for the pooled sample. Results for each survey years of the Survey of Consumer Finances further suggest that housing wealth effects are significant for all years and relatively large, but financial wealth effects are insignificant in most cases. Analysis by survey years also reveals the diminished housing wealth effect following the Great Recession. Moreover, the housing wealth effect is significant and most pronounced among older aged households and credit-constrained households. In general, the results are qualitatively similar when I use net wealth measure. In the second essay, I investigate the relationship between local house prices and health and health behaviors of the individuals using the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for 2001-2012, a period that includes both the housing boom and housing bust. I find evidence of positive relationship for poor mental health and binge drinking but negative association for physical health for those likely to be homeowners. However, among those likely to be renters, I document positive impact of house prices on body mass index but negative effect on physical health and smoking. The subgroup analysis also suggests substantial heterogeneity of the health effects across gender. Additionally, I show an asymmetry in the relationship between house prices and health. For example, the impact of house prices on binge drinking and physical activity are relatively large during the housing bust period. In the third essay, I examine the impacts of the public health insurance eligibility during childhood on longer-term financial outcomes. Exploiting the variation provided by the Medicaid expansions that took place in the 1980\u27s and 1990\u27s and applying the simulated eligibility instrumental variables approach, I show that Medicaid eligibility during childhood increases homeownership rate, mortgage ownership rate, and financial market participation rate later in life. This finding is robust to only use of variation provided by federal Medicaid expansions

Inter-micro-operator interference protection in dynamic TDD system

Abstract. This thesis considers the problem of weighted sum-rate maximization (WSRM) for a system of micro-operators subject to inter-micro-operator interference constraints with dynamic time division duplexing. The WSRM problem is non-convex and non-deterministic polynomial hard. Furthermore, micro-operators require minimum coordination among themselves making the inter-micro-operator interference management very challenging. In this regard, we propose two decentralized precoder design algorithm based on over-the-air bi-directional signalling strategy. We first propose a precoder design algorithm by considering the equivalent weighted minimum mean-squared error minimization reformulation of the WSRM problem. Later we propose precoder design algorithm by considering the weighted sum mean-squared error reformulation. In both approaches, to reduce the huge signalling requirements in centralized design, we use alternating direction method of multipliers technique, wherein each downlink-operator base station and uplink-operator user determines only the relevant set of transmit precoders by exchanging minimal information among the coordinating base stations and user equipments. To minimize the coordination between the uplink-opeator users, we propose interference budget allocation scheme based on reference signal measurements from downlink-operator users. Numerical simulations are provided to compare the performance of proposed algorithms with and without the inter-micro-operator interference constraints

Evaluation of Naked Barley Landraces for Agro-morphological Traits

Naked barley (Hordeum vulgare var. nudum L.) is a traditional, culturally important, climate-resilient winter cereal crop of Nepal. Evaluation of the naked barely genotypes for yield and disease is fundamental for their efficient utilization in plant breeding schemes and effective conservation programs. Therefore, to identify high yielding and yellow rust resistant landraces of naked barley for hilly and mountainous agro-ecosystem, twenty naked barley landraces collected from different locations of Nepal, were evaluated in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications during winter season of 2016 and 2017 at Khumaltar, Lalitpur, Nepal. Combined analysis of variances revealed that NGRC04902 (3.46 t/ha), NGRC00886 (3.28 t/ha), NGRC02309 (3.21 t/ha) and NGRC06026 (3.10 t/ha) were the high yielding landraces and statistically at par with the released variety 'Solu Uwa' (3.15 t/ha). The landraces namely NGRC00837 (ACI Value: 1.86) was found resistant to yellow rust diseases. Landraces NGRC06034 (131.7 days) and NGRC02363 (130.8 days) were found early maturing and NGRC02306 (94.36 cm) was found dwarf landraces among tested genotypes. These landraces having higher yield and better resistance to yellow rust need to be deployed to farmers' field to diversify the varietal options and used in resistant breeding program to improve the productivity of naked barley for Nepalese farmers

On-farm Conservation Approaches for Agricultural Biodiversity in Nepal

Agricultural biodiversity is the basis for agricultural research and development. This paper is based on the survey across the country along with the field implementation and action research on different conservation approaches over the years and locations. Management of agricultural biodiversity is being initiated in Nepal through ex-situ, on-farm, in-situ and breeding strategies by National Agriculture Genetic Resources Center (National Genebank) from 2010. National Genebank has implemented on-farm conservation across the country. Different approaches are community seed bank, community field genebank, household seed bank, household field genebank, village level field genebank and school field genebank. In addition to these, landrace enhancement program and recognition of agro-biodiversity rich farmers have also contributed on conserving APGRs. Identification of agro-biodiversity rich farmers have been initiated in collaboration with different governmental and non-governmental organizations across the country. Strong network among these farmers is supposed to establish for effectively managing APGRs on-farm. Agro-biodiversity conserved by such farmers is called household genebank, which consist of seed storage (household seed bank) and household field genebank. There are more than 100 CSBs in the country and some of them are conserving local genetic resources. Eight community field genebanks have been functionalized for conserving recalcitrant seeds and vegetatively propagated crop species. Village level field genebank has been established by NGO in Makwanpur district to conserve banana and taro. In this approach, different households grow different landraces, maintaining maximum diversity within a village. In some areas, school field genebank has been established by growing local APGRs in school areas. This helps to conserve APGRs, educate the students, earn the income and make environment beautiful. Genebank also encourages farmers to reintroduce the landraces from the National Genebank. Accessioning these APGRs and training to farmers and farming communities are necessary to effectively and efficiently conserving and utilizing APGRs on-farm

Spectral index variation across X-shaped radio galaxies

The formation mechanism of the enigmatic subclass of radio galaxies, called 'X-shaped radio galaxies' (XRGs), or 'winged' radio galaxies, which account for $\sim 10\%$ of the radio galaxy population, can be effectively constrained using the radio spectral-index distribution across their twin pairs of radio lobes. If indeed, the existing claims of no systematic spectral index difference between the wing and the associated primary lobe are valid in general, this would provide impetus to the XRG model attributing their origin to an unresolved binary of active supermassive black holes within the nucleus of the host galaxy. To investigate this interesting possibility, we have mapped spatial variation of spectral index for a well-defined sample of 25 XRGs, by combining their 1.4 GHz VLA (FIRST survey)/uGMRT maps with their 144 MHz maps (LoTSS-DR2). This has yielded the best available combination of sensitivity, angular resolution, frequency range and sample size, for spectral mapping of an XRG sample. A rich diversity of spectral index patterns is thus revealed in our XRG sample, but we find at most one case where a secondary lobe (wing) exhibits a flatter spectrum compared to its associated primary lobe. We conclude that such a spectral pattern is exceedingly rare and by no means a common trait of XRGs.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA

CHIRAL SEPARATION OF CITALOPRAM BY REVERSED PHASE HPLC USING SULFATED BETA CYCLODEXTRIN AS CHIRAL MOBILE PHASE ADDITIVE

Objective: To develop a simple and cost effective chiral HPLC method for the separation of citalopram (CIT) enantiomers using chiral mobile phase additives (CMPAs).Methods: Sulfated beta cyclodextrin (S-β-CD) was synthesized in our laboratory and was evaluated as a CMPA. The parameters affecting the resolution were optimized. CIT enantiomers were resolved on an achiral Kromasil C8 column (150 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 µm) using methanol and 20 mM KH2PO4 (pH 3) containing 12 mM S-β-CD (35:65) as the mobile phase with a flow rate of 1 ml/min at 240 nm. Chiral resolution capacity of synthesized S-β-CD was compared to the marketed product. The method using synthesized S-β-CD as CMPA was validated and applied for the quantitative determination of CIT enantiomers in bulk drug and tablet formulation.Results: Synthesized S-β-CD gave a better resolution than the marketed form. This method was validated as per ICH guidelines and was found to comply with the standard norms. A good linearity was observed in the concentration range of 1-30 µg/ml with R2= 0.9993 for both enantiomers. The limit of detection and limit of quantification was 0.0272 and 0.0824 μg/ml for the R-enantiomer and 0.0303 and 0.0920 μg/ml for the S-enantiomer respectively.Conclusion: A rapid and cost effective RP-HPLC method was developed and validated as per ICH guidelines to separate the CIT enantiomers. The method could be successfully applied for the quantitative determination of CIT enantiomers in bulk drug samples and pharmaceutical formulations. Â