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

Stock returns and economically neutral behavioral variables: evidence from the Nepalese stock market

This article investigates whether the Nepalese stock market is efficient in weak form with respect to economically neutral behavioural variables. Simple OLS technique with White’s heteroskedasticity-corrected standard errors is used to test the relationship between stock returns and economically neutral behavioural variables represented by weather (cloud cover and temperature) and biorhythms (seasonal affective disorder). The findings indicate the existence of weak-form efficiency in the market for “temperature” and “seasonal affective disorder” but not for the “cloud cover”. These findings are not consistent to those of results documented for developed and emerging stock markets.Economically Neutral Behavioural Variables, SAD, Weather Effect

The Nepalese stock market: Efficiency and calendar anomalies

After describing the various forms of efficiency and calendar anomalies observed in many developed and emerging markets according to the existing literature, the present study examines this phenomenon empirically in the Nepalese stock market for daily data of Nepal Stock Exchange Index from February 1, 1995 to December 31, 2004 covering approximately ten years. Using regression model with dummies, we find persistent evidence of day-of-the-week anomaly but disappearing holiday effect, turn-of-the-month effect and time-of-the-month effect. We also document no evidence of month-of-the-year anomaly and half-month effect. Our result for the month-of-the-year anomaly is consistent to the finding observed for the Jordanian stock market and that for the day-of-the-week anomaly to the Greek stock market .In addition, our finding regarding half-month effect is consistent with the US market. For the rest, we find inconsistent results with that in the international markets. Our results indicate that the Nepalese stock market is not efficient in weak form with regard to the day-of-the-week anomaly but weakly efficient with respect to the other anomalies

The Nepalese stock market: Efficiency and calendar anomalies

After describing the various forms of efficiency and calendar anomalies observed in many developed and emerging markets according to the existing literature, the present study examines this phenomenon empirically in the Nepalese stock market for daily data of Nepal Stock Exchange Index from February 1, 1995 to December 31, 2004 covering approximately ten years. Using regression model with dummies, we find persistent evidence of day-of-the-week anomaly but disappearing holiday effect, turn-of-the-month effect and time-of-the-month effect. We also document no evidence of month-of-the-year anomaly and half-month effect. Our result for the month-of-the-year anomaly is consistent to the finding observed for the Jordanian stock market and that for the day-of-the-week anomaly to the Greek stock market .In addition, our finding regarding half-month effect is consistent with the US market. For the rest, we find inconsistent results with that in the international markets. Our results indicate that the Nepalese stock market is not efficient in weak form with regard to the day-of-the-week anomaly but weakly efficient with respect to the other anomalies

Stock returns and economically neutral behavioral variables: evidence from the Nepalese stock market

This article investigates whether the Nepalese stock market is efficient in weak form with respect to economically neutral behavioural variables. Simple OLS technique with White’s heteroskedasticity-corrected standard errors is used to test the relationship between stock returns and economically neutral behavioural variables represented by weather (cloud cover and temperature) and biorhythms (seasonal affective disorder). The findings indicate the existence of weak-form efficiency in the market for “temperature” and “seasonal affective disorder” but not for the “cloud cover”. These findings are not consistent to those of results documented for developed and emerging stock markets

Rough triggerfish, Canthidermis maculata from Gujarat coast

A specimen of the Rough triggerfish, Canthidermis maculata (Bloch, 1786) was landed by a multiday trawler on 25th November 2015 at Mangrol Fisheries Harbour, Gujarat. The specimen was brownish grey in colour with characteristic white spots all over the body including the head. It measured 309 mm and 256 mm in Total length and Standard length respectively with a weight of 580 g (Fig. 1). The fish is usually found in areas having sandy, muddy or rocky bottoms at a depth range of 50-100 m and is reported from the Western Indian Ocean

Who will kill them first, Climate or Man?

It is evident that the variability of fish abundance in the sea has been increasing over time. This variability might be due to climate factors or anthropogenic factors such as fishing. Challenge of the modern fishery management is to distinguish between the two and take account of these sources of variability. As all of the marine fisheries resources of India are currently under exploitation, there is no control group available to distinguish climate effects from fishing effects. Here ,we are utilizing methods involving statistical controls for this purpose

Evidence-based national vaccine policy

India has over a century old tradition of development and production of vaccines. The Government rightly adopted self-sufficiency in vaccine production and self-reliance in vaccine technology as its policy objectives in 1986. However, in the absence of a full-fledged vaccine policy, there have been concerns related to demand and supply, manufacture vs. import, role of public and private sectors, choice of vaccines, new and combination vaccines, universal vs. selective vaccination, routine immunization vs. special drives, cost-benefit aspects, regulatory issues, logistics etc. The need for a comprehensive and evidence based vaccine policy that enables informed decisions on all these aspects from the public health point of view brought together doctors, scientists, policy analysts, lawyers and civil society representatives to formulate this policy paper for the consideration of the Government. This paper evolved out of the first ever ICMR-NISTADS national brainstorming workshop on vaccine policy held during 4-5 June, 2009 in New Delhi, and subsequent discussions over email for several weeks, before being adopted unanimously in the present form

DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR METAL-ORGANIC FRAMEWORKS AS ACID GAS ADSORBENTS

Design Strategies for Metal-Organic Frameworks as Acid Gas Adsorbents Jayraj N. Joshi 316 Pages Directed by Dr. Krista S. Walton Methods and heuristics for designing metal-organic framework (MOF)-based media towards acid gas adsorption applications were developed in this work. Relationships between MOF material properties and acid gas stability were first investigated through probing the impact of MOF defects, chemisorption site installation, and pelletization on various MOF substrates. Ligand functionalization was also leveraged to enhance sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide uptake capabilities in various frameworks. Tested functional groups enabled both reversible and irreversible adsorption behavior—enhancing the breadth of applicability for evaluated framework adsorbents. Insoluble metal sources were found to enable facile MOF growth over supported and non-supported MOFs through novel production routes. The new methodology constitutes significant advancements in producing supported MOF media through simple, one-step procedures, instead of conventional multistep processes mandating high capital and operational costs. Additionally, resultant morphology, porosity, and crystalline orientation of non-supported products become adjustable; this control is importantly not possible with conventional metal precursors. Supported MIL-53(Al) MOF composites created from insoluble metal precursors are converted into MOF-derived oxide/carbon media, named MIL-53(Al)-oxide. Retrieved pillared alumina materials obtain multimodal pore accessibility, and enable acid gas chemisorption and localized MOF regeneration attributes. Overall, findings offer multiple routes for creating and employing MOF-based acid gas adsorbents in acid gas abatement applications.Ph.D