Essays on development economics and industrial organization

This dissertation studies two disparate topics in development economics and industrial organization respectively: (a) the role of financial intermediation in promoting economic growth in developing countries and (b) the effects of learning on agents' search behavior. The first essay investigates the effects of commercial banking on economic growth. The tendency of banks to locate in profitable areas experiencing higher growth typically complicates the identification of banking effects. I exploit a previously unstudied reform of bank branching policy in India between 2005-06 that led to a large expansion in private bank credit to financially underserved areas. Using iterations of a regression discontinuity design, I trace the exogenous expansion of banking services through time at the district level. I show this expansion produced positive effects in agriculture and manufacturing. I confirm greater gains in local GDP growth using remote sensing data to overcome the lack of official GDP statistics at the district level. These results offer evidence of a causal impact of financial system expansion on economic development. The second essay examines how the geographic reach of a bank's network of branches can affect its ability to spread risks across spatially separated regions. I investigate the causal impact of the spatial expansion of Indian banks resulting from the bank branching policy reform on smoothing the consumption of households with respect to local weather and agricultural productivity shocks. The third essay (coauthored with Sergei Koulayev) extends a model of sequential search for differentiated goods by relaxing the standard assumption of rational expectations. Agents are likely to refine their imperfect knowledge of product markets while searching. By introducing Bayesian learning into agents' beliefs, the model better replicates important aspects of search behavior. Using data from a popular internet hotel search site, we estimate lower median search costs in the model with Bayesian learning. Considering a counterfactual in which the first page of search results present the most popular hotel options, we estimate an increase in the number of successful searches

Uniform Silicon Isotope Ratios Across the Milky Way Galaxy

We report the relative abundances of the three stable isotopes of silicon, $^{28}$Si, $^{29}$Si and $^{30}$Si, across the Galaxy using the $v = 0, J = 1 \to 0$ transition of silicon monoxide. The chosen sources represent a range in Galactocentric radii ($R_{\rm GC}$) from 0 to 9.8 kpc. The high spectral resolution and sensitivity afforded by the GBT permit isotope ratios to be corrected for optical depths. The optical-depth-corrected data indicate that the secondary-to-primary silicon isotope ratios $^{29}{\rm Si}/^{28}{\rm Si}$ and $^{30}{\rm Si}/^{28}{\rm Si}$ vary much less than predicted on the basis of other stable isotope ratio gradients across the Galaxy. Indeed, there is no detectable variation in Si isotope ratios with $R_{\rm GC}$. This lack of an isotope ratio gradient stands in stark contrast to the monotonically decreasing trend with $R_{\rm GC}$ exhibited by published secondary-to-primary oxygen isotope ratios. These results, when considered in the context of the expectations for chemical evolution, suggest that the reported oxygen isotope ratio trends, and perhaps that for carbon as well, require further investigation. The methods developed in this study for SiO isotopologue ratio measurements are equally applicable to Galactic oxygen, carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio measurements, and should prove useful for future observations of these isotope systems.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables. Published in The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 839, Issue

Modality Switching within Conditional Reasoning

The format in which humans represent knowledge is still not known. Two perspectives that explain the way in which humans represent knowledge are the amodal and modal perspectives. Recently, a modality switching effect was found during a property verification task. The modality switching effect is a delay in response time in verifying the property of an object in a modality that is different from the previously verified property of a different object. This effect is often presented as evidence to support the modal perspective, but it has not been found in a task more complex than property verification. The goal of this study was to examine whether the modality switching effect would be found when evaluating conditional reasoning problems (as in, If P then Q; P/Q). The modality switching between the clauses (P & Q) of the first premise (If P then Q) of a conditional reasoning problem was manipulated to either switch or non-switch. Reading times of the second clause (Q), which either did or did not switch when compared to the first clause (P) were measured. The results indicated that modality switching did not affect reading time when evaluating conditional reasoning problems. However, an unexpected interaction was found between modality switching and reasoning type, the implications of which are further discussed

Modality Switching Within Conditional Reasoning

The format in which humans represent knowledge is still not known. Two perspectives that explain the way in which humans represent knowledge are the amodal and modal perspectives. Recently. a modality switching effect was found during a property verification task. The modality switching effect is a delay in response time in verifying the property of an object in a modality that is different from the previously verified property of a different object. This effect is often presented as evidence to support the modal perspective, but it has not been found in a task more complex than property verification. The goal of this study was to examine whether the modality switching effect would be found when evaluating conditional reasoning problems (as in, If P then Q; P/Q). The modality switching between the clauses (P & Q) of the first premise (If P then Q) of a conditional reasoning problem was manipulated to either switch or non-switch. Reading times of the second clause (Q), which either did or did not switch when compared to the first clause (P) were measured. The results indicated that modality switching did not affect reading time when evaluating conditional reasoning problems. However, an unexpected interaction was found between modality switching and reasoning type, the implications of which are further discussed

Modality Switching Within Conditional Reasoning

The format in which humans represent knowledge is still not known. Two perspectives that explain the way in which humans represent knowledge are the amodal and modal perspectives. Recently. a modality switching effect was found during a property verification task. The modality switching effect is a delay in response time in verifying the property of an object in a modality that is different from the previously verified property of a different object. This effect is often presented as evidence to support the modal perspective, but it has not been found in a task more complex than property verification. The goal of this study was to examine whether the modality switching effect would be found when evaluating conditional reasoning problems (as in, If P then Q; P/Q). The modality switching between the clauses (P & Q) of the first premise (If P then Q) of a conditional reasoning problem was manipulated to either switch or non-switch. Reading times of the second clause (Q), which either did or did not switch when compared to the first clause (P) were measured. The results indicated that modality switching did not affect reading time when evaluating conditional reasoning problems. However, an unexpected interaction was found between modality switching and reasoning type, the implications of which are further discussed

Glacial Geomorphology of southern Alberta, Canada

During deglaciation from the Last Glacial Maximum three terrestrial ice streams within the south western sector of the Laurentide Ice Sheet competed and coalesced in southern Alberta; the High Plains Ice Stream (HPIS), Central Alberta Ice Stream (CAIS) and the east lobe. The ice streams are characterised by smoothed corridors along which lie lineations that identify multiple flow events, transverse ridges of thrust and push origin, esker networks and large sequences of parallel and transverse meltwater channels. The CAIS and HPIS were dynamic and transitory in nature creating a ‘time-transgressive’ imprint. The CAIS terminated within southern Alberta creating a wealth of landforms composed of controlled, hummocky, push and thrust block moraines, along with doughnut hummocks, ice walled lake plains, recessional meltwater, tunnel and large spillway channels. The CAIS margin is interpreted to have been polythermal in nature, creating a continuum of landforms that is dominated by active marginal recession. The methodologies used were placed within an overarching ‘scale approach’, whereby the research initially focused on a small, regional scale and gradually moved to large scale, local investigations. Firstly, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper (Landsat ETM+) data sets were used to map the regional picture. Then, Aerial Photo Investigation (API), ground truthing and sedimentary analyses were employed to provide a detailed, localised focus into the landform sediment assemblages in southern Alberta

Impulsivity and Risky Decision-Making

A Plan B Research Project Submitted to the Faculty of University of Minnesota by Nathaniel A Young in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. May 2016. 1 computer file (PDF); v, 24 pages, appendix A, tablesThe relationships between emotion, trait impulsivity, sensitivity to reward and punishment and risky decision-making were explored. Twenty-Seven undergraduate psychology students (14 males and 13 females) completed the (negative) Urgency, (lack of) Premeditation, (lack of) Perseverance, Sensation Seeking, and Positive Urgency scale (UPPS+P); the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire (SPSRQ), and the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Afterward the participants performed the Iowa gambling task (IGT). Results showed that dimensions related to negative emotion and rash impulsivity significant factors within the model to predict risky decision-making during the IGTUniversity of Minnesota, Duluth. College of Education and Human Service Professions

Why are the Homeless without Homes?

Today a universal fixture in American cities is the visibly homeless. They are Americans who catch sickness, starve, live, and die on the street. This paper examines a possible explanation for why some Americans experience homelessness. The common explanation during the last two decades of the 20th century was circumstantial in nature rather than structural. Mental illness and substance abuse often dominated the discussion on homelessness (Quigley et al. 2001). These responses are correct to a large extent. Shoeni and Koegel reported approximately 25% of a surveyed sample of Los Angeles homeless in 1990 were mentally ill. Two thirds of those surveyed reported being chronic substance abusers while 1 7% exhibited both mental illness and substance abuse. Many of the homeless surveyed lacked a high school education, suffered from domestic strife, and did not carry health insurance (Schoeni and Koe gal, 1998)

Extreme enrichment in atmospheric 15N15N.

Molecular nitrogen (N2) comprises three-quarters of Earth's atmosphere and significant portions of other planetary atmospheres. We report a 19 per mil (‰) excess of 15N15N in air relative to a random distribution of nitrogen isotopes, an enrichment that is 10 times larger than what isotopic equilibration in the atmosphere allows. Biological experiments show that the main sources and sinks of N2 yield much smaller proportions of 15N15N in N2. Electrical discharge experiments, however, establish 15N15N excesses of up to +23‰. We argue that 15N15N accumulates in the atmosphere because of gas-phase chemistry in the thermosphere (>100 km altitude) on time scales comparable to those of biological cycling. The atmospheric 15N15N excess therefore reflects a planetary-scale balance of biogeochemical and atmospheric nitrogen chemistry, one that may also exist on other planets