Essays on Family Policy, Social Transfers, and Entrepreneurship

This thesis consists of three essays on how public policy shapes household decisions, redis-tribution, and aggregate economic outcomes. The chapters study family policy, universal income transfers, and universal wealth transfers, with an emphasis on how policy design affects behavior through caregiving arrangements, labor supply, saving, and entrepreneurship. Chapter 1 examines Quebec’s 2006 parental leave reform, which introduced higher replacement rates, broader eligibility, and a non-transferable paternity leave quota. Using a difference-in-differences approach and administrative and survey data, I find that the reform substantially increased fathers’ leave take-up. However, this increase did not translate into greater planned sharing of childcare after mothers returned to work. Instead, parents became more likely to rely on relatives and friends. The reform also had no measurable effect on the timing of mothers’ return to work. These findings suggest that policies designed to increase fathers’ leave participation do not necessarily shift longer-term caregiving arrangements within the household. Chapter 2 studies a universal basic income (UBI) in a heterogeneous-agent general equilibrium economy with collateral-constrained entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs play an outsized role in capital accumulation and wealth creation, making entrepreneurial dynamics central to evaluating universal transfers. A tax-financed UBI reduces inequality but weakens capital accumulation and entrepreneurial investment when financed through higher income taxation. These declines generate substantial welfare losses. Alternative financing instruments matter: consumption-tax financing preserves capital formation and generates welfare gains, highlighting the importance of the tax instrument used to fund universal transfers. Chapter 3 compares universal basic wealth (UBW), modeled as a one-time asset transfer at the onset of adulthood, with a present-value-equivalent UBI. In an economy where wealth relaxes collateral constraints, the timing of transfers is a distinct policy margin. Under consumption-tax financing, UBW expands entrepreneurship, capital accumulation, output, and consumption more strongly than a flow income transfer because it raises asset positions early in life. Despite the larger upfront payment, UBW’s annual cost is lower because it is paid only to entering cohorts and expands the income-tax base. UBI produces smaller aggregate effects but delivers higher average welfare.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Economics

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Graduate Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Awal, Farouk

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Hashmi, Rafique Aamir

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Staubli, Stefan
• Tanaka, Atsuko

• Parental Leave
• Entrepreneurship
• Universal Basic Wealth
• Universal Basic Income

Statement dc:rights

• University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/51657

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:1880/125365