This dissertation brings new causal evidence on three topics in development economics, economic demography, and political economy. In the first chapter, I study how aggregate income shocks affect the health and survival of children. I focus on the Peruvian coca industry to exploit a natural experiment. I assess the impacts of plausibly exogenous changes in the price of the coca crop on child mortality in coca-producing areas in a difference-in-difference framework. I find that child health is vulnerable to income losses. In the second chapter, I study how exposure to mass media affect household choices. In particular, I analyze the impacts of exposure to commercial television on fertility in the 1950s in the United States. I tackle this question empirically by exploiting variation in the introduction of television across time and space. I find that television is associated with fewer births. Finally, in the third chapter, I study the consequences of electing low-quality politicians to public office for the provision of public goods. I evaluate the impacts of electing criminal politicians in Peru using a regression-discontinuity design. The analysis suggests that electing a criminal politician is associated with increases in public expending; however, I show that pre-existing levels of expenditure drive these effects.
","abstract_html":"<p>This dissertation brings new causal evidence on three topics in development economics, economic demography, and political economy. In the first chapter, I study how aggregate income shocks affect the health and survival of children. I focus on the Peruvian coca industry to exploit a natural experiment. I assess the impacts of plausibly exogenous changes in the price of the coca crop on child mortality in coca-producing areas in a difference-in-difference framework. I find that child health is vulnerable to income losses. In the second chapter, I study how exposure to mass media affect household choices. In particular, I analyze the impacts of exposure to commercial television on fertility in the 1950s in the United States. I tackle this question empirically by exploiting variation in the introduction of television across time and space. I find that television is associated with fewer births. Finally, in the third chapter, I study the consequences of electing low-quality politicians to public office for the provision of public goods. I evaluate the impacts of electing criminal politicians in Peru using a regression-discontinuity design. The analysis suggests that electing a criminal politician is associated with increases in public expending; however, I show that pre-existing levels of expenditure drive these effects.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Romero Haaker, Francisco Javier Romero"],"institution":null,"degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Field, Erica"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019","date_published":"2019","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:07:19Z","subjects":["Economics"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/10161/18717","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Field, Erica"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Romero Haaker, Francisco Javier Romero"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2019-06-07T19:48:41Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2021-05-21T08:17:13Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2019"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Dissertation"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Economics"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/10161/18717"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This dissertation brings new causal evidence on three topics in development economics, economic demography, and political economy. In the first chapter, I study how aggregate income shocks affect the health and survival of children. I focus on the Peruvian coca industry to exploit a natural experiment. I assess the impacts of plausibly exogenous changes in the price of the coca crop on child mortality in coca-producing areas in a difference-in-difference framework. I find that child health is vulnerable to income losses. In the second chapter, I study how exposure to mass media affect household choices. In particular, I analyze the impacts of exposure to commercial television on fertility in the 1950s in the United States. I tackle this question empirically by exploiting variation in the introduction of television across time and space. I find that television is associated with fewer births. Finally, in the third chapter, I study the consequences of electing low-quality politicians to public office for the provision of public goods. I evaluate the impacts of electing criminal politicians in Peru using a regression-discontinuity design. The analysis suggests that electing a criminal politician is associated with increases in public expending; however, I show that pre-existing levels of expenditure drive these effects.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Essays in Applied Microeconomics and Development Economics"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Field, Erica"],"dc:creator":["Romero Haaker, Francisco Javier Romero"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2019-06-07T19:48:41Z"],"dc:date.available":["2021-05-21T08:17:13Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2019"],"dc:description.abstract":["This dissertation brings new causal evidence on three topics in development economics, economic demography, and political economy. In the first chapter, I study how aggregate income shocks affect the health and survival of children. I focus on the Peruvian coca industry to exploit a natural experiment. I assess the impacts of plausibly exogenous changes in the price of the coca crop on child mortality in coca-producing areas in a difference-in-difference framework. I find that child health is vulnerable to income losses. In the second chapter, I study how exposure to mass media affect household choices. In particular, I analyze the impacts of exposure to commercial television on fertility in the 1950s in the United States. I tackle this question empirically by exploiting variation in the introduction of television across time and space. I find that television is associated with fewer births. Finally, in the third chapter, I study the consequences of electing low-quality politicians to public office for the provision of public goods. I evaluate the impacts of electing criminal politicians in Peru using a regression-discontinuity design. The analysis suggests that electing a criminal politician is associated with increases in public expending; however, I show that pre-existing levels of expenditure drive these effects.
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