Essays on applied microeconomics

Arzumanyan, Mariam

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120544 Copy

Description

Title

Essays on applied microeconomics

Author(s)

Arzumanyan, Mariam

Issue Date

2023-04-25

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Krasa, Stefan

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Krasa, Stefan

Committee Member(s)

• Bernhardt, Mark Daniel
• Deltas, George
• Lemus, Jorge

Department of Study

Economics

Discipline

Economics

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Costly voting
• polarization
• voter turnout
• utilitarian approach

Abstract

This dissertation consists of three self-contained chapters on Applied Microeconomics. Chapter 1 aims to build a casual inference using benchmarking estimation design via propensity score matching and difference-in-differences methodology. Most of the data on force-used incidents by police officers in the US comes from observational data. The data from the New Jersey Police use of force reports show that police officers used force in varying numbers and intensities during arrests or their interactions with civilians. Propensity score weights estimated using boosted logistic regression methods eliminate most pretreatment group differences between "Outlier" officers who use force more than three times above states’ average and their benchmark group. The estimates show that "Outlier" officers have a disproportionately higher number of Black and Hispanic subjects than their benchmarks. Two-sample t-test results indicate that minority subjects, particularly Black males, have a significantly higher probability of forced-used if Outlier officers are involved in the incidents. In addition, the officers who use force frequently report resisting arrest in higher fractions than their benchmark, indicating that they tend non-lenience towards minority and male subjects. Ulteriorly, the benchmarking design with a difference-in-differences framework allows us to answer several relevant questions in the literature. Chapter 2 answers an important question in political economics: Do differentiated policies encourage higher voter turnout than centrist policies? This paper uses the citizen-candidate model and group-based utilitarian approach of costly voting to study how political polarization affects voter turnout under positive voting costs. Two parties enter the electoral competition at no cost with a pre-commitment on the platforms, and the winner implements their ideal policy. Comparative statics results demonstrate that under positive voting costs, the expected turnout is always positive in the presence of political polarization and is only zero when the policies converge. In addition, the expected turnout rises with increased polarization, while it decreases with voting costs. However, parties have higher chances of victory if they choose converging policies. Chapter 3 is co-authored with Mattias K. Polborn and published in Games and Economics Behavior, 2017 (Arzumanyan and M. K. Polborn (2017)). We analyze a costly voting model with multiple candidates under the plurality rule. In equilibrium, the set of candidates is partitioned into a set of "relevant candidates" (which contains at least two candidates) and the remaining candidates. All relevant candidates receive votes and have an equal chance of winning, independent of their popular support levels. The remaining candidates do not receive any votes. Furthermore, all voters who cast votes do so for their most preferred candidate, i.e., there is no "strategic voting."

Graduation Semester

2023-05

Type of Resource

Thesis

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2023 Mariam Arzumanyan

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