Five Essays on Labor and Public Economics

Abstract

It is important to understand the individual behavioral responses to public policies and the corresponding social consequences because they are key parameters to evaluate and design efficient social policies. In this dissertation, I examine the effects of a series of public policies in China by investigating the policy-induced individual behaviors and social consequences in different stages over lifetime. Chapter 1 examines the impact of fertility policies on the education investment in girls; Chapter 2 shows how the ethnic-specific terms in the OCP distorted individual behaviors and equilibrium outcomes in marriage market; Chapter 3 examines an unintended outcome of birth control policies - more reported twins; Chapter 4 uses the compulsory schooling laws (CSL) as exogenous shocks to estimate the causal effects of education on health at prime ages; Chapter 5 examines the effects of new social pension provision on the outcomes of the elderly, including income, expenditure health and mortality. I conclude that the public policies have significant and remarkable effects on the behaviors and welfare outcomes of individuals. In addition, these lessons from China may shed lights on the some important and general interested questions in economics.