Essays in Applied Microeconomics

Abstract

This dissertation consists of four essays on a range of topics in urban, labor and behavioral economics. The first essay (co-authored with Benjamin Austin) studies the long run effect of Right-to-Work Laws on labor market outcomes and location decisions in the United States, using a border-pair differences approach. The second essay (co-authored with Gianluca Rinaldi) investigates the effect of credit supply on mortgage borrowing and house prices, exploiting county-level changes in conforming loan limits. The third essay revisits the effect of road network expansion on driving, and provides evidence that the “fundamental law of traffic congestion” is an artefact of the flawed data construction and modelling choices. The fourth essay (co-authored with Brian Wheaton) studies whether politicians are rewarded for performance, as suggested by retrospective voting models, or whether erroneous beliefs undermine such a mechanism.