Publication Date
2025
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
First Advisor
Groves, Jeremy
Second Advisor
Cheng, Ai-ru
Degree Name
Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)
Legacy Department
Department of Economics
Abstract
This doctoral dissertation consists of three distinct essays, each applying different areas of applied econometrics to address problems in public economics, development economics,and financial economics.
The first essay examines the impact of U.S. state-level corporate tax rates on county-level wages using panel data econometrics. It analyses US state corporate taxes exploiting contiguous counties straddling state borders to estimate the incidence of corporate taxes on wages. The results reveal heterogeneous and asymmetric effects of corporate tax changes across the goods and service-producing industries. Specifically, U.S. state corporate taxes have a statistically and economically significant impact on county-level wages within the service sector. A one percentage point increase in the change in the top marginal corporate tax rate leads to a 1.08 percent decline in wage growth, whereas a one percentage point decrease results in a 0.44 percent wage growth increase as compared to neighboring counties across the state border. In contrast, no statistically significant effects are observed in the goods-producing sector, highlighting a clear divergence in tax sensitivity between the two industries.
The heterogeneous and asymmetric effects of financial inclusion on financial resilience is investigated in the second essay using causal machine learning. I estimate the conditional average treatment effects of account ownership on financial resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa using honest casual trees; a methodology that integrates machine learning algorithms with causal inference. The findings indicate that financial inclusion is associated with an 8.4 percent increase in financial resilience, as identified with causal trees. The effect of account ownership varies considerably, with a 37 percent impact among the richest 40 percent of individuals under 33 years with tertiary education, compared to just 3 percent among the poorest 60 percent under 30 years without tertiary education. Further, the effect of account ownership is more distributed across population segments in middle-income SSA countries, compared to low-income economies within the region.
The third essay applies financial econometric methodologies to compare the performance of volatility-control strategies. It provides an empirical analysis of volatility control strategies by comparing risk control (SPXT18UT) and managed risk (SPXMR) indices with their underlying basis, the S&P 500 Total Return Index (SPXTR). Using rolling window, MIDAS, and GARCH-type models, the study estimates conditional volatility and assesses how these strategies perform across different volatility regimes, defined by the VIX index. The results show that both strategies effectively control volatility, with the managed risk strategy (SPXMR) demonstrating superior volatility stabilization.
Recommended Citation
Zumanu, George Agbenyega, "Essays in Applied Econometrics" (2025). Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations. 8144.
https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/allgraduate-thesesdissertations/8144
Extent
158 pages
Language
en
Publisher
Northern Illinois University
Rights Statement
In Copyright
Rights Statement 2
NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.
Media Type
Text
