College of Behavioral & Social Sciences
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item Essays on Auction Design(2018) Yan, Haomin; Ausubel, Lawrence M; Economics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation studies the design of auction markets where bidders are uncertain of their own values at the time of bidding. A bidder's value may depend on other bidders' private information, on total quantity of items allocated in the auction, or on the auctioneer's private information. Chapter 1 provides a brief introduction to auction theory and summarizes the main contribution of each following chapter. Chapter 2 of this dissertation extends the theoretical study of position auctions to an interdependent values model in which each bidder's value depends on its opponents' information as well as its own information. I characterize the equilibria of three standard position auctions under this information structure, including the Generalized Second Price (GSP) auctions, Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) auctions, and the Generalized English Auctions (GEA). I first show that both GSP and VCG auctions are neither efficient nor optimal under interdependent values. Then I propose a modification of these two auctions by allowing bidders to condition their bids on positions to implement efficiency. I show that the modified auctions proposed in this chapter are not only efficient, but also maximize the search engine's revenue. While the uncertainty of each bidder about its own value comes from the presence of common component in bidders’ ex-post values in an interdependent values model, bidders can be uncertain about their values when their values depend on the entire allocation of the auction and when their values depend on the auctioneer's private information. Chapter 3 of this dissertation studies the design of efficient auctions and optimal auctions in a license auction market where bidders care about the total quantity of items allocated in the auction. I show that the standard uniform-price auction and the ascending clock auction are inefficient when the total supply needs to be endogenously determined within the auction. Then I construct a multi-dimensional uniform-price auction and a Walrasian clock auction that can implement efficiency in a dominant strategy equilibrium under surplus-maximizing reserve prices and achieve optimal revenue under revenue-maximizing reserve prices. Chapter 4 of this dissertation analyzes an auctioneer's optimal information provision strategy in a procurement auction in which the auctioneer has private preference over bidders' non-price characteristics and bidders invest in cost-reducing investments before entering the auction. I show that providing more information about the auctioneer's valuation over bidders' non-price characteristics encourages those favored bidders to invest more and expand the distribution of values in the auction. Concealment is the optimal information provision policy when there are two suppliers.Item Essays on Individual Responses to Labor Market Conditions and Policies(2018) Wilson, Riley; Kearney, Melissa S; Economics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines how individuals respond to changing conditions and policies in the labor market, with a particular interest in understanding economically motivated migration and labor force attachment. I first turn to the question of labor mobility. There is long-standing academic and policy interest in the issue of economically motivated geographic mobility. I examine the recent context of localized "fracking" booms in the United States to explore the migration response to positive labor demand shocks. Using data from 1999 to 2013, I show that local fracking led to large increases in potential earnings and employment rates, as well as a sizable migration response. But, this average migration effect masks substantial underlying heterogeneity in migration behavior across both demographics and regions. Migrants to fracking areas were more likely to be male, unmarried, young, and less educated than movers more generally. Furthermore, both in- and out-migration rates increased with fracking and both flows were driven by the same demographic groups, suggesting fracking resulted in short-term migration and increased churn. An instrumental variables analysis using fracking conditions to instrument for earnings suggests that a ten percent increase in average earnings increased in-migration rates by 3.8 percent in North Dakota fracking counties, as compared to only 2.4 percent in the West, 1.6 percent in the South, and 0.5 percent in the Northeast. The difference across regions is statistically significant; robust to housing market controls, geographic spillovers, and other various specifications; and is only partially explained by differences in commuting behavior, initial population characteristics, or a non-linear relationship between earnings and migration. There is some evidence that heterogeneous information flows might be driving the heterogeneous migration response. This implies that lack of information might be dampening rates of migration to economically favorable labor markets. I next examine how labor market information affects these types of economically motivated migration decisions. Migration is a human capital investment that allows individuals to encounter more favorable labor markets. I exploit county-level variation in exposure to news about labor markets impacted by fracking, to show that access to information about potential labor market opportunities affects migration. I use pre-fracking newspaper circulation rates and content from national news outlets to capture exogenous variation in exposure to news about fracking in a particular destination. I then isolate the effect of news exposure by comparing migration flows to the same destination from differentially exposed origin counties. Exposure to newspaper articles about fracking increased migration to the areas mentioned in the news by 2.4 percent on average. News exposure also increases commuting to fracking counties. Exposure to TV news has a similar impact, and positive news about fracking increases migration more than negative news. As further evidence that news matters, Google searches for the term fracking and the names of states specifically mentioned spike after TV news broadcasts about fracking. Migration responses to news about fracking are largest from counties experiencing weak labor markets, suggesting these areas see the largest benefits to information provision. Finally, I examine how a well known government policy aimed to incentize labor force participation -- the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)-- affects labor force transitions. Less-educated single women frequently transition in and out of the labor force. Although there is evidence that the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) increases annual labor force participation, it is unclear how it affects these high frequency, within year employment decisions and entry and exit. By exploiting the panel nature of the Current Population Survey, I overcome challenges associated with compositional changes and estimate the impact of increases in EITC generosity on employment transitions. EITC expansions induce less-educated single women who were previously attached to the labor force to work more months, leading stronger labor force attachment and more annual weeks worked. This leads to less annual exit, suggesting that the documented impact of the EITC on labor force participation rates in part operates by keeping previously employed single women in the labor force. This highlights the importance of understanding how income support programs affect not only labor force participation, but transitions as well. Employment decisions respond to increases in the maximum EITC credit eligible to receive in the current year, rather than the maximum credit eligible to earn, which differ because the EITC is a tax credit transferred with a one year lag. This would be consistent with workers basing their current work decisions on their lagged experience with the EITC. Further evidence additionally suggests that the employment response to the lagged EITC amount is likely due to information about the return to work, rather than to the relaxation of liquidity constraints.Item THE POWER OF INFORMATION: THE INTERNET AND THE RISE OF SOFT POWER(2009) Shin, Yookyoung; Schreurs, Miranda A; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation explores how the Internet changes the concept of political power. It focuses on information as a source of political power, and the relationship between information and power. As a conceptual analysis of the impact of the Internet on political power shift, it argues that the Internet transforms the concept of power from hard to soft. This dissertation argues: (i) the Internet changes power sources from material, such as military or economic, to non-material, such as information or policies; (ii) the Internet promotes the rise of soft power in international relations. This dissertation aims to improve theoretical as well as empirical understanding of information as a source of political power, and to conceptualize political power from hard to soft. According to Nye, soft power is defined as "the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion." This study begins with an analysis of the concept of power in politics, and continues to analyze the impact of the Internet on the conceptualization of political power. This dissertation examines the Internet as a new form of communication media with particular emphasis on the political use of the Internet. Then, it explores digital divide, and discusses some implications of the changed concept of power for two Koreas and the U.S.