This dissertation studies the incentives and consequences of public policies and behaviors through the lens and with the tools of frontier applied microeconomics. In the first chapter, I investigate the effects of information shocks on health care use before, during, and after the population's exposure to the information shock. I use high-dimensional health claims data and exploit a nationwide government information campaign promoting HIV testing. I find an increase of 30\% in HIV testing and in diagnosis reports. Marginal testers, who responds to the information shock, are slightly more likely to be younger and single, suggesting that marginal testers are similar to individuals testing in periods without an information campaign. With a contagious and transmittable disease such as HIV, the timing of detection is key for both managing the disease and to contain its spreading. In the second chapter, my coauthor Diego Gentile and I examine the impacts of implementing policies fostering safe abortion practices in Uruguay on women's outcomes. We use survey data and a difference-in-differences approach and synthetic control methods. We show that the policy decrease maternal mortality, affects reproductive behavior, and ultimately increases women's employment. In the third chapter, I analyze following financial advice and return chasing as drivers of portfolio choice and their implications on wealth accumulation and retirement policies. I use fund rebalances data from retirement savings accounts in the Chilean pension system. I construct and estimate statistics that capture these drivers. I find evidence of return chasing and of following advice. High income men are more likely to follow financial advice and they switch after larger return differences. Also, low income return chasers earn significantly lower cumulative returns than higher income individuals, when compared to a benchmark, suggesting that active choices can potentially affect income inequality at the retirement age. Overall, the findings of this dissertation provide useful inputs for discussions about health screening policies, abortion policies, and social security reform.
Ravizza, Catalina,
"Essays on Microeconomics"
(2020).
Economics Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/k95m-ca69
