Dissertation Topics and Supervisors

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1 Dissertation Topics and Supervisors Laura Anselmi (Health Economics) Title: Inequalities in reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health in LMICs. Description: Aim: Coverage of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health services has increased in LMICs and inequality has on average decreased. However, results at country level are more controversial showing increases in coverage and health outcomes inequality. The aim of the project is to investigate the main drivers of changes in service coverage and health outcome inequalities in a specific country setting. Methods Concentration indices and relative decompositions applied to multiple years of Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data. Refik Emre Aytimur 2 places (2 places filled) 1. Political economy of polarization 2. Political accountability 3. Effect of electoral surveys on political competition Peter Backus 2 places (2 places filled) Applied Microeconomics Prasenjit Banerjee 1 place Henry Chiu 2 places My topics are: private provision of public goods, optimal income taxation, the economics of risk and insurance, the economics of income inequality, the economics of crime. Alastair Hall 2 places (1 place filled) Theoretical and/or simulation based analysis of Econometric methods Emranul Haque - 2 places (1 place filled) Human capital and growth Governance and Development Trade Liberalisation and Inequality Financial Development and Growth Omer Edhan Idan 2 places (2 places filled) 1. Job Polarization and election. 2. Risk measures. 3. Firm size evolution. 4. Economics of networks. Leonidas Koutsougeras 2 places 1 Dynamic cooperation: a dynamic theories of the core 2 A review of non Walrasian theory of value-strategic market games. 3 Causes and consequences of incomplete asset markets.

2 Søren Rud Kristensen (Health Economics) Title: Is health behaviours worse in countries where health care is free at the point of delivery? Description: Aim: The literature on insurance and moral hazard suggests that patients that do not face costs of health care may exert less effort to stay healthy. On the other hand, patients who can freely access care may have a higher life expectancy which creates a higher return on investment in health. The aim of this project would be to investigate whether state provision of health care is associated with worse population health behavior. Methods Multivariable regression analysis on a country level panel dataset to assess the relationship between state insurance and population health behaviours taking the endogeneity of state insurance into account. James Lincoln 2 places Topics in Generalized Method of Moments and other moment based estimation. Patrick Macnamara 2 places (1 place filled) I'm interested in supervising students willing to focus on the macroeconomic effect of financial frictions (broadly speaking) in heterogeneous agent models. While I encourage students to come up with their own topics, some possible suggestions are: (1) financial frictions and the entry and exit of firms over the business cycle (2) financial frictions and the composition of debt (e.g., bank loans vs corporate bonds) (3) financial frictions and the duration of debt (e.g., short-term vs long-term debt) (4) financial frictions and misallocation It should be noted that this work is very theoretical in nature, with analysis conducted via simulations. Therefore, at a minimum, potential students should be comfortable with Matlab. Edward Manderson 2 places 1. Applied environmental economics 2. Applied energy economics Ayse Mermer 1 place Behavioural economics, experimental economics Paul Middleditch 1 place Constructing long run measures of economic activity: The recent financial crisis has brought a revived interest and a search for new instruments with which to conduct demand management policies also known as output smoothing. One such way to measure the success or otherwise of these instruments is through the construction and analysis of long run economic variables such as the natural rate of unemployment and output. This area of research will include the use of modern empirical methodologies such as the Kalman filter and recent causality testing. The student will hope to successfully construct their own long run measures of economic activity and utilise them in tests on standard macroeconomic theory, see Staiger, Stock and Watson (1996) for assistance with your research proposal. It is anticipated that the project will have a strong econometrics component.

3 Air pollution and macroeconomic time series: What information can we extract from more recently available time series such as for air pollution? For instance, does air pollution contain information about economic activity such as the level or growth of gross domestic product in the United Kingdom. An empirical investigation will draw on various econometric techniques to investigate the possibility that pollution could provide a high frequency proxy for gross domestic product, see Hanna and Garcia (2008) for a similar application using a spline regression and Mexican data for help with your research proposal. It is anticipated that the project will have a strong econometrics component. Structural breaks and unit roots: evidence from macroeconomic time series: Evidence of unit roots in real output time series have compelled many to question the validity of traditional theories of economic fluctuations. The student will test the consistency of this result after allowing for structural breaks in key macroeconomic time series it is possible to reverse the result of Nelson and Plosser (1982) who have found evidence in favour of the unit root hypothesis for 13 out of 14 economic aggregates for the United States and Perron (1989) who follows from this. It is anticipated that the project will have a strong econometrics component. Kyriakos Neanidis 2 places Empirical analysis on topics of macroeconomic development (for example, economic growth) Vitaliy Oryshchenko 2 places Econometric theory, including: - semi- and non-parametric methods: GMM, (G)EL, and kernel smoothing methods; - some time series methods, such as flexible models for time-varying distributions. Simon Peters 2 places 1. Review, with comparative empirical application, of data analysis software that is not commonly used for econometric analysis. Difficulties: *) you need to be able to physically use the software, so licensing could be an issue if its neither open source or available at the University; *) you need an applied problem for a comparator; *) the data for the comparator must be readily available. Skill set: *) ability to work with new software tools; *) knowledge of econometric modeling. 2. As above, but reviewing new features/addins of commonly used software. Difficulties: *) this may require using/investigating models and methodologies beyond those taught. *) you need an applied problem for a comparator; *) the data for the comparator must be readily available. Skill set: *) ability to work with software tools; *) knowledge of econometric modeling and theory. Mario Pezzino 2 places My topics are: 1) Mixed oligopoly (e.g. Private Vs Public competition) 2) Hospital competition and contractual arrangements for doctors 3) Theories of product differentiation

4 Raffaele Rossi 2 places (2 places filled) I) Empirical and/or theoretical analysis of fiscal policy. II) Empirical and/or theoretical analysis of monetary policy. Klaus Schenk-Hoppe 2 places (1 place filled) 1. Hedging under transaction costs 2. CAPM in practise Arthur Sinko 2 places (1 place filled) - High-frequency Volatility Forecasting - Estimation of Diffusion processes - Forecast averaging Matt Sutton and Rachel Meacock (Health Economics) (Place filled) Title: The effect of early diagnosis on health behaviours. Description: Aim: It is widely believed that identifying at-risk patients and diagnosing long-term health conditions earlier can prevent ill-health and reduce health care costs. Patients behavioural responses to this new information may be positive or negative. This project will use longitudinal data to examine how individuals respond to a new diagnosis of a long-term condition. Methods: Longitudinal analysis of lifestyles (exercise, diet, drinking) and health care utilisation before and after diagnosis using the British Household Panel Survey. Akos Valentinyi 2 places Mazhar Waseem 1 place Public Economics, Economics of Taxation, Using Microdata for Policy William Whittaker (Health Economics) (1 place filled) Title: How should we allocate healthcare resources for 7-day primary care services between local areas? Description: Aim: To determine a fair shares formula to advice policymakers how to allocate resources for 7-day primary care appointments across different populations. Methods: multivariable regression analysis of 7-day appointment use against GP practice characteristics and population characteristics with estimates used to generate weights for areas and proposed resource shares Title: Identifying differences in the determinants of uptake of 7-day extended access primary care appointments across week days. Description: Aim: To identify the driving characteristics of practices and practice populations on the uptake of 7-day extended access appointments. This project would look at what predicts day of week use (and non-use) and whether this differs over the week and help to inform the provision of such services. Methods: Multivariable regression analyses modelling the use of appointments at practice level against practice demography, deprivation, and supply-side measures. Title: An investigation into the determinants and health behaviours of people at risk of diabetes. Description: Aim: Diabetes is a health condition that accounts for an increasing share of the national healthcare budget in England. Identifying and treating people at risk of developing diabetes may

5 help alleviate the burden of diabetes on the healthcare sector. This project seeks to identify factors associated with being at risk of diabetes. Methods: multivariable regression analyses using probability models and survey data (Health Survey for England). Ada Wossink 2 places My long term research interest is in environmental economic tradeoffs, the evaluation of environmental policy, sustainability and the provision of ecosystem services. I view environmental economics as based on two mainstays: (a) the natural sciences including operational research and statistics, and (b) the social sciences, i.e. the theory of human behavior. The two mainstays are strongly intertwined in environmental issues; we need to understand and question where does nature leave off and society begin. I pick what I know to be important environmental and policy problems and then think what I can do about it as an economist. It is this problem solving perspective that characterizes my work more than a fixed set of econometric or statistical methods. Economics and econometrics has a huge array of tools that can be brought to bear on environmental problems and I find it exciting to explore and exploit this. More methodologically I have spent time thinking about how the two mainstays described above can be best combined in environmental economics research and how this depends on the environmental issue at stake. In this context I am interested in behavioral and perception oriented issues. I have supervised and co-supervised to completion 12 PhD students (in Europe, USA and the UK) and publish extensively with my students. Interested students may want to consult some of my recent research papers (please send me an if you cannot find these (ada.wossink@manchester.ac.uk). Ruijs, A., M. Kortelainen, A. Wossink, C.J.E. Schulp and R. Alkemade, Opportunity costs estimation of ecosystem services, Environmental & Resource Economics in press Yaduma, N., M. Kortelainen and A. Wossink (2015) The Environmental Kuznets Curve at different levels of economic development: a counterfactual quantile regression analysis for CO2 emissions, Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy 4(3): Mulatu, A. and Wossink, A. (2014) Environmental regulation and location of industrialised agricultural production in Europe, Land Economics 90(3): Admiraal, J., A. Wossink, W. de Groot, G. de Snoo (2013) More than Total Economic Value: How to combine economic valuation of biodiversity with ecological resilience, Ecological Economics 89: Yaduma, N., M. Kortelainen and A. Wossink (2012) The Mortality and Economic Costs of Particulate Air Pollution in Developing Countries: The Case of Nigeria, Environmental & Resource Economics 54(3): Mulatu, A., Gerlagh, R., Rigby, D. and Wossink, A. (2010) Environmental Regulation and Industry Location in Europe, Environmental & Resource Economics 45(4): Kuminoff, N. and A. Wossink (2010) Why isn t More U.S. Farmland Organic? Journal of Agricultural Economics 61(2) Wossink, A. and Swinton, S. (2007) Jointness in Production and Willingness to Supply Non- Marketed Ecosystem Services, Ecological Economics 64: Wossink, A., Gardebroek, C. (2006) Environmental Policy Uncertainty and Marketable Permit Systems, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 88 (1): Horst Zank 2 places (2 places filled) 1. Behavioural Economics: a. Experiments on individual or collective and strategic choice

6 . b. Foundations of Behavioural Models c. Decision under Risk/Uncertainty/Ambiguity d. Time Preferences e. Review of Literature related to above

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