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2025ECO004
Doctoral thesis

Three essays in applied economics

  • 2025

PhD: Università della Svizzera italiana

Cross-border employment
Housing prices
Prescribing style
Labor market
Organized crime
Turnout
English This thesis explores the long-term effects of three distinct economic shocks on residential choice, labor market outcomes, and political participation. Leveraging dynamic difference-in-differences designs, I study how changes in exchange rates, medical prescribing behaviors, and anti-corruption interventions affect individual and regional outcomes. Chapter 1 examines how currency shocks —by altering relative wages— affect labor mobility and housing. I find that exchange rate shocks can influence housing demand and prices across international borders via labor mobility, creating potential affordability pressures for local residents. Chapter 2 investigates how variation in general practitioners' prescribing behavior affects long-term health and labor market outcomes after a major mental health shock, the death of a close relative. I estimate that patients enrolled at a high-prescribing medical practices have a 30 percent higher probability of receiving benzodiazepines and a higher probability of repeated prescriptions. Over time, these patients experience lower employment probabilities and a 4 percent reduction in earnings, documenting the long-term consequences of prescribing variation for patients’ well-being and economic productivity. Finally, Chapter 3 investigates the impact of disclosing mafia infiltration in local governments on trust and political participation. I find that public revelations of corruption reduce turnout by about two percentage points, especially in areas where such infiltration was unexpected. These findings highlight a trade-off: while dismantling corrupt local governance strengthens state capacity, doing so publicly may disillusion voters and reduce democratic engagement. Together, these three essays offer new insights into how these economic shocks can shape labor market outcomes, residential choices, and political behavior.
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Language
  • English
Classification
Economics
License
License undefined
Open access status
green
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Persistent URL
https://n2t.net/ark:/12658/srd1332530
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