VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Essays on the applications of matching theory to political economy
Keywords: Business.

In this dissertation I use tools from market design and matching theory to study institutional design in political economy and development. How are personnel allocated within a public organization? What is the intended distribution of talent across institutions and are organizational procedures successful in attaining their stated goals? Who can exert inﬂuence in personnel allocation processes and what is the impact of these organizational choices on outcomes? How does an institution evolve? How should these systems be designed? My research tries to address such institutional questions at the heart of public administration and political economy. Matching theory in political economy is an unexplored space. In political economy, we often think of underlying voting processes determining allocations or outcomes. However, there are also many assignment problems where there is no voting, or where the voting process is embedded within a larger allocation procedure. At the heart of such assignment procedures is a matching mechanism. It takes as input, people's preferences of where they want to be assigned, incorporates priorities and other constraints to be instituted, and returns the set of assignments. I use and develop tools of matching theory in these instances to better understand the assignment problems (empirically and theoretically) and to design better mechanisms (an engineering perspective). I explore two new substantive applications in matching theory: mechanisms allocating elite civil servants to states in India (Chapter 1) and party-speciﬁc mechanisms for assigning politicians to committees in the US Senate (Chapter 2). These political economy applications share a unique feature that is new to the theoretical matching literature. Namely, the very people who are allocated by the matching mechanism choose, or agree upon, the choice of the matching mechanism. Chapter 3 studies the matching mechanism as an endogenously chosen institution and introduces the novel concept of majority stability. Collectively, my dissertation highlights two important themes at the intersection of matching theory and political economy: i) correlated preferences as a source of institutional imbalance and ii) the perspective of a matching mechanism being an endogenous institutional choice
Essays on the economics of housing markets
Keywords: Economics.

This dissertation consists of two essays that examine households' behavior in housing markets. The first chapter studies the effects on rental markets of providing tax-funded legal representation ("Right to Counsel") to tenants facing an eviction process. Stronger tenant protections provide greater insurance to household who benefit from accruing larger amounts of debt and paying lower monetary costs when defaulting on rent. However, stronger tenant protections translate into higher default costs for landlords and, in equilibrium, higher rental rates, that limit renters' ability to pay affordable houses and can potentially push them to homelessness. To quantitatively measure the welfare implications of providing legal representation to tenants, we develop and solve a heterogenous agent life cycle model of the rental markets where households can default on rent and face different exogenous risk factors. We find that "Right to Counsel" causes rental rates to increase due to greater default risk faced by landlords. As a consequence, housing quality allocation falls for riskier tenants. While eviction-filing rates increase due to lower default costs, evictions are less likely, resulting in similar eviction rates before and after implementing the policy. Quantitatively, results suggest positive effects on young and low-income households that benefit from greater insurance provided by a more lenient eviction regime. The second chapter introduces a new measure of self-assessed financial literacy that plays an important role in understanding household behavior in housing markets. Households who self-assess themselves to be more financially literate are more likely to own a house and lever more. We solve a heterogeneous agent portfolio choice model to understand how self-assessed financial literacy affects mortgage terms and expectations on housing returns to generate the cross-sectional patterns. Our results show that households with higher levels of self-assessed financial literacy face better credit conditions and expect higher risk-adjusted returns on their housing asset. In particular, we find that financially knowledgeable households access better mortgage terms when they are young and higher risk-adjusted returns on the housing asset when they are old. Finally we estimate and compare housing demand elasticity with respect to wealth in models with and without financial literacy. We find that housing demand elasticity is approximately 40% lower when taking self-assessed financial literacy into account
Essays on the economics of public procurement
Keywords: Economics.

This dissertation consists of three essays that examine how institutional and market factors affect the efficiency of public procurement systems. In the first chapter, I study the trade-off between rules and discretion in public procurement. Should a central government give broad authority to local agencies in the way they award public contracts? Or should it subject them to a strict set of uniform regulations? I study this question in the context of US federal procurement. I find that, at current levels, the benefits from waste prevention are modest relative to the size of compliance costs introduced by regulation. In the second chapter, co-authored with Mark Duggan (Stanford), we study the relationship between market structure and public procurement outcomes. In particular, we ask whether and to what extent consolidation-driven increases in industry concentration affect the way in which the government procures its goods and services. We focus on the defense industry, by far the largest contributor to federal procurement spending in the U.S. We find that increased market concentration caused the procurement process to become less competitive, induced a shift from the use of fixed-price contracts towards cost-plus contracts, but find no evidence that consolidation led to a significant increase in acquisition costs. In the third chapter, joint with Andres Gonzalez-Lira (UC Berkeley) and Michael S. Walker (US Department of Defense), we study the effects of increasing competition for public contracts through advertising. Publicizing contract opportunities promotes bidder participation, potentially leading to lower acquisition costs. Yet extensive advertising could also exacerbate the adverse selection of bidders on non-contractible quality dimensions. We study this trade-off in the context of procurement contracts for the U.S. Department of Defense. We find that publicized contracts opportunities increases competition and leads to a different pool of vendors, which on average offer lower prices. However, we also find that the post-award performance of publicized contracts worsens, resulting in more post-award cost overruns and delays. The latter effect is driven by goods and services that are relatively more complex, highlighting the role of contract incompleteness
Essays on the economics of ride hailing
Keywords: Economics.

In the last decade, new technologies have led to a boom in dynamic pricing. I analyze the most salient example, surge pricing in ride hailing. Using data from Uber in Houston, I develop an empirical model of spatial equilibrium to measure the welfare effects of surge pricing. My model is composed of demand, supply, and a matching technology. It allows for temporal and spatial heterogeneity as well as randomness in supply and demand. I find that, relative to a counterfactual with uniform pricing, surge pricing increases total welfare by 3.53% of gross revenue. The gains mainly go to riders: rider surplus increases by 6.97% of gross revenue, whereas driver surplus and platform profits decrease by 1.97% and 1.42% of gross revenue, respectively. Disparities in driver surplus are magnified. Riders, on the other hand, are overwhelmingly better off
Essays on the political economy of elections
Keywords: Political Science.

This dissertation studies how elections influence policymaking, with a focus on local law enforcement. I collect new data on elections which I combine with large, untapped administrative datasets on government behavior. I then use modern empirical techniques for causal inference to study how elections shape the policies governments choose. This dissertation includes three papers applying this approach. In the first paper, I use close elections between Democratic and Republican sheriff candidates to study the polarization of local immigration enforcement. I find that, despite claims of highly polarized policing, Democratic and Republican sheriffs pursue similar immigration policies on average. The second paper studies whether elections make police more responsive to the public. Using the introduction of elected police commissioners in the UK, I find that electing police oversight led left-leaning districts to relax drug policing relative to right-leaning districts. In the third paper, co-authored with Andy Hall, we use close elections between moderate and extreme US House candidates to study why moderates perform better in general elections. We find that moderates perform better because extreme candidates motivate the opposing party to turn out at higher rates while not increasing turnout in their own party. Put together, these articles find that elections are important for determining policy, but do not always work in conventionally partisan ways--in all three papers, parties contain members with a variety of positions, and these positions matter
Establishing homology between the avian and mammalian inner ear
Keywords:  Department of Biology
hearing
regeneration
chicken
scRNAseq
biology
mouse
BLAST
ncbi
bioinformatics
Thesis

Hearing loss is a pertinent issue affecting over 5% of the world’s population, or more than 450 million people. Unlike mammals, avians regenerate their hearing upon damage. Consequently, establishing avians as a model organism for mammalian hearing regeneration has immense therapeutic and research value. To do so, the evolutionary relationship between the inner ears of mammals and avians must be established. Current research by Manley and Köppl suggests that the homology between the avian and mammalian inner ears is limited to an ancestral “hair cell field”, or basilar papilla, with uniform hair-cell types. They claim other specializations, such as distinct hair cell types, arose independently in mammals and avians and are not homologous.
The aim of this study is to determine whether there is support for homology, or common evolutionary origin, between modern avian and mammalian inner ears. Specifically, this research comprises two parts. First, it seeks to establish similarity relationships between the two major mammalian and avian hair cell subtypes. Establishing similarity between these cell groups could yield support for homology between modern avian and mammalian inner ears. Second, it seeks to use BLAST protein alignment to resolve the annotation challenges associated with cross-species gene alignment. Rather than comparing gene names, which vary between species, this research directly compares protein sequences, yielding improved alignment outcomes. Hopefully, the techniques used here can be applied by others conducting cross-species gene alignments. Ultimately, the study will allow our understanding of avian hearing regeneration to inform mammalian regenerative therapies.
Establishing the clinical relevance of glycoproteins in pancreatic cancer
Keywords:  Department of Biology
glycoproteomics
mass spectrometry
protein glycosylation
N-linked glycopeptide enrichment
pancreatic cancer
cyst fluid
Thesis

Pancreatic cancer remains a highly lethal malignancy as the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. In the majority of cases, patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage as current pancreatic cancer biomarkers suffer from poor sensitivity and specificity. Few studies look at detectable molecular alterations at the pre-cancerous level, thus, warranting research into early detection strategies. Glycosylation is an important post-translational modification that is aberrant in cancer. With a role in cancer growth and metastasis, altered glycosylation can be exploited for novel pancreatic cancer biomarker identification. Mass spectrometry-based glycoproteomics allows for the study of glycosylated proteins from cysts that are often precursor lesions to pancreatic cancer. Using an in-depth glycoproteomic workflow that enriches for glycopeptides, this study aimed to assess glycosylation profiles between cysts that have high malignant potential from cysts that have low malignant potential. Across fifteen cyst fluid samples from patients with various types of cysts including mucinous cystic neoplasms (MCN), intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN), adenocarcinomas, and pseudocysts, 425 unique glycoproteins were identified. Of these glycoproteins, many were commonly found in the pancreas, including MUC5AC and CEACAM5. Unprecedented glycosylation was seen on the GP2 protein, a protein exclusive to pancreatic acinar cells, with 78 different sugar structures found on a single glycosylation site. This dataset provides novel information about glycan composition at specific protein sites in pancreatic cyst fluid with the majority of the glycosites having not been previously mapped. The results of this study reveal the diversity of protein glycosylation present on pancreas-derived proteins, allowing for better comparison of glycosylation profiles across different cyst fluid sample types that may correlate with particular diagnoses or disease states.
Estimation and analysis of entry and exit of big box retailers
Keywords: Economics.

This dissertation offers analysis of competition, entry, and exit in concentrated markets, featuring new data and new methodologies in the context of big-box store exit, organizational form and measuring equilibrium selection mechanisms for entry games. First, I study the effect on consumers and businesses when a big-box chain, which competes in discount retail and groceries, closed several stores in early 2016. I analyze roughly 30 million VISA credit card transactions in four markets between January 2015 through December 2017, which covers a time period before and after the big-box chain closed its stores. I estimate a difference-in-difference causal effect, with the first difference being before and after the closings and the second difference being consumers who shopped versus did not shop at the big-box chain. I find that consumers who shopped at the big-box chain spent 12%-17% more on groceries after the store closing, with spending in other categories decreasing. I also find that mom-and-pop stores had 1%-14% larger revenue growth compared to large merchants in the second year after the closings. Second, I study competition between big-box and retail cooperative chains in the home improvement industry during the Great Recession. The former are typically run from a central headquarters and are comprised of many physically large locations, while the latter consist of smaller, independently operated locations using the same brand title. Both have access to supply networks and brand name effects, which a non-franchised or non-cooperative independent store would not have access to. I find that competition mostly happens between firms of the same type, with the effect on entry and exit across these two firm types being small. Finally, I develop a procedure that extends a method developed by Bresnahan and Reiss (1991) for estimation of static two-player entry games. The procedure recovers characteristics of the equilibrium selection mechanism to allow for more accurate counterfactual estimation. I present simulations that evaluate the performance of the procedure, showing that it can identify which equilibrium selection mechanism is present in an industry. I apply the methodology to data on home improvement store expansion during the Great Recession, estimating the counterfactual amount of expansion that Home Depot and Lowes would have made in the absence of the Great Recession. I find that even without the Great Recession, the two firms would have engaged in little more expansion than they actually did
The ethical theory of Aristotle's Eudemian ethics
Keywords: Philosophy.

Aristotle's Eudemian Ethics has often been treated as an inferior, earlier version of the more famous Nicomachean Ethics. This dissertation reads the Eudemian Ethics as a systematic, self-contained, carefully constructed whole, with distinctive arguments that answer questions fundamental to ethics, such as "Why should I be virtuous?" and "What does being virtuous consist in?" I focus on the function argument, the doctrine of the mean, the attribution of partial credit, and the codifiability of ethics into a theory. The result is an Aristotelian ethical theory that is closer to certain contemporary indirect (or two-tier) teleological theories than to some widely shared interpretations of the Nicomachean Ethics
The ethics of the object in modern Brazilian literature
Keywords: Iberian and Latin American Cultures.

The Ethics of the Object in Modern Brazilian Literature examines the status and function of objects in Brazilian literary works spanning the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Each work registers and contends with an uncanny encounter with the object—be it a thing proper, an artistic construction or a disciplinary formulation—through a turn to the aesthetic. "The ethics of the object" describes the process by which these objects-as-agents interrupt and impact the creative process by forcing their observers to negotiate with them as something other than passive recipients of the descriptive gaze. By reading works across various genres—poetry, fiction, nonfiction prose and essays—I show that the attempt to pack a disconcerting experience with agential objects back into language results in the emergence, and even mobilization, of literary techniques that confuse and muddle subject and objects, and place the ontological status of the writing subject in doubt. In focusing primarily on the trouble that many different kinds of encounters with alterity wreak upon narration, and by extension on the reader, this dissertation offers a new mode for analyzing the ways in which Brazilian authors contend with difference
Ethos and Values in the Commercialization of Health & Wellness Technologies in Silicon Valley
Keywords: science technology and society
ethics
silicon valley
values
Thesis

The Silicon Valley tech ethic is known for the success it has brought giants such as Google, Facebook and Apple. Movement into the health/wellness industry is new, but booming, giving rise to new questions about what transformations in healthcare Silicon Valley tech companies will spawn. This project approaches this phenomenon from an ethical perspective by considering both Silicon Valley tech values and medical values in marketing media from three significant Silicon Valley health/wellness tech companies: 23&Me, Apple Cloud, and Google Health. It presents an analysis of company ethos in order to understand possible values which comprise company ethos and their implications. Each case study performs a rhetorical analysis on company messaging in order to describe company ethos, and consider the implications of that ethos on patient wellbeing. Ultimately two values – one medical and one Silicon Valley – are present in the rhetoric of the analyzed communications of these three companies. Such messaging portrays how these two values work together to diminish stakeholder concern, and the possible negative consequences of these companies emerging medical technologies. Ultimately, this project looks at how the risks and benefits of each company’s product or service are interrelated to a company’s values. An understanding of these values and their possible medical outcomes may serve as a helpful basis for developing proactive regulatory and personal guidelines for these three studied companies and others like them.
Evaluating the Use of Optical Gas Imaging Cameras for Above Ground Facilities
Keywords:  Stanford University
School of Earth Energy &amp; Environmental Sciences
methane
detection
quantification
Thesis

Natural gas is the largest primary energy source in the United States. Reliance on natural gas is only increasing as its role in electricity systems becomes more significant and that of coal diminishes. While this has air quality and health benefits over the use of coal, the global warming potential of methane - the primary component of natural gas - cannot be ignored. In order to mitigate methane leaks, periodic leak detection and repair programs are required in the United States. Various different technologies exist to detect and/or quantify methane leaks. Studying them and evaluating their performance is an important step in evaluating equivalence in emissions reductions between technologies.
In this study, we evaluate the performance of two optical gas imaging cameras. The first is the FLIR GF320, an infrared camera, which we coupled with the Providence Photonics QL320 to enable it to quantify methane leaks. The second is the Rebellion Photonics mini-GCI, a hyperspectral imaging camera, which provides automated alerts when a leak is detected. Experiments to test the two systems were carried out at the Methane Emissions Technology Evaluation Center in Fort Collins, Colorado over two weeks. We tested both technologies at a variety of leak size and imaging distance combinations. In order to better simulate real-world conditions, we also tested the performance of the two systems in the presence of different types of interference. For the first technology, we evaluate the quantification performance and for the second, the detection performance.
We report performance metrics at different distances, interference scenarios and leak sizes in the case of Rebellion. The two technologies differ in terms of automation, detection and quantification capabilities, imaging distance and minimum observable leak size. Quantification accuracy of the FLIR + Providence system was poor. Machine learning algorithms may be able to improve the quantification accuracy in this kind of system. The Rebellion Photonics mini-GCI had a high false positive rate under most conditions and might benefit from adjusting its sensitivity to allow some smaller leaks to go undetected while issuing fewer false positives. Different types of interference had either no effect or a negative effect on the performance of each technology. More data points are needed to gain tighter confidence intervals around the statistics presented.