VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Essays in empirical public finance

Both government net worth – the balance of government assets and liabilities – and government investment have fallen substantially, relative to national income, in many OECD countries in recent decades (Atkinson, 2015; IMF, 2014). This thesis investigates the macroeconomic implications of these developments, for fiscal sustainability on the one hand and for economic growth on the other.
Chapter 1 explores the relevance of the composition of government budget deficits for government bond markets. We use data for 31 OECD countries from 1990 to 2014 from the European Commission's AMECO database to show that, from the perspective of bond markets, not all budget deficits are created equal: markets charge significantly higher interest rates for deficits due to government current spending than for those due to government investment.
Chapter 2 investigates whether bond markets accord importance to the asset side of the government balance sheet and hence to government net worth, above and beyond government liabilities. We use data on both sides of the government balance sheet drawn from Piketty and Zucman (2014) – for a panel of 10 OECD countries in recent decades and for the United States over the long term – to show that, for bond markets, not all government debt is created equal: for explaining the cost of government borrowing empirically, government assets are significant, and it is government net worth rather than government liabilities that matters.
Chapter 3 is concerned with how government asset accumulation affects economic growth. We first assess the predictive relevance of government investment and government consumption for future growth, and then estimate a standard growth model in the spirit of Solow (1956) using econometric methods suitable for addressing possible endogeneity. We find that there is a significant difference in the growth effects of government investment and government consumption: government investment aids growth, while government consumption significantly impedes growth, both for a set of OECD countries and globally. These findings help to rationalise why bond markets take into account the extent to which a government budget deficit or debt increase is accompanied by government asset accumulation, as we found in Chapters 1 and 2. They also imply that the composition of government budget deficits and government balance sheets will impact future growth prospects and matter for the implementation of austerity policies and the design of fiscal rules in monetary unions.

Keywords: Government budget deficit
Public finance
Panel data
Fiscal policy
Long-term interest rates
Government balance sheets
Advisor: Bond, S
Atkinson, T
Muellbauer, J
Linear quantum optics: components and applications

Quantum optics has successfully been used to test fundamental principles in quantum physics and to demonstrate the potential of quantum-enhanced technologies. Linear quantum optics, in which large quantum states of light are produced by optical interference of smaller quantum states, has proved to be particularly fruitful. Further progress will rely both on developing improved experimental tools to manipulate and measure quantum light, and on expanding and refining the range of applications of these technologies. This thesis presents our contributions towards both of these endeavours.
We first focus on some of the components necessary for linear quantum optics, starting with the requirement for reconfigurable interference between several optical modes. We propose a novel design for interferometers that satisfy this requirement, which is based on a new mathematical decomposition of unitary matrices used to describe optical interference. We show that our design is more efficient than previously known designs. We also experimentally demonstrate a modular approach to building these devices, which is based on the assembly of multiple UV-written integrated photonic chips. These chips are characterised, and three of them are assembled into a structure shown to enable a wide range of optical transformations. We then study methods of photon detection, showing how photon detectors can be calibrated and discussing the operation of superconducting photon number resolving transition edge sensors.
Next, we study two applications of linear optics. We examine the applicability of a proposal for simulating molecular spectroscopy using quantum optics in the presence of experimental imperfections. Our findings are illustrated with a proof of principle experiment in which we simulate part of the vibronic spectrum of the tropolone molecule. Finally, we study a class of optical devices, known as optical Ising machines, that has been shown to find solutions to difficult combinatorial problems. Describing the optical pulses in these devices in phase space as Gaussian quasi-probability distributions that evolve stochastically, we analyse the computational mechanism of these machines and show in theory that they can be simplified without affecting their performance.

Keywords: quantum simulation
quantum information
quantum photonics
integrated photonics
Advisor: Walmsley, I
Kolthammer, S
Diet and risk of central nervous system tumours

Existing evidence suggests diet may be associated with risk of central nervous system (CNS) tumours, but there is inconsistency between studies and limited knowledge of variation by tumour subtype. I present findings from the first systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature, and the first comprehensive analyses for the major subtypes of CNS tumours in large prospective studies with systematic coverage of dietary patterns, food groups, and nutrients.
Systematic review identified 37 epidemiological (predominantly case-control) studies, investigating risk of CNS tumours (predominantly glioma) in relation to 36 dietary factors in total. Meta-analyses of case-control studies showed some evidence for associations between vegetable or carotene intake and grains/cereal intake with decreased and increased glioma risk, respectively, and fruit intake and decreased meningioma risk, but these associations were not supported by the limited prospective evidence.
I investigated CNS tumour risk in relation to 29 food groups/nutrients and 3 dietary patterns, using data from the Million Women Study, NIH-AARP Study and PLCO Study for 2,313 cases of glioma, 750 of meningioma, 191 of pituitary tumours, and 174 of vestibular schwannoma, occurring during 15.4 million person-years follow-up. Using Cox regression, I found no significant association between any dietary factor and risk of any CNS tumour subtype, after applying a correction for multiple testing. For glioma, there were some borderline significant associations before correction, between increasing intakes of plant-based foods or increasing healthy diet scores and increasing risk, but these attenuated towards null in analyses accounting for reverse causation. For meningioma and vestibular schwannoma, the few significant associations found before correction for multiple testing may be chance findings. For pituitary tumours, there was no evidence of an association with diet.
This largest prospective analysis provides little evidence for any association of public health importance between diet and risk of the four major CNS tumour subtypes.

Keywords: Vestibular schwannoma
Food and beverages
Central nervous system neoplasms
Glioma
Meningioma
Diet
Nutrition
Alcohol
Pituitary tumour
Advisor: Green, J
Sweetland, S
Finite element approximation for the unsteady flow of implicitly constituted incompressible fluids

This thesis provides qualitative convergence results of a sequence of numerical approximate solutions for the flow of incompressible fluids subject to an implicit constitutive relation.
The constitutive law between shear stress tensor and shear rate tensor is encoded by a (t,x)-dependent maximal monotone graph with q-growth, for q > 1.
For the finite element approximation, the assumptions result in a pair of (conforming) inf-sup stable finite element spaces for the velocity and the pressure and in the unsteady case a fully discrete approximation based on backward Euler time-stepping is investigated.

Keywords: graph approximation
Lipschitz approximation
finite element method
implicit constitutive models
time-stepping
weak compactness
convergence
Advisor: Süli, E
Asset partitioning in the trust

Asset partitioning in the trust, the question of how creditors of trustees attach their claims to trust assets, is an elaboration of the fundamental structure of trust law. The trust creates a surrogate for separate corporate personality by using elements of personal liability of the trustee towards external creditors and towards the beneficiaries of the trust. The beneficial interest and its assignability ensure fluidity in the membership of the group enterprise. Through ingenious use of equitable doctrine, the trust has become a vehicle by which parties external to the trust need only concern themselves with their legal relations to the trustee, without regard to the internal obligational contours of the trust.
This thesis explores the doctrinal operation of these rules and seeks to make both practical recommendations for streamlining certain unclear or inconsistent doctrines, and theoretical points regarding broader trust law debates. To this end it enlists comparative prespectives from American law, where changes in central asset partitioning features have led to wide-ranging changes in the structure of trust law.
It argues that the basic structure of creditor access to trust assets does not support the view that the beneficiary has equitable ‘property right’ in the trust assets, nor that the trust fully segregates the assets of the trust from those of its members. Instead, the trust creates an order of priorities for creditor access with access being determined by the fulfilment of the trust’s purposes, and the beneficiary’s position is transmissible but obligational.
The law discussed in this thesis showcases the inadequacy of traditional private law analysis of definable correlative rights as regards the trust. The emerging picture is complex, subtle and elegant, and worthy of future study.

Keywords: Asset Partitioning
Trust creditors
Trustee Indemnity
Creditors' claims
Beneficiary's creditors
Advisor: Getzler, J
Linear allylic halides in metal-catalysed asymmetric substitutions

This thesis describes the use of linear allylic halides in transition metal catalysed asymmetric reactions.
In the first chapter we report the development of a copper-catalysed hetero-asymmetric allylic alkylation reaction of ester-containing allylic bromides. Despite the synthesis of a number of phosphoramidite ligands based on a bis-phenol backbone, we achieve only a 44% yield and 73% ee in this challenging reaction. Application of our reaction conditions to other linear allylic halides that do not bear the ester group resulted in only moderate results.
In the second chapter we describe new phosphoramidite ligands based on (S,S)-trans-cyclohexanediol and (R,R)-(+)-1,2-diphenyl-1,2-ethanediol. The ligands were examined in 3 different copper-catalysed asymmetric reactions and enantioselectivity of up to 89% ee was observed. Using the meso-diols with a chiral non-racemic amine gave diastereomeric ligands bearing achirotopic stereogenic phosphorus atoms, which were characterised with the assistance of X-ray crystallography and VT NMR studies.
In the last chapter we discuss the development of a rhodium-catalysed asymmetric carboxylation of ester-containing allylic bromides to form stereogenic carbon centres bearing two different carboxylates. The method uses common carboxylic acids as nucleophiles to form new C-O bonds in high yields and excellent enantioselectivities. We also demonstrate that the products can be used to form other chiral acetal derivatives, including valuable γ butenolides, in subsequent RCM reactions.
The ease of synthesis and stability of the products suggests that a broad range of new chemical species may be accessible by developing strategies to form stereogenic carbon centres featuring different combinations of multiple heteroatoms. We have begun to demonstrate this by using this method for the formation of O,N-aminals.

Keywords: Chiral ligands
Catalysis
Rhodium
Copper
Phosphoramidites
Advisor: Fletcher, S
Exploring school resource and teacher qualification policies, their implementation and effects on schools and students’ educational outcomes in Brazil

This thesis explored how recent Brazilian educational policies focused on increasing resources and teacher qualifications are related to improving Portuguese and mathematics outcomes, and how these policy changes are perceived and experienced by teachers in schools in the north-eastern state of Paraiba. This mixed methods research project was organized into two linked phases of inquiry using a pragmatic philosophical approach, and the dynamic approach to school improvement (DASI) theoretical model as its framework. Phase I used secondary data analysis of Prova Brasil data (2007-2013) collected by the Brazilian Ministry of Education to explore how increased school resources and teacher qualification requirements may be associated with Portuguese and mathematics outcomes in grade 4/5 and grade 8/9 in the state of Paraiba (n = 358,623) using multilevel models. Using the preliminary models of Phase I to guide the development of a semi-structured interview schedule, Phase II focused on how major Brazilian educational policy changes are affecting schools by exploring the perceptions and experiences of a small purposive sample of Paraibano public school teachers (n = 16) in depth. The results of Phase II then informed and led to the further refinement of the preliminary models of Phase I as part of the way the mixed methods approach linked the quantitative and qualitative components of this study. The integration and synthesis of Phase I and Phase II results suggest that increased availability of teacher supports such as libraries, teacher access to computers and internet, photocopiers, infrastructure, and increased teacher education levels are valued by teachers and may be associated with gains in student Portuguese and mathematics outcomes. Teachers note that while resource levels have improved dramatically, inconsistencies and inefficiencies have prevented both students and teachers from fully benefitting from these changes, and additionally, that resource levels vary considerably between school districts.

Keywords: Brazilian education (Brazil)
educational effectiveness (EER)
teacher qualification
Prova Brasil
mixed methods research (MMR)
educational policy
DASI model
national assessment systems
educational resources
Advisor: Baird, J
Sammons, P
The principle of grace according to Thomas Aquinas

My thesis investigates Thomas Aquinas’ doctrine of Grace. There are several aspects to this doctrine, and I am primarily interested in Aquinas’ claim that God bestows a supernatural quality on some human beings—a quality called ‘grace’. In the thesis I am concerned with two research questions: is the quality of grace necessary for justification and/or sanctification? And if it is, how does a person get it?
Discussion of Aquinas’ doctrine of grace has been widespread in certain schools of Thomism, notably the Strict-Observance School (see Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange), Augustinian Thomism (see the work of Henri de Lubac, particularly his Mystere du Surnaturel), and Transcendental Thomism (see Karl Rahner). One school of Thomism where discussion of grace is lacking is that of ‘analytical Thomism’ (Haldane, 2004). One could argue that analytical Thomism might come under another recent movement within theology: namely, analytic theology (Crisp and Rea, 2009). I adopt a methodology roughly characteristic of either analytical Thomism or analytic theology.
For Aquinas, the quality of grace is needed for the processes of both justification and sanctification. In my first chapter I get clear on the nature of this quality, engaging in a debate over whether it is created or uncreated. In the second chapter I look to the thought of Duns Scotus and William of Ockham to begin to address the question of whether created grace is necessary for justification and acceptance to eternal life. I then look to the reformers, particularly Calvin, in whom we find a wholesale rejection of the need for created grace for justification. Noting the agreement of Aquinas and Calvin on the need for new dispositions for sanctification (what Aquinas simply calls ‘grace’), I move on to the question of how a person gets created grace. I compare Aquinas and Calvin on the necessary and sufficient conditions for a bestowal of grace in the Eucharist. Finally, I seek to address the question of the plausibility of the claim that created grace is bestowed through material rites like the sacraments.

Advisor: Leftow, B
Wood, W
Understanding angular momentum evolution of solar-age stars with K2 data

Gyrochronology, which describes the empirical relationship among stellar mass, rotation period, and age, is a potentially powerful tool for determining the ages of stars, upon which the understanding of stellar evolutionary models hangs. Well-calibrated with open clusters up to the age of ~2.5 Gyr, predictions from gyrochronology are in conflict with asteroseismic observations of older stars, and the underlying physics are poorly understood. The solar-age, open cluster M67, recently observed by the NASA K2 mission, offers the opportunity to test both gyrochronology and more physically-motivated angular momentum evolution models. Here, we seek to gain insight into the angular momentum evolution of solar-age stars through the analysis of K2 data. Using our own pipeline, we extract and process K2 light curves that encompass the inner and outer portions of M67. We describe various rotation period detection methods, focusing on the Lomb-Scargle periodogram, autocorrelation function (ACF), and Gaussian processes (GPs), before presenting our own preliminary results. Observed scatter between colour and period, combined with disagreement from the first published sets of K2 M67 periods, prompted a comprehensive round of sinusoidal injection tests to probe our absolute detection limits with K2 data using two different light curve preparation pipelines. Finding low sensitivity for 25 d, 0.1% amplitude signals and lingering systematics on the order of 25 d and greater, we use a combination of the Lomb-Scargle, ACF, and GP methods to determine our ‘final’ M67 rotation periods from K2 data. We find agreement between tidal synchronization theory and observed rotation periods for our M67 binaries. While angular momentum evolution models may perform slightly better than gyrochronology, we cannot make any conclusive statements regarding the validity of either due to the inherent scatter and small sample size. Future work at refining detection methods is needed, along with complementary data from upcoming missions such as LSST and PLATO.

Keywords: Rotation
Gyrochronology
M67
Gaussian processes
Photometry
Open clusters
Advisor: Aigrain, S
Sigma-hole donor host systems for anion and ion-pair recognition

This thesis describes the synthesis of acyclic, macrocyclic, and mechanically interlocked host molecules (MIMs) incorporating sigma-hole interactions including halogen and chalcogen bonding for anion and ion-pair recognition.
Chapter 1 introduces the general aspects in the field of supramolecular host-guest chemistry with particular emphasis on themes relevant to the topic of this DPhil research project, specifically anion and ion-pair recognition followed by a review of the construction of mechanically interlocked architectures and their applications.
Chapter 2 discusses rare examples of sigma-hole interactions mediated ion-pair recognition.The preparation of novel XB and unprecedented ChB heteroditopic host systems containing benzo[15]crown-5 are described, followed by investigation into ion-pair binding properties. The novel use of an ammonium[2]catenane integrated into the XB anion receptor capable of anion recognition in aqueous media is reported.
Chapter 3 focuses on the exploitation of XB interactions for anion recognition and sensing in highly competitive aqueous media. An unprecedented relationship between anion template affinity and the yield of permethylated β-cyclodextrin-stoppered XB [2]rotaxane is demonstrated. Anion recognition properties of these rotaxane hosts in solvent media containing up to 50% water are subsequently investigated. Moreover, the novel cationic and neutral water soluble XB anion receptors based on 3,5-bis-(iodotriazole)pyridine, pyridine-N-oxide, and pyridinium motifs are synthesised to elucidate thermodynamic parameters of XB anion recognition in water using isothermal calorimetric analysis. Finally, the preparation of novel osmium(II)bipyridyl functionalised water soluble hosts are reported, and investigations in their anion recognition and sensing using electrochemical and fluorescence are detailed.
Chapter 4 describes the effects of chelating XB receptors with a small bite angle on their anion recognition behaviour. A bidentate ortho-substituted iodotriazolium benzene motif is incorporated into acyclic, macrocyclic, and interlocked anion host molecules for their anion binding studies in solution phase, supported by solid-state structures of various anion complexed acyclic structural frameworks.
Chapter 5 details the experimental procedures used in this work, including synthetic protocols and characterisation data for novel compounds.

Advisor: Beer, P