Essays On Public Corruption And Social Norms

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Degree type
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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Applied Economics
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media
mortgages
newspapers
public corruption
religion
risk preferences
Economics
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2018-09-27T20:18:00-07:00
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Abstract

In Chapter 1, I model a public official’s decision to choose corruption as a function of local investigative reporting efforts by journalists, showing that the marginal effect of a decline in investigative reporting on corruption convictions is ambiguous and depends on the current level of reporting. I then use newspaper entry and exit to estimate the impact of reporting on corruption convictions in U.S. states. I find evidence that journalism is a net deterrent for state officials, but I find no evidence of an effect for federal or local officials. In Chapter 2, I look at how social norms affect decisions pertaining to risk. I use a difference-in-differences approach to estimate the impact that religious affiliation has on loan-to-value ratios in new mortgages using county-level U.S. data. I find that increased levels of religious affiliation are associated with decreased loan-to-value ratios, controlling for income, race, and loan attributes.

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Robert P. Inman
Date of degree
2018-01-01
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