UC Irvine

This dissertation contains three chapters. The first chapter attempts to employ a different research design to study the effects of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. It employs a cross sectional differences in regression discontinuity design to study the labor market impacts of DACA. The second chapter studies the impact of choice architecture on food selections in the food pantry context. Finally, the third chapter evaluates the efficacy of a conditional cash transfer in improving the status of girls in India.

In the first chapter, I study the impacts of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) on individuals’ labor market outcomes using a cross sectional differences-in-regression-discontinuity (DRD) design. The DRD design leverages the DACA multi-dimensional eligibility criteria. In particular, in order to be eligible for DACA, one has to be born after a certain cutoff date, among others. The DRD design then leverages this age discontinuity to create two RD designs, one among those potentially DACA eligible individuals, while the other counterfactual RD design among those DACA ineligible individuals (by other DACA eligibility criteria). The DRD design is valid under weaker conditions than the standard RD framework. Using data from the American Community Survey (ACS), I find that the DACA eligible population earned a higher income. I also find suggestive evidence of an increase in labor force participation.

The second chapter highlights the impact of choice architecture, and in particular relative trade-offs, on food selections in the food pantry context. Client choice food pantries allow individuals, many of whom are food insecure, to select a preferred bundle of food. To date, interventions to improve the nutrition of food choices in pantries have not included price incentive programs like those employed in the retail food sector because pantries do not charge for food. However, economic incentives may still play a role in food pantry choices through choice architecture. We examined a natural experiment involving two client-choice regimes that effectively altered the opportunity cost of food selections. Longitudinal individual fixed effects models provide evidence that pantry clients responded to changed opportunity costs by selecting more foods that became relatively less expensive and fewer foods that became relatively more costly.

The third chapter sheds light on the effectiveness of long-term cash transfers in improving the status of women in India. In response to the prevalence of female feticide, Bihar launched a policy called Mukhyamantri Kanya Suraksha Yojana (MKSY) in 2008. This policy aimed to improve the social status of women and to improve the sex ratio in the state. The policy provided long term cash transfers to two daughters of a family if certain eligibility conditions were satisfied. I analyze if the policy led to an improvement in the survival rate of the girl child. Furthermore, I also study the effects of the policy on the schooling outcomes of the girl child. My study finds negligible effects of the policy.