Three Essays on Economic Analysis of Taiwanese Aborigines
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Su, Yi-Ju
Abstract
Essay 1 : Impact of the 2008-2009 Economic Recession on Low-Economic Status Group: A Look at Household Income and Consumption of Indigenous Aborigines in Taiwan This study assesses the economic impact on income and consumption of the 2008-2009 economic recession on aborigines, the lowest socio-economic status group in Taiwan. Using a unique national representative survey of the aboriginal people in 2006 and 2010, we propose a slightly innovative model which combines the statistical matching and the difference-in-difference method. The results indicate that wage income significantly decreased from 2006 to 2010 for aborigines living in the urban area. With respect to household expenditures, significant reductions are found for electricity and clothes/accessories. In contrast, aborigines spent more money on food products and medical utilization. Essay 2 : The Effects of Government Employment Programs and Self-Migration Decisions on Economic Well-Being of Aborigines in Taiwan To improve economic well-being, aborigines can choose to migrate from rural to urban area. As an alternative, they can decide to participate in government employment assistance programs. This study aims to disentangle the impacts of these two available options on the economic well-being, including earnings, income, hourly wages, and happiness, of aborigines in Taiwan. Using a sample of 1,652 respondents drawn from the Taiwan Indigenous People Survey in 2008, this study estimates a multinomial sample selection model to identify the factors that are associated with aborigines'' chooses of rural-urban migration or participation in government employment assistance programs. Moreover, this study distinguishes the effects of these two options on economic well-being of aborigines in Taiwan. Empirical results show that government employment assistance programs can significantly reduce the inequality of economic well-being of aborigines in Taiwan. Essay 3 : Evaluate the Impacts of Disability and Long-Term Care Resources of Family Members’ Labor Supply：Empirical Study of Taiwanese Aborigines In Taiwan, the socioeconomic status and health level of indigenous people are below the ones of their couterparts of non-indigenous groups. The disabled aborigines may have impacts on other family members living in the same family. This paper examines the extent to which disabled aborigines may affect the labor supply of other non-disabled family members. Empirical analysis was conducted based on a sample of 15,432 Taiwanese aborigines drawn from the 2010 Population and Housing Census survey. The Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) method was applied to control for the potential endogenous problem. Empirical results show that a higher participation rate in the labor market is observed for family members living with disabled aborigines. Among others, it is evident that children are more likely to engage in the labor market. In constrast, an insignificant finding is observed for the spouse of the disabled person. These findings implies that secondary workers is children and spouse becomes the primary caregiver. In other words, this paper finds a strong “substitution effect” between the spousal caregiver and local long-term care resources; our estimates imply that abundance of local long-term care resources allows wives increase her labor supply. These findings indicate that local long-term care resources encourage mothers from entering employment. We attribute the local long-term care resources was shared the care pressure and time of the disability family to the other family.
Subjects
Economic recession
difference-in-difference
matching
aborigines
Taiwan
government employment assiatance programs
self-migration decision
economic welbeing
disability
labor supply
inverse probability weighting
local long-term care resources
Type
thesis