Essays in applied microeconomics

Abstract

This thesis consists of three essays in Applied Microeconomics. The first essay examines the causal effects of grandmothers’ geographical proximity on labour supply decisions of married women with young children in Turkey. We show that living in the same neighbourhood as grandmothers increases the probability of labour force participation and the employment rates of women with young children by 18.2 ppt and 16.4 ppt, respectively. The size of the impact gets smaller as the proximity definition indicates a shorter distance. The second essay investigates several mechanisms to explore the positive effect of grandmothers’ proximity on mothers’ labor force participation. These channels include childcare, elderly care, and traditional gender norms. While the elderly care channel does not affect our main results, we argue that grandmothers’ proximity affects mothers’ labor market outcomes through childcare and traditional gender norm channels. The third essay analyzes the causal effects of the massive Syrian refugee inflow on natives’ health outcomes in Turkey. Exploring potential mechanisms behind health effects, the refugee influx positively affects the health of high-skilled and employed native males, while having no significant impact on low-skilled native males or females. Following the refugee inflow, working conditions for high-skilled males improved and job opportunities for low-skilled males declined.