| This dissertation contains three essays that apply techniques in applied microeconomics to solve scientific puzzles and questions closely related to practical policy issues. The first essay explores the impact of early access to the birth control pill on the future crime rates of the children who are born to mothers who take advantage of this unprecedented improvement in contraceptive technology. The second essay investigates whether changing parenting strategies associated with parental reputation dynamics generate birth order effects in school performance. The last essay develops and estimates a dynamic model of human capital accumulation and criminal behavior. The estimated model is used to evaluate alternative criminal records policies and to shed light on the causal relationship between education and crime. |
