Three essays in applied microeconomics

This dissertation consists of three chapters in applied microeconomics. The overarching theme of chapters 2 and 3 is in examining how our surroundings influence individual level decisions. Due to the expanding footprint of development (sprawl), we live in environments which are increasingly car centric and far from traditional city centers. Chapter 2 tackles the health repercussions of remoteness after addressing unobserved heterogeneity and reverse causality; while chapter 3 examines the potential lack of access which arises for certain segments of the population as a consequence of growth management by using both conditional and mixed logit models. Chapter 1 uses a hazard model which accounts for the dynamic process of financial health deterioration to examine how the obesity epidemic highlighted in chapter 2 affects the individual's balance sheet.