Human Capital Policy: Three Empirical Essays

Chapter 1: Vaccination Effects of Family Medicine in Turkey.;As a component of the Health Transformation Program reforms, the family medicine system was introduced in Turkey as the main source of primary care. With a gradual implementation process, provinces switched to the family medicine system at different points in time between 2005 and 2010. Using a nationally representative survey of health care service utilization and outcomes for maternal and child-care services, we test whether on-time vaccination rates for children under age two are causally affected by access to family medicine centers and health care workers. A regression discontinuity design shows that availability of family medicine doctors significantly increases on-time application of vaccinations in the national infant immunization program. Specifically, we find that access to family medicine centers increases on-time vaccination rates for the follow-up shots.;Chapter 2: Child Care Regulations and Demand for Formal Child Care .;Formal child care centers are licensed and regulated by state governments. Both the stringency of regulations and the price of paid child care show great variability across states. Strict regulations often come with high prices for paid child care, making regulated child care unaffordable for families. Using changes in regulations for different states over time and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), this study shows that strict regulations affect use of regulated care by decreasing the number of formal care providers without a direct impact on price. Based on the estimation results, I conclude that demand for formal care is highly elastic and informal child care arrangements are close substitutes for formal care for consumers. Strict regulations create an incentive to substitute informal types of child care for center-based organized care.;Chapter 3: Social Norms and Women in the Labor Force.;Social norms and gender roles are argued to shape the prevalent gap in labor force participation of men and women in developed countries. This study aims to understand whether female labor force participation is affected by social norms by using the election of female senators and governors as a possible cause of norms that support working women. Using regression discontinuity design with the election data for U.S. Senate and state governors, I estimate the relative change in women's labor force participation after a woman wins the Senate seat or governor's office by a narrow margin of victory. Consistent with the literature, my estimation results do not provide evidence to reject the null hypotheses of no demonstration effect of female senators and governors on labor force participation of women.