Three essays in development and labor economics

This thesis consists of three essays, investigating questions in development and labor economics. The first two essays analyze different issues relating to non-governmental organizations (NGOs). During the past 30 years, NGOs have become key players in international relief and development efforts and a high percentage of development assistance and emergency relief aid is channeled through them. The rise in importance of NGOs is a consequence of the change in development and aid policy, and at the same time has strong implications for the development process and the relationship between donors and recipient countries. However, very little systematic evidence can be found on the motivations of these organizations, or of their donors. The first essay analyzes location decisions of NGOs in rural Bangladesh, using community and household data that allow us to match changes in the presence of NGOs' programs with village characteristics. The second essay studies the composition of foreign aid allocation between government and NGOs. Aid flows may serve as a tool for donor countries to exert political influence and control over recipient governments. Clearly this instrument is lost if the money is channeled through organizations outside the government. Hence we investigate how the power relationship between recipient governments and donors affects the apportionment of aid. In the third essay the attention turns to women and the labor market. The United States provide among the least generous level of parental job protection following the birth of a child. Most industrialized countries - except Australia, New Zealand and the United States - provide paid maternity leave by law. Advocates of the need to broaden the coverage of parental leave policies argue that these may be a cost-effective method for improving child health. Indeed, there is evidence that rights to parental leave are associated with substantial decrease in paediatric mortality, in particular post-neonatal mortality or child fatalities. Using a general equilibrium model of marriage and labor choices, we investigate the effects of several parental leave policies in an economy calibrated to the United States.