Three essays in public economics.

This dissertation includes research in three different areas of Public Finance that are especially (but not exclusively) relevant to developing economies. In the second chapter, I model the private provision of public goods through spontaneous activism in random networks. I find that under certain conditions more efficient provision of a discrete public good obtains in larger populations, provided their connectivity is good enough. Further work in chapter III carries out an empirical analysis of the economic effects of large natural disasters on national economies. The research shows no persistent effects on the growth rates of GDP, but some evidence of medium-term effects on private consumption, investment and public expenditure, and on foreign direct investment flows. The sign and magnitude of these effects vary depending on the population of the country and its per-capita GDP level. The fourth chapter addresses the problem of optimal income taxation when the observability of actual income is costly and indirect income presumption is feasible. I find that the implementation of a type of second-best tax may increase social welfare, even though it may also increase the incentives to evade taxes.Ph.D.EconomicsSocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/125388/2/3192664.pd