Three Topics in Applied Economics

Abstract

This dissertation consists of three different chapters. The first chapter sheds the light on the association between financial literacy and financial inclusion; financial literacy and poverty in India during the period 2016 and 2017. The second chapter analyses the impact of National Food Security Mission on the production and yield of rice in India. The last chapter determines the factors that affect the entry and survival of beginning farmers, young, and women farmers and ranchers. Chapter 1 investigates the relationship between financial literacy and poverty; and financial literacy and financial inclusion in respect of India during the period 2016 and 2017 by employing the probit model and fixed effects model at the individual level and the district level, respectively. To control simultaneous biasness, numeracy (measure of basic math skill) as an instrument for financial literacy has been employed. The marginal effects at median of IV-Probit model reveal that financial literacy seems to be positively associated with the likelihood of having an account in bank, but the result is less clear about the likelihood of being above poverty line. The aim of Chapter 2 examines whether the implementation of National Food Security Mission (NFSM) led to increase the production and yield of rice or not. In the recent time, India has experienced a fall in the yield and production of rice due to water logging, salinization etc. In aspect of demand, it is expected that India’s population will reach to 1.4 billion by year 2020 and the demand of rice will also rise. To lessen the gap between demand and supply of rice, National Development Council (NDC) launched National Food Security Mission (NFSM) to increase the production and yield of rice. Therefore, this study examines the impact of NFSM on the production and yield of rice at the district level in India by employing Propensity Score Matching procedure. The results show that adoption of NFSM had a significant impact on increasing the production of rice, however, not on the yield of rice. Chapter 3 reviews the determinants that affect the entry and survival of beginning, young and women farmers and ranchers by employing fixed effect model at the county level in United States for the period 1997-2017. The results suggest that entry of BFRs increase with number of farm operations, lower farm productivity, availability of more and small size of farms, farmland prices, benefits from insurance and availability of part time farming opportunities. Results also indicate that the high capital intensity nature of farming is a predictable obstruction for the entry of BFRs. The availability of non-real estate increases the net entry, while real estate decreases the net entry and survival of BFRs.