Two Essays on the Empirical Analysis of Microeconomic Data: Household Donation and Individual Body Weight

This thesis consists of two essays on empirical analysis of microeconomic data for household donation and individual body weight.

The first essay investigates determinants of donations to religious, charitable, and educational/political organizations amongU.S.households using data from the 2010 and 2011 Consumer Expenditure Survey. To address issues of censoring, selection biases, and correlations among different types of donations, a sample selection system is estimated. Average marginal effects are calculated to further explain the effects of covariates on household donations. Price is negatively associated with charitable and educational/political donations but not with religious donations. The effects of household income differ by types on probabilities of donations but are positive and significant on levels of donations. Demographic backgrounds of a household, such as household size, home ownership, knowledge of death, principle of care, and religious proportion in the state, have positive impacts on household donations. Similarly, households headed by individuals who are female, older, better educated, and married, are more likely to donate than others.

The second essay investigates the effect of walking on body weight of older adults inChinausing data from the 2008 CHARLS Pilot Survey. An ordered probability model of BMI with ordered endogenous walking is estimated. Daily walking is found to be an effective means for sedentary older adults to manage body weight. However, overweight and obese older adults who already have a walking plan of 30 minutes a day or less have to extend walking time to more than 2 hours a day to lose weight. Walking and body weight decrease with age, while income and residing in rural areas are positively associated with body weight but not walking. Visits with friends, presence of community outdoor fields, and weather conditions affect body weight by influencing the time of walking.