In this paper we study the relationship between organized crime, corruption and economic
growth. To shed light on this nexus, we propose a growth model in which organized crime …

Two-stage predictor substitution (2SPS) and the two-stage residual inclusion (2SRI) are two
approaches to instrumental variable (IV) analysis. While 2SPS and 2SRI with linear models …

Background Several explanations for the inconsistent results on the effects of breastfeeding
on childhood asthma have been suggested. The purpose of this study was to investigate …

This thesis addresses two essential aspects of large scale public-use data files involving
ordinal and mixed-type responses with missing observations:(i) the creation of single …

Lenalidomide and bortezomib have not been compared prospectively and are currently
used in sequence for patients with multiple myeloma; however, it is unknown whether a …

The principal objectives and scope of the study: The goal of this thesis is to ultimately
propose how prediction markets may be used to select the best possible portfolio of projects …

Mendelian randomization (MR) is a method that uses genetic variants as instrument
variables to investigate causality in epidemiology. The application of MR has increased over …

In many non-randomized, observational settings, treatment assignment mechanisms are
opaque and researchers may not trust an assumption of conditional ignorability or the …

In clinical trials and epidemiologic studies, adherence to the assigned components is not
always perfect. In this book chapter, we are interested in estimating the causal effect of …

This work is situated in the general field of causal inference that has seen substantial
international research activity over the last decade. Two important problems, which have …