ESSAYS ON POLICY EVALUATION

This thesis comprises two rather different chapters. The first chapter explores the impact of increasing the exit costs of cohabitation on the stability of relationships. The second chapter explores the impact that an established environmental beach award has on the tourism sector and the balance sheet of a municipality. Notwithstanding these thematic differences, the two chapters are connected by the way in which the research therein was conducted. This particular approach to research is known as the credibility revolution". It was championed by Angrist and Pischke in Angrist and Pischke (2008) and Angrist and Pischke (2010). The approach is concerned with causality above all other issues and aims at minimising the assumptions made when estimating an object of interest; be it theoretical or technical. In order to construct well-founded economic models of behaviour based on the credibility revolution", this sort of humble policy evaluation work needs to be abundant. Without gathering sufficient evidence about the causal mechanisms that inform the behaviour of individuals; there can be no strong foundations upon which to build sound economic models. This is only likely to lead to misleading analyses and policy failures.