Essays on Health and Development: Evidence from Indonesia and South Africa

Abstract

This thesis would not have been possible without the support of many people. First of all, I would like to thank my first supervisor, Sebastian Vollmer. Next to his thoughtful and constructive feedback on my work, he was always eager to open up opportunities to support my further advancement. Most importantly, I would like to thank him for his trust in my coauthors and me to design and run our very own RCT -this is a chance not many PhD students get. Relatedly, I am grateful to the DFG for funding my PhD for three and a half years, and in this context the data collection for essays 1 and 2, via the Research Training Group "Globalization and Development" (GlaD).Next, I would like to thank my second supervisor, Andreas Landmann, for his valuable comments on my thesis and for the fruitful discussions. I would like to thank him, Krisztina Kis-Katos, Friederike Lenel, and Janina Steinert for their willingness to lend an ear and for their kind advise throughout the years. This brings me to my fantastic colleagues, who accompanied me during this exciting time.With the chair and the third cohort of GlaD, I had the great privilege to have not one, but two groups of wonderful people I could rely on for all academic and non-academic matters. I am sorry we missed so much joint time due to the pandemic.There are two colleagues I would like to single out specifically, my dear coauthors and fellow PhD students Maja Marcus and Lisa Rogge. I am indescribably happy that we joint forces for our RCT, I couldn't have ended up with better team mates. Thank you for your support and patience through all the years. I would also like to thank all other coauthors for their time, input, and helpful discussion.I am particularly grateful to Marthoenis and Farah Diba, who warmly welcomed me in Aceh, and who made the data collection in Aceh possible in the first place. Also, many thanks to the enumerators, for their great work and commitment in the data collection, and to all study participants who gave us their time and, yes, their data.Finally, I would like to thank all my friends and family, who accompanied me for so long. I am especially grateful to Falk, who patiently supported me through all ups and downs, during the PhD and beyond. I am very happy to have you by my side.