Mohammad Zariab Hossain defended his doctoral thesis on 10 June
Mohammad Zariab Hossain successfully defended his thesis "Networks, Norms, and Non-market Subsidy: Three essays on Public Policy."
Mohammad Zariab Hossain successfully defended his thesis "Networks, Norms, and Non-market Subsidy: Three essays on Public Policy" on 10 June.
Dr. Hossain together with supervisor Johan Vikström and the opponent Hanna Pesola.
About the thesis
The thesis examines how public policies and their implementation shape labor market and education outcomes.
The first essay shows that Public Employment Service (PES) caseworkers adapt to local office practices: when broader vacancy referrals are common among peers, newly relocated caseworkers partly adopt this behavior, leading to longer unemployment spells for their job seekers. The second essay shows that exposure to more gender non-stereotypical caseworkers improves re-employment probability and future earnings by reducing possible gendered constraints in job search. The third essay evaluates a teacher salary subsidy program in Bangladesh and finds no clear effects on student achievement, suggesting that funding alone may be insufficient without stronger incentives, accountability mechanisms, and complementary improvements.
About the defence
The opponent was Associate Professor Hanna Pesola from VATT.
The examining committee comprised Professor Peter Skogman Thoursie, Department of Economics, Stockholm University, Associate Professor Miia Bask, Department of Sociology, Uppsala University, and Professor Niklas Bengtsson, Department of Economics, Uppsala University.
Supervisors were Johan Vikström and Peter Fredriksson.