Essays in Applied Economics

The present thesis is made up by three separates chapters in applied microeconomics touching the realms of labor, health and family economics. The first one
considers individual genetic information to explore the interplay between genes
and environmental factors in shaping individual labor outcomes. The second one
looks at old age health and provide an estimate of the causal effect of retirement on
a syndrome of health deficit accumulation called frailty. The third one investigates
and describes the role of preferences in the screening and matching process of
child adoption with the use of a novel dataset.