Mezey, Esther2013-09-162018-08-202013-08-19bibid: 8267124https://hdl.handle.net/1813/34232This dissertation includes three essays: Spatio-temporal analysis of labor turnover statistics develops regularized dynamic spatio-temporal methods for selecting the sparse set of geographic, industrial, and demographic local-area job separation rates that best predict future rates in a given area using the public use Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI) made available by the U.S. Census Bureau's Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) program; it is the first paper to quantify the extent to which geographic, industrial, and demographic networks explain the dispersion of local-area labor market statistics through space and time. Detecting and Repairing Data Errors in the Public Use Quarterly Workforce Indicator Data develops methods for detecting and repairing missing or erroneous observations in the QWI data. Real Options in Resource Economics reviews the application of options valuation techniques from finance to capital budgeting decisions affecting real investments (real options) in the existing literature in forestry, fishery, water, and nonrenewable resources.en-USLabor EconomicsResource Economicsdissertation or thesis