This issue of Historical Geography presents scholarship in the emerging field of historical GIS, the term increasingly used for the application of geographic information systems (GIS) and other geospatial technologies to the study of history.1 Most of the articles in this volume are the authors’ first publications in this vein. Several of the contributors are young scholars whose dissertation research was grounded in the use of GIS as a core method of analysis. They represent the leading edge of what seems certain to become a new generation of historicalgeographical scholarship built with GIS. Other articles are the fruit of one or two decades of research that began with conventional archival and statistical methods but evolved to embrace GIS as a means of managing and analyzing large, complex historical datasets, or long-term GIS-based projects that were started when the application of GIS to history was in its infancy. These articles consider a much wider range of subjects than have previous thematic issues of Historical Geography. While it may soon be possible to produce a collection of GIS-based scholarship that addresses a single historical theme, at this point in its development historical GIS is too diverse for that. Scholars from many branches of historical study are turning to geospatial techniques to explore spatial . . .

We construct a time series of the rent-price ratio for the owner-occupied stock of housing, starting in 1960:1, by merging micro data from the last five Decennial Censuses of Housing with price indexes for house prices and rents. This paper develops a quarterly time-series, starting in 1960:1, of the ratio of imputed rents of homeowners to the average value of owner-occupied housing-the "rent-price ratio"-for the stock of owner-occupied housing. Little work has been done to estimate a continuous time series of the level of the rent-price ratio for the aggregate stock. 2 The rent-price ratio is the equivalent for residential housing of the earnings-price ratio for stocks, and is thus an important component of housing valuations. The level of the rent-price ratio can be informally compared to some cost of capital, or formally used in asset pricing models, as in Davis and Martin (2004), who show that the Euler equation for pricing housing can be written: ½ ´rent priceµ Ø · Ø Ñ Ø·½´ÔØ·½´Ô Ø·½ Ô Ø µ℄ We use micro data from the last five Decennial Censuses of Housing (DCH) to develop benchmark estimates of aggregate average imputed rents to homeowners, average prices of owned homes, and the aggregate rent-price ratio for the owner-occupied stock. We use quarterly rent-and house price-indexes to interpolate rents and prices, respectively, between DCH benchmarks as well as extrapolate past the 2000 DCH. Benchmark DCH Estimates In each DCH from 1960-2000, a 1 percent sample of household-level data is available on rents paid by renters and the market value of housing units for homeowners. 3 For each DCH, we regress log gross rents of renters (contract rent plus costs for utilities) on a set of hedonics. We then predict gross rents for each owner-occupied property and subtract reported utilities costs to compute net rent. Our estimates of gross rents, utilities expenses, net rents, average prices, and the resulting rent-price ratios (annual rate) are shown in columns (1) through (6) of table 1. 4 1 For comments and suggestions, we would like to thank Josh Gallin, Michael Palumbo and Steve Oliner. The views in this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or its staff.

The author uses census data to assess the consequences of two alternative theoretical formulations of care work-for understanding the intersections of gender, race, and economic inequalities in paid care. The nurturance conceptualization focuses on care as relationship while the reproductive labor frame work includes both relational and nonrelational jobs that maintain and reproduce the labor force. All empirical application of both models to the labor market shows that placing increasing theoretical emphasis on nurturant care privileges the experiences of white women and excludes large numbers of very-low-wage workers from consideration.

Defining outliers by their distance to neighboring data points has been shown to be an effective non-parametric approach to outlier detection. In recent years, many research efforts have looked at developing fast distancebased outlier detection algorithms. Several of these efforts report log-linear time performance as a function of the number of data points on many real life low dimensional datasets. However, these same algorithms are unable to obtain the same level of performance on high dimensional data sets since the scaling behavior is exponential in the number of dimensions. In this paper we present RBRP, a fast algorithm for mining distancebased outliers, particularly targeted at high dimensional data sets. RBRP is expected to scale log-linearly, as a function of the number of data points and scales linearly as a function of the number of dimensions. Our empirical evaluation verifies this expectancy and furthermore we demonstrate that our approach consistently outperforms the state-of-the-art, sometimes by an order of magnitude, on several real and synthetic datasets.

Using historical census microdata, we present a unique analysis of racial and gender disparities in destination selection and an exploration of hypotheses regarding tied migration in the historical context of the Great Migration. Black migrants were more likely to move to metropolitan areas and central cities throughout the period, while white migrants were more likely to locate in nonmetropolitan and farm destinations. Gender differences were largely dependent on marital status. Consistent with the tied-migration thesis, married women had destination outcomes that were similar to those of men, whereas single women had a greater propensity to reside in metropolitan locations where economic opportunities for women were more plentiful.

We use a data set of federal corruption convictions in the U.S. to investigate the causes and consequences of corruption. More educated states, and to a smaller degree richer states, have less corruption. This relationship holds even when we use historical factors like Congregationalism in 1890 as an instrument for the level of schooling today. The level of corruption is also correlated with the level of income inequality and racial fractionalization, and uncorrelated with the size of government. There is a weak negative relationship between corruption and economic development in a state. These results echo the cross country findings, and support the view that the correlation between development and good political outcomes occurs because education improves political institutions.

Given increasing evidence that medical care cannot fully explain variation in populationhealth and increasing research on the relationship between socioeconomic factors andhealth, might non-health policies affect health? This research examines whetherSupplemental Security Income (SSI) affects disability among the elderly. We use the1990 and 2000 censuses, employing state and year fixed effect models, to test whetherwithin state changes in maximum SSI benefits over time, which are plausibly exogenousto health, lead to changes in disability. The findings from this study support thehypothesis that both within-state changes in the maximum state SSI benefit and changesin SSI income received by individuals lead to changes in disability among single elderlyindividuals. Higher SSI benefits are linked to lower disability rates.

Appalachia has long lagged behind the rest of the country in wages, education, and employment. We investigate whether migration of high-skilled workers exacerbates the historical disadvantage of the Appalachian region. Using a sample of prime aged males participating in the workforce from the 2000 Census, we find that net migration between 1995 and 2000 accounts for 13 percent of gap in college graduates between Appalachia and the rest of the country. Results from a multinomial logit model of migration are consistent with an Appalachian brain drain.

This historical study of paid care work in the United States from 1900 to 2000, has the dual analytic goals of advancing conceptual clarity about care and documenting paid cares relationships to race, gender, and wage inequalities. In the context of increasing concerns about the negative impacts of low wages and high turnover in many care occupations both on the quality of care and on the lives of workers, understanding the relationships between care work and inequalities is critical. Using Census data, this study examines in detail patterns of racial and gender distribution as well as wage levels of distinct care occupations over time.

Between 1900 and the 1970s, twenty million southerners migrated north and west. Weaving together for the first time the histories of these black and white migrants, James Gregory traces their paths and experiences in a comprehensive new study that demonstrates how this regional diaspora reshaped America by "southernizing" communities and transforming important cultural and political institutions.

This paper examines whether local relative factor supplies affect local relative factor prices across US states. Using data on relative wages and relative labor supplies across the US, I find that state specific relative labor supplies significantly impact state specific relative wages across the US. Moreover, in an effort to reconcile my finding with that of Hanson and Slaughter (2000), I rerun their model and I prove that their interpretation is incorrect, and that in fact, differences in relative labor supplies across states determine relative wages and industry production techniques.These findings suggest that relative FPE does not hold across US states. In addition, the findings imply that immigration shocks to US states have a significant effect on relative wages, holding all else equal, as long as the immigrant inflows significantly impact states relative labor supplies.

During the past half century, marriage has become a less universal and less stable family form. Marriage rates have declined, divorce rates have risen and, consequently, single parent families have become more common.Partly in response to these developments, some legislators, advocates and scholars recently have pushed for the establishment of government programs that promote marriage. In 2002, for example, President Bush proposed that $ 1.5 billion in federal funds be spent on marriage promotion efforts during a five year period. More than two dozen states have experimented with marriage promotion programs. Advocates of such programs rely on empirical evidence that children benefit from being raised by both their biological parents, a possibility whose likelihood is increased by the parents having married. Moreover, adults may benefit economically, psychologically, and physically from the long-term, interdependent relationship that marriage facilitates. Critics of marriage promotion policies counter these arguments by contending that efforts to reverse the decline in marriage are doomed to failure. Further, they note that the supposed benefits of marriage may depend largely on the lack of direct state investment in the welfare of children and adults. Thus, resources would be better spent directly promoting the welfare of children and adults.African Americans have a special stake in these debates, as the decline in marriage among them has been deeper and steeper than among other groups. African Americans are now substantially less likely ...

Whether measured by social rank, occupational status or educational levels, newlyweds tend to resembleone another. The pattern of like marrying like, which anthropologists label status homogamy, is observedacross time and place, and is true among both commoners and the nobility. This paper investigatescomplexion homogamy (light marries light and dark marries dark) in the African-American community.The evidence reveals a marked pattern of complexion homogamy dating back to the mid-nineteenthcentury. The evidence also reveals that the convention of complexion homogamy had meaningfuleconomic ramifications. Complexion homogamous marriages among light-complected blacks resulted inhouseholds with higher literacy rates, higher occupational status, and greater wealth.

On the Frontier of Adulthood reveals a startling new fact: adulthood no longer begins when adolescence ends. A lengthy period before adulthood, often spanning the twenties and even extending into the thirties, is now devoted to further education, job exploration, experimentation in romantic relationships, and personal development. Pathways into and through adulthood have become much less linear and predictable, and these changes carry tremendous social and cultural significance, especially as institutions and policies aimed at supporting young adults have not kept pace with these changes.This volume considers the nature and consequences of changes in early adulthood by drawing upon a wide variety of historical and contemporary data from the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. Especially dramatic shifts have occurred in the conventional markers of adulthoodleaving home, finishing school, getting a job, getting married, and having childrenand in how these experiences are configured as a set. These accounts reveal how the process of becoming an adult has changed over the past century, the challenges faced by young people today, and what societies can do to smooth the transition to adulthood.

In the United States a century ago, working children turned over almost all of their earnings to their parents. What incentives, then, did they have to work? Standard answers to this question allude to altruism or the sticks wielded by parents and employers. This paper argues that there were also carrots: working gave children greater influence in household decision-making. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Cost of Living Survey 1917-1919, this paper shows that expenditures on a childrens clothing varied with their labor market status. Working children had higher clothing expenditures than did non-working children. However, the rewards to work came not just from labor market entry alone; clothing expenditures were increasing in the income a child brought into the household.

This review describes current patterns and long-term trends (up to 50 years when possible) related to (a) physical activity, (b) employment and occupation, (c) travel behavior, (d) land use, and (e) related behaviors (e.g., television watching). On the basis of available data, the following trends were observed according to type of physical activity: relatively stable or slightly increasing levels of leisure-time physical activity, declining work-related activity, declining transportation activity, declining activity in the home, and increasing sedentary activity. These result in an overall trend of declining total physical activity. Large differences were noted in the rates of walking for transportation across metropolitan statistical areas. A strong linear increase existed in vehicle miles traveled per person over the past half century, coupled with a strong and consistent trend toward Americans living in suburbs. Although it is difficult to precisely quantify owing to the lack of long-term data, it is apparent that a combination of changes to the built environment and increases in the proportion of the population engaging in sedentary activities put the majority of the American population at high risk of physical inactivity.