Immigrant children in the US often learn English before their adult caretakers, leading them to take on the role of day-to-day translators (“language brokers”). This study explores the familial socialization of immigrant, linguistic-minority families in the US by drawing on deductiveinductive thematic analysis of fourteen in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Asian-American and Latinx young adult language brokers reflecting on how this role shaped their childhoods and prepared them for their adulthoods. The bulk of interviewees experienced working-class childhoods. Despite this, respondents seemed to have experienced a family socialization model that reflected elements of both middle-class and working-class models. “Immigrant Linguistic Maturation” (ILM) consists of linguistic scaffolding in English and heritage languages, requisite verbal airtime, and engagement with authority figures while also leading children to hold adult knowledge, roles, and responsibilities. Racial and ethnic differences across brokers primarily lie in the actors involved in ILM socialization processes. Extended family, and especially grandparents, played a more active role in the ILM socialization of Asian-American brokers while in the case of Latinx brokers ILM socialization was primarily driven by parents, and in particular, mothers. The case of Asian American and Latinx language brokers calls attention to the importance of factors like immigrant background and linguistic marginalization in shaping familial socialization.

Purpose: Opioids, benzodiazepines and sedatives can manage dental pain, fear and anxiety but have a narrow margin of safety in children. General dentists may inappropriately prescribe gabapentin and stimulants. National evidence on dispensing rates of these high-alert medicines by dentists to children is limited. Methods: We utilize join-point regression to identify changes in fills for opioids, sedatives, benzodiazepines, gabapentin, and stimulants to children <18 years from 2012 to 2019 in a national dataset comprising 92% of dispensed outpatient prescriptions by dentists. Results: From 2012 to 2019, 3.8 million children filled prescriptions for high-alert drugs from general dentists. National quarterly dispensing of high-alert drugs decreased 63.1%, from 10456.0 to 3858.8 days per million. Opioids accounted for 69.4% of high-alert prescriptions. From 2012 to 2019, fills for opioids, sedatives, benzodiazepines, and stimulants decreased by 65.2% (7651.8 to 2662.7), 43.4% (810.9 to 458.7), 43.6% (785.7 to 442.7) and 89.3% (825.6 to 88.6 days per million), respectively. Gabapentin increased 8.1% (121.8 to 131.7 days per million). A significant decrease in high-alert fills occurred in 2016, (−6.0% per quarter vs. -1.6% pre-2016, P-value<0.001), especially for opioids (−7.0% vs. -1.2%, P-value<0.001). Older teenagers (15–17 years) received 42.5% of high-alert prescriptions. Low-income counties in the South were overrepresented among top-prescribing areas in 2019. Conclusions: We found promising national decreases in fills for high-alert medicines to children by general dentists from 2012 to 2019. However, older teenagers and children in some counties continued to receive dental opioids at high rates. Future efforts should address non-evidence-based pain management in these groups.

As schools and daycares closed in March of 2020, mothers left the labor market in droves, either completely giving up their jobs or significantly cutting back on hours in order to care for children and/or help facilitate online learning. Furthermore, fields historically dominated by women were particularly hard hit, such as education, hospitality, and retail causing many women who may not be mothers to leave the work force as well. This paper considers how women’s labor force participation has changed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and how the re-opening of schools, in particular, has impacted women’s return to the workforce. Triple difference estimation shows a small but statistically significant positive effect for both women’s labor force participation and women’s employment status as schools re-open.

Almond (2006) argues that in utero exposure to the 1918 influenza pandemic reduced the 1919 birth cohort’s adult socioeconomic status (SES). We show that this cohort came from lower-SES families, which is incompatible with Almond’s cohort-comparison identification strategy. The adult SES deficit is reduced after background characteristics are controlled for; it is small and statistically insignificant in models that include household fixed effects. Replicating Almond’s state-level dose-response analysis, we find no evidence in census data that influenza exposure reduced adult SES. Evidence from a city-level dose-response analysis on educational attainment using WWII enlistees from 287 cities is mixed.

This research investigates the relationship between immigrants’ current citizenship status, an observed measure of permanent legal status in the U.S., and their likelihood of divorce. Using American Community Survey data, the research examines relatively young immigrants entering their first marriages in the United States as noncitizens. The study finds those who become naturalized U.S. citizens are at least 25% more likely to be divorced than comparable immigrants who remain noncitizens. The work explores whether immigrants with temporary visas value finding naturalized spouses in the marriage market. If so, the small resulting pool of potential spouses may increase the marginal cost of finding new partners at increasing compatibility levels. The immigrants’ reservation match quality would then decrease, potentially resulting in suboptimal sorting along other partner compatibility dimensions. If the immigrants establish permanent residency after marriage, their unions might become less stable as the other compatibility characteristics become more important.

Digital technologies can expand access to health services to underserved populations. This paper leverages mobile network expansion and survey data spanning two decades to study the impact of access to mobile phones on infant mortality in Africa. Using plausibly exogenous variations in lightning intensity and (sub)regional convergence in mobile penetration as instrumental variables for mobile network expansion, the analysis finds that mobile phones significantly reduce infant mortality. A 10 percentage point increase in mobile coverage is associated with a 0.45 percentage point reduction in infant mortality. Improvements in health knowledge and behavior and health care utilization appear to be plausible channels.

The objective of this research is to analyze the characteristics of the labor market insertion of Mexicans by type of qualification and their wage differences in relation to native workers in the United States. The hypothesis is that there is a wage inequality between Mexican migrant workers and native workers, accentuated among skilled workers, due to a segmentation of the U.S. labor market. The methodology used to analyze each of the components that add up to the wage gap between Mexican and native workers is the Ñopo decomposition. The results showed the opposite of what is established by the human capital theory since the wage difference between Mexicans immigrants and natives by type of job qualification is mostly unexplainable from a statistical point of view and escapes modeling. This means that having citizenship and education does not eliminate the differences between Mexicans and natives. This allows us to accept the hypothesis, except in the case of low-skilled Mexican immigrants, since they have a wage differential in their favor.

We study the determinants of sectoral patterns of technological catch-up of emerging economies. In particular, we test the hypotheses that technological catch-up is slower in tacit knowledge-intensive sectors, operationalised by measures of complex task intensity, in sectors with a high skill intensity, with a high degree of export sophistication, and higher income elasticity. Employing trade data from United Nations Comtrade and production data from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) between 1960 and 2000 covering manufacturing sectors, we find that catch-up is slower in more tacit knowledge-intensive sectors, as well as in skill-intensive and export sophisticated sectors. With more recent Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) data from 1997 to 2011, we find instead that catch-up is faster in more tacit knowledge-intensive manufacturing sectors, whereas catch-up is slower in more tacit knowledge-intensive services sectors. We discuss three potential explanations for the changing association of catch-up with tacit knowledge intensity.

We study the financial protection provided by health insurance through two natural experiments—the Affordable Care Act's under 26 provision and Medicare eligibility. In both cases, the coverage expansion sharply reduces medical debt in collections for consumers within the affected ages but does not systematically improve credit outcomes not directly related to medical care. This is consistent with the infrequent repayment rate and lack of persistence on credit reports that we document for medical collections, which mute a key channel through which reductions in medical collections could directly affect the other financial outcomes studied here. These results help clarify the role of health insurance in broader financial health and suggest that, at least among the populations studied here, medical debts in collection may often be a symptom rather than a cause of wider financial distress as measured on credit reports.

I study the internal migration of native-born white men in the United States using linked census data covering all possible 10-and 20-year periods 1850-1940. Inter-county migration rates were stable over time. Selection into migration on the basis of occupational status was also largely stable and was neutral or slightly negative. But the orientation of internal migration changed, declining in distance, becoming more directed towards the west, and increasingly driving urbanization. These patterns changed in the 1930s as migration became less common and less urban oriented. These results provide a clearer understanding of historic US internal migration than previously possible.

This article examines changes in parental labor supply in response to the unanticipated closure of schools following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The authors collect detailed daily information on school closures at the school-district level, which they merge to individual-level data on labor supply and sociodemographic characteristics from the monthly Current Population Survey spanning from January 2019 through May 2020. Using a difference-in-differences estimation approach, the authors find evidence of non-negligible labor supply reductions. Having a partner at home helped offset the negative effect of school closures, particularly for maternal employment, although respondents’ job traits played a more significant role in shaping labor supply responses to school closures. Overall, the labor supply impacts of school closures prove robust to identification checks and to controlling for other coexistent social distancing measures. In addition, these early school closures seem to have had a long-lasting negative impact on parental labor supply.

Residential, industrial, and commercial carbon dioxide emissions vary substantially across cities and sectors; this variation has led to concerns about the distributional consequences of carbon pricing policies. I develop and estimate a spatial equilibrium model to quantify the incidence from a stylized carbon tax across cities, sectors, and education groups in the U.S. The model features heterogeneous households, firms in multiple locations , sectors that use energy and labor as imperfect substitutes, and region-specific carbon emissions rates due to differences in the fuel mix used to generate electricity. A uniform carbon tax has substantial distributional effects, with non-college-educated manufacturing workers living in the Midwest and South bearing the greatest burden. Cities with mild climates, carbon-efficient power plants, and services-oriented economies experience modest population increases as households move in response to the carbon tax. The share of the total tax burden attributable to coal-fired electricity varies significantly across regions. Additionally, I use the model to demonstrate that progressive compensation leads to a decline in aggregate carbon emissions due to a reallocation of workers into cities and less carbon-intensive sectors.

To understand how income inequality affects individuals and communities, researchers must have accurate measures of income inequality at lower geographic levels, such as counties, school districts, and census tracts. Studies of income inequality, however, are constrained by the tabular format in which censuses publish income data. In this article, the author proposes a new method, Lorenz interpolation, for estimating income inequality from binned income data. Using public microsample data from the American Community Survey (ACS), the author shows that Lorenz interpolation produces more accurate and reliable income inequality estimates than do alternative estimation methods. Then, using restricted ACS income data obtained through a Federal Statistical Research Data Center, the author evaluates the accuracy of Lorenz interpolation at the census tract and school district levels. Lorenz interpolation produces reliable school district–level estimates, but the method produces less reliable estimates for some income inequality measures at the tract level. These findings indicate that researchers should refrain from estimating tract-level income inequality measures from tabular data. They also show that aggregating tract income distributions to higher geographic levels can produce valid estimates of income inequality.

Objective: To characterize the quantity and quality of hospital capacity across the United States. Data Sources: We combine a 2017 near-census of US hospital inpatient discharges from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) with American Hospital Association Survey, Hospital Compare, and American Community Survey data. Study Design: This study produces local hospital capacity quantity and care quality measures by allocating capacity to zip codes using market shares and population totals. Disparities in these measures are examined by race and ethnicity, income, age, and urbanicity. Data Collection/Extraction Methods: All data are derived from pre-existing sources. All hospitals and zip codes in states, including the District of Columbia, contributing complete data to HCUP in 2017 are included. Principal Findings: Non-Hispanic Black individuals living in zip codes supplied, on average, 0.11 more beds per 1000 population (SE = 0.01) than places where non-Hispanic White individuals live. However, the hospitals supplying this capacity have 0.36 fewer staff per bed (SE = 0.03) and perform worse on many care quality measures. Zip codes in the most urban parts of America have the least hospital capacity (2.11 beds per 1000 persons; SEM = 0.01) from across the rural-urban continuum. While more rural areas have markedly higher capacity levels, urban areas have advantages in staff and capital per bed. We do not find systematic differences in care quality between rural and urban areas. Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of lower hospital care quality and resource intensity in driving racial and ethnic, as well as income, disparities in hospital care-related outcomes. This study also contributes an alternative approach for measuring local hospital capacity that accounts for cross-hospital service area flows. Adjusting for these flows is necessary to avoid underestimating the supply of capacity in rural areas and overestimating it in places where non-Hispanic Black individuals tend to live.

Objective: To assess whether local violence is associated with the timing and type of women's first union formation. Background: Local violence may cause disruptions to marriage markets and psychological and behavioral changes that may affect union formation patterns. Method: The authors exploited the variation in homicide rates caused by a shift in national drug-enforcement policy in Mexico in December 2006. Competing-risks Cox models and union histories from a nationally representative survey of women (N = 33,292) were used to assess whether a recent increase in violence was associated with the timing of the first union transition, which could be either marriage or cohabitation. Analyses were conducted separately by education level. Results: A recent increase in the local homicide rate was associated with delayed first marriage formation for less educated women. Supplementary analyses suggested that a decrease in the number of employed men per women, as well as reduced social interaction due to fear of victimization could be plausible causal mechanisms. No statistically significant associations were found between a recent increase in violence and transitions to first cohabitation for the less educated, or with any first union transition for the moderately and more educated. Conclusion: Among less educated women, a recent increase in violence was associated with a delayed entrance into marriage as a first union transition. Implications: By increasing their barriers to marriage, local violence may contribute to the accumulation of disadvantage among disadvantaged women and families.

Many parents are single parents; that is, raising a child but not living with the child’s other biological parent or a romantic partner. Being a single parent, though, does not mean that parents are living alone with their children. They may be living with other family members or roommates. In this Family Profile, we focus on resident mothers and fathers (i.e., living with at least one minor child) who are single (not married or cohabiting). We distinguish between “single, solo parents – single parents who are raising their minor children alone (with no spouse, cohabiting partner, parent, sibling, adult child, or roommate in their home) – and “single, nonsolo parents” – single parents who are living with another individual over the age of 18. Using data from the 2021 ASEC Current Population Survey from IPUMS-CPS, we identify the prevalence of solo parenthood and examine demographic characteristics including parental gender, marital history, educational attainment, and race and ethnicity (FP-17-17; FP-18-06; FP21-26). For brevity, throughout this profile resident single, nonsolo parents will be referred to as "nonsolo" and resident single, solo parents will be referred to as "solo."

What do recent advances in economic geography teach us about the spatial distribution of economic activity? We show that the equilibrium distribution of economic activity can be determined simply by the intersection of labor supply and demand curves. We discuss how to estimate these curves and highlight the importance of global geography-i.e. the connections between locations through the trading network-in determining how various policy relevant changes to geography shape the spatial economy .

The aim of this review is to appraise evidence from previous research, conducted in Scotland and beyond, which provides insight into the extent to which planned Scottish Government investment in childcare could impact on parental poverty, parental employment and reducing household costs. The literature review included studies from Scotland (of which there are a limited number) and those from geographic areas in which findings were deemed to be relevant to contemporary Scotland, e.g., other OECD countries. The evidence based comprised fifty-one academic papers and formal research reports. While it was not an explicit aim of the review, to contextualise the research, the review also considered papers which examined the wider benefits of childcare to society. Evidence of the immediate impact of childcare investment on poverty, employment and reducing household costs is not definitive nor compelling. Across the small number of studies that examined evidence of the impact of childcare provision on poverty, the key conclusion is that the impact is slight, but positive. Empirical evidence suggests that investment in childcare can result in modest reductions in child poverty and cost savings, and modest increases in maternal employment (which, in turn, also can lead to reductions in child poverty). However, these investments do not – alone – transform household income or employment outcomes of the target groups. Research tends to advise that most of the target group endure low income and remain outside the labour market after the introduction of a childcare intervention. Nevertheless, it is important to highlight that there are many qualitative and longer-term benefits of childcare investment, particularly for the most disadvantaged children, and that while childcare alone cannot tackle poverty, formal childcare is often considered to be an indispensable part of a policy toolkit to tackle these problems. Where costs are not covered in the short-term, it is often anticipated that the longer-term outcomes of childcare investment will justify the investment. There is an inadequate Scottish evidence base. Further research is required to strengthen the evidence base to understand the totality of the impact of childcare investment in Scotland. Moreover, it would be prudent to clarify expectations pertaining to the contribution of childcare in tackling poverty, and to understand the co-dependencies of childcare on other aspects of an anti-poverty strategy (such as decent wages, flexibility in employment and a facilitating public transport system).

Today’s infants and toddlers have lived virtually their entire lives during a pandemic, shaping every aspect of their growth and wellbeing. The pandemic has impacted them directly, through individual experiences such as delayed screenings for developmental issues and reduced social interactions, and because they live in families that have faced increased hunger and housing insecurity.1 These young children have also been indirectly affected through the circumstances of other members of their households, including increased parental stress, illness, and job loss.2 Simply put, COVID has remade their entire world during a critical, formative period. Moreover, the long-overdue racial reckoning we faced in 2020—which exacerbated the pervasive, systemic racism that has plagued our nation for centuries—has only heightened the harms for infants and toddlers of color and their families. Two years into the pandemic and one year after the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA),3 this brief examines how decision makers implementing ARPA have used COVID relief funding and policy opportunities to lay the groundwork for longer-term, transformative change by equitably supporting infants, toddlers, and their families in a range of ways. We also offer guidance for how decision makers can leverage ARPA across myriad programs to support these children and families now and into the future.

Comprised of three essays, my dissertation is linked by a common focus: the relationship between state or local governance arrangements and inequality or facets of social equity. I draw upon a range of literatures to motivate my research questions and inform my methodologies—welfare and social policy, public economics, intergovernmental relations, public finance and management. In the first essay, I ask: does localizing welfare governance impact geospatial access to the social safety net? This is an important question because proximity is highly salient to program utilization. I geocode the location of human services nonprofits from tax filings in eight states using ArcGIS and create measures of access for low-income neighborhoods over 17 years. I leverage the 1996 welfare reform, which enabled states to devolve more policymaking discretion to local governments, to examine the responsiveness of nonprofits to changes in welfare governance with respect to geospatial accessibility. One of my main findings is that low-income neighborhoods in states that chose to localize welfare had less access post-reform to program revenues, a proxy for government contracts and services. In the second essay, I study the relationship between state government wages and privatization. Governments have used public sector employment to support a variety of goals, including social equity and economic development, but privatization, as an NPM reform, may shift that focus. My empirical analysis shows that state privatization of service delivery is associated with decreases in the public sector wage premium, but that these effects are not driven by gender, race, or low levels of educational attainment. The quality of implementation conditions these effects. I also find that privatization is associated with a lower public sector wage premium for middle-class workers. In the third essay, I and a co-author leverage a 2003 Arkansas state law requiring school district reorganization via an enrollment cutoff to evaluate the effects of consolidations on rural communities’ population, number of schools, and property values using a propensity score matched difference-in differences design. We estimate that the reform led to reductions in population, community schools, and property value assessments. We also find that communities with greater shares of racial minorities may have been disproportionately affected with respect to population loss.