I use the [U.S.] Integrated Public Use Microdata Series to assess the potential effects of local labor-market conditions on long-term trends and race differences in marital instability. The rise of female labor-force participation and the increase in nonfarm employment are closely associated with the growth of divorce and separation. Moreover, higher female labor-force participation among black women and lower economic opportunities for black men may account for race differences in marital instability before 1940, and for most of such differences in subsequent years. However, unmeasured intervening cultural factors are probably responsible for at least part of these effects.

This article utilizes accelerated failure time models to estimate the effect of immigration, generation, and ethnicity on timing of first marriage among women living in the United States in 1910. Although historical research suggests that family need resulted in marital delay, I argue that family strategies for socioeconomic mobility is a more likely explanation. Second-generation women from groups experiencing substantial socioeconomic mobility across the generations demonstrate the greatest likelihood of marital delay; this is particularly notable for Jewish women. Migration does not have the expected delaying effect on marriage; those arriving as young children or single adults marry at younger ages that either those who wed in the country of origin or their second-generation counterparts. Findings are discussed in light of ethnic group stratification and the importance of integrating women into mobility frameworks.

This paper moves away from old metaphors for social science data description to the metaphor of an active agent capable of taking the initiative to assist the user in selecting appropriate data sets and variables as well as framing problems so that they can be answered with the data. Why can't various elements of metadata be active agents capable of telling both users and computer programs that use the data important characteristics of the data, tailoring information to each user's needs, and learning from each user to evolve over time? This paper describes an integrated approach in which intelligent agents permit the user to issue broad queries delegating the details to the agent; case-based reasoning guides the user to relevant examples; machine learning permits successful queries to be added to the programs expanding knowledge base for help with future queries; and expert systems provide advice to the user on a range of issues. Two prototype modules implementing some of these capabilities are described and the utility of this approach is illustrated for the PDQ-Explore system for providing rapid intelligent access to the U.S. Bureau of the Census PUMS, IPUMS and Supersample data sets.

The belief that the social class position an individual inherits at birth is not itself a prime determinant of subsequent personal achievement is a cherished part of the American democratic tradition. Social historians attempting to measure whether the mobility opportunities so eagerly sought by immigrants were in fact realized have looked at the occupations of immigrant men and their sons. Evidence from such diverse areas as Boston, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and New York City indicates that at the turn of the century many men did experience upward occupational mobility; some groups, notably blacks, did not fare as well as did white immigrants, and not all white immigrants experienced the same rates of occupational improvements (Bodnar et al. 1982; Lieberson 1980; Model 1988; Thernstrom 1964, 1973; Zunz 1982). This essay turns to the first decade of the twentieth century to explore some of the factors contributing to socioeconomic mobility.

While previous economic studies on reservation economies have researched the role of institutions in reservation development and tribal choice, these studies have not investigated the manner in which reservation institutions might affect individual choice. In this dissertation, I analyze--at both a theoretical and empirical level--the influence non-market reservation institutions have on the economic decision making of reservation area American Indians. In particular, I use the 1990 Integrated Public Use Microdata Series to analyze interstate out-of-reservation area migration by American Indians over the 1985 to 1990 period. By focusing on the determinants of off-reservation migration, I fill a void in the economics literature on the influence of reservation institutions on individual choice. At the same time, I add to the existing literature on reservation underdevelopment by considering the extent to which poor economic conditions on reservations motivate migration. Using a three-staged regression process, two hypotheses are considered: (1) non-market and cultural reservation institutions affect an American Indian's decision to migrate from a reservation area; (2) American Indian and white reservation area household heads respond differently to migration variables. I find that while, consistent with other migration studies, personal characteristics explain most of the variation in the probability to migrate, non-market institutions affect American Indian migration. In particular, American Indian household heads living in reservation areas characterized by a greater extent of cultural cohesiveness are both less likely to migrate and less likely to respond to migration variables, all else equal. The results indicate also that whites and American Indians respond differently to migration variables and that the migration behavior of younger, single, childless, more highly educated American Indians more closely matches that of whites with similar characteristics. Finally, the data reveal that American Indians are less responsive to expected wage increases than are whites with similar characteristics.

I investigate the factors that fostered the rise in separate living quarters for the aged prior to Social Security by estimating the income effect of the first major pension program in the United States, that covering Union Army veterans. I find that income substantially increased demand for separate living arrangements, suggesting that prior to 1940 rising incomes were the most important factor enabling the elderly to live alone. Comparisons with recent studies imply that income no longer plays as large a role, perhaps because income levels are now higher and independent living is both less expensive and more attractive.

Immigrants arriving in antebellum America with backgrounds in white-collar, skilled, or semiskilled work were able to move out of unskilled jobs more rapidly than those with backgrounds in farming or unskilled work. Mobility was easier for the young than for the old and for the English and Germans than for the Irish, even when the latter had been white-collar workers or possessed manual skills. Mobility was highest when immigrants settled in rapidly growing counties or in places with many foreign-born people. These findings have important implications for understanding the transfer of human capital. For example, they might explain whether literate and skilled Irish immigrants had difficulty moving out of unskilled jobs because of discrimination or whether they possessed skills less transferable to the US job market.

Despite the attention devoted by scholars to testing Frederick Jackson Turners view of the frontier as a safety valve relieving pressure on urban labor markets in the east, few have offered evidence bearing on the central issues in the debate: how many people actually moved to the west, how many of them were poor, unskilled workers, and how did the subsequent economic performance of migrants compare to that of non-migrants? This study fills these gaps in our understanding of the process of American economic development by offering direct evidence on the extent, character, and consequences of migration to the west between 1850 and 1870 using more than 5,000 males linked across the 1850-70 federal censuses. It finds substantial migration to the frontier by urban residents, particularly unskilled workers, and substantial gains in wealth for these migrants. Those who moved to the frontier were generally of lower average quality than those who stayed behind, lending further support to the view of the frontier as a safety valve. Both the rate of migration to the frontier and the size of the benefits enjoyed by frontier migrants appear to have fallen during the 1860s.

Though we now know a great deal about both the population that left Ireland in the Great Famine and the years following and the population of Irish immigrants in America, an important connection between these sets of facts has been lacking: an understanding of how immigrants circumstances at departure influenced their subsequent economic performance in the U.S. This essay attempts to bridge this gap by offering new evidence on the impact of immigrants place of origin within Ireland on geographic mobility, occupational attainment, and wealth accumulation in the U.S. It uses immigrants surnames to determine their place of origin in Ireland. The findings reveal substantially better performance among the Ulster Irish (particularly the Scots Irish) in the 1850s, but this advantage narrowed over the late 19 century and was eliminated by 1920. The changes in the places producing the best-performing immigrants appear to reflect changes over the period 1850-1920 in the economic circumstances of those places: relatively better conditions in Ireland produced relatively better-performing immigrants.

Whereas most research focuses on how Variations in socioeconomic conditions contribute to the diversity in fertility behavior within a population, this paper analyses the fertility of Danish twins in order to find possible genetic influences on an individual's fertility decisions. The analyses reveal that male monozygotic twins have a significantly higher correlation of completed fertility than their dizygotic counterparts, which suggests a (dominant) genetic influence on male fertility behavior. For females, an important gene-environment interaction emerges: the difference in the correlation of completed fertility between mono- and dizygotic twins changes over time. Only for later cohorts is there evidence for a greater similarity of completed fertility among female monozygotic twins as compared to dizygotic twins. This means that the genetic influence on the fertility of females increases over the sample period.

Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) are secondary data sources constructed from the US decennial censuses which researchers use to examine changes in American society over time. While they are useful, PUMS have certain inherent limitations. The censuses on which they are based contain information that was not always consistently collected and the samples used to create the PUMS differ as well. The authors use the 1940 and 1950 PUMS comparatively, identifying differences and problems associated with the data sets and outlining procedures that minimize and correct problems.

This paper examines segregation in American cities from 1890 to 1990. From 1890 to 1940, ghettos were born as blacks migrated to urban areas and cities developed vast expanses filled with almost entirely black housing. From 1940 to 1970, black migration continued and the physical areas of the ghettos expanded. Since 1970, there has been a decline in segregation as blacks have moved into previously all-white areas of cities and suburbs. Across all these time periods there is a strong positive relation between urban population or density and segregation. Data on house prices and attitudes toward integration suggest that in the mid-twentieth century, segregation was a product of collective actions taken by whites to exclude blacks from their neighborhoods. By 1990, the legal barriers enforcing segregation had been replaced by decentralized racism , where whites pay more than blacks to live in predominantly white areas.

There is a strong tradition in the social sciences that links the migration of southern [U.S.] blacks to northern cities with changes in family structure in the North. This article examines that assumption by comparing the living arrangements of children and women for migrants and nonmigrants in northern central cities. Data from the newly available Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, for the period 1940 through 1990, are used for this purpose. The findings show that northern urbanites with `southern origins' actually exhibited more traditional family patterns--more children living with two parents, more ever-married women living with their spouses, and fewer never-married mothers. It is concluded that the evidence yields no support for the longstanding assumption that southern migrants contributed disproportionately to changes in the African American family in northern cities during this century.