Researchers have found that gentrification is less likely in Black neighborhoods than in White or Latinx neighborhoods, and that gentrification looks different in Black neighborhoods. For example, researchers have found that Black neighborhoods experience marginal gentrification—changes in the educational level but not the income of residents. This study uses Census and National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) data to explore the relationship between gentrification and racial change in Washington, DC between 2000 and 2019. We measure gentrification using four distinct but related measures: change in home value, rent, average educational level, and household income. The results show a positive association between changes in the percentage of residents with college degrees and the percentage of White residents in neighborhoods that were majority Black in 2000. We also find a positive association between changes in the percentage of Latinx residents and the average rent. We do not find a significant relationship between racial change and changes in home value and average income. Our findings point to the importance of including race in models of gentrification as well as using different measures of gentrification to capture it more fully.

Employment costs are important to both construction employers and employees, providing a key way to monitor the health of the labor market. Particularly with current labor shortages, understanding compensation in construction, including historical trends, may also guide future wage and benefit decisions and help attract and retain more workers. This Data Bulletin examines employment costs in the construction industry through four different pay measures: the Employment Cost Index, compensation costs, average hourly earnings (AHE), and average hourly wage (AHW). Data are from a variety of sources, including 1) the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) National Compensation Survey, 2) BLS Current Employment Statistics, 3) BLS Current Population Survey, and 4) BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. All data sources present national trends and do not account for regional or state differences. Each data source offers a slightly different pay measure (e.g., compensation, wages) for different populations; the definitions section at the end of this report provides more information on each source. Charts 2 and 4 through 7 use the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to adjust for inflation to 2022 dollars; all other charts show 2022 dollars.

Which states send the most workers to Arizona? Though Arizona’s warm climate is often associated with drawing retirees from cooler regions, it serves as a hub of diverse opportunities that beckon workers from across the United States. The state’s magnetic allure extends beyond its weather, attracting a diverse spectrum of skilled and educated professionals from various states, thereby infusing the local workforce with fresh perspectives and expertise. By delving into the origins of migrants and workers, we can unveil not only which regions find Arizona most appealing but also highlight the cultural and skill-based currents flowing into the state.

This dissertation examines the philosophy, behaviors, and consequences of the educational investments of Asian American families in critical historical times from the Asian Exclusion Period (1882±1943) to the COVID-19 pandemic. Chapter 1 uses historical censuses to examine the social mobility of Asian Americans in the early 20th century. It reveals a contrasting pattern of high intergenerational educational mobility but low occupational mobility among U.S.-born Asians who came of age during the Exclusion. This chapter complements existing theories of immigrant assimilation that have overlooked the mobility experiences of Asian Americans despite explicit exclusionary laws and the disconnection between educational and occupational mobility. Chapter 2 examines the K±12 educational expenses of contemporary Asian American families using the nationally representative Consumer Expenditure Surveys (2009±2022). . Analyses suggest that Asians outspend Whites on K±12 education in general but most substantially on housing to improve their children's access to better public education. These results highlight housing expenditures as one of the most expensive forms of educational investments today. Chapter 3 uses interviews with middle-class Chinese and Indian parents in New Jersey (N = 44) between December 2020 and January 2022 to study childrearing philosophies and cautions against a simplistic description of Asian American parenting as academics-centered. I argue that middle-class Asian parenting can be better understood as an "inclusive assimilation" process: Asian parents aim for a well-rounded education that resembles the aim of White parenting, but similarly to other minority parents, they enrich the concept with racial socialization tasks in the face of rising anti-Asian violence. This pattern contests the unidirectional assimilation process that presumes White middle-class families as the default destination. Together, this dissertation shows how the American public tends to use parenting behaviors to measure Asian Americans' foreignness despite drastic changes in the group's demography.

The Great Depression is one of the worst social, financial, economic, and environmental disasters in modern American history. Economic and climate distress provoked a large internal migration of people. This thesis attempted to glean predictions about the migratory decisions in the 1930s using decision trees utilizing linked full count US census data from 1930 and 1940. Five different models were employed to assess the 52 million linked records. Using variables from one census year alone provided poor classification rates for the migrants but near perfect rates for the non-migrants. Using a combination of all variables across both years provided the highest success in classifying both migrants and non-migrants. However, this was achieved by successive splitting on the basis of a location identifier that combines county and state across the two years. Excluding the location identifier for 1940 alone did produce better success than single years but still misclassified a large proportion of the migrants. The analysis conclusively pointed to the excessive reliance on geographic variables for the decision tree to make splitting decisions, contrary to the expected demographic and occupation details. The reliance potentially hints at spatial relationships or local shocks, that are not captured in the census data. In conclusion, it appears that the census data is missing some attribute(s) that makes people arrive at the difficult decision of migrating.

Even before the global health and economic crisis unleashed by COVID, a lifetime of systemic disparities deeply impacted the health and economic security of older women of color— especially those with low incomes, who have disabilities, who are immigrants, and who are LGBTQ people. Throughout the pandemic, older women of color experienced high levels of unemployment, lost household income, were overrepresented among essential workers, and served as caregivers. Older women of color, moreover, weathered illness and struggled to afford food, shelter, and health care during the pandemic.

Using official employment surveys for 45 Advanced Economies (AEs) and Latin American countries, we show that the positive cross-country correlation between business size and income per capita is tighter than previously found using firm-level datasets, and find a close negative business size-Gini relationship. We also find a closer connection between individual income and business size for workers in Less Developed Countries (LDCs) vs. those in AEs. Because employment data address the bias against the smallest productive units that characterize firm-level datasets, our approach uniquely assesses and highlights the dominance of the left tail of business size distribution in LDCs.

A significant amount of literature exists on the lasting effects of interparental abuse on children’s psychological health as adults. However, evidence on how children’s childhood experience of interparental violence shapes their attitude toward partner violence in adult intimate relationships is limited. Given the existing evidence that women’s acceptance of partner violence as a social norm increases the risk of partner violence, we analyzed the effect of girls’ witnessing interparental abuse (where a father is a perpetrator) on their attitude toward partner violence in their intimate relationships as adults. We used data from the Demographic and Health Surveys for 31 low and middle-income countries in Asia and Africa. Aggregating information about women’s attitudes toward partner violence into a binary “intimate partner violence acceptance” variable, we found that a woman who witnessed her father beat her mother was 1.62 times more likely to justify partner violence than a woman who did not experience such interparental abuse (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.62, 95% CI [1.57, 1.66], p < .001). Additionally, using individual components of acceptance as response variables, we found that a woman who witnessed interparental abuse was significantly more likely to justify partner violence if she went out without telling her husband (OR = 1.49, 95% CI [1.45, 1.54], p < .001), neglected children (OR = 1.53, 95% CI [1.49, 1.58], p < .001), argued with the husband (OR = 1.49, 95% CI [1.45, 1.53], p < .001), refused sex with the husband (OR = 1.35, 95% CI [1.31, 1.39], p < .001), or burned food (OR = 1.36, 95% CI [1.31, 1.41], p < .001). This study highlights the need to put in place children-specific social policies to limit the intergenerational transmission of the adverse effects of intimate partner violence.

Social capital is crucial to health and wellbeing (Berkman et al., 2000; Kawachi & Berkman, 2001; Thoits, 2011). Social capital, defined as the resources that are derived from social networks and social relationships, can enable exchange of health information, spread knowledge, establish cultural norms, health beliefs and normative behaviors, and facilitate emotional or financial support (Berkman, 1986). These benefits can occur at the individual or institutional level, although negative (i.e. harmful) associations with health outcomes have also been documented (Villalonga-Olives & Kawachi, 2017). Links to institutions are a type of linking capital, giving individuals and communities access to networks or groups with greater access to power or status. while interpersonal links can be either bonding (networks among friends, family, neighbors who are similar in the way they define themselves) or bridging (between those from different demographic and spatial groups) (Szreter & Woolcock, 2004). In other words, linking social capital is related to the vertical relations of authority whereas bridging and bonding social capital are derived from horizontal relations. Latinx and Asian immigrants represent the largest and fasting growing immigrant populations in the United States (US), respectively (Budiman & Ruiz, 2021). They face significant barriers to healthcare, with factors such as lower socioeconomic background, limited English proficiency, immigration status, and stigma and marginalization influencing their vulnerability in the healthcare sector (Derose et al., 2007). Social capital, or lack thereof as immigrants' social connections change with migration, has been identified as another dimension of immigrants' vulnerability (Derose et al., 2007). In fact, lack of bonding, bridging, and linking ties have been associated with delays in receipt of medical care, decreased help-seeking behavior, decreased health promotion activities like physical exercise, and decreased self-management of chronic diseases among Latinx and Chinese immigrants (Clough et al., 2013; Nieminen et al., 2013; Schenk et al., 2018; Waverijn et al., 2017); conversely, the presence of these connections has been associated with improved health literacy, easier navigation of the health system including for immigrants’ U.S.-born children, better health outcomes, and greater trust in societal sectors beyond health, like education and employment or health.(Fry-Bowers et al., 2014; Jang et al., 2015; Madden, 2015; Mohseni & Lindstrom, 2007; Valencia-Garcia et al., 2012). Relevant mechanisms include facilitating the acquisition of useful health-related information, the gaining of instrumental support to meet tangible needs like transportation or meal preparation, and social reinforcement of health behaviors. The stress-buffering effects of social capital may be particularly salient for immigrant populations due to the unique stressors they face i.e., social disadvantage, lack of employment, lack of access to and equities in health, and the weakening of ties with people in their home country necessitating the need to establish and strengthen social networks in their new communities(Massey, Goldring, and Durand 1994; Morey et al., 2021). In other words, social capital can be important to overcoming barriers and increasing access to healthcare. Yet while Latinx and Asian immigrants experience distinct racialization processes and migration experiences, few studies have empirically examined how social capital may differ across these two groups. For example, Asian immigrants as a group tend to demonstrate higher educational attainment, income and better English proficiency when compared to other immigrant populations such as Latinx immigrants(Krogstad & Radford, 2018); this may facilitate access to, and navigation of, social capital at multiple levels. Further, there are differences within Latinx and Asian immigrant communities themselves, given incredible within-group heterogeneity, that are lost when health research treats Latinx and Asian immigrants as homogenous. Studies assessing how social capital is derived and navigated have also traditionally focused on healthcare, rather than taking a cross-sectoral approach, despite the reality that immigrants’ lives are influenced by policies across multiple sectors that collectively impact immigrant health and health service use(Wallace et al., 2018). The current study aims to fill these gaps by examining 1) how linking, bridging, and bonding social capital facilitate access within and across four policy sectors; and 2) what factors buffer or exacerbate barriers experienced in accessing resources across these policy sectors in the context of unevenly distributed social capital. We examine four sectors through which state-level immigrant policies have been shown to impact health: (1) Health and social welfare; (2) Education; (3) Labor & employment; (4) Legal, including legal services as well as law and immigration enforcement(Wallace et al., 2018). We focus on Mexican, Chinese, and Taiwanese immigrants as specific subgroups within the Latinx and Asian immigrant communities to account for heterogenous experiences living in the U.S. within these broad categories, including potential cultural differences that may influence access to, and engagement with, social capital processes.

We discuss data quality and modeling issues inherent in the use of nationwide property data to value environmental amenities. By example of ZTRAX, a U.S.-wide real estate database, we identify challenges and propose guidance for: (1) the identification of arm’s-length sales, (2) the geo-location of parcels and buildings, (3) temporal linkages between transaction, assessor, and parcel data, (4) the identification of property types, such as single-family homes and vacant lands, and (5) dealing with missing or mismeasured data for standard housing attributes. We review current practice and show that how researchers address these issues can meaningfully influence research findings.

Background Previous studies have shown an association between living alone and cancer mortality; however, findings by sex and race/ethnicity have generally been inconsistent, and data by socioeconomic status are sparse. The association between living alone and cancer mortality by sex, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status in a nationally representative US cohort was examined. Methods Pooled 1998–2019 data for adults aged 18–64 years at enrollment from the National Health Interview Survey linked to the National Death Index (N = 473,648) with up to 22 years of follow-up were used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) for the association between living alone and cancer mortality. Results Compared to adults living with others, adults living alone were at a higher risk of cancer death in the age-adjusted model (HR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.25–1.39) and after additional adjustments for multiple sociodemographic characteristics and cancer risk factors (HR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.04–1.16). Age-adjusted models stratified by sex, poverty level, and educational attainment showed similar associations between living alone and cancer mortality, but the association was stronger among non-Hispanic White adults (HR, 1.33; 95% CI, 1.25–1.42) than non-Hispanic Black adults (HR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.05–1.32; p value for difference < .05) and did not exist in other racial/ethnic groups. These associations were attenuated but persisted in fully adjusted models among men (HR, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.05–1.23), women (HR, 1.09; 95% CI, 1.01–1.18), non-Hispanic White adults (HR, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.05–1.20), and adults with a college degree (HR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.07–1.39). Conclusions In this nationally representative study in the United States, adults living alone were at a higher risk of cancer death in several sociodemographic groups.

We investigate the impact of job-search referral-networks on labor allocation across sectors. Using data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics (PSID), and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), we estimate workers using referral-networks to find jobs are 1.2 - 4 percentage points less likely to switch industries. These results suggest job-search networks are fairly industry-specific and can create a “network wedge” in labor allocation across industries. Combining these results with CPS data of the intensity of referral use over time, we estimate 10%-20% of the observed long-run decline in sectoral switching could be attributable to increased prevalence of referral-networks. We then construct and calibrate a 2-sector search-and-matching model with sector-specific referralnetworks. Counterfactuals suggest reducing referral-network inequality across sectors is welfare improving despite appearing to distort labor allocation across industries. These findings have significant implications for worker retraining programs.

Do beliefs about fairness interact with past experiences of labor market shocks to condition redistributive preferences? We field a large-scale survey experiment to investigate the effect of informing individuals that growth in automation could disrupt labor markets in ways (possibly) viewed as ‘unfair’. We then exploit the COVID-19-induced labor market shock to test for an interaction between treatments and shock exposure. We find that beliefs interact with past shock exposure to increase redistributive preferences and produce sizable effects in subjects’ (incentivized) economic behavior. Our findings suggest this may be motivated by respondents’ concerns about their perceived vulnerability to future labor market shocks, which heighten fairness and prosocial concerns.

Previous research suggests the relevance of in-utero insults and early-life circumstances for a wide array of life cycle outcomes. This research note joins this strand of studies by exploring the long-run mortality effects of inutero and early-life exposure to alcohol accessibility. In so doing, we take advantage of the prohibition movement during the early part of the twentieth century that generated quasi-natural reductions in alcohol consumption. We use Social Security Administration Death Master Files linked to the full-count 1940 census and compare the longevity of male individuals exposed to the prohibition during in-utero and early childhood (1900–1930) as a result of statewide and federal alcohol ban to those wet counties after the law change to before. The results suggest an intent-to-treat effect of 0.17 years higher longevity as a result of prohibition. A back-of-anenvelope calculation suggests a minimum treatment-on-treated effect of 1.7 years impact. Furthermore, we show that these effects are not driven by other county-level demographic and socioeconomic changes, endogenous selection of births, and preexisting trends in the outcome. Our findings contribute to the growing body of research that explores the in-utero and childhood circumstances on long-term health outcomes.

Background: While nonpharmacologic treatments are increasingly endorsed as first-line therapy for low back pain (LBP) in clinical practice guidelines, it is unclear if use of these treatments is increasing or equitable. Objective: Examine national trends in chiropractic care and physical rehabilitation (occupational/physical therapy (OT/PT)) use among adults with LBP. Design/Setting: Serial cross-sectional analysis of the National Health Interview Survey, 2002 to 2018. Participants: 146,087 adults reporting LBP in prior 3 months. Methods: We evaluated the association of survey year with chiropractic care or OT/PT use in prior 12 months. Logistic regression with multilevel linear splines was used to determine if chiropractic care or OT/PT use increased after the introduction of clinical guidelines. We also examined trends in use by age, sex, race, and ethnicity. When trends were similar over time, we present differences by these demographic characteristics as unadjusted ORs using data from all respondents. Results: Between 2002 and 2018, less than one-third of adults with LBP reported use of either chiropractic care or OT/PT. Rates did not change until 2016 when uptake increased with the introduction of clinical guidelines (2016–2018 vs 2002–2015, OR = 1.15; 95% CI: 1.10–1.19). Trends did not differ significantly by sex, race, or ethnicity (p for interactions > 0.05). Racial and ethnic disparities in chiropractic care or OT/PT use were identified and persisted over time. For example, compared to non-Hispanic adults, either chiropractic care or OT/PT use was lower among Hispanic adults (combined OR = 0.62, 95% CI: 0.65–0.73). By contrast, compared to White adults, Black adults had similar OT/PT use (OR = 0.98; 95% CI: 0.94–1.03) but lower for chiropractic care use (OR = 0.50; 95% CI: 0.47–0.53). Conclusions: Although use of chiropractic care or OT/PT for LBP increased after the introduction of clinical guidelines in 2016, only about a third of US adults with LBP reported using these services between 2016 and 2018 and disparities in use have not improved.

The impact of transit investment on the access to economic opportunities and income inequality is an important question for researchers, transportation planners, and policymakers. This research conducts a comprehensive panel data analysis on the association between different types of transit investment (rail and non-rail) and various measures of income inequality for all U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) from 2011 to 2017. We find a significant effect of transit investment on reducing Gini coefficient and poverty rate in large MSAs with over a million population. The impacts seem to be driven mainly by adding new rail systems to traditional non-rail systems.

This study examines the association between educational attainment, relative to that of an intimate partner, and all-cause mortality for men and women in different-sex relationships. Research suggests some health benefits for partnered adults that arise from economic benefits and improved access to health-promoting tools. One way these benefits could be gained is through the pairing of the highly educated. While high individual educational attainment lowers mortality risk, less is known about the risks of mortality associated with one’s education, relative to their partner’s education. Using National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality Files (NHIS-LMF) for the years 1999–2014 with prospective mortality follow-up through December 2015 (N = 347,994), we document the association between relative educational attainment and mortality for men and women with different-sex partners in the United States. Fully adjusted Cox proportional hazard models revealed a higher risk of all-cause mortality for men and women who have more education than their partner, relative to those having the same education as their partner. For women only, having less education than their male partner was associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality. A better understanding of relative status within different-sex partnerships provides insights into partnered adult’s mortality risks.

Problem Definition: Media and industry reports maintain that the U.S. long-distance trucking market is experiencing a shortage of drivers. Driver shortages mean that critical industries, such as the food industry that forms the setting for our research, experience bottlenecks in trucking services and higher truck rates. While industry trade associations maintain that the problem is a lack of truckers, shortages can also arise from an excess demand. But, disentangling trucker supply from trucker demand requires a formal model of labor-market equilibrium. Inthispaper,we examine the connection between laborshortages,rising truck rates,and an apparent lack of trucking services using a structural approach to modeling the demand and supply for truckers. Methodology / Results: We develop an empirical approach based on an equilibrium search- matching-and-bargaining framework in which we estimate the role of labor shortages in accelerating driver wages, and truck rates for agricultural products. We estimate the model using U.S. Bureau of Census Current Population Survey data on truck drivers,and USDA-Market News Service data on truck rates, to establish the linkage between trucker-supply and the demand for trucking services. We found that the COVID-19 pandemic was responsible for a rise in for-hire trucker wages of some 38%, and a riseinaveragetruckratesofnearly50%,andthatthegapbetweentrucker-jobopeningsandsuccessful matchesexplains a significant rise in truck rates.

Introduction: Pediatric obesity rates increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined the associations of neighborhood greenspace with changes in pediatric obesity during the pandemic. Methods: Electronic health record data from a large pediatric primary care network were extracted to create a retrospective cohort of patients aged 2–17 years with a visit in each of 2 periods: June 2019–December 2019 (before pandemic) and June 2020–December 2020 (pandemic). Multivariable longitudinal generalized estimating equations Poisson regression estimated the associations of census tract‒level Normalized Difference Vegetation Index with (1) changes in obesity risk during the pandemic and (2) risk of new-onset obesity among children who were not obese prepandemic. Analyses were conducted between November 2021 and May 2022. Results: Among 81,418 children (mean age: 8.4 years, 18% Black), the percentage of children who were obese increased by 3.2% during the pandemic. Children in Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Quartiles 2–4 had smaller increases in obesity risk during the pandemic than those in Quartile 1 (risk ratio=0.96, 95% CI=0.93, 0.99; Quartile 3 risk ratio=0.95; 95% CI=0.91, 0.98; Quartile 4 risk ratio=0.95, 95% CI=0.92, 0.99). Among the subset who were not obese before the pandemic, children in Normalized Difference Vegetation Index quartiles 3–4 had a lower risk of new-onset obesity during the pandemic (Quartile 3 risk ratio=0.82, 95% CI=0.71, 0.95; Quartile 4 risk ratio=0.73, 95% CI=0.62, 0.85). Higher Normalized Difference Vegetation Index was associated with smaller increases in obesity risk and lower risk of new-onset obesity among children in urban and suburban areas, but results were in the opposite direction for children in rural areas. Conclusions: Children living in greener neighborhoods experienced smaller increases in obesity during the pandemic than children in less green neighborhoods, although findings differed by urbanicity.

Economic literature has recently begun to recognize that the labor market effects of immigration and offshoring are not always independent. The full set of mechanisms through which immigration and offshoring interact is still not well understood. This study demonstrates that the effect of low-skilled immigration on wages of American workers depends on the level of offshoring exposure and explains the likely economic mechanism responsible. Empirically, we find that wages of low-skilled natives decrease due to low-skilled immigration, but the wage effect of immigration becomes less negative with more offshoring. A theoretical model demonstrates that offshoring reduces native wage elasticity in response to immigration if it decreases immigrant wage share; this happens if a relatively larger share of immigrant than native jobs is offshored, causing immigrants to shift to tasks in which they have lower comparative advantage.