The geography of immigrant settlement has shifted dramatically over the last 30 years, with immigrants increasingly migrating to a number of “new destinations”. Latino immigrants are the largest immigrant group in the United States and their economic outcomes in these new dLake, F. M. L. (2019). A Multi-Measure Approach: Latino Immigrant Economic Well-Being by Destination Type. University of California, Los Angeles, California. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/content/qt7cs626wc/qt7cs626wc.pdfestinations have been a topic of particular scholarly concern. Past studies at the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) level have largely focused on measures of poverty and employment to find that Latino immigrants generally fare worse in new destinations relative to “traditional destinations” like Los Angeles, New York, and Miami. Unexplored in the current literature is whether the use of different outcome variables like homeownership, rent-burden, and nominal income would yield a different story of the economic well-being of Latino immigrants in new destinations. In this study, I explore Latino immigrant economic well-being across five dimensions. While my results support previous findings regarding poverty, I find that Latino immigrants have better employment outcomes, higher nominal income, less rent-burden, and higher rates of homeownership. The results point to the need to consider a variety of outcomes in assessing Latino immigrant economic well-being.

Income and wealth inequality in the United States, especially across racial and ethnic groups, is dramatic and persistent. While income is often used by researchers, practitioners, advocates, and policymakers to describe local economic conditions and drive policy decisions, it also increasingly is recognized as an inadequate indicator of economic well-being, mobility, and security. Wealth is generally less volatile than income, and it provides a store of resources that gives families security during emergencies and allows them to secure advantages that foster the well-being of the next generation. The findings in this report from the National Asset Scorecard for Communities of Color (NASCC) survey reveal major disparities in wealth accumulation and income across various racial and ethnic groups in metropolitan Miami. The NASCC survey was developed to fill a void in existing national data sets that rarely collect data disaggregated by specific national origin in a localized context. The NASCC survey collects detailed data on assets and debts among subpopulations, according to race, ethnicity, and country of origin. The NASCC instrument measures the range and extent of asset and debt holdings, not just by broadly defined groups (e.g. whites, blacks, Latinxs and Asians), but by racial and ethnic groups partitioned by more refined categories of ancestral origin (e.g. whites, U.S. descendant blacks, Caribbean blacks, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, South Americans, and other Latinxs). This type of disaggregation allows for a more specific examination of variations in asset holdings both across and within broadly defined racial and . . .

We explore the impact of rising incomes at the top of the distribution on spatial sorting patterns within large U.S. cities. We develop and quantify a spatial model of a city with heterogeneous agents and non-homothetic preferences for neighborhoods with endogenous amenity quality. As the rich get richer, demand increases for the high quality amenities available in downtown neighborhoods. Rising demand drives up house prices and spurs the development of higher quality neighborhoods downtown. This gentrification of downtowns makes poor incumbents worse off, as they are either displaced to the suburbs or pay higher rents for amenities that they do not value as much. We quantify the corresponding impact on well-being inequality. Through the lens of the quantified model, the change in the income distribution between 1990 and 2014 led to neighborhood change and spatial resorting within urban areas that increased the welfare of richer households relative to that of poorer households, above and beyond rising nominal income inequality.

We explore the impact of rising incomes at the top of the distribution on spatial sorting patterns within large U.S. cities. We develop and quantify a spatial model of a city with heterogeneous agents and nonhomothetic preferences for locations with different amenities of endogenous quality. As the rich get richer, their increased demand for luxury amenities available downtown drives housing prices up in downtown areas. The poor are made worse off, either being displaced or paying higher rents for amenities that they do not value as much. Endogenous provision of private amenities amplifies the mechanism, while public provision of other amenities in part curbs it. We quantify the corresponding impact on well-being inequality. Through the lens of the quantified model, the change in the income distribution between 1990 and 2014 led to neighborhood change and spatial resorting within urban areas that increased the welfare of richer households relative to that of poorer households by an additional 1.7 percentage points on top of their differential income growth.

This study contributes to debates over only children versus children with siblings by comparing companionship patterns and well-being among adolescents with and without siblings in the home. The sibling socialization literature suggests children without sibling interactions may be at a disadvantage, spending more time alone and experiencing worse well-being. Conversely, theories positing a quantity-quality trade-off with increasing family size suggest parents may ensure that only children have higher quality social interactions than adolescents with siblings. Using the American Time Use Survey (N = 6,177), this study shows that only children spend more time alone than children with siblings, but also more one-on-one time with parents. Additionally, only children are less stressed when alone and have less negative feelings when with peers, but have less meaningful interactions with non-household adults than do children with siblings. Only children may be more adapted to spending time alone as well as with peers.

The nonprofit Urban Institute is a leading research organization dedicated to developing evidence-based insights that improve people's lives and strengthen communities. For 50 years, Urban has been the trusted source for rigorous analysis of complex social and economic issues; strategic advice to policymakers, philanthropists, and practitioners; and new, promising ideas that expand opportunities for all. Our work inspires effective decisions that advance fairness and enhance the well-being of people and places.

The Washington region faces serious housing challenges that undermine the well-being of many residents. Regulatory constraints on how much new housing can be built, what types of housing are added to the stock, and where that housing is located limit production and increase its cost. Constrained housing supply, coupled with regional growth, pushes up rents and prices for existing housing. These pressures cause especially steep housing cost increases and displacement in some communities that have historically been home to people with low and moderate incomes and people of color.

Using numbers of industrial robots shipped to primarily manufacturing industries as a supply shock to an industry labor market, we estimate that an additional robot reduces employment by roughly two to three workers overall and by three to four workers when robots are likely to be good substitutes for humans. The supply shock also reduces wages. The estimates far exceed those of an additional immigrant on employment and wages. While growth of robots in the 2000s was too modest to be a major determinant of wages and employment, the estimated effects suggest that continued exponential growth of industrial robots could disrupt job markets in the foreseeable future and thus merit attention from analysts and policymakers concerned about the economic well-being of workers.

Under the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA), California expanded eligibility for Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, to most non-elderly, non-disabled low-income adults. Although this change focused directly on improving the health and well-being of adults, it is likely that Medi-Cal expansion has had a dramatic effect on households with children. In recent years, as the federal government has attempted to dismantle the ACA, California policymakers have continued to push forward with efforts to protect and expand coverage gains. A better understanding of the impact of adult Medi-Cal on child well-being can help inform state efforts to expand health care coverage and improve outcomes for low-income children and families.

Sustainability requires reducing the carbon intensity of human well-being (CIWB): the level of anthropogenic carbon emissions per unit of human well-being. Here, we examine how multiple forms of inequality affect sex-specific measures of CIWB using data for the 50 US states, while taking into account the effects of other socio-economic and political factors. Results from longitudinal models indicate that state-level female CIWB and male CIWB are both positively associated with (1) income concentration, measured as the income share of the top 10%, and (2) the percent of the population at or below the poverty line. Overall inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, has no net effect on male CIWB or female CIWB. These findings suggest that reducing forms of inequality, especially poverty and the concentration of income among the most affluent, are potential pathways to sustainability.

Over the last 20 years, policymaking related to immigrant populations has increasingly been conducted at the state-level. State immigrant polices may influence immigrant poverty by determining immigrants’ level of access to social, economic, political, and health resources and by shaping the social environment. Further, these immigrant policies may shape the stratification between citizens and noncitizens, potentially contributing to distinct patterns of disparities in poverty by both citizenship and race/ethnicity. To assess the relationship between immigrant policy and socioeconomic stratification of immigrants across citizenship status and race/ethnicity in the U.S., we combined data from the 2014 American Community Survey and a measure of level of inclusion of state immigrant policies. We estimated fixed-effects logistic regressions to test the associations between poverty and the interaction of level of inclusiveness, citizenship, and race/ethnicity, controlling for state- and individual-level characteristics. Results showed that there are significant disparities in poverty by citizenship status and race/ethnicity. Asian/Pacific Islander (API) noncitizens experienced lower levels of poverty in states with higher levels of inclusion. Both Latino and API citizens experienced lower levels of poverty in states with higher versus lower levels of inclusion. Among Latinos, the gap in poverty rates between noncitizens and citizens is larger in more inclusive than less inclusive ones, suggesting that the potential positive impact of more inclusive environments does not necessarily translate to the most vulnerable Latino group. The level of inclusion was not associated with differences among Whites and Blacks. Findings suggest that states with more inclusive immigrant policies may foster environments that advance the economic well-being of API noncitizens, as well as API and Latino citizens.

This paper examines inequality in both leisure and consumption over the past four decades using time use surveys stretching from 1975 to 2016. We show that individual and family characteristics, especially when including work hours, explain most of the long run variation in leisure. We then use these characteristics to predict the distribution of leisure in the Consumer Expenditure Survey, a survey that also provides detailed information on consumption. The advantage of this approach is that it gives us measures of consumption and leisure at the family level within a single data source. We find that leisure time is highest for families at the bottom of the consumption distribution, and typically declines monotonically as consumption rises. However, the consumption-leisure gradient is small. We find noticeable differences across family types, with the gradient being largest for single parent families and single individuals and smallest for families with a head age 65 or older. Overall, these results indicate that including both leisure and consumption, as opposed to just consumption, in a measure of economic well-being will result in less inequality. However, because the consumption-leisure gradient is not very steep, the dampening effect of leisure on overall inequality is small.

We use data from Sierra Leone where a substantial education program provided increased access to education for primary-school age children but did not benefit children who were older. We exploit the variation in access to the program generated by date of birth and the variation in resources between various districts of the country. We find that an increase in schooling, triggered by the program, has an impact on women’s attitudes toward matters that impact women’s health and on attitudes regarding violence against women. An increase in education reduces the number of desired children by women and increases their propensity to use modern contraception and to be tested for AIDS. While education makes women more intolerant of practices that conflict with their well-being, increased education has no impact on men’s attitudes toward women’s well-being. Thus, it is unclear whether the change in attitudes would translate into behavioral changes. Consistent with this finding, education (on this margin) has no impact on women’s propensity to get married, their age at first marriage or age at first birth.

Terrorist attacks influence economic growth and individual psychology. However, identifying the direct effect of terrorism on economics and psychology is difficult because institutions also change in response to terrorist attacks. This paper controls for institutional responses to terrorist attacks by studying people who live beyond the institutions' borders, but are exposed to the attacks. I find that terrorism leads to declines in trust, subjective well-being, and the importance of creativity and freedom. However, at the macro-level, terrorism leads to increases in economic output and household income. These results are consistent with a growing literature that finds counterintuitive responses to trauma.

Employment is a critically important means by which midlife and older people generate well-being, both pre- and post-retirement. Understanding features of Boston’s older workforce and the challenges experienced by older people in seeking and retaining employment is an important step toward promoting employment opportunities that will strengthen economic security. Moreover, because midlife and older people make up a large share of the paid labor force in Boston, knowledge developed about these issues may help to ensure that this segment of the population is retained as productive members of the workforce. This paper was produced in support of the Action Plan developed for Age-Friendly Boston, an initiative established in 2014 by Boston’s Mayor Martin J. Walsh through the Commission on Affairs of the Elderly. A needs assessment conducted for the Age-Friendly Boston Initiative revealed that many Boston residents think that more job opportunities are needed for older people, and they perceive barriers to finding and retaining employment in later life. The research outlined in this paper was developed based on review of the literature, demographic analysis of existing data on older Boston residents, and interviews with key informants knowledgeable about the Boston employment landscape, including older jobseekers themselves. The paper is intended to inform efforts taken by the City and others to improve Boston’s employment landscape for older residents. Demographic findings suggest that eight out . . .

Adolescents spend most of their time interacting with people, and family, social, and community interactions play a prominent role in long-run adolescent development. However, little is known about how adolescents feel as they interact with others. This study identifies the immediate emotional response of adolescents as they spend time with parents, siblings, extended family members, friends, mentors, and other adults in their community. Relying on nationally representative data from the American Time Use Survey from 2003-2016, we find that adolescents in non-nuclear families particularly benefit from spending time with older siblings and nonresident parents. In addition, spending time with mentors and adult acquaintances improves well-being for some but not all adolescents, suggesting a need for care when designing policies aimed at adolescent involvement in communities.

This book delivers a fresh and fascinating perspective on the issue of the minimum wage. While most discussions of the minimum wage place it at the center of a debate between those who oppose such a policy and argue it leads to greater unemployment, and those who favor it and argue it improves the economic well-being of low-income workers, Levin-Waldman makes the case for the minimum wage as a way to improve the well-being of middle-income workers, strengthen the US economy, reduce income inequality, and enhance democracy. Making a timely and original contribution to the defining issues of our time—the state of the middle class, the problem of inequality, and the crisis of democratic governance—Restoring the Middle Class through Wage Policy will be of interest to students and researchers considering the impact of such approaches across the fields of public policy, economics, and political science.

The nonprofit Urban Institute is a leading research organization dedicated to developing evidence-based insights that improve people's lives and strengthen communities. For 50 years, Urban has been the trusted source for rigorous analysis of complex social and economic issues; strategic advice to policymakers, philanthropists, and practitioners; and new, promising ideas that expand opportunities for all. Our work inspires effective decisions that advance fairness and enhance the well-being of people and places.

For nearly 20 years, the U.S. Census has allowed respondents to report multiple races, offering new opportunities to assess the well-being of multiracial groups. Multiple-race reporting provides much-needed nuance for assessing the racial stratification of social outcomes as the distinctions between racial groups is less clear. Here, I explore the promises and the pitfalls of working with multiple-race data in studies of race inequality. I begin with a discussion of prior work using multiple-race data, showing how they inform our understanding of race-based patterns, and also consider issues raised by the conceptual and methodological fuzziness inherent in using multiple-race responses. I then provide a brief picture of current racial differences in adult poverty rates for single- and multiplerace groups, revealing that some multiracial groups experience parity with single-race groups while others occupy a space in between. While these patterns are meaningful, multiple interpretations are possible given the nature of multiple-race data.

The rising share of women in college with dependent children and growing emphasis on two‐generation policies for reducing socioeconomic inequality have galvanized research aimed at determining whether mothers' increased education can improve their and their children's well‐being. Yet as part of this effort, scholars have overlooked signs that mothers' college enrollment may not be unequivocally good for families. This research brief aims to bring greater attention to this side of the story. The authors analyze time diary (2003–2015) and well‐being data (2010, 2011, 2013) from the American Time Use Survey. The authors find that mothers in college experience a time squeeze that limits their time in caregiving, self‐care, and work, on one hand, and school‐related activities, on the other. This time squeeze may explain why mothers enrolled in college (compared with mothers who were not in school) also reported less happiness and more fatigue during activities with their children.