This article examines trends in racial earnings disparities to observe how the socially constructed concept of race impacts the U.S. labor market for men from 1981 to 2008. I develop a racial earnings gap measure that accounts for the labor market experience of the nonemployed using Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) Completed Gold Standard data produced by the U.S. Census Bureau. This data set includes administrative earnings data from the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration merged with SIPP household survey data. Conventional measures that do not account for the nonemployed miss the impact of an increasing number of nonemployed, prime working-age men, particularly Black men, and the accelerating incarceration rate during the 1980s-1990s. An unadjusted estimate of the White earnings premium indicates a large racial earnings gap that fluctuates between about 140% and 150% over 1981-2008. This suggests that labor market conditions and policies may be limiting, but not reducing, racial earnings inequality. The adjusted White earnings premium averages 28 percentage points higher over the time period of this study. The premium also rises further, more quickly, and sustains this higher level longer. The adjusted measure suggests that labor market conditions and policies continue to produce growing levels of racial earnings inequality.

Since the 2020 "racial reckoning, " there has been increased political momentum behind reparations for slavery. Debates about reparations have moved from the halls of academia to legislatures in California and a number of cities. Americans and their leaders are increasingly asking: Are reparations justified at all? And, if so, who should get how much? This report concerns itself with a different question: Who pays for reparations? Reparations are a form of compensation for historical injustice. But many Americans did not have any ancestors present in the country at the time that injustice was committed. It is hard to argue that Americans whose ancestors arrived after 1860 should be on the hook for the costs of reparations. What fraction of nonblack Americans have ancestors who arrived after the end of the Civil War? Using demographic modeling techniques, this report pegs the figure as high as 70%, including more than half the non-Hispanic white population. These Americans are the descendants of immigrants who came to the U.S. either in the first great wave of immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, or in the second great wave, begun in 1965 and still ongoing today. Many of these more recent arrivals are at the top of America's economic distribution. Indeed, the recent-arrival share of top wealth earners is likely only to grow in coming years, given the prevalence of immigrants and children of immigrants at the head of top businesses. This means that the base of people and wealth that could plausibly be taxed for reparations is shrinking and will continue to shrink for the foreseeable future. This dynamic plays out in other areas of social policy. Any transfer or subsidy proposal that is justified by historical injustice-e.g., affirmative action-will lose legitimacy as the population changes. This is an important, and often overlooked, feature not only of the reparations debate but of debates about such proposals in general.

This article examines the impacts of infrastructure development on female labor force participation in the case of Pakistan. The study employed 19 indicators of infrastructure development, which four indices through principal component analysis (PCA); namely, transportation index (TI), Telecommunication Index (TCI), Public motor vehicle index (PMVI) and Overall index (OI). The estimation is based on ARDL-Bound testing cointegration approach and the rolling window analysis, using annual time series data from 1985 to 2018. The estimated results show that all the infrastructure indices positively and signicantly impact the female labour force participation rate. The road length has the largest positive impact on female participation; a one per cent increase in road length increases the female participation rate by 0.65%.

Demographers generally agree that the total undocumented population in the United States increased from 3.5 million in 1990 to about 12 million in 2008 and declined from 2008 to 2010. The consensus breaks down after 2010, however, with three of the five organizations that derive annual estimates of the population showing increases from 2010 to 2018 and two organizations reporting substantial declines over the period. The primary reason for this divergence is that organizations use a variety of estimates of emigration of legal residents, and in some cases the data are decades out of date. Reliable information about trends in this population is important for developing legislative and administrative policies to reduce the population and for assessing the effectiveness of enforcement efforts. This research note describes an improved residual method for updating annual estimates of the undocumented population counted in the American Community Survey (ACS; Ruggles et al. 2022); the method incorporates a time-varying estimate of emigration. Data needed to update estimates are available in the year estimates are derived, and a new estimate can be compiled as soon as ACS data are released. The methodology and data needed to update an estimate of the undocumented population each year are described.

Using administrative data on Jewish refugees fleeing the Former Soviet Bloc for the United States between 1955 and 2000, along with survey data on Israeli citizens born in the Former Soviet Bloc, we demonstrate persistent downstream political consequences of living as a targeted minority under a repressive, communist regime. Using a within-family research design, we show that individuals who spent longer periods living under a Soviet Bloc government are more likely to engage in backlash against the regime that oppressed them by (1) being more likely to vote in their new democratic countries and (2) affiliating with right-wing political parties most unlike ruling regimes in their origin countries.

Introduction: Longer time lived in the U.S. has been associated with worse health outcomes, especially preventable diseases, among racially and ethnically diverse groups of foreign-born individuals. This study evaluated the association between time lived in the U.S. and colorectal cancer screening adherence and whether this relationship differed by race and ethnicity. Methods: Data from the National Health Interview Survey for 2010−2018 among adults aged 50−75 years were used. Time in the U.S. was categorized as U.S.-born, foreign-born ≥15 years, and foreign-born <15 years. Colorectal cancer screening adherence was defined according to U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines. Generalized linear models with Poisson distribution were used to calculate adjusted prevalence ratios and 95% CIs. Analyses were conducted in 2020−2022, were stratified by race and ethnicity, accounted for the complex sampling design, and were weighted to be representative of the U.S. population. Results: Prevalence of colorectal cancer screening adherence was 63% overall, 64% for U.S.-born, 55% for foreign-born ≥15 years, and 35% for foreign-born <15 years. In fully adjusted models for all individuals, only foreign-born <15 years had lower adherence than U.S.-born (foreign-born ≥15 years: prevalence ratio=0.97 [0.95, 1.00], foreign-born <15 years: prevalence ratio=0.79 [0.71, 0.88]). Results differed by race and ethnicity (p-interaction=0.002). In stratified analyses, findings for non-Hispanic White individuals (foreign-born ≥15 years: prevalence ratio=1.00 [0.96, 1.04], foreign-born <15 years: prevalence ratio=0.76 [0.58, 0.98]) and non-Hispanic Black individuals (foreign-born ≥15 years: prevalence ratio=0.94 [0.86, 1.02], foreign-born <15 years: prevalence ratio=0.61 [0.44, 0.85]) were similar to all individuals. Disparities by time in the U.S. were not observed among Hispanic/Latino individuals (foreign-born ≥15 years: prevalence ratio=0.98 [0.92, 1.04], foreign-born <15 years: prevalence ratio=0.86 [0.74, 1.01]) but persisted among Asian American/Pacific Islander individuals (foreign-born ≥15 years: prevalence ratio=0.84 [0.77, 0.93], foreign-born <15 years: prevalence ratio=0.74 [0.60, 0.93]). Conclusions: The relationship between colorectal cancer screening adherence and time in the U.S. varied by race and ethnicity. Culturally and ethnically tailored interventions are needed to improve colorectal cancer screening adherence among foreign-born people, especially among the most recently immigrated individuals.

Using eight consecutive waves of the Survey of Informal Work Participation (SIWP) spanning 2015 through 2022, we investigate informal “gig” work participation in the United States— broadly defined to include online and offline activities—and its implications for the measurement of employment. Our results suggest that employment rates among US household heads were consistently understated in the Current Population Survey (CPS). Under conservative estimates, we find that the employment-to-population ratio would have been 0.25 to 1.1 percentage points higher over the 2015–2022 period and as much as 5.1 percentage points higher under more generous estimates. Along the intensive margin, we find evidence that a significant number of informal work hours are missing from official employment surveys, partly because employed individuals do not fully report their informal hours. Comparing informal workers who are classified as employed by the CPS with those who are arguably misclassified as nonemployed, we find that the latter are, on average, older, less educated, and less likely to cite income as a motivation for gig work, and an elevated share are disabled. The data also indicate that certain types of income-earning activities, such as renting and selling, are less likely to be perceived as “work.” These results suggest ways to improve official surveys to better capture those employed in gig work and obtain a fuller picture of the labor market.

This paper evaluates large-scale hydroelectric dams built in the United States during the twentieth century. Combining panel event-study designs and synthetic control methods, two results stand out. First, dams constructed pre-1950 spurred short-run local growth, in large part thanks to a ‘cheap-local-power advantage’, and resulted in remarkable long-run growth, more than doubling local population density after 50 years. Second, dams constructed post-1950 had only modest effects on growth. The first result indicates agglomerative impacts on local economic activity. The second result suggests that the cheap-local-power advantage created by hydropower attenuated after 1950, probably because of such innovations as high-tension transmission lines.

Objective: The study tried to test three existing explanations on residential segregation through spatiotemporal modeling: (1) spatial assimilation, (2) racial prejudice and discrimination, and (3) residential preferences. Since residential segregation is fundamentally a spatial and longitudinal phenomenon, the analysis is expected to provide a fresh perspective on residential segregation. Method: The study used a spatiotemporal modeling through integrated nested Laplace approximation, which is a Bayesian approach to very complex regression modeling, and the data came from the American Community Survey data from 2005 to 2019 at two different spatial levels—Public Use Microdata Area and census tracts. Results: The findings of this study showed that: (1) socioeconomic variables, including income, unemployment, and poverty, have meaningful impacts; (2) housing-related variables do exert a significant impact on black household concentration; (3) the ratio of Asian and Hispanic populations turns out to be important predictors in a negative direction; and (4) even with the predictors, the non-trivial temporal and spatiotemporal effects are discovered. Conclusion: The study reveals that a reductionist approach to residential segregation is unlikely to offer meaningful insights into the problem and that proper understanding is possible only when careful consideration of the spatiotemporal context is taken, including the spatial level.

Estimates from the 2022 Elder Index illustrate the elevated risk of economic insecurity experienced by older women, especially those living alone. We use the Elder Index to calculate the percentage of older adults living in one- and two-person households with annual incomes that do not support economic security. National averages suggest that half of older women living alone, along with 42% of older men living alone, have annual incomes below the Elder Index. In addition, 21% of older couples have annual incomes below the Elder Index. Women in same-sex couples experience greater levels of disadvantage than men in same-sex couples and people in op-posite sex couples. Moreover, women who are age 85 or older are at especially high risk of economic insecurity. These findings highlight the sizable impact of gender inequality throughout the life course on retirement security.

Data reuse is a common practice in the social sciences. While published data play an essential role in the production of social science research, they are not consistently cited, which makes it difficult to assess their full scholarly impact and give credit to the original data producers. Furthermore, it can be challenging to understand researchers’ motivations for referencing data. Like references to academic literature, data references perform various rhetorical functions, such as paying homage, signaling disagreement, or drawing comparisons. This paper studies how and why researchers reference social science data in their academic writing. We develop a typology to model relationships between the entities that anchor data references, along with their features (access, actions, locations, styles, types) and functions (critique, describe, illustrate, interact, legitimize). We illustrate the use of the typology by coding multidisciplinary research articles (n=30) referencing social science data archived at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). We show how our typology captures researchers’ interactions with data and purposes for referencing data. Our typology provides a systematic way to document and analyze researchers’ narratives about data use, extending our ability to give credit to data that support research.

A new trend is developing in South Florida. To the delight of landlords, the wealthiest households are turning to apartment rentals. The number of millionaire or high-income tenants ($150,000 or more per year) has increased significantly over the past five years. Where do these new wealthy tenants come from? The unprecedented influx of new residents has a lot to do with it. Households arriving from out of state have larger budgets than local residents and this migration upsets the market balance. Sandra Veszi Einhorn, executive director of the Broward County Coordinating Council, points out that "while the number of rental apartments increased by approximately 8,000 units in the county since 2017, the population increased by approximately 51,000".

This descriptive paper provides a nuanced perspective on the relationship between development and migration, extending the non-parametric analysis in Clemens (2020). A few stylized patterns of migration emerge as countries develop. First, the migration response to development differs by the types of origin and destination countries. As low-income countries develop, their migration to high-income destinations increases slowly but steadily, whereas migration to other low-income or neighboring countries decreases at early levels of development. As middle-income countries develop, their migration to high-income countries increases steadily and plateaus once they reach sufficiently high levels of income. Second, the composition of migrants changes as countries develop. In particular, migrants to high-income destination countries become more educated. Third, the emigration response from middle-income countries is muted for countries with larger populations, particularly toward high-income destinations. These patterns suggest a strong role multiple transformations—such as increasing incomes, increased global integration, a demographic transition, increased human capital, and domestic structural change—play in changing migration patterns as countries develop. The paper explores these migration patterns in light of these transformations.

Theories of suicidality typically center intrapersonal processes, with limited attention to social determinants of mental health disparities. Using a legal vulnerability framework, we examined the association between self/parental immigration status and suicidal and self-harm ideation (SI) disparities in three groups of immigrant-origin Latinx young adults attending college in the USA: undocumented students (n = 564), US citizens with undocumented parents (n = 605), and US citizens with lawfully present parents (n = 596). We also evaluated whether self/parental immigration status differences in SI could be accounted for by six dimensions of legal vulnerability and, based on prominent theories of suicidality, explored the role of campus belongingness as a protective factor. Participants completed self-report measures, and SI was assessed using one item from the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, a screening tool that assesses the severity of depression symptomatology. Rates of SI were significantly higher among undocumented students (23.1%) and US citizens with undocumented parents (24.3%) compared to US citizens with lawfully present parents (17.8%). Immigration policy-related social exclusion and discrimination-mediated self/parental immigration status differences in SI. Although food insecurity did not differ by self/parental immigration status, greater food insecurity was associated with higher likelihood of SI. Greater campus belongingness was associated with a lower likelihood of endorsing SI for all students regardless of immigration status or legal vulnerability factors. Findings underscore the importance of examining self and parental immigration status as a social determinant of SI and the value of investigating aspects of legal vulnerability as explanatory factors.

Single motherhood has increased throughout Europe. Single mothers assume the dual role of provider and caregiver and often need external support from public policies or kin to meet their needs. Research has focused primarily on public policies, disregarding the role of kin support—and of multigenerational coresidence in particular. This study provides the first detailed description of single mothers’ multigenerational coresidence in Europe. To do so, we combine census and survey microdata from 31 European countries. The data reveal large geographic variation in single mothers’ coresidence. Whereas coresidence is a rare and temporary living arrangement in Northern and Western Europe, it is common and more permanent in Southern, Central, and especially Eastern Europe. At the same time, coresidence has declined in almost all countries with data from the past half-century. These findings suggest large and persistent variation in kin support for single mothers and thus question the assumption of its marginal role in Europe.

When we hear about household income, it’s usually in an overall context that considers all households at once. However, you can group households in various ways, which can give you a better idea of how your situation might compare to others. Here’s household income by number of earners in the household, based on data from the 2022 Current Population Survey. The values are adjusted for 2023 dollars.

Clean and affordable water is a necessary requirement for maintaining public health. Experience from the recent pandemic further reinforces the importance of water quality and water affordability. However, recent trends in the US suggest that the cost of water and wastewater services is rising three times faster than other goods and services at a time when economic inequality is increasing (Cardoso and Wichman, 2020). The higher cost of these essential services can raise equity issues due to the burden these charges place on low income and disadvantaged people. Recent literature finds significant evidence of disproportionate impact of these rising bills on economically vulnerable populations as they struggle to pay an increasing share of their disposable income for these services, and sometimes non-payment results in utilities shutting off the water service (Read et al. 2020, Sarango et al. 2023, Swain et al. 2020, Onda and Tewari 2021). Thus, understanding spatial and temporal patterns of household water and sewer costs, and groups impacted by these changing patterns within a complex social and demographic context is important for designing better water governance. While water affordability is an important issue, there is no consensus in the literature to measure affordability. Several studies analyzed the access to water and water affordability, but to our best knowledge, only two studies focus on affordability at a national scale (Cardoso and Wichman 2020, Mack and Wrase 2017). Both of these studies indicate that a significant proportion of households in the US (14% and 11.9%) face affordability concerns. Since water is an essential good, rise in cost of water and sewer services (WSS) often involves tradeoff involving other essential goods for poorer households. Along with affordability concerns, an added concern is the spatial and racial clustering of these households. African American households typically have lower median income compared to whites and are more likely to be impacted by the burden of higher cost of WSS. Related literature regarding complete plumbing access also finds similar pattern – among unplumbed households, households that are headed by African Americans are more likely to lack piped water (Meehan et al. 2020, Mueller and Gasteyer 2021). Given that in the US, there are no national standards to protect vulnerable population against water shutoffs and there are no federal policies governing water affordability (Jones and Moulton 2016, Mack and Wrase 2017), the first objective of this paper is to gather more evidence on water affordability challenges and trends of water affordability among households headed by African Americans. On one hand several households are struggling with paying an increasing share of their disposable income on water and sewer services, on the other hand, the water utilities and the wastewater treatment plants are facing their own set of challenges. The utilities are struggling with aging infrastructure that is costly to repair, and the pace of inflation in recent years is further driving up cost of infrastructure replacement, repairment, and maintenance. Moreover, inadequate revenue, water quality challenges, increased regulation and newly identified public health risks make it difficult to maintain affordable services along with a functioning water system. The problem gets more pronounced for legacy cities, commonly referred to as shrinking cities. Due to large peak populations, the physical footprint of infrastructure in these cities is often greater than what is needed to support the existing population. Since the water utilities and treatment plants rely upon rate revenue to meet operating and capital needs, the heavy financial burden of the legacy cost leads to challenges for both end-users in terms of higher rates and the utilities in terms of funds for maintenance. The second objective of this study is to provide an overview on water affordability across the US with a focus on legacy cities. With our discussion so far, it appears there is a tradeoff between water affordability and maintaining water quality at a publicly acceptable level. However, literature indicates that public perception can play an important role by bridging this gap (Osman et al. 2019, Ormerod et al. 2019, Faust et al. 2018, Pieper et al. 2022). Rising concerns can potentially impact relationships between communities and utility managers, which can spill over to cause more friction in society and result in distrust among communities. Thus, awareness about the benefits of utilities and a mutual trust between utilities and communities are essential to building a resilient water utility management policy. The success of resilience-based management depends on, and is enabled by, positive relationships with the public. Pieper et al. (2022) emphasize that it is important to account for perceptions of residents to foster successful, sustainable solutions. There is also evidence in the literature that residents are willing to pay increased rates if they thought it resulted in better service (Faust et al. 2018), if they were informed, how they were informed, and how the information was framed (Teodoro 2022, Zamenian, Abraham, and Mannering 2020). Public perceptions are thus important for effective utility management and for making decisions that affect the community at large. In this study, we also analyze how specific information about benefits of the utility services and trust in public utilities impact the willingness to pay for higher rates for the residents of Michigan. Michigan is a perfect case study for our analysis since the state has a history with water crisis, has at least three legacy cities – Detroit, Flint, and Saginaw, and is facing higher water bills (Read et al. 2022). Moreover, unlike other parts of the US, water shortage is not the driving force for rising water bills in this Great Lakes state. In this analysis, we focus on water affordability across the US with a focus on shrinking cities and environmental justice. To discuss potential policy instruments, we use Michigan as a case study to further understand how trust and information can impact the willingness to pay for the cost of WSS. Specifically, the research objectives of this study are i) find evidence if the affordability concerns are higher for households headed by African Americans, ii) find evidence if the affordability concerns are higher for regions with legacy cities, and iii) understand if information and trust can potentially impact the willingness to pay for WSS. We use data from American Community Survey at public use microdata (PUMA) level through IPUMS1 to address the first two objectives. To study the third objective, we would conduct a survey of Michigan residents where residents from legacy cities are oversampled (We expect the survey to be completed by the time of this conference). Our study is different from the two other national affordability studies (Cardoso and Wichman 2020, Mack and Wrase 2017) in at least four ways. First, both of these studies use water rates from utilities. In this study, we use annual water cost reported by respondents. Second, we focus on understanding affordability in legacy cities. Third, we focus on answering our research questions for a specific demographic group (households headed by African Americans). Finally, we also provide results from a stated preference survey. The results from our study indicate that WSS costs are higher in PUMAs that have legacy cities, and the WSS cost in legacy cities is increasing. We further find that the households which are headed by African Americans have a higher reported water cost compared to the households headed by Whites, but the gap between the two is bridging over time. Moreover, the proportion of people who pay more than 4.5% of the median income of their region of residence are considerably higher in areas with high proportion of African Americans. After obtaining the results from the survey, we will extend this analysis to further discuss policy scenarios. The results from our study can be used to design sustainable water governance.

We link census records for millions of farm children to identify owner-operators of the family farm in adulthood, providing the first population-level evidence on intergenerational farm transfers. Using our panel of U.S. census data from 1900 to 1940, our analysis supports the primogeniture hypothesis that oldest sons are more likely to inherit the family farm. Daughters are rarely observed as successors. We find that the birth order relationship among sons is relatively small and is only present for the subset of families with parents who are working age when they first have a successor, indicating that they had a succession plan. In families without an early successor, adult children who are tenant farmers or are not in an urban area are more likely to later inherit their family's farm. Tenancy and rural residence are much more predictive of succession than is birth order. Thus, unplanned succession may primarily benefit underresourced farmers. With fewer than one-fifth of farm families having a child successor, the slow growth in succession as parents reach retirement age and life expectancy suggests the importance of identifying a successor early.

To address ethnic variation and potential cross-cultural measurement error in diagnostic criteria, this study extends on the racialized ethnicities framework to examine how Latinxs’ self-reported psychological distress differ among ethnic groups. Utilizing data from the National Health Interview Survey, logistic regression models and partial proportional odds models assessed differences in likelihood of self-reporting frequent anxiety, depression, and psychological distress among Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, and Central and South American immigrants. Membership in Caribbean Latinx ethnic groups, and the Puerto Rican ethnic group in particular, was significantly associated with higher predicted probabilities of frequent anxious and depressive feelings, and severe psychological distress, relative to membership in non-Caribbean Latinx ethnic groups. This work highlights the need for research on Latinxs to disaggregate among ethnic groups, and proposes the existence of a gradient of exposure to the psychosocial consequences of US coloniality that might explain some of these variations.

The standard metrics obscure just how unlikely it has become for young adults to own a home in the US.