The book comprises multi-disciplinary contributions from both continents dealing with the economic, political and sociological impact of migration. It aims to shed light on the complex nature of migratory movements and use the past as a way to better understand current challenges. The goal of the book and the core of the research effort is to address a variety of migration issues involving Europe and the Americas in order to offer new insights and expand our comprehension of the multiple challenges associated with migration both in the countries of origin and those of destination.

In the US, elderly households are more food secure than younger households. A possible explanation is that increased time availability enables elderly households to adopt strategies to improve their food security. Using time use data, we find elderly households spend more time in meal preparation and eating time than younger households. Creating a matched dataset of household time use and food security, we find that meal preparation and eating time have a small contribution to differences in food insecurity between older and younger households. However, these relationships are heterogeneous depending upon marital status and age cohort of the household head.

Chapter 1 investigates asks the question how do financial frictions affect the type of human capital investments that students make in college? To study this question, I build a novel dataset covering more than 700,000 U.S. students, merging commencement records with address histories, credit bureau records, and professional resumes. I document that students trade off initial earnings against lifetime earnings when choosing college majors and that students from low-income families are more likely to choose majors associated with higher initial earnings but lower lifetime earnings. I provide causal estimates of how student debt affects this trade-off using the staggered implementation of universal no-loan policies across 22 universities from2001 to 2019. I find that students who are required to take on more student loans to finance their education choose majors with higher initial earnings but lower lifetime earnings. Furthermore, student debt affects students differentially depending on their family backgrounds: Students from low-income families display greater sensitivity to changes in student debt. Finally, I show that differences in student debt amounts lead to different job profiles and earnings later in life. Combined, these findings highlight the role of financial frictions in human capital investments and subsequent labor market trajectories. Chapter 2 asks what role do social connections play in women's career advancement. Women continue to be underrepresented in corporate leadership positions. We investigate whether access to a larger share of female peers in business school affects the gender gap in senior managerial positions. Merging administrative data from a top-10 US business school with public LinkedIn profiles, we first document that female MBAs are 24 percent less likely than male MBAs to enter senior management within 15 years of graduation. Next, we use the exogenous assignment of students into sections to show that a larger proportion of female MBA section peers increases the likelihood of entering senior management for women but not for men. This effect is driven by female-friendly firms, such as those with more generous maternity leave policies and greater work schedule flexibility. A larger proportion of female MBA peers induces women to transition to these firms where they attain senior management roles. We find suggestive evidence that some of the mechanisms behind these results include job referrals and gender-specific information transmission. These findings highlight the role of social connections in reducing the gender gap in senior management positions. Chapter 3 asks how should regulators evaluate the costs and benefits when firms require consumers to provide additional data? Using a model of asymmetric information in non-Walrasian markets, we show that consumer surplus can increase, even when more data leads to higher average prices. We test the model's predictions in mortgage markets using the staggered implementation of Automated Underwriting Systems in the 1990s, where new credit risk models increased the use of and interaction between additional financial variables. We find that average interest rates went up in line with the model's predictions. However, the effects are driven by increased credit supply on the extensive margin, benefiting marginal borrowers from groups historically excluded from credit markets. Our results challenge the standard regulatory approach of relying on prices as a sufficient statistic for consumer surplus.

Historical land and fire management practices coupled with climate change and modern human development pressures are contributing to larger, more frequent, and more severe wildfires across Western U.S. forests. Human ignitions are the predominant cause of wildfire throughout the United States, necessitating wildfire management strategies that consider both the causes of human ignitions and the factors that influence them. Using a dataset of over 104,000 ignitions from 1992 to 2018 for Oregon and Washington (U.S), we examine the major causes of wildfire ignitions and build regression models to evaluate the potential influence of both biophysical and socioeconomic factors on human and natural ignitions across distinct fire regimes west and east of the Cascade Range. Our results corroborate prior findings that socioeconomic factors such as income, employment, population density, and age demographics are significantly correlated with human ignitions. In the Pacific Northwest, we found that the importance of socioeconomic factors on human ignitions differs significantly between the west and east sides of the Cascade Range. We also found that most human ignitions are linked to escaped fires from recreation or debris and open burning activities, highlighting opportunities to tailor wildfire prevention efforts to better control higher risk activities and reduce accidental ignitions.

Generally speaking, it remains the case that moms and dads do different types—but similar amounts—of work. Breadwinner moms edge out breadwinner dads most years, and stay-at-home moms absolutely massacre stay-at-home dads out of the workforce. Robert VerBruggen takes an updated look at the paid and home working hours of moms and dads

Between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, millions of immigrants arrived in the United States seeking a better life. These newcomers brought with them diverse cultures, traditions, and languages, and contributed to the growth and development of the American economy. At the same time, migrants’ pathways were influenced by the transportation and housing infrastructure they encountered along the way. This dissertation considers migrants’ economic contributions and outcomes from the perspective of housing and transportation. The first chapter investigates the impact of housing regulation on the health and economic outcomes of mostly immigrant residents. I exploit variation arising from the Tenement House Act of 1901, which imposed minimum housing standards on new construction in New York City, to show that legislation improved children’s health and changed neighborhood composition. Although lower income households in treated neighborhoods were more often displaced relative to their higher income counterparts, tenement legislation is nonetheless responsible for two additional years of life in treated children who stayed. The second chapter examines the impact of the transition to steamships on immigrant destination choices and the resulting effects on innovative activity in the United States. Since sea surface winds between origin and destination were a determining factor in travel time by sail, the reduction in travel time when transitioning from sail to steam depends on exogenous wind patterns (Pascali 2017). Using newly transcribed data on international migrations from 1830 to 1880, I exploit the disproportionate decrease in between-country travel times to show that a one percent decrease in travel time increases the number of migrants by two percent. I find evidence that steamship induced migrants increased county-level innovation such that a one percentile increase in immigrant share among counties led to 0.49 more patents. This dissertation sheds new light on the experiences of immigrants during this pivotal period in American history, offering insights into the ways in which regulation and technology influenced the lives of those who sought a better future in the United States.

This article examines the role of work at the cutting of technological change—frontier work—as a driver of prosperity and spatial income inequality. Using new methods and data, we analyze the geography and incomes of frontier workers from 1880 to 2019. Initially, frontier work is concentrated in a set of ‘seedbed’ locations, contributing to rising spatial inequality through powerful localized wage premiums. As technologies mature, the economic distinctiveness of frontier work diminishes, as ultimately happened to cities like Manchester and Detroit. Our work uncovers a plausible general origin story of the unfolding of spatial income inequality.

There are significant health care inequities in the United States (US) territory of Puerto Rico. The local health system operates under continuous challenges, such as financial restrictions and shifts in the physician workforce. Population characteristics like pervasive island-wide poverty, substantial health care need, and poor economic conditions further burden its health care system. When coupled with frequent and increasing back-to-back public health emergencies, such as natural disasters and infectious disease outbreaks, these factors have led to an ongoing health care crisis in Puerto Rico. The multiple factors affecting health care access in Puerto Rico have rarely been studied and continue to be unclear, especially following recent major disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and the COVID-19 pandemic. To help fill these knowledge gaps, this dissertation studies health care access and utilization in Puerto Rico and how they are affected by environmental, system, provider, and patient-level factors. The dissertation will be composed of three separate but interrelated papers addressing health care dilemmas in Puerto Rico by studying (1) federal health policy impact on health care access across different Medicaid funding structures, (2) physician prevalence and availability trends in Puerto Rico, and (3) crisis hotline use patterns across population characteristics.

With more millennials and Gen Zers continuing to live with their parents, the long-awaited empty nest is not the right of passage for baby boomers that it once was. A RentCafe analysis of IPUMS data found that 20% of millennials and 68% of Gen Zers still live with family members and do not anticipate a change any time soon. More than 40% of those generations expect to share their homes for at least another two years. About 14 million millennials and 23 million Gen Zers shared a household with at least one family member — the largest generational shares across all age groups. Baby boomers account for 6 million of the 51 million people living in multigenerational households and 6 million Gen Xers are living with family. Millennials living at home are about 32 years old and work in food service, construction or education. Gen Zers living at home are about 22 years old and work in food service, construction or retail. Both generations are living with three other people. Why is this? For one, younger generations seem to like living with their parents to save money on expenses such as childcare, utilities and rent. The money they save can be used for a down payment on a future home. They also might be staying home to care for family members who need help.

This study uses the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data from 2019 to measure the association of anxiety with the use of food stamp (SNAP) benefits and other sociodemographic factors among adults in the United States. Anxiety is measured in three questions within the mental health question block of the NHIS as a component to overall health. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or food stamp benefits is a federal social safety net program for poor populations in the United States, and yet little is acknowledged of its role in anxiety as both a stigmatizing social process and a labelling indicator of poverty. The usage of SNAP benefits will be analyzed in its association to an anxiety diagnosis, along with socioeconomic factors such as gender, age, race, education, and sexual orientation. These factors also impact levels of marginalization, particularly among racial, gender and sexual minorities (Dush et al. 2022; Frost, Lehavot, and Meyer 2015; Stacey and Wislar 2023). Lastly, I discuss the impacts of the COViD-19 pandemic years (2020-2021) upon the association of SNAP usage and anxiety among adults. Results indicate that sexual orientation and education had higher odds of association with a positive anxiety diagnosis, along with SNAP usage. Racial identity was found to be insignificant as a sociodemographic factor. Poverty, when tested in an interaction model, was found to be insignificant, and thus had little effect on the association between anxiety diagnosis and SNAP.

There are striking disparities in longevity across sociodemographic groups in the United States. Yet, can sociodemographic characteristics meaningfully explain individual- level variation in longevity? Here, we leverage machine-learning algorithms and a large- scale administrative dataset (N = 122,651) to predict individual-level longevity using an array of social, economic, and demographic predictors. Our top-performing model explains only 1.4% of the variation in age of death, demonstrating that human longevity is highly unpredictable using sociodemographic characteristics alone. These results un- derscore the limitations of using machine learning to predict major life outcomes and emphasize the need to better account for stochastic processes in demographic theory.

Background: Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) cancer survivors experience mental health challenges, yet little is known about the evolution of these difficulties. This study explored mental health symptoms and utilization among long-term AYA cancer survivors. Methods: Using 30,432 respondents from the 2019 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), this study compared adults with a history of AYA cancer (diagnosed between 15-39) to adults without AYA cancer. Mental health symptom severity was measured by Patient Health Questionnaire – 8 (PHQ8) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder – 7 (GAD7) questionnaires. Care utilization constituted psychotherapy and mental health medication use. Inverse propensity score weights were used to balance demographics and were combined with survey weights. Descriptive statistics, multivariable generalized linear models, and structural equation modeling (SEM) with 2-sided tests were used for analysis. Results: 639 AYA survivors (AYAS) were compared to 29,793 controls. Survivors were on average 20.5 years (SE 0.74) since their cancer diagnoses. After adjusting for survey and propensity score weights, AYAS reported more severe depression (IRR 1.42, 95% CI 1.09-1.84, p<0.01) and anxiety (IRR 1.85, 95% CI 1.55-2.21, p<0.001). They were more likely to use psychotherapy (OR 1.91, 95% CI 1.16-3.17, p<0.05) and mental health medications (OR 1.89, 95% CI 1.15-3.11, p<0.05). Time since diagnosis was negatively associated with symptoms and utilization. SEM demonstrated mediation of utilization effect by symptom severity. Conclusions: AYAS experience worse mental health in late survivorship, despite small improvements over time. We highlight the importance of survivorship care that addresses the long-term mental health needs of AYA cancer survivors.

This doctoral thesis undertakes a comprehensive exploration of the lesser-studied negative aspects of entrepreneurship, categorizing them into three distinct but interconnected dimensions: the dark, the down, and the destructive side, each of which impacts a different level of the entrepreneur’s life and environment (i.e., the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels). The thesis comprises three in-depth studies designed to shed light on these adverse dimensions. The first study focuses on the dark side of entrepreneurship, exploring the emotional repercussions of entrepreneurial failure. Utilizing a unique dataset from Kickstarter and Twitter, this study employs AI-based machine learning techniques to identify patterns of sadness that entrepreneurs experience after a failure of their crowdfunding campaign. Additionally, it explores the mitigating role of prior entrepreneurial experience in this process. The second study addresses the downside of entrepreneurship, aiming to resolve mixed findings about its effects on work-family balance. Using time diary data, the study shows that male entrepreneurs (i.e., incorporated business owners) spend more time at work compared to their employed counterparts, whereas unincorporated business owners and female entrepreneurs often enjoy greater work-family flexibility. The third study investigates the destructive aspect of entrepreneurship by examining the existence and societal impact of hate groups from the USA, as examples of destructive ventures, over an 18-year period (2000 - 2017). Specifically, the study uses longitudinal data to explore how community attributes, specifically community social capital, influence these groups. Together, these studies move beyond the often romanticized narrative associated with entrepreneurship, emphasizing the need for a more nuanced understanding of its societal implications. This thesis thereby contributes valuable insights into the multifaceted impacts of entrepreneurship, serving as a catalyst for further research into its darker aspects.

Background: The prevalence of a culturally diverse population in the United States continues to grow. Nevertheless, the national impact of limited English proficiency (LEP) in breast cancer screening is still unknown. Methods: A retrospective review of the 2015 sample of the National Health Interview Survey database was performed. The cohort included women with and without LEP between 40 and 75 years. We evaluated differences in screening rates, baseline, socioeconomic, access to healthcare, and breast cancer risk factors with univariate and multivariate regression analyses. Results: The prevalence of LEP was 5.7% (N = 1825, weighted counts 3936,081). LEP women showed a statistically significant lower rate of overall screening mammograms (78% vs. 90%), fewer benign lumps removed (6.4% vs. 17%) and lower rates of access to healthcare variables. They showed a higher rate of nonprivate insurance and living below the poverty line, a lower rate of hormone replacement therapy (1.8% vs. 5.6%), older menarche (12.97 vs. 12.75) and a higher rate of current menstruation (36% vs. 24). LEP women were associated with a lower probability of having a screening mammogram in multivariate analysis (OR: 0.67, 95% CI: 0.51-0.87). When LEP was subdivided into Spanish and “other” languages, Spanish speakers were associated with a lower probability of a screening mammogram (OR 0.67, 95% CI 0.49-0.90) while controlling for the same covariates. Conclusion: The results from our study showed that LEP women are associated with a lower probability of having a screening mammogram. Particularly, the Spanish speakers were found as a vulnerable subgroup.

The adoption of industrial automated technology in the US is associated with a decrease in wages, stronger for men than for women. This paper investigates how this affects households' allocation of time by constructing a measure of labor markets' exposure to industrial robots. Higher exposure is associated with a decrease in labor supply of male workers in households with no young children. However, families with children of childcare age respond by decreasing the mother's labor supply in the market, increasing her time spent on childcare and leisure, and with an added worker effect on the father's side. A structural collective household model of time use formalizes the mechanism underlying this inefficient behavior, proposing a combined effect of the shift in Pareto weights due to the decrease in the wage gap, and the identity norm regarding the undersupply of women's labor when their potential income surpasses that of the husband.

This study compares the inter- and intra-metropolitan patterns of housing return volatility in four market phases (boom, bust, recovery, and pandemic) in the United States between 2000 and 2022. The study finds a weak correlation between the physical characteristics of neighborhoods and housing market volatility. Notably, higher-density neighborhoods show greater market volatility throughout the boom, bust, and recovery phases but the trend is reversed during the pandemic period. However, the sociodemographic composition of neighborhoods exhibits a stronger correlation with market volatility. Specifically, housing markets in Black neighborhoods demonstrate persistently higher volatility, irrespective of market fluctuations. Similarly, low-income neighborhoods are consistently associated with greater volatility before the pandemic. The study does not find a consistent association between housing supply and market volatility across the four market phases. It shows that during the 2008 housing downturn, housing markets were less volatile in metropolitan areas with stricter land use regulations, less developable land, fewer home constructions, and better natural amenities.

The cyclicality of economic recessions worsens fiscal stability and increases vulnerability to future shocks. This article argues that the concept of resilience provides an important frame for understanding the dynamic character of public financial management. The study introduces a theoretical framework that decomposes fiscal resilience into precrisis fiscal resistance, postcrisis fiscal recovery, and long-term fiscal renewal. It empirically tests the model employing a Cox proportional hazard model and over three decades of data (1991–2018) covering two previous recessions—the dotcom recession and the Great Recession. The findings indicate that although strategic decisions associated with revenue diversification and countercyclical capacity facilitate fiscal resilience, specific features of local government finances such as the revenue structure and service structure are critical to fiscal recovery and renewal. In addition, the underlying characteristics of each recession affect whether institutional and economic conditions facilitate fiscal resilience. The article discusses implications for financial management and emphasizes embedding resiliency-based frameworks in local government strategic planning.

It is generally agreed upon that most individuals who acquire a college degree do so in their early 20s. Despite this consensus, we show that in the US from the 1930 birth cohort onwards a large fraction-around 20%-of college graduates obtained their degree after age 30. We explore the implications of this phenomenon. First, we show that these so-called late bloomers have significantly contributed to the narrowing of gender and racial gaps in the college share, despite the general widening of the racial gap. Second, late bloomers are responsible for more than half of the increase in the aggregate college share from 1960 onwards. Finally, we show that the returns to having a college degree vary depending on the age at graduation. Ignoring the existence of late bloomers therefore leads to a significant underestimation of the returns to college education for those finishing college in their early 20s.

There are more young adults today with either no credit history or insufficient credit history to be scored by one of the major credit bureaus than there were before the Great Recession—a reality that is likely an outcome of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009–10. In regressions that include a rich set of controls, we show that measures of young adults missing a credit score in credit bureau data act as a drag on state-level consumption growth. We demonstrate that this effect is driven by young people's loss of access to credit since the legislation went into effect.