This study examines how often adolescents interact with family members and how adolescents feel when spending time with parents, nonresident parents, stepparents, siblings, and extended family members. Adolescents respond to whom they spend time with, and how adolescents feel during social interactions with family has implications for adolescent relationships. Family structure remains a crucial dimension of heterogeneity in adolescent life, and family systems theory suggests family structure could differentially shape adolescent emotional functioning and social development due to differences in family-level contexts. However, less work has evaluated heterogeneity in social interactions and adolescent responses to family interactions stemming from variation in the home context. Using a large, nationally representative data sample of adolescents from the American Time Use Survey (N = 1,735), this study employs a within-group analysis to separately examine feelings of meaningfulness, happiness, sadness, and stress during social interactions for adolescents living in nuclear homes, single-parent homes, and stepparent homes. Results suggest adolescents in nuclear homes benefited from interactions with parents and were less affected by siblings and extended family members. On the other hand, adolescents in nonnuclear homes benefited from interactions with nonresident parents, older siblings, or extended family members, giving support to compensation models of family interactions. The study informs parents, clinicians, and policymakers designing interventions for adolescents, because it more precisely conveys information about which family members positively influence adolescent emotional responses.

Post randomization methods are among the most popular disclosure limitation techniques for both categorical and continuous data. In the categorical case, given a stochastic matrix M and a specified variable, an individual belonging to category i is changed to category j with probability Mi,j . Every approach to choose the randomization matrix M has to balance between two desiderata: (1) preserving as much statistical information from the raw data as possible; (2) guaranteeing the privacy of individuals in the dataset. This trade-off has generally been shown to be very challenging to solve. In this work, we use recent tools from the computer science literature and propose to choose M as the solution of a constrained maximization problems. Specifically, M is chosen as the solution of a constrained maximization problem, where we maximize the mutual information between raw and transformed data, given the constraint that the transformation satisfies the notion of differential privacy. For the general categorical model, it is shown how this maximization problem reduces to a convex linear programming and can be therefore solved with known optimization algorithms.

he 1990s marked the beginning of a shift in the migration pattern of Latin American countries, associated with significant differences in terms of volumes, routes, places of origin and destination, temporality, conditions of migratory transit, and entry into the labor market. Emerging phenomena include the substantial incorporation of Central American migration to the United States and the growth of immigration from Mexico and some countries in the south of the continent, such as Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, and from the Caribbean, including Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and Trinidad and Tobago (Bergad and Klein; Castro-Alquicira, “Economic Geography of Migrant Women”).

The coronavirus pandemic threatened to increase hardship among US households after efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 through pervasive social distancing and the declaration of a national emergency in March. Economic activity dramatically diminished, and unemployment initially soared. While federal policymakers acted quickly to shore up the safety net, researchers have argued that food hardship spiked in late March and April and then remained elevated. Claims that food hardship has tripled or worse have led to calls for equally unprec- edented expansions to safety-net programs. This report shows that such claims are unsup- ported and result from researchers comparing recent survey estimates to earlier ones from incom- parable surveys. We estimate that food insufficiency has increased by 2 or 3 percentage points and stands a bit higher than during the Great Recession. Policy- makers’ efforts to mitigate hardship have been more successful than critics acknowledge, and future deci- sions should not assume that hardship is as severe as studies have suggested.

Precarious work, which has become more prevalent in the United States in recent decades, is disproportionately experienced by workers of lower socio-economic classes, and research suggests that the erosion of worker power has contributed to this class polarization in precarity. One dimension of precarious work of growing interest to scholars and policymakers is instability faced by workers in the amount and regularity of their work hours. However, we know little about the magnitude of month-to-month or week-to-week (intra-year) volatility in hours worked, the extent of class-based polarization in this measure of job quality, and whether worker power moderates this polarization. In this paper, we make novel use of the panel nature of the nationally-representative Current Population Survey (CPS) to estimate intra-year volatility in the actual hours respondents report working in the previous week across four consecutive survey months. Using this new measure, we then show that, net of demographic characteristics and controls for occupation and industry, low-wage workers experience disproportionately greater work hour volatility. Finally, we find evidence that reductions in marketplace bargaining power-as measured by higher state-level unemployment rates-increase wage-and education-based polarization in work hour volatility, while increases in associational power-as measured by union coverage-reduce wage-based polarization in work hour volatility.

School and day care closures due to the COVID‐19 pandemic have increased caregiving responsibilities for working parents. As a result, many have changed their work hours to meet these growing demands. In this study, we use panel data from the US Current Population Survey to examine changes in mothers’ and fathers’ work hours from February through April 2020, the period of time prior to the widespread COVID‐19 outbreak in the United States and through its first peak. Using person‐level fixed effects models, we find that mothers with young children have reduced their work hours four to five times more than fathers. Consequently, the gender gap in work hours has grown by 20–50 per cent. These findings indicate yet another negative consequence of the COVID‐19 pandemic, highlighting the challenges it poses to women’s work hours and employment.

Hyphenating or keeping premarital surname for all U.S. destination brides marrying in Hawai’i in 2010 was highly, positively correlated with a state-level women’s income measure (r = .78, p < .000) and the analogous statistic for men (r = .64, p < .000), by bride’s state of residence. The women’s measure, only, remained significant when both predictors were used, together, to predict retention/hyphenation (i.e., under regression of both predictors). The interaction of state Gini coefficient and the women’s income measure was positively predictive in a regression including the interaction components as predictors (adjusted-R2 = .66). None of several other predictors suggested by previous research or related to Gini index or income, testable using available, state-level data, were predictive (under regression) alongside the women’s income measure. The older the bride, from any jurisdiction, the more likely she is to hyphenate or keep her surname (χ2 for linear trend = 1754.65, p < .000). These analyses comprise a nearly direct replication of previous work, adding novel analyses. Taken together, the original and replicated study may show evidence consistent with a general practice of women taking into account local economic factors, in marital surname decision-making.

The presence of “agglomeration forces” in production markets is widely accepted and has been recently quantified in the economics literature. Social scientists have done little theoretical work, however, and even less quantitative work, on how the logic of agglomeration might also apply to social groups and the gains that people derive from their social interactions. This paper attempts to bridge this gap by modeling and measuring the benefits in terms of social prestige that arose from the spatial concentration of socialites in Manhattan in the 1920s. I formulate a model of location-based social status determination that illustrates why these benefits might make spatial concentration desirable for members of the social elite. To test the model, I draw on the 1920 and 1924 volumes of the New York Social Register, federal income tax data for New York City residents in the 1920s, and United States Federal Census records to compile a novel dataset containing demographic information, club affiliations, occupations, incomes and addresses of over 700 socially prominent men living in Manhattan in the early 1920s. Treating club memberships as a proxy for social prominence, I exploit an instrumental variable approach, using expected changes in family size as an instrument for neighborhood choice, to measure the relationship between an individual’s residence relative to others in the group and his social status. My results suggest that there are strong, statistically significant benefits in terms of social status that come with living in closer proximity to others in one’s social group; in the context of my 1924 Manhattan data, a move of just a few blocks from 12 West 44th Street to 421 Park Avenue would, on average and all else equal, result in a 54.3% increase in club memberships for the mean individual in my dataset.

The recently documented reversal of the association between socioeconomic development indicators and fertility rates suggests that a scenario of systematic fertility recuperation is not unlikely for a large number of countries in which fertility has fallen to low and very low levels. Although this reversal has been well-documented at the macro level, less is known about the individual-level dynamics behind it. Here, we propose and test a two-fold hypothesis about the micro-foundations of this reversal: In a first stage, advances in development drive the decline of fertility rates by contributing to the reduction of the share of unintended births (i.e., births associated with the absence or the inefficient use of contraception), and by promoting the reduction of desired family sizes as women enter the labor market. Once this first stage is completed, however, further advances in development might lead to the recuperation of fertility rates, as higher levels of education and resources may contribute to reduce the obstacles couples face when trying to achieve their desired family size. We test this hypothesis on France, Ireland, and Spain using an individual-level computational model of the reproductive process from which we simulate the maternity histories of post-baby boom cohorts. The simulations closely follow past fertility trends in all three countries. Forecasting the potential development of aggregate fertility indicators, the model predicts that even in the presence of a strong positive effect of development on fertility intentions, there are limits to the recuperation scenario imposed by further reductions in the time available for family formation, the already relatively small distance between desired and achieved fertility among recent cohorts, and the deceleration of the forces that could drive a return to higher fertility rates in the near future.

My dissertation analyzes inter vivos transfers from parents to children, the heterogeneity of pecuniary and nonpecuniary benefits across different fields of study, and how these factors jointly contribute to the choice of field in college. In my first chapter, Gender Differences in Inter Vivos Transfers, I examine to what extent parents exhibit preferential treatment for one gender with respect to financial gifts to children. Using the Health and Retirement Study from 1992-2014, I estimate differences in the frequency and magnitude of gifts to sons and daughters. Conditional on a transfer, there is no evidence of differences in amounts between sons and daughters. However parents give to daughters at higher rates. I explore potential mechanisms for this disparity: in particular, I address the altruism and exchange motives for inter vivos transfers. I find that the difference in giving rates is partially explained by higher expected rates of future care from daughters. Even after controlling for discrepancy in care-taking, income levels, and other observable characteristics, parents are still 10-20% more likely to give a transfer to their daughters. The discrepancy in giving rates is driven by unmarried children: once daughters marry they are less likely to receive a transfer. In my second chapter, I find evidence that parents affect their children’s career choice through inter vivos transfers. Embedding an occupational choice model into an overlapping generations framework with altruism, I show children with wealthy parents favor jobs that v have riskier income streams relative to their expected earnings because high-income parents can insure their children against negative earnings shocks. Using the 1997 cohort from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, I rank major fields of study according to two measures of earnings uncertainty. I then use a multinomial logit to show that children, particularly men, of higher income parents select into fields with higher earnings uncertainty. This effect persists even for the subsample of first-generation college students. The empirical results suggest that child decisions are consistent with the theory that inter vivos transfers act as an insurance mechanism for college children. College majors carry both monetary (high expected earnings, job security) and nonmonetary (enjoyment, social good) benefits. My third chapter analyzes the tradeoffs between pecuniary and nonpecuniary benefits for respondents of the High School Longitudinal Study. Different groups of students, including groups that are currently underrepresented, identify significantly different characteristics as being important to their choice of college major. I find that gender is an important factor as women are significantly more likely to favor nonpecuniary benefits. Students with stronger academic records are also less sensitive to pecuniary reasons. In addition, there are differences in motivation for students of different races, but these effect are not constant across majors. In particular, although white students who major in business and economics tend to value pecuniary reasons, business majors of other races are less likely to value pecuniary reasons.

Do the positive effects of descriptive representation expand beyond political outcomes? We ask whether the perception that government includes “people who look like you” can affect more everyday outcomes, such as investment in the future. We experimentally demonstrate that women are more likely to apply to jobs when they believe there are more women in Congress. The mechanism varies according to feelings of marginalization, which are clustered by partisanship–Democratic women feel significantly more marginalized than Republicans. Democrats update their beliefs about discrimination against women in response to treatment, while Republicans feel more empowered when they believe that Congress includes more women. We show that there is no countervailing effect among men; in fact, men are significantly more willing to apply to certain jobs when they perceive that there are more women in Congress and that this is an achievement. Our findings have implications for the importance of descriptive representation.

This paper uses Bureau of Labor Statistics employment and wage data to study the distribu-tional impact of the COVID-19 crisis on wages in the United States by mid-April. It answers whether wages of lower-wage workers decreased more than others', and to what extent. We find that the COVID-19 outbreak exacerbates existing inequalities. Workers at the bottom quintile in mid-March were three times more likely to be laid off by mid-April compared to higher-wage workers. Weekly wages of workers at the bottom quintile decreased by 6% on average between mid-February and mid-March and by 26% between mid-March and mid-April. The average decrease for higher quintiles was less than 1% between mid-February and mid-March and about 10% between mid-March and mid-April. We also find that workers aged 16-24 were hit much harder than older workers. Hispanic workers were also hurt more than other racial groups. Their wages decreased by 2-3 percentage points more than other workers' between mid-March and mid-April.

A major issue concerning the COVID-19 pandemic is how it will affect future employment options for older workers. Public health officials have made it clear that older people are more at risk of complications from the virus, meaning they may be the last to return to work. Therefore, their ability to survive financially will depend on their ability to work from home. So, the question becomes how many older workers can work from home. This brief builds on recent research that identifed occupations that can be done remotely. The new analysis links these jobs to a dataset of individual workers to examine any differences by age, earnings, education, and gender. The somewhat surprising result is that roughly the same percentage of older and younger adults can work from home. The ability to work from home, however, does depend on education, which means that it is highly correlated with earnings.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals continues to be an issue of national concern, as both individuals who were afforded its temporary reprieve and other undocumented individuals fear deportation. Close to home, DACA's effect ripples across the nation. For undocumented youth, the ability to earn a post-secondary education is the pathway "out of the shadows" - out of socioeconomic inequality. As of 2019, while some U.S. states permitted undocumented individuals residing within their geographical limits the same tuition subsidies at public institutions as other state residents who were U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, more than half of the U.S. states prohibited these subsidies. Without DACA, one could argue that undocumented youth would not enroll or continue in postsecondary education, and thus, post-secondary enrollment of undocumented youth is dictated by federal immigration policy. However, this study shows that individual states have substantial power to control and affect the enrollment of undocumented youth residents.

Objectives Preparation for age-related changes has been shown to be beneficial to adjustment in later life. However, an understanding of the factors that influence such preparations is rather limited. This study examines whether perceived control and future-self views influence preparations for old age, and if this influence varies across ages, domains of functioning, and cultures. Methods Assessments of perceived control, future-self views, and preparations for old age in each of four different life domains (social relationships, finances, work, and health) were obtained from 1,813 adults (ages 35 – 85) from Germany, Hong Kong, and the United States. Results Future-self views partially mediated the relationship between perceived control and preparation for old age across both domains of functioning and cultures. With one exception, the association between perceived control and preparations increased with advancing age across contexts. Evidence for similar age-related moderation of the indirect effect of control through future-self views was more limited. Discussion These results suggest that perceived control that is not necessarily related to aging affect future-self views, which in turn influence preparing for old age. Further, our results indicate that such relationships are context- and age-specific, highlighting the importance of considering the salience and diversity of life domains and cultures.

The vision for OKFutures is that all Oklahoma’s infants, toddlers, and preschoolers will be prepared for happy, healthy, and successful lives. To accomplish this vision, OKFutures will develop the capacity of families, communities, public agencies, and private organizations to provide children from birth to age 5 equitable and seamless access to the physical, emotional, and educational supports they need to thrive. Oklahoma was awarded a federal Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five (PDG B-5) by the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in December 2018 to advance these efforts. The OKFutures needs assessment is the first of five activities to be completed under the Oklahoma PDG B-5 grant. It leverages multiple methods and data sources to identify common themes and key findings. It provides the rationale for a future five-year strategic plan and will inform new efforts to maximize parental choice; share best practices to increase program quality, collaboration, and efficiency; and improve overall quality across the early childhood care and education (ECCE) mixed delivery system. The needs assessment also serves as a baseline against which to measure future progress.

In the wake of exogenous institutional change, organizational populations often experience a legitimacy shock. As a new institutional logic becomes dominant, old symbols and practices are delegitimated and new ones legitimated. Old symbols and practices persist into the postshock period, however, forming an ecology of diverse cohorts and audience schemas, some divergent and others convergent with the new institutional logic. Because new organizations look to their rivals for knowledge of how to cope, I examine how the shifting alignment of a rival cohort to changing audience schemas influences a new organization’s own alignment and, thus, mortality. I propose that density at founding of divergent preshock organizational cohorts early in the postshock period reduces a new organization’s mortality due to an initial endowment effect and then becomes more mortality-increasing over time as maladaptive imprints take over. Density at founding of convergent postshock organizational cohorts has a U-shaped effect on mortality—similar to that caused by a legitimacy vacuum—but this effect emerges after a delay as legitimation processes begin to dominate delegitimation processes. Also, following Red Queen theory, I argue that competitive experience with divergent organizational cohorts increases mortality, but competitive experience with convergent organizational cohorts decreases mortality. To test these arguments, I use the institutional shock of the American Civil War—during which the firearms industry of the U.S. South underwent a period of government-led command-and-control centralization—as a natural experiment. The findings are consistent with the main arguments, though the overall postshock effect of density at founding appears to be dominated by early stage endowment effects, contrary to assumptions.

Data sources, e.g., Yelp or Twitter, that produce records without pre-defined schema (semi-structured) are popular nowadays. However, semi-structured data can be unwieldy for data exploration purposes due to an extremely large number of records as well as an accumulative number of attributes. Finding a more compact data representation (i.e., summary encoding) is thus critical before subsequent data analysis can be applied. Designing an appropriate summary encoding requires a trade-off between compactness and fidelity. In this thesis, a framework is developed for reasoning about the trade-off between summary compactness and fidelity. A measure of summary fidelity is proposed accordingly. Analytic and experimental evidences have been presented, which show that the proposed fidelity measure is not only efficiently computable, but also a meaningful measure of summary quality. To efficiently construct a high-fidelity summary encoding given a limitation on its verboseness, a clustering-based approach is identified and experiment results show that it produces results orders of magnitude faster and competitive with more powerful techniques for compression and summarization.

My dissertation studies the political impacts of media and information technologies in American history. The first chapter employs novel data to examine the electric telegraph’s impacts on political participation and news coverage in the mid-19th century America. I use proximity to daily newspapers with telegraphic connection to Washington to generate plausibly exogenous variation in access to telegraphed news from Washington. I find that access to Washington news with less delay increased presidential election turnout. Text analysis on historical newspapers shows that the improved access to news from Washington led newspapers to cover more national political news, including coverage of Congress, the presidency, and sectional divisions involving slavery. The results suggest that the telegraph made newspapers less parochial, facilitated a national conversation and increased political participation. The second chapter investigates the political impacts of the first populist radio personality in American history. Father Charles Coughlin blended populist demagoguery, antiSemitism, and fascist sympathies to create a hugely popular radio program that attracted tens of millions of listeners throughout the 1930s. I digitized unique data on Father Coughlin’s radio network. Exploiting topography to generate plausibly exogenous variation in radio . . .

Occupational credentials such as professional licenses and certifications are known to generate significant earnings premiums. Based on this, the federal workforce development policy focuses on industry-recognized occupational credentials for less-educated adults to help them obtain family-supporting jobs without having to invest in a postsecondary degree. This study used data from the 2016-2019 Current Population Survey (CPS) outgoing rotation group samples to examine differences in the earnings premiums associated with occupational credentials by gender and education. Our analyses revealed that the earnings premium of job-required credential holding was greater for women than men. For women, estimates of the earnings premiums do not vary much by education level, while for men, those without a Bachelor's degree tend to have high premiums than those without.