Objectives. To examine the impact of right-to-carry (RTC) firearm laws on firearm workplace homicides (WPHs) in the United States from 1992 to 2017. Methods. We employed 2 longitudinal methods to examine the average effect (pooled, cross-sectional, time-series analysis) and the state-specific effect (random effects meta-analysis) of RTC laws on WPHs committed by firearms from 1992 to 2017 in a 50-state panel. Both methods utilized a generalized linear mixed model with a negative binomial distribution. Results. From 1992 to 2017, the average effect of having an RTC law was significantly associated with 29% higher rates of firearm WPHs (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.14, 1.45). No other state-level policies were associated with firearm WPHs. Sensitivity analyses suggest robust findings. State-specific estimates suggest that passing an RTC law during our study period was significantly associated with 24% increase in firearm WPH rates (95% CI = 1.09, 1.40). Conclusions. This is the first study to our knowledge to examine the link between RTC firearm laws and firearm WPHs. Findings indicate that RTC laws likely pose a threat to worker safety and contribute to the recent body of literature that finds RTC laws are associated with increased incidence of violence.

Roughly one-third of dissolutions among married persons aged 50 and older occur through divorce rather than widowhood, reflecting the rising gray divorce rate and lengthening life expectancies. We use data from the 1980 Vital Statistics and the 2017 American Community Survey (ACS) to estimate the divorce and widowhood rates among married individuals (aged 50+) in 1980 and 2017 to track how much the widowhood rate has declined and the divorce rate has risen. In 1980, women’s widowhood rates exceeded their divorce rates at all ages. For men, the rate of divorce outpaced the rate of widowhood through ages 50-54. By 2017, divorce rates were higher for women through ages 55-59 and for men through ages 60-64, coinciding with the growth in gray divorce. We also examine subgroup variation in the 2017 patterns and the sociodemographic correlates of having experienced divorce versus widowhood during the past year using the ACS data.

The state of Indiana expanded Medicaid February 1, 2015, using a Section 1115 waiver in which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services granted permission to Indiana to charge beneficiaries a monthly premium based on income, charge copayments for nonemergency use of the emergency department, and provide financial incentives for healthy behavior.1 We have limited information comparing Medicaid enrollment in states with Section 1115 waivers to states that implemented the full version of Medicaid.2,3 The objective of this study was to evaluate how the use of a Section 1115 waiver in Indiana to expand Medicaid was associated with Medicaid enrollment compared with Medicaid expansion states that did not use a waiver.

This research examines the impact of slavery on long-run development and its detailed mechanism which consists of two key components: labor market institutions and human capital investment. Using county-level data from the US South and exploiting exogenous variation in agro-climatic conditions, I show that slavery has impeded long-run economic development through the human capital channel. The proposed mechanism is explained in two steps. First, I argue that the local prevalence of slavery reduced return to human capital in the long-run. Through estimating the relative return to education for each county in 1940, I show that blacks in a region with greater dependence on slavery experienced more difficulty in converting their human capital into earnings. Second, to account for the effects on human capital structure, I suggest an institutional channel in the local labor market. I find from the census data that counties with greater dependence on slavery experienced less integration of black workers into the labor market after the abolition of slavery. Moreover, border-county analyses suggest that geographical variation in the labor market integration resulted from selective application of laws and regulations. In consequence, black workers in those regions were more likely to be locked in low-skill occupations, conditional on their human capital. In addition, I suggest that racial wage discrimination and selective migration played a role in the persistence of the mechanism.

We document considerable heterogeneity in the fraction of older workers across occupations, and show that this is related to occupational characteristics. For example, occupations that have larger fractions of older workers tend to be less physically demanding and more cognitively demanding. Average workers' characteristics such as cognition and health are strongly correlated with these occupational characteristics, although there is considerable within-occupation heterogeneity. Based on these observations, and a Bartik-type argument, we argue that an increase in the employment share of an occupation with a high fraction of older workers implies an increased demand for older workers. This leads to a prediction that the wages of workers in such occupations may have increased in order to lower retirement rates. Using difference-indifference methods, we do find evidence for the former, but we do not see a direct relation with retirement. However, an indirect effect through wages is consistent with our results.

This paper combines remote-sensed data and individual child-, mother-, and household-level data from the Demographic and Health Surveys for five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) to design a prototype drought-contingent targeting framework that may be used in scarce-data contexts. To accomplish this, the paper: (i) develops simple and easy-to-communicate measures of drought shocks; (ii) shows that droughts have a large impact on child stunting in these five countries—comparable, in size, to the effects of mother’s illiteracy and a fall to a lower wealth quintile; and (iii) shows that, in this context, decision trees and logistic regressions predict stunting as accurately (out-of-sample) as machine learning methods that are not interpretable. Taken together, the analysis lends support to the idea that a datadriven approach may contribute to the design of policies that mitigate the impact of climate change on the world’s most vulnerable populations.

This first study provides the causal effects of the state retirement income exemption policies on saving for retirement and long-term impact on income in retirement, which have been understudied. Using the Social Security W2 earnings records linked to restricted Health and Retirement Data (HRS) data, I find that a 26% decline in savings into retirement plan accounts in post-policy periods. Workers in states with exemption offers were also less likely to save compared to those worked in states without exemption. The fall in household income (both before and after-tax) in retirement further implies that seniors in exemption states were not better off than their counter-part states. Hence, states might consider rethinking the effectiveness of these policies.

We examine the lifecycle wage effects of health insurance market regulation that compels private insurers to offer continuing coverage to beneficiaries. Using a panel of male workers drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we model wages across the lifecycle as a function of the mandated number of months of continuing coverage at labor market entrance. Access to continuing coverage is plausibly valuable to young workers as this benefit facilities job mobility, which is important for early career wage growth and lifecycle wages, but is costly to firms. We show that more generous mandated continuing coverage at labor market entrance causes an initial wage decline of roughly 1% that reverses after five years in the labor market leading to higher wages later in the career. Wage increases are observable up to 30 years after labor market entrance. We provide suggestive evidence that increased job mobility early in the career is a mechanism for the observed wage effects.

Children with at least one immigrant parent are one of the fastest growing child populations in the U.S.; however, these children are more likely to fall behind children of U.S.-born parents on school readiness skills. Despite the positive effects of center-based early care and education (ECE) on children’s school readiness, children of immigrants are less likely than children of U.S.-born parents to attend center-based ECE. Lower center-based ECE participation rates may be a missed opportunity for critical learning among children of immigrants. Research largely focuses on child and family factors to explain the gap and suggests that family characteristics—lower household income and parental education levels and two-parent households—are important predictors of lower enrollment in center-based ECE. However, little is known about how broader community factors, such as child care subsidies and the supply of ECE, affect immigrant parents’ child care decisions. Paper 1 uses data from the American Community Survey and state Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) policies from 2009 to 2016 to examine the effects of state CCDF policies related to subsidy generosity and the ease of application on center-based ECE participation among low-income children of immigrants and children of U.S.-born parents. Results suggest that higher initial income eligibility and an easier application process increase the likelihood of using center-based ECE for children of immigrants. Paper 2 uses data from the National Survey of Early Care and Education to examine whether the availability of different types of ECE helps explain the gap in center-based ECE participation between children of immigrants and children of U.S.-born parents. Results indicate that the availability of care provider who are family members, friends, and neighbors is associated with lower center-based ECE participation among 0- to 2-year-olds, while the availability of child care centers is associated with higher center-based ECE participation among 3- to 5-year-olds. However, the supply of ECE does not explain the difference in ECE arrangements. Taken together, findings highlight the importance of considering community factors in immigrant parents’ child care decisions. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the implications for future research, public policy, and social work practice.

We examine the impact of the Chinese Student Protection Act (CSPA) of 1992 on the children of those who likely received Green Cards under the US legislation. Using a differences-indifferences methodology with the American Community Survey from 2001-2017, we find that having immediate access to a Green Card for mainland Chinese mothers had a positive impact on their children, while mainland Chinese fathers' Green Card eligibility does not affect children's outcomes. Our findings highlight the importance of mother's employment and earnings on children's human capital development. It appears that the CSPA has served to enhance the human capital outcomes of second-generation Chinese immigrants.

We estimate the labor force participation (LFP) response to the introduction of means-tested minimum pensions in the UK through the Old-Age Pension Act (OAP) of 1908. The OAP was a major social policy intervention and the first one to universally target older workers in a time of very limited social protection. The empirical framework is based on three decennial census waves (1891, 1901, 1911), covering the full UK population. We identify the LFP effects of the program based on variation at the age-based eligibility threshold between 69 and 70. Our results show a considerable and abrupt decline of 6.3 to 7.6 percentage points in the LFP rate when older men turn 70. This sudden drop only occurs at the age cutoff and only after the OAP was implemented. The unique historical setting allows us to study the full labor supply effects of an old-age assistance program and thus adds to understanding labor supply responses when labor earnings are taxed implicitly through government transfers.

Abstract: When the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in 2010, it resulted in the largest off-shore oil spill in United States history. Economic theory dictates that the oil damage and restitution payments that resulted from the spill should be capitalized into property values. To measure the extent of this capitalization, we create a novel dataset by linking surveys of the location and severity of oil observed along over 4,300 miles of the Gulf Coast to measures of local housing market outcomes. We then perform hedonic-style analysis to determine the net effects of the spill on affected real estate markets. In doing so, we provide the first plausibly causal estimates of the effect of the spill on affected housing markets throughout the Gulf region. Identification comes from a triple-difference framework that exploits the random nature of both the spill and the spatial distribution of oil that affected coastal communities, as well as controls for the confounding effects of the housing market crash. Results suggest that on net, the BP oil spill caused a significant decline in home prices of between 4% and 8% that persisted until at least 2015. This implies housing markets capitalized $3.8 billion to $5.0 billion in spill damage inclusive of clean-up and restitution effects. These results are robust to numerous alternative definitions of treatment and control groups. Keywords: Environmental damage; Oil spill; Housing markets; Capitalization; Hedonic analysis; Triple-difference estimator

Health has signi…cant impact on labor market outcomes, and thus on criminal decisions. We document from micro evidence that health has positive e¤ect on individual's labor market performance, and negative impact on criminal activities. To study the economic mechanism behind these …ndings, we build an equilibrium model of health, crime, and the labor market. We perform a wide range of policy experiments in the baseline model, and study their impacts on crime and the labor market. We …nd that by introducing universal health insurance coverage, criminal activities in the economy would decrease by about 10% while the aggregate output would increase by about 9%.

Objective The purpose of this study was to explore the hypothesis that the relationship between hearing problems and cardiovascular disease (CVD) includes a connection to psychological distress. Design We used generalized structural equation modeling to assess relationships between self-reported measures of hearing problems, psychological distress, and CVD in a pooled sample of 623,416 adult respondents in the 1997–2017 National Health Interview Survey. Hearing status without hearing aids was self-reported on an ordinal scale and further grouped for this study into 3 categories (excellent or good hearing, little or moderate trouble hearing, and a lot of trouble or deaf). Six CVDs (stroke, angina pectoris, hypertension, heart attack, coronary heart disease, or other heart condition/disease) were incorporated as a latent variable. Psychological distress was evaluated by the Kessler 6 Scale (Kessler et al., 2010). All estimates were population weighted, and standard errors were adjusted for a complex survey design. Results Nearly 83% reported excellent or good hearing, 14% reported a little or moderate trouble hearing, and 3% reported a lot of trouble hearing or said they were deaf. Hearing problems were positively associated with CVD. Relative to those reporting excellent/good hearing, adults reporting trouble hearing had a higher probability of CVD. Hearing problems were also significantly associated with psychological distress. When psychological distress was applied to the model, positive associations between hearing problems and CVD were attenuated but still significant. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that the connection between self-reported hearing problems and CVD is mediated through psychological distress. Conclusions The relationship between self-reported hearing problems and CVD is mediated by psychological distress. Further research is needed to identify causal pathways and psychophysiological mechanisms involved in this relationship and to identify effective methods for addressing cardiovascular health-related psychosocial factors in the treatment of hearing impairment.

In the heart of San Francisco's historically Latino Mission District, just off the neighborhood's central axis of Twenty-fourth Street, lies Balmy Alley, the city's longest-running and most iconic mural alley. Balmy Alley's internationally recognized murals depict the history and politics of the Mission. Alongside murals commemorating the United Farm Workers' struggles and denouncing the "dirty war" in El Salvador in the 1980s are several that center on the politics of urban development. One of the most recent murals in this genre, Mission Makeover, captures a new common sense about what bicycles mean in today's city. Painted by young artist Lucia Ippolito and her father, Tirso Araiza, Mission Makeover juxtaposes parallel scenes of a neighborhood in the throes of advanced gentrification. On the left, icons of the Mission that Ippolito and her father knew: low-rider cars, a Muni bus, and the heavy hand of the police visited on two youths of color who are posing with a pit bull. On the right, parallel, exaggerated vignettes of gentrification: moving vans unloading furniture into renovated Victorian houses; a policeman sharing a Starbucks latte with a rich woman and her show dog; and perhaps most notably, white hipster youths on bicycles and hanging out on stoops, their eyes and ears glued to smartphones (Figure 1). These two scenes depict the same geographical space but reveal starkly different social worlds, worlds separated by race, class, gender, age-and mobility.

In 2006, Massachusetts passed the Massachusetts Health Reform, which has led to nearly universal health insurance coveragein the state. Using IPUMS USA census data, I estimatea difference-in-differencesregression withNewHampshire as my control state to consider the impact of the Massachusetts Health Reform on income and labor force participation. I find a significant increase in labor force participation butno significant change inincome. The lack of a decrease in income establishes that the Massachusetts Health Reform increased welfare and utility, and the increase in labor force participation shows that expanding Medicaid and private insurance has a net positive effect.

The underrepresentation of Latinas/as in engineering and computer science across the pipeline - from undergraduate studies into the profession - remains a persistent challenge. Based on 2017 NSF reports, only 10.3% of engineering and computer science degrees in the U.S. were awarded to Hispanics from 2004-2014 [1]. Similarly, a 2018 Pew report analyzing IPUMS data indicated that only 8% of the engineering workforce and 7% of the computing workforce, respectively, was comprised of Hispanics [2]. Studies from a range of disciplinary perspectives have shed light on some of the challenges faced by Hispanic students, hereby referred to using the gender-inclusive term “Latinx.” Some findings point to the role of decreased motivation and self-efficacy of Latinx students [3], [4], while others take a broader sociological perspective, highlighting the role that a “chilly climate” can play in the attrition of underrepresented minorities (URM) from engineering/CS [5].

This dissertation examines two subjects. After an introduction, the next two chapters examine banks owned and operated by African-Americans before World War II. The final chapter looks at Newfoundland’s political economy from 1867 to 1949. Chapter 2, “Banking on African-American Business,” uses a newly-created data set of banks owned and managed by African Americans from 1907 to 1930. I provide the first analysis of the contribution of African-American banks to the development of African-American communities. Economic progress is measured by business ownership, proxied by the number of African-Americans who reported employing at least one person, as well as white-collar occupations, mortgages, and home ownership. Fixed effects analysis shows that an additional African-American bank per ten thousand AfricanAmerican adults in a county increased the share of African-Americans employing at least one person by 1.9 percentage points, 1.5 times the median rate. Put another way, African-American banks from 1907 to 1930 created roughly 14,000 African-American business owners. This effect persists when limiting the sample to both the South and the Cotton South. The effects on white-collar occupations and home ownership are positive but relatively small, and seen in both the North and the South. Overall, African-American banks made significant contributions to their communities, contrary to skepticism expressed in the previous literature. Chapter 3, “Triple Segregation: Virginia African-American Banks, 1915-28,” studies African-American banking operations in depth. Using a new dataset of declassified Virginia bank examinations from 1915 to 1928, this chapter provides the first in-depth comparison of banks owned and operated by African Americans to white banks. This dataset shows that banks owned and operated by African-Americans generated lower profits than white banks. These lower profits were likely due to African-American banks facing three segregated markets: the markets for borrowers, for bank deposits, and for mergers were all significantly different. In each case, the customers for AfricanAmerican banks were almost entirely African-American. This confirms the assertions of scholars that the most important difference for the performance of African-American firms was the exclusion of white customers from their market. These segregated markets, along with other factors, may have led African-American banks to pursue lowerrisk strategies in their asset allocation and deposit mix. Chapter 4, “The Many, Many Bonds of Newfoundland,” describes how the selfgoverning Dominion of Newfoundland found itself in 1933 owing debt of approximately twice its GDP, with interest payments over 80% of government revenue. The tale of how the Dominion came to this point is sordid and fascinating; the means by which this crisis was resolved are unique. Researchers have mostly overlooked that Newfoundland was the Dominion of the United Kingdom that came the closest to defaulting, and for which default plausibly could have improved its circumstances. However, Newfoundland left behind over 34 bonds, loans, and other borrowing instruments, all with different clauses, maturities, interest rates, and investors. Using these variations, along with comparing Newfoundland bonds to more widely studied sovereign debt, allows an analysis of the bond markets of the early twentieth century. Results show that bond prices were disproportionately affected by World War I.

In Italy, young adults tend to postpone their transition to adulthood and live with their parents until very late compared with other countries. A dynamic discrete choice model is proposed in which agents choose residential arrangements, together with labor supply and marital status, conditional on the economic and institutional framework and on other agents’ choices. The model is structurally estimated with the Simulated Method of Moments for non-student high-school graduate males and then used to assess, through a variety of counterfactual experiments, the relative importance of factors that are claimed to influence the choice to leave home in the existing literature: labor market conditions, parental resources, housing market conditions and social interaction. Results suggest that Italians choose to remain with their parents due to a combination of poor labor market conditions and high housing costs. The relatively high income of parents could contribute to the patterns observed by acting as an insurance against unemployment. Finally, estimates indicate that individuals tend to conform to a social norm, especially in the South of the country were family ties and the costs in terms of utility from not complying with expected behaviors appear to be stronger.

Guest workers on visas in the United States may be unable to quit bad employers due to barriers to mobility and a lack of labor market competition. Using H-1B, H-2A, and H-2B program data, we calculate the concentration of employers in geographically defined labor markets within occupations. We find that many guest workers face moderately or highly concentrated labor markets, based on federal merger scrutiny guidelines, and that concentration generally decreases wages. For example, moving from a market with a Herfindahl-Hirschman Index of zero to a market comprised of two employers lowers H-1B worker wages approximately 10%, and a pure monopsony (one employer) reduces wages by 13%. A simulation shows that wages under pure monopsony could be 47% lower, suggesting that employers do not use the full extent of their monopsony power. Enforcing wage regulations and decreasing barriers to mobility may better address issues of exploitation than antitrust scrutiny alone.