The fertility rate of female working in agricultural sector during Baby Boom period was peculiar.Compared to a 42% economy-wide increase, the cohort fertility rate for those in agricultural sector only increased by 10%. This paper argues that the adoption of tractor reduced the labor requirement and increased years of schooling in the agricultural sector that induced reduction in fertility. The model proposed in this paper captures the fact that the tractor adoption is negatively correlated with the use of family (child) labor and is positively correlated with the increase in schooling (skill intensity).

There are about 1000 publications listed in PubMed every year that include coverage of Latino elders, a number that has been increasing each year. While that may sound impressive, this total has not yet reached 1% of all articles published annually on older adults. Given the comparatively small numbers of us who research Latino aging issues, what are the most important areas for research? The following is one set of possible research agendas that address space, time, and place for this growing population.

Nationwide, electric utilities increasingly rely on solar installations as part of their energy portfolio. This trend begs the question of how they affect nearby home values. Understanding whether these installations are amenities or disamenities and the scale thereof will help policymakers, solar developers, and local utilities to site and build solar installations with minimal disruption to nearby communities. This paper investigates where large solar installations are located, the housing and income characteristics of the surrounding areas, and if the installations affect nearby residential property values. We approach these questions using geospatial analysis and a survey of residential property assessors. Geospatial analysis examines both housing density and median income surrounding these facilities, while the survey gauges local assessors' opinions of the impacts of these installations on property values. Property values can be a useful proxy for various non-market goods like scenic value, tax benefits, and of particular interest here, both positive and negative perceptions of utility-scale solar facilities. Our results show that while a majority of survey respondents estimated a value impact of zero, some estimated a negative impact associated with close distances between the home and the facility, and larger facility size. Regardless of these perceptions, geospatial analysis shows that relatively few homes are likely to be impacted. Though only one component of a larger analysis, these property value impacts are likely to be of growing interest as more solar facilities are built. This exploration of impacts will help inform solar developers, public officials, home assessors, and homeowners about the effects and implications of solar energy infrastructure.

The problem of climate extremes has had detrimental effects on human life and environment and It is known that climate change is going to make these hazards more frequent, higher in intensity, and longer in durations. On the other hand, the grow in population, and the complexities of modern life are going to add to the vulnerabilities against these hazards. Effective solutions to this problem need to consider different interconnected and complex nature of them. Both in science and engineering, also in policy making phases. While the major source of the problem is in global scale and, there are many local stressors that need to be considered for local planning, such as city-wide planning and decision making. Considering this sophisticated anatomy, different organizations with different focus levels are created and actively working to address the situation. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), The Global Goals universal call for action, and C40 cities are some samples of scientific, policy making, engineering and decision-making groups created to understand and quantify the problems, design solutions, interact them and make decisions. Reaching these goals requires interdisciplinary approaches in many ways. This dissertation has such an interdisciplinary approach around this problem. First looks into the temperature extreme, known as heatwave, problem in small city of Brookline, MA; by assessing the vulnerability, exposure, and hazard levels in different parts of the town and to develop high level adaptation and mitigation strategies for the town officials and its climate action group. In the chapter following that the focus is zoomed out from local into regional scale and is on temperature extremes in US megaregions. It is the first study of such kind focused on megaregions. Then as the last subject of study for this dissertation a statistical model is tested for its robustness in predicting extreme precipitations from mean values. Because of its statistical nature, this method might be used for other variables, too.

Studies concerning racial/ethnic hierarchies often focus either on gay male and heterosexual mate markets, often disregarding lesbian mate markets. We use recent data from the American Community Survey (ACS) to provide a comprehensive picture of racial/ethnic hierarchies in mate markets by focusing on two general outcomes pertaining to coresidential unions (i.e., cohabiting unions and marriages). First, we assess the extent to which whites are partnered with blacks, Hispanics, and Asians versus whites in same-sex male, same-sex female, and different-sex unions. Alternatively, we consider the extent to which blacks, Hispanics, and Asians are partnered with whites versus someone of the same-race in these different union types. These analyses allow us to compare racial/ethnic hierarchies across heterosexual, gay, and lesbian mate markets. Second, we examine the age gap between partners within different union types, contrasting unions that involve two whites with those involving a white and a black, Hispanic, or Asian partner. We assume that unions involving large age gaps, with the white partner being older than the minority partner, signal an exchange of youth for race/ethnicity. Under such as assumption, age gaps in white-minority unions offer another indicator of racial/ethnic hierarchies.

Economic data capture national and domestic production by using its financial equivalent. However, a great share of what people do does not leave any monetary trace. Childcare, domestic work, helping a neighbour or elderly household member, working in unregistered jobs or selling goods on the black market do not get captured in economic data. They can only be measured at the point of input, that is by the amount of time individuals dedicate to perform those tasks. National-level time-use surveys allow to estimate the amount of work performed everyday by stay-at-home mothers or by community activists. But they do much more. Because time-use surveys allow to describe in detail individual’s days, they also permit measuring differences in lifestyle practices and existing inequalities with regard to such issues as domestic division of labour between men and women, class differences in duration and type of childcare, health behaviours, and many more.

This paper studies how the school choice policies that subsidize private school attendance using public funds affect the spatial distribution of private schools in the United States. Private school choice programs enacted between 1997 and 2010 areexamined and linked to private school provision 2 years later. The paper finds that school choice policies lead to more private schools where the input to public schools is lowerand the pool of students with special needs is larger. Yet the introduction of means-tested school choice programs does not necessarily lead private schools to locate in low income neighborhoods.

This paper examines the degree to which fertility and socio-demographic changes are reducing the size of the U.S.-born less-skilled working-age population in the United States. By less-skilled, we mean persons with a high school diploma or less. By consequences of fertility change, we mean the repercussions of both high fertility in past decades (the Baby Boom) and below replacement native-born fertility in more recent decades. By consequences of socio-demographic change, we refer to the rise in the proportion of the population starting and finishing college. In the context of evidence indicating that the relative size of economic sectors hiring less-skilled workers has not diminished in recent decades (with the exception of manufacturing employment), we suggest these demographic and social changes imply that the country will continue to rely on less-skilled immigrant workers. We assess this idea based on analyses of U.S. Census and American Community Survey data for decennial census years starting in 1970 and running through 2010. The results show a net decline of more than 7 million persons in the U.S.-born less-skilled working-age population since 1990, and a looming decline of more than 12 million between now and 2030. Educational upgrading, especially among women, contributes a notable share to these shifts, but so does earlier high fertility (the aging of the Baby Boomers) and more recent low native fertility. Interestingly, the number of less-skilled unauthorized immigrants living in the United States in 2010 is smaller than the decline in the size of the less-skilled U.S.-born working-age population over the same period.

Floodplains provide critical ecosystem services to local and downstream communities by retaining floodwaters, sediments, and nutrients. The dynamic nature of floodplains is such that these areas can both accumulate sediment and nutrients through deposition, and export material downstream through erosion. Therefore, estimating floodplain sediment and nutrient retention should consider the net flux of both depositional and erosive processes. An ecosystem services framework was used to quantify and value the sediment and nutrient ecosystem service provided by floodplains in the Difficult Run watershed, a small (151 km2) suburban watershed located in the Piedmont of Virginia (USA). A sediment balance was developed for Difficult Run and two nested watersheds. The balance included upland sediment delivery to streams, stream bank flux, floodplain flux, and stream load. Upland sediment delivery was estimated using geospatial datasets and a modified Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation. Predictive models were developed to extrapolate field measurements of the flux of sediment, sediment-bound nitrogen (N), and sediment-bound phosphorus (P) from stream banks and floodplains to 3232 delineated stream segments in the study area. A replacement cost approach was used to estimate the economic value of the sediment and nutrient retention ecosystem service based on estimated net stream bank and floodplain flux of sediment-bound N for all streams in the study area. Results indicated the net fluvial fluxes of sediment, sediment-bound N, and sediment-bound P were −10,439 Mg yr−1 (net export), 57,300 kg-N yr−1 (net trapping), and 98 kg-P yr−1(net trapping), respectively. For sediment, floodplain retention was offset by substantial losses from stream bank erosion, particularly in headwater catchments, resulting in a net export of sediment. Nutrient retention in the floodplain exceeded that lost through stream bank erosion resulting in net retention of nutrients (TN and TP). Using a conservative cost estimate of $12.69 (USD) per kilogram of nitrogen, derived from wastewater treatment costs, the estimated annual value for sediment and nutrient retention on Difficult Run floodplains was $727,226 ± 194,220 USD/yr. Values and differences in floodplain nitrogen retention among stream reaches can be used to target areas for floodplain conservation and stream restoration. The methods presented are scalable and transferable to other areas if appropriate datasets are available for validation.

Despite the evidence that colorectal cancer screening is effective in reducing the incidence of and mortality from colorectal cancer, racial and ethnic disparities in colorectal cancer screening persist in the United States. African-born immigrants in the United States have lower colorectal cancer screening rates than native-born Americans. The purpose of this quantitative, retrospective, cross-sectional study was to examine how family income, health insurance status, language of interview, length of stay in the United States, perceived health status, level of education, and having a usual place for medical care affect colorectal cancer screening among African-born immigrants in the United States. The immigrant health services utilization model provided the framework for the study. Secondary data collected in 2010, 2013, and 2015 through the National Health Interview Survey from 349 African-born immigrants age 40 years and above were analyzed using logistic regression and a chi-square test of independence. A stratified multistage sampling procedure was used to select the sample for the study. Results showed a significant association between colorectal cancer screening and health insurance status, length of stay in the United States, perceived health status, and having a usual place for medical care. However, no association was found between colorectal cancer screening and family income, education level, and interview language. Findings may be used to impact positive social change and guide policy decisions on colorectal cancer preventive interventions targeting African-born immigrants living in the United States.

We estimate the demand for health insurance in the California Affordable Care Act marketplace (Covered California) without using parametric assumptions on the distribution of the unobserved components of utility. To do this, we develop a computational method for constructing sharp identified sets in a nonparametric discrete choice model. The method allows for endogeneity in prices (premiums) and for the use of instrumental variables to address this endogeneity. We use the method to estimate bounds on the effect of changes in premium subsidies on coverage choices, consumer surplus, and government spending. We find that a $10 decrease in monthly premium subsidies would cause between a 2.3% and 11.4% decline in the proportion of lowincome adults with coverage. The corresponding reduction in total annual consumer surplus would be between $43 and $66 million, while the savings in yearly subsidy outlays would be between $293 and $944 million. These nonparametric estimates reflect substantially greater price sensitivity than in comparable logit or probit models.

Lately, the debate over various public policies, such as immigration reform and tax policy, has heated up in the United States. This dissertation seeks to explore the different impacts that some of the policy changes have on different groups of people. In doing so, I am able to help better inform policymakers of the possible economic outcomes of future reforms. The first chapter examines the labor market impacts of two state-level immigration policies designed to reduce the presence of undocumented immigrants: E-Verify and “Show Me Your Papers” (SMYP). Using a difference-in-difference strategy, I examine the separate and combined effects of these laws on the employment and wages of likely unauthorized, working-age men and women and the groups of low-skill American workers with whom they are most likely to compete for jobs. I also look at how these laws impact state-level economic outcomes, including industryspecific GDP. I find that immigration reform reduces employment and hourly wages among undocumented men. Immigration reform also results in large, negative impacts on state GDP, especially in industries that rely more heavily on undocumented workers. The second chapter examines the questions of whether consumers respond differently to taxes of different salience levels and if there is heterogeneity in consumer tax salience across income groups and other categorical groups such as age and education groups. I find evidence supporting tax salience theory in the market for alcohol. Additionally, I find evidence of heterogeneity in tax salience effects across different education levels. In particular, more educated consumers are more responsive to changes in sales taxes. The third chapter focuses on the impacts of immigration reform on the children of undocumented immigrants. By comparing siblings in a difference-in-difference approach, I show that DACA, a policy that reduces legal barriers for young undocumented immigrants, increases the educational attainment of potentially eligible youth. Meanwhile, policies such as Alabama HB 56, which increase barriers for undocumented immigrants, reduce the enrollment rates and increase dropout rates for the children of undocumented immigrants.

In three event studies, this paper presents estimates of the effects of the 1990– 1991, 1996–1997, and 2007–2009 rounds of federal minimum wage hikes on the employment of teens and high school dropouts in states without super-federal minimum wages. In state-year panel data from the Current Population Survey, a control group of people ages 25–59 with at least a high school education generates counterfactual series that track teen and drop out employment rates quite well (outside the periods of wage hikes). Deviations from the counterfactual series in the post-hike period identify the employment effects of the minimum wage hikes. For the 1990–1991 and 2007–2009 rounds, the employment effects for teens and dropouts are negative, statistically significant, economically large, and robust to the treatment of trends. I also find meaningful differences by sex, race, and age for teens. Welfare reform contaminates analysis of the 1996–1997 round, but monthly estimates of the employment effects in that round resemble monthly estimates in the 1990–1991 round until welfare reform rolled out in the second half of 1997.

I adopt a measure of task-based routineness from Autor and Dorn (2013) to investigate the effects of routineness on various demographic groups. I analyze data from the Current Population Surveys between 1976 and 2017 to determine which groups, separated by race, gender, and age, are most strongly affected by routine-biased technological change. My findings suggest that women are most negatively affected by occupational routineness. Further, both women’s concentration in highly routine occupations and women’s educational attainment trends from 1976 to 2017 could explain women’s increasing susceptibility to changes in routineness.

Researchers have posited that larger, denser metropolitan areas have important consumption advantages. We examine this us- ing Cragg two-part hurdle and ordinary least square (OLS) regression models employing data from the American Time Use Survey. We test whether: 1) large metropolitan area residents participate in more out- of-home activities because these activities are more plentiful, richer, and/or easier to access, 2) large metropolitan areas have lower travel times because of higher densities, and 3) activities in larger metro- politan areas have more positive associations with subjective well-being than those in smaller places. We reject all three hypotheses. Metropoli- tan area population size is largely unrelated to time spent outside the home, excluding travel. Large-metropolitan-area residents participate in more arts and entertainment activities and eat and drink out more often, but they socialize, volunteer, and care for others outside the home less. Larger metropolitan areas are associated with dramatically more travel time. We find no evidence that large metropolitan area activities contribute any more or less to life satisfaction or affect than activities in smaller places. We also find that life satisfaction does not covary with metropolitan area size. In sum, living in a large metropoli- tan area may primarily involve a tradeoff of (travel) time for money (higher wages), with little net change in welfare.

Existing studies within the field of health economics have identified a negative causal relationship between socioeconomic status and mental health and have begun to investigate underlying mechanisms for the purpose of designing more effective welfare policies. By evaluating the impact of psychoeconomic factors associated with poverty and economic hardship, I hope to add a nuanced understanding of how these factors can interact to adversely affect mental health by furthering the development or occurrence of mood disorders. Using OLS estimation techniques, my findings indicate that there is a strong correlation between conditions of impoverishment and symptomatic experiences of anxiety and depression, such that an individual who lives at or below the poverty threshold is susceptible to experiencing more pronounced symptoms of anxiety and depression than an individual who does not experience income constraints.

Unlike other Yiddish dialects that were diminished to the point of virtual obsolescence in the decades following World War II, Hasidic Yiddish remains the dominant language for several hundred thousand Hasidic Jews across the globe. And yet, a survey of the research on Yiddish linguistics published during the second half of the 20th century does not reflect this reality. In this article, I review how the ideological underpinnings of Yiddish linguistics created and perpetuated a disciplinary preoccupation with a hypothetical standard at the expense of theoretically informative empirical studies of an evolving Yiddish dialect. Specifically, I show how linguistic chauvinism, a series of calamitous events, and historical anti-religiosity complicated by new resentments, led to the erasure of Hasidic dialects from Yiddish scholarship. Finally, I highlight significant contributions that recent empirical studies of Hasidic Yiddish are making to the field of linguistics.

Naturalization bestows economic benefits to immigrants, their families and communities through greater access to employment opportunities, higher earnings, and homeownership. It is the cornerstone of immigrant assimilation in the United States. Yet, less than 800,000 of the estimated 8.8 million legal permanent residents eligible to naturalize do so on a yearly basis. Using data from the 2008-2016 American Community Survey, we analyze how the expansion of interior U.S. immigration enforcement affects naturalization patterns. We find that the intensification of interior enforcement increases migrants’ propensity to naturalize and accelerates their naturalization, possibly in response to increased uncertainty about future immigration policy. Yet, the impacts are highly heterogeneous. For eligible-to-naturalize immigrants living in mixed-status households—households with at least one unauthorized member, we find the opposite effects. Intensified enforcement makes them less likely to naturalize or to delay their status adjustment, possibly to avoid any contact with immigration officials. Understanding how immigration policy influences naturalization decisions is important given the benefits to naturalization and the potential to counter the adverse impacts of tougher enforcement on the 16 million individuals, many of them U.S. citizens, residing in mixed-status households.

Marginal tables are the workhorse of capturing the correlations among a set of attributes. We consider the problem of constructing marginal tables given a set of user's multi-dimensional data while satisfying Local Differential Privacy (LDP), a privacy notion that protects individual user's privacy without relying on a trusted third party. Existing works on this problem perform poorly in the high-dimensional setting; even worse, some incur very expensive computational overhead. In this paper, we propose CALM, Consistent Adaptive Local Marginal, that takes advantage of the careful challenge analysis and performs consistently better than existing methods. More importantly, CALM can scale well with large data dimensions and marginal sizes. We conduct extensive experiments on several real world datasets. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of CALM over existing methods.

Each child’s social and emotional development underpins overall development and greatly influences his or her lifelong trajectory. Infants and toddlers experience a period of rapid brain development marked by great possibility and vulnerability, depending on their family and community contexts. The first years of life are particularly crucial to a child’s development of a sense of security and attachment with others, foundational activities that undergird subsequent social and emotional development. Prolonged stress brought on by trauma—parental substance abuse, poverty, and other family, social, and/or environmental factors—places healthy development at great risk. Nurturing relationships with parents and caregivers can mitigate these risks, especially with early identification and support for young children’s mental health needs along with those of their parents. But when such stress gets in the way of consistent caring and responsive parent-child relationships, it can lead to a host of health, behavioral, social, and emotional difficulties for the child throughout his or her life.