In order to develop policies to mitigate the impacts of climate change on energy consumption, it is imperative to understand and quantify the impacts of climate change and socioeconomic development on residential electric load. This paper develops a feed-forward neural network to model the complex relationships among socioeconomic factors, weather, distributed renewable generation, and electric load at the census block group level. The influence of different explanatory variables on electric load is quantified through the layer-wise relevance propagation method. A case study with 4,000 census block groups in southern California is conducted. The results show that temperature, housing units, and solar PV systems have the highest influence on net electric load. The scenario analysis reveals that net electric load of disadvantaged communities are much more sensitive to rising temperature than the non-disadvantaged ones. Hence, they are much more vulnerable to climate change.

The ability to speak English influences a worker’s ability to succeed. It affects the employment status, work status, earnings and the occupations the workers are in. This article analyzes workers’ ability to speak English by occupation and industry. It also highlights the wage gap among workers that have different levels of English proficiency. The researcher used data from IPUMS datasets to identify the occupations, industries and wages for Oregon’s workers that speak English “less than very well”, speak English “very well” and speak another foreign language, and those that speak only English.

The chapters in this dissertation study entrepreneurship activity and capital market behavior. In Chapter 1, I ask whether the opportunity cost of marriage affects female entrepreneurship. I use World War II casualties as exogenous shocks to local marriage markets across the US and test whether women in high-casualty regions were more active in starting new businesses than women in low-casualty regions. In Chapter 2, I examine hedge funds’ strategic behaviors at investment conferences. I evaluate performances of their stock pitches through event studies and analyze the behaviors and motives of various types of investors. In Chapter 3, my coauthors and I compare two asset pricing tests, the Fama-MacBeth cross-section test versus the Jensen’s alpha time-series test. We study their relevance to a risk-averse investor facing transaction costs as well as their statistical power of detecting anomalies in capital markets.

The post-1960s immigration boom and contemporary demographics have elevated generation-sinceimmigration as a category that is central to analysts and, more generally, to Americans as they make sense of their place in the world around them. This makes the collection of data on immigrant generations imperative if surveys are to keep up with how the nation’s people think about themselves and each other. A clear portrait of contemporary assimilation, and indeed American progress, depends on possessing the right tools to paint such a portrait. That means that surveys must enable researchers to identify respondents’ generation, particularly the third generation of the post-1965 immigration wave.

Individuals with disabilities experience lower education levels, lower employment rates, fewer household resources, and poorer health than people without disabilities. Yet, despite comprising more than one-eighth of the US population, people with disabilities are seldom integrated into sociological studies of inequality. This study uses time use as a lens through which to understand one type of inequality between working-aged people with and without disabilities: participation in daily activities. It also tests whether social disparities (as suggested by the social model of disability) or health disparities (as suggested by the medical model of disability) explain a larger percentage of participation differences. I first consider if disability predicts daily time in market work, nonmarket work, tertiary (health-related) activities, and leisure—net of health and sociodemographic characteristics. Next, I utilize Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition to assess the relative contribution of these characteristics in explaining time differences. Results from the American Time Use Survey indicate that adults with disabilities spend less time than adults without disabilities in market work and more time in tertiary activities and leisure. There is no difference in nonmarket time. Health accounts for the largest percentage of the explained component of tertiary time differences, but depending on the choice of predictors, sociodemographic characteristics account for as much—or more—of the explained component of differences in market and leisure time. Results indicate the importance of disentangling disability from health in sociological studies of inequality. They also support a hybrid disability model in suggesting that both health and sociodemographic characteristics determine how disability shapes daily life.

The rise in wage inequality in the late-20th century has been widely linked to technological progress and the non-monotonic effect it has on workers of different skill levels. Much of the work has been done in the context of recent advances in information and communication technology, which has revolutionized work since the 1970s. This Master’s thesis provides information on the impact of the steam engine, which produced wide and long lasting economic growth from the 19th century to early-20th century. The analysis focuses on high-skilled seamen in the Swedish merchant maritime shipping industry from 1869 to 1914. During this time period steam-powered vessels gradually replace traditional sailing ships. Five high-skill occupations are separately analyzed. Technological change from sail to steam caused large demand for new skills. The new occupation, steam engineers, enjoyed large real wages in the early period of technological adaptation. High relative wages of steam engineers are accompanied by large wage differentials within the high-skill group in the early adaptation period. Towards the end of the period the real wages of steam engineers grew slowly and declined, and the wage dispersion within the group declined. Overall, all occupations in the high-skill group received large absolute wage gains under steam technology. This premium prevails also after controlling for occupational change after switching from sail to steam and controlling for unobservable characteristics.

The American population was on the move, moving West and South, and continued to change the geographic distribution of the American population. The de-industrialization of the North caused many families and person to move in search of employment and affordable housing. Along with this change in the geographic distribution of the US population there was a change in the distribution of the US student population. The purpose of this chapter is to examine three educational indicators and their variation by region and by urbanicity. The three indicators I will be examining are: school enrollment, school dropouts, and grade retention.

the administration proposed a rule that would change regulations governing "public charge" determinations for applicants seeking lawful permanent residence (a "green card") or a temporary visa. 1 Though the new rule explicitly indicates that benefit use by citizen children would not be counted in parents' public charge determinations and that certain groups will not be affected, experience suggests such policy changes can have broad "chilling effects" that lead to immigrant families opting out of public benefits and avoiding interactions with government authorities. Among a range of such concerns, the rule is expected to discourage immigrant families from seeking out public health insurance coverage through Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for their children (Artiga, Garfield, and Damico 2018; Batalova, Fix, and Greenberg 2018; Fix and Passel 1999; Kaiser Family Foundation 2018; Zallman et al. 2018). 2 Our analysis finds that in 2016, 6.8 million citizen children living with one or more noncitizen parents had Medicaid/CHIP coverage. Overall, one in five Medicaid/CHIP-enrolled children were citizens living with noncitizen parents, indicating that disenrollment from Medicaid/CHIP among even a small share of this group would have large effects nationally. Using data from the American Community Survey (ACS), this brief examines trends in uninsurance and Medicaid/CHIP participation among citizen children with and without noncitizen parents between 2008 and 2016. 3 Over that period, federal and state-level policies to increase health insurance coverage rates among the general population also

After working in administration for several years, both authors of this chapter returned full time to the classroom in 2015. One of our primary goals when returning was to build a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) for first- and second-year students. The candidate course was Applied Business Statistics, a required course for all business students . . .

These Web Tables combine FAFSA submission data released by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid, starting with the 2006–07 application cycle, with other nationally representative data to show variation in FAFSA submissions by region, state or jurisdiction, selected applicant characteristics, and over time. The publication presents two measures of the number of FAFSA submissions per person. One measure divides the number of FAFSA submissions by the number of individuals who are 18 through 24 years old, which approximates the population of potential traditional-age undergraduates. The other measure divides the number of FAFSA submissions by the enrollment of undergraduate and graduate students.

We study market segmentation effects using data on U.S. railroads that list their bonds in New York and London between 1873 and 1913. This sample provides a unique setting for such analysis because of the precision offered by bond yields in cost of capital estimation, the geography-specific nature of railroad assets, and ongoing substantial technological change. We document a significant reduction in market segmentation over time. While New York bond yields exceeded those in London in the 1870s, this premium disappeared by the early 1900s. However, the segmentation premium persisted in the more remote regions of the United States.

Panel attrition, or the loss of recruited members from a panel of respondents from whom longitudinal data are being collected, poses a serious risk to the validity of the results produced by panel data. Panel attrition is costly both monetarily and in terms of the effects on data quality and this chapter argues that there may be some benefit in shifting focus from minimizing respondent attrition from a panel to minimizing data attrition from the panel dataset. Using examples from important panels such as the Educational Longitudinal Survey (ELS) and the National Longitudinal Survey (NLS), it also proposes a number of strategies for minimizing the negative effects of panel attrition on longitudinal datasets, including targeted monetary incentives and long-term recontact strategies.

Many studies have shown that women pay a wage penalty for motherhood, whereas men earn a wage premium for fatherhood. A few recent studies have used quantile regression to explore differences in the penalties across the wage distribution. The current study builds on this research and explores trends in the parenthood penalties and premiums from 1980 to 2014 for those at the bottom, middle, and top of the wage distribution. Analyses of data from the Current Population Survey show that the motherhood wage penalty decreased, whereas the fatherhood wage premium increased. Unconditional quantile regression models reveal that low-, middle-, and high-earning women paid similar motherhood wage penalties in the 1980s. The motherhood wage penalty began to decrease in the 1990s, but more so for high-earning women than for low-earning women. By the early 2010s, the motherhood wage penalty for high-earning women was eliminated, whereas low-earning women continued to pay a penalty. The fatherhood wage premium began to increase in the late 1990s, although again, more so for high-earning men than for low-earning men. By the early 2010s, high-earning men received a much larger fatherhood wage premium than low- or middle-earning men.

World War II had many direct and indirect effects on America. Directly, it lead to an increased participation of women in the labor force, the emergence and sustainability of the Military-Industrial Complex, and helped bring America out of the Great Depression. Indirectly, it contributed to much social change: greater college attendance as GIs sought college attendance after the War, and thus created a market for more colleges and universities. Indeed, the three-pronged college system in California (the University of California, the California State System, and the Junior College system), was arguably, the residual effects of the War (see Jencks and Reisman 1968); the Civil Rights Movement was spurred by returning GIs who faced discrimination back in the USA after risking their lives for their country. By all accounts, the post WW II period was characterized by and impressive array of economic and social changes. All this would change right around 1970 when the US experienced a severe economic down turn.

Background: Haitians immigrate to the United States for many reasons, including the opportunity to escape political violence. The extant literature on Haitian immigrant health focuses on post-migration, rather than pre-migration, environments and experiences. Objective: In this study, we analyze health outcomes data from a nationally representative sample of Haitian immigrants in the United States from 1996 to 2015. We estimate age-adjusted associations between pre-migration residence in Haiti during the repressive regimes and generalized terror of Francois and Jean-Claude Duvalier, who ran Haiti from 1957 to 1986. Methods: We used ordered probit regression models to quantify age-adjusted associations between the duration of pre-migration residence in Haiti during the Duvalier regime, and the distribution of post-migration health status among Haitian immigrants in the United States. Findings: Our study sample included 2,438 males and 2,800 females ages 15 and above. The mean age of males was 43.5 (standard deviation, 15.5) and the mean age of females was 44.7 (standard deviation, 16.6). Each additional decade of pre-migration residence in Haiti during the Duvalier regime is associated with a 2.9 percentage point decrease (95% confidence interval 0.6 to 5.3) in excellent post-migration health for males, and a 2.8 percentage point decrease (95% confidence interval, 0.8 to 4.8) for females. Within the subsample of Haitian immigrants with any pre-migration residence in Haiti during the Duvalier regime, each additional decade since the regime is associated with a 3.3 percentage point increase (95% confidence interval, 1.2 to 5.5) in excellent post-migration health for males, and a 2.3 percentage point increase (95% confidence interval, 0.5 to 4.1) for females. Conclusions: Overall, we found statistically significant and negative associations between the Duvalier regime and the post-migration distribution of health status 10 to 57 years later. We found statistically significant and positive associations between the length of time since the Duvalier regime and post-migration health.

America’s population is constantly growing not just in numbers, but in diversity as well. Immigration, while a controversial issue, is a topic that affects every American. While there have been a multitude of studies done about migrants, few have looked at region of origin as a primary factor in economic decisions regarding migration. How much impact does their home country have on their occupational choices? Using microdata from the American Community Survey (ACS) from 2001 to 2016, this multinomial logit regression equation calculates the impact of certain regions of origin on choosing jobs in Manufacturing, Construction, Professional Services, and Other Services. While some of the results line up with expectations or typecasts, such as women being less likely to work in construction, other outcomes are less intuitive. Not only does this model help us to understand certain stereotypes better, but it has immigration policy implications. Occupational distinctions seen in the results could be generated in the region of origin or from barriers present in America. The conclusion encourages further research in the area.

We estimate the effects of residential racial segregation on socio-economic outcomes for native-born Latino young adults over the past three decades. Using individual public use micro-data samples from the Census and a novel instrumental variable, we find that higher levels of metropolitan area segregation have negative effects on Latino young adults’ likelihood of being either employed or in school, on the likelihood of working in a professional occupation, and on income. The negative effects of segregation are somewhat larger for Latinos than for African Americans. Controlling for Latino and white exposure to neighborhood poverty, neighbors with college degrees, and industries that saw large increases in high-skill employment explains between one half and two thirds of the association between Latino-white segregation and Latino-white gaps in outcomes.

Land use/cover change (LUCC) is a major threat to ecosystems. It may affect the abundance and distribution of species. Despite the importance of LUCC to ecological patterns and processes, few quantitative projections are available for use in ecological modelling. To fill in this literature gap, we constructed a LUCC model for Long Island Sound Watersheds (LISW) and explored the potential effect of the future LUCC on the range size of an invasive species (glossy buckthorn, Frangula alnus). We first applied the multi-layer perceptron–Markov chain model to predict the future LUCC in the LISW area within New England, USA, and then used the predicted land use/cover data as input into a species distribution model to simulate the future range size of glossy buckthorn. Our results indicate that under the current LUCC trend, there is a continued loss of forest and an increase of developed land in the near future, and this LUCC affects the relative suitability for glossy buckthorn.

The redrawing of legislative district boundaries is one of most effective ways of elevating the level of minority representation in Congress, but it can similarly be the principal way in which representation and influence are diluted. In this paper, minority representation is evaluated through descriptive representation and substantive representation. Examining the ways in which different bodies redistrict and provide for representation, this study assesses a potential tradeoff that is produced through the creation of districts that provide for descriptive representation. The findings herein suggest that the concentrations of minority populations in districts significantly influence the support of pertinent civil rights legislation. Similarly, the method used to draw the districts produces differing levels of descriptive and substantive representation. This study demonstrates the importance of the close monitoring of redistricting practices, the positive and negative effects of districts with high levels of minority concentration and further provides a framework upon which the decision in Shelby County v. Holder can be understood as potentially threatening to the half century of successes provided for by the Voting Rights Act.