The community conservation enterprises (CCEs) approach is used for advancing integrated conservation and development goals in Sub-Saharan Africa. CCEs aim to enhance resident livelihoods and reduce dependency on park resources. However, the impacts of CCEs are rarely demonstrable. This exploratory study of residents living adjacent to the Greater Virunga Landscape (GVL) in Rwanda and Uganda helps to address this gap by examining the household livelihood strategy of CCEs among GVL residents. Face-to-face interviews with 571 residents were conducted to assess satisfaction with their household livelihood security (food, education, health, financial). Results indicated that investment in CCEs has led to significant improvements in the livelihoods of residents in Rwanda. However, residents of Uganda reported marginal improvements. This study demonstrates the potential of CCEs for improving food and financial security in areas where tourism growth is substantial. Implications of these findings are discussed.

In 2022, nearly 131 million individuals over the age of 15 in the U.S. were married. Meanwhile, slightly over 20 million were cohabiting, and more than 116 million were single. Using the 2012 and 2022 Current Population Survey (CPS), we contrast the share of individuals who are married, cohabiting, and single in the U.S. to examine a decade of change between 2012 to 2022. We compare whether and how the composition of single, cohabiting, and married individuals has shifted over time across key demographic characteristics, including age, race/ethnicity, and educational attainment. This profile is an update of FP-14-01, which compared single, married, and cohabiting households (Lamidi, 2014). By using the cohabitation pointers in the CPS (available in the 2012 and 2022 data), we can detect the relationship status of the respondent regardless of household head status, allowing us to conduct an individual-level analysis (versus household-level).

In Germany, the liberal economic model that replaced the centralized, war-oriented economy of the Third Reich, based on the principles of the “social market economy” and “social partnership,” has led to widely shared prosperity and broad support for democratic values. The system has maintained this model since the end of the war through continuous incremental adaptation. The contributions of Freiburg school ordoliberalism, along with such institutions as collective bargaining, employment-based social insurance, a vigorous antimonopoly policy, and a concern with social justice, have contributed to Germany’s success. An orientation to investment in the productive capacities of the workforce facilitates the sharing of knowledge, in contrast to the more conflictual American system of labor-management relations. Germany does not confuse financial manipulation with the production of value. Germany’s party system has so far kept antidemocratic extremists on the margins.

The U.S. government is responsible for an estimated 5.3 million square miles of domestic airspace and 24 million square miles of oceanic airspace. The February 2023 downing of a Chinese surveillance balloon after it had flown across the country raised questions about the degree to which the U.S. government knows who is flying what over its territorial skies. Like all countries, the United States has finite resources to monitor objects flying through its airspace. At the same time, advances in technology allow the general public, private companies, and civilian government agencies to operate ever-smaller commercially available drones that intentionally or unintentionally capture and contribute to activity in the skies. This trend could make public reports of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) an important source of information for U.S. government officials. This report presents a geographic analysis of 101,151 public reports of UAP sightings in 12,783 U.S. Census Bureau census designated places. The data were collected by the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC), one of the nongovernmental entities that the Federal Aviation Administration has referenced in official documents for where to report unexplained phenomena. The analyses in this report should not be interpreted as an endorsement of any individual report or the overall quality of data that NUFORC has made publicly available. This report provides findings on U.S. locations where UAP reports are significantly more likely to occur and offers recommendations to increase awareness of the types of activities that might be mistaken for unexplained phenomena or that point to potential threats. The research reported here was completed in May 2023 and underwent security review with the sponsor and the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review before public release.

We present an econometric structure for the analysis of intergenerational mobility that integrates non-linearities, the role of maternal-side effects and the impact of grandparents. We show how previously estimated models are special cases of this general framework and what specific assumptions each embeds. Our analysis of linked U. S. data 1900-40 reveals the extent to which inadequate consideration of assortative mating and the impact of mothers produces misleading conclusions.

This technical report describes the creation of statistical weights for version 3.0CenSoc-Numident and CenSoc-DMF mortality datasets using vital statistics data from the National Center for Health Statistics. We describe the structure of CenSoc data, National Center for Health Statistics mortality data, and motivating issues for constructing these weights. We detail the weighting procedure for different groups of records in CenSoc data, and conclude by demonstrating the effect of weights on mortality estimation using a regression framework.

US homeowners receive income tax deductions for mortgage interest payments and state and local property taxes, pay no income tax on their home's imputed rental income, and may exclude most of the capital gains earned from a home sale. This paper characterizes the geographic distribution of the tax expenditures from these tax preferences using a new method that exploits household-level microdata from the 2019 Census Public Use Microdata Sample to simulate homeownership tax expenditures at the Public Use Microdata Area level. I estimate that in the 2018 tax year, $226.05 billion in taxable revenue was lost to the mortgage interest deduction ($28.20 billion), the property tax deduction ($9.51 billion), the exclusion of net imputed rental income ($134.82 billion), and the partial exclusion of housing-related capital gains ($53.52 billion). Large metropolitan areas and neighborhoods with high housing prices receive subsidies in excess of the cost of funding homeowner tax preferences, while the burden of homeowner tax preferences falls heavily on rural areas. If federal income tax law reverted to what existed just prior to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, these geographic disparities would be exacerbated.

I estimate the share of eligible individuals who received unemployment insurance (UI) benefits during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. I use individual data on reported recipiency from the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS-ASEC) survey to validate a UI eligibility algorithm that I then apply to the monthly CPS data. Combined with administrative data on actual payments and adjustments for fraud, I estimate that 88 percent of eligible individuals received UI benefits. When I calculate recipiency by program, I find 98 percent of individuals who were eligible for standard UI received benefits, whereas only 76 percent of individuals who were eligible for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance received benefits.

Objectives. To examine patterns of cumulative environmental injustice with respect to operations of urban oil and gas development in Los Angeles County, California. Methods. Using CalEnviroScreen (CES) 4.0, oil and gas data permit records, and US census data, we examined the association between CES score (grouped into equal quintiles, with the lowest representing low cumulative burden) and oil and gas development (presence or absence of an oil and gas production well) within 1 kilometer of a census block centroid. Results. Among census blocks in the highest quintile of CES score, we observed 94% increased odds of being within 1 kilometer of a well compared with census blocks in the lowest quintile of CES score (odds ratio = 1.94; 95% confidence interval = 1.83, 2.10). In our multivariable model, the proportion of Black residents and higher quintiles of CES score were also associated with increased odds of a nearby oil and gas well. Conclusions. These findings suggest that oil and gas facilities are operating in neighborhoods already cumulatively burdened and with higher proportions of Black residents.

Background: Amid low fertility rates in the industrialized world, some subpopulations have maintained high fertility rates. However, it has often been difficult to study these populations due to limitations in extant data sources. Objective: This paper will demonstrate a method of measuring key demographic indicators for Ultra-Orthodox Jews using demographic and language variables in the American Community Survey (ACS). Methods: Comparison of estimates of total fertility rates derived from ACS estimates of Yiddish and Hebrew speakers to related indicators from small surveys of American Jewish populations and data on same-sect fertility in Israel and the United Kingdom validates the use of Yiddish to identify Ultra-Orthodox Jewish respondents in the ACS. Results: ACS-derived demographic estimates for Yiddish speakers closely approximate estimates derived for Ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities using other methods. Ultra-Orthodox Jews in America have high fertility but very low rates of teen fertility and marriage, and fairly egalitarian marriage ages. Ultra-Orthodox Jewish fertility is high but not necessarily uncontrolled. Conclusions: ACS language data can be used to study relatively small subpopulations with unique demographic characteristics. Contribution: Researchers can use ACS language data to study other demographically unique subpopulations or to study Ultra-Orthodox Jews in more detail than was previously possible.

In December 2021, with COVID-19 cases about to reach their peak, US employment sIn December 2021, with COVID-19 cases about to reach their peak, US employment still remained below its pre-pandemic level, with data indicating a strong labour demand and a weak labour supply. Many US individuals did not work, out of a concern about Covid-19. At the same time, the pandemic affected businesses of different sizes differently. At first, the pandemic hit especially hard small businesses. But later in 2020 the recovery was stronger at smaller businesses than at larger ones. These developments call for a renewed attention to how the labour supply varies across employers of different sizes. I focus on two important determinants of labour supply during a pandemic: the vulnerability to the severe effects of the virus because of pre-existing health conditions and the ability to work from home. I study how these two factors vary across establishments of different sizes. I find that the ability to work from home is higher at larger establishments, for both workers with and without COVID-19 health risk. However, the difference in ability to work from home across these two types of workers does not decrease at larger employers.

Democratic theorists have long argued that states can create more resilient democracies through education. Educational investments are thought to produce more economic equality and instill in citizens greater capacity and responsibility to participate in politics. Using a geographic regression discontinuity design and township-level data from Antebellum New York State, we examine whether state funding for common schools led to higher voter turnout as well as higher earnings and lower inequality. Our estimates support the view that a participatory democratic culture emerged not only because of initial favorable endowments but also because of subsequent government decisions to fund education. New York townships that received more school funding later had higher median earnings, lower earnings inequality, and higher levels of voter turnout. Our findings support the view that maintaining democracy requires active investments by the state, something that has important implications for other places and other times—including today.

The cumulative effect on income inequality of structural economic changes can only be observed in years. We discuss the implications of this point for the empirical approach to the inequality data through a simple linear regression setting. We show that determinants of inequality can only be found by (i) specifying a dynamic model, or (ii) using the average of changes in within-cohort inequalities as the dependent variable. The results obtained with the US and UK data show that these two methods deliver similar results, which significantly differ from those obtained through standard static regression analyses.

Data chronicling the geo-locations of all 61,589 pharmacies in the U.S. (from the Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data (HIFLD) Open Data interface, updated on April 2018) across 215,836 census block groups were combined with Medically Underserved Areas (MUAs) information, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Social Vulnerability Index (CDC-SVI). Geospatial techniques were applied to calculate the distance between the center of each census block and the nearest pharmacy. We then modeled the expected additional travel distance if the nearest pharmacy to the center of a census block closed and estimated additional travel costs, CO2 emissions, and lost labor productivity costs associated with the additional travel. Our findings revealed that MUA residents have almost two times greater travel distances to pharmacies than non-MUAs (4,269 m (2.65 mi) vs. 2,388 m (1.48 mi)), and this disparity is exaggerated with pharmacy closures (107% increase in travel distance in MUAs vs. 75% increase in travel distance in non-MUAs). Similarly, individuals living in MUAs experience significantly greater average annual economic costs than non-MUAs ($34,834 ± $668 vs. $22,720 ± $326). Our findings suggest the need for additional regulations to ensure populations are not disproportionately affected by these closures and that there is a significant throughput with community stakeholders before any pharmacy decides to close.

It is expected that both the PSAP and the responders in the field react quickly and arrive on the scene to emergency events as soon as possible. Fire agencies have been held to standards set in place reflective of where the emergency occurs and how quickly responders are expected to reach that location. Calls that experience delays in meeting these standards should be carefully examined and learned from for future events. Utilizing National Fire Protection (NFPA) population zone recommendations, population zones previously established with 2010 census data and unknown methods were recreated for Evergreen Fire Protection District. Then, utilizing SQL data stored within the Computer Aided Dispatch system, delays in response were found for the calendar 2022 year. Statistical GIS methods were applied to find clustering within the delayed responses, spatial autocorrelation, and correlation to CDOT and Jefferson County road data were analyzed. Statistical significance could not be found for either analysis and the null hypothesis’ of completely spatial randomness in clustering of delayed response and lack of correlation between pavement condition, width, or road slope was accepted. Examination of multiple Origin-Destination (OD) Cost Matrix analyses revealed complications with using the census data and predetermined, distance derived, areas alone for population zones in the mountainous road network of Evergreen, Colorado. This understanding showcases complications with the initial statistical analyses and suggests additional needs in consideration for uneven terrain road networks.

In the United States, urban areas are one of the most energy-insecure spaces with energy-cost-to-income ratios (i.e. energy burdens) as high as 25%. This is more than twice the 10% standard energy insecurity studies use to distinguish highly energy-burdened households. Impoverished, urban areas tend to have residents that live in older and less energy-efficient housing that requires more energy - and thus money - to operate. Examining financial and infrastructural variables of energy insecurity, this dissertation takes a deeper look at the exogenous variation in infrastructure created by the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC): a credit that incentivizes housing developers to build or renovate housing for low-income renters. Specifically, a two-way fixed effects regression model is used to investigate the impact of LIHTC housing supply on the energy burdens of urban PUMAs and ConsPUMAs. The analysis found that PUMAs with more LIHTC units, especially newly-built units, had a significantly negative relationship with energy cost and energy burden in multiple model specifications. Additionally, the analysis also found strong evidence that infrastructure-centered programs like the Weatherization Assistance Program have a significantly negative relationship with energy cost and burden.

Attention to the living arrangements of singles has centered around young adults who increasingly reside with their parents. By comparison, midlife singles remain overlooked despite a substantial rise in singlehood during this life-course stage. Using the 2021 American Community Survey five-year estimates, the authors uncovered the disparate living arrangements of midlife single men and women household heads, defining midlife as those aged 30 to 49 and single as those who were neither cohabiting nor married. The findings revealed that the living arrangements of men and women were near inverses of each other, with most men living alone, whereas most women lived with someone else. Relative to men, a far greater share of women were residing with their children, whereas a larger share of men were in arrangements that did not include children. The distinctive living arrangements speak to the potential differences in familial obligations and available support sources.

This paper studies the long-term effects of in-utero and early-life exposure to pesticide use on adulthood and old-age longevity. We use the cyclical emergence of cicadas in the eastern half of the United States as a shock that raises the pesticide use among tree crop growing farmlands. We implement a difference-indifference framework and employ Social Security Administration death records over the years 1975-2005 linked to the complete count 1940 census. We find that males born in top-quartile tree-crop counties and exposed to a cicada event during fetal development and early-life live roughly 2.2 months shorted lives; those with direct farm exposure face a reduction of nearly a year. We provide empirical evidence to examine mortality selection before adulthood, endogenous fertility, and differential data linkage rates. Additional analyses suggests that reductions in education and income during adulthood are potential mechanisms of impact. Our findings add to our understanding of the relevance of early-life insults for old-age health and mortality.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, labor market outcomes in the United States drastically changed as the country entered its first recession since the Great Recession. The lives of millions of Americans became upended as economic shutdowns and lockdown orders spread across the United States. This paper attempts to quantify and examine the heterogeneity of employment trends before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic along the following four dimensions: race/ethnicity, gender, education, and age. By using cross-sectional data from the Current Population Survey, I gathered a representative sample of different demographic groups in the United States. My objective is to add to the literature by analyzing changes in the employment to population ratio for individual demographic groups through 2021 and 2022. I find that the impacts of COVID-19 on the employment outcomes of these groups varied, but there were many commonalities. While the demographic groups whose employment to population ratios were expected to experience the largest declines in the pandemic year of 2020 did see the largest reductions, many of them also exhibited rapid recoveries in 2021 and 2022. This paper reveals that some of the employment trends observed among the demographic groups may be the result of exogenous factors.

Minnesota has experienced increases in precipitation and river flows, particularly in its southern, heavily agricultural region, since 1940. However, these areas have also experienced significant increases in the extent of corn/soybean cropping and artificial drainage. Currently, the relative contributions of these factors to increased flows are not well understood. There is also some indication that intense rain events have increased across this region and may coincide with increased flood events. However, most climate studies have not considered the roles of watershed antecedent moisture conditions and runoff storage in their proxies of potential flood impact, nor explored any direct observational evidence of intense rain event links with flooding. Therefore, to better understand the relationships between these complicating factors, this study pursued the following three objectives: (1) Apportion the relative contributions of increases in climate, corn/soybean agriculture, and artificial drainage to increased river flows in 21 agricultural watersheds in southern Minnesota, (2) Analyze trends in intense rainfall, antecedent moisture conditions and predicted runoff at 132 climate stations across Minnesota to estimate potential flooding hotspots and, (3) Apportion the relative contributions of intense rain events of different magnitudes, snowmelt, and antecedent moisture conditions to flooding in the Cottonwood River watershed -- a heavily agricultural watershed that has seen exceptional increases in intense rain events and flooding since 1950. To apportion the relative contributions of increases in climate, corn/soybean agriculture, and artificial drainage to increased river flows, trends in precipitation, crop conversions, and extent of drained depressional area in 21 Minnesota watersheds were compared from 1940-2009. Watersheds with large land-use changes had increases in seasonal and annual water yields of >50% since 1940. On average, changes in precipitation and crop evapotranspiration explained less than one-half of the increase, with the remainder highly correlated with artificial drainage and loss of depressional areas. Trends for intense rain events, antecedent moisture conditions and watershed storage were analyzed in 132 precipitation stations within 65 major watersheds in Minnesota. Resulting runoff was predicted using a simplified rainfall-runoff model. Results show widespread increases in intense rain events across southern Minnesota since 1950, but markedly fewer trends in antecedent moisture conditions and predicted runoff. However, exceptional intense rain events, antecedent moisture conditions, and predicted runoff increases are concentrated in and around specific hotspot watersheds in Minnesota. The study shows the importance of considering watershed hydrology when diagnosing potential impacts of intense rain event increases. Relative contributions of intense rain and antecedent moisture conditions to flooding in the Cottonwood watershed were determined using an empirical, data-driven approach which apportioned the roles of snowmelt, intense rain events and antecedent moisture conditions in each every flow (and flood) event 1950-2021. Results suggest that recent major flooding in the Cottonwood has been driven by intense rain events (≥ 75/mm/day), and to a lesser degree by event antecedent baseflow, which reduces channel storage and increases flood stage. Less severe flooding is driven roughly equally by (less) intense rain events (≥ 25mm/day & <75/mm/day) and both antecedent base- and quickflows.