According to the National Science Foundation (2020). "The long-term prosperity of our Nation will increasingly rely on talented and motivated individuals who will comprise the vanguard of scientific and technological innovation" (p. v). This statement suggests that the ability of the United States to remain competitive in a global economy is dependent on an adequate number of college graduates in the STEM fields (Chen, 2009; Hira, 2010; National Science Foundation, 2010). However, many African American students continue to lag behind their White and Asian counterparts in P-20 math and science preparation, enrollment in science and engineering majors in higher education, and participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. Despite these unfortunate realities concerning access to STEM for African American males, HBCUs provide educational opportunities that increase their likelihood of obtaining a STEM degree. Therefore, focusing on HBCUs may provide a pathway to increasing the number of African American male STEM graduates. From a policy perspective, it should be noted, technology has changed the way that we operate globally, and now our world is dominated by advancements in technology. This requires scientific solutions to health and environmental challenges and demands immediate production and highly engineered solutions. Each of these forces ensures the rapid growth in and demand for the STEM workforce. As a result, reluctantly engaging the communities that have been historically less likely to pursue a STEM education such as African American males, puts the United States at risk of further weakening our economy in a global context.

The minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) of 21 has been associated with a number of benefits compared to lower MLDAs, including long-term effects, such as reduced risk for alcoholism in adulthood. However, no studies have examined whether MLDA during young adulthood is associated with mortality later in life. We examined whether individuals exposed to permissive MLDA (<21) had higher risk of death from alcohol-related chronic disease compared to those exposed to the 21 MLDA. Because prior work suggests that MLDA affects college students differently, we also conducted conditional analyses based on ever having attended college. Methods Data from the 1990 through 2010 U.S. Multiple Cause-of-Death files were combined with data on the living population and analyzed. We included individuals who turned 18 during the years 1967 to 1990, the period during which MLDA varied across states. We examined records on death from several alcohol-related chronic diseases, employing a quasi-experimental approach to control for unobserved state characteristics and stable time trends. Results Individuals who reported any college attendance did not exhibit significant associations between MLDA and mortality for the causes of death we examined. However, permissive MLDA for those who never attended college was associated with 6% higher odds for death from alcoholic liver disease, 8% higher odds for other liver disease, and 7% higher odds for lip/oral/pharynx cancers (odds ratio [OR] = 1.06, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.02, 1.10]; OR = 1.08, 95% CI [1.03, 1.13]; OR = 1.07, 95% CI [1.03, 1.12], respectively). Conclusions The 21 MLDA likely protects against risk of death from alcohol-related chronic disease across the lifespan, at least for those who did not attend college. This is consistent with other work that shows that the long-term association between MLDA and alcohol-related outcomes is specific to those who did not attend college.

This paper investigates the cross-occupation effect of offshorability on wage rates by examining the occupation switching behavior of workers previously employed in highly offshorable occupations. Worker-level analysis using the NLSY79 cohort data finds that the inflow of workers who were previously employed in highly offshorable occupations exerts significant downward pressure on wages in the receiving occupations regardless of the offshorability of the receiving occupations. General cross-occupation movement of workers does not generate downward wage pressure for workers in the receiving occupations, indicating that the negative wage effect we find is specific to the influx of workers from trade affected occupations.

This dynamic series builds on the population and development paradigms of recent decades and provides an authoritative platform for the analysis of empirical results that map new territory in this highly active field. Its constituent volumes are set in the context of unprecedented demographic changes in both the developed—and developing—world, changes that include startling urbanization and rapidly aging populations. Offering unprecedented detail on leading-edge methodologies, as well as the theory underpinning them, the collection will benefit the wider scholarly community with a full reckoning of emerging topics and the creative interplay between them. The series focuses on key contemporary issues that evince a sea-change in the nexus of demographics and economics, eschewing standard ‘populationist’ theories centered on numerical growth in favor of more complex assessments that factor in additional data, for example on epidemiology or the shifting nature of the labor force. It aims to explore the obstacles to economic development that originate in high-growth populations and the disjunction of population change and food security. Where other studies have defined the ‘economy’ more narrowly, this series recognizes the potency of social and cultural influences in shaping development and acknowledges demographic change as a cause, as well as an effect, of broader shifts in society. It is also intended as a forum for methodological and conceptual innovation in analyzing the links between population and development, from finely tuned anthropological studies to global, systemic phenomena such as the ‘demographic dividend’. Reflecting the boundary-blurring rapidity of developing nations’ socio-economic rise, the editors are actively seeking studies relating to this sector, and also to Russia and the former Soviet states. At the same time as addressing their underrepresentation in the literature, the series also recognizes the critical significance of globalization, and will feature material on the developed world and on global migration. It provides everyone from geographers to economists and policy makers with a state-of-the-art appraisal of our understanding of demographics and development.

State prevailing wage laws require that construction workers hired by private contractors on public works projects be paid minimum wages equal to corresponding market wages within a given locality. This analysis uses individual-level data from the Current Population Survey and state-level data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics to estimate effects of prevailing wage laws on construction worker employment. The empirical strategy exploits the repeal of ten states’ prevailing wage laws from 1979 – 1995, incorporating both contemporaneous and lagged effects. Findings include a five to nine percentage point probability increase in construction worker employment associated with repeal of prevailing wage laws. Extended analysis includes estimates of differential effects for groups of construction workers by skill-level and race. Findings suggest a strong positive employment effect for construction workers in general, with little evidence to suggest that sub-groups of construction workers are differentially affected by race or skill-level. Exceptions include a five percentage point decrease in probability of construction employment associated with Hispanic workers after three or more years, and an eleven percentage point increase in probably of employment associated with laborers within the first two years of repeal.

We use 130 years of data on historical migrations to the United States to show a causal effect of the ancestry composition of US counties on foreign direct investment (FDI) sent and received by local firms. To isolate the causal effect of ancestry on FDI, we build a simple reduced-form model of migrations: migrations from a foreign country to a US county at a given time depend on (i) a push factor, causing emigration from that foreign country to the entire United States, and (ii) a pull factor, causing immigration from all origins into that US county. The interaction between time-series variation in country-specific push factors and county-specific pull factors generates quasi-random variation in the allocation of migrants across US counties. We find that a doubling of the number of residents with ancestry from a given foreign country relative to the mean increases by 4.2 percentage points the probability that at least one local firm invests in that country, and increases by 31% the number of employees at domestic recipients of FDI from that country. The size of these effects increases with the ethnic diversity of the local population, the geographic distance to the origin country, and the ethno-linguistic fractionalization of the origin country.

Quantitatively mapping the spatial distributions of infectious diseases is key to both investigating their epidemiology and identifying populations at risk of infection. Important advances in data quality and methodologies have allowed for better investigation of disease risk and its association with environmental factors. However, incorporating dynamic human behavioural processes in disease mapping remains challenging. For example, connectivity among human populations, a key driver of pathogen dispersal, has increased sharply over the past century, along with the availability of data derived from mobile phones and other dynamic data sources. Future work must be targeted towards the rapid updating and dissemination of appropriately designed disease maps to guide the public health community in reducing the global burden of infectious disease.

The relationship between war and technology has long attracted scholarly debate between those who argue that armed conflict boosts economic activity and those who maintain that wars have a deleterious effect. Sombart, who originated the concept of creative destruction, provided the classic exposition of the idea that wars stimulate industrialization and technological change. Charles and Mary Beard presented their own version of this thesis when they argued that the American Civil War promoted the economic prosperity of the Northern economy. More recently, Parker attributed the triumph of the West to an aggressive and technologically innovative military tradition. By contrast, Nef proposed that wars had negative consequences that extended beyond the obvious costs of mortality and injuries, or the opportunity cost of mobilizing labor and other resources for the military

Foreign-born blacks have become a large part of the American black population. Compared to native-born blacks, they are more likely to be high-earning, employed, educated, and not institutionalized. The systematic outcome differences have masked the widening of black–white achievement gaps.

This paper provides evidence on the impact of job-protected family leave on leave-taking and employment outcomes. I study the impact of a state-level paid leave program in California on (1) new mothers' leave-taking and (2) subsequent labor market outcomes: female employment, hiring, and separations. I exploit the institutional feature the fact that paid leave in California includes job protection only for women who work at firms with 50 or more employees. I find that the increase in leave-taking as a result of California's program is largest for women who work at large firms and thus have access to job protection. Furthermore, it appears that gains for disadvantaged subgroups (less-educated, unmarried, and minority new mothers) exist only for the subsample of women who work at large firms and thus have access to job protection. I then examine the impact of job-protected leave on female employment. Using a difference-in-difference-in-differences approach, I comparing labor market outcomes for women at large versus small firms in California to women at large versus small firms outside of California after the passage of paid leave. I find suggestive evidence that large employers who are forced to offer job-protected leave decrease female hiring by 1.1% in favor of less costly male employees. However, I also find evidence that female separations decrease by 1.5% as a result of access to job-protected leave, so that female employment overall increases slightly. These results provide evidence of both a supply-side and demand-side effect of job-protected leave. Women are both more attached to a labor force that affords them more flexibility after childbirth, but also are more costly to employers if they are likely to take leave to care for newborns.

The world is increasingly filled with large, rich, and publicly-available data. These data are from a wide array of contexts including education, foreign policy, criminal justice, housing, and health care. Accordingly, undergraduate instructors of statistics and data science have an invaluable opportunity to engage students in social justice through the lens of quantitative analytics. In this paper I elaborate on ways I have incorporated these topics and data across a wide range of undergraduate statistics and data science courses. I also describe ways I seek to foster student reflection on the realities of social inequity, not just as data analysts but as world citizens. I conclude by discussing challenges I have faced and opportunities for future growth.

The Current Population Survey (CPS) is the most widely cited source for estimates on Medicaid enrollment. However, previous literature has shown the CPS underreports enrollment by 30-40% in comparison to state-level records. The question then is how to correct the Medicaid enrollment gap brought on by the CPS. Gross adjustments for the discrepancy may be made, but only if the true amount of enrollees is known. In years when administrative records are delayed or incomplete this is not possible. To date, the methods for correcting underreporting require access to the state-level data which is usually infeasible or unpublishable due to privacy issues. Redesigning the CPS questionnaire itself might alleviate a good part of the undercount but doing so is well beyond the scope of most researchers. A better correction would rely only on the CPS count of Medicaid enrollees so as to avoid privacy concerns and time delays. We propose using stochastic frontier analysis to shrink the gap between the CPS count of Medicaid enrollees and the state records by adjusting the CPS counts to be closer to the state records.

The automation and out-sourcing of routine, codifiable tasks are seen as driving polarization in labor markets in high-income countries. This paper first offers several explanations for why developing countries might show differing dynamics, at least for the present. Census data then confirms this, showing on average no evidence of polarization in developing countries. However, incipient polarization in a few countries as well as major drives to automate in some large, labor intensive producers suggests this may not remain the case. This raises concerns first about the impact on equity within those countries, but second the possibility that the traditional flying geese pattern”— whereby low skilled jobs are progressively off-shored to poorer and poorer countries—may be short circuited.

The Mexican highly skilled diaspora has undergone an exponential growth during the last de- cades to the degree that nowadays there are 1.2 million qualified migrants of Mexican origin worldwide, 300 000 of them have a graduate degree and are settled in at least 67 countries. This article offers a radiography of this strategic segment of the country’s diaspora, highlighting some of the most critical aspects of the national and international context in which it is embedded and participates. To change this path and transform it into a development opportunity constitutes one of the main challenges for Mexico in terms of public policy.

The introduction of immigration quotas in the 1920s fundamentally changed US migration policy. We exploit this policy change to estimate the effect of immigration on local economic growth and industry development. Our analysis demonstrates that areas with larger pre-existing communities of immigrants of nationalities restricted by the quota system experienced larger population declines in the subsequent decades as the quotas reduced the supply of immigrants to these areas. We then show that the quotas led to negative agglomeration effects in the manufacturing sector, while productivity losses are only visible in urban counties, cities, and immigrant dependent industries. We also find that the quota system pushed native workers into low-wage occupations.

In the face of intensifying stresses such as climate change, rapid urban population growth, land use change, and public concern with rates and use restrictions, water management is becoming increasingly complex in the cities of the American West. One strategy to improve water management practices in this changing social-ecological context is to develop collaborative relationships that facilitate the engagement of multiple stakeholders at multiple scales. At the local level, one important but frequently underdeveloped collaborative link is that between university researchers and water utilities, who together occupy the interstitial space between science and decision-making, while at the same time interfacing with water users. Based on workshop data, a pilot survey, and interviews with representative water managers and university researchers from cities across the American West, we identify a number of barriers to establishing collaborative platforms from which utilities and university researchers can effectively work together to tackle challenges around sustainable urban water management in the twenty-first century. We make suggestions for overcoming these barriers and argue that developing an integrated model for university-utility collaborations is a critical area on which we must focus our collective attention if sustainable urban water management is to be achieved.

Debates about the national high school graduation rate have heated up as various national high school graduation estimates based on the Common Core of Data (CCD) and the Current Population Survey (CPS) do not coincide with one another partially due to different assumptions about graduation age. This study found that (a) while graduation rate by age 18 declined, the rate by age 24 remained relatively constant, creating larger differences between the CCD- and CPS-based rates and that (b) males and minorities particularly take more time to obtain a high school degree among the recent birth cohorts.

One popular view is that World War II ended the Great Depression and led to a postwar boom in the United States. On the other hand, recent studies suggest that the reallocation of resources to meet war demands may have imposed more costs than benefits. In the first part of this chapter we review recent evidence on the wars impact on the United States economy at both the national and local levels. In the second part we extend recent work on the impact of World War II on local economies. We use a simple spatial equilibrium model and data for all United States counties to estimate the long-run impact of the war-related spending on income per capita, population, and median housing values per decade from 1960 to 2010. The empirical results show that the main changes in local economies were due to the reallocation of population toward counties that received more per capita war spending. The War was associated with very little growth in income per capita and median house values. When combined with the model, these results suggest that mobilization for World War II was mostly correlated with an increase in the value of local amenities, which were likely related to the proximity to defense-related industries and associated non-wage benefits.