Objective To describe the cause and nature of injuries, and care-seeking behaviour following injury, among community-dwelling older adults. Methods We used 10years of the nationally representative Integrated Health Interview Series data, providing information on individual characteristics, cause and nature of injuries, and care-seeking behaviour for 3074 adults 65years of age and older. Univariate and bivariate analyses were used to evaluate overall patterns and test for group-level differences. Results Approximately 40% of injuries were characterised as hip fracture, head injury and/or other fracture, with the remaining 60% consisting of other, milder types of injuries like bruises, strains and sprains. Fifty-eight per cent of injuries required a visit to the emergency room or transportation via an emergency vehicle, and 19% required hospitalisation. Injuries sustained in a fall were more likely to be serious than those due to other reasons. Older women, those ages 80+, those living with others with no spouse or partner present and those with activities of daily living/instrumental activities of daily living disabilities were more vulnerable to serious injuries and serious injury consequences relative to other older adults. Conclusions Our results suggest that injuries, especially falls, are a pressing public health concern for the growing population of older adults. Injury prevention outreach should take extra measures to reach certain subgroups of older adults that have been identified as especially vulnerable. Because so many injuries are due to reasons other than falling and/or do not result in hospitalisation, more interventions should be designed for general injury prevention and outpatient settings.

In the first chapter of this dissertation, I propose a methodology to conduct counterfactual analysis in a way that is robust to specific assumptions about primitives of linear models of dynamic stochastic economies. Then, I apply the methodology to quantify how fiscal unions contribute to regional stabilization. I start by showing how to identify a set of models that yield the same counterfactual equilibrium after a policy change by imposing restrictions directly on equilibrium equations. Next, I describe how to construct this counterfactual equilibrium using data under a benchmark policy. The methodology allows obtaining quantitative predictions with respect to policy changes with minimal a-priori structural assumptions while being immune to Lucas critique, enhancing credibility of the analysis. In the application to fiscal unions, I focus on models where the federal government redistributes resources via a transfer policy rule, which is a function of local variables, in order to smooth local shocks. Using US state-level data, I construct a counterfactual US economy without the rule in place. This counterfactual is identical in many fiscal union models with rich features, such as nominal rigidities and asset market incompleteness. My primary finding is that during the Great Recession fiscal integration significantly reduced cross-state employment differences by redistributing resources from states that were doing relatively well to states that were doing relatively poorly. Finally, I discuss how the methodology can further be used to falsify a set of models, provided data before and after a policy change are available. In the second chapter of this dissertation (joint with Erik Hurst and Juan Ospina), we study the aggregate implications of regional business cycles. We argue that it is difficult to make inferences about the drivers of aggregate business cycles using regional variation alone because (i) the local and aggregate elasticities to the same type of shock are quantitatively different and (ii) purely aggregate shocks are differenced out when using cross-region variation. Then, we highlight the importance of these issues in a monetary union model, and by contrasting the behavior of US aggregate time-series and cross-state patterns during the Great Recession. In particular, using household and retail scanner data for the US, we document a strong relationship across states between local employment growth and local nominal and real wage growth. These relationships are much weaker in US aggregates. Finally, in order to identify the shocks driving aggregate (and regional) business cycles, we develop a methodology that combines regional and aggregate data. The methodology uses theoretical restrictions implied by a wage setting equation that holds in many monetary union models with nominal wage stickiness. We show how to estimate this equation using cross-state variation-- thus linking particular . . .

Minnesota was one of the first states with an established state trail system and was an early promoter of the railto-trail movement. Minnesota currently has over 1,300 miles of state trails, the system was recognized nationally by American Trails in 2010 (DNR 2015). See Figure 1.1 for a map of the current state trail system. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has completed detailed studies of trail use since the 1990s. Yet, due to staffing and resources, DNR has relatively little information to demonstrate how many people use state trails today. In recent years, many organizations have begun non-motorized traffic counting initiatives. Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, Three Rivers Park District, Transit for Livable Communities, University of Minnesota, along with other organizations in the state are actively counting bicyclists and pedestrians. These projects have been primarily in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area until the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s (MnDOT) Bicycle and Pedestrian Counting Initiative, developed in collaboration with Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota (MnDOT, 2016). DNR staff identified an opportunity to consider methods for monitoring use of state trails into the future. A group of students at Humphrey School of Public Affairs organized to address this need and gain exposure to methods for . . .

This project seeks to investigate the development of the Habermasian public sphere in Columbia County, NY, during the rapid expansion of railway transportation from the middle-to-the late-19th century, by gathering and presenting information about the proliferation of railway stations and select public institutions between 1840 and 1900. In charting the spread of area libraries, newspapers, post offices, and churches during this period, this project utilizes and combines methodological approaches taken by a number of landmark recent studies in historical geography and digital history; in so doing, it prototypes the research and pedagogical value and promise of incorporating an array of practices within a single study. Ultimately, this project posits that a spatial understanding of the emergence, colocation, and interaction of these public institutions opens up new lines of inquiry into how residents of Columbia County, NY, experienced and influenced radical change during industrialization.

Given the clear benefit for both public and private finances of extending work lives, many policymakers are interested in finding and promoting ways to accomplish this objective while balancing concerns for work ability at older ages. At the same time, retirement itself is transforming from a simple transition from full-time work to full and permanent retirement to more of a process, potentially occurring in several stages over a number of years. We consider a set of work transitions at ages when the largest numbers of people are retiring and potentially pursuing different paths to full and permanent retirement. Among workers who transition between occupations, the most common transitions are between those that are closely related. However, even within closely related occupations, there are no large pipelines between any two. By age 62, 57 percent of workers are no longer in the labor force, 26 percent are still in their “career” occupation, and 17 percent have changed from their career occupation to another occupation. Beginning at age 66, however, the percentages in different occupations, which may be bridge employment or unretirement, are very similar to the percentages remaining in career occupations. Occupational changes later in life tend to be accompanied by decreases in hourly earnings, suggesting that if workers are seeking flexible or part-time bridge employment, it may come at a cost.

In this paper, we implement Monte Carlo simulation to examine asymptotic properties of the estimator of random-coefficient logit models of demand for non-durable consumer goods under an equilibrium assumption in the presence of micro moments as the number of the examined regional markets increases. The national micro moments are manufactured from the joint distribution of demographic information of consumers choosing those products with certain discriminating attributes. We observe that adding an equilibrium assumption and the micro moments gives asymptotic normality with sharper asymptotic variance-covariance matrix, while correcting asymptotic bias reported in Freyberger (2015). We discuss possible reasons for such a phenomenon.

Rapid economic and social change characterized the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One salient aspect of this change concerned investment in formal educational attainment, which had significant implications for human capital accumulation in the labor force (Goldin and Katz 2007). Publicly funded high schools diffused throughout the U.S., and by the middle of the twentieth century four years of high school became a normal part of life. At the same time, many women entered the formal labor market, and relatively welleducated women often found employment as schoolteachers. In addition, the South began to industrialize and urbanize, and improvements . . .

Utilizing the 1910 US Census Public Use Micro Sample(PUMS) data provided by Minnesota Population Center(IPUMS-USA), this study analyzes family structure and socioeconomic characteristics of the early Korean immigrants in Hawaii. From the descriptive statistics, the findings from previous studies- Korean immigrants at the time were overwhelmingly young, single, and male who migrated to Hawaii circa 1903 as farm laborers- are confirmed. Also, it is inferred from the crosstabulation results that one’s family structure and occupation are closely related. As next stage, multivariate regression models are applied, and it is revealed that family structure and occupation are two most important variables exerting statistically significant effects on one’s SEI even after various factors-such as age, assimilation factors and urban/rural residence- are simultaneously controlled for. This study can be understood as a verification of the findings from existing studies using a large and representative US census microsample data, but some of the findings are new and adds new perspectives to the study of early Korean immigrants in Hawaii.

From the late 2000s, racial salary discrimination against black players emerged in the National Basketball Association (NBA) league. At the same time in the United States, the income gap between white and black citizens, which had been decreasing in the previous 20 years, stalled in the mid-2000s and started to increase again from the late 2000s. In this study, we examine whether increasing racial salary discrimination against black players in the NBA is a reflection of the non-shrinking disparity of pur- chasing power of white and black citizens. Using census data, we calculate the median income ratio of white and black males in each metropolitan area where at least one NBA team is located. Then, we examine whether the white premium of the salary of an NBA player is correlated with the median income ratio between white and black citizens of the metropolitan area where the player’s team is located. We find that the white premium becomes higher in a metropolitan area where the median income gap is smaller. This suggests that the non-shrinking income gap between white and black citizens is not the cause of increasing salary discrimination against black players in the NBA in the late 2000s and 2010s.

We analyze the impact of unemployment on the mental health of Mexican immigrants, comparing them with Mexicans born in the United States, other Hispanics, and white and African-American natives, using the 1999 and 2009 National Health Interview Surveys. Noteworthy is the low prevalence of mental health disorders among Mexican immigrants. Despite strongly increased unemployment rates, mental health problems remained rather stable; nevertheless—while accounting for the possibility of bidirectional causality using instrumental variables—our findings suggest a strong negative effect of unemployment on mental health. Group composition effects help to explain this. The impact of unemployment on mental health strongly increased among native whites while for the socioeconomically more disadvantaged African-Americans and Hispanics the impact was unchanged.

Several factors influenced the composition of migrants in the early 20th century, including World War I, the Literacy Act of 1917, and the implementation of strict immigration quotas. This paper examines whether the United States' first immigration quota, established under the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921, affected migrant selection. The Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 severely capped the number of admittable migrants by nationality. Canadian migrants, or any migrants who resided in Canada for five consecutive years, were unrestricted by the quota and could freely migrate to the U.S. Using transcribed ship records from states bordering Canada (specifically New York, Alaska, and Washington), I compare the skills of restricted migrants to the skills of unrestricted Canadian migrants, before and after establishment of the 1921 quota. Difference-in-differences estimates indicate that the quota resulted in migrants of higher skill.

Health data indicates that there is a large discrepancy between the infant mortality rate among different racial groups. Research attributes this disparity to unequal access to health care and services, but the literature defining this relationship has been ultimately inconclusive. This paper expands on past literature by exploring a relationship between state funding for Medicaid through abortion services and infant mortality rate. My results show that limiting funding for abortion services has a much greater impact on the health of black infants than white infants, as this policy increases the black infant mortality rate by 2.214 (p < 0.01) and only increases the white infant mortality rate by .657 (p<0.01). Further research needs to be done on the potential for an implicit racial bias in the Medicaid program.

Geography as Inquiry invites teachers and learners to explore geography in exciting ways, across key concepts, connected to history and the social sciences, reestablishing its place in the social studies and history curriculum.

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In the context of dramatic changes in family organization, this research analyzes time shared with the family (partner and children) among couples with young children in Spain. The main purpose of the paper is to analyze the differences in the roles of mothers and fathers in dual-earner and male-breadwinner couples. For this purpose, we use information derived from the question with whom the activity is done, which is included in the enumeration form of the Spanish Time Use Survey 20092010. The availability of time-use diaries for all the members of a household allows the use of the couple as a unit of analysis. The descriptive and multivariate results show that mothers spend more time with children than fathers do and that the employment-status variables are the most determining factors. Gender-balanced couples have lower differences in the time that fathers and mothers spend on activities with their children. However, the differences remain high, and mothers are still the main caregivers in the household. These findings apply to a specific context characterized by weak policies related to balancing family and work and by the persistence of a division of roles in the couple with some resemblances to the traditional model, especially in the role that considers mothers the main caregivers.

We develop a new approach for modeling public sentiment by micro-level geographic region based on Bayesian hierarchical spatial modeling. Recent production of detailed geospatial political data means that modeling and measurement lag behind available information. The output of the models gives not only nuanced regional differences and relationships between states, but more robust state-level aggregations that update past research on measuring constituency opinion. We rely here on the spatial relationships among observations and units of measurement in order to extract measurements of ideology as geographically narrow as measured covariates. We present an application in which we measure state and district ideology in the United States in 2008.

Aggregating across heterogenous groups can conceal underlying relationships that can appear when data is disaggregated. This dissertation provides evidence for the importance of heterogeneity by (i) showing how accounting for gender difference in a theoretical model can improve the model's ability to match U.S. business cycle statistics (chapter 1); (ii) empirically documenting the bias by various disaggregated unemployment groups and decomposition methodologies (chapter 2); and (iii) investigating geographical differences in Okun's law and their causes (chapter 3). These three chapters combine to demonstrate the importance of accounting for heterogenous groups when considering various policy implications.

Educational trends are crucial for Indonesia’s continued economic success. Over the past two decades, there have been encouraging improvements in enrolment ratios and progression of children further through Indonesia’s school system. Attendance in primary school is universal, though completion of this level is not. Increases in secondary school enrollment ratios have lagged only slightly behind those of China, Thailand and Vietnam, and Indonesia has done substantially better than India in this regard (Fig. 12.1). It has also made substantial gains in enrollment ratios at the tertiary level. Yet there are many serious problems facing Indonesia’s education system. “The gap in access to education between the rich and the poor remains wide, the quality of Indonesian education is very poor by international standards, and the significant increases in public resources allocated to the sector have yet to have a discernible impact on quality” (Suryadarma and Jones 2013: 13; see also Suharti 2013; Al-Samarrai and Cerdan-Infantes 2013; Suryahadi and Sambodho 2013). This chapter will summarize information from different sources about the progress of Indonesian education. It will make particular use of the 2010 Population Census data in novel ways: first, to check whether regional differentials in educational enrollment are related in . . .

This paper studies the asset pricing implications of a firm’s opportunities to replace routine-task labor with automation. I develop a model in which firms optimally un- dertake this replacement when their productivity is low. Hence, firms with routine- task labor maintain a replacement option that hedges their value against unfavorable macroeconomic shocks and lowers their expected returns. Using establishment-level occupational data, I construct a measure of firms’ share of routine-task labor. Com- pared to their industry peers, firms with a higher share of routine-task labor (i) invest more in machines and reduce more routine-task labor during economic downturns, and (ii) have lower expected returns.