Tere are long-standing issues around race, culture, and representation in contemporary planning for heritage places within cities. Tis thesis critiques the implications of a spatially bound cultural and business district model for preserving and fostering increased Black Arts and enterprise, and identifes the criteria that need to be in place (or considered/included) for a cultural planning strategy to be successful in mitigating displacement and exclusion in support of post-industrial (Black) heritage places. Focused on the City of Oakland, where the Black Arts Movement and Business District was adopted just this year on January 19th 2016, this study ultimately argues for the embracing of a more nuanced, evidence-based methodology that gives voice to the self-identifed cultural features of targeted groups, and a departure from established, top-down cultural planning practice. An extensive literature review provides a history of Oakland’s Black arts communities, and pulls from many social-science felds, including urban theory, public policy, sociology, anthropology, race and gender, and tourism studies to provide evidence for this critique. An experimental qualitative methodology (cognitive mapping) further identifes signifcant concepts from semi-structured interviews that provide stepping stones for larger questions about the implications of cultural planning. Tis study concludes that the creative strategies are not a panacea for underperforming downtowns, and that heritage-based cultural planning strategies might actually harm or displace cultural expression among historically disenfranchised groups.

We construct a model of household decision-making in which agents consume a private and a public good, interpreted as childrens welfare. Childrens utility depend on their human capital, which is produced from parental time and human capital. We first show that as returns to human capital increase, couples at the top of the income distribution should spend more time on children. This in turn should reinforce assortative matching, in a sense we precisely define. We then embed the model into a Transferable Utility matching framework with random preferences `a la Choo and Siow (2006) which we estimate on US marriage data for individuals born between 1943 and 1972. We find that the preference for assortative matching by education has significantly increased for the white population, particularly for highly educated individuals; but not for blacks. Moreover, in line with theoretical predictions, we find that the marital college-plus premium has increased for women but not for men.

Although the incidence of cervical cancer has been declining steadily since the Pap smear became standard of care in the U.S., many African immigrants are unfamiliar with this screening test and its potential benefits. Using data from the CDCs National Health Interview Surveys, we identified respondents who were black women living in the United States, distinguishing U.S.-born (n = 620) and African-born (n = 36). We constructed a measure of current Pap status and used multivariate logistic regression models to compare Pap status between the two groups. Controlling for income, age, education, health insurance, and marital status, African American women were over 3 times more likely to have reported a current Pap smear than African-born women [Adjusted OR = 3.37, 95 % CI = (1.89, 5.96)]. Being an African-born woman was the strongest predictor of current Pap status. Distinguishing immigrant status in an analysis of cervical cancer screening rates for black women indicated much lower Pap smear rates for African-born women, compared with African-American women. More research on the impact of education and culturally specific care is needed to address the disparity in Pap smear rates for African-born black women.

During the 2000s, several states adopted laws requiring employers to verify new employees eligibility to work legally in the USA. This study uses data from the 20052014 American Community Survey to examine how such laws affect unauthorized immigrants locational choices. The results indicate that having an E-Verify law reduces the number of less-educated prime-age immigrants from Mexico and Central Americaimmigrants who are likely to be unauthorizedliving in a state. We find evidence that some new migrants are diverted to other states, but also suggestive evidence that some already-present migrants leave the country entirely.

This dissertation includes a series of studies that present innovative methodologies to improve tornado risk and vulnerability assessments. Limitations of the historical tornado dataset are well known and relate to inconsistencies in data collection procedures, rating assessments, updates in technology, and public awareness. The limitations make it difficult to accurately evaluate tornado risk and vulnerability. Thus, the research presented in this dissertation aims to 1) improve tornado risk assessments using the historical dataset by accounting for known non-meteorological factors and 2) enhance tornado vulnerability assessments by utilizing a new dataset containing more precise damage survey data. This work includes three individual studies, two focused on risk and one on vulnerability, using different geographic scales. Tornado occurrence rates computed from the available reports are biased low relative to the unknown true rates. A method to estimate . . .

Developing an evolution model of the Internet has been a long standing research challenge. Such a model can improve the design and placement of communication infrastructure, reducing costs and improving users' quality of experience. While communication infrastructure is tightly coupled to geographical locations, Internet modelling and forecasting in the last decade used network elements that are only loosely bounded to any geographical location. In this paper we set the foundations for developing an evolution model of the Internet based on the Point of Presence (PoP) level. As PoPs have a strong geographical grip they can better represent the evolution of the Internet. We annotate the PoP topologies of the Internet with geographical, economic and demographic information to achieve an understanding of the dynamics of the Internet's structure, in order to identify the constitutive laws of Internet evolution. We identify GDP as the strongest indicator on the country level, and the size of the TV market as the strongest indicator on the US metropolitan level. Finally, we draw attention to the limitations of developing a world-wide evolution model.

This paper provides a quantitative assessment of the economic contribution of unauthorized workers to the U.S. economy, and the potential gains from legalization. We employ a theoretical framework that allows for multiple industries and a heterogeneous workforce in terms of skills and productivity. Capital and labor are the inputs in production and the different types of labor are combined in a multi-nest CES framework that builds on Borjas (2003) and Ottaviano and Peri (2012). The model is calibrated using data on the characteristics of the workforce, including an indicator for imputed unauthorized status (Center for Migration Studies, 2014), and industry output from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Our results show that the economic contribution of unauthorized workers to the U.S. economy is substantial, at approximately 3% of private-sector GDP annually, which amounts to close to $5 trillion over a 10-year period. These effects on production are smaller than the share of unauthorized workers in employment, which is close to 5%. The reason is that unauthorized workers are less skilled and appear to be less productive, on average, than natives and legal immigrants with the same observable skills. We also find that legalization of unauthorized workers would increase their contribution to 3.6% of private-sector GDP. The source of these gains stems from the productivity increase arising from the expanded labor market opportunities for these workers which, in turn, would lead to an increase in capital investment by employers.

This dissertation comprises three papers on the impacts of health insurance and taxation policies on individuals health care and labor market outcomes. The policy contexts include income tax subsidy reform, group health insurance regulation, and public health insurance expansion. In every chapter, I use state by year policy variation and individual level survey data to provide the effectiveness and efficiency cost analysis of these policies. My first chapter presents new empirical evidence on the impact of tax subsidies for Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) on group insurance coverage. HSAs are tax-free health care expenditure savings accounts. Coupled with high deductible health insurance plans (HDHPs), they together represent new health insurance options. The tax advantage of HSAs expands the group health insurance market by making health care more affordable. Using individual level data from the Current Population Survey and exploiting policy variation by state and year from 2004 to 2012, I find that HSA tax subsidies increase small-group coverage by a statistically significant 2.5 percentage points, although not coverage in larger firms. Moreover, if the tax price of HSA contribution decreases by 10 cents, small-group insurance coverage increases by almost 2 percentage points. I also find that for older workers or less-educated workers, HSA subsidies are associated with 2-3 percentage point increase in their group insurance coverage. In the second chapter, I provide new empirical evidence on the impacts of state and federal mental health parity laws on related labor market outcomes, particularly working time. Implemented in the last two decades, these policies aim to eliminate differences in mental and physical health benefits among group health plans. The mandated benefits for mental health drive up the costs of providing health insurance substantially. In response, employers may avoid hiring more full-time workers, whose compensation includes health insurance, by increasing working time per worker and reliance on part-time employment, and employees have an incentive to increase their labor supply to qualify for the benefits. Using individual level data from the Current Population Survey and exploiting policy variation by state and year, I find state parity laws increase average weeks worked by 1.4%. Since self-insured firms are exempted from state regulations, parity is estimated to have nearly twice as large an effect on small firms as it does on large firms. Moreover, I study two federal parity laws and find the more expansive one is associated with 1.7% more weeks worked. Overall, there is no strong evidence that parity laws affect hours worked and prevalence of coverage significantly. The third chapter examines the effect of public health insurance expansions during 1997-2002 on the mental and behavioral health of children. Using three waves of the National Survey of Americas Families (NSAF) and legislative State Childrens Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) income eligibility thresholds by state-year-age, we explore the causal impact of SCHIP generosity on participation, general health care utilization, mental health service utilization, and finally childrens mental and behavioral health measures. Our results first show that SCHIP thresholds significantly increased public health insurance coverage and general health care utilization. However, there is almost no statistically significant evidence of increases in mental health care utilization or improvements in general mental health outcomes for the whole sample, When we focus on the Assessing the New Federalism (ANF) study states that comprise the bulk of the NSAF sample, we find a bit more evidence that SCHIP expansions may have slightly increased the probability of receiving mental health care as well as a few specific mental health outcomes for some age groups, but overall estimated effects remain small.

Latina/os are the fastest growing demographic group in the United States but deterministic views of race and ethnicity have created a habitual way of assessing Latina/os in social science research – including higher education. This homogenous approach overlooks the racial and ethnic diversity of Latina/os who yield from 21 different countries from around the world. Thus, AfroLatina/o students have been overlooked in higher education research. This study utilized qualitative research methods and a phenomenological approach in order to gain an in-depth understanding of how AfroLatina/o college students at a small, commuter, urban, public institution in the Northeastern United States mold their racial and ethnic identities, how they negotiate in-group acceptance, and how the prior two impact their academic persistence. Three key findings emerged from this study: (1) AfroLatina/o student mold their own identities by reflecting on their experiences of pain and rejection, (2) their group membership is contingent on many factors not just phenotype or language, and (3) their academic persistence is impacted by their urban environment more than other factors.

This dissertation contains three chapters. The first chapter studies the causal effect of local bank financing on employment growth in service occupations. Using changes in liquor laws as quasi-exogenous shifts in labor-intensive economic opportunities, I document that service employment increases most in areas with high local finance. Young firms (ages 2-3) account for over one-third of this employment growth. County and year fixed effects, a matching procedure, and a battery of robustness tests suggest that the findings are not driven by unobserved confounding factors. Further analysis reveals that local finance is correlated with recent employment patterns in the aggregate US labor market that have fundamentally shifted labor market outcomes in recent decades. The second chapter examines the role of stock market prices on firm investment decisions. A growing body of empirical finance research uses mutual fund liquidity trading as an exogenous shock to stock prices to measure the causal effects of stock prices on corporate policies. This paper shows that these shocks are not exogenous to stock prices. They violate as-if random assignment required for valid causal inference resulting in severe covariate imbalance between treatment and control firms, particularly in size, returns, and liquidity. These covariates directly affect corporate policies, ultimately creating an omitted variables bias. In a balanced sample, I document that covariate imbalance between treatment and firm characteristics drives prior results that document causal effects of stock prices on payout and equity financing. The third chapter assesses how incumbent firms respond to abrupt increases in product market competition. Theory predicts that incumbent firms can either deter new competitors by making irreversible investments or accommodate new competitors by making reversible investments. I test this theory using a quasi-experimental setting in which bars and restaurants face higher competition following changes in alcohol laws. On average, the results support the accommodation strategy; incumbent firms increase employment investment. However, in the most competitive product markets, incumbent firms reduce irreversible investment thereby contradicting the deterrent investment hypothesis. Moreover, these markets become both more competitive and more concentrated, a result that challenges the common theoretical assumption that higher competition leads to lower concentration.

La población de origen mexicano (POM) se define como las personas que tienen ascendencia, linaje, herencia o nacionalidad mexicana que residen en Estados Unidos (EU). Esta poblaciòn tiene especial relevancia en México y EU por su dinámica social, económica y política. Un lugar para que esta mecánica se perciba es la frontera. Si bien la frontera MX-EU es grande y diversa, se distingue a San Diego, California y El Paso, Texas por sus contextos económicos y políticos distintos. Esto para analizar las características demográficas y prospectivas de la POM y de esta manera contrastar sus perfiles actuales y futuros. Las características de la POM presentan diferencias en cada condado consistentes con su estructura económica y entorno político. A nivel nacional la POM conforma el 67.4 % de los hispanos siendo el grupo étnico de mayor presencia en el país. En un siglo la POM de San Diego creció de 5 % de la población total en 1910 a 29.1 % en 2010, mientras que El Paso no presentó cambios drásticos hasta su notable aumento a 79% en 2010. Bajo supuestos de inercia en la fecundidad y mortalidad, la migración es el componente de mayor relevancia en el crecimiento de la POM. Ante un escenario de endurecimiento de la política migratoria, la POM en los condados de interés mantendrá su ventaja comparativa con respecto a la edad por su selectividad migratoria The population of Mexican origin (POM) is defined as people who have ancestry, lineage, heritage, or Mexican nationality residing in the United States (US). This population is particularly relevant in Mexico and the US for social, economic, and political dynamics. A place for this mechanism is perceived is the border. While the MX-US border is large and diverse, it is distinguished to San Diego, California and El Paso, Texas for their economic and political contexts. This to analyze demographic characteristics and foresight of the POM and contrast their current and future profiles. The characteristics of the POM differ in each county consistent with its economic structure and political environment. Nationally, the POM is 67.4% of Hispanic ethnicity being the largest presence in the country. In a century POM San Diego grew from 5% of the total population in 1910 to 29.1% in 2010, while El Paso did not show drastic changes to significant increase to 79% in 2010. Under assumptions of inertia in fertility and mortality, migration is the most important component in the growth of the POM. In a scenario of tightening of immigration policy, this counties maintain its comparative advantage over age for their characteristic selectivity of migration flows in previous decades.

Importance Tinnitus is a common problem for millions of individuals and can cause substantial negative effects on their quality of life. A large epidemiologic study of tinnitus and its management patterns in the US adult population is lacking. Objectives To quantify the epidemiologic features and effect of tinnitus and to analyze the management of tinnitus in the United States relative to the 2014 American Academy of OtolaryngologyHead and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) clinical practice guidelines. Design, Methods, and Participants This cross-sectional analysis of the representative 2007 National Health Interview Survey (raw data, 75764 respondents) identified a weighted national sample of adults (age, 18 years) who reported tinnitus in the preceding 12 months. Data were collected in November 2014 at the University of California, Irvine, and Harvard Medical School. Main Outcomes and Measures In addition to quantifying prevalence, severity, duration, and regularity of tinnitus, specific data regarding noise exposure and tinnitus management patterns during health care visits were analyzed. Results Among an estimated (SE) 222.1 (3.4) million US adults, 21.4 (3.4) million (9.6% [0.3%]) experienced tinnitus in the past 12 months. Among those who reported tinnitus, 27% had symptoms for longer than 15 years, and 36% had nearly constant symptoms. Higher rates of tinnitus were reported in those with consistent exposure to loud noises at work (odds ratio, 3.3; 95% CI, 2.9-3.7) and during recreational time (odds ratio, 2.6; 95% CI, 2.3-2.9). Years of work-related noise exposure correlated with increasing prevalence of tinnitus (r=0.13; 95% CI, 0.10-0.16). In terms of subjective severity, 7.2% reported their tinnitus as a big or a very big problem compared with 41.6% who reported it as a small problem. Only 49.4% had discussed their tinnitus with a physician, and medications were the most frequently discussed recommendation (45.4%). Other interventions, such as hearing aids (9.2%), wearable (2.6%) and nonwearable (2.3%) masking devices, and cognitive behavioral therapy (0.2%), were less frequently discussed. Conclusions and Relevance The prevalence of tinnitus in the United States is approximately 1 in 10 adults. Durations of occupational and leisure time noise exposures correlated with rates of tinnitus and are likely targetable risk factors. Management options suggested by the recently published AAO-HNSF guidelines were followed infrequently.

The goal of this post is to examine the industries occupied by first generation immigrants in the United States during the latter half of the Industrial Revolution, as well as the differences in first generation immigrants industries with consideration to both region and sex. To understand such trends is crucial for a few reasons. By the end of the Second Industrial Revolution, on the eve of World War I, first generation immigrants and their children comprised 38.4 percent of the United States Population. (Jaher 1968, 81) In many of the larger cities alone, such as New York, Chicago, and Detroit, three-quarters of the population was composed of immigrants and their children. (Hirschmann 2009) The impetus for this post lies with the decided impact of first generation immigrants on the makeup of America and its workforce.

The issue of race has long plagued the United States. Slavery caused the Civil War, a conflict that narrowly averted the break-up of the Union (McPherson 2015), and its cessation ushered in Jim Crow laws just as destructive as slavery itself (Woodward 1995). Today, its legacies endure in the form of institutional and cultural practices that sustain the disproportionate incarceration of black males and allow people tacitly to condone the occurrence of black-targeted violence (Alexander 2012). Recent police killings of blacks in several US cities suggest that racism toward blacks remains strong. However strong it is, revisionist writings about slavery over the past half-century have sought to avoid the mistakes of earlier narratives that underestimated the negative effects of racism toward blacks (Faust 2015). The desire not to reproduce such distortions today may ironically contribute to exaggerations of the extent to which harsh treatment and prejudice characterize the contemporary experiences of non-white US immigrant groups. While any such tendencies may seem to follow from clear-cut instances of the historical mistreatment of such groups, evidence suggests such treatment has now considerably waned (Foley 2015; Lee 2015).

The Senate’s budget proposal makes changes to the Opportunity Scholarship voucher program which are expected to cost North Carolina citizens over $170 million over the next fi ve fi scal years. Annual costs will continue to climb in subsequent years. The Opportunity Scholarship Program contains no meaningful accountability measures, so it is unclear what benefi t North Carolina’s citizens are receiving in exchange for these increased costs. Policymakers have no way to determine whether the changes proposed under Section 11A.3 of the proposal will hurt or harm educational delivery for North Carolina’s students.

What is the best way of managing access to sensitive data? This is not a straightforward question, as it involves the interaction of legal, technical, statistical and, above all, human components to produce a solution. This paper introduces a modelling tool designed to simplify and structure such decision-making. The Five Safes model is a popular framework for designing, describing and evaluating access systems for data, used by data providers, data users, and regulators. The model integrates analysis of opportunities, constraints, costs and benefits of different approaches, taking account of the level of data anonymisation, the likely users, the scope for training, the environment through which data are accessed, and the statistical outputs derived from data use. Up to now this model has largely been described indirectly in other papers which have used it as a framing device. This paper focuses specifically on the framework, discusses usage, and demonstrates where it sits with other data and risk management tools. The aim is to provide a practical guide to the effective planning and management of access to research data.

The impact of race on educational attainment has long been a topic of interest to sociologists. However, there have been few studies to examine racial differences among and between various Hispanic groups, relative to educational attainment. This is particularly an important issue given that Hispanics are now the largest disadvantaged minority in the United States. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to address the effects of race on the likelihood of becoming college educated for various Hispanic groups. Specifically, this study racially disaggregates the educational attainment rates of U.S. Hispanics to demonstrate: 1) Hispanic intra-group racial differences; 2) the structural similarity of Hispanic and non-Hispanic intra-group racial differences; and 3) the impact of gender on these racial differences in intra-group educational attainment. Using feminist theory, logistic regression analysis, and the Integrated Public Use Micro-data Series (IPUMS), this study underscores how the ethnic categorization of Hispanics deracializes important racial information on this group. This de-racialization possibly contributes to color-blind racisms where White-Hispanics’ structural privileges . . .

Importance Previous studies identified disparities in health and health risk factors among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adults, but prior investigations have been confined to samples not representative of the US adult population or have been limited in size or geographic scope. For the first time in its long history, the 2013 and 2014 National Health Interview Survey included a question on sexual orientation, providing health information on sexual minorities from one of the nations leading health surveys. Objective To compare health and health risk factors between LGB adults and heterosexual adults in the United States. Design, Setting, and Participants Data from the nationally representative 2013 and 2014 National Health Interview Survey were used to compare health outcomes among lesbian (n=525), gay (n=624), and bisexual (n=515) adults who were 18 years or older and their heterosexual peers (n=67150) using logistic regression. Main Outcomes and Measures Self-rated health, functional status, chronic conditions, psychological distress, alcohol consumption, and cigarette use. Results The study cohort comprised 68814 participants. Their mean (SD) age was 46.8 (11.8) years, and 51.8% (38063 of 68814) were female. After controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, gay men were more likely to report severe psychological distress (odds ratio [OR], 2.82; 95% CI, 1.55-5.14), heavy drinking (OR, 1.97; 95% CI, 1.08-3.58), and moderate smoking (OR, 1.98; 95% CI, 1.39-2.81) than heterosexual men; bisexual men were more likely to report severe psychological distress (OR, 4.70; 95% CI, 1.77-12.52), heavy drinking (OR, 3.15; 95% CI, 1.22-8.16), and heavy smoking (OR, 2.10; 95% CI, 1.08-4.10) than heterosexual men; lesbian women were more likely to report moderate psychological distress (OR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.02-1.76), poor or fair health (OR, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.24-2.95), multiple chronic conditions (OR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.12-2.22), heavy drinking (OR, 2.63; 95% CI, 1.54-4.50), and heavy smoking (OR, 2.29; 95% CI, 1.36-3.88) than heterosexual women; and bisexual women were more likely to report multiple chronic conditions (OR, 2.07; 95% CI, 1.34-3.20), severe psychological distress (OR, 3.69; 95% CI, 2.19-6.22), heavy drinking (OR, 2.07; 95% CI, 1.20-3.59), and moderate smoking (OR, 1.60; 95% CI, 1.05-2.44) than heterosexual women. Conclusions and Relevance This study supports prior research finding substantial health disparities for LGB adults in the United States, potentially due to the stressors that LGB people experience as a result of interpersonal and structural discrimination. In screening for health issues, clinicians should be sensitive to the needs of sexual minority patients.

I exploit the adoption of state-level labor protection laws as an exogenous increase in employee firing costs to examine how the costs associated with discharging workers affect capital structure decisions. I find that firms reduce debt ratios following the adoption of these laws, with this result stronger for firms that experience larger increases in firing costs. I also document that, following the adoption of these laws, a firms degree of operating leverage rises, earnings variability increases, and employment becomes more rigid. Overall, these results are consistent with higher firing costs crowding out financial leverage via increasing financial distress costs.

A new typology of enumeration and tabulation errors found in the manuscript schedules and the published reports of the U.S. Manufacturing Census 1860–1880 is proposed. This is based on a review of historical and contemporary assessments of census accuracy and additional new findings. Detailed case studies of different manufacturing sectors in the rapidly growing city of Cleveland, Ohio, including railroad shops, transportation-related manufacturing, and oil refining are undertaken using non-census sources, as worked examples of census reporting problems, and comparisons are provided with cities in surrounding states. Significant under-enumeration, bias toward small companies, and inconsistent reporting (both within and between census years) emerge as the norm rather than the worst case scenario. The manufacturing census is found to be unsuitable for use in quantitative studies without extensive corroborating evidence of accuracy.