Recent research has put the likely number of Civil War male deaths on both sides of the conflict at 750,000, challenging the conventional number of approximately 620,000. Using similar data and a different methodology, this study supports the newer results in terms of the Confederate states, where we find approximately 346,000 male deaths, a number that far exceeds a long-accepted estimate of 126,000. In fact, our number is about 88,000 more deaths than estimated by even more recent research, putting the number at 258,000. In constructing our number, we estimate the demographic impact of the Civil War on white males who were aged 20-54 in 1870 in the eleven Confederate States. Our approach takes into account both mortality and migration, but it excludes fertility because the youngest age we examine is 20 years. We apply an impact analysis approach using extracts from the micro-level data from the 1850, 1860, and 1870 census counts assembled by the Minnesota Population Center. Using the 1850 and 1860 census counts, we constructed ten-year Cohort Change Ratios (CCRs) for white males by five-year age groups and applied them to 1860 white males aged 10-14, 15-19,…,40-44 by state to project the expected number of white males by five-year age groups, 20-24, 25-29,…, 50-54 for 1870. The results were aggregated into a single age group of 20-54 and compared with the 1870 census numbers for this same age group by state and for all eleven states combined. The Civil War’s demographic impact on white males in all eleven states of the Confederacy due to the combined effects of mortality and migration is estimated by subtracting the 1870 expected number (1,393,125) for age group 20-54 generated by the CCR method from the 1870 actual (census) number (1,047,323). The difference is –345,802 (-24.8%). We also find substantial absolute and relative variation across the eleven states in regard to the war’s demographic impact and discuss these results. Our estimate of Confederate deaths brings the total number of dead on both sides to nearly 850,000, which exceeds the total number of US military deaths resulting from every war and military action in which the United States has participated since the Civil War’s end.

I combine ethnographic, archival and national survey data to interrogate the social contingencies of professionalization. With a focus on nursing, this study illuminates how gender, race and class intervene and structure professional closure, the process of professionalization and professional status and interactions. The gender dynamics in professions both mirror and reinforce inequality regimes in both the United States, broadly, and within organizations. This work adds insight and nuance into theories of work and occupations that are significantly under-socialized and fail to reckon with the importance and centrality of gender and race in institutional and interactional relationships. I take a multi-method approach which explores professionalization at the macro, meso and micro levels to triangulate my analysis around a complex and dynamic process.

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.

Past studies have shown that among immigrant populations of color, greater assimilation into U.S. society leads to poorer health outcomes. In this context of the “immigrant health paradox,” a large number of studies have focused on Latinos rather than other immigrants, such as those of Asian ancestry. This dissertation focuses on people of Asian ancestry because increasing racial and ethnic “diversity” in the U.S. demands broader understanding of health by race and ethnicity. Using theories of immigrants’ selectivity, classic assimilation, belonging or distance to assimilation and discrimination, and social determinants of health, this study examines the relationship between multiple social dimensions and levels of assimilation and self-assessed health outcomes among populations of Asian ancestry. This study uses data from the National Asian American (NAA) Survey of 2008 (N=5,159), and from oral history interviews with 16 paramedics (12 nurses and 4 physical therapists; 3 men and 13 women) of Asian Indian ancestry. The data was analyzed with a mixed methods approach using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Oral History Narratives within the . . .

Rising income inequality can lead to inequitable access to housing because fewer low and middle income residents can afford the market rate prices. In Iowa City, this is driven by the demand from students wishing to live near UI campus. This area of increased renter demand has been dubbed, the University Impact Area. The City of Iowa Citys strategic plan has the stated goal of creating becoming more inclusive, and the comprehensive plan envisions diverse and affordable housing in all neighborhoodsold and new. In anticipation of greater income inequality, the City asked for an investigation to examine trends of housing inequality in the community and develop recommendations that will help the City in its neighborhood stabilization efforts and achieve its goal to maintain healthy neighborhoods that appeal to diverse populations. The report has three components: a historic narrative of housing in Iowa City, a collection of Iowa City stakeholder perspectives, and a series strategies from comparable and innovative cities.

This paper offers the first systematic historical evidence on the role of a central actor in modern growth theory- the engineer. We collect cross-country and state level data on the population share of engineers for the Americas, and county level data on engineering and patenting for the US during the Second Industrial Revolution. These are robustly correlated with income today after controlling for literacy, other types of higher order human capital (e.g. lawyers, physicians), demand side factors, and instrumenting engineering using the Land Grant Colleges program. We support these results with historical case studies from the US and Latin America.

We present results of an evaluation of Reading for Life (RFL), a diversion program for nonviolent juvenile offenders in a medium-sized Midwestern county. The unique program uses philosophical virtue theory, works of literature, and small mentoring groups to foster moral development in juvenile offenders. Participants were randomly assigned to RFL treatment or a comparison program of community service. The RFL program generated large and statistically significant drops in future arrests. The program was particularly successful at reducing the recidivism of more serious offenses and for those groups with the highest propensity for future offenses.

Black incarceration rates in the U.S. grew relative to white incarceration rates throughout the first half of the 20th century despite substantial convergence in education levels and wages between the two groups. This paper considers the First Great Migration prior to 1940 as a factor which increased black male incarceration rates. I construct an individual-level dataset of all southern-born male prisoners and non-prisoners in the 1940 US Census; both groups are matched to their childhood household in the 1920 Census in order to control for across-household selection using household fixed effects. I estimate that migrating to the North roughly doubled an individual’s chance of being incarcerated, increasing the probability of incarceration by 1.55 percentage points. I estimate that the Great Migration was responsible for about 7 percent of the increase in black incarceration rates between 1920 and 1940.

In"A Theory of Prostitution" (Edlund and Korn 2002), a model was proposed (hereafter referred to as the EK model) in which prostitution is seen as an alternative to marriage According to Edlund and Korn, "prostitution is a low-skill, labor intensive, female, and well paid." Because prostitution has such as unusal combination of attributes. traditional labor theories might not be able to explain the wage difference . . .

We examine racial disparities in infants’ exposure to poverty and other forms of disadvantage at the family and contextual levels. Drawing upon data from the American Community Survey, we address four objectives. First, we provide an empirical benchmark of newborns’ exposure to disadvantage at the family level using the official poverty thresholds, a measure of extreme poverty, and other indicators of disadvantage. Second, we use regression techniques to identify the social, demographic, and economic factors that are associated with newborns’ risk of disadvantage, and then use decomposition to identify factors underlying between-race differences. Third, we identify the share of disadvantaged newborns whose parents utilize the government safety net, and identify social and economic determinants of program (under)utilization. Finally, we examine newborns’ exposure to community-level indicators of disadvantage and identify sources of racial differences in exposure. Our objectives contribute to the emerging research on increasing diversity among America’s children.

This paper estimates the incidence of state corporate taxes on the welfare of workers, landowners, and firm owners using variation in state corporate tax rates and apportionment rules. We develop a spatial equilibrium model with imperfectly mobile firms and workers. Firm owners may earn profits and be inframarginal in their location choices due to differences in - location-specific productivities. We use the - reduced-form effects of tax changes to identify and estimate incidence as well as the structural parameters governing these impacts. In contrast to standard open economy models, firm owners bear roughly 40 percent of the incidence, while workers and landowners bear 30-35 percent and 25-30 percent, respectively.

In 2002, the Maryland General Assembly enacted Chapter 288, the Bridge to Excellence in Public Schools Act. The Act established new primary state education aid formulas based on adequacy cost studies. These adequacy cost studies – conducted in 2000 and 2001 under the purview of the Commission on Education Finance, Equity, and Excellence – employed the professional judgment and successful schools methods and other education finance analytical tools. State funding to implement the Bridge to Excellence Act was phased in over six years, reaching full implementation in fiscal year 2008. Chapter 288 requires that a follow-up study of the adequacy of education funding in the State be undertaken approximately 10 years after the enactment of the Bridge to Excellence in Public Schools Act. The study must include, at a minimum, (1) adequacy cost studies that identify (a) a base funding level for students without special needs and (b) per pupil weights for students with special needs, where weights can be applied to the base funding level, and (2) an analysis of the effects of concentrations of poverty on adequacy targets. The adequacy cost study will be based on the Maryland College and Career-Ready Standards (MCCRS) adopted by the State Board of Education. The adequacy cost study will include two years of results from the new state assessments aligned with the standards. These assessments . . .

Background: There is a developing emphasis on intuition and affect in the illness risk perception process, yet there have been no available strategies to measure these constructs in non-English speakers. This study examined the comprehensibility and acceptability of translations of cancer risk beliefs in Haitian-Creole and Spanish. Method: An established, iterative, team-based translation process was employed. Cognitive interviews (n = 20 in Haitian-Creole speakers; n = 23 in Spanish speakers) were conducted in an inner-city primary care clinic by trained interviewers who were native speakers of each language. Use of an established coding scheme for problematic terms and ambiguous concepts resulted in rewording and dropping items. Results: Most items (90% in the Haitian-Creole version; 87% in the Spanish version) were highly comprehensible. Discussion: This work will allow for further research examining health outcomes associated with risk perceptions across diverse, non-English language subgroups, paving the way for targeted risk communication with these populations.

Using the Synthetic Control Method (SCM) and a novel method for measuring changes in educational attainment we examine the link between educational attainment and shale oil and gas extraction for the states of Montana, North Dakota, and West Virginia. The three states examined are economically-small, relatively more rural, and have high levels of shale oil and gas reserves. They also are varied in that West Virginia is intensive in shale gas extraction, while the other two are intensive in shale oil extraction. We find significant reductions in high school and college attainment among all three states initial residents because of the shale booms.

Recent research linking administrative to survey data has laid the groundwork for improvements in survey data products. However, the opportunities have not been fully realized yet. In this article, our main objective is to use administrative-survey linked microdata to demonstrate the potential of data linkage to reduce survey error through model-based blended imputation methods. We use parametric models based on the linked data to create imputed values of Medicaid enrollment and food stamp (SNAP) receipt. This approach to blending data from surveys and administrative data through models is less likely to compromise confidentiality or violate the terms of the data sharing agreements among the agencies than releasing the linked microdata, and we demonstrate that it can yield substantial improvements of estimate accuracy. Using the blended imputation approach reduces root mean squared error (RMSE) of estimates by 81 percent for state-level Medicaid enrollment and by 93 percent for substate area SNAP receipt compared with estimates based on the survey data alone. Given the high level of measurement error associated with these important programs in the United States, data producers should consider blended imputation methods like the ones we describe in this article to create improved estimates for policy research.

In my first chapter, my coauthors and I examine the effect of the NCAA Tournament on the level of binge drinking through a nationally representative sample of American campuses. A focus on athletics may have a negative effect on the current student body by influencing risky behavior related to intercollegiate athletics, especially the consumption of alcohol commonly associated with game day festivities. Using the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS), we find that participation in the NCAA Tournament is associated with a 28% increase in binge drinking by male students at participating schools. These results indicate that the culture of binge drinking on game days poses a serious health risk to the student body at participating schools. In the second chapter, I argue that changes in the wage structure for individuals working from home are driven by changes in the ability of firms to monitor employ- ees who work outside of the office. Using American Community Survey and Census data, I find that changes in wage structure for home-workers are driven primarily by outcomes corresponding to hypotheses derived from the principal-agent model. These results suggest that the primary driver behind changes in the contracts offered to em- ployees working from home is the lowered cost of monitoring employees on the part of the firm. In the final chapter, my coauthor and I propose that under certain circumstances firms may choose to reduce barriers to entry as a profit-maximizing mechanism. We predict that in some industries, an increase in the number of participating firms will induce enough growth in the industry to allow existing firms to increase profit by enticing other firms to enter the market. Using data from the National Football League, we demonstrate that firms (teams) do in fact engage in behavior to reduce barriers to entry for competitors and thereby increase their own profits. This model differs from the standard agglomeration models by proposing that firms deliberately lower fixed costs for their competitors as a rational act, instead of suggesting that fixed costs are incidentally reduced due to concentration of firms.

The continuing inflow of hundreds of thousands of refugees into many European countries has ignited much political controversy and raised questions that require a fuller understanding of the determinants and consequences of refugee supply shocks. This paper revisits four historical refugee shocks to document their labor market impact. Specifically, we examine: The influx of Marielitos into Miami in 1980; the influx of French repatriates and Algerian nationals into France at the end of the Algerian Independence War in 1962; the influx of Jewish émigrés into Israel after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s; and the exodus of refugees from the former Yugoslavia during the long series of Balkan wars between 1991 and 2001. We use a common empirical approach, derived from factor demand theory, and publicly available data to measure the impact of these shocks. Despite the differences in the political forces that motivated the various flows, and in economic conditions across receiving countries, the evidence reveals a common thread that confirms key insights of the canonical model of a competitive labor market: Exogenous supply shocks adversely affect the labor market opportunities of competing natives in the receiving countries, and often have a favorable impact on complementary workers. In short, refugee flows can have large distributional consequences.

This dissertation comprises three papers on housing demand, housing wealth, and public policy. The first two papers make use of veteran access to the VA Loan Guaranty Program during the post-war housing boom during the 1940s and 1950s. The findings show that, for both World War II and Korean War veterans, access to the VA loan program promoted household formation. Specifically, access to the program increased an individuals probability of both marriage and homeownership relative to comparable individuals who did not have access to the program. The third paper analyzes the impact of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005s change in the status of housing equity as a protected asset in determining Medicaid long-term care payment eligibility. The impact of the policy on the housing equity holdings of individuals likely to require longterm care is estimated across three dimensions: before versus after the policy change, above versus below the eligibility cutoff, and a variety of self-reported health measures. The findings show that the policy induced individuals above the policy cutoff who were likely to require longterm care to hold less housing equity than comparable individuals who were either below the eligibility cutoff or did not report a health measure.