Hours per capita measures based on the private sector as usually included in the set of observables for estimating macroeconomic models are affected by low-frequent demographic trends and sectoral shifts that cannot be explained by standard models. Further, model-based output gap estimates are closely linked to the observable hours per capita series. Hence, hours per capita that are not measured in concordance with the model assumptions can distort output gap estimates. This paper shows that sectoral shifts in hours and the changing share of prime age individuals in the working-age population lead indeed to erroneous output gap dynamics. Regarding the aftermath of the global financial crisis model-based output gaps estimated using standard hours per capita series are persistently negative for the US economy. This is not caused by a permanently depressed economy, but by the retirement wave of baby boomers which lowers aggregate hours per capita. After adjusting hours for changes in the age composition to bring them in line with the model assumptions, the estimated output gap gradually closes in the years following the global financial crisis.

In this dissertation, I set out to lay an empirical foundation for understanding why the housing stock in the Los Angeles region has been constrained since the building boom of the 1980s, and why regional demand for housing has continued to grow over the period of the housing boom and bust. I measure the declines in number of housing units available on the market, arising from both reduced construction and reduced turnover. I also examine the sources of growth in potential demand for housing, from migration and from natural increases of the existing population. I then compare the consequences of the housing shortfall for different types of neighborhoods and for different groups of people by age, race, and education level. I build on filtering theory with new ideas about how to conceptualize and measure changes in housing supply and demand, and I introduce new techniques to analyze the connections between regional shifts in supply and demand and local changes in neighborhoods. By combining wellestablished filtering theory with innovative demographic methods, I find empirical evidence of the . . .

We study the timing of mothers’ decision to work following the birth of their children. We document a steady increase in employment that begins after the birth of their children and continues at least until their youngest child is sixteen years old. We go on to assess the causes of this pattern. Our evidence indicates that the rising employment profile is not caused by falling childcare costs, differences in wage opportunities, non-labor income, or a variety of other observable characteristics. Instead, our evidence is consistent with women's reservation wages falling as the value of staying at home declines.

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 paper presents evidence regarding three types of ATM fees: foreign fees charged for use of a non-bank ATM by the banks customers, surcharges for use of bank ATMs by non-customers, and balance inquiry charges for the banks own customers. It is hypothesized that, among single market banks, fees will be positively correlated with bank size, a lack of market competition, market penetration by multimarket banks, banks serving low income communities, and Black owned banks (BOBs) and Hispanic owned banks (HOBs), although banks may try to confuse depositors with fees that exhibit a low correlation, or may set low surcharges as part of a loss leader strategy. A 2013 sample of approximately 1500 single market banks, including 21 Black owned banks (BOBs) and 19 Hispanic owned banks (HOBs) is used for correlation and regression analyses. It is found that BOBs charge an average of $0.50 higher foreign fees, and are more likely to charge balance inquiry fees. We also find that larger banks tend to charge higher fees, and that banks may set higher fees where they serve disadvantaged communities of color. Surprisingly, market competition is never significantly associated with ATM fees, and there is minimal correlation across fees, and both results are consistent with banks setting fees strategically to confuse customers.

Black women in current cohorts ages 50 to 72 years have lower employment than similar white women, despite having had higher employment when they were middle-aged and younger. Earlier cohorts of older black women also worked more than their white counterparts. Although it is not surprising that white womens employment should catch up to that of black women given trends in increasing female labor force participation, it is surprising that it should surpass that of black women. This chapter discusses factors that contribute to this differential change over time. Changes in education, marital status, home-ownership, welfare, wealth, and cognition cannot explain this trend, whereas changes in occupation, industry, health, and gross motor functioning may explain some of the trend.

This report focuses on temporary employees within the community of Lawrence, Massachusetts, and examines the barriers they face in obtaining permanent or better temporary employment. Using qualitative data collected in a series of interviews with these workers, the report concludes that lack of English language proficiency and the absence of bridging networks that connect job seekers to employers are the dominant barriers to employment improvement among the temporary workers interviewed.

The reversal of the gender gap in education has reshaped the U.S. marriage market and could have far-reaching consequences for marriage and family lives. As women increasingly marry men with less education than themselves, does this imply greater economic gender equality in marriage? My dissertation takes a life course approach to answer this question. First, I examine gender asymmetry in educational and income assortative mating patterns among newlyweds. I use log-linear models to analyze data from the 1980 U.S. Census and the 2008-2012 American Community Surveys. I find that between 1980 and 2008-2012, educational assortative mating reversed from a tendency for women to marry up to a tendency for women to marry down in education, whereas the tendency for women to marry men with higher incomes than themselves persisted. Moreover, in both time periods, the tendency for women to marry up in income was greater among couples in which the wifes education level equals or surpasses that of the husband than among couples in which the wife is less-educated than the husband. The findings suggest that men and women continue to form marriages in which the wife's socioeconomic status does not exceed that of the husband.

Background Tobacco smoke, diet and indoor/outdoor air pollution, all major sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), have been associated with breast cancer. Aberrant methylation may be an early event in carcinogenesis, but whether PAHs influence the epigenome is unclear, particularly in breast tissue where methylation may be most relevant. We aimed to evaluate the role of methylation in the association between PAHs and breast cancer. Methods In a population-based case-control study, we measured promoter methylation of 13 breast cancer-related genes in breast tumor tissue (n=765851 cases) and global methylation in peripheral blood (1055 cases/1101 controls). PAH sources (current active smoking, residential environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), vehicular traffic, synthetic log burning, and grilled/smoked meat intake) were evaluated separately. Logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results When comparing methylated versus unmethylated genes, synthetic log use was associated with increased ORs for CDH1 (OR=2.26, 95%CI=1.064.79), HIN1 (OR=2.14, 95%CI=1.343.42) and RAR (OR=1.80, 95%CI=1.162.78) and decreased ORs for BRCA1 (OR=0.44, 95%CI=0.300.66). Residential ETS was associated with decreased ORs for ESR1 (OR=0.74, 95%CI=0.560.99) and CCND2 methylation (OR=0.65, 95%CI=0.440.96). Current smoking and vehicular traffic were associated with decreased ORs for DAPK (OR=0.53, 95%CI=0.280.99) and increased ORs for TWIST1 methylation (OR=2.79, 95%CI=1.246.30), respectively. In controls, synthetic log use was inversely associated with LINE-1 (OR=0.59, 95%CI=0.410.86). Discussion PAH sources were associated with hypo- and hypermethylation at multiple promoter regions in breast tumors and LINE-1 hypomethylation in blood of controls. Methylation may be a potential biologic mechanism for the associations between PAHs and breast cancer incidence.

Using US local labor markets between 1990 and 2010, we analyze the heterogeneous impact of rising trade exposure on employment growth of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ jobs. Three salient findings emerge. First, rising local exposure to import competition, via falling US tariffs or rising Chinese import penetration, reduces (increases) employment growth of bad (good) jobs. Conversely, improved local access to export markets, via falling foreign tariffs, increases (reduces) employment growth of bad (good) jobs. Second, falling US tariff protection is substantially more important, economically and statistically, than rising Chinese import penetration. Third, globalization generates occupational polarization but not job polarization

This thesis examines the role Ridgway v. Cockburn played in exposing the “Negro race” as a subjective experience rather than a definitive label. Blacks in the 20th century were seen as undesirable. The NAACP fought for blacks’s rights to property and justice in the courts. Racially restrictive covenants became a popular method used by whites to keep blacks out of their neighborhoods. Arthur Garfield Hays, a white lawyer, defended the Cockburns as they moved into Edgemont Hills, a white elite neighborhood. Captain Cockburn held officer positions in numerous ships. Mrs. Cockburn was white in appearance, although she also possessed a small “colored” ancestry. In the United States, Captain Cockburn joined forces Marcus Garvey until their relationship soured. Then Captain Cockburn became a successful real estate agent. Mrs. Cockburn bought property in Edgemont Hills, upon which she and Captain Cockburn built a home in which to reside. Marion Ridgway took Mrs. Cockburn to court, invoking a racially restrictive covenant that forbade “Negroes” from residing on the property unless they were “colored servants.” Because New York had not defined “Negro,” Hays argued that the Cockburns could not be found to be Negro. Anthropologists . . .

This dissertation studies highway construction in the United States in the interwar years and payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs) that charitable nonprofit organizations pay to local governments.

Annual mobility rates in the US have declined by half since 1950, but it is not clear why. The emerging literature suggests that as-yet inexplicable immobility is indicative of an increasing cultural attachment to place known as rootedness - that is both universal and voluntary. I assess this claim using data from the Current Population Survey and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and address three central questions. First, to what extent do shifts in the composition of the U.S. population account for observed declines in mobility? Second, have expectations of mobility declined alongside actual mobility? Third, has the link between mobility expectations and actual mobility outcomes weakened over time? Results suggest that Americans are stuck - increasingly unlikely to move when they expect do so rather than rooted in place. This pattern is consistent with the conclusion that social and economic shifts in the latter half of the 20th Century left Americans with fewer options for, and a marginalized ability to take advantage of, opportunity elsewhere. Moreover, because the weakening expectation-mobility link is particularly pronounced among African-Americans, mobility decline may exacerbate inequalities in residential mobility processes that are already deeply stratified by race.

Contemporary discussions of immigrant assimilation in the United States often take the experience of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a benchmark, yet significant gaps remain in our understanding of the generality and rate of immigrant progress during that era. Using four decades of Integrated Public Use Microdata Samples census microdata, we utilize both ordinary least squares microdata regression and double cohort methodology to examine socioeconomic assimilation across arrival cohort and country of origin during the Ellis Island era. Our results show, contrary to some writing, that while the first generation (the foreign born) exhibit decidedly inferior labor market outcomes, socioeconomic attainment (measured by Socio-Economic Index points) increased quickly with duration in the United States. Persons of the second generation and those of mixed parentage show much less penalty than immigrants. At the same time, we uncover differences in outcome by European region that do not disappear over the decades we examine.

Changes in intergenerational mobility over time have been the focus of extensive research. However, existing studies have been limited to studying males and intergenerational correlations in outcome variables that often lack clear welfare implications. This paper introduces a new approach to estimating intergenerational mobility that relies on health measures rather than occupational measures to assess the strength of the relationship between the outcomes of parents and their children. Health measures provide a metric for intergenerational mobility that can be consistently interpreted over time and across genders. Using a new intergenerational dataset constructed by linking individuals' death certificates to those of their parents, I find that a son's life span is strongly correlated with his father's and that this correlation has strengthened over time. Daughter's life span shows a similarly strong relationship with mother's life span that has remained relatively stable over the past century. Differences in life span are shown to correlate with occupational status and occupational transitions from one generation to the next.

At the invitation of the University of Minnesota Population Center (MPC) the author carried out an assessment of the IPUMS International integrated census microdata programme during January – March 2016. The terms of reference included the assessment of the measures taken by the MPC to safe guard the security of the microdata, the quality and adequacy of services provided, characteristics of users and satisfaction with IPUMS, use of available microdata, support to participating developing country National Statistical Offices (NSOs) and adequacy of a proposed Remote Data Center (RDC). The conclusions of the review are that IPUMS International is a unique, flexible, successful and secure programme for managing access to anonymized, harmonised and integrated microdata to academic users and policy makers. While currently the user base is predominantly in developed countries, steps are being taken to expand usage by researchers world-wide. The physical, methodological and technical arrangements for safeguarding the security and confidentiality of the data files are excellent; the possibilities of breaches are minimal. Data users have very positive opinions of the quality of the data, scope of services and expertise of staff but desire more detailed, up-to-date microdata. NSOs rate IPUMS International and its services positively but request advanced methodological training for staff and regular information on the use of their country’s data. IPUMS International planned activities are presented and their contributions to census methodology are highlighted.

Data anonymization is one of the main techniques used in privacy preserving data publishing, and many methods have been proposed to anonymize both individual data sets and multiple data sets. In real life, a data set is rarely isolated and two data sets published by different organizations may contain records pertaining to the same individual. For example, some patients might have visited two hospitals for the same disease, and their records are independently anonymized and published by the two hospitals. Although each published data set alone might pose a small privacy risk, the combination of two data sets may severely compromise the privacy of the individuals common to both data sets. An attack on individual privacy which uses independent data sets is called a composition attack. The topic of how to anonymize data sets to prevent a composition attack using independent data releases has not been widely investigated. In this paper, we propose a new principle to protect data sets from composition attacks. We propose a hybrid algorithm, which combines sampling, perturbation and generalization to protect data privacy from composition attacks. We experimentally demonstrate that the proposed anonymization technique significantly reduces the risk of composition attacks and also preserves good data utility.

Scholars have studied the US banking systems of the late nineteenth century, but the presence and influence of mutual savings banks has largely gone unexamined. A new annual database of New England banks shows that mutual savings banks had a significant presence in the postbellum banking system. Mutual savings banks accounted for about 75 % of the regions total bank deposits and largely avoided financial panics. The banks seemed to have complemented rather than competed with national banks. Mutual savings bank growth was correlated with agriculture and urbanization, whereas national bank growth was correlated with manufacturing. Mutual savings banks also channeled significant funds to national banks through the interbank network.

I estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) to live in a house near neighbours with relatively smaller (or larger) houses using housing transaction data. I find that consumers in the 50th and 75th percentile are willing to pay the most for an increase in relative housing consumption while consumers in the lower percentiles and the highest percentile yield a smaller, and statistically insignificant, WTP. This gives evidence to popular media reports that the middle class values relative status the most.