In the recent housing collapse Latino homeowners experienced the highest foreclosure rate and the largest losses in home equity and household wealth. We ask a straightforward question: Does nativity or immigrant status help explain the elevated foreclosure rate among Latinos? We examine mechanisms that potentially explain disparities faced by Latinos in the Orlando, Florida region. We consider the role of nativity along with two other rival explanations, place stratification and cultural affinity. We introduce new variables and develop new approaches to assess the role of lender assignment of Latino officers, the combination of Latino borrowerofficer dyads, and the recent immigrant status of Latino borrowers. We uncover important differences in the institutional representation of Latino officers in the prime vs. subprime division of each of bank. We also find that Latino borrowers with Latino officers are more likely than non-Latino borrowers with non-Latino officers to turn to (or be steered into) the subprime lending division, more likely to receive a high cost loan, and more likely to experience mortgage foreclosure. We detect a potentially potent effect of nativity among more recent immigrants using a proxy variable based on the type of identification used by borrowers to verify their identity at the time of closing the mortgage. Our study advances our understanding of how nativity may structure Latino disparities and raises questions worthy of future research.

Location matters. A firm's proximity to other firms, finance, and infrastructure affects its profitability and productivity. My dissertation examines how. In chapter one, I quantify the underlying sources of agglomeration, or productivity gains from co-location, and investigate the extent to which those sources changed from 1880 to 1990. In chapter two, I shift to proximity to finance and measure the impact of local bank distress on local manufacturing outcomes during a period of unprecedented---and unrepeated---financial panic, the Great Depression. And in chapter three, I study the importance of local capital and infrastructure destruction on agricultural and manufacturing outcomes using General William Sherman's 1864-1865 march through the US South. Together, my dissertation chapters shed light on the influence of location on firm profitability and productivity, and in turn, US economic growth from 1860 to 1990.

OBJECTIVE The study examined the relationship between functional limitation due to chronic diseases and absenteeism among full-time workers. The studied chronic diseases include: arthritis/rheumatism, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, lung disease, and stroke. METHODS We analyzed data from the 2011–2013 National Health Interview Survey. Economic impact was determined by workdays lost and lost income. RESULTS Increase in absenteeism was observed for each studied condition. Employees with multiple conditions also saw increase absenteeism. Employers lose 28.2 million workdays annually ($4.95 billion in lost income) due to functional limitation caused by chronic diseases. CONCLUSION The results show a burden on society due to functional limitation caused by studied chronic diseases. Employers should look into implementing intervention/prevention programs, such as the Chronic Disease Self-Management Programs, to help reduce the cost associated with absenteeism.

This chapter focuses on the racially democratic myth of Cuban identity and community, documenting the socioeconomic differences and experiences Afro-Cuban exiles faced as some attempted to settle in Miami among other Cubans during early stages of ethnic enclave formation. I position my findings in the “ethnic enclave” and immigrant-adaptation literature, further questioning not only the Cuban success myth, but place the local Afro-Cuban condition as central to the “reclaimed whiteness” local Cubans repossessed. I also question the literature that posits that “culture” or “behavior” serves as an impediment to economic mobility, and began explaining how extending from Cuba (or newly formulating) a black American identity was crucial in local Afro-Cuban adaptation.

While blackwhite intermarriage is uncommon in the USA, blacks in Canada are just as likely to marry whites as to marry blacks. Asians, in contrast, are more likely to marry whites in the USA than in Canada. We test the claim that high rates of interracial marriage are indicative of high levels of social integration against Peter Blau's macrostructural thesis that relative group size is the key to explaining differences in intermarriage rates across marriage markets. Using micro-data drawn from the American Community Survey and the Canadian census, we demonstrate that the relative size of racial groups accounts for over two-thirds of the USACanada difference in blackwhite unions and largely explains the cross-country difference in Asianwhite unions. Under broadly similar social and economic conditions, a large enough difference in relative group size can become the predominant determinant of group differences in the prevalence of interracial unions.

In 1990, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act(ADA) to improve the labor market opportunities of people with disabilities. Immediately following the enactment of the ADA, the employment rate of people with disabilities declined. However, the long-term employment consequences of the ADA have not been studied. Interest in the long-term post-ADA employment trends of people with disabilities derives from the weakening of the ADAs employment provisions by U.S. Courts. The weakening of these provisions has decreased the cost to employers of hiring disabled employees. This paper uses variation in state disability laws and data from twenty-three years of the Current Population Survey to determine the long-term impact of the ADA on the employment of people with disabilities.

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Kain's Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis (SMH) suggests that disadvantaged groups who reside in inner-city neighborhoods have low access to regional jobs. We con...

How racial barriers play in the experiences of Mexican Americans has been hotly debated. Some consider Mexican Americans similar to European Americans of a century ago that arrived in the United States with modest backgrounds but were eventually . . .

Controlled vocabularies have great applicability for organizing and providing access to scientific data. This paper presents research examining the controlled vocabulary use and desired application features specific to scientific data. A survey was conducted, gathering data from U.S. DataNet participants and other data stakeholder communities. Results indicate that participants see controlled vocabularies as valued tools. Participants also reported an interest in repository technology that provides access to multiple vocabularies for scientific data.

The Great Migration, the massive migration of African Americans out of the rural South to largely urban locations in the North, Midwest, and West, was a landmark event in US history. Our paper shows that this migration increased mortality of African Americans born in the early twentieth century South. This inference comes from an analysis that uses proximity of birthplace to railroad lines as an instrument for migration.

This thesis investigates the effects of a higher sex ratio and a higher stock of immigrants on pre-marital investments for natives, who are children of immigrants. It also takes a look at the consequences for the labor force participation of men due to this increased sex ratio and stock of immigrants. It is found in this paper that American men with foreign parents respond negatively on increased competition in the marriage market regarding their pre-marital investments. They simply give up to compete for a good match. Also is found that the two marriage market characteristics do not have a significant influence on the labor force participation of American men, so on average, the labor force participation for these men doesnt change.

Recessions typically lead to excess supply in non agricultural labor markets. However, a major recession, like the Great Recession, has different effects in the seasonal agriculture labor market. During such recession, hourly earnings of workers, the probability that workers receive bonuses, and employed workers’ weekly hours rise. These results are consistent with a large reduction in immigrant labor supply during a major recession. Direct and indirect evidence on immigration supports this conclusion . . .

Protecting the environment is often plagued by collective action problems, and so it is important to understand what motivates politicians to act. This paper dwells on whether public information can influence demand in the population, and, if so, what are the relevant channels. I exploit the publishing in 1962 of the influential environmental science book Silent Spring - and the availability of U.S. congressional roll-call votes and census data, - to analyze how demand for environmental regulation changes in response to a radical informational shock. I define demand in terms of the total number of ‘green’ votes in Congress. My analysis has two steps. First, I evaluate the impact of my shock on average propensity for politicians to vote in favor of ‘green’ regulation, and find effects between 5 and 33pp. Then, I look for heterogeneous effects of the shock, by including interactions with education, income, and exposure, and propose a framework to interpret my findings. My results suggest that public information, education and income interact in the demand for environmental regulation.

Many studies link cross-state variation in compulsory schooling laws to early-life educational attainment, thereby providing a plausible way to investigate the causal impact of education on various lifetime outcomes. We use this strategy to estimate the effect of education on older-age mortality of individuals born in the early twentieth century U.S. Our key innovation is to combine U.S. Census data and the complete Vital Statistics records to form precise mortality estimates by sex, birth cohort, and birth state. In turn we find that virtually all of the variation in these mortality rates is captured by cohort effects and state effects alone, making it impossible to reliably tease out any additional impact due to changing educational attainment induced by state-level changes in compulsory schooling.

This study investigates cultural competence in the field of signed language interpreting and the persistence of African American/Black signed language interpreters in the field. To date, no research in the discipline of signed language interpreting studies has looked at how the cultural competence of practitioners impacts colleague dynamics, nor has there been identification of how cultural competence impacts interpreters’ persistence in the field. Data for this study were collected over a period of several months utilizing ethnographic research methods. Face-to-face focus groups, a large-scale questionnaire, and follow up interviews were conducted. A search of the literature revealed that while a lack of cultural competence does impact colleague dynamics and the provision of services within the field, the larger issue may be the African American/Black interpreter’s lack of social capital. This study found that African American/Black interpreters regularly experience subtle instances of racism directed toward them from consumers and colleagues. In large part, African American/Black interpreters view their White interpreting colleagues and educators to be lacking in cultural competence. This places an added psychological burden on the African American/Black interpreter that impacts their social capital and the effort they must expend in order to connect with their peers. The result may be burnout and the desire to change careers. To increase the culturally competent provision of services and improve colleague dynamics within the field, African American/Black Deaf consumers and African American/Black interpreters alike desire recruitment of interpreters from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.

We provide evidence on household and market production in 36 countries since 1960. On average the household sector accounts for almost half of total hours worked. As GDP per capita increases, the employment share of household production in total hours worked initially declines and then hardly changes while the employment shares of market goods and services decrease and increase. Estimating the value added of household production yields similar patterns. Labor productivity of household production is lower than and positively correlated with that in the market. These findings can be used as an input into quantitative work involving household production.

Coal mining is a dangerous occupation where safety is an important output. Fatalities and disasters may change future accident costs at or near a mine. We use this variation to understand the tradeoffs between mineral output and safety. We find that government inspections and penalties increase after fatalities and less-severe accident rates decrease by 10%. For mines in the state of a disaster, less-severe accident rates decrease by 23%, and fatalities by 68%, representing up to $2 per hour worked, with limited evidence that mineral productivity falls up to $14 per hour worked and that managers employed increases by 11%.

Given the large returns to education for the labor market and for other indicators of wellbeing, understanding the factors that determine educational attainment are an important concern of policymakers. In this thesis, I explore the contribution of two such factors: 1) the availability of career and technical education (CTE) in high school and 2) the strength of the local labor market in college.

Objective—To assess student awareness of the financial costs of pursuing a veterinary education, to determine student expectations for financial returns of a veterinary career, and to identify associations between student debt and factors such as future career plans or personality type. Design—Survey. Sample—First-year veterinary students at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. Procedures—In 2013, prior to the first day of class, all incoming first-year students received an email invitation to complete an online survey. The survey contained questions about demographics, current financial situation, current debt, expected debt at graduation, expected annual income following graduation, intent to pursue specialty training, and Myers-Briggs personality type. Results—72 of 102 (71%) students completed the survey; 65 respondents answered all relevant questions and provided usable data. Student responses for expected debt at graduation were comparable to national averages for veterinary college graduates; responses for expected annual income following graduation were lower than averages for University of Minnesota veterinary college graduates and national averages. However, students predicted even lower annual income if they did not attend veterinary college. Expected debt and expected annual income were not correlated with factors such as personality type or future career plans. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Results indicated that first-year veterinary students were aware of the financial costs of their veterinary education and had realistic expectations for future salaries. For typical veterinary students, attending veterinary college appeared to be financially worthwhile, given lower expected earnings otherwise. (J Am Vet Med Assoc 2015;247:196–203) As the result of various factors, including reduced state and federal funding of veterinary medical colleges1 and decreased teaching hospital revenues,2 tuition for veterinary medical degree programs has steadily increased over the past decade.3 The result is an increased need by veterinary students to borrow funds while pursuing their education and a corresponding escalation in educational debt at the time of graduation. From 2003 to 2013, mean educational debt . . .

I propose violent crime growth as a measure of revealed marginal utility growth of heterogeneous consumers in incomplete markets. Consumer heterogeneity is measured using the cross-sectional average and cross-sectional variance of crime growth exploiting a monthly panel of reported crime incidents from over 10,000 law enforcement agencies across the United States from 1975-2012. Consistent with heterogeneous consumer models such as Mankiw (1986), I find that the cross-sectional average and variance of violent crime growth can explain the cross-section of stock returns. Specifically, investors pay a premium for assets that have higher betas to the violent crime growth moments.