Iron deficiency reduces productive capacity in adults and impairs cognitive development in children. In 1943, the United States government required the fortification of bread with iron to reduce iron deficiency in the working age population during World War II. This nationwide fortification of grain products increased per capita consumption of iron by 16 percent. I find that areas with lower levels of iron consumption prior to the mandate experienced greater increases in income and school enrollment in the 1940s. A long- term followup suggests that adults in 1970 with more exposure to fortification during childhood earned higher wages.

Im Idealfall sind alle Datensätze vollständig. Somit sollte die Entstehung von fehlenden Daten grundsätzlich verhindert werden, denn die Gründe für Datenausfall sind in vielen Fällen auf fehler- und mangelhafte Untersuchungsdesigns zurückzuführen. Daher ist es auch nachvollziehbar, dass ein Auftreten von fehlenden Werten unzufriedenstellend ist. Jedoch lässt sich nicht jede Untersuchung mit vorhandenen ökonomischen Beschränkungen so konzeptionieren und durchführen, dass der Datenausfall grundsätzlich. . .

We present evidence that the cross-sectional relationship between fertility and women's education in the US has recently become U-shaped. The number of hours women work has concurrently increased with their education. In our model, raising children and homemaking require parents' time, which could be substituted by services such as childcare and housekeeping. By substituting their own time for market services to raise children and run their households, highly educated women are able to have more children and work longer hours. We find that the change in the relative cost of childcare accounts for the emergence of this new pattern.

Introduction Cigarette smoking is associated with lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, and chronic respiratory conditions. It is responsible for high mortality and morbidity risk in the US population. Smokers find sudden quitting difficult and it is reported that a large number of unassisted quitting attempts are eventually unsuccessful. Electronic cigarette or e-cig is a novel battery-driven, nicotine delivery product, currently being used as a smoking cessation tool by current and former smokers. Since its resemblance to a conventional cigarette, and its non-combustible nature, e-cig use has risen exponentially in the last few years. To address such public health issues, the US FDA is working on formulating regulations to manufacture, market, and distribute e-cigs has called for research evidence on the long term use of e-cig use. Objective The objective of this study was to develop and validate a Discrete Event Simulation model to simulate the electronic cigarette (e-cig) use behavior, and to estimate the long term e-cig use prevalence, in different groups of the US population. Methods The model population was generated from analyzing the National Health Interview Survey data from 2011-2013. The population was categorized into current, recent former, late former and never smokers. Population birth rates and death rates were applied using the 2012 US Census Bureau data. Model parametrization, transition probabilities and e-cig related risks were obtained and applied using cross sectional survey and longitudinal e-cig studies done on US population. The model was run for the period of 15 years and e-cig use prevalence at the end of the simulation period was estimated. Each simulation was replicated 100 times using Monte Carlo simulation approach. Model validation was performed by the use of null and extreme input values (internal validation), examining programing codes (debugging), verification by tobacco science and system analysis experts (structural and technical validation), comparison of models first year results with CDC reports (external validation). Conclusion Total projected e-cig prevalence in the US population at the end of simulation of period was found to be around 19%. The results showed a gradual reduction in the number of conventional cigarette smokers and an increase in the e-cig users over the simulation period. Highest e-cig users were <21 years old, male, white and had less than high school level education. Sensitivity analyses of various model parameters showed that the e-cig prevalence was most sensitive to the impact and timing of policy implementation. As a novel nicotine delivery system, e-cigs are rapidly gaining acceptance in the US and recent reports have shown an exponential rise in the popularity of e-cig among minors and young adults. Our research provides empirical evidence that can be used by the scientific community and regulatory bodies to formulate regulations for marketing and sales of ecigs in various sections of the population, where the prevalence is expected to rise in future. Our study can also guide the policy makers to introduce relevant policies at specific time points when the e-cig use is expected to rise.

As a state without a personal income tax that has experienced strong employment and population growth in the past, Texas was held up as the economic policy model for Kansas and Oklahoma to follow in recently cutting their personal income tax rates. Using micro-level data, this paper examines whether Texas has benefitted from its mix of public policies by examining the geographic patterns of estimated quality-adjusted wages and housing costs across the U.S. The overall finding is an absence of significantly positive capitalized effects from the policies of Texas. The only significant capitalized policy effect found was lower quality of life in Texas nonmetropolitan areas relative to those in Oklahoma

The latest U.S. economic recession, commonly referred to as the Great Recession, has had a far-reaching impact, but its effects may be disproportionately experienced by working-age people with disa...

An Evaluation of the Public Schools of the District of Columbia is a comprehensive five-year summative evaluation report for Phase Two of an initiative to evaluate the District of Columbia's public schools. Consistent with the recommendations in the 2011 report A Plan for Evaluating the District of Columbia's Public Schools, this new report describes changes in the public schools during the period from 2009 to 2013. An Evaluation of the Public Schools of the District of Columbia examines business practices, human resources operations and human capital strategies, academic plans, and student achievement. This report identifies what is working well seven years after legislation was enacted to give control of public schools to the mayor of the District of Columbia and which areas need additional attention.

Despite ubiquitous discussions of robots potential impact, there is almost no systematic empirical evidence on their economic effects. In this paper we analyze for the first time the economic impact of industrial robots, using new data on a panel of industries in 17 countries from 1993-2007. We find that industrial robots increased both labor productivity and value added. Our panel identification is robust to numerous controls, and we find similar results instrumenting increased robot use with a measure of workers replaceability by robots, which is based on the tasks prevalent in industries before robots were widely employed. We calculate that the increased use of robots raised countries average growth rates by about 0.37 percentage points. We also find that robots increased both wages and total factor productivity. While robots had no significant effect on total hours worked, there is some evidence that they reduced the hours of both low-skilled and middle-skilled workers.

Earning a college degree correlates with achieving financial security. Thus, improving an individuals access to college is a key tactic used to mitigate poverty and foster intergenerational mobility. Despite the recognized value of higher education, earning a degree remains unattainable for many because of financial constraints. However, research definitively demonstrates that financial aid overcomes that obstacle. It also reveals that some program designs are more effective than others. The Kalamazoo Promise is a place-based scholarship program that offers four-year, fulltuition scholarships to residents who graduate from a Kalamazoo public high school. It is characterized by first-dollar and universal eligibility features, which are fundamental to designs that promote upward economic mobility. Leveraging a rapidly growing body of knowledge that links context (place) to upward mobility, this study examined the relationships between the Kalamazoo Promise, the place where it is based, and intergenerational mobility. My investigation focused on the interplay between the program design and its context. I examined changes, which emerged in the first five years after the programs inception, in four Kalamazoo City characteristics that correlate with mobility. The study revealed increases in residential and school segregation by race and class, intense income inequality, elementary school quality that continued to lag behind the quality in neighboring communities despite improvements in test scores, and a reduction in family stability. These findings suggest that in the first five years the Kalamazoo Promise did not produce impacts to the context, in direction or magnitude, to improve intergenerational mobility. In the future, longitudinal research and mixed methods studies could add richness to our understanding of the people and place. In addition, changes to school assignment policies, modifications to the promise program design, and adjustments to employer recruitment/enticement programs are proposed.

Using the Public Use Microdata Sample from 2006 to 2010 American Community Survey and a hierarchical regression, this study examines how metropolitan-area-level labor market conditions are associated with the propensity of business ownership for the Hispanic labor force in the United States, and how the relationship differs between the foreign born and the native born, and between men and women. Findings from this study suggest that, in addition to personal and household characteristics, metropolitan labor market characteristics such as demographic composition, economic structure, and general labor market strength are important for Hispanic business ownership, contingent on gender and foreign-born status of the individual labor force.

Schools are meant to provide an equal opportunity for achievement to all students. The reality is that school policies and practices, which govern not only child education but also child health, parenting practices, and other social issues, are based on ideologies of the dominant culture creating an environment the perpetuates current social hierarchies. By doing so, this not only limits minority populations’ access to the opportunities associated with education but also access to health, as education and health are strongly and positively linked. This study used qualitative methods including ethnography to explore how racism was perpetuated through the dominant discourses of obesity and parent involvement in the context of a school developed through public/private partnership that aims to serve a low-income, mainly Black, community. Data for this study was collected over an eighteen-month period and included, participant observation, field notes, and in-depth interviews. Critical discourse analysis was used to address specific aim 1. Verbatim interview transcripts were analyzed using a combination of a priori and emergent coding techniques. Results showed that participants viewed obesity as a product of an individual’s lifestyle choices and perceived obesity negated health. Participants used dominant obesity discourse to normalize their own lifestyle choices and distance themselves from ‘deviant others’. Despite some misgivings, participants continued to engage dominant obesity discourse. To address specific aim 2, field notes and verbatim interview transcripts were analyzed using an open coding technique. Results showed that school policies and practices were undergirded by ideologies of colorblind racism that maintained current social hierarchies by perpetuating White privilege and racial minority disadvantage. The colorblind approach to parental involvement created barriers to the creation of authentic relationships at SEPS and, therefore, the development of a positive, mutual, and respectful relationship between families and the school. This study illuminated the issues of social inequality that were perpetuated in this school environment. Further, the findings of this study showed that racist ideologies were created and maintained within the school environment despite individual intentions to address disparities. This study provides evidence of the opportunity for school personnel to recognize the ways that racialized policies and practices can impact the school environment and take meaningful steps towards change.

This chapter reviews recent literature that considers and explains the tendency for neighborhood and city-level economic status to rise and fall. A central message is that although many locations exhibit extreme persistence in economic status, change in economic status as measured by various indicators of per capita income is common. At the neighborhood level, we begin with a set of stylized facts and then follow with discussion of static and dynamic drivers of neighborhood economic status. This is mirrored at the metropolitan level. Durable but slowly decaying housing, transportation infrastructure, and self-reinforcing spillovers all influence local income dynamics, as do enduring natural advantages, amenities, and government policy. Three recurring themes run throughout the paper: (i) Long sweeps of time are typically necessary to appreciate that change in economic status is common, (ii) history matters, and (iii) a combination of static and dynamic forces ensures that income dynamics can and do differ dramatically across locations but in ways that can be understood.

In this paper I study the correlation between the college wage premium and productivity dispersion across plants. The identification relies on variations in trends across five broadly defined industries in the United States between the late 1970s and the 1990s. I estimate that an increase in the standard deviation across plants of log-sales-per-worker by 10 log-points is associated with an increase in the college wage premium by 20 log-points. The findings are consistent with theoretical models that stress the roles of rising returns to sorting and college graduates' enhanced ability to sort across plants in explaining the surge in the college wage premium between the 1970s and the 1990s. for helpful comments. The usual disclaimer applies.

Although many studies have examined associations between family structure and childrens educational achievement at the individual level, few studies have considered how the increase in single-parent households may have affected childrens educational achievement at the population level. We examined changes in the percentage of children living with single parents between 1990 and 2011 and state mathematics and reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Regression models with state and year fixed effects revealed that changes in the percentage of children living with single parents were not associated with test scores. Increases in maternal education, however, were associated with improvements in childrens test scores during this period. These results do not support the notion that increases in single parenthood have had serious consequences for U.S. childrens school achievement.

Despite ubiquitous discussions of robots potential impact, there is almost no systematic empirical evidence on their economic effects. In this paper we analyze for the first time the economic impact of industrial robots, using new data on a panel of industries in 17 countries from 1993-2007. We find that industrial robots increased both labor productivity and value added. Our panel identification is robust to numerous controls, and we find similar results instrumenting increased robot use with a measure of workers replaceability by robots, which is based on the tasks prevalent in industries before robots were widely employed. We calculate that the increased use of robots raised countries average growth rates by about 0.37 percentage points. We also find that robots increased both wages and total factor productivity. While robots had no significant effect on total hours worked, there is some evidence that they reduced the hours of both low-skilled and middle-skilled workers.

This paper explores the effects of agricultural productivity shocks on structural change. We exploit the invention of hybrid corn seed as an exogenous source of variation in US agricultural productivity. The technology significantly increased land productivity in counties suited to producing corn. Using a difference-indifference estimation strategy we show that the treatment group experienced structural change as economic activity became more concentrated in agriculture. Owing to the factor bias of the technology, agricultural labor demand increased leading labor to reallocate from manufacturing to agriculture. We also find the rate of urbanization significantly decreases in treated counties, consistent with structural change causing a decrease in living standards. The findings support recent economic theory that argues factor-biased productivity shocks in agriculture can differentially affect structural change and economic development. seminar participants at the University of Louvain and the University of Warwick for helpful comments and suggestions. We are grateful to Leah Boustan for sharing data. Samuel Bottom provided excellent research assistance.

On July 9, 1883, twenty men stormed the jail in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, kidnapped Henderson Lee, a black man charged with larceny, and hanged him. Events like this occurred thousands of times across the American South in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, yet we know scarcely more about any of these other victims than we do about Henderson Lee. Drawing on new sources to provide the most comprehensive portrait of the men and women lynched in the American South, Amy Bailey and Stewart Tolnay's revealing profiles and careful analysis begin to restore the identities of--and lend dignity to--hundreds of lynching victims about whom we have known little more than their names and alleged offenses. Comparing victims' characteristics to those of African American men who were not lynched, Bailey and Tolnay identify the factors that made them more vulnerable to being targeted by mobs, including how old they were; what work they did; their marital status, place of birth, and literacy; and whether they lived in the margins of their communities or possessed higher social status. Assessing these factors in the context of current scholarship on mob violence and reports on the little-studied women and white men who were murdered in similar circumstances, this monumental work brings unprecedented clarity to our understanding of lynching and its victims.

This paper raises important questions about the criminal justice system’s response to young adults. Recent advances in behavior and neuroscience research confirm that brain development continues well into a person’s 20s, meaning that young adults have more psychosocial similarities to children than to older adults. This developmental distinction should help inform the justice system’s response to criminal behavior among this age group. Young adults comprise a disproportionately high percentage of arrests and prison . . .

Migration may affect fertility and child health care of those remaining in the country of origin. Mexican data show that having at least one household member who migrated to the United States decreases the occurrence of pregnancy among teenagers by 0.339 probability points. This finding can be partially explained by the fact that teenagers in migrant households have a higher knowledge of contraceptive methods and likely practice active birth control. I use potential migration, measured as historic migration rates interacted with the proportion of adult males in the household, as an instrument to account for the endogeneity of migrant status.

Although most theoretical models of household decision making assume perfect information, empirical studies suggest that information asymmetries can have large impacts on resource allocation. I demonstrate the importance of these asymmetries in transnational households, where physical distance between family members can make information barriers especially acute. I implement an experiment among migrants in Washington, DC, and their families in El Salvador that examines how information asymmetries can have strategic and inadvertent impacts on remittance decisions. Migrants make an incentivized decision over how much of a cash windfall to remit, and recipients decide how they will spend a remittance. Migrants strategically send home less when their choice is not revealed to recipients. Recipients make spending choices closer to migrants' preferences when the migrants' preferences are shared, regardless of whether or not the spending choices are revealed to the migrants, suggesting that recipients' choices are inadvertently affected by imperfect information.