As an expression of the specificity of the multidimensional integration of Mexico and the United States, migration has economic causes linked to wage differences, as well as mutual effects. It offers a way out to a significant portion of the Mexican labor force employed at comparatively attractive wages in the United States, which in turn satisfies the demand for labor in certain sectors of the U.S. economy. This mass of workers contributes to producing goods and services in a significant number of U.S. states.

Utilizing a novel data set on American Indian Nations, we investigate how conditions at critical junctures of development can have long-lasting economic effects. We investigate the effect of the party of the US President at the time when American Indian tribes adopt a written constitution for the first time. Our results indicate that there is a persistent effect on economic development, even after controlling for other important characteristics and conducting extensive robustness checks. We also find suggestive evidence for the constitutional design, and specifically whether the chief executive is elected directly or indirectly, being a likely channel through which the presidential party affects long-run economic development.

We used census data on the civilian non-institutional adult population to analyze trends in labor force participation by race/ethnicity and sex in U.S. occupations from 1970 to 2010 in decennial periods. We examined these data for the main effects and interactions of race/ethnicity and sex across the total labor market and within 35 detailed occupations. Results from a log-linear analysis revealed that, as a whole (across race/ethnicity), more women participated in the labor force from 1970 to 2010. The proportions of working racial/ethnic minorities to both the population and the people in the labor force increased across all decades except for Black men. Although White (Caucasian) men continuously comprised the largest racial/ethnicsex group working across five decades in absolute numbers, their percentage of the total working population declined from 1970 (54%) to 2010 (37%). In our analyses of 35 occupations, significant sex differences within racial/ethnic groups emerged. Overall, with some exceptions, Asian men and women and White women were more likely to be absorbed into occupations typically associated with professional status whereas Black, Hispanic, and American Indian men and women were more likely to be absorbed into occupations typically associated with low skill, low wages, and low status. Implications for the role of psychologists in future research, practice, and policy are discussed.

This paper studies how wage inequality within cities relates to the size of the city. We first document that in the United States, larger cities are not always more unequal: the wage gaps between the top and the median earners usually increase with the city size, while the gaps between the median and the bottom earners shrink with city size. We then develop a competitive spatial equilibrium model to rationalize this empirical pattern. In the model heterogeneous individuals sort into entrepreneurs or workers in different industries and cities. Top inequality is higher in larger cities, because entrepreneurs benefit dis-proportionally more than workers in larger cities as a result of agglomeration effects and market size. At the lower tail, our models links wage inequality to the spatial variations of inter-industry wage premium. Bottom inequality shrinks in larger cities because the wage rate in low-paying industries increase faster with respect to city size to allow for the low-income workers to overcome the higher living costs in larger cities. Our theoretical predictions on inter-industry wage premium are supported by empirical tests using the U.S. data.

During the past two years, the Congress has considered proposals to modify the nation’s immigration system. The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (S. 744), passed by the Senate in June 2013, addresses multiple facets of immigration policy, including changes to the existing visa system, improvements in border security and law enforcement, and changes to the status of people who currently live in the country without legal authorization. Other proposals have focused on one component of immigration policy—for example, improving border security or changing certain aspects of the visa system. Whether the proposals involve broad or narrow changes to immigration policy, they could have a variety of consequences for both citizens and noncitizens, for the federal government, and for state and local governments. This CBO report examines some of those proposals and how such changes would affect the federal budget.

It is common knowledge that one´s qualities are defined by his close ones. This kind of phenomenon is called as peer effect. The aim of this study is to make a literature review about the research among peer effects in general, to present some of the issues in more detail and to find more specific answers to questions about how peer effects reveal themselves, how they influence and how the research could be utilized within policy making. On the basis of this study it can be concluded that peer effects have influences on everyday life and choices from the perspective of both individual and the society.

The U.S. Air Force has traditionally been a significant source of pilots for the major airline industries. For much of the 2000s, two wars and a sputtering economy aided in managing the attrition of Air Force pilots. But now, amid myriad converging factors, there is a large projected increase in major airline pilot hiring that resembles the late 1990s surge, in which the Air Force endured its largest loss of pilots since the post–Vietnam War pilot exodus. Using logistic regression analysis and focusing on active duty Air Force pilots in the first three years following completion of their initial active duty service commitment (ADSC), this dissertation predicts future pilot attrition given the estimated increase in major airline hiring and recommends several policies that the Air Force can implement to better weather an increase in attrition.

Minority women groups in the United States have the highest incidence and mortality rates of cervical cancer. Hispanic women have the highest incidence rate and the second highest mortality rate of the disease. Researchers have examined the lower rates of cervical cancer screening among Hispanic women, as compared to other groups of U.S. women, but researchers have not examined the extent to which socioeconomic status, acculturation, and sexual activity impact Hispanic womens compliance with screening. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between compliance with cervical cancer screening and acculturation, socioeconomic status, and sexual activity among U.S. Hispanic women. The framework for investigating the extent of association between these identified barriers and willingness to comply with screening was the behavioral model for vulnerable populations. Chi-square tests and logistic regression were used to analyze data from the National Health Interview Survey for 2011, 2012, and 2013, focusing on U.S. Hispanic women ages 21 - 65 (N = 739). The findings from this study revealed that educational level was significantly associated with U.S. Hispanic womens cervical cancer screening; however, no statistically significant associations were found for socioeconomic status, acculturation, and sexual activity and screening rates for this group. Findings from this study can better inform researchers and others of the lower rate of screening for cervical cancer among U.S. Hispanic women. The findings will also promote positive social change by targeting U.S. Hispanic women and other minority women groups for programs that promote cervical cancer screening.

Relative wages in Texas rose during the 1970s oil boom, increasing the opportunity cost of staying in school. Comparing Texas-born cohorts who graduated from high school during the oil boom with those in the pre-boom period suggests that the boom negatively affected college enrollment.

Most research on the effects of immigration focuses on the effects of immigrants as adding to the supply of labor. This paper studies the effects of immigrants on local labor demand, due to the increase in consumer demand for local services created by immigrants. This effect can attenuate downward pressure from immigrants on non-immigrants' wages, and also benefit non-immigrants can raise native workers' real wages, and each immigrant could create more than one job. Using US Census data from 1990 and 2000, we find considerable evidence for these effects: Each immigrant creates 2 local jobs, and 80% of these jobs are in non-traded services. Immigrants appear to raise local non-tradables sector wages and to attract native-born workers from elsewhere in the country. Overall, it appears that local workers benefit from the arrival of more immigrants.

Minnesota has always been rich with assets—a skilled labor force, good jobs in diverse industries, globally competitive companies, and abundant lakes and parks that provide a high quality of life for the people who call it home. However, to maintain its strong economy and quality of life, Minnesota must adapt to fast-changing trends in the global economy, trends that affect each of the . . .

The VA’s Disability Compensation (VADC) program, which provides monthly tax-free cash benefits for qualifying disabled veterans, has been growing rapidly since 2001. The drivers of the program’s growth are not well understood and worsening health is one possible driver, but recent liberalizations of medical eligibility criteria may also play a role. This study decomposes the recent growth in the VADC program into the share of the program’s growth due to worsening veteran health and the share due to other factors. I use data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) to estimate the relationship between health and receipt of VADC benefits in the late 1990s, and then use those estimates along with the actual health of recent veterans to project the share of today's veterans that would be on the program if eligibility criteria had not changed. My primary empirical finding is that the worsening health of veterans can only explain about one-quarter of the program’s growth. This result suggests that the program is not growing primarily due to veterans being in worse health during the post-period. Rather, the program is growing mostly as a result of other factors unrelated to health status. These findings may help policy makers as they consider how to balance the needs of wounded veterans against rapidly rising program expenditures.

The immigrants from China have generally taken over European immigrants to play important role in the North America since 1960s. Based on the human capital theory and neoclassical economic theory, this thesis examines the characteristics of Chinese immigrants who respectively arrived at the United States and Canada since 1990 (cohort 1990-1997 and cohort 1998- 2000). The data is coming from the 2001 Canadian census and 2000 U.S. census stemmed from the IPUMS datasets in order to examine the gap in the earnings between Chinese immigrants and the Natives that should diminish with the duration in the host countries. Using the probit and OLS regressions, our findings show that Chinese immigrants experience drop off in the transferability of the education attainment in both host countries. Moreover, our results indicate the U-shape pattern in the occupational mobility, when Chinese immigrants immigrated into the United States or Canada. In addition, this thesis analyses the sample of Chinese immigrants from the 1991 Canadian census, 2000 U.S. census, and 2001 Canadian census and finds that among Chinese immigrants the brain drain occurred with their relocation from Canada to the United States. The different characteristics of Chinese immigrants who selected different host countries have been revealed.

Using micro data from CPS for the period 19952011 we investigate effects of Common Law Marriage (CLM) on labor outcomes and using the ATUS for the period 20032011 we study its effects on household production and leisure. Identification of CLM effects arises through cross-state variation and variation over time, as three states abolished CLM over the period examined in the CPS data. Labor supply effects of CLM availability are negative for married women: for instance, weekly hours of work are reduced by 12 hours. In addition, some CLM effects on married mens labor supply are positive. Consequently, the abolition of CLM in some states helps explain the convergence of men and womens labor supply. Negative CLM effects on married womens labor supply are limited to white, Hispanic, college-educated women, and women with children. There is little evidence of effects of CLM on leisure and household production. A conceptual framework based on the concept of Work-In-Household, marriage market analysis, and the assumption of traditional gender roles helps explain gender differentials in the effects of CLM on labor supply and why these effects are larger for white and college-educated women.

Bicycling for transportation in American cities has grown dramatically in the past twenty years, symbolizing the return of capital investment and commercial vitality to formerly disinvested urban cores. The cycling renaissance taking place to the greatest extent in gentrifying neighborhoods has been noted, but the processes relating cycling and gentrification have gone largely unexplored. This paper examines the early role that bicycle advocacy organizations in San Francisco played in articulating the specifically economic value of bicycle infrastructure investment. This narrative is now commonplace, and widely applied both to neighborhood revitalization and urban competition for talent. This alliance of bicycle advocacy with the livable turn of gentrification raises serious questions for those who would pursue a more democratic and socially just politics of the bicycle.

Land use change associated with urbanization can alter natural flow regimes, typically resulting in larger peak flows for a given precipitation event than in a pre-urbanized watershed condition. The overall influence of urbanization on how flows of different frequencies might change over time, while important in hydrologic design, remains poorly understood. In this study, we first investigate the effects of urbanization on flow duration curves (FDCs) and flow variability through a case study of several watersheds in the Puget Sound Region of Washington State. A FDC is a graphical representation of the frequency, or fraction of time, that a discharge magnitude is equaled or exceeded. Using different time windows of the flow record, we analyzed stream discharge, precipitation, and watershed urbanization for a minimum of 25 years between 1960 and 2010 to quantify how key FDC percentiles changed with time in response to urbanization in small watersheds (less than 200 km2) with land uses ranging from highly urban to primarily rural. In the urban watersheds, the 95th-99th percentile of the daily-mean flow series increased by 0-94% with an average increase of 35%. The magnitude of small discharges (10th percentile) in the urban watersheds also increased by up to 34% with an average increase of 15%. The rapidity and magnitude of changes in streamflow, commonly known as “flashiness,” was also observed to increase over the period analyzed for both urban and rural watersheds. Flashiness increased by 46% on average in urban watersheds, a result likely caused by increases in population density and impervious surfaces. Rural watersheds were found to have lesser increases in flashiness, 14% on average, attributed to baseflow reductions and increasing precipitation intensity and variability. As watersheds become flashier, the decision to use either daily-averaged or sub-daily streamflow records has the potential to impact the calculation of sediment transport metrics. To investigate, we calculated the effective discharge, sediment yield, and half-load discharge using sediment rating curves over long time periods with both daily-averaged and sub-daily streamflow records, in the second part of this study. The pool of sites in the analysis included 39 sites with bedload measurements and 99 sites with suspended load measurements from several regions of the United States. Results of this analysis were compared to site-specific metrics such as stream flashiness and bed sediment size. A comparison of sediment transport metrics calculated with both daily-average and sub-daily stream flow data at each site showed that daily-averaged flow data were unable to adequately represent the magnitude of high streamflows at flashy sites. This caused an underestimation of sediment transport and sediment yield at flashy sites, the degree of which was controlled by the magnitude of the best-fit exponent of the sediment rating curve. Regression equations are provided for estimating this bias as a function of stream flashiness and sediment rating curve parameters. No relationship between flow data resolution and effective discharge was found. The results of this analysis help inform the use of FDCs and sediment yield estimation in urbanizing watersheds. This analysis demonstrates the magnitude of change that urbanization may cause in a FDC. Additionally, this analysis illustrates the importance of using sub-daily flow data in the calculation of sediment yield in urbanizing or otherwise flashy watersheds.

The success of PISA since its first survey administration in 2000 has attracted an ever increasing number of participating countries. With an increasingly diverse group of countries, the targeting of the original assessment may be less appropriate than when it was first conceived for a smaller more uniform group of countries. The purpose of this paper is to identify the technical issues in respect of Strand C (assessing competencies of those out-of-school) and to discuss and present ways of addressing these issues.  Counting and locating the out-of-school: Fifteen-year-olds are rare: the project would need to visit around 10 households to find one 15-year-old. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) and Uwezo surveys involved interviewing all children between 6- and 16-year-olds. This exercise, targeted on a single year age group is, rather obviously, more difficult and needs some different approaches.  Constructing a sampling frame and finding 15-year-olds: A two-stage process is recommended: first identifying households reporting that they have a 15-year-old and then returning with an appointment to verify age, establish her/his status vis-a-vis school and then, if appropriate, administering the questionnaire and the test. A probability sample can be designed but will involve an initial listing of 30 times as many households as the target population of out-of-school (OOS) 15-year-olds. The alternative is to target marginal, vulnerable areas where there are likely to be a higher percentage of OOS 15-year-olds: these would include isolated rural areas and urban slum areas. Poverty maps can be consulted to select the poorer rural and urban areas.  Surveying, testing and administering an interview: The interview and test are, in most cases, probably best administered at home, as that is where most of the OOS 15-year-olds will be living and working; street children, etc. will have to be interviewed and tested where they can be found.  Design and development of instruments: Given the range of education experiences of 15-year- olds, a set of instruments is needed ranging from the PISA booklets, to the national component for students below grade 7 that will be prepared under Strand A, to some of the PASEC/SACMEQ items, to a basic literacy assessment such as the ASER-type or EGRA early years assessment, to a pictorial/verbal assessment. A particular concern is that the OOS (‘failed’) 15-year-old is not further stigmatised through taking the test.

Social scientists theorize that the inverse relationship between socio-economic status and family size represents a trade-off between the quality and quantity of children. Evaluating this hypothesis empirically requires addressing the simultaneity of the quality and quantity decisions. Researchers have used the unanticipated birth of twins as exogenous variation in family size or the sex composition of the first two children as an instrument for family size with mixed results. We exploit a different source of exogenous variation in family size. The One Child Policy (OCP) in China dramatically reduced Chinese fertility and we examine how the OCP has affected the educational attainment of Chinese migrants to the U.S. Using data from the American Community Survey (2009-2012) and a difference-in-differences strategy our results support the quality-quantity tradeoff theory. We find that education increased more for Chinese migrants born after the OCP than their counterparts from other East Asian countries.

Using microdata from Current Population Survey Fertility supplements 1990-2010 we examine whether Common Law Marriage (CLM) laws in the US affect teen birth rates. CLM effects are identified through cross-state and time variation, as four states repealed the law over the period of study. We find that in the states where CLM laws were first available but then repealed the odds that teens would become new mothers increased, with a larger increase among young black teens. When we include dummies for CLM at various times around the timing of the repeal, it turns out that the likelihood of becoming a mother is most affected by availability of CLM between 1 and 4 years prior to the repeal. There is a small negative effect of CLM on older women becoming mothers. To the extent that they reduce teen births CLM laws are socially desirable and worthy of further study.

The effects of the 2008 financial crisis extend beyond just the economy. Economic contraction and increased unemployment for extended periods of time have been shown to affect both positively and negatively mental health and health behaviors. Joblessness increases time available to devote to healthy behaviors, however the financial uncertainty also increases stress-related health concerns. Using data from the 2006 and 2012 National Health and Interview Survey, this study examines the effects of the Great Recession on individuals physical health and psychological well-being. Understanding better how economic conditions influence health will allow the creation of public policy that benefits the population.