A comprehensive analysis of the 2009 Current Population SurveyAnnual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS-ASEC) provides the first snapshot of the involvement of people with disabilities in a broad array of government programs. Focusing on the working-age population, this analysis reveals that people with disabilities represent one third of the persons who participate in safety-net programs. Among persons with disabilities, 65% participate in a safety-net program, compared with 17% of persons without disabilities. Among Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) beneficiaries, 38% participate in safety-net programs other than DI, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicaid, and Medicare. Furthermore, results suggest that only 3% and 8% of low-income nonworking safety-net participants with and without disabilities, respectively, utilize employment services. Improved data collection on the use of employment services is needed to further evaluate the interaction of safety-net and employment services programs.

This paper studies how advances in home production technologies affect female employment and investment in daughters. The empirical analysis exploits large cross-country and cross-state variation in the timing of household electrification in the U.S. for the period 1930 to 1960. To address potential endogeneity in the decision to modernize, I estimate instrumental variables regressions, based on a newly assembled dataset that provides information on the construction of over 1,000 power plants during this period. Identification relies on plausibly exogenous changes in the cost of supplying power to different communities based on their location. Household electrification had no immediate impact on female employment, but is associated with increased school attendance, particularly among teenage daughters, and ultimately led to improvements in the labor market outcomes of subsequent cohorts of women. These findings are consistent with a model in which household modernization permanently expanded the time-budget constraint of current and future generations of women. Moreover, the results suggest that the diffusion of modern technology into the home during the first half of the 20th century can account for a significant fraction of the rise in female employment after 1950.

BACKGROUND The healthy immigrant effect has been well-documented in many developed countries. In the United States, Body Mass Index (BMI) convergence of immigrants is cited as a cause for their health deterioration. Unhealthy BMI is a product of imbalances in diet and physical activity. OBJECTIVE In this paper, we determine the relative contributions of diet and exercise to the BMI assimilation of immigrants. We examine the impact of different food groups on weight changes, and we investigate the causes for the dietary changes. METHODS We use data from four waves of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We investigate the initial gaps in food consumption and physical activity levels and the convergence in these variables, for immigrants’ vis-à-vis natives in a linear regression framework. We include a variety of socio-economic controls, and we stratify immigrants into age groups. We also consider heterogeneity in assimilation patterns across income-levels and countries-of-origin. CONCLUSION Upon arrival, immigrants consume fewer fats than natives. Older immigrants increase fat consumption over their U.S. residency. On the other hand, longer-residing immigrants are more physically active. Diet, rather than exercise, has a larger impact on immigrant BMI. Income affects the food choices of poorer immigrants. Country-oforigin differences are also important in determining diets. COMMENTS 1.2 million immigrants are added to the U.S. population annually. Healthcare expenditures could increase if obesity-related diseases plague the burgeoning foreign-born population. Policies that target healthy eating habits of this population could benefit their civic assimilation.

This paper presents a low cost MOSFET-IGBT multi-level converter that is suitable for high power and high frequency IPT systems. The proposed converter with reduced number of switches can be employed on the primary side of IPT systems to generate high track currents that are necessary for high power applications. Simulated results are presented under various operating conditions, investigating the performance of the converter in comparison to a typical H-bridge topology. Results clearly indicate that stress levels of switches are low and the proposed converter produces quality waveforms at reduced switching losses and harmonic distortions.

The city of Los Angeles is renowned for its traffic. In recent years, the city has been re-investing in public transportation in order to curb the gridlock and mitigate other detrimental side effects of an automobile dependent society such as air pollution and stress. With the introduction of new rail lines and better bus service, the city has seen an increase in public transportation ridership of 5.7% between 2012 and 2014. That increase is primarily due to greater use of the metro rail service, with the total number of trips growing 14.2% since 2012. While improving public transportation has many benefits, there are effects on the housing and rental markets that are not as well understood. Furthermore, the complex relationships between real estate prices, access to public transportation and ridership are highly spatially dependent. In this study, these relationships were examined through the use of spatial autoregressive models that included predictor variables for type of commuting (public transportation or driving), length of commute, distance to public transportation, housing characteristics, and demographics. We found that the relationship between median house value and distance to public transportation was dependent upon the spatial scale of the neighbourhood being examined. On a highly local scale (<1km on average), median house prices increased by $2.42 for every meter closer to the metro rail, and by $5.52 for every meter closer to the rapid bus line. Conversely, at this spatial scale, monthly median rent prices decreased by $0.043 for every meter closer to metro rail and by $0.033 for every meter closer to the rapid bus line. In examining larger neighborhoods, distance to public transportation did not have a bearing on median house value. However, rent prices were always statistically significantly higher the closer the rental property was to public transportation (rail or bus). We also note that as median house price increased, public transportation use slightly increased, but up to a certain point. When house value exceeded approximately $100,000 above the mean value of the LA metro area, public transportation use dropped in favor of driving as a means to commute to work. As public transportation options continue to grow and become more readily available in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, there will be several changes to the real estate market. While house prices appear to be lower in very close proximity to public transportation, renters tend to attach a premium to living near metro rail and bus lines.

The paper has three main goals. It reviews and elaborates a number of measures of retention of natives and attraction of migrants and examines the formal relationships among these measures in Appendixes A and B. Secondly it presents a number of state-specific lifetime migration measures as of 2006-2010 with special attention to education and the impact of immigration. We also examine the degree of change in these lifetime measures centering on 1990. Lastly, it utilizes the measures developed to present a decomposition of a states proportion of college graduates into elements that highlights the relative importance of retention and attraction and illustrates how these can contribute to appropriate policy formulation(see Appendix B).

This article critically evaluates the available data on trends in divorce in the United States. We find that both vital statistics and retrospective survey data on divorce after 1990 underestimate recent marital instability. These flawed data have led some analysts to conclude that divorce has been stable or declining for the past three decades. Using new data from the American Community Survey and controlling for changes in the age composition of the married population, we conclude that there was actually a substantial increase in age-standardized divorce rates between 1990 and 2008. Divorce rates have doubled over the past two decades among persons over age 35. Among the youngest couples, however, divorce rates are stable or declining. If current trends continue, overall age-standardized divorce rates could level off or even decline over the next few decades. We argue that the leveling of divorce among persons born since 1980 probably reflects the increasing selectivity of marriage.

Data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) are rarely analyzed in a way that takes advantage of the CPS’s longitudinal design. This is mainly because of the technical difficulties associated with linking CPS files across months. In this paper, we describe the method we are using to create unique identifiers for all CPS person and household records from 1979 onward. These identifiers—soon to be available along with CPS basic and supplemental data as part of the on-line Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS)—will make it dramatically easier to use CPS data for longitudinal research across any number of substantive domains. In order to facilitate the use of these new longitudinal IPUMS-CPS data, we also outline seven different ways that researchers may choose to link CPS person records across months, and we describe the sample sizes and sample retention rates associated with these seven designs. Finally, we discuss a number of unique methodological challenges that researchers will confront when analyzing data from linked CPS files.

Two areas of sustainable development were investigated to test the importance of economic development and the planning process on energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions outcomes between 2000 and 2010 across all sectors in the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the United States. Following this, a model was developed to evaluate the social benefits and costs of solar photovoltaic programs in the City of Atlanta. Results indicated that some econometric models relating emissions to GDP per-capita are poor descriptors over this decade. Planning process and growth in GDP per-capita are shown to be better indicators of performance, although these are also subject to specific contextual differences between regions, notably through adversarial polycentrism. Existing solar photovoltaic programs are also estimated to provide tens to hundreds of millions in cumulative net benefits to the City of Atlanta, although this is likely only a fraction of the potential. These findings suggest that the management of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions could be improved through increased participatory planning approaches and through the removal of barriers to realizing cost-effective improvements in energy and carbon performance.

Over the past few decades, tuition prices and enrollment at for-profit institutions of higher education have grown significantly. With this, students have relied more heavily on federal financial aid to relieve their financial burdens in pursuing a postsecondary degree. For-profit higher education is a differentiated products oligopoly; schools are differentiated both horizontally (individual preferences) and vertically (quality differences). In such a market, the pass-through, or incidence, of federal aid is not clear a priori. This paper finds to what extent federal financial aid improves the consumer surplus of students and to what extent it improves the producer surplus of the schools. To incorporate the market structure of for-profit higher education, I estimate a model of higher education choice (demand) and university pricing (supply) to compute the welfare effects of Federal Student Aid. I estimate that on average, 57 percent of federal grant aid and 51 percent of federal loan aid is passed through to for-profit colleges. In addition, I find that both federal grant aid and federal loan aid improve producer surplus more than consumer surplus.

Historians are increasingly coming to believe that space matters. From claims that "geography is destiny" to the long-held belief that "all politics is local," understanding the implications of space--the spatial turn--is becoming central to the study of history. Understanding the changing nature of politics in this country since the eighteenth century has involved detailed temporal analysis of voting patterns, demographics, etc. at various scales. In order to efficiently conduct such research, relevant and readily available historical resources are a necessity. Through the use of GIS resources, we are making the transition from analog to digital data. This research allows us to analyze large amounts of historical data from a spatial perspective. The purpose of this project is to make available user-friendly U.S. Congressional historical data and create resources that advance the understanding of the interaction between space and politics in American history.

The incidence pattern of adult acute leukemia (AL) in Hispanics is distinct, with increased B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) and decreased non-APL acute myeloid leukemia (AML). To better understand genetic versus environmental contributors, we assessed AL incidence rates in a population of adult California Hispanics according to birthplace. Using data from California AL patients ≥20 diagnosed between 2000-2009, incidence rate ratios (IRR) were employed to compare incidence rates of AL in foreign- versus United States (US)-born Hispanics. Compared to whites, Hispanics had increased incidence rates of B-cell ALL and APL, IRR2.13 (1.93-2.35) and 1.33 (1.12-1.57), respectively. No nativity differences in B-cell ALL were noted. Foreign-born Hispanics had a higher incidence rate of APL versus US-born Hispanics (IRR 1.79, 1.11-2.94). For adult Hispanics, increased B-cell ALL incidence rates may be due to heritable genetic factors; increased APL incidence rates may be due to as yet unknown environmental exposures.

Most good definitions of sustainability include economic, social, and environmental aspects. In this paper, two particular areas of sustainability related to all three components are investigated: energy and CO2 emissions. As of this writing, more than 1000 cities in the United States have signed the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, but only 15% have created comprehensive estimates of their existing energy consumption and emissions profiles, making management a difficult task. In this paper, we provide estimates of both of these measures for the residential and commercial sectors for the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the United States over the 2000-2010 period. This tracks the progress towards sustainable development in major urban areas nationally, identifying leaders and laggards, as well as opportunities for improvement. For example, the commercial building sector in each MSA is divided into 12 building types in this analysis, so while the entirety of the commercial sector of a given MSA may be high performing, specific building types may be targeted for additional improvements in energy efficiency. The differentiated economic geography of local economies also suggests areas for focus due to scale if a high proportion of commercial energy consumption takes places in the health care subsector, expanded efficiency programs may be warranted, even with high performance buildings. In sum, we expect this research to fill a major gap in the existing literature and to have real-world policy relevance for energy efficiency efforts in the areas where the vast majority of U.S. wealth and innovation are produced.

There is still considerable dispute about the magnitude of labor supply elasticities. While difference in micro and macro estimates are recently attributed to frictions and adjustment costs, we show that relatively low labor supply elasticities derived from microeconometric models can also be explained by modeling assumptions with respect to wages. Specifically, we estimate 3,456 structural labor supply models each representing a plausible combination of frequently made choices. While most model assumptions do not systematically affect labor supply elasticities, our analysis shows that the results are very sensitive to the treatment of wages. In particular, the often-made but highly restrictive independence assumption between preferences and wages is key. To overcome this restriction, we propose a flexible estimation strategy that nests commonly used models. We show that loosening the exogeneity assumption leads to labor supply elasticities that are much higher.

One goal of state merit-based financial aid programs is to increase the stock of college-educated labor in the state by retaining college-educated persons in the state after college. However, there has been surprisingly little research on whether state merit aid programs are effective at this goal. This paper investigates the effect of statemerit aid programs on the post-college location of 24-30 year olds. We use decennial census and American Community Survey microdata to consider post-college retention effects in the 25 states that implemented merit aid programs between 1991 and 2004. Our preferred specification impliesthat strong state merit aid programs on average increase the probability that a college attendee lives in his or her birth state during ages 24-30 by 2.76 percentage points. We also estimate the effect for individual states and find meaningful differences across states in the effect of merit aid programs on in-state post-college retention and explore explanations for these differences.

This paper examines the impact of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86) and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (OBRA93), which included expansions of the earned income tax credit (EITC), on the labor force participation and educational enrollment of single women with children. Comparing the respective changes in labor supply and educational enrollment of single women with children to the changes for single women without children identifies the impact of TRA86 and OBRA93. The empirical results on labor force participation are not without ambiguity, yet generally confirm earlier reports that the EITC increases labor force participation. Contradicting a previous study, I find that the EITC increases educational enrollment, too. This paper also analyzes the economic consequences of alternative welfare and tax models. By means of a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model the effects of reducing and abolishing labor taxes and introducing an unconditional basic income (UBI) are studied. The results indicate that following the introduction of a basic income, production output would fall and prices rise, yet welfare disparities would be reduced. The reduction in labor taxation has a positive effect on employment that is offset by the introduction of the basic income.

The Great Recession had significant economic effects both in the U.S. and around the world. There is evidence that homeownership rates declined during this period, though immigrants were less severely affected compared to natives. In this paper we investigate the role of several factors in reducing the vulnerability of immigrants in the face of the economic crisis and increasing the probability of their homeownership. Specifically, we examine to what extent immigrants birthplace networks, savings, length of stay in the U.S., and citizenship status affect the probability of homeownership before the recession and to what extent their impact on homeownership have changed since the recession. Using data for the years 2000 - 2012, our results suggest that birthplace networks have a significant effect on homeownership and this effect increases after the onset of the recession. Moreover, the impact of birthplace network on homeownership is stronger for citizens and those who are not recent immigrants. We also find heterogenous impacts in the impact of savings, length of stay and citizenship status when comparing the prerecession period to the post.

In this paper, we explore the recent gender wage gap trends in a sample of European countries with a new approach that uses the direct measures of skill requirements of jobs held by men and women. We find that, during the 1990s and 2000s, the gender wage gap declined in the majority of the European countries. Similar to the U.S. experience, a part of this decline is explained by changes in returns to brain and brawn skills in Austria and in the U.K. However, in contrast to the U.S. experience, the changes in returns to brain and brawn skills had a widening effect on the gender wage gap in Southern European countries and in Ireland. Furthermore, we find that a substantial part of the changes in the gender wage gaps in European countries and in the U.S. cannot be explained by the changes in brain and brawn skill prices. The findings of this study suggest the importance of changes in labor market institutions in explaining the gender wage gap trends.