Highlights:- A large and growing body of literature explores the social and economic benefits of womens ability to use reliable contraception to plan whether and when to have children.- Historical research has linked state laws granting unmarried women early legal access to the pill (at age 17 or 18, rather than 21), to their attainment of postsecondary education and employment, increased earning power and a narrowing of the gender gap in pay, and later,more enduring marriages.- Contemporary studies indicate that teen pregnancy interferes with young womens ability to graduate from high school and to enroll in and graduate from college. Conversely, planning, delaying and spacing births appears to help women achieve their education and career goals. Delaying a birth can also reduce the gap in pay that typically exists between working mothers and their childless peers and can reduce womens chances of needing public assistance.- Unplanned births are tied to increased conflict and decreased satisfaction in relationships and with elevated odds that a relationship will fail. They are also connected with depression, anxiety and lower reported levels of happiness. Contraceptive access and consistent method use may also affect mental health outcomes by allowing couples to plan the number of children in their family.- People are relatively less likely to be prepared for parenthood and develop positive parentchild elationships if they become parents as teenagers or have an unplanned birth. Close birthspacing and larger family size are also linked with parents decreased investment in their children. All of this, in turn, may influence childrens mental and behavioral development and educational achievement.- Because not all women have shared equally in the social and economic benefits of contraception, there is more work to be done in implementing programs and policies that advance contraceptive access and help all women achieve their life goals if and when they decide to become mothers.

In this paper we explore occupational structure in the USA, as measured by the social networks which link occupations through marriage. Network ties between two occupations are defined if the proportion of husbands in occupation A who have wives in occupation B is greater than the proportion of wives in occupation B in the sample, or vice versa. We explore networks for 1980 and 2010, and ask whether social change in the period influences the structure of these networks. Results suggest a trend towards less educational and occupation segregation.

This study examines a wide range of health and economic outcomes in a sample of Irish- and African-American Civil War veterans during the postbellum period. The information in our data is from a variety of circumstances across an individual's life span, and we use that to attempt to explain whether the disparities in mortality are related to disparities in life experiences. We find evidence of disparities between Irish and blacks and others in such variables as occupation and wealth, morbidity, and mortality. The data do not reveal disparate outcomes for all blacks and Irish; they only reveal inferior outcomes for slave-born blacks and foreign-born Irish. For the freeborn blacks and native-born Irish, for whom the historical tradition suggests discrimination and prejudice, the data only hint at such problems.

This paper studies the long-run effects of agricultural diversification on manufacturing produc- tivity and income per capita. Evidence from United States counties shows that the structure of agricultural production at early stages of development affects the growth process. Identifica- tion of causal effects comes from a novel instrumental variable strategy that relies on natural endowments as a source of exogenous variation in agricultural diversification patterns. Accord- ing to my IV estimates, a one-standard-deviation increase in agricultural diversification in 1860 led to a 5 percentage points gain in income per capita in 2000. The positive effect of agricul- tural diversification was already present in manufacturing productivity by 1920. I conduct an exploratory assessment of different channels of causality, and find evidence pointing to human capital formation and industrial diversification.

We assess the effects of U.S. tax policy reforms on inequality by applying a newdecomposition method that allows us to disentangle the direct policy effect from the effect ofchanging market incomes. Over the whole period 1979-2007 the cumulative tax policy effectaggravated income inequality by increasing the income share of the top 20% in contrast tothe middle class share. The tax policy effect accounts for up to 29% of the total change ininequality; its contribution increases up to 41% if we take into account behavioral responses.Using our unique policy effect measure and variation in tax policies across U.S. states andtime, we also identify the redistributive intention of policymakers. The estimated effect ofpartisan politics on the U.S. income distribution is statistically significant and economicallyimportant. Republican policymakers increased inequality especially at the top whereasDemocrats increased the income share of the bottom 80% of the distribution.

The least-skilled workforce in the United States is disproportionally employed in the provision of time-intensive services that can be thought of as market substitutes for home production activities. At the same time, skilled workers, with their high opportunity cost of time, spend a larger fraction of their budget in these services. Given the skill asymmetry between consumers and providers in this market, product demand shifts-such as those arising when relative skilled wages increase-should boost relative labor demand for the least-skilled workforce. We estimate that this channel may explain one-third of the growth of employment of noncollege workers in low-skill services in the 1990s.

This report examines the importance of patents as a measure of invention to economic growth and explores why some areas are more inventive than others. Why should we expect there to be a relationship between patenting and urban economic development? As economist Paul Romer has written, the defining nature of ideas, in contrast to other economic goods, is that they are non-rival: their use by any one individual does not preclude others from using them. Although useful ideas can be freely transmitted and copied, the patent system guarantees, in principle, temporary protection from would-be competitors in the marketplace (i.e. excludability). Thus, one would expect regions to realize at least some of the value of invention, as has been shown for individual inventors and companies that patent. Yet there is no guarantee that patents generated in a specific location will generate wealth in that same locationa set of conditions (the presence of a skilled and diverse labor force, an ecosystem of businesses providing complementary goods and services, financing and marketing capabilities among them) have to be met for invention to be commercialized...

The location of a government's capital can profoundly influence the nature and quality of political representation. Yet scholars know very little about what drives the siting of political capitals. In this article, we examine the location and relocation of political capitals in the United States, including the choice of Washington, DC, as the nation's capital and the location and relocation of capitals in the 48 contiguous American states. We argue that the location of capitals in the United States followed a systematic pattern in accord with the theory of representative government developed in the new nation, especially as articulated by Madison. Based on an empirical analysis of historical census and political boundaries data from 1790 to the present, we find that decision makers consistently tended to locate—and especially relocate—the seat of government as near as possible to the population centroid of the relevant political jurisdiction, consistent with the principle of equal representation of citizens. Our analysis contributes to the study of institutional design and change, especially in the area of American political development, as well as to a burgeoning literature on the effects of geographical factors on political outcomes.

We explore relationships among BMI variation, wealth, and inequality in the 19th century US. There was an inverse relationship between BMI and average state-level wealth and a small, inverse relationship with wealth inequality. After controlling for wealth and inequality, farmers had greater BMI values than workers in other occupations, and blacks had greater BMI values because of nutritional deprivation in utero.

The literature on social capital and entrepreneurship often explores individual benefits of social capital, such as the role of personal networks in promoting self-employment. In this article, we instead examine social capitals public good aspects, arguing that the benefits of social trust and organization memberships accrue not just to the individual but to the community at large. We test these arguments using individual data from the 2000 Census that have been merged with two community surveys, the Social Capital Benchmark Survey and the General Social Survey. We find that individuals in communities with high levels of social trust are more likely to be self-employed compared to individuals in communities with lower levels of social trust. Additionally, membership in organizations connected to the larger community is associated with higher levels of self-employment, but membership in isolated organizations that lack connections to the larger community is associated with lower levels of self-employment. Further analysis suggests that the entrepreneurship-enhancing effects of community social capital are stronger for whites, native-born residents, and long-term community members than for minorities, immigrants, and recent entrants.

In 1923, Chicago adopted one of the nation's first comprehensive zoning ordinances. Intended to stabilize property values and protect public health by regulating land uses and building types, the ordinance made no mention of race or ethnicity. We ask if, despite the race-neutral text, minority communities were differently zoned. Using fine-resolution spatial data on the location of immigrants and African Americans across Chicago juxtaposed with digitized maps of contemporaneous land use and the zoning ordinance itself, we show that neighborhoods with either larger share of southern blacks or first-generation immigrants were more likely to be zoned for manufacturing uses. The results are robust to the inclusion of a rich set of controls for urban geography and pre-existing land uses, suggesting that our findings cannot be explained by the sorting of minorities into areas most suited for industrial activity.

This dissertation addresses two research questions: 1. Do states misrepresent their progress on their own state assessments? 2. If states do distort their progress, are their predictors to suggest why this distortion occurs? The first research question requires that distortion be defined. For the purposes of this dissertation I calculated the growth from 2003 to 2005, 2005 to 2007, and 2007 to 2009 on each state‟s individual state assessment and the NAEP. To calculate the growth I used a modified growth equation that subtracts the two scores and divides that by the maximum score on that test in that year, from the first score. This calculation produces a Practical Normed Growth (PNG) for the state assessment as well as the NAEP. To determine the distortion index I subtract the NAEP‟s PNG from the state assessment‟s PNG. A positive distortion index indicates the state assessment‟s growth was greater than the NAEP‟s growth and the state distorted their progress. A negative distortion index indicates the NAEP‟s PNG was greater than the state assessment‟s PNG and the state did not misrepresent their progress. This analysis was done on the elementary reading assessment. This assessment includes three growth periods to compare, creates three observations of the 50 states, or 150 data points possible for distortion. The first research question, do states distort their progress? The answer is yes. On the elementary reading assessments the states had a positive distortion index 76 times out of a possible 150, or 51%. The observed distortions came from three basic models. First, the state assessment scores went up, but the NAEP scores went down or stayed the same. Second, the state assessment scores stayed the same, but the NAEP scores went down. Third, the state assessment scores went down, but the NAEP scores went down more. In each of these possible scenarios the states have misrepresented the education progress of their state to their stakeholders. In the first scenario, if the scores on the state assessments go up while the NAEP assessment scores go down indicates a narrowed curriculum and an overemphasis on the state assessment. In the second scenario, if the scores on the state assessment stayed the same while the NAEP scores dropped indicates a less effective focus on the state assessment, at the expense of the NAEP. The third scenario, both the state assessment and NAEP scores fall, with the NAEP scores falling faster indicates a state struggling to do anything well. The second research question, are there predictors to suggest why this distortion occurs? The answer is yes. On the elementary reading assessment comparison, two predictors were statistically significant in the final model, state population and AfricanAmerican status. The coefficients of each of these predictors indicate that states with lower populations and higher numbers of African-Americans distort their progress more on the elementary reading assessments.

This dissertation is a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of land development growth management programs at two communities that are thoroughbred horse centers - Ocala/Marion County, Florida and Lexington/Fayette County, Kentucky. The study period was 1970 to 2010. Marion County has had a state-mandated growth management program in place since 1985 and Fayette County has had an urban growth boundary since 1957. The agricultural use of the thoroughbred horse industry was selected because it is known to be highly sensitive to sprawl-type development and the long-term economic strength of each location is dependent upon a strong thoroughbred industry as it contributes more than $3 billion dollars a year to Florida and has a $2.4 billion economic impact on Fayette County, Kentucky. The study evaluated the spatial extent of population growth using the US Census of Population. Using GIS, sprawl was quantified in several ways: through density gradients' regression analysis, and through measurement of the linear miles of built streets per square mile in each county. Fayette County was found to have sprawled less during the study period. The next step involved investigation into the political culture to ascertain why stricter growth controls were implemented in one locale and not the other. Political culture, defined as the attitudes, values, beliefs, and orientations that individuals within a society hold regarding their political system. Following Ingelhart (1990), political culture is operationalized through analysis of educational attainment and income levels. The role of the growth machine (Molotch, 1976) was also explored. In Florida, growth machine elites included developers and retirees, largely due to the economic model of retirement/second home development and tourism that has grown the Florida economy since the 1960s. Through participant-observer analysis, it is determined that the growth machine in Lexington seems to be the thoroughbred industry, which maximizes its interests through controlling the incursion of incompatible land uses onto the thoroughbred farms. Therefore, the growth machine may not always be interested in more development. In this case study, it is demonstrated that the growth machine is anti-development, in order to maximize its own profits.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Southern states decreed that one drop of African American blood made a multiracial individual Black, and even today, multiracial Blacks are typically perceived as being Black only, underscoring the enduring legacy and entrenchment of the one-drop rule of hypodescent. But how are Asians and Latinos with mixed ancestry perceived? Based on analyses of census data and in-depth interviews with interracial couples with children and multiracial adults, I find that the children of Asian-White and Latino-White couples are much less constrained by strict racial categories. Racial identification often shifts according to situation, and individuals can choose to identify along ethnic lines, as White, or as American. Like their Irish and Italian immigrant forerunners, the Asian and Latino ethnicities of these multiracial Americans are adopting the symbolic character of European, White ethnicity. We appear to be entering a new era of race relations in which the boundaries of Whiteness are beginning to expand to include new non-White groups such as Asians and Latinos, with multiracial Asians and Latinos at the head of the queue. However, even amidst the new racial and ethnic diversity, these processes continue to shut out African Americans, illustrating a pattern of "Black exceptionalism" and the emergence of a Black-non-Black divide in the twenty-first century.

The two research questions of the dissertation include the following: What are the characteristics of spouses in transnational EE-U.S. couples that can distinguish them from spouses in intranational U.S.-U.S. couples? (Research Question 1); Are EE wives in transnational interethnic couples exposed to more areas of potential vulnerabilities compared to EE wives who are intraethnic EE-EE immigrant couples? (Research Question 2). To answer these questions a 1% representative sample from 2008-2010 American Community Survey was used

This article provides a new account of American job seekers' individualized understandings of their labor-market difficulties, and more broadly, of how structural conditions shape subjective responses. Unemployed white-collar workers in the U.S. tend to interpret their labor market difficulties as reflecting flaws in themselves, while Israelis tend to perceive flaws in the hiring system. These different responses have profound individual and societal implications. Drawing on in-depth interviews with unemployed job seekers and participant observations at support groups in the U.S. and Israel, this article shows how different labor market institutions give rise to distinct job search games, which I call the chemistry game in the U.S. and the specs game in Israel. Challenging the broad cultural explanations of the unemployment experience in the existing literature, this article shows how subjective responses to unemployment are generated by the search experiences associated with institutionally rooted job search games.

The use of OLAP sessions, conducted by professional analysts, seems to be the best way to assess the relevance of OLAP solutions based on former queries (in particular with user-centric approaches, like recommendation or per-sonalization of queries). However, for scholar research teams, obtaining such logs is often difficult. Moreover, the complexity of the queries produced in these logs can lead to an important treatment of them, denaturing the performed analysis. In this paper, we propose a feedback from real OLAP sessions performed by graduate students in Business Intelligence. This feedback reports the design of questionnaires and the use of an original user interface to easily conduct real OLAP sessions.