We examine portage sites in the U.S. South, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest, including those on the fall line, a geomorphological feature in the southeastern U.S. marking the final rapids on rivers before the ocean. Historically, waterborne transport of goods required portage around the falls at these points, while some falls provided water power during early industrialization. These factors attracted commerce and manufacturing. Although these original advantages have long since been made obsolete, we document the continuing importance of these portage sites over time. We interpret these results as path dependence and contrast explanations based on sunk costs interacting with decreasing versus increasing returns to scale.

Objective To assess recent trends in obesity, health beliefs, and lifestyles in Swedish schoolchildren, with focus on socioeconomic disparities. Method The study was conducted in two areas with high and low socioeconomic status (SES). 340 11–12 year olds participated in three cross-sectional surveys assessing food-related behaviours, physical activity and health beliefs, together with anthropometric examinations. Comparisons were made before and after a community-based intervention (2003 versus 2008) within the low-SES school, and between the low and high-SES school (2008 only). Results In the low-SES school BMI z-score decreased over 5 years (0.80 vs 0.46) as did the percentage of children frequently consuming sweet drinks (43.5 vs 26.8%), statistically significant in girls only (p < 0.05). Children increasingly perceived benefits of healthy life-styles (37 vs 55%). In 2008, consumption of breakfast, vegetables, sweets and sweet drinks differed between schools, as did screen-time and physical activity, all in favour of the high SES-school where the obesity-prevalence was significantly lower (0.8 vs 6.7%). Conclusion Positive changes in diet and weight status were observed, especially in girls, within a low-income multi-ethnic community undergoing a health promotion intervention. Our results underscore the multifactorial etiology of childhood obesity and the importance of continuing tailored, gender-sensitive prevention efforts. Highlights ► A community based public health intervention was conducted in a low income area. ► Among 5th and 6th graders, perceived benefit of a healthy life-style increased. ► We observed a shift downwards in BMI z-score for girls. ► Positive changes in girl's BMI-status were paralleled by a decreased intake of sugar. ► For boys, consumption of fruit and vegetables increased.

We use state repeals of blood test requirements (BTRs) for a marriage license that occurred between 1980 and 2008 to examine the impact of changes in the price of marriage on the marriage decision. Using a within-group estimator that holds constant state and year effects and exploits variation in the repeal dates of BTRs across states, we find that BTRs are associated with a 6.1 percent decrease in marriage licenses issued by a state. This main finding is supported with results from individual-level marriage license and Current Population Survey data. The largest effects are found for lower socioeconomic groups.

We summarize prior theories on the adaptation process of the contemporary immigrant second generation as a prelude to presenting additive and interactive models showing the impact of family variables, school contexts and academic outcomes on the process. For this purpose, we regress indicators of educational and occupational achievement in early adulthood on predictors measured three and six years earlier. The Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study, used for the analysis, allows us to establish a clear temporal order among exogenous predictors and the two dependent variables. We also construct a Downward Assimilation Index, based on six indicators and regress it on the same set of predictors. Results confirm a pattern of segmented assimilation in the second generation, with a significant proportion of the sample experiencing downward assimilation. Predictors of the latter are the obverse of those of educational and occupational achievement. Significant interaction effects emerge between these predictors and early school contexts, defined by different class and racial compositions. Implications of these results for theory and policy are examined.

The debate on immigrant integration is focused on second-generation's educational and occupational attainment. The revised straight-line assimilation theory predicts overtime improvement and the segmented assimilation theory predicts a three-way pathway. While much research has been carried out in the USA, there has been relatively little research in a comparative framework. This study aims to make a contribution in this regard by using micro-data from the two most recent Censuses of the Population in the two countries. It examines tertiary education and labour market position of the second generation in Britain and the USA against the two theoretical perspectives. In addition, it also aims at testing the long-standing thesis of American openness. The analysis shows that the second generation in both countries were making progress but some groups were consistently disadvantaged. The findings render support for the segmented assimilation theory with regard to ethnic hierarchy but suggest greater support to the straight-line assimilation theory in terms of trends. We also find that the second generation were doing better in the US but the gaps were being narrowed. As some groups were persistently disadvantaged in both countries, governments, employers and the wider society must do more to help the most vulnerable rather than leave the matter to parental and community control in achieving upward mobility.

Once vibrant in a previous era of social psychiatric and sociologic research, interest in the role of social context in the etiology of psychosis has been revived. This line of research is defined by analyses of urban life and schizophrenia on the one hand, and migration, race/ethnicity, and neighborhood-level factors on the other. This dissertation integrates two strands of research regarding social context—urbanicity and neighborhood—to illuminate the interrelationships among place, race, and psychosis in the United States, where patterns of urbanization and suburbanization are deeply connected to race. A tripartite approach is employed in the treatment of this critical issue in the epidemiology of schizophrenia. A systematic review of studies regarding the spatial variation in the incidence of schizophrenia in developed countries since 1950, along the axes of urbanicity and neighborhood, is provided. Therein, an approach to the investigation of the role of social context in the etiology of schizophrenia is presented. Key to this approach is the characterization of social pathways, or the causal cascade by which place-based exposures are maintained and created; and consideration of the complexities of social context at an arguably critical point in the lifecourse, enriched by consideration of the role of history. This approach is applied to two epidemiologic analyses of key characteristics of neighborhoods at birth of a cohort born in the East Bay Area of California, 1959-67. Results are presented here. The first of these analyses, which addresses neighborhood population density, shows that birth in the most densely populated neighborhoods was significantly related to schizophrenia in adulthood, irrespective of race and family socioeconomic status at birth. The second set of analyses, which concerns neighborhood ethnic density in a sample restricted to blacks, demonstrates that neighborhood ethnic density was significantly protective against schizophrenia in adulthood. Both the specification of causal models and the interpretation of results are anchored in the history of the social context into which the cohort was born. An in-depth and integrative discussion of the empirical findings links them to the framework established in the systematic review and firmly anchors them in historical context. Taken together, the elements of this dissertation constitute a cohesive, historically grounded examination of the role of social context in the etiology of schizophrenia, in which place and race intersect to produce complex patterns, and shed light on potential opportunities for intervention and/or promotion beyond the individual level.

We examine the causal impact of education on health outcomes using variation in college attainment induced by draft-avoidance behavior during the Vietnam War. We exploit both national and state level induction risk to identify the effect of educational attainment on cohort-level mortality based on Vital Statistics data from 1981 to 2004. We generally find 2SLS estimates that are close in magnitude and significance to the OLS estimates. Our preferred 2SLS estimates imply that college completion reduces mortality in our affected cohorts. Effects are largest for deaths from heart disease and substance abuse in the 1980s. However, we find positive effects of college completion on mortality from stroke in the 1990s.

A large literature fi nds that the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) increased the employment of low-educated single mothers. From a time-allocation perspective, and because EITCchanges the return to working, investments in education may change. Yet, there has been no work on the impact of EITC on education. I exploit state-time variation in the implementation of state EITC programs to obtain estimates of the causal eff ects of EITC on women's school enrollment. Using the October supplement of the Current Population Surveys from 1996 to 2008, I find that the probability of enrollment decreases 1.4 percentage points (about 14%) and the probability of college enrollment decreases 1.7 percentage points (about 19%) for a 10 percentage point increase in the state EITC supplement rate (or equivalently, a 10 percent increase in the federal EITC bene t). The high school degree completers are more responsive to EITC relative to high school dropouts. It appears that EITC causes some high school completers who would otherwise enroll in college full time to not enroll. There is very little adjustment from full time to part time college enrollment status. It is also the younger among low educated single mothers, for whom the enrollment response is larger.

This paper discusses the importance of effective training and workforce development programs as part of a broader strategy to increase the competitiveness of American workers. Although rapid technological change and increasing global competition have delivered great economic benefits to the U.S. economy overall, the development of new and more productive industries has caused some Americans to experience significant declines in their earnings and job prospects; the Great Recession exacerbated these longer-term trends. Workers with less education and those who have been displaced from long-tenured jobs face particular challenges, and effective job training programs are an important component of policies to help these workers. The Hamilton Project proposes two general principles that can guide policy-makers in improving training programs to aid American workers: 1) training funds should be directed to programs with a track record of success in improving earnings for the specific targetpopulation and to those workers who can benefit the most from those programs; and 2) training programs should directly engage employer and industry partners, or actively guide students to career-specific training.

Data on Nobel Laureates show that the agecreativity relationship varies substantially more over time than across fields. The age dynamics within fields closely mirror field-specific shifts in (i) training patterns and (ii) the prevalence of theoretical contributions. These dynamics are especially pronounced in physics and coincide with the emergence of quantum mechanics. Taken together, these findings show fundamental shifts in the life cycle of research productivity, inform theories of the agecreativity relationship, and provide observable predictors for the age at which great achievements are made.

Americans work for their living. Having a job is an economic and moral imperative for most Americans. The wages they earn fuel the rest of the economy. Employment begets the spending that begets more employment. In good times, it is a virtuous cycle reinforcing consumer-driven capitalism. Events like the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 reverse the cycle, spinning the economy downward with a momentum that can be hard to break. Job losses reduce spending, which kills more jobs, reducing spending even more.

The impending light rail transit development along University Avenue in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota has led to local curiosity about both the past activities and the future possibilities for this urban street. Part I of this paper explores the social, economic and physical evolution of University Avenue and its relationship to transportation eras. Part II argues that there is a connection between the urban form of each transportation epoch and the rate of crime along University Avenue. The study concludes with the prediction that safety will improve following construction of the Central Corridor Light Rail line.

The link between circumstances faced by individuals early in life (including those encountered in utero) and later life outcomes has been of increasing interest since the work of Barker in the 1970s on birth weight and adult disease. We provide such a life course perspective for the U.S. by following 45,000 individuals from the household where they resided before age 5 until their death and analyzing the link between the characteristics of their childhood environment particularly, its socioeconomic status and their longevity and specific cause of death. White U.S.-born males living before age 5 in lower SES households (measured by father's occupation and family home ownership) who survive to age 70 die younger and are more likely to die from heart disease than those living before age 5 in higher SES households. The pathways potentiallygenerating these effects are discussed.

Supporters claim that entrepreneurship is critical to building and sustaining the regional economies of urban and rural areas across the nation. Proponents argue that economic development practices that enhance and support entrepreneurship are essential because they cultivate innovation which, in turn, creates new jobs, new wealth, and a better quality of life. However, South Carolinas real self-employed per capita income has decreased over the last decade. This downward trend highlights the need to examine the drivers of entrepreneurial income. The income of self-employed workers, as opposed to the number of self-employed, is critical to economic development because a major goal of economic policy is to increase incomes not just employment. Identifying and quantifying the personal, cultural, and economic factors that influence self-employed income provides policy makers with another tool to enhance economic development policies. This study uses data from the American Community Survey for South Carolina in both an ordinary regression approach and a quantile regression approach to investigate the relationship between individual entrepreneurial income and individual personal attributes, social/institutional assets available to the entrepreneur, and the regional economic environment the entrepreneur operates within. Personal attributes, such as education and sex, and the importance of self-employed income to total family income are significant variables in explaining income variation among self-employed individuals.

Good Jobs, Bad Jobs provides an insightful analysis of how and why precarious employment is gaining ground in the labor market and the role these developments have played in the decline of the middle class. Kalleberg shows that by the 1970s, government deregulation, global competition, and the rise of the service sector gained traction, while institutional protections for workers—such as unions and minimum-wage legislation—weakened. Together, these forces marked the end of postwar security for American workers. The composition of the labor force also changed significantly; the number of dual-earner families increased, as did the share of the workforce comprised of women, non-white, and immigrant workers. Of these groups, blacks, Latinos, and immigrants remain concentrated in the most precarious and low-quality jobs, with educational attainment being the leading indicator of who will earn the highest . . .

I siste del av 1800-tallet sank andelen eldre som bodde sammen med egne voksne barn i Nord-Troms og Finnmark. Artikkelen diskuterer i et etnisk perspektiv hvilken effekt alder, kjønn, ekteskapelig status og stilling som husholdsoverhode hadde på denne typen samboerskap, og hva som bidro til endring. Analysen viser at nedgangen, uavhengig av etnisk tilknytning, var et resultat av at enker og enkemenn uten stilling som husholdsoverhode i langt mindre grad var samboende med egne voksne barn. For å forstå endringen, diskuterer artikkelen føderådssystemet og hvilke konsekvenser arvesystemer knyttet til eiendomsoverdragelse hadde. Yngste sønns rett kan bidra til å forklare den høyere andelen av samboerskap blant samene. I tillegg kan både yngste og eldste sønns rett bidra til å forstå endringen over tid, da nedgangen primært skjedde for eldre samboende med gifte sønner.

One approach to urban areas emphasizes the existence of certain immutable relationships, such as Zipf's or Gibrat's Law. An alternative view is that urban change reflects individual responses to changing tastes or technologies. This paper examines almost 200 years of regional change in the U.S. and finds that few, if any, growth relationships remain constant, including Gibrat's Law. Education does a reasonable job of explaining urban resilience in recent decades, but does not seem to predict county growth a century ago. After reviewing this evidence, we present and estimate a simple model of regional change, where education increases the level of entrepreneurship. Human capital spillovers occur at the city level because skilled workers produce more product varieties and thereby increase labor demand. We find that skills are associated with growth in productivity or entrepreneurship, not with growth in quality of life, at least outside of the West. We also find that skills seem to have depressed housing supply growth in the West, but not in other regions, which supports the view that educated residents in that region have fought for tougher land-use controls. We also present evidence that skills have had a disproportionately large impact on unemployment during the current recession.

Why is agriculture much less productive than the rest of the economy in many countries? A common answer to this important question in development economics is that barriers to the movement of labor or goods cause large productivity gaps. In this paper we provide evidence from US states during 1980-2009 that agriculture is much less productive in many US states. We show that the standard explanations for productivity gaps account for very little only, and that barriers play no role at all. We then provide evidence suggesting that agricultural productivity is seriously mis-measured in the United States.

The impact of recessions is often borne unevenly. Different groups may have very different employment experiences in the same economic cycle, and this is especially true of different racial groups (Schulman 1996). Since the 1970s the unemployment rate as well as nonparticipation for black men relative to white men has increased throughout various economic cycles of expansion and contraction (Jun 2000). Cutler and Katz (1991) argue that forces arise . . .