This paper examines gender inequality inthe determinants of job-related long-distancemigration among married dual-earner couplesduring the 1980s and 1990s. The analysis testedthe structural explanation, which attributesgender asymmetry in family migration tostructural inequality in the labor market, andthe comparative advantage explanation derivedfrom relative resource theory. The analysisused individual- and family-level data from5,504 Panel Study of Income Dynamics families,occupation-level data from the 1980 2000U.S. Decennial Censuses Integrated Public UseMicro Samples, and discrete-time event historymodels. Gender differences in the determinantsof family migrationwere not explained by genderdifferences in occupational characteristics, butthe results partially support the relative resourcetheory by illustrating the conditioning influenceof interspousal comparative advantage.

We show that the hedging benefit of owning a home reduces the variability of housing consumption after a move. When a current home owner's house price covaries positively with housing costs in a future city, changes in the future cost of housing are offset by commensurate changes in wealth before the move. Using Census micro-data, we find that the cross-sectional variation in house values subsequent to a move is lower for home owners who moved between more highly covarying cities. Our preferred estimates imply that an increase in covariance of one standard deviation reduces the variance of subsequent housing consumption by about 11 percent. Households at the top end of the covariance distribution who are likely to have owned large homes before moving get the largest reductions, of up to 40 percent relative to households at the median.

This paper describes efforts to develop a more accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date measure of poverty in Wisconsin. The new measure targets areas of greatest need and reflects the effects of state and federal anti-poverty policies and programs. Based on input from state and national experts, the Wisconsin model uses American Community Survey data from IPUMS-USA to measure the level, depth, and trends in poverty. The model also captures the poverty reduction effects of such programs as SNAP (food stamps) and refundable tax credits, while considering the impact of out of pocket health care costs and work related expenses including child care, which reduce income available for families to meet basic needs.

Some immigrants to the United States arrive to find co-ethnic communities that are highly entrepreneurial, and many members of their own group among their prospective employers. Other immigrants settle in far less entrepreneurial communities and have few if any co-ethnics among prospective employers. We assess whether co-ethnic entrepreneurship improves immigrant employees wages. Previous research has focused on a small number of the largest ethnic groups in the largest cities. We study immigrants in 490 ethnic communities across the United States. Controlling for ethnicity, metropolitan area, and key individual- and community-level characteristics, we find effects of co-ethnic entrepreneurship on immigrant employees wages that vary substantially with the characteristics of entrepreneurs and employees. Overall, immigrant employees earn lower hourly wages in more entrepreneurial communities, but they earn higher wages where co-ethnic entrepreneurs are both numerous and economically successful. Low-skilled immigrant employeesearn significantly less in highly entrepreneurial communities than they otherwise would.

This paper analyzes the impact of temporary immigration on the prices of nontradable goods and services. It presents a model of a small open economy that produces two goods/services, one tradable and one non tradable. It is assumed that temporary immigrants are confined to work in the non-traded sector and that they are only imperfect substitutes for permanent immigrants and native low skill workers. In our theoretical set-up temporary immigration is predicted to have a negative effect on the prices of non-traded goods and services, while the effect of permanent immigrants depends on the relative low skill domestic labor intensity of the non tradable sector. We test these predictions empirically using a panel dataset of 14 U.S. cities for the period 2000-2006. In line with other recent empirical studies we find that both types of immigration have a negative impact on the relative price of non-tradable services as a whole. These findings confirm that immigration, like trade and offshoring, has the potential to increase welfare through the reduction of consumer and input prices. When distinguishing individual non tradable sectors, though, we find evidence that permanent immigration increases the price of transport and health services. This finding is in line with the predictions of earlier theoretical work and suggests in the context of our model that these sectors are less low skill domestic labor intensive than tradable goods and services.

This paper examines the relationship between military service status (active duty, veteran, never served), sex, and six functional limitations/disabilities using data from the 5% sample of the 2000 U.S. Census. We estimate multivariate logistic regression models separately for men and women, and evaluate sex differences by comparing coefficients across models using a Wald chi-square test andcomputing predicted probabilities. For both men and women, the highest rates of functional limitation/disability are observed among veterans, while the lowest rates are recorded among active duty personnel. The increased odds of functional limitations/ disabilities associated with veteran status is higher among women than men, whereas the decreased odds of functional limitations/disabilities associated withactive duty status is lower among women than men. The predicted probabilities, which are based on a subgroup of 4049 year olds with select sociodemographic characteristics, indicate that veteran womens probabilities of many types of functional limitations/disabilities equal or exceed those of veteran men. Overall, the findings suggest women experience a more detrimental effect of past military service and a less beneficial effect of current military service. More life course analysis with longitudinal data that accounts for factors that influence sex-differentiation with respect to selection into military service, experiences in the military, and the short- and long-term consequences of military service is needed to fully understand sex differences in the relationship between military service and functional limitations/ disabilities.

From the end of the 1960s to the beginning of the 1980s, the divorce rate increaseddramatically in all of the U.S. This paper uses the Current Population Survey dataand the divorce data of the National Vital Statistics System of the U.S. to decomposethe variation of the divorce rate over the decade 1970-1980 into several demographiccomponents: age, number of children, educational level, and region of residence.From the analysis it emerges that the increase in the rate was not primarily due to achange of the composition of the population. Young women with children, and loweducated women highly contributed to the growth in the divorce rate.

Barbering is one of the earliest professions to be licensed in the USA. This article discusses the origins of barber licensing, as well as its current status and scope, and then estimates the effects that such licensing has had on barbers' earnings. To estimate these effects we use micro-level data from the 2000 US Census along with several measures of the strictness of state licensing of barbers. Our results suggest that certain licensing provisions may have increased barber earnings by between 11 and 22 per cent. The magnitude of our estimates is somewhat higher than those found in studies examining the effects of licensing in similar professions.

Examines the extent to which social and economic factors impact health in the Twin Cities 7-county region. The study finds that income, race, education, and place all matter when it comes to health in the Twin Cities.

The rights that the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) enumerates include the rights to (1) an adequate standard of living, (2) an education directed toward the development of the childs fullest potential, (3) the highest attainable standard of health, and (4) the childs own cultural identity and use of his or her own language. The CRC states that these rights shall be ensured regardless of various statuses of children, including race, ethnic origin, national origin, and language. This article presents a statistical baseline for assessing the diversity of children in the United States with regard to these statuses, presents results for statistical indicators of well-being for children distinguished by these statuses, and discusses public policies to reduce inequalities relevant to these rights.

This research evaluates the accuracy of demand forecasts using a sample of recently-completed projects in Minnesota and identifies the factors influencing the inaccuracy in forecasts. Based on recent research on forecast accuracy, the inaccuracy of traffic forecasts is estimated as the difference between forecast traffic and actual traffic, standardized by the actual traffic. The analysis indicates a general trend of underestimation in roadway traffic forecasts with factors such as roadway type, functional classification and direction playing an influencing role. Roadways with higher volumes and higher functional classifications such as freeways are underestimated compared to lower volume roadways and lower functional classifications. The comparison of demographic forecasts shows a trend of overestimation while the comparison of travel behavior characteristics indicates a lack of incorporation of fundamental shifts and societal changes.

This paper has two objectives: first, we investigate how the World War II G.I. Bill, and the experience of serving during WWII, altered the structure of marriage. In doing so, we hope to shed light on how WWII affected an important dimension of American society. Second, we exploit between cohort variation in the probability of military service and GI Bill benefit eligibility to motivate instruments that are used to identify the effect of mens educational attainment on the probability of marrying and spousal quality. An advantage of this identification strategy is that, relative to most existing studies that speak to the causal role of education in assortative mating, the genesis of our identifying variation is transparent. We find preliminary evidence that WWII and the GI Bill had important spillover effects beyond their direct effect on mens educational attainment. One interpretation of our preliminary estimates is that each additional year of education received by returning veterans allowed them to sort into wives with comparably higher levels of education. The implied instrumental variables estimates are close to one. These findings add to the mounting evidence that the benefits of additional education extend well beyond educations effect on earnings, and suggest an important mechanism through which socioeconomic status may be passed on to the next generation.

We document gender and race sorting of candidates into various jobs at the point of initial application to a company. At this step of the hiring process, the firm has implemented a policy whereby organizational screeners discretion has been eliminated such that there is no opportunity for contact between hiring agents and applicants. Thus, the job choices studied here offer unique insight as they are uncontaminated by screeners steering of candidates toward gender- or race-typed jobs. Even in the absence of steering, we find clear patterns of gendered job choices that line up with gender stereotypes of job roles. Moreover, these gendered patterns recur both within individuals and within race groups. Comparing our findings to the pattern of job sorting in the external local labor market, we find that supply-side factors do not fully account for the levels of race and gender segregation observed in the open labor market. Although probably not the entire story, it is clear that supply-side gender sorting processes cannot be ruled out as important factors contributing to job sex segregation.

Why did comprehensive health care reform pass in 2010? Why did it take the form it dida form that, while undeniably ambitious, was also more limited than many advocates wanted, than health policy precedents set abroad, and than the scale of the problems it tackled? And why was this legislation, despite its limits, the subject of such vigorous and sometimes vicious attacks? These are the questions I tackle in this essay, drawing not just on recent scholarship on American politics but also on the somewhat-improbable experience that I had as an active participant in this fierce and polarized debate. My conclusions have implications not only for how political scientists should understand what happened in 200910, but also for how they should understand American politics. In particular, the central puzzles raised by the health reform debate suggest why students of American politics should give public policywhat government does to shape people's livesa more central place within their investigations. Political scientists often characterize politics as a game among undifferentiated competitors, played out largely through campaigns and elections, with policy treated mostly as an afterthoughtat best, as a means of testing theories of electoral influence and legislative politics. The health care debate makes transparent the weaknesses of this approach. On a range of key matters at the core of the disciplinethe role and influence of interest groups; the nature of partisan policy competition; the sources of elite polarization; the relationship between voters, activists, and elected officials; and morethe substance of public policy makes a big difference. Focusing on what government actually does has normative benefits, serving as a useful corrective to the tendency of political science to veer into discussions of matters deemed trivial by most of the world outside the academy. But more important, it has major analytical payoffsand not merely for our understanding of the great health care debate of 200910.