The flight from blight and related literatures on urban population changes and crime have primarily consideredtimes of high or increasing crime rates. Perhaps the most cited recent work in this area, Cullenand Levitt (1999), does not extend through 1990s, a decade during which crime rates declined almostcontinuously, to levels that were lower than experienced in decades. This paper examines whether suchdeclines contributed to city population growth and retention (abated flight). Through a series of populationgrowth models that attempt to identify causality through several strategies (including instrumentalvariables) we find at best weak evidence that overall city growth is affected by changes in crime. We findno evidence that growth is differentially sensitive to reductions in crime, as compared to increases.Focusing more narrowly on within MSA migration, residential decisions that are more likely to be sensitiveto local conditions, we do find evidence supporting abatement of flight that is, lower levels ofcrime in central cities in the 1990s are associated with lower levels of migration to the suburbs. Thisgreater ability to retain residents already in the city does not appear to be accompanied by a greater ability to attract new households from the suburbs, or from outside of the metropolitan area.

New calculations using the Elder Economic Security Standard™ Index (Elder Index) for California show that both singles and couples age 65 or older who rent need more than twice the amount established by the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) Guideline to meet basic living expenses. The gap is greater for elders who own their home and are paying a mortgage than for renters. The gap between basic expenses and the FPL is smaller for owners without a mortgage, but still exists. Housing and health care are the primary drivers of the high costs. This policy brief documents that the Elder Index provides a better measure of income adequacy than the FPL for older adults because it accounts for those costs at the county level. The growing number of public and nonprofit organizations using the Elder Index will aid the quality of planning and programs that improve income security for California’s rapidly growing older population.

Marriage rates have dropped precipitously among young adults ages 25 to 34 during the past decade and the decline has accelerated since the onset of the recession, according to PRB's analysis of new data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2009 American Community Survey (ACS) and 2010 Current Population Survey (CPS). The data suggest that more young couples are delaying marriage or foregoing matrimony altogether, likely as an adaptive response to the economic downturn and decline in the housing market.

Arnett's theory of emerging adulthood is tested by exploring differences between American 18 to 29-year-olds and older adults with General Social Survey and Integrated Public Use Microdata Series databases. From the 1960s to 2008, a 39 percentage point drop in the number of married emerging adults is observed--compared to a 10 point decline in married older adults. The number of 18 to 29-year-olds attaining a college degree increased eight percentage points (1970s through 2000s)--compared to a 22 point increase for 30 to 55-year-olds and a 20 point increase for 56 to 85-year-olds. Of emerging adults attending college, 63% delayed marriage in 1940, while 73% did so in 2007. This 10 percentage point difference between never married emerging adults (1940 through 1970) increased to 22 points without a control for education. Frequency cross-tabulation analyses revealed emerging adults were (a) 11 points less likely to trust, (b) six points more likely to report job dissatisfaction, and (c) 10 points more likely to believe in a better future for children. Although some correlations were weak, logistic regressions support findings. A strong negative correlation between emerging adulthood and trust was revealed. Results support claims of intense social structure influences and an emerging adult stage in the life course with distinctive characteristics.

We discover and document errors in public use microdata samples ("PUMS files") of the 2000 Census, the 2003-2006 American Community Survey, and the 2004-2009 Current Population Survey. For women and men ages 65 and older, age- and sex-specific population estimates generated from the PUMS files differ by as much as 15% from counts in published data tables. Moreover, an analysis of labor force participation and marriage rates suggests the PUMS samples are not representative of the population at individual ages for those ages 65 and over. PUMS files substantially underestimate labor force participation of those near retirement ages and overestimate labor force participation rates of those at older ages. These problems were an unintentional by-product of the misapplication of a newer generation of disclosure avoidance procedures carried out on the data. The resulting errors in the public use data could significantly impact studies of people ages 65 and older, particularly analyses of variables that are expected to change by age.

Economists and historians have made considerable progress in understanding the expansion of public common schooling in the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century and the impact of legislation regarding child labor and compulsory school attendance in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, the quantitative literature has neither documented nor analyzed a coincident feature of the educational movement - widespread efforts to enable children to combine work and schooling. Non-traditional forms of education - including evening schools and employer-operated schools, as well as part-time, half-time, and continuation schools - emerged in response to the new industrial environment to facilitate the education of working childre

THE MILLIONS OF AMERICANS WHO DO NOT GET ENOUGH SLEEP NIGHT AFTER NIGHT RISK DEVELOPING CUMULATIVE NEUROBEHAVIORAL DEFICITS and experiencing sleepiness-related errors and accidents.1–3 Since reduced sleep duration has frequently been associated with a higher prevalence of obesity,4 morbidity, and mortality,5 these people may also be incurring health risks, although it remains uncertain whether these relationships are causal. In this issue of SLEEP, Knutson and colleagues6 attempt to address the question of whether sleep duration among Americans has been steadily decreasing, using time use studies. Although many who believe Americans are sleeping less each decade attribute this to a culture that increasingly perceives sleep as a flexible commodity that can be exchanged for waking activities considered more essential or of greater value,7 the investigation of secular trends in the prevalence of sleep duration is complicated by inconsistent methodologies for establishing sleep time using surveys. This is what makes the study of Knutson et al.,6 which focuses on 8 nationally representative time use studies performed between 1975 and 2006, unique and important. Looking . . .

IWPR analysis of American Community Survey (ACS) and U.S. Census Bureau data1 reveals that after Hurricane Katrina and the evacuation of New Orleans in August 2005, the city’s demographics have changed with respect to race and economic status among women. The share of women and girls of the New Orleans metropolitan area2 population has decreased slightly in the years after Hurricane Katrina—from 54 percent to 52.1 percent. At the same time, the share of women and girls in the New Orleans metropolitan area who are African American . . .

Whether economic growth or social policy does more to benefit the poor is the subject of longstanding interest and debate. I examine the experiences of the world's affluent countries during a period of two and a half decades for which reliable comparative data are available. Over this period, from 1980 to 2005, improvements in low-end (tenth-percentile) absolute incomes were driven chiefly by increases in GDP per capita rather than by increases in the share of GDP going to government social expenditures. Economic growth did not, however, always and everywhere translate into income growth for the poor. Some rich nations Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom (1980-95), and the United States (1980-95 and 2000-05) experienced lengthy periods of economic growth with little or no rise in the incomes of low-end households. When growth has trickled down to the poor, government transfers have been the principal conduit. It is in countries that have increased transfers in concert with per capita GDP that the incomes of the poor have been most likely to rise.

Objectives. We investigate how much state-to-state elderly migration patterns have changed during 19702000 and compare the findings from 2 commonly used sources of data, the census flow tabulations and the integrated public use microdata series (IPUMS). Methods. We calculate descriptive statistics such as migration rates, the distribution of top destination and origin states, and a new migration HerfindahlHirschman Index that measures geographic concentration. Comparisons over time and between data sources are formalized using correlations and regression analyses that permit persistent flow patterns. Results. After an increase between 1970 and 1980, elderly migration rates have been stable, with a slight decline. Elderly migration has become less geographically concentrated; the decline of California and Florida and ascension of Nevada and the Carolinas as top destinations are evident. Correlation and regression analyses reveal that migration patterns are overall very persistent over time, especially using census tabulations based on a larger sample. Discussion. Elderly migration patterns have been quite stable since 1970. Using the IPUMS, as most migration studies do, exaggerates the changes in elderly migration over time in both descriptive and statistical analyses, a result that is likely due to its smaller sample size and the relative rarity of an interstate move. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

I structurally estimate an incomplete markets lifecycle model with endogenous labor supply,using data on the joint distribution of wages, hours and consumption. The model is successfulat matching the evolution of both the first and second moments of the data over the lifecycle.The key challenge is to generate declining inequality in annual hours worked over the first half ofthe lifecycle, while respecting the constraints imposed by the data on consumption and wages. Iargue that this is a robust feature of the data on lifecycle labor supply. Allowing for a realisticdegree of involuntary unemployment, coupled with preferences that feature inter-temporalnon-separability in the disutility of hours worked, is what allows the model to overcome thischallenge.

This research explores how interstate elderly migration behavior through the life coursehas changed over time by examining the role of individual characteristics in differenttypes of moves. Besides socioeconomic status, we focus on disability and veteran status,which past research has shown are linked with differing motives for elderly migration(assistance moves and amenity moves, respectively). Using data from the 1970, 1980,1990 and 2000 Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), our descriptive andmultivariate analyses consistently show that disability status has grown in importancewhile veteran and socioeconomic status have declined or remained stable. These changesare unique to the elderly. The growing role of disability in elderly migration isgeographically universal and extends to both return (a proxy for assistance-relatedmigration) and non-return migration. Its consequences, however, are more complicatedand differ substantially across the regions, which has implications for the rising healthcare costs facing states.

I investigate the e ect of the introduction of compulsory schoolinglaws on education and fertility in the United States, 1850{1920. I ndthat compulsory schooling was associated with a 7 percent increase inenrollment and with a 15 percent decline in the fertility of women ofreproductive age. My identi cation strategy is based on a di erence-in-di erences (DID) methodology involving individuals living in thevicinity of the state border where legislation changed. The results arerobust to the inclusion of a number of socio-demographic and geo-graphic controls. The e ects on education are particularly strong forblack children, whereas the e ects on fertility are concentrated amongyoung women. The results suggest that compulsory schooling lawsmay be a crucial policy for hastening both the demographic transition, and the transition to modern growth.

Although Mancur Olsons model of selective incentives (1965) is a cornerstone of public choice theory, the model has not been carefully tested. Researchers have lacked representative data on interest group members and nonmembers or information about the economic benefit of membership. This paper tests Olsons model using data on the Farmers Alliance, a large and influential interest group in the late 1800s. Olsons model does not explain well the causes of membership in the Alliance. Analysis of wealth accumulation shows there was not an economic benefit of membership for the typical member and the economic benefit of membership did not influence the decision to join. Instead, the expected benefit of Alliance lobbying, a collective good, had the largest impact on the membership decision. These findings suggest the barriers to collective action in large interest groups are not as high as Olson supposed and help to explain the political power of farmers in U.S history.Keywords: Collective action, interest group, membership, selective incentives, collective benefitJEL Classifications: D71, D72, N41