Two of the most salient trends surrounding the issue of migration and development over the lasttwo decades are the large rise in remittances, and an increased flow of skilled migration.However, recent literature based on cross-country regressions has claimed that more educatedmigrants remit less, leading to concerns that further increases in skilled migration will hamperremittance growth. We revisit the relationship between education and remitting behavior usingmicrodata from surveys of immigrants in eleven major destination countries. The data show amixed pattern between education and the likelihood of remitting, and a strong positiverelationship between education and the amount remitted conditional on remitting. Combiningthese intensive and extensive margins gives an overall positive effect of education on the amountremitted. The microdata then allow investigation as to why the more educated remit more. Wefind the higher income earned by migrants, rather than characteristics of their family situationsexplains much of the higher remittances. Finally, we show that it does not appear to be the casethat the rise in skilled migration is coming at the expense of less-skilled migrants insteadcountries with a high number of skilled migrants also have a high number of less-skilledmigrants in both the cross-section and over time. As a result the fear that a rise in skilledmigration will lower remittances and reduce less-skilled migration is not supported by theevidence.

Structural vector auto-regressions give conflicting results on the effects of technology shocks on hours. The results depend crucially on the assumed data generating process for hours per capita. We show that the standard measure of hours per capita and productivity have significant low-frequency movements that are the source of the conflicting results. Hodrick-Prescott (HP)-filtered hours per capita produce results consistent with those obtained when hours are assumed to have a unit root. We show that important sources of the low-frequency movements in the standard measure are sectoral shifts in hours and the changing age composition of the working-age population. When we control for these low-frequency components to determine the effect of technology shocks on hours using long-run restrictions we get one consistent answer: hours decline in the short run in response to a positive technology shock. We further extend the analysis by examining the effects of demographic controls on the impulse responses to investment-specific technology shocks. Our results are less conclusive.

This thesis focuses on two areas of studies in the field of family economics: marital status, and fertility decisions. First, I propose a quantitative model to evaluate the effect of a change in divorce law that took place at the end of the Sixties in the U.S. Second, I provide an empirical analysis of the geographic and temporal decline ofthe fertility rate in the U.S. from the end of 1800 and the beginning of 1900. In the part 2, I analyze the impact of the change in divorce law on the divorce rate in the early Seventies. At the end of the 1960s, the U.S. divorce laws underwent major changes and the divorce rate more than doubled in all of the states. The new laws introduced unilateral divorce in most of the states, and changes in property division, alimony and child support transfers, and child custody assignments in every state. Empirical literature has focused on the switch from consensual tounilateral divorce and found that this change cannot fully account for the increase in the divorce rate. What previous literature has ignored is other aspects of the legal change, and their effect on divorce rate in states where the decision remained consensual. I show that changes in divorce settlements provide economic incentives for both spouses to agree on divorcing. I solve and calibrate a model where agents differ by gender, and wages, and make marital status, investment, and labor supply decisions. Under the new financial settlements, divorced men gain from a favorable division of property, while women gain from an increase in the expected value of transfers from the ex spouse. Since both of them are better off in the new divorcesetting, the requirement of consent for divorce is no longer necessary. Results show that changes in divorce settlements account for a substantial amount of the increasein the divorce rate. I also show the implications of the model in terms of time allocations. In part 31, we empirically investigate the transition process of the fertility rate in the U.S., and estimate the effect of diffusion on geographic and temporal variations in fertility. First, we provide measures of local and global spatial correlation to establish the existence of a significant geographic pattern in the data. Moreover, we use a spatial-diffusion model to assess the effect of diffusion in shaping fertility variation across about 400 state economic areas from 1870 to 1930. The variation infertility levels and the fertility potential for each state economic area are measured. Fertility potential is a spatial-effects variable that summarizes each state economicarea?s geographic proximity to the influence of other high or low fertility areas. The findings support a diffusionist model of fertility. Even when controlling for demographics and economic variables, fertility levels remain sensitive to fertility level of other SEAs?, especially proximate ones. This is consistent with the operation of diffusion process like those described by Watkins and Coale (1986) and Tolnay(1995). That is, spatial similarity in fertility can result from the spread of fertility related knowledge, or from the diffusion of changing norms related to family size within marriage.

This paper studies long-term trends in the labor market performance of immigrants in the United States,using the 1960-2000 PUMS and 1994-2009 CPS. While there was a continuous decline in the earningsof new immigrants 1960-1990, the trend reversed in the 1990s, with newcomers doing as well in 2000,relative to natives, as they had 20 years earlier. This improvement in immigrant performance is notexplained by changes in origin-country composition, educational attainment or state of residence. Changesin labor market conditions, including changes in the wage structure which could differentially impactrecent arrivals, can account for only a small portion of it. The upturn appears to have been causedin part by a shift in immigration policy toward high-skill workers matched with jobs, an increase inthe earnings of immigrants from Mexico, and a decline in the earnings of native high school dropouts.However, most of the increase remains a puzzle. Results from the CPS suggest that, while averageentry wages fell again after 2000, correcting for simple changes in the composition of new immigrants,the unexplained rise in entry wages has persisted.

At the end of the 1960s, the U.S. divorce laws underwent major changes and thedivorce rate more than doubled in all of the states. The new laws introduced uni-lateral divorce in most of the states, and changes in divorce settlements, such asproperty division and child custody assignments in every state. Empirical literaturehas focused on the switch from consensual to unilateral divorce and found that thischange cannot fully account for the increase in the divorce rate. What previous lit-erature has ignored is other aspects of the legal change, and their e ect on divorcerate in states where the decision remained consensual. In this paper I show thatchanges in divorce settlements provide economic incentives for both spouses to agreeon divorcing. I solve and calibrate a model where agents di er by gender, and wages,and make marital status, investment, and labor supply decisions. Under the new nancial settlements, divorced men gain from a favorable division of property, whilewomen gain from an increase in joint child custody assignments. Since both of themare better o in the new divorce setting, the requirement of consent for divorce isnot longer necessary. Results show that changes in divorce settlements account for a substantial amount of the increase in the divorce rate in both the unilateral andthe consensual regime. I also nd that the increase in divorce rate of young coupleswith children contributes the most in the overall increase, and this is consistent withthe data.

Mobility is essential to the economic health of a region. The opening of the Washington D.C. Metrorail system in the 1970s and the electrification of the Long Island Rail Road in the 1980s provided faster modes of transit, resulting in greater access to business and services for individuals in these areas. Cutting travel time spurred dramatic economic development for both of these regions. Upstate New York is primed for the development of new transportation systems. Through reviewing the history of transportation improvements we evaluate what effect reduction in travel time and increased mobility will have on individuals and communities throughout our region. We propose that enhanced mobility will improve Upstate New York through establishing connections to major city centers while providing efficient transportation alternatives for the region.

Research underscores the changing nature of marital quality over the life course, highlighting the centrality of parental status. We use 2003-2007 American Time Use Survey data to examine how much time husbands and wives spend together. Our analyses consider the relevance of life stage, which we measure as the age of the youngest child in the household. We expect that the time spouses spend together will change as children age. To unpack this change, we consider both the time couples spend together as a couple and time together in the presence of others, anticipating that there may be distinctions.

Suburban maintenance gardening is one service sector that has grown in the United States, and in many parts of the country it has become a gendered occupational niche for Mexican immigrant men. What is the social organization of this occupation and to what extent are Mexican immigrant gardeners following in the footsteps of Japanese gardeners, achieving socioeconomic mobility through gardening? Based on interviews conducted with 47 Mexican immigrant maintenance gardeners in Los Angeles, this article examines the occupational structure of this informal sector job, the social context in which it has developed, the mix of informal and formal economic transactions involved, and the strategic challenges that gardeners negotiate. The data show that there is occupational differentiation and mobility within the gardening occupation, and that mobility in the job remains dependent on combining both ethnic entrepreneurship and subjugated service work. Gendered social and human capital, together with financial and legal capital are necessary for occupational mobility. Jardineria, or suburban maintenance gardening, is analogous to the longstanding labor incorporation of female immigrant domestic workers into affluent households, but it is also indicative of a new trend: the proliferation of hybrid forms of entrepreneurship and service work and the incorporation of masculine "dirty work" service jobs into affluent households.

The U.S. fertility rate has declined dramatically over the last three decades, atthe same time as the mean age at rst birth has increased. This paper studies therole of rising earnings uncertainty in explaining these patterns in an Aiyagari-Bewley-Huggett framework augmented to include fertility decisions. Building on Becker andTomes (1976), I model fertility decisions as sequential, irreversible choices over thenumber of children, accompanied by parental choices of time and money invested to-ward improving children's quality. The model is calibrated to replicate cross-sectionalpatterns of fertility, income, consumption, and saving. I nd that young householdspostpone childbearing when income uncertainty is high, preferring to work and to accu-mulate more precautionary savings before starting a family. This birth postponement,in turn, reduces the number of births per household. The model indicates that theactual increases in the U.S. idiosyncratic earnings uncertainty as estimated by Meghirand Pistaferri (2004) can explain about one-half of the decline in fertility and one-thirdof the increase in mean age at rst birth in recent decades, while matching all of theincrease in the mean age at second birth.

In recent years, as the homeownership rate in the United States reached its highest level in history, homeownership itself remained unevenly distributed, particularly along racial and ethnic lines. By using data from the 2000 Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) and 2006 American Community Survey (ACS) to study the trajectory into homeownership of black, Asian, white, and Latino households, this paper explores the various socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, as well as the distinct immigration experiences and spatial patterns that shape racial and ethnic inequality in homeownership. The unique (merged) dataset enables the authors to distinguish assimilation (length of residence) from immigration cohort effects, and to control for various spatial characteristics at the PUMA (Public Use Microdata Area) level. The paper employs a decomposition technique that delineates the distinct effects that composition differentials have on the visible white-minority disparity in homeownership. The findings reveal substantial differences along racial-ethnic lines, highlight the importance of immigration and spatial context in determining Asian and Mexican homeownership rates, and emphasize the unique role that family structure and unobserved factors (e.g. prejudice and discrimination) continue to play in shaping the black-white homeownership gap.

Neoliberal-parasitic economies currently blanket many low-income Latino communities across urban America. We deepen and nuance the thesis that space building is now a privileged instrument of these neoliberal economies. We unearth the everyday operations of this economy and how its manufactured spaces of human management and control are mediated and responded to by local workers to reshape this economy and local worker lives. Our focus, Chicago's poor Latino Southwest Side, advances understanding of the mechanics and impacts of this complex space building on this transnational population. Ethnographic research reveals complex contingencies where a neoliberal colonizing and producing of space tussle with worker perceptions of affliction and hope. We identify the production of a Latino oppression space that is simultaneously a site for human degradation, human struggle to survive, personal and ethnic hope and possibility, and ethnic enrichment. In this context, we reveal that human resistance and hope etched into this space forms from a persistent imagining: the Latino Village. To date, this ethnoscape's usage for organizing such oppositional spaces has eluded studies of contemporary Latino counterpolitics. We conclude that this economy's operation and people living through its spatial productions need to be seen as an inseparable dialectic. Urban spaces are both economically and institutionally conditioned and poignantly lived through in a continuous flow that determines their multifaceted character and effects.

This article offers an innovative theoretical approach to black-white labor market inequality that combines components of threat, spatial mismatch, and urban decline theories in a queuing framework. Using a unique measure-the earnings gap between black and white workers resulting from sorting into different occupations within an occupationally and educationally delimited labor queue-the author tests hypotheses from the combined model. Results show support for the combined model, as characteristics of labor and job queues significantly influence the extent of black-white inequality. Variables representing employers' preferences for or against hiring black workers are also significant, suggesting the utility of jointly examining preferences and processes in the labor market.

Same-sex couples are less likely to be homogamous than different-sex couples on a variety of characteristics including race/ethnicity, age, and education. This study confirms results from previous studies which used 1990 U.S. census data and extends previous analyses to examine changes from 1990 to 2000. We find that same-sex male cohabitors are generally the least likely to resemble one another, followed by same-sex female cohabitors, different-sex cohabitors, and different-sex married couples. Despite estimated growth in the numbers of same-sex couples in the population and the increasing acceptance of same-sex unions, we find little evidence of diminishing differences in the resemblance of same- and different-sex couples between 1990 and 2000, with the possible exception of educational homogamy.

This article offers an innovative theoretical approach to black-white labor market inequality that combines components of threat, spatial mismatch, and urban decline theories in a queuing framework. Using a unique measure-the earnings gap between black and white workers resulting from sorting into different occupations within an occupationally and educationally delimited labor queue-the author tests hypotheses from the combined model. Results show support for the combined model, as characteristics of labor and job queues significantly influence the extent of black-white inequality. Variables representing employers' preferences for or against hiring black workers are also significant, suggesting the utility of jointly examining preferences and processes in the labor market.

La actividad denominada Seguimiento a los avances de la preparación de la ronda de censos de 2010 en América Latina: taller del grupo de trabajo sobre censos de la CEA-CEPAL fue organizada por el Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (INE) de Chile, en coordinación con el Centro Latinoamericano y Caribeño de Demografía (CELADE) - División de Población de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), la Conferencia Estadística de las Américas de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEA-CEPAL), el Banco Interamericano . . .