People are getting fat. The rise in obesity rate has been particularly pronounced in the United States since the middle of the 1970s, but has by now extended into many other areas of the world. Several sources of technological change have been singled out as potential explanations for why people have been gaining so much weight. Increased productivity in agriculture has lowered the relative price of food (Darius Lakdwalla, Tomas Philipson, and Jayanta Bhattacharya 2005) while innovations in food processing have reduced the time cost of preparing food (David M. Cutler, Edward L. Glaeser, and Jesse M. Shapiro 2003). Technological change has also affected how people spend their time, in a way that may systematically have reduced calories expended. First, physically less demanding jobs in the service sector have replaced physically more demanding jobs in agriculture and manufacturing. Second, the allocation of time across different activities has changed dramatically . . .

Immigrant-serving organizations in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area help immigrants find their way by encouraging them to participate civically and politically.These organizations are growing in number and changing with the regions demographic profile.Key findings:- Some 533 immigrant-serving nonprofits dispersed throughout the region provide a wide range of programs and services to foreign-born communities.- These organizations are concentrated in Washington, D.C., and the inner suburbs of Maryland and Virginia while immigrant populations are growing steadily in the outersuburbs.- The number of community-based organizations (CBOs) has greatly increased in the past two decades.- Immigrant communities provide leaders who create nonprofits; staff, volunteers, and board members who run these organizations; and funding and other support.c Immigrant integration through culturally sensitive services promotes newcomers social and political mobility.- These nonprofits advocate for their communities and encourage constituents to voice their own concerns and issues.- Each jurisdictions unique structures and policies affect these nonprofits service portfolios, funding, and political negotiating environments.- CBOs are constantly up against fragmented public policies and a knowledge gap about foreign-born populations and the organizations that serve them.

While much research has been conducted into the political behavior and attitudes of American military officers, little has been accomplished with respect to enlisted personnel. Most reports assume that the American military identify largely with the Republican Party and are mostly conservative in attitude. The most recent large-scale study, the TISS Survey on the Military in the Post Cold War Era conducted by Feaver and Kohn in 1998-1999, confirmed those assumptions among senior officers and is often quoted as representative of the entire military. However, the demographic characteristics of enlisted personnel predict different behavior. The enlisted ranks of the American military are over-represented by minorities who traditionally identify with the Democratic Party. The present study gathered data on enlisted personnel, by means of a survey, to determine whether that specialized population is significantly different in attitude and behavior from that of the officer corps and of the general American population. Enlisted personnel identify with the Republican Party in about the same proportion as do the general American population. However, only about half as many enlisted personnel identify with the Democratic Party as do civilians. Enlisted personnel are also about three times more likely to identify as Independents as do other Americans. Active-duty enlisted personnel demonstrate a 1.7 to 1 partisan (Republican to Democrat) ratio, similar to that found in the veteran enlisted sample (1.8 to 1) and the officer sample (1.6 to 1). The civilian sample shows a .95 to 1 partisan ratio. Thus, active-duty enlisted personnel who identify with a political party are about twice as likely to identify with the Republican Party as are civilians. However, active-duty enlisted personnel are nearly four times as likely as civilians to report being Independent, and are substantially less likely than civilians to identify with the Democratic Party. The Republican to Democrat ratio may well explain the commentary about and observations of a Republican dominated military. Despite the fact that the overall proportion of Republicans within the military is no greater than that found within the general population, that there are twice as many individuals who will state that they are Republicans as those who will state that they are Democrats can easily give the impression of a heavily Republican population. However, active-duty enlisted personnel remain strongly independent when compared to the civilian population. Of special note is a markedly higher political efficacy among military enlisted personnel than is found within the general American population.

We document a within-month mortality cycle where deaths decline before the 1st day of the month and then spike after the 1st. This cycle is present across a wide variety of causes and demographic groups. A similar cycle exists for a range of activities, suggesting the mortality cycle may be due to short-term variation in levels of activity. We provide evidence that the within-month activity cycle is generated by liquidity. Our results suggest a causal pathway whereby liquidity problems reduce activity, which in turn reduces mortality. These relationships help explain the pro-cyclic nature of mortality.

Understanding who volunteers and why one volunteers is important for promoting the supply of volunteers. This study examines whether paid workers in the nonprofit sector volunteer more than do those in the public or for-profit sector, by analyzing a national survey of time use. Also, this research assesses the effect of the industry of employment on volunteering that is rarely considered in prior studies of volunteering. Controlling for the industry of employment, nonprofit paid workers are not more likely than public or for-profit workers to volunteer. The addition of industry variables significantly improves this study's models of volunteering. Health care workers are less likely than social services workers to volunteer. As found in prior studies, managers or professionals are more likely than manual, craft, and technical workers to volunteer, but this tendency does not hold for all types of volunteer activities. Future research directions and policy implications of the findings are discussed.

This dissertation consists of three chapters, each evaluating a different public policy. The first chapter studies the effect of internet on music sales. Internet usage has increased dramatically over the past few years. Concurrently, the sales from music CDs have witnessed a huge decline. I analyze the effect of downloading music on the current downturn in CD sales by looking at the progressive disappearance of the traditional stores. To identify the causal impact of downloading and control for endogeneity, I instrument state internet penetration rates by information on the adoption of Video Franchise Law (VFL). Results indicates that implementation of VFL increases internet access in states which adopt it, and explains 58.7 percent of total store closings in those states. The second chapter analyzes whether enactment of the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) differentially affected states that previously implemented maternity leave laws at the state level than those states which did not. Additionally, we study whether FMLA caused an increase in female employment and labor force participation in those states that expanded its benefits and relaxed the eligibility criteria. Finally, we analyze the Paid Family Leave program in California, comparing how the change in female employment differs from those states which have FMLA alone and those which have complemented the benefits of FMLA. Our results confirm the positive and significant effect of FMLA on female employment and also a significantly positive impact on female employment for some states when they complement the benefits and eligibility criteria of FMLA. The third chapter analyses labor market impacts of the implementation of all the state and local governments' EITC supplement. We examine whether the substantial expansions in the EITC program created by these supplements are an effective means of providing work incentives. Exploiting variation in the policy over time both across states and within states between different demographic groups, we find the EITC supplements have raised labor supply among single women, but had no effect on the labor supply of married women. Our results indicate the state and local governments' EITC expansions to be less effective compared to the federal EITC expansions.

Research generally focuses on how immigration affects native workers, while the impact of immigration on domestic firms is often overlooked. This paper addresses this important omission by examining whether firms respond to immigration by adjusting the location of their production activities. Consistent with the predictions of the model, the results suggest that low skilled immigration decreases offshoring while high skilled immigration increases offshoring. This suggests that a policy that restricts immigration will have important implications for the organizational structure of domestic firms. Furthermore, these results explain why the impact of immigration on the wages of native workers is often found to be quite small.Keywords: offshoring, outsourcing, immigration, firm structure, establishment births, deathsJEL Classifications: F16, F22, L2

In the current information era, data is being generated at an alarming rate. The healthcare domain is no exception. Healthcare organizations collect and maintain data from different stages of care provided to each and every patient. This starts with the collection of general demographics and disease history at patient check-in, followed by clinical and laboratory information during treatment, and finally follow-up and medical histories. In addition to patient data, huge amounts of medical literature and genome-wide data such as DNA sequences etc. are maintained. Managing this enormous information content is a daunting task for healthcare organizations. In this dissertation, we explore two key challenges faced in healthcare data management: 1. Data Privacy, and 2. Data Warehousing. In the first and primary part, we take up the problem of data privacy. Data collected by healthcare organizations consists of sensitive information such as disease diagnosis etc. which should not be used or made available for non-medical purposes. However, such data needs to be disseminated and distributed by healthcare organizations to promote research, disease . . .

Children must rely on adults to provide the economic and human resources essential to assure their well-being and development, because it is the adults in their families, communities, and the halls of government who determine the nature and magnitude of resources that reach children (e.g., Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Haveman & Wolfe, 1994). In view of this dependence of children on adults, this chapter has three main goals. The first is to portray the extent to which children in the United States and other selected rich countries experience limited access to economic resources, compared to the adults in each country. The second is to focus on key family circumstances of children which reflect human resources available in the home and which influence the level of economic resources that parents have available to provide for their children. The third is to draw attention to differences among the race, ethnic, and immigrant groups that are leading the demographic transformation of rich countries around the world.

This paper analyzes the eect of federal and state maternity leave policies on female employ-ment. We analyze if the enactment of the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) dierentlyaected states which previously implemented maternity leave laws at the state level than thosestates which did not. Additionally, we study whether FMLA provoked an increase in the femaleemployment and labor force participation in those states which expanded its bene?ts and re-laxed the eligibility criteria. Finally, we analyze the Paid Family Leave program in California,comparing how the change in female employment and labor force participation diers from thosestates which have FMLA alone and those which have complemented the bene?ts of FMLA. Us-ing March CPS data available from the Integrated Public Use Micro data Series (IPUMS), ourresults suggest in general, con?rm the positive and signi?cant eect of FMLA on female em-ployment and that the change in female employment is positive and signi?cant for some stateswhen they complement the bene?ts and eligibility criteria of FMLA

While workers in developed countries have become increasingly concerned about the impact oshoring and immigration have on their wages, the available evidenceremains mixed. This paper presents a simple model that examines the impact of offshoring and immigration on wages and tests these predictions using U.S. state-industry level data. According to the model, the productivity effect causes offshoring to have a more positive impact on low-skilled wages than immigration, but this gapdecreases with the workers' skill level. The empirical results con?rm these predictions and thus provide the fi?rst evidence of the productivity effect. Furthermore, the impactof oshoring and immigration on wages differs depending on the income level of the foreign country, which may explain the mixed results in the literature.

Utilizando la muestra censal del 5% de los IPUMS-U.S. 2000 y modelos de regresión logística, este trabajo explora los factores que afectan la participación económica de las mujeres mexicanas y las centroamericanas residentes en Estados Unidos en el año 2000. Este estudio intenta demostrar que existen distintos patrones de participación económica para mujeres centroamericanas y mexicanas pese a que ambos grupos poseen características sociodemográficas similares. Se espera comprobar que en mujeres de primera generación (ambos grupos), las características de la comunidad de destino influyen al mismo tiempo que las individuales en la participación económica, por lo que se asumirá que estarán sólo integrada, mientras que aquellas en las que el peso de la dimensión individual favorece la participación económica (generación 1,5) y excluye a las de la comunidad de residencia probablemente experimenten un proceso de asimilación a la sociedad estadounidense y su patrón de participación económica será similar al grupo más representativo (mujeres blancas no hispanas nativas).

Workers are becoming increasingly concerned about the impact that globaliza-tion has on their domestic labor market. While existing research typically focuseson the eects on labor market outcomes such as wages and employment, we examinewhether American workers respond to globalization by increasing their investment inhuman capital. Speci?cally, we measure the extent to which oshoring and immigra-tion aect enrollment at institutions of higher education. The results indicate thatboth oshoring and immigration increase enrollment at community colleges, particu-larly among older students. We conclude that workers in the U.S. are responding tooshoring and immigration by acquiring the skills necessary to compete in a globaleconomy.

We compare how gender inequality varies by educational level in the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States, representing three different welfare regimes: the conservative, the social democratic, and the liberal. With few exceptions, gender inequality in labor force participation, work hours, occupational segregation, and housework are less severe as education goes up in all three countries, with the root cause being the high employment levels of well-educated women. Despite a common pattern across nations, we note that the educational gradient on gender equality in employment is weaker in Sweden. De-familialization policies in Sweden no doubt increase gender equality at the bottom by pulling less-educated women into the work force. One form of gender [End Page 210] equality, wages, however, does not increase with education. In the United States, educational differences in the gender gap in wages are trivial; in Sweden and the Netherlands, the gender wage gap is greatest for the highly educated because of higher returns to education for men than women in these nations.

Racial and ethnic inequality in homeownership remains wide, even net of variation inhousehold sociodemographic characteristics. This paper investigates the role of contextual forcesin structuring disparate access to homeownership. Specifically, we combine household andmetropolitan level census data to assess the impact of metropolitan housing stock, minoritycomposition, and residential segregation on black and Hispanic homeownership. The measure ofminority composition combines both the size and growth of the co-ethnic population to assess theimpact on homeownership inequality of recent trends in population redistribution, particularly theincrease in black migration to the South and dispersal of Hispanics outside of traditional receivingareas. Results indicate remarkable similarity between blacks and Hispanics with respect to thespatial and contextual influences on homeownership. For both groups, homeownership is higherand inequality with whites smaller in metropolitan areas with an established co-ethnic base, andthose in which their group is less residentially segregated.

This paper uses microdata on the foreign born from the 1990 and 2000 U.S. censuses to examine the growing earnings differentials and immigrant assimilation in the U.S. labor market. Borjas (1985, 1995) uses the 1970, 1980 and 1990 censuses and found the earnings differentials were rising among all immigrants. I found the same trend of growing differentials for all foreign born from 1990 to 2000.Much of the literature on immigrant assimilation has emphasized low-end education immigrants. Borjas and Friedberg (2008) found evidence which reveals the turnaround in the relative earnings of new immigrants in 2000 occurred primarily at the top and the bottom ends of the skill distribution. This paper looks at a group of immigrants that generally has high labor market skills, foreign-born Taiwanese, to see how they have fared during this period of growing differentials. By decomposing earnings differentials, I find the better endowments of foreign-born Taiwanese, especially higher education, can explain the earnings gap between foreign-born Taiwanese and the all foreign-born. The high percent U.S. obtained post-college degrees of foreign-born Taiwanese seems to indicate a successful assimilation, in which skills are learned in U.S. instead of the origin country. Synthetic cohort analysis shows a reverse pattern that since 1990 the within census earnings differentials of the new arriving cohort of foreign-born Taiwanese earned more than did earlier cohorts. Hence, my findings can help to explain the polarization of earnings differentials in the U.S. labor market since 1990 (Autor, Katz and Kearney (2005), Lemieux (2007)) and the turnaround in the relative earnings of new immigrants in 2000 (Borjas and Friedberg (2008)), particularly at the top-end.

We measure the extent to which skilled immigrants increase innovation in the United States by exploring individual patenting behavior as well as state-level determinants of patenting. The 2003 National Survey of College Graduates shows that immigrants patent at double the native rate, and that this is entirely accounted for by their disproportionately holding degrees in science and engineering. These data imply that a one percentage point rise in the share of immigrant college graduates in the population increases patents per capita by 6%. This could be an overestimate of immigration's benefit if immigrant inventors crowd out native inventors, or an underestimate if immigrants have positive spill-overs on inventors. Using a 1940-2000 state panel, we show that immigrants do have positive spill-overs, resulting in an increase in patents per capita of 9-18% in response to a one percentage point increase in immigrant college graduates. We isolate the causal effect by instrumenting the change in the share of skilled immigrants in a state with the state's predicted increase in the share of skilled immigrants. We base the latter on the 1940 distribution across states of immigrants from various source regions and the subsequent national increase in skilled immigrants from these regions.