It is well known that the gender gap in educational attainment is larger for blacksthan whites, but the historical trends that lead up to the current situation have receivedsurprisingly little attention. Using historical data from the U.S. Census Integrated PublicUse Microdata Samples and the Current Population Surveys, we find that the gender gapin college completion has evolved differently for whites and blacks. The relative (to men)educational position of black women has long been more favorable than that of whitewomen, but the female-favorable educational trends of the past 60 years are far strongerfor whites than for blacks. Continuing black female gains are largely due to theirrelatively higher rates of transition to postsecondary education. White female gains havecome from female favorable trends in four-year college completion given secondaryeducation, as well as in the transition to postsecondary education. Both black and whitemales were much more likely than females to delay completion of college in earlieryears, but this gender difference has diminished. The general trend is for racialconvergence in the age pattern of college completion, and for the black gender gap toresemble the white gender gap, even as overall rates of college completion by blacksremain far below those of whites of both genders.

A significant increase in the prevalence of male same-gender sexual behavior and the number ofgay social and political institutions occurred in the US since the late 1960s. For example, menwho were born in the mid-1950s were 50% more likely to have ever had a male sexual partnerthan men who were born in the mid-1930s, and the number of formal gay establishmentsincreased five-fold between 1965 and 1985. Meanwhile, during the same period, a number ofexogenous changes were transforming the marriage market and family. In this paper, Ihypothesize that some of the driving forces of change in the marriage market (contraceptivetechnology, household technology, wage structure, unilateral divorce) may also be related to therise in male homosexual behavior. The empirical evidence suggests that the most consistentcorrelate of male same-gender behavior is the diffusion of contraceptive technology, whichmight point to causal mechanisms related to social norms, shotgun marriage, and partnersubstitution.

This paper examines the extent to which enslaved mothers in the U.S. antebellum South were able tocontrol their own fertility in hopes of facilitating escape. A fertility model is developed, demonstratingthat if mothers control their own fertility, they will choose to have fewer children the greater the distanceto freedom, whereas the converse is true if slave owners control fertility. Exploiting the Fugitive Slave Lawof 1850 (which increased the distance to freedom) and the particularity of U.S. geography, a strong negativerelationship between fertility and distance is demonstrated, consistent with mother-controlled fertility. Thisnegative correlation is stronger on larger plantations, but disappears if the father of the child is white. The?ndings are robust to inclusion of measures of the di culty of the route, and no similar correlation existsfor white fertility. Estimates suggest the average mother had between 12% and 23% fewer children becauseof the incentive of escape. These ?ndings present the ?rst quantitative evidence of widespread "everyday"resistance to an oppressive institution.

A cohort perspective contrasting four historical generations of American men reveals sharp differences in the extent to which each generation served on active military duty, in the share of that service that occurred during wartime and in the battlefield ages from seventeen to twenty-four, in the resulting rate of combat-related deaths, and in certain features of selectivity with respect to military service--chiefly education. Service data from Defense Department sources combined with population data from computerized census files produce these military profiles of the Hard Timers, Good Warriors, Lucky Few, and Baby Boomers.

Dual nationality rights have been historically viewed with suspicion in immigrants' receiving countries, on the grounds, among other reasons, that they impede immigrants' assimilation. The debate around dual nationality, however, has taken place largely in the absence of empirical evidence. This paper fills this gap by exploring how recognition of dual nationality rights by sending countries affects assimilation of immigrants already residing in the United States. In the 1990s, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Brazil passed dual citizenship laws granting their expatriates the right to naturalize in the receiving country without losing their nationality of origin. On data from the 1990 and 2000 US censuses, immigrants recently granted dual nationality rights are found to be more likely to naturalize relative to immigrants from other Latin American countries. They also experience employment gains and drops in welfare use, suggesting that dual citizenship rights may promote economic assimilation. The effects are the largest among more educated individuals, who also experience earnings gains and an increased likelihood to be homeowners. These findings are consistent with education being correlated with higher career and income benefits from transnational activities. Finally, when studying the effects of dual citizenship on marriage and fertility, we find a negative impact on the number of young children living in the home, suggesting that also in this respect assimilation to US norms is taking place.

In this study, I examine disparities in schooling progress among children born to immigrant and U.S.-born blacks. I find that in one- and two-parent families, children born to black immigrants are less likely to fall behind in school than those born to U.S.-born blacks. In two-parent immigrant families, children born to two immigrant parents have a significant schooling advantage over children born to one immigrant parent. While children born to two immigrant parents in the wealthiest black immigrant families do better in the second generation than in the first, the reverse is observed among children in less wealthy families. These findings contribute in two ways to our understanding of the assimilation processes of children born to black immigrant parents. First, they show that there is a positive association between the number of immigrant parents in a family and children's schooling performance. Second, they suggest that disparities in the assimilation patterns of the children of black immigrants are a likely product of the interaction between their parental characteristics and the socio-economic circumstances of their families.

This paper examines the overeducation/undereducation and required (OUR) returns to educationhypothesis among Caribbean immigrants in the United Sates labour market using the IPUMS 5%sample1. The results show that they receive lower returns than the native born despite being inthe United States for some time. The methodology employed is somewhat different from thetraditional approach, as an hierarchical model is used to account for the nesting of individualswithin occupation or the presence of fixed effects due to occupation differences.The results suggest that overeducation though common to both the native born and to Caribbeanimmigrants is rewarded less among immigrants and represents an underutilization of resources.Caribbean immigrants on the other hand have higher levels of undereducation relative to thenative born. In light of the intense competition for labour to meet increasing demand in manyadvanced countries, the paper suggest ways in which immigration policies could be crafted toimprove the return to education of immigrants who bring considerable pre immigrationexperience to the labour market.

In the 1990s, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Brazil passed dual citizenship laws granting their expatriates the right to naturalize in the receiving country, without losing their nationality of origin. I estimate the effects of these new laws oil naturalization rates and labor market outcomes ill the United States. Based on data from the 1990 and 2000 U.S. censuses, I find that immigrants recently, granted dual nationality rights are more likely to naturalize relative to migrants from other Latin American countries. They also experience relative employment and earnings gains, together with drops in welfare use, suggesting that dual citizenship rights not only, increase the propensity to naturalize hilt may also promote economic assimilation. The effects of dual citizenship oil improved economic performance, if mediated through naturalization, are consistent with American citizenship conferring greater economic opportunities.

This research explores the consequences of out-migration for sending communities in rural Alaska. In particular, it describes the relationship between female out-migration and community viability, by comparing the age–sex structures of Alaska Native villages that are growing with villages in decline. The paper discusses out-migration and its connection to school closure. It provides a detailed description of out-migration from villages in northern Alaska, using data from several household surveys to better understand migrants. Villages that are decreasing in size show a loss of adult women over time. Many leave and few return or replaced by in-migrants. Also notable is the loss of children from villages in decline. In some very small places the departure of women and children leads to school closure and eventually the village disappears.

We propose, and empirically evaluate, a theory of the labor market in whichdifferences in pay between otherwise identical workers arise as a consequence of(endogenous) differences in bargaining conditions. We use the model to help explaintrends in the gender wage gap, and explore the plausibility of the theory byemploying a city-level analysis using U.S. census data for the 1970-2007 period.We address potential endogeneity by exploiting the time dimension of the data,as well via instrumental variables methods. We find considerable support for themodel: bargaining effects are correct-signed and significant in virtually all specifications,and our preferred estimates indicate that bargaining effects are roughlyof the same magnitude as mechanical composition effects.

The legalization of abortion is a controversial subject both in and out of the academic literature. Scholars and laypeople alike have argued for each side of the debate citing better or worse outcomes for those impacted by abortion. Economic theory clearly predicts that lowered costs of abortion through legalization should improve the average outcomes of children. Past empirical analyses havesupported this assertion, but this analysis shows that while outcomes do improve, this improvement may not be due to the legalization of abortion. This paper also provides alternative explanations for the relative improvement in outcomes in states with lower costs of abortion. On the whole, these findings question the assumption that being wanted around the time of conception has an impact oflater-life outcomes.

Adoption, as an alternative to childbearing, is a widely accepted means of creating a family inthe U.S. today. According to the historical literature, a modern form of adoption was a legalinnovation in the mid-19th century that evolved over time and had profound implications forthe welfare of adopted children and adoptive parents. Due to the lack of quantitative data,however, we know little about the extent and nature of adoption in the U.S. before WWII.How widely was adoption practiced before its widespread social acceptance? Who adoptedchildren, and what motivated them to adopt? How did adopted children fare compared tobiological children? In this paper, using microdata from the federal censuses in 1880-1930and 2000, I document the prevalence of adoption and study the characteristics of adoptivechildren and their households. Among other things, I re-evaluate the commonly heldhypothesis that, during the early 20th century, adoption evolved from pragmatic tosentimental adoption as adoptive parents began to demand children not for their potentiallabor value but for the utility of parenting itself. This paper provides the first empiricalanalysis of adoption in the pre-WWII U.S. using nationally representative data.

A popular perception is that immigration causes higher crime rates. Yet, historical and contemporary research finds that at the individual level, immigrants are not more inclined to commit crime than the native born. Knowledge of the macro-level relationship between immigration and crime, however, is characterized by important gaps. Most notably, despite the fact that immigration is a macro-level social process that unfolds over time, longitudinal macro-level research on the immigration-crime nexus is virtually nonexistent. Moreover, while several theoretical perspectives posit sound reasons why over-time changes in immigration could result in higher or lower crime rates, we currently know little about the veracity of these arguments. To address these issues, this study investigates the longitudinal relationship between immigration and violent crime across U. S. cities and provides the first empirical assessment of theoretical perspectives that offer explanations of that relationship. Findings support the argument that immigration lowers violent crime rates by bolstering intact (two-parent) family structures.

Conventional hedonic techniques for estimating the value of local amenities rely on the assumption that households move freely among locations. We show that when moving is costly, the variation in housing prices and wages across locations may no longer re?ect the value of differences in local amenities. We develop an alternative discrete- choice approach that models the household location decision directly, and we apply it to the case of air quality in US metro areas in 1990 and 2000. Because air pollution is likely to be correlated with unobservable local characteristics such as economic activity, we instrument for air quality using the contribution of distant sources to local pollutionexcluding emissions from local sources, which are most likely to be correlated with local conditions. Our model yields an estimated elasticity of willingness to pay with respect to air quality of 0.340.42. These estimates imply that the median household would pay $149$185 (in constant 19821984 dollars) for a one-unit reduction in average ambient concentrations of particulate matter. These estimates are three times greater than the marginal willingness to pay estimated by a conventional hedonic model using the same data. Our results are robust to a range of covariates, instrumenting strategies, and functional form assumptions. The ?ndings also con?rm the importance of instrumenting for local air pollution.