Using newly created data containing real output per worker, real physical capital per worker, and human capital per worker for US states from 1840 to 2000, Turner et. al (2007) analyze the growth rates of aggregate inputs and total factor productivity (TFP). We continue this line of work by documenting the importance of TFP differences in explaining cross sectional variation in the levels of (log) output. We construct plausible upper bounds on the fraction of the variance in output levels that can be explained by TFP and inputs. Similar to the growth rate analysis, we find that TFP can, on average, explain nearly 90% of output variance while inputs can explain up to only 50% of output variance. We then consider the possibility that one major institutional difference across states, the extent to which blacks were denied access to formal education, might explain TFP differences across states. To this end, we generate and present a years of schooling measures, by race, at the state level from 1840 to 2000. While directly exploiting this series has very little impact on the upper bound of the fraction of output variation that can be explained by inputs, we do find that the size of the gap between white and black years of schooling is negatively related to TFP in the period from 1840 to 1950. We alsoconsider the extent to which time-varying rates of return on education alters the upper bound on the fraction of output variation that can be explained by inputs, finding that time-varying rates have little impact. Finally, we find some evidence for external effects of higher educationand physical capital.

This essay examines the history of the taco in Mexico and the United States as a way of shifting the focus of "McDonaldization" from technology to ethnicity. It begins with the origins of the taco in Mexico to show that it was a product of modernity rather than an ancient tradition transformed by Yankee ingenuity. It then examines patent records, cookbooks, and archival sources to demonstrate that all aspects of the Mexican American taco, including the pre-fried taco shell, were actually invented within the ethnic community. Indeed, new forms of tacos were one of the many ways in which ethnic women mediated the boundaries between Mexican family traditions and U.S. cultural citizenship. These sources also refute corporate hagiography attributing the fast food taco to Glen Bell, founder of Taco Bell. Finally, using GIS to map taco shops against tract-level census data, the essay concludes that non-ethnic fast food chains succeeded by marketing tacos as a form of exoticism or safe danger within the segregated landscape of 1950s Los Angeles.

In this paper we compare health insurance coverage for U.S. citizen children in all-citizen and mixed families in the fifteen states with the largest share of children in mixed families. Insurance coverage is lower and state variation in coverage is higher for children in mixed families vis--vis children in all-citizen families. The main challenges for states are tackling uninsurance among all low-income children and addressing the very low rates of employer-sponsored insurance for all low-income children and for children in all mixed families, regardless of income. We discuss state policy options to address the needs of children in mixed families.

Brown v. Board of Education had little immediate effect on the dual system of education in the South; by the early 1970s, however, Southernschools were the most racially integrated in the country. This paper uses newly assembled and uniquely comprehensive data to document howdifferent types of Southern school districts made this transition. Controlling for other factors, we find larger districts were more likely to be undercourt supervision both early and ever; over time the enrollment threshold for court supervision fell. Poorer districtswhich stood to lose largerfederal grants if they failed to desegregatewere particularly likely to desegregate between 1964 and 1968. Black enrollment share did not impedetoken desegregation, but was an important predictor of both resistance to intensive desegregation and being supervised by a court in later years.By the end of our sample, in 1976, districts in Alabama and Louisiana were still significantly less integrated than in other states. Within states,however, despite having begun the 1960s with higher levels of segregation and retained them for longer than other districts, districts with strongerhistorical preferences for segregation had desegregated nearly as much as other districts by 1976; this may be related to their higher rate of courtsupervision in later years.

This study provides an initial empirical analysis on identifying the general relationship between housing values and the spatial distribution of same-sex couples across the U.S. The paper uses the 1990 and 2000 census 5% Public Use Microdata Samples and introduces the gay index into the social-amenity-based hedonic housing models. The results show significant correlation between the spatial concentration of same-sex couples and housing values; furthermore, housing values are higher in a city where the proportion of same-sex couples was higher a decade ago, suggesting that same-sex couples make better communities.

More than 19 percent of people in American central cities are poor. In suburbs, just 7.5 percent of people live in poverty. The income elasticity of demand for land is too low for urban poverty to come from wealthy individuals wanting to live where land is cheap (the traditional explanation of urban poverty). A significant income elasticity for land exists only because the rich eschew apartment living, and that elasticity is still too low to explain the poors urbanization. The urbanization of poverty comes mainly from better access to public transportation in central cities.

Empirical evidence illustrates that diversity generates both economic costs and benefits. This paper develops a theoretical model that accounts for the positive and deleterious effects of heterogeneity. First, an expanded Solow Growth Model demonstrates that the direct effects of diversity can be positive or negative, and depend upon the size of fixed parameter values. Second, diversity also influences individuals location decisions. Segregation (variation of diversity across regions) always reduces national output per worker, so if diversity induces integration, it indirectly augments productivity as well. Finally, political policies aimed at reducing interaction costs across groups may actually reduce aggregate output per worker by encouraging segregation.

Poverty rates are higher and income levels are lower on the average for Latinos than for non- Hispanic Whites.1 In the year 2000, more than 1 out of every 5 Latinos lived below the poverty line in the United States in contrast to 1 out of 13 non-Hispanic Whites. Also, the median household income of non-Hispanic Whites was over one third greater than that of Hispanics in 2000. Figures 1 and 2 provide these poverty and household income statistics from 1975 to 2004 for these two demographic groups. A cursory comparison of Figures 1 and 2 predictably shows that the poverty and income numbers mirror each other. The sources of the income gap between Latinos and non-Hispanic Whites arguably provide one means to understand the poverty differentials between these two groups. Indeed, a host of studies indicates that the high poverty rates and low income levels of Latinos can be largely explained by their relatively low levels of human capital, including education, work experience, and English-language proficiency [for a recent example, see Duncan, Hotz, and Trejo (2006)]. Stemming from such studies, the general policy prescription implies that an increase in the human capital wealth of Hispanics should enhance their socioeconomic status.

The spatial mismatch hypothesis posits that employment decentralization isolated urban blacks from work opportunities. This paper focuses on one large employer that has remained in the central city over the twentieth century the U.S. Postal Service. We find that blacks substitute towards postal work as other employment opportunities leave the city circa 1960. The response is particularly strong in segregated areas, where black neighborhoods are clustered near the central business district. Furthermore, this pattern only holds for non-mail carriers, many of whom work in central processing facilities. Morerecently, the relationship between black postal employment and segregation has declined, suggesting that spatial mismatch has become less important over time.

This dissertation uses three essays to examine issues related to inequality and the U.S. criminal justice system.In the first essay, I examine links between arrest, residential segregation, and immigration within U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). This research addresses two separate, but contemporary fields of research where (a) increased crime is associated with highly segregated urban black ghettoes and (b) decreased crime is observed among immigrant groups. Data for race and ethnic populations for MSAs are aggregated from 5% integrated public-use micro-samples [IPUMS] of the U.S. Census surveys from 1980-2000; data for arrest rates are taken from FBI Uniform Crime Reports from 1980-2000. Results from fixed effect models find statistically significant results indicating (i) African American social isolation positively correlates with arrest rates and (ii) immigrant groups are differentially correlated with arrest rates based on immigrant race and ethnic classification.In the second essay, I examine the effects of race and history of incarceration on employment among less-skilled men. Recent findings of audit and employer surveys have found that African Americans and ex-offenders are groups who, respectively, are less likely to be hired than whites and non-offenders. Expanding on prior research, I use data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to test if labor force participation and unemployment are jointly impacted by race and history of incarceration. To control for unobserved invariant characteristics of individuals and interview periods, I utilize fixed effect error terms at the individual level. Results indicate that, relative to whites, African American and Hispanic ex-felons are more likely to experience persisting unemployment and time out of the labor force in years after incarceration.In the third essay, I examine how genetic, individual, familial, and community-level variables possibly mediate a link between father's incarceration and adult son's deviance and arrest. Using twin and nationally-representative sub-samples from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, I test how molecular genetic, individual, familial, and community variables from adolescence may mediate this link. In analysis, father's incarceration is found to be robustly associated with increased delinquency and arrest among adult sons when these effects are estimated.

It has been well documented in the literature that ethnicity matters significantly in the determination of savings. In particular, African-American savings lag far behind savings for other ethnic groups. Similarly, the literature also provides evidence of the long-lived nature of institutions and the link between institutions and culture. In this paper, we provide an explanation for the savings gap that still exists between African-Americans and White Americans even after accounting for appropriate factors that can lead to savings differentials. We initially provide evidence that the savings gap exists and persist after including several control variables in a regression analysis. We then provide evidence that the persistent gap can not be attributed solely to racial discrimination but can be explained by the response of culture to institutional scaffolding erected many years earlier. Using a novel within race decomposition we provide evidence that past institutions transmitted through culture can help to explain this persistent saving disparity.

How does the fertility of interracial and interethnic couples compare to the fertility of endogamous couples? If exogamous couples have transcended the boundary between them, then exogamy should not affect fertility. Alternatively, opposition to the relationship from the couple's family and friends may reduce fertility. This study uses 2000 2005 American Community Survey data on married (n = 272,336) and cohabiting (n = 48,769) couples to compare the fertility of endogamous and exogamous couples. Interracial and interethnic partnering do not affect fertility for cohabiting, Black-White, Mexican-White, and Puerto Rican-White intermarried couples, but it does reduce fertility in Chinese-White and Asian Indian-White intermarriages. These results are largely consistent with the argument that intermarried couples have transcended group boundaries.

Objective: To examine whether health status and obesity prevalence differ by race or ethnicity and health care workforce category.Methods: Data representing US health care workers aged 20 to 64 between 1982 and 2004 were retrieved from the Integrated Health Interview Series. Trends, as well as disparities, in health status and obesity are examined by workforce category using logistic regression.Results: Self-reported health status of health care workers has declined over time and the prevalence of obesity is rising. Moreover, there is a clear social gradient across workforce categories, which is widening over time. Within workforce categories, there are significant racial disparities in health status and prevalence of obesity.Conclusions: Health of health care workers needs to be taken into account when setting policies intended to increase access to health care and create a healthy diverse workforce.

Formulating efficient climate policies requires estimates of the impacts of climate change. An important category of impacts are climate amenities--the value people attach to temperature and precipitation. There is a large literature that attempts to value climate amenities using the fact that climate amenities will be capitalized into wages and property values. Many of these estimates assume that people are perfectly mobile and are based on estimates of national hedonic wage and property value functions. These functions will yield biased estimates of consumers' willingness-to-pay if consumers are not in locational equilibrium due to search or migration costs or if markets take time to adjust. I provide estimates of the value of climate amenities in the US using a discrete model of residential location choice. I model the location choices of over 400,000 households who changed metropolitan statistical areas between 1995 and 2000 using the 5% PUMS data from the Census. To avoid making equilibrium assumptions, I face the migrants with the market conditions in each MSA. The empirical model is motivated by a Random Utility Model framework, which posits that the utility that a household derives from living in an MSA depends on climate amenities along with earnings potential, housing costs and location-specific amenities. Households choose the MSA where they derive the maximum utility. The model is estimated using a two step procedure (Bayer, Keohane and Timmins, 2006). In the first stage, location-specific constants are estimated together with other parameters of the utility function. In the second stage, these location-specific intercepts are regressed on location-specific amenities to estimate the average utility attached to these amenities. The dissertation estimates the marginal rate of substitution between climate variables and income. The results show that households facing an average winter temperature of 37 degrees Fahrenheit are willing to pay approximately about 3% of their income for an increase in average winter temperature by one degree. Willingness to pay to raise summer precipitation by an inch from a level of about 11 inches is roughly 3% of their income. The study also provides estimates of the quality of life in 297 Metropolitan Areas.