This paper uses the 1960-2000 PUMS to study changes over time in the labor market performance of immigrants in the United States. While data from 1960-1990 show a continuous decline in the earnings of new immigrants, 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 not explained by changes in origin-country composition, educational attainment or state of residence. Changes in labor market conditions, including changes in the wage structure which could differentially impact recent arrivals, can account for only a small part of it. The upturn appears to have been caused in part by a shift in immigration policy toward high-skill workers matched with jobs, an increase in the earnings of immigrants from Mexico, and a decline in the earnings of native high school dropouts. The evidence is also consistent with an improvement in immigrant quality within certain origin countries.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is pleased to present this national report on homelessness in America. The report was developed in response to Congressional directives that began in 2001 and charged the Department with assisting communities to implement local Homeless Management Information Systems or HMIS. The primary goals in promoting local HMIS implementation are to improve the delivery of services to homeless clients and to increase understanding of their characteristics and needs at the local and national levels. According to Senate Report 109-109, "The implementation of this new system would allow the Department to obtain meaningful data on the nation’s homeless population and develop annual reports through an Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR).

Through a combination of high immigration rates and differential fertility, communities along the U.S.-Mexico border have become overwhelmingly Hispanic. El Paso, Texas, located across the border from Ciudad Juarez, forms part of the world's largest urban center on a land border. El Paso ranks among the bottom 10 large U.S. metropolitan areas with the smallest proportion of college-educated adults, causing concerns among policy makers regarding its prospects for economic development. Local discourse suggests that low educational levels result from the out-migration of educated groups that find higher wages or better jobs elsewhere. Two sources of data are used to explore the association between education, race/ethnicity, and out-migration: the five percent 2000 PUMS and a survey conducted among students at the University of Texas at El Paso. We find that between 1995 and 2000 a large net outflow of non-Hispanic whites and blacks of all educational levels took place. Among Mexicans and Mexican Americans, college graduates were more likely to leave compared to high school graduates, but place of birth and language preference influenced these odds. Student data confirmed that non-Hispanics are significantly more likely to plan to leave compared to students of Mexican origin or descent. Among Mexicans and Mexican Americans, those who prefer English and mentioned jobs and lifestyle as the most important factors in choosing a place to live and work were more likely to have plans to leave upon graduation. Policy implications are discussed regarding the future of border communities.

The use of height data to measure living standards is now a well-established method in economic history. Moreover, a number of core findings in the literature are widely agreedupon. There are still some populations, places, and times, however, for which anthropometric evidence remains thin. One example is 19th century African-Americans in US border states. This paper introduces a new data set from the Missouri state prison to track black and white male heights from 1829 to 1913. Where modern blacks and whites come to comparable terminal statures when brought to maturity under optimal conditions, whites were persistently taller than blacks in this Missouri prison sample. Over time, black and white adult statures remained approximately constant throughout the 19th century, while black youth statureincreased considerably during the antebellum period and decreased during Reconstruction.

The constitution of the state of Washington declares, “It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders.” This establishes education and education funding as the highest priorities for the state. In recent years, Washington has experienced periods of rapid student population growth and disproportionate increases in the number of low-income students, the number of students in special education, and the number of students who have limited English proficiency. These demographic trends converge with increasing accountability standards. At the federal level, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act annually increases performance expectations and sanctions for schools failing to meet NCLB requirements. At the state level, despite the constitutional obligation of the state to provide an adequate education, a significant number of students are falling short of the state’s own expectations, as measured by the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL). In 2005-06, only 51.8% of tenth graders tested in Washington met WASL standards in all three content areas (math, reading, and writing). Students in the class of 2008 who do not meet WASL standards in reading and writing will not be able to graduate from high school. The goal of this study was to determine the level of educational expenditure necessary to make ample provision for the education of all students, providing all students with the skills to meet long-term academic standards, pursue additional learning beyond high school, and become productive citizens and contributing members of society.

One can conceptualize a house as a bundle comprising a reproducible tangible structure and a nonreproducible plot of land. When the value of a home is decomposed this way, land capitalizes the market value of a homes location. We develop a formal relationship between the dynamics of house prices, structures costs and land prices, and thereby construct the first constant-quality price and quantity indexes for the aggregate stock of residential land in the United States. In a range of applications we show that these series can shed light on trends, fluctuations and regional variation in the price of housing.

Optimized association rules are permitted to contain uninstantiated attributes. The optimization procedure is to determine the instantiations such that some measures of the rules are maximized. This paper tries to maximize interest to find more interesting rules. On the other hand, the approach permits the optimized association rule to contain uninstantiated numeric attributes in both the antecedence and the consequence. A naive algorithm of finding such optimized rules can be got by a straightforward extension of the algorithm for only one numeric attribute. Unfortunately, that results in a poor performance. A heuristic algorithm that finds the approximate optimal rules is proposed to improve the performance. The experiments with the synthetic data sets show the advantages of interest over confidence on finding interesting rules with two attributes. The experiments with real data set show the approximate linear scalability and good accuracy of the algorithm.

This dissertation advances research on the impact of availability conditions by examining the extent to which mate selection patterns differ in varying marriage market contexts, with a particular focus on understanding racial differences in partner choice and marriage rates. Using data from the 1980, 1990 and 2000 Census IPUMS samples, this dissertation includes fixed effects models, decomposition methods and simulation methods; it also improves on previous study by utilizing and comparing both mutual measures of family formation and sex-specific marriage measures.Results indicate that availability conditions structure partner choice such that socially distant marriage is both more attractive as measured by Schoen's Harmonic Mean Function, and rates to distant marriages are higher, under male scarcity conditions as compared to surplus conditions. Utilizing race-specific models and local geography to capture marriage market opportunities, I also find that racial differences in sorting persist once taking into account differential exposure to constrained supply. My results support previous results using aggregate level measures of marriage and partner availability, however I also can tease out substantially more information on sorting patterns and response to marriage market conditions, illustrating the importance of local measurements. Findings also suggest that while differential exposure to poor availability conditions is certainly an important factor, there is a differential response to the same types of conditions that contributes far more to racial differences in attraction to marriage.Analyses indicate that availability conditions have become more favorable for marriage over the last two decades, and that declines in attraction to marriage are largely responsible for changes in marriage rates. I also find that while exposure to poor marriage market conditions may have declined, the pattern of higher attraction and marriage rates to distant marriage under conditions of male scarcity continues in cross-sectional analyses of 1990 and 2000. This dissertation highlights the need for future research to further develop theory accounting for the dual nature of marital decision-making and account for the kinds of changes that affect attraction to marriage.

The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), conducted for 50 years by the National Center for Health Statistics, is a multi-purpose health survey of the civilian, noninstututionalized household population of the U.S. Its stable core and annually-changing supplementary specialized questions provide rich multivariate data for numerous types of users. Core topics include health status, limitation of activities, health care access and utilization, health insurance coverage, socio-demographic information, and income. Supplement sponsors have included the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, numerous Institutes from the National Institutes of Health, and various other government agencies. This talk will describe the rich multivariate NHIS data, the analytic products produced from those data, the annual NHIS supplements, and expectations and hopes for the future of the NHIS.Learning Objectives:1) Provide an overview of the core and annually-changing specialized questions in the NHIS; 2) Outline expectations and hopes for the future of the NHIS

Much of the increase in female labour force participation in the post-war period has come from the entry of married women with young children. Accompanying this change has been a rise in cultural acceptance of maternal employment. We argue that the concurrent S shaped rise in maternal participation and its cultural acceptance comes from generations of women engaged in Bayesian learning about the effects of maternal employment on children. Each generation updates their parents' beliefs by observing the children of employed women. When few women participate in the labour force, most observations are uninformative and participation rises slowly. As information accumulates and the effects of labour force participation become less uncertain, more women participate, learning accelerates and labour force participation rises faster. As beliefs converge to the truth, participation flattens out. Survey data, wage data and participation data support our mechanism and distinguish it from alternative explanations.

By studying intrastate branch banking reform in the United States, this paper provides evidence that financial markets substantively influence the distribution of income. From the 1970s through the 1990s, most states removed restrictions on intrastate branching, which intensified bank competition and improved efficiency. Exploiting the cross-state, cross-time variation in the timing of bank deregulation, we evaluate the impact of liberalizing intrastate branching restrictions on the distribution of income. We find that branch deregulation significantly reduced income inequality by boosting the incomes of lower income workers. The reduction in income inequality is fully accounted for by a reduction in earnings inequality among salaried workers.

This study considers the eradication of hookworm disease from the American South (circa 1910) as a test of the quantity-quality (Q-Q) framework of fertility. Eradication was principally a shock to the price of quality because of three factors: hookworm (i) depresses the return to human-capital investment, (ii) had a very low case-fatality rate, and (iii) had negligible prevalence among adults. Consistent with the Q-Q model, we find a significantdecline in fertility associated with eradication.

This project investigates the impact of ethnic economy employment on the adaptation of Asian immigrants and their children in the United States. First, I take into account sources of heterogeneity within the ethnic economy and examine variation in the effects of ethnic economy employment on labor market experiences and rewards among Asian immigrant workers. Second, I examine the intergenerational effects of the ethnic economy on high school employment patterns and post-secondary school enrollment among children of immigrants. With data from the 2000 U.S. Census, I disaggregate the ethnic and mainstream economies into primary and secondary segments, and use matching-attainment models to assess the effects of working in an ethnic economy on hours worked per week, hourly wages, and yearly income, correcting for selection bias. I find that male Asian immigrants who work in the ethnic economy work one to two more hours per week than those in the mainstream economy, but there is no difference in hours worked per week among females. Among males, I find that there is a negative effect of working in the ethnic secondary segment of the labor market as opposed to the mainstream primary segment on hourly wage, but for females, the effect on wages is positive. For both men and women, there is no effect of ethnic economy employment on yearly income. In addition, the wage returns to human capital in ethnic economy are similar to the mainstream economy. Using data from the 2000 Census and from the University of Washington’s Beyond High School project, I find that children of immigrants whose parents work in the ethnic economy are more likely to either not work at all during high school or to work in the ethnic economy themselves as opposed to working the mainstream economy. In addition, parental employment in the ethnic economy can act as a springboard for education for children by fostering bilingualism, higher educational expectations, and higher levels of significant others’ influence. The results of this dissertation support the notion that maintaining connections with their ethnic communities can be beneficial for their educational and occupational mobility.

Public Safety applicants have declined nationwide over the last several years, including those individuals applying to Norfolk Fire-Rescue (NFR). Declining applicants can be attributed to change in generational births, effects of 9/11, and change from the 18 year old high school graduate to a midtwenty year old college student. An applicant pool decrease requires more effective recruitment efforts. This study examines the NFR 2006 hiring process from written exam through applicants' hiring. A nonrandomized survey design examined 245 surveys of all exam applicants. Measured constructs included recruitment sources and demographic data and were analyzed specifically with regard to those who were hired. Demographic data was examined to determine whether or not department recruitment sources are varied to attract diverse individuals. Hypotheses were tested for acceptance, including typical applicant characteristics and recruitment sources. Analysis of Variance was used to examine the survey results in order to draw conclusions and make recommendations.

This study extends prior research (e.g., Bensimon, Hao & Bustillos, 2006; Perna, et al., 2006) that has examined postsecondary access and equity in enrollments for underrepresented student groups. Descriptive statistics are used to examine the status of equity in undergraduate enrollments for Black, Latino and low-income students, as well as trends in the status of equity for these groups from 1994 to 2004, at public flagship campuses and at other public four-year universities. Multivariate regression analyses are used to test the study's conceptual model which explores whether a relationship exists between variables shaped by human capital and institutional isomorphism, and institutions' equity indices. This study advances understandings of the degree to which the public four-year sector is adequately enrolling students from underrepresented groups, the relationship between institutions' flagship status and the enrollment equity indices for various groups of, the relationship between the pursuit of prestige and equity in undergraduate enrollments, and how variables within institutions' purview of control are related to their enrollment equity indices. The study's findings suggest that Black, Latino and low-income students do not achieve equity in undergraduate enrollments at public four-year universities or flagship campuses in a majority of states. In most states, Black and low-income students are more likely to achieve equity at public four year universities than at flagships, while Latinos are more likely to achieve equity at flagship campuses than at other public four-year universities. Of all three student groups, however, low-income students are most likely to be underrepresented in undergraduate enrollments at both public four-year universities and flagship campuses. The descriptive analyses also show that, over a 10-year period, the enrollment equity indices for Black and Latino students have decreased at public four-year institutions and flagship campuses in a majority of states. Conversely, the enrollment equity indices for low-income students increased at public four-year and flagship universities in a majority of states during the same time period. However, despite the upward trend in the enrollment equity indices for low-income students, in 2004 this group achieved equity at public four-year universities in only five states and at the public flagship university in only one state. The results of the multivariate analyses suggest that a relationship exists between human capital and institutional isomorphism variables, and the enrollment equity indices for Black, Latino and low-income students. The analyses also reveal a statistically significant negative relationship between institutions' flagship status and their enrollment equity indices for Black and low-income students, but not for Latino students. The study's findings have implications for policy, practice and research. Specifically, the findings underscore the need to examine the status of equity within state-specific contexts, and to calculate separate equity indices for different institutional sectors

Womens choices appear to place greater weight on child welfare and the provision of public goods than those of men. Improving the status of women is therefore seen as a potent means of increasing investments in children. This paper presents new evidence on how a historical milestone in the advancement of American women their enfranchisement through suffrage rights helped children to benefit from the scientific breakthroughs of the bacteriological revolution. Consistent with standard models of electoral competition, I find that suffrage laws were followed by immediate shifts in legislative behavior and large, sudden increases in local public health spending. This growth in public health spending fueled unprecedented door-to-door hygiene campaigns, and child mortality in turn declined rapidly by 8-15% (20,000 annual child deaths nationwide) as cause-specific reductions occurred exclusively among infectious childhood killers sensitive to hygienic conditions.

In this dissertation, I argue that the "war on drugs" has increased Black STD risk by creating imbalanced sex ratios which has enabled men with "tastes" for promiscuity to form risky sexual relationships. I test this hypothesis in several ways. First, I use data from the NLSY97 to examine the effect of mating options on promiscuity and condom use and use diverging sex ratios for Blacks in late adolescence to identify the effect of mating options on risky sexual behavior. I find that Black men at the 90th quantile-men I term "promiscuous"-will have between 1.3 and 2.4 more female sex partners a year due to changes in the sex ratio over the sample period. I also find evidence that Black men alter their condom use in response to the sex ratio. Separately, I test for a link between incarceration rates and STD outcomes. I find strong evidence that Black incarceration rates are associated with higher rates of gonorrhea and syphilis among Black females. I also have provided the first quantitative evidence that the crack epidemic increased gonorrhea and syphilis. Gonorrhea rates began falling in the mid-to-late 1980s as the prison population continued expanding. I argue that abortion legalization, waning crack and the AIDS epidemic are partly responsible for these changes. I exploit the natural experiment offered by early legalization of abortion five states in 1970, compared to universal legalization in 1973, to estimate the