Using IPUMS Current Population Survey (CPS) and CPS Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) microdata, new empirical evidence is presented on the changing levels and trends in the gender wage gap from 2009 to 2022, including a COVID-19 specific analysis. Based on the empirical research study performed in this paper, three main conclusions can be identified. First, when controlling for standard wage explanatory variables, the gender wage gap reduced during COVID-19, as women increased their wages by 3.12% relative to men. This is opposed to predictions from Alon et al. (2020) who projected the wage premium for men would rise during COVID-19. Second, we find that the gender wage gap is primarily driven by marital status, followed closely by child status. Married women have the largest wage gap out of the tested factors, with single women having 19% higher wages when controlling for married women, and childless women having 15% higher wages when controlling for women with children of any age. Finally, we see that the growth in the gender wage gap during COVID-19 was primarily caused by child status compared to marital status, as the wage gap fell more for women with no children than for single women. Future research will be proposed for expansions of the empirical study in this paper.

The evolution of rent sharing is studied. Based upon a panel of the top 300 publicly quoted British companies over thirty-five years and using excess stock market returns to patenting activity as an instrument for economic rents, the paper reports evidence of a significant fall over time in the pass-through from rents to wages. It confirms that wages do respond to firm-level shocks to economic rents, but by significantly less after 2000 than they did during the 1980s and 1990s. The evidence of decline is a robust finding, corroborated with alternative instruments and industry-level analysis for the US and EU.

Missing middle housing is an important although often overlooked housing form in America’s built environment. Although still a large component of the US housing stock, production of new small missing middle (SMM) housing—which we define as multifamily structures with two to four units—has steadily declined over the last several decades. In the early 1980s, units in SMM structures comprised ∼9% of residential building permits nationally. Today, less than 3% of new permits are for two- to four-unit structures. We document these trends and explore reasons for the current variation in new SMM production. We build a national, place-level data set combining data on building permits, current and historical census data, land-use regulations, and housing supply characteristics. We then examine the association between SMM production and three sets of community characteristics: supply, regulatory restrictiveness, and demand. Our analysis suggests that correlates of SMM permitting are similar to those for larger multifamily structures. This, we argue, helps explain the decline in SMM, because these developments are competing with and losing to larger multifamily development. We end by considering how these findings can help cities that have recently passed or are considering zoning reforms that broadly legalize missing middle housing forms.

What role did the use of convict labor play in the establishment of early labor unions? This paper introduces a model where certain firms employ convict labor, reproducing the empirical patterns observed in the data. Workers face reduced wages and migrate to other firms, while firms see heightened profits, exacerbating income inequality. In response, workers organize, form unions, and initiate strikes. The calibrated model highlights the role of unions in narrowing income disparities. Empirically, I use an instrumental variable approach to demonstrate that, at the turn of the 20 th century, convict labor significantly boosted union growth, strikes, and membership. This influence has persisted as regions with a history of heavy dependence on convict labor continue to display higher rates of union membership in the present day. These findings provide the first evidence of the role of coerced labor in the formation and persistence of labor unions.

There are more Americans who say they have serious cognitive problems — with remembering, concentrating or making decisions — than at any time in the last 15 years, data from the Census Bureau shows. The increase started with the pandemic: The number of working-age adults reporting “serious difficulty” thinking has climbed by an estimated one million people. About as many adults ages 18 to 64 now report severe cognitive issues as report trouble walking or taking the stairs, for the first time since the bureau started asking the questions each month in the 2000s.

INTRODUCTION: Work is central to the discourse surrounding the pandemic. Going to work during the COVID-19 pandemic put individuals at risk for both disease and death. This study assesses COVID-19 mortality by industry and occupation for working-age adults in Wisconsin and applies a health equity lens to understand COVID-19, demographics, work, and mortality in the state. METHODS: We used vital records data to evaluate COVID-19 mortality in Wisconsin. We assessed the demographics of working-age decedents using chi-square tests and logistic regression. We also classified decedents by usual occupation with Standard Occupational Classification (2018) and North American Industry Classification System (2017) codes to calculate mortality rates. We then calculated proportional mortality ratios to evaluate if mortality rates from COVID-19 in industry or occupation groups were significantly higher than the overall (ie, average) mortality rate from COVID-19 among all working-age Wisconsin adults. RESULTS: Both Asian/Pacific Islander and Hispanic individuals in Wisconsin had elevated likelihoods of dying from COVID-19. Lower levels of education also were associated with a higher likelihood of COVID-19-attributable death. Additionally, we found several occupations and industries that had elevated mortality rates from COVID-19. Proportional mortality ratios showed higher than expected mortality for several occupations including Protective Service; Office and Administrative Support; Farming, Fishing, and Forestry; and Installation, Maintenance, and Repair. Moreover, several industries had elevated proportional mortality ratios, including Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, and Hunting; Finance and Insurance; Transportation and Warehousing; and Public Administration. DISCUSSION: The lessons of the pandemic are important for public health and worker safety. Understanding who bears disparate risks allows us to prepare, communicate, and mitigate risk.

The difference in the average wealth of Black and white Americans narrowed in the first century after the Civil War, but remained large and even widened again after 1980. Given high levels of wealth concentration both historically and today, dynamics at the average may not capture important heterogeneity in racial wealth gaps across the distribution. This paper looks into the historical evolution of the Black and white wealth distributions since Emancipation. The picture that emerges is an even starker one than racial wealth inequality at the mean. Tracing, for the first time, the evolution of wealth of the median Black household and the gap between the typical Black and white household over time, we estimate that the majority of Black households only began to dispose of measurable wealth around World War II. While the civil rights era brought substantial wealth gains for the median Black household, the gap between Black and white wealth at the median has not changed much since the 1970s. The top and the bottom of the wealth distribution show even greater persistence, with Black households consistently over-represented in the bottom half of the wealth distribution and under-represented in the top-10% over the past seven decades.

Introduction: Mining is an industry with diverse, demanding occupational exposures. Understanding the prevalence of chronic health conditions in working miners is an area of active research. Of particular interest is how the health of miners compares to that of workers in other industry sectors with a high proportion of manual labor occupations. By comparing similar industries, we can learn what health conditions may be associated with manual labor and with individual industries. This study analyzes the prevalence of health conditions in miners compared to workers employed in other manual-labor-reliant industries. Methods: National Health Interview Survey public data were analyzed for the years 2007–2018. Mining and five other industry groups with a high proportion of manual labor occupations were identified. Female workers were excluded because of small sample sizes. The prevalence of chronic health outcomes was calculated for each industry group and compared to that of nonmanual labor industries. Results: Currently-working male miners showed increased prevalence of hypertension (in those age <55 years), hearing loss, lower back pain, leg pain progressing from lower back pain, and joint pain, compared to nonmanual labor industries workers. Construction workers also demonstrated a high prevalence of pain. Conclusion: Miners demonstrated increased prevalence of several health conditions, even when compared to other manual labor industries. Given previous research on chronic pain and opioid misuse, the high pain prevalence found among miners suggests mining employers should reduce work factors that cause injury while also providing an environment where workers can address pain management and substance use.

To better understand the tight post-pandemic labor market in the US, we decompose the decline in aggregate hours worked into the extensive (fewer people working) and the intensive margin changes (workers working fewer hours). Although the pre-existing trend of lower labor force participation especially by young men without a bachelor's degree accounts for some of the decline in aggregate hours, the intensive margin accounts for more than half of the decline between 2019 and 2022. The decline in hours among workers was larger for men than women. Among men, the decline was larger for those with a bachelor's degree than those with less education, for prime-age workers than older workers, and also for those who already worked long hours and had high earnings. Workers' hours reduction can explain why the labor market is even tighter than what is expected at the current levels of unemployment and labor force participation.

While the mandate to check patients’ prescription history in Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) database before prescribing/dispensing controlled drugs has been shown to be an important tool to curb opioid abuse, less is known about whether the mandate can reduce the misuse of other commonly abused prescription drugs. We examined whether PDMP use mandates were associated with changes in prescription stimulant and depressant quantities. Using data from Automated Reports and Consolidate Ordering System (ARCOS), we employed difference-in-differences design to estimate the association between PDMP use mandates and prescription stimulant and depressant quantities in 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia from 2006 to 2020. Limited PDMP use mandate was specific only to opioids or benzodiazepines. Expansive PDMP use mandate was non-specific to opioid or benzodiazepine and required prescribers/dispensers to check PDMP when prescribing/dispensing targeted controlled substances in Schedule II-V. The main outcomes were population-adjusted prescription stimulant (amphetamine, methylphenidate, lisdexamfetamine) and depressant (amobarbital, butalbital, pentobarbital, secobarbital) quantities in grams. There was no evidence that limited PDMP use mandate was associated with a reduction in the prescription stimulant and depressant quantities. However, expansive PDMP use mandate that was non-specific to opioid or benzodiazepine and required prescribers/dispensers to check PDMP when prescribing/dispensing targeted controlled substances in Schedule II-V was associated with 6.2% (95% CI: -10.06%, -2.08%) decline in prescription amphetamine quantity. Expansive PDMP use mandate was associated with a decline in prescription amphetamine quantity. Limited PDMP use mandate did not appear to change prescription stimulant and depressant quantities.

From 1963 to 2021, the U.S. evolved from a manual to a knowledge-based economy, intensifying the wage gap between skilled and unskilled workers. Using the CPS ASEC supplements and building on Autor, Katz, and Kearney (2008), this study contrasts two perspectives: the traditionalist view, associating rising inequality with increased demand for skilled labor, and the revisionist view, which sees it as a one-off event due to declining real minimum wage. Analyzing 90-10 inequality, left-tail (50-10) vs. right-tail (90-50) inequality, and college vs. high-school wage premiums, findings suggest a secular rise in inequality driven by technological innovation and demand for skilled workers from 1963 to 2005. However, from 2005 to 2021, the revisionist claim finds merit, as state-level minimum wage adjustments affect the left tail. This highlights the complex dynamics of wage inequality over this period.

This paper shows that immigration positively affected the development of organized labor in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. I digitize archival data to construct the first county-level dataset on historical union membership in the U.S. and use a shift-share instrument to exploit plausibly exogenous variation in immigration between 1900 and 1920. Ifind that counties that received more immigration experienced an increase in the probability ofhaving any labor union, the share of unionized workers, the number of local union branches,and the average branch size. Exploring the mechanisms driving the effect, I find that theincrease occurred only among unions representing skilled workers, particularly in countiesmore exposed to the immigrants’ labor competition, and in places harboring less favorable attitudes towards immigration. Taken together, these results indicate that existing workersformed and joined labor unions due to both economic and social motivations. The findings shed light on a novel driver of unionization in the early 20th-century United States: in the absence of immigration, the average union density of this period would have been 17% lower.They also identify an unexplored consequence of immigration: the development of institutions that aim to protect workers’ status in the labor market.

Using microdata from 17 OECD countries, this paper documents a negative cross-country correlation between gender gaps in market hours and wages. We find that the cross-country differences in market hours are mostly accounted for by female market hours and the size of the sector that produces close substitutes to home production. We quantify the role played by taxes and family care subsidies on the two gender gaps in a multi-sector model with home production. Higher taxes and lower subsidies reduce the marketization of home production, leading to lower market hours. The effect is largely on women because both home production and the production of its market substitutes are female-intensive. The larger fall in female market hours reduces relative female labour supply, contributing to a higher female to male wage ratio.

Randomized trials (RCT) with major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE) outcomes found no effect of dipeptidyl-peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP-4i) medications compared to placebo or second-generation sulfonylureas (SU) while non-randomized database studies suggested a benefit of DPP-4i versus SU. Residual confounding by socioeconomic factors were thought to be a main reason. Aim 1 characterized the geospatial distribution of the adoption of DPP-4i antidiabetics versus SU. Aim 2 evaluated whether incorporation of small-area-level socioeconomic measures can reduce confounding in non-randomized comparisons of DPP-4i to SU as second-line antidiabetic therapies in the prevention of MACE. Aim 3 compared area-level prescribing density (APD) and physician prescribing preference (PPP) as instrumental variables (IVs) with the objective of finding a strategy for control of previously unmeasured confounders. Using Medicare claims data from 2012 to 2017, two cohorts were built emulating RCTs of sitagliptin or saxagliptin starters each compared to SU starters. For each ZCTA, the proportion DPP-4i prescribing in relation to total ZCTA cohort members was calculated and used for a local indicator of spatial association cluster analysis. Multilevel logistic models were used to quantify the variation in medication use at the individual, ZCTA, state, and region levels. DPP-4i utilization proportion was low (sitagliptin median = 0.22; interquartile range 0.15 to 0.33; saxagliptin median = 0.025; 0.00 to 0.069). High amounts of clustering were observed for sitagliptin proportion (Moran’s I = 0.32) and saxagliptin proportion (Moran’s I = 0.20). Sitagliptin utilization was high in the New York metro area and urban southern California. Saxagliptin had similar patterns with additional clusters in the upper Midwest. Regions, states, and ZCTAs accounted for 8.1% of variation in sitagliptin prescribing and 13.3% of saxagliptin prescribing. Variation across ZCTAs suggests neighborhood factors may have been important determinants of prescribing. Removing high co-payments may have improved equity in access to safer antidiabetics. Area-level covariates were obtained for ZCTAs from the American Community Survey. ZCTA-level socioeconomic covariates were incorporated into propensity scores for Cox proportional hazards models. Cox models stratified by ZCTAs were also fit. Adding area covariates improved propensity score model fit and treatment discrimination. Unadjusted associations for receiving sitagliptin or saxagliptin compared to SU showed a decreased hazard of MACE occurrence (sitagliptin hazard ratio (HR) = 0.86; 95% confidence interval 0.83 to 0.88; saxagliptin HR = 0.68; 0.64 to 0.73). Adjusting for individual-level covariates moved estimates towards the null (sitagliptin HR = 0.89; 0.86 to 0.92; saxagliptin HR = 0.78; 0.73 to 0.83). Adding area covariates moved estimates minimally closer to the null. Adjusted stratified Cox models produced similar results (sitagliptin HR = 0.90; 0.87 to 0.93; saxagliptin HR = 0.76; 0.71 to 0.81). Incorporation of area-level covariates in survival analyses did not meaningfully reduce confounding beyond individual-level covariates. The proportion of DPP-4i prescribing in relation to all cohort members in a zip code tabulation area defined the APD IV at various cutoffs (0% vs. 100% to % vs. ≥50%). The same proportions were calculated for each patient’s physician prescribing history as the PPP IV. An instantaneous physician preference (iPPP) IV used a physician’s most recent prescription. Two-stage IV regression models were adjusted for propensity score quintiles. All IVs were strong and reduced covariate imbalance. APD IV analyses found no meaningful difference for sitagliptin (0% vs. 100% HR = 1.11; 0.79 to 1.57). PPP IV analyses showed reduced risk for sitagliptin (% vs. ≥50% HR = 0.69; 0.48 to 0.98). iPPP analyses showed little to no difference for sitagliptin (HR = 0.86; 0.60 to 1.10) and saxagliptin (HR = 0.98; 0.56 to 1.72). Instruments focusing on short-term prescribing preference like the iPPP IV hold promise over area-based instruments to improve confounding control in comparative effectiveness analyses.

Previous studies explore the role of birth order in children's and adults’ outcomes. This literature usually provides evidence of disadvantage of children with higher birth order. A narrow strand of this literature explores the association between birth order and old‐age mortality. This study re‐visits the birth‐order‐longevity relationship using US data. We employ Social Security Administration death records between the years 1988 and 2005 linked to the 1940 full‐count census and implement family fixed effect strategy to compare within‐sibling differences in the outcome. The findings suggest that later‐born children live, on average, 1–3 fewer months of life. The observed associations are exclusively concentrated among whites. However, the results do not point to significant heterogeneity based on family socioeconomic status, maternal education, and gender. Additional analyses suggest that higher birth order is associated with negative early educational outcomes.

For Americans in their late 20s, 2021 was the biggest year for switching employers in two decades. Was it a fluke or a cliché finally turned real?

Objective: To examine the influence of comorbid mental illness on hospitalization among adults reporting diabetes mellitus. Methods: This cross-sectional observational study used National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data from 2000-2018 to examine hospitalization. Mental illness was defined as no to low psychological distress (NLPD), moderate psychological distress (MPD), and serious psychological distress (SPD) as per the Kessler-6 scale. Socio-demographic factors and health status were added as covariates in binary logistic regression. Results: This study involved 48,807 survey participants and reflected an estimated population of 17,524,418 adults with diabetes in the United States, of whom 19.9% were hospitalized in the year prior to the survey. Among those who were hospitalized, 71.5% exhibited None to Low Psychological Distress (NLPD), 17.7% reported Moderate Psychological Distress (MPD), and 10.8% reported Serious Psychological Distress (SPD). Conversely, among non-hospitalized individuals, the percentages were as follows: 83.2% had NLPD, 11.4% had MPD, and 5.3% had SPD. The odds ratio (OR) for hospitalization was found to be OR=1.31 (95% CI: 1.20, 1.43, p<0.0001) for MPD and OR=1.42 (95% CI: 1.28, 1.58, p<0.0001) for SPD, in comparison to those with no or low psychological distress. Conclusion: Among adults with diabetes mellitus, those with mental illness were more likely to be hospitalized than those without mental illness. Programs and policies to improve care among adults with both mental illness and diabetes may help to reduce hospitalizations.

Union decline is a major contributor to rising income inequality among both unionized and non-unionized workers, which has increased by more than 40 percent since the 1980s. The moral economy perspective argues that unions foster egalitarian wage norms that are materialized in redistributive policies, wage regulations, and employers’ compensation practices. While plausible, the moral economy perspective is largely speculative. Drawing on large-scale survey data between the 1970s and 2010s, I perform a step-by-step mediation analysis of the moral economy perspective. Results show that higher union density is associated with higher support for reducing income inequality, lending support for the cultural role of unions. Results also show that wage norms explain a small portion of union density effects on voting Democratic in presidential elections and wage variance increases. Findings lend limited support for the moral economy perspective and lay an empirical foundation for evaluating unions’ normative effects on income inequality.

The divorce rate in the U.S. has declined in recent decades. In 1990, 19 people per 1,000 currently married individuals divorced compared to 13 per 1,000 in 2021. The overall trend in the divorce rate masks substantial variation by age. The divorce rate for younger people has been on the decline since the 1990s (Kennedy and Ruggles, 2014) whereas the divorce rate among those 50 and older has more than doubled since 1990 (Brown and Lin, 2012). This family profile updates FP-21-16 and charts the divorce rates by age groups in 1990 and 2021 using U.S. Census data and the 2021 American Community Survey provided by IPUMS-USA.

We measure the effect of Medicaid Expansion on the share of low-income workers in part-time jobs and self-employment. Workers in these jobs commonly lack access to subsidized health plans through their employers. However, Medicaid expansion provided many low-income workers in these jobs access to publicly subsidized health plans, potentially making these positions more desirable. Our identification strategy is the difference-indifference design from Callaway and Sant'Anna (2021), which compares labor market outcomes for workers in states that expanded Medicaid against those that did not. We focus on a sample of low-income workers who were not eligible for Medi-caid before the expansion: childless, non-disabled adults in states without confounding state-level policies. Using American Community Survey data, we find that Medicaid expansion had a statistically insignificant effect on the share of our sample in part-time jobs or self-employment in both the short and long term. We conclude that Medicaid Expansion had a negligible impact on both types of work arrangements for low-income workers.