Full Citation
Title: Community Income in Farm Country: Effects on the Transition to Adulthood, School Staffing, and Childbearing
Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication Year: 2015
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Abstract: This dissertation studies how local economic conditions affect the lives of community members in the context of rural, farming-dependent communities. It introduces a way to study changes in community income independent of changes in employment. Instrumental variable regressions using data from the National Agriculture Statistics Service about the historical production of crops and the contemporaneous value of those crops identify the effects of changes in community income that are due to the change in the value of crops. The dissertation presents three papers studying these income effects on behaviors during the transition to adulthood, the ability of schools to recruit and retain teachers, and childbearing. For the first research question, I study school attendance, employment, marital status, childbearing, migration away from the community, and military enlistment drawing data from the 2004-2011 American Community Survey and the 1992-2010 Natality Files. Results indicate that when community income increases, young adults are more likely to attend school, less likely to be married, less likely to have children, and more likely to move away from a community. For the second research question, I study résumé characteristics of teachers and the match between a teaching position and the teacher using data from seven rounds of the Schools and Staffing Survey spanning from 1988 to 2012. Results indicate that when community income increases, schools hire teachers from more competitive colleges. For the third research question, I study race and age-specific fertility rates using data from the 1992-2010 Natality Files. Results indicate that when community income increases, Native American women of all ages experience an increase in fertility rates. In contrast, White, non-Hispanic women between the ages of 15 and 24 years old decrease fertility rates, those between 25 and 24 increase fertility, and those over 40 decrease fertility.
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Authors: Cannon, Sarah
Institution: Northwestern University
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Degree: Doctor of Philosophy
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Pages: 154
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Education, Family and Marriage, Other
Countries: United States