Showing papers in "Journal of Human Resources in 2008"
TL;DR: A dynamic factor model is estimated to solve the problem of endogeneity of inputs and multiplicity of inputs relative to instruments and the role of family environments in shaping these skills at different stages of the life cycle of the child.
Abstract: This paper estimates models of the evolution of cognitive and noncognitive skills and explores the role of family environments in shaping these skills at different stages of the life cycle of the child. Central to this analysis is identification of the technology of skill formation. We estimate a dynamic factor model to solve the problem of endogeneity of inputs and multiplicity of inputs relative to instruments. We identify the scale of the factors by estimating their effects on adult outcomes. In this fashion we avoid reliance on test scores and changes in test scores that have no natural metric. Parental investments are generally more effective in raising noncognitive skills. Noncognitive skills promote the formation of cognitive skills but, in most specifications of our model, cognitive skills do not promote the formation of noncognitive skills. Parental inputs have different effects at different stages of the child’s life cycle with cognitive skills affected more at early ages and noncognitive skills affected more at later ages.
1,636 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored the interface between personality psychology and economics and examined the predictive power of personality and the stability of personality traits over the life cycle, and developed simple analytical frameworks for interpreting the evidence in personality psychology.
Abstract: This paper explores the interface between personality psychology and economics. We examine the predictive power of personality and the stability of personality traits over the life cycle. We develop simple analytical frameworks for interpreting the evidence in personality psychology and suggest promising avenues for future research.
1,036 citations
TL;DR: Using data from the American Time Use Survey, it is found that a first- born child receives 20-30 more minutes of quality time each day with his or her parent than a second-born child of the same age from a similar family.
Abstract: Using data from the American Time Use Survey, I find that a first-born child receives 20-30 more minutes of quality time each day with his or her parent than a second-born child of the same age from a similar family. The birth-order difference results from parents giving roughly equal time to each child at any point in time while the amount of parent-child quality time decreases as children get older. These results provide a plausible explanation for recent research showing a very significant effect of birth order on child outcomes.
399 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used administrative data on a sample of births between 1978 and 1985 to investigate the short-, medium-, and long-term consequences of poor infant health on subsequent health, education, and labor force attachment.
Abstract: We use administrative data on a sample of births between 1978 and 1985 to investigate the short-, medium-, and long-term consequences of poor infant health. Our findings offer several advances to the existing literature on the effects of early infant health on subsequent health, education, and labor force attachment. First, we use a large sample of both siblings and twins, second, we use a variety of measures of infant health, and finally, we track children through their schooling years and into the labor force. Our findings suggest that poor infant health predicts both mortality within one year, and mortality up to age 17. We also find that infant health is a strong predictor of educational and labor force outcomes. In particular, infant health is found to predict both high school completion and welfare takeup and length.
362 citations
TL;DR: This paper investigated the impact of four noncognitive traits (self-esteem, external locus of control, importance of money/work and the importance of people/family) on wages and the gender wage gap among young workers.
Abstract: Using two single-cohort longitudinal surveys, the NLS72 and the NELS88, I investigate the impact of four noncognitive traits—self-esteem, external locus of control, the importance of money/work and the importance of people/ family—on wages and on the gender wage gap among these young workers. I find that gender differences in these noncognitive factors, especially the importance of money/work, have a modest but significant role in accounting for the gender wage gap. Methodologically, this paper proposes a correction to the Oaxaca-Blinder-Ransom decomposition that results in a truly decomposable approach compatible with the simple pooled regression that includes a gender dummy.
353 citations
TL;DR: This article found that parental effort has a strong positive effect on student achievement and that parents appear to reduce their effort in response to increased school resources, suggesting potential crowding out of school resources.
Abstract: This article investigates an important factor in student achievement—parental involvement. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS), we estimate a value-added education production function that includes parental effort as an input. Parental effort equations are also estimated as a function of child, parent, household, and school characteristics. Our results suggest that parental effort has a strong positive effect on achievement that is large relative to the effect of school resources and is not captured by family background variables. Parents appear to reduce their effort in response to increased school resources, suggesting potential “crowding out” of school resources.
285 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors estimate trends in intergenerational economic mobility by matching men in the Census to synthetic parents in the prior generation, finding that mobility increased from 1950 to 1980 but has declined sharply since 1980.
Abstract: We estimate trends in intergenerational economic mobility by matching men in the Census to synthetic parents in the prior generation. We find that mobility increased from 1950 to 1980 but has declined sharply since 1980. While our estimator places greater weight on location effects than the standard intergenerational coefficient, the size of the bias appears to be small. Our preferred results suggest that earnings are regressing to the mean more slowly now than at any time since World War II, causing economic differences between families to become more persistent. However, current rates of positional mobility appear historically normal.
239 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a causal link between college costs and degree completion was established, and two state scholarship programs were analyzed to increase the share of the exposed population with a college degree by three percentage points with stronger effects among women.
Abstract: Half of college students drop out without completing a degree. This paper establishes a causal link between college costs and degree completion. I use quasi-experimental methodology to analyze two state scholarship programs. The programs increase the share of the exposed population with a college degree by three percentage points, with stronger effects among women. A cost-benefit analysis indicates that the programs are socially efficient at rates of return to schooling as low as 5 percent. Even with the offer of free tuition, many students continue to drop out, suggesting tuition costs are not the only impediment to college completion.
202 citations
TL;DR: This paper used changes in the real exchange rate, state manufacturing sector percentages, and state union membership rates as novel instrumental variables to carry out 2SLS estimations and found that a one-percentage-point increase in unemployment would increase property crime by 18 percent under the OLS method, but that the elasticity goes up to 4 percent under 2 SLS.
Abstract: OLS may understate the effect of unemployment on crime because of the endogeneity problem (Raphael and Winter-Ember 2001) In this paper, we use changes in the real exchange rate, state manufacturing sector percentages, and state union membership rates as novel instrumental variables to carry out 2SLS estimations We find a one-percentage-point increase in unemployment would increase property crime by 18 percent under the OLS method, but that the elasticity goes up to 4 percent under 2SLS The larger 2SLS effect has significant policy implications because it explains 30 percent of the property crime change during the 1990s
200 citations
TL;DR: This article measured how peer cheating influences individual cheating behavior at the United States military service academies and found that higher levels of peer cheating result in a substantially increased probability that an individual will cheat.
Abstract: Using self-reported academic cheating from the classes of 1959 through 2002 at the three major United States military service academies (Air Force, Army, and Navy), we measure how peer cheating influences individual cheating behavior. We find higher levels of peer cheating result in a substantially increased probability that an individual will cheat. One additional college student who cheated in high school drives approximately 0.33 to 0.47 additional college students to cheat. One additional college cheater drives approximately 0.61 to 0.75 additional college students to cheat. These results imply, in equilibrium, the social multiplier for academic cheating is approximately three.
191 citations
TL;DR: Using longitudinal survey data collected in collaboration with a treatment program, this paper estimates the economic impacts of antiretroviral treatment on the labor supply of treated adult AIDS patients and individuals in patients’ households.
Abstract: This brief summarizes the results of a gender impact evaluation study, entitled The economic impact of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) treatment : labor supply in Western Kenya, conducted between 2003 and present in Kenya. The study observed the economic impacts of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment in Western Kenya on the individual level. Within six months, there is a 20 percent increase in the likelihood of participating in the labor force and a 35 percent increase in hours worked during the past week. For women, there is a large and significant increase of 20.8 percentage points in the labor force participation rate, but no significant increase in weekly hours worked. Since men have high levels of baseline participation to begin with, most of their response to improved health takes the form of additional hours worked. For women, baseline participation is low, so labor supply is the natural margin for change. For other household members, soon after initiation of ARV treatment for adult patients, there is a negative but insignificant change in the labor force participation rates of adults in the patients' households. For women in these households, the decline in labor supply is greater but not significant. The paper finds that the labor supply of younger boys in patients' households declines after the initiation of ARV therapy. In multiple patient households, both younger and older boys, as well as other adults in the household, work less after patients receive treatment. Funding for the study derived from the Economic and Social Research Council, Pfizer, The World Bank, Yale University's Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Social Science Research Council, and the Calderone Program at Columbia University.
TL;DR: This article developed a framework of the role of interpersonal interactions in the labor market and showed that people are most productive in jobs that match their style and that youth sociability affects job assignment in adulthood.
Abstract: This paper develops a framework of the role of interpersonal interactions in the labor market. Effective interpersonal interactions involve caring and directness. The ability to perform these tasks varies with personality and the importance of these tasks varies across jobs. An assignment model shows that people are most productive in jobs that match their style. An oversupply of one attribute relative to the other reduces wages for people who are better with the attribute in greater supply. We present evidence that youth sociability affects job assignment in adulthood. The returns to interpersonal interactions are consistent with the assignment model.
TL;DR: Examining gender wage disparities for four groups of college-educated women—black, Hispanic, Asian, and non-Hispanic white—using the National Survey of College Graduates finds that inferences from familiar regression-based decompositions can be quite misleading.
Abstract: In the U.S. college-educated women earn approximately 30 percent less than their non-Hispanic white male counterparts. We conduct an empirical examination of this wage disparity for four groups of women-non-Hispanic white, black, Hispanic, and Asian-using the National Survey of College Graduates, a large data set that provides unusually detailed information on higher-level education. Nonparametric matching analysis indicates that among men and women who speak English at home, between 44 and 73 percent of the gender wage gaps are accounted for by such pre-market factors as highest degree and major. When we restrict attention further to women who have "high labor force attachment" (i.e., work experience that is similar to male comparables) we account for 54 to 99 percent of gender wage gaps. Our nonparametric approach differs from familiar regression-based decompositions, so for the sake of comparison we conduct parametric analyses as well. Inferences drawn from these latter decompositions can be quite misleading.
TL;DR: In this paper, the effect of delayed school enrollment on student outcomes, using administrative data on Chilean students that include exact birth dates, was estimated using regression-discontinuity estimates, based on enrollment cutoffs.
Abstract: The paper estimates the effect of delayed school enrollment on student outcomes, using administrative data on Chilean students that include exact birth dates. Regression-discontinuity estimates, based on enrollment cutoffs, show that a one-year delay decreases the probability of repeating first grade by two percentage points, and increases fourth and eighth grade test scores by more than 0.3 standard deviations, with larger effects for boys. The paper concludes with implications for enrollment age policy.
TL;DR: The authors found evidence that children with parents with lower English-speaking proficiency are more likely to drop out of high school, be below their age-appropriate grade, and not attend preschool.
Abstract: Research on the effect of parental human capital on children’s human capital is complicated by the endogeneity of parental human capital. This study exploits the phenomenon that younger children learn languages more easily than older children to construct an instrumental variable for language human capital. Thus, among U.S.-born children with childhood immigrant parents, those whose parents arrived to the U.S. as younger children tend to have more exposure to English at home. We find a significant positive effect of parent’s English-speaking proficiency on children’s English-speaking proficiency while the children are young, but eventually all children attain the highest level of English-speaking proficiency as measured by the Census. We find evidence that children with parents with lower English-speaking proficiency are more likely to drop out of high school, be below their age-appropriate grade, and not attend preschool. Strikingly, parental English-language skills can account for 60% of the difference in dropout rate between non-Hispanic whites and U.S.-born Hispanic children of immigrants. (JEL J13, J24, J62)
TL;DR: In this paper, a field experiment was conducted to determine hiring conditions for older women in entry-level jobs in two cities and found that a younger worker is more than 40 percent more likely to be offered an interview than an older worker.
Abstract: As baby boomers reach retirement age, demographic pressures on public programs may cause policy makers to cut benefits and encourage employment at later ages. But how much demand exists for older workers? This paper reports on a field experiment to determine hiring conditions for older women in entry-level jobs in two cities. A younger worker is more than 40 percent more likely to be offered an interview than is an older worker. No evidence is found to support taste-based discrimination as a reason for this differential, and some suggestive evidence is found to support statistical discrimination.
TL;DR: This paper examined whether unsecured credit markets help disadvantaged households supplement temporary shortfalls in earnings by investigating how un-secured debt responds to unemployment-induced earnings losses and found that very low-asset households do not borrow in response to these shortfalls.
Abstract: This paper examines whether unsecured credit markets help disadvantaged households supplement temporary shortfalls in earnings by investigating how unsecured debt responds to unemployment-induced earnings losses Results indicate that very low-asset households—those in the bottom decile of total assets—do not borrow in response to these shortfalls However, other low-asset households do borrow, increasing unsecured debt by more than 11 cents per dollar of earnings lost In contrast, wealthy households do not increase unsecured debt during unemployment The evidence suggests that very low-asset households do not have sufficient access to unsecured credit to smooth consumption over transitory unemployment spells
TL;DR: This article used an exogenous change in the intra-household distribution of income, provided by a change in United Kingdom Family Allowance policy to test the income-pooling hypothesis implied by unitary household models.
Abstract: This paper uses an exogenous change in the intrahousehold distribution of income, provided by a change in United Kingdom Family Allowance policy to test the income-pooling hypothesis implied by unitary household models. Expenditure shares are estimated for a wide range of goods using household-level data. Shifts in expenditure shares suggest that children and mothers benefited at the expense of fathers when this policy change shifted income within households from men to women. Similar shifts are not found among married-couple households with no children. This paper refutes income pooling, and confirms and extends results in Lundberg, Pollak, and Wales (1997).
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that restaurant prices rise in response to minimum wage increases under several sources of identifying variation, such as store-level and aggregated consumer price index data.
Abstract: Using store-level and aggregated Consumer Price Index data, we show that restaurant prices rise in response to minimum wage increases under several sources of identifying variation. We introduce a general model of employment determination that implies minimum wage hikes cause prices to rise in competitive labor markets but potentially fall in monopsonistic environments. Furthermore, the model implies employment and prices are always negatively related. Therefore, our empirical results provide evidence against the importance of monopsony power for understanding small observed employment responses to minimum wage changes. Our estimated price responses challenge other explanations of the small employment response, too.
TL;DR: In this article, the relationship between abilities, schooling choices, and black-white differentials in labor market outcomes is investigated. But, the results indicate that the standard practice of equating observed test scores may overcompensate for differences in ability.
Abstract: This paper studies the relationship between abilities, schooling choices, and black-white differentials in labor market outcomes. The analysis is based on a model of endogenous schooling choices. Agents’ schooling decisions are based on expected future earnings, family background, and unobserved abilities. Earnings are also determined by unobserved abilities. The analysis distinguishes unobserved abilities from observed test scores. The model is implemented using data from the NLSY79. The results indicate that, even after controlling for abilities, there exist significant racial labor market gaps. They also suggest that the standard practice of equating observed test scores may overcompensate for differentials in ability.
TL;DR: The authors extended the literature on partially identified parameters and introduced a nonparametric framework that makes transparent what can be known about conditional probabilities when a binary outcome and conditioning variable are both subject to nonclassical measurement error.
Abstract: Policymakers have been puzzled to observe that food stamp households appear more likely to be food insecure than observationally similar eligible nonparticipating households. We reexamine this issue allowing for nonclassical reporting errors in food stamp participation and food insecurity. Extending the literature on partially identified parameters, we introduce a nonparametric framework that makes transparent what can be known about conditional probabilities when a binary outcome and conditioning variable are both subject to nonclassical measurement error. We find that the food insecurity paradox hinges on assumptions about the data that are not supported by the previous food stamp participation literature.
TL;DR: The authors found that workers who are more gregarious tend to be employed in jobs that involve more social interactions and report substantially higher levels of job satisfaction and net affect while at work if their jobs entail frequent interactions with coworkers and other desirable working conditions.
Abstract: This paper tests a central implication of the theory of equalizing differences, that workers sort into jobs with different attributes based on their preferences. We present evidence from four new time-use data sets for the United States and France suggesting that workers who are more gregarious, as revealed by their behavior when they are not working, tend to be employed in jobs that involve more social interactions. We also find that workers report substantially higher levels of job satisfaction and net affect while at work if their jobs entail frequent interactions with coworkers and other desirable working conditions.
TL;DR: This article investigated how the reduction of barriers to migration affected the decision of middle school graduates to attend high school in rural China and found a robust, negative relationship between migrant opportunity and high school enrollment that cannot be explained by geographic convergence in access to education across rural China.
Abstract: This paper investigates how the reduction of barriers to migration affected the decision of middle school graduates to attend high school in rural China. Change in the cost of migration is identified using exogenous variation across counties in the timing of national identity card distribution, which made it easier for rural migrants to register as temporary residents in urban destinations. After taking care to address potential strengths and weaknesses of our identification strategy, we find a robust, negative relationship between migrant opportunity and high school enrollment that cannot be explained by geographic convergence in access to education across rural China.
TL;DR: This article provided a comprehensive analysis of the labor supply effects of the Social Security earnings test using longitudinal administrative earnings data and more commonly used survey data and found that the response to the earnings test in survey data is obfuscated by measurement error and labor market rigidities.
Abstract: Despite numerous empirical studies, there is surprisingly little agreement about whether the Social Security earnings test affects male labor supply. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the labor supply effects of the earnings test using longitudinal administrative earnings data and more commonly used survey data. We find that the response to the earnings test in survey data is obfuscated by measurement error and labor market rigidities. Accounting for these factors, our results suggest a consistent and substantial response to the earnings test, especially for younger men.
TL;DR: The authors studied the relationship between parental investment in education and intergenerational earnings mobility for father-son pairs with native and foreign-born fathers, and found that the son's permanent wages were positively associated with the probability of permanent migration.
Abstract: This paper studies parental investment in education and intergenerational earnings mobility for father-son pairs with native- and foreign-born fathers. We illustrate within a simple model that for immigrants, investment in their children is related to their return migration probability. In our empirical analysis, we include a measure for return probabilities, based on repeated information about migrants’ return intentions. Our results suggest that educational investments in the son are positively associated with a higher probability of a permanent migration of the father. We also find that the son’s permanent wages are positively associated with the probability of the father’s permanent migration.
TL;DR: This paper found that having a female firstborn child significantly increases the probability that a woman’s first marriage breaks up, and that divorce widens the income distribution, which indicates that women successfully generate income through child support, welfare, combining households and increased labor supply after divorce.
Abstract: Having a female firstborn child significantly increases the probability that a woman’s first marriage breaks up. Recent work has exploited this exogenous variation to measure the effect of divorce on economic outcomes, and has concluded that divorce has little effect on women’s mean household income. However, using a Quantile Treatment Effect methodology (Abadie et al. 2002) we find that divorce widens the income distribution: it increases the probability that a woman has very low or very high household income. It appears that some women successfully generate income through child support, welfare, combining households, and increased labor supply after divorce, while others are markedly unsuccessful. Thus, although divorce has little effect on mean income, it nonetheless increases poverty and inequality. These findings imply that divorce has important welfare consequences.
TL;DR: This work uses administrative data to examine how "clock" policies—program time limits and recurring deadlines for confirming eligibility—affected participation in South Carolina's TANF and Food Stamp Programs from 1996-2003.
Abstract: We use administrative data to examine how “clock” policies—program time limits and recurring deadlines for confirming eligibility—affected participation in South Carolina’s TANF and Food Stamp Programs from 1996–2003. South Carolina’s TANF program limits most families to two years of benefits in any ten-year period; so, recipients began exhausting their eligibility as early as 1998. The state’s Food Stamp Program sets regular recertification intervals that can be distinguished from other calendar effects and increased these intervals after October 2002. We find that the two-year time limit reduced We use administrative data to examine how “clock” policies—program time limits and recurring deadlines for confirming eligibility—affected participation in South Carolina’s TANF and Food Stamp Programs from 1996–2003. South Carolina’s TANF program limits most families to two years of benefits in any ten-year period; so, recipients began exhausting their eligibility as early as 1998. The state’s Food Stamp Program sets regular recertification intervals that can be distinguished from other calendar effects and increased these intervals after October 2002. We find that the two-year time limit reduced TANF caseloads and that the longer recertification intervals increased food stamp caseloads.caseloads and that the longer recertification intervals increased food stamp caseloads.
TL;DR: In this article, the causal effect of having a first child younger than one year old on female labor supply was investigated. But only some of these women gave birth, and the results showed that having a younger than 1 year old reduces female employment by 26 percentage points.
Abstract: Estimating the causal effect of a first child on female labor supply is complicated by the endogeneity of fertility. This paper addresses this problem by focusing on a sample of women from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) who sought help to become pregnant. After a certain period, only some of these women gave birth. Results using this strategy show that having a first child younger than one year old reduces female employment by 26 percentage points. These estimates are close to OLS estimates from census data and to those from OLS and fixed-effects models on NSFG data.
TL;DR: In the average town in 1900, the use of lead pipes increased infant mortality by 25 to 50 percent as discussed by the authors, and in cities using new pipes and distributing acidic water, lead pipe usage increased infants' mortality by three to four times.
Abstract: In 1897, about half of all American municipalities used lead pipes to distribute water. Employing data from Massachusetts, this paper compares infant death rates in cities that used lead water pipes to rates in cities that used nonlead pipes. In the average town in 1900, the use of lead pipes increased infant mortality by 25 to 50 percent. However, in cities using new pipes and distributing acidic water, lead pipes increased infant mortality three- to four-fold. Qualitative evidence supports the econometric results and indicates the adverse effects of lead extended beyond Massachusetts.
TL;DR: Meyer and Mok as mentioned in this paper found large and persistent declines in earnings and hours, generally several times those reported in Charles (2003), even for those who had positive disability reports for each of the next ten years.
Abstract: Charles (2003) examines the dynamic effects of disability, finding a small decline in earnings and hours following disability onset, even for those who have positive disability reports for each of the next ten years. These outcomes also rebound quickly after the onset of disability. In recent work, Meyer and Mok (2006), find a much larger loss in earnings and a greater decline in hours. Here we find large and persistent declines in earnings and hours, generally several times those reported in Charles (2003). The current findings were arrived at by two research teams working independently without sharing any computer code.