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Source: Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania
Resulting in 11 citations.
| 1. |
Aliprantis, Dionissi |
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Human Capital in the Inner City Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 2010. Also: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/133 Cohort(s): NLSY97 Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania Keyword(s): Behavior, Violent; Education; Gender; Human Capital; Labor Force Participation; Labor Market Outcomes; Neighborhood Effects; Racial Differences Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. There is a large divide in the education, labor market, and personal security outcomes of black and white young males in the United States. This paper develops and estimates a dynamic model of black young males' joint decisions about schooling, labor force participation, and personal security. The formulation of the model is inspired by Elijah Anderson's ethnographic research regarding the incentives black young males face to ensure their personal security in environments where it is not provided by state institutions. I operationalize Anderson's notion of the code of the street by defining the set of skills and knowledge useful for providing personal security to be a distinct type of human capital, street capital, that agents may accumulate in my model. The model is estimated using longitudinal data from the NLSY97, which includes unusually rich information on participation in street behaviors. I use the model to quantify the influence of the code of the street on black males' schooling and labor market choices, and I examine potential policies to influence such choices. In particular, the estimated model is used to simulate a world in which children grow up in safe neighborhoods, as well as a world in which agents are given an unforeseen opportunity to freely dispose of their stocks of street capital. Under both simulations there is a dramatic rise in the share of African American males who graduate from high school and participate in the labor market. Counterfactual experiments are also performed to test the effects of wage and education subsidies. The large effects of the code of the street indicate that interpersonal violence is an empirically important factor influencing the education and labor market outcomes of black young men. |
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Bibliography Citation
Aliprantis, Dionissi. Human Capital in the Inner City. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 2010.. |
| 2. |
Aliprantis, Dionissi |
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Human Capital in the Inner City Job Market Paper, Department of Economics. University of Pennsylvania, November 8, 2009 Cohort(s): NLSY97 Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania Keyword(s): Behavior, Violent; Education; Gender; Human Capital; Labor Force Participation; Neighborhood Effects; Racial Differences Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. There is a large divide in the education, labor market, and personal security outcomes of black and white young males in the United States. Previous empirical literature in economics explores the sources of these disparities while abstracting from non-market considerations. A smaller and mainly theoretical literature in economics has been influenced by work in sociology to study how non-pecuniary rewards affect these outcomes. This paper builds on both literatures to develop and estimate a dynamic model of black young males' joint decisions about schooling, labor force participation, and personal security. The formulation of the model is inspired by Elijah Anderson's ethnographic research regarding the incentives black young males face to ensure their personal security in environments where it is not provided by state institutions. I operationalize Anderson's notion of the “code of the street” by defining the set of skills and knowledge useful for providing personal security to be a distinct type of human capital, street capital. In the model agents decide whether to attend school, work, and engage in street behaviors, and accumulate both regular human capital and street capital through these decisions. The model also includes a probability of incarceration that depends on street behaviors. The model is estimated using longitudinal data from the NLSY97, which includes unusually rich information on participation in street behaviors. Using the estimated model, I quantify the influence of the “code of the street” on black males' schooling and labor market choices, and I examine potential policies to influence such choices. The estimated model is used to simulate a world in which children do not face incentives to engage in street behavior, which may be interpreted as allowing children to grow up in safe neighborhoods. In this world about 20% more black young men after the age of 20 choose to work, about 7% more graduate from high school, and there is also a decrease in incarceration rates. An additional counterfactual experiment is performed in which agents are given the choice at age 16, without prior knowledge, to either keep their current stocks of street capital or to set them to zero. In this scenario about 7% more black males choose either to work or to attend school, and an additional 12% choose to graduate from high school. Finally, counterfactual experiments are performed to test the effects of wage and education subsidies. Such interventions are found to have important impacts on their targeted outcomes, but little effect on street behavior or incarceration rates. The large effects from the code of the street indicate that interpersonal violence is an empirically important factor influencing the education and labor market outcomes of black young men. |
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Bibliography Citation
Aliprantis, Dionissi. "Human Capital in the Inner City." Job Market Paper, Department of Economics. University of Pennsylvania, November 8, 2009. |
| 3. |
Cosconati, Marco |
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Children's Reputation, Parenting Style and Human Capital Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, December 2008. Also: http://www.econ.upenn.edu/~mcoscona/second.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY97 Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania Keyword(s): Child Development; Human Capital; Parenting Skills/Styles Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This abstract is the one and only page of this work-in-progress In this paper I investigate the relationship between parenting styles and parents' socioeconomic characteristics. I adopt Holmstrom's model of career concern to explain parenting style choices and children's behavior. In the model both parents and the child are unaware of the child's ability. Child's effort, her ability and a stochastic term are the inputs of the child's human capital production function. Child's effort is imperfectly monitored by parents, who use the observed realization of the human capital as a signal of the child's ability. Such a signal is used to update their belief about the child's type. Thus, the child retains a piece of private information: the true signal about her ability. Parents are assumed to play the following strategy: whenever their beliefs are above a critical level they implement a permissive parenting style, when not they choose a tough parenting style. Following Martinez, (2001) it is possible to show that the effort strategy played by the child, against this cut-off rule, is unique. In this context, as in my job market paper, parenting style is conceptualized in terms of the strictness of the limits they set for their children on their time allocation. By reducing the value of leisure time children have available, stricter limits induce greater effort of children in terms of the time they devote to study. The model is estimated using data from the NLSY97 by simulated maximum likelihood. The sample consists of about 1500 youths between the ages of 12 and 13 in 1997. In estimation parent's cut-off value is assumed to be a function of some of their own observable characteristics: race, education, income and religion. In order to overcome the computational difficulties given by the fact that parent's beliefs are an unobservable state variable, I adopt the method developed by Keane and Wolpin (2001) to estimate the structural parameters of the problem. I use the estimates of the model to construct a finite number of cut-off values, which are related to parents' socio-economics background. These values are used as a metric to establish how children's behavior would change if they were to face different probabilities of being subject to strict parenting in the future. |
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Bibliography Citation
Cosconati, Marco. "Children's Reputation, Parenting Style and Human Capital." Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, December 2008. |
| 4. |
Cosconati, Marco |
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Parenting Style and the Development of Human Capital in Children Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, February 9, 2009. Also: http://www.econ.upenn.edu/~mcoscona/job_mkt.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY97 Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania Keyword(s): Heterogeneity; Human Capital; Modeling; Parent-Child Interaction; Parenting Skills/Styles; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math) Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. There is little consensus among social science researchers about the effectiveness of alternative parenting strategies in producing desirable child outcomes. Some argue that parents should set strict limits on the activities of their adolescent children, while others believe that adolescents should be given relatively wide discretion. In this paper, I develop and estimate a model of parent-child interaction in order to better understand the relationship between parenting styles and the development of human capital in children. Using data from the NLSY97, the estimates of the model indicate that the best parenting style depends on how much a child values human capital. Setting strict rules increases the study time of a child who places a low value on human capital, but decreases study time for a child who places a high value on human capital. According to the estimates, the impact of a public mandatory curfew, given these offsetting effects, is to increase slightly adolescent human capital. |
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Bibliography Citation
Cosconati, Marco. "Parenting Style and the Development of Human Capital in Children." Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, February 9, 2009. |
| 5. |
Huang, Fali |
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Estimations of Child Development Production Functions Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Nov 2002. Also: http://www.ssc.upenn.edu/~fali/earlychild929.pdf Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Home Environment; Parent-Child Relationship/Closeness; Parenting Skills/Styles; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. In the paper production functions of child cognitive and social development are estimated in a general behavioral model of parents. A sample of eight- and nine-year old children from NLSY(79) child data is used, which includes over two hundred home and school inputs starting from mother's prenatal care period. A tree-structured regression is used instead of the conventional linear regression. The estimation is conducted under various specifications used in the literature, including value-added and within-child difference methods. The estimation results show that historical inputs are important in that they not only have direct effects on future child development results, but also may affect children abilities. And in most cases earlier scores are not sufficient statistics for historical inputs. Specifically, the number of books a child has at various ages, how often a child reads for self-enjoyment, and how often a mother reads to her young child are the most important inputs in predicting a child's math and reading scores. Child behavioral problems at age eight and nine are mostly associated with parents' discipline frequencies, while at younger ages they are also affected by books and readings. Children's innate abilities seem to have large effects on child development. The effects of race and maternal employment are also discussed. |
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Bibliography Citation
Huang, Fali. "Estimations of Child Development Production Functions." Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Nov 2002. |
| 6. |
Neumark, David B. |
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Sex Discrimination and Women's Labor Market Interruptions Unpublished paper. Philadelphia PA: Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 1992 Cohort(s): Mature Women Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania Keyword(s): Discrimination, Sex; Gender Differences; Self-Reporting; Wage Growth; Wages, Women Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. The human capital explanation of sex differences in wages is that women intend to work in the labor market more intermittently than men, and therefore invest less. This lower investment leads to lower wages and wage growth. The alternative "feedback" hypothesis consistent with the same facts is that women experience labor market discrimination and respond with career interruptions and specialization in household production. This paper explores the relationship between self-reported discrimination and subsequent labor market interruptions to test this alternative hypothesis, attempting to remove biases associated with using data on self-reported discrimination. The paper provides evidence consistent with the feedback hypothesis. Working women who report experiencing discrimination are significantly more likely subsequently to change employers, and to have additional children (or a first child). On the other hand, women who report experiencing discrimination, and who consequently have a greater tendency for career interruptions of these types, do not subsequently have lower wage growth. |
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Bibliography Citation
Neumark, David B. "Sex Discrimination and Women's Labor Market Interruptions." Unpublished paper. Philadelphia PA: Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 1992. |
| 7. |
Neumark, David B. Blackburn, McKinley L. |
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Are OLS Estimates of the Return to Schooling Biased Downward? Another Look Unpublished paper. Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 1992 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania Keyword(s): Educational Returns; Endogeneity; Fertility; Schooling; Wage Rates Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. We examine evidence on omitted-ability bias in estimates of the economic return to schooling, using proxies for unobserved ability. We consider measurement error in these ability proxies and the potential endogeneity of both experience and schooling, and examine wages at labor market entry and later. Including ability proxies reduces the estimate of the return to schooling, and instrumenting for these proxies reduces the estimated return still further. Instrumenting for schooling leads to considerably higher estimates of the return to schooling, although only for wages at labor market entry. This estimated return generally reverts to being near (although still above) the OLS estimate if we allow experience to be endogenous. In contrast, for observations at least a few years after labor market entry, the evidence indicates that OLS estimates of the return to schooling that ignore omitted ability are, if anything, biased upward rather than downward. |
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Bibliography Citation
Neumark, David B. and McKinley L. Blackburn. "Are OLS Estimates of the Return to Schooling Biased Downward? Another Look." Unpublished paper. Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 1992. |
| 8. |
Tartari, Melissa |
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Divorce and the Cognitive Achievement of Children Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, November 14, 2005 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania Keyword(s): Child Self-Administered Supplement (CSAS); Child Support; Divorce; Marital Conflict; Maternal Employment; Parent-Child Relationship/Closeness; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading) Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. It is commonly thought that divorce adversely affects child outcomes. Children of divorced parents exhibit lower test scores and lower educational attainment. A fundamental question is whether these correlations have a causal interpretation. Parents who divorce may also be less likely to invest in their children while together. Alternatively, they may choose to divorce to shield their children from the effects of marital conflict. The goal of this paper is to understand what generates the observed differences in children?s cognitive achievement by their parents? marital status. I study the relationship between marital status and a child?s cognitive achievement within a dynamic framework in which partners decide on whether to remain married, how to interact (with or without conflict), fertility, labor supply, time spent with their children, and child support transfers. Using the estimated behavioral model, I assess whether a child whose parents divorced would have been better off had divorce not been an option. I also consider the effects of pro-marriage policies, such as a bonus paid to low income married couples. Finally, I evaluate how better enforcement of existing child support guidelines would affect a child's cognitive achievement, taking into account induced changes in within-marriage behavior. |
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Bibliography Citation
Tartari, Melissa. "Divorce and the Cognitive Achievement of Children." Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, November 14, 2005. |
| 9. |
Tartari, Melissa |
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Divorce and the Cognitive Achievement of Children Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, January 2006 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Child Self-Administered Supplement (CSAS); Child Support; Children, Academic Development; Marital Conflict; Marital Satisfaction/Quality; Maternal Employment; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading) Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. It is commonly thought that divorce adversely affects child outcomes. Children of divorced parents exhibit lower test scores and lower educational attainment. A fundamental question is whether these correlations have a causal interpretation. Parents who divorce may also be less likely to invest in their children while together. Alternatively, they may choose to divorce to shield their children from the effects of marital conflict. The goal of this dissertation is to understand what generates the observed differences in children's cognitive achievement by their parents' marital status. I study the relationship between marital status and a child's cognitive achievement within a dynamic framework in which partners decide on whether to remain married, how to interact (with or without conflict), fertility, labor supply, time spent with their children, and child support transfers. Using the estimated behavioral model, I assess whether a child whose parents divorced would have been better off had divorce not been an option. I also consider the effects of pro-marriage policies, such as a bonus paid to low income married couples. Finally, I evaluate how better enforcement of existing child support guidelines would affect a child's cognitive achievement, taking into account induced changes in within-marriage behavior. |
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Bibliography Citation
Tartari, Melissa. Divorce and the Cognitive Achievement of Children. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, January 2006. |
| 10. |
Tosini, Nicola |
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The Socioeconomic Determinants and Consequences of Women's Body Mass Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, June 23, 2008. Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Heterogeneity; Labor Force Participation; Marriage; Obesity Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. The goal of this paper is to quantitatively account for the negative relationship between body mass and socioeconomic status observed among women in the U.S. Almost 1 out of 3 white women in the U.S. are currently obese, and data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) show that, at age 30, obese women have completed almost 1 fewer school grade, are less likely to participate in the labor market, and if they work they have wages that are lower by 17%; they are more likely never to have been married and, if they are married, their spouses have earnings that are lower by 27%. I interpret these facts taking into consideration that not only body mass may affect labor- and marriage-market opportunities but also (a) behavioral factors, potentially influenced by schooling attainment and family income, play a key role in the accumulation of body weight; and (b) women may be heterogeneous in terms of their propensity to gain weight on the one hand and labor- and marriage-market endowments on the other hand. To this end, I specify and estimate a dynamic model in which (a) wage and spousal income offers, as well as the arrival probability of marriage offers, depend on body mass; and (b) women make decisions about their body mass, labor market participation, and marital status over the life cycle. I exploit the estimated model to quantify the consequences of women's body mass in the labor and marriage markets and answer the following questions: (a) How responsive is body mass behavior to labor and marriage-market incentives? (b) What fraction of the cross-sectional variation in body mass is explained by characteristics formed prior to leaving school? (c) What is the effect of schooling attainment on body mass and through which pathways does this effect unfold over the life cycle? (d) How effective in preventing adult obesity would be policies aimed at eliminating excess weight at the time of school leaving? |
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Bibliography Citation
Tosini, Nicola. "The Socioeconomic Determinants and Consequences of Women's Body Mass." Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, June 23, 2008. |
| 11. |
Yip, Chun Seng |
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Job Search and Labor Force Participation in Equilibrium: Theory and Estimation Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, November 2003. Also: http://www.econ.upenn.edu/~yipcs/talkjan04.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania Keyword(s): Job Search; Labor Force Participation; Modeling; Quits Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Recent empirical evidence suggests that an increasing number of working-age individuals have a weaker attachment to the labor force. Therefore when studying job search in frictional labor markets, it is increasingly important to model workers' participation and quit decisions as well. I develop an equilibrium model where workers determine participation/exit decisions as well as their job quit/acceptance rules. Unlike previous models, all transitions are the result of optimal decisions. The key features of the model are that being unemployed (U) entails a search cost compared to being out of the labor force (OLF), and workers face occasional shocks to their non-work alternatives, causing them to revise their labor market entry/exit and job accept/quit decisions. The model is structurally estimated using data on young women from the NLSY79. Despite data limitations arising from crucial unobserved market-entry and exit transitions, I am able to estimate the model. This is accomplished by modifying the likelihood contributions through the use of Bessel functions. The model estimates the magnitude of these hidden transitions. The model is used to assess and compare the effects of labor market policies targeted at the unemployed, with policies towards both unemployed and OLF. These policy simulations provide richer implications not possible with a model without endogenous participation. |
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Bibliography Citation
Yip, Chun Seng. "Job Search and Labor Force Participation in Equilibrium: Theory and Estimation." Working Paper, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, November 2003. |