High School Dropouts and Sexually Transmitted Infections

People who drop out of high school fare worse in many aspects of life. We analyze the relationship between dropping out of high school and the probability of contracting a sexually transmitted infection (STI). Previous studies on the relationship between dropout status and sexual outcomes have not empirically addressed unobserved heterogeneity at the individual level. Using fixed effects estimators, we find evidence supporting a positive relationship between dropping out of high school and the risk of contracting an STI for females. Furthermore, we present evidence that illustrates differences between the romantic partners of dropouts versus enrolled students. These differences suggest that female dropouts may be more susceptible to contracting STIs because they partner with significantly different types of people than do nondropouts. Our results point to a previously undocumented benefit of encouraging those at risk of dropping out to stay in school longer.     

The Timing of Redistribution

We investigate whether late redistribution programs that can be targeted toward low income families, but that may distort savings decisions, can “dominate” early redistribution programs that cannot be targeted as a result of information constraints. We use simple two‐period overlapping generations models with heterogeneous agents under six policy regimes: a model calibrated to the U.S. economy (benchmark), two early redistribution (lump sum) regimes, two (targeted) late redistribution regimes, and finally a model without taxes and redistribution. Redistribution programs are financed by a labor tax on the young generation and a capital tax on the old generation. We argue that if the programs are small in size, late redistribution can dominate early redistribution in terms of welfare but not in terms of real output. Better targeting of low income households cannot completely offset savings distortions. In addition, we find that the optimal transfer and tax policy implies a capital tax of 100% and transfers exclusively to the young generation.     

The Role of Economic Shocks on Health: Evidence from German Reunification

Sudden economic shocks impact the everyday lives of people from one day to the next. A number of studies have examined the association between economic fluctuations and health; however, no consensus on the nature of this relationship has been established. By exploiting the dramatic economic fluctuations following the German Reunification of 1990, which included a sudden change from a socialist to a capitalist system in East Germany, this study examines the association between broad negative economic shocks and health. The article finds that increases in state unemployment rates are associated with large and statistically significant declines in health outcomes. Estimates are stronger for people who became unemployed shortly after reunification, for low‐income individuals, and for East Germans, a group confronted with larger economic fluctuations. When examining potential mechanisms that could explain the observed health deteriorations, the study finds significant reductions in exercise frequency and increases in economic uncertainty and overall stress.     

Does School Lunch Fill the “SNAP Gap” at the End of the Month?

This article investigates the relationship between the timing of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit payments and participation in school lunch and breakfast using the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey. An event study approach examines participation over the five‐day window before and after the SNAP payment. We find that school lunch participation decreases by 17–23 percentage points immediately after the SNAP payment among 11–18 year olds while breakfast drops by 19–36 percentage points. The decline begins the day prior to payment. We find no effects for 5–10 year olds. Models examining participation over the full SNAP month using individual fixed effects yield similar findings. Among teenagers, participation in school lunch and breakfast decline in the first two weeks of the SNAP month, increasing afterward. Non‐school meals show the opposite pattern. Overall, results indicate SNAP households rely more on school lunch and breakfast toward the end of the SNAP month.     

The Effect of Body Weight on Adolescent Academic Performance

A recent study by Cawley found consistent evidence of a negative relationship between body weight and wages for white women, even after controlling for fixed individual-level unobserved heterogeneity and reverse causality. Building on this work, I estimate the relationship between adolescent body weight and academic achievement to examine whether early human capital accumulation is adversely affected by obesity. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, I estimate ordinary least squares, instrumental variables, and individual fixed effects models. The pattern of findings across models suggests consistent evidence of a significant negative relationship between body mass index and grade point average (GPA) for white females aged 14-17. Estimates reflect that a difference in weight of 50 to 60 pounds (approximately two standard deviations) is associated with an 8 to 10 percentile difference in standing in the GPA distribution. For nonwhite females and males, there is less convincing evidence of a causal link between body weight and academic performance after controlling for unobserved heterogeneity.     

Effect of Parental Migration on the Academic Performance of Left‐behind Middle School Students in Rural China

China's rapid development and urbanization over the past 30 years have caused large numbers of rural residents to migrate to urban areas in search of work. This has created a generation of children who remain behind in rural areas when their parents migrate for work. Previous research has found mixed impacts of parental migration on the educational achievement of left‐behind children (LBC), perhaps because of methodological deficiencies and lack of recognition of the heterogeneity of this population of children. Our study attempts to examine the impact of six types of parental migration on the academic achievement of a rural junior high school sample. Our study uses a panel of 7148 junior high school students to implement a difference‐in‐difference analysis and finds that parental migration has a negative and significant impact on the academic achievement of junior high school students. Our study suggests that the Chinese Government should implement measures to dismantle barriers to the human capital accumulation of LBC to ensure sustainable economic growth and human capital development in China.     

Socioeconomic Determinants of Child Health: Empirical Evidence from Indonesia

This paper characterizes the socioeconomic determinants of child health using height‐for‐age z‐score (HAZ), a long‐run measure of chronic nutritional deficiency. We construct a panel data that follows children between ages 3 and 59 months in 1993 through the 1997 and 2000 waves of the Indonesian Family Life Survey. We use this data to identify the various child‐level, household‐level and community‐level factors that affect children's health. Our findings indicate that household income has a large and statistically significant role in explaining improvements in HAZ. We also find a strong positive association between parental height and HAZ. At the community level, we find that provision of electricity and the availability of paved roads are positively associated with improvements in HAZ. Finally, in comparison to community‐level factors, household‐level characteristics play a large role in explaining the variation in HAZ. These findings suggest that policies that address the demand‐side constraints have greater potential to improve children's health outcomes in the future.     

The Impact of Federal Homelessness Funding on Homelessness

Federal spending on homelessness has increased significantly in recent years. I estimate the relationship between federal homelessness funding and homeless counts in 2011, 2013, and 2015 cross sections. I instrument for funding using a community's pre‐1940 housing share, a key variable in an originally unrelated funding formula borrowed for homelessness grants. Funding increases sheltered homelessness; meanwhile, funding is unrelated to unsheltered homelessness. Lower bound estimates suggest that the minimum cost of reducing unsheltered homelessness has increased over time, from $16,400 in 2011 to $20,800 in 2013 to $50,000 in 2015. In 2013, an additional $1 thousand dollars corresponds to a .309 higher homeless rate per 10,000 people. The effect is larger for families than individuals. Funding is positively related to chronic homelessness and is unrelated to youth and child homelessness. My results suggest limitations on federal funding's ability to reduce homelessness among some of the most marginalized groups in society.     

The Impact of SNAP on Material Hardships: Evidence From Broad‐Based Categorical Eligibility Expansions

This article examines whether expanding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility reduces material hardships of low‐income households. During the Great Recession, many states expanded the income threshold of eligibility for SNAP. I show that expansions in eligibility increased the SNAP participation rate by 3–5 percentage points. I also find that the expansion leads to a modest decrease in nonfood hardships, such as rent and utility delinquencies. However, the increase in SNAP enrollment does not lead to greater food spending or a reduction in food insecurity except for households with children.     

The Impact of SNAP Vehicle Asset Limits on Household Asset Allocation

Beginning in 2001, states were given the authority to formulate their own rules on how vehicles are counted toward the asset limit in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. We exploit differences in timing of the state vehicle asset policy changes to identify their effect on vehicle assets and debts, car ownership, liquid assets holdings, as well as non‐housing wealth. We estimate difference‐in‐differences and household fixed effects specifications and find that liberalizing vehicle asset rules increases vehicle assets of households with a high ex ante probability of program participation. Households also take on more debt to finance their vehicles. The increase in car value can be attributed primarily to less educated single parents who already owned a car before the policy change buying more expensive cars.     

政府转移支付对贫困家庭未成年人人力资本的影响研究

政府转移支付的目标不仅在于解决当期贫困,更是要增强贫困家庭抵御贫困的能力。研究采用中国家庭追踪调查数据（CFPS）对政府转移支付对于贫困家庭未成年人人力资本的影响进行实证分析,结果显示：在认知能力方面,我国低保政策显著提高了贫困家庭中未成年人数学标准得分,对字词标准得分没有显著影响;在非认知能力方面,低保政策对于未成年人人力资本的促进作用在12岁及以上群体中较为显著;另外,低保政策对未成年人人力资本的促进作用将会延续到其成年以后,主要体现在贫困家庭中女童在其成年以后学历水平得到了显著提升。     

Parental Education and Children's School and Work Status in Urban Ethiopia: A Note on Gender Bias

This paper examines gender bias in the parental education–child status link using data from urban Ethiopia. Gender bias is defined here, specifically, as the differential impact of a parent's education on a child's status depending on the gender of the parent vis‐à‐vis the child. Children's status is measured by school enrolment and participation in market work. Results from a basic model point to same‐gender bias – father–son, mother–daughter in school enrolment and father–son in market work. In an extended model, results show that father–son bias in market work may be particularly pertinent for middle‐ to later‐born children. Policy interventions should be mindful of such differential effects, particularly if the aim is to address persistent gender disparities in children's status.     

Did the Great Recession Affect Fertility? Examining the Impact of Job Displacements on the Timing of Births in the United States

We examine the impact of job losses during the Great Recession on fertility in the United States. We find that for married/cohabiting couples, job losses of males during the recession decreased the likelihood of birth. In contrast, job losses of married/cohabiting females had no impact, on average, on fertility because of opposing age-specific effects. Although younger women were reducing fertility after job losses to cope with the loss of income, older women, aged 40 and above, were more likely to have a child following their job loss. Moreover, we find that job losses of single/noncohabiting females decreased the likelihood of birth, particularly for women below the age of 25. This negative effect on fertility persisted in the medium-term, up to three years following the job losses. Overall, these results suggest that job losses during the recession may be partly responsible for the recent decline in the U.S. birth rates.     

Estimating the Size and Impact of Affirmative Action in Undergraduate Admissions at the University of Cape Town

In this paper, we estimate the extent and targeting of affirmative action at the University of Cape Town (UCT), a large public university in South Africa. To do this we use admissions data from the UCT, as well as South African population census data and administrative enrolment and graduation data from the South African Department of Higher Education. We find that affirmative action does have a significant effect on the racial distribution of who is made an offer by the university. We also find that affirmative action is well targeted, with those who we estimate to be beneficiaries being of much lower socioeconomic status than those who we estimate are displaced by affirmative action. Beneficiaries of affirmative action have low graduation rates on average, with those beneficiaries who attend UCT being less likely to graduate than those beneficiaries who enrol at other public universities.     

The role of new media on teen sexual behaviors and fertility outcomes—the case of 16 and Pregnant

This article investigates the 2009 premiere of 16 and Pregnant as a shock to teen information sets and potential influence on sexual activity and fertility. The program, chronicling teen pregnancy and providing educational links on sex/contraception, began a continuing stream of teen pregnancy reality shows. My conceptual framework considers how such programs alter the expected (dis)utility or perceived risk of becoming pregnant. I test for differential effects across ages, state‐sex education requirements, and viewership levels in a quasi‐difference‐in‐difference framework that controls for confounding effects of coincident contraception policy changes, the economy, and downward trends in teen fertility. The results indicate that while fertility declined across all adolescents in the postperiod, there are stronger effects among young teens in states without sex education mandates and higher viewership. Supporting evidence from the National Survey of Family Growth shows increased hormonal contraception use in the postperiod for young relative to older teens.     

The Impact of Housing Prices on Health in the United States Before,During, and After the Great Recession

We estimate the effects of U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Area housing prices on a variety of health outcomes and health-related behaviors separately for homeowners and tenants. The constructed data set consists of information on individuals from the 2002–2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System combined with homeownership data from the March Current Population Survey and housing prices from Freddie Mac. We estimate positive effects on homeowners' mental health when housing prices increase. We also find negative effects on tenants' health and health-related behaviors with increases in housing prices. These estimated contemporaneous effects are concentrated among low-income homeowners and tenants, and the effects for tenants are not persistent in the long run. However, the cumulative effects of an increase in housing prices on obesity become more pronounced for homeowners in the long run, resulting in worse self-reported health.     

突发事件对风险项目投资时机的影响研究

风险投资项目面临着很大的不确定性,包括市场性的和非市场性的,在以往的文献中大多都针对市场性的不确定性进行研究,文章研究了非市场性的不确定性对风险项目投资时机的影响。文章首先通过构造突发事件对风险项目影响的模型,并进行了推理,最后用数值分析的方法对其进行了模拟,结果表明：在同等情况下,突发事件对风险项目收入流影响越大,其投资的时机也就越晚;突发性事件发生的频率越大,其要求的投资时机也是越晚。     

The Effect of SNAP and School Food Programs on Food Security,Diet Quality,and Food Spending: Sensitivity to Program Reporting Error

There is an extensive research literature on the effects of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on food‐related outcomes which has shown somewhat mixed results but generally favorable effects. However, most of the research has used data sets whose information on SNAP participation is gathered from responses on household surveys, and such responses are subject to reporting error. This study uses the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey data set to examine the effect of reporting error on food‐related outcomes, for that data set contains information on SNAP participation gathered from government administrative records. Our analysis shows that the degree of reporting error is small and has little effect on the estimated impact of participation in the SNAP program on food security, diet quality, and food spending. A supplemental analysis of the effect of school food programs likewise shows no difference in using survey or administrative data in the analysis.     

The Legacy of Serrano: The Impact of Mandated Equal Spending on Private School Enrollment

In Tiebout's idealized world, families would sort into homogeneous communities. Each family would get its preferred quality of public schools and there would be no demand for private schools. But limited public school options and a demand for religious instruction not permitted in public schools create a market for private schooling. Recently, many state governments have greatly limited districts' freedom to spend what they wish on education, often in response to court rulings to equalize education spending, such as Serrano in California. Funding equalization also affects the level of public school spending in the average state district; if this rises, as it has in many states, private schools become less attractive. Examining private school enrollment in 159 metropolitan areas in 1970, 1980, and 1990, we find that private school enrollments fall as average public spending rises and increase as public spending becomes more equal.