Family Arrangements and Children's Education Among Migrants: A Case Study of China

As China is experiencing an urban revolution with massive rural-to-urban migration, millions of children are profoundly affected by their parents’ migration and their decisions about family arrangements. With the discriminatory hukou system and harsh living conditions in cities, the dilemma migrant parents face is whether they should take their children with them to the city or leave them behind. This decision determines the household, school and community environments that children live in, which, in turn, shape their well-being. With a unique strategy of comparing ‘left-behind children’ to ‘migrant children’ and a gendered perspective, this article examines how different family arrangements among migrants and consequent housing conditions and gender dynamics affect children's educational well-being. Our findings demonstrate the complex impact of family arrangements on children, which is conditioned by wage income and the gender of the absent parent and the child. We find that children from less favorable socio-economic backgrounds benefit more from moving to cities. Children living with both parents and those living with their mother or grandparents tend to do better. While the effect of housing conditions is marginal, family arrangements have a gendered effect on children. Related policy recommendations are provided.     

Single Mothers in Various Living Arrangements:

The economic status of single mothers with dependent children has recently been shown to vary greatly according to their living arrangements, a finding with implications for poverty policy and welfare reform. The economic and time resources of single mothers in various living arrangements were compared using the 1987 National Survey of Families and Households, Cohabitation is significantly related to increased income adequacy and lesser receipt of public assistance for white mothers, but not for black mothers. Living in the parent's home is significantly related to a reduced likelihood of receipt of public assistance for both white and black single mothers, but living with parents is related to lesser time demands in household work for only white single mothers. Differences in resource levels may be related to the finding that, among those living in the parental household, a large majority of white mothers live with two parents, while a majority of black mothers live with one parent.     

Cash in Your Face: The Cost of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination in Housing

According to recent evidence, racial and ethnic discrimination in housing continues to be widespread. This paper estimates the cost this discrimination imposes on black and Hispanic households. Building on the work of4, the paper develops a housing search model and measures the cost of discrimination by its impact on the gain a household can achieve through housing search. The cost of discrimination is then calculated for a representative sample of households. The punchline: Black and Hispanic households pay a discrimination “tax” of almost $4,000, on average, every time they search for a house to buy.     

Evidence That the Presence of a Half-Sibling Negatively Impacts a Child's Personal Development

A bstract .   This paper examines the relationship between a child's family structure and his or her development. While most prior research in this area has defined a child's family structure according to his or her relationship to adults in the household, this study examines the relationship of the child to not only adults but also other children in the household. We provide evidence that half-siblings brought into the household from previous relationships affect the well-being of children born into a subsequent marriage who live with both of their biological parents. Stepchildren and children living with both biological parents exhibited more behavior problems and scored worse on reading achievement tests when half-siblings were present. In contrast, stepchildren living without half-siblings in the home fared no worse than biological children without half-siblings. These results not only highlight a previously overlooked at-risk group (children living with half-siblings brought into the household from a parent's prior relationship), but they also illustrate the potential ramifications of classifying children into family structures based on their individual relationship with the householders, rather than based on the family types. The authors illustrate the relevance of these findings to current policy-making decisions regarding marriage promotion policies and child support legislation.     

More on the Cost of Being Other Than White and Male:

ABSTRACT This article analyzes the estimated yearly earnings of white, black, and Hispanic males and white, black, and Hispanic females in order to determine two things: Whether white male earnings continue to exceed those of reference groups, and how the cost of being female (the gender effect) compares with the cost of being nonwhite (black or Hispanic). We find that white males earnings are still greater than those of other groups, but when earnings are adjusted for market related differences, most of the differentials for black and Hispanic (Mexican-American, Puerto-Rican) males disappear. Even after adjustment, however, a considerable portion of females earnings differentials remain unexplained. Gender effects are considerably larger than race or ethnic effects.     

Opportunity, Subculture and the Economic Performance of Urban Ethnic Groups

A bstract . An attempt is made to account for age-specific differences in economic performance among 14 ethnic groups living in the nation's nine largest metropolitan areas, by regression analysis of 1950 U.S. Census data. A large proportion of the variance in occupational structure, income, unemployment, and labor force status is accounted for by variations in urban opportunities, relative group size and the members' educational attainment. With the specified economic factors held constant, ethnic factors—nationality and nativity—are associated with residual differences in economic performance. These residual ethnic influences as well as ethnic differences in marital, educational, and labor force status suggest that differences in ethnic subculture have important economic consequences.     

Measuring differences in economic standard of living between immigrant communities in Italy

Measuring differences in the economic standard of living of between natives and other ethnic groups can inform us about the relative disadvantages and inequalities within Italian society. Despite the importance of this question, the measurement of this gap is not an easy task because, when using the usual design-based approach to survey sampling inference, the available micro-data lack sufficient sample size for the majority of immigrant communities needed to obtain reliable estimates. In this paper, we show that small area estimation (SAE) techniques can be applied in a fruitful way to avoid this issue. In particular, we use an approach based on M-quantile regression for estimating the economic standard of living in each community in Italy. Our findings highlight economic disparities between natives and other ethnic groups and suggest the need to adopt specific policies that target the most vulnerable immigrant communities and are designed to improve their economic standard of living.     

The Living Arrangements of Single Mothers with Dependent Children

Abstract . Despite the rapid increase in families headed by single mothers, sufficient attention has not been paid to the living arrangements of these families. Most prior research has generally relied on Bureau of the Census definitions as household head and subfamily head to categorize single mothers' living arrangements. This two part grouping, however, obscures the actual diversity of living arrangements undertaken, including cohabitation with unrelated males. This paper moves beyond the standard two part grouping of single mothers and instead provides a detailed taxonomy of single mothers' living arrangements using data from the Current Population Survey. Among the findings, the economic status of families headed by single mothers varies tremendously by living arrangement, a fact which has been entirely overlooked in earlier research.     

Do Landlords Discriminate? The Incidence and Causes of Racial Discrimination in Rental Housing Markets

Discrimination in housing markets occurs when equally qualified people are treated differently because of their membership in a particular group. This study focuses on racial and ethnic discrimination in qualitative actions by landlords, such as making an advertised housing unit available for inspection by a customer. The data come from the Housing Discrimination study, which conducted over 1500 rental housing audits in 25 metropolitan areas in 1989. Each audit consists of a visits to a landlord by a white person and either a black or Hispanic person with similar socio-economic characteristics. Using Chamberlain's fixed-effect logic estimation, we develop a nationally representative measure of the incidence of discrimination in landlord behavior and conduct hypothesis tests on the incidence and causes of discrimination. The results indicate widespread discrimination across several types of landlord behavior and support the hypotheses that landlords discriminate both out of personal prejudice and in response to the prejudice of present and future white clients.     

Ethnic Solidarity and Black Business

A bstract This paper examines the development of a separate economic niche for black entrepreneurs in Chicago's ethnic beauty aids industry. It argues that this economic niche developed in response to advantages black entrepreneurs had in mobilizing ethnic resources in the black community. The paper's findings lend support to general theoretical arguments stating that ethnicity, race, and other symbols for identity function as low-cost screening devices for evaluating the likelihood that trading partners will honor economic contracts, particularly in a market setting where formal market mechanisms are not fully developed. The findings are based on a series of in-person interviews with Korean, Jewish and black distributors of ethnic beauty aids in Chicago. Although this paper focuses on a single market niche, its conclusions indicate that greater attention needs to be paid to the effects of social, political, economic and structural factors on minority business development.     

Ethnic Competition for Residential Space in Miami, Florida, 1970–80

A bstract . Between 1970 and 1980 the Hispanic population of Miami had a phenomenal rate of growth while the Black population also grew rapidly. The non-Hispanic White population actually experienced a numerical decline. The Hispanic population of the city has been highly successful in improving its economic well-being and has been able to penetrate deeply into non-Hispanic White neighborhoods throughout the city. Blacks have not been able to increase their economic well-being as greatly and their expansion has been confined largely to neighborhoods adjacent to older Black neighborhoods. Non-Hispanic White neighborhoods shrank considerably in area during the decade and today are mainly found on Miami Beach , in northeast Miami and the far south of the city. If large scale Hispanic migration continues, and the Black population maintains its rate of growth, by 1990 Miami will likely have an even smaller non-Hispanic White population than today and be ethnically more segregated.     

Effect of monetary policy shocks on the racial unemployment rates in the US

This study analyzes the effect of monetary policy shocks on the unemployment rate of different racial groups in the US, using data from 1969Q2 to 2015Q4. Employing a narrative approach to identify monetary policy shocks and local projections, we find that although an expansionary monetary shock affects White workers positively and significantly, the effect on Black workers is larger, and for Hispanic workers it is not statistically different from zero. These results are robust when considering unconventional monetary policy measures in the specification, and when exploring the impact of monetary policy on different genders and age groups. We also highlight how recession affects the transmission channel of monetary policy to the labor market for White and Hispanic workers. Finally, further extensions suggest that the Fed’s monetary policy is effective in reducing the racial unemployment gap, particularly between Whites and Blacks, and during economic booms.     

Do mortgage rates vary by neighborhood? Implications for loan pricing and redlining

Using a nationally representative sample of conventional single-family mortgage loans that originated during 1992–1995 with detailed loan pricing information, this paper examines whether interest rates vary by neighborhood income and racial composition. The estimates suggest that borrowers financing homes in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods generally paid 2–4 basis points more for 30-year loans, but there was no difference for 15-year loans. Results by racial composition of the neighborhood were more mixed, with borrowers in predominately Hispanic and Asian neighborhoods paying slighting higher rates, while borrowers in predominately African–American neighborhoods occasionally paid slightly lower rates. Omitted variables could account for some of these differences. Overall, the small effects suggest that redlining is unlikely to be a factor, although no firm conclusions can be drawn.     

The dimension,nature and distribution of economic insecurity in European countries: A multidimensional approach

Economic insecurity is a key well-being outcome because the anticipation of future economic distress reveals itself as a true threat to current well-being. Insecurity has been shown to affect quality of life and to change an individual’s consumption, fertility, labor supply and even political support decisions to mitigate risk. This paper provides evidence on the dimension, nature and distribution of economic insecurity for 27 European countries during a whole decade by using a multidimensional individual approach that considers both objective and subjective indicators. The young, the less educated and the unemployed living in households with dependent children have significantly higher levels of economic insecurity everywhere. However, insecurity affects the population in the middle class only in some countries but not in others, and the level of insecurity in liberal regimes is more linked to large income losses than elsewhere. The role of objective versus subjective dimensions is larger in post-transition Eastern European regimes than in long-standing capitalist countries.     

On the Production of Cognitive Achievement and Gaps in Test Scores

Accumulation of cognitive achievement is investigated using an indirect production function, a dynamic econometric model and a rich data set. Gaps between scores of black and white children remain constant, narrow, or disappear entirely as children grow older, depending upon the measure and the family structure. Income elasticities are higher for children of black families, and there are differences in elasticities with respect to parents' educational levels. The effects of fathers' and mothers' educational levels differ. Between children of two‐parent families and mother‐only families, there is a gap that is at least as important as the racial gap.     

Which school attributes matter? The influence of school district performance and demographic composition on property values

Increasing levels of segregation in American schools raises the question: do home buyers pay for test scores or demographic composition? This paper uses Connecticut panel data spanning eleven years from 1994 to 2004 to ascertain the relationship between property values and school district attributes, such as student test scores and the racial and ethnic composition of the student body. Town and census tract fixed effects are included to control for neighborhood unobservables. The effect of changes in school district attributes is also examined over a decade long time frame in order to focus on the effect of long-run changes, which are more likely to be capitalized into prices. The study finds strong evidence that increases in percent Hispanic have a negative effect on housing prices in Connecticut, but mixed evidence concerning the impact of test scores on property values. Student test scores also appear to have increased in importance for explaining housing prices in recent years, while the importance of percent Hispanic has declined. Finally, the study finds that estimates of property tax capitalization increase substantially when the analysis focuses on long run changes.     

Wage and Nonwage Discrimination in Professional Basketball: Do Fans Affect It?

A bstract . Recent research suggests there is substantial wage discrimination against blacks in professional basketball , and that fans are the source of this discrimination. The use of multiple regression analysis does indicate a salary shortfall for black players of fourteen to sixteen percent compared with salaries of white players with comparable on-court performance. To see whether this shortfall is likely to be due to fan discrimination as the relatively scarce white talent is bid into cities with many white fans, the racial composition of teams is related to the proportion of black residents among the populations of franchise cities. There is statistically significant evidence of geographical sorting by race. Evidence of racial bias is less obvious in contexts where a team's performance would be jeopardized, however. Thus, no evidence is found that fan attendance moves inversely with the percentage of playing time accorded black players, and only weak evidence is found that black players have to be better than white players to enter the National Basketball Association (NBA).     

The influence of racial segregation on housing prices

Census tract data were used to investigate the influence of racial segregation on housing prices in the Oakland, California housing market. White renters were found to pay a premium to live in segregated neighborhoods. Racial differences in the implicit prices of specific housing characteristics were also observed in the rental market: a unit of housing space was more expensive in the black rental submarket, while a unit of housing quality cost more in the white rental submarket. No significant differences were found in the prices paid by black and white homeowners, although for methodological reasons these results were less reliable than those for rental housing.     

Childhood and capability deprivation in Italy: a multidimensional and fuzzy set approach

In the last decades, starting with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Children in 1989, children’s quality of life have received a growing attention in scientific research, as well as in politics. This work aims to gain insights into Italian children’s living conditions and deprivation of capabilities using the Capability Approach, an alternative normative framework for the evaluation of human development, well-being and freedom by thinking in terms of human functionings and capabilities. From a methodological point of view we present an approach based on a fuzzy methodology applied to data from the EU-SILC 2009 ad-hoc module on children. The use of this methodology makes it possible to preserve the richness of the data available from the EU-SILC survey, that include both monetary and non monetary aspects of children deprivation. To get more insides into Italian children living conditions we also combine the fuzzy methodology with the capability approach at a disaggregated level of analysis by three social economic factors (single parent household, household educational level, macro-region of residence). Besides the well-known Italian North/South disparity of financial indicators—confirmed also for households with children—our findings suggest a new duality for Italian children quality of life, given by the multidimensional domains of deprivation internal or external to children’s households.     

Intergenerational conflict and the political economy of higher education funding

We examine how a population's age distribution and a growing divide between the ethnic composition of older and young generations is likely to affect support for higher education funding. Using detailed survey data on voter preferences for higher education funding and precinct-level vote returns from locally-funded community college bond referenda in California, we find that older voters are significantly less supportive of higher education funding than younger voters and that support among older non-Hispanic white voters is particularly weak when those voters reside in a jurisdiction where the college-age population is more heavily Hispanic.