Search Results

Author: Brand, Jennie E.
Resulting in 25 citations.
1. Ahearn, Caitlin
Brand, Jennie E.
Zhou, Xiang
How, and For Whom, Does Higher Education Increase Voting?
Research in Higher Education published online (14 September 2022): DOI: 10.1007/s11162-022-09717-4.
Also: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11162-022-09717-4
Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY97
Publisher: Springer
Keyword(s): College Enrollment; Higher Education; Voting Behavior

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The college-educated are more likely to vote than are those with less education. Prior research suggests that the effect of college attendance on voting operates directly, by increasing an individual's interest and engagement in politics through social networks or human capital accumulation. College may also increase voting indirectly by leading to degree attainment and increasing socioeconomic status, thus facilitating political participation. However, few studies have empirically tested these direct and indirect pathways or examined how these effects vary across individuals. To bridge this gap, we employ a nonparametric causal mediation analysis to examine the total, direct, and indirect effects of college attendance on voting and how these effects differ across individuals with different propensities of attending college. Using data from the 1979 and 1997 cohorts of National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth, we find large direct effects of college on self-reported voting and comparably smaller indirect effects that operate through degree completion and socioeconomic attainment. We find the largest impact of college on voting for individuals unlikely to attend, a pattern due primarily to heterogeneity in the direct effect of college. Our findings suggest that civic returns to college are not contingent upon degree completion or socioeconomic returns. An exclusive focus on the economic returns to college can mask the broader societal benefits of expanding higher education to disadvantaged youth.
Bibliography Citation
Ahearn, Caitlin, Jennie E. Brand and Xiang Zhou. "How, and For Whom, Does Higher Education Increase Voting?" Research in Higher Education published online (14 September 2022): DOI: 10.1007/s11162-022-09717-4.
2. Bollen, Kenneth A.
Brand, Jennie E.
A General Panel Model with Random and Fixed Effects: A Structural Equations Approach
Social Forces 89,1 (September 2010): 1-34.
Also: http://sf.oxfordjournals.org/content/89/1/1.abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Keyword(s): Discrimination; Fertility; Income; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Modeling, Random Effects; Mothers, Income; Wage Penalty/Career Penalty

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Fixed and random effects models for longitudinal data are common in sociology. Their primary advantage is that they control for time-invariant omitted variables. However, analysts face several issues when they employ these models. One is the uncertainty of whether to apply the fixed effects (FEM) versus the random effects (REM) models. Another less discussed issue is that the FEM and REM models as usually implemented might be insufficiently flexible. For instance, the effects of variables, including the latent time-invariant variable, might change over time rather than be constant as in the usual FEM and REM. The latent time-invariant variable might correlate with some variables and not others. Lagged endogenous variables might be necessary. Alternatives that move beyond the classic FEM and REM models are known, but they involve different estimators and software that make these extended models difficult to implement and to compare. This paper presents a general panel model that includes the standard FEM and REM as special cases. In addition, it provides a sequence of nested models that provide a richer range of models that researchers can easily compare with likelihood ratio tests and fit statistics. Furthermore, researchers can implement our general panel model and its special cases in widely available structural equation models (SEMs) software.
Bibliography Citation
Bollen, Kenneth A. and Jennie E. Brand. "A General Panel Model with Random and Fixed Effects: A Structural Equations Approach." Social Forces 89,1 (September 2010): 1-34.
3. Brand, Jennie E.
Heterogeneous Effects of Higher Education on Civic Participation
Presented: Dallas, TX, Population Association of America Meetings, April 2010
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Behavior, Prosocial; College Education; Education; Schooling; Selectivity Bias/Selection Bias

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

American educational leaders and philosophers have long valued schooling for its role in preparing the nation's youth to be civically engaged citizens. Numerous studies have found a positive relationship between education and subsequent civic participation. However, little is known about possible variation in effects by selection into higher education, a critical omission considering education's expressed role as a key mechanism for integrating disadvantaged individuals into civic life. With data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, I disaggregate effects and examine whether civic returns to higher education are largest for disadvantaged low likelihood or advantaged high likelihood college goers. I find evidence for significant heterogeneity in effects: civic returns to college are greatest among individuals who have a low likelihood for college completion. Returns decrease as the propensity for college increases.
Bibliography Citation
Brand, Jennie E. "Heterogeneous Effects of Higher Education on Civic Participation." Presented: Dallas, TX, Population Association of America Meetings, April 2010.
4. Brand, Jennie E.
Heterogeneous Effects of Higher Education on Civic Participation: A Research Note
On-Line Working Paper Series CCPR-2009-021, California Center for Population Research at UCLA, September 2009
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: California Center for Population Research (CCPR)
Keyword(s): College Education; College Graduates; Disadvantaged, Economically; Education; Volunteer Work

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

American educational leaders and philosophers have long valued schooling for its role in preparing the nation's youth to be civically engaged citizens. Numerous studies have found a positive relationship between education and subsequent civic participation. However, little is known about possible variation in effects by selection into higher education. With data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, I examine effects of college completion on civic participation by propensity score strata using an innovative hierarchical linear model. I find evidence for significant heterogeneity of effects: the effect of college completion on civic participation is greatest among college graduates from disadvantaged social backgrounds with a low propensity for college. The effect of college on participation decreases as the propensity for college increases.
Bibliography Citation
Brand, Jennie E. "Heterogeneous Effects of Higher Education on Civic Participation: A Research Note." On-Line Working Paper Series CCPR-2009-021, California Center for Population Research at UCLA, September 2009.
5. Brand, Jennie E.
The Social and Economic Context of Worker Displacement
Presented: Washington DC, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, March-April 2016
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Displaced Workers; Earnings; Economic Changes/Recession; Life Course; Unemployment; Well-Being

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Job displacement is an involuntary disruptive life event with a far-reaching impact on workers' life trajectories. Research suggests that displacement is associated with subsequent unemployment, long-term earnings losses, and lower job quality; declines in psychological and physical well-being; loss of psychosocial assets; and social withdrawal. Contexts of widespread unemployment, although typically associated with larger economic losses, may lessen the social-psychological impact of job loss. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), I consider how the economic and social-psychological effects of worker displacement differ depending upon the social and economic context.
Bibliography Citation
Brand, Jennie E. "The Social and Economic Context of Worker Displacement." Presented: Washington DC, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, March-April 2016.
6. Brand, Jennie E.
Davis, Dwight R.
Heterogeneous Effects of College on Family Formation Patterns among Women
Presented: Detroit, MI, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2009.
Also: http://paa2009.princeton.edu/download.aspx?submissionId=91835
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Educational Attainment; Family Formation; Labor Force Participation; Women's Education

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

We use panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY). The NLSY is a nationally representative sample of 12,686 respondents who were 14-22 years old when they were first surveyed in 1979. The NLSY consists of three sub-samples: (1) a crosssectional sample of 6,111 respondents designed to be representative of non-institutionalized civilian 1979 youth; (2) a sample of 5,295 respondents designed to over-sample civilian Hispanic, black and economically disadvantaged 1979 youth; and (3) a sample of 1,280 respondents who were enlisted in the military as of 1978. These individuals were interviewed annually through 1994 and are currently interviewed on a biennial basis. The NLSY has been used extensively for study of access to and the impact of education.

Educational attainment is a significant predictor of womens family formation patterns (Becker 1991; Rindfuss, Bumpass, and St. John 1980; Rindfuss, Morgan, and Offut 1996) and labor force participation (Bianchi 1995). Overall, education delays family formation and increases participation in the labor force. While highly educated women have postponed both marriage and parenthood in recent decades, less-educated women have postponed marriage more than parenthood. As a result, non-marital births have risen dramatically among less-educated women relative to highly educated women. Despite a substantial literature on the effects of education on family formation patterns among women, few studies evaluate potential heterogeneity in these effects. Women's significantly increasing level of educational attainment (Buchman and DiPrete 2006) motivates renewed and careful attention to the impact of education on family formation patterns, particularly among college-educated women who have a low likelihood of college completion. Women at the margin of college completion are those for whom the expansion of higher education exerts its greatest impact.

Bibliography Citation
Brand, Jennie E. and Dwight R. Davis. "Heterogeneous Effects of College on Family Formation Patterns among Women." Presented: Detroit, MI, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2009.
7. Brand, Jennie E.
Davis, Dwight R.
The Impact of College Education on Fertility: Evidence for Heterogeneous Effects
Demography 48,3 (August 2011): 863-887.
Also: http://www.springerlink.com/content/x126m21k85706456/
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): College Education; Fertility; Heterogeneity

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

As college-going among women has increased, more women are going to college from backgrounds that previously would have precluded their attendance and completion. This affords us the opportunity and motivation to look at the effects of college on fertility across a range of social backgrounds and levels of early achievement. Despite a substantial literature on the effects of education on women's fertility, researchers have not assessed variation in effects by selection into college. With data on U.S. women from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we examine effects of timely college attendance and completion on women's fertility by the propensity to attend and complete college using multilevel Poisson and discrete-time event-history models. Disaggregating the effects of college by propensity score strata, we find that the fertility-decreasing college effect is concentrated among women from comparatively disadvantaged social backgrounds and low levels of early achievement. The effects of college on fertility attenuate as we observe women from backgrounds that are more predictive of college attendance and completion.
Bibliography Citation
Brand, Jennie E. and Dwight R. Davis. "The Impact of College Education on Fertility: Evidence for Heterogeneous Effects." Demography 48,3 (August 2011): 863-887.
8. Brand, Jennie E.
Moore, Ravaris L.
Song, Xi
Xie, Yu
Parental Divorce is not Uniformly Disruptive to Children's Educational Attainment
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) 116,15 (9 April 2019): 7266-7271.
Also: https://www.pnas.org/content/116/15/7266
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: National Academy of Sciences (NAS), United States
Keyword(s): Disadvantaged, Economically; Divorce; Educational Attainment; Family Income; Parental Influences; Parental Marital Status

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

While parental divorce is generally associated with unfavorable outcomes for children, it does not follow that every divorce is equally bad for the children it affected. We find that parental divorce lowers the educational attainment of children who have a low likelihood of their parents' divorcing. For these children, divorce is an unexpected shock to an otherwise-privileged childhood. However, we find no impact of parents' divorcing on the education of children who have a high likelihood of a divorce occurring. Disadvantaged children of high-risk marriages may anticipate or otherwise accommodate to the dissolution of their parents' marriage. Social discourse and policy aimed at promoting marital stability among disadvantaged families, for whom unfortunate events are common, are misguided.
Bibliography Citation
Brand, Jennie E., Ravaris L. Moore, Xi Song and Yu Xie. "Parental Divorce is not Uniformly Disruptive to Children's Educational Attainment." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) 116,15 (9 April 2019): 7266-7271.
9. Brand, Jennie E.
Moore, Ravaris L.
Song, Xi
Xie, Yu
Why Does Parental Divorce Lower Children's Educational Attainment? A Causal Mediation Analysis
Sociological Science published online (16 April 2019): DOI: 10.15195/v6.a11.
Also: https://www.sociologicalscience.com/articles-v6-11-264/
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Sociological Science
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Cognitive Ability; Depression (see also CESD); Divorce; Educational Attainment; Family Income; Parental Influences; Parental Marital Status; Pearlin Mastery Scale; Personality/Big Five Factor Model or Traits; Racial Differences; Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) (see Self-Esteem)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Mechanisms explaining the negative effects of parental divorce on children's attainment have long been conjectured and assessed. Yet few studies of parental divorce have carefully attended to the assumptions and methods necessary to estimate causal mediation effects. Applying a causal framework to linked U.S. panel data, we assess the degree to which parental divorce limits children's education among whites and nonwhites and whether observed lower levels of educational attainment are explained by postdivorce family conditions and children's skills. Our analyses yield three key findings. First, the negative effect of divorce on educational attainment, particularly college, is substantial for white children; by contrast, divorce does not lower the educational attainment of nonwhite children. Second, declines in family income explain as much as one- to two-thirds of the negative effect of parental divorce on white children's education. Family instability also helps explain the effect, particularly when divorce occurs in early childhood. Children's psychosocial skills explain about one-fifth of the effect, whereas children's cognitive skills play a minimal role. Third, among nonwhites, the minimal total effect on education is explained by the offsetting influence of postdivorce declines in family income and stability alongside increases in children's psychosocial and cognitive skills.
Bibliography Citation
Brand, Jennie E., Ravaris L. Moore, Xi Song and Yu Xie. "Why Does Parental Divorce Lower Children's Educational Attainment? A Causal Mediation Analysis." Sociological Science published online (16 April 2019): DOI: 10.15195/v6.a11.
10. Brand, Jennie E.
Simon Thomas, Juli
Causal Effect Heterogeneity
In: Handbook of Causal Analysis for Social Research. S. Morgan, ed., New York: Springer, 2013: 189-213
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Springer
Keyword(s): College Education; Education; Heterogeneity; Propensity Scores; Volunteer Work

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Individuals differ not only in background characteristics, often called “pretreatment heterogeneity,” but also in how they respond to a particular treatment, event, or intervention. A principal interaction of interest for questions of selection into treatment and causal inference in the social sciences is between the treatment and the propensity of treatment. Although the importance of “treatment-effect heterogeneity,” so defined, has been widely recognized in the causal inference literature, empirical quantitative social science research has not fully absorbed these lessons. In this chapter, we describe key estimation strategies for the study of heterogeneous treatment effects; we discuss recent research that attends to causal effect heterogeneity, with a focus on the study of effects of education, and what we gain from such attention; and we demonstrate the methods with an example of the effects of college on civic participation. The primary goal of this chapter is to encourage researchers to routinely examine treatment-effect heterogeneity with the same rigor they devote to pretreatment heterogeneity. [Chapter 11]
Bibliography Citation
Brand, Jennie E. and Juli Simon Thomas. "Causal Effect Heterogeneity" In: Handbook of Causal Analysis for Social Research. S. Morgan, ed., New York: Springer, 2013: 189-213
11. Brand, Jennie E.
Simon Thomas, Juli
Job Displacement among Single Mothers: Effects on Children’s Outcomes in Young Adulthood
American Journal of Sociology 119,4 (January 2014): 955-1001.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/675409
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Keyword(s): CESD (Depression Scale); Depression (see also CESD); Educational Attainment; Job Patterns; Job Turnover; Layoffs; Maternal Employment; Parental Influences; Parents, Single; Rotter Scale (see Locus of Control); Unemployment; Well-Being

Given the recent era of economic upheaval, studying the effects of job displacement has seldom been so timely and consequential. Despite a large literature associating displacement with worker well-being, relatively few studies focus on the effects of parental displacement on child well-being, and fewer still focus on implications for children of single-parent households. Moreover, notwithstanding a large literature on the relationship between single motherhood and children’s outcomes, research on intergenerational effects of involuntary employment separations among single mothers is limited. Using 30 years of nationally representative panel data and propensity score matching methods, the authors find significant negative effects of job displacement among single mothers on children’s educational attainment and social-psychological well-being in young adulthood. Effects are concentrated among older children and children whose mothers had a low likelihood of displacement, suggesting an important role for social stigma and relative deprivation in the effects of socioeconomic shocks on child well-being.
Bibliography Citation
Brand, Jennie E. and Juli Simon Thomas. "Job Displacement among Single Mothers: Effects on Children’s Outcomes in Young Adulthood." American Journal of Sociology 119,4 (January 2014): 955-1001.
12. Brand, Jennie E.
Simon Thomas, Juli
Premarital Cohabitation and Marital Quality: A Reassessment
Presented: Washington, DC, Population Association of America Annual Meetings, March 31-April 2, 2011
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Cohabitation; Family Structure; Marital Satisfaction/Quality; Marital Status; Propensity Scores

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Prior research has established a relationship between premarital cohabitation and subsequent marital outcomes, with cohabitors generally reporting lower marital quality. Using preliminary data from the NLSY97 and borrowing heavily from the strengths of propensity scores, we employ a novel method for concurrently examining the impact of two perspectives (social selection and experience of cohabitation) commonly used to explain the negative relationship outcomes cohabitors experience. Results reveal that the experience of cohabitation is negatively related to marital quality but only when selection factors are not included in the model. We find (preliminary) support for the social selection perspective, thereby supporting prior work. Procedures for estimating the full model are then articulated. This paper, then, makes several contributions, the primary being the ability to model selection into the experience of cohabitation in the same model. These results serve to underscore the complex pathways between union formation, family structure, and marital outcomes.
Bibliography Citation
Brand, Jennie E. and Juli Simon Thomas. "Premarital Cohabitation and Marital Quality: A Reassessment." Presented: Washington, DC, Population Association of America Annual Meetings, March 31-April 2, 2011.
13. Brand, Jennie E.
Simon Thomas, Juli
The Effects of Parental Job Displacement on Children's Socioeconomic and Social-Psychological Outcomes
Presented: Washington, DC, Population Association of America Annual Meetings, March 31-April 2, 2011
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Children, Home Environment; Displaced Workers; Family Circumstances, Changes in; Health Factors; Health, Mental/Psychological; Marital Disruption; Maternal Employment; Parental Influences; Socioeconomic Factors

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The effects of parental job displacement on the lives of American children have seldom been more relevant than in the current era of massive economic upheaval. Despite a large body of research associating job displacement with subsequent non-employment, earnings losses, job quality declines, poor physical and mental health, family disruption, and social withdrawal, the effects of parental job displacement on children's well-being is scarce. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY), we examine the effects of parental job displacement on children's subsequent socioeconomic and social-psychological outcomes.
Bibliography Citation
Brand, Jennie E. and Juli Simon Thomas. "The Effects of Parental Job Displacement on Children's Socioeconomic and Social-Psychological Outcomes." Presented: Washington, DC, Population Association of America Annual Meetings, March 31-April 2, 2011.
14. Brand, Jennie E.
Xie, Yu
Who Benefits Most from College? Evidence for Negative Selection in Heterogeneous Economic Returns to Higher Education
American Sociological Review 75,2 (April 2010): 273-302.
Also: http://asr.sagepub.com/content/75/2/273.abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): College Education; Earnings; Educational Returns; Gender Differences; Life Course; Propensity Scores; Wisconsin Longitudinal Study/H.S. Panel Study (WLS)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

In this article, we consider how the economic return to a college education varies across members of the U.S. population. Based on principles of comparative advantage, scholars commonly presume that positive selection is at work, that is, individuals who are most likely to select into college also benefit most from college. Net of observed economic and noneconomic factors influencing college attendance, we conjecture that individuals who are least likely to obtain a college education benefit the most from college. We call this theory the negative selection hypothesis. To adjudicate between the two hypotheses, we study the effects of completing college on earnings by propensity score strata using an innovative hierarchical linear model with data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. For both cohorts, for both men and women, and for every observed stage of the life course, we find evidence suggesting negative selection. Results from auxiliary analyses lend further support to the negative selection hypothesis.
Bibliography Citation
Brand, Jennie E. and Yu Xie. "Who Benefits Most from College? Evidence for Negative Selection in Heterogeneous Economic Returns to Higher Education." American Sociological Review 75,2 (April 2010): 273-302.
15. Brand, Jennie E.
Xie, Yu
Moore, Ravaris L.
Effects of Parental Divorce on Children's Psychosocial Skills
Presented: Boston MA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2014
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Age at First Intercourse; Depression (see also CESD); Divorce; Educational Outcomes; Parental Influences; Parental Marital Status; Pearlin Mastery Scale; Social Emotional Development

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

A large literature suggests parental divorce leads to worse educational and socioeconomic outcomes among children. A recent study by Kim (2011) highlights the role of parental divorce in the development of children's cognitive and noncognitive skills. However, we contend that the development literature points to important asymmetry between these skills. While cognitive skills stabilize relatively early in childhood, psychosocial skills evolve and change through young childhood, thus allowing family environments to play a sizeable role in shaping psychosocial skills. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and the National Longitudinal Survey's Child-Mother file (NLSCM), we assess the effects of parental divorce on children's psychosocial skills. We also evaluate the degree to which psychosocial skills mediate the relationship between parental divorce and children's educational outcomes.
Bibliography Citation
Brand, Jennie E., Yu Xie and Ravaris L. Moore. "Effects of Parental Divorce on Children's Psychosocial Skills." Presented: Boston MA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2014.
16. Brand, Jennie E.
Xu, Jiahui
Koch, Bernard
Geraldo, Pablo
Uncovering Sociological Effect Heterogeneity Using Tree-Based Machine Learning
Sociological Methodology published online (4 March 2021): DOI: 10.1177/0081175021993503.
Also: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0081175021993503
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Educational Attainment; Heterogeneity; Methods/Methodology; Wages

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Individuals do not respond uniformly to treatments, such as events or interventions. Sociologists routinely partition samples into subgroups to explore how the effects of treatments vary by selected covariates, such as race and gender, on the basis of theoretical priors. Data-driven discoveries are also routine, yet the analyses by which sociologists typically go about them are often problematic and seldom move us beyond our biases to explore new meaningful subgroups. Emerging machine learning methods based on decision trees allow researchers to explore sources of variation that they may not have previously considered or envisaged. In this article, the authors use tree-based machine learning, that is, causal trees, to recursively partition the sample to uncover sources of effect heterogeneity. Assessing a central topic in social inequality, college effects on wages, the authors compare what is learned from covariate and propensity score–based partitioning approaches with recursive partitioning based on causal trees. Decision trees, although superseded by forests for estimation, can be used to uncover subpopulations responsive to treatments. Using observational data, the authors expand on the existing causal tree literature by applying leaf-specific effect estimation strategies to adjust for observed confounding, including inverse propensity weighting, nearest neighbor matching, and doubly robust causal forests. We also assess localized balance metrics and sensitivity analyses to address the possibility of differential imbalance and unobserved confounding. The authors encourage researchers to follow similar data exploration practices in their work on variation in sociological effects and offer a straightforward framework by which to do so.
Bibliography Citation
Brand, Jennie E., Jiahui Xu, Bernard Koch and Pablo Geraldo. "Uncovering Sociological Effect Heterogeneity Using Tree-Based Machine Learning." Sociological Methodology published online (4 March 2021): DOI: 10.1177/0081175021993503.
17. Callendar, Danielle
Brand, Jennie E.
Effects of Elite College Attendance on Job Quality
Presented: Chicago IL, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2015
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Benefits, Fringe; College Characteristics; Colleges; Educational Returns; Job Characteristics

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Each year, students and their families invest considerable resources in an effort to attend America's elite colleges and universities, under the assumption that they will enjoy substantial labor market returns. The literature on the economic benefits of attending an elite college has generally yielded mixed evidence, yet the most rigorous studies suggest little impact. Other properties of jobs that signal quality, such as job benefits, authority, and autonomy, however, have received less attention. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), we find that attending an elite college does increase the likelihood of having job authority, flexible hours, possibility for promotion, and on the job training or education. Attending an elite college decreases the likelihood of having a job that provides medical insurance, pension or retirement plans, and not having a boss. Moreover, the effect of attending an elite college generally does not decrease over the career, indicating that college selectivity remains salient even as workers gain more experience. We also find evidence of heterogeneity in the returns to elite college attendance. Those who had a low probability of attendance received smaller returns to job quality than those who did attend.
Bibliography Citation
Callendar, Danielle and Jennie E. Brand. "Effects of Elite College Attendance on Job Quality." Presented: Chicago IL, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2015.
18. Cheng, Siwei
Brand, Jennie E.
Zhou, Xiang
Xie, Yu
Who Benefits First? Whose Benefits Last? Economic Returns on College Over the Life Cycle
Presented: Denver CO, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2018
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): College Degree; Earnings; Educational Returns; Life Cycle Research; Propensity Scores

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Most prior research on the college premium focuses on earnings at a certain age or averaged across the lifetime. We believe, however, that there are three important reasons for considering these college returns as varying over the life cycle. First, the economic benefits of college may emerge slowly rather than instantaneously over the career, therefore, college may be associated with a higher initial earnings as well as faster earnings growth rate. Second, individuals with varying propensity of attending college may also reap the returns to college at different life stages, which leads to the heterogeneity in the college premium across the propensity spectrum. Third, the life cycle variations in college premium may further depend on family and personal characteristics. Applying propensity-score based methods to data from NLSY79, our preliminary findings show that these three arguments are supported by empirical evidence in the United States.
Bibliography Citation
Cheng, Siwei, Jennie E. Brand, Xiang Zhou and Yu Xie. "Who Benefits First? Whose Benefits Last? Economic Returns on College Over the Life Cycle." Presented: Denver CO, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2018.
19. Cheng, Siwei
Brand, Jennie E.
Zhou, Xiang
Xie, Yu
Hout, Michael
Heterogeneous Returns to College over the Life Course
Science Advances 7,51 (15 December 2021): DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abg7641.
Also: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abg7641
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Science
Keyword(s): College Graduates; High School Completion/Graduates; Modeling, Growth Curve/Latent Trajectory Analysis; Propensity Scores; Wages

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

College graduates earn higher wages than high school graduates by age 30. Among women, the advantages of a college degree decline somewhat as they age, although they are still substantial at age 50; for men, the advantage of a college degree grows throughout the life cycle. Most previous research on returns to higher education has focused on income at a single point in time or averaged over multiple years; our contribution is to study how returns vary by age. We also document how these patterns vary by the propensity of graduating from college. We find modest wage returns for mid-propensity college graduates, but large returns for low-propensity and, for men, high-propensity college graduates. Our results rely on propensity score-based matching combined with multilevel growth curve models applied to data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort.
Bibliography Citation
Cheng, Siwei, Jennie E. Brand, Xiang Zhou, Yu Xie and Michael Hout. "Heterogeneous Returns to College over the Life Course." Science Advances 7,51 (15 December 2021): DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abg7641.
20. Lundberg, Ian
Brand, Jennie E.
The Influence of Family Income on College Completion: Discovering the Nonlinear and Heterogeneous Effects of a Continuous Treatment
Presented: Atlanta GA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2022
Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): College Education; Family Income; Family Influences

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Bibliography Citation
Lundberg, Ian and Jennie E. Brand. "The Influence of Family Income on College Completion: Discovering the Nonlinear and Heterogeneous Effects of a Continuous Treatment." Presented: Atlanta GA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2022.
21. Musick, Kelly
Brand, Jennie E.
Davis, Dwight R.
How College Shapes Union Formation Processes
Presented: Dallas, TX, Population Association of America Meetings, April 2010
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Cohabitation; College Education; Educational Aspirations/Expectations; Educational Returns; Marriage; Socioeconomic Background; Socioeconomic Status (SES)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Recent work by Brand and colleagues demonstrates variation in the effects of education on economic returns to schooling (Brand and Xie Forthcoming) and fertility (Brand and Davis 2009). College has a greater (positive) effect on economic outcomes and a more deterring effect on fertility among those least likely to attend and complete their degrees, i.e., among those with the fewest socioeconomic advantages. We extend recent lines of inquiry into differential college effects and ask how they apply to union formation. Using data from the 1979 NLSY, we find that college effects are strongest in encouraging marriage and discouraging cohabitation among socially advantaged men and women with the highest propensity to attend college (cohabitation differences statistically significant for men only). These results question an “affordability” model of marriage positing the largest effects of college where the economic gains are greatest. The implications of our results for the changing meaning of marriage and cohabitation are discussed.
Bibliography Citation
Musick, Kelly, Jennie E. Brand and Dwight R. Davis. "How College Shapes Union Formation Processes." Presented: Dallas, TX, Population Association of America Meetings, April 2010.
22. Musick, Kelly
Brand, Jennie E.
Davis, Dwight R.
Variation in the Relationship Between Education and Marriage: Marriage Market Mismatch?
Journal of Marriage and Family 74,1 (February 2012): 53-69.
Also: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2011.00879.x/abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing, Inc. => Wiley Online
Keyword(s): College Education; College Enrollment; Marriage; Propensity Scores; Socioeconomic Background; Socioeconomic Status (SES)

Educational expansion has led to greater diversity in the social backgrounds of college students. We ask how schooling interacts with this diversity to influence marriage formation among men and women. Relying on data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N =3,208), we use a propensity score approach to group men and women into social strata and multilevel event history models to test differences in the effects of college attendance across strata. We find a statistically significant, positive trend in the effects of college attendance across strata, with the largest effects of college on first marriage among the more advantaged and the smallest—indeed, negative—effects among the least advantaged men and women. These findings appear consistent with a mismatch in the marriage market between individuals’ education and their social backgrounds.
Bibliography Citation
Musick, Kelly, Jennie E. Brand and Dwight R. Davis. "Variation in the Relationship Between Education and Marriage: Marriage Market Mismatch?" Journal of Marriage and Family 74,1 (February 2012): 53-69.
23. Villalobos, Amber
Brand, Jennie E.
Does College Prevent Single Parenthood, and for Whom?
Presented: New York NY, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2019
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): College Degree; Disadvantaged, Economically; Parents, Single; Propensity Scores

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to form single parent families, and single parent family status is associated with a range of disadvantaged life outcomes. Although educational attainment is a channel through which disadvantage can be circumvented, previous research has found heterogeneous effects of college completion such that students who are less likely to complete college experience greater benefits of college. In this study, we examine the differential effects of college completion on becoming a single parent. Using data from National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979 (NLSY79), we apply propensity score and machine-learning models to determine which subpopulations experience the largest effects. We find large negative effects of college completion on ever being a single parent and the proportion of time spent as a single parent for students with a low propensity to complete college. Students on the margin are thus those for whom college significantly circumvents family disadvantage.
Bibliography Citation
Villalobos, Amber and Jennie E. Brand. "Does College Prevent Single Parenthood, and for Whom?" Presented: New York NY, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2019.
24. Villalobos, Amber
Brand, Jennie E.
The Differential Impact of College on Becoming a Single Parent
Presented: Austin TX, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2019
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): College Degree; Marital Status; Parents, Single

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Previous research has found heterogeneity in the effects of college completion on family formation patterns. However, scholars have not yet examined heterogeneity in the joint effect of college on fertility and marital status via single parenthood--an important predictor of inequality. Using data from National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979 (NLSY79), we ask how the effect of college on single parenthood differs across the college-going population using both theoretically-driven propensity score and covariate-stratified models and data-driven machine-learning models based on causal trees. We find large negative effects of college completion on ever being a single parent and the proportion of time spent as a single parent for students with a low propensity to complete college. We also uncover particular disadvantaged subpopulations for whom college circumvents single parenthood. In general, students on the margins are thus those for whom college significantly circumvents family disadvantage.
Bibliography Citation
Villalobos, Amber and Jennie E. Brand. "The Differential Impact of College on Becoming a Single Parent." Presented: Austin TX, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2019.
25. Xie, Yu
Brand, Jennie E.
Jann, Ben
Estimating Heterogeneous Treatment Effects with Observational Data
Sociological Methodology 42,1 (August 2012): 314-347.
Also: http://smx.sagepub.com/content/42/1/314.abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): College Enrollment; Fertility; Heterogeneity; Modeling; Propensity Scores

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Individuals differ not only in their background characteristics but also in how they respond to a particular treatment, intervention, or stimulation. In particular, treatment effects may vary systematically by the propensity for treatment. In this paper, we discuss a practical approach to studying heterogeneous treatment effects as a function of the treatment propensity, under the same assumption commonly underlying regression analysis: ignorability. We describe one parametric method and two nonparametric methods for estimating interactions between treatment and the propensity for treatment. For the first method, we begin by estimating propensity scores for the probability of treatment given a set of observed covariates for each unit and construct balanced propensity score strata; we then estimate propensity score stratum-specific average treatment effects and evaluate a trend across them. For the second method, we match control units to treated units based on the propensity score and transform the data into treatment-control comparisons at the most elementary level at which such comparisons can be constructed; we then estimate treatment effects as a function of the propensity score by fitting a nonparametric model as a smoothing device. For the third method, we first estimate nonparametric regressions of the outcome variable as a function of the propensity score separately for treated units and for control units and then take the difference between the two nonparametric regressions. We illustrate the application of these methods with an empirical example of the effects of college attendance on women’s fertility.
Bibliography Citation
Xie, Yu, Jennie E. Brand and Ben Jann. "Estimating Heterogeneous Treatment Effects with Observational Data." Sociological Methodology 42,1 (August 2012): 314-347.