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Source: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Resulting in 18 citations.
1. Adams, Arvil Van
Mangum, Stephen L.
Wirtz, Philip W.
Human Capital Development through Postschool Education and Training: A Model of Men's Participation
Presented: Washington, DC, Association of Public Analysis and Management Meeting, October 1981
Cohort(s): Young Men
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Continuing Education; Human Capital Theory; Job Training; Life Cycle Research

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

This is an examination of the economic and social forces influencing participation in various forms of postschool education and training. The study focuses on early human capital development and its influence on the cost and incentives for subsequent development in the adult working years. The results point to the cumulative nature of knowledge and skill development over the lifecycle with some important implications for efforts to reduce economic and social inequalities for blacks and whites.
Bibliography Citation
Adams, Arvil Van, Stephen L. Mangum and Philip W. Wirtz. "Human Capital Development through Postschool Education and Training: A Model of Men's Participation." Presented: Washington, DC, Association of Public Analysis and Management Meeting, October 1981.
2. Bilaver, Lucy
The Causal Effect of Family Income on Childhood Obesity: A Fixed-Effect, Instrumental Variable Approach
Presented: Boston, MA, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Research Conference, Thirty-second Annual, 4-6 November, 2010.
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Child Growth; Children, Poverty; Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC); Family Income; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Obesity; Variables, Instrumental; Wages

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

Recent evidence revealed negative income gradients in childhood obesity. While the association between family income and childhood obesity suggests that income transfers to the poor may lower obesity prevalence, there is no empirical evidence that the relationship is causal. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether family income has a causal effect on childhood obesity in a large sample of children measured every other year between 1986-2006. I employ a fixed-effects instrumental variable design first used by Dahl and Lochner (2005). The instrument is based on variation introduced by changes in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). I construct an instrument by assuming that the effect of certain maternal characteristics on childhood obesity remain constant over time and that any narrowing of childhood obesity rates across subgroups are due to changes in income stemming from the EITC expansions and economic returns to baseline characteristics. The instrumental variable estimator yields a causal effect of family income on childhood obesity that is both robust to threats against omitted variable bias and to attenuation bias due to measurement error. I apply this strategy to the data on the children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) 1979. The sample includes up to 11 interviews with all children born to women in the original NLSY 79 sample. This sample was representative of U.S. children ages 14-22 in 1979. The current analysis includes over 9,000 children with at least one measurement of height and weight over the age of 2. Overall, the prevalence of obesity in this sample increased from approximately 9% in 1986 to over 20% in 2006. I find that a $10,000 increase in family income implies a nearly 6 point decrease in a child's position on the BMI percentile distribution. I also find that a $10,000 increase in family income implies a 5 percent decline in the probability of being =95th percentile (obese). Relative to the national childhood obesi ty prevalence of 17 percent, the results suggest the impact of the EITC expansions on childhood obesity were substantial. If the expansions of the EITC had not occurred, the prevalence of childhood obesity would be 1.5 percentage points higher than it is today. The evidence from this analysis shows that family income does have a causal effect on childhood obesity. The observed relationship of decreasing prevalence of obesity with increased family income withstands rigorous controls for time-constant and time-varying unobserved characteristics
Bibliography Citation
Bilaver, Lucy. "The Causal Effect of Family Income on Childhood Obesity: A Fixed-Effect, Instrumental Variable Approach." Presented: Boston, MA, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Research Conference, Thirty-second Annual, 4-6 November, 2010.
3. Chou, Shin-Yi
Rashad, Inas
Grossman, Michael
Fast Food Advertising on Television and Its Influence on Childhood Obesity
Presented: Atlanta, GA, Twenty-Sixth Annual APPAM Research Conference, "Creating and Using Evidence in Public Policy Analysis and Management", October 2004
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY97
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Child Health; Nutritional Status/Nutrition/Consumption Behaviors; Obesity; Television Viewing; Weight

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

Childhood obesity around the world, and particularly in the United States, is an escalating problem that is especially detrimental as its effects carry on into adulthood. Finding the causes for childhood obesity is key in its prevention. In this paper we employ two panel data sets, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, and the Mother-Child National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, to estimate the effects of fast food advertising on overweight in children and adolescents....Limiting fast food advertising on television might be drastic, but knowing what effect it has on childhood obesity in the first place is an important step in knowing what could be done to prevent it. The Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, pressed by ACT (Action for Children's Television) in the past has made attempts to limit commercials during hours of children's programming yet faced angry opposition by candy, cereal, toy, and advertising industries (Krasnow et al. 1982). Parental control might thus be more effective. Preliminary results in this paper show that fast food advertising can possibly affect children's and adolescents' body mass indexes and probabilities of being overweight, particularly for adolescent females.
Bibliography Citation
Chou, Shin-Yi, Inas Rashad and Michael Grossman. "Fast Food Advertising on Television and Its Influence on Childhood Obesity." Presented: Atlanta, GA, Twenty-Sixth Annual APPAM Research Conference, "Creating and Using Evidence in Public Policy Analysis and Management", October 2004.
4. Cruz, Vanessa
Educational Attainment: The Fence First and Second Generation Immigrant Youth Straddle
Presented: Los Angeles, CA, Association of Public Policy Management (APPAM) Research Conference, November 6-8, 2008
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Educational Attainment; Immigrants; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Parental Influences; Social Environment; Socioeconomic Background; Undergraduate Research

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

One out of every five U.S. grow up in immigrant families (Green et al., 2008). By 2040, one in three children will grow up in a household with at least one foreign born parent (Suarez-Orozco et al., 2008). Perreira and colleagues found that first generation students are more likely to drop out of high school at thirteen percent than any of their U.S.-born peers (2006). A Pew Hispanic Report in 2002 found thirty-seven percent of Caucasian American high school graduates between the ages of 25-29 years old have received a bachelor's degree, and that holds for twenty-one percent of African American high school graduates. Among second generation Latinos, more than 10 percent have an associate's degree but only 16 percent have a bachelor's degree. Due to these growing disparities, scholars have established the immigrant optimism and defeatist theories to explain for the success of foreign-born youth in contrast to the lower educational attainment U.S.-born peers. However, this longitudinal study argues against these theories because there are more statistically significant variables that surpass immigrant attitude theories. Therefore, the author asks how strongly do poverty levels, English spoken in home and parental classroom involvement impact the youth's educational attainment? Based on a sample size of 4,384 from participants in the NLSY97 (1997-2005) the author more generally asks how does educational attainment differ based on generation status?
Bibliography Citation
Cruz, Vanessa. "Educational Attainment: The Fence First and Second Generation Immigrant Youth Straddle." Presented: Los Angeles, CA, Association of Public Policy Management (APPAM) Research Conference, November 6-8, 2008.
5. Davis, Mary E.
Hoyt, Eric
The Effect of Performance Pay on US Workers' Physical and Emotional Health
Presented: Washington DC, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Fall Research Conference, November 2018
Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY97
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Health, Mental/Psychological; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Modeling, Random Effects; Performance pay

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

The unintended consequences of performance pay on worker health and well-being is becoming increasingly relevant with the growth of the on-demand service sector in the US, also known as the gig economy. Workers in this industry are rewarded for effort during periods of peak demand, which often occur on a part-time, irregular, and/or night schedule, all of which have also been linked to negative worker health outcomes. As this sector continues to grow, it is important to understand and anticipate the effects of wage and work structure on the health and well-being of the US workforce, evidence that will ideally be used support effective policy mechanisms and controls to protect workers.

This paper explores these hypotheses using data from the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and 1997 cohorts. The NLSY79 dataset follows a cohort of approximately 10,000 respondents born between 1957 and 1964, with data available in survey waves from 1979 to 2014; while the NLSY97 follows another cohort of nearly 9,000 respondents born between 1980 and 1984, with data available between 1997 and 2015. A random effects logit model is used to track and identify individual health outcomes as workers in these cohorts move in and out of performance pay, isolating the impact over time and testing for cumulative effects. The results identify a statistically significant link between performance pay and poor worker health, effects that are attenuated for susceptible sub-groups of workers, including female, minority, and low-income workers.

Bibliography Citation
Davis, Mary E. and Eric Hoyt. "The Effect of Performance Pay on US Workers' Physical and Emotional Health." Presented: Washington DC, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Fall Research Conference, November 2018.
6. Garasky, Steven
Exploring the Effects of Personal Perceptions and Expectations on Teenage Employment
Presented: Pittsburgh, PA, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Eighteenth Annual Research Conference, October 1996
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Educational Attainment; Employment, Youth; Endogeneity; Gender Differences; Geocoded Data; Self-Perception; Teenagers

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

Few studies have focused on what motivates some teenagers to work and not others. This study of teenage employment seeks to understand the effects of personal perceptions and future expectations on work status and work intensity. Data are from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) Geocode file. The analyses utilize an instrumental variable estimation methodology given the endogeneity between employment and these characteristics of interest. Personal perceptions and expectations affect a teen's work status more than work intensity. Teens with higher expectations of their ability to achieve their occupational aspiration are more likely to be working; Teens with higher expectations of educational attainment are less likely to be working. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, the effects of personal perceptions and expectations on teen employment are found to vary by both the age and the gender of the individual.
Bibliography Citation
Garasky, Steven. "Exploring the Effects of Personal Perceptions and Expectations on Teenage Employment." Presented: Pittsburgh, PA, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Eighteenth Annual Research Conference, October 1996.
7. Gershenson, Seth
Holt, Stephen B.
Wang, Rui
The Impact of Consequential Accountability Policies on Teachers' Mental Health
Presented: Washington DC, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Fall Research Conference, November 2018
Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY97
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Geocoded Data; Health, Mental/Psychological; Occupations; State-Level Data/Policy; Teachers/Faculty

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

Teachers' mental health is an important, understudied teacher characteristic as it likely affects teacher effectiveness, engagement, and retention in the profession. In this paper, we study the impacts of accountability policies on K-12 teachers' mental health using nationally representative longitudinal survey data. We do so in two ways. First, we exploit state-level variation in the adoption of high-stakes accountability policies in the 1990s. Specifically, we follow Hanushek and Raymond (2005) in using a difference-in-differences (DD) strategy that compares the mental health of teachers in states that did adopt a high-stakes accountability policy to those that did not, before and after the policies were adopted. We also leverage a triple-difference (DDD) design that uses non-teachers in treatment and control states as an additional control group. Second, we exploit the enactment of No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001, which required states to adopt stringent accountability policies. The NCLB Act primarily affected states that had lax pre-existing accountability policies in place. Here, we implement the DD strategy developed by Dee and Jacob (2011) to examine the causal impacts of NCLB on teachers' mental health by considering teachers in states with pre-existing NCLB-type accountability policies as the control group. Both analyses use data from the nationally representative National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY) 1979 and 1997 cohorts, which provides various measures of individuals' mental health from teenage years through adulthood. This data has previously been used to study teacher labor markets, as it includes occupation codes, and the NLSY surveys also include demographics and socioeconomic information on both teachers and non-teachers, prior to and after entering the workforce. By tracking an individual's mental health over a long period, this paper identifies the accountability's effects on teachers' mental health and provides policy implications for future education policy and suggestions on how to better support teachers.
Bibliography Citation
Gershenson, Seth, Stephen B. Holt and Rui Wang. "The Impact of Consequential Accountability Policies on Teachers' Mental Health." Presented: Washington DC, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Fall Research Conference, November 2018.
8. Good, David H.
Pirog-Good, Maureen A.
Child Support Enforcement for Teenage Fathers: Problems and Prospects
Presented: [S.L.], Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Meetings, 1990
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Child Support; Children; Deviance; Earnings; Fathers; Fathers and Children; Labor Force Participation; Teenagers; Welfare

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

Each state administers a Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program which establishes paternities, obtains and enforces child support orders and distributes the child support collected. The treatment of teenage fathers by the CSE program varies widely across states and from jurisdiction to jurisdiction within states. Data from the NLSY indicate that about 7.4 percent of teenage males become fathers, very few live with their children, and most of the absent fathers never come into contact with the CSE program. The authors show that teen fathers who live with their children enter the labor market earlier that other teenage males to the long-run detriment of their earnings. However, the earnings of absent teen fathers are at least as high as that of teens who never become fathers and that the potential of teen fathers to contribute to the support of their children increases with time. National guidelines for the treatment of teenage fathers by the CSE program are recommended with specific recommendations concerning the early establishment of paternity and the setting of child support award amounts.
Bibliography Citation
Good, David H. and Maureen A. Pirog-Good. "Child Support Enforcement for Teenage Fathers: Problems and Prospects." Presented: [S.L.], Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Meetings, 1990.
9. Han, Wen-Jui
Nonstandard Work Schedules and Child Cognitive and Behavioral Outcomes
Presented: Atlanta, GA, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Research Conference, October 2004
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Age at Birth; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Children, Academic Development; Cognitive Ability; Cognitive Development; Maternal Employment; Mothers, Education; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Shift Workers; Welfare; Work Hours/Schedule

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

Over the past three decades, scholar Harriet Presser has documented the increasing number of people working at hours that are not between 6 am and 6 pm (e.g., they work at nonstandard schedules that are either evenings, nights, or rotating shifts). Numerous empirical studies have acknowledged the potential negative effects of working nonstandard hours on adults, psychological, physical, and sociological well-being. Such adverse impacts on individual wellbeing raise concerns about the potential impact - directly or indirectly - of mothers' nonstandard work schedules on their children's wellbeing. As of today, however, we still know very little about the relationship between parental nonstandard work schedules and child development. This paper examines the association between maternal nonstandard work schedules and child cognitive and behavioral outcomes using a contemporary national data set - National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child Supplement (NLSY-CS) - with 1,625 children who were born between 1982 and 1991 and were followed longitudinally from birth to age nine or ten and for whom assessment data are available. Particular attention is also paid to various subgroups of children (i.e., in different racial/ethnic groups, in single-mother families, in families ever received welfare, and fathers not working).The NLSY79-CS is well suited for this analysis because, in addition to collecting information on family demographic background, it also contains detailed information on maternal work schedules at every assessment point. The cognitive outcomes analyzed in this paper include Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R) at age 3 or 4, and Peabody Individual Achievement Tests (PIATs) on Math and Reading Recognition at age 5 or 6, at age 7 or 8, and at age 9 or 10. The Behavioral Problems Index (BPI) is used to measure the behavioral outcome. Additionally, to account for selection bias in estimating the effects of maternal employment, an extensive set of child, mother, and family characteristics are controlled for in the model: whether the child is male; whether the child has any older siblings; mother's cognitive capability (measured by Armed Force Qualification Test; AFQT); mother's age at birth; mother's education at birth; mother's marital status at birth; years living in a single-parent family; family income in the year before birth; and whether the family was ever in poverty up until the assessment year. The results reported will fill gaps in knowledge about child development in the context of maternal work, and the knowledge thus gained should prove useful in shaping policy responses.
Bibliography Citation
Han, Wen-Jui. "Nonstandard Work Schedules and Child Cognitive and Behavioral Outcomes." Presented: Atlanta, GA, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Research Conference, October 2004.
10. Hines, Caitlin
Ryan, Rebecca M.
Early Childhood WIC Use and Children's School Readiness
Presented: Washington DC, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Fall Research Conference, November 2018
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Children, Well-Being; Cognitive Development; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Program Participation/Evaluation; School Entry/Readiness; Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamps)

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

The goal of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is to support the health and well-being of low-income women, infants, and children by providing pregnant women and children up to five years old with access to nutritious food. While the health benefits of WIC for young children have been well studied (Cole & Fox, 2008; Mackey-Bilaver, 2007), its potential non-health benefits, including improvements in children's early cognitive and socio-emotional wellbeing, have been practically unexplored. The one study to examine non-health outcomes found that prenatal WIC exposure predicted better cognitive outcomes at age 2 and educational outcomes at age 11 (Jackson, 2015). The goal of the present study is to expand that work by examining associations between WIC during early childhood (ages 0 - 5) and a broad set of cognitive and behavioral outcomes at school entry, between ages 5 and 7.
Bibliography Citation
Hines, Caitlin and Rebecca M. Ryan. "Early Childhood WIC Use and Children's School Readiness." Presented: Washington DC, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Fall Research Conference, November 2018.
11. Jung, Haeil
Does Incarceration Impair the Subsequent Labor Market Outcomes of Men? Evidence from the NLSY79
Presented: Washington, DC, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Research Conference, November 5-9, 2009
Also: https://www.appam.org/conferences/fall/archives.asp
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Earnings; Economic Well-Being; Incarceration/Jail; Labor Force Participation; Labor Market Outcomes; Minorities, Youth; Wage Rates; Work Hours/Schedule

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

The rapid increase in incarceration rates since the mid-1970s has given rise to a debate on how incarceration affects the economic activities of ex-prisoners. While theory suggests that the effect can be either positive or negative, most previous empirical research suggests that incarceration lowers subsequent labor market outcomes of men. Some recent research, however, shows that incarceration does not hurt the post-prison earnings and employment of men. Using data from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), this paper tries to reconcile the conflicting evidence in the literature. Previous studies only use some labor market outcomes such as earnings, employment, or hourly wage. In order to fully understand the effect of incarceration on labor market outcomes, I investigate all three outcomes. I also show how using a valid comparison group for previously incarcerated men changes the estimated effect of incarceration. I improve the regression model by controlling for ever-incarceration status in order to compare previously incarcerated men with themselves prior to incarceration. This significantly changes the effect from negative to positive or null. Furthermore, I investigate whether the results I find change over time focusing on ever-incarcerated men. This paper finds that incarceration does not seem to hurt the marketable skills and employability of men. Post-incarceration earnings and average weekly work hours seem to reach pre-incarceration levels. Real hourly wage seems to increase after first incarceration. In addition, supporting these main findings, the marital status and family poverty rate before and after first incarceration indicate that the general well-being of men does not deteriorate after incarceration.
Bibliography Citation
Jung, Haeil. "Does Incarceration Impair the Subsequent Labor Market Outcomes of Men? Evidence from the NLSY79." Presented: Washington, DC, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Research Conference, November 5-9, 2009.
12. Kukla-Acevedo, Sharon
Heflin, Colleen M.
Unemployment Compensation's Effect on Early Childhood Development
Presented: Baltimore MD, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Research Conference, November 2012
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Benefits, Insurance; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Maternal Employment; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Unemployment Compensation; Unemployment Insurance

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

PURPOSE: Unemployment spells are associated with substantive long-lasting reductions in future earnings and negative mental health status outcomes. The negative effects of unemployment also extend to intergenerational transfers such that parental job displacement, especially of fathers, is correlated with children's lower annual earnings, lower educational achievement, grade retention, and high school completion. Despite ample evidence demonstrating a link between parental unemployment spells and negative child outcomes, there is very little research that explores the role of unemployment insurance (UI) in alleviating these negative intergenerational transfers.

DATA: In this study, we will analyze data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 79 (NLSY79) and Children of the NLSY79. The NLSY79 is a panel survey of 12,686 men and women who were 14-21 years old in 1978 and is designed to gather detailed data about employment, education/training, income, fertility, and family characteristics. The data are nationally representative of people living in the United States in 1978. The Children of the NLSY79 is a supplemental survey of all children born to the 6,283 women in the original sample. The supplemental survey provides data on the cognitive development of the children born to these mothers.

METHODS: We use a lagged dependent variables approach to model the relationship between early childhood cognitive scores and unemployment insurance receipt. It is possible that parental characteristics associated with employment termination and layoffs are also correlated with child cognitive outcomes. To minimize this selection bias threat, our sample includes only those families who faced an unanticipated firm closure. Our baseline models control for as many measurable characteristics as possible that might differ between short-term and long-term UI participants and be related to child outcomes. However, endogeneity is still a substantial problem because those who leave UI may be systematically different from those who experience prolonged exposure to UI in unmeasured ways that are correlated with child outcomes. To further reduce the possibility of selection bias, we use a family fixed effects model that compares siblings' outcomes when UI was received to those when UI was not received.

POLICY IMPLICATIONS: This research can inform public policy in important ways. UI has often been criticized for creating disincentives to find work. However, one very good reason for states to provide UI to displaced workers is to minimize the negative effects of unemployment spells that might be associated with reduced income levels. Currently, very little is known about the effects of parental UI receipt on children's cognitive or behavioral outcomes. This study seeks to address this area of need in the research base, given the current focus and multiple expansions of UI eligibility across the states.

Bibliography Citation
Kukla-Acevedo, Sharon and Colleen M. Heflin. "Unemployment Compensation's Effect on Early Childhood Development." Presented: Baltimore MD, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Research Conference, November 2012.
13. Lillard, Dean R.
Gerner, Jennifer L.
Does School Performance Increase when Children Enter at Younger Ages?
Presented: Washington, DC, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Research Conference, "Understanding and Informing Policy Design", 3-5 November, 2005
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Academic Development; Age at School Entry; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); School Entry/Readiness; Siblings; State-Level Data/Policy

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

We use data from the Children of the NLSY79 to investigate whether enrollment at earlier ages increases school performance. We characterize school performance using test scores from standardized ability tests administered to these children at ages 3, 6, and 9. We focus on the age at which a child first enrolled in school, recognizing that parents have some choice over this age. To estimate age of enrollment we take advantage of differences across states and over time in compulsory schooling laws that determine the age by which a child must be enrolled. Since variation in these regulations are plausibly orthogonal to the unobserved individual and family background characteristics we can use them to predict the age of school entry of a given child. Under the assumption that parents do not choose a state of residence based on these laws, we identify the policy effect of earlier enrollment on performance. A second identification strategy takes advantage of having observations on multiple children in the same family to estimate how age of school entry affects siblings who were required to enter school at different ages either by virtue of a change in the compulsory school age or because their family moved to a state with a different compulsory school age. We will estimate family and state fixed effects models. We model school performance as a function of home inputs, school inputs and three levels of instability suffered by children - at home, school, and in their neighborhood. We include these measures of instability in our model under the assumption that a childs school performance will be higher when the circumstances of their lives are relatively stable. We include circumstances of co-residence, where they are living, their parents' relationship, and mobility. Of course, the circumstances are largely chosen by parents. Although it is very interesting to consider the impact of stability on performance, to do so, we would need to model the stability itself. Since we are primarily interested in the relationship between age at school entry and subsequent school performance we want to account for as much of the heterogeneity within and across households in factors that also affect school performance. We use our measures of instability in this spirit.
Bibliography Citation
Lillard, Dean R. and Jennifer L. Gerner. "Does School Performance Increase when Children Enter at Younger Ages?" Presented: Washington, DC, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Research Conference, "Understanding and Informing Policy Design", 3-5 November, 2005.
14. Linnenbrink, Mary
Mauldin, Teresa A.
Mimura, Yoko
Vanderford, Stephanie
Income Resources of Low-Income Families with Children: Does Cohabitation Matter?
Presented: Madison, WI, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM), 28th Annual Research Conference, November 2-4, 2006.
Also: http://www.earlyeducationresearch.org/ICPSR/biblio/studies/4683/resources/70569?collection=DATA&sortBy=1&type=Conference+Proceedings&paging.startRow=26
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Cohabitation; Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC); Family Income; Family Models; Family Structure; Income Level; Marital Status; Remarriage

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

Introduction: Among low-income families with children, do income sources differ between married couples and cohabiting couples? Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NSLY79), we examined low-income families' types of income sources, both earned and unearned, and amount from each source. Background: Our previous study (presented at the APPAM 2004 meeting) addressed a similar question by comparing income between families in which all members were related by birth, marriage, or adoption and other families. Among low-income families with children, few differences were found. This study refines the approach by focusing on the legal relationship between parents. Studies show that cohabiting families' financial behavior is diverse (Winkler, 1997); however, little is known about differences in the income sources of low-income married and cohabiting families with children. Theoretical focus: According to the economic model of marriage (Bryant, 1990), individuals marry and remain married when being married is more beneficial than not being married. Thus, we assume that cohabiting couples see some sort of benefits in remaining unmarried. Data and sample: The data came from the NLSY79 2002 interview, and the sub-sample for this study includes low-income (total income no more than twice the 2001 poverty thresholds) families with children younger than 18 years of age. First, both single-parent families (n=661) and two-parent families (n=911) were selected for descriptive purposes. Then for the multivariate analyses, the latter group was further divided among first-marriage families (n=613), subsequent-marriage families (n=185), and cohabiting-couple families (n=113). Three income source categories are: earned income, Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and all other income sources, including social insurance, transfer income, child support, and other. Methodology: Using a Double-Hurdle Cragg model for each of the three income sources, we assessed how the proba bility of receiving each income source and the amount of each were different among the three groups of two-parent families. Family and respondent socio-demographic characteristics, as well as the region of residence, were controlled. Findings: The probabilities of having the three income sources were not different among the three family types. The amounts that cohabiting-couple families received from earned and "all other" income sources were significantly lower than the amounts received by first-marriage families. Policy implications: Understanding the financial resources of low-income families, particularly those that cohabit, will help policymakers design policies to best assist such families. Results: have implications for EITC and the marriage initiative in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA).
Bibliography Citation
Linnenbrink, Mary, Teresa A. Mauldin, Yoko Mimura and Stephanie Vanderford. "Income Resources of Low-Income Families with Children: Does Cohabitation Matter?" Presented: Madison, WI, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM), 28th Annual Research Conference, November 2-4, 2006.
15. London, Rebecca A.
Welfare Recipients' College Attendance and Consequences for Time-Limited Aid
Presented: Washington, DC, APPAM Annual Research Conference, 2003
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): College Education; College Graduates; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); Welfare

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

Welfare recipients' abilities to attend college while receiving aid has been severely curtailed by the TANF program, due in part to concerns about longterm education in a time-limited program. Yet, prior research indicates that college enrollment, and particularly graduation, are strong indicators of positive future outcomes. Findings from the NLSY indicate that during the pre-TANF period, 17 percent of welfare spells had some overlap with college enrollment. Among women who enroll, however, just 36 percent graduate at any point in the 20-year NLSY panel and receipt of financial aid loans is a strong predictor of graduation. Attending college while on aid is associated with up to an additional one and a half years of aid receipt. Graduation may help to ameliorate this, although women who are already enrolled in college when they begin to receive welfare are more likely to graduate than those who start college as welfare recipients.
Bibliography Citation
London, Rebecca A. "Welfare Recipients' College Attendance and Consequences for Time-Limited Aid." Presented: Washington, DC, APPAM Annual Research Conference, 2003.
16. Schmeiser, Maximilian D.
The Impact of Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on Child Obesity
Presented: Boston, MA, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Research Conference, Thirty-second Annual, 4-6 November, 2010.
Also: https://www.appam.org/conferences/fall/boston2010/sessions/panelinfo.asp?id=HEALTH-03&type=detail
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Child Growth; Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC); Family Income; Food Stamps (see Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program); Geocoded Data; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Modeling, Instrumental Variables; Obesity; State-Level Data/Policy; Weight

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

In September of 2009 participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) reached an all time high of 37.2 million persons. A significant body of research has emerged suggesting that participation in the SNAP increases the probability of being obese for adult women and has little effect on obesity for adult men; however the evidence on the effect of SNAP participation on child obesity is much more tenuous. Moreover, to date no research has adequately addresses the endogeneity between SNAP participation and weight. This paper examines the effect of long-term SNAP participation on the Body Mass Index (BMI) percentile, and probability of being overweight or obese for children ages 5 through 18 using data from the Children and Young Adults of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and an instrumental variables identification strategy that exploits exogenous variation in eligibility for the SNAP based on the labor supply response to changes in state and federal Earned Income Tax Credit programs, as well as state level variation in SNAP eligibility requirements. Doing so, SNAP participation is found to significantly reduce BMI percentile and the probability of being overweight or obese for both boys and girls ages 5 through 11 and boys ages 12 through 18. For girls ages 12 through 18, SNAP participation appears to increase BMI percentile and the probability of being overweight or obese. Therefore, the expansion of the SNAP presents one possible policy intervention for reducing the obesity prevalence among children.
Bibliography Citation
Schmeiser, Maximilian D. "The Impact of Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on Child Obesity." Presented: Boston, MA, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Research Conference, Thirty-second Annual, 4-6 November, 2010.
17. Solomon, Keisha T.
Mental Illness and College Educational Outcomes: Evidence from State Equal Coverage Laws
Presented: Washington DC, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Fall Research Conference, November 2018
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS); College Education; Dropouts; Educational Outcomes; Geocoded Data; Grade Point Average (GPA)/Grades; Health, Mental/Psychological; State-Level Data/Policy

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Previous research has established that state mental illness parity laws improve access to mental healthcare and, in turn, reduce mental illness. I extend this literature in two important ways. First, I study the effect of the state mental illness parity law implementation on mental illness among college-age individuals. Second, I examine the effect of state mental illness parity laws on human capital accumulation. Considering spill-overs to these educational outcomes is important as previous research shows that mental illness impedes college performance. Hence, reduced mental illness through state parity laws could have positive spill-over effects to educational outcomes that have not yet been documented.

I use differences-in-differences models to uncover the causal effects of state mental illness parity laws on mental illness and educational outcomes. I leverage plausibly exogenous variation in insurance coverage for mental healthcare using changes in state laws over the period 1998 to 2008. First, to study parity law effects on mental illness I utilize administrative data on completed suicides from National Vital Statistics System and survey data on reported mental illness from Behavioral Risk Factor System. Second, I use longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 Cohort to study the effects of the mental illness parity law on two important educational outcomes: drop out decisions and grade point average (GPA).

Bibliography Citation
Solomon, Keisha T. "Mental Illness and College Educational Outcomes: Evidence from State Equal Coverage Laws." Presented: Washington DC, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Fall Research Conference, November 2018.
18. Venator, Joanna
Dual-Earner Migration Patterns: The Role of Locational Compatibility within Households
Presented: Washington DC, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Fall Research Conference, November 2018
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Dual-Career Families; Geocoded Data; Migration; Mobility, Residential; Occupations

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

In this paper, I analyze how locational compatibility of married couples' occupations affect their household migration decisions. First, I use indices of occupational agglomeration to explore whether spouses in occupations concentrated in similar regions are more or less likely to move and the implications of this compatibility on their earnings post-move. This descriptive data work suggests that if spouses' careers are concentrated in similar locations or if spouses have similar preferred locations, they are more likely to both earn more and move more. I then build a structural model in which households decide whether to move as a function of occupation- location match and individual location preference shocks. I estimate the model using full information maximum likelihood with data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, with separate estimation for households with married couples and for households with individuals. Using this model, I show that migration costs vary across occupation groups, with those in occupations that are more locationally disperse having lower migration costs. I then use the parameters estimates from the married couple's model and the individual's model to show that differences in migration rates across household types is not associated with systematically different preferences for married versus single individuals, but instead due to the increased costs of moving when a household has two people's preferences to consider and the mismatch in returns to migration by occupation and location within a household.
Bibliography Citation
Venator, Joanna. "Dual-Earner Migration Patterns: The Role of Locational Compatibility within Households." Presented: Washington DC, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Fall Research Conference, November 2018.