Search Results

View Selected Citations Select and View All Search Citations

Source: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Resulting in 28 citations.

1.	Addison, John T. Cotti, Chad D. Surfield, Christopher James
1.	Atypical Work: Who Gets it, and Where Does it Lead? Some U.S. Evidence Using the NLSY79 IZA Discussion Paper No. 4444, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), October 2009 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Labor Force Participation; Work, Atypical Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Atypical work arrangements have long been criticized as offering more precarious and lower paid work than regular open-ended employment. In an important paper, Booth et al. (2002) were among the first to recognize that notwithstanding their potential deficiencies, such jobs also functioned as a stepping stone to permanent work. This conclusion proved prescient and has received increasing support in Europe. In the present note, we provide a parallel analysis to Booth et al. for the United States - somewhat of a missing link in the evolving empirical literature -and obtain not dissimilar similar findings for the category of temporary workers as do they for fixed-term contract workers.
	Bibliography Citation Addison, John T., Chad D. Cotti and Christopher James Surfield. "Atypical Work: Who Gets it, and Where Does it Lead? Some U.S. Evidence Using the NLSY79." IZA Discussion Paper No. 4444, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), October 2009.

2.	Averett, Susan L. Fletcher, Erin K.
2.	Prepregnancy Obesity and Birth Outcomes IZA Discussion Paper No. 9052, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), May 2015 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Birthweight; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Mothers; Obesity; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. We investigate the association between prepregnancy obesity and birth outcomes using fixed effect models comparing siblings from the same mother. A total of 7,496 births to 3,990 mothers from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 survey are examined. Outcomes include macrosomia, gestational length, incidence of low birthweight, preterm birth, large and small for gestational age (LGA, SGA), c-section, infant doctor visits, mother's and infant's days in hospital post-partum, whether the mother breastfed, and duration of breastfeeding. Association of income outcomes with maternal pre-pregnancy obesity was examined using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression to compare across mothers and fixed effects to compare within families. In fixed effect models we find no statistically significant association between most outcomes and prepregnancy obesity with the exception of LGA, SGA, low birth weight and preterm birth. We find that prepregnancy obesity is associated with a with lower risk of low birthweight, SGA, and preterm birth but controlling for prepregnancy obesity, increases in GWG lead to increased risk of LGA. Contrary to previous studies, which have found that maternal obesity increases the risk of c-section, macrosomia and LGA, while decreasing the probability of breastfeeding, our sibling comparison models reveal no such association. In fact, our results suggest a protective effect of obesity in that women who are obese prepregnancy have longer gestation lengths, and are less likely to give birth to a preterm or low birthweight infant.
	Bibliography Citation Averett, Susan L. and Erin K. Fletcher. "Prepregnancy Obesity and Birth Outcomes." IZA Discussion Paper No. 9052, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), May 2015.

3.	Belzil, Christian Hansen, Jörgen
3.	A Structural Analysis of the Correlated Random Coefficient Wage Regression Model IZA Discussion Paper No. 512, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), June 2002. Also: ftp://ftp.iza.org/dps/dp512.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Educational Attainment; Educational Returns; Modeling; Schooling Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. We estimate a finite mixture dynamic programming model of schooling decisions in which the log wage regression function is set in a random coefficient framework. The model allows for absolute and comparative advantages in the labor market and assumes that the population is composed of 8 unknown types. Overall, labor market skills (as opposed to taste for schooling) appear to be the prime factor explaining schooling attainments. The estimates indicate a higher cross-sectional variance in the returns to experience than in the returns to schooling. From various simulations, we find that the sub-population mostly affected by a counterfactual change in the utility of attending school is composed of individuals who have any combination of some of the following attributes: absolute advantages in the labor market, high returns to experience, low utility of attending school and relatively low returns to schooling. Unlike what is often postulated in the average treatment effect literature, the weak correlation (unconditional) between the returns to schooling and the individual reactions to treatment is not sufficient to reconcile the discrepancy between OLS and IV estimates of the returns to schooling often found in the literature.
	Bibliography Citation Belzil, Christian and Jörgen Hansen. "A Structural Analysis of the Correlated Random Coefficient Wage Regression Model." IZA Discussion Paper No. 512, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), June 2002.

4.	Belzil, Christian Hansen, Jörgen
4.	Earnings Dispersion, Risk Aversion and Education IZA Discussion Paper No. 513, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), June 2002. Also: ftp://ftp.iza.org/dps/dp513.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Educational Attainment; Educational Returns; Endogeneity; Heterogeneity; Modeling; Schooling; Wage Rates Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. We estimate a dynamic programming model of schooling decisions in which the degree of risk aversion can be inferred from schooling decisions. In our model, individuals are heterogeneous with respect to school and market abilities but homogeneous with respect to the degree of risk aversion. We allow endogenous schooling attainments to affect the level of risk experienced in labor market earnings through wage dispersion and employment rate dispersion. We find a low degree of relative risk aversion (0.9282) and the estimates indicate that both wage and employment rate dispersions decrease significantly with schooling attainments. We find that a counterfactual increase in risk aversion will increase schooling attainments. Finally, the low degree of risk aversion implies that an increase in earnings dispersion would have little effect on schooling attainments.
	Bibliography Citation Belzil, Christian and Jörgen Hansen. "Earnings Dispersion, Risk Aversion and Education." IZA Discussion Paper No. 513, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), June 2002.

5.	Belzil, Christian Hansen, Jörgen
5.	Household Characteristics, Ability and Education: Evidence from a Dynamic Expected Utility Model IZA Working Paper No. 43, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), May 1999. Also: ftp://repec.iza.org/RePEc/Discussionpaper/dp43.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Educational Attainment; Educational Returns; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Modeling; Schooling Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. We estimate a Dynamic Programming model of the decision between continuing schooling or entering the labor market using a panel from the National Longitudinal Survey (NLSY). The model, set in an expected utility framework (with a power utility function), fits data on both schooling attainments and wage very well. We find a degree of relative risk aversion much smaller than usually found in the finance literature (around 0.6) and a subjective annual discount rate between 4% and 5%. Various simulations indicate that schooling attainments are elastic with respect to the return to college education and, to a lesser extent, with respect to measured ability (Armed Forces Qualification Test scores) but inelastic with respect to household characteristics (especially household income). The "true" intergenerational correlation between schooling attainments and parents' education (after conditioning on observed and unobserved ability) is found to be quite low. Finally, our estimates of the return to schooling indicate strong returns to high school graduation and a clear evidence of a positive correlation between the utility of attending school and unobserved labor market ability (ability bias). Estimates of the return to schooling which take into account the ability bias are found to be between 25% and 30% smaller than those obtained ignoring it.
	Bibliography Citation Belzil, Christian and Jörgen Hansen. "Household Characteristics, Ability and Education: Evidence from a Dynamic Expected Utility Model." IZA Working Paper No. 43, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), May 1999.

6.	Belzil, Christian Hansen, Jörgen
6.	Subjective Discount Rates, Intergenerational Transfers and the Return to Schooling IZA Discussion Paper No. 60, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), October 1999. Also: ftp://repec.iza.org/RePEc/Discussionpaper/dp60.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Educational Attainment; Educational Returns; Human Capital; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Modeling; Schooling; Transfers, Family Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Using a dynamic programming model of schooling decisions, we investigate the relationship between subjective discount rates and the labor market ability (the discount rate bias) on a panel taken from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Given household human capital and Armed Forces Qualification test scores (AFQT), subjective discount rates, which vary between 1% and 5% per year, are found to be negatively correlated with labor market ability. The true return to schooling is estimated around 6% per year. Estimates obtained from a model where neither the ability bias nor the discount rate bias are considered indicate that one percentage point can be imputed to the correlation between the per-period utility of attending school and labor market ability. The model is used to simulate the effects of an increase in the level of human capital of one generation on both schooling attainments and labor market productivity of the next generation. We find the true intergenerational education correlation to be relatively low; an increase of 1 year in the average level of schooling will raise the level of human capital of the next generation by approximately 0.15 year of schooling and translates into a 1% productivity (wage) growth.
	Bibliography Citation Belzil, Christian and Jörgen Hansen. "Subjective Discount Rates, Intergenerational Transfers and the Return to Schooling." IZA Discussion Paper No. 60, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), October 1999.

7.	Bjorklund, Anders Ginther, Donna K. Sundstrom, Marianne
7.	Family Structure and Child Outcomes in the United States and Sweden IZA Discussion Paper No. 1259, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), August 2004. Also: http://ssrn.com/abstract=579823 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Cohabitation; Educational Attainment; Family Structure; Marriage; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID); Siblings; Sweden, Swedish Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. It is well known that children reared in non-intact families on average have less favorable educational outcomes than children reared in two-parent families. Evidence from the United States and Sweden indicates that living in a non-intact family is correlated with lower educational attainment. In this paper we compare the relationships between family structure and children's outcomes in terms of educational attainment and earnings using data from Sweden and the United States. Comparing the United States and Sweden is interesting because both family structure and public policy environments in the two countries differ significantly. Family structure could potentially have a less negative effect in Sweden than in the United States because of the extensive social safety net provided by that country. We find, however, the associations between family structure and children's outcomes to be remarkably similar in the United States and Sweden even though the policy and social environments differ between the two countries; living in a non-intact family is negatively related to child outcomes. This relationship is weakened when we control for other family characteristics, such as time lived with full and half siblings. In addition, when we use sibling difference models to take account of unobserved family characteristics, the relationship is no longer statistically significant. Taken together, our results suggest that the true effect of family structure is more complex than the biological relationship of parents to children in both Sweden and the United States.
	Bibliography Citation Bjorklund, Anders, Donna K. Ginther and Marianne Sundstrom. "Family Structure and Child Outcomes in the United States and Sweden." IZA Discussion Paper No. 1259, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), August 2004.

8.	Brunello, Giorgio Michaud, Pierre-Carl Sanz-De-Galdeano, Anna
8.	Rise in Obesity across the Atlantic: An Economic Perspective IZA Discussion Paper No. 3529, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), June 2008. Also: http://ftp.iza.org/dp3529.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY97 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Educational Attainment; European Community Household Panel (ECHP); Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Insurance, Health; Obesity; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. We provide comparable evidence on the patterns and trends in obesity across the Atlantic and analyse whether there are economic rationales for public intervention to control obesity. We take into account equity issues as well as efficiency considerations, which are organized around three categories of market failures: productive inefficiencies, lack of information or rationality and health insurance externalities. We also calculate the long term financial consequences of current US and European obesity trends, and conclude with a brief review of current policies to reduce and prevent excessive body weight both in Europe and the US.
	Bibliography Citation Brunello, Giorgio, Pierre-Carl Michaud and Anna Sanz-De-Galdeano. "Rise in Obesity across the Atlantic: An Economic Perspective." IZA Discussion Paper No. 3529, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), June 2008.

9.	Carneiro, Pedro M. Hansen, Karsten T. Heckman, James J.
9.	Removing the Veil of Ignorance in Assessing the Distributional Impacts of Social Policies IZA Discussion Paper No. 453, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), March 2002. Also: ftp://ftp.iza.org/dps/dp453.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Educational Attainment; Educational Returns; Modeling; Welfare Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This paper summarizes our recent research on evaluating the distributional consequences of social programs. This research advances the economic policy evaluation literature beyond estimating assorted mean impacts to estimate distributions of outcomes generated by different policies and determine how those policies shift persons across the distributions of potential outcomes produced by them. Our approach enables analysts to evaluate the distributional effects of social programs without invoking the "Veil of Ignorance" assumption often used in the literature in applied welfare economics. Our methods determine which persons are affected by a given policy, where they come from in the ex-ante outcome distribution and what their gains are. We apply our methods to analyze two proposed policy reforms in American education. These reforms benefit the middle class and not the poor.
	Bibliography Citation Carneiro, Pedro M., Karsten T. Hansen and James J. Heckman. "Removing the Veil of Ignorance in Assessing the Distributional Impacts of Social Policies." IZA Discussion Paper No. 453, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), March 2002.

10.

Cobb-Clark, Deborah A.

Getting Ahead: The Determinants of and Payoffs to Internal Promotion for Young U.S. Men and Women
IZA Discussion Paper No. 288, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), April 2001.
Also: ftp://repec.iza.org/RePEc/Discussionpaper/dp288.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Keyword(s): Gender Differences; Labor Market Outcomes; Wage Effects; Wage Gap; Wage Growth

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

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this paper examines the role of gender in the promotion process and the importance of promotions in the relative labor market outcomes of young men and women in their early careers. Specifically, how do the factors related to promotion differ for men and women? How do gender differences in promotion translate into differences in subsequent wage growth? To what extent does the promotions gap contribute to the gender wage gap? In answering these questions, alternative definitions of "promotion" will be considered. Copyright: IZA

Getting ahead matters - particularly for women. The results indicate that women are less likely to be promoted. This gender gap in promotions - the magnitude of which depends on the measure of promotion considered - is explained by differences in the returns to characteristics. Had men and women in our sample faced the same promotion standard, promotion rates would have been higher for women than for men. Furthermore, the share of overall wage growth attributable to promotion is much larger for women than for men reflecting a bifurcation in outcomes between women who get ahead and women who get left behind. Eliminating gender differences in the determinants of and wage payoffs to promotion would contribute to a narrowing of the gender wage gap.

This paper is also available from: Australian National University Working Paper No. 395. Australian National University - National Centre for Development Studies (NCDS). http://econpapers.hhs.se/paper/fthaunaep/395.htm

Bibliography Citation

Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. "Getting Ahead: The Determinants of and Payoffs to Internal Promotion for Young U.S. Men and Women." IZA Discussion Paper No. 288, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), April 2001.

11.	Corak, Miles Curtis, Lori Phipps, Shelley
11.	Economic Mobility, Family Background, and the Well-Being of Children in the United States and Canada IZA Discussion Paper Series No. 4814, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), March 2010. Also: http://ftp.iza.org/dp4814.pdf Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Canada, Canadian; Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY); Children, Well-Being; Cross-national Analysis; Current Population Survey (CPS) / CPS-Fertility Supplement; Family Background and Culture; Family Income; Mobility, Economic; National Survey of American Families (NSAF); Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID); The International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This comparative study of the relationship between family economic background and adult outcomes in the United States and Canada addresses three questions. First, is there something to explain? We suggest that the existing literature finds that there are significant differences in the degree of intergenerational economic mobility between these two countries, relative mobility being lower in the United States. This is the result of lower mobility at the very top and the very bottom of the earnings distribution. Second, does this reflect different underlying values of the citizens in these countries? Findings from comparable public opinion polls suggest that this is not the case. The citizens of both countries have a similar understanding of a successful life, one that is rooted in individual aspirations and freedom. They also have similar views on how these goals should be attained, but with one important exception: Americans differ in that they are more likely to see the State hindering rather than helping the attainment of these goals. Finally, how do the investments these countries make in the future of their children through the family, the labour market, and public policy actually differ? Using a number of representative household surveys we find that the configuration of all three sources of investment and support for children differs significantly, disadvantaged American children living in much more challenging circumstances, and the role of public policy not as strong in determining outcomes.
	Bibliography Citation Corak, Miles, Lori Curtis and Shelley Phipps. "Economic Mobility, Family Background, and the Well-Being of Children in the United States and Canada." IZA Discussion Paper Series No. 4814, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), March 2010.

12.	de Haan, Monique Leuven, Edwin
12.	Head Start and the Distribution of Long Term Education and Labor Market Outcomes IZA Discussion Paper No. 9915, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), April 2015. Also: http://ftp.iza.org/dp9915.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Educational Attainment; Head Start; Labor Market Outcomes; Wages Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. In this paper we investigate the effect of Head Start on long term education and labor market outcomes using data from the NLSY79. The contributions to the existing literature on the effectiveness of Head Start are threefold: (1) we are the first to examine distributional effects of Head Start on long term outcomes (2) we do not rely on quasi-experimental variation in Head Start participation but instead perform a nonparametric bounds analysis that relies on weak stochastic dominance assumptions and (3) we consider education and labor market outcomes observed for individuals in their early 30s. The results show that Head Start has a statistically significant positive effect on years of education, in particular for women, blacks and Hispanics. For wage income we also find evidence that Head Start has beneficial impacts, with effects located at the lower end of the distribution.
	Bibliography Citation de Haan, Monique and Edwin Leuven. "Head Start and the Distribution of Long Term Education and Labor Market Outcomes." IZA Discussion Paper No. 9915, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), April 2015.

13.	Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso Light, Audrey L.
13.	Interpreting Degree Effects in the Returns to Education Discussion Paper No. 4169, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) (May 2009). Also: Working Paper 20 (December 2009), China Center for Human Capital and Labor Market Research, Central University of Finance and Economics. Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): College Dropouts; College Graduates; Educational Returns; GED/General Educational Diploma/General Equivalency Degree/General Educational Development; High School Diploma; Modeling; Schooling, Post-secondary; Wage Equations Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Researchers often identify degree effects by including degree attainment (D) and years of schooling (S) in a wage model, yet the source of independent variation in these measures is not well understood. We argue that S is negatively correlated with ability among degree holders because the most able graduate the fastest, while a positive correlation exists among dropouts because the most able benefit from increased schooling. Using data from the NLSY79, we find support for this explanation, and we reject the notion that the independent variation in S and D reflects reporting error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
	Bibliography Citation Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso and Audrey L. Light. "Interpreting Degree Effects in the Returns to Education." Discussion Paper No. 4169, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) (May 2009).

14.	Hansen, Karsten T. Heckman, James J. Mullen, Kathleen J.
14.	The Effect of Schooling and Ability on Achievement Test Scores IZA Discussion Papers 826, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), July 2003. Also: ftp://repec.iza.org/RePEc/Discussionpaper/dp826.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Bayesian; Cognitive Ability; Education; Endogeneity; I.Q.; Schooling; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This paper develops two methods for estimating the effect of schooling on achievement test scores that control for the endogeneity of schooling by postulating that both schooling and test scores are generated by a common unobserved latent ability. These methods are applied to data on schooling and test scores. Estimates from the two methods are in close agreement. We find that the effects of schooling on test scores are roughly linear across schooling levels. The effects of schooling on measured test scores are slightly larger for lower latent ability levels. We find that schooling increases the AFQT score on average between 2 and 4 percentage points, roughly twice as large as the effect claimed by Herrnstein and Murray (1994) but in agreement with estimates produced by Neal and Johnson (1996) and Winship and Korenman (1997). We extend the previous literature by estimating the impact of schooling on measured test scores at various quantiles of the latent ability distribution. Also available as: NBER Working Papers 9881, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. Working Paper Series 2003:13, IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation.
	Bibliography Citation Hansen, Karsten T., James J. Heckman and Kathleen J. Mullen. "The Effect of Schooling and Ability on Achievement Test Scores." IZA Discussion Papers 826, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), July 2003.

15.	Heckman, James J.
15.	Schools, Skills, and Synapses IZA Discussion Paper No. 3515, The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), May 2008 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Child Development; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Human Capital; I.Q.; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Life Cycle Research; Parental Influences; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Pearlin Mastery Scale; Skill Formation; Skills Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Also an NBER Working Paper No. w14064, National Bureau of Economic Research, June 2008. This paper discusses (a) the role of cognitive and noncognitive ability in shaping adult outcomes, (b) the early emergence of differentials in abilities between children of advantaged families and children of disadvantaged families, (c) the role of families in creating these abilities, (d) adverse trends in American families, and (e) the effectiveness of early interventions in offsetting these trends. Practical issues in the design and implementation of early childhood programs are discussed.
	Bibliography Citation Heckman, James J. "Schools, Skills, and Synapses." IZA Discussion Paper No. 3515, The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), May 2008.

16.	Heckman, James J. LaFontaine, Paul A.
16.	The American High School Graduation Rate: Trends and Levels IZA Discussion Paper No. 3216, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), December 2007 Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY97, Young Men, Young Women Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Educational Aspirations/Expectations; GED/General Educational Diploma/General Equivalency Degree/General Educational Development; Gender Differences; High School and Beyond (HSB); High School Completion/Graduates; High School Diploma; National Education Longitudinal Survey (NELS); National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth) Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This paper uses multiple data sources and a unified methodology to estimate the trends and levels of the U.S. high school graduation rate. Correcting for important biases that plague previous calculations, we establish that (a) the true high school graduation rate is substantially lower than the official rate issued by the National Center for Educational Statistics; (b) it has been declining over the past 40 years; (c) majority/minority graduation rate differentials are substantial and have not converged over the past 35 years; (d) the decline in high school graduation rates occurs among native populations and is not solely a consequence of increasing proportions of immigrants and minorities in American society; (e) the decline in high school graduation explains part of the recent slowdown in college attendance; and (f) the pattern of the decline of high school graduation rates by gender helps to explain the recent increase in male-female college attendance gaps.
	Bibliography Citation Heckman, James J. and Paul A. LaFontaine. "The American High School Graduation Rate: Trends and Levels." IZA Discussion Paper No. 3216, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), December 2007.

17.

Heckman, James J.
Moon, Seong Hyeok
Pinto, Rodrigo
Savelyev, Peter A.
Yavitz, Adam

The Rate of Return to the Highscope Perry Preschool Program
IZA Policy Paper No. 17, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) , July 2010.
Also: http://ftp.iza.org/pp17.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Keyword(s): Childhood Education, Early; Children, Academic Development; Cognitive Development; Comparison Group (Reference group); Current Population Survey (CPS) / CPS-Fertility Supplement; Disadvantaged, Economically; Family Studies; Food Stamps (see Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program); I.Q.; Life Cycle Research; Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID); Socioeconomic Status (SES)

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

This paper summarizes our recent work on the rate of return and cost-benefit ratio of an influential early childhood program.

The Perry Preschool Program was an early childhood education program conducted at the Perry Elementary School in Ypsilanti, Michigan, during the early 1960s. The evidence from it is widely cited to support the economic argument for investing in early childhood programs.

Only disadvantaged children living in adverse circumstances who had low IQ scores and a low index of family socioeconomic status were eligible to participate in the Perry program. Actual participation was determined by a toss of a coin. Beginning at age 3 and lasting 2 years, treatment consisted of a 2.5-hour preschool program on weekdays during the school year, supplemented by weekly home visits by teachers. The curriculum was based on supporting children's cognitive and socio-emotional development through active learning in which both teachers and children had major roles in shaping children's learning. Children were encouraged to plan, carry out, and reflect on their own activities through a plan-do-review process. Follow-up interviews were conducted when participants were approximately 15, 19, 27, and 40 years old. At these interviews, participants provided detailed information about their life-cycle trajectories including schooling, economic activity, marital life, child rearing, and incarceration. In addition, Perry researchers collected administrative data in the form of school records, police and court records, and records on welfare participation. Schweinhart, Montie, Xiang, Barnett, Beleld, and Nores (2005) describe the program and the available data.

Bibliography Citation

Heckman, James J., Seong Hyeok Moon, Rodrigo Pinto, Peter A. Savelyev and Adam Yavitz. "The Rate of Return to the Highscope Perry Preschool Program." IZA Policy Paper No. 17, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) , July 2010.

18.	Heckman, James J. Vytlacil, Edward Urzua, Sergio
18.	Understanding Instrumental Variables in Models with Essential Heterogeneity IZA Discussion Paper No. 2320, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), September 2006. Also: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=936692 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Heterogeneity; High School Completion/Graduates; Variables, Instrumental; Wages Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This paper examines the properties of instrumental variables (IV) applied to models with essential heterogeneity, that is, models where responses to interventions are heterogeneous and agents adopt treatments (participate in programs) with at least partial knowledge of their idiosyncratic response. We analyze two-outcome and multiple-outcome models including ordered and unordered choice models. We allow for transition-specific and general instruments. We generalize previous analyses by developing weights for treatment effects for general instruments. We develop a simple test for the presence of essential heterogeneity. We note the asymmetry of the model of essential heterogeneity: outcomes of choices are heterogeneous in a general way; choices are not. When both choices and outcomes are permitted to be symmetrically heterogeneous, the method of IV breaks down for estimating treatment parameters.
	Bibliography Citation Heckman, James J., Edward Vytlacil and Sergio Urzua. "Understanding Instrumental Variables in Models with Essential Heterogeneity." IZA Discussion Paper No. 2320, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), September 2006.

19.	Holt, Stephen B. Wang, Rui Gershenson, Seth
19.	Stress Test: Examining the Evolution of Teachers' Mental Health Over Time IZA Discussion Paper No. 13361, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), June 2020. Also: https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/13361/stress-test-examining-the-evolution-of-teachers-mental-health-over-time Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY97 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Health, Mental/Psychological; Occupational Choice; Teachers/Faculty Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Teaching is often assumed to be a relatively stressful occupation and occupational stress among teachers has been linked to poor mental health, attrition from the profession, and decreased effectiveness in the classroom. Despite widespread concern about teachers' mental health, however, little empirical evidence exists on long-run trends in teachers' mental health or the prevalence of mental health problems in teaching relative to other professions. We address this gap in the literature using nationally representative data from the 1979 and 1997 cohorts of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). In the 1979 cohort, women who become teachers have similar mental health to non-teachers prior to teaching but enjoy better mental health than their non-teaching peers, on average, while working as teachers. However, in the 1997 cohort teachers self-report worse mental health, on average, than the 1979 cohort and fare no better than their non-teaching professional peers while teaching. Overall, teachers seem to enjoy mental health outcomes that are as good or better than their peers in other professions.
	Bibliography Citation Holt, Stephen B., Rui Wang and Seth Gershenson. "Stress Test: Examining the Evolution of Teachers' Mental Health Over Time." IZA Discussion Paper No. 13361, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), June 2020.

20.	Jantti, Markus Bratsberg, Bernt Roed, Knut Raaum, Oddbjorn Naylor, Robin Osterbacka, Eva Bjorklund, Anders Eriksson, Tor
20.	American Exceptionalism in a New Light: A Comparison of Intergenerational Earnings Mobility in the Nordic Countries, the United Kingdom and the United States IZA Discussion Paper No. 1938, The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), January 2006. Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Britain, British; Cross-national Analysis; Denmark, Danish; Educational Attainment; Family Background and Culture; Fathers and Sons; Finland, Finnish; Income Dynamics/Shocks; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Mobility; NCDS - National Child Development Study (British); Norway, Norwegian; Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. We develop methods and employ similar sample restrictions to analyze differences in intergenerational earnings mobility across the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. We examine earnings mobility among pairs of fathers and sons as well as fathers and daughters using both mobility matrices and regression and correlation coefficients. Our results suggest that all countries exhibit substantial earnings persistence across generations, but with statistically significant differences across countries. Mobility is lower in the U.S. than in the U.K., where it is lower again compared to the Nordic countries. Persistence is greatest in the tails of the distributions and tends to be particularly high in the upper tails: though in the U.S. this is reversed with a particularly high likelihood that sons of the poorest fathers will remain in the lowest earnings quintile. This is a challenge to the popular notion of "American exceptionalism." The U.S. also differs from the Nordic countries in its very low likelihood that sons of the highest earners will show downward "long-distance" mobility into the lowest earnings quintile. In this, the U.K. is more similar to the U.S.
	Bibliography Citation Jantti, Markus, Bernt Bratsberg, Knut Roed, Oddbjorn Raaum, Robin Naylor, Eva Osterbacka, Anders Bjorklund and Tor Eriksson. "American Exceptionalism in a New Light: A Comparison of Intergenerational Earnings Mobility in the Nordic Countries, the United Kingdom and the United States." IZA Discussion Paper No. 1938, The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), January 2006.

21.	Johnston, David W. Nicholls, Michael Shah, Manisha Shields, Michael A.
21.	Handedness, Health and Cognitive Development: Evidence from Children in the NLSY IZA Discussion Paper No. 4774, Bonn, Germany: Institute for the Study of Labor, February 2010 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Accidents; Child Health; Cognitive Development; Digit Span (also see Memory for Digit Span - WISC); Handedness; Injuries; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading) Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Using data from the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, and fitting family fixed-effects models of child health and cognitive development, we test if left-handed children do significantly worse than their right-handed counterparts. The health measures cover both physical and mental health, and the cognitive development test scores span (1) Memory, (2) Vocabulary, (3) Mathematics, (4) Reading and (5) Comprehension. We find that while lefthanded children have a significantly higher probability of suffering an injury needing medical attention, there is no difference in their experience of illness or poor mental health. We also find that left-handed children have significantly lower cognitive development test scores than right-handed children for all areas of development with the exception of reading. Moreover, the left-handedness disadvantage is larger for boys than girls, and remains roughly constant as children grow older for most outcomes. We also find that the probability of a child being left-handed is not related to the socioeconomic characteristics of the family, such as income or maternal education. All these results tend to support a difference in brain functioning or neurological explanation for handedness differentials rather than one based on left-handed children living in a right-handed world.
	Bibliography Citation Johnston, David W., Michael Nicholls, Manisha Shah and Michael A. Shields. "Handedness, Health and Cognitive Development: Evidence from Children in the NLSY." IZA Discussion Paper No. 4774, Bonn, Germany: Institute for the Study of Labor, February 2010.

22.	Light, Audrey L. McGee, Andrew Dunstan
22.	Employer Learning and the “Importance” of Skills IZA Discussion Paper No. 6623, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), June 2012 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); Occupational Information Network (ONET); Skills; Wage Determination Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. We ask whether the role of employer learning in the wage-setting process depends on skill type and skill importance to productivity. Combining data from the NLSY79 with ONET data, we use Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery scores to measure seven distinct types of pre-market skills that employers cannot readily observe, and O*NET importance scores to measure the importance of each skill for the worker’s current three-digit occupation. Before bringing importance measures into the analysis, we find evidence of employer learning for each skill type, for college and high school graduates, and for blue and white collar workers. Moreover, we find that the extent of employer learning – which we demonstrate to be directly identified by magnitudes of parameter estimates after simple manipulation of the data – does not vary significantly across skill type or worker type. Once we allow parameters identifying employer learning and screening to vary by skill importance, we find evidence of distinct tradeoffs between learning and screening, and considerable heterogeneity across skill type and skill importance. For some skills, increased importance leads to more screening and less learning; for others, the opposite is true. Our evidence points to heterogeneity in the degree of employer learning that is masked by disaggregation based on schooling attainment or broad occupational categories.
	Bibliography Citation Light, Audrey L. and Andrew Dunstan McGee. "Employer Learning and the “Importance” of Skills." IZA Discussion Paper No. 6623, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), June 2012.

23.	Lundberg, Shelly Romich, Jennifer L. Tsang, Kwok Ping
23.	Decision-Making by Children IZA Discussion Paper No. 2952, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), July 2007. Also: http://ftp.iza.org/dp2952.pdf Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Child Self-Administered Supplement (CSAS); Family Structure; Maternal Employment; Parent-Child Relationship/Closeness; Parenting Skills/Styles; Parents, Behavior Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. In this paper, we examine the determinants of decision-making power by children and young adolescents. Moving beyond previous economic models that treat children as goods consumed by adults rather than agents, we develop a noncooperative model of parental control of child behavior and child resistance. Using child reports of decision-making and psychological and cognitive measures from the NLSY79 Child Supplement, we examine the determinants of shared and sole decision-making in seven domains of child activity. We find that the determinants of sole decision-making by the child and shared decision-making with parents are quite distinct: sharing decisions appears to be a form of parental investment in child development rather than a simple stage in the transfer of authority. In addition, we find that indicators of child capability and preferences affect reports of decision-making authority in ways that suggest child demand for autonomy as well as parental discretion in determining these outcomes.
	Bibliography Citation Lundberg, Shelly, Jennifer L. Romich and Kwok Ping Tsang. "Decision-Making by Children." IZA Discussion Paper No. 2952, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), July 2007.

24.	Malamud, Ofer Wozniak, Abigail
24.	The Impact of College Graduation on Geographic Mobility: Identifying Education Using Multiple Components of Vietnam Draft Risk Discussion Paper No. 3432, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), April 2008. Also: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1136237 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): College Graduates; Education; Labor Market Demographics; Migration; Migration Patterns; Mobility; Variables, Instrumental Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. College-educated workers are twice as likely as high school graduates to make lasting long distance moves, but little is known about the role of college itself in determining geographic mobility. Unobservable characteristics related to selection into college might also drive the relationship between college education and geographic mobility. We explore this question using a number of methods to analyze both the 1980 Census and longitudinal sources. We conclude that the causal impact of college completion on subsequent mobility is large. We introduce new instrumental variables that allow us to identify educational attainment and veteran status separately in a sample of men whose college decisions were exogenously influenced by their draft risk during the Vietnam War. Our preferred IV estimates imply that graduation increases the probability that a man resides outside his birth state by approximately 35 percentage points, a magnitude nearly twice as large as the OLS migration differential between college and high school graduates. IV estimates of graduation's impact on total distance moved are even larger, with IV estimates that exceed OLS considerably. We provide evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) 1979 that our large IV estimates are plausible and likely explained by heterogeneous treatment effects. Finally, we provide some suggestive evidence on the mechanisms driving the relationship between college completion and mobility.
	Bibliography Citation Malamud, Ofer and Abigail Wozniak. "The Impact of College Graduation on Geographic Mobility: Identifying Education Using Multiple Components of Vietnam Draft Risk." Discussion Paper No. 3432, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), April 2008.

25.	Mok, Wallace Siddique, Zahra
25.	Racial Differences in Fringe Benefits and Compensation Discussion Paper No. 4435, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), September 2009 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Current Population Survey (CPS) / CPS-Fertility Supplement; Discrimination, Racial/Ethnic; Discrimination, Sex; Domestic Violence; Ethnic Groups/Ethnicity; Gender; Labor Market Outcomes; Racial Differences; Racial Studies Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This paper examines differences in two important components of non-wage compensation, employer provided health insurance and pensions, across African Americans and the whites in the United States. Using data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), we study the recent trends in the recipiency of this non-wage compensation across race groups. Our results show that African American men on average are significantly less likely to receive employer provided health insurance and pension than whites in the last decade. We also find that the inclusion of racial differences in ability as measured by the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) score reduces the unexplained racial gap in fringe benefit offers, highlighting the importance of human capital variables in fringe benefit recipiency. Finally, we re-examine racial inequality in the labor market by examining within-group inequality in compensation over the last decade and also the role of ability in between-group inequality in compensation.
	Bibliography Citation Mok, Wallace and Zahra Siddique. "Racial Differences in Fringe Benefits and Compensation." Discussion Paper No. 4435, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), September 2009.

26.	Troske, Kenneth R. Voicu, Alexandru
26.	Joint Estimation of Sequential Labor Force Participation and Fertility Decisions Using Markov Chain Monte Carlo Techniques IZA Discussion Paper No. 1251, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), August 2004. Also: http://opus.zbw-kiel.de/volltexte/2005/2450/pdf/dp1251.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Data Analysis; Fertility; Labor Force Participation; Labor Supply; Markov chain / Markov model; Maternal Employment; Monte Carlo; Mothers, Education; Mothers, Race; Statistical Analysis; Women Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. In this paper we estimate the causal effect of children on the labor supply of women using panel data on women from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79). We examine the effect of children both prior to and after birth as well as how the effect of children varies with the number of children. We also decompose the total effect of children into the direct and indirect components and separately examine the dynamics of these components. Sequential participation decisions for four levels of labor market involvement and fertility decisions are jointly modeled. We allow decisions to be correlated in a general fashion both across time and across choices. The estimation is performed using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. We find that children have a strong effect on a women's labor market behavior in both the pre- and post-birth period. We also find that both the direct and indirect effects are large immediately after the birth of a child but that the indirect effect declines quickly over time. The effects of children vary by education and race.
	Bibliography Citation Troske, Kenneth R. and Alexandru Voicu. "Joint Estimation of Sequential Labor Force Participation and Fertility Decisions Using Markov Chain Monte Carlo Techniques." IZA Discussion Paper No. 1251, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), August 2004.

27.	van der Sluis, Justin van Praag, C. Mirjam van Witteloostuijn, A.
27.	Why Are the Returns to Education Higher for Entrepreneurs than for Employees? IZA DP No. 3058, Institute for the Study of Labor, September 2007. Also: ftp://repec.iza.org/RePEc/Discussionpaper/dp3058.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Earnings; Educational Returns; Entrepreneurship; Income; Locus of Control (see Rotter Scale); Rotter Scale (see Locus of Control); Self-Employed Workers; Variables, Instrumental Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. We compare the returns to education (RTE) for entrepreneurs and employees, based on 19 waves of the NLSY database. By using instrumental variable techniques (IV) and taking account of selectivity, we find that the RTE are significantly higher for entrepreneurs than for employees (14 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively). We perform various analyses in an attempt to explain the difference. We find (indirect) support for the argument that the higher RTE for entrepreneurs is due to fewer (organizational) constraints faced by entrepreneurs when optimizing the profitable employment of their education.
	Bibliography Citation van der Sluis, Justin, C. Mirjam van Praag and A. van Witteloostuijn. "Why Are the Returns to Education Higher for Entrepreneurs than for Employees?." IZA DP No. 3058, Institute for the Study of Labor, September 2007.

28.	Vella, Francis Farré, Lídia Klein, Roger
28.	A Parametric Control Function Approach to Estimating the Returns to Schooling in the Absence of Exclusion Restrictions: An Application to the NLSY IZA Discussion Paper No 4935, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), May 2010. Also: http://ftp.iza.org/dp4935.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Keyword(s): Educational Returns; Endogeneity; Schooling; Variables, Instrumental Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. We estimate the return to education using a sample drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79). Rather than accounting for the endogeneity of schooling through the use of instrumental variables we employ a parametric version of the Klein and Vella (2006a) estimator. This estimator bypasses the need for instruments by exploiting features of the conditional second moments of the errors. As the Klein and Vella (2006a) procedure is semi-parametric it is computationally demanding. We illustrate how to greatly reduce the required computation by parameterizing the second moments. Accounting for endogeneity increases the estimate of the return to education by 5 percentage points, from 7.6% to 12.7%.
	Bibliography Citation Vella, Francis, Lídia Farré and Roger Klein. "A Parametric Control Function Approach to Estimating the Returns to Schooling in the Absence of Exclusion Restrictions: An Application to the NLSY." IZA Discussion Paper No 4935, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), May 2010.

Top-Right Links

Search Results

Main menu

Bibliography Searches

Helpful Links

Top-Right Links

You are here

Search Results

Main menu

Bibliography Searches

Helpful Links