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Estimating Hispanic-White Wage Gaps Among Women: The Importance Of Controlling For Cost Of Living, Peter Mchenry, Melissa Mcinerney

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Despite concern regarding labor market discrimination against Hispanics, previously published estimates show that Hispanic women earn higher hourly wages than white women with similar observable characteristics. This estimated wage premium is likely biased upwards because of the omission of an important control variable: cost of living. We show that Hispanic women live in locations (e.g., cities) with higher costs of living than whites. After we account for cost of living, the estimated Hispanic-white wage differential for non-immigrant women falls by approximately two-thirds. As a result, we find no statistically significant difference in wages between Hispanic and white women in the …

A Multilevel Analysis Of The Relationship Between Birth-Order And Intelligence, Aaron Wichman

Psychological Sciences Faculty Publications

Many previous studies have found relationships between birth order and intelligence, but use cross-sectional designs or manifest other threats to internal validity. Using the National

Longitudinal Survey of Youth Children (NLSY) data and multilevel analyses with control variables, we show that when these threats are removed, two major results emerge : (a) Birth order has no measurable influence on children’s intelligence; and (b) Control variables provide strong evidence that earlier-reported birth order effects on intelligence are attributable to environmental and genetic factors that vary between, not within families. Identical sets of analyses on 7-8 and 13-14 year-old children from the …