Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Essays In Applied Microeconomics, Joshua C. Martin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The first chapter examines the role that same-sex marriage legalization had on the number of adoptions of children from foster care in the United States. We do so by employing a synthetic difference-in-differences estimator which leverages both the differential timing of these laws across states and the subsequent wave of state-level legal protections which give foster-care agencies the right to deny service to same-sex couples based on religiously-held beliefs. Using highly detailed, county-level data of nearly 20 million children in the foster care system from 1995-2020, our findings reveal that same-sex marriage legalization led to a 3.8%-5.9% increase in the …

Sexed Propensities And Gendered Penalties?: An Analysis Of The Economic Outcomes Of Transgender People, Jiwon Chung

CMC Senior Theses

Recent research has indicated the adverse economic outcomes of transgender people. The titular question of this paper refers to the effect on gendered economic outcomes that differences related to sex assigned at birth has for a sample of transgender individuals that is plausibly correlated with being at an early stage of their gender affirmation processes (e.g. social or medical transition). For this group of plausibly early-in-transition transgender individuals, I hypothesize and test a theory that draws the following account: assigned female at birth (AFAB) transgender individuals encounter significant economic penalties as a result of labour market decisions (i.e. industry sorting) …

Essays On Anti-Discrimination Legislation Enforcement And Sex-Based Discrimination In U.S. Labor Markets, Carly Mccann

Doctoral Dissertations

This project focuses on gender and anti-discrimination legislation enforcement in U.S. labor markets. In this dissertation, I examine the efficacy of existing legal and political institutions in place to redress employer sex discrimination. This work provides new understandings of sex discrimination by focusing on the experiences of pregnant workers, an understudied population that continues to lack adequate workplace protections. My research utilizes new administrative data containing formal charges of discrimination filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to provide new insights into the workplace experiences of pregnant workers as well as employer responses to anti-discrimination enforcement. Chapter 1 analyzes …

Rental Discrimination On The Basis Of Immigration Status, Diego S. Osorio

Theses and Dissertations

We employ a field experiment to assess the degree of housing discrimination against Hispanic immigrants versus someone with Hispanic heritage. The results indicate that individuals who indicate that they are immigrants in their rental applications are less likely to receive a response.

Discrimination Among College Football Head Coaches, Yusuke Fukuda

Honors Theses

Several major sports organizations have come under scrutiny in recent years for alleged discriminatory practices towards minority coaches. In this paper, I analyze whether minority college football head coaches are more likely to be fired and to earn a lower salary. I observe a sample of 300 head coaches from 132 Division-I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools between the years 2006 to 2021. After controlling for performance and experience variables and holding the time and school or conference variables fixed in a Cox hazard regression model, I find statistically significant evidence that minority coaches face a higher likelihood of being …

"The Refugees Are Better Off Than We Are": Evaluating The Impact Of Syrian Refugees On Jordanian Labor Markets, Maggie Dougherty

Senior Independent Study Theses

This thesis analyses the labor market impacts associated with hosting Syrian refugees in Jordan through the Syrian conflict. We provide a critical analysis of the sentiment that ‘the refugees are better off than we are.’ This sentiment derives from the perception that the poor economic conditions are the fault of refugees, because they take jobs from native citizens, or because of the international humanitarian aid that refugees receive. We suggest that this perception is a ‘false narrative’ which does not accurately describe the many causes of economic hardships in Jordan, thereby misplacing blame on refugees. The article analyzes the structural …

Does Having A Baby Affect Tenants’ Renting Opportunities? Experimental Evidence From Nyc, Christina Katopodis

Theses and Dissertations

Access to reliable and stable housing is critical for the general population in urban areas and large cities. This paper tests for differential treatment in the rental housing market using an experiment conducted via e-mail for rental units advertised on-line. There are two emails with the same content, except for one shows the family status as childless and the other shows the family status as having an 18-month-old child. These emails were then sent to the landlords with an equal distribution. Apart from family status, there is no mention of socioeconomic status or any other identifying factors of the tenant. …

Análisis De La Brecha Salarial Por Género En Colombia Para El Año 2018 Utilizando La Descomposición Salarial De Oaxaca-Blinder Y La Corrección De Sesgo De Selección De Heckman, Cristhian Hurtado Cepeda

Economía

La discriminación contra la mujer, la cual existe desde el inicio de los tiempos, actualmente puede ser cuantificada por medio de la diferencia en el ingreso percibido, donde la mujer capta un ingreso menor al del hombre. En la última década la brecha salarial por genero ha disminuido de manera significativa, permitiendo un mayor acceso a oportunidades y posibilidades para la mujer, sin embargo, existen evidencias de discriminación salarial hacia ellas por lo que se hace necesario preguntarse ¿Qué tan grande es? y ¿cuáles son las posibles causas? En el marco del mercado laboral colombiano, se utilizan microdatos a partir …

The Price Women Pay: Women's Attachment To Work, Megan Grace Connor

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the world has created institutions that oppress and isolate women. The mother is often the most isolated and confined to the roles of her job- a job not considered productive in the traditional framework of economics. This research explores the structure of family and culture that has impacted the lives of women in the United States. Now education and generations of feminists have created new paths for women, but children have been the barrier to lasting labor force participation. The workforce has discriminated against women for years. As sentiments towards women’s participation turns …

Essays On Money And Labor, Kwabena Okyere Boateng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The price-specie-flow mechanism (PSFM) is a theory of the adjustment of the balance of trade and gold flows as a result of deviations in relative prices across countries under a gold standard. The PSFM is central to quantity-theoretic discussions of economic fluctuations under a gold standard as well as analysis of whether central banks follo``the rules of the game'' of the gold standard. In short, the PSFM is the standard working assumption when it comes to gold standard adjustment. However, at least since Adam Smith there has been an alternative to the PSFM that has come to be known as …

Discrimination In The U.S Mortgage Market: A Historic Overview Of Discriminatory Practices And How The Rapid Expansion Of The Secondary Market Has Reshaped Them And The Incentives Behind Them, Ioannis Prousanidis

Senior Projects Spring 2019

My paper contributes to the existing literature regarding discriminatory practices in the mortgage market. It is argued that the development of the mortgage market, and specifically the rapid expansion of the secondary market, gave rise to new discriminatory practices (predatory lending, algorithmic based discrimination). My project analyses the specifics of these developments and how they are associated with the introduction of these current discriminatory acts, outlines the changing incentives behind them and argues that current legislation has been proved to be too inflexible to adapt to the changing nature of the mortgage market and of the practices themselves. Furthermore my …

Fair Pay To Play: The Compensation Debate And The Exploitation Of Black Student-Athletes, Wynn S. Miller

Senior Projects Fall 2019

The National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), which is the governing board for intercollegiate athletics in the United States, earns large amounts of revenue from major college sports like Division I football and men’s basketball but does not provide any compensation beyond basic athletic scholarships to the student-athletes who generate the revenue. In recent years, the NCAA has come under increased scrutiny due to what is perceived as hypocrisy—that is, the NCAA using its student-athletes to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue but refusing to provide fair compensation to the student-athletes. Because a majority of student-athletes on Division I …

The Specter Of Caste, Kabir Raj Khanna

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

The Effect Of Changes In Racial Composition On Housing Prices: A Study Of The Most Diverse Place In The World, Youseph Anwar

Theses and Dissertations

This study attempts to illustrate that increases in minority residents may lead to decreases in housing prices. I observe the effects of changes in racial composition on housing prices in Queens, NY from 2011-2015. The following econometric tools are implemented: a fixed effects model, quantile, hedonic, and OLS regressions.

Why Do Negative Employment Outcomes For Workers With Disabilities Persist?: Investigating The Effects Of Human Capital, Social Capital, And Discrimination, Martine Maculaitis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Little is known about why poor job outcomes for workers with disabilities (WD) persist. Hence, the aim of this study was to combine and extend human capital, social capital, and multiple jeopardy advantage theories to develop and test a comprehensive model of the processes explaining job outcomes for WD. Data from the 2010 US National Health Interview Survey (N=3,887) and O*Net were analyzed to investigate the extent to which disability status (i.e., WD with work limitations, WD with no work limitations, or non-disabled workers [NDW]) relates to four types of work outcomes (i.e., annual compensation, employment status, job …

Employment Discrimination Of Chinese Unmarried Women, Jifan Huang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Employment discrimination has been existed through the history and gender discrimination is one of the most common one. The discrimination against women is the most discussed one but the discrimination against unmarried women is easily ignored. While comparing women and men, marital status is considered as one of the factors that decreases women's competitiveness. However, the marital status, as some people complain, turns into a potential advantage while comparing two equally qualified women. This study focuses on main questions: 1) Does the discrimination against unmarried women while comparing with married women really exist, or is it just reasonable selection? 2) …

Testing For Nationality Discrimination In Major League Soccer, Matthew Swift

CMC Senior Theses

Using data from the 2014-2016 Major League Soccer (MLS) seasons, this paper finds evidence for nationality discrimination in the MLS. In particular, foreign players receive a wage premium of 15.97 percent, ceteris paribus. Foreign players also receive an additional bump in their salary based on performance. Finally, using an Oaxaca (1973) decomposition, I find that 22-26% of the differences in wages between foreign and domestic players is largely due to discrimination.

An Analysis Of Japan’S Immigration Policy On Migrant Workers And Their Families, Malissa B. Eaddy

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This thesis attempts to provide an analysis of Japan’s immigration policy on migrant workers and their families. I am interested in exploring the interactions between the Japanese government and foreigners during 1960-2014. I have three research questions: (1) What is the Japanese government policy for migrant workers? (2) What is the education status for the children of migrant workers to assimilate into Japanese society? (3) How are migrant workers and families treated by the Japanese government in terms of the human rights and their national rights? I have selected four books as the primary sources for my thesis, and analyzed …

Earnings Risk And The U.S. Housing Market, Phillip Oberg

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this dissertation is to develop, refine, and employ empirical measures of earnings risk—especially permanent risk—and determine their effect on behavior, with applications specific to the recent mortgage bubble.

Chapter 1 aims to identify covariates of risks associated with permanent and temporary earnings shocks. The distinction is significant both because permanent shocks are more consequential and because measurement error would contaminate only measures of temporary risks. Generalizing methods used in previous work, we allow risk to vary both across individuals and over individuals’ careers, so they could be used to study behavioral responses to risk even with individual …

Three Essays On Racial Wage Differentials In South Africa, Ochas Kashinge Pupwe

Dissertations

Wage gaps amongst the different racial groups in South Africa, have remained high post-apartheid. With the enactment and implementation of several empowerment programs aiming at reversing racial marginalization, it is puzzling to see the persistent wage gaps between the white minority and non-white majority. This dissertation seeks to ascertain factors that may account for the persistent wage gap.

The first essay tests for the presence of over-education and its effects on wage determination amongst South Africa’s racial demographic groups. The results indicate that whites were over-educated whilst marginalized populations exhibited significant levels of under-education in 1991 and 2011 and hence …

The Evolution Of Black-White Wage Inequality Across Occupational Sectors In The Us Since The 1990s, Tianxiao Ye

CMC Senior Theses

This paper updates the current knowledge about Black-White wage inequality in the US male labor market by using the NLSY97 sample. Compared with the results obtained from the NLSY79 cohort, I find that the unconditional racial wage inequality is smaller today, but after controlling for premarket academic skills, the conditional racial wage gap remains roughly the same as it was twenty years ago. After dividing the labor market by occupational categories, I find that in the white collar sector, the racial wage gap has largely disappeared even without controlling for academic skills. In the blue collar sector, academic skills can …

Determinantes De La Brecha Salarial Por Género Y Segregación Ocupacional: Áreas Metropolitanas De Colombia 2009 2012, Diego Alejandro Parga Castrillón, Hamilton Herbert Galindo Lúligo

Economía

La demanda laboral y el incremento de la población han sido temas determinantes del acceso laboral en Colombia en la última década, enmarcados en situaciones de discriminación salarial por género y segregación ocupacional, haciendo necesario el estudio de la relación que existe entre ellas. Esta investigación pretende obtener resultados del comportamiento de la brecha salarial y como dentro de sus determinantes se pondera la segregación ocupacional para las 13 áreas metropolitanas del país en los periodos del 2008 al 2012. Se basa en distintas investigaciones propuestas por los diversos teóricos que evaluaron la dimensión salarial por raza y sexo, y …

Three Essays On Gender Differences On Risk Preferences And Credit Market Constraints, Jyoti Rai

Dissertations

The disadvantages that women face in the financial market hamper their social and economic well-being. These disadvantages may arise from their own risk preferences or from financial market. The aim of this dissertation is to examine different aspects of the disadvantages that women face in the U.S Financial Market. In that light, I present three essays that analyze gender differences in risk preferences and credit market constraints. I use the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) data for all my empirical analysis.

In the first essay, I examine whether women exhibit greater financial risk aversion than men using attitudinal and behavioral …

Narrowing The Gap: New Evidence On Earnings Differentials Based On Sexual Orientation, Mikayla Lytton

Honors Papers

Using General Social Survey data from 1989 to 2008, I estimate earnings differentials between heterosexual and queer workers. When following the model specified in earlier studies, I find that queer men earn between 11.6% less than their heterosexual counterparts and that queer women earned approximately 11.6% more than their heterosexual counterparts. When respecifying the model to account for the gender composition of individuals’ occupations, I find that queer men’s earnings are not statistically different from straight men’s earnings, and the earnings advantage enjoyed by queer women drops marginally, to 10.5%. This addition significantly improves upon the explanatory power of the …

Premium Risk And Healthcare Policy, Matthew Coffina

Honors Papers

In this paper, I analyze four alternative policies that address "premium risk": the risk that health insurance premiums will increase if an individual acquires a chronic condition. They are: premium risk insurance, community rating, anti-discrimination laws for large firms, and government subsidies. I show that community rating and anti-discrimination laws provide incomplete protection, and have the potential to create welfare-reducing distortions in incentives, while subsidies can be designed that mimic the efficiency of premium risk insurance. While the economic concepts behind these conclusions are well-documented and well-understood, I believe my own model adds value in the form of simplicity and …

Does The Type Of Legal Representation Affect Sentencing Outcomes?, Lawren Elaine Hill

Honors Papers

This paper examines the potential differences in sentencing outcomes for public defenders compared with private attorneys. I explore the economic literature for explanations, implications, and results. There is a need for extensive research within the field of economics to provide empirical results to offset the mostly game-theoretically dominated discussion of the criminal justice system. The results are inconclusive due to a lack of statistical significance and potential selection bias in the data. Future research relating to this study is also discussed.