Economics Commons^™

Assessing The Impact Of A Modernized Application Process On Florida’S Food Stamp Caseload, Colleen Heflin, Peter Mueser

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

In 2005, Florida implemented an internet-based service delivery system for eligibility determination in public assistance programs, including the Food Stamp, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and the Medicaid programs. At the same time, Florida switched from a caseworker model to a technology-driven model and decreased staffing levels of employees involved in social service delivery. We conduct an evaluative case study of the effects of these policy changes on the Food Stamp caseload. In particular, we consider the impact on applications and the flows onto and off of the program. To answer these questions, we use administrative data from the …

State Employment Protection Statutes For Victims Of Domestic Violence As An Employment Matter, Jennifer E. Swanberg, Mamta U. Ojha

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Evidence indicates that domestic violence has negative consequences on victims’ employment; yet employers lag in recognizing this as a workplace issue. To address the problem, some states have established several policy solutions. To understand the scope of the public sector’s response to domestic violence as a workplace issue, a content analysis of state-level employment protection policies for domestic violence victims (N=369) was conducted. Results indicate three broad policy categories: 1) policies that offer work leave for victims; 2) policies that aim to reduce employment discrimination of domestic violence victims; and 3) policies that aim to increase awareness and safety in …

What About These Children? Assessing Poverty Among The ‘Hidden Population’ Of Multiracial Children In Single-Mother Families, Jenifer Bratter, Sarah Damaske

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Capturing the conditions of children of color living in single-parent families has become more complex due to the growing presence of interracial households. This analysis assesses the size and poverty status of single-female headed families housing multiracial children. Using data from the 2000 Census, we find that 9 percent of female-headed families house either children who are classified with more than one race or are classified as a single race different than their mother’s compared to only 3 percent of married couple families. Logistic regression analyses assessing the odds of poverty status for families finds that being a multiracial family …

Household Living Arrangements And Economic Resources Among Mexican Immigrant Families With Children, Mark A. Leach

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Using data from the 2000 Census, this study examines the relationship between household living arrangements and economic resources among Mexican immigrant families with children. I model separately the relationships between family income and household structure and proportion of total household income contributed and household structure. The results show that families that coreside with extended kin and non-kin have higher incomes, all else equal, relative to those that reside in single-family households. In addition, Mexican immigrant families that reside in extendedhousehold living arrangements contribute about three quarters of total household income. While families may gain some economic efficiency through extended household …

An Exploratory Analysis Of The Relationship Between Student Earnings And Postsecondary Retention, Christopher Jepsen, Darshak P. Patel, Kenneth R. Troske

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Policy makers are becoming increasingly concerned about the high percentage of students who attend postsecondary education without completing a degree. Researchers have studied numerous potential determinants of retention behavior for postsecondary students, such as financial aid, socioeconomic status, academic preparedness, academic and social integration, and expected future wages. However, none of these studies considers students’ earnings while in school as a potential determinant of retention. Using an administrative data from postsecondary institutions matched with administrative earnings data from the state’s unemployment insurance department, our results indicate that student earnings are negatively correlated to student retention in Kentucky postsecondary institutions. Our …

Family Change And Poverty In Appalachia, Daniel Lichter, Lisa Cimbulak

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

The current economic and political climate provides a vivid contrast with the circumstances of the 1990s, when the passage of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) ushered in welfare reform during a period of unprecedented economic expansion and job growth (Blank 2002; Ziliak 2009). This legislation sought to “end the dependence of needy parents on government benefits by promoting job preparation, work, and marriage.” Among PRWORA’s goals were to reduce out-of-wedlock births and encourage the formation of two-parent families. For most states, much of the initial emphasis on self-sufficiency was placed on “work first” programs (i.e., …

Earnings And Income Volatility In America: Evidence From Matched Cps, James P. Ziliak, Bradley L. Hardy, Christopher Bollinger

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

In this paper we offer new evidence on earnings and income volatility in the United States over the past four decades by using matched data from the March Current Population Survey. We find that between 1973 and 2008 family income volatility rose by 38 percent, primarily as a result of higher volatility of husbands earnings and non means-tested nonlabor income. Rising family income volatility is in evidence across race, education, and family structure, and after declining sharply while young, it is increasing in the latter part of the life cycle among the skilled. The Federal tax and transfer system dampens …

Imprisonment And (Inequality In) Population Health, Christopher Wildeman

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This article extends research on the consequences of mass imprisonment and the factors shaping population health and health inequities by considering the effects of the imprisonment rate on population health and black-white inequality in population health using state-level panel data from the United States (1980-2004). My results imply that increases in the imprisonment rate harm population health, though the effects on the infant mortality rate and female life expectancy are more consistent than are the effects on male life expectancy. My results also imply that these health effects are concentrated among blacks, implicating mass imprisonment in the persistence of black-white …

Essays On Human Capital, Health Capital, And The Labor Market, Charles Hokayem

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays concerning the effects of human capital and health capital on the labor market. Chapter 1 presents a structural model that incorporates a health capital stock to the traditional learning-by-doing model. The model allows health to affect future wages by interrupting current labor supply and on-the-job human capital accumulation. Using data on sick time from the Panel Study Income of Dynamics the model is estimated using a nonlinear Generalized Method of Moments estimator. The results show human capital production exhibits diminishing returns. Health capital production increases with the current stock of health capital, or better …

Whole Farm Modeling Of Precision Agriculture Technologies, Jordan Murphy Shockley

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigated farm management concerns faced by grain producers due to the acquisition of various precision agriculture technologies. The technologies evaluated in the three manuscripts included 1) auto-steer navigation, 2) automatic section control, and 3) autonomous machinery. Each manuscript utilized a multifaceted economic model in a whole-farm decision-making framework to determine the impact of precision agriculture technology on machinery management, production management, and risk management. This approach allowed for a thorough investigation into various precision agriculture technologies which helped address the relative dearth of economic studies of precision agriculture and farm management. Moreover, the research conducted on the above …

Market Structure And Mortgage Pricing: The Role Of Information In Firm And Consumer Behavior, Abdullah A. Al-Bahrani

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes information, market structure, and firm pricing strate-gies. I begin the dissertation with an analysis of the market structure of the mortgage in-dustry. I find that the configuration of the mortgage market at its present state is vastly different than its historical structure. The reduction in the cost of transmitting informa-tion has increased the collaborative environment and facilitated the dis-integration of the supply chain. Generally, the mortgage industry has been successful at reducing principal-agent problems and minimizing asymmetric information concerns that arise in segmented markets.

In the first essay I provide a theoretical explanation of the effect of …

Public School Choice And The Public-Private School Decision, Kylie Goggins

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is a compilation of three studies related to public school choice issues. Chapter 2 examines whether access to public schools of choice influences a household’s decision to choose private school for their child. I employ a multistate, individual-level data-set on students and their families — for which I have been granted access to restricted geo-code information. I supplement these data by matching students with their respective school districts using geographic information systems (GIS); I then examine whether relative measures of public school choice (PSC) in a school district influence the household’s public-private school decision. I find slight evidence …

Career Interruptions: Wage And Gender Effects, Jill Kearns

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the effects of career interruptions on workers’ wages. In chapter four I examine whether controlling for the type of interruption differently affects men’s and women’s wages and therefore can be used to explain the remaining gender wage differences. The increased participation of married women in the labor force has increased their wages from just 30% of men’s wages in 1890 to nearly 80% as of 2001. Thus, although the gender wage gap has narrowed over time, it has yet to be eliminated. One argument for the persistence of the gender wage gap is that previously researchers have …

Kentucky Annual Economic Report 2010, Kenneth R. Troske, Devanathan Sudharshan, Anna L. Stewart

Kentucky Annual Economic Report

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Information Technology And Construction Productivity, Dong Zhai

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Over the past decades, information technology has been impacting industries, economics, the way of life and even the culture throughout the world. Productivity has been attracting much attention as an important indicator of economics, and numerous researchers have investigated the relationship between information technology and productivity. Construction is one of the largest industries in the United States, but little research has been conducted to investigate the relationship between information technology and construction productivity.

The major objective of this dissertation is to determine the degree (if any) to which information technology usage, specifically the use of information technology to automate and …

The Labor Market, Political Capital, And Ownership Sector In Urban China, Xi Pan

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Over the past three decades, economic reforms have brought about dramatic changes in China. The wave of structural and economic reforms regarding the State-owned Sector (SOS), and the surge of the Non-State-owned Sector (NSOS), have influenced returns in the labor market, such as the returns concerning human capital and political capital in urban China. Presumably, the NSOS would be more marketed-oriented compared to the SOS, and it would have different returns concerning political capital, as represented by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) membership. This is likely because the NSOS would not value Party membership as much as the SOS does. The …

Estimates Of The Costs And Benefits Of Expanding The Early Childhood Education Program In Kentucky, Christopher Jepsen, Kenneth R. Troske, Casey Brasher

CBER Research Report

Excerpt from the executive summary:

Kentucky officials are being encouraged to expand the availability of Kentucky’s state-funded preschool program. The current program restricts eligibility to three- and four-year-old students with disabilities and four-year-old students with family incomes up to 150 percent of the federal poverty level.

Objective And Subjective Residential Context And Urban Children’S Weight Status And Physical And Sedentary Activities, Rachel Tolbert Kimbro, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Sara Mclanahan

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This paper fills this gap by addressing two research questions: first, we ask, are the activity patterns (outdoor play and television watching) of five-year-old children living in large cities associated with children’s weight status? Second, we ask, is residential context, and neighborhood safety in particular, associated with children’s activity patterns? Consistent with past research, we find that outdoor play is negatively associated with weight status, while television watching is positively associated with weight status. We also find, unexpectedly, that the poorest children are playing outdoors the most and watching the most television. Finally, we find that three measures of residential …

Race Disparities In Birth Outcomes In The U.S. South And The Rest Of The Nation, Lenna Nepomnyaschy

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

There are well-documented and as yet unexplained disparities in birth outcomes by race in the United States, even after controlling for socioeconomic status. This paper examines the sources of disparities in low birth weight between blacks and whites in the U.S., by focusing on differences in disparities between two very distinct geographic areas, the Deep South and the rest of the country. Two findings from prior research drive the analyses: First, health overall is worse in the Deep South states; Second, race disparities are smaller in the Deep South than in the rest of the nation. A number of potential …

Housing Affordability In Lexington, Kentucky, Christopher Jepsen, Kenneth R. Troske, Nola Ogunro

CBER Research Report

Excerpt from the executive summary:

The rapid rise in housing prices that occurred between 1990 and 2006 led many communities, including Lexington, Kentucky, to become concerned about whether individuals who hold “typical” jobs—such as teachers and police officers—could continue to live in the communities where they worked. Unfortunately, given the lack of recent detailed studies examining the affordability of housing in Fayette County (which contains Lexington), it is hard to know whether concerns about affordable housing are justified. In response to this lack of information, the Home Builders Association of Lexington and the Lexington-Bluegrass Association of Realtors (LBAR) requested that …

Opportunities For Comparative Research In Public Health Pbrns : A Baseline Analysis Of Local Practice Settings, Glen P. Mays, Sharla A. Smith, Elaine B. Wootten, Sylvia J. Porchia

Health Management and Policy Presentations

This analysis describes the organizational and operational characteristics of local public health agencies participating in an initial cohort of five (5) public health PBRNs in the U.S. We examine variation in practice settings within and between PBRNs; compare practice settings to state and national norms; and identify opportunities for comparative research that can be conducted through PBRNs.

Externalities In The Classroom: How Children Exposed To Domestic Violence Affect Everyone’S Kids, Scott E. Carrell, Mark L. Hoekstra

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

There is widespread perception that externalities from troubled children are significant, though measuring them is difficult due to data and methodological limitations. We estimate the negative spillovers caused by children from troubled families by exploiting a unique data set in which children’s school records are matched to domestic violence cases. We find that children from troubled families significantly decrease their peers’ reading and math test scores and increase misbehavior in the classroom. The achievement spillovers are robust to within-family differences and when controlling for school-by-year effects, providing strong evidence that neither selection nor common shocks are driving the results.

Down From The Mountain: Skill Upgrading And Wages In Appalachia, Christopher Bollinger, James P. Ziliak, Kenneth R. Troske

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Despite evidence that skilled labor is increasingly concentrated in cities, whether regional wage inequality is predominantly due to differences in skill levels or returns is unknown. We compare Appalachia, with its wide mix of urban and rural areas, to other parts of the U.S., and find that gaps in both skill levels and returns account for the lack of high wage male workers. For women, skill shortages are important across the distribution. Because rural wage gaps are insignificant, our results suggest that widening wage inequality between Appalachia and the rest of the U.S. owes to a shortage of skilled cities.

The Labor-Market Returns To Community College Degrees, Diplomas, And Certificates, Christopher Jepsen, Kenneth R. Troske, Paul Coomes

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This paper provides the first detailed empirical evidence of the labor-market returns to community college diplomas and certificates. Using detailed administrative data from Kentucky, we estimate panel-data models that control for differences among students in pre-college earnings and educational aspirations. Associate’s degrees and diplomas have quarterly earnings returns of nearly $2,000 for women, compared to returns of approximately $1,500 for men. Certificates have small positive returns for men and women in most specifications. There is substantial heterogeneity in returns across fields of study. Degrees, diplomas, and certificates all correspond with higher levels of employment.

Cities, Economic Development, And The Role Of Place-Based Policies: Lessons For Appalachia, Matthew Kahn

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This paper surveys economic research on the association between economic development and urban areas, links this summary to some important trends in economic outcomes in Appalachia in recent decades, highlights areas in need of future research on the role of urban areas as engines of economic development in Appalachia, and discusses what types of place-based policies might be effective to promote economic growth and development in the Appalachian region.

Bilingual Education And English Proficiency, Christopher Jepsen

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

English Learners, students who are not proficient in English and speak a non-English language at home, make up more than 10 percent of the nation’s K-12 student body. Achieving proficiency in English for these students is a major goal of both state and federal education policy, motivating the provision of bilingual education policies. Using data for nearly 500,000 English Learners from California, I show that students in bilingual education have substantially lower English proficiency than other English Learners in first and second grades. In contrast, there is little difference between bilingual education and other programs for students in grades three …

The Organization Of Discipline: From Performance Management To Perversity And Punishment, Joe Soss, Richard Fording, Sanford F. Schram

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Over the past few decades, poverty governance in the United States has been transformed by the convergence of two powerful reform movements. The first, often referred to as “paternalist,” has shifted poverty governance from an emphasis on rights and opportunities to a stance that is more directive and supervisory in promoting preferred behaviors among the poor. The second, often described as “neoliberal,” has shifted governance away from federal government control toward a system that emphasizes policy devolution, privatization, and performance competition. During this period, public officials have proved remarkably willing to hand policy control over to lower jurisdictions and private …

Inequality And Human Capital In Appalachia: 1960-2000, Dan Black, Seth Sanders

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This paper examines changes in the earnings distribution of men age 25-64 between 1960 and 2000 in Appalachia and in the remainder of the U.S. Because Appalachia is more rural than the remainder of the U.S. we also examine changes in the earnings distribution in rural vs. urban areas. Our central finding is that there have been large differences in the evolution of the earnings distribution in rural vs. urban areas and this is the principal reason that Appalachia’s earnings distribution differs to some degree from the remainder of the U.S. We find that the bottom of the earnings distribution …

Do Adoption Subsidies Help At-Risk Children?, Kasey Buckles

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Over half a million children in the United States are currently in foster care, many of whom are at risk for long-lasting emotional and health problems. Research suggests that adoption may be one of the more promising options for the placement of these children. The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980, which provided federal funds for monthly adoption subsidies, was designed to promote adoptions of special-needs children and children in foster care.

Using data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting Systems for 2000- 2006, I consider the effects of these adoption subsidies on children’s likelihood …

Three Essays On The Black White Wage Gap, Nola Ogunro

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

During the 1960s and early 1970s, the black – white wage gap narrowed significantly, but has remained constant since the late 1980s. The black – white wage gap in the recent period may reflect differences in human capital. A key component of human capital is labor market experience. The first chapter of this dissertation examines how differences in the returns and patterns of experience accumulation affect the black – white wage gap. Accounting for differences in the nature of experience accumulation does not explain the very large gap in wages between blacks and whites. Instead, the wage gap seems to …