Childhood Predictors of Labor Force Participation in Adult Life

This study used longitudinal data from the National Child Development Study in the United Kingdom to investigate childhood predictors of labor force participation outcome (unemployed versus employed or self-employed) at age 33. In women, only general ability at age 11 was related to labor force participation at age 33, whereas in men labor force participation was negatively related to sibship size and domestic tension in childhood and psychological distress in adult life, and was positively related to presence of a partner in adult life, academic motivation in adolescence and educational attainment.     

The Disability Screening Process and the Labor Market Behavior of Accepted and Rejected Applicants: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study

This paper uses Social Security earnings records linked to data from the Health and Retirement Study to examine the labor market behavior of rejected and accepted disability applicants prior to their application. We find that rejected applicants have substantially lower earnings and labor force participation rates during the decade prior to application than beneficiaries. Also, we find some evidence of a divergence between these groups, with rejected applicants leaving the labor force at a faster rate than beneficiaries as their application date approaches. One interpretation of these results is that the disability screening process on average separates those who are at least partially motivated by adverse economic circumstances when applying for disability benefits from other applicants.     

Health selection and the process of social stratification: the effect of childhood health on socioeconomic attainment

This study investigates whether childhood health acts as a mechanism through which socioeconomic status is transferred across generations. The study uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to track siblings and to estimate fixed-effects models that account for unobserved heterogeneity at the family level. The results demonstrate that disadvantaged social background is associated with poor childhood health. Subsequently, poor health in childhood has significant, direct, and large adverse effects on educational attainment and wealth accumulation. In addition, childhood health appears to have indirect effects on occupational standing, earnings, and wealth via educational attainment and adult health status. The results further show that socioeconomic health gradients are best understood as being embedded within larger processes of social stratification.     

State and local government wage differentials: An intrastate analysis

Previous estimates of state and local government wage differentials have been typically based on data aggregated across all states, and such aggregation may produce seriously misleading differential estimates. We estimate intrastate earnings differentials for the state and local sectors in Wisconsin, four other midwestern states, and two states outside the midwest. There is substantial variation in the differentials: aggregated differentials can be misleading. Our work also confirms that state and local government labor markets have reduced earnings dispersion and investigates the possibility that higher public sector earnings may attract an “over-qualified” work force. The authors thank the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute for financial support and members of the UWM economics seminar and Sammis White for detailed comments on earlier drafts.     

Bildung und Gesundheitsungleichheit im Alter: Divergenz, Konvergenz oder Kontinuit?t?

It is well established that health at an old age is influenced by education acquired earlier in life. Empirical evidence on the extent of health decline across educational levels, however, is heterogeneous. It remains unclear whether the health gap between individuals with high and low levels of education increases in old age (divergence), decreases (convergence), or whether it remains constant (continuity). In the present study, we investigate the effects of education on health changes with data from two waves (2004, 2007) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) for respondents aged 50?C80. We estimate OLS regression models drawing on 12 indicators of physical, mental and cognitive health. Our aim is to obtain more generalizable results about the age trajectories of health inequality. We find that divergence is the main pattern of health decline across educational levels: The health gap between individuals with high and low educational levels increases for the indicators of grip strength, limitations of general and of instrumental activities of daily living, mobility limitations, depressive symptoms, numerical ability, and time orientation. For single indicators, however, we also observe continuous (chronic diseases, subjective health assessment, memory) and convergent (fluency of speaking) patterns.     

CAN EARLY FAMILY FORMATION EXPLAIN THE LOWER EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT OF U.S. CONSERVATIVE PROTESTANTS?

Using nationally representative data, this article assesses whether the timing of life course transitions (i.e., marriage and childbirth) can explain the lower educational attainment of individuals raised in conservative Protestant (CP) households. A key finding is that early family formation affects educational attainment for both white and black women raised in CP households. For white women, the timing of family formation, net of controls, reduces the negative effect of childhood CP to insignificance. For black women, the timing of family formation reduces but does not eliminate the negative effect. For black men and white men, the negative effect of childhood CP on adult educational attainment is explained away by control variables.     

Labor Supply of Older Men: Does Social Security Matter?

This article presents evidence of a negative and significant relationship between the level of Social Security wealth and the labor force participation of older men. The empirical analysis utilizes a panel data set containing participation, wage, and Social Security information for cohorts defined by birth year and educational attainment from 1967 to 1996. Increases in Social Security wealth levels are found capable of explaining most of the observed decline in labor force participation rates of older men since 1967.     

Family size,father's education,and children's educational attainment in intact white families

One body of previous research has documented a negative relationship between family size and educational attainment (Blau and Duncan 1967; Sewell et al. 1980; Coleman 1988). Another body of research has argued that because parents are likely to act as potential equalizers of attainment gaps among their children, this relationship is likely to vary depending on the level of parental education (Johnson 1972; Zajonc 1976; Griliches 1979). In an attempt to integrate these two bodies of research, this study examines recent GSS data on white men and women from intact families and aged 25 and over. This research finds support for both arguments. The findings suggest that although there is a direct negative relationship between family size and educational attainment, it varies across levels of father's education. The effect of family size on educational attainment turns positive for men when the father's education is at least high school. For women, it is positive only when the father's education is at least a B.A. Additionally, this relationship holds for men born after 1950 and for women born before 1950. This study rationalizes that changing labor market conditions and cultural pressures to be educated have contributed to such differential impacts of father's education on children's educational attainment across cohorts.     

The Economic Consequences of Child Sexual Abuse for Adult Lesbian Women

This study is designed to extend the investigation of the long‐term consequences of child sexual abuse (CSA) into the workplace and to consider the effects on the economic welfare of 1,925 lesbian women from the National Lesbian Health Care Survey. It seeks to develop a two‐stage, least‐squares model that considers simultaneously the effects of child sexual abuse on four spheres of a woman's life—her physical health, mental health, educational attainment, and economic welfare; and to investigate the differential impacts of diverse forms of child sexual abuse on the adult woman's functioning. The CSA survivors experienced adverse health and mental health consequences. The type of CSA experienced was also a significant predictor of a woman's educational attainment and annual earnings.     

Integration of Childhood Immigrants in the Short and Long Run – Swedish Evidence1

Immigrant children are often at a disadvantage at school while they adjust to their new environment. It has been found that the age at immigration of 7 or above represents a sensitive period as regards these children’s school performance for two main reasons: they have passed their prime age for language learning, and their acquisition of subject skills is less efficient while they learn to master the new language. Using Swedish administrative data, we track childhood immigrants born between 1972 and 1976 over time from adolescence (at 16) to adulthood (at 30), and study the role of age at immigration for educational and labor market outcomes. We find that immigration at a sensitive age (compared to a very young age) has a strong negative impact on compulsory school performance, but that the same individuals catch up strongly in terms of final educational attainment. In spite of this educational catching up, however, we find a considerable negative impact on earnings for men. We are able to rule out two potential mechanisms behind this puzzling result: It cannot be explained either by an impact on the chosen field of study or on completion time.     

The effect of breastfeeding on young adult wages: new evidence from the add health

A growing literature in economics has examined the effect of early childhood health investments on adult human capital formation and labor market outcomes. This study is the first to examine the effect of having been breastfed as an infant on young adult earnings. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), ordinary least squares estimates suggest that breastfeeding is associated with a 10–12 % increase in hourly earnings. However, after ensuring common support on observables via propensity score matching and controlling for unmeasured family level heterogeneity common to siblings via family fixed effects, the estimated associations become much smaller and are statistically indistinguishable from zero. We conclude that the benefits of having been breastfed do not appear to extend to the labor market.     

The Impact of Labor Market Structure on Sex Differences in Earnings

This research examines how structural features of a labor market affect the size of the male-female earnings differential in that market. Theoretical predictions are tested using data on the earnings of male and female academics in the US. Measures of labor market structure are shown to be significantly associated with the size of the earnings differential in 56 labor markets corresponding to specific academic disciplines. As predicted, an oversupply of labor within a market and greater career embeddedness in a single organization within a market increased the size of the earnings gap between men and women. Contrary to predictions, greater flows of information in the market and market permeability had no impact on the size of the earnings differential within markets. In addition, higher percentages of women in the market decreased the wage differential within markets. Additional analysis at the individual level found that men were penalized less than women when labor market conditions led to lower wages. Findings generally support the theoretical position that structural characteristics of the labor market affect the ability of employers to engage in salary discrimination against women.     

The Economic Assimilation of African Immigrants in the United States

This article examines the puzzle that the earnings of African immigrants do not match their high qualifications in terms of educational attainment. We apply cohort analysis to compare the economic assimilation patterns of black African immigrants with that of black non‐African immigrants. We find results that are consistent with the idea that the lower earnings of African immigrants are due to greater difficulty with skill transferability. Africans face substantially lower earnings at entry than black natives and black non‐African immigrants, although they close a substantial part of the initial earnings gap over time. Moreover, the earnings gap at entry has narrowed for recent cohorts; and Africans who migrate during childhood and those with no college education face no disadvantage. We also find similar patterns of assimilation in labour supply and participation in welfare programmes, which indicate that Africans face greater challenges at entry but assimilate at a faster rate.     

Cohort Differences in Joint Retirement: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study

The dramatic rise and sustained participation of recent cohorts of women in the labor force has coincided with their increased attachment to the labor market. In this paper we use twelve waves of the Health and Retirement Study (1992-2014) and investigate how married couples belonging to more recent birth cohorts compare with their predecessors in terms of coordinating their retirement decisions. Using a multinomial logit model we estimate the labor force dynamics of dual-earner married couples and find that couples with wives belonging to more recent birth cohorts are less likely to jointly exit the labor force. Further, this declining cohort trend in joint retirement can only partially be explained by commonly observed socio-economic, employment, and health related factors that affect retirement decisions, suggesting an important role for cohort changes in preferences and social norms such as preference for work and attitudes toward gender roles.     

OCCUPATIONAL GROWTH AND THE EXPANSION OF EDUCATIONALLY-RELATED EARNING GAPS

I develop an argument that facilitates understanding of how occupational growth impinges on the relationship between education and earnings. Much of the literature focuses on workers employed at the ends of the occupational hierarchy, whereas my contribution applies to workers positioned all along the occupational hierarchy. I argue that an undersupply of affordable, suitable labor in expanding occupations encourages a division of labor among workers who vary in educational attainment. This division of labor, in turn, leads to greater educationally-related earnings inequality—even among workers who hold similar positions in the occupational hierarchy. Such a development can become pervasive because expanding occupations exist throughout the occupational hierarchy and because educational attainment among workers varies within most occupations. In declining occupations, a different set of conditions pervades, and these conditions facilitate employers' efforts to control their wage-bill by compressing educationally-related earning gaps. A hypothesis is derived from these arguments and tested on a nationally representative sample. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis, suggesting the arguments considered here help explain how the relationship between education and earnings is influenced by whether workers are employed in expanding or in declining occupations. Consequently, this research improves our understanding of how earnings inequality among individuals is linked to structural transformations in the economy.     

Work Incentive and Labor Force Participation after the Senior Citizens Freedom to Work Act of 2000

A larger share of individuals 65 and older have been staying in or returning to the labor force since the late 1980s. Because Social Security was changed from providing incentives for earlier withdrawal from the labor force to providing incentives to remain in the labor market longer, we can expect to find a relationship between the Retirement Earnings Test removal and labor force participation. The findings have implications for welfare policy such that they can increase the portion of older adults who work.     

Controlling for endogeneity in the health-socioeconomic status relationship of the near retired

Although there is a strong correlation between health and socioeconomic status (SES), the direction of causation is not empirically clear. This study a uses a two stage methodology to control for endogeneity. Using data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study, the results show that after controlling for endogeneity, labor force status turns out to be an even more important factor in determining health than in the case where endogeneity is not controlled for. In particular, unemployment generates much higher odds for worse health as measured by both subjective and objective health measures.     

Socioeconomic and Gender Health Disparities in Diabetes: The Lower Middle Income Case of Ghana

While literature theorizing the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES), gender, and health outcomes is robust in high‐income countries, there is less scholarship examining how SES affects men and women in lower middle income countries (LMICs). Focusing on the LMIC case of Ghana, I use Wave 1 of the World Health Organization Study on Global Aging and Adult Health (SAGE) to examine the relationship between SES and diabetes among Ghanaian women and men. Specifically, I examine how key SES measures such as educational attainment, employment status, and income singly and collectively predict the odds of diabetes for Ghanaian men and women. I also examine the explanatory value of the reversal hypothesis, which posits that those of high SES experience higher rates of non‐communicable diseases. Overall, I find that while Ghanaian men experience increased odds of diabetes with increased education, Ghanaian women have higher odds of diabetes compared to men regardless of educational attainment. Understanding health patterns in LMICs like Ghana is important for sociological inquiry on health disparities seeking to incorporate more global perspectives.     

Higher education and challenging work: Open admissions and ethnic and gender differences in job complexity

While there has been much research on the influence of educational attainment on occupational status and earnings, relatively little is known about its impact on other qualities of work, such as job complexity. This article explores how educational credentials affect access to jobs that provide challenging work. To do so it uses longitudinal data on black, Hispanic, and white men and women who attended the City University of New York after it initiated its landmark open-admissions policy in 1970. That program was designed to boost educational attainments among disadvantaged minority students and to enhance opportunities for desirable jobs. Analyses reveal that overall the jobs held by these minorities involved less complex work than those held by whites. These inequalities are explained partly by disparities in educational attainment, but differences in employment sector also are important: the minorities were more often in the public sector, where work was generally less challenging. Gender differences in work complexity are related to the varying distribution of sex-typed jobs in the public and private sectors. Policies such as open admissions add to opportunity in the labor market, but effects are limited by wider institutional conditions.     

Early initiation of marijuana use,education, and earnings of young adults

ABSTRACT

We estimate the relationships between early initiation of marijuana use (i.e., during middle school or high school), educational attainment and performance, and earnings as a young adult. Grounded in a developmental stages theoretical framework, results indicate that early initiation of marijuana use is negatively related to both educational outcomes and earnings, but the estimated relationships for earnings are diminished in models that control for education and other socioeconomic characteristics. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that early marijuana use indirectly affects young adult earnings through its negative effects on educational outcomes. Our results also indicate that early marijuana initiators who grow up in economically disadvantaged families may have worse educational outcomes than their counterparts who do not grow up with economic disadvantages. Reduced education and earnings among young adults could increase the likelihood of the individual and their family suffering economic hardships later in life.