Housing Cost Burden and New Lawful Immigrants in the United States

Housing in the United States constitutes the largest expenditure for many households. Increasing rents and home prices, changes in the mortgage industry, and the growing importance of immigrants in the U.S. housing market underscore the value of examining the economic hardship that housing costs pose for immigrants. As is true for the native-born, immigrants’ allocation of financial resources to housing influences the funds available for savings, investments, survival of emergencies, and the overall economic well-being of children and families. This project employs 2003 national-level data of legal permanent residents from the New Immigrant Survey to examine an outcome lacking sufficient empirical study: the proportion of household income spent on housing. The study examines whether disparities in immigrant housing cost burden by country/region of origin persist after accounting for differences in human capital, stage in the life cycle, assimilation, and other factors. The analyses disaggregate immigrants from Latin America, Asia, Europe and other areas into more nuanced categories. The results document that after controlling for a diverse array of variables, legal immigrants vary widely in housing cost burdens by country/region of origin. These disparities have implications for the future wealth accumulation and long-term financial security of immigrants in the United States.     

Regional Price Parities and Real Regional Income for the United States

The success and expansion of the International Comparison Program (ICP) has led to an increase in interest and effort on the estimation of sub-national price levels and purchasing power parities (PPPs). The ICP highlighted a difficulty that large countries such as Brazil, Russia, India and China face during the price-collection phase, namely how to obtain average prices when there are large disparities in many types of expenditure categories, such as housing prices between rural and urban settings. The fact that such disparities were in evidence led to more research on within-country PPPs, or regional price parities (RPPs). The difference between a RPP and the PPPs is simply that the former are in the same currency, while PPPs are usually converted to a reference country or currency by the exchange rate, such as the United States Dollar or the Euro. This paper describes the methodology used to estimate the RPPs within the United States, and shows their effect on measures of income adjusted to constant dollars, termed real regional incomes.     

The state and structural vulnerability: Policy egalitarianism and household income

The distribution of household income in the United States is remarkably unequal. Stratification researchers predict levels of income in terms of individual characteristics and structural features of the economy and society. These researchers, however, often neglect the role of the state. Political sociologists have begun to examine the impact of the state on aggregate levels of inequality across nations. I build on this literature to explain household income in the United States. Utilizing 2000 IPUMS data, I clarify how household income varies across the sub-national U.S. states according to policy configurations. I find that sub-national states with more egalitarian policies help to buttress the relative incomes of groups vulnerable to low incomes, particularly service workers and single mother families. These results suggest that studies of income and income inequality should consider the role of policies.     

Spatial and Temporal Trends in Multidimensional Poverty in the United States over the Last Decade

This paper undertakes a comprehensive analysis of multidimensional poverty in the United States over the last decade. It provides estimates of multidimensional poverty over more than a decade, from 2008 to 2019, which covers the Great Recession and the recovery following the recession when major policy changes such as the Affordable Care Act were implemented. For the first time, spatial trends in estimates of multidimensional poverty are also provided. We measure annual poverty levels in 4 regions, 50 states and examine the relation between multidimensional poverty and neighborhood characteristics. We find that on average, 13 percent of the United States population was multidimensional poor. Poverty rates were high in the South and the West and among young adults, immigrants and Hispanics. Alternative indices of multidimensional poverty show consistent trends; multidimensional poverty in the United States rose between 2008 and 2010 and then gradually declined. However, more than a quarter of individuals with incomes above the poverty threshold remained multidimensional poor. This underscores the fact that income does not always capture deprivation experienced by individuals. Policies geared towards affordable housing, health insurance and higher education will help reduce multidimensional poverty in the United States.

     

Spatial inequalities in Western cities: A comparison of North American and German urban areas

Since metropolitan areas in North America and Western Europe reflect similar social and economic divisions in society; similar degrees of spatial inequality for social and housing indicators are expected. This proposition was tested for seven cities (four in West Germany, two in the United States and one in Canada) for 1960–61 and 1970–71. Eight of the nine social indicators showed approximately equal inequality scores, once scale differences are controlled. Minority groups in American cities were significantly more spatially concentrated than those in German or Canadian cities. Areas of multiple housing deprivation were more clearly defined in American cities and the populations living in these areas were predominantly minority, old, renters and welfare recipients, a sharp contrast to deprived areas in cities in the other two nations. The German urban social mosaic is becoming more ‘Americanized’ as postwar housing shortages give way to increased homeownership, suburbanization and greater social class segregation.     

Assessing Asset Indices

The use of asset indices in welfare analysis and poverty targeting is increasing, especially in cases in which data on expenditures are unavailable or hard to collect. We compare alternative approaches to welfare measurement. Our analysis shows that inferences about inequalities in education, health care use, fertility, and child mortality, as well as labor market outcomes, are quite robust to the economic status measure used. Different measures—most significantly per capita expenditures versus the class of asset indices—do not, however, yield identical household rankings. Two factors stand out in predicting the degree of congruence in rankings. First is the extent to which expenditures can be explained by observed household and community characteristics. Rankings are most similar in settings with small transitory shocks to expenditure or with little random measurement error in expenditure. Second is the extent to which expenditures are dominated by individually consumed goods, such as food. Asset indices are typically derived from indicators of goods that are effectively public at the household level, while expenditures are often dominated by food, an almost exclusively private good. In settings in which individually consumed goods are the main component of expenditures, asset indices and per capita consumption yield the least similar results.     

Our bodies,our choices: Australian law on foetal personhood

The debate revolving around foetal vs maternal rights has been philosophised for years. It has captured attention internationally with the European Court of Human Rights struggling for over five decades to define personhood, and is still yet to reach a definite formulation. A proposed Law Crimes Amendment Bill (Zoe's Law, 2) is currently fuelling public debate about women's reproductive choices in New South Wales, Australia. The proposed legal bill attempts to redefine a ‘person’ or ‘human being’ by placing a marker on when ‘personhood begins’ namely at 20 weeks or weighing a minimum of 400 g. Similar laws recognising personhood at foetal viability have come into force in the United States of America that clearly show the broader consequences of this kind of legislation as American women now face county-by-county, state-by-state anti-choice legislative activism. Midwives work closely with women and their families giving them the authority to formulate opinions on issues of maternal–foetal conflict. If a law such as this is allowed to pass a number of legal and ethical issues will arise for Australian midwives that could potentially have far reaching implications for them and for the women and families that they provide women centred care for.     

中国老年人储蓄对家庭消费的影响 ——基于CHARLS面板数据的分析

在我国快速老龄化和居民储蓄率居高不下的背景下,结合老年人储蓄偏好和消费特点,构建家庭消费计量分析模型,文章利用CHARLS2011、2013、2015年微观跟踪调查数据,采用工具变量—随机效应模型划分年龄层次和消费类别逐级估计,重点考察老年人储蓄对其家庭消费的影响。研究表明,老年人储蓄水平越高,对家庭消费的促进能力就越强;分城乡来看,农村老年人储蓄对家庭消费的贡献更大;按年龄组别来看,中、低龄老年人储蓄对家庭消费的影响显著,高龄老年人储蓄对家庭消费的影响不显著;按消费类别看,老年人储蓄偏重于家庭基本生活、教育文化、健康等刚性消费支出,城镇和农村老年人储蓄对不同消费类别影响的差异主要表现在日常支出、医疗保健和耐用消费品等方面。此外,研究还发现,老年人拥有房产对家庭消费具有非常明显的提振作用,家庭收入和老年人借贷对家庭消费的贡献显著。     

Demographic change,rising earnings inequality,and the distribution of personal well-being, 1959–1989

This paper uses new methods to determine the sources of the sharp fall and then the steep rise in personal income inequality between 1959 and 1989. The increase in the proportion of single-head families tended to boost inequality over the entire period. Forty percent of the reduction in income inequality in the 1960s occurred because of the decline in earnings inequality among male heads of families; more than one-third of the increase in inequality after 1969 occurred because inequality in male earnings soared. Since 1979 females’ gains in earnings have increased inequality because these gains have been concentrated increasingly in families with high incomes     

The determinants of migration between standard metropolitan statistical areas

The primary purpose of this paper is to analyze the “determinants” of migration between Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSA’s) in the United States. The magnitudes in which various factors have influenced inter-SMSA migration are estimated both for the country as a whole and for individual SMSA’s. The “migration elasticities” estimated for individual SMSA’s are in turn used to test several additional hypotheses concerning migrant behavior. Other similar migration studies have found “wrong” signs or insignificant coefficients on certain variables a priori thought to play a crucial role in the migration process. Finally, we present clues to the causes of such “surprising” results.     

Household structure and housing needs

This paper is mainly derived from the material presented in the preceding article by S. P. Brown. Indeed, while the previous analysis is of considerable intrinsic interest, the hypothetical population was constructed and its family distribution was shown for the purpose of providing a basis for estimates of housing needs. For several reasons it appeared to be essential to have such a basis. First, any housing programme has to take the future, as well as the present, distribution of households by type and size into account. Secondly, such a programme has to be designed so as not to prevent household formation—there should be dwellings for all potential households, so that involuntary doubling-up need not occur. Thirdly, most residential areas should have dwellings for an eventually stable population, that is, for one which has variety of age groups and of household types, and also fair stability of housing demand. Estimates of the distribution of potential ‘households’ could be derived from the ‘family’ distribution of the hypothetical population which reflects current demographic trends. Thus although this population is a ‘hypothetical’ one, it provides a realistic premise for considering housing needs, and because it is a ‘stationary’ one, it provides an especially suitable premise. Moreover, since the demographic characteristics of its ‘families’ and therefore of its potential households were established in far greater detail than has ever been the case in sample surveys of existing households, it was possible to classify households in the terms which appear to be most appropriate for the first draft of a housing programme, irrespective of social and economic variations in demand.

The first stage in following up Mr Brown's analysis was the conversion of ‘families’ into ‘households’. Two examples of the possible household distribution of the hypothetical population are presented. Example A, which gives a realistic, but not extreme, picture of the conversion of families into households, is used for the subsequent detailed analysis, while broader figures for distribution B are also included.

In the second stage the various types of household had to be distinguished. For estimating housing needs, two interrelated criteria of household classification are relevant—first, the stage in the life of a household, especially appropriate in considering space requirements; secondly, the age composition of households, which largely determines the type of dwelling needed.

The detailed distribution of households by size and type, based on this classification, is further translated into a distribution of dwellings by type and size. For this purpose, additional assumptions about the number of rooms and the type of dwelling needed by households of various types are introduced and applied to the hypothetical population, both to household distributions A and B. These assumptions are not based on accepted standards, nor do they suggest standards. They are merely used for the purpose of illustrating a possible method of estimating housing needs on the basis of a detailed picture of household structure. They are further designed to represent one possible compromise between economy in dwelling distribution, on the one hand, and flexibility of space for individual households, on the other.

In the final sections of the paper, the implications of the dwelling distributions here presented are discussed in relation to household mobility, and also with reference to the necessity for reconciling short-term and long-term housing needs in any housing programme.     

Young Adulthood as a Factor in Social Change in the United States

This essay compares family change during two periods of social and historical upheaval in the United States: the industrial revolution of the late nineteenth century and the more recent family changes of the late twentieth century. Despite the manifest social and demographic changes brought about by the industrial revolution, some aspects of family life remained unchanged. Almost all new families formed in the United States before and during the industrial revolution were same‐race heterosexual marriages. In the past half‐century, however, family diversity has become the new rule; interracial marriages and extramarital cohabitation have both risen sharply. A key to understanding the lack of family diversity in the past and the recent rise in diversity is the changing nature of young adulthood.     

中老年家庭灾难性医疗支出的测度及影响因素 ——基于CHARLS数据的实证

基于2011-2015年三期平衡面板数据,对中老年家庭的灾难性医疗支出进行测度并分析其影响因素。研究发现:我国中老年家庭灾难性医疗支出发生率在考察期内进一步扩大,差距也进一步上升。以家庭可支付能力的40%为灾难性医疗支出的界定标准,则在2015年其发生率依然高达25.4%,平均差距为0.069,相对差距为0.272。引入安德森医疗服务利用模型对影响因素进行分析,结果显示家中有住院、门诊及残障人员更容易发生灾难性医疗支出,经济状况对灾难性性医疗支出发生起着显著作用,总体而言灾难性医疗支出具有"亲贫"效应,越是贫困的家庭越容易发生灾难性医疗支出。据此,文章提出应该采取分类管理的措施,通过发放免费医疗服务券、强化医疗费用控制等政策建议来切实降低灾难性医疗支出的发生。     

Family income at the bottom and at the top: Income sources and family characteristics

Attention has recently been focused on wealth as a source of long-term economic security and on wealth ownership as a crucial aspect of the racial economic divisions in the United States. This literature, however has been concerned primarily with the wealth gap between poor and middle-class families, and between the white and black middle class. In this paper, we investigate the incomes of families at the top and bottom of the family income distribution. We examine the sources of income and the demographic characteristics of these high-income and low-income families using family level data from the 1988 to 2003 Current Population Surveys.     

Trends in Spouses’ Shared Time in the United States, 1965–2012

Despite major demographic changes over the past 50 years and strong evidence that time spent with a spouse is important for marriages, we know very little about how time with a spouse has changed—or not—in the United States. Using time diary data from 1965–2012, we examine trends in couples’ shared time in the United States during a period of major changes in American marriages and families. We find that couples without children spent more total time together and time alone together in 2012 than they did in 1965, with total time and time alone together both peaking in 1975. For parents, time spent together increased between 1965 and 2012, most dramatically for time spent with a spouse and children. Decomposition analyses show that changes in behavior rather than changing demographics explain these trends, and we find that the increases in couples’ shared time are primarily concentrated in leisure activities.     

The malleability of fertility-related attitudes and behavior in a filipino migrant sample

The malleability of fertility-related attitudes and behavior was studied by analyzing data collected from cross-sectional groups of Filipino migrants who had lived in the United States for varying lengths of time, in conjunction with data from a comparison group of Caucasians from the Filipinos’ neighborhoods. With increasing number of years lived in the United States, Filipino migrants’ fertility-related knowledge, attitudes, and desires became increasingly similar to those of the Caucasian group, but their contraceptive behavior did not. While approximately equal numbers of Filipinos and Caucasians were contracepting, Filipino couples regardless of duration of stay in the United States were using less effective methods with less regularity. Despite these contraceptive behavior patterns, Filipino migrants perceived that they would have 0.32 fewer children in the United States than they would have had had they remained in the Philippines. By far the most predominant reason given by Filipino respondents for changing fertility patterns in the United States was the difficulty of obtaining child care in the new environment.     

The marginal cost of public funds with an aging population

"As populations in the United States and other advanced economies grow older, the burden of social security and health care financing is expected to rise markedly. Payroll, income, and other taxes on working populations are projected to rise accordingly. The marginal welfare cost to workers of social security and other public expenditures is analyzed within the context of a two-period life cycle model. By relaxing separability assumptions that have become common in the literature, the theoretical structure properly incorporates the effect of these public expenditures on labor supply. Comparative statics results indicate that changing age structure is likely to raise the marginal welfare to workers of social security, education, and other public expenditures. Illustrative calculations for the United States confirm this result, suggesting that the cost to workers of incremental social security benefits may easily double by 2025-2050."     

‘Agricultural Poverty’ and the Expansion of Artisanal Mining in Sub-Saharan Africa: Experiences from Southwest Mali and Southeast Ghana

Why do people engage in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM)—labour-intensive mineral extraction and processing activity—across sub-Saharan Africa? This paper argues that ‘agricultural poverty’, or hardship induced by an over-dependency on farming for survival, has fuelled the recent rapid expansion of ASM operations throughout the region. The diminished viability of smallholder farming in an era of globalization and overreliance on rain-fed crop production restricted by seasonality has led hundreds of thousands of rural African families to ‘branch out’ into ASM, a move made to secure supplementary incomes. Experiences from Komana West in Southwest Mali and East Akim District in Southeast Ghana are drawn upon to illustrate how a movement into the ASM economy has impacted farm families, economically, in many rural stretches of sub-Saharan Africa.     

户籍管制放松、就读地选择与进城家庭教育支出

本文利用中国家庭收入项目调查数据(CHIP2007),运用Two-Part模型研究户籍管制放松是否影响以及如何影响有7~16岁在读子女进城家庭的教育支出行为。研究发现,户籍管制放松会影响进城家庭子女就读地选择;对于有子女在城市就读的进城家庭,户籍管制放松对其教育支出水平的影响取决于家庭收入,放松户籍管制将会降低低收入进城家庭的教育支出份额,但会提高高收入进城家庭的教育支出份额,具体影响大小因家庭收入水平的不同而存在差异;在总样本均值处,户籍管制放松1个百分点,进城家庭教育支出将减少1.3945个百分点。在推进新型城镇化建设的背景下,放松户籍管制的意义不仅在于促进教育公平,更在于加快人口城镇化步伐、改善进城家庭消费结构和提振国内消费。     

A comparison of the determinants of white and nonwhite interstate migration

The primary objective of this study is to present an explanation of the interstate migratory movements of white and nonwhite persons which occurred over the period 1955–1960. The study is similar to several other recent studies in that we estimate the magnitudes in which various factors have influenced interstate or interregional migration in the United States. It differs from earlier studies in two important respects. First, we estimate and compare the magnitudes in which certain factors have influenced both white and nonwhite interstate migration. Second, unlike previous studies, many of which have made “country-wide” estimates of the determinants of migration, we have disaggregated data to the state level and obtained white and nonwhite “migration elasticities” for every state. These elasticities are in turn used to test several additional hypotheses relating to racial and regional differences in the elasticities themselves. We argue that discrimination against nonwhites and/or differences in “social milieu” between South and nonsouth provide a unifying explanation for most of the observed differences in white and nonwhite migration elasticities.