Erika Arenas (UCSB) et al. "Are Remittances a Life Insurance? The Impact of Remittances on Mortality during COVID-19"

Scholars have examined vastly how, in the event of adverse shocks, households rely on geographically-dispersed kin to spread the risks associated with liquidity shortages. In the context of international migration, remittances can become crucial to face these income shocks. Research shows remittances can have a positive impact on health outcomes among migrants’ households left behind; yet, evidence of the insurance role of remittances in adult mortality is inexistent.  Using  COVID-Mortality data published by the INEGI and the Mexican Central Bank, in this paper, we examined the impact of remittances on adult mortality in Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this period, Mexico was the top remittance-receiving country in Latin America and the third in the world, and was among the five countries with the highest COVID-19 mortality. We hypothesized that remittances provided a lifeline for recipient households by decreasing the chances of mortality among their members, before vaccinations were available. 

Marianne Bitler (UCD) et al. "Determinants and Effects of WIC Roll-out: Evidence from Newly Digitized Data from the National Archives"

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program provides eligible low-income, nutritionally at-risk postpartum and pregnant women, infants, and children under age five with nutritious food. The WIC program was created during the War on Poverty in the 1970s, with the first clinic opening in January 1974. WIC is run by a host of non-profit clinics that screen women for nutritional risk and other eligibility. At screening, women obtained either vouchers that could be redeemed at participating stores for specific food items or picked up from distribution sites. Previous work by Hoynes, Page, and Stevens (2011) examined the effect of WIC adoption on birth outcomes using two- way fixed effects models. We have augmented their rollout data with extensive new data from the National Archives on State WIC plans through 1980, allowing us to detect with more granularity when-and-where WIC was implemented. We also bring new methods to deal with detecting pre-trends and obtaining estimates that are robust to treatment effect heterogeneity across places and over time. We find robust evidence that access to WIC in women’s county of residence by the second trimester leads to higher birth weight and a reduction in the probability of low birth weight, with larger effects for Black and other race mothers. For Black mothers, we find that exposure to WIC increases birth weight by around 8.8 grams, on a baseline of 3083 grams, or a 0.28% effect, while it decreases the probability of low birth weight by 0.31 percentage points or 2.1% of the mean. We roughly convert these to treatment on the treated estimates by inflating by the national participation rate for black women in 1986; 36 percent of pregnant black women obtained WIC. This suggests treatment on the treated effects for birth weight of around 25 grams, and for low birth weight of -0.85 percentage points, both clearly economically meaningful. These results hold whether we focus on standard two-way fixed-effect models or newer approaches to deal with treatment effect heterogeneity (e.g., Sun and Abraham, 2021). These are relatively large effects; the magnitudes of the intent-to-treat effects are similar to those for Food Stamps for Blacks found by Almond, Hoynes, and Schanzenbach (2011). Effects for Whites are smaller for birth-weight (4.4 grams) and much smaller and statistically insignificant for low birth weight (-0.05). These findings show WIC reduced disparities between Blacks and Whites in low birth weight by 12 percent. Ongoing work explores potential explanations for these differential findings by race. 

David Brady (UCR) et al. "The Increase in Refugees to Germany and Exclusionary Beliefs and Behaviors"

More than one million refugees migrated to Germany in 2015-2016. The increase in refugees was rapid, visible, and controversial, and varied substantially across German districts. Therefore, it provides unique leverage for analyzing how fractionalization, threat and contact shape the consequences of immigration and ethno-linguistic heterogeneity. We innovatively focus on within-person/within-district change with individual-level panel data and district-level administrative data on refugee shares. Using the German Socio-Economic Panel 2008-2019, we analyze three-way (person, year, district) fixed effects models of six exclusionary beliefs and behaviors. We demonstrate a two-level cross-cutting process that integrates threat and contact theory. As the refugee share increased nationally, concerns about immigration, concerns about social cohesion and far right party support increased. However, the fixed effects models show that local level refugee shares reduced concerns about immigration and far right party support. The models also show rising local refugee shares are not associated with concerns about social cohesion, trust, residential moves and subjective fair tax rates. Thus, districts with fewer refugees actually drove the national-level threat. On balance, there is limited evidence of increasing residential moves, especially where unemployment was rapidly increasing. Overall however, rising district-level refugee shares mostly reduced or did not heighten exclusionary beliefs and behaviors. 

Noli Brazil (UCD) "The Health Implications of Pollution Exposure in Neighborhood Networks Formed by Urban Mobility Flows"

A long line of research has demonstrated that the ecological features of a neighborhood are associated with the life chances of its residents. In the case of environmental conditions, considerable evidence has demonstrated the impact of residential air pollution exposure to a host of health outcomes. This strand of research restricts processes of air pollution exposure to operate only within and between geographically contiguous neighborhoods, similar to an infection spreading from a localized point source. In an increasingly interconnected and mobile society, this assumption is questionable.  Environmental inequalities may be operating at a higher-order level than typically recognized: Unequal exposure and its impacts on health are manifest not only where people live but also where they travel throughout a city. With this project, I will use anonymized mobile phone data to compare air pollution (PM 2.5) exposure in the neighborhoods that residents live in (the residential scale) to those they travel to for daily activities (the network scale) in 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States.  I will then compare the association between air pollution exposure and health outcomes measured at the residential and network scales. Health data are taken from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention PLACES Project. Here, I focus on the health outcomes that have been connected to air pollution levels in the public health literature: asthma, coronary heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. I will also examine neighborhood ethnoracial and socioeconomic inequalities in air pollution exposure and its effects on health outcomes. 

Joni Brown (UCLA) et al. "Sexual Socialization Experiences and Perceived Effects on Sexual and Reproductive Health in Young African American Women"

Socialization is a process whereby people learn the norms and values of society. African American caregivers often engage in socialization processes that teach girls about Black womanhood, and female sexual and reproductive health. African American women experience high rates of adverse sexual and reproductive health outcomes that may be explained in part by socialization processes. The present study investigated the childhood socialization experiences of young Black women, and perceptions of the influence of these experiences on women’s adult sexual and reproductive health attitudes and behaviors. In-depth interviews were conducted with 25 Black women enrolled at a large public university. We identified several themes in their socialization experiences: Endorsement of traditional feminine gender norms/roles; Preparation for prejudice; Promotion of ambition and independence; Promotion of racial pride; Guidance on sexual and reproductive health; Limited engagement in sexual socialization. We also identified themes related to the perceived influence of these experiences, such as the adoption or rejection of caregivers’ socialization messages by participants. These findings, as illustrated in quotes from participants, elucidate sociocultural processes in Black women’s sexual and reproductive health, and provide guidance for how families, educators, and healthcare providers engage with Black women and girls about sexual and reproductive health. 

Tim Bruckner (UCI) et al. "Poverty Reduction and Neighborhood Moves: A Randomized Control Trial of Cash Transfers to Low-Income U.S. Families with Infants"

Black and Hispanic children are much more likely than white children to experience neighborhood poverty. This study uses data from the Baby’s First Years (BFY) randomized trial to examine whether an unconditional cash transfer causes families to make opportunity moves to better quality neighborhoods.  We use Intent to Treat linear regression models to test whether the BFY treatment, of receiving $333/month (vs. $20/month) for three years, leads to moves to neighborhoods of greater childhood opportunity.  Overall, we find no relation between the BFY treatment and neighborhood opportunity across time. However, we find effect modification by maternal baseline health. For mothers with poor self-rated health at baseline, the BFY cash transfer caused improvements in cumulative neighborhood opportunity, compared with the control group. An unconditional cash transfer promotes opportunity moves among mothers with poor health at baseline. 

William Clark (UCLA) & Daichun Yi (Southwestern University of Finance & Economics, China) "Wellbeing Resilience in a Changing Social Environment: A Decade Long Analysis of Subjective Wellbeing in China"

A previous study of subjective wellbeing in China documented relatively rapid increases in overall wellbeing and a seeming reversal of earlier studies which did not find increases in wellbeing concomitant with China’s economic progress. That study showed that good health, being married and having children all contributed to higher levels of subjective wellbeing as did social cohesion and social capital. Now the question is to what extent are the social and economic changes arising from the Covid pandemic and an economic slowdown impacting subjective wellbeing. The paper examines the resilience of wellbeing across rural and urban populations in the context of these changes. The study concludes that although wellbeing declined in the most recent survey data, overall, there is evidence of some resilience. Still, the fallout from recent bubbles in real estate prices, from increased young adult unemployment, and changes in covid responses are an ongoing challenge to institutional policies to increase wellbeing and address inequality. 

Madeline Duhon (UCB) et al. "Complementarities in Human Capital Production: Causal Evidence on Intergenerational Impacts in Kenya"

There is limited experimental evidence on the intergenerational transmission of human capital, and little understanding of how parent human capital and the local schooling environment interact in cognitive and non-cognitive human capital production. This study exploits experimental variation in parent human capital (through earlier school-based deworming) with a large shock to schooling (through extended Covid-related closures) to estimate intergenerational impacts and assess complementarity between parent human capital and schooling. The study first documents improvements in psychological well-being among a sample of over 4,000 Kenyans who received additional exposure to a human capital investment in childhood (in addition to extensive gains in material well-being documented in previous research). Next, the study documents evidence suggestive of health gains among a sample of 3,500 of the adult sample’s 3-8 year old children, and meaningful gains of +0.2 standard deviation units in non-cognitive dimensions among older (school-age) children. Further, the study estimates sizable cognitive gains of +0.27 standard deviations units among older children, gains which are only evident during the pre-Covid period. Following school closures, average cognitive performance declines for all school-age children, with no gains among children of parents who received the human capital investment. We interpret these findings through the lens of a model of child human capital production featuring complementarity between parent human capital and school-based investments. The observed patterns are consistent with the existence of meaningful complementarities in producing child cognitive human capital, while non-cognitive and health gains appear less sensitive to schooling availability. 

Kristen Harknett (UCSF) & Elizabeth Khulman (Harvard) "Predictably Unstable? Precarious Work and Precarious Relationships in the U.S."

Employment and earnings are well-established predictors of relationship dissolution, with many studies demonstrating that men’s employment and earnings stabilize relationships and debating whether women’s employment and earnings have a stabilizing or destabilizing effect. What has gone missing and untested in this research and debate is the role of unpredictable and unstable work schedules. In this paper, we draw on panel data from The Shift Project to examine the relationship between work schedules that are volatile and unpredictable and relationship stability. We expect that men and women who are subject to unstable and unpredictable work schedules will be at higher risk for relationship dissolution. Our paper will present evidence on this relationship and will consider whether the well-established relationship between higher earnings and more stable relationships may be driven in part by job amenities, such as schedule stability and predictability, that often go hand in hand with higher earnings. 

Steven Herrera Tenorio (UCB). "Socio-Spatial Integration, Immigrant Residential Attainment Models, and the `Regional' Question: The Paradoxical Case of Hispanic Immigrants in the U.S. South"

The spatial assimilation and place stratification theories of residential attainment are helpful frameworks to understand immigrant mobility, but they lack the appropriate reworkings that would otherwise explain agency-based motives to remain in more ‘ethnic’ neighborhoods. The former, a variant of the Chicago School ecological model, argues that immigrants, over time, move into less ‘ethnic’ neighborhoods, reflecting their increasing socioeconomic gains. The latter, from a political economy perspective, argues that, because of racist mechanisms from powerful groups that can manipulate space, segmented outcomes by ‘race’ are likely to explain differential outcomes. Using a latent class regression analysis, I offer an alternative perspective of immigrant residential attainment models using American Community Survey data from 2005-2006 to examine the case of Latin American immigrants in the U.S. South–a growing immigrant destination. Preliminary results suggest that in this region such immigrants are predicted into remaining in more ‘ethnic’ neighborhoods, despite socioeconomic gains. 

Jade Jenkins (UCI) et al. "In Search of Dynamic Complementarities Between Early and Later Education: Evidence from North Carolina's Pre-K and K-12 School Funding Reforms"

We extend Johnson & Jackson’s (2019) seminal paper on dynamic complementarities between early and later educational opportunities using modern-day programs in North Carolina (NC). We exploit exogenous variation in both the allocations made to counties for state pre-k funding (NC Pre-K) and K-12 funding allocations made to districts resulting from a court-ordered school funding reform known as the Disadvantaged Student Supplemental Fund (DSSF), both during the mid-2000s. We find that DSSF-induced increases in K-12 per-pupil expenditures had null or possibly negative impacts on student’s fifth-grade academic achievement. In turn, we find no evidence of complementarities with NC Pre-K investments. 

Randall Kuhn (UCLA) et al. "Periodic Assessment of Trajectories of Housing, Homelessness and Health (PATHS)"

The past decade has seen a dramatic rise in the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Unsheltered populations are highly likely to experience adverse health and social exposures, yet research on this vulnerable population remains limited. The Periodic Assessment of Trajectories in Housing, Homelessness, and Health Study (PATHS) study aims to fill this gap by developing a representative, longitudinal cohort of unsheltered PEH in Los Angeles County using an innovative approach that leverages widespread use of cell phone technology. We report on our recruitment methodology and challenges of implementing this study using trauma-informed design principles. We assess the representativeness of our sample in comparison to an annual representative street-based survey. We also report summary findings from monthly surveys, highlighting areas of monthly consistency and variability that offer clues to the advantages of a monthly survey model. We conclude by reflecting on opportunities for future refinement and scale-up. 

David Lawson (UCSB) et al. "Misperception of Peer Beliefs Reinforces Inequitable Gender Norms Among Tanzanian Men"

Gender role ideology, i.e., beliefs about how genders should behave, is shaped by social learning. Accordingly, if perceptions about the beliefs of others are inaccurate this may impact trajectories of cultural change. Consistent with this premise, recent studies report evidence of a tendency to overestimate peer support for inequitable gender norms, especially among men, and that correcting apparent ‘norm misperception’ promotes transitions to relatively egalitarian beliefs. However, supporting evidence largely relies on self-report measures vulnerable to social desirability bias. Consequently, observed patterns may reflect researcher measurement error rather than participant misperception. Addressing this shortcoming, we examine men’s gender role ideology using both conventional self-reported and a novel wife-reported measure of men’s beliefs in an urbanizing community in Tanzania. We confirm that participants overestimate peer support for gender inequity. However, the latter measure, which we argue more accurately captures men’s true beliefs, implies that this tendency is relatively modest in magnitude and scope. Overestimation was most pronounced among men holding relatively inequitable beliefs, consistent with misperception of peer beliefs reinforcing inequitable norms. Furthermore, older and poorly educated men overestimated peer support for gender inequity the most, suggesting that outdated and limited social information contribute to norm misperception in this context.

Adriana Lleras-Muney (UCLA) et al. "Intergenerational Transmission of Lifespan in the US?"

We examine the transmission of lifespan across generations using a unique dataset containing about more than 26 million individuals born between 1880 and 1920. We document new facts about the transmission of lifespan using both absolute and relative mobility measures. Absolute mobility was high: between 45 and 55 percent of individuals lived longer than their parents. It was much higher for women than men and varied over time. Relative measures show high mobility as well but with substantially less variation across time and subpopulations. The intergenerational correlation in lifespan (a measure of persistence rather than mobility) is about 0.09 for both sexes – this low correlation is observed across races, education groups, cohorts, and birth states. Finally, we document that the intergenerational persistence of lifespan is much smaller than the persistence in socio-economic status. Moreover, correlations in lifespan and in education are largely independent of each other, suggesting that mobility in well-being was larger than measures of income alone suggest. 

Juliana Londoño-Vélez & Estefanía Saravia (UCLA). "The Impact of Denying Women a Wanted Abortion"

This paper studies the impact of denying women a wanted abortion, utilizing administrative microdata that encompasses the universe of judicial claims in Colombia. We identify causal effects by leveraging the random assignment of claims to judges. Women seeking abortion care are disproportionately from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. We find a substantial influence of the gender of the assigned judge on access to abortion care, with female judges being 40\% more likely to rule in favor of women. Lastly, we find that abortion denials significantly affect women's childbearing and family composition,  educational attainment, career trajectories, and levels of poverty. 

David Neumark (UCI) et al. "Measuring the Race, Ethnic, and Gender Composition of Company Workforces Using LinkedIn Data"

Stronger enforcement of discrimination laws can help to reduce disparities in economic outcomes with respect to race, ethnicity, and gender in the United States. However, the data necessary to detect possible discrimination and to act to counter it is not publicly available – in particular, data on racial, ethnic, and gender disparities within specific companies. In this paper, we explore and develop methods to use information extracted from publicly available LinkedIn data to measure the racial, ethnic, and gender composition of company workforces. We use predictive tools based on both names and pictures to identify race, ethnicity, and gender. We show that one can use LinkedIn data to obtain reasonably reliable measures of workforce demographic composition by race, ethnicity, and gender, based on validation exercises comparing estimates from scraped LinkedIn data to two sources – ACS data, and company diversity or EEO-1 reports. And we apply our methods to study the race, ethnic, and gender composition of workers who experienced a mass layoff at a large company. 

Heather Royer (UCSB) et al. "Disentangling Sources of Variation in C-Section Rates"

Prior literature documents large disparities in health care practices, utilization, and outcomes across geographies within the United States. Variation in the use of C-sections is a prominent example, however it is unknown the extent of this variation that is due to demand-side factors (e.g., patient risk factors or preferences) versus supply-side factors or "place effects" (e.g., physician practice style or incentives). In this paper, we estimate the share of variation in C-section rates that is attributable to the county of birth. Most of the literature identifying causal effects of place in health care does so by tracking individuals who move across locations. We develop a new approach leveraging closures of obstetric units across the United States between 1989 and 2019, which reallocate mothers to counties of with different C-section rates. We implement this approach using the instrumental variables framework of Abaluck et al. (2021). Our results suggest strong "place-based" effects 90% of the variation in first-birth C-sections is due to the county of birth. 

Michelle Spiegel (Stanford/UCI) et al. "Learning Together? Peer Income Exposure Across the Income Distribution"

Although research indicates that students benefit when they interact with socioeconomically diverse peers, shortcomings in existing administrative data infrastructure limit our knowledge about the household income composition of students’ classmates and schoolmates. We use a unique dataset that links K-12 public school administrative data from Oregon to IRS tax returns filed by students’ families to precisely measure the income distribution of students’ school and class peers. We find that students at the high end of the income distribution have exceptionally skewed peer income distributions, in which a disproportionate share of their peers are also high income. Analogously, low-income students have a disproportionate number of low-income peers, but this disproportionality is modest compared to the relative isolation of students at the highest incomes. Class assignments may exacerbate skewed peer distributions, but school enrollment patterns matter more to peer group composition than class assignments within schools. 

Naomi Sugie (UCI) et al. "Prison Connectivity and Disease Transmission in Neighboring Communities"

While it has been recognized that “closed institutions” like prisons pose health risks to residents, the degree to which these risks spread to surrounding communities is not well understood. Analyzing smartphone movements, we document geographic variation in how connected California communities are to neighboring prisons and find that these linkages spread infectious diseases. We study a prisoner-transfer-induced San Quentin COVID-19 outbreak in June of 2020 as a natural experiment, and document that zip codes connected through prison-worker contact had 13% more new cases in July and 26% more new cases in August compared to demographically-matched controls. This suggests that “closed institutions” are—even during lockdowns—epidemiologically porous, highlighting the need for public health interventions to reduce the unintended consequences of such connections on the spread of infectious disease. 

Sigrid Van Den Abbeele (UCSB) et al. "Geographical Variation in Access To and Utilization of Federally Qualified Health Centers"

Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) are a critical source of safety net primary care across the United States. Hispanic/Latinx individuals comprise almost 40% of the patient population at FQHCs. Over the past several decades, the Latinx population in the U.S. has become more geographically diversified, increasingly settling in suburbs and “new destination” areas. These geographic shifts prompt the question of how Latinx community attributes might be related to access to health services like FQHCs. Prior literature indicates new destinations have fewer FQHCs than established or other destinations but that FQHC supply is greater in areas where levels of White-Non-White residential segregation are higher. This study investigates how the supply of FQHCs varies across Latinx communities and neighborhoods, focusing on two Latinx community attributes: 1. History as a Latinx-receiving community, and 2. Latinx-White residential segregation levels. We combine data on FQHC locations (2019) with census (1990, 2010) and ACS (2015-2019) data on Latinx community (county) and neighborhood (tract) attributes. Using logistic regression, we find that counties with higher levels of Latinx-White residential segregation are more likely to have at least one FQHC, but county destination type (new versus established) is not significantly related to the likelihood of a county having an FQHC.To extend our investigation of FQHC supply in Latinx communities, we will analyze the associations between Latinx-White residential segregation, Latinx destination type, and the tract-level availability of FQHCs. The census tract-level analysis will focus more directly on neighborhood-level manifestations of residential segregation and destination type.  

Romain Wacziarg (UCLA) et al. "Cultural Remittances and Modern Fertility"

We argue that migrants played a significant role in the diffusion of the demographic transition from France to the rest of Europe in the late 19th century. Employing novel data on French immigration from other European regions from 1850 to 1930, we find that higher immigration to France translated into lower fertility in the region of origin after a few decades - both in cross-region regressions for various periods, and in a panel setting with region fixed-effects. These results are robust to the inclusion of a variety of controls, and across multiple specifications. We also find that immigrants who themselves became French citizens achieved lower fertility, particularly those who moved to French regions with the lowest fertility levels. We interpret these findings in terms of cultural remittances, consistent with insights from a theoretical framework where migrants act as vectors of cultural diffusion, spreading new information, social norms and preferences pertaining to modern fertility to their regions of origin.

Melanie Wasserman (UCLA) et al. "The Effects of Gender Integration on Men: Evidence from the U.S. Military"

How do men respond when women first enter an occupation? In 2015, the U.S. military removed one of the final explicit occupational barriers to women in the U.S. by opening all positions to women, including historically male-only combat occupations. This policy change provides a unique opportunity to study the initial gender integration of an occupation. The effects of introducing women into a previously all-male group or occupation are theoretically ambiguous. Increasing gender diversity could leverage complementary skill sets and ideas, boosting individual and team performance. Alternatively, integrating women could create communication obstacles, lead to interpersonal conflict, or incite retaliatory behavior, potentially diminishing both group performance and the performance of men themselves. In this paper, we exploit the staggered integration of women into combat units to estimate the causal effect of the introduction of female colleagues on men’s job performance and satisfaction, using monthly administrative personnel records and rich survey responses measuring workplace climate. We find little evidence that integrating women into previously all-male units negatively impacts men’s performance and behavior. Many of our results are precise enough to rule out small detrimental effects. However, we find that the integration of women leads male soldiers, especially officers, to respond more negatively to questions about their workplace quality, including job satisfaction, organizational effectiveness, and the organization’s ability to address potential incidents of sexual harassment/assault. We discuss how these findings shed light on the role of gender identity concerns in explaining occupational segregation by gender. 

Zhongqi Zheng (UCSB) et al. "A Missing Dimension in Social Vulnerability Assessment: Dynamics of Unsheltered Homeless Population"

Demographic omissions in social vulnerability assessment are not uncommon. Conclusions from incomplete population coverage, however, contributes to potential injustice and marginalization of at-risk segments of society, those in much need of resource allocation and tailored public policy. We consider the unsheltered homeless population as a case study to quantify the underrepresentation of socially vulnerable people in research and decision-making processes. The unsheltered homeless population suffers disproportionately higher levels of direct exposure to natural and human-caused disasters, while their mobility and hidden nature make them invisible with respect to traditional census data collection. We integrate annual government counts with continuously updated, community-contributed information to capture regional spatiotemporal patterns of unsheltered homelessness at a fine geographic level. This study sheds light on potential avenues for more inclusive and accurate assessments in vulnerability research.