RESEARCH

A full CV is available here. 

SOCIOECONOMIC MOBILITY IN THE LONG RUN

One of my current projects examines long-run patterns in socio-economic mobility, especially intergenerational mobility, and its relationship to economic inequality and to dimensions of health.  This work draws on evidence from the Utah Population Database, a unique, multi-generational linked data set housed at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.

• Maloney, Thomas N. and Ken R. Smith, “Family Structure and the Transmission of Economic Status through Fathers and Mothers : Evidence from the Utah Population Database,” presented at Workshop on Intergenerational Mobility, Gender and Family Formation in the Long Run, Oslo, Norway, June 2019.

• Maloney, Thomas N., and Ken R. Smith, “Parental Loss, Economic Inequality, and Intergenerational Mobility in the Long Run:  Evidence from the Utah Population Database,” presented at the meetings of the Social Science History Association, Phoenix, AZ, November 2018.

TEACHERS' UNIONS AND SCHOOL PERFORMANCE

With my Utah colleague Eunice Han, I am investigating the impact of teachers' unions on the performance of students and on other aspects of school functioning.  

• Han, Eunice S. and Thomas N. Maloney, "Teachers Unions and Public Education during the Great Polarization," in von Arnim and Stiglitz, eds., The Great Polarization: How Ideas, Power, and Policies Drive Inequality. New York: Columbia University Press, 2022.

• Han, Eunice S. and Thomas N. Maloney, "Teacher Unionization, Socioeconomic Status, and Student Performance in the United States,"American Journal of Education 128:2 (Feb. 2022), p. 281-325.

•  Han, Eunice S. and Thomas N. Maloney, “Teacher Unionization and Student Academic Performance: Looking beyond Collective Bargaining," Labor Studies Journal (published online 10/24/19).

AFRICAN-AMERICAN ECONOMIC HISTORY AND RACIAL INEQUALITY

My work on African American economic history began when I was a graduate student at the University of Michigan, working under Warren Whatley.  There I became involved in his project using personnel records to examine the experiences of black workers at the Ford Motor Company and the AM Byers Company. 

• "Racial Segregation, Working Conditions, and Workers' Health: Evidence from the A.M. Byers Company, 1916-1930," Explorations in Economic History 35:3 (July 1998).

• "Making the Effort: The Racial Contours of Detroit's Labor Markets, 1920-1940,"(co-author: Warren Whatley) Journal of Economic History 55:3 (September 1995).

My dissertation work examined the effect of personnel policies on the integration of black workers into other Northern industries.  

• "Personnel Policy and Racial Inequality in the Pre-World War II North," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 30:2 (Autumn 1999).

• "Degrees of Inequality: The Advance of Black Male Workers in the Northern Meat Packing and Steel Industries Before World War II," Social Science History 19:1 (Spring 1995).

I have constructed data sets linking the 1920 US Census to World War I Selective Service Registration Records (in the old days of microfilm and hand-linking) to study occupational mobility among African Americans in Cincinnati, Ohio in the late 1910s.

• "Ghettos and Jobs in History: Neighborhood Effects on African American Occupational Status and Mobility in World War I-Era Cincinnati, Ohio," Social Science History 29:2 (Summer 2005), p. 241-268.

• "Migration and Economic Opportunity in the 1910s: New Evidence on African American Occupational Mobility in the North," Explorations in Economic History 38:1 (January 2001).

I have also examined broader conditions of black migration and economic outcomes in the 20th century and, with Scott Carson, anthropometric evidence on changes in African American health in Ohio in the 1800s.

• Maloney, Thomas N., and Scott Alan Carson, "Living Standards in Black and White: Evidence from the Heights of Ohio Prison Inmates, 1829-1913," Economics and Human Biology 6:2 (July 2008), p. 237-251.

• "Higher Places in the Industrial Machinery?: Tight Labor Markets and Black Male Occupational Advance in the 1910s," Social Science History 26:3 (Fall 2002).

• "African American Migration to the North: New Evidence for the 1910s," Economic Inquiry 40:1 (January 2002).

IMMIGRATION

My work on immigration focuses mainly on Mexican migration to Utah in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.  It connects to my work on African American economic history through the consideration of how geographic mobility and economic outcomes intersect, and how these forces affect inequality across race-ethnicity lines.  It also grew out of my engagement with the Tanner Center for Human Rights and the Center's 2008 conference on immigration.  That conference produced an edited volume (which I co-edited with Kim Korinek).

• Migration in the 21st Century: Rights, Outcomes, and Policy. New York: Routledge, 2010. (Co-editor: Kim Korinek, Department of Sociology, University of Utah)

• "Immigration in the Early Twenty-First Century: Lessons from a Multidisciplinary Perspective" (co-author: Kim Korinek, Department of Sociology, University of Utah), in Maloney and Korinek (2010).

• "Legal Status and Economic Mobility among Immigrants in the Early Twenty-First Century: Evidence from the 'New Gateway' of Utah" (co-author: Thomas Kontuly, Department of Geography, University of Utah) in Maloney and Korinek (2010.)

The Tanner Center efforts gave rise to an interdisciplinary research group at the University of Utah, which received funding from the Russell Sage Foundation to study the political, social, and economic incorporation of migrants in Utah.  My work on this project, co-authored with Ming Wen, examined the impact of neighborhood context on health (as measured by BMI) for documented and undocumented immigrants.

• Wen, Ming and Thomas N. Maloney, "Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status and BMI Differences by Immigrant and Legal Status: Evidence from Utah", Economics and Human Biology 12 (2014), p. 120-131.

• Wen, Ming, and Thomas N. Maloney, "Latino Residential Isolation and the Risk of Obesity in Utah: The Role of Neighborhood Socioeconomic, Built-Environmental, and Subcultural Context," Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. 13:6 (December 2011), pp. 1134-41.

OTHER TOPICS

I have recently co-authored a review article examining interconnections between economic and political inequality, with Juliet Carlisle of the Department of Political Science at the University of Utah:

• Carlisle, Juliet E., and Thomas N. Maloney, "The Evolution of Economic and Political Inequality: Minding the Gap," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 378 (published online Jun 26, 2023).

With a former student, Ana Takahashi, and co-author Shingo Takahashi, I have examined gender inequality in the academic labor market in Japan:

• Takahashi, Ana Maria, Shingo Takahashi, and Thomas N. Maloney, “Gender Gaps in STEM in Japanese Academia: The Impact of Research Productivity, Outside Offers, and Home Life on Pay,” The Social Science Journal 55:3 (September 2018), p. 245-72.

Ken Smith, Heidi Hanson and I have used Utah Population Database data to study socioeconomic aspects of the fertility transition in Utah.  Some of this work has been incorporated into international comparative analysis (lead author: Martin Dribe).

• Dribe, Martin, Marco Breschi, Alain Gagnon, Danielle Gauvreau, Heidi A. Hanson, Thomas N. Maloney, Stanislao Mazzoni, Joseph Molitoris, Lucia Pozzi, Ken R. Smith, and Helene Vezina (2017) “Socioeconomic Status and Fertility Decline: Insights from Historical Transitions in Europe and North America,” Population Studies 71:1, p. 3-21. 

• Maloney, Thomas N., Heidi Hanson, and Ken R. Smith, “Occupation and Fertility on the Frontier: Evidence from the State of Utah,” Demographic Research 39 (Jan – June 2014), p. 853-886.