Economic Racism: A Look at Rental Prices in 1930
By Basel Fakhoury
The Great Migration caused massive demographic changes in Northeastern and Midwestern cities as African Americans moved from the South to the North. These changes led to economic discrimination and segregation within northern cities. This paper compares African American and white rental prices in four major cities: Chicago, Detroit, New York City, and Philadelphia in an effort to see how this discrimination and segregation affected rental prices. The results consistently show that in the most precise geographic area, prices rise as the concentration of blacks in those neighborhoods rise, which I believe is a result of overcrowding.
Advisor: Patrick Bayer | JEL Codes: J1, J11, J15, R31 | Tagged: Economic Discrimination, Housing Markets, Segregation, The Great Migration
Job Choices, Flexibility and Maternal Labor Force Participation
By Samantha Cox
While there are countless studies concerning the effects of various variables on female labor force participation, there are still many unexamined intricacies involved in a woman’s choice to enter, re-enter or leave the work force. This paper attempts to extend on previous research and examine how the flexibility of a woman’s job influences her return to work after the birth of her first child. The findings support the results found in previous models which find a relationship between family size, hourly wage rate, other household income and age at first birth. The results further sought to address the elusive concept of culture’s effect on a woman’s labor decisions by using the woman’s religiosity. Most intrical to this research is the creation of two flexibility indices, one regarding occupation choice and one regarding industry choice, and the varying effect of these variables as well as the aforementioned explanatory variables over time. Using hazard analysis, a positive, significant relationship was established between the flexibility indices and the dependent variable when the influence of time was held constant. Also found was a positive relationship linking the likelihood of a woman returning to work after the birth of her first child, considering she has not already done so, with the interaction of the flexibility indices over time. Only the term interacting with the industry index was found to be significant.
Advisor: Marjorie McElroy, Michelle Connolly | JEL Codes: D1, J13, J24 | Tagged: Economics, Hazard/Survival Models, Industry, Labor Decisions, Maternity, Occupation, Women
How Do Different Parental Beliefs and Parenting behaviors Affect Students’ College Academic Performance?
By Zifan Lin
I examine the differences between Asian Americans and Caucasian Americans with respect to parental beliefs, parenting behaviors, and college academic achievement. The results suggest that 1) there is a strong causal effect of study time on college performance, 2) parental strictness and emphasis on education distinguish Asian American students from Caucasian American students in their choice of a major, study effort, and self-motivation, all of which determine college GPA, and 3) an expanded list of parental control measures and self-motivation measures should be introduced in future research to effectively explain the ethnicity effect on study effort and college academic outcomes.
Advisor: Peter Arcidiacono, Marjorie McElroy | JEL Codes: I2, J10, J15, J22 | Tagged: Academic Achievement, Asian, Education Economics, Instrumental Variables Regressions, Study Time
The Nurture Effect: Like Father, Like Son. What about for an Adopted Child? A Study of Korean-American Adoptees on the Impact of Family Environment and Genes
By Suanna Seung-yun Oh
I investigate the influences of family environment and genes on children’s educational outcomes by working with data on Korean American adoptees and their non-adoptive siblings. I make use of the natural experiment setting where children were quasi-randomly assigned to families. From Sacerdote’s discussion of the three different approaches of analyzing the data, I derive a single-equation model that encompasses the three approaches as a few of its specific cases. The first part of my analysis identifies the causal effect of being assigned to a certain family environment. The second part of my analysis looks into causes of the differences between the educational attainment of adoptees and biological children, adding to the economists’ discussion on the relative importance of nature and nurture.
Advisor: Marjorie McElroy | JEL Codes: J, J12,J13, J24 | Tagged: Adoption, Child Development, Education, Environmental Influence
Female Surname Choice: Historical, Cultural, and Branding Influences at Duke University
By Corinne Grzbowski
Female surname choice at marriage depends on a range of historical, cultural, and branding factors. Two of the three datasets are administrative datasets from the Duke University Alumni Association (DAA), which include every female Duke alumnae from 1960-2000. The third dataset comes from a survey administered to Duke alumnae. We find that the fraction of ―keepers,‖ women who retain their surname instead of taking their husband‘s name, has increased since the 1970s, with a statistically significant peak in the undergraduate class of 1990. We also find evidence of branding: women who spend time developing their name through higher education or a more visible career are more likely to keep their surname upon marriage.
Advisor: Marjorie McElroy | JEL Codes: J19
Entering the Campus Courtship Culture: Factors that Influence College Students‘ Relationship Types
By Sott Casale
Drawing on data from a 2007 random sample of Duke University seniors (369 males and 381 females), this paper analyzes individual factors that influence whether men and women were more likely to engage in the hook-up culture or an exclusive romantic relationship (ERR) as compared to doing nothing. There is substantial research to support that relationship styles are changing on college campuses as students delay marriage and maintain more liberalized views on sex before marriage. The economic theory of marital-specific capital may provide some insight into why students on college campuses are developing more casual relationships as time becomes an important factor. In this college environment, student characteristics as well as personal beliefs and perceptions about these particular courtship styles may influence whether a college student will be hooking-up or in an exclusive romantic relationship his or her junior and senior year. Results from this study indicate that students on financial aid, a time variable, will be less likely to be in an exclusive romantic relationship or hook-up during their junior or senior year as compared to doing nothing. In addition, although it is difficult to attribute causality for peer effects, Duke students who believe a higher percentage of their friends hook-up will also be more likely to hook-up. Also, Duke students who have their first intercourse at a older age and are more religious are less likely to hook-up. Finally, students are persistent in their relationship behavior, meaning that their behavior junior year is a strong predictor of behavior senior year.
Advisor: Marjorie McElroy | JEL Codes: J12,
Maternal Labor Decisions and the Effects on Adolescent Risky Behavior
by Stephen M. LaFata
Abstract
This paper examines the effects of maternal employment on the decisions of
adolescents to engage in risky behavior. I attempt to control for possible endogeneity of
maternal employment by implementing instrumental variables. Ultimately, except for low
SES families, maternal labor is found to have no statistically significant effects on adolescent
risky behavior. Though low SES adolescents are found to benefit from a working mother,
this may be a result of endogeneity; possible endogeneity controls through instrumental
variables are ineffective, opening the door to future research with better endogeneity
controls.
Professor Marjorie B. McElroy, Faculty Advisor
JEL Codes: J1, J23,
Occupation Segregation and Gender Earnings Differentials in Slovenia
by Arup Banerjee
Abstract
In communist Europe, households needed at least two breadwinners to maintain a
stable household income. Due to the relatively equal wage rate between men and women,
there was a small, if any, wage gap between the two genders. Women and men chose
different industries to work in due to their physical and mental capabilities, which most
times would segregate the workforce based on genderTthus, occupational segregation.
After the fall of communism, these economies transitioned to a market based one. In this
transition, wages become less standard and the wage gap between men and women
became apparent. In some transition economies, occupational segregation has been
shown to account for some of this gap. This study conducts an analysis of Slovenia’s
gender wage gap. To date, there have been few studies on the late transition economies
and none with a focus on Slovenia. Using the Oaxaca-Blinder regression analysis of wage
differentials, it studies Slovenia’s economy using a sample from the Statistical Register,
which contains 53,494 persons from 2001. The study shows that in Slovenia while there
is occupational segregation amongst most industries, this phenomenon does not
significantly account for any proportion of the overall gender wage gap.
Professor Peter Arcidiacono, Faculty Advisor
JEL Codes: J16, O52,
The Senegalese Experience: Rethinking Fertility Theory for Highly Religious Societies
by Corinne S. Low
Abstract
Despite improvements, traditional fertility theory still remains unprepared to cope with developing countries, such as Senegal, where deep religious beliefs dictate a passive acceptance of natural fertility. Because of an unwillingness to use modern contraception, factors that can reduce fertility in these societies will be primarily factors that influence natural fertility. Particularly, my study finds that age at first marriage, cultural taboos against sex while breastfeeding, living with extended families, and extended periods of breastfeeding can all reduce family size. Education is found to increase fertility at low levels because it increases fecundity, but reduce fertility at higher levels. It also acts through a multitude of indirect pathways, clearly modeled for the first time in this paper.
Professor Connel Fullenkamp, Faculty Advisor
JEL Codes: J13, N97, Z12
