Monthly Archive for September, 2011

Reading, PA Edges out Flint as City With Largest Poverty Rate

Published by ljridley on September 27, 2011 in Human Capital, Labor & Wealth.

Via the New York Times:

Reading, Pa., Knew It Was Poor. Now It Knows Just How Poor.
By: Sabrina Tavernise
Published: September 26, 2011

Reading began the last decade at No. 32. But it broke into the top 10 in 2007, joining other places known for their high rates of poverty like Flint, Camden, N.J., and Brownsville, Tex., according to an analysis of the data for The New York Times by Andrew A. Beveridge, a demographer at Queens College.

Now it is No. 1, a ranking that the mothers at the day care center here say does not surprise them, given their first-hand knowledge of poverty-line wages, which for a parent and two children is now $18,530.

Full article
Cities With the Highest Poverty Rates in 2010 (Graphic)

Education at a Glance 2011: OECD Indicators

Published by ljridley on September 27, 2011 in Culture, Values and Attitudes and Human Capital, Labor & Wealth.

Source: OECD

From report website:

Across OECD countries, governments are having to work with shrinking public budgets while designing policies to make education more effective and responsive to growing demand.

The 2011 edition of Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators enables countries to see themselves in the light of other countries’ performance. It provides a broad array of comparable indicators on education systems and represents the consensus of professional thinking on how to measure the current state of education internationally.

The indicators show who participates in education, how much is spent on it, and how education systems operate. They also illustrate a wide range of educational outcomes, comparing, for example, student performance in key subjects and the impact of education on earnings and on adults’ chances of employment.

The Excel™ spreadsheets used to create the tables and charts in this book are available via the StatLinks printed in this book.

Report website
Full report (PDF)

2010 American Community Survey Single Year Estimates

Published by ljridley on September 27, 2011 in Data.

From the news release:

THURSDAY, SEPT. 22, 2011: The U.S. Census Bureau today released findings from the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS), the most relied-on source for up-to-date socioeconomic information every year. The release covers more than 40 topics, such as educational attainment, income, health insurance coverage, occupation, language spoken at home, nativity, ancestry and selected monthly homeowner costs.

The estimates are available in detailed tables for the nation, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, every congressional district, every metropolitan area, and all counties and places with populations of 65,000 or more. See the Census Bureau’s American FactFinder database to find statistics for your area. Selected high-level highlights can be found here.

Child well-being in the UK, Spain and Sweden

Published by ljridley on September 16, 2011 in Family, Fertility & Children.

Child well-being in the UK, Spain and Sweden: The role of inequality and materialism
By: Ipsos Mori and Agnes Nairn
Source: UNICEF UK

From Summary:

This research reveals how children and families in different societies tackle complicated issues in their everyday lives in very different ways. It clearly exposes some of the specific pressures faced by children and families in the UK, uncovering new dimensions to family life, and sheds new light on the motivations and responses of children and families when dealing with inequality and materialism.

Our findings paint a complex picture of the relationship between well-being, materialism and inequality across Spain, Sweden and the UK. Time with family and friends and activities outside the home emerge as central to children’s subjective well-being, and material goods appear to be used by children often as social enablers rather than as direct contributors to their own happiness.

Summary (PDF)
Full Report (PDF)

New Working Papers from the NBER

Published by ljridley on September 12, 2011 in Working Papers.

Employment, Wages and Voter Turnout
by Kerwin Kofi Charles, Melvin Stephens Jr.
Abstract; PDF

“Healthy, Wealthy and Wise?” Revisited: An Analysis of the Causal Pathways from Socio-economic Status to Health
by Till Stowasser, Florian Heiss, Daniel McFadden, Joachim Winter
Abstract; PDF

Unemployment in Latin America and the Caribbean
by Laurence M. Ball, Nicolas De Roux, Marc Hofstetter
Abstract; PDF

Substitution Between Individual and Cultural Capital: Pre-Migration Labor Supply, Culture and US Labor Market Outcomes Among Immigrant Women
by Francine D. Blau, Lawrence M. Kahn
Abstract; PDF

The Importance of the Meaning and Measurement of “Affordable” in the Affordable Care Act
by Richard V. Burkhauser, Sean Lyons, Kosali I. Simon
Abstract; PDF

The Exact Law of Large Numbers for Independent Random Matching
by Darrell Duffie, Yeneng Sun
Abstract; PDF

A Simple Nonparametric Approach to Estimating the Distribution of Random Coefficients in Structural Models
by Jeremy T. Fox, Kyoo il Kim
Abstract; PDF

Equilibrium Wage and Employment Dynamics in a Model of Wage Posting without Commitment
by Melvyn G. Coles, Dale T. Mortensen
Abstract; PDF

Exam High Schools and Academic Achievement: Evidence from New York City
by Will Dobbie, Roland G. Fryer, Jr.
Abstract; PDF

Would People Behave Differently If They Better Understood Social Security? Evidence From a Field Experiment
by Jeffrey B. Liebman, Erzo F.P. Luttmer
Abstract; PDF

Labor Market Flows in the Cross Section and Over Time
by Steven J. Davis, Jason Faberman, John C. Haltiwanger
Abstract; PDF

A Community College Instructor Like Me: Race and Ethnicity Interactions in the Classroom
by Robert Fairlie, Florian Hoffmann, Philip Oreopoulos
Abstract; PDF

Communitywide Database Designs for Tracking Innovation Impact: COMETS, STARS and Nanobank
by Lynne G. Zucker, Michael R. Darby, Jason Fong
Abstract; PDF

Housing Busts and Household Mobility: An Update
by Fernando Ferreira, Joseph Gyourko, Joseph Tracy
Abstract; PDF

Heaping-Induced Bias in Regression-Discontinuity Designs
by Alan I. Barreca, Jason M. Lindo, Glen R. Waddell
Abstract; PDF

Comparison Friction: Experimental Evidence from Medicare Drug Plans
by Jeffrey R. Kling, Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir, Lee Vermeulen, Marian Wrobel
Abstract; PDF

Racial, Ethnic and Gender Differences in Physical Activity
by Henry Saffer, Dhaval M. Dave, Michael Grossman
Abstract; PDF