Search

Teen mothers in the United States are more likely to give birth to low birth weight babies. Substantial evidence indicates that smoking is a risk factor correlated with low birth weight. Low birth weight is a costly outcome for parents, children, and society at large. This paper examines the causal link between teen smoking behavior and low birth weight. We use a variety of empirical techniques, including fixed effects and a matching estimator, to identify the impact of smoking on babies of teen and nonteen mothers. Both ordinary least squares and matching estimators yield large impacts of smoking on birth weight for teens and adults. However, to the extent that unobservables are fixed over time, they can be controlled using fixed effects. These estimates indicate that the impact of smoking on birth weight is diminished, and there are small differences in the impact of smoking on birth weight between teens and nonteens. JEL Classification: D1, 112, J13, 1. Introduction The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the incidence of low birth weight births (infants weighing less than 2500 grams at birth) is on the [...]

Tastes for associations could influence the structure, conduct and performance of the system of local governments in the US. A model of jurisdiction formation, which considers racial discrimination, argues that prejudiced individuals in a racially mixed area may choose to limit the size of their jurisdiction to meet their taste for disassociation and avoid likely cost efficiencies from school district consolidations. Increasing racial heterogeneity therefore suggests added jurisdictions for these individuals. When the model was tested using state panel data on school districts and special-service districts, it was found that increasing racial heterogeneity of a state population raises the number of school districts. Also, no support was found for the assertion that increasing racial heterogeneity influences the development of special districts.

We examine the implications of additive, homoskedastic errors for models of firm's cost-minimizing behavior. The premise is that some factors unobservable to the econometrician are known to the firm and must satisfy the theoretical restrictions imposed by cost minimization. We analyze additive homoskedastic errors for both the input demand model and the cost share model. We find that this simple error structure is inconsistent with rational behavior if some part of the stochastic component is known to the decision-maker. Input demand models violate nonnegativity and cannot represent homothetic technologies. For cost share systems, nonnegativity is also a potential problem but, surprisingly, concavity can be easily satisfied. An empirical application assesses the practical significance of these results.Key words: Cost minimization; Heteroskedasticity; Input share systems; Input demand systems; Random parameters; Random production models JEL classification: C50

This paper uses unique administrative data to expand the understanding of the role women's intermittency decisions play in the determination of their wages. We demonstrate that treating intermittency as exogenous significantly overstates its impact. The intermittency penalty also increases in the education level of the woman. The penalty for a woman with a high school degree with an average amount of intermittency during six years after giving birth to her first child is roughly half the penalty for a college graduate. We also demonstrate the value of using an index to capture multiple dimensions of the intermittency experience, and we illustrate the importance of firm dynamics in the determination of a woman's wage. JEL classification: J13, J31, J22 Key words: intermittency, administrative data, career interruptions, fertility, labor supply, wage differentials, I. Introduction A vast literature quantifies the labor market penalty associated with a worker who exhibits intermittent labor force attachment. The penalty is typically measured in terms of lower wages [...]

Working Paper 2011-2 March 2011 Abstract: Utilizing linked vital statistics, administrative employer, and state welfare records, the analysis in this paper investigates the determinants of a woman's intermittent labor force [...]

Working Paper 2011-1 March 2011 Abstract: Substantial racial disparities continue to persist in the prevalence of preterm births and low-birth-weight births. Health policy aimed at reducing these disparities could be [...]

Working Paper 2010-2 February 2010 Abstract: During the late 1990s, the convergence of women's labor force participation rates to men's rates came to a halt. This paper explores the degree [...]

Working Paper 2008-8 February 2008 Abstract: Recent trends in the labor force participation of women have brought much public attention to the issue of women opting out. This paper explores [...]