Removing Hidden Barriers: Using CHAT to Examine How Women Shape Their Military Experience

Removing Hidden Barriers: Using CHAT to Examine How Women Shape Their Military Experienc

Essays in family macroeconomics

This dissertation employs quantitative methods to study questions in family macroeconomics, with a focus on parental decisions and intergenerational mobility. It consists of two self-contained chapters. Chapter 1 is titled ``Why Don't Poor Families Move? A Spatial Equilibrium Analysis of Parental Decisions with Social Learning.'' In this first chapter, I propose a mechanism that rationalizes the observed heterogeneity in parental investment choices across socioeconomic groups in the United States. I develop a quantitative spatial and overlapping generations model in which parents decide on two parental inputs influencing their child's next period human capital: neighborhood quality and parental time. Importantly, I introduce imperfect information and social learning about one parameter of the child skill technology that governs the returns to the two parental inputs. Young agents learn about the unknown parameter using only information available at their neighborhood level. However, because of a selection neglect bias that leads to misinferences from non-representative samples, segregation generates information frictions that systematically distort parents' beliefs and behavior. Specifically, in equilibrium, parents raised in low-quality neighborhoods tend to underestimate the importance of parental inputs, and parents raised in high-quality neighborhoods tend to overestimate it. I calibrate the model using several United States representative data sets. The calibrated model matches targeted and, more interestingly, non-targeted moments regarding parental behavior across socioeconomic groups. On the contrary, a model that matches the intergenerational persistence of income but assumes perfect information cannot rationalize the heterogeneity in parental inputs across socioeconomic groups without assuming highly heterogeneous preferences. I find that parents' beliefs about the importance of parental inputs increase the income Gini index by 3% and the intergenerational income rank coefficient by 12%. Finally, scaling up a housing voucher policy generates, in the long run, and in general equilibrium, a shift in parental beliefs that contributes to the reduction of inequality and to the improvement in intergenerational mobility. Chapter 2 is titled ``Efficiency and Equity of Education Tracking: A Quantitative Analysis'' and is co-authored with Lukas Mahler. In this chapter, we investigate the question of early school tracking in Germany---the allocation of students to different types of schools. We develop a life-cycle overlapping generations model to evaluate the aggregate effects of a policy that would delay the school track decision by four years: from age ten to fourteen. Crucially, we incorporate linear classmate peer effects, non-linear school track instruction pace effects, and age-specific skill shocks into the child skill technology. We show analytically that this technology embeds this idea of learning gains through homogenous peer groups and that it can rationalize reduced-form empirical evidence on school tracking. The child skill technology parameters are one of the crucial elements that drive potential efficiency gains of early school tracking. We then calibrate the model using multiple German representative data sets. Our calibrated model predicts that around 23% of lifetime earnings and 30% of lifetime wealth variation is already explained at age ten, the time of the school track choice. Conditioning on the initial school track choice alone accounts for 12% of lifetime earnings variation and 13% of lifetime wealth variation. Finally, we find that postponing the tracking age from ten to fourteen generates significant improvements in intergenerational mobility. However, these come at the cost of efficiency losses in aggregate economic output. The size of these losses depends on the design of the instruction levels in each school track

Anomalous Self-Generated Electrostatic Fields in Nanosecond Laser-Plasma Interaction

Electrostatic (E) fields associated with the interaction of a well-controlled, high-power, nanosecond laser pulse with an underdense plasma are diagnosed by proton radiography. Using a current 3D wave propagation code equipped with nonlinear and nonlocal hydrodynamics, we can model the measured E-fields that are driven by the laser ponderomotive force in the region where the laser undergoes filamentation. However, strong fields of up to 110 MV/m measured in the first millimeter of propagation cannot be reproduced in the simulations. This could point to the presence of unexpected strong thermal electron pressure gradients possibly linked to ion acoustic turbulence, thus emphasizing the need for the development of full kinetic collisional simulations in order to properly model laser-plasma interaction in these strongly nonlinear conditions.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physics of Plasma

Biological flora of Central Europe: Cyperus esculentus L

This paper presents information on all aspects of the biology of Cyperus esculentus L. (yellow nutsedge) and deals with its taxonomy, morphology, genetic diversity, distribution, habitat requirements, ecology and life cycle, with special emphasis on uses and cultivation, history of introduction, impact and management in Europe. C. esculentus is a tuber geophyte and most likely originates from the Mediterranean and Southwest Asia. It is a variable plant and four wild-type varieties are presently recognized, in addition to a cultivated form. C. esculentus reproduces primarily by its underground tubers, although abundant seeds are produced. In temperate climates, tubers usually sprout in late spring and the plant withers at the beginning of the winter. C. esculentus is only cultivated in the València region in Spain. Invasion foci emerged across Europe at the beginning of the 1980s and at present, C. esculentus is most abundant on arable land and in ruderal habitats, followed by riverine vegetation. In heavily infested regions of Europe, C. esculentus causes substantial yield losses in field crops and although different management strategies are available, C. esculentus remains difficult to control.Follak, S.; Belz, R.; Bohren, C.; Castro, OD.; Guacchio, ED.; Pascual-Seva, N.; Schwarz, M.... (2016). Biological flora of Central Europe: Cyperus esculentus L. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics. 23:33-51. doi:10.1016/j.ppees.2016.09.003S33512

Examining teacher practice using instructional conversation in a third grade classroom with English language learners

Research suggests that English language learners need more exposure to oral language use especially with a focus on academic language. Learning language through interactive teaching and discourse has strong empirical backing as a cogent methodology to increase oral, written, and academic language for students for whom English is a second language. This action research looked at how Instructional Conversation, linked both conversational practice and instructional objectives to enhance spoken and written language. Data was collected via teacher observation, data memos, and an Instructional Conversation rubric. Findings supported how interactive teaching and discourse provided a salient vehicle for English language learners to use language authentically in a public school classroom. Students benefitted from the consistency of implementation of Instructional Conversation and, as a result, improved their language use, critical thinking, and interpersonal communication. The researcher found that the use Instructional Conversation was an effective method for teaching third grade students when these discussion-based lessons were well thought-out and planned, implemented with fidelity, and included self-reflection as an integral process for improving practice

Du fétichisme religieux au fétichisme économique

Bellue Françoise. Du fétichisme religieux au fétichisme économique. In: Raison présente, n°75, 3e trimestre 1985. Tout 490 encyclopédies sur tout. pp. 77-96

Constitution et évaluation d'un jeu de données linguistiques en français pour l'analyse des fonctions lexicales encodées dans les modèles neuronaux de type FlauBERT

Each language is made up of its own words. In most cases, these are polysemic, they have several meanings. Modeling polysemy in Automatic Language Processing is a difficult task when it comes to word vectors and traditional word embeddings systems have some difficulties in dealing with polysemy. Using FlauBERT, which is a new language model developed in 2019, we will see that it is now easier to deal with polysemy, especially withcontextualized word vectors. The entire context of a sentence is taken into account by FlauBERT in order to represent each word as a vector. After a brief analysis of the different domains involved, I will present in this paper the different experiments I have performed using FlauBERT word vectors.Chaque langue est constituée de mots qui lui sont propres. Dans la plupart des cas, ceux-ci sont polysémiques - ils possèdent plusieurs sens. La modélisation de la polysémie en Traitement Automatique de la Langue est une tâche difficile lorsqu’il s’agit de vecteurs de mots ; les systèmes de plongements de mots traditionnels ont certaines difficultés à traiter la polysémie. À l’aide de FlauBERT, qui est un nouveau modèle de langue développé en 2019, nous verrons qu’il est maintenant plus facile de traiter de la polysémie, notamment grâce à des vecteurs de mots contextualisés. Le contexte entier d’une phrase est pris en compte par FlauBERT afin de représenter chaque mot sous forme de vecteur. Après une brève analysedes différents domaines en jeu, je présenterai dans ce mémoire les différentes expérimentations que j’ai effectuées à l’aide des vecteurs de mots du système FlauBERT