State Abstinence Education Programs and Teen Fertility in the U.S.

Title V, section 510 of the Social Security Act, passed in 1996 and implemented in 1998, appropriates funding to states for the purpose of educating minors on the benefits of abstinence before marriage. Despite considerable research on the impact of abstinence education on teen fertility outcomes, good quality population-level studies on state abstinence education using panel data are absent. This paper uses state-level data to analyze the impact of abstinence education on the birth rates for teens 15-17 years by evaluating the Title V, section 510 State Abstinence Education (SAE) program. For an average state, increasing spending by $50,000 per year on SAE can help avoid approximately four births to teenagers.

Key Players and Key Groups in Teams

Using data for 2008-2009, we determine winning strategies for the game in two different formats: 50-over one-day internationals and 20-over games from the Indian Premier League and Twenty20 Internationals. We find that attacking batting and defensive bowling outperform all other strate- gies in determining the probability of winning in both formats despite the thirty over difference between them. Moreover, in both versions of the game, good elding turns out to be an important complement to these two strategies. We speculate that this will have implications for the future of cricket, especially for the popularity of formats and the composition of teams.

Self-direction in Adult Learning: Effect of Locus of Control and Program Design on Learner Motivation and Training Utility

Andragogy and self-directed learning (SDL) have long been touted as pillars of adult learning theory, but much of the existing SDL research has been predicated on adult learner assumptions that have gone largely untested. This dissertation developed a model based on adult learning and training literatures to assess the antecedents and outcomes of adults’ preference for SDL. The model was tested on a sample of 277 adults participating in job-related training through a continuing education program at a university in the southern United States. Based on social learning theory, locus of control (LOC) was proposed as a predictor of motivation to improve work through learning (MTIWL) and self-directed learning preference (SDLP). Further, it was hypothesized that SDLP would positively influence MTIWL and training utility (UT) based on the expectancy theory premise that more learner control would be beneficial for learner motivation and perceived training utility. Finally, the extent to which andragogical principles were present in course designs was proposed to moderate the relationship between SDLP and MTIWL, and SDLP and TU. Person-environment fit theory suggested that persons would be more motivated to use their training at work and perceive it as more useful if there were congruence between their SDLP and the andragogical design (AD) of a course (i.e., low SDLP and low AD versus high SDLP and high AD. The study model was tested using structural equation modeling and partially supported the hypothesized relationships. LOC weakly predicted MTIWL, such that persons with an internal LOC reported higher MTIWL, but failed to influence SDLP. SDLP was shown to be a weak predictor of MTIWL but was not shown to be a predictor of TU. AD exhibited weak to moderate main effects on TU and MTIWL and significantly moderated the relationship between SDLP and TU but not SDLP and MTIWL. Implication of the study and avenues for future research are discussed

Arsenic Exposure and School Participation in Cambodia

We exploit the exogenous variations of arsenic contamination across regions in Cambodia and apply two-period difference-in-differences (DID) to examine the impact of arsenic-contaminated groundwater on school participation among children aged 5-17. We find that conditional on the DID assumption, a standard deviation increase in the arsenic reduced the probability of having ever been enrolled for children aged 5-17 by approximately 0.017. The effects for girls are slightly larger than those for boys. Our results are robust to adding parental education, province fixed effects and zone trends. We also show that children of all specific age groups experienced the reduction in their probabilities of having ever been enrolled, while the children, who were between 12 and 17 years old, currently enrolled and active in the labor market, experienced more reduction in school enrollment relative to their peers, who were not active in the labor market

Essays in health economics and public policy

This dissertation consists of three essays analyzing the role of public policy in affecting such outcomes as fertility, educational attainment and women’s preferences towards fertility and sexual activity. First, I investigate how a government educational policy affected the fertility behavior of teenagers in the United States. Specifically, Title V State Abstinence Education (SAE) program appropriates funding to states for the purpose of educating minors on abstinence before marriage. Using state level data to analyze the impact of abstinence education on the birth rates for teens; I find that for an average state, increasing spending by $50,000 per year on state abstinence education can help avoid approximately four births to teenagers. Next, I examine the fertility impact of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) which was implemented in August 1993, is a federal reform requiring firms of a certain size in all states to grant job-protected leave to any employee satisfying certain eligibility criteria. One of the provisions of the FMLA is to allow women to stay at home for a maximum period of 12 weeks to give care to the new born. Using data from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) this study analyzes whether the FMLA has influenced birth outcomes in the U.S. over the period 1989 to 2006. I find that eligible women increase the probability of giving a first and second birth by about 6 and 4.2 percentage points, respectively. Compared to other women, eligible women are giving birth to the first child 11 months earlier and about 6 months earlier for the second child. In the final part of this research, I estimate the impact of schooling on preferences among women. I first analyze the effect of a government policy that provides free primary education on completed schooling. From this investigation, I find that increased schooling changes a woman’s preference for the demand for children, delays the start of first sexual encounter and increases the use of modern contraceptives. Increased education has also empowered women

The Effect of the CEO's Cultural Intelligence on Foreign Information Technology Firm Performance

Multinational Information Technology firms that start new operations in a culturally distant host country will experience negative effects based on the level of cultural distance between home and host country. Depending on the level of cultural distance and the dimensions along which these cultural differences occur, these effects can be synergistic but will tend to be mostly discordant. This paper seeks to examine how leadership in Information Technology companies can bridge the cultural divide, promoting a spirit of novelty and enrichment, thereby ensuring enrichment and synergy based on these cultural differences, instead of division and mistrust

Empowering Women Through Education: Evidence from Sierra Leone

We use data from Sierra Leone where a substantial education program provided increased access to education for primary-school age children but did not benefit children who were older. We exploit the variation in access to the program generated by date of birth and the variation in resources between various districts of the country. We find that the program has increased educational attainment and that an increase in education has changed women's preferences. An increase in schooling, triggered by the program, had an impact on women's attitudes towards matters that impact women's health and on attitudes regarding violence against women. An increase in education has also reduced the number of desired children by women and increased their propensity to use modern contraception and to be tested for AIDS. While education makes women more intolerant of practices that conflict with their well-being, increased education has no impact on men's attitudes towards women's well-being

The Impact of Education on Health Knowledge

The theory on the demand for health suggests that schooling causes health because schooling increases the efficiency of health production. Alternatively, the allocative efficiency hypothesis argues that schooling alters the input mix chosen to produce health. This suggests that the more educated have more knowledge about the health production function and they have more health knowledge. This paper uses data from the 1997 and 2002 waves of the NLSY97 to conduct an investigation of the allocative efficiency hypothesis by analyzing whether education improves health knowledge. The survey design allows us to observe the increase in health knowledge of young adults after their level of schooling is increased by differential and plausibly exogenous amounts. Using nine different questions measuring health knowledge, we find weak evidence that an increase in education generates an improvement in health knowledge for those who ultimately attend college. For those with high school as the terminal degree, no relationship is found between education and health knowledge. These results imply that the allocative efficiency hypothesis may not be the primary reason for why schooling impacts health outcomes.

Altering adsorbed proteins or cellular gene expression in bone-metastatic cancer cells affects PTHrP and Gli2 without altering cell growth

AbstractThe contents of this data in brief are related to the article titled “Matrix Rigidity Regulates the Transition of Tumor Cells to a Bone-Destructive Phenotype through Integrin β3 and TGF-β Receptor Type II”. In this DIB we will present our supplemental data investigating Integrin expression, attachment of cells to various adhesion molecules, and changes in gene expression in multiple cancer cell lines. Since the interactions of Integrins with adsorbed matrix proteins are thought to affect the ability of cancer cells to interact with their underlying substrates, we examined the expression of Integrin β1, β3, and β5 in response to matrix rigidity. We found that only Iβ3 increased with increasing substrate modulus. While it was shown that fibronectin greatly affects the expression of tumor-produced factors associated with bone destruction (parathyroid hormone-related protein, PTHrP, and Gli2), poly-l-lysine, vitronectin and type I collagen were also analyzed as potential matrix proteins. Each of the proteins was independently adsorbed on both rigid and compliant polyurethane films which were subsequently used to culture cancer cells. Poly-l-lysine, vitronectin and type I collagen all had negligible effects on PTHrP or Gli2 expression, but fibronectin was shown to have a dose dependent effect. Finally, altering the expression of Iβ3 demonstrated that it is required for tumor cells to respond to the rigidity of the matrix, but does not affect other cell growth or viability. Together these data support the data presented in our manuscript to show that the rigidity of bone drives Integrinβ3/TGF-β crosstalk, leading to increased expression of Gli2 and PTHrP