Topics on the Economic Outcomes of Young Adults

<p>In this dissertation, I present two essays linked by their focus on forces that act on young people as they prepare to enter adulthood and their economically independent life. In the first, I investigate the impact of parents' location and occupational attributes on young adult children's labor market outcomes, particularly wages. I exploit the genealogical structure of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to measure locations, occupations and wages of young adults and their parents. I find that college graduates who live near their parents have lower wages than those who do not, but that wages for high school graduates are not strongly correlated with proximity to parents. In order to determine the reasons for these patterns, I build and estimate a model of young adults' location and occupation decisions to account for potentially competing effects parents may have on their children's wages. Using the model, I find evidence that young adults have strong preferences for living near parents, a result which through compensating differentials can partially account for the tendency to earn lower wages when near parents. However, I estimate that young people across all levels of educational attainment place similar value on this proximity. I also find that living near parents may directly enhance productivity and/or occupation quality and lead to higher wages. In particular, I find that high school graduates whose fathers are in cognitive skill-intense occupations have higher wages within and occupation and switch into more cognitive skill-intense occupations themselves if they live in the same labor market as their father, but that this effect is not present for college graduates. I also find a differential selection in the earnings potential of movers and differential impacts of the cost of occupational switching between high school and college graduates. These differences all substantially contribute to the differences in wage and location choice patterns between high school and college graduates.</p><p>In the second, I present joint work with V. Joseph Hotz, Peter Arcidiacono and Esteban Aucejo on college admissions in the University of California system. College graduation is an important outcome for future welfare, and in this chapter we examine possible causes for an increase in college graduations among UC students who enrolled in 1998-2000 versus those who had enrolled in the previous three years. In between these cohorts, Proposition 209 banned using racial preferences in admissions at California's public colleges. We analyze unique data for all applicants and enrollees within the University of California (UC) system before and after Prop 209. After Prop 209, graduation rates of minorities increased by 4.4\%. We characterize conditions required for better matching of students to campuses to account for this increase. We find that Prop 209 did improve matching and this improvement was important for the graduation gains experienced by less-prepared students. At the same time, better matching only explains about 20\% of the overall graduation rate increase. Changes after Prop 209 in the selectivity of enrolled students explains 34-50\% of the increase. Finally, it appears UC campuses responded to Prop 209 by doing more to help retain and graduate its students, which explains between 30-46\% of the post-Prop 209 improvement in the graduation rate of minorities.</p>Dissertatio

Teacher effectiveness and classroom composition

This paper studies how the effectiveness of teachers varies by classroom composition. We combine random assignment of teachers to classrooms with rich measures of teacher effectiveness based on a popular observational protocol, Framework for Teaching, to overcome key endogeneity concerns related to measurement and matching. We find that complementarities between classroom composition and teaching practice play a significant role in student achievement. We identify two main mechanisms that are driving this result: 1) negative interactions between challenging and/or student-centered practices and heterogeneity in classroom prior achievement, and 2) positive interactions between classroom management skills and average classroom prior achievement. Our findings illustrate the multidimensional nature of teacher effectiveness and have important implications for prescribing teaching practice and evaluating teachers. Simulations show that teacher rankings change substantially simply from within-school classroom reallocations, suggesting the need for caution when using popular teaching evaluation rubrics in high-stakes settings

Affirmative Action and University Fit: Evidence from Proposition 209

Proposition 209 banned the use of racial preferences in admissions at public colleges in California. We analyze unique data for all applicants and enrollees within the University of California (UC) system before and after Prop 209. After Prop 209, graduation rates increased by 4.4%. We present evidence that certain institutions are better at graduating more-prepared students while other institutions are better at graduating less-prepared students and that these matching effects are particularly important for the bottom tail of the qualification distribution. We find that Prop 209 led to a more efficient sorting of minority students and the sorting effects explain over 20 % of the graduation rate increase. Further, universities appear to have responded to Prop 209 by investing more in their students, explaining between 30-45 % of the graduation rate increase

Nighttime Sleep and Daytime Sleepiness Improved With Pimavanserin During Treatment of Parkinson\u27s Disease Psychosis

INTRODUCTION: Impaired nocturnal sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness are common problems for patients with Parkinson\u27s disease, and patients with Parkinson\u27s disease with sleep dysfunction are 5 times more likely to experience psychotic symptoms. Pimavanserin, a 5-HT2A inverse agonist approved to treat Parkinson\u27s disease psychosis, may improve sleep quality in patients with Parkinson\u27s disease experiencing sleep disturbances. METHODS: Scales for Outcomes in Parkinson\u27s Disease nighttime sleep (SCOPA-NS) and SCOPA-daytime sleepiness (DS) data obtained during 2 double-blind placebo-controlled studies of pimavanserin in persons with Parkinson\u27s disease psychosis were evaluated. Data from the placebo and pimavanserin 34 mg groups in the 2 studies were pooled to provide further information on the effect of pimavanserin 34 mg on sleep. Additional analyses on the pooled study data were performed on participants with significantly impaired nighttime sleep and daytime sleepiness, defined as SCOPA-NS ≥7 and SCOPA-DS ≥5, respectively. RESULTS: In the pooled analysis, treatment effects, expressed as least squares mean reductions in SCOPA-NS at week 6, were -1.4 for pimavanserin 34 mg and -0.5 for placebo. At week 6, the decrease from baseline in SCOPA-DS for the pimavanserin 34 mg group was -1.7 and -1.2 for the placebo group (P = 0.108). When evaluating participants with impaired nighttime sleep and daytime sleepiness at baseline, the SCOPA-NS score change was -4.4 for the pimavanserin 34 mg group and -2.3 for the placebo group (P = 0.002), whereas the SCOPA-DS change was -2.9 and -1.9 for the pimavanserin 34 mg and placebo groups (P = 0.120), respectively. CONCLUSION: The data from the trials suggest that nighttime sleep improved with administration of pimavanserin, a novel 5-HT2A receptor inverse agonist/antagonist

Neurodevelopmental Outcomes after Pediatric Cardiac ECMO Support

Purpose: To characterize the neurodevelopmental outcomes and identify factors associated with poor outcomes in pediatric patients undergoing cardiac extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Methods: Five year retrospective review, including demographics, cardiac lesion and surgical complexity, reason for ECMO, ECMO complications, and neurodevelopmental status at discharge and latest follow-up. Neurodevelopmental status was determined through the Pediatric Overall Performance Category and Pediatric Cerebral Performance Category scales.Results: Overall ECMO survival was 73% at hospital discharge and 66% a t the latest follow-up. Most patients underwent CPR (43%), and the majority (53%) had a significant disease complexity (Aristotle=4). Complications occurred in 42% of the ECMO runs, of which 12% were intracranial injuries. At hospital discharge, 75% of patients had normal to mild disability, improving to 81% at 2 years follow-up. At hospital discharge, moderate to severe disability was associated with CPR, plasma exchange or intracranial insults. After discharge, 23% showed improvement in neurologic status and 4% showed deterioration. Cerebral infarction was the only parameter associated with deterioration at the later follow-up stage.Conclusions: ECMO was successfully used in children with cardiac disease with 73% and 66% short and long-term survival respectively. Majority of the survivors had normal to mild neurodevelopmental disability and a significant portion showed neurologic improvement by the latest follow-up. Nevertheless, despite the grossly favorable outcomes standardized comprehensive neuropsychological testing is of paramount importance in all these patients

Portal glucose delivery stimulates muscle but not liver protein metabolism

International audiencePortal vein glucose delivery (the portal glucose signal) stimulates glucose uptake and glycogen storage by the liver, whereas portal amino acid (AA) delivery (the portal AA signal) induces an increase in protein synthesis by the liver. During a meal, both signals coexist and may interact. In this study, we compared the protein synthesis rates in the liver and muscle in response to portal or peripheral glucose infusion during intraportal infusion of a complete AA mixture. Dogs were surgically prepared with hepatic sampling catheters and flow probes. After a 42-h fast, they underwent a 3-h hyperinsulinemic (4 x basal) hyper-glucagonemic (3 x basal) hyperglycemic (approximate to 160 mg/dl) hyperamino-acidemic (hepatic load 1.5 x basal; delivered intraportally) clamp (postprandial conditions). Glucose was infused either via a peripheral (PeG; n = 7) or the portal vein (PoG; n = 8). Protein synthesis was assessed with a primed, continuous [C-14]leucine infusion. Net hepatic glucose uptake was stimulated by portal glucose infusion (+ 1 mg.kg(-1).min(-1), P < 0.05) as expected, but hepatic fractional AA extraction and hepatic protein synthesis did not differ between groups. There was a lower arterial AA concentration in the PoG group (- 19%, P < 0.05) and a significant stimulation (+ 30%) of muscle protein synthesis associated with increased expression of LAT1 and ASCT2 AA transporters and p70S6 phosphorylation. Concomitant portal glucose and AA delivery enhances skeletal muscle protein synthesis compared with peripheral glucose and portal AA delivery. These data suggest that enteral nutrition support may have an advantage over parenteral nutrition in stimulating muscle protein synthesis