Mortgage Contract Decisions and Mortgage Distress: Family and Financial Life-Cycle Factors

The U.S. economy experienced a dramatic rise in the price of owner occupied housing during 1999-2007, and then a precipitous decline from 2007 through 2009. In this paper we utilize data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) during 1999-2009 to study first the factors and borrowing decisions which were related to the run-up and then to see how these diverse positions in owner-occupied housing related to the subsequent difficulties and mortgage distress as of 2009. Our research shows that much of the rise and subsequent difficulties were concentrated among younger and less educated homeowners, and that the difficulties were also concentrated in selected real estate markets where home owners were allocating a substantial share of their income to debt service and other home related outlays such as taxes, utilities, and insurance. This pattern of high costs to support a housing position is interpreted as the result of a speculative price run-up supported by the joint decisions of the homeowners and their lenders. In this process the older population took on more mortgage debt than in prior years and may now have less capacity to support help to other adult family members living outside the home.

Time Diary Measures of Investment in Young Children

There is a rising importance of human capital in the total capital stock of an economy. In this paper we discuss the nature of investments in children and sketch out the diverse kinds of inputs to the developmental process across different countries at selected time points. The observable inputs are time and goods and they can arise both in the home and in formal care settings. Estimates are given for Sweden and the U.S. The mere size of the total of these investments in early human capital, more than 20 percent of GDP for Sweden, raises a number of interesting questions.

Time Out for Childcare: Signalling and Earnings Rebound Effects for Men and Women

The wage cost of time out of the labor force for childcare is important in order to understand the functioning of labor markets and for public policy. This paper reviews the literature and identifies several limitations. Using employment records of a large Swedish company over the period 1983-88, we demonstrate an alternative approach for estimating earnings effects and find a year out costs 1.7 percent of earnings for a woman and 5.2 percent for a man. This large effect for men raises questions of signalling costs. For both men and women, earnings‘'rebound'’for time out in the more distant past.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75622/1/j.1467-9914.1996.tb00102.x.pd

Gender Gaps in Math Performance, Perceived Mathematical Ability and College STEM Education: The Role of Parental Occupation

Employment opportunities in occupations related to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, the so-called STEM fields, are predicted to continue growing through time. In addition, STEM occupations also enjoy higher wages on average. Despite these advantages, women remain under-represented in STEM college degree completion and occupations. Encouraging women into the STEM fields has become an important policy concern. We use longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to study gender differences in math achievement and self-perceived math ability and how they may differ by parental occupation type, specifically science related versus non-science related parental occupations. We then study their role on subsequent decision of majoring in a science field in college. Our results corroborate significant gender differences in math test scores and perceived math ability during childhood. Having a parent working in a science related field is associated with a better performance in math but not necessarily higher levels of perceived math ability, given math performance. All three factors, math achievement, perceived math ability, and parental occupation in a science field, are found to be significant predictors of the probability of majoring in science in college. However, estimated effects of higher levels of math achievement are about double for boys than for girls. Estimates of perceived math ability are also slightly larger for boys. In contrast, most of the observed positive effects of having a parent in a science related occupation seem to be concentrated among females. These results suggest a loss in STEM enrollment by otherwise qualified young women and the potential importance that parental role modeling effects or specific human capital parental investments by parents in science occupations could have for encouraging women to major in science fields

"Asset Ownership Across Generations"

This paper examines cross-generational connections in asset ownership. It begins by presenting a theoretical framework that develops the distinction between the intergenerational transfer of knowledge about financial assets and the direct transfer of dollars from parents to children. Its analysis of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) reveals intergenerational correlations in asset ownership, and we find evidence to suggest that parental asset ownership or family-based exposure to assets affects adult childrenÕs decisions about bank account and stock ownership.