The Impact of Municipal Broadband Restrictions on COVID-19 Labor Market Outcomes

This thesis uses the exogenous nature of the COVID-19 shock to study the association between municipal/cooperative broadband restrictions and labor supply during the pandemic. I estimate difference-in-differences regressions using individual data between January 2019 and December 2021 from the Current Population Survey combined with policy variables from the Pew Charitable Trusts\u27 State Broadband Policy Explorer. During the pandemic, states with restrictions experience a relative decrease in labor force participation, employment, and hours worked among married women with children. Labor force attachment for women without children and married men with children are unaffected. Results support the parallel trends assumption and are driven by a relative decrease in maternal labor force participation in states with restrictions during the Fall of 2021. A shift to care-giving, social norms and the wage gap might have compelled mothers to decrease labor force attachment and yield home office space to their spouses or children

Towards Measuring Fine-Grained Diversity Using Social Media Photographs

Diversity is an important socio-economic construct that influences multiple aspects of human lives from the prosperity of a city to corporate earnings and from criminal justice to health and social engagement. Large, heavily populated urban areas can be highly diverse at the city or even neighborhood level, but we know very little about how much people from diverse demographics (such as age and race) interact with each other. Previous work has shown that photos are important in social relationships. The growing presence of photos online and on social media, therefore presents a unique opportunity to study diversity in interactions. In this paper, we explore a novel approach to measure p-diversity, that is, a personal, photo-level diversity metric computed using social media data. Specifically, we focus on Instagram photos of multiple people interacting, and employ automatic methods for race, age, and gender estimation to quantify mixing in such photos. We compare and contrast this new measure of diversity with traditional (that is, census-based) metrics using a dataset for New York City. Results obtained motivate the use of social media photos to complement census data to develop cheaper, faster, mechanisms for studying diversity and applying them in social, economic, political, and urban planning contexts

Effects of Levodopa-Carbidopa Intestinal Gel on Dyskinesia and Non-Motor Symptoms Including Sleep : Results from a Meta-Analysis with 24-Month Follow-Up

Background: In advanced Parkinson's disease (PD), dyskinesias and non-motor symptoms such as sleep dysfunction can significantly impair quality of life, and high-quality management is an unmet need. Objective: To analyze changes in dyskinesia and non-motor symptoms (including sleep) among studies with levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel (LCIG) in patients with advanced PD. Methods: A comprehensive literature review identified relevant studies examining LCIG efficacy. Outcomes of interest were dyskinesia (UDysRS, UPDRS IV item 32), overall non-motor symptoms (NMSS), mentation/behavior/mood (UPDRS I), and sleep/daytime sleepiness (PDSS-2, ESS). The pooled mean (95% confidence interval) change from baseline per outcome was estimated for each 3-month interval with sufficient data (i.e., reported by≥3 studies) up to 24 months using a random-effects model. Results: Seventeen open-label studies evaluating 1243 patients with advanced PD were included. All outcomes of interest with sufficient data for meta-analysis showed statistically significant improvement within 6 months of starting LCIG. There were statistically significant improvements in dyskinesia duration as measured by UPDRS IV item 32 at 6 months (-1.10 [-1.69, -0.51] h/day) and 12 months (-1.35 [-2.07, -0.62] h/day). There were statistically and clinically significant improvements in non-motor symptoms as measured by NMSS scores at 3 months (-28.71 [-40.26, -17.15] points). Significant reduction of NMSS burden was maintained through 24 months (-17.61 [-21.52, -13.70] points). UPDRS I scores significantly improved at 3 months (-0.39 [-0.55, -0.22] points). Clinically significant improvements in PDSS-2 and ESS scores were observed at 6 and 12 months in individual studies. Conclusion: Patients with advanced PD receiving LCIG showed significant sustained improvements in the burden of dyskinesia and non-motor symptoms up to 24 months after initiation