Teen fertility and siblings’ outcomes: Evidence of family spillovers using matched samples

17 USC 105 interim-entered record; under review.The article of record as published may be found at https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.56.1.0218-9341R2The Online Appendix includes Stata code for replication purposes. The Online Appendix can be found at http://jhr.uwpress.org/.U.S. teen birth rates remain high relative to other industrialized countries. Despite extensive literature on teen mothers and their children, almost no research examines the effects of teen fertility on the rest of the mother's family. I address this gap, finding that teen birth negatively affects mothers' younger siblings. Using several matched control methods, I find that sisters of new teenage mothers experience a 3.8 percentage point decrease in test scores, a 7.6 percentage point increase in grade repetition, and a 9.3 percentage point increase high school dropout, while brothers experience a 9.2 percentage point increase in juvenile justice system exposure.U.S. Government affiliation is unstated in article text

Gender Disparities in Career Advancement across the Transition to Parenthood: Evidence from the Marine Corps

An online Appendix and Author disclosure statements may be found at https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pandp.20221121.The article of record as published may be found at https://doi.org/10.1257/pandp.20221121We isolate the effect of childbirth on mothers' and fathers' job-relevant physical performance using data from the US Marines. We estimate event study models around the first birth. We assign "placebo births" to non-parents using LASSO-selected predictors of parenthood to estimate counterfactual trends. We find large and persistent effects of motherhood on performance. Two years postbirth, mothers' physical performance remains 0.2 standard deviations lower than non-mothers'. For fathers, the birth also initially lowers performance, but fathers are able to recover. This research demonstrates a potential mechanism behind the child penalty to mothers' earnings.We are grateful for funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Evidence for Action grant program (#77124), the Institute of Education Sciences’ Multidisciplinary Program in Education Sciences (Award #R305B140042), and Northwestern University’s Graduate Research GrantRobert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Evidence for Action grant program (#77124), the Institute of Education Sciences’ Multidisciplinary Program in Education Sciences (Award #R305B140042), and Northwestern University’s Graduate Research Gran

Mothers in the Military: Effect of Maternity Leave Policy on Take-Up

DRAFT VersionThe article of record as published may be found at https://doi.org/10.1215/00703370-9816044The United States remains the only OECD nation without national paid maternity leave. This paper exploits changes in paid maternity leave offered by one of its largest employers, the U.S. Department of Defense. Since 2015, the U.S. Marine Corps has shifted their maternity leave policy from six to 18 to 12 weeks. Leave expansions increased leave duration while contractions decreased leave taken by active-duty service members. However, the policy changes crowded out other forms of leave: with an increase in maternity leave available, mothers increased use of maternity leave and stopped supplementing with additional annual leave. Though all mothers used the full six weeks of leave in the early period, it is the less advantaged mothers—in the enlisted ranks, first-time, and single mothers—who disproportionately used more of the additional leave than officers, experienced mothers, and married mothers. Pregnant officers, experienced mothers, and single women use less leave than non-pregnant women in the months leading up to birth, but expecting additional post-birth leave did not change average pre-birth leave-taking. Our results highlight the importance of optimally sizing family leave policies and provide evidence that the true cost of such programs may be lower than the raw count of weeks provided by additional maternity leave allowances

Testing, Stress, and Performance: How Students Respond Physiologically to High-Stakes Testing

17 USC 105 interim-entered record; under review.The article of record as published may be found at https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp_a_00306We examine how students’ physiological stress differs between a regular school week and a high-stakes testing week, and we raise questions about how to interpret high-stakes test scores. A potential contributor to socioeconomic disparities in academic performance is the difference in the level of stress experienced by students outside of school. Chronic stress—due to neighborhood violence, poverty, or family instability—can affect how individuals’ bodies respond to stressors in general, including the stress of standardized testing. This, in turn, can affect whether performance on standardized tests is a valid measure of students’ actual ability. We collect data on students’ stress responses using cortisol samples provided by low-income students in New Orleans. We measure how their cortisol patterns change during high-stakes testing weeks relative to baseline weeks. We find that high-stakes testing is related to cortisol responses, and those responses are related to test performance. Those who responded most strongly, with either increases or decreases in cortisol, scored 0.40 standard deviations lower than expected on the high-stakes exam.Spencer Foundation (Grant No. 2015000117) and the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern UniversityGrant No. 201500011

Physiological and Cognitive Performance in F-22 Pilots During Day and Night Flying

The article of record as published may be found at https://doi.org/10.3357/AMHP.5508.2021Many workers routinely transition between day and night shifts—including pilots, where night flights are commonly considered more stressful. The physiological toll from this transition is not fully understood, though fatigue is a factor in many aviation accidents. This research investigated the changes in physiological markers of stress and cognitive performance as F-22 pilots transitioned from day flying to night flying

Rise and Shine The Effect of School Start Times on Academic Performance from Childhood through Puberty

The article of record as published may be found at https://www.educationnext.org/rise-shine-how-school-start-times-affect-academic-performance/American teenagers are chronically sleep deprived. As children enter puberty, physiological changes delay the onset of sleep and make it more difficult to wake up early in the morning. By the end of middle school, there is a large disconnect between biological sleep patterns and early-morning school schedules: one study found that students lose as much as two hours of sleep per night during the school year compared to the summer months, when they can better control their sleep schedules. Such deficits may have big implications for learning and cognition. Important memory formation and consolidation processes occur overnight, as the brain replays patterns of activity exhibited during learning. Could something as simple as changing when school starts each day really make a difference in how much students learn? And which students would benefit most from a later start time? The authors consider differences between sunrise and school start times among a group of public schools in northern Florida's "Panhandle," which straddles the central and eastern time zones. In this region, sunrise times differ, but school start times do not fully adjust for this difference. Students may start school at the same hour on the clock but not at the same "time"--those in the later time zone could have as much as one additional hour of early-morning daylight before school compared to their neighbors in the earlier zone. How does this affect their performance in school? The authors compare test scores for students between the ages of 8 and 15 who move from one time zone to the other and find substantial differences, especially for adolescents. A one-hour delay in start times relative to sunrise increases math scores by 8 percent of a standard deviation for adolescents--the equivalent of roughly three months of student learning--but by only 1 percent of a standard deviation for younger children. The effects on reading scores are similar, but smaller. These findings are the first to quantify the potential academic benefits of changing high-school start times--a seemingly straightforward policy that districts can find difficult to implement

Teen fertility and siblings’ outcomes: Evidence of family spillovers using matched samples

The article of record as published may be found at https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.56.1.0218-9341R2The Online Appendix includes Stata code for replication purposes. The Online Appendix can be found at http://jhr.uwpress.org/.U.S. teen birth rates remain high relative to other industrialized countries. Despite extensive literature on teen mothers and their children, almost no research examines the effects of teen fertility on the rest of the mother's family. I address this gap, finding that teen birth negatively affects mothers’ younger siblings. Using several matched control methods, I find that sisters of new teenage mothers experience a 3.8 percentage-point decrease in test scores, a 7.6 percentage-point increase in grade repetition, and a 9.3 percentage-point increase high school dropout, while brothers experience a 9.2 percentage-point increase in juvenile justice system exposure

Trident Room Podcast Episode 4: Dr. Jennifer Heissel, Family Elements and the DoD

The Trident Room Podcast officially started broadcasting in the summer of 2020. It was created by an HSI/OR student who wanted to capture conversations he was having with the impressive array of faculty, students, and staff roaming the halls of NPS. Podcasting provides a direct and unfettered connection with listeners, and he wanted to bring that same kind of informative, yet intimate exchange to the Naval Postgraduate School community.Dr. Jennifer Heissel discusses her recent research examining how parental support policies like childcare and parental leave affect new parents’ work performance and health.The Trident Room Podcast was developed with support provided by the Naval Postgraduate School Alumni Association and Foundation (NPSAAF)

School turnaround in North Carolina: A regression discontinuity analysis

The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2017.08.001This paper examines the effect of a federally supported school turnaround program in North Carolina elementary and middle schools. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that the turnaround program did not improve, and may have reduced, average school-level passing rates in math and reading. One potential contributor to that finding appears to be that the program increased the concentration of low-income students in treated schools. Based on teacher survey data, we find that, as was intended, treated schools brought in new principals and increased the time teachers devoted to professional development. At the same time, the program increased administrative burdens and distracted teachers, potentially reducing time available for instruction, and increased teacher turnover after the first full year of implementation. Overall, we find little evidence of success for North Carolina’s efforts to turn around low-performing schools under its Race to the Top grant

Does Pollution Drive Achievement? The Effect of Traffic Pollution on Academic Performance

The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w25489We examine the effect of school traffic pollution on student outcomes by leveraging variation in wind patterns for schools the same distance from major highways. We compare within-student achievement for students transitioning between schools near highways, where one school has had greater levels of pollution because it is downwind of a highway. Students who move from an elementary/middle school that feeds into a “downwind” middle/high school in the same zip code experience decreases in test scores, more behavioral incidents, and more absences, relative to when they transition to an upwind school. Even within zip codes, microclimates can contribute to inequality