Marriage Meets the Joneses: Relative Income, Identity, and Marital Status

This paper investigates the effect of relative income on marriage. Accounting flexibly for absolute income, the ratio between a manÂ’s income and a local reference group median is a strong predictor of marital status, but only for low-income men. Relative income affects marriage even among those living with a partner. A ten percent higher reference group income is associated with a two percent reduction in marriage. We propose an identity model to explain the results.marriage, relative income, inequality, identity

Marriage Meets the Joneses: Relative Income, Identity, and Marital Status

In this paper we investigate the effect of relative income on marital status. We develop an identity model based on Akerlof and Kranton (2000) and apply it to the marriage decision. The empirical evidence is consistent with the idea that people are more likely to marry when their incomes approach a financial level associated with idealized norms of marriage. We hypothesize that the marriage ideal is determined by the median income in an individual’s local reference group. After controlling flexibly for the absolute level of income and a number of other factors, the ratio between a man’s income and the marriage ideal is a strong predictor of marital status but only if he is below the ideal. For white men, relative income considerations jointly drive coresidence, marriage, and fatherhood decisions. For black men, relative income affects the marriage decision only, and relative income is tied to marital status even for those living with a partner and children. Relative income concerns explain 10-15 percent of the decline in marriage since 1970 for low income white men, and account for more than half of the persistent marriage gap between high- and low-income men.marriage, relative income, inequality, identity

Aggressive immigration enforcement discourages non-citizenparents from enrolling their citizen children in Medicaid

One of the key barriers to the success of the Obama Administration’s major health care reform, Obamacare, is that many of those who are eligible for public programs do not participate, especially among the immigrant community. In new research, Tara Watson finds that the relatively high rate of uninsurance among immigrants and their children can be explained by the effects of increased enforcement efforts against undocumented immigrants. She finds argues that undocumented migrants have been deterred from seeking health insurance for their children because of their fears that it might bring attention to their, and their relatives’, undocumented status

Inside the Refrigerator: Immigration Enforcement and Chilling Effects in Medicaid Participation

Economists have puzzled over why eligible individuals fail to enroll in social safety net programs. “Chilling effects” arising from an icy policy climate are a popular explanation for low program take-up rates among immigrants, but such effects are inherently hard to measure. This paper investigates a concrete determinant of chilling, Federal immigration enforcement, and finds robust evidence that heightened enforcement reduces Medicaid participation among children of non-citizens. This is the case even when children are themselves citizens and face no eligibility barriers to Medicaid enrollment. Immigrants from countries with more undocumented U.S. residents, those living in cities with a high fraction of other immigrants, and those with healthy children are most sensitive to enforcement efforts. Up to seventy-five percent of the relative decline in non-citizen Medicaid participation around the time of welfare reform, which has been attributed to the chilling effects of the reform itself, is explained by a contemporaneous spike in immigration enforcement activity. The results imply that safety net participation is influenced not only by program design, but also by a broader set of seemingly unrelated policy choices.

Inequality and the Measurement of Residential Segregation by Income In American Neighborhoods

American metropolitan areas have experienced rising residential segregation by income since 1970. One potential explanation for this change is growing income inequality. However, measures of residential sorting are typically mechanically related to the income distribution, making it difficult to identify the impact of inequality on residential choice. This paper presents a measure of residential segregation by income, the Centile Gap Index (CGI) which is based on income percentiles. Using the CGI, I find that a one standard deviation increase in income inequality raises residential segregation by income by 0.4-0.9 standard deviations. Inequality at the top of the distribution is associated with more segregation of the rich, while inequality at the bottom and declines in labor demand for less-skilled men are associated with residential isolation of the poor. Inequality can fully explain the rise in income segregation between 1970 and 2000.

Public Health Investments and the Infant Mortality Gap: Evidence from Federal Sanitation Interventions on U.S. Indian Reservations

To what extent do differential levels of investment in public health inputs explain observed differences in health outcomes across socioeconomic and racial groups? This study investigates the impact of 3,700 projects that were part of a widespread Federal initiative to improve sanitation infrastructure on U.S. Indian reservations starting in 1960. Sanitation investment substantially reduced the cost of clean water for households, leading to sharp reductions in both waterborne gastrointestinal disease and infectious respiratory disease among Native American infants. The sanitation program was quite cost-effective, in part because improvements in the overall disease environment also reduced infectious respiratory disease among nearby white infants. Despite the health externalities, Federal sanitation interventions explain almost forty percent of the convergence in Native American and white infant mortality rates in reservation counties since 1970.

A more equitable distribution of the positive fiscal benefits of immigration

Immigration is good for the US economy and for the fiscal picture at the federal level, but some local areasexperience adverse fiscal impacts when new immigrants arrive. Edelberg and Watson propose a transparentsystem for redistributing resources from the federal government to these localities. Local areas wouldreceive $2,500 annually for each adult immigrant who arrived to the US within the past five years withouta college degree—those more likely to generate negative fiscal flows at the subnational level. The fundswould take the form of unrestricted transfers to local educational agencies through the existing Impact Aidprogram and to Federally Qualified Health Centers. This support would help to offset educational, health,and other costs to local areas associated with immigrant inflows, and more equitably share the overall fiscaland economic benefits of immigration.

Minimum Drinking Age Laws and Infant Health Outcomes

Alcohol policies have potentially far-reaching impacts on risky sexual behavior, prenatal health behaviors, and subsequent outcomes for infants. We examine whether changes in minimum drinking age (MLDA) laws affect the likelihood of poor birth outcomes. Using data from the National Vital Statistics (NVS) for the years 1978-88, we find that a drinking age of 18 is associated with adverse outcomes among births to young mothers -- including higher incidences of low birth weight and premature birth, but not congenital malformations. The effects are largest among black women. We find suggestive evidence from both the NVS and the 1979 National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY) that the MLDA laws alter the composition of births that occur. In states with lenient drinking laws, young black mothers are more likely to have used alcohol 12 months prior to the birth of their child and less likely to report paternal information on the birth certificate. We suspect that lenient drinking laws generate poor birth outcomes because they increase the number of unplanned pregnancies.

Marriage Meets the Joneses: Relative Income, Identity, and Marital Status

In this paper we investigate the effect of relative income on marital status. We develop an identity model based on Akerlof and Kranton (2000) and apply it to the marriage decision. The empirical evidence is consistent with the idea that people are more likely to marry when their incomes approach a financial level associated with idealized norms of marriage. We hypothesize that the "marriage ideal" is determined by the median income in an individual's local reference group. After controlling flexibly for the absolute level of income and a number of other factors, the ratio between a man's income and the marriage ideal is a strong predictor of marital status -- but only if he is below the ideal. For white men, relative income considerations jointly drive co-residence, marriage, and fatherhood decisions. For black men, relative income affects the marriage decision only, and relative income is tied to marital status even for those living with a partner and children. Relative income concerns explain 10-15 percent of the decline in marriage since 1970 for low income white men, and account for more than half of the persistent marriage gap between high- and low-income men.

NASAs Human Landing System: The Strategy for the 2024 Mission and Future Sustainability

In response to the 2018 White House Space Policy Directive- sustainable lunar exploration, and to the Vice Presidents March 2019 direction to do so by 2024, NASA is working to establish humanity's presence on and around the Moon by: 1) sending payloads to its surface, 2) assembling the Gateway outpost in orbit and 3) demonstrating the first human lunar landings since 1972. NASAs Artemis program is implementing a multi-faceted and coordinated agency-wide approach with a focus on the lunar South Pole. The Artemis missions will demonstrate new technologies, capabilities and business approaches needed for future exploration, including Mars. Assessing options to accelerate development of required systems, NASA is utilizing public-private engagements through the Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorates NextSTEP Broad Agency Announcements. The design, development and demonstration of the Human Landing System (HLS) is expected to be led by commercial partners. Utilizing efforts across mission directorates, the Artemis effort will benefit from programs from the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). SMDs Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative will procure commercial robotic lunar delivery services and the development of science instruments and technology demonstration payloads. The Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) portfolio of technology advancements relative to HLS include lunar lander components and technologies for pointing, navigation and tracking, fuel storage and transfer, autonomy and mobility, communications, propulsion and power. In addition to describing the objectives and requirements of the 2024 Artemis mission, this paper will present NASAs approach to accessing the lunar surface with an affordable human-rated landing system, current status and the role o a sustainable lunar presence