Gender Pay Equity and Women's Pay Improvement Trajectories in the U.S. Nonprofit vs. For-Profit Sectors

This dissertation examines gender pay disparity and women’s and men’s pay increase trajectories in a comparative analysis of the U.S. nonprofit and for-profit sectors. First, using the U.S. Censuses from 1990 and 2000, and the American Community Survey 2010-2014 data, this dissertation examines the nonprofit/for-profit difference in gender pay equity in Chapter 4. Traditionally, researchers have examined gender pay disparity across all industries in the entire economy combined. My analysis, however, focuses on 15 human service industries because nonprofit organizations are usually concentrated in those fields only. This empirical chapter makes two contributions to the field: first, it offers a more apples-to-apples comparison between pay in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors than previous research; second, it captures the gender pay disparity at three points in time, thus reflecting the change over the past 20 years. My industry-specific results challenge two normative assumptions: first, that nonprofits pay their workers lower than for-profits; and second, the smaller gender pay disparity in the nonprofit sector is a result of nonprofit pay compression. Leveraging theories from economics, sociology, and organizational studies, this empirical chapter pinpoints factors, such as industrial competition for labor, institutional pressures, level of unionization, and organizational form, that lead to a difference – or lack thereof – in the level of gender pay disparity between the two sectors. My second empirical chapter (Chapter 5) examines women’s and men’s pay increase trajectories in the nonprofit (NP) and for-profit (FP) sectors based on the Survey of Income and Program Participation 2008 panel data. This chapter traces the pay increases for four groups of workers: NP Stayers, FP Stayers, NP-FP Movers, and FP-NP Movers. The results show that there was selection in workers’ moving behaviors: NP-FP Movers tended to be those who were disadvantaged in the nonprofit sector, while FP-NP Movers tended to be those who were better off in the for-profit sector. The analysis does not find gender or sectoral difference in pay increase trajectories for workers who chose to stay in the same sector. This empirical chapter is the first attempt at tracing the pay trajectories of nonprofit and for-profit human service workers using longitudinal data

Flip: An interaction design project for helping people to break echo chamber

Social media constantly instills you with the things you like and the things you are willing to believe in, even disinformation, creating an echo chamber in which users will never have other opinions. People are controlled by algorithms so that social media platforms ensure we only get a single side of every story. The personalization of social media minimizes people\u27s view of the world and causes the division of society. My thesis explores the interaction methods to encourage people to be exposed to multiple perspectives about things by reading the same story from different sources. To solve the problem, I designed Flip which includes a website, software, and mobile APP to provide users with a better experience on different devices. By using Flip, users can read two related articles at same time, which can help users to compare the related opinions. Flip brings users a better reading experience through novel interaction and smooth animations. The purpose of Flip is to help users broaden their horizons and have a comprehensive understanding of events. This project shows how Flip helps users achieve this goal

Plasma based synthesis and surface modification of graphene.

Graphene, an atom thick layer of carbon, has attracted intense scientific interest due to its exceptional electrical, mechanical and chemical properties. Especially, it provides a perfect platform to explore the unique electronic properties in absolute two-dimension. Pristine graphene possesses zero band gap and weakens its competitiveness in the field of semiconductors. In order to induce a band gap and control its semiconducting properties, functionalization and doping are two of the most feasible methods. In the context of functionalization, large area monolayer graphene synthesized by chemical vapor deposition was subjected to controlled and sequential fluorination using radio frequency plasma while monitoring its electrical properties. It was found that the initial metallic behavior of pristine graphene changes to insulating behavior with fluorination progresses where transport properties obey variable range hopping (VRH). As determined by the high temperature resistance behavior, an emergence of a small band gap is observed and the band gap is seen to increase as the fluorination progresses. Next, we studied the transport properties of graphene with plasma induced nitrogen doping. The nitrogen is presumed to be incorporated into the carbon lattice of graphene by making covalent bonding as observed by the swinging of the sign of the thermopower from (initial) positive to (eventual) negative. We have even observed significant changes in electrical transport properties of graphene upon adsorption of noble gasses. The strength of the van der Waals interactions between noble gases and carbon was found to follow the order Kr \u3e Ar \u3e He. In addition, we investigated the electrical transport properties of uniform and vertically oriented graphene nanowalls directly synthesized on multiple substrates using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition at lower temperatures. The temperature for optimum growth was established with the aid of transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy analysis of the growth products. This approach offers means for low-cost graphene fabrication as well as avoidance of the inconvenient post growth transfer processes commonly used

Free riding and durable adoption: a test of color television consumption in rural China

Using the consumption of color television sets in rural China, this paper documents the existence of a type of network effect – free riding across neighbors, which reduces the propensity of non-owners to purchase. I construct a model of timing the purchase of a durable good in the presence of free riding, and test its key implications using household survey data in rural China.Durables, Free Riding, Network Effects, Rural China