Schooling and Labor Market Consequences of the 1970 State Abortion Reforms

This study uses the 1970 state abortion reforms to estimate the effect of teen and out-of-wedlock childbearing on the schooling and labor market outcomes of mothers observed in 1980 and 1990 Census microdata. Reduced-form estimates suggest that state abortion reforms had a negative impact on teen marriage, teen fertility, and teen out- of-wedlock childbearing. The teen marriage effects are largest and most precisely estimated for white women while the teen fertility and out-of-wedlock childbearing effects are largest and most precisely estimated for black women. The relatively modest fertility and marriage consequences of abortion reform for white women do not appear to have changed schooling or labor market outcomes. In contrast, black women who were exposed to abortion reforms experienced large reductions in teen fertility and teen out-of-wedlock fertility that appear to have led to increased schooling and employment rates. Instrumental variables estimates of the effects of teen and out-of- wedlock childbearing on the schooling and employment status of black women, using measures of exposure to abortion reform as instruments, are marginally significant and larger than the corresponding OLS estimates.

Bayesian inference of natural selection from allele frequency time series

The advent of accessible ancient DNA technology now allows the direct ascertainment of allele frequencies in ancestral populations, thereby enabling the use of allele frequency time series to detect and estimate natural selection. Such direct observations of allele frequency dynamics are expected to be more powerful than inferences made using patterns of linked neutral variation obtained from modern individuals. We develop a Bayesian method to make use of allele frequency time series data and infer the parameters of general diploid selection, along with allele age, in non-equilibrium populations. We introduce a novel path augmentation approach, in which we use Markov chain Monte Carlo to integrate over the space of allele frequency trajectories consistent with the observed data. Using simulations, we show that this approach has good power to estimate selection coefficients and allele age. Moreover, when applying our approach to data on horse coat color, we find that ignoring a relevant demographic history can significantly bias the results of inference. Our approach is made available in a C++ software package.Comment: 27 page

Potholes on China's. New Silk Road: An Analysis of Chinese Aid and Investment in South Asia

For centuries, the Indian Subcontinent has played a role as a crossroads of East and West and as a geopolitical kingmaker, encouraging trade but also representing the wealthiest region ever to be conquered. In the 21st Century, the emerging global power of China has rapidly increased their aid and investment in South Asia, forging stronger economic ties with past partners and upending decades of alliances with other powers. This thesis focuses on the motivations, decisions, and outcomes of Chinese financial flows into South Asia, analyzing the degree that Chinese investment matches governmental claims of motive and how the geopolitical landscape is changing in response to Chinese money. Split into four sections, the thesis first provides justification for focus on the importance of South Asia and the unique nature of Chinese aid and investment, particularly with respect to China's One Belt, One Road Initiative. Next, the thesis overviews past literature on antecedents, decisions, and outcomes of Chinese investment, providing background to qualitative changes the tests run in this thesis. Thirdly, the thesis runs regressions and tests to provide greater clarity to the motivations behind Chinese investment. The final chapters examine case studies of the two largest recipients of Chinese investment, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and explore how the investment patterns and political outcomes of these two countries are reflected across many recipients of Chinese money, and how these outcomes have called into question the success of the One Belt, One Road Initiative. This research relies on data collected by AidData at the College of William & Mary and the goal of this thesis is to call into question the state of literature and differing narratives regarding Chinese investment by providing quantitative evidence for or against certain claims.Plan II Honors Progra

Recursive Machine Translation

Machine translation tools such as Google Translate are at best seen as useful approximators, rather than offering any literary potential. In this experiment and short methodological reflection, I use Google Translate to recursively translate Austrian poet Georg Trakl’s celebrated WWI poem, ‘Grodek’, between German and English, until the two versions stabilise. I am attentive to places in which the poem and its renderings are simplified and/or literary value may be lost, but also places in which new or unexpected renderings emerge. This is a preliminary foray, but I propose that the method of recursive machine translation offers a new way to explore the translation of literary texts—a timely proposal, given the increasing applications of computer programmes and machine learning both within the humanities and throughout wider literary culture

The Death and Life of the Single-Family House: Lessons from Vancouver on Building a Livable City

Written by Nathanael Lauste

The Northwestern Shoshone Indians, (a) under Tribal Organization and Government, (b) Under the Eccleastical Administration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as Exemplified at the Washakie Colony, Utah

The Northwestern Shoshone Indians is the tribe of Indians that inhabited the territory north of the Great Salt Lake comprising the northern part of Utah and the Southern part of Idaho. The Indians have loose boundary lines, yet we can definitely state that this tribe occupied the territory from the Weber river on the South to the Snake river on the North: from Bear Lake and the Bear river on the East to Raft river and Goose creek on the West. Their confines would take in Weber, Rich, Box Elder, Cache, and part of Morgan, counties in Utah: and Bear Lake , Caribou, Cassia, Oneida, Franklin, Bonneville, parts of Power, Minidoka, Bingham, counties in Idaho

Autism Camouflaging in Relation to Views about Autism, Mental Health, and Gender Identity

This study examined relationships between autism camouflaging behavior, personal views about autism, community support, camouflaging emotional impact, depression, anxiety, ability to be one’s authentic self and gender in autistic adults. Participants were recruited through Facebook groups. There were 248 participants (174 cisgender women, 22 cisgender men, and 43 nonbinary people). It was hypothesized autism camouflaging behavior, its emotional impact and authentic self would correlate with depression and anxiety. Gender and camouflaging emotional impact were correlated with depression levels, but camouflaging behavior was not correlated with depression or anxiety. Participants with lower self-reported acceptance of authentic self had higher depression and anxiety symptoms. Cisgender women and nonbinary participants reported more camouflaging behavior than cisgender men. Community support was correlated with positive personal views of autism. Keywords: Autism, Camouflaging, Masking, Community, Mental Health, Anxiety, Depression, Gender, Nonbinary, Authentic Sel