Background: Access to quality public transportation is critical for employment, especially for low-income and minority populations. This research contributes to previous work on equity analysis of the U.S. public transportation system by covering the 45 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and their counties. Objective: This study analyzes job accessibility of transit commuters in the 45 largest MSAs to assess the existing differences in accessibility between Census-defined socioeconomic status (SES) categories. Method: 2014 Census demographic data were matched to a previously published 2014 dataset of transit job accessibility at the Census Block Group level. Transit equality and justice analyses were performed based on population-weighted mean job accessibility and SES variables. Results: The findings suggest that within individual MSAs, the low-income populations and people of color have the highest transit job accessibility. However, in certain MSAs with high job accessibility, such as New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Houston, there is a significantly disproportionate access to public transportation based on income. Variables such as income, and the use of personal vehicle, are found to have a statistically significant negative impact on job accessibility in almost all MSAs. The percentage of White workers has a significant impact on job accessibility in upper-mid-density MSAs and high-density MSAs. The percentage of the population with limited English speaking ability is not a significant determinant of job accessibility except in lower-mid-density MSAs. Disparities by income are greater than disparities by race. Racial disparities increase by MSA size and density controlling for income. The findings suggest that planning for public transportation should take into account risks, benefits, and other equally important aspects of public transportation such as frequency, connectivity, and quality of service. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning / In recent years, there has been a shift in focus from encouraging mobility to encouraging accessibility, along with the provision of more sustainable travel options (e.g., walking, cycling, public transport). Access to quality public transportation is critical for employment, especially for low-income and minority populations. This research contributes to previous work on equity analysis of the U.S. public transportation system by covering the 45 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and their counties. This study analyzes job accessibility of transit commuters to assess the existing differences in accessibility in terms of income, race, ability to speak English, etc. Transit equality and justice analyses were performed based on population-weighted mean job accessibility and SES variables. The findings suggest that within individual MSAs, the low-income populations and people of color have the highest transit job accessibility. However, in certain MSAs with high job accessibility, such as New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Houston, there is a significantly disproportionate access to public transportation based on income. Variables such as income, and the use of personal vehicle, are found to have a statistically significant negative impact on job accessibility in almost all MSAs. The percentage of White workers has a significant impact on job accessibility in upper-mid-density MSAs and high-density MSAs. The percentage of the population with limited English speaking ability is not a significant determinant of job accessibility except in lower-mid-density MSAs. The findings suggest that planning for public transportation should take into account risks, benefits, and other equally important aspects of public transportation such as frequency, connectivity, and quality of service.

A growing amount of research finds that the accumulation of, investment in, and mobilization of certain cultural resources are significant predictors of children's advantageous social development in both institutional settings and interpersonal relationships. Several theories and empirical analyses illustrate the importance of children's leisure-time activities in the accumulation of valuable resources. These cultural resources confer advantages to children, especially in educational settings (e.g. teachers' perception of students, intellectual development, and academic outcomes) because these arenas are often key spaces for social mobility. However, few research studies attempt to empirically pinpoint the socioeconomic origins of children's cultural (dis)advantages. This notable gap in the research literature can be addressed by examining family-level predictors of the accumulation and transmission of these cultural resources. The purpose of this study is to investigate the link between family-level socioeconomic status and children's participation in structured, extracurricular, arts-based activities as well as cultural performance attendance. Drawing on Bourdieu's (1984) concept of 'cultural capital' and Lareau's (2002; 2003) concept of 'concerted cultivation', this study explores whether or not socioeconomic status is a significant predictor of children's participation in extracurricular arts activities as well as attendance of cultural performances using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the Child Development Supplement (CDS-II). I evaluate Lareau's class analysis and expand upon it by disaggregating the key dimensions of socioeconomic status and identifying which are the most salient for increased participation in arts-based activities among children in the United States context. I provide a detailed analysis and discussion of the nuanced relationships between socioeconomic status measures and youth participation in the arts. / Master of Science

This study investigates the interaction of HIV/AIDS and housing, identifying barriers affecting people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in accessing fair housing options essential in understanding physical and mental health outcomes associated with unstable housing and homelessness in this population. This research follows a three-essay format to examine the relationship between HIV and housing. The first essay, a systematic review, evaluated peer-reviewed literature reporting housing access/insecurity/assistance/options, housing impact, and unmet needs of older individuals living with HIV in North America from 2012 to 2023. Furthermore, latent semantic analysis (LSA), a text-mining technique, and singular value decomposition (SVD) for text clustering were utilized to examine unstructured data from the abstracts selected from the review. The second essay is a quantitative study that examines the correlation between housing access to HIV-related stigma, awareness of housing assistance programs, and demographics. The results provide insight into homelessness and unstable housing experienced by PLWHA despite available resources and laws prohibiting discrimination. The third essay is a qualitative study that uses semi-structured interviews with HIV housing organizations' staff to highlight the role they play in combating homelessness, providing health and supportive services, and addressing emerging unmet needs. This research contributes to existing knowledge on housing gaps and unfulfilled needs for people living with HIV.

No / Globally supermarkets have been seen as a remedy to the problems of poor diets in deprived neighbourhoods where access to healthy foodstuffs has been limited. This study seeks to quantify the consequences of one such United Kingdom intervention, in Seacroft, Leeds. Where previous work often focused on fruit and vegetables, this paper presents evidence on all food and drink consumed before, and after, the new opening. It is shown that utilising large format retailers can also bring significant negative consequences for already unhealthy diets, exactly the opposite of what policy makers set out to achieve. Suggestion is therefore made that policymakers consider using price, or education, interventions rather than promoting large shops, which, while stocking cheap healthy food also offer shoppers the unhealthy produce they like at low prices.

No / Black and minority ethnic (BME) communities continue to experience inequalities within the U.K. mental health system despite major government policy initiatives. The authors examined the literature for causal factors for continued mental health inequalities facing BME groups and potential solutions. The authors selected 53 articles from 1991 to 2012 based on inclusion criteria encompassing all major policy initiatives and relevant literature detailing explanations of mental health inequalities. Although ethnic inequalities in mental health have been of concern for decades in the United Kingdom, a still‐significant gap exists between policies and methods of implementation. In comparison to White people, more BME people are diagnosed with mental health issues every year. BME communities are also facing barriers in terms of accessing culturally appropriate services, including lack of cultural understanding, communication issues, and where and how to seek help. Service providers need to work closely with people from BME communities prior to service design and delivery. Information should be made available in appropriate languages to support understanding about their illnesses and how they can seek help. Frequent reviews may further help assess BME communities' needs and make required changes and implementations.

Yes

Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. Whilst there has been significant progress as part of a fundamental societal shift, a report by the UN (2022) has identified a further widening of the gender poverty gap. This study takes the perspective of evaluating property valuation of the matrimonial home in divorce cases and how this may contribute to gender inequality. Combining the areas of property valuation and gender inequality is a unique aspect of this study. Currently, this is an under researched area in real estate and family law and this thesis aims to fill this gap. The thesis includes a literature review, which provides a critical assessment of valuation evidence as a data source in research involving a discussion of valuation accuracy, valuation variation and valuation bias. The Australian family court system and the role of valuers as expert witnesses are also discussed in the literature review. Family law and divorce in the context of other countries worldwide are considered as well. The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate through analysis the role of property valuation in family law and in particular retention of the matrimonial home in long-term effects on women following divorce. This can include both financial and non-financial aspects. In order to quantify these aspects, the research in this thesis uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to introduce a set of measurable elements. Data was taken from the Austlii to create a detailed database of 658 cases to be analysed. Quantitative analysis included examination of property valuations put forward to the judge by male and female parties and their effects on final outcomes. Qualitative analysis was conducted with NVivo on a selection of 20 cases from the database in order to identify important themes related to the matrimonial home, valuation, gender roles, socioeconomic factors, and reasoning behind judges’ decisions. Qualitative analysis of a series of interviews with family lawyers, valuers, and clients was also undertaken. Overall findings showed that women are disadvantaged financially following divorce for many reasons, including caretaking duties, limited earning capacity, and career disruptions. There is evidence that judges were aware of such limitations and used these disadvantages as reason to award the women a higher portion of the assets, in particular the matrimonial home. The inference from this evidence does not support the hypothesis of bias against women in the family courts. However, the case studies of women who had been through divorce themselves raised issues that complicate this conclusion. Even when women were awarded the family home, they encountered long-term financial difficulties. From these outcomes, it appears that the strategies used to compensate are not effective in solving the whole problem. Whilst the disadvantage women face has decreased over time, the evidence indicates that there is still scope for improvement.

This paper examines the relationship between income inequality and the homicide rate in 59 geographic areas in New York City known as Community District Tabulation Areas (CDTAs). The premise for this paper is that community members in each CDTA share similar social characteristics and therefore these areas provide a useful lens through which to analyze ecological social phenomena such as homicide. The main hypothesis for this paper is that the homicide rate in the CDTAs will vary directly with the level of income inequality within each CDTA. The outputs from several models testing this hypothesis do not support this hypothesis. The models failed to produce a result showing a relationship between income inequality and the homicide rate that is statistically significant. However, the models did produce results showing a strong relationship between a composite of several indicators of disadvantage and the homicide rate in the CDTAs. The model also produces results that show a moderate relationship between the homicide rate and the racial makeup of CDTAs along with a moderate inverse relationship between voter turnout and the homicide rate. / Master of Science / The causes behind fluctuations in violence rates has been the subject of much scholarship over the past several decades. Policymakers can use the results of these studies to design effective intervention programs. This study investigates to what extent there is a link between inequality and the homicide rate in New York City. This study uses several social theories such as social disorganization, strain theory, and collective efficacy to analyze homicide rates in 59 geographic areas throughout New York City known as Community District Tabulation Areas (CDTA). I use data from several sources to form variables that represent social phenomena in each CDTA, such as relative disadvantage, absolute disadvantage, and collective efficacy. I then explore the relationships between these variables against the homicide rate in each CDTA. This study concludes with findings on the relationships and discussion about the results.

This thesis comprises three papers in quantitative macroeconomics that explore the following questions: (1) How does employer-provided training impact the college wage premium in the context of skill-biased technological change? (2) How does the option to sell a firm influence firm entry, exit, and growth dynamics? (3) How does college major selection impact occupational sorting and entrepreneurship? Chapter 1 combines matched employer-employee survey data from Canada with a quantitative model of the labour market featuring endogenous technology and training decisions to show that the rise in training, driven by technological advancements, attenuated the increase in the college wage premium by 63 percent between 1980 and the early 2000s. Chapter 2, co-authored with Bettina Brueggemann and Zachary Mahone, uses administrative matched employer-employee data from Canada and a quantitative model of firm dynamics to establish that transfers of business ownership significantly impact firm entry, exit, and growth dynamics, with 13 percent of new entrants surviving solely due to the option value of sale. Chapter 3 empirically establishes a negative relationship between STEM majors and entrepreneurship using micro-data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Through a quantitative model that links decisions regarding majors and entrepreneurship, I show that lowering STEM tuition increases STEM enrolment at the cost of reducing overall entrepreneurial activity. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This dissertation provides evidence of the return to education in Iran as well as measurement of inequality of opportunity and the Human Opportunity Index using cross-section data of Trends in Mathematics and Science Studies and Harmonized Household Income and Expenditure Surveys of several Middle Eastern Countries. The first chapter studies the return to education and the effect of school availability on education attainment in Iran. The Census 2006 allows us to get closer to the district of schooling by focusing on non-migrants. We estimate the return to education and the effect of school availability both for migrant and non-migrant sub-samples. We employ school availability as an instrument to correct the ability bias. We find availability of school increases women's education attainment more than men's and it is higher among the non-migrant sample. Using instrumental variable, the return to education is 6.50% in 2012 suggesting an upward bias in OLS. The second chapter provides estimates of Human Opportunity Index (HOI) in the Middle East and North Africa. Our estimates show the HOI improve over time in MENA region and compare favorably with similar measures computed for other regions, notably Latin America. Using Shapley decomposition, we find that parental background and place of living are the most important circumstances explaining inequality of opportunity to access in basic opportunities. Understanding the change in HOI and factors that influence it most complement existing analyses of inequality of opportunity in education, earning, and consumption for MENA countries because they focus on aspects of inequality of opportunity that are largely provided by the state. The third chapter provides estimates of inequality of educational opportunity using TIMSS dataset. We estimate the index of IOP using the ex-ante approach both for the fourth and eighth grade. The computed index of IOP shows that there is an improvement in IOP both for mathematics and science from grade four to eight. The investigations about relevant inputs suggest that there is a negative relationship between educational expenditure and the level of IOP. The relationship between the index of IOP and average economic growth as well as GDP per capita is positive. / Ph. D. / This dissertation provides evidence of the return to education in Iran as well as measurement of inequality of opportunity and the Human Opportunity Index using cross-section data of Trends in Mathematics and Science Studies and Harmonized Household Income and Expenditure Surveys of several Middle Eastern Countries. The first chapter studies the return to education and the effect of school availability on education attainment in Iran. The results show school availability has a positive and significant effect on women education attainment. We also estimate the rates of return to education for men between 25-60 years old in Iran in 2006 and 2012. Our findings show that the returns to schooling decline in Iran between 2006 and 2012. The second chapter provides estimates of Human Opportunity Index (HOI) in the Middle East and North Africa. Our estimates show the HOI improve over time in MENA region and compare favorably with similar measures computed for other regions, notably Latin America. The HOI evaluates the basic opportunities which mostly publicly provided. This makes the HOI relevant for understanding the effectiveness of MENA governments in providing children with an equal chance to succeed. Our findings show the HOI improves over time in MENA. The improvement over time is not surprising because as a service expands, especially if it starts inequitably, it generally covers more of the less advantaged households. The third chapter provides estimates of inequality of educational opportunity (IOP) using TIMSS dataset. We estimate the index of IOP using variance decomposition method. Our estimates show that in most countries of our sample the index of IOP increases from fourth grade to eighth grade suggesting the circumstances out of the control of an individual play important role in higher level of education. We investigate the correlational relationship between the index of IOP and some economic characteristics. Our findings suggest that there is a negative relationship between educational expenditure and the level of IOP. The relationship between the index of IOP and average economic growth as well as GDP per capita is positive.