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61	Human capital formation and the American Dust Bowl Arthi, Vellore January 2016 (has links) I use variation in childhood exposure to the Dust Bowl, an environmental shock to health and income, as a natural experiment to explain variation in adult human capital. I also examine a variety of mechanisms by which the Dust Bowl influenced later-life wellbeing, and investigate the scope for recovery from this early-life shock. I find that exposure to the Dust Bowl in childhood has statistically significant and economically meaningful adverse impacts on later-life outcomes, for instance, increasing disability and reducing fertility and college completion. These results hold even after accounting for the possibly confounding effects of the Great Depression, migration, and selective fertility or mortality. The effects I find are more severe for those born in agricultural states, suggesting that the Dust Bowl was most damaging via the destruction of agricultural livelihoods. This collapse of farm incomes, however, had the positive effect of increasing high school completion amongst the exposed, likely by reducing the demand for child farm labor where such labor was not essential to production, and thus decreasing the opportunity costs of secondary schooling; in this outcome, unlike in college completion, family income and student ability were irrelevant. Many of the worst adverse effects are found amongst those exposed prenatally and in early childhood, suggesting that congenital complications in capability development, together with low parental incomes in utero and thereafter, may be to blame for such later-life disadvantage. Together, these findings imply that the Dust Bowl acted largely "indirectly," as an economic shock that in turn affected in utero and early-life conditions, rather than "directly," through personal exposure (e.g. dust inhalation) in childhood. Lastly, results - particularly those on New Deal expenditure - imply both that remediation from early-life disaster is possible under the right circumstances, and that post-shock investment may have compensated for rather than reinforced damage to child endowments. The findings in this study are consistent with a multi-stage model of human capability formation, in which investments in one period respond to endowments in a previous one, and may either reinforce or compensate for these endowments.
62	Still Life Happens Crabtree, Mary Ann 12 April 2024 (has links) (PDF) After dedicating over two years to pursuing an MFA degree focused on ceramics and sculpture, I find myself transported back to a familiar setting from my past: a tableau reminiscent of what remained in the dining space after four young children finished a meal and exited the room. Revisiting the scene recalls happy times despite the disorder. What helped maintain my sanity during the relentless repetition of the every-day-long task was the realization that every day, innocents are learning to become aware of the world around them. For my thesis exhibition, I created a tableau as a loud reminder of those messier times in my home. My exhibition features an oversized wooden toddler's chair and table, surrounded by scattered meal-time remnants exaggerated in scale predominantly crafted from ceramic. The food items are strewn about in seemingly random arrangements, creating a chaotic still life. Perhaps the disproportionate size of the furniture and the disorderliness subconsciously acknowledge the monumental challenge of caring for children, a task that once felt never-ending but has since become a distant memory. Viewers may find solace in the mundane subject matter and in the ease of recognizing the familiar elements on display. art sculpture tableau installation still life mundane quotidian every day space sphere ceramic stoneware cooking recipe dog kibble large dog bowl ceramic food ceramic wall platters underglaze low-fire glaze upscale milk paint carved-wood food large table simulacra large chair IKEA junior chair highchair childhood food mess remnants ABC gum degradation relic Fine Arts

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Human capital formation and the American Dust Bowl

Still Life Happens