<p> This dissertation explores catalysts to divorce and the effects of different shocks to marital stability. In order to determine how marriage market participation and job opportunities affect marital stability, a panel data set was constructed of all marriages and divorces (or annulments) granted in each county in the United States from 1965 to 1988. The divorce records are merged with county- level employment and population levels to estimate the employment and divorce rates. Using county level data this dissertation is able to exploit a number of labor-market geographical observation levels, such as state border regions, Statistical Metropolitan Areas (SMA), and Labor Market Areas (LMA). </p><p> The first chapter analyzes how changes in the number of available marriage-market participants in a community affect the marital stability of existing couples in the area. The analysis focuses on border regions of neighboring states and assesses the impact of fluctuations in divorcee population in one state on the divorce rates in the neighboring states' border region. Large and statistically significant effects are identified in border regions where the neighboring state's border population is larger than one's own border population, which is consistent with the theoretical models on the subject. </p><p> In the second and third chapters, attention is turned to how employment opportunities affect marital stability. In chapter two, I use my unique data to more precisely determine the relationship between employment rates and divorce. Using a fixed-effect panel-data model at the LMA level, the results indicate a strong a pro-cyclical relationship between divorce and the business cycle. Finally, in chapter three, the focus of the research transitions, from temporary employment fluctuations, to how permanent changes in the labor market affect marriage. Exploiting structural changes to the labor markets of steel and coal mining, an instrumental variable approach is used that interacts county-level steel and coal industry-concentrations with a national-level demand measure. The model estimates a strong positive relationship between the real-earnings of low-skilled male workers in the county and the county-level divorce rate in steel regions but finds minimal effects on divorce rates in coal regions.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-11, Section: A, page: 4879. Adviser: Craig A. Olson. Includes bibliographical references. Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

<p> This dissertation examines the intergenerational effects of maternal early health, the intergenerational effects of maternal education and the distributional effects of school size. </p><p> Chapter 1 is an introduction that summarizes the contributions made in this dissertation. Chapter 2 examines a new question with important implications: Does a mother's early health affect her child's human capital development? My coauthor and I use two extremely different and established methodologies to identify variation in mothers' early health: variation in early life disease environment and variation in early life economic environment. We connect children to the environments experienced by their mothers using the state, month and year of maternal birth that appears on each child's birth record. To identify children's outcomes later in life, we connect their birth records to their 3^rd through 10^th grade school records using a high quality algorithm that relies on first and last names, exact dates of birth and social security numbers. We find that a one standard deviation improvement in maternal early health improves 10^th grade test performance in the following generation by .07 to .08 standard deviations. </p><p> Chapter 3 examines the intergenerational effects of maternal education. My coauthor and I use variation in compulsory schooling laws across states and over time to identify exogenous variation in maternal education; we estimate local average treatment effects using Two-Stage Least Squares instrumental variables estimations. We connect children to the environments experienced by their mothers using the state, month and year of maternal birth that appears on each child's birth record. To identify children's outcomes later in life, we connect their birth records to their 3^rd through 10^th grade school records using a high quality algorithm that relies on first and last names, exact dates of birth and social security numbers. We find an additional year of maternal education improves 3^rd grade test performance in the following generation by .31 standard deviations on average and that this relationship is driven by children born to white mothers. </p><p> Chapter 4 uses state-wide, student-level data from Illinois to examine the distributional effects of school size. I apply two established strategies to identify variation in school size; I use population-level panels of data to identify year-to-year changes in enrollment within schools and I exploit variation induced by school openings. I find smaller schools simultaneously improve average ACT achievement in 11^th grade and close achievement gaps between more and less advantaged students. Specifically, a 20 percent decrease in school size improves students' ACT performance by 1 percent on average and improves ACT performance by 1.5 percent on average for African American students that receive free or reduced price lunch.</p>

<p> Renewable portfolio standards have been widely adopted by the many states due in large part to their broad political appeal. Of particular note is the significance that labor market impacts have played in the rhetoric for adopting renewable portfolio standards--they are commonly touted and perceived as net job creating policies. No robust analysis has yet been performed to assess the effectiveness of renewable portfolio standards in achieving this policy goal, however. </p><p> Through regression analysis that directly accounts for previously unconsidered selection biases, this work seeks to approach the question of labor market impacts and determine to what extent renewable portfolio standards have affected employment within the electricity industry as well as the broader economy at both the state and regional levels. </p><p> The presence of selection bias, identified via a Maddala Two-Stage Treatment Effects Model, was found to significantly impact coefficient estimates. Once these biases were econometrically factored out, RPS policies were found to be unambiguously effective at increasing the share of the electricity portfolio provided by renewable energy. The resultant expansion in renewable energy capacity was in turn found to have several statistically significant labor market impacts at both the state and regional levels. </p><p> At the state level, RPS policies are associated with ceteris paribus increases in employment in RE related fields (including installation and production), a decrease in employment in the broader electrical generation sector, and provided no statistically significant impact on overall employment within a state. At the regional level the benefits of RPS policies appear far greater. Under a regional specification an estimated ceteris paribus increase in employment in RE related fields, no statistically significant impact on overall employment in the electrical generation sector, and an increase in total region-wide employment was observed. Estimates of gains of approximately 2% in total regional employment are supported. The discrepancy between state and regional impacts was attributed to both labor and renewable energy capacity leakages across state borders, driven by economies of agglomeration; causing neighboring states to benefit from a local adoption of the RPS policy.</p>

<p> A state and year fixed effects model is developed to analyze the influence of state unemployment insurance taxes and state workers' compensation costs on temporary help services employment concentration. Using state level panel data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, state unemployment insurance tax factors are found to have significant effects on temporary help services employment concentration. Workers' compensation costs had a significant effect on temporary help services employment concentration during the Great Recession, but not before. Because temporary help services jobs represent low quality jobs relative to traditional direct-hire jobs, state unemployment insurance taxes, through their impact on temporary help services employment concentration, contribute to a decrease in job quality. The results of the analysis suggest that the effects of policy factors on job quality merit further analysis.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-07, Section: A, page: 3074. Adviser: Todd Elder. Includes bibliographical references. Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thèse (M.Sc.)--Université de Sherbrooke (Canada), 2008. / Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 1 février 2007). In ProQuest dissertations and theses. Publié aussi en version papier.

This thesis focuses on Litchurch, the railway suburb of Derby, the headquarters of the Midland Railway Company and its workforce, during the period 1840-1900, It examines the consequences of factory paternalism and company loyalty for the construction of 'community', exploring the connections between work, family, and wider social and political life. It begins by looking at Derby as a county town where an early alliance between Whigs and Liberals resulted in the political dominance of the town by a group of Liberal-radical textile manufacturers as a form of extended factory village. There is then a discussion of railway paternalism which investigates the many differences between the family firm and the corporate railway company. The relationship between the railways and the state is examined, through the twin theorization of the railway within the state-intrinsic to national integrity and as a state in microcosm- a form of space management derived from military and civil government. The role of Derby as headquarters of the M.R.is then considered: its decision making and service function; the technological mix of productive techniques; and the distinctive relationship between public and private space. A model of company loyalty based on the experience of the physical and organizational space of the railway company is developed through the notions of the career and the appropriation to the self of organisational space, the 'bailiwick'. The spatial and social structure of Litchurch is examined and its marriage and residence patterns. In the discussion of social institutions, churches, recreation and self-help, the tensions are explored between vertical integration and horizontal stratification which are intrinsic to corporate culture. The extent and limits of collective action in terms of local and national consciousness are then considered. A model of community is then proposed, founded on the routine practices of everyday life, which recognises the multiplicity of motivations and experiences subsumed within the symbolic affirmations of collective solidarity. It concludes with an examination of the antagonism between the county town of Derby, with its history and expectations of paternal intervention, and the corporate Midland Railway 1 which was economically, socially and politically independent of local systems.

<p>Gregory (2003) demonstrated that for the past thirty-five years small steps of progress have been made towards women's equality. However, he stated that sex discrimination is still blatant, subtle and covert and it continues to plague working women. He continued to argue that nearly all the population of women in the U.S. encounter obstacles in job advancement, whether the obstacles are glass or cement ceilings or ordinary brick walls. (p.5). The researcher will attempt to elaborate on disparate treatment women have endured for generations. With the current pay scale between women and men, women receive 23 cents less than their male colleagues out of every dollar earned. Because this system exist, it impedes a woman's holistic growth and functionality. For example, there are some women who are trapped in abusive relationships but cannot leave because they lack adequate financial resources. </p><p> Gregory (2003) pointed out that employer retaliation comes in various forms, although employers tend to favor discharge over other options. (p.162). He also stated that other forms of retaliation employers use to punish their employees for having engaged in protected activities include denials of promotion and demotions (p.163). The fear of retaliation prevents a woman from reporting the perpetrator. In addition, some of the political realm is working night and day against the improvement and progress of the women's population. With the above argument made about the disparate treatments towards women, the researcher will apply the qualitative method in this thesis to breakdown problems women face. Plus, the researcher makes suggestions how the nation can be involved in resolving and eliminating these issues, individually and collectively, to moving women's rights and progress forward and permanently. </p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Catholic University of America. 1936. / "Sources": p. 105-106; Bibliography: p. 107-115.