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This dissertation incorporates three essays related to youth’s health and human capital outcomes. The first two essays investigate the impacts of important public policies on adolescents’ mental health and risky behavioral outcomes. Essay three examines the effects of mothers’ non-cognitive skills on children’s home environment qualities and their cognitive and behavioral outcomes. Domestic violence is a large public issue in the United States. Chapter 1 investigates the effectiveness of warrantless arrest laws enacted by states for domestic violence incidents on multiple youth mental and behavioral outcomes. Under these laws, police officers can arrest a suspect without a warrant even if they did not witness the crime. Although young women remain at the highest risk of victimization of domestic violence, children ages 3 to 17 years are also at elevated risk for domestic violence. Further, over 15 million children witness domestic violence in their homes every year in the United States. Exposure to domestic violence is associated with various social, emotional, behavioral, and health-related problems among youth. Using variation in timing of implementation of the arrest laws across states, I utilize differences-in-differences analyses in multiple, large-scale data sets of nationally representative samples of youth population to study the impact of the laws on a number of youth mental and behavioral outcomes. Results indicate the presence of heterogeneity with respect to the impact of states’ arrest laws on the outcomes studied. The study is useful for policymakers as it provides important evidence on the effectiveness of state measures designed to reduce domestic violence. The estimates obtained in the analyses are robust to multiple sensitivity checks to address key threats to identification. Chapter 2 empirically examines the effects of state cyberbullying laws on youth outcomes with respect to measures of school violence, mental health, and substance use behavior. Electronic form of harassment or cyberbullying is a large social, health, and education issue in the United States. In response to cyberbullying, most state governments have enacted electronic harassment or cyberbullying law as a part of their bullying prevention law. The analysis uses variation in the timing of implementation of cyberbullying laws across states as an exogenous source of variation. Using nationally representative samples of high-school teenagers from national and state Youth Risk Behavior Surveys, the study finds evidence of a positive relationship between adoption of cyberbullying laws and students’ reporting of certain experiences of school violence, mental health problems, and substance use activities. Regression analyses also study the effects of some important components of state cyberbullying laws. Finally, this study examines the sex-specific impacts of cyberbullying laws and its components on youth. The causal estimates are robust to the inclusion of multiple sensitivity checks. This study provides evidence on the efficacy of public measures designed to address cyberbullying among school-age children. Chapter 3 utilizes matched data from National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY79) and Children and Young Adults (NLSY79 CYA), to estimate the impact of mothers’ self-esteem on young children’s home environment qualities that enhance early childhood cognitive functioning and extend better emotional support. The estimates suggest that mothers with higher self-esteem provide better home environment to their children during early stages of childhood. The results are robust across different estimation methods, empirical specifications, and demographic groups. This study also finds that mothers with higher self-esteem are more likely to engage in parental practices that support young children’s cognitive and emotional development. Further analysis shows that mothers' self-esteem has a causal relationship with cognitive and behavioral outcomes of school-age children. The results obtained in this study indicate that early childhood development policies directed towards enhancement of non-cognitive skills in mothers can improve children’s human capital outcomes. / Economics

No / The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of constraints in the theory of relativity and, in particular, what philosophical work they do for Einstein's views on the laws of physics. Einstein presents a view of local ``structure laws'' which he characterizes as the most appropriate form of physical laws. Einstein was committed to a view of science, which presents a synthesis between rational and empirical elements as its hallmark. If scientific constructs are free inventions of the human mind, as Einstein, held, the question arises how such rational constructs, including the symbolic formulation of the laws of physics, can represent physical reality. Representation in turn raises the question of realism. Einstein uses a number of constraints in the theory of relativity to show that by imposing constraints on the rational elements a certain ``fit'' between theory and reality can be achieved. Fit is to be understood as satisfaction of constraint. His emphasis on reference frames in the STR and more general coordinate systems in the GTR, as well as his emphasis on the symmetries of the theory of relativity suggests that Einstein's realism is akin to a certain form of structural realism. His version of structural realism follows from the theory of relativity and is independent of any current philosophical debates about structural realism.

This dissertation examines the evolution of institutions and legal rules regulating and prohibiting the slave trade into a global regime for the regulation of international labor migration between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. In the nineteenth century, the spread of anti-slavery norms increased Western demand for African and Asian contractual workers; but it also upturned labor recruitment networks in the Senegal River valley and the Pearl River delta, which relied on coercive practices that Western governments now prohibited. As a result, imperial powers, indigenous authorities, and labor-source communities competed to set and enforce new rules for the lawful recruitment of West African and Chinese laborers for Western enterprises. I argue that jurisdictional competition between these groups produced legal regimes that determined mobility and economic opportunity for Asian and African workers. As novel legal arrangements both facilitated and restrained African and Asian migration to worksites across the globe, labor-source societies in West Africa and China grew conscious of their shared existence within a Western-dominated world order and engaged in global debates over slavery, labor, and civilization. I trace the origins of these debates to two phenomena: the early modern global trade expansion and the subsequent emergence of the anti-slavery movement. These developments transformed political ideologies not only in Western imperial metropoles, but also in Sahelian West Africa and across the South China Sea. I also uncover African and Asian critiques of domination, discrimination, and inequality in international and imperial legal orders. This project thus elucidates how labor mobilization produced new identities and solidarities across Africa and Asia. It further reveals how the regulation of migration produced global disparities of wealth and sovereignty.

The problem of this study was to determine what influence the labor codes of Virginia and West Virginia have bad on their respective economies. Data for the study was collected from several state and federal agencies, the bulk of this information coming from the commerce and labor departments of each state. This thesis contains information that could be a valuable guide to regulatory bodies in determining the need for possible changes in existing labor legislation in these states or the need for new legislation in the respective states. It was determined that the extent of influence that a state’s labor code has had on the economy of the state or the degree of influence that a state's economy has had on the development of it's labor code could not be determined based upon the statistical data that is now available. Data was selected from key industries in the two states with particular emphasis placed upon those statistics pertinent to the subject matter of collective bargaining and concerning such matters as weekly wages, hours worked per week. and average hourly earnings. / Master of Science

Milk surplus in the U.S. dairy industry has been increasing substantially since the beginning of the 1980s. In order to analyze the surplus production situation, an interregional dairy trade model based on a spatial equilibrium framework was developed. The model included disaggregate manufactured milk markets and utilized separable programming as the solution technique. The objective of the interregional dairy trade model was to maximize the sum of producers’ and consumers’ surplus subject to the various institutional constraints incorporating unregulated and regulated market situations. Under the regulated market situation, the institutional constraints were based on the federal milk marketing order and dairy price support programs. Utilizing the interregional dairy trade model, a comparison of simulated market results and net economic effects between unregulated and regulated markets was drawn first. Results of the simulations for market results and welfare effects under pricing policy options with regard to changes in the support and purchase prices were also analyzed. Finally, a comparison of the results of simulations for simultaneous market clearing situations in butter and nonfat dry milk markets with no government purchases of these commodities under the 1982 market situation and an increasing quota system was considered. It was found that without considering the supply effect induced by price stabilizing regulations, the competitive manufactured milk market price would be lower than the 1982 support price level. The butter and nonfat dry milk markets would move toward a market clearing situation if the support price level was decreased by $1.00 per cwt for butter and by $2.00 per cwt for nonfat dry milk when cross price elasticity effects were included. Due to cross price elasticity effects, the butter market would clear at a higher price level (in terms of the support price) than the nonfat dry milk market. Simulations of simultaneous market clearing situations suggested that the 1982 butter price would be lower and the nonfat dry milk price would be higher than market clearing prices. Increases in import quotas would drop butter and cheese market clearing prices and raise the nonfat dry milk price relative to the actual 1982 case. / Ph. D.

published_or_final_version / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

<p>The protection of the rights of sexual minorities in Africa is a controversial issue. It is not unusual to find newspaper reports on gross violations suffered by this minority group. Gays and lesbians are victims of violence, sometimes resulting in death. Sexual minorities in Africa are often confronted with government actions such as those of the Nigerian government that recently submitted to the parliament a Bill to make provisions for the prohibition of relationships between persons of the same sex, celebration of marriage, registration of gay clubs and societies and publicity of same sex relationships. The objective of this study was to suggest possible legal protection and recognition of sexual minority rights under the African human rights system.</p>

Over the last few decades, there has been a significant increase in the political and public acceptance of gay men and lesbians. However, this trend of acceptance is not a global phenomenon. Currently over 70 countries still criminalise private consensual same-sex intimacy, among which are 11 of the 12 independent Commonwealth Caribbean states. It should be noted that the anti-gay laws of the Caribbean are rarely used to police consensual private sexual activities. Thus, if private same-sex conduct is rarely penalised, why keep the laws in place, especially in the age where such bans are considered a violation of basic human rights? Many policy makers in the region have cited public opinions about homosexuality as a significant barrier to law reform. However, while a common view is that these laws are anchored by public support, very few studies have emerged to test whether the attitudes and behaviours of the general population are in line with this view. Against this backdrop, this thesis analyses attitudes towards lesbians and gay men and their legal rights in the Commonwealth Caribbean. The thesis begins with an analysis of support for the anti-gay laws in Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. The analysis revealed that a majority of the sample supported the maintenance and enforcement of the laws, but did not want same-sex couples to be penalised for having sex in private. This suggests that attitudes may not be as stark as policy makers suggest. The descriptive statistics also show that a significant share of individuals think that the laws (1) reflect moral standards; (2) stop the spread of homosexuality; (3) are important from a public health perspective, and (4) protect young people from abuse. Support for the laws are thus related to beliefs that homosexuality is a 'threat' to the fabric of society. The empirical analysis of support for the laws revealed that religiousness, interpersonal contact and beliefs about the origin of homosexuality were the most reliable predictors of public support. However, age and education were only statistically significant in a few models, and there was no evidence that attitudes varied across religious denominations. This is a contrast to the findings of studies in the West. It was hypothesised that macro-level factors - such as the large share of Evangelicals, anti-gay laws and level of socioeconomic development - could be exerting an influence on attitudes that is stronger than that of these personal characteristics. As such, the study conducted a cross-national analysis of attitudes towards same-sex marriage in 28 countries in the Americas, 6 of which were members of the Commonwealth Caribbean. In general, countries with higher levels of development, smaller shares of Evangelicals and more liberal laws on homosexuality were more approving of same-sex marriage. The results also suggest that the impact of age and/or religion is less prominent in countries with restrictions on same-sex intimacy, lower levels of development and a strong Evangelical presence, confirming the hypothesis that contextual factors could mitigate the impact of some of the individual-level variables. Finally, to get a nuanced view of anti-gay prejudice in the region, a thematic analysis of anti-gay speech in dancehall and reggae - music originating from Jamaica but popular in the region - was presented. The thematic analysis revealed that homosexuality is presented as 'sinful', a 'violation of gendered norms', 'unnatural', a 'threat to society' and a 'foreign lifestyle'. The presentation of homosexuality as a 'foreign' lifestyle suggests that anti-gay prejudice could be related to fears of neo-imperialism and could be a means of rejecting ideological intrusions from the West. This is not surprising, as currently, the fight for the advancement of gay rights is being headed by activists in the West. Based on the thematic analysis, efforts to remove the anti-gay laws should be (or at least appear to be) home-grown to limit public backlash.