A large body of research, typically nationally focused, has examined the relationship between family structure, educational attainment, and healthcare access. Within this field of study, there is limited availability of regionally based studies, specifically the Lower Mississippi Delta (LMD) region. This exploratory study examines the effects of family structure on high school graduation rates and health insurance coverage within the LMD region. The objective is to determine if family structure has a direct impact on the educational attainment and health outcomes of a child within the region using concepts from nationally focused literature. Through the use of an OLS regression, we find that family structure does not have a strong impact on the educational attainment of children within the region. However, we did find that family structure had a strong impact on the health insurance coverage of youth within the region. Additionally, we examine the impact that spatial location and race has on these variables. These results can encourage the development of potential intervention programs, outreach initiatives, and other programs geared toward helping youth within the region. The study's conclusions provide insight on the impact of family structure on health and education thus encouraging further research within the LDM region.

This doctoral thesis examines the long-term impact of birth order on health, and educational attainment. Swedish register data is used to link individuals to their siblings, thereby allowing members of the sibling group to be compared to one another. This thesis consists of an introductory chapter summarizing empirical research on the relationship between birth order and educational attainment, intelligence, health, and personality, as well the theoretical frameworks that have been developed to explain those relationships. This introductory chapter is followed by four original empirical studies. The first two studies show that relative to first born siblings, later borns have lower physical fitness in late adolescence, and higher mortality in adulthood. The third study uses the Swedish registers to identify sibling groups that entirely consist of adopted individuals, and shows that the commonly observed negative relationship between birth order and educational attainment persists in these fully adopted sibling groups. These results suggest that birth order effects are likely explained by post-natal, social mechanisms within the family. Finally, the fourth study shows that even though later born siblings do worse than first borns in a fully adjusted statistical model, educational expansion in the 20th century has meant that later born siblings actually tend to have greater educational attainment and are more likely to attend university in comparison to older siblings within the same family. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript. Paper 2: Epub ahead of print. Paper 3: Accepted. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>

We use a production function approach in investigating the relationship between financial development and economic growth in 9 EU accession - mostly transition countries. These findings are compared with the results for the group of 18 developed countries, and separately, with the results for a group of less developed EU countries - structural fund recipients. We use aggregate measures of financial development as well as measures for single segments of financial sectors. In context of transition countries, bond markets are, to our knowledge, taken explicitly into account for the first time. We find that domestic credit and bond markets together with real capital stock growth stimulate economic growth in transition. With progress in cohesion, educational attainment becomes the next important factor that contributes to economic growth followed by labor participation in mature market economies. For the developed countries, financial sector did not play any positive role for growth over the period under study. We conclude that transfer mechanisms for growth differ over the development cycle. This is important to growth theory, to the sequencing of economic reforms and to financial sector development priorities. (author's abstract) / Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2009. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 48-02, page: .

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Sociology. Thesis / Dissertation ETD / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-146).

The underrepresentation of Black males in college and university campuses has continued to raise alarming questions for parents, teachers, and policy makers. In this study I utilized Intersectionality theory to examine Black males’ experiences in high schools in order to gain an understanding of the factors that impact their educational attainment and subsequent development of college aspiration. Based on 30 qualitative interviews with 10th, 11th, and 12th graders and 30 interviews with their parents, this study examined familial and social contexts in relations to Black male students’ educational attainment. Four key findings revealed that, 1) young Black men had to deal with gender-specific racial discrimination on a daily basis by counteracting the prevalent negative images against Black males in mainstream American society, 2) peer pressure exerted positive influence in middle to high SES neighborhoods and schools; but showed negative impact on their educational attainment and college aspiration in low SES neighborhoods and substandard schools, 3) female headed households in particular did not necessarily have negative effects on Black male students’ educational attainment, and 4) private schools appeared to have better climates than public schools in inspiring Black males to higher levels of academic achievement and college aspiration. Policy recommendations were proposed to stimulate Black male students’ greater interest in college attendance and educational achievement.

The decision of whether to enter higher education or not is strongly structured by social background, i.e. parents’ social class. This paper examines if and to what extent enrolment in tertiary education also is related to social capital, and furthermore, if social capital can account for differences in social background. Two aspects of social capital are examined: extended network resources, operationalized as family acquaintances holding different occupations, and peer influences, assessed as the number of friends already engaged in higher educational studies. The sample consists of two subsequent surveys of Swedish adolescents, divided in three stratums based on parents’ country of birth: Iran, former Yugoslavia and Sweden. The findings suggest that resources and returns of extended social networks enhance the probability of enrolment to university studies. The results concerning peer influences seem to indicate an impact on the probability of university admission, however, there might be causal and analytical problems of measurement involved.

Background: Research on how rising human capital affects the consequences of population ageing rarely considers the fact that the human capital of the elderly population is composed in a specific way that is shaped by their earlier schooling and work experience. For an elderly population of a fixed size and age-sex composition, this entails that the higher its human capital, the greater the total amount of public pensions to be paid. Objective: The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the link between human capital and retiree benefits and its effect on population ageing from a demographic viewpoint. Methods: We construct an old age dependency ratio (OADR), in which each person, whether in the numerator or the denominator, is assigned the number of units corresponding to his/her level of human capital. Based on data for Italy, we study the dynamics of this human-capital-specific OADR with the help of multistate population projections to 2107. Results: Our results show that under specific conditions a constant or moderately growing human capital may aggravate the consequences of population ageing rather than alleviate them. Conclusions: With those findings, the authors would like to stimulate the debate on the search for demographic and/or socio-economic solutions to the challenges posed by population ageing.

China's rapid economic growth and social transitions have drawn substantial recent attention. However, there is still limited understanding of these phenomena and the mechanisms behind them. This dissertation investigates three aspects of China's development: education, female labor supply and responses to natural shocks. Chapter 1 sheds light on the option value of education by studying the impact of China's college enrollment expansion on educational attainment at the high school level. Standard human capital models without uncertainty rarely address the importance of the option value of education -- the opportunity that a certain level of education provides to obtain a higher level of education. Therefore, changes in option values can affect human capital investment decisions. Combining survey data with provincial statistics and applying a difference-in-differences method, I find that China's college expansion significantly increased the probabilities of enrolling in and completing high school. The probability of completing high school increased more than that of enrolling in high school. Female students benefited more, as did children whose mother had a high school degree. Chapter 2 studies the relationship between fertility and female labor supply. Many empirical studies find a negative correlation between the two, however the evidence on causal effects is weaker because fertility is endogenous. This paper studies the effects of childbearing on women's labor supply and earnings using a plausibly exogenous change, the relaxation of China's One Child Policy, as an instrument for family size. The main findings are that total fertility has no significant impact on time of working as a wage earner, but children under six have a negative effect. Neither total fertility nor children under six affect women's farming time or annual income. Chapter 3 explores the long-term consequences of China's Great Famine from 1959 to 1961. Several studies have investigated the causes of the famine, yet little empirical work examined its consequences. This paper examines a set of health and socioeconomic outcomes that have not been studied. I find a significant positive selection in the height of survivors born during the famine. Individuals born during the famine received less education than those born before or after the famine, were more likely to work in agriculture when starting to work and transferred less money to their parents.