In filling their armed forces, many countries rely on conscription, which interrupts conscripts’ labor market participation and accumulation of human capital. Thus, conscription likely affects one’s future earnings. In this paper, I investigate the effects of conscription eligibility in the Netherlands and in Italy on subsequent future earnings. I use a difference-in-difference method, using women as the counterfactual, on Luxembourg Income Study data to calculate the effects of conscription eligibility. I find no systematic earnings effects of conscription. While the existence of educational deferments increase the demand for postsecondary education and hence increase future earnings, factors like military culture, military philosophy, and jobs assigned to conscripts produce different results in the two countries. I find that the Dutch conscription increased (by 6-17%) eligible young men’s earnings while the Italian conscription had no effect or slightly decreased eligible young men’s earnings.

My dissertation consists of three essays that study the college premium in China and how it has been affected by China’s higher education expansion. In the first essay, I utilize the high education expansion as exogenous source to estimate the college premium. The rapidly changing access to college provides a rare opportunity to estimate a local treatment effect (LATE) of college education on earnings by utilizing the drastic increase in college admission rate in 1999. I also utilize the yearly admission rate as an instrumental variable for the endogenous college education. Using China Household Income Project 2013, the two IV estimates of college premium are 75.7 and 57.5 log points respectively. The second essay examines the trends of the college earnings premium by age groups from 1995 to 2013 in China. Specifically, based on China Household Income Projects, the college premium for the younger group (age 25-34) stagnated, while the college premium for the older group (age 45-54) increased substantially. I attribute the stagnation for the younger group to the fast-growing relative supply of younger college workers due to China’s higher education expansion. Holding the age cohort and survey year constant, a one unit increase in log relative size of college workers leads to 10.3 log points decrease in college premium. The third essay further explores the channel through which the cohort size affects the college premium. Using Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition, I find that, for all survey years and age groups, the differential of the higher-skilled occupations share between college and non-college educated workers only explains a small part of college premium, 10%-30%. The part due to the higher-skilled occupational premium is negligible. Over 70% of the college premium is contributed by the college premium among the workers with lower-skilled occupations.

While the long run productivity of federal highway infrastructure spending has been well researched, their short run effects and effects on income inequality. This dissertation explores those under-researched unconventional effects. In the first chapter, I investigate the effects of federal infrastructure grants on income inequality. I find that grants reduce inequality in both recipient and neighboring states. The reduction is driven by greater income among the bottom three income quintiles. I explore two mechanisms using person level data and find that the reduction in inequality is attributable to higher income for low-skilled workers and workers working in low-skilled industries. In the second chapter, I investigate the role of implementation lags in the ARRA. I find that the employment effects after six months were nearly twice as high in short lag counties compared to long lag counties. However, these effects quickly fade. I find no evidence of implementation lags impacting employment after one year. In the third chapter, I examine the effect of the business cycle on completion times of federally financed transportation infrastructure projects. I find that projects that begin construction during periods of economic slack are completed more quickly, suggesting an alternative mechanism for state dependent fiscal multipliers.

This dissertation consists of three essays examining the role of two particular social safety net programs, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), on the well-being of children from disadvantaged households. While the impact of these programs on the adults and parents of the household have been studied extensively, less is known about their effect on children. This is true for both their immediate impact on child well-being and any long-run impacts on children who grow up under these programs. Given the demonstrated importance of child well-being on later life adult outcomes, understanding the lasting effects of the programs is of great policy importance. In Essay 1, I examine the effect of welfare reform on long-run educational attainment and family structure outcomes on children who grew up under the reformed welfare system. In the early 1990’s, the United States reformed its welfare system through state waivers and the TANF program. These changes altered family resources and potential investments for childhood human capital, which in turn could affect later adult outcomes. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) Child Development Supplement (CDS) and the Transition to Adulthood Supplement (TAS), I examine the short-run effects of welfare reform on cognitive and noncognitive outcomes and the long-run impact of welfare reform on adult education and family structure through age 28. I find that as children, these individuals have higher reading test scores by an average of 6 percent of a standard deviation. As adults, I find robust evidence that these treated individuals are on average 9 percent more likely to graduate college. I also find some evidence that they are more likely to be married and less likely to have a child out of wedlock. The impacts of welfare reform are larger for women than men for childhood test scores and college completion, marriage rates, and out of wedlock births as adults. In Essay 2, I continue to study the effects of welfare reform on child well-being, here focusing on the effect of welfare reform on the health insurance coverage, healthcare utilization, and the health status of children. In addition to changing the overall resources available to the family to invest in child health, welfare reform also has specific implications for health insurance coverage. As mothers were moved to work they could gain private coverage and welfare reform eliminated automatic eligibility for Medicaid. In this essay, I use data from the PSID CDS. I find a 3-5 percent decrease in the likelihood that a child has had their annual checkup but no change to the insurance coverage of children. For health status, I find lower rates of asthma by 17 percent among African American children and an increase of 3-5 healthy days a year for all children. I present suggestive evidence that the improvements in child health are driving the reduction in healthcare utilization. Given the evidence in the literature on the importance of childhood health, these improvements have potentially large ramifications for future adult health. Finally, in Essay 3 I explore the effect of the real purchasing power of SNAP benefits for households with children on dietary quality of food acquisitions and food insecurity. SNAP, formerly food stamps, is one of the most important components of the social safety net. However, there is concern that benefits are inadequate given high food insecurity rates among participating households. Currently SNAP does not account for variation in local food prices and does not sufficiently consider the dietary needs of adolescent children. Using data from the Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS), I exploit variation in county level food prices and family composition to estimate the purchasing power of food expenditures for SNAP and SNAP–eligible households to test for the effect of additional benefits on dietary quality and food security. I find that a ten percent increase in purchasing power is associated with increased per person weekly acquisition of grains, proteins, dairy, and vegetables by 1.5-2.5 percent. However the quantity of added sugars also increases by approximately two percent, suggesting an ambiguous impact on health. In line with these modest changes in quantity, I do not find a statistically significant impact of purchasing power on food insecurity rates.

Destructive events such as natural disasters and terrorist attacks occur not only in developing economies but also developed economies. Consequently, the response of these economies has been observed in case of both type of events. This dissertation is a collection of essays regarding natural disasters, terrorist attacks and the macroeconomy. Specifically, I examine the response of local labor markets that reflect a wide spectrum of economies, but also have a safety-net in the form of being part of a developed country in the aftermath of a violent tornado. Further, I explore the heterogeneity in the economies response to natural disasters and terrorist attacks. Additionally, I investigate the effects of terrorism on growth and its disaggregated value added components. The first chapter focuses on the effects of tornadoes on local labor markets. I examine the change in local labor markets caused by extreme tornadoes that occur in counties of the contiguous United States. I also investigate the effect these tornadoes have on neighboring counties and evaluate the labor market response in urban and rural counties separately as well. Using a generalized difference-in-difference approach on quarterly data spanning from 1975 to 2016, I find that counties experience persistently higher wages per worker two years following a violent tornado. The effects on urban county can be observed on employment, while the effect in the rural county is observed on wages per worker. Further, evaluating the response of labor markets by sectors reveals the industrial sectors that experience increased labor market activity. The second chapter evaluates the long-run effects of natural disasters and terrorist attacks on growth and the channels through which they affect growth. Using the conceptual framework of a Solow-Swan model I examine an unbalanced annual panel of 125 countries spanning from 1970 to 2015 and find that domestic terrorist attacks, floods, and storms have a similar negative effect on growth, while transnational terrorist attacks and earthquakes have no significant effect on growth. Examining the channels through which they affect growth brings to the forefront the differences between these different types of events. I find that domestic terrorist attacks lead to increased military expenditures in their wake, while floods lead to increased non-military expenditures in their aftermath. Reviewing the data by developed and emerging economies reveals that developed economies are better able to absorb the shock of terrorist attacks as well as natural disasters. I find that although emerging economies are able to absorb the shock of transnational and domestic terrorist attacks, they experience some adverse effects from floods and storms. The third chapter examines the path of GDP growth and its disaggregated industrial, service, and agricultural sector value added components in the aftermath of two types of terrorism - transnational and domestic terrorism. Using a panel VAR model on cross country annual data from 1970 to 2015 I find that fatalities caused by neither domestic nor transnational terrorist attacks lead to a significant change in GDP growth. Examining the disaggregated industrial, service, and agricultural sector components of GDP growth reveals that even disaggregated the value added components of GDP growth experience no adverse effects from the deaths caused by transnational and domestic terrorist attacks. I also distinguish the emerging economies from the entire sample to find that GDP growth in emerging economies experience no significant effects due to the casualties of transnational and domestic terrorist attacks.

Vermont is a largely rural and homogenous New England state not often thought of as a destination for Latino migrant farm laborers, but in recent years dairy farms have begun hiring Latino workers; there are now an estimated 1200 in the state, although the exact number is unknown (Baker, 2013). As the dairy industry is the largest contributor to sales from agriculture for the state, these farmworkers play an essential role in Vermont’s economy (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2014b). These migrant dairy farmworkers hail primarily from Mexico, with a small fraction from Central America, and lack sufficient documentation to work and live legally in the U.S. Myriad stressors are inherent to both dairy farm labor and living as an illegal immigrant. In a state like Vermont so near the Canadian border, where federal immigration officials have jurisdiction, there is an additional layer of risk. This thesis explores the social, political, geographic, and economic context of Vermont as it relates to the experiences of stress for Latino migrant dairy farmworkers in the state. In addition to reviewing the literature to better understand of the context for stress and stressors affecting migrant farmworkers the U.S., this thesis uses information from a survey administered to Latino migrant dairy farmworkers in Vermont. This thesis utilizes the Migrant Farmworker Stress Inventory (MFWSI), a survey instrument designed to assess the types and severities of stressors inherent to migrant farmwork. This survey is supplemented by questions targeting Vermont-specific stressors for migrant farmworkers. Demographic characteristics reveal Vermont’s Latino migrant farmworkers to be mostly Spanish-speaking males from Mexico or Guatemala in their late 20s, and although over half the population are married/in a partnership and have children, less than half those farmworkers live with their partners or kids. Among these farmworkers, 36% exhibit “caseness,” for stress, i.e. degree of stress correlated with poor mental or physical health outcomes defined as a score of ≥80 on the MFWSI. The mean stress score for this population is 74.55, above the average for studies in the literature using the MFWSI. Significant stressors from this study include those related to social isolation, language barriers, and migration and legal insecurity. Factors contributing significantly to overall stress or more extreme levels of specific stressors include: living closer to the Canadian border, getting surveyed in cold months, being Guatemalan, being in a marriage or partnership, having contact with health clinics, getting paid lower wages, working longer hours, not having family or partners on the farm, having a previous farm injury, having a Driver’s Privilege Card, and not having contact with various organizations that help migrant farmworkers in Vermont. Exploratory questions reveal that keeping busy and socializing are the main ways farmworkers reduce stress in their lives, but that having a work permit/legal status, or being able to be with family would most reduce their stress. This thesis concludes with suggestions for increasing support for organizations that provide essential services to migrant farmworkers, like health services, ESL and education, and advocacy for improved labor conditions. Continued research should use the insights gleaned from this thesis to explore further strategies for coping with the stressors prevalent amongst Vermont’s Latino migrant dairy farmworkers.

Leaders of third-party logistics companies face a critical talent shortage because of the global deficiency of supply-chain professionals. The lack of trained supply-chain professionals negatively affects business and market performance. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies used by third-party logistics hiring managers to recruit supply-chain talent to meet industry demands. The resource-based view theory was used as a lens for this study. Data were collected from 5 Pennsylvania third-party logistics hiring managers from interviews, organizational documents, and company websites. Member checking occurred after transcription and summarization of the interview data. Data analysis occurred using Yin's 5-step process of compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and concluding data. Four themes emerged from the data: (a) strategies for recruitment resourcing, (b) strategies to address market drivers, (c) interview method strategies, and (d) strategies for determining skill requirements. The findings and recommendations resulting from this study might be valuable to senior management, human resource leaders, and hiring managers for creating strategic plans to address recruitment to alleviate supply-chain talent shortages. The implications for positive social change include the potential for business leaders to decrease unemployment, produce greater local economic stability, and improve the standard of living of community residents.

Disengaged employees are a threat to a company's survival in a highly competitive world. Despite employee engagement benefits, the mediation of interactions between leaders and followers and the specific drivers of engagement remain poorly understood. This correlational study was grounded on leader member exchange (LMX) theory and examined the relationship between 2 dimensions of LMX (perceived contribution and professional respect) and employee engagement. In this study, 68 manufacturing employees from the southern region of the United States responded to 2 surveys to measure the LMX dimensions and the level of employee engagement. Using multiple regression analysis, the existence of a positive correlation, p < .001 and R2= .277, was demonstrated, which explained 28% of the variation in engagement. This research may serve as a roadmap for studying additional variables and providing workable tools for developing strategies to improve engagement in the workplace. The results of this study might contribute to positive social change by helping managers develop strategies to engage employees and reduce turnover, by improving the sense of stability for employees and their families, and by helping companies become more competitive and generate new jobs.

In a competitive retail environment, retail store managers (RSMs) need to retain retail customer service employees (RCSE) to maximize sales and reduce employee turnover costs. Servant leadership (SL) is a preferred leadership style within customer service organizations; however, there is disagreement regarding the usefulness of SL in the retail industry. The theoretical framework for this correlational study is Greenleaf's SL theory. Seventy-four of 109 contacted human resources managers (HRMs) from a Fortune 500 United States retailer, with responsibility for evaluating leadership competencies of the RSMs they support, completed Liden's Servant Leadership Questionnaire. RCSE turnover rates were available from company records. To analyze the correlation between the 3 SL constructs and RCSE turnover, multiple regression analysis with Pearson's r providing sample correlation coefficients were used. Individually the 3 constructs FIRST (beta = .083, p = .692), EMPOWER (beta = -.076, p = .685), and GROW (beta = -.018, p = .917) were not statistically significant to predict RCSE turnover. The study multiple regression model with F (3,74) = .071, p = .98, R2 = .003 failed to demonstrate a significant correlation between SL constructs and turnover. Considering these findings, the HRMs could hire or train for different leadership skills that may be more applicable to effectively lead a retail sales force. In doing so, the implications for positive social change may result in RCSE retention leading to economic stability and career growth.

This paper explores the monopsonistic implications of restricting bargaining power through the rookie draft and the concept of countervailing forces. It examines both the legal framework and the empirical outcomes of the court’s policy choices. This paper accomplishes this inquiry by exploiting the fact that players drafted late in the last round tend to be similar to players selected as undrafted free agents in expectation. This allows a natural experiment on the impact of the draft. In order to measure the impact of the draft, this paper examines career outcomes both in terms of compensation and length. I ultimately find little evidence that the draft creates monopsony power, and I provide some evidence suggesting that monopsony power impacts all rookies, as one would expect from an insider-outsider model.