Complementarities between early childhood education and high school education. Part of the theoretical case for investing in early education is based on the potential complementarities between early and later educational investments. The intuition is that disadvantaged children who did not develop key cognitive and non-cognitive skills during early childhood, may not be able to take full-advantage of future stages of the education system (e.g. high school). However, it is also possible that later educational investments have a smaller return for those children who managed to develop the skills they need for the labor market early on. I will exploit a unique time period in U.S. history to test for complementarities between early and later educational investments. During the 1900s, both kindergarten and high school education were rapidly expanding, but these investments followed different time paths in different sets of cities and states. By interacting measures of exposure to each educational stage, I will be able to test whether these investments are complements or substitutes.
Long-term birth order effects and child labor. It has been documented using contemporary data that birth order can have large negative effects on adult outcomes. One potential explanation for this result is the smaller per capita resources during early childhood (including both parental time and financial resources). However, in economies with large child labor rates, these negative effects for younger siblings could be compensated by the additional income generated by older siblings when they enter the labor force. By linking the 1910-1920-1940 Full Census Count and the WWII army records, I created a unique panel data to assess this question. Using this data, I intend to explore some of the mechanisms. If smaller per capita income in early childhood is the cause, it is likely to affect the child’s adult height (available in the army records). If less parental time is the cause, the penalty should be smaller in cities or states with greater access to early education, or in those areas that implemented policies that freed up mothers from household chores (like improved access to electrification).
Unintended consequences of child labor laws. Although research has shown that compulsory schooling and child labor laws were successful in reducing urban child labor during the period 1880-1920 in the United States, little is known about the indirect effects of child labor laws on the labor market and the fertility decisions of the families. This paper has two main contributions. First, I provide additional evidence on the relative success of the compulsory laws by combining changes in the laws across time and states with state borders fixed effects. Second, I explore the indirect effects of these laws. In particular, I study how the firms replaced the child workers. I investigate if child-labor-intensive industries hired more migrants, women, or older children after child-labor was banned. In addition, I assess if the higher opportunity cost of having children reduced the fertility rate in states that enacted the laws. Preliminary results suggest that child labor and compulsory schooling? laws reduced child labor by about a third from the baseline child labor level (five percentage points). In addition, I find that both internal migrants and immigrants were the main groups that benefited from the reduction in the unskilled labor supply.
Long-term effects of World War II on the children of soldiers. Research finds that serving in the war has negative effects on soldiers’ health, wages and family stability. However, little is known about potential negative externalities on soldiers’ children. There are two main channels through which having a parent serving in the war could affect the children’s outcomes. First, during the war, children face the temporary (and probably stressful) absence of one of their parents in a critical period for the development of their personality and human capital. Second, after the war, children might be negatively influenced by the consequences of war for their parents’ psychological health and earnings capacity. Furthermore, these negative externalities could be exacerbated if the parent’s war experience was very traumatic (e.g., if he or she was kept as a prisoner) or if a parent died in combat. With access to the 1940-2000 linked census data (currently under construction), I will be able to study the long-term effects of World War II on soldiers’ children. In particular, I will be able to distinguish between the effect of having a parent (i) serving in the war, (ii) becoming a prisoner of, or (iii) dying during the war. To link children to their fathers’ wartime activity, I can match the 1940 census to the WWII enlistment records to identify the soldiers’ families (and hence their children). Finally, I can use the 1940-2000 linked data to look at long-term effects of fathers’ military service on children’s labor market and educational outcomes.
Long-term birth order effects and child labor. It has been documented using contemporary data that birth order can have large negative effects on adult outcomes. One potential explanation for this result is the smaller per capita resources during early childhood (including both parental time and financial resources). However, in economies with large child labor rates, these negative effects for younger siblings could be compensated by the additional income generated by older siblings when they enter the labor force. By linking the 1910-1920-1940 Full Census Count and the WWII army records, I created a unique panel data to assess this question. Using this data, I intend to explore some of the mechanisms. If smaller per capita income in early childhood is the cause, it is likely to affect the child’s adult height (available in the army records). If less parental time is the cause, the penalty should be smaller in cities or states with greater access to early education, or in those areas that implemented policies that freed up mothers from household chores (like improved access to electrification).
Unintended consequences of child labor laws. Although research has shown that compulsory schooling and child labor laws were successful in reducing urban child labor during the period 1880-1920 in the United States, little is known about the indirect effects of child labor laws on the labor market and the fertility decisions of the families. This paper has two main contributions. First, I provide additional evidence on the relative success of the compulsory laws by combining changes in the laws across time and states with state borders fixed effects. Second, I explore the indirect effects of these laws. In particular, I study how the firms replaced the child workers. I investigate if child-labor-intensive industries hired more migrants, women, or older children after child-labor was banned. In addition, I assess if the higher opportunity cost of having children reduced the fertility rate in states that enacted the laws. Preliminary results suggest that child labor and compulsory schooling? laws reduced child labor by about a third from the baseline child labor level (five percentage points). In addition, I find that both internal migrants and immigrants were the main groups that benefited from the reduction in the unskilled labor supply.
Long-term effects of World War II on the children of soldiers. Research finds that serving in the war has negative effects on soldiers’ health, wages and family stability. However, little is known about potential negative externalities on soldiers’ children. There are two main channels through which having a parent serving in the war could affect the children’s outcomes. First, during the war, children face the temporary (and probably stressful) absence of one of their parents in a critical period for the development of their personality and human capital. Second, after the war, children might be negatively influenced by the consequences of war for their parents’ psychological health and earnings capacity. Furthermore, these negative externalities could be exacerbated if the parent’s war experience was very traumatic (e.g., if he or she was kept as a prisoner) or if a parent died in combat. With access to the 1940-2000 linked census data (currently under construction), I will be able to study the long-term effects of World War II on soldiers’ children. In particular, I will be able to distinguish between the effect of having a parent (i) serving in the war, (ii) becoming a prisoner of, or (iii) dying during the war. To link children to their fathers’ wartime activity, I can match the 1940 census to the WWII enlistment records to identify the soldiers’ families (and hence their children). Finally, I can use the 1940-2000 linked data to look at long-term effects of fathers’ military service on children’s labor market and educational outcomes.