Enrico A. Marcelli

The Fall and Rise of US Inequities in Premature Mortality: 1960–2002

Background Debates exist as to whether, as overall population health improves, the absolute and relative magnitude of income- and race/ethnicity-related health disparities necessarily increase—or derease. We accordingly decided to test the hypothesis that health inequities widen—or shrink—in a context of declining mortality rates, by examining annual US mortality data over a 42 year period. Methods and Findings Using US county mortality data from 1960–2002 and county median family income data from the 1960–2000 decennial censuses, we analyzed the rates of premature mortality (deaths among persons under age 65) and infant death (deaths among persons under age 1) by quintiles of county median family income weighted by county population size. Between 1960 and 2002, as US premature mortality and infant death rates declined in all county income quintiles, socioeconomic and racial/ethnic inequities in premature mortality and infant death (both relative and absolute) shrank between 1966 and 1980, especially for US populations of color; thereafter, the relative health inequities widened and the absolute differences barely changed in magnitude. Had all persons experienced the same yearly age-specific premature mortality rates as the white population living in the highest income quintile, between 1960 and 2002, 14% of the white premature deaths and 30% of the premature deaths among populations of color would not have occurred. Conclusions The observed trends refute arguments that health inequities inevitably widen—or shrink—as population health improves. Instead, the magnitude of health inequalities can fall or rise; it is our job to understand why.

Estimating the Effects of Informal Economic Activity: Evidence from Los Angeles County

Economists have traditionally associated informal economic activity with developing countries [De Soto 1989; Fields 1975; Marshall 1987; Sethuraman 1981] and have emphasized its negative tax implications [Reed 1985]. Less research has been done on the extent, role, and impact of such activities in industrialized countries. This is partly because many analysts have assumed that informality or informal economic activity (IEA) is a temporary alternative to unemployment and poverty and thus tends to disappear as the economy develops a larger urban industrial base that is capable of absorbing surplus labor. 1 Recently, sociologists using the so-called structuralist approach have begun to gather case-study evidence on IEA in large U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, New York, and Miami [Dangler 1994; Fernandez-Kelly and Garcia 1989; Leonard 1994; Lopz-Garza forthcoming; Lozano 1989; Pessar 1994; Portes, Castells, and Benton

Transnational Twist: Pecuniary Remittances and the Socioeconomic Integration of Authorized and Unauthorized Mexican Immigrants in Los Angeles County1

Annual U.S.-Mexico pecuniary remittances are estimated to have more than doubled recently to at least

Unauthorized Mexican Immigration, Day Labour and other Lower-wage Informal Employment in California

10 billion – augmenting interest among policymakers, financial institutions, and transnational migrant communities concerning how relatively poor expatriate Mexicans sustain such large transfers and the impact on immigrant integration in the United States. We employ the 2001 Los Angeles County Mexican Immigrant Residency Status Survey (LAC-MIRSS) to investigate how individual characteristics and social capital traditionally associated with integration, neighborhood context, and various investments in the United States influenced remitting in 2000. Remitting is estimated to have been inversely related to conventional integration metrics and influenced by community context in both sending and receiving areas. Contrary to straight-line assimilation theories and more consistent with a transnational or nonlinear perspective, however, remittances are also estimated to have been positively related to immigrant homeownership in Los Angeles County and negatively associated with having had public health insurance such as Medicaid.

Drug-Related and Economic Crime Among Unauthorized Latino Immigrant and Other Arrestees in California

Marcelli E. A. (2004) Unauthorized Mexican immigration, day labour and other lower-wage informal employment in California, Reg. Studies 38, 1–13. Consistent with the marginalization but not the globalization hypothesis, this paper finds that the level of lower-wage informal employment in California during the 1990s fell from 17% to 14% of the labour force; informal workers were more likely to be male, younger, non-white, foreign-born, and employed in the Personal Service and Agriculture sectors; and a Californian was more likely to work informally if residing in a relatively less populous, lower-income region with a relatively high rate of home ownership. Although welfare use had a positive effect on the probability of working informally in 1990, thereafter it did not.

Immigrant Voting in Home-Country Elections: Potential Consequences of Extending the Franchise to Expatriate Mexicans Residing in the United States

Abstract This paper employs 1994-1996 California Drug Use Forecasting (CALDUF) and 1994 Los Angeles County Mexican Immigrant Residency Status Survey (LAC-MIRSS) data to estimate the level and determinants of drug-related and economic crime among unauthorized Latino immigrant and other arrestees in California. Controlling for various potential individual, contextual and geographic determinants, logistic regression results suggest the use of illicit drugs, having entered the United States more recently and residing in a home without paying any rent or mortgage positively-and residing in a home where another is dependent on an illegal substance negatively-influenced being apprehended for a drug-related crime. Although being an unauthorized Latino resident also had no effect on having been arrested for an economic crime, U.S.-born blacks and Latinos as well as non-Latino immigrants were each more likely than non-Latino U.S.-born whites to be arrested, as were younger females. Working full time and depending on another for a place to live diminished the probability. In sum, although illicit drug use augmented the probability of having been arrested for a drug-related crime, neither this nor unauthorized residency status among Latinos increased the likelihood of being arrested for an economic crime. A concluding section discusses several policy implications.