Karen Smith Conway

Parental Effort, School Resources, and Student Achievement

This article investigates an important factor in student achievement—parental involvement. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS), we estimate a value-added education production function that includes parental effort as an input. Parental effort equations are also estimated as a function of child, parent, household, and school characteristics. Our results suggest that parental effort has a strong positive effect on achievement that is large relative to the effect of school resources and is not captured by family background variables. Parents appear to reduce their effort in response to increased school resources, suggesting potential “crowding out” of school resources.

Out with the Old, In with the Old: A Closer Look at Younger Versus Older Elderly Migration

This research examines the migration behavior of the elderly, recognizing that the older and younger elderly may make different decisions and have different consequences for the states in which they live. Copyright (c) 2003 by the Southwestern Social Science Association.

Male labor supply estimates and the decision to moonlight

Abstract This research improves the manner in which moonlighting is examined by recognizing that workers may moonlight due to primary job hours constraints or because jobs are heterogeneous. Our theoretical model permits both motives for moonlighting and considers moonlighting in tandem with labor supply behavior on the primary job. Both primary and secondary job hours equations are estimated using data from the SIPP for prime-aged men. We conclude that the moonlighting decision is quite responsive to wage changes on both jobs and arises from both motives, and that properly modeling moonlighting produces a relatively high primary job labor supply elasticity.

Maternal Depression and the Production of Infant Health

Depression is most prevalent among women of childbearing age and among low-income women, and the medical literature shows it to have adverse effects on infant health. Yet maternal depression has been overlooked in economic studies of infant health production. This research incorporates maternal depressive symptoms into a standard infant health production model and estimates both structural and reduced-form birth weight equations using samples of non-Hispanic white and black women from the National Maternal and Infant Health Survey. A byproduct of this research is an empirical investigation into factors associated with maternal depressive symptoms. All results show that depressive symptoms have a negative effect on birth weight and that they may operate through several channels such as smoking and prenatal care.

Labor Supply, Taxes, and Government Spending: A Microeconometric Analysis

The effect of government spending on labor supply behavior is critical to predicting the balanced-budget effect of income taxes and to estimating the marginal social cost of public funds. Yet, its very existence, not to mention direction and magnitude, has not been empirically investigated. This research estimates a labor supply function that incorporates income taxation and government spending using microeconomic data for men and women. The empirical results suggest that public sector spending may have a significant effect on labor supply, thereby leading to estimates of the marginal social cost of public funds that differ from those typically calculated.

The Changing Roles of Disability, Veteran, and Socioeconomic Status in Elderly Interstate Migration

This research explores how interstate elderly migration behavior through the life course has changed over time by examining the role of individual characteristics in different types of moves. The authors focus on disability, veteran, and socioeconomic status, which research suggests are linked with differing motives for elderly migration. Using data from the 1970-2000 Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), descriptive and multivariate analyses show that disability status has grown in importance while veteran and socioeconomic status have declined or remained stable. These changes are unique to the elderly. The growing role of disability in elderly migration is geographically universal, extending to both return (a proxy for assistance-related migration) and nonreturn migration. Possible explanations include a tendency for the “first” (amenity-based) elderly move to occur at younger ages and a decline in primarily milder disabilities that leads to relatively more severe disabilities—and need for assistance—of those remaining.

“Going With the Flow”—A Comparison of Interstate Elderly Migration During 1970–2000 Using the (I)PUMS Versus Full Census Data

OBJECTIVES We investigate how much state-to-state elderly migration patterns have changed during 1970-2000 and compare the findings from 2 commonly used sources of data, the census flow tabulations and the integrated public use microdata series (IPUMS). METHODS We calculate descriptive statistics such as migration rates, the distribution of top destination and origin states, and a new migration Herfindahl-Hirschman Index that measures geographic concentration. Comparisons over time and between data sources are formalized using correlations and regression analyses that permit persistent flow patterns. RESULTS After an increase between 1970 and 1980, elderly migration rates have been stable, with a slight decline. Elderly migration has become less geographically concentrated; the decline of California and Florida and ascension of Nevada and the Carolinas as top destinations are evident. Correlation and regression analyses reveal that migration patterns are overall very persistent over time, especially using census tabulations based on a larger sample. DISCUSSION Elderly migration patterns have been quite stable since 1970. Using the IPUMS, as most migration studies do, exaggerates the changes in elderly migration over time in both descriptive and statistical analyses, a result that is likely due to its smaller sample size and the relative rarity of an interstate move.

Estimating labor supply with panel data

Abstract We investigated the robustness of linear labor-supply functions incorporating income taxes using recently developed techniques for estimating simultaneous equations with latent heterogeneity using panel data. Our results suggest an econometric model acknowledging the intertemporal progressive taxation of labor and non-labor income.

How Fragile Are Male Labor Supply Function Estimates

We estimate male wage and nonwage income effects using linear specifications spanning three techniques (ordinary least squares, fixed effects, and random effects), two wage measures (reported hourly wages and average hourly earnings), and sample stratification by pay scheme (salaried versus hourly paid). Our regressions encompass the one-period static and perfect-foresight life-cycle models. The static model implies exogenous random person-specific effects, a negative nonwage income coefficient, and a positive labor supply substitution effect. The life-cycle model implies endogenous individual-specific effects, a positive wage coefficient, and a zero nonwage income coefficient. Neither the one-period static nor the perfect-foresight life-cycle models are implied by the data for salaried workers while the static model is consistent with the data for hourly paid workers if income taxes are ignored.

The Labor Supply Effects of Taxing Social Security Benefits

In 1983, federal and state governments began taxing the social security benefits of high-income elderly. We develop a conceptual model and use 1981–1986 Current Population Survey data to estimate the policy’s labor supply effects. Our estimates suggest that the approximate 20 percent reduction in benefits for the highest income individuals led to a two to five percentage point increase in their labor force participation. Using 2008 data, we show that failing to index the taxation thresholds for inflation, adding a second set of thresholds in 1993, and removing the earnings test in 2000 all substantially magnify the policy’s scope.