Juniors
Boomerang Children and Parental Retirement Outcomes
Grant Seiter, Mary Lopez & Sita Slavov
NBER Working Paper, January 2023
Abstract:
As the share of U.S. adult children living with their parents increases, it is important to understand how children who “boomerang” back home impact their parents in their pre-retirement and post-retirement years. We use data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to examine the effects of boomerang children on their parents’ labor market expectations and choices, as well as on their wealth, health, and life satisfaction. Event study analysis suggests that boomerang children return home due to short-term instabilities, such as negative shocks to marriage, income, and employment. We find that boomerang children are associated with a small increase in their parents’ subjective probability of working after age 65. However, there is no clear statistically significant evidence that they impact parents’ current or future labor market choices; nor is there any evidence that they affect parents’ wealth, health, or life satisfaction.
Association of State Expansion of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Eligibility With Rates of Child Protective Services–Investigated Reports
Anna Austin et al.
JAMA Pediatrics, forthcoming
Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional ecologic study used data from 2006 to 2019 obtained from the SNAP Policy Database and the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System Child Files and difference-in-differences analyses. The data were analyzed from March to September 2022. The study used CPS-investigated reports for suspected child abuse and neglect from 37 US states to examine elimination of the asset test, from 36 states to examine increases in the income limit, and from 26 states to examine adoption of both policies.
Results: From 2006 to 2019 for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, there were a total of 29 213 245 CPS-investigated reports. By race and ethnicity, 19.8% of CPS-investigated reports were among non-Hispanic Black children and 45.7% among non-Hispanic White children (hereafter referred to as Black and White children). On average, there were 8.2 fewer CPS-investigated reports (95% CI, −12.6 to −4.0) per 1000 child population per year in states that eliminated the asset test, 5.0 fewer CPS-investigated reports (95% CI, −10.8 to 0.7) per 1000 child population per year in states that increased the income limit, and 9.3 fewer CPS-investigated reports (95% CI, −15.6 to −3.1) per 1000 child population per year in states that adopted both SNAP policies than there would have been if these states had not adopted these policies. There were decreases in CPS-investigated reports for neglect in states that adopted either or both policies, and small decreases in CPS-investigated reports for physical abuse in states that increased the income limit or adopted both policies. There were decreases in CPS-investigated reports among both Black and White children. For example, there were 6.5 fewer CPS-investigated reports among Black children (95% CI, −14.6 to 1.6) and 8.7 fewer CPS-investigated reports among White children (95% CI, −15.8 to −1.6) in states that adopted both SNAP policies than there would have been if these states had not adopted these policies.
The Sweet Life: The Long-Term Effects of a Sugar-Rich Early Childhood
Paul Gertler & Tadeja Gracner
NBER Working Paper, December 2022
Abstract:
We show that sugar-rich diet early in life has large adverse effects on the health and economic well-being of adults more than fifty years later. Excessive sugar intake early in life led to higher prevalence of chronic inflammation, diabetes, elevated cholesterol and arthritis. It also decreased post-secondary schooling, having a skilled occupation, and accumulating above median wealth. We identified elevated sugar consumption across lifespan as a likely pathway of impact. Exploiting the end of the post-WWII rationing of sugar and sweets in 1953 in the United Kingdom, we used a regression discontinuity design to identify these effects.
Heterogeneity in Place Effects on Health: The Case of Time Preferences and Adolescent Obesity
Ashlesha Datar, Nancy Nicosia & Anya Samek
Economics & Human Biology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We leverage a natural experiment in combination with data on adolescents’ time preferences to assess whether there is heterogeneity in place effects on adolescent obesity. We exploit the plausibly exogenous assignment of military servicemembers, and consequently their children, to different installations to identify place effects. Adolescents’ time preferences are measured by a validated survey scale. Using the obesity rate in the assigned installation county as a summary measure of its obesity-related environments, we show that exposure to counties with higher obesity rates increases the likelihood of obesity among less patient adolescents but not among their more patient counterparts.
Economic Consequences of Kinship: Evidence from US Bans on Cousin Marriage
Arkadev Ghosh, Sam Il Myoung Hwang & Munir Squires
University of British Columbia Working Paper, January 2023
Abstract:
Close-kin marriage, by sustaining tightly-knit family structures, may impede development. We find support for this hypothesis using US state bans on cousin marriage. Our measure of cousin marriage comes from the excess frequency of same-surname marriages, a method borrowed from population genetics that we apply to millions of marriage records from the 18th to the 20th century. Using census data, we first show that married cousins are more rural and have lower-paying occupations. We then turn to an event study analysis to understand how cousin marriage bans affected outcomes for treated birth cohorts. We find that these bans led individuals from families with high rates of cousin marriage to migrate off farms and into urban areas. They also gradually shift to higher-paying occupations. We also observe increased dispersion, with individuals from these families living in a wider range of locations and adopting more diverse occupations. Our findings suggest that these changes were driven by the social and cultural effects of dispersed family ties rather than genetics. Notably, the bans also caused more people to live in institutional settings for the elderly, infirm or destitute, suggesting weaker support from kin.