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  5. CSMGEP Dissertation Session
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CSMGEP Dissertation Session

Paper Session

Friday, Jan. 6, 2023 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM (CST)

Hilton Riverside, Commerce
Hosted By: American Economic Association & Committee on the Status of Minority Groups in the Economics Profession
  • Chair: Neville Francis, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Rural Education, Nation-building, and Ethnic Assimilation in Post-Revolutionary Mexico

Ariel Gomez
,
Harvard University

Abstract

Can non-democratic regimes nation-build through investments in education? I investigate Mexico's efforts to homogenize its population and legitimize the post-Revolutionary state through a 1920s expansion in rural schooling. I first show that rural schools, which promoted Spanish literacy and fluency, were associated with higher school attendance and literacy rates in 1930. Using a difference-in-differences design, I then find that in predominantly indigenous localities, rural schools induced language homogenization: children were more likely to speak Spanish and less likely to speak indigenous languages in 1930. I then explore the relationship between rural schools and land redistribution, a central demand of the Mexican Revolution. I find that localities with schools were more likely to receive a land grant in this period. This result is consistent with historical evidence that schools facilitated the implementation of land reform. I offer historical examples suggesting that teachers advocated for local land redistribution and other social reforms.

The China Trade Shock and Unionization among Black Workers in the United States

Nyanya Browne
,
Howard University
Bethel Cole-Smith
,
Howard University

Abstract

The 1980s and 1990s saw an accelerated decline in unionization rates spurred by industry deregulation, outsourcing and trade liberalization. Import competition from low-wage countries (particularly China) decimated the United States’ manufacturing sector. Acemoglu et al. (2016) explore the contribution of the swift rise of import penetration from China to U.S. employment growth and find that the increase in U.S. imports from China caused significant reductions in U.S. manufacturing employment as well as significant suppression of overall U.S. job growth. Adapting Acemoglu et al. (2016)’s identification strategy, this paper exploits industry- and state-level variation in exposure to Chinese trade penetration to investigate its effect on Black worker unionization in the United States

Driven by Unemployment Rates? The Effect of Early Economic Conditions on Young Adults' Transition to Adulthood Behaviors

Cesia Sanchez
,
University of California-Berkeley

Abstract

This paper studies the effect of early economic conditions on young adults’ transition to adulthood behaviors. I study residential, marriage, education, and migration decisions. I find that young adults who experience high unemployment rates at or around age 18 have significantly higher probabilities of living with their parents throughout their 20s, controlling for the contemporaneous unemployment rate. Each 1 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate at age 18 is associated with a 1.71% increase in the likelihood that a young adult resides with his or her parents at age 23. This effect is larger for Asians and Whites, with the lowest effect on African Americans. Early market conditions do not discriminate based on gender. Economic downturns also have a significant effect on the likelihood of geographic mobility, college attendance, residing in group quarters, and marriage decisions. These effects persist throughout the first decade of transitioning into adulthood.

Food Security in Southeastern Michigan: The ESG Test

David A. Criss
,
Wayne State University

Abstract

ESG - environmental, social, and governance - has emerged, alongside of profit, as a metric of corporate performance. Are profit and ESG substitutes or complements? This is the question I ask in my dissertation. I seek an answer in a specific context: Food Security in Detroit. To what degrees do profit and ESG of companies in Detroit contribute to food security for residents?

Discussant(s)
Sandra Orozco-Aleman
,
Mississippi State University
Francisca Antman
,
University of Colorado Boulder
Juan Delacruz
,
Lehman College
Trevon Logan
,
Ohio State University
JEL Classifications
  • F1 - Trade
  • J0 - General