IPUMS USA Research Awards Winners:
Published Research:
Natasha V. Pilkauskas, Mariana Amorim, and Rachel E. Dunifon
Historical Trends in Children Living in Multigenerational Households in the United States: 1870–2018
Using decennial census and ACS data from IPUMS-USA, this paper traces long-run trends and differentials in the frequency of children residing in multigenerational families, defined as residing with both a parent and a grandparent. The frequency of such multigenerational families increased from 1870 to 1940 owing to demographic change, then declined sharply until 1980. In recent decades, multigenerational families among children have been rising, and they are now almost as common as they were at the peak in the mid-twentieth century. The authors demonstrate that racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic differences in multigenerational living arrangements expanded greatly over the course of the past 150 years.
Student Research:
Ian Lundberg
Occupational segregation contributes to racial disparities in health: A gap-closing perspective
Lundberg uses linked IPUMS CPS data to document the impact of occupational segregation on race disparities in work-related disabilities. The analysis concludes that about a third of the race difference in disabilities would disappear if Blacks and Whites shared the same occupational distribution.
IPUMS International Research Awards Winners:
Published Research:
Valerie Mueller, Clark Gray, and Douglas Hopping
Climate-Induced migration and unemployment in middle-income Africa
Mueller, Clark, and Hopping study the effects of climate anomalies on migration activity over a 22-year period in three African countries: Botswana, Kenya, and Zambia. The study combines detailed individual characteristics (subnational migration, employment, and demographic information) of 4 million individuals from IPUMS International censuses with high-resolution gridded climate data from the Climate Research Unit’s (CRU) Time Series. The harmonized microdata facilitate comparative work across the three middle-income, rapidly urbanizing countries with relatively high internal migration rates. Microdata also enable the authors to examine how labor market conditions influence migration responses to climate by analyzing the direction of relationships between migration and climate versus employment and climate. Climate anomalies affect mobility in all three countries, but do so in ways that are context-specific and often related to unemployment, inactivity, and demand for labor. Findings are consistent with other research that has found climate migration processes to vary widely across countries and extend prior research by leveraging comparable cross-country data on migration and employment available through IPUMS. Given the differing effects of climate on migration by country context and mechanism, the research does not support claims that climate change drives urbanization in Africa.
Student Research:
Raoul van Maarseveen
The Effect of Urban Migration on Educational Attainment: Evidence from Africa
Using census data from 14 African countries, Van Maarseveen assesses the effect of childhood exposure to cities on primary school completion, school attendance, and literacy rates. Van Maarseveen constructs moving histories of children’s schooling and urban/rural status using harmonized educational attainment variables; demographic and household characteristics; and sub-national geographic units from the censuses in combination with enhanced urban vs. rural status information from the Africopolis database. The detail in the microdata enable van Maarseveen to conduct tests for robustness (measure of urban, time-varying household shocks, age at time of census, and country selection), heterogeneity (gender, parental education) and explore possible confounding mechanisms (urbanization and family formation or labor force participation) by which urban advantage in educational outcomes might operate. While acknowledging complexity of urbanization and other risks of moving to cities, van Maarseveen finds that childhood exposure to urban environments increases educational attainment across a wide range of countries in Africa. Van Maarseveen’s argues urbanization may promote economic development by increasing human capital accumulation—a robust predictor of economic growth—even in the absence of structural transformation.
IPUMS Health Surveys Research Awards Winners:
Published Research:
Justin T. Denney and Jason D. Boardman
Hearing Impairment, Household Composition, Marital Status, and Mortality Among U.S. Adults
The authors use 11 years of IPUMS NHIS data and take advantage of two unusual features of NHIS: linkage of adult survey participants to the National Death Index and collection of health data about persons within households and families. This analysis demonstrates a strong association between hearing impairment and higher mortality for adults over age 40, but this relationship was unexpectedly not modified by hearing impaired persons’ household composition and marital status, evaluated as indicators of social support.
Student Research:
Samuel Arenberg, Seth Neller, and Sam Stripling
The Impact of Youth Medicaid Eligibility on Adult Incarceration
The authors take advantage of a policy-based natural experiment: a 1990 increase in Medicaid eligibility for individuals born after September 30, 1983, which primarily affected Black children and adolescents. Comparing Black children born before and after the cutoff date, the analysis shows a 5 percent reduction in the likelihood of incarceration by age 28 as a spillover from access to public health insurance. This work makes an important contribution to the literature on how social welfare benefits during childhood pay off in enhanced well-being in adulthood, and the work shows how IPUMS NHIS data can be fruitfully coupled with other sources, in this case incarceration data.
IPUMS Spatial Research Awards Winners:
Published Research:
Kendra Bischoff and Laura Tach
School Choice, Neighborhood Change, and Racial Imbalance Between Public Elementary Schools and Surrounding Neighborhoods
Bischoff and Tach use demographic and socioeconomic data from the School Attendance Boundary Information System (SABINS) and NHGIS, combined with school enrollment data, to explore how school choice relates to racial imbalances between neighborhood schools and their surrounding attendance zones. They find that “the presence of more school-choice options generates racial imbalances,” but “this association differs by type of choice-based alternative,” with private schools reducing non-Hispanic white enrollment and charter schools reducing nonwhite enrollment in neighborhood schools.
Student Research:
Christopher Sichko
Migrant Selection and Sorting during the Great American Drought
Sichko leverages data on residence five years prior to the census in the 1940 full count dataset from IPUMS USA, combined with spatiotemporal data on drought conditions and NHGIS data from the 1935 agricultural census, to investigate county-level migration patterns throughout the United States during the drought of 1935-1939. He finds that individuals with more education from drought-afflicted counties were more likely to migrate than individuals with less education or from non-drought counties and that the majority of migrants relocated to rural areas.
IPUMS Global Health Research Awards Winners:
Published Research:
Xinguang Fan and María Vignau Loría
Intimate Partner Violence and Contraceptive Use in Developing Countries: How Does the Relationship Depend on Context?
Fan and Loria resolve a puzzle in prior research on intimate partner violence (IPV): Why is the relationship between IPV and contraceptive use negative in some countries and positive in others? Using 30 IPUMS DHS samples from 17 countries, the authors demonstrate that the relationship between IPV and family planning is modified by macro contextual factors, including legal prohibitions and national levels of female empowerment. This study stands out not just for answering an important social science question but also in its creative use of the broad range of information collected in the DHS, including variables on contraceptive use and type, family size preferences, husband-wife disagreement on fertility goals, various indicators of women’s status (e.g., education, employment, decision-making), and domestic violence. In addition, the authors draw on IPUMS DHS variables to determine the direction of causality: from the experience of IPV to increased contraceptive use, rather than from contraceptive use to increased incidence of IPV.ta from IPUMS DHS, with informative maps displaying findings across countries and regions.
Student Research:
Siyu Heng, Wendy P. O’Meara, Ryan A. Simmons, and Dylan S. Small
Relationship between Changing Malaria Burden and Low Birth Weight in sub-Saharan Africa
This study examines the effect of reduced malaria burden on the low birth weight rate, by leveraging geographic heterogeneity in the extent of recent malaria decline. Specifically, the authors analyze IPUMS DHS data from 19 sub-Saharan African countries with at least two surveys and GPS data on survey cluster locations. After using optimal matching to pair DHS clusters separated in time, the study uses a difference-in-difference approach to compare the incidence of low birth weight in areas that did and did not experience malaria decline. This careful and cleverly designed study revealed a substantial decline in low birth weight (which is associated with cognitive and physical difficulties) resulting from declines in malaria prevalence, especially for first-born children.
IPUMS Time Use Research Awards Winners:
Published Research:
Francine D. Blau, Lawrence M. Kahn, Matthew Comey, Amanda Eng, Pamela Meyerhofer, and Alexander Willén
Culture and gender allocation of tasks: source country characteristics and the division of non-market work among US immigrants
Blau and colleagues analyze the gender division of non-market work comparing immigrant and native-born men and women. Incorporating data on source country gender equality, the authors find smaller gender gaps in non-market work for first-generation immigrants from more gender equal source countries, though still larger than gender gaps between native born men and women.
Student Research:
Joe LaBriola and Daniel Schneider
Class Inequality in Parental Childcare Time: Evidence from Synthetic Couples in the ATUS
Labriola and Schneider's analysis leverages the large ATUS sample to create synthetic couples and reassess inequality in parental time investments in young children. Their results suggest that class gaps in parental time investments during early childhood may be larger than previously documented.