Browsing by Author "Ananat, Elizabeth Oltmans"
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Item Open Access Assessing Equity in Transit Pricing: An Analysis of Triangle Transit(2011-04-22) Crowther, AdamExecutive Summary Triangle Transit seeks to answer two related questions: • Are lower-income riders more likely than other riders to use a less efficient payment method that contributes to overpayment? • What policies can Triangle Transit adopt to address potential inequities between payments by lower- and higher-income riders? Findings 1. Triangle Transit’s poorer riders are more likely to pay with a pass than with cash. Regression analysis that controls for other factors affecting payment type confirms this finding. 2. Overpayment is a persistent problem among Triangle Transit users, but particularly among cash users. 3. Though access to alternative transportation (cars) is important to employment prospects, it is not a statistically significant predictor of overpayment. However, employment status is closely linked to the likelihood a user pays with a pass or cash. 4. Descriptive statistics suggest that income, payment type, and transfers are predictors of overpayment. Lower income, cash use, and higher transfer rates are positive predictors of overpayment. Regression analysis also confirms that income and transfer are large and statistically significant predictors of overpayment. Recommendations 1. Triangle Transit should increase visibility of 30-day passes at highly-travelled stops. 2. Triangle Transit should move to an electronic “Smart Card” system. As part of this transition, Triangle Transit should reduce transfer fees for customers paying with a “Smart Card.” 3. Triangle Transit should ask a series of new questions in the next round of its rider survey, particularly related to payment decisions. 4. Reduce cash fares by 25 percent.Item Open Access Barriers to maintaining child care coverage: an analysis of states’ child care subsidy policies(2014-04-17) Medeiros, MelissaChild care subsidies play an important role in stabilizing parental employment and helping low-income families access quality and affordable child care options. However, low-income families on average only maintain subsidies for short periods of time, commonly known as spells. While there are several reasons a family may stop using subsidies, some policymakers and researchers have expressed concerns that program policies may create barriers to subsidy maintenance. With limited federal requirements under the Child Care and Development Block Grant, states have developed divergent policies for their state-based child care subsidy programs. To date, research on child care subsidies has mainly focused on the demographics differences between subsidy recipients and low-income families who do not use subsidies. Very little is known about the effects of states’ policies on whether families’ maintain subsidy coverage. Using data from the Urban Institute’s CCDF Policies Database and the Administration for Children and Families’ CCDF Administrative Dataset this paper analyzes the effects of polices on average spell length and stability of child care spells from October 1, 2007 to September 30, 2010. In particular, the study focuses on policies related to whether families can count job search as an eligibility activity, the length of time between when a family must redetermine its eligibility, and requirements around reporting changes in income. To calculate the effect of policies on subsidy receipt, a difference-in-difference model was run using fixed state and time effects.Item Open Access Community-wide job loss and teenage fertility: evidence from North Carolina.(Demography, 2013-12) Ananat, Elizabeth Oltmans; Gassman-Pines, Anna; Gibson-Davis, ChristinaUsing North Carolina data for the period 1990-2010, we estimate the effects of economic downturns on the birthrates of 15- to 19-year-olds, using county-level business closings and layoffs as a plausibly exogenous source of variation in the strength of the local economy. We find little effect of job losses on the white teen birthrate. For black teens, however, job losses to 1 % of the working-age population decrease the birthrate by around 2 %. Birth declines start five months after the job loss and then last for more than one year. Linking the timing of job losses and conceptions suggests that black teen births decline because of increased terminations and perhaps also because of changes in prepregnancy behaviors. National data on risk behaviors also provide evidence that black teens reduce sexual activity and increase contraception use in response to job losses. Job losses seven to nine months after conception do not affect teen birthrates, indicating that teens do not anticipate job losses and lending confidence that job losses are "shocks" that can be viewed as quasi-experimental variation. We also find evidence that relatively advantaged black teens disproportionately abort after job losses, implying that the average child born to a black teen in the wake of job loss is relatively more disadvantaged.Item Open Access Effects of statewide job losses on adolescent suicide-related behaviors.(Am J Public Health, 2014-10) Gassman-Pines, Anna; Ananat, Elizabeth Oltmans; Gibson-Davis, Christina MOBJECTIVES: We investigated the impact of statewide job loss on adolescent suicide-related behaviors. METHODS: We used 1997 to 2009 data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey and the Bureau of Labor Statistics to estimate the effects of statewide job loss on adolescents' suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and suicide plans. Probit regression models controlled for demographic characteristics, state of residence, and year; samples were divided according to gender and race/ethnicity. RESULTS: Statewide job losses during the year preceding the survey increased girls' probability of suicidal ideation and suicide plans and non-Hispanic Black adolescents' probability of suicidal ideation, suicide plans, and suicide attempts. Job losses among 1% of a state's working-age population increased the probability of girls and Blacks reporting suicide-related behaviors by 2 to 3 percentage points. Job losses did not affect the suicide-related behaviors of boys, non-Hispanic Whites, or Hispanics. The results were robust to the inclusion of other state economic characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: As are adults, adolescents are affected by economic downturns. Our findings show that statewide job loss increases adolescent girls' and non-Hispanic Blacks' suicide-related behaviors.Item Open Access Essays on the Role of Government Incentives in the Private Provision of Social Goods(2016) Truskinovsky, YulyaThe economic rationale for public intervention into private markets through price mechanisms is twofold: to correct market failures and to redistribute resources. Financial incentives are one such price mechanism. In this dissertation, I specifically address the role of financial incentives in providing social goods in two separate contexts: a redistributive policy that enables low income working families to access affordable childcare in the US and an experimental pay-for-performance intervention to improve population health outcomes in rural India. In the first two papers, I investigate the effects of government incentives for providing grandchild care on grandmothers’ short- and long-term outcomes. In the third paper, coauthored with Manoj Mohanan, Grant Miller, Katherine Donato, and Marcos Vera-Hernandez, we use an experimental framework to consider the the effects of financial incentives in improving maternal and child health outcomes in the Indian state of Karnataka.
Grandmothers provide a significant amount of childcare in the US, but little is known about how this informal, and often uncompensated, time transfer impacts their economic and health outcomes. The first two chapters of this dissertation address the impact of federally funded, state-level means-tested programs that compensate grandparent-provided childcare on the retirement security of older women, an economically vulnerable group of considerable policy interest. I use the variation in the availability and generosity of childcare subsidies to model the effect of government payments for grandchild care on grandmothers’ time use, income, earnings, interfamily transfers, and health outcomes. After establishing that more generous government payments induce grandmothers to provide more hours of childcare, I find that grandmothers adjust their behavior by reducing their formal labor supply and earnings. Grandmothers make up for lost earnings by claiming Social Security earlier, increasing their reliance on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and reducing financial transfers to their children. While the policy does not appear to negatively impact grandmothers’ immediate economic well-being, there are significant costs to the state, in terms of both up-front costs for care payments and long-term costs as a result of grandmothers’ increased reliance on social insurance.
The final paper, The Role of Non-Cognitive Traits in Response to Financial Incentives: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial of Obstetrics Care Providers in India, is coauthored with Manoj Mohanan, Grant Miller, Katherine Donato and Marcos Vera-Hernandez. We report the results from “Improving Maternal and Child Health in India: Evaluating Demand and Supply Side Strategies” (IMACHINE), a randomized controlled experiment designed to test the effectiveness of supply-side incentives for private obstetrics care providers in rural Karnataka, India. In particular, the experimental design compares two different types of incentives: (1) those based on the quality of inputs providers offer their patients (inputs contracts) and (2) those based on the reduction of incidence of four adverse maternal and neonatal health outcomes (outcomes contracts). Along with studying the relative effectiveness of the different financial incentives, we also investigate the role of provider characteristics, preferences, expectations and non-cognitive traits in mitigating the effects of incentive contracts.
We find that both contract types input incentive contracts reduce rates of post-partum hemorrhage, the leading cause of maternal mortality in India by about 20%. We also find some evidence of multitasking as output incentive contract providers reduce the level of postnatal newborn care received by their patients. We find that patient health improvements in response to both contract types are concentrated among higher trained providers. We find improvements in patient care to be concentrated among the lower trained providers. Contrary to our expectations, we also find improvements in patient health to be concentrated among the most risk averse providers, while more patient providers respond relatively little to the incentives, and these difference are most evident in the outputs contract arm. The results are opposite for patient care outcomes; risk averse providers have significantly lower rates of patient care and more patient providers provide higher quality care in response to the outputs contract. We find evidence that overconfidence among providers about their expectations about possible improvements reduces the effectiveness of both types of incentive contracts for improving both patient outcomes and patient care. Finally, we find no heterogeneous response based on non-cognitive traits.
Item Open Access Methodological and Theoretical Advancements in the Study of Gendered Household Decision Making(2018) Lehrman, Rebecca LillianHousehold-level decisions such as whether to marry or whether to move for a career opportunity are often thought to be driven by the financial position of the man within a heterosexual couple, rather than the woman. Historically, men’s greater relative income and labor market participation within a household provided a gender-neutral explanation of his influence over such decisions. However, as the gaps between couples’ relative education and earnings narrow over time, it appears that women’s economic gains have led to little change in this pattern, raising skepticism about whether a gender-neutral, resource-based explanation can account for household bargaining outcomes. This dissertation research explores why this unequal pattern persists; what prevents men’s and women’s economic resources, such as income and educational attainment, from being equally predictive of their respective bargaining power in household decisions?
I focus specifically on the way gender norms, such as expectations of women’s primary caregiver roles or men’s responsibilities as financial breadwinner, shape how couples make decisions. Using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods in three studies, I explore these dynamics in couples across a range of socioeconomic statuses. Through 1) a unique experimental survey design and 2) in-depth interviews, I collect original data that evaluate how men and women in dual-career couples decide which partner’s career should be prioritized during a household move. These two studies focus on medical student couples applying to residency, an early-career decision with important implications for future career investments among highly-skilled workers. Using 3) a longitudinal dataset of low-income unmarried parents sponsored by the Administration on Children and Families, I evaluate how the relative and overall resources of each parent predict changes in the couples’ relationship status and reported relationship quality. Together, this collection of three studies examines the extent to which women’s improved economic position, relative to their male partners and to their peers, translates into greater agency over their career and family goals.
Overall, results suggest that, while women on average have lower economic resources than their partners, these resources are equally predictive of household decision-making. Women’s disproportionate caregiving duties, however, remain an important barrier to women’s career achievement. Supportive partners who advocate for an egalitarian division of work and childcare, and effective policy that facilitates women’s financial and educational success, can ensure men’s and women’s preferences are equally weighed in household decisions.