Abstract: In the context of increasing tuition costs that have outpaced family incomes and the increasing reliance of students on student loans and part-time employment to finance their college education, this research aims to investigate the decision-making processes related to financing college and the human capital investment of undergraduate students in the United States. Using two central datasets, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) and the Integrated Post-secondary Education Data Systems (IPEDS), this study departs from previous literature by treating financial decisions as endogenous variables. The primary aim of this study is to reveal the interaction between students’ financial decisions such as applying for student loans and working during the college years, and their human capital investment decisions, including major selection, study effort, and time to degree completion. Furthermore, the research delves into the roles played by factors like gender, family income, and ability in shaping these decisions. It also studies the influence of specific student loan policies and group-targeted policies on academic performance and major selection. The research findings bear significant potential for guiding education policy recommendations.
Abstract: Analyzing Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data spanning from 1999 to 2019, we use a simultaneous equation model with censored dependent variables to estimate the spousal effects on smoking behavior as well as the effects of spousal health conditions. By accounting for previous smoking behaviors, state-level cigarette taxes, and unobserved heterogeneity, the model allows us to address simultaneity, homophily, and confounding issues without concerns about multiple equilibria. We also consider mental illness records, pregnancy, and health-related occupations, which heavily influence smoking awareness and attitude. We account for the hidden states of lung disease and heart disease variables, which include: the husband and wife’s respective family history of smoking and their family economic status, state-level COPD prevalence, alcohol use, and past diabetes. Our results highlight a strong and positive spousal effect on smoking behaviors. Specifically, husbands tend to smoke less if wives are associated with a higher likelihood of lung disease, while the corresponding effect is the opposite in wives’ equation. Mental illness history increases the propensity and intensity to smoke for both husband and wife, with the effects being statistically significant for wives. A wife is less likely to smoke during her pregnancy, an effect that is not significant for the husband.
Abstract: This paper investigates how school violence affects academic outcomes through the impacts on mental health for native-born American and immigrant children. We highlight that preventing school violence can improve mental health and academic performance, thus enhancing economic prospects and promoting generational social mobility. We use a simultaneous equations model to examine the structural relationships of bullying involvement, mental health and academic outcomes. Analyzing the 2022 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH2022), our findings reveal that immigrant children are generally less involved as bullies or victims than their native-born counterparts. Yet, children in white immigrant or low- income families are more susceptible to school violence. Controlling for factors such as parental mental health, attitudes towards children, and life experiences, we find that immigrant children are mentally healthier compared to native-born children, except for white immigrants who face more significant mental health challenges. Being bullied significantly increases the likelihood of experiencing mental health issues, while being a bully has a converse impact. This impact shows no significant difference between immigrant and native-born children. While immigrant children perform better than native- born children academically, those from white immigrant families show worse academic performance. Although mental health improves school performance, this link is weaker in immigrant children.
Abstract: While researchers have used the traditional index system – part of the niche-fitness model – to evaluate the innovation ecosystem, this index system can be seen as not being sufficiently objective, with the consequent problem that it gives equal weight to the indicators and so does not specify the important factors. To remedy this problem of insufficient objectivity, this paper seeks to improve the traditional niche-fitness model in two ways, which are based on the theory of the innovation ecosystem. First, by introducing the principal components analytic method to solve multiple mutual linear problems. Second, by constructing a new evaluation index system from the four aspects of openness, synergy, sustainability, and growth. This new evaluation index system is closer to the characteristics of the organic and evolutionary nature of the sustainable innovation ecosystem compared with the traditional index system. By using the evaluation index system, the research carries out a health assessment for the sustainable innovation ecosystems in different regions of provincial and municipal China from the two perspectives of descriptive and quantitative analyses. Through these analyses, our findings suggest that the sustainable regional innovation ecosystems in China are, on the whole, in an imbalance: there is a gradual decreasing trend from the eastern coastal areas to the central and western regions, and then the northeast regions.