In this research, I consider how objective and perceived neighborhood quality affect adolescent problem behavior. I focus on three main questions: (1) Does living in stressful neighborhoods cause adolescents to be more likely to take risks? (2) Do some neighborhoods contribute to adolescent...

Although it has long been known that parental socioeconomic status correlates strongly with various measures of child and adult achievement, the causal roleplayed by income remains controversial. Important unanswered questions include: 1) the role of the timing of economic deprivation during...

The 1996 welfare reform legislation stipulates a 60-month time limit on total receipt as well as work requirements after 24 months of receipt. Using Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data on the monthly patterns of AFDC receipt during the 1980s and early 1990s, we estimate the number and...

Drawing upon little-used data on the activities and attainments of fathers from the early waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we assess how paternal characteristics affect the adult success of children raised in two-parent families. Consistent with other research is our finding...

A mother's initiation of welfare receipt is a key event for understanding the dynamics of welfare receipt and the likely consequences of welfare reform legislation passed in 1996. Using 28 years of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we conduct a number of related analyses of...

The impact on success of motivation, risk aversion, social capital, and a host of other "noncognitive" characteristics is assessed using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Our intragenerational analysis uses a sample of men first observed in their 20s, and relates these traits...

This paper uses longitudinal data to estimate cohort changes in earnings trajectories. Among male workers turning 21 before 1980, we find that more than six in ten (60%) of all male workers and seven in ten (71%) of college-educated male workers attained earnings levels by age 30 that were at...

I begin with a brief history of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and its brilliant founding father, noting its nearly disastrous initial design, nearly fatal funding cutoffs when Nixon put the Office of Economic Opportunity out of business, and then when Reagan chopped the NSF social...

This paper examines the associations between food insecurity, National School Lunch Program (NSLP) participation, and children?s well-being. We address problems of selection by restricting our sample to children in families in which at least one child participates in the NSLP. Results suggest...

We expand the search for modifiable features of neighborhood environments that alter obesity risk in two ways. First, we examine residents' access to neighborhood retail food options in combination with neighborhood features that facilitate physical activity. Second, we evaluate neighborhood...