Browsing by Subject "Demography"
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Item Black and white : does race matter for health outcomes among Hispanics?(2012-05) Chinn, Juanita Jeanne; Hummer, Robert A.Heterogeneity within the Hispanic population in the United States (US) has important implications for health. Despite the empirical work examining heterogeneity in Hispanic health and mortality by nativity, generational status, and country of origin, relatively little research has been devoted to understanding if and how racial identification impacts Hispanic health outcomes. Racial differences in health and mortality are well documented throughout the literature, particularly for non-Hispanic blacks and non-Hispanic whites. Meanwhile, current socio-demographic and health literature commonly compares US non-Hispanic racial groups with people who claim Hispanic ethnicity, the latter of whom are comprised of multiple racial groups. Thus, this dissertation examines the racial heterogeneity of the Hispanic population and the implications of race for physical health among Hispanics. Using the National Health Interview Survey and the National Centers for Health Statistics Linked Birth/Infant Death Cohort Files, the key findings of this dissertation are (1) racial identity is associated with socioeconomic status among Hispanics, (2) infants born to Hispanic black mothers displayed statistically significant higher odds of being born with low birth weight when compared to infants born to Hispanic white mothers, (3) there is evidence of weathering in the infant health of Hispanics, as measured using birth weight, (4) black-white disparities in the risk of infant mortality exist within the Hispanic population, (5) both Hispanic blacks and those of other races have greater odds of functional limitations than Hispanic whites and for Hispanic blacks; moreover, this disadvantage increases with age, (6) I show no race differences in the odds of hypertension or poorly self-assessed health status. In short, the results of this dissertation suggest that the social experience for Hispanic blacks and whites is different and that this difference affects health outcomes. It is imperative that future research and health policy recognize the racial heterogeneity of this population, in both empirical analyses and policy decisions regarding social influences on physical health.Item Casting a crime net, catching immigrants : an analysis of secure communities' effects on the size of foreign-born Mexican populations(2013-12) Gutierrez, Carmen Marie; Kirk, David S.Following the precedent decision to expand the power of immigration enforcement set by the Immigration and Nationality Act Section 287(g), the Department of Homeland Security developed its own partnership agreement with local police to increase detection and deportation efforts through its 2008 policy, Secure Communities (S-Comm). S-Comm represents the nation’s “largest expansion of local involvement in immigration enforcement in the nation’s history” (Cox & Miles 2013, pg. 93). Although slated to enhance public safety by removing “criminal aliens” convicted of serious offenses, S-Comm has broaden its scope to achieve attrition in the undocumented immigrant population more generally by also focusing on the removal of those who violate low-level and immigration laws, as well as those who have recently entered the U.S. illegally. Its implementation and enforcement procedures, however, have been found to disproportionately target foreign-born Mexican residents relative to other undocumented individuals, which may lead to negative consequences for S-Comm’s efficacy. Has S-Comm effectively reduced the size of the Mexican immigrant population in the U.S.? Exploiting the variation in the timing of its implementation as well as the disparate levels of its enforcement, my research extends a quasi-experimental design to investigate S-Comm’s effect on the size of local Mexican immigrant populations. Testing the influence of S-Comm’s implementation and enforcement will reveal the salience of passing laws that target unauthorized migration—an empirical contribution to previous work that has only assessed state and local policies. Moreover, such results may also enhance theoretical knowledge of punitive practices formulated to produce deterrence.Item Comparative population policy(2011-05) Hardy, David McGrath; Wilson, Robert Hines; Stolp, ChandlerIn the last thirty years an increasing number of governments are taking an interest in the growth rate and age structure of their populations. The chief concern among advanced economies is that pay-as-you-go pension and health care systems for the elderly will be unsustainable as the ratio of younger workers to older beneficiaries shrinks from aging populations. Resistance to reforms such as reduced or delayed benefits, or higher taxes has focused attention on a third option, growing the working-age population. There is a growing consensus on the economic benefits of population growth, a reversal from the 1960s through 80s. Governments try to grow the population through incentives for more children and/or accepting more immigrants. This report compares the population policies of Singapore, the United States, France, and Japan to analyze governments' motives and policy outcomes. Middle-income nations like China and Brazil can learn from the experiences of developed nations to avoid the same predicament in the future. Each government's mix of fertility incentives, immigrants, and guest workers is a product of their economic and political circumstances. The surest way to grow the population, accepting immigrants, is usually the least popular. The most popular is the most unproven, providing benefits for larger families. There is no consensus what the most effective fertility incentives are. Population policy has never been just about the economy, it is steeped in political and cultural visions. Shedding that political baggage is a prerequisite to a more rational, sustainable policy approach to demography.Item An epidemiological analysis of mortality and morbidity in five late prehistoric populations from the upper and central Texas coast(1989) Powell, Joseph F. (Joseph Frederick), 1964-; Not availableItem The household production of men's and women's health in the United States(2013-08) Brown, Dustin Chad; Hayward, Mark D.; Hummer, Robert A.The inverse association between individuals' own education and adverse health outcomes is well established, but the influence of other people's education -- particularly those with close social ties or who are family members -- and adult health outcomes is not. The material and non-material resources available to individuals via their own education likely are shared within a marriage to become resources at the household or family-level. Research on spousal education and adult health outcomes is sparse -- especially in the United States. Therefore, this dissertation examines how husbands and wives' education combine within marriage to influence each other's self-rated health and annual risk of death in the United States. The analyses utilize two nationally representative data sources: the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality File (NHIS-LMF). Chapter Two establishes an inverse association between spousal education and poor/fair self-rated health among married adults in the United States. The results also showed that spousal education attenuated the association between one's own education and fair/poor self-rated health more for married women than married men and age-specific analyses revealed that these differences were largest among married persons ages 45-64. Chapter Three reveals that individuals' own education and their spouse's education each share an inverse association with the annual risk of death among married adults. Although this association generally does not vary by gender, spousal education apparently is a more important determinant of all-cause mortality risk among married non-Hispanic whites in comparison to married non-Hispanic blacks. Age-specific analyses also suggest that the influence of own and spousal education on adult mortality risk weakened with increasing age. Chapter Four assesses life expectancy differentials between men and women in different marital status groups at different points in the educational distribution. The results imply that spousal education substantially contributes to life expectancy disparities between married and unmarried persons. The results also imply that focusing only on the relationship between married persons' own education and life expectancy masks substantial heterogeneity within educational groups attributable to spousal education. Overall, the findings strongly suggest that education is a shared or household health resource among husbands and wives.Item Lima seen through the 'Numeración' of Viceroy Count la Monclova, 1700 : preliminary findings(1991) Barnechea, Álvaro; Schaedel, Richard P.Item The Role of Demography and Markets in Determining Deforestation Rates Near Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar(Public Library of Science, 2009-06-17) Brooks, Christopher P.; Holmes, Christopher; Kramer, Karen; Barnett, Barry; Keitt, Timothy H.The highland forests of Madagascar are home to some of the world's most unique and diverse flora and fauna and to some of its poorest people. This juxtaposition of poverty and biodiversity is continually reinforced by rapid population growth, which results in increasing pressure on the remaining forest habitat in the highland region, and the biodiversity therein. Here we derive a mathematical expression for the subsistence of households to assess the role of markets and household demography on deforestation near Ranomafana National Park. In villages closest to urban rice markets, households were likely to clear less land than our model predicted, presumably because they were purchasing food at market. This effect was offset by the large number of migrant households who cleared significantly more land between 1989–2003 than did residents throughout the region. Deforestation by migrant households typically occurred after a mean time lag of 9 years. Analyses suggest that while local conservation efforts in Madagascar have been successful at reducing the footprint of individual households, large-scale conservation must rely on policies that can reduce the establishment of new households in remaining forested areas.