Graduate Studies

 

First Advisor

John E. Anderson

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Department

Economics

Date of this Version

8-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Citation

A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Graduate College of the University of Nebraska in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Major: Economics

Under the supervision of Professor John E. Anderson

Lincoln, Nebraska, August 2024

Comments

Copyright 2024, Ishita Ahmed. Used by permission

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the labor market or educational outcomes using applied microeconomic methods. Chapter 1 investigates the impact of waiting an additional year to start kindergarten on the socioeconomic achievement gap in Nebraska using longitudinal administrative data from the Nebraska Department of Education. I utilize fuzzy regression discontinuity design to find the effect of waiting on test scores. I find waiting a year to improve the test score, and this impact fades away over time. This fading pattern shows a considerable amount of heterogeneity across different demographic groups, suggesting an acceleration of the achievement gap. The study also investigates the impact of waiting across the test score distribution using the IV quantile approach. I find the impact of waiting to be stronger among those who are at the top of the score distribution, and in most cases, class toppers come from wealthy backgrounds. This research provides key insights into the socioeconomic and racial achievement gap and large inequities in access to high-quality prekindergarten.

Chapter 2 investigates the impact of kindergarten enrollment eligibility on maternal labor market outcomes, focusing specifically on mothers with five-year-old children. Using a staggered triple difference model, I exploit variation in enrollment eligibility across children based on their birth quarter, state of residence, and the year of kindergarten enrollment. Using data from the American Community Survey (ACS), I find a decrease in labor supply among single mothers with the youngest child aged five when the policy reform impacts the kindergarten eligibility of these children. For other groups of mothers, I could not find any significant impact.

Chapter 3 explores how the English proficiency level of US childhood immigrants influences their preferences for jobs using the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) USA, the individual-level public database. Constructing the instrument based on the critical period hypothesis of language acquisition, I find an increase in English proficiency makes the immigrants less likely to choose routine-intensive jobs and more likely to choose non-routine analytic or social skill-intensive jobs. The results exhibit some degree of heterogeneity by gender and age groups, especially up to 40.

The three sections are combined by telling a story about how the kindergarten cutoff influences achievement scores or maternal outcomes and the importance of language proficiency or policies to navigate the labor market outcomes.

Advisor: John E. Anderson

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