Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: Memphis’ second proposed sanitation worker’s strike just a year after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King and the roles the Concerned Women of Memphis and Shelby County played in averting that strike is the central focus of the paper. Active in politics, the CWMSC were also active participants in the Civil Rights Movement. By stepping outside of accepted class and gender roles and using their volunteer spirit to help others, specifically poor blacks, this group of women embodies the historically underrepresented white presence in local civil rights work.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: We examine the evolution of economic policymaking paradigms by studying the diffusion of central bank independence during the 1990s in a sample of over 70 countries. We predict central bank independence to increase with political turnover, regime stability, the presence of institutional checks and balances, and party fractionalization. We also predict independence to increase with the presence of the state in the economy, with dependence on foreign trade, investment, or multilateral lending, and with membership in trade blocs. Finally, we model the cross-national dynamic process of diffusion by looking at cohesive and role equivalent trade relationships between countries. We find empirical support for each of our international and trade network predictions, but only mixed backing for the domestic political determinants of central bank independence.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Over the last twenty years, the environmental justice (EJ) paradigm has gained ground within the environmental movement. From environmental justice's beginnings as a reaction against disparate siting of toxic wastes, it has broadened its approach to investigate other kinds of injustices, including disparities in the provision of transportation. This paper will focus on three main points: 1) looking at how environmental justice spread from a focus on industrial polluters to include transportation issues, 2) how the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Chicago reacted when faced with the issue of environmental justice and 3) the pros and cons of institutionalizing EJ into the planning process. In the end, the MPO did take more factors into consideration when developing its plans, though the final EJ report was not very substantive. Nonetheless, the existence of these new planning regulations does offer some openings for future advocates to push for transportation equity, just as current environmentalists utilize NEPA case law.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Why do children get sick more often when in nonmaternal child care and what are the consequences for maternal employment? We propose that a complete answer to this question requires moving beyond simple analyses of the location of care (center or private home) to identifying characteristics of care settings that bridge children to additional disease networks and bridge providers to information about infection control practices. We estimate fixed effects models using a hospital-based sample of over 1,100 children from the 1991 National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care. We document that the incidence of respiratory illness is greater for children in large family day care homes (with five or more children in care) relative to small family day care homes. Unexpectedly, disease incidence does not differ when in-home caregivers live inside or outside of the child’s home. And, children in small, home-based care show lower disease risk than do children in exclusive maternal care. Risk of disease transmission is lower when small family day care providers belong to professional organizations, apparently due to their more effective infection control practices which in turn reduce disease risk. We also document that differential disease risks associated with different settings exacerbate social inequality, since the settings most associated with child illness – centers and large family day care – are also the settings most associated with mothers staying home from work when the child is ill.

Supporting Publications:
Supporting Document

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This study aims to demonstrate that advertisements and western content on media play a significant role in shaping the consumerist orientations among China’s urban residents. By analyzing data from large-scale consumer surveys conducted in three most economically advanced cities, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, this study constructs two consumerist value indices, quality consumption, innovative consumption and attitude toward advertising. It finds that exposure to market-content on media, media advertisements and foreign movies each has a distinct contribution to fostering a more ready acceptance of the two consumerist values and a more positive attitude toward advertising. More detailed analysis shows that different socio-cultural milieu among the three cities play different but still significant roles in enhancing the consumerist values. Implications of the findings and directions for future studies are discussed.