Organizers: Patrick Heuveline and Geoff Robinson May 30th, 2018 4240 Public Affairs Building Senior seminar will screen film titled “Angkar”. This is a joint effort between Prof. Patrick Heuveline, Sociology and Prof. Geoff Robinson, History. Discussion to follow film screening.
"The Role of Parental Wealth & Income in Financing Children's College Attendance & Its Consequences"
Abstract: This paper examines the influence of parental wealth and income on their children's college attendance and parents' financial support for it and whether the latter affects the subsequent levels of indebtedness of parents and their children. We use data from the PSID, especially data in the 2013 Rosters and Transfers Module on the incidence and amounts of parents' financial support for their children's college. To instrument for the potential endogeneity of parental housing wealth and income on these decisions, we use changes in parents' local housing and labor market conditions. We find that increases in both parents' housing wealth and income increase the likelihood of their children attending college through the effect of parents' financial support. This parental financing of college leads to parents carrying more debt, but their children having no greater student loan debt after graduation. We also find that parental financing of their child's college education significantly increases the probability that the child actually graduates from college.
"Early Estimates of the Effects of Public School Shootings in California on California Public Schools"
Abstract: I employ data from California public schools covering years 1991 to 2017 with data on public school shootings in the state of California over the same period to study the effects of school shootings on schools. This project aims to understand how dropout, enrolment, and achievement measures respond to school shootings. A secondary objective includes discerning whether fatal and non-fatal shootings have differential effects on schools and student outcomes. I will present early results, and I welcome helpful comments and criticism.
