Marxist, field theoretic, and feminist approaches are three viable alternatives to the ideas of human ecology. Since the neighborhood effects literature has grown from the traditions of the Chicago School and human ecology, it may be time to reassess the paradigm and look to improve its theoretical grounding. And without too much exaggeration, I would hasten to add that it is a critical moment to begin this project. In their review of the extant literature, Sampson, Morenoff, and Gannon-Rowley (2002, 444) drew a graph of the number of articles with “Neighborhood Effects” in the title for each year from 1960-2000. The most visible feature is the doubling of publications between 1990 and 2000. Along with the shear number of publications, the neighborhood effects literature is also important because it touches upon a number of current public policy debates. Without questioning the assumptions of the paradigm, we, as social scientists, will be constricted in our ability to explore alternative policy options in a number of fields like health, education, crime, job markets, and the built environment. Thus, the time is now to begin explicitly (re-)theorizing the neighborhood effects literature.
This paper replicates and extends Stevens’s (1997) analysis of the long-term effects of job displacements. Using data from the 1968-2005 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, I estimate fixed-effects models which show that there are long term decreases in earnings after displacements. The decreases are mediated when longer follow up data is used for individuals. Changes in the labor market have also shifted the relationship between displacements and individual worker characteristics. Specifically, education and experience have become more important then displacements. Conclusions are based on an analysis of the different people in the 40 years of PSID data and the structural changes in the labor market over that time. This article suggests that longitudinal data and fixed-effects models are one of many ways to conceptualize labor market changes.
The popular media and academic sphere has been filled with claims about a “new” economy since the early 1990s. A common theme of the new economy is the change of production in terms of industrial sector and in terms of geographic location. The purpose of this study is to model the effects of economic restructuring during the 1990s on the migration and poverty rates of U.S. counties. According to neoclassical economic theories, wages and net migration should flow in opposite directions as employers and employees attempt to maximize their profits. I find this theory to be lacking in explanatory power, so I develop alternatives which allow reciprocal effects between migration and poverty, and simultaneously incorporate spatial spill-over effects near growing suburban counties. I conclude that many sectors typical of the new economy – for instance Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate – actually have no beneficial effect on migration or poverty.
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