This dissertation presents three separate essays. The first two essays explore the gender wage gap and its dynamics in urban China from 1995 to 2018. The first chapter decomposes the gender wage gap based on the observed wage for workers with a precise measure of the hourly wages. The first chapter examines the observed average gender wage gap in…

Public data and accountability are key to an inclusive economic recovery. We need data on how different workers and businesses are faring in the recovery, so we can hold policymakers accountable to equitable outcomes for those most impacted. Disparities and inequities in skills training programs can only be eliminated if there is high-quality…

In Fall 2019 I taught the course "Race and Gender: The Politics of Intersection" and spent the semester to discussing how intersectionality functioned within the Asian Pacific American (APA) communities in the United States and in the larger global context. In the course, we discussed various aspects of intersectionality including how…

The number of young people who are not in employment, education and training -- NEET, as this group has become widely known as -- is a key indicator on the state of youth labour markets and opportunities for young people more generally. The persistence and, in the years following the global financial crisis, growth of this group of young people is…

In Libya, three years after the deep political crisis that led to instability in the country and despite a renewed escalation of an armed internal conflict, stakeholders have requested the European Training Foundation (ETF) to facilitate a wide-ranging discussion on how to improve the quality of vocational education in the country. This report is…

The authors extend comparative research on educational differences in divorce by analyzing data from Korea. A primary motivation was to assess whether the theoretically unexpected negative educational gradient in divorce in Japan is also observed in Korea. Using vital statistics records for marriages and divorces registered between 1991 and 2006,…

The authors examined the sustainability of income, as it relates to educational attainment, from the two recent decades, which includes three significant economic downturns. The data was analyzed to determine trends in the wealth gap, parsed by educational attainment and gender. Utilizing the data from 1991 through 2010, predictions in changes in…

The Great Recession officially ended in June 2009. However, the labor market has made agonizingly slow progress toward a full recovery, and the slack that remains continues to be devastating for workers of all ages. The weak labor market has been, and continues to be, very tough on young workers. Though the labor market is headed in the right…

The present study aims at exploring predictors influencing mathematics performance. In particular, the study focuses on internal students' characteristics (gender, age, metacognitive experience, mathematics self-efficacy) and external contextual factors (GDP of school location, parents' educational level, teachers' educational level, and teacher…

The study investigated whether cuts to school resources made during economic recession contribute to children's psychiatric and economic problems in early adulthood. The cohort consisted of 817 Finnish children. Data was gathered from teachers during a recession (child age 12) and from national registers on children's post-recession use of…

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study and the Current Population Survey, we find that labor market conditions play a large role in explaining the positive relationship between educational attainment and marriage. Our results suggest that if low-educated parents enjoyed the same, stronger labor market conditions as their…

Research in the industrialized world shows that the influence of family background on educational attainment has remained stable or declined over time. In contrast, very little is known about the developing world. Using high-quality data sets and a standard protocol, this article offers a comparative analysis of trends in educational…

From the perspective of a wide range of labor market outcomes, the recession that began in 2007 represents the deepest downturn in the postwar era. Early on, the nature of labor market adjustment displayed a notable resemblance to that observed in past severe downturns. During the latter half of 2009, however, the path of adjustment exhibited…

The effects of geographic variations in cost of living and family income on children's academic achievement and social competence in first grade (mean age = 86.9 months) were examined, mediated through material hardship, parental investments, family stress, and school resources. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten…

This InfoBrief uses data collected from the 2009 Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) to report on trends in the numbers of individuals who earn research doctoral degrees from U.S. academic institutions. Postgraduation plans of new doctorate recipients are examined from 2004 to 2009, a period that includes the recent economic decline. The following…