Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, EDU Physical Activity and Educational Services

Workforce related issues in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields are of great importance and have been the subject of many research studies. Academic research is essential to a country's ability to remain competitive in the global economy. Furthermore, the future economic strength of the United States is reliant on having a productive and well-prepared scientific workforce. Although behavioral and social science research (BSSR) is known to play a vital role in addressing health, security, and other complex challenges facing the country, most existing STEM workforce research does not consider BSS disciplines. Therefore, this dissertation explores academic BSSR workforce supply and demand dynamics, including various factors that influence its stability and size, by developing a simulation model framework. This research considers academic science workforce system behaviors attributable to individual level factors that influence career decisions and the eventual outcomes associated with them. Traditional labor market economics studies are based on linear estimations that do not capture the complexity associated with the overall system, including macroeconomic contexts at the regional level and individual level heterogeneity. However, other recent studies have successfully used system dynamics models to understand some of the less intuitive workforce system behaviors, such as feedback loops, though they use aggregate level factors. Thus, individual level heterogeneity has not been well represented in past academic research workforce supply and demand studies. This dissertation contributes to existing knowledge by investigating the distribution and attributes of BSS researchers employed in the academic workforce in the context of their dynamic interactions with top research universities. The primary research question is how does the relationship between individual BSS researcher characteristics and R1 universities' hiring decisions combin (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Joshua Hawley Ed.D, (Advisor); David Stein Ph.D. (Committee Member); Anand Desai Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1986, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Economics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1986, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Economics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1984, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Economics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1983, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Economics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1983, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1982, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1981, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Economics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1980, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Economics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1978, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Economics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1978, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Economics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1975, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1973, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Economics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Economics

My dissertation explores topics in macroeconomics related to labor markets. In the first chapter, "Parental Time Investment and Human Capital Formation: A Quantitative Analysis of Intergenerational Mobility," I study economic mobility across generations. A large literature has documented low intergenerational mobility in the U.S. over the last few decades, prompting a growing interest in understanding mechanisms underlying intergenerational mobility. In this paper, I construct a quantitative general equilibrium model that explores parental time investment in preschool-aged and younger children as a channel through which economic status can be transmitted intergenerationally. Altruistic parents differ in their own human capital and assets, and in the human capital of their children. They each decide how to split their time across investment in their child's human capital, market work, and leisure. My calibrated model reproduces the quintile transition matrix of income as well as the lifecycle inequality seen in U.S. data. Decomposing its results, I find that heterogeneity in the amount of parental time investment accounts for nearly 20 percent of the observed persistence in intergenerational income. Despite their higher opportunity costs of time, more skilled parents choose to invest more time in their young children. This force significantly amplifies the intergenerational correlation of human capital. Policy experiments suggest that interventions targeted at the college decision have little effect on intergenerational mobility. By contrast, I find that those targeted at parental time investment decisions, such as a proportional subsidy for such investments, may be an effective way to increase intergenerational mobility as well as social welfare, since they disproportionately raise investment in the children from disadvantaged families. In the next chapter, "Indivisible Labor with Endogenous Hours: Micro and Macro Labor Supply Elasticities," I study a long- (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Julia Thomas (Advisor); Aubhik Khan (Committee Member); David Blau (Committee Member) Subjects: Economics