Research by Author & Topic

Publications by Austin Nichols on Race, Ethnicity, Gender

Gender differences in academic achievement have long fascinated researchers and policy-makers alike. In this paper we analyze differences in math and reading test score growth rates by gender for four different race and ethnic groups -- white, black, Hispanic, and Asian students -- for six different time periods. Our data cover both the earliest years of education and the crucial years of adolescence. In addition, we have data bracketing one non-schooling period. Together these data enable us to get a very complete picture of how gender gaps evolve over the course of early elementary and high school years and how these trajectories differ by race and ethnicity. While the gender gaps are not always statistically significant, they are for 15 of 48 comparisons made, all during school. In addition, all of the statistically significant results suggest that males learn more math and females more reading during early elementary school and again during high school.

Over the past 10 years, U.S. child poverty rates took two sharp turns: a major reduction from 1993 to 2000 followed by a slight hike from 2000 to 2004. This brief finds that the 1993 to 2000 drop in child poverty is largely due to improvements in the job market, especially for less-educated workers. The economic downturn beginning in 2000 hit all families, even those with more education, but the families of black children were hit hardest.

Child poverty dropped dramatically from 1993 to 2000 and increased from 2000 to 2004; both trends were even more marked for black children. While work, education, and family structure, together with macroeconomic conditions, are all significant determinants of child poverty over the last twenty years, macroeconomic conditions dominate the explanation for the dramatic changes of 1993 to 2000 and 2000 to 2004. Specifically, the state unemployment rate and real minimum wage (especially interacted with educational attainment) explain most of the fall in child poverty during the 1990's and the more recent rise.