View Research by Author - Daniel Kuehn

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We compared the employment of African American and white youth as they transitioned to adulthood from age 18 to 22, focusing on high school graduates and high school dropouts who did not attend college. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997, we found significant differences in labor market participation by race and education. Among key findings, African American high school graduates worked as much and sometimes less than white high school dropouts. Findings suggest however, that the improved labor market participation associated with a high school diploma is higher over time for African Americans than for white youth.

Although all American workers have experienced hardship as a result of the recession, labor market performance and program participation vary significantly across race, ethnic, and age groups. This brief assesses the labor market performance of young black men (ages 18 to 24) relative to men in other racial/ethnic groups during the Great Recession. Young black men had far higher unemployment rates and lower incomes than young white men. In addition, among the jobless, young black men were less likely to receive unemployment insurance and more likely to rely on means-tested public assistance than young white men.

This factsheet summarizes key findings from a study that analyzes variation in settlement costs using data from FHA-insured, 30-year fixed-rate loans in five metropolitan areas. Title charges varied widely, from a median of $1,867 in Broward County to $914 in Philadelphia. Even after controlling for metropolitan area and characteristics of homebuyers, houses, neighborhoods, and settlement agencies, more than one-half of the variation in title charges remains unexplained. Substantial differences in title charges between settlement agents within a market suggest that consumers may benefit by shopping for settlement services. Regulators may want to consider helping consumers make more informed choices.

Title charges include title insurance premiums and charges for settling a loan. Title charges vary considerably from a median of $1,971 in California to $625 in North Dakota. This report analyzes variation in settlement costs using data from over 3,000 FHA-insured, 30-year fixed-rate home purchase loans in five metropolitan areas. Even after controlling for metropolitan area, various characteristics of homebuyers, houses, neighborhoods, and settlement agencies, more than one-half of the variation in title charges remains unexplained. Substantial differences in title charges between settlement agents within a market suggest that consumers would benefit by shopping for settlement services.

The High Growth Job Training Initiative (HGJTI) was a national grant program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Employment and Training Administration (ETA). Between 2001 and 2007, more than 160 grants were awarded to establish industry-focused job training and related projects designed to meet the industry’s workforce challenges. This report is the third and final in a series from the national evaluation of the HGJTI conducted by the Urban Institute, the Institute for Policy Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and Capital Research Corporation. This report documents the national initiative, describes the structure and implementation of projects by selected grantees, and provides nonexperimental analysis of the early impacts of job training in selected HGJTI-funded programs. The analysis relies on a review of grant applications and quarterly reports; visits to nine selected grantee sites; data collected from grantee training programs; quarterly earnings data from state unemployment insurance wage records; and administrative data from state and local public workforce system agencies.

The Moving to Opportunity demonstration (MTO) was launched in the early 1990s to evaluate the impacts of using housing vouchers to enable low income families to escape from high-poverty neighborhoods and move into low-poverty communities. This brief uses data from the most recent survey of MTO participants to explore patterns of residential mobility, including the extent to which families gained and sustained access to high-opportunity neighborhoods. Although MTO enabled families to escape from the most severely distressed neighborhoods, few enjoyed sustained access to high-opportunity neighborhoods, despite the provision of targeted vouchers and mobility counseling.

The pace of job growth across the country in this recovery has been slow but not uniform. Metropolitan areas have fared differently, with some experiencing substantially lower job loss than others. This paper examines employment changes across industries that pay low, medium, and high-wages on average by metropolitan area to identify which metros are faring better not only in total employment but in different types of jobs.

Growing up poor strongly predicts poverty and poor adult outcomes. This study explores two primary reasons poverty may persist across generations: risk behavior in adolescence and dropping out of high school. Results suggest that risk behavior and dropping out help perpetuate poor economic outcomes for children from single-parent families but are less important for children who grow up in low-income families. The findings suggest that policies directed at reducing youth risk behavior and dropping out can improve economic outcomes when targeted to youth from single-parent households.

This report documents state restrictions of five small-dollar products: auto title loans, pawnshop loans, payday loans, refund anticipation loans, and rent-to-own agreements between 2005 and 2009, in all states and the District of Columbia. Researchers find that over half of states prohibit auto title loans while a much smaller number of states prohibit payday loans. Nearly all states cap prices on at least one of the five products and the majority of states cap interest rates for pawnshops and payday lenders. Fewer than half of states impose disclosure requirements or price caps on rent-to-own agreements.

Using new nationally representative data from the National Financial Capability State-by-State Survey, this paper examines the relationship between state-level alternative financial service (AFS) policies (prohibitions, price caps, disclosures) and consumer use of five AFS products: payday loans, auto title loans, pawn broker loans, RALs, and RTO transactions. The results suggest that more stringent price caps and prohibitions are associated with lower product use and do not support the hypothesis that prohibitions and price caps on one AFS product lead consumers to use other AFS products.

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