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on Minorities Research (Ethnic, LGBTQ+, Disabilities) |
| By: | Xiaofeng Gong; Yuling Han; Susan T. Parker; Matthew B. Ross; Stephen Ross |
| Abstract: | We establish a reliable counterfactual for evaluating racial disparities in traffic stops using telemetric data to estimate the racial composition of motorists. We measure of motorist racial composition using telemetric mobility data and a novel two-stage correction methodology anchored by an independent measure, racial composition of motorists involved in accidents. Applying this to Massachusetts State Police stops, we find non-White motorists are stopped at rates exceeding their roadway presence by 6.7 percentage points. We demonstrate that uncalibrated telemetric data significantly understates minority presence (15.2 vs. 28 percent), and the uncalibrated telemetric data yields disparities that are over twice the size of our preferred estimates. We use this validated measure to assess the accuracy of several commonly-used disparity tests. We find that the widely used “Community Standard” test dramatically overestimates disparities, even when restricting to local roads or non-commuting hours. In contrast, the less-often used “Crash Benchmark” accurately captures disparities even when aggregated to higher temporal levels covering up to 94 percent of stops. Finally, the “Veil of Darkness” test yields smaller estimates than our telemetric measure, consistent with its focus on disparate treatment rather than the broader legal standard of motorist composition. |
| JEL: | C81 J15 K42 R41 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35727 |
| By: | Priyanka Anand; Tran Thi Phu-Duyen; Sita Slavov |
| Abstract: | We examine how information affects the choice between Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) and Old-Age Insurance (OAI) benefits for people between 62 and full retirement age. We find that receiving an initial Social Security statement, which provides recipients with personalized estimated benefit amounts available from DI and OAI, increases the probability of applying for both programs among those with a work-limiting health condition or a low work ability index, and this response is concentrated among people who are further from full retirement age. The increase in DI applications is split between applications for DI only and applications for both programs. |
| JEL: | D83 H55 J14 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35748 |
| By: | Kay Jowers; Lala Ma; Christopher D. Timmins |
| Abstract: | The use of managed retreats, or “buyouts, ” of flood-prone properties is likely to grow as an adaptation response to increasing flood risks. This paper investigates the role of race and ethnicity in buyout bargaining outcomes and how those outcomes affect longer-run neighborhood change. We combine nationwide administrative data on federal property acquisitions, housing sales transactions, and restricted-use Census microdata to estimate whether there are systematic differences by race in buyout payments relative to a property’s fair market value. We then use a database tracking individual movement over time to examine the quality of the neighborhoods to which participants move and how neighborhood outcomes vary by race and program participation. We find that the buyout compensation received by households of color is at least 6 percent lower than that received by white households. White participants relocate to higher quality neighborhoods and are better off than white nonparticipants. Black participants, on the other hand, move to worse neighborhoods and are worse off than Black non-participants. Our work highlights how government policy, aimed to address increasing climate impacts, may exacerbate the burden of climate change on vulnerable communities. |
| JEL: | D30 D63 Q50 R23 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35726 |
| By: | McCarthy, Neil (The Pepperpot Collective) |
| Abstract: | Disabled people frequently experience communication collapse during distress, overwhelm or coercive control, producing indirect, fragmented, masked or delayed expression rather than clear verbal articulation. National Inquiries – including the Disability Royal Commission (2023) and the NDIS Review (2023) – demonstrate that current disability and safeguarding systems are misaligned with these communication realities, relying on speech, privacy, cognitive stability and narrative coherence at precisely the moments that these capacities fail. Communication Collapse is there a predictable, embodied response shaped by trauma, cognitive load and social misunderstanding, rather than and individual deficit. This article introduces accessibility as infrastructure, a conceptual reframing that positions communication safety as a structural requirement of safeguarding systems. Drawing on disability studies and critical social theory, it argues that safeguarding infrastructures must be redesigned to recognise neurodivergent communication as valid and actionable, particularly during shutdown, overwhelm, masking, executive- function collapse and coercive control. Within this framework, the article presents Althing, a neurodivergent-led, trauma informed safeguarding model engineered to remain usable during distress-state communication collapse. By supporting early, low-detail, indirect or delayed signals of harm, Althing addresses structural communication failures and aligns with national reform expectations for trauma-informed, low-demand safeguarding pathways. Although conceptual, the model offers a mature foundation, for future co-design, empirical evaluation, and state-level safeguarding innovation, demonstrating how accessibility as infrastructure can strengthen communication safety at the exact moments disabled people are least able to seek help. |
| Date: | 2026–09–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:c579y_v1 |
| By: | Manasi Deshpande; Alessandra Voena; Jason B. Weitze |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effect of receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) in childhood on adult outcomes using multiple sources of variation. Using variation across and within two quasi-experiments, we find that the program has heterogeneous effects that vary with the parental earnings response to SSI benefits: the program has positive effects on children when parents do not adjust their labor supply in response to SSI income (meaning household income increases), but zero or negative effects on children when parents offset the transfer by reducing earnings (meaning household income remains constant or falls). These results suggest that, relative to parent non-work time, income is crucial in the human capital production of low-income children with disabilities. We estimate a model of maternal labor supply and child human capital formation to quantify the relative importance of these channels. Our findings indicate that 1) the income effects of SSI on children's human capital are substantial, with a limited role for perverse incentive effects from conditioning benefits on disability status, and 2) parental work on net improves children's outcomes by increasing household resources, despite the potential decrease in parental time. |
| JEL: | I38 J13 J14 J22 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35725 |
| By: | Drydakis, Nick |
| Abstract: | This study examines whether signalling AI-related digital skills improves employment outcomes for women from underrepresented groups in England, defined by race, age, sexual orientation, and autism-spectrum disclosure. Using correspondence evidence, the study finds that underrepresented women receive fewer interview invitations and are considered for lower-paid vacancies than majority-group women. In pooled analyses, signalling AI-related digital skills increases interview invitations for underrepresented applicants, but does not eliminate the disadvantage. These findings are consistent with AI Capital and productivity-signalling frameworks, as employers appear to value AI-related capabilities while the returns to such credentials remain constrained by persistent demographic inequalities. The study therefore shows that positive returns to AI-related skills and labour-market disadvantage can coexist. Its broader implication is that digital upskilling can strengthen the recruitment prospects of underrepresented women, but cannot by itself deliver parity in employment outcomes. A dual policy response is therefore required, combining wider and more equitable access to AI education and training with stronger anti-discrimination enforcement, greater transparency in shortlisting, improved oversight of recruitment processes, and systematic evaluation of how employers recognise applicant credentials. The study contributes to the economics of AI by linking correspondence evidence to the AI Capital framework and highlighting barriers to converting AI-related resources into meaningful employment opportunities. |
| Keywords: | AI Capital, Artificial Intelligence, Skills, Discrimination, Hiring, Wages, Sexual Orientation, Race, Age, Autism Spectrum |
| JEL: | J71 J24 J31 J64 C93 J15 J16 J14 O33 M51 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1823 |
| By: | Ahmed Ación López; Carlos Vidal-Meliá |
| Abstract: | We develop an actuarially grounded NDC counterfactual to benchmark Spain’s pay-asyou- go defined-benefit pension system. Using MCVL administrative microdata for 2015– 2023, we reconstruct individual notional capital from contribution histories and compare it with the actuarial cost of DB entitlements for retirement, disability and survivorcontingent reversibility. Italy’s NDC experience serves as an institutional reference highlighting the need for explicit treatment of non-old-age contingencies. DB costs generally exceed NDC capital, revealing implicit transfers not captured in retirement-only assessments. Disability generates the largest deviations, while survivor reversibility adds contingent liabilities. Results support distinguishing contribution-based entitlements, contingent liabilities and redistributive effects. |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaeee:eee2026-29 |
| By: | Charles Po-Cheng Huang; Gunhaeng Lee |
| Abstract: | Many allocation rules give priority to applicants satisfying favored conditions, including disability, homelessness, and veteran status. Because these conditions are not directly observed, a rule ranking applicants by characteristics must first determine what submitted certificates prove. This paper studies allocation with hard but partial evidence: a disability document may prove disability without proving the absence of a disqualifying tenancy record. A claim is certifiable exactly when every intended claimant has a feasible certificate excluding all outsiders. Chain rules---scores, lexicographic orders, and scalar rankings---require certification of every priority cutoff, whereas reserve rules require certification of each eligibility class. Allocation rules thus select the claim family to be certified. When certification fails, canonical repairs demote unsupported chain priorities and delete unsupported reserve labels. Nonempty reserve eligibility classes can be represented as upper contours of a single chain if and only if they are nested. A housing application illustrates the consequences. |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2609.21335 |
| By: | Book, Leslie |
| Abstract: | This article examines the Internal Revenue Service’s administration of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act economic impact payment program and argues that the agency’s decision to deny and delay stimulus payments to incarcerated individuals constituted an unlawful exercise of administrative power with significant racial justice implications. The CARES Act broadly authorized economic impact payments for eligible individuals, yet the IRS adopted a policy that categorically excluded incarcerated persons from receiving relief despite the absence of statutory language supporting such a restriction. Through an analysis of the ensuing litigation, including the successful challenge brought in federal court, the article contends that the IRS’s policy was inconsistent with both the text and purpose of the CARES Act and violated administrative law principles governing agency action. Beyond the legal deficiencies of the policy, the article situates the controversy within broader discussions of tax administration, administrative burden, and racial equity. Drawing on theories of administrative burden and racialized burden, the article argues that the IRS’s actions imposed disproportionate hardships on incarcerated individuals and their families, many of whom are members of communities already disproportionately impacted by incarceration, poverty, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The article further highlights the practical barriers that incarcerated individuals faced in obtaining payments even after the policy was invalidated, including inadequate communication, limited access to filing mechanisms, and procedural obstacles embedded within IRS processes. By examining the relationship between tax administration and racial justice, the article demonstrates that administrative choices can reinforce existing social inequalities even when facially neutral. The article concludes by proposing a framework for anti-racist tax administration that emphasizes transparency, proactive consideration of racialized burdens, and greater sensitivity to the effects of administrative decision-making on vulnerable populations. [This abstract was written by Microsoft Copilot, a generative artificial intelligence.] |
| Date: | 2026–09–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:lawarc:qcfk3_v1 |
| By: | Bald, Caroline; Norman, Alyson; Amadiegwu, Akudo; Spirit, Talis; Ademakinwa, Temiloluwa; Linden, Mark; Holloway, Mark; Clark, Michael; Bateman, Andrew |
| Abstract: | Acquired brain injury (ABI) is the leading cause of adulthood injury-related death and disability worldwide. Despite ABI’s prevalence, little is known about the extent to which social workers are prepared for brain injury working and specifically pre-qualifying brain injury curricula. This study employed a nine-item survey regarding brain injury social work knowledge. The survey asked about curricula inclusion within social work pre-qualification via multiple education providers to understand the extent to which brain injury training is incorporated within UK courses. This included a series of open-ended questions. Data from 36 survey respondents identified that 1) there was an acknowledged gap in ABI pre-qualifying curricula inclusion and educator knowledge; (2) ten respondents had personal experience of brain injury; (3) the majority of respondents believed brain injury social work education should be mandatory pre-qualifying; (4) there were pockets of good practice prompted by personal or local interest; and (5) there was no mention of interprofessional learning. The study highlights a need for the inclusion of brain injury training within pre-qualification social work curricula across the UK which may relate to a wider lack of knowledge about brain injury social work among educators. |
| Keywords: | brain injury;social work education;curriculum;acquired brain injury;traumatic brain injury |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2026–09–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:140900 |
| By: | Acar-Burkay, Sinem |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the question of the effects of ethnic diversity on economic growth. It extends the cross-country growth regressions in Easterly and Levine (1997) by allowing for growth effects of natural resources to depend on the amount of ethnic fractionalization to see if ethnic diversity, natural resource abundance, and the interaction of the two can explain Middle Eastern Countries' poor economic performance. And, the answer is found to be “yes”: The resource curse applies in ethnically heterogeneous countries but not in homogenous ones. |
| Date: | 2026–09–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:mkq3e_v1 |
| By: | Randall Akee; Emilia Simeonova |
| Abstract: | There is substantial heterogeneity in economic, educational, and health outcomes among American Indians, shaped by factors such as geographic location (urban vs. rural), resource endowments, and historical experiences with federal policies. Nonetheless, there is clear evidence that historical policies, including forced relocation, boarding schools, and assimilation efforts, have had long-lasting negative effects on human capital development and intergenerational mobility in these populations. Recent decades have seen improvements in some areas, particularly where tribes have exercised greater self-governance and implemented innovative economic development strategies. This paper emphasizes that a “one-size-fits-all” approach is inadequate for analyzing the sources and potential remediation of disparities across various outcomes between Native populations and descendants of later arrivals. A unique challenge is that the measurement and analysis of American Indian outcomes are complicated by issues of racial and tribal identification, data limitations, and changing definitions. These challenges can obscure true trends and make it difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of policies or programs, underscoring the need for more precise and disaggregated data. This essay comments on the need for caution and clarity in the use and analysis of data for this population in both historical and contemporary settings. |
| JEL: | J0 N3 O10 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35730 |
| By: | Tara Bedi (Trinity College Dublin and TIME); Anu Jose (University of Galway); Michael King (Trinity College Dublin and TIME); Samuel McArdle (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)) |
| Abstract: | Natural disasters impose high and lasting psychological costs, yet the distribution of these costs within households remains poorly understood. Using a unique panel dataset of couples in Malawi, this paper examines the effect of Cyclone Idai damage on couples' mental health. We find that female spouses experience a 5.65% erosion in self‐efficacy five to seven months after the cyclone, while their husbands show no significant change. We find no significant effects on depression or stress‐related disability for either spouse. To explain this gender divergence in self‐efficacy, we investigate differential access to labour market coping strategies. Following severe cyclone‐related losses, husbands are 14.5% more likely to engage in wage employment and report 26.8% higher wage earnings relative to husbands in low‐loss households, whereas wives' participation in income‐generating activities remains unchanged. Together, these findings show that the psychological effects of the disaster are gender‐differentiated within the household, and differential labour market opportunities may explain the divergent psychological outcomes observed between spouses. These patterns have implications for the design of disaster response and social protection policies. |
| Keywords: | Natural Disasters, Mental Health, Intrahousehold, Gender, Labour |
| JEL: | D13 D15 Q54 I10 I30 I32 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep1726 |
| By: | KINA, MEHMET FUAT; Ekmen, Helin Yaren |
| Abstract: | Large language models are increasingly used to simulate survey respondents, yet the inference pipeline that turns a persona into a response is rarely calibrated for the population and outcome it is applied to. This study makes population- and outcome-specific calibration the research task itself. Using a nationally representative survey in Turkey as the benchmark, we construct persona-conditioned synthetic respondents for all 2, 615 survey participants and search a structured space of persona content, sampling strategies, temperatures, model backbones, and prompt framings. Calibration is assessed against two held-out outcomes that carry the response structures on which social movement research typically rests, a rare binary measure of protest participation and a five-point attitude item, and the selected protocols differ between the two. We then run a within-persona synthetic experiment that places the same protest for Kurdish-language education in a political opportunity and a political threat context. The threat context lowers simulated movement legitimacy and willingness to attend, and the simulated contrasts differentiate by political orientation, ethnicity, and education in the directions theory anticipates. Calibration is a precondition for reading synthetic experiments, not a robustness check appended to them. |
| Date: | 2026–09–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:hp7gz_v1 |
| By: | da Rocha, Tânia de Jesus Vilela; Cruz, Gonçalo (University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro) |
| Abstract: | Digital participation channels may widen access to public decision-making, but formal availability does not ensure substantively equal opportunities for political voice. This paper asks how accessibility conditions across a digital consultation journey may shape participation costs and what their potential implications are for political equality and procedural legitimacy. It conceptualizes digital accessibility as democratic infrastructure and integrates technical accessibility, journey analysis, socio-technical evaluation, and democratic interpretation. The analytical strategy distinguishes observed conditions, plausible participation risks, and demonstrated outcomes and traces a chain from observed condition to required resource, participation cost, recovery route, and potential democratic relevance. A bounded exploratory pilot applies the strategy to the publicly accessible, logged-out segment of ConsultaLEX, the Portuguese government portal for legislative and regulatory consultations. The pilot covers discovery, orientation, and authentication and assesses the availability of an entry point to expression and feedback. It identifies enabling conditions in programmatically named controls, structured consultation information, exact dates, and alternative authentication routes. Potentially constraining conditions involve relative deadlines, scripted navigation, registration and identity requirements, and human verification. Because no live commenting process was available, expression and feedback could not be inspected. The study therefore supports mechanism-level inferences rather than claims about participant exclusion or platform-wide conformance. These findings support treating accessibility as a necessary but insufficient condition for equal participation. The paper contributes a proof of concept connecting accessibility evidence to democratic analysis and identifies disability-led participant testing, live-process observation, and cross-platform comparison as priorities for future research. |
| Date: | 2026–09–17 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:4vwjm_v3 |
| By: | Isaac Ahimbisibwe; Scott E. Carrell; Travis Lybbert |
| Abstract: | This study examines how social influences on academic performance evolve during transition to university when students encounter new social environments and publicly observable signals of academic ability. Using administrative data from a large, elite, and linguistically and culturally heterogeneous public university in Uganda and exploiting random assignment of students to dormitories, we examine how exposure to coethnic peers and peers with scholarship status affects academic performance. We find that greater exposure to peers from similar linguistic and cultural backgrounds improve academic achievement early in university, but these effects fade over time. In contrast, exposure to scholarship peers generates persistent gains in academic performance that increase in magnitude over time. Our setting allows us to distinguish between peers’ underlying academic ability and publicly observable signals of ability since scholarship status is visible, while underlying academic preparation is not. We find that exposure to scholarship peers improves academic performance regardless of those peers’ underlying ability, while exposure to high-ability peers without a scholarship signal has no detectable effect. These results suggest that students respond more strongly to observable signals of academic standing than to peers’ underlying academic preparation. Taken together, our findings indicate that the sources of academic influence evolve over time. |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35728 |