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Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9679-0387

Date Available

4-22-2026

Year of Publication

2026

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College

Business and Economics

Department/School/Program

Economics

Faculty

James P. Ziliak

Faculty

Olga Malkova

Abstract

This dissertation evaluates economic inequality and family formation in the United States in three essays. In Essay 1, I estimate the effect of providing subsidized access to immediate postpartum contraceptives on birth spacing and infant health among low-income teen mothers. The intent-to-treat estimates indicate a 20% reduction in the monthly short-interval birth rate among teens 12-14 months after policy enactment. I also find evidence that the policy increased the average interval between births and reduced preterm and low-birth weight births and NICU admission rates. In Essay 2, I provide evidence that single mothers and single women without children are important to understanding Black-White income inequality relative to single men as well as demographic and economic factors. In Essay 3, I estimate life cycle earnings profiles with respect to labor market experience and job tenure separately by sex and race and evaluate how changing returns impact sex earnings gaps. Returns to experience have become steeper for men across cohorts, while women's profiles remained largely unchanged. Returns to tenure have flattened over time for all groups. Women have gained relative to men primarily through higher earnings at labor market entry and not through steeper life cycle growth.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2026.86

Archival?

Archival

Funding Information

This research was supported by National Science Foundation Grant 2214640 in 2023-24, the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research in 2023, the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy in 2025, and the Adams Summer Research Fellowship in 2025.

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