Essays on welfare use, the wage gap and unemployment transitions in the United States

This dissertation offers three self-contained empirical analyses of different demographic groups in the U.S. labor market. The first study utilizes PSID data to evaluate possible reasons for the persistent rural-urban wage gap for women over the 1985--1992 period in the U.S. The paper adopts the general equilibrium model of interacting regions as a starting point, then uses two-step panel data estimations that allow consideration of explanations including rural-urban differences in observed individual characteristics and work-related characteristics, and at the same time control for both unobserved differences in natural amenities and productivities and for the potential effects of endogeneity and/or sample selection bias in hours worked. The paper finds that significant rural-urban female wage differentials exist for many groups.; The second study analyzes the labor market outcomes of unemployed low-income persons across metro and nonmetro U.S. labor markets. Using matched data from the March CPS from 1988 to 2002, this study examines the transition probabilities of unemployed persons living in poor/near poor families; in poor, single-parent families; and in families receiving welfare. The study finds that there are differences in the prospects of unemployment transitions for rural low-income persons compared to urban ones. Further, for rural workers who found employment the next year, their hourly wages and earnings are generally lower than their urban counterparts even after they moved up into better employment.; The third study attempts to explain the apparent differences in use of welfare between immigrants and U.S. native-born individuals after the 1996 welfare reform legislation. The PRWORA of 1996, enacted August 22, 1996, significantly limits federal means-tested benefits to legal immigrants who have not become U.S. citizens. This research addresses the observed differences in the declines in welfare use rates by immigrants as compared to U.S. natives by examining the relationship between welfare use and employment by nativity differences and by gender from 1993 to 2002 using simultaneous equation techniques. The study finds that the decisions relative to welfare participation and employment are negatively related and jointly determined for most welfare programs. This analysis is based on data from the March CPS 1994--2003.