Existing cross-national research on educational attainment does not fully address whether the same level of educational attainment generates the same level of literacy skills in different countries. We analyze literacy skills data for young adults from 19 countries in the 1994-1998 International Adult Literacy Survey and find that in all…

This article analyzes the determinants of innovation and success of innovation in the field of U.S. symphony orchestras from 1879 through 1959: why did major orchestras (N = 27) innovate by introducing works of new composers to the repertoire instead of sticking to canonical pieces? Can organizational processes account for the selection and the…

Several recent studies across the social sciences show that the spatial agglomeration of employment in a local labor market benefits both firms and workers in terms of better firm performance and higher wages. Drawing from the organizational ecology perspective, we argue that workers receive higher wages in large industrial clusters and urban…

Existing research rarely examines the social consequences of poor childhood health from a longitudinal perspective. Using data from the British National Child Development Study, I follow a cohort from before birth through middle age to examine whether children's health limitations before and during the educational process predict occupational…

This analysis examines how the spatial concentration of Southern whites is associated with white argument-based lethal violence. Using a well-known measure of spatial segregation (V, the adjusted P* index) among Southern-born whites in U.S. counties in 2000, the results reveal that the spatial concentration of Southern-born whites is only…

Throughout the United States, the probability of home ownership is considerably lower for Blacks than for Whites who are comparable in terms of socioeconomic characteristics, family composition, and location. Outside the South, Black owner-occupied homes are worth considerably less than the homes of comparable Whites. (Author/GC)

This research examines heterogeneity in Americans' musical tastes by separating breadth and level of taste, taking into account the structural constraints such as cohort, period, social class, gender and racial composition, which have shaped Americans' musical preferences over the past 20 years. We identify four types of respondents who share…

Among 4,971 young children of mothers in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, those from the Deep South scored lowest on a measure of receptive vocabulary. Differences for girls and boys were related to regional variations in maternal race/ethnicity, but boys' differences were also partly explained by regional subculture, maternal…

Examines the past 30 years of research on gender. Discusses lessons learned: to study difference in context, make real comparisons, look for similarities as well as differences, examine variation within as well as between groups, investigate exceptions, note failure to find effects, allow equifinality, and move beyond gender as a category per se.…

This study examines cross-national differences in returns to literacy skills and explores possible explanations for such differences. Data from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) are analyzed using multilevel models. Returns to literacy skills are higher in liberal market economies (LMEs) than in social market economies (SMEs).…

Tests Myrdal's predictions about racial attitude change, using responses to questions on school desegregation from 16 surveys. Finds that, although there has been a 30 percent increase in tolerance of school desegregation since 1954, cohort and education subgroups maintain consistent differences among themselves, and regional differences dissipate…