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We examine whether changes in the local school choice environment affect the amount of information parents collect about local school quality, using data on over 100 million searches from Greatschools.org. We link monthly data on search frequency in local “Search Units” to information on changes in local open enrollment options driven by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) sanctions as well as state school choice policies including open enrollment, tuition vouchers, charitable scholarship tax credits, and tuition tax credits. Our results indicate that NCLB-driven expansions in school choice have large, positive effects on the frequency of searches done for schools in that area. We find less evidence that state choice policies affect online search behavior, however search frequency also increases when charter school penetration in a given area rises. These estimates suggest that the information parents have about local schools is endogenous to the choice environment they face, and that parental information depends not just on the availability of data but also the incentive to seek and use it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background How parent and sibling obesity status comparatively shape a child’s obesity is unknown. Purpose To investigate how the obesity status of different children within the same family is related to a parent or sibling’s obesity. Methods A national sample of adults in 10,244 American households was surveyed during 2011; data were analyzed in 2012–2013. Of these households, 1,948 adults had one or two children; provided sociodemographic information; and reported on adult and child height and weight, physical activity, and food environment. Logistic regression models were estimated in which the outcome of interest was child obesity status, with parent and sibling obesity as key predictors, adjusting for a range of both adult and child social and demographic confounders. Results In one-child households, it was 2.2 times more likely (SE=0.5) that the child would be obese if a parent was obese. In households with two children, having an obese younger sibling was more strongly associated with elder-child obesity (OR=5.4, SE=1.9) than parent’s obesity status (OR=2.3, SE=0.8). Having an obese elder sibling was associated with younger-child obesity (OR=5.6, SE=1.9), and parent obesity status was no longer significant. Within-family sibling obesity was more strongly patterned between siblings of the same gender than between different genders, and child physical activity was significantly associated with obesity status. Conclusions Considering offspring composition and sibling gender may be beneficial in childhood obesity prevention and intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: There is a sizeable literature on the effect of minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) restrictions on teenage drunk driving. This paper adds to the literature by examining the effect of MLDA evasion across states with different alcohol restrictions. Using state-of-the-art GIS software and micro-data on fatal vehicle accidents from 1977 to 2002, we find that in counties within 25 miles of a lower-MLDA jurisdiction, a legal restriction on drinking does not reduce youth involvement in fatal accidents and, for 18 and 19-year-old drivers, fatal accident involvement actually increases. Farther from such a border, we find results consistent with the previous literature that MLDA restrictions are effective in reducing accident fatalities. The estimates imply that, of the total reduction in teenager-involved fatalities due to the equalization of state MLDAs at 21 in the 1970s and 1980s, for 18-year olds between a quarter and a third and for 19-year olds over 15 percent was due to equalization. Furthermore, the effect of changes in the MLDA is quite heterogeneous with respect to the fraction of a state''s population that need not travel far to cross a border to evade its MLDA. Our results imply the effect of lowering the MLDA in select states, such as has been proposed in Vermont, could lead to sizeable increases in teenage involvement in fatal accidents due to evasion of local alcohol restrictions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A considerable fraction of college students and bachelor's degree recipients enroll in multiple postsecondary institutions. Despite this fact, there is scant research that examines the nature of the paths – both the number and types of institutions – that students take to obtain a bachelor's degree or through the higher education system more generally. We also know little about how enrollment in multiple institutions of varying quality relates to postgraduate life outcomes. We use a unique panel data set from Texas that allows us to examine in detail the paths that students take toward a bachelor's degree and estimate how enrollment in multiple institutions is related to both degree completion and subsequent earnings. We show that the paths to a bachelor's degree are diverse and that earnings and BA receipt vary systematically with these paths. Our results call attention to the importance of developing a more complete understanding of why students transfer and what causal role transferring has on the returns to postsecondary educational investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study an intervention designed to overcome multiple hurdles faced by low-income, high-ability college students to determine if and how it affects students' long-term outcomes. UT-Austin's Longhorn Opportunity Scholars (LOS) program recruited at impoverished high schools and provided scholarships and enhanced support services to students who enrolled. We use administrative records for Texas public college students and find that LOS had large, positive effects on enrollment in and graduation from UT-Austin, masters' degree enrollment, and earnings. In particular, our results suggest that high achieving college attendees who went to a targeted high school saw UT-Austin enrollment increase by 71% and earnings 12 years after high school increase by 4.6% (an 82% increase among attendees). A somewhat similar program at Texas A&M called the Century Scholars Program had no effect on enrollment, but other contemporaneous enrollment shifts limit our analysis of other outcomes. The LOS results suggest that well designed, targeted recruitment programs with adequate supports can improve long-run outcomes for low-income students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]