The landscape of workforce management has undergone a significant transformation, marked by a notable shift from the traditional framework of Human Resources (HR) to the contemporary concept of people operations. This shift represents a fundamental reimagining of the role of HR, emphasizing a more comprehensive and personalized approach to…

The purpose of this qualitative, intrinsic case study was to gain an understanding of how middle school teachers' professional learning and development experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic have influenced their existing professional capital. Even though middle school teachers led much of their professional learning and development during the…

The U.S. service industry has struggled significantly with retaining workers following the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic resulted in hundreds of thousands of job losses due to closures in accommodations and food service businesses, followed by a record high percentage of voluntary resignations among service industry workers. This explanatory…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to describe the experience of Millennials with a Bachelor Degree in Business Management or management related disciplines seeking employment in their field of study in NC the first three years after graduation. The theoretical foundation of the study was human capital theory. The research…

Teacher retention in rural Title I schools has declined drastically over the past several years. As more teachers leave the profession and turnover is climbs to astounding rates in these schools, the quality of education in the United States continues to decline. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the…

This dissertation consists of three chapters that contribute to the fields of macroeconomics, economic development, and entrepreneurship. In the first chapter, "Entrepreneurship Selection and Performance in the U.S. and Across Countries: The Role of Human Capital," I seek to establish a set of stylized facts related to entrepreneurship…

Many postsecondary students in the United States exist at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities, such as race, socioeconomic status, (dis)ability, and legal status. Amidst a tumultuous sociopolitical context, a number of higher education institutions in the United States established Undocumented Student Resource Centers (USRCs),…

This dissertation consists of three chapters that study individual investment in human capital and the incidence of economic shocks. I use administrative data to answer these questions, developing and applying structural methods to analyze individual choices in combination with a careful consideration of research design. Chapter 1 studies the…

This dissertation argues for an expansive understanding of academic fiction in the postwar period--specifically as associated with the rise and fall of the "Golden Age of the American University"--beyond the conventional forms of the campus and academic novel. Rather than restricting academic fiction solely to types of novels that are…

The problem addressed in this study was the high attrition rates of teachers in elementary school districts and the unknown role of human, social, structural, and psychological capital determinants needed to retain teachers. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive case study was to describe the experiences of veteran K-6 teachers in the South…

There are considerable challenges experienced by female South Sudanese refugees to access post-secondary education in the United States. Although these challenges are many, but little was known about their experiences to access and enroll into US post-secondary education. There has been a significant lack of research on how South Sudanese female…

This dissertation consists of three papers. In each, I use applied econometric methods and economic theory to study the American teacher workforce. The first paper evaluates a novel policy to address teacher shortages by promoting experienced school staff to be teachers of record. Controlling for demographics and baseline scores, I find that…

This dissertation contains three chapters, each investigating a question in American economic history. The first chapter is co-authored with Ran Abramitzky, Santiago Perez, and Joseph Price. In this work, we conduct a large-scale digitization of historical college registers, encompassing 2.7 million students at 65 elite US universities. We use…

Human capital development is crucial for economic growth. Policymakers must understand the factors influencing human capital accumulation since they may vary by setting and sector. For example, micro-enterprise employees enhance their skills through on-the-job training or vocational programs. In educational institutions, family and school…

This dissertation is a qualitative study that investigated the experiences of Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) higher education professionals who hold a position in the President's Cabinet of a public university in the Western United States. The study utilized human capital theory, social capital theory, and social cognitive career…