Research
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Carson, Kevin A. 2025. “Coyotaje in an Uncertain Social Environment: Prior Coyote Experience as a Form of Migration-Specific Human Capital.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 1–22. [pdf] [code]Abstract
The literature on undocumented migration at the US-Mexico border implicitly assumes that the probability of migrants using a coyote on a current trip should be negatively associated with their migratory experience, measured as the number of prior undocumented crossings a migrant has undertaken. Put simply, the literature assumes that experienced undocumented migrants crossing the border should be less likely to use a coyote . This paper provides evidence to reconsider that assumption using data from undocumented border crossings by men between 1994 and 2010. Empirically, we report robust evidence showing that, at any level of migratory experience, once a migrant uses a coyote to cross the US-Mexico border, he is likely to keep using a coyote in future trips. Theoretically, we develop a framework to incorporate coyote use into the theory of migration-specific human capital. Given the contemporary era of militarisation and criminalisation of the US-Mexico border and the increasing power of criminal organisations operating at the border, we develop a discussion of the importance of prior coyote use as an undertheorized form of migration-specific human capital.Conference Presentations
Carson, Kevin (with Diego F. Leal, Jeffrey Shen, David R. Schaefer, and Olov Aronson). 2025. “Tie Creation and Maintenance and the Link Between Adolescent Depression and Withdrawal in Friendship Networks”, American Sociological Association 120th Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Carson, Kevin (with Diego F. Leal). 2025. “Relational Outcome Models: Some Monte Carlo Results”, American Sociological Association 120th Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Carson, Kevin (with Diego F. Leal). 2024. “A Framework for Efficient Computation of Sufficient Statistics in Relational Event Models (REM) Applied to Large Two-Mode Networks”, American Sociological Association 119th Annual Meeting, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Carson, Kevin (with Diego F. Leal). 2024. “Exploring the Social Dynamics of Undocumented Border Crossings: A Study on Coyote Use and Prior Coyote Experience”, American Sociological Association 119th Annual Meeting, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Carson, Kevin (with Diego F. Leal). 2023. “Political Use of Social Media and Offline Protest Participation: Consistent Estimates from Three Different Population-based Surveys in the U.S”, American Sociological Association 118th Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, USA.
Carson, Kevin. 2021. “Political Usage of Social Media: A Quantitative Study on Protest Participation and Mobilization”, Mid-South Sociological Association Conference, virtual meeting.