The Masking of the Decline in Manufacturing Employment by the Housing Bubble

By Kerwin Kofi Charles, Erik Hurst, and Matthew J. Notowidigdo

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2016

The employment-to-population ratio among prime-aged adults aged 25–54 has fallen substantially since 2000. The explanations proposed for the decline in the employment-to-population ratio have been of two broad types. One set of explanations emphasizes c...

The Division of Spoils: Rent-Sharing and Discrimination in a Regulated Industry

By Sandra E. Black and Philip E. Strahan

American Economic Review, September 2001

Until the middle of the 1970s, regulations constrained banks' ability to enter new markets. Over the subsequent 25 years, states gradually lifted these restrictions. This paper tests whether rents fostered by regulation were shared with labor, and whether...

The Political Economy of the European Economic and Monetary Union: Political Sources of an Economic Liability

[Symposium: EMU]

By Martin Feldstein

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1997

EMU would be an economic liability. A single currency would cause, at most, small trade and investment gains but would raise average cyclical unemployment and possibly raise inflation, perpetuate structural unemployment, and increase the risk of protectio...

Francesco Furlanetto on what recent immigration did (and didn't do) to Norway's economy

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How increased immigration helped lower unemployment in Norway

Monitoring, Motivation, and Management: The Determinants of Opportunistic Behavior in a Field Experiment

By Daniel S. Nagin, James B. Rebitzer, Seth Sanders, and Lowell J. Taylor

American Economic Review, September 2002

Economic models of incentives in employment relationships are based on a specific theory of motivation: employees are "rational cheaters," who anticipate the consequences of their actions and shirk when the marginal benefits exceed costs. We investigate t...

High Unemployment Yet Few Small Firms: The Role of Centralized Bargaining in South Africa

By Jeremy R. Magruder

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, July 2012

South Africa has very high unemployment, yet few adults work informally in small firms. This paper tests whether centralized bargaining, by which unionized large firms extend arbitration agreements to nonunionized smaller firms, contributes to this probl...

Social Psychology, Unemployment and Macroeconomics

By William A. Darity and Arthur H. Goldsmith

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1996

In a conventional macroeconomic model, following a policy change, as nominal wages adjust the economy returns to its original real levels of employment, output, and unemployment. This description of events ignores the social psychological consequences of ...

Earnings Losses of Displaced Workers Revisited

By Kenneth A. Couch and Dana W. Placzek

American Economic Review, March 2010

Earnings losses of Connecticut workers affected by mass layoff are calculated using administrative data. Estimated reductions are initially more than 30 percent and six years later, as much as 15 percent. The Connecticut estimates are smaller than compara...

Disability Insurance and Health Insurance Reform: Evidence from Massachusetts

By Nicole Maestas, Kathleen J. Mullen, and Alexander Strand

American Economic Review, May 2014

As health insurance becomes available outside of the employment relationship as a result of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the cost of applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)–potentially going without health insurance coverage durin...

Is the Threat of Reemployment Services More Effective Than the Services Themselves? Evidence from Random Assignment in the UI System

By Dan A. Black, Jeffrey A. Smith, Mark C. Berger, and Brett J. Noel

American Economic Review, September 2003

We examine the effect of the Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services system. This program "profiles" Unemployment Insurance (UI) claimants to determine their probability of benefit exhaustion and then provides mandatory employment and training services...

Worker Heterogeneity and Endogenous Separations in a Matching Model of Unemployment Fluctuations

By Mark Bils, Yongsung Chang, and Sun-Bin Kim

American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, January 2011

We model worker heterogeneity in the rents from being employed in a Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides model of matching and unemployment. We show that heterogeneity, reflecting differences in match quality and worker assets, reduces the extent of fluctuations ...

The Role of Entrepreneurship in US Job Creation and Economic Dynamism

[Symposium: Entrepreneurship]

By Ryan Decker, John Haltiwanger, Ron Jarmin, and Javier Miranda

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2014

An optimal pace of business dynamics—encompassing the processes of entry, exit, expansion, and contraction—would balance the benefits of productivity and economic growth against the costs to firms and workers associated with reallocation of pr...

The Cyclicality of Skill Acquisition: Evidence from Panel Data

By Fabio Méndez and Facundo Sepúlveda

American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, July 2012

This paper presents new empirical evidence regarding the cyclicality of skill acquisition activities. The paper studies both training and schooling episodes at the individual level using quarterly data from the NLSY79 for a period of 19 years. We find tha...

The Effect of Product Demand on Inequality: Evidence from the United States and the United Kingdom

By Marco Leonardi

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, July 2015

Using Consumer Expenditure Survey data this paper shows that more educated workers demand more high-skill-intensive services and, to a lesser extent, more very low-skill-intensive services (such as personal services). Additional evidence at the Metropolit...

High Discounts and High Unemployment

By Robert E. Hall

American Economic Review, February 2017

Unemployment is high when financial discounts are high. In recessions, the stock market falls and all types of investment fall, including employers' investment in job creation. The discount rate implicit in the stock market rises, and discounts for other ...

The Economic Future of Europe

[Symposium: The Transformation of Europe]

By Olivier Blanchard

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2004

After three years of near stagnation, the mood in Europe is definitely gloomy. Many doubt that the European model has a future. In this paper, I argue that things are not so bad, and there is room for optimism. Over the last thirty years, productivity gro...

Recall Expectations and Duration Dependence

By Arash Nekoei and Andrea Weber

American Economic Review, May 2015

Using novel administrative data from Austria, we investigate the nature of temporary layoffs and recalls. We find that on average jobs ending in temporary layoffs lasted shorter but paid higher wages. The majority of temporarily laid-off workers return to...

Latin America's Growth and Equity Frustrations During Structural Reforms

[Symposium: Latin America's Growth Record]

By José Antonio Ocampo

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2004

This paper argues that Latin America's market-oriented reforms, together with increased monetary and fiscal discipline, were successful in bringing down inflation, inducing export growth and diversification, and attracting foreign direct investment. Nonet...

The European Union: A Politically Incorrect View

[Symposium: The Transformation of Europe]

By Alberto Alesina and Roberto Perotti

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2004

In this paper, we present our view of the recent evolution of European integration. We first briefly describe the main features of the institution and decision making process in the European Union, with particular attention to the debate between federalis...

Why are European Countries Diverging in their Unemployment Experience?

[Symposium: The Transformation of Europe]

By Gilles Saint-Paul

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2004

During the nineties, unemployment fell in a number of European countries while it remained high in others. This Paper discusses potential causes for that evolution in light of recent economic research, emphasizing obstacles to reform due to political cons...