Who Belongs? The Determinants of Selective Membership into the National Bureau of Economic Research

By Marieke Kleemans and Rebecca L. Thornton

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2021

We examine the determinants of membership into the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) using data from all tenured and tenure-track economists at R1 universities in the United States. We construct an annual panel of employment, research productivi...

Unemployment Insurance Generosity and Aggregate Employment

By Christopher Boone, Arindrajit Dube, Lucas Goodman, and Ethan Kaplan

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, May 2021

This paper examines the impact of unemployment insurance (UI ) on aggregate employment by exploiting cross-state variation in the maximum benefit duration during the Great Recession. Comparing adjacent counties located in neighboring states, there is no s...

Welfare generosity and work

[Research Highlight]

May 28, 2021

How much does extending unemployment insurance affect employment?

Making economic tools more reliable

[Research Highlight]

June 08, 2021

An interview with Isaiah Andrews, the 2021 John Bates Clark Medalist

LGBTQ economics

[Research Highlight]

June 17, 2021

Lee Badgett discusses her research on the effects of sexual orientation-based discrimination and how economists can engage in the fight for equality.

On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women's Financial Control Impacts Labor Supply and Gender Norms

By Erica Field, Rohini Pande, Natalia Rigol, Simone Schaner, and Charity Troyer Moore

American Economic Review, July 2021

Can increasing control over earnings incentivize a woman to work, and thereby influence norms around gender roles? We randomly varied whether rural Indian women received bank accounts, training in account use, and direct deposit of public sector wages int...

School vs neighborhood effects

[Research Highlight]

July 15, 2021

Why quality schools matter

Informal Labor and the Efficiency Cost of Social Programs: Evidence from Unemployment Insurance in Brazil

By François Gerard and Gustavo Gonzaga

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, August 2021

It is widely believed that the presence of a large informal sector increases the efficiency cost of social programs in developing countries. We evaluate such claims for the case of unemployment insurance (UI) by combining an optimal UI framework with co...

Wired and Hired: Employment Effects of Subsidized Broadband Internet for Low-Income Americans

By George W. Zuo

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, August 2021

I present evidence on the relationship between broadband pricing and labor market outcomes for low-income individuals. Specifically, I estimate the effects of a Comcast service providing discounted broadband to qualifying low-income families. I use a trip...

The Long-Run Effects of Childhood Insurance Coverage: Medicaid Implementation, Adult Health, and Labor Market Outcomes

By Andrew Goodman-Bacon

American Economic Review, August 2021

This paper estimates the long-run effects of childhood Medicaid eligibility on adult health and economic outcomes using the program's original introduction (1966–1970) and its mandated coverage of welfare recipients. The design compares cohorts born in ...

Effects of the COVID-19 Recession on the US Labor Market: Occupation, Family, and Gender

[Symposium: COVID-19]

By Stefania Albanesi and Jiyeon Kim

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2021

The economic crisis associated with the emergence of the novel corona virus is unlike standard recessions. Demand for workers in high contact and inflexible service occupations has declined while parental supply of labor has been reduced by lack of access...

Consolidation and productivity

[Research Highlight]

September 16, 2021

Should the United States be worried about its growing monopolies?

Migration Networks and Location Decisions: Evidence from US Mass Migration

By Bryan A. Stuart and Evan J. Taylor

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, July 2021

This paper studies how birth town migration networks affected long-run location decisions during historical US migration episodes. We develop a new method to estimate the strength of migration networks for each receiving and sending location. Our estimate...

The long-run benefits of Medicaid

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Health insurance for minority children leads to better health and higher levels of employment.

Using Nonlinear Budget Sets to Estimate Extensive Margin Responses: Method and Evidence from the Earnings Test

By Alexander M. Gelber, Damon Jones, Daniel W. Sacks, and Jae Song

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, October 2021

We estimate the impact of the Social Security Annual Earnings Test (AET) on older workers' employment. The AET reduces social security claimants' current benefits in proportion to their earnings in excess of an exempt amount. Using a regression kink desig...

Temperature, Labor Reallocation, and Industrial Production: Evidence from India

By Jonathan Colmer

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, October 2021

To what degree can labor reallocation mitigate the economic consequences of weather-driven agricultural productivity shocks? I estimate that temperature-driven reductions in the demand for agricultural labor in India are associated with increases in nonag...

Teaching Labor Laws: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in South Africa

By Marianne Bertrand and Bruno Crépon

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, October 2021

We assess whether imperfect knowledge of labor regulation hinders job creation at small and medium-sized firms. We partner with a labor law expert organization that provides information about labor regulation via newsletters and access to a specialized we...

Assortative Matching or Exclusionary Hiring? The Impact of Employment and Pay Policies on Racial Wage Differences in Brazil

By François Gerard, Lorenzo Lagos, Edson Severnini, and David Card

American Economic Review, October 2021

We measure the effects of firm policies on racial pay differences in Brazil. Non-Whites are less likely to be hired by high-wage firms, explaining about 20 percent of the racial wage gap for both genders. Firm-specific pay premiums for non-Whites are also...

Labor Rationing

By Emily Breza, Supreet Kaur, and Yogita Shamdasani

American Economic Review, October 2021

This paper measures excess labor supply in equilibrium. We induce hiring shocks—which employ 24 percent of the labor force in external month-long jobs—in Indian local labor markets. In peak months, wages increase instantaneously and local aggregate em...

Expanding broadband access

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How does high-speed internet affect the employment prospects of low-income Americans?