Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
- Keyword
-
- LABOR MARKET ISSUES (12)
- Wages, health insurance and other benefits (7)
- EDUCATION (4)
- UNEMPLOYMENT, DISABILITY, and INCOME SUPPORT PROGRAMS (4)
- Urban issues (3)
-
- ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (2)
- Job search (2)
- Local labor markets (2)
- Monopsony (2)
- Postsecondary education (2)
- Regional policy and planning (2)
- Retirement and pensions (2)
- Unemployment insurance (2)
- Academic coaching (1)
- Administrative data (1)
- Age-wage profile (1)
- Appeals (1)
- Benefits and duration (1)
- Blinding (1)
- College Promise (1)
- College advising (1)
- College graduation (1)
- College wage premium (1)
- Common ownership (1)
- Competition policy (1)
- Data quality (1)
- Demand shocks (1)
- Disability (1)
- Disability insurance (1)
- Disclosure (1)
Articles 1 - 19 of 19
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Salary History And Employer Demand: Evidence From A Two-Sided Audit, Amanda Agan, Bo Cowgill, Laura K. Gee
Salary History And Employer Demand: Evidence From A Two-Sided Audit, Amanda Agan, Bo Cowgill, Laura K. Gee
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
We study how salary disclosures affect employer demand using a field experiment featuring hundreds of recruiters evaluating over 2,000 job applications. We randomize the presence of salary questions and the candidates’ disclosures for male and female applicants. Our findings suggest that extra dollars disclosed yield higher salary offers, willingness to pay, and perceptions of outside options by recruiters (all similarly for men and women). Recruiters make negative inferences about the quality and bargaining positions of non-disclosing candidates, though they penalize silent women less.
Are Retirement Planning Tools Substitutes Or Complements To Financial Capability?, Gopi Shah Goda, Matthew R. Levy, Colleen Flaherty Manchester, Aaron Sojourner, Joshua Tasoff, Jiusi Xiao
Are Retirement Planning Tools Substitutes Or Complements To Financial Capability?, Gopi Shah Goda, Matthew R. Levy, Colleen Flaherty Manchester, Aaron Sojourner, Joshua Tasoff, Jiusi Xiao
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
We conduct a randomized controlled trial to understand how a web-based retirement saving calculator affects workers’ retirement-savings decisions. In both conditions, the calculator projects workers’ retirement income goals. In the treatment condition, it also projects retirement income based on defined-contribution savings, prominently displays the gap between projected goal and actual retirement income, and allows users to interactively explore how alternative, future contribution choices would affect the gap. The treatment increased average annual retirement contributions by $174 (2.3 percent). However, effects were larger for those with greater financial knowledge, suggesting this type of tool complements, rather than substitutes for, underlying financial …
The Effects Of An Ellis Act Eviction On Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status, Brian J. Asquith
The Effects Of An Ellis Act Eviction On Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status, Brian J. Asquith
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
Rent-control advocates argue that its strongest feature is offering tenants strong protections from economic displacement. Nonetheless, rent control may have negative effects on tenants, as previous research has shown that these tenants have longer commutes and higher unemployment rates because they are incentivized to stay in place even after their location is no longer optimal. I study what happens to tenants when they are displaced from their rent-controlled apartments by exploiting a California law called the Ellis Act that allows landlords in Los Angeles and San Francisco to evict tenants even if they are lease-compliant, under the condition that all …
Long Social Distancing, Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom, Steven J. Davis
Long Social Distancing, Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom, Steven J. Davis
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
Many working-age Americans say they will continue some forms of social distancing after the COVID-19 pandemic ends. We uncover this long social distancing phenomenon in our monthly Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes. It is stronger among older persons, the less educated, and those who live with or care for persons at high risk from infectious diseases. Regression models fit to individual-level data suggest that social distancing lowered labor force participation by 2.4 percentage points in 2022, 1.2 points on an earnings-weighted basis. Daily interactions with at-risk persons and long COVID experiences lead to larger drags on participation. When combined …
Disability Insurance Screening And Worker Outcomes, Alexander Ahammer, Analisa Packham
Disability Insurance Screening And Worker Outcomes, Alexander Ahammer, Analisa Packham
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
We estimate the returns to more targeted disability insurance (DI) programs in terms of labor force participation and worker health. To do so, we analyze male workers after an acute workplace injury that experience differential levels of application screening. We find that when workers face tighter screening requirements, they are less likely to claim disability and are more likely to remain in the labor force. We observe no differences in any physical or mental health outcomes, including reinjury. Our findings imply that imposing stricter DI screening requirements has large fiscal benefits but does not yield any detectable health costs, on …
The Case For Dynamic Cities, Brian J. Asquith, Margaret C. Bock
The Case For Dynamic Cities, Brian J. Asquith, Margaret C. Bock
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
Cities today are confronting never-before-seen challenges to their top spot in the economic hierarchy. In this chapter, we lay out four challenges, past and future, that cities face today and identify policies that can help address the problems we identify. We call attention to the need for many U.S. cities to redevelop the large amount of aging postwar single-family housing, while reforming past exclusionary zoning and infrastructure decisions that exacerbated inequality. Cities will have to fix these past mistakes against the backdrop of an aging population and the rise of remote working, both of which undercut cities’ traditional source of …
Information, Intermediaries, And International Migration, Samuel Bazzi, Lisa Cameron, Simone Schaner, Firman Witoelar
Information, Intermediaries, And International Migration, Samuel Bazzi, Lisa Cameron, Simone Schaner, Firman Witoelar
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
Job seekers face substantial information frictions, especially in international labor markets where intermediaries match prospective migrants with overseas employers. We conducted a randomized trial in Indonesia to explore how information about intermediary quality shapes migration outcomes. Holding access to information about the return to choosing a high-quality intermediary constant, intermediary-specific quality disclosure reduces the migration rate, cutting use of low-quality providers. Workers who do migrate receive better pre-departure preparation and have improved experiences abroad, despite no change in occupation or destination. These results are not driven by changes in beliefs about average provider quality or the return to migration. Nor …
Centering Work: Integration And Diffusion Of Workforce Development Within The U.S. Manufacturing Extension Network, Nichola Lowe, Greg Schrock, Matthew D. Wilson, Rumana Rabbani, Allison Forbes
Centering Work: Integration And Diffusion Of Workforce Development Within The U.S. Manufacturing Extension Network, Nichola Lowe, Greg Schrock, Matthew D. Wilson, Rumana Rabbani, Allison Forbes
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
As the U.S. economy rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic, strategies that promote long-term transformation toward high-quality jobs will be critical. This includes workplace-improving interventions that enable employers to upgrade existing jobs, often while enhancing their own competitive position. This paper focuses on the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a national network of federally funded centers that support small and medium-sized manufacturing firms. We document the range of workforce- and workplace-enhancing strategies that MEP centers have adopted since the network’s inception in the mid-1990s. While workforce development is unevenly implemented across today’s MEP network, leading centers within the network are devising transformative strategies …
Keep Me In, Coach: The Short- And Long-Term Effects Of Targeted Academic Coaching, Serena Canaan, Stefanie Fischer, Pierre Mouganie, Geoffrey C. Schnorr
Keep Me In, Coach: The Short- And Long-Term Effects Of Targeted Academic Coaching, Serena Canaan, Stefanie Fischer, Pierre Mouganie, Geoffrey C. Schnorr
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
To boost college graduation rates, policymakers often advocate for academic supports such as coaching or mentoring. Proactive and intensive coaching interventions are effective, but are costly and difficult to scale. We evaluate a relatively lower-cost group coaching program targeted at first-year college students placed on academic probation. Participants attend a workshop where coaches aim to normalize failure and improve self-confidence. Coaches also facilitate a process whereby participants reflect on their academic difficulties, devise solutions to address their challenges, and create an action plan. Participants then hold a one-time follow-up meeting with their coach or visit a campus resource. Using a …
Firms And Unemployment Insurance Take-Up, Marta Lachowska, Isaac Sorkin, Stephen A. Woodbury
Firms And Unemployment Insurance Take-Up, Marta Lachowska, Isaac Sorkin, Stephen A. Woodbury
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
We use administrative data to quantify the firm role in unemployment insurance (UI) take-up. First, there are firm effects in both claiming and appeals, and, consistent with deterrence effects, these are negatively correlated. Second, low-wage workers are less likely to claim and more likely to have their claims appealed than median-wage workers, and firm effects explain a large share of these income gradients. Third, high-claiming and low-appealing firms are desirable firms: they are higher-paying and have lower separation rates. Finally, the dominant source of targeting error in the UI system is that eligible workers do not apply. Our findings emphasize …
Common Ownership In Labor Markets, José Azar, Yue Qiu, Aaron Sojourner
Common Ownership In Labor Markets, José Azar, Yue Qiu, Aaron Sojourner
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
In this paper, we study common ownership in U.S. labor markets, and document that common ownership more than doubled over the period 1999–2017. To identify the causal effects of common ownership on labor market outcomes, we use a firm’s addition to the S&P 500 index as a shock to the common ownership of its competitors in local labor markets. Using a matched difference-in-differences analysis, we find that, after a firm enters the S&P 500 index, the average annual earnings per employee of its local competitors decrease relative to the counterfactual. The effect of S&P 500 index additions on employee earnings …
The Great Migration And Educational Opportunity, Cavit Baran, Eric Chyn, Bryan A. Stuart
The Great Migration And Educational Opportunity, Cavit Baran, Eric Chyn, Bryan A. Stuart
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
This paper studies the impact of the First Great Migration on children. We use the complete-count 1940 Census to estimate selection-corrected place effects on education for children of Black migrants. On average, Black children gained 0.8 years of schooling (12 percent) by moving from the South to the North. Many counties that had the strongest positive impacts on children during the 1940s offer relatively poor opportunities for Black youth today. Opportunities for Black children were greater in places with more schooling investment, stronger labor market opportunities for Black adults, more social capital, and less crime.
Promise Program Design For Equity Outcomes: A Landscape Survey, Michelle Miller-Adams, Isabel Mcmullen
Promise Program Design For Equity Outcomes: A Landscape Survey, Michelle Miller-Adams, Isabel Mcmullen
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
Using the W.E. Upjohn Institute’s Promise Programs Database—a searchable data set covering about 200 place-based scholarship programs—this paper explores how the design of Promise programs can shape their equity impacts. The authors first examine the landscape of place-based programs to understand the impact of program design on equity outcomes. They then use the statistical method of polychoric correlation to combine design features related to the equity potential of community-based Promise programs and develop an index expressing this concept. They conclude with two vignettes of recently announced Promise programs with different design features and implementation strategies to highlight the varied paths …
Monopsony In The U.S. Labor Market, Chen Yeh, Claudia Macaluso, Brad J. Hershbein
Monopsony In The U.S. Labor Market, Chen Yeh, Claudia Macaluso, Brad J. Hershbein
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
This paper quantifies the extent to which the U.S. manufacturing labor market is characterized by employer market power and how such market power has changed over time. We find that the vast majority of U.S. manufacturing plants operate in a monopsonistic environment and, at least since the early 2000s, the labor market in U.S. manufacturing has become more monopsonistic. To reach this conclusion, we exploit rich administrative data for U.S. manufacturers and estimate plant-level markdowns—the ratio between a plant’s marginal revenue product of labor and its wage. In a competitive labor market, markdowns would be equal to unity. Instead, we …
Why Aren’T People Leaving Janesville? Industry Persistence, Trade Shocks, And Mobility, Sebastian Ottinger, Michael Poyker
Why Aren’T People Leaving Janesville? Industry Persistence, Trade Shocks, And Mobility, Sebastian Ottinger, Michael Poyker
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
Particular industries have dominated many locations in the United States for more than a century. We show that individuals residing in such locations were systematically less likely to move away from there during the past few decades. By identifying locations with sizable employment shares in the same manufacturing industries in 1870 and 1980, we documented less out-migration in the decades following 1980 than earlier. In response to the largest shock affecting manufacturing employment since then, these locations adjusted differently: the “China shock” led to higher unemployment in their communities, but fewer people moved away. Drawing on rich data of social …
Pell Grants And Labor Supply: Evidence From A Regression Kink, Michael S. Kofoed
Pell Grants And Labor Supply: Evidence From A Regression Kink, Michael S. Kofoed
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
A concern in higher education policy is that students are taking longer to graduate. One possible reason for this observation is an increase in off-campus labor market participation among college students. Financial aid may play a role in the labor/study choice of college students—as college becomes more affordable, students my substitute away from work and toward increased study. I use data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) to exploit nonlinearity in the Pell Grant formula to estimate a regression kink and regression discontinuity designs. I find that conditional on receiving the minimum of $550, students reduce their labor …
Place-Based Consequences Of Person-Based Transfers: Evidence From Recessions, Brad J. Hershbein, Bryan A. Stuart
Place-Based Consequences Of Person-Based Transfers: Evidence From Recessions, Brad J. Hershbein, Bryan A. Stuart
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
This paper studies how government transfers respond to changes in local economic activity that emerge during recessions. Local labor markets that experience greater employment losses during recessions face persistent relative decreases in earnings per capita. However, these areas also experience persistent increases in transfers per capita, which offset 16 percent of the earnings loss on average. The increase in transfers is driven by unemployment insurance in the short run, and medical, retirement, and disability transfers in the long run. Our results show that nominally place-neutral transfer programs redistribute considerable sums of money to places with depressed economic conditions.
Wage Posting Or Wage Bargaining? A Test Using Dual Jobholders, Marta Lachowska, Alexandre Mas, Raffaele Saggio, Stephen A. Woodbury
Wage Posting Or Wage Bargaining? A Test Using Dual Jobholders, Marta Lachowska, Alexandre Mas, Raffaele Saggio, Stephen A. Woodbury
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
This paper examines the behavior of dual jobholders to test a simple model of wage bargaining and wage posting. We estimate the sensitivity of wages and separation rates to wage shocks in a worker’s secondary job to assess the degree of bargaining versus wage posting in the labor market. We interpret the evidence within a model where workers facing hours constraints in their primary job may take a second, flexible-hours job for additional income. When a secondary job offers a sufficiently high wage, a worker either bargains with the primary employer for a wage increase or separates. The model provides …
How Reliable Are Administrative Reports Of Paid Work Hours?, Marta Lachowska, Alexandre Mas, Stephen A. Woodbury
How Reliable Are Administrative Reports Of Paid Work Hours?, Marta Lachowska, Alexandre Mas, Stephen A. Woodbury
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
This paper examines the quality of quarterly records on work hours collected from employers in the State of Washington to administer the unemployment insurance (UI) system, specifically to determine eligibility for UI. We subject the administrative records to four “trials,” all of which suggest the records reliably measure paid hours of work. First, distributions of hours in the administrative records and Current Population Survey outgoing rotation groups (CPS) both suggest that 52–54% of workers work approximately 40 hours per week. Second, in the administrative records, quarter-to-quarter changes in the log of earnings are highly correlated with quarter-to-quarter changes in the …