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Full-Text Articles in Labor Economics

How To Design A State Child And Dependent Care Tax Credit That Works, Gabrielle Pepin Mar 2026

How To Design A State Child And Dependent Care Tax Credit That Works, Gabrielle Pepin

Reports

High care costs for children and older adults put an increasing strain on American families, often pushing caregivers out of the workforce. While investments in affordable care deliver lasting benefits for families, employers, and the economy, the federal Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) falls short—leaving states well positioned to make a difference. This Policy Blueprint highlights three ways the CDCTC fails families, and three solutions for designing a state tax credit that can help.


More Hours, More Work: Head Start Expansions Boost Maternal Employment, Chloe R. Gibbs, Esra Kose, Maria Rosales Rueda Feb 2026

More Hours, More Work: Head Start Expansions Boost Maternal Employment, Chloe R. Gibbs, Esra Kose, Maria Rosales Rueda

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Women’s employment remains highly sensitive to childcare constraints, making childcare availability a critical lever for supporting mothers’ labor force attachment. We study the effects of expanded full-day programming in Head Start, using the 2016 federal funding initiative that targeted grantees with low full-day enrollment. Linking administrative program data, geo-coded center locations, and household data on employment, we estimate a difference-in-differences design by comparing mothers of young children in treated and untreated areas. The policy increased full-day enrollment by 19 percent and raised single mothers’ employment (1.9%), hours (2.5%), and earnings (6.5%). Results show that extending program duration meaningfully improves maternal …


Human Capital And Labor Market Effects Of Elite Schooling In England, Scotland, And Wales: New Causal Evidence From Nonparametric Bounds, Zhanhan Yu, Vikesh Amin, Carlos A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, Giuseppe Germinario Feb 2026

Human Capital And Labor Market Effects Of Elite Schooling In England, Scotland, And Wales: New Causal Evidence From Nonparametric Bounds, Zhanhan Yu, Vikesh Amin, Carlos A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, Giuseppe Germinario

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We estimate the causal effect of attending elite schools in England, Scotland, and Wales on human capital and labor market outcomes for cohorts of children from the 1958 National Child Development Study and the 1970 British Cohort Study. For identification, we employ a nonparametric partial-identification approach that provides bounds on the causal effect by assuming that, on average, there is positive selection into elite school attendance, and that attending an elite school does not worsen average potential human capital or labor market outcomes. The bounds indicate that there could possibly be large education and labor market returns from attending an …


Early Learning Across Decades: Advances In Measuring Head Start Effectiveness, Chloe R. Gibbs Feb 2026

Early Learning Across Decades: Advances In Measuring Head Start Effectiveness, Chloe R. Gibbs

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The Head Start program, launched in 1965 and targeted to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, remains the largest early childhood care and education (ECE) program in the United States and the only one deployed at the federal level. As such, the Head Start literature spans several decades and now allows for synthesis of findings from different contexts, time periods, and research designs. This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the rigorous evidence measuring Head Start’s effects on children, their families, and society. The focus is on how (1) the contrast between program and counterfactual conditions, (2) takeup of the program among …


Military Service During The Vietnam War Hurt Veterans’ Long-Term Health, Xintong Wang, Carlos A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes Feb 2026

Military Service During The Vietnam War Hurt Veterans’ Long-Term Health, Xintong Wang, Carlos A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.


Do Older Americans Work More When Their Housing Wealth Declines?, Brian J. Asquith Feb 2026

Do Older Americans Work More When Their Housing Wealth Declines?, Brian J. Asquith

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.


Economic Outlook Of Battle Creek: Challenges And Opportunities, Iryna V. Lendel, Chloe Wieber, Sevrin Williams, Gerrit Anderson Jan 2026

Economic Outlook Of Battle Creek: Challenges And Opportunities, Iryna V. Lendel, Chloe Wieber, Sevrin Williams, Gerrit Anderson

Upjohn Institute Technical Reports

This report by the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research examines labor market dynamics in Battle Creek, finding that roughly 75 percent of jobs in the city are held by workers who live outside the city limits, with significant skill mismatches between city residents and local employer needs. This mismatch helps explain persistently low wages, elevated poverty rates, and high reliance on public assistance among city residents despite a strong manufacturing base and growing logistics, food processing, and machining sectors. Limited housing supply, inadequate public transportation, and childcare shortages further restrict residents’ access to employment. The report underscores the urgency …


Military Service During The Vietnam War Hurt Veterans’ Long-Term Health, Xintong Wang, Carlos A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes Jan 2026

Military Service During The Vietnam War Hurt Veterans’ Long-Term Health, Xintong Wang, Carlos A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.


How Fair Workweek Laws Affect Labor Markets: A New York City Case Study, Joseph Pickens, Aaron Sojourner Oct 2025

How Fair Workweek Laws Affect Labor Markets: A New York City Case Study, Joseph Pickens, Aaron Sojourner

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.


Women’S Mba Peers Affect Their Course Choices, Career Paths, And The Gender Pay Gap, Mallika Thomas Oct 2025

Women’S Mba Peers Affect Their Course Choices, Career Paths, And The Gender Pay Gap, Mallika Thomas

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.


Understanding Michigan’S Reconnect Program Applicants, Alexander W. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein, Brian Jacob, Kevin M. Stange, Bryan A. Stuart, Zhonghan Xie Oct 2025

Understanding Michigan’S Reconnect Program Applicants, Alexander W. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein, Brian Jacob, Kevin M. Stange, Bryan A. Stuart, Zhonghan Xie

Reports

No abstract provided.


Berrien County Talent Ecosystem, Lee Adams, Val Klomparens Oct 2025

Berrien County Talent Ecosystem, Lee Adams, Val Klomparens

Reports

No abstract provided.


Migration And U.S. Labor Market Effects Of The Mexican Drug War, Mark Borgschulte, Yuci Chen, Eduardo Medina-Cortina Oct 2025

Migration And U.S. Labor Market Effects Of The Mexican Drug War, Mark Borgschulte, Yuci Chen, Eduardo Medina-Cortina

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We estimate the effect of the Mexican drug war on Mexico-to-U.S. migration and the resulting effects on population, employment, and wages in U.S. labor markets. Our empirical strategy compares U.S. counties differentially connected to Mexican municipalities through historical migration networks, using drug violence triggered by close municipal elections in 2007–2008 as a source of exogenous variation. Over the following decade, migrants fleeing the violence—the vast majority of whom are undocumented—cause native-born U.S. workers’ employment rates to increase and unemployment rates to fall, while wages do not change. Employment gains are largest for natives without a college degree. Employment effects fade …


Nyc’S “Just Cause” Law Aims To Make It Harder To Fire Fast Food Workers. Does It?, Joseph Pickens, Aaron Sojourner Oct 2025

Nyc’S “Just Cause” Law Aims To Make It Harder To Fire Fast Food Workers. Does It?, Joseph Pickens, Aaron Sojourner

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.


Just Cause Protection Under Manager Discrimination, Joseph Pickens, Aaron Sojourner Oct 2025

Just Cause Protection Under Manager Discrimination, Joseph Pickens, Aaron Sojourner

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

“Just cause” policies aim to discourage the arbitrary firing of employees. Recent efforts at passing such laws in the U.S. have been motivated by deterring discrimination. This paper presents a framework to study the effects of just cause when managers engage in taste-based discrimination. The framework generates predictions on whether just cause will ease achievement and retention of stable employment by exploiting the timing of separations around a probationary period. Since probationary periods are a typical feature of protections, the approach is generalizable. We test predictions using New York City’s 2021 just cause law for fast-food employees. Using a synthetic …


How Fair Workweek Laws Affect Labor Markets: A New York City Case Study, Joseph Pickens, Aaron Sojourner Oct 2025

How Fair Workweek Laws Affect Labor Markets: A New York City Case Study, Joseph Pickens, Aaron Sojourner

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.


Ten Lessons In Public–Private Partnerships To Create Good Jobs, Kathleen Bolter, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein, Michelle Miller-Adams, Alfonso Hernandez, Kyle Huisman, Bridget Timmeney Oct 2025

Ten Lessons In Public–Private Partnerships To Create Good Jobs, Kathleen Bolter, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein, Michelle Miller-Adams, Alfonso Hernandez, Kyle Huisman, Bridget Timmeney

Reports

No abstract provided.


Do Older Americans Work More When Their Housing Wealth Declines?, Brian J. Asquith Oct 2025

Do Older Americans Work More When Their Housing Wealth Declines?, Brian J. Asquith

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.


Ai Exposure And The Future Of Work: Linking Task-Based Measures To U.S. Occupational Employment Projections, Erik Vasilauskas, Michael Horrigan Sep 2025

Ai Exposure And The Future Of Work: Linking Task-Based Measures To U.S. Occupational Employment Projections, Erik Vasilauskas, Michael Horrigan

Reports

No abstract provided.


Women’S Mba Peers Affect Their Course Choices, Career Paths, And The Gender Pay Gap, Mallika Thomas Sep 2025

Women’S Mba Peers Affect Their Course Choices, Career Paths, And The Gender Pay Gap, Mallika Thomas

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.


Exploring The Landscape Of Teacher Applications, Dan Goldhaber, Cyrus Grout, Constance A. Lindsay, Elton Mykerezi, Aaron Sojourner, Lauren Dachille Sep 2025

Exploring The Landscape Of Teacher Applications, Dan Goldhaber, Cyrus Grout, Constance A. Lindsay, Elton Mykerezi, Aaron Sojourner, Lauren Dachille

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Despite widespread concern about teacher shortages, there is little evidence on when teaching positions are posted and how many people apply for them. Using detailed job-posting and application data on nearly 57,000 applicants from 19 traditional school districts and 24 charter organizations, we provide descriptive evidence on the timing of job postings, the supply of applicants, and the characteristics of applicants, emphasizing how each varies across organizations and between the district and charter sectors. We find that late hiring is less prevalent than prior single-district studies suggest—about 11% of openings are posted late—but varies widely across organizations. Applicant supply differs …


Abundance Strategies Should Promote Abundant Jobs In Distressed Places, Timothy J. Bartik Sep 2025

Abundance Strategies Should Promote Abundant Jobs In Distressed Places, Timothy J. Bartik

Upjohn Institute Policy Papers

A prominent recent policy debate is about “abundance policies”: policies to make it easier to build housing or infrastructure, deliver government services more quickly and more efficiently, and expedite the public funding of the most innovative and socially impactful research. In this essay, I argue that abundance advocates often mistakenly ignore or have a negative attitude toward “place-based policies.” These place-based policies would seek to increase employment rates, particularly in good jobs, in two types of distressed places that lack abundant job opportunities: distressed local labor markets and distressed neighborhoods. Both the goals and means of place-based policies fit into …


More Schooling Can Delay The Onset Of Dementia Later In Life, Vikesh Amin, Jere R. Behrman, Jason M. Fletcher, Carlos A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, Iliana Kohler, Hans-Peter Kohler, Shana D. Stites Jul 2025

More Schooling Can Delay The Onset Of Dementia Later In Life, Vikesh Amin, Jere R. Behrman, Jason M. Fletcher, Carlos A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, Iliana Kohler, Hans-Peter Kohler, Shana D. Stites

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.


How The H-2b Visa Lottery Helped Businesses During Covid, Parag Mahajan Jul 2025

How The H-2b Visa Lottery Helped Businesses During Covid, Parag Mahajan

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.


Short-Run Fiscal Effects Of Expanding Michigan's Preschool Program To Be Universal, Timothy J. Bartik Jul 2025

Short-Run Fiscal Effects Of Expanding Michigan's Preschool Program To Be Universal, Timothy J. Bartik

Upjohn Institute Policy Papers

This policy paper provides some updated estimates of the short-run fiscal effects of expanding Michigan’s state-funded preschool program, the Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP), to encompass universal access for Michigan’s four-year-olds. This is an update to Policy Paper No. 2025-034, which analyzed the economic and fiscal effects of Michigan’s current GSRP program as compared to the state having no program. The update takes advantage of a high-quality recent study of the economic effects of universal preschool programs in nine states, authored by Jackson, Turner, and Bastian (2025). Using the estimated economic effects of universal preschool from this recent study, …


Effects Of Fair Workweek Laws On Labor Market Outcomes, Joseph Pickens, Aaron Sojourner Jul 2025

Effects Of Fair Workweek Laws On Labor Market Outcomes, Joseph Pickens, Aaron Sojourner

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper models fair workweek regulations that require employers to provide employees with (1) schedule predictability via advance notice of their work schedule and premium payments for short-notice changes, and (2) access to hours meaning they must offer open hours to existing employees before hiring new workers. We develop a theoretical model of employers’ responses to these provisions and their implications for employment. Guided by the model, we estimate the effects of recently-adopted fair workweek regulation in New York City’s fast-food sector using a synthetic difference-in-differences design. We find a null employment effect.


The Labor Supply Curve Is Upward Sloping: The Effects Of Immigrant-Induced Demand Shocks, Sigurd Galaasen, Andreas Kostøl, Joan Monras, Jonathan Vogel Jun 2025

The Labor Supply Curve Is Upward Sloping: The Effects Of Immigrant-Induced Demand Shocks, Sigurd Galaasen, Andreas Kostøl, Joan Monras, Jonathan Vogel

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

What is the effect of immigration on native labor-market outcomes? An extensive literature identifies the differential impact of immigration on natives employed in jobs that are more exposed to immigrant labor (supply exposure). But immigrants consume in addition to producing output. Despite this, no literature identifies the impact on natives employed in jobs that are more exposed to immigrant consumption (demand exposure). We study native labor market effects of supply and demand exposures to immigration. Theoretically, we formalize both measures of exposure and solve for their effects on native wages. Empirically, we combine employer-employee data with a newly collected data …


More Schooling Can Delay The Onset Of Dementia Later In Life, Vikesh Amin, Jere R. Behrman, Jason M. Fletcher, Carlos A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, Iliana Kohler, Hans-Peter Kohler, Shana D. Stites Jun 2025

More Schooling Can Delay The Onset Of Dementia Later In Life, Vikesh Amin, Jere R. Behrman, Jason M. Fletcher, Carlos A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, Iliana Kohler, Hans-Peter Kohler, Shana D. Stites

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.


Does Schooling Improve Cognitive Abilities At Older Ages? Causal Evidence From Nonparametric Bounds, Vikesh Amin, Jere R. Behrman, Jason M. Fletcher, Carlos A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, Hans-Peter Kohler Jun 2025

Does Schooling Improve Cognitive Abilities At Older Ages? Causal Evidence From Nonparametric Bounds, Vikesh Amin, Jere R. Behrman, Jason M. Fletcher, Carlos A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, Hans-Peter Kohler

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We revisit much-investigated relationships between schooling and health, focusing on schooling impacts on cognitive abilities at older ages using the Harmonized Cognition Assessment Protocol in the Health & Retirement Study (HRS) and a bounding approach that requires relatively weak assumptions. Our estimated upper bounds on the population average effects indicate potentially large causal effects of increasing schooling from primary to secondary; yet, these upper bounds are smaller than many estimates from the literature on causal schooling impacts on cognition using compulsory-schooling laws. We also cannot rule out small and null effects at this margin. We do, however, find evidence for …


Causal Effects Of Schooling On Memory At Older Ages In Six Low-And-Middle-Income Countries: Nonparametric Evidence With Harmonized Datasets, Vikesh Amin, Jere R. Behrman, Jason M. Fletcher, Carlos A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, Iliana Kohler, Hans-Peter Kohler, Shana D. Stites Jun 2025

Causal Effects Of Schooling On Memory At Older Ages In Six Low-And-Middle-Income Countries: Nonparametric Evidence With Harmonized Datasets, Vikesh Amin, Jere R. Behrman, Jason M. Fletcher, Carlos A. Flores, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, Iliana Kohler, Hans-Peter Kohler, Shana D. Stites

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Higher schooling attainment is associated with better cognitive function at older ages, but it remains unclear whether the relationship is causal. We estimate causal effects of schooling on performances on the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease (CERAD) word-recall (memory) test at older ages in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa. We used harmonized data (n=30,896) on older adults (≥50 years) from the World Health Organization Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health. We applied an established nonparametric partialidentification approach that bounds causal effects of increasing schooling attainment at different parts of the schooling distributions under …