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141 Results

What Work Does Generative AI Do?
Academic

What Work Does Generative AI Do? (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers SEP 8, 2026

We measure how workers use genAI for their jobs in a nationally representative survey linking genAI adoption to detailed occupations and tasks. Our data provide the first task-level genAI adoption…

By: Alexander Bick (opens in a new tab), Adam Blandin (opens in a new tab), David Deming (opens in a new tab), Tyler Schumacher (opens in a new tab)

AI, Tech & Energy Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Barriers to Benefits: Unemployment Insurance Take-Up and Labor Market Effects
Academic

Barriers to Benefits: Unemployment Insurance Take-Up and Labor Market Effects (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers MAY 19, 2026

Unemployment insurance (UI) take-up is relatively low in the United States. We implement a large-scale field experiment among 50,000 likely unemployed individuals to study the causes and labor supply implications…

By: Casey McQuillan (opens in a new tab), Brendan Moore (opens in a new tab)

Economic Equity & Opportunity Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Extracting O*NET Features from the NLx Corpus to Build Public Use Aggregate Labor Market Data
Academic

Extracting O*NET Features from the NLx Corpus to Build Public Use Aggregate Labor Market Data (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers OCT 1, 2025

Data from online job postings are difficult to access and are not built in a standard or transparent manner. Data included in the standard taxonomy and occupational information database (O*NET)…

By: Stephen Meisenbacher (opens in a new tab), Svetlozar Nestorov (opens in a new tab), Peter Norlander (opens in a new tab)

Economic Equity & Opportunity Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Fitting the Bill? The First Federal Paid Leave Mandate
Academic

Fitting the Bill? The First Federal Paid Leave Mandate (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers SEP 23, 2025

We find that the first federal paid leave mandate in the US, enacted under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, increased paid leave taking by nearly 200% for eligible workers,…

By: Tanya Byker (opens in a new tab), Elena Patel (opens in a new tab), Kristin Smith (opens in a new tab)

Economic Equity & Opportunity Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
How are Municipal-Level Fair Workweek Laws Playing Out on the Ground? Experiences of Food Service and Retail Workers in Three Cities
Academic

How are Municipal-Level Fair Workweek Laws Playing Out on the Ground? Experiences of Food Service and Retail Workers in Three Cities (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers JUL 24, 2025

An updated version of this paper was posted on December 09, 2025. The first municipal-level law regulating employers’ scheduling practices was enacted in SanFrancisco in 2015. A decade later, ten…

By: Susan J. Lambert, Julia R. Henly, Hyojin Cho (opens in a new tab), Resha Swanson-Varner (opens in a new tab), Yuxi He (opens in a new tab)

Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Bonus Question: How Does Flexible Incentive Pay Affect Wage Rigidity?
Academic

Bonus Question: How Does Flexible Incentive Pay Affect Wage Rigidity? (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers JUL 17, 2024

We introduce dynamic incentive contracts into a model of inflation and unemployment dynamics. Our main result is that wage cyclicality from incentives neither affects the slope of the Phillips curve…

By: Meghana Gaur (opens in a new tab), John Grigsby (opens in a new tab), Jonathon Hazell (opens in a new tab), Abdoulaye Ndiaye (opens in a new tab)

Labor, Wages & Worker Power Taxation
The Effect of Means-Tested Transfers on Work: Evidence from Quasi-Randomly Assigned SNAP Caseworkers
Academic

The Effect of Means-Tested Transfers on Work: Evidence from Quasi-Randomly Assigned SNAP Caseworkers (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers NOV 13, 2023

We provide a comprehensive evaluation of the dynamic labor supply effects of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for a representative population using novel administrative data and an examiner design.…

By: Jason Cook (opens in a new tab), Chloe N. East

Economic Equity & Opportunity Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
How to Fund Unemployment Insurance with Informality and False Claims: Evidence from Senegal
Academic

How to Fund Unemployment Insurance with Informality and False Claims: Evidence from Senegal (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers OCT 5, 2023

This paper studies the welfare effects of unemployment insurance (UI) in low-income countries characterized by high levels of informality, weak enforcement of UI claims, and job search frictions. We assess…

By: Abdoulaye Ndiaye (opens in a new tab), Kyle Herkenhoff (opens in a new tab), Abdoulaye Cissé (opens in a new tab), Alessandro Dell’Acqua (opens in a new tab), Ahmadou A. Mbaye

Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Racial Inequality in the U.S. Unemployment Insurance System
Academic

Racial Inequality in the U.S. Unemployment Insurance System (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers JUL 19, 2023

The decentralized US unemployment insurance (UI) system lets states decide on key rules. Decentralization could help states efficiently adapt to local economic conditions, but it could also generate racial inequality.…

By: Daphné Skandalis (opens in a new tab), Ioana Marinescu (opens in a new tab), Maxim Massenkoff (opens in a new tab)

Economic Equity & Opportunity Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Power and Dignity in the Low-Wage Labor Market: Theory and Evidence from Wal-Mart Workers
Academic

Power and Dignity in the Low-Wage Labor Market: Theory and Evidence from Wal-Mart Workers (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers DEC 14, 2022

We measure workers’ preferences for wages and non-wage amenities at America’s largest employer, Walmart, using targeted survey experiments. We find that workers have an economically significant willingness to pay for…

By: Arindrajit Dube (opens in a new tab), Suresh Naidu (opens in a new tab), Adam D. Reich

Competition & Economic Dynamism Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Global Trends in Income Inequality and Income Dynamics: New Insights from GRID
Academic

Global Trends in Income Inequality and Income Dynamics: New Insights from GRID (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers NOV 7, 2022

The Global Repository of Income Dynamics (GRID) is a new open-access, crosscountry database that contains a wide range of micro statistics on income inequality, dynamics, and mobility. It has four…

By: Fatih Guvenen (opens in a new tab), Luigi Pistaferri (opens in a new tab), Giovanni L. Violante

Economic Equity & Opportunity Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Families First Coronavirus Response Act: Effect on Paid Leave Taking During the Early Pandemic
Academic

Families First Coronavirus Response Act: Effect on Paid Leave Taking During the Early Pandemic (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers NOV 3, 2022

We study the effect of access to Emergency Paid Sick and Family Leave on leave-taking behavior during the early months of the pandemic. We compare monthly paid absence from January…

By: Tanya Byker (opens in a new tab), Elena Patel (opens in a new tab), Kristin Smith (opens in a new tab)

Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Understanding Disparities in Unemployment Insurance Recipiency
Academic

Understanding Disparities in Unemployment Insurance Recipiency (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers JUL 13, 2022

Using data from before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, we show that the expansion of benefits under the CARES Act only modestly increased self-reported UI recipiency among UI eligible workers,…

By: Eliza Forsythe (opens in a new tab), Hesong Yang (opens in a new tab)

Economic Equity & Opportunity Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Black Lives: The High Cost of Segregation
Academic

Black Lives: The High Cost of Segregation (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers MAY 9, 2022

Exploiting the arrangement of railroad tracks in northern cities, we explore the extent to which segregation impacts homicide victimization by race. Our results reveal a robust positive relationship between segregation…

By: Robynn Cox (opens in a new tab), Jamein Cunningham (opens in a new tab), Alberto Ortega (opens in a new tab), Kenneth D. Whaley (opens in a new tab)

Economic Equity & Opportunity Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Compensation for Unstable and Unpredictable Work Schedules: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 Cohort
Academic

Compensation for Unstable and Unpredictable Work Schedules: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 Cohort (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers APR 15, 2022

Prior research shows unpredictable and unstable work schedules are associated with negative health, family, and economic outcomes. But little research has examined what, if anything, workers gain from such schedule…

By: Peter J. Fugiel (opens in a new tab)

Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Why is Workplace Sexual Harassment Underreported? The Value of Outside Options Amid the Threat of Retaliation
Academic

Why is Workplace Sexual Harassment Underreported? The Value of Outside Options Amid the Threat of Retaliation (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers FEB 10, 2022

Why is workplace sexual harassment chronically underreported? We hypothesize that employers coerce victims into silence through the threat of a retaliatory firing. To test this, we estimate how two external…

By: Gordon B. Dahl (opens in a new tab), Matthew Knepper (opens in a new tab)

Economic Equity & Opportunity Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Money Matters: Consumption Volatility Across the Income Distribution
Academic

Money Matters: Consumption Volatility Across the Income Distribution (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers FEB 3, 2022

Using the Consumer Expenditure Survey, we document the level and volatility of quarterly consumption across the socioeconomic distribution. While the measurement of well-being is focused on income, the secular and…

By: Jonathan Fisher (opens in a new tab), Bradley L. Hardy

Economic Equity & Opportunity Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Support for Paid Family Leave among Small Employers Increases during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Academic

Support for Paid Family Leave among Small Employers Increases during the COVID-19 Pandemic (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers JAN 14, 2022

The United States is one of the few countries that does not guarantee paid family leave (PFL) to workers. Proposals for PFL legislation are often met with opposition from employer…

By: Ann P. Bartel, Maya Rossin-Slater (opens in a new tab), Christopher J. Ruhm, Meredith Slopen (opens in a new tab), Jane Waldfogel (opens in a new tab)

Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Beyond Health: Non-Health Risk and the Value of Disability Insurance
Academic

Beyond Health: Non-Health Risk and the Value of Disability Insurance (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers NOV 22, 2021

The public debate over disability insurance has centered on concerns about individuals without severe health conditions receiving benefits. We go beyond health risk alone to quantify the overall insurance value…

By: Manasi Deshpande (opens in a new tab), Lee M. Lockwood (opens in a new tab)

Economic Equity & Opportunity Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Wage Posting or Wage Bargaining? A Test Using Dual Jobholders
Academic

Wage Posting or Wage Bargaining? A Test Using Dual Jobholders (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers NOV 16, 2021

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…

By: Marta Lachowska (opens in a new tab), Alexandre Mas (opens in a new tab), Raffaele Saggio (opens in a new tab), Stephen Woodbury (opens in a new tab)

Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Diverse Policy Committees Can Reach Underrepresented Groups
Academic

Diverse Policy Committees Can Reach Underrepresented Groups (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers SEP 16, 2021

In a randomized control trial that varies the salience of female and minority representation on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy committee, the FOMC, we test whether diversity affects how Fed…

By: Francesco D’Acunto (opens in a new tab), Andreas Fuster (opens in a new tab), Michael Weber (opens in a new tab)

Economic Equity & Opportunity Labor, Wages & Worker Power Macroeconomics & Economic Measurement Taxation
How Exceptional is American Job Quality? Decent- and Poverty-Pay Rates by Age, Gender, and Education in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and France*
Academic

How Exceptional is American Job Quality? Decent- and Poverty-Pay Rates by Age, Gender, and Education in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and France* (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers SEP 3, 2021

Social protection for working-age American adults is almost entirely conditional on employment, which makes earnings a particularly important dimension of job quality for workers. This paper employs new indicators (Howell,…

By: David R. Howell

Economic Equity & Opportunity Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Temperature, workplace safety, and labor market inequality
Academic

Temperature, workplace safety, and labor market inequality (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers JUL 19, 2021

Using data covering the universe of injury claims from the nation’s largest worker’s compensation system (2001-2018), we explore the relationship between temperature and workplace safety and its implications for labor…

By: R. Jisung Park (opens in a new tab), Nora Pankratz (opens in a new tab), A. Patrick Behrer (opens in a new tab)

AI, Tech & Energy Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Tax Refund Uncertainty: Evidence and Welfare Implications
Academic

Tax Refund Uncertainty: Evidence and Welfare Implications (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers APR 8, 2021

Transfers paid through annual tax refunds are a large but uncertain source of income for poor households. We document that low-income tax-filers have substantial subjective uncertainty about these refunds. We…

By: Sydnee Caldwell (opens in a new tab), Scott Nelson (opens in a new tab), Daniel Waldinger (opens in a new tab)

Economic Equity & Opportunity Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power Macroeconomics & Economic Measurement Taxation
Caregiving in a Pandemic: COVID-19 and the Well-being of Family Caregivers 55+ in the U.S.
Academic

Caregiving in a Pandemic: COVID-19 and the Well-being of Family Caregivers 55+ in the U.S. (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers APR 7, 2021

Little is known about the effects of COVID-19 on family caregivers in the US. Using data from a national sample of 2,485 US adults aged ≥55, we aimed to describe…

By: Yulya Truskinovsky (opens in a new tab), Jessica Finlay (opens in a new tab), Lindsay Kobayashi (opens in a new tab)

Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis on Family Dynamics in Economically Vulnerable Households
Academic

Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis on Family Dynamics in Economically Vulnerable Households (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers DEC 14, 2020

The COVID-19 crisis and its reverberations resulted in levels of economic distress unprecedented since the 1930s. But COVID was a seismic social shock even for families that lost no income,…

By: Ariel Kalil (opens in a new tab), Susan Mayer (opens in a new tab), Rohen Shah (opens in a new tab)

Economic Equity & Opportunity Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
The Effect of Political Power on Labor Market Inequality: Evidence from the 1965 Voting Rights Act
Academic

The Effect of Political Power on Labor Market Inequality: Evidence from the 1965 Voting Rights Act (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers OCT 16, 2020

A central concern for racial and ethnic minorities is having an equal opportunity to advance group interests via the political process. There remains limited empirical evidence, however, whether democratic policies…

By: Abhay Aneja (opens in a new tab), Carlos Fernando Avenancio-León (opens in a new tab)

Economic Equity & Opportunity Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Do Unemployment Insurance Benefits Improve Match Quality? Evidence from Recent U.S. Recessions
Academic

Do Unemployment Insurance Benefits Improve Match Quality? Evidence from Recent U.S. Recessions (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers SEP 29, 2020

Unemployment insurance benefit extensions lengthened the duration of unemployment spells during the Great Recession and previous recessions. In this paper, we present new evidence for the U.S. on the impact…

By: Ammar Farooq (opens in a new tab), Adriana Kugler (opens in a new tab), Umberto Muratori (opens in a new tab)

Labor, Wages & Worker Power
The Impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. Child Care Market: Evidence from Stay-at-Home Orders
Academic

The Impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. Child Care Market: Evidence from Stay-at-Home Orders (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers JUL 16, 2020

Stay-at-home orders (SAHOs) have been implemented in most U.S. states to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. This paper quantifies the short-run impact of these containment policies on search behavior and…

By: Umair Ali (opens in a new tab), Chris M. Herbst (opens in a new tab), Christos A. Makridis

Economic Equity & Opportunity Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
An SEIR Infectious Disease Model with Testing and Conditional Quarantine
Academic

An SEIR Infectious Disease Model with Testing and Conditional Quarantine (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers APR 7, 2020

We extend the baseline Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Recovered (SEIR) infectious disease epidemiology model to understand the role of testing and case-dependent quarantine. Our model nests the SEIR model. During a period of asymptomatic…

By: David Berger (opens in a new tab), Kyle Herkenhoff (opens in a new tab), Simon Mongey (opens in a new tab)

Economic Equity & Opportunity Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Unequally Insecure: Rising Black/White Disparities in Job Displacement, 1981-2017
Academic

Unequally Insecure: Rising Black/White Disparities in Job Displacement, 1981-2017 (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers FEB 13, 2020

Social scientists have documented vast racial disparities in labor market outcomes such as hiring and firing decisions, compensation, and opportunities for occupational advancement. Yet little is known about the racial…

By: Elizabeth Wrigley-Field (opens in a new tab), Nathan Seltzer (opens in a new tab)

Economic Equity & Opportunity Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Targeted Debt Relief and the Origins of Financial Distress: Experimental Evidence from Distressed Credit Card Borrowers
Academic

Targeted Debt Relief and the Origins of Financial Distress: Experimental Evidence from Distressed Credit Card Borrowers (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers DEC 4, 2019

We study the drivers of financial distress using a large-scale field experiment that offered randomly selected borrowers a combination of (i) immediate payment reductions to target short-run liquidity constraints and…

By: Will Dobbie (opens in a new tab), Jae Song (opens in a new tab)

Economic Equity & Opportunity Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power Macroeconomics & Economic Measurement
The Long-Term Effects of California’s 2004 Paid Family Leave Act on Women’s Careers: Evidence from U.S. Tax Data
Academic

The Long-Term Effects of California’s 2004 Paid Family Leave Act on Women’s Careers: Evidence from U.S. Tax Data (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers NOV 6, 2019

This paper uses IRS tax data to evaluate the short- and long-term effects of California’s 2004 Paid Family Leave Act (PFLA) on women’s careers. Our research design exploits the increased…

By: Martha Bailey (opens in a new tab), Tanya Byker (opens in a new tab), Elena Patel (opens in a new tab), Shanthi Ramnath (opens in a new tab)

Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Do Teacher Strikes Make Parents Pro- or Anti-Labor? The Effects of Labor Unrest on Mass Attitudes
Academic

Do Teacher Strikes Make Parents Pro- or Anti-Labor? The Effects of Labor Unrest on Mass Attitudes (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers OCT 29, 2019

Strikes are a central tool of organized labor, yet existing research has focused on the economic consequences of strikes, rather than their political effects. We examine how labor actions by…

By: Alexander Hertel-Fernandez (opens in a new tab), Suresh Naidu (opens in a new tab), Adam Reich (opens in a new tab)

Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Who Cares if Parents have Unpredictable Work Schedules?: The Association between Just-in-Time Work Schedules and Child Care Arrangements
Academic

Who Cares if Parents have Unpredictable Work Schedules?: The Association between Just-in-Time Work Schedules and Child Care Arrangements (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers OCT 16, 2019

Working parents must arrange some type of care for their young children when they are away at work. For parents with unstable and unpredictable work schedules, the logistics of arranging…

By: Kristen Harknett (opens in a new tab), Daniel Schneider (opens in a new tab), Sigrid Luhr (opens in a new tab)

Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Hard Times: Routine Schedule Unpredictability and Material Hardship among Service Sector Workers
Academic

Hard Times: Routine Schedule Unpredictability and Material Hardship among Service Sector Workers (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers OCT 16, 2019

American policy-makers have long focused on work as a key means to reduce poverty. And yet work has become increasingly precarious and polarized. This precarity is manifest in low wages,…

By: Daniel Schneider (opens in a new tab), Kristen Harknett (opens in a new tab)

Economic Equity & Opportunity Labor, Wages & Worker Power
What Explains Race/Ethnic Inequality in Job Quality in the Service Sector?
Academic

What Explains Race/Ethnic Inequality in Job Quality in the Service Sector? (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers OCT 16, 2019

White workers experience significant advantages in the labor market both in hiring and in compensation compared to their non-white peers. Human capital differences and occupational segregation are commonly offered as…

By: Adam Storer (opens in a new tab), Daniel Schneider (opens in a new tab), Kristen Harknett (opens in a new tab)

Economic Equity & Opportunity Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Parental Exposure to Routine Work Schedule Uncertainty and Child Behavior
Academic

Parental Exposure to Routine Work Schedule Uncertainty and Child Behavior (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers OCT 16, 2019

Parents working in the service sector often face unpredictable work schedules and children exposed to such parental schedules could suffer negative consequences. This paper takes advantage of novel survey data…

By: Daniel Schneider (opens in a new tab), Kristen Harknett (opens in a new tab)

Household Economic Security Labor, Wages & Worker Power
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