Search Results
Discussion Paper
Small-business access to trade credit: some evidence of ethnic differences
Based on findings from a survey of Black Households, this paper highlights socioeconomic and demographic factors that many influence the utilization of different financial markets. In addition, it discusses the potentially important role that informal financial networks can play in racial/ethnic communities. We propose that education programs, proactive community participation and partnerships between financial institutions and community organizations are important for greater access to credit and financial services among Black Households.
Journal Article
Unemployment and wage growth: recent cross-state evidence
This article shows that even in recent years there is a relatively robust, negative cross-state correlation between appropriate measures of unemployment and wage growth.
Journal Article
The decline of job security in the 1990s: displacement, anxiety, and their effect on wage growth
This article shows that job displacement rates for high-seniority workers and a consistently constructed measure of workers' fears of job loss both rose during the 1990s. It then explores the relationship between these measures of job displacement and worker anxiety and wage growth.
Journal Article
The decline in teen labor force participation
The authors examine the recent decline in teen work activity, offering explanations for both the long secular decline since the late 1970s and the recent acceleration in this decline since 2000. They argue that much of this pattern is due to a significant increase in the rewards to formal education. They also explore the importance of changes to labor demand, crowding out by substitutable workers, the increased work activity of mothers, and increases in wealth.
Journal Article
Growth in worker quality
This article shows that increases in the educational attainment and labor market experience of the U.S. work force have led to an advance in labor productivity of more than 0.2 percentage points per year since the early 1960s. Estimates show, however, some declaration in the pace of labor quality improvements toward the end of the 1990s. Forecasts call for a continued decline over the remainder of the current decade.
Journal Article
Can sectoral reallocation explain the jobless recovery?
This article reconsiders the case for sectoral labor reallocation's role in the jobless recovery. The authors review and critique previous attempts to measure sectoral reallocation, with a particular emphasis on the recent contribution of Groshen and Potter (2003). Their conclusion, based on an extension of Rissman (1997), is that the need of reallocate employment across industries was lower during the most recent two recessions than in previous business cycles. Therefore, sectoral reallocation likely has not played an important role in the jobless recoveries.
Journal Article
What is behind the rise in long-term unemployment?
This article analyzes what is behind the recent unprecedented rise in long-term unemployment and explains what this rise might imply for the economy going forward. In particular, the authors attribute the sharp increase in unemployment duration in 2009 to especially weak labor demand and, to a lesser degree, extensions in unemployment insurance benefits.
Journal Article
The impact of technology on displacement and reemployment
This article explores whether job displacement is more prevalent in industries with higher technological innovation and whether older and less skilled employees are more prone to technology-induced job displacement. The authors also test whether the probability of reemployment is lower for older and less skilled workers in high-technology industries.
Journal Article
How will baby boomer retirements affect teacher labor markets?
The authors estimate teacher demand and supply through 2020 to gauge the impact of baby boomer retirements on the demand for new teachers. They find that the projected demand will accelerate through at least 2020, and a good portion of this increase will be due to retirements. Still, this demand, once it has been adjusted for the size of the potential work force, will not be considerably different from that of the past five decades.
Journal Article
Assessing the jobless recovery
This article reviews trends in employment growth during the recent recovery, including new evidence that much of the increase in self-employment since the beginning of the recession is likely a reflection of the weak labor market conditions of the last three years. The authors also offer thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of several explanations for the disappointing employment growth of the last few years.