Search Results
Working Paper
From Skills to Occupations: Comparative Advantage and Cross-Country Income Differences
We revisit the role of human capital in cross-country income differences. We develop a general equilibrium model where workers of different skill groups sort into occupations by comparative advantage. Wages and employment depend on workers' skill quality, occupation-specific country-embedded productivity, and occupational distortions. Using harmonized microdata for 50 countries, we infer these components from the model's equilibrium conditions. Workers in rich countries exhibit higher skill quality and substantially greater productivity, especially in white-collar occupations. Human capital ...
Working Paper
The Anatomy of Polarization: Evidence from Worker Flows
Using longitudinal French administrative data (1984–2021), we document that employment polarization after 1994 reflects major changes in labor-market entry rather than mass occupational downgrading or displacement of incumbents. Flows from routine to abstract occupations remain substantial throughout the period, and a large fraction of these upgrades is due to noncollege workers. The decisive shift that generates polarization occurs at the entry margin: the net flow from nonemployment into routine occupations reverses around 1994, while the net flow from nonemployment into manual work ...
Journal Article
The Unemployment and Participation Rates for Aggregate Human Capital
To assess the loss in aggregate production, unemployment and labor force participation must account for the human capital of workers.
Journal Article
Age and Gender Differences in Long-Term Unemployment: Before and After the Great Recession
Long-term unemployment increased disproportionately for older women after the Great Recession.
Journal Article
Major U.S. trading partners before and after the great recession
One of the most interesting features of the Great Recession is that?contrary to other global recessions?it was mostly a rich-country phenomenon.
Journal Article
What’s behind—and beyond—the default rate on student loans?
Deferment or forbearance may be masking the true student loan default rates in recent years.
Journal Article
Currency returns during the financial crisis and great recession
The volume and volatility of international capital flows have motivated recent interest in the optimal use of capital controls and the communication and coordination among central banks.
Journal Article
Recent trends in student loans: more loans and higher balances
Student loan borrowing accelerated during the Great Recession and now outranks any non-mortgage debt, including auto loans and credit card debt.
Journal Article
The United States as a Global Financial Intermediary and Insurer
In times of global crisis, the rest of the world gains from investing in U.S. assets.
Journal Article
Workers Abroad Are Catching Up to U.S. Skill Levels
Although U.S. workers still command a considerable lead with respect to most countries in the world, it is remarkable how strongly other countries have been able to catch up over the past 60 years. From essentially being the sole provider of high-skill workers for both the U.S. and the world economies, U.S. workers must compete, domestically and internationally, in knowledge and skills with workers from many other countries. No matter how tough the challenges brought on by more competition become, American workers?of all education levels?can obtain productive opportunities from knowledge ...