Knowledge that Transforms

Using full count US census data, we study the impact of early twentieth-century state-industry-specific minimum wage laws that primarily targeted female employees. Our triple-difference estimates suggest a null impact of the minimum wage laws, potentially reflecting disemployment effects and the positive selection bias of the workers remaining in the labor force. When comparing county-industry trends between counties straddling state borders, female employment is lower by around 3.1% in affected county-industry cells. We further investigate the implications for own-wage elasticity of labor demand as a function of cross-industry concentration, the channels of substitution between men and women, and heterogeneity by marital status.

Using Danish registry data linked to the Labor Force Survey, we provide the first rigorous evidence with external validity on the hours-career nexus (positive association between hours and career success). Guided by three theories (human capital; rat race; tournament), we unpack the hours-career nexus through examining: the differential effect of hours in the present firm and elsewhere; hours relative to peers’ hours; standard vs. evening/night/weekend hours; and the importance of sustaining long hours. Supplemented by the time use survey, we show the gender gap in hours and career success is due mostly to gendered division of labor in household production.

We present evidence that is consistent with large disparities across firms in their on-the-job learning opportunities using administrative datasets from Brazil and Italy. We categorize firms into discrete “classes”—which our conceptual framework interprets as skill-learning classes—using a clustering methodology that groups together firms with similar distributions of unexplained wage growth. Mincerian returns to experience vary widely across experiences acquired in different firm classes. Four tests leveraging firm movers, occupation/industry switchers, hiring wages, and displaced workers point toward a portable and general human capital interpretation. Heterogeneous employment experiences explain an important share of wage variance by age 35.

We study the consequences of job markets' heavy reliance on referrals. Referrals lead to more opportunities for workers to be hired, which lead to better matches and increased productivity but also disadvantage job seekers with few or no connections to employed workers, increasing inequality. Coupled with homophily, referrals also lead to immobility. We identify conditions under which distributing referrals more evenly reduces inequality and improves future productivity and mobility. We use the model to examine the short- and long-run welfare impacts of policies such as affirmative action and algorithmic fairness.

This paper examines the multigenerational impact of children and whether the public provision of formal childcare lessens the earnings and employment impacts of children. We find that the arrival of a firstborn reduces employment and earnings of mothers and employment of grandmothers. Studying a universal childcare program in Quebec, we find that formal childcare increases the employment rates of mothers as well as that of grandmothers to a lesser extent. Examining heterogeneity of the program’s impact across census divisions, we find a negative correlation between the positive effects on mothers’ employment and the prepolicy supply of informal childcare by grandmothers.

Ethan Ilzetzki of London School of Economics reviews “King Dollar: The Past and Future of the World’s Dominant Currency” by Paul Blustein. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Explores the US dollar's rise to global prominence, assessing the resilience of the dollar's dominance and its implications for US power and responsibility.”

Michael D. Bordo of Rutgers University reviews “Shock Values: Prices and Inflation in American Democracy” by Carola Binder. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Explores how price fluctuations and attempts to manage them have shaped American democracy, analyzing examples of the disparate impacts of price fluctuations and their political consequences.”

Adam Looney of David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah, and the Brookings Institution reviews “Bankers in the Ivory Tower: The Troubling Rise of Financiers in US Higher Education” by Charlie Eaton. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Explores the relationship between rising student loan debt and the growth of concentrated endowment wealth, explaining how the resurgent power of financiers is tied to increasing inequality in higher education and America as a whole.”