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  • (back to top) Women's Education and Family Behavior: Trends in Marriage, Divorce and Fertility
    Joint with Adam Isen
    In John Shoven, ed.
    Demography and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, 2010.

    Abstract: This paper examines how marital and fertility patterns have changed along racial and educational lines for men and women. Historically women with more education have been the least likely to marry and have children, but this marriage gap has eroded as the returns to marriage have changed. Marriage and remarriage rates have risen for women with a college degree relative to women with fewer years of education. However, the patterns of, and reasons for, marriage have changed. College educated women marry later, have fewer children, are less likely to view marriage as “financial security”, are happier in their marriages and with their family life, and are not only the least likely to divorce, but have had the biggest decrease in divorce since the 1970s compared to women without a college degree. In contrast, there have been fewer changes in marital patterns by education for men.

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  • (back to top) Subjective Well-Being, Income, Economic Development and Growth
    Development Challenges in a Post-Crisis World, Forthcoming
    Joint with Daniel W. Sacks and Justin Wolfers

    Abstract: We explore the relationships between subjective well-being and income, as seen across individuals within a given country, between countries in a given year, and as a country grows through time. We show that richer individuals in a given country are more satisfied with their lives than are poorer individuals, and establish that this relationship is similar in most countries around the world. Turning to the relationship between countries, we show that average life satisfaction is higher in countries with greater GDP per capita. The magnitude of the satisfaction-income gradient is roughly the same whether we compare individuals or countries, suggesting that absolute income plays an important role in influencing well-being. Finally, studying changes in satisfaction over time, we find that as countries experience economic growth, their citizens‘ life satisfaction typically grows, and that those countries experiencing more rapid economic growth also tend to experience more rapid growth in life satisfaction. These results together suggest that measured subjective well-being grows hand in hand with material living standards.

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  • (back to top) Trust in Public Institutions over the Business Cycle
    American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, May 2011
    Joint with Justin Wolfers

    Abstract: We document that trust in public institutions—and particularly trust in banks, business and government—has declined over recent years. U.S. time series evidence suggests that this partly reflects the pro-cyclical nature of trust in institutions. Cross-country comparisons reveal a clear legacy of the Great Recession, and those countries whose unemployment grew the most suffered the biggest loss in confidence in institutions, particularly in trust in government and the financial sector. Finally, analysis of several repeated cross-sections of confidence within U.S. states yields similar qualitative patterns, but much smaller magnitudes in response to state-specific shocks.

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  • (back to top) The Impact of the Internet on Worker Flows

    Abstract: The Internet has increased the ease and availability of employment information, but a question remains as to how, and if, this increased information has changed employment outcomes. This research examines the impact of the Internet on worker flows and job matching. While previous research found a negative impact of the Internet on unemployment duration, this research demonstrates the importance of including flows between employment to employment in an analysis of the impact of Internet. Over 80 percent of online job seekers are employed at the time of their job seeking and Internet users, conditional on observables, are more likely to change jobs and are less likely to transition to unemployment. Furthermore, those who use the Internet have greater wage growth when changing jobs. I use several approaches to attempt to isolate an exogenous source of Internet use in order to isolate the causal relationship between the Internet, job change, and wage growth. The first is to examine state-level aggregate data. As states’ Internet penetration rates rose differentially through the 1990’s so did employer-to-employer worker flows with a 10 percentage point rise in state-level internet penetration leading to a 5% increase in employer-to-employer flows. While it can be difficult to disentangle whether changes in state labor markets reflect Internet usage or drive Internet adoption, I find a useful instrument that isolates the causal mechanism: the Internet has diffused in much the same way as past innovations, and hence average state ownership rates of household appliances in 1960 describe Internet adoption patterns over the past decade.
     
  • (back to top) The Internet and Job Search
    In David Autor, ed.
    Labor Market Intermediation University of Chicago Press, 2009.

    Abstract: This paper examines how the Internet has impacted job search behavior. Examining those who use the Internet for job seeking purposes, I show that the vast majority are currently employed. These employed job seekers are more likely to leave their current employer and are more likely to make an employment-to-employment transition. Examining the unemployed, I find that over the past ten years the variety of job search methods used by the unemployed has increased and job search behavior has become more extensive. Furthermore, the Internet has led to reallocation of effort among various job search activities.

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  • (back to top)Health Insurance Coverage of People in the Ten Years before Medicare Eligibility
    Joint with Katherine Swartz
    Published, Ensuring Health and Income Security for an Aging Workforce
    Peter Budetti, Janice Gregory, Richard Burkhauser and Allan Hunt (eds)National Academy of Social Insurance (2001).

    Abstract: This paper examines the current 55 to 64-year-old cohort’s economic status and financial preparation for their upcoming retirement. The age group in question has been of particular concern to policy makers as they are the first group of the baby-boom generation to become eligible for Medicare and Social Security.This paper evaluates relevant policy issues and potential solutions through a thorough examination of this group’s current financial characteristics.

Policy Articles and Op-Eds


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