Labor in the New Economy
Labor in the New Economy
As the structure of the economy has changed over the past few decades, researchers and policy makers have been increasingly concerned with how these changes affect workers. In this book, leading economists examine a variety of important trends in the new economy, including inequality of earnings and other forms of compensation, job security, employer reliance on temporary and contract workers, hours of work, and workplace safety and health.
In order to better understand these vital issues, scholars must be able to accurately measure labor market activity. Thus, Labor in the New Economy also addresses a host of measurement issues: from the treatment of outliers, imputation methods, and weighting in the context of specific surveys to evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of data from different sources. At a time when employment is a central concern for individuals, businesses, and the government, this volume provides important insight into the recent past and will be a useful tool for researchers in the future.
520 pages | 174 line drawings, 54 tables | 6 x 9 | © 2010
National Bureau of Economic Research Studies in Income and Wealth
Economics and Business: Business--Industry and Labor
Table of Contents
Introduction
Katharine G. Abraham, James R. Spletzer, and Michael J. Harper
I. TRENDS IN COMPENSATION AND JOB QUALITY
1. What Do We Really Know about Changes in Wage Inequality?
Thomas Lemieux
Comment: Lawrence F. Katz
2. Recent Trends in Compensation Inequality
Brooks Pierce
Comment: Daniel S. Hamermesh
3. Are the New Jobs Good Jobs?
Katharine G. Abraham and James R. Spletzer
Comment: Erica L. Groshen
4. New Data for Answering Old Questions Regarding Employee Stock Options
Kevin F. Hallock and Craig A. Olson
Comment: Chris Riddell
II. LABOR MARKET DYNAMICS, JOB SECURITY, AND JOB ATTACHMENT
5. Adjusted Estimates of Worker Flows and Job Openings in JOLTS
Steven J. Davis, R. Jason Faberman, John C.
Haltiwanger, and Ian Rucker
Comment: Robert E. Hall
6. Job Loss and the Decline in Job Security in the United States
Henry S. Farber
Comment: Ann Huff Stevens
7. What Do We Know about Contracting Out in the United States? Evidence from Household and Establishment Surveys
Matthew Dey, Susan Houseman, and Anne Polivka
Comment: Daniel G. Sullivan
8. Measuring Tradable Services and the Task Content of Offshorable Services Jobs
J. Bradford Jensen and Lori G. Kletzer
Comment: Susan M. Collins
III. HOURS OF WORK
9. Why Do BLS Hours Series Tell Different Stories about Trends in Hours Worked?
Harley Frazis and Jay Stewart
Comment: Charles Brown
IV. THE EFFECTS OF CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS
10. The Effect of Population Aging on the Aggregate Labor Market
Bruce Fallick, Charles Fleischman, and Jonathan Pingle
Comment: Gary Burtless
11. Emerging Labor Market Trends and Workplace Safety and Health
Nicole Nestoriak and John Ruser
Comment: Jeff E. Biddle
12. Measuring Labor Composition: A Comparison of Alternate Methodologies
Cindy Zoghi
Comment: Stephanie Aaronson
Contributors
Author Index
Subject Index