In this paper I review the existing evaluations of the effect of the Milwaukee Parental Choice
Program on student achievement. Two of the three existing papers report significant gains in math for the
choice students and two of the three…

In this paper we provide theoretical and empirical analyses of an
asymmetric-information model of layoffs in which the current employer is
better informed about its workers’ abilities than prospective employers
are. The key feature of the model is that when…

This paper uses two data sets to examine the impact of the potential
duration of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits on the duration of
unemployment and the time pattern of the escape rate from unemployment in the
United States. The first…

In a labor market in which firms offer tied hours-wage packages and
there is substantial dispersion in the wage offers associated with a
particular type of job, the best job available to a worker at a point in
time may…

More than one million new immigrants currently enter the United States every year. In this paper
I use 1990 Census data to study the effects of immigrant inflows on the local labor market
opportunities of natives and older immigrants. I…

This paper presents a method for assessing the impact of external,
national, and sectoral shocks on Canadian employment fluctuations at the
national, industry, and provincial levels. Special attention is given to the
contribution of sectoral shocks to aggregate employment fluctuations.…

An instrumental variable can be used to identify the labor market return to schooling by
allowing comparisons between groups of individuals whose differences in schooling levels are
uncorrelated with their underlying marginal benefit from schooling and with other aspects of

In this study we examine the experience of a single large hospital with an
informal pre-litigation “complaint” process that resolves some cases outside of the legal
system. The empirical results are generally consistent with an information structure where
patients are…

This paper empirically examines the role of social networks in welfare participation. Social theorists from across the political spectrum have argued that network effects have given rise to a culture of poverty. Empirical work, however, has found it difficult to…

Throughout the late 1970s and the early 1980s, over 50% of all first-time first-year college
students started in a junior college. Despite such a large role in higher education, we know
relatively little about how well they serve their role…