Employers became more willing to hire a range of disadvantaged workers during the 1990s boom-including minorities, workers with certain stigmas (such as welfare recipients), and those without recent experience or high school diplomas. The wages paid to newly hired less-skilled workers also...

This paper analyzes the effects of demand shifts within and between local labor markets on unemployment and employment outcomes observed in those markets. The demand shifts are calculated from sales growth data at the firm and industry levels. The results show that, in general, employment and...

We estimate the effects of industrial shifts in the 1970s on the wages and employment of black and white males. We use micro Census data for 52 MSAs and estimate effects separately by age and education group. The results show that demand shifts away from manufacturing reduced employment and...

The authors use micro data from a survey of firms to test for labor-market rigidities and asymmetries in response to demand shifts. They analyze wage and employment adjustments to positive and negative shifts as measured by real sales growth. The results show that wage adjustments are fairly...

We test for an effect of Arizona's 2007 Legal Arizona Workers Act (LAWA) on the proportion of the state's population characterized as noncitizen Hispanic. We use the synthetic control method to select a group of states against which Arizona's population trends can be compared. We document a...

We present quasi-experimental estimates of the effect of changes in workers' compensation benefits on benefit duration and application frequency, using administrative data for California. Our design exploits two increases in temporary disability benefits occurring during the mid-1990s. We find...

We use a sample of tenth-graders to test for peer-group influences on the propensity to engage in five activities: drug use, alcohol drinking, cigarette smoking, church going, and the likelihood of dropping out of high school. We find strong evidence of peer-group effects at the school level for...

It is generally believed that the increased incidence of homelessness in the United States has arisen from broad societal factors, such as changes in the institutionalization of the mentally ill, increases in drug addiction and alcohol usage, and so forth. This paper presents a comprehensive...