This paper seeks to identify factors which could plausibly have led to the contractionary welfare reform initiatives begun at the state and federal levels in the U.S. in the 1990s, initiatives concentrated on the AFDC program. A review of aggregate time series evidence, cross-section regression...

This paper develops a model of sectoral labor mobility and tests its main implications. The model nests two distinct hypotheses on the origin of mobility: (1) sectoral shocks and (2) worker-employer mismatch. We estimate the relative importance of each hypothesis and find that the bulk of labor...

The authors modify the basic self-sele ction model for the effects ofeducation, training, unions, and other activities on wages, by including "heterogeneity of rewards" to the activity-i.e., diffe rences across individuals in the rate of return to the activity. The authors sho w that such...