There is a large literature on earnings and income volatility in labor economics, household finance, and macroeconomics. One strand of that literature has studied whether individual earnings volatility has risen or fallen in the U.S. over the last several decades. There are strong disagreements...

We use National Football League (NFL) data to analyze the impact of minimum salaries on an employee's career length. The NFL has a salary structure in which the minimum salary a player can receive increases with the player's years of experience. Salary schedules similar to the NFL's exist in...

We present new estimates of earnings volatility over time and the lifecycle for men and women by race and human capital. Using a long panel of restricted-access administrative Social Security earnings linked to the Current Population Survey, we estimate volatility with both transparent summary...

This paper uses matched employer-employee data for the state of Georgia to examine workers’ earnings experience through the information technology (IT) sector’s employment boom of the mid-1990s and its bust in the early 2000s. The results show that even after controlling for individual...

This paper uses unique employer-employee matched administrative data files to determine that firm and industry employment dynamics play significant roles in the earnings gains of workers who change jobs and in different ways across the business cycle. Among the more notable results is the...