Kimmel and Hoffman present a set of topical, non-technical papers authored by nationally known experts in this field. Using an economic perspective, they confront work/family issues including child care (potentially the biggest obstacle to parents successfully integrating work and family...

People who have divorced are entitled to Social Security spousal benefits if their marriages lasted at least ten years. This paper uses 1985-1995 Vital Statistics data and the 2008-2011 American Community Surveys to analyze how this rule affects divorce decisions. I find evidence that the...

This book provides a very useful introduction to methodologies for measuring inequality, a comprehensive overview of changes in inequality which have occurred in the United States, and an informative discussion of a variety of policy-related issues.

Using models developed for this study which incorporate an array of behaviors generally omitted from conventional models relating backloading to turnover, Gustman and Steinmeier find that backloading plays only a slight role in explaining mobility differences associated with pension coverage....

Hyclak and Johnes explore the extent to which wage rigidity differs across regional labor markets in the U.S. and how it affects the unemployment response to shifts in regional aggregate demand. They also look at the determinants of differences in wage rigidity across regional labor markets.

Hyclak examines changes in the structure of wages paid for some 40 different jobs found in four different occupational groups. In addition, he concentrates on the jobs and the skills required as the primary determinant of wages, an approach, he says, that complements the more traditional human...

This book explores this apparent change in the employment contract from a new perspective. Whereas earlier studies in this area focused on the rigidities in the quantity side of the employment relationship, e.g., changes in job tenure and rates of displacement, the authors focus on the price...

Alpert and Woodbury present a comprehensive set of explorations into the impacts that the provision of various types of employee benefits (or lack thereof) have on labor markets. And while there are, as the editors point out, substantial differences between the employee benefits systems of...

Maxwell extablishes the link between skills and low-skilled jobs and reveals the state of he labor market facing low-skilled workers.

Madden uses MSA data that link characteristics of metropolitan economies to significant changes in income inequality. This allows her to study changes in poverty rates, household income inequality, and wage inequality within 182 of the largest MSAs and to identify what she says are the three...