Using a wide array of examples from the literature and from original estimates, the author examines the pitfalls that make good empirical research in labor economics at least as much craft as statistical technique. Among the subjects discussed are the appropriateness and cleanliness of data;...

Evidence from Current Population Surveys, various cohorts of the National Longitudinal Surveys, and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics suggests that the fraction of American employees who were paid salaries held constant from the late 1960s through the late 1970s, and continued to hold constant...

Although most economic theories of discrimination hypothesize that discrimination stems from people's discriminatory tastes, no empirical study of the labor market has examined tastes for discrimination directly or considered people's willingness to trade off other preferences to indulge their...