When estimating population descriptive statistics, weighting is called for if needed to make the analysis sample representative of the target population. With regard to research directed instead at estimating causal effects, we discuss three distinct weighting motives: (1) to achieve precise...

We examine the effects of minimum wage legislation in Canada over the period 1975-93. For teenagers we find that a 10% increase in the minimum wage is associated with roughly a 2.5% decrease in employment. We also find that this result is driven by low ...

This study uses intergenerational data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to investigate the relationship between men's economic status and the characteristics of the families and communities in which they grew up. It is distinguished from most previous studies by its emphasis on community...

In this paper we examine whether the requirements that workers must satisfy to qualify for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits in any succeeding period of joblessness affect the duration of employment spells. This behavioral consequence of a UI system ...

Numerous previous studies have used sibling correlations to measure the importance of family background as a determinant of economic status. The sibling correlations estimated in these studies, however, have been depressed by a failure to distinguish transitory and permanent income variation...

A comparison of the correlations between brothers and neighboring boys in their adult earnings suggests that the earnings resemblance between brothers stems more from growing up in the same family than from growing up in the same neighborhood. Much of ...

Labor supply models are sensitive to the measures of health used. When self-reported measures are used, health seems to play a larger role and economic factors a smaller one than when more objective measures are used. While this may indicate biases inherent in using self-reported measures, there...

During the 1990s, while overall employment rates for working-aged men and women either remained roughly constant (men) or rose (women), employment rates for people with disabilities fell. During the same period the fraction of the working-aged population receiving Social Security Disability...