A standard efficient-contracts model of employment determination in a unionized labor market is contrasted with a naive model of labor supply and demand that allows for the possibility of monopsony in the market for public school teachers. The standard model is consistent with the data and...

We use a unique data set of California births to ask whether intergenerational correlations in health contribute to the perpetuation of economic status. We find that if a mother was low birth weight, her child is significantly more likely to be low birth weight, even when we compare mothers who...

The authors examine the impact of recent trade reforms. Although employment in the average private sector manufacturing firm was unaffected, there were significant employment losses to exporters and highly affected firms. Parastatals increased employment by hiring low-paid temporary workers....

The variance of arbitrated wage settlements is significantly lower than the variance of negotiated wage settlements in a sample of teachers' contracts, even when possible selection of contracts into arbitration is accounted for. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that arbitrated...