Professor Brodin explores the clash between the antidiscrimination principle embodied in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and employer self-interest in minimizing costs and maximizing profits. While precedent explicitly rejects a cost defense to an action brought under the statute,...

This paper studies educational choices in a signaling setting in segmented labor markets. We show that in the presence of heterogeneous working ability imperfectly correlated with schooling costs, equilibria characterized by overeducation may arise. The quality of education is crucial in...

We use a mix of new and existing data to develop the Aggregate Hours Gap (AHG), a novel measure of labor market underutilization. Our measure differentiates individuals by detailed categories of labor market participation and uses data on their desired work hours as a measure of their potential...