The United States Social Security Amendments of 1983 (SSA1983) increased the full retirement age (FRA) and increased penalties for retiring before the FRA. This cut to retirement benefits caused spillover effects on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) applications and receipt by making...

This paper discusses population aging, increased participation of seniors in the labor force in the United States (and reasons for this), and how these trends are making the struggles of older workers in the labor market increasingly relevant. Evidence examining whether age discrimination is a...

Licensed workers could be shielded from unemployment during recession since occupational licensing laws are asymmetric--making unlicensed workers an illegal substitute for licensed workers but not the reverse. We test our hypothesis using a difference-in-differences event study research design...

The US is the only advanced country that expects victims of wage theft or discrimination to sue in courts of general jurisdiction, as it lacks labor courts or administrative agencies with power to compel remedies. This omission is intentional. Both the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) and Title...

Gender diversity in corporate governance is a highly debated issue worldwide. National campaigns such as “2020 Women on Boards” in the United States and “Women on the Board Pledge for Europe” are examples of just two initiatives aimed at increasing female representation in the corporate...

Economic models of disputes often assume that the rules of the game are well understood and that parties know the possible consequences of their actions. In this paper we show the apparently unintended consequences of state-level legal innovations governing labor disputes that took place in the...

The paper examines changes in wage and hour labor regulation between 1898 and 1938. Many see the 1905 Lochner Supreme Court decision striking down hours limits for men as the beginning of 30 years in which labor regulation was stymied by the doctrine of "freedom of contract." That issue played a...

This paper analyzes whether Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) signed between the United States and Latin American countries during the last decade produced higher enforcement of labor regulations. The paper computes before-after estimates of the effect of FTAs on labor inspections and exploits...

Around the world, traditional forms of business and employment are being disrupted by new global corporations based on internet apps and platforms. These often provide precarious “Gig Economy” work. In some cases, these are the only option for people who no longer have access to traditional...