This paper uses input-output and census data from 1961, 1971 and 1981 to decompose the employment changes during each decade into several sources. Decompositions are performed at three levels of aggregation by occupation and by industry. The main influences on employment levels have been changes...

A common goal in economics is to attribute changes in a variable (Y) between two points in time to various causes, when the only information available is an equation expressing Y as a matrix product of several variables, and the values of all variables at the two dates. Past methods of...

This paper studies the long-run impact of technological change on the labour market in a two-sector model with heterogeneous workers. It is assumed that inventions increase both productivity and skill requirements. Such skill-intensive inventions cause increases in inequality, shifts in labour...

The author notes that raising the school-leaving age and increasing the amount of spending per pupil have been extremely important public school reforms. However, he says, sizable improvements in school quality will only be evident when these two reforms are complemented by higher standards--and...

The paper considers theoretical and empirical evidence on the impact of standards-based school reform. Our theoretical synthesis distinguishes between sorting and incentive effects of high standards, and spells out the potential tradeoffs and complementarities between enhancing efficiency and...

We estimate the effect that six types of high school math courses have on students' earnings nearly a decade after graduation. We use High School and Beyond transcript data to differentiate courses at a more detailed level than in previous research. This enables us to show that more-advanced...

Do smaller classes boost achievement mainly by helping teachers impart specific academic skills to students with low academic achievement? Or do they do so primarily by helping teachers engage poorly behaving students? The analysis uses the grade 3 to 4 transition in San Diego Unified School...

Tracking refers to the practice of dividing students by ability or achievement. Students may be tracked within schools by placing them into different classrooms based on achievement, which is the typical practice in countries such as the United States or Canada. Alternatively, students could be...