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1. The Earnings and Income Mobility Consequences of Attending a Historically Black College/University: Matching Estimates From 2015 U.S. Department of Education College ScorecardData

   Juliet U. Elu, Jared Ireland (October 2019, The Review of Black political economy)

   This paper considers the labor market consequences of attending a Historically Black College/University (HBCU). With 2015 U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard Data, we use a matching estimator to identify and estimate the treatment effect of HBCU attendance on median earnings, earnings relative to a high school graduate, and income relative to that of the household at time of initial enrollment, 6 and 10 years after attendance. Our treatment effect parameter estimates suggest that once we account for the differential return to college majors, the urban wage premium, and the proportionality/dependence of the labor market return of black student college attendees on the share of a college/university's student population that is black, there is a long-run earnings premium associated with HBCU attendance. In addition, for HBCUs in general, we find that there is a population of students who would realize a positive labor market premium---as high as approximately 42 percent---and earn more than a high school graduate if they were to attend an HBCU. With respect to intergenerational income mobility, we find that HBCU attendance enables their actual and potential attendees to move to a higher quantile of income relative to their households in the long-run. 

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2. Rising between-workplace inequalities in high-income countries

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1918249117  

   Tomaskovic-Devey, Donald; Rainey, Anthony; Avent-Holt, Dustin; Bandelj, Nina; Boza, István; Cort, David; Godechot, Olivier; Hajdu, Gergely; Hällsten, Martin; Henriksen, Lasse Folke; et al (April 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   It is well documented that earnings inequalities have risen in many high-income countries. Less clear are the linkages between rising income inequality and workplace dynamics, how within- and between-workplace inequality varies across countries, and to what extent these inequalities are moderated by national labor market institutions. In order to describe changes in the initial between- and within-firm market income distribution we analyze administrative records for 2,000,000,000+ job years nested within 50,000,000+ workplace years for 14 high-income countries in North America, Scandinavia, Continental and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia. We find that countries vary a great deal in their levels and trends in earnings inequality but that the between-workplace share of wage inequality is growing in almost all countries examined and is in no country declining. We also find that earnings inequalities and the share of between-workplace inequalities are lower and grew less strongly in countries with stronger institutional employment protections and rose faster when these labor market protections weakened. Our findings suggest that firm-level restructuring and increasing wage inequalities between workplaces are more central contributors to rising income inequality than previously recognized. 

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3. Consumption Insurance against Wage Risk: Family Labor Supply and Optimal Progressive Income Taxation

   https://doi.org/10.1257/mac.20180125  

   Wu, Chunzan; Krueger, Dirk (January 2021, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics)

   null (Ed.)

   We show that a calibrated life cycle two-earner household model with endogenous labor supply can rationalize the extent of consumption insurance against shocks to male and female wages, as estimated empirically by Blundell, Pistaferri, and Saporta-Eksten (2016) in US data. In the model, 35 percent of male and 18 percent of female permanent wage shocks pass through to consumption, compared to the empirical estimates of 32 percent and 19 percent. Most of the consumption insurance against permanent male wage shocks is provided through the presence and labor supply response of the female earner. Abstracting from this private intrahousehold income insurance mechanism strongly biases upward the welfare losses from idiosyncratic wage risk as well as the desired extent of public insurance through progressive income taxation. Relative to the standard one-earner life cycle model, the optimal degree of tax progressivity is significantly lower and the welfare gains from implementing the optimal system are cut roughly in half. (JEL D15, H21, H24, J16, J22, J31) 

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4. The Earnings and Income Mobility Consequences of Attending a Historically Black College/University: Matching Estimates From 2015 U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard Data

   https://doi.org/10.1177/0034644619866201  

   Elu, J.U. (July 2019, The Review of Black political economy)

   This article considers the labor market consequences of attending a Historically Black College/University (HBCU). With 2015 U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard Data, we use a matching estimator to identify and estimate the treatment effect of HBCU attendance on median earnings, earnings relative to a high school graduate, and income relative to that of the household at the time of initial enrollment, 6 and 10 years after attendance. Our treatment effect parameter estimates suggest that once we account for the differential return to college majors, the urban wage premium, and the proportionality/dependence of the labor market return of Black student college attendees on the share of a college/university’s student population that is Black, there is a long-run earnings premium associated with HBCU attendance. In addition, for HBCUs in general, we find that there is a population of students who would realize a positive labor market premium—as high as approximately 42%—and earn more than a high school graduate if they were to attend an HBCU. With respect to intergenerational income mobility, we find that HBCU attendance enables their actual and potential attendees to move to a higher quantile of income relative to their households in the long run 

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5. Labor Rationing

   https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20201385  

   Breza, Emily; Kaur, Supreet; Shamdasani, Yogita (October 2021, American Economic Review)

   This paper measures excess labor supply in equilibrium. We induce hiring shocks—which employ 24 percent of the labor force in external month-long jobs—in Indian local labor markets. In peak months, wages increase instantaneously and local aggregate employment declines. In lean months, consistent with severe labor rationing, wages and aggregate employment are unchanged, with positive employment spillovers on remaining workers, indicating that over a quarter of labor supply is rationed. At least 24 percent of lean self-employment among casual workers occurs because they cannot find jobs. Consequently, traditional survey approaches mismeasure labor market slack. Rationing has broad implications for labor market analysis. (JEL E24, J22, J23, J31, J64, O15, R23) 

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