The US Labor Market

Public policy is rightly concerned with fostering a vibrant labor market in which individuals can earn their own success, realize their potential, and enjoy the dignity that hard work provides. But public policy faces serious challenges in today's labor market: low workforce participation and high unemployment among many Americans, technological innovation, globalization, persistent poverty, education and training, and public policy's unintended consequences are just a few. Which characteristics of today's labor market demand attention? Which are simply realities to be accepted? And how should policy respond? Asking the right questions is a good place to start, and this volume asks some of the most important: Should we be concerned about economic mobility and inequality? What is the relationship between productivity and compensation, immigrants and native workers, public policy and labor supply, and corporate taxes and employment? How can we make work pay, and build workers' skills? What can be done for workers who are difficult to employ? A competitive market in ideas is the best mechanism to understand the world, and to find the best solutions to problems. This volume makes manifest that proposition, answering each of the questions outlined above-twice, with two papers authored by economists. Each paper offers a different point of view and a different emphasis. This volume will inform policy for many years to come, helping to move policy in a direction that will better allow all of us to contribute, and to lead lives of fulfillment through work.

Autorentext

Michael R. Strain is the director of Economic Policy Studies and the Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute.

Inhalt

Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Preface ix
Michael R. Strain

I. Should We Be Concerned About the State of
Economic Mobility in the US? 1

How Much Social Mobility? More, but Not
Without Other Things 2
Miles Corak

What Should Be Done to Increase
Intergenerational Mobility in the US? 14
Bhash Mazumder

II. Is Productivity the Most Important Determinant
of Compensation? 29

Marginally True: The Connection of Pay to
Productivity 30
Dean Baker

Does Productivity Still Determine Worker
Compensation? Domestic and International
Evidence 42
Robert Z. Lawrence

III. How Can We Build Workers' Skills? 63

Is "Skill" a Topic for Policy? 64
Peter Cappelli

Worker Skills and the US Labor Market:
What Role Should Policy Play? 77
Harry J. Holzer

IV. How Can We Make Work Pay? 95

Supporting Work, Inclusion, and Mass
Prosperity 96
Glenn Hubbard

What Do We Really Know About the
Employment Effects of the Minimum Wage? 106
Justin Wolfers

V. Do Public Policies That Reduce the Reward to
Work Significantly Diminish Labor Supply? 121

The US Safety Net and Work Incentives:
Is There a Problem? What Should Be Done? 122
Robert A. Moffitt

The Rise of Employment Taxation 138
Casey B. Mulligan

VI. What Are the Economic Effects of Lesser-Skilled
Immigration on Lesser-Skilled Native Workers? 151

Low-Skill Immigration 152
George J. Borjas

Less-Skilled Immigration: Economic Effects
and Policy Responses 166
Pia M. Orrenius and Madeline Zavodny

VII. Would Cutting the Corporate Tax Rate
Significantly Increase Jobs in the US? 179

Would Reducing the US Corporate Tax Rate
Increase Employment in the United States? 180
Martin Feldstein

Business Tax Reform and the Labor Market 187
Jason Furman and Betsey Stevenson

VIII. What Should We Do About Those Americans
Who Are Especially Difficult to Employ? 203

Making Work a Priority for Working-Age
People with Disabilities 204
Richard V. Burkhauser and Mary C. Daly

How to Help the Hard-to-Employ: A Focus on
Young Men, Especially the Ex-Incarcerated 221
Timothy M. Smeeding

IX. Should We Be Concerned About Income
Inequality? 247

Is the Concept of Inequality the Best Way of
Thinking About Our Economic Problems? 248
Tyler Cowen

Should We Be Concerned About Income
Inequality in the United States? 264
Melissa S. Kearney

About the Authors 281