Research by Topic

International trade brings with it indirect competition in the labor market across international boundaries. Since World War II, there has been a sequence of broad international trade agreements as well as regional accords such as NAFTA. In addition, the end of the Cold War and the emergence of China and India in world markets have heightened the impact of trade. Domestic labor markets are affected by the indirect competition as well as by international investment flows, particularly direct investment.

Over the past two decades a large number of academics and industry leaders have been engaged in industry-specific studies of how to achieve both high levels of firm performance and good wages and working conditions. These are often labeled “high-road” strategies. This research cluster summarizes the lessons learned from these studies and explores options for diffusing these high-road strategies more broadly within and across industries and occupations.

Demographic breakdowns of the labor force generally involve age, sex, and race/ethnicity. The labor force is not fixed; employment data suggest substantial workforce turnover and entry into and out of employment. Longer-term concerns under this research cluster involve the aging of the workforce and its growing diversity. More short-term concerns involve labor force participation, broken down demographically, and the causes of inter-group variation in such participation.

Every day it becomes more apparent that state-level public-sector labor and employment policy are on the table for debate all around the country. Public- employee wages, pension and health care benefits, education reform, collective bargaining rights, arbitration and other forms of dispute resolution are currently some of the most hotly contested topics. Yet, to date debate has too often taken the form of vitriolic and often evidence-free attacks on public-sector workers and their employers. Therefore, EPRN has decided to create a special topic area devoted to these issues.

As new technologies, including changes in the management of employees, are introduced, workers and employers must adapt. In some cases, particular jobs are eliminated or moved to other nations; in other cases, new types of jobs and occupations are created; in still others, the skills required for a line of work morph from the inside while the occupation retains its former name. This research cluster examines the impact of technology and globalization on the changing skill requirements of the workforce.

There is wide recognition that entrepreneurship plays a vital role in the economy and that a substantial number of new jobs are created by start-up firms. While some of these new firms grow, prosper and eventually become major sources of innovation and employment, many others that look promising do not survive and grow into sustainable organizations.

Workers in the low and middle portions of the occupational distribution have endured a long period of stagnation or slow growth in wages and compensation. While productivity, a necessary condition for growth in real wages, has grown steadily, workers have been getting a smaller share of these gains. This research cluster explores the reasons for the breakdown in the productivity-wage relationship and asks what changes in public policies, labor-market institutions, and organizational practices are needed to once again get compensation moving in a positive and sustainable direction.