Labor Statistics Measurement Issues

by Haltiwanger, John; Manser, Marilyn; Topel, Robert H.; Conference on Research in Income and Wealth

• ISBN13: 9780226314587
• ISBN10: 0226314588
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-02-02
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Rapidly changing technology, the globalization of markets, and the declining role of unions are just some of the factors that have led to dramatic changes in working conditions in the United States. Little attention has been paid to the difficult measurement problems underlying analysis of the labor market. Labor Statistics Measurement Issues helps to fill this gap by exploring key theoretical and practical issues in the measurement of employment, wages, and workplace practices.Some of the chapters in this volume explore the conceptual issues of what is needed, what is known, or what can be learned from existing data, and what needs have not been met by available data sources. Others make innovative uses of existing data to analyze these topics. Also included are papers examining how answers to important questions are affected by alternative measures used and how these can be reconciled. This important and useful book will find a large audience among labor economists and consumers of labor statistics.

Table of Contents

Prefatory Note	xi
Introduction	1	(8)
John Haltiwanger
Marilyn E. Manser
Robert Topel
I. THE NEED FOR EXPANDED INFORMATION	9	(68)
1. Existing Labor Market Data: Current and Potential Research Uses	9	(42)
Marilyn E. Manser
Comment: Charles Brown
2. Analytical Needs and Empirical Knowledge in Labor Economics	51	(26)
Robert Topel
Comment: Frank P. Stafford
II. THE MEASUREMENT OF EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT: NEW DIMENSIONS	77	(216)
3. Measuring Gross Worker and Job Flows	77	(46)
Steven J. Davis
John Haltiwanger
Comment: Bruce D. Meyer
4. Unemployment and Labor Force Attachment: A Multistate Analysis of Nonemployment	123	(34)
Stephen R.G. Jones
W. Craig Riddell
Comment: Thomas Lemieux
5. Are Lifetime Jobs Disappearing? Job Duration in the United States, 1973-1993	157	(50)
Henry S. Farber
Comment: Derek Neal
6. On Measuring the Impact of Ownership Change on Labor: Evidence from U.S. Food-Manufacturing Plant-Level Data	207	(42)
Robert H. McGuckin
Sang V. Nguyen
Arnold P. Reznek
Comment: Frank R. Lichtenberg
7. The CPS after the Redesign: Refocusing the Economic Lens	249	(44)
Anne E. Polivka
Stephen M. Miller
Comment: Gary Solon
III. EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION: MEASUREMENT AND IMPACT	293	(36)
8. Divergent Trends in Alternative Wage Series	293	(36)
Katharine G. Abraham
James R. Spletzer
Jay C. Stewart
Comment: Lawrence F. Katz
IV. LOOKING INSIDE THE FIRM	329	(134)
9. What Happens within Firms? A Survey of Empirical Evidence on Compensation Policies	329	(28)
Canice Prendergast
Comment: George A. Akerlof
10. Internal and External Labor Markets: An Analysis of Matched Longitudinal Employer-Employee Data	357	(14)
John M. Abowd
Francis Kramarz
11. The Worker-Establishment Characteristics Database	371	(34)
Kenneth R. Troske
12. A Needs Analysis of Training Data: What Do We Want, What Do We Have, Can We Ever Get It?	405	(26)
Lisa M. Lynch
Comment: John M. Barron
13. Employer-Provided Training, Wages, and Capital Investment	431	(32)
Stephen G. Bronars
Melissa Famulari
Contributors	463	(4)
Author Index	467	(6)
Subject Index	473