Here are abstracts of my research projects along with links to the papers, either the published version or a working paper version. Please email me if you are interested in the data or code for these papers, or would like a copy of the published version and do not have access.
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During the 1960s and 1970s, states repealed laws that limited how many hours women could work in certain industries. Repeal increased women’s work beyond the old statutory limit and raised average weekly hours for both women and men. It also reduced flows out of covered industries for both genders. Women’s hourly and annual earnings fell by roughly 4 to 6 percent, while men’s earnings showed no significant change. Taken together, the results point to expanded female labor supply, complementarity between male and female labor in production, and household labor-supply adjustment among married couples.
During World War II, the United States federal government instituted an explicit policy of wage controls, which specified maximum allowable raises for those earning less than a certain level (the "bracket") and froze wages for those earning more. We find that in 1979, three decades after the policy ended, higher brackets were associated with slower inequality growth as measured by the log ratio of the 50th to 90th percentiles of labor earnings. However, the effect on inequality at the bottom as measured by changes in the 10-50 log ratio was more ambiguous. The lower-tail compressive effect of the brackets was stronger where union density was higher, consistent with a role for unions in perpetuating the effects of the bracket through the wage bargaining process.