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Conference on the Causes of Wage Stagnation
August 26, 2016 @ 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
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On August 26, 2016 the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) at UC Berkeley and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth brought together a small group of the nation’s leading labor economists to dig deep into the causes of stagnating wages. This conference, held in Berkeley, was the first part of a response to the critical need for new policies to address stagnant incomes in the United States. In order to create effective policies, they must be grounded in a clear understanding of what has caused the stagnation in the first place. Together, the group discussed what is known and still unknown about the forces driving the significant changes in the wage distribution since the 1970s, and shared new ideas about important research and policy questions looking forward. From this page you can find a complete list of the conference participants and the topics discussed.
A follow-up conference is planned for Washington, DC, in February 2017. This will focus on policy alternatives, rooted in the diagnoses discussed at the initial conference.
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Program
Introductions (Jesse Rothstein & Heather Boushey) Institutions Presenter: Richard Freeman
Presenter slides
Discussant: Thomas Lemieux
Skills and Technology Presenter: David Deming
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Presenter notes Discussant: Melissa Kearney
Discussant slidesFirms Presenter: David Card
Presenter slidesDiscussant: Nick Bloom
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Immigration Presenter: Giovanni Peri
Did Immigration contribute to wage stagnation of unskilled workers?
Presenter slidesDiscussant: Chinhui Juhn
Discussant slidesTaxes Presenter: Emmanuel Saez
Presenter slidesDiscussant: Hilary Hoynes
Discussant slidesMacroeconomic factors Presenter: Jared Bernstein
Wage outcomes and macroeconomic conditions: what’s the connection?
Presenter slidesDiscussant: Danny Yagan
Discussant slidesOpen discussion about policy responses Presenter: Lisa Lynch
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Participants
Sylvia Allegretto, Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics, UC Berkeley
Jared Bernstein, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Sandra E. Black, Council of Economic Advisors
Nicholas A. Bloom, Department of Economics, Stanford
Heather Boushey, Washington Center for Equitable Growth
Nick Bunker, Washington Center for Equitable Growth
David Card, Department of Economics, UC Berkeley
David J. Deming, Harvard Graduate School of Education and NBER
Nicole Fortin, Department of Economics, University of British Columbia
Jessica Fulton, Washington Center for Equitable Growth
Richard Freeman, Department of Economics, Harvard
Alexander Gelber, Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley
Sara Hinkley, Institute for Research Labor and Employment, UC Berkeley
Hilary Hoynes, Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley
Rucker Johnson, Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley
Chinhui Juhn, Department of Economics, University of Houston
Melissa Kearney, Department of Economics, University of Maryland
Thomas Lemieux, Department of Economics, University of British Columbia
Lisa Lynch, Social and Economic Policy, Brandeis University
Lawrence Mishel, Economic Policy Institute
Giovanni Peri, Department of Economics, UC Davis
Michael Reich, Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics, UC Berkeley
Robert B. Reich, Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley
Jesse Rothstein, Institute for Research Labor and Employment, UC Berkeley
Emmanuel Saez, Department of Economics, UC Berkeley
Diane Schanzenbach, Human Development and Public Policy, Northwestern
John Schmitt, Washington Center for Equitable Growth
Christopher Walters, Department of Economics, UC Berkeley
Danny Yagan, Department of Economics, UC Berkeley
Ben Zipperer, Washington Center for Equitable Growth