Michael Reich

Michael Reich is Professor of Economics and Co-Chair of the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) of the University of California at Berkeley. He served as Director of IRLE from 2004 to 2015. Reich received his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard. His research publications cover numerous areas of labor economics and political economy, including the economics of racial inequality, the analysis of labor market segmentation, historical stages in U.S. labor markets and social structures of accumulation, high performance workplaces, union-management cooperation, Japanese labor-management systems, living wages and minimum wages.

Reich has published 18 books and monographs, including Racial Inequality: A Political-Economic Analysis, Princeton University Press, 1981, e-book edition, 2017; Segmented Work, Divided Workers: The Historical Transformation of Labor in the United States, with D. Gordon and R. Edwards, Cambridge University Press, 1982; Social Structures of Accumulation: The Political Economy of Growth and Crisis, with D. Kotz and T. McDonough, eds. Cambridge University Press, 1994; Work and Pay in the United States and Japan, with C. Brown, Y. Nakata and L. Ulman. Oxford University Press, 1997; Labor Market Segmentation and Labor Mobility, 2009, Labor in the Era of Globalization, edited with C. Brown and B. Eichengreen, Cambridge University Press, 2010, Contemporary Capitalism and Its Crises, edited with T. McDonough and D. Kotz, Cambridge University Press, 2010; When Mandates Work: Raising Labor Standards at the Local Level, with K. Jacobs and M.Dietz, University of California Press, 2014.

Reich has also written over 140 papers, including “Credible Research Designs for Minimum Wage Studies,”  with S. Allegretto, A. Dube, and B. Zipperer, ILR Review 2017; “An Earnings Standard for New York City’s App-based Drivers: Economic Analysis and Policy Assessment,” with J. Parrott, IRLE CWED Policy Report, 2018; “Likely Effects of a $15 National Minimum Wage,” Testimony to the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, 2019;  “Can Economic Policies Reduce Deaths of Despair,” with W. Dow, A. Godoey and C. Lowenstein, Journal of Health Economics, 2020;  “Pay, Passengers and Profits: Effects of Employee Status for California TNC Drivers.” IRLE Working Paper, 2020; “Are Minimum Wage Effects Greater in Low-Wage Areas?” with A. Godoey, Industrial Relations 2021; “Racial Inequality and Minimum Wages in Frictional Labor Markets,” with J. Wursten, IRLE Working Paper 2021; “Parental Labor Supply: Evidence from Minimum Wages,” with A. Godoey, J. Wursten and S. Allegretto, Journal of Human Resources, forthcoming.

Curriculum Vitae

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