Income Distribution
Baby Dilemma (9/1/2005)
Low fertility among educated women threatens to lower the supply of high-skilled workers.
Broken Promises? (1/14/2006)
New York transit workers staged a 5-day disruptive pre-Christmas labor strike to hang onto unsustainable benefits.
Choke Power (1/10/2007)
Their strategic location at the chokepoints of global trade allows American longshoremen to share a bigger piece of the globalization pie.
Choose Your Parents Carefully (8/31/2005)
Marital sorting can increase wage inequality and lead to lower economic growth over generations by concentrating the life-chance advantage of better educated people.
Dividing the Pie (5/13/2010)
Over-extended American consumers provided the ultimate market for consumer goods exported from low-wage countries that are willing to sell on credit.
Efficient but not Fair? (1/16/2006)
Efficiency may conflict with fairness because it is often difficult to re-distribute the gain from greater efficiency.
Fast Labor (9/2/2005)
Extreme division of labor into simple repetitive tasks allows the fast-food industry to increase throughput while lowering labor cost by tapping unskilled teenage and marginal workers.
Glamour vs Hardship (6/22/2006)
Most glamorous jobs have high average income but low median income while most bread-and-butter jobs have median income that is very close to the average income.
Happiness - Absolute or Relative? (6/4/2004)
If happiness depends on one's relative wealth, one will never be absolutely happy as long as there are others who are even richer.
Income Distribution (7/7/2006)
In the U. S., the top income group has been gaining relative to the rest of the population due to globalization, but the belief in upward mobility is still strong.
Income Lotteries (6/22/2006)
Income distribution may be more unequal while average income is increasing.
Legacy Curse (1/14/2006)
The legacy of high union wages and benefits progressive measures has become part of a vicious circle of market-share erosion for old-time U.S. car makers.
Management Tournament? (1/16/2006)
Outsized CEO compensation reflects talent scarcity and competitive emulation among interlocking compensation committees.
Reality Benefits (1/16/2006)
Low-cost competition and escalating health care cost have eroded U.S. car-makers’ ability to honor generous union contracts.
The Diet Poor (9/7/2005)
Lack of affordable transportation due to poverty forces the poor to shop in neighborhood stores that charge more for the mostly unhealthy but high-turnover food that they carry.
The Economics of Superstars (9/26/2000)
Joint consumption technology combined with imperfect substitution of consumer preferences can lead to outsized rewards to a few superstars in mass entertainment businesses.
The Family Gap (9/2/2005)
Motherhood adversely affects women's life-time earnings.
The Insecurity of Job Security (6/22/2006)
Life-time job security with generous fringe benefits have increased youth unemployment by discouraging French employers to hire new workers and encouraging them to substitute capital for labor.
The Rise of Dogs (9/11/2007)
Rising affluence and other social factors have led to the emergence of the dog care industry.
The Seduction of Cheap Labor (8/31/2005)
Cheap immigrant labor has kept labor-intensive lettuce farming in America that should perhaps have been offshored or mechanized.
The Truncated Job Ladder (9/5/2005)
The job ladder that has been truncated from the bottom and from the top means longer formal education to get to the bottom of the ladder and more limited promotion prospects once on the ladder.
Two-tier Wages (2/10/2012)
Detroit Three's two-tier wage system may be the answer to the cost advantage of transplanted auto makers.
Wealth Inequality in America (3/6/2013)
Infographics on the distribution of wealth in America, highlighting both the inequality and the difference between our perception of inequality and the actual numbers. The reality is often not what we think it is.
White-collar unions (1/16/2006)
White-collared workers are increasingly affiliated with beleaguered blue-collared labor unions to bulk up their collective bargaining position over non-wage issues.