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Public policy is rightly concerned with fostering a vibrant labor market in which individuals can earn their own success, realize their potential, and enjoy the dignity that hard work provides. But public policy faces serious challenges in today’s labor market: low workforce participation and high unemployment among many Americans, technological innovation, globalization, persistent poverty, education and training, and public policy’s unintended consequences are just a few. Which characteristics of today’s labor market demand attention? Which are simply realities to be accepted? And how should policy respond? Asking the right questions is a good place to start, and this volume asks some of the most important: Should we be concerned about economic mobility and inequality? What is the relationship between productivity and compensation, immigrants and native workers, public policy and labor supply, and corporate taxes and employment? How can we make work pay, and build workers’ skills? What can be done for workers who are difficult to employ? A competitive market in ideas is the best mechanism to understand the world, and to find the best solutions to problems. This volume makes manifest that proposition, answering each of the questions outlined above—twice, with two papers authored by economists. Each paper offers a different point of view and a different emphasis. This volume will inform policy for many years to come, helping to move policy in a direction that will better allow all of us to contribute, and to lead lives of fulfillment through work.

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Industrial Relations

Labor Relations

Political Science

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Publié par	AEI Press
Date de parution	07 octobre 2016
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780844750095
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,5875€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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THE US LABOR MARKET
QUESTIONS AND CHALLENGES FOR PUBLIC POLICY
Dean Baker
George J. Borjas
Richard V. Burkhauser & Mary C. Daly
Peter Cappelli
Miles Corak
Tyler Cowen
Martin Feldstein
Jason Furman & Betsey Stevenson
Harry J. Holzer
Glenn Hubbard
Melissa S. Kearney
Robert Z. Lawrence
Bhash Mazumder
Robert A. Moffitt
Casey B. Mulligan
Pia M. Orrenius & Madeline Zavodny
Timothy M. Smeeding
Justin Wolfers
Edited by Michael R. Strain

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
ISBN-13: 978-0-8447-5007-1 (hardback)
ISBN-10: 0-8447-5007-7 (hardback)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8447-5008-8 (paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-8447-5008-5 (paperback)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8447-5009-5 (ebook)
ISBN-10: 0-8447-5009-3 (ebook)
© 2016 by the American Enterprise Institute. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission in writing from the American Enterprise Institute except in the case of brief quotations embodied in news articles, critical articles, or reviews. The views expressed in the publications of the American Enterprise Institute are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff, advisory panels, officers, or trustees of AEI. The American Enterprise Institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) educational organization and does not take institutional positions on any issues.
American Enterprise Institute
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www.aei.org
Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
Michael R. Strain
I. Should We Be Concerned About the State of Economic Mobility in the US?
How Much Social Mobility? More, but Not Without Other Things
Miles Corak
What Should Be Done to Increase Intergenerational Mobility in the US?
Bhash Mazumder
II. Is Productivity the Most Important Determinant of Compensation?
Marginally True: The Connection of Pay to Productivity
Dean Baker
Does Productivity Still Determine Worker Compensation? Domestic and International Evidence
Robert Z. Lawrence
III. How Can We Build Workers’ Skills?
Is “Skill” a Topic for Policy?
Peter Cappelli
Worker Skills and the US Labor Market: What Role Should Policy Play?
Harry J. Holzer
IV. How Can We Make Work Pay?
Supporting Work, Inclusion, and Mass Prosperity
Glenn Hubbard
What Do We Really Know About the Employment Effects of the Minimum Wage?
Justin Wolfers
V. Do Public Policies That Reduce the Reward to Work Significantly Diminish Labor Supply?
The US Safety Net and Work Incentives: Is There a Problem? What Should Be Done?
Robert A. Moffitt
The Rise of Employment Taxation
Casey B. Mulligan
VI. What Are the Economic Effects of Lesser-Skilled Immigration on Lesser-Skilled Native Workers?
Low-Skill Immigration
George J. Borjas
Less-Skilled Immigration: Economic Effects and Policy Responses
Pia M. Orrenius and Madeline Zavodny
VII. Would Cutting the Corporate Tax Rate Significantly Increase Jobs in the US?
Would Reducing the US Corporate Tax Rate Increase Employment in the United States?
Martin Feldstein
Business Tax Reform and the Labor Market
Jason Furman and Betsey Stevenson
VIII. What Should We Do About Those Americans Who Are Especially Difficult to Employ?
Making Work a Priority for Working-Age People with Disabilities
Richard V. Burkhauser and Mary C. Daly
How to Help the Hard-to-Employ: A Focus on Young Men, Especially the Ex-Incarcerated
Timothy M. Smeeding
IX. Should We Be Concerned About Income Inequality?
Is the Concept of Inequality the Best Way of Thinking About Our Economic Problems?
Tyler Cowen
Should We Be Concerned About Income Inequality in the United States?
Melissa S. Kearney
About the Authors
Acknowledgments
I thank Rachel Ayerst Manfredi for pushing me to edit a volume on the labor market, and for reminding me that there would be consequences if I didn’t come through. I’m very grateful to Harry J. Holzer for his advice in the early stages of this project, to Jon Rodeback and Sarah Crain for their excellent work in editing the papers in this volume, to Claude Aubert for taking Word documents and turning them into a beautiful finished product, to Judy Mayka Stecker for her hard work and support, and to all the others at the American Enterprise Institute who contributed to this volume. And I am grateful, in advance, to the AEI staff who will promote this volume far and wide.
Bradley Wassink is due special recognition. He played a key role in this project’s conception and in shepherding that idea to its final form. It is quite fair to say that this volume would not exist—at least not as you see it in these pages—without him.
Preface
I f I asked you to tell me about yourself, there’s a good chance you’d begin with your job. “I’m a teacher.” “I’m a nurse.” There is something noble behind the impulse to lead with your occupation: we want to contribute to society, and for many of us employment is a key avenue for social contribution. Especially in a market economy—where comparative advantage is rewarded and incentives exist to discover yours, nurture it, and apply it—who we are is, to a large degree, how we choose to contribute.
Work allows us to provide and care for our children. (That the national income statistics don’t reflect much of this work says nothing about its immense value.) Work fosters community—there is something unique and edifying in enjoying the company of your coworkers after that long, hard project is finally completed or the work week has come to a close. The best antidote for boredom and vice is often a good job. Among other features, the expressiveness inherent in work—its creative element—is, or at least can be, deeply spiritual.
Indeed, work is central to the flourishing life. And public policy, in its effort to promote the common good, is properly interested in helping to create a vibrant labor market in which individuals can earn their own success, realize their potential, and enjoy the dignity that hard work provides.
This effort is challenged, of course, by the realities and evolution of the labor market. There are short-term challenges, to be sure. But the labor market faces longer-term, slower-burning challenges as well—a long-standing decline in workforce participation among working-age men, high unemployment among minority youth, low rates of employment among the less educated, changes to the structure of family and community, the effects of technological change on the structure of occupations and earnings, the globalization of labor and product markets, the economic and social effects of immigration, persistent poverty, changes and challenges in skill acquisition, unintended consequences of existing public policy, changes in the relationship between workers and firms, and so much more.
How should policy respond, adapt, keep up? How should we know whether a new or changing feature of today’s labor market is a problem that merits concern, or is just a reality to be accepted?
A good way to start is by asking the right questions. This volume asks some (though far from all) of the most important: Should we be concerned about economic mobility in the US? Is productivity the most important determinant of compensation? How can we make work pay? Would cutting corporate tax rates increase jobs in the US? Do public policies that reduce the reward to work significantly diminish labor supply? How can we build workers’ skills? Does lesser-skilled immigration hurt lesser-skilled native workers? What should we do about workers who are especially difficult to employ? Should we be concerned about inequality?
These are hard questions, without clear or obvious answers. To make progress on them, let me advance an argument: a competitive market in ideas is the best way to figure out the world, and to find the best solutions to our problems.
This volume makes manifest that argument. In its pages, each of the questions outlined above is answered by economists—twice. Two papers address each of the questions above, each with a different point of view and a different emphasis.
These challenges aren’t going anywhere anytime soon—the essays in this volume will be relevant for many years to come. But these essays can inform policy, helping it to move in a better direction—in a direction that will help the economy, sure. But more importantly, in a direction that will help all of us to contribute, to realize our potential, to lead lives of dignity and fulfillment.

M. R. Strain
Washington, DC
June 2016
I Should We Be Concerned About the State of Economic Mobility in the US?
How Much Social Mobility? More, but Not Without Other Things
MILES CORAK
University of Ottawa
S hania Twain is one of my favorite musicians. What’s not to like? Her powerful voice, heartfelt songs, and unstoppable energy propelled her to the top of the charts during the 1990s and early 2000s. In fact, that’s an understatement. She was among the bestselling country-pop singers of all time, album after album winning award after award. Twain’s sales were astounding, propelled by what was then a relatively new distribution technology, the compact disc, to give her music global reach.
Her success is all the more appealing because she started life with odds that were stacked horrendously against her. In fact, that’s also an understatement. Anyone interested in social mobility who reads her autobiography can’t help but pause and marvel. 1 She had raw talent, no doubt about it, but her family could not afford to pay for any formal musical training. Just the opposite. Her skills were honed as a minor, playing in seedy bars after closing time to help pay the family bills.
To say that life was not easy is to be charitable. Twain was raised as one of five children who had three different biological fathers. Her stepfather was of aboriginal origin, whose strong sense of independence always led him to refuse government income support. Her mother, loving and full of ambition for her daughter,