Weekend reading: “Grantee conference week” edition
This is a weekly post we publish on Fridays with links to articles that touch on economic inequality and growth. The first section is a round-up of what Equitable Growth published this week and the second is the work we’re highlighting from elsewhere. We won’t be the first to share these articles, but we hope by taking a look back at the whole week, we can put them in context.
Equitable Growth round-up
Women are increasingly working full-time well past the typical retirement age in the United States. What’s behind this increasing labor force participation later in life? Bridget Ansel digs into new research on the question.
How do people change their consumption in response to a big loss of income? Looking at the effect of unemployment and unemployment insurance data can help answer this question and better understand what increases (or decreases) household consumption.
Equitable Growth held our first grantee conference on Wednesday highlighting new and on-going work from researchers that we’ve funded through our competitive grants program. We’re excited about the research we’ve already funded, and look forward to funding more.
Is declining U.S. geographic mobility something we should combat by reducing the cost of moving? Or is the geographic decline the result of changes to something else, like the labor market?
Links from around the web
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve declined to raise interest rates. But even before they held off hiking rates it was clear their plans for the next few years may need to change. Ylan Mui writes about the central bank contemplate the prospect of “no exit.” [wonkblog]
How connected are the very quick rise of incomes at the top and the near stagnation of incomes for most U.S. workers? Alana Semuels looks at Connecticut as an example of how the gains of the rich may be causing problems for the rest of the population. [the atlantic]
A new book argues that the increasing abundance of labor, spurred in part by technological growth, has created a number of problems for the labor market and the global economy. Giles Wilkes reviews The Wealth of Humans by Ryan Avent. [the economist]
The amount of time a worker spends at a job as an employee declined over the last two years. This trend might sound bad, but it’s actually a good sign for the health of the U.S. labor market, as Ben Leubsdorf writes. [wsj]
“Sitting around and not working means failing to accumulate valuable human capital. Enough years of this can have as big of an impact as tearing up a college degree.” Adam Ozimek writes on the value of work experience. [moody’s]
Friday figure
Figure from “More women in the United States are working past retirement age” by Bridget Ansel