Weekend Reading

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 has published this week and the second is 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

A look at labor market conditions before the September Federal Reserve meeting.

How Netflix’s expansion of paid family leave mirrors broader trends in the U.S. economy.

Wondering if the days of just-time-scheduling are numbered.

We hear a lot about the gig economy, but where are the data?

The U.S. labor market has turned into a “cruel game of musical chairs.”

Links from around the web

Sociologists Kathryn Edin of Johns Hopkins University and Luke Shaefer have a new book out called $2.00 a Day that focuses on the life of Americans in extreme poverty. Dylan Matthews interviews them about the book and how people get by on such little cash. [vox]

Mike Konczal at the Roosevelt Institute digs into a new report from economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on the relationship between student loans and tuition increases. The results of the paper have important implications about how we think about student aid. [rortybomb]

Martin Wolf warns about the slowdown in growth of the Chinese economy. According to Wolf, economic growth has come entirely from increased investment since 2011. Productivity hasn’t grown at all. [ft]

Companies are increasingly providing parental benefits to workers, but the way leave is structured can have unintended benefits. Claire Cain Miller details the potential hazards of designating a primary caregiver. [the upshot]

Wage growth has many determinants and a dynamic labor market is definitely one of them. John Robertson of the Atlanta Fed shows the relationship between the quit rate and wage growth. [macroblog]

Friday figure

Figure from “The cruel game of musical chairs in the U.S. labor market” by Austin Clemens and Marshall Steinbaum.