Lawrence Katz

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Papers: Selected Recent Research

Recent Book

The Race Between Education and Technology. Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz, Harvard University Press, 2008.   

It is available through Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and it is the recipient of the  R.R. Hawkins Award of the American Association of Publishers for the most Outstanding Professional, Reference, or Scholarly Work of 2008 and of the Richard A. Lester Prize for the Oustanding Book in Labor Economics and Industrial Relations of 2008. 

An interview with Goldin and Katz in CommonWealth (Nov. 3, 2011) on the "Learning Cuve."  Timothy Noah's article in Slate (Sept, 2010), "The Great Divergence," has a lengthy section on the book pp. 2, 13, 29-35.  Numerous columns and Op-eds in the New York Times by Nicholas Kristof (Nov. 13, 2008, Feb. 15, 2009), Bob Herbert (Sept. 29, 2009, August 2010), Stephen Kotkin (Oct. 5, 2008), and David Leonhardt (July 2, 2008, Feb. 1, 2009) have concerned our book.  See also columns in Forbes by Thomas Cooley (Nov. 26, 2008), Joel Klein (Aug. 11, 2010), and Ben Wildavsky (Aug. 11, 2010).  See the review essay by Daron Acemoglu and David Autor forthcoming in the Journal of Economic Literature. Reviews include those in the Chronicle of Higher Education, De Economist, Education Next, Science, and The Financial Times. 

 Moving to Opportunity Research

• Neighborhoods, Obesity and Diabetes -- A Randomized Social Experiment. Jens Ludwig, Lisa Sanbonmatsu, Lisa Gennetian, Greg J. Duncan, Lawrence F. Katz, Ronald C. Kessler, Jeffrey R. Kling, Stacy Tessler Lindau, Robet C. Whitaker, ThomasW. McDade, New England Journal of Medicine 365 (October 20, 2011), 1509-19.
• Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing Demonstration Program -- Final Impacts Evaluation. Lisa Sanbonmatsu, Jens Ludwig, Lawrence F. Katz, Lisa A. Gennetian, Greg J. Duncan, Ronald C. Kessler, Emma Adam, Thomas W. McDade, and Stacy Tessler Lindau, US Department of Housing & Urban Development, PD&R, October 2011.
• What Can We Learn about Neighborhood Effects from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment? Jens Ludwig, Jeffrey B. Liebman, Jeffrey R. Kling, Greg J. Duncan, Lawrence F. Katz, Ronald C. Kessler, and Lisa Sanbonmatsu, American Journal of Sociology 114 (July 2008), 144-88.
• Experimental Analysis of Neighborhood Effects. Jeffrey R. Kling, Jeffrey B. Liebman, and Lawrence F. Katz, Econometrica 75 (January 2007), 83-119. Web Appendix.
• Neighborhood Effects on Crime for Female and Male Youth: Evidence from a Randomized Housing Mobility Experiment. Jeffrey R. Kling, Jens Ludwig, and Lawrence F. Katz, August 2004; Quarterly Journal of Economics 120 (February 2005), 87-130.
• Beyond Treatment Effects: Estimating the Relationship Between Neighborhood Poverty and Individual Outcomes in the MTO Experiment. Jeffrey B. Liebman, Lawrence F. Katz, and Jeffrey R. Kling, August 2004.
• Moving to Opportunity and Tranquility: Neighborhood Effects on Adult Economic Self-Sufficiency and Health from a Randomized Voucher Experiment also available are appendix tables.
  Jeffrey R. Kling, Jeffrey B. Liebman, Lawrence F. Katz, and, Lisa Sanbonmatsu, May 2004.
• Youth Criminal Behavior in the Moving to Opportunity Experiment.
  Jeffrey R. Kling, Jens Ludwig, and Lawrence F. Katz, March 2004.
• Moving to Opportunity: Interim Impacts Evaluation.
  Larry Orr, Judith Feins, Robin Jacob, Eric Beecroft, Lisa Sanbonmatsu, Lawrence F. Katz, Jeffrey B. Liebman, and Jeffrey R. Kling, September 2003.
• Bullets Don't Got No Name: Consequences of Fear in the Ghetto.
  Jeffrey R. Kling, Jeffrey B. Liebman, and Lawrence F. Katz, in T.S. Weisner, ed., Discovering Successful Pathways in Children’s Development: New Methods in the Study of Childhood and Family Life, U. of Chicago, 2005.
• Boston Site Findings: The Early Impacts of Moving to Opportunity.
  Lawrence F. Katz, Jeffrey R. Kling and Jeffrey B. Liebman, in J. Goering and J. Feins, eds., Choosing A Better Life: Evaluating the Moving to Opportunity Social Experiment, Urban Institute Press, 2003, 177-211.
• Moving to Opportunity in Boston: Early Results of a Randomized Mobility Experiment.
  Lawrence F. Katz, Jeffrey R. Kling and Jeffrey B. Liebman, Quarterly Journal of Economics 116 (May 2001), 607-54.

Further information on MTO is available at the MTO Research Web Site

Papers on Education, Technology, Gender, the Wage Structure, and Inequality

• The For-Profit Postsecondary School Sector: Nimble Creatures or Agile Predators?. David J. Deming, Claudia Goldin, and Lawrence F. Katz. Journal of Economic Perspectives 26 (Winter 2012), 139-64.
• The Cost of Workplace Flexibility for High-Powered Professionals. Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 638 (November 2011), 45-67.
• Putting the Co in Education: Timing, Reasons, and Consequences of College Coeducation from 1835 to the Present. Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz. Journal of Human Capital 5 (Winter 2011), 377-417.
• Dynamics of the Gender Gap for Young Professionals in the Financial and Corporate Sectors (with on-line appendix).  Marianne Bertrand, Claudia Goldin, and Lawrence F. Katz,  American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 2 (July 2010), 228-55 . 
• Transitions: Career and Family Life Cycles of the Educational Elite
  Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz 
  AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2008
• Long-Run Changes in the Wage Stucture: Narrowing, Widening, Polarizing
  Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2:2007
• Trends in U.S. Wage Inequality: Revising the Revisionists
  David H. Autor, Lawrecne F. Katz, and Melissa S. Kearney, Review of Economics and Statistics 90 (May 2008), 300-23.
• The Race between Education and Technology: The Evolution of U.S. Educational Wage Differentials, 1890 to 2005
  Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, March 2007; revised May 2009.
• The Homecoming of American College Women: The Reversal of the College Gender Gap.
  Claudia Goldin, Lawrence F. Katz, and Ilyana Kuziemko, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2006.
• The Polarization of the U.S. Labor Market.
  David H. Autor, Lawrence F. Katz, and Melissa S. Kearney, AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2006.
• Rising Wage Inequality: The Role of Composition and Prices
  David H. Autor, Lawrence F. Katz, and Melissa S. Kearney, August 2005.
• Trends in U.S. Wage Inequality: Re-Assessing the Revisionists.
  David H. Autor, Lawrence F. Katz, and Melissa S. Kearney, September 2005.
• Mass Secondary Schooling and the State: The Role of State Compulsion in the High School Movement 
  Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, NBER Working Paper No. 10075, November 2003; revised December 2008.  To appear in D. Costa and N. Lamoreaux, Understanding Long Run Economic Growth (University of Chicago Press, 2011).
• The ‘Virtues’ of the Past: Education in the First Hundred Years of the New Republic Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, NBER Working Paper No. 9958, September 2003.
• Why the United States Led in Education: Lessons from Secondary School Expansion, 1910 to 1940. 
  Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, revision of NBER WP No. 6144; revised June 2008; appears in D. Eltis, F. Lewis, and K. Sokoloff, eds., Human Capital and Institutions, Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• Sustaining U.S. Economic Growth.
  J.Bradford DeLong, Claudia Goldin, and Lawrence F. Katz, in H. Aaron, J. Lindsay, and P. Nivola, eds., Agenda for the Nation, Brookings Institution, 2003, 17-60.
• The Legacy of U.S. Educational Leadership: Notes on Distribution and Economic Growth in the 20th Century.
  Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, American Economic Review Papers & Proceedings 91 (May 2001), 18-23.
• Decreasing (and then Increasing) Inequality in America: A Tale of Two Half-Centuries.
  Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, in F. Welch, ed., The Causes and Consequences of Increasing Income Inequality, University of Chicago Press, 2001, 37-82.
• Education and Income in the Early Twentieth Century: Evidence from the Prairies.
  Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, Journal of Economic History 60 (September 2000), 782-818.
• Technological Change, Computerization, and the Wage Structure.
  Lawrence F. Katz, in E. Brynjolfsson and B. Kahin, eds., Understanding the Digital Economy, MIT Press, 2000, 217-44.
• Changes in the Wage Structure and Earnings Inequality.
  Lawrence F. Katz and David H. Autor, in O. Ashenfelter and D. Card, eds., Handbook of Labor Economics, vol. 3A, North-Holland, 1999, 1463-1555.
• Human Capital and Social Capital: The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America, 1910 to 1940.
  Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, Journal of Interdisciplinary History 29 (Spring 1999), 683-723.
• The Shaping of Higher Education: The Formative Years in the United States, 1890 to 1940. Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, Journal of Economic Perspectives 13 (Winter 1999), 37-62.
• The Returns to Skill in the United States across the Twentieth Century.
  Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, NBER Working Paper No. 7126, May 1999.
• Computing Inequality: Have Computers Changed the Labor Market?
  David H. Autor, Lawrence F. Katz, and Alan B. Krueger, Quarterly Journal of Economics 113 (November 1998), 1169-1213.
• The Origins of Technology-Skill Complimentarity.
  Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, Quarterly Journal of Economics 113 (August 1998), 693-732.
• How Much Do Immigration and Trade Affect Labor Market Outcomes?  George J. Borjas, Richard B. Freeman, and Lawrence F. Katz, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 1997, no. 1, 1-90.
• The Decline of Non-Competing Groups: Changes in the Premium to Education, 1890 to 1940.
  Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, NBER Working Paper No. 5202, August 1995.
• A Comparison of Changes in the Structure of Wages in Four OECD Countries. Lawrence F. Katz, Gary Loveman, and David Blanchflower, in R. Freeman and L. Katz, eds., Differences and Changes in Wage Structures, NBER and University of Chicago Press, 1995, 25-66.
• Changes in Relative Wages, 1963-1987: Supply and Demand Factors. Lawrence F. Katz and Kevin M. Murphy, Quarterly Journal of Economics 107 (February 1992), 35-78.

Miscellaneous Papers

• Long Term Unemployment in the Great Recession. Lawrence Katz, Testimony for the Joint Economic Committee, U.S. Congress, April 29, 2010.
• The Evolution of the Mexican-Born Workforce in the United States. George J. Borjas and Lawrence F. Katz, in G. Borjas, ed., Mexican Immigration to the United States, NBER and University of Chicago Press, 2007, 13-55.
• Comparative Advantage, Learning, and Sectoral Wage Determination. Robert Gibbons, Lawrence F. Katz, Thomas Lemieux, and Daniel Parent, Journal of Labor Economics 23 (October 2005).
• Prison Conditions, Capital Punishment and Deterrence.
  Lawence F. Katz, Steven D. Levitt, and Ellen Shustorovich, American Law and Economics Review 5 (Fall 2003), 318-43.
• The Power of the Pill: Oral Contraceptives and Women’s Career and Marriage Decisions.
  Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, Journal of Political Economy 110 (August 2002), 730-770.
• Career and Marriage in the Age of the Pill.
  Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, American Economic Review Papers & Proceedings 90 (May 2000), 461-65.
• The High-Pressure U.S. Labor Market of the 1990s. Lawrence F. Katz and Alan B. Krueger, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 1999, no. 1, 1-87.
• A Distinctive System: Origins and Impact of U.S. Unemployment Compensation. Katherine Baicker, Claudia Goldin, and Lawrence F. Katz, in M. Bordo, C. Goldin, and E. White, eds., The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and the American Economy in the 20th Century, NBER and University of Chicago Press, 1998, 227-64.
• What We Know and Do Not Know About the Natural Rate of Unemployment. Olivier Blanchard and Lawrence F. Katz, Journal of Economic Perspectives 11 (Winter 1997), 51-72.
• Active Labor Market Policies to Expand Employment and Opportunity. Lawrence F. Katz.  Reducing Unemployment: Current Issues and Policies, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, 1994.
• The Effect of the Minimum Wage on the Fast Food Industry. Lawrence F. Katz and Alan B. Krueger. Industrial and Labor Relations Review 46 (October 1992), 6-21.
• Regional Evolutions. Olivier J. Blanchard and Lawrence F. Katz. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 1992, no. 1, pp. 1-75.
• On the Labor Market Effects of Immigration and Trade. George J. Borjas, Richard B. Freeman, and Lawrence F. Katz, in Immigration and the Workforce: Economic Consequences for the United States and Source Countries, U. of Chicago Press and NBER, 1992, 213-44.
• Macroeconomic Performance and the Disadvantaged. David M. Cutler and Lawrence F. Katz, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 1991, no. 2, 1-74.
• Layoffs and Lemons. Robert Gibbons and Lawrence F. Katz, Journal of Labor Economics 9 (October 1991), 351-80.
• Employee Crime and the Monitoring Puzzle. William T. Dickens, Lawrence F. Katz, Kevin Lang, and Lawrence H. Summers, Journal of Labor Economics 7 (July 1989), 331-47.
• Cyclical Unemployment: Sectoral Shifts or Aggregate Disturbances?. Katharine Abraham and Lawrence F. Katz, Journal of Political Economy 94 (June 1986, Part 1), pp. 507-22.
• Efficiency Wage Theories: A Partial Evaluation. Lawrence F. Katz,  NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1986, vol. 1, 1986, 235-90.

Hard-to-Find Classics

• Developing Skills: What We Know About the Impact of American Educational and Training Programs on Employment, Earnings and Educational Outcomes.
  Marcus Stanley, Lawrence F. Katz, and Alan B. Krueger, Report for G8 Economic Summit, October 1998.
• The Company You Keep: The Effects of Family and Neighborhood on Disadvantaged Youths.
  Anne C. Case and Lawrence F. Katz, NBER Working Paper No. 3705, May 1991.
• Inter-Industry Wage Differences and Theories of Wage Determination.
  William T. Dickens and Lawrence F. Katz, NBER Working Paper No. 2271, June 1987.
• Layoffs, Recalls and the Duration of Unemployment.
  Lawrence F. Katz, NBER WP No. 1825, January 1986.