Care Talk
Heroine of the Noisy Revolution
This post is based on my presentation at the session “Inequality, Public Policy, and the Future of Economics: In Memory of Barbara Bergmann,” organized by Diana Strassmann, at the meetings of the American Economic Association in San Francisco, CA, January 5, 2016.
China’s Looming Care Crisis
Guest post by Barbara E. Hopkins, Wright State University.
Make Time for Overtime
You have an important opportunity between now and September 4 to weigh in on a proposed U.S. Department of Labor rule change that would offer more overtime protection to salaried workers. This may seem like a somewhat indirect, even bureaucratic, way to stick up for workers rights, but it will matter. Consider it a contribution to a long and venerable political struggle.
The Massachusetts Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
Guest post by Laura Sylvester, graduate student at the Center for Public Policy and Administration and the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Laura drafted the initial version of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and has been actively involved in organizing and advocating for its passage for the past 18 months.
Work for Profit (or Not)
Most introductory economics texts assume that most of the work performed in the U.S. takes place in profit-maximizing firms. One important exception is Understanding Capitalism.
The Rape of the Yezidi
Rape is often a conspicuous feature of the conduct and aftermath of violent collective conflict. But seldom, if ever, has it been explicitly organized and religiously justified on a scale comparable to the ISIS sexual enslavement of non-Muslim Yezidi women.
The Opt-Out Elite
Hersch’s research does explain why trends at the very top are not representative even of the college-educated, much less the majority of the population of working mothers.
Options Other than Opting Out
Joan Williams of the Hastings College of the Law at the University of California has some very specific advice for lawyers considering career “pause”
Millennial Women and “The Pause”
Guest Post by Myra Strober, Professor of Education and Economics, Emerita, and founding director of the Michelle Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University. She is the author of the forthcoming memoir, Kicking in the Door.
In Defense of Valuation
I think that estimates of the market value of non-market work are a worthwhile exercise (as my last two posts suggest) as long as they are done carefully and presented as an approximate lower-bound. But conceptual resistance to valuation remains remarkably fierce–which is a big reason we don’t see more of it.
The Temporal Constraints of Child Care
Fortunately, the American Time Use Survey includes a question that asked respondents to indicate times when a child under the age of 13 was “in your care.” This makes it possible to measure the amount of time devoted to supervisory child care.
The Dollar Value of Grown-Up Care
Work is no less valuable if it’s fun (I’m working for fun right now).