Katharine G. Abraham is a Distinguished University Professor. Her published research includes papers on the work and retirement decisions of older Americans; how government policies affect employers’ choices concerning employment and hours over the business cycle; the effects of financial aid on the decision to attend college; discrepancies in alternative measures of employment, wages and hours; and the measurement of economic activity. She served as Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1993 through 2001 and as a Member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2011 through 2013. Abraham currently serves on standing academic advisory committees convened by the Congressional Budget Office, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. She is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Research Fellow of the IZA, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, and an elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association and of the Society of Labor Economists. Abraham received her Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 1982 and her B.S. in economics from Iowa State University in 1976.
CV: Abraham CV December 2023173.65 KB
- Explaining the Decline in the U.S. Employment-to-Population Ratio: A Review of the Evidence, , Journal of Economic Literature 58(3 ), 585-643, September .
- Probing for Informal Work Activity, , Journal of Official Statistics, 487-508, September .
- The Consequences of Long Term Unemployment: Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee Data, , ILR Review 72(2 ), 266-299, March .
- Short-Time Compensation as a Tool to Mitigate Job Loss? Evidence on the US Experience During the Recent Recession, , Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 53(4):543-567. 53(4 ), 543-567, October .
- Exploring Differences in Employment Between Household and Establishment Data, , Journal of Labor Economics 31(2 ), S129-S172, April .
- Accounting for Investments in Formal Education, , Survey of Current Business 90(6 ), 42-53, January .
- Are the New Jobs Good Jobs?, , Labor in the New Economy, ed. by Katharine Abraham, J.R. Speltzer, M. Harper. The University of Chicago Press, 101-143, January .
- Labor in the New Economy, , National Bureau of Economic Research: Studies in Income and Wealth,The University of Chicago Press 71, January .
- How Social Processes Distort Measurement: The Impact of Survey Nonresponse on Estimates of Volunteer Work in the United States, , American Journal of Sociology 114(4 ), 1129-1165, January .
- New evidence on the returns to job skills, , American Economic Review 99(2 ), 52-57, May .
- Removing Barriers to Work for Older Americans, , A Future of Good Jobs, ed. by T. Bartik, S. Houseman. Upjohn Institute, Kalamazoo, Michigan, chap. 5, pp. 161-201., January .
- Health-related Activities in the American Time Use Survey, , Medical Care 45(7 ), 680-685, July .
- A Framework for Nonmarket Accounting, , A New Architecture for the U S National Accounts, ed. by Landefeld, S and Nordhaus, W, University of Chicago Press, Chicago., January .
- Financial Aid and Students' College Decisions: Evidence from the District of Columbia's Tuition Assistance Grant Program, , Journal of Human Resources 41(3 ), 578-610, July .
- Nonresponse in the American Time Use Survey: Who is Missing from the Data and How Much Does It Matter?, , Public Opinion Quarterly 70(5 ), 676-703, January .
- Beyond the Market: Designing Nonmarket Accounts for the United States, , National Academies Press, January .
- Distinguished Lecture on Economics in Government-What We Don't Know Could Hurt Us: Some Reflections on the Measurement of Economic Activity, , Journal of Economic Perspectives 19(3 ), 3-18, July .
- Meeting Policy-Markers' Information Needs: Lessons from the U S Experience, , The Great Indian Poverty Debate, ed. by A. Deaton and V. Kozel, Macmillan India Ltd., 27-34, January .
- Microdata Access and Labor Market Research: The U S Experience, , Allgemeines Statistisches Archiv 89(12 ), 121-140, June .
- Work and Retirement Plans among Older Americans, , Re-inventing the Retirement Paradigm, ed. by Clark, R and Mitchell, O, chap. 5, pp. 70-91, Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford., January .
- At Home and Abroad: US Labor Market Performance in International Perspective - A Review, , Journal of Economic Literature 42(2 ), 523-533, January .
- Data for Managing Tight Labor Markets: The New Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, , Chance 16(2 ), 58-62, January .
- Towards a Cost-of-Living Index: Progress and Prospects, , Journal of Economic Perspectives, 17(1):45-58. 17(1 ), 45-58, March .
- Changes in Unemployment Duration and Labor Force Attachment, , The Roaring Nineties, ed. by A. B. Krueger and R. M. Solow, 367-420, January .
- Research on Price Index Measurement: Agendas for the Next Twenty Years, , Journal of Economic and Social Measurement 27(3-4 ), 99-130, January .
- Price Index Research in the Coming Decades, , Monthly Labor Review 123(9 ), 31-36, September .
- Research on Price Index Measurement: Agendas for the Next Twenty Years: Comments, , NBER Panel Discussion, July .
- Why Do Different Wage Series Tell Different Stories?, , The American Economic Review 89(2 ), 34-39, May .
- Divergent Trends in Alternative Wage Series, , Labor Statistics Measurement Issues, ed. by John C. Haltiwanger, M. Manser, and R. Topel, University of Chicago Press, 293-325, January .
- Returns to Seniority in Union and Nonunion Jobs: A New Look at the Evidence, , Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 42(1):3-19. 42(1 ), 3-19, October .
- Working to Improve the Consumer Price Index, , The Journal of Economic Perspectives 12(1 ), 27-36, January .
- A View from the Federal Statistical System, , American Journal of Agricultural Economics 79(5 ), 1394-1400, December .
- The CPI Commission: Discussion, , American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 87(2 ), 94-98, May .
- Firms' Use of Outside Contractors: Theory and Evidence, , Journal of Labor Economics 14(3 ), 394-424, July .
- Improvements in the BLS Safety and Health Statistical System, , Monthly Labor Review 119(4 ), 3-12, March .
- The State of Our Economic Intelligence: Where We`ve Been and Where We`re Going, , Jerome Levy Economics Institute, December .
- Earnings Inequality in Germany, , Differences and Changes in Wage Structures, ed. by R.B. Freeman and L.F. Katz, University of Chicago Press, 371-404, January .
- Labor Adjustment Under Different Institutional Structures, , Institutional Frameworks and Labor Market Performance, ed. by Friedrich Buttler, Wolfgang Franz, Ronald Schettkat, and David Soskice, Routeledge, 285-315, January .
- Real wages and the business cycle, , Journal of Economic Literature 33(3 ), 1215-1264, September .
- Does Employment Protection Inhibit Labor Market Flexibility? Lessons from Germany, France and Belgium, , Social Protection versus Economic Flexibility, January .
- Female workers as a buffer in the Japanese economy, , The American Economic Review 83(2 ), 45-51, May .
- Job Security in America: Lessons from Germany, , Brookings Institution Press, January .
- Mismatch and Labour Mobility: Some Final Remarks, , Mismatch and Labour Mobility, ed. by F. Padoa-Schioppa, Centre for Economic Policy Research, 453-481, January .
- New Developments in the Labor Market: Toward A New Institutional Paradigm, , MIT Press, January .
- Restructuring the Employment Relationship: The Growth of Market-Mediated Work Arrangements, , New Developments in the Labor Market: Toward a New Institutional Paradigm, ed. by K.G. Abraham and R.B. McKersie. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, chap. 4, pp. 85-119., January .
- Job Security and Work Force Adjustment: How Different Are U.S. and Japanese Practices?, , Journal of the Japanese and International Economies 3(4 ), 500-521, December .
- Flexible Staffing Arrangements and Employers' Short-term Adjustment Strategies, , Employment, Unemployment and Labour Utilization, ed. by R.A. Hart, Unwin Hyman Press, 288-311, January .
- Help Wanted Advertising, Job Vacancies and Unemployment, , Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 18(1 ), 207-243, January .
- Job Duration, Seniority and Earnings, , American Economic Review 77(3 ), 278-297, June .
- Cyclical Unemployment: Sectoral Shifts or Aggregate Disturbances?, , Journal of Political Economy 94(3 ), 507-522, June .
- Structural/Frictional vs. Deficient Demand Unemployment: Reply, , American Economic Review 76(1 ), 273-276, March .
- Length of service and promotions in union and nonunion work groups, , Industrial and Labor Relations Review 38(3 ), 408-420, April .
- Length of Service and Layoffs in Union and Nonunion Work Groups, , Industrial and Labor Relations Review 38(1 ), 87-97, October .
- Structural/Frictional vs. Deficient Demand Unemployment: Some New Evidence, , American Economic Review 73(4 ), 708-724, September .
- Length of Service and the Operation of Internal Labor Markets, , Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the Industrial Relations Research Association, 308-319, December .
- Unemployment, Unsatisfied Demand for Labor, and Compensation Growth, 1956-1980, , Workers, Jobs and Inflation, ed. by M.N. Baily. The Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., chap. -, pp. 49-88., January .
- Are those paid more really more productive? The case of experience, , Journal of Human Resources 16(2 ), 186-216, April .
- Experience, Performance and Earnings, , The Quarterly Journal of Economics 95(4 ), 703-736, January .
