Tag Archives: NBER

If Obama Were President

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The mammone -- a jobless man in his 20s, 30s or 40s who lives with mamma -- is an Italian tradition. But under President Obama, labor force participation rates of young men have plunged to Italian levels. [Credit: studenti.it]

The mam­mone — a job­less man in his 20s, 30s or 40s who lives with mam­ma — is an Ital­ian tra­di­tion. Under Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, labor force par­tic­i­pa­tion rates of young Amer­i­can men have plunged to Ital­ian lev­els. [Cred­it: studenti.it]

In Italy, they call him a mam­mone: an unem­ployed man in his 20s, 30s or 40s who still lives with mamma.

The preva­lence of the mam­mone has long been thought to be a pre­dom­i­nant­ly Ital­ian phe­nom­e­non, with deep cul­tur­al roots.  It has grown more pro­nounced with the country’s recent eco­nom­ic dis­tress.  Since 2008, a grow­ing per­cent­age of Ital­ian men aged 25–54 have aban­doned the labor force, no longer both­er­ing even to look for work.

Italy’s work­force par­tic­i­pa­tion rate among men of prime work­ing age is by far Europe’s low­est.  But it is not the low­est in the devel­oped world.  Italy now shares that dubi­ous dis­tinc­tion with the U.S.

That wouldn’t hap­pen if Oba­ma were Pres­i­dent. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

How Cutting Jobless Benefits Cut Joblessness

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During his December 2013 Hawaiian vacation, President Obama phoned lawmakers, asking them to extend unemployment benefits. They did not. Which is a good thing, according to a new study published by NBER. [Credit: Fox News]

Dur­ing his Decem­ber 2013 Hawai­ian vaca­tion, Pres­i­dent Oba­ma phoned law­mak­ers, ask­ing them to extend unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits. They did not. Which is a good thing, accord­ing to a new study pub­lished by NBER. [Cred­it: Fox News]

A lit­tle more than a year ago, the Pres­i­dent was dis­tressed.  It was a few days after Christ­mas 2013, and extend­ed unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits for 1.3 mil­lion peo­ple were about to expire.  In a typ­i­cal­ly per­func­to­ry lob­by­ing effort, he called two Sen­a­tors to urge them to move a bill to pre­serve the benefits.

To recov­er from his exer­tions, he and his fam­i­ly then “ven­tured to the white-sand beach at Bel­lows Air Force Sta­tion, which is on the wind­ward side of the island of Oahu and fea­tures turquoise water and a stun­ning view of the Moku­lua Islands,” the Wash­ing­ton Post reported.

That tran­quil scene augured the best year for U.S. employ­ment growth since 1999.   Accord­ing to the Labor Depart­ment, the econ­o­my added more than 3.1 mil­lion jobs in 2014.  The topline unem­ploy­ment rate was 5.6% in Decem­ber, down from 6.7% the pri­or Decem­ber and the low­est rate since June 2008.

And here is the sur­pris­ing major rea­son for the resur­gence in employ­ment: Con­gress spurned the President’s entreaties and let extend­ed unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits expire. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Vince Young And Economic Mobility

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Vince Young in happier times. His rapid rise and sudden fall constitute a cautionary tale. But behind it all there is good news about economic opportunity and upward mobility. [Credit: Dallas Morning News]

Vince Young in hap­pi­er times. His rapid rise and sud­den fall tell a cau­tion­ary tale. But a new study pro­vides wel­come news about eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty and upward mobil­i­ty. [Cred­it: Dal­las Morn­ing News]

Vince Young is bank­rupt.  The sto­ry of a star col­lege quar­ter­back who rose from hum­ble cir­cum­stances to impos­si­ble wealth only to plunge into insol­ven­cy in the course of eight years is one marked by extrav­a­gant spend­ing, fool­ish invest­ments and, he has argued in court doc­u­ments, exploita­tion by agents, busi­ness asso­ciates, fam­i­ly and friends.  His is an extreme exam­ple of eco­nom­ic mobility.

Reports of Young’s bank­rupt­cy fil­ing coin­cid­ed with the release this week of a new study by a group of Har­vard and Berke­ley econ­o­mists that reached an unex­pect­ed con­clu­sion: upward eco­nom­ic mobil­i­ty is not the exclu­sive province of entre­pre­neurs, enter­tain­ers and star ath­letes like Young. The Nation­al Bureau of Eco­nom­ic Research [NBER] report con­clud­ed that “chil­dren enter­ing the labor mar­ket today have the same chances of mov­ing up in the income dis­tri­b­u­tion (rel­a­tive to their par­ents) as chil­dren born in the 1970s.” Con­tin­ue read­ing →