Rising between-firm pay dispersion accounts for the majority of the dramatic increase in earnings inequality in the United States in the last several decades. This paper shows that a distinct cross-cohort pattern drives this rise: newer cohorts of firms enter more dispersed and stay more dispersed throughout their lives. These cohort patterns suggest a link between changes in firm entry associated with the decline in business dynamism and the rise in earnings inequality. Cohort effects also imply a slow diffusion of inequality: inequality rises as younger and more unequal cohorts of firms replace older and more equal cohorts.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) programs teach disruptive students to improve their classroom behavior. Small-scale programs in high-income countries have been shown to improve treated students' behavior and academic outcomes. Using a randomized experiment, we show that a nationwide SEL program in Chile has no effect on eligible students. We find evidence that very disruptive students may hamper the program's effectiveness. ADHD, a disorder correlated with disruptiveness, is much more prevalent in Chile than in high-income countries, so very disruptive students may be more present in Chile than in the contexts where SEL programs have been shown to work.

Previous articleNext article No AccessUnderstanding the Effect of Parental Education and Financial Resources on the Intergenerational Transmission of IncomeAiday SikhovaAiday Sikhova Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Labor Economics Just Accepted Published for the Society of Labor Economists, Economics Research Center/ NORC Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/720390 Views: 122Total views on this site HistoryAccepted March 21, 2022 PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Next article No AccessWho Benefits From Attending Effective High Schools?C. Kirabo Jackson, Sebastian Kiguel, Shanette C. Porter, and John Q. EastonC. Kirabo Jackson Search for more articles by this author , Sebastian Kiguel Search for more articles by this author , Shanette C. Porter Search for more articles by this author , and John Q. Easton Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Labor Economics Just Accepted Published for the Society of Labor Economists, Economics Research Center/ NORC Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/724568 Views: 57Total views on this site HistoryAccepted February 07, 2023 © 2023 The University of Chicago. All Rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

From 2002 to 2018, the fraction of minority-segregated public schools in the United States roughly doubled, but the fraction of White-segregated schools decreased at an even faster rate. Endogenous segregation fueled by parents choosing schools on the basis of their racial compositions can in principle dwarf all other determinants of segregation over time because of social multiplier effects. However, we find that demographic change from Hispanic immigration has been the biggest driver of these trends. These findings are particularly pronounced in urban areas, which experienced the largest changes in segregation and are where policy makers are most concerned about the pernicious effects of segregation.

Previous articleNext article FreeH. Gregg Lewis PrizePDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThe H. Gregg Lewis Prize for the best paper published in the Journal of Labor Economics during 2020–21 has been awarded to Jennifer Doleac and Benjamin Hansen for “The Unintended Consequences of ‘Ban the Box’: Statistical Discrimination and Employment Outcomes When Criminal Histories are Hidden,” which appeared in the April 2020 issue of the Journal.Individuals with criminal records are severely disadvantaged in the labor market, and black men with such histories are particularly disadvantaged. Various US jurisdictions have adopted ban the box (BTB) policies intended to prevent employers from using criminal histories to screen applicants, in part to reduce racial disparities. However, when employers cannot access such information, they may rely on correlates of criminal history, most notably race and sex, thereby increasing racial and ethnic disparities. The authors use variation in the timing of state and local BTB policies to identify the effect of such policies on the employment of young black and Hispanic men with less than a college degree. In their preferred specification, they find that BTB reduces the employment of young, low-skilled black men by 3.4 percentage points and young, low-skilled Hispanic men by 2.3 percentage points. Strikingly, these effects are smaller when the labor market is tighter and when the respective minority group comprises a larger proportion of the labor force. In addition, the authors find evidence that employment shifts toward groups with a lower proportion of individuals with criminal records: older black men, older Hispanic women, and white men. The authors argue that their results are consistent with employers engaging in statistical discrimination when they cannot obtain information directly on job applications.The committee selected this paper because the empirical work is well executed, the results have clear policy implications, and the article is among the most highly cited of those published in JOLE in the last two years. The authors’ analysis shows the importance of fully considering the implications of social policies on all affected individuals. BTB policies are intended to help the ex-offender population acquire jobs but may instead put a larger minority population at an employment disadvantage by increasing employers’ reliance on statistical discrimination. The paper goes beyond estimating the causal effects of such policies by investigating how they vary regionally and with local labor market conditions. The authors also examine which groups benefit when employers substitute away from younger, low-skilled black and Hispanic males, and they find the evidence consistent with statistical rather than taste-based discrimination. This paper contributes to an important literature showing how policies that suppress information (e.g., criminal records, drug tests, credit histories, health status, educational testing, and employment histories) can have unintended consequences. In recent decades, the quantity of information about individuals that is stored and made publicly available has grown massively. Policies regulating access to and use of these data are likely to be increasingly important. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Labor Economics Volume 40, Number 3July 2022 Published for the Society of Labor Economists, Economics Research Center/ NORC Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/720635 Views: 1218Total views on this site © 2022 The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Uncompetitive contests for grades, promotions, retention, and job assignments, which feature lax standards and limited candidate pools, are often criticized for being unmeritocratic. We show that when contestants are strategic, lax standards and exclusivity can make selection more meritocratic. When many contestants compete for a few promotions, strategic contestants adopt high-risk strategies. Risk-taking reduces the correlation between performance and ability. Through reducing the effects of risk-taking, "Peter principle" promotion policies, which entail promoting some contestants that are unlikely to be worthy, can increase the overall correlation between selection and ability and thus further meritocracy.