An Oral History of Industrial Relations and Labor Economics
In this podcast series of conversations with leading thinkers and practitioners, we are creating an oral history of an entire generation of industrial relations experts and labor economists whose contributions to their fields have been absolutely extraordinary. Hosted by Orley Ashenfelter, the Joseph Douglas Green 1895 Professor of Economics, Emeritus at Princeton University.
Michael Reich, professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, discusses his studies of labor market segmentation, the beneficial effects of the minimum wage on the economy, the current climate of political polarization, and his belief that the 2024 elections indicate a marked transition for the U.S. economy.
Harry Katz, the Jack Sheinkman Professor of Collective Bargaining at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, discusses his academic background, his studies of collective bargaining, his work with the United Auto Workers (UAW), and his on-going thoughts on how to make labor negotiations more inclusive and cooperative.
Henry Farber, Hughes-Rogers Professor of Economics emeritus at Princeton University, discusses his early life growing up in an industrial, working-class town in New Jersey, his early interest in labor unions and his nearly fifty-year-long study of labor economics.
George Borjas, the Robert W. Scrivner Professor of Economics and Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, discusses his early life in Cuba, his experiences as an immigrant in the United States, his schooling at Columbia University, and his thoughts on the current immigration debate in the United States.
Robert Moffitt, the Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Economics at Johns Hopkins University, discusses his early education, his interest in labor economics, applied microeconometrics, and welfare policy, and how his work has influenced major debates in public policy, especially the economics of low-income populations in the United States.
