Curriculum Vitae
Lisa B. Kahn
Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Professor in the Social Sciences and Professor of Economics
Department of Economics
University of Rochester
280 Hutchison Road
PO Box 270156
Rochester, NY 14627
Email: lisa.kahn@rochester.edu
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lbkahn
Research Interests
Labor Economics, Personnel Economics, Organizational Economics, Education
Employment
Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Professor in the Social Sciences, University of Rochester (2022-present).
Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, University of Rochester (2018 - present).
Associate Professor of Economics, School of Management, Yale University (2014 - 2018).
Assistant Professor of Economics, School of Management, Yale University (2008 - 2014).
Senior Economics for Labor and Education Policy, Council of Economic Advisers (2010 - 2011).
Visiting Positions
Visiting Research Scholar, Industrial Relations Section, Department of Economics, Princeton University (2015 - 2016).
Visiting Fellow, Brookings Institution (2011 - 2012).
Professional Affiliations
Research Associate, NBER, Labor Studies (2019 - present)
Faculty Research Fellow, NBER, Labor Studies (2014 - 2019)
Research Fellow, IZA (2012 - present).
Professional Offices
Society of Labor Economists: Executive Board 2020-2022
Editorships
Co-editor, Journal of Human Resources (2018 - 2021).
Professional Activities
Program Committee: Society of Labor Economists Annual Meetings 2016, 2018
Co-organizer: NBER program on Wage Dynamics in the 21st Century (with Erik Hurst)
Co-organizer: NBER Summer Institute Personnel Economics: 2024 (with Mitchell Hoffman)
Education
Ph.D., Economics, Harvard University, 2008
Thesis: "Essays on Careers in U.S. Labor Markets: The Interaction of Internal and External Labor Markets"
M.A., Economics, Harvard University, 2005
A.B., Economics, University of Chicago, with honors, 2003
Published Papers
Where have all the workers gone? Recalls versus reallocation in the COVID recovery (with Eliza Forsythe, Fabian Lange, and David G. Wiczer), Labour Economics, October, 2022, Vol 78.
NBER Working Paper No. 30387
Dropouts Need Not Apply? The Minimum Wage and Skill Upgrading, (with Jeffrey Clemens and Jonathan Meer), Journal of Labor Economics, 2021, 39(S1): pp. S107-S149 .
NBER Working Paper No. 27090
Labor Demand in the Time of COVID-19: Evidence from Vacancy Postings and UI Claims, (with Eliza Forsythe, Fabian Lange, and David Wiczer), Journal of Public Economics, 2020, 189, 104238.
NBER Working Paper No. 27061
Supervisors and Performance Management Systems (with Anders Frederiksen and Fabian Lange), Journal of Political Economy, 2020, 128:6, pp. 2123-2197.
NBER Working Paper No. 23351
Do Recessions Accelerate Routine-Biased Technological Change? Evidence from Vacancy Postings (with Brad Hershbein), American Economic Review, 2018, 108(7): pp. 1737-72.
NBER Working Paper No. 22762
Discretion in Hiring (with Mitchell Hoffman and Danielle Li), Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2018, 133(2): pp. 765-800.
NBER Working Paper No. 21709
Cyclical Job Ladders by Firm Size and Firm Wage (with John Haltiwanger, Henry Hyatt, and Erika McEntarfer), American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2018, 10(2): pp. 52-85.
NBER Working Paper No. 23485
See also:
Kahn, Lisa B. and Erika McEntarfer (2014), Employment Cyclicality and Firm Quality, NBER Working Paper No. 20698
Haltiwanger, John, Henry Hyatt, and Erika McEntarfer (2015), Cyclical Reallocation of Workers across Employers by Firm Size and Firm Wage, NBER Working Paper No. 21235
Skill Requirements across Firms and Labor Markets: Evidence from Job Postings for Professionals (with David Deming), Journal of Labor Economics, 2018, 36(S1): pp. S337-S369.
NBER Working Paper No. 23328
Cashier or Consultant? Entry Labor Market Conditions, Field of Study and Career Success (with Joseph Altonji and Jamin Speer), Journal of Labor Economics, 2016, 34(S1, part2): pp. S361-S401.
NBER Working Paper No. 20531
Employer Learning, Productivity and the Earnings Distribution: Evidence from Performance Measures (with Fabian Lange), Review of Economic Studies, 2014, 81(4): pp. 1575-1613.
Reprinted in Learning and Labor Markets, 2017, edited by Michael Waldman
IZA Discussion Paper No. 5054
Trends in Earnings Differentials across College Majors and the Changing Task Composition of Jobs (with Joseph Altonji and Jamin Speer), American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 2014, 104(5): pp. 387-93.
Asymmetric Information between Employers, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2013, 5(4): pp. 165-205.
Reprinted in Learning and Labor Markets, 2017, edited by Michael Waldman
IZA Discussion Paper No. 7174
The Plight of Mixed Race Adolescents (with R.G Fyer Jr., S.D. Levitt, and J.L. Spenkuch), Review of Economics and Statistics, 94(3): pp. 621-634.
[Lead Article]
NBER Working Paper No. 14192
The Long-Term Labor Market Consequences of Graduating from College in a Bad Economy, Labour Economics, 2010, 17(2): pp. 303-316.
[Lead Article]
WINNER: Prize for the best paper in Labour Economics, 2010-11
Book Chapters
“Incentivizing Learning-By-Doing: The Role of Compensation Schemes” (with Joshua S. Graff Zivin and Matthew Neidell), in Workplace Productivity and Management Practices (Research in Labor Economics, Vol 49), Polachek, S. W., Tatsiramos, K., Russo, G. and van Houten, G. (Ed.), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, 2021.
NBER Working Paper # 25799, August, 2020.
Edited Volumes
(edited with Erik Hurst) Supplement to the Journal of Labor Economics, Wage Dynamics in the 21st Century, Vol. 41(S1), October 2023.
(edited with Daniel Aaronson and Christopher Taber) Supplement to The Journal of Labor Economics, Papers in Honor of Joseph G. Altonji, Vol. 39(S1), January 2021.
Other Publications
“Overview: Wage Dynamics in the 21st Century,” with Erik Hurst, Journal of Labor Economics, 2023. 41(S1): pp. S1-S12.
“Introduction to Volume in Honor of Joseph G. Altonji,” with Daniel Aaronson, Costas Meghir, and Christopher Taber, Journal of Labor Economics, 2021. 39(S1): pp. S1-S3.
The Great Recession Drastically Changed the Skills Employers Want (with Brad Hershbein), Harvard Business Review, 2017, October.
Unemployment Insurance and Job Search in the Great Recession: Comments and Discussion, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2011, Fall.
Working Papers
Racial and Ethnic Inequality and the China Shock (with Lindsay Oldenski and Geunyong Park), August, 2023. NBER Working Paper No. 30646.
[Reject and Resubmit: American Economic Journal: Policy]
The Effect of a Peer's Teen Pregnancy on Sexual Behavior (with Priyanka Anand), October 2023. NBER Working Paper No. 31228.
[Revise and Resbumit: Journal of Health Economics]
“Do Workforce Development Programs Bridge the Skills Gap?” (with Eleanor W. Dillon, Joanna Venator, and Michael Dalton), December, 2023.
“Do Online Job Postings Capture Job Vacancies?” (with Michael Dalton and Andreas Mueller), October, 2023.
Searching, Recalls, and Tightness: An Interim Report on the COVID Labor Market (with Eliza Forsythe, Fabian Lange, and David G. Wiczer), NBER Working Paper No. 28083, November 2020.
Labor Supply in the time of COVID-19 (with Fabian Lange and David Wiczer), March 2020.
The Minimum Wage, Fringe Benefits, and Worker Welfare (with Jeffrey Clemens and Jonathan Meer), NBER Working Paper No. 24635, May 2018.
[Appendix -- Response to Cengiz]
Work in Progress
Why Did Vacancies Decline during the Pandemic Recession? (with Eliza Forsythe, Fabian Lange, and David Wiczer)
The Black-White Employment Gap and the Job Ladder (with Amanda Agan)
Gender Targeting in U.S. Newspaper Ads: 1940-2000 (with Enghin Atalay)
Grants
Smith Richardson Foundation for “Public-Private Training Programs and the Skills Gap” ($159,774), with Eleanor Dillon 2020-2022.
Teaching
Undergraduate Teaching:
Freakonomics 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 University of Rochester
Junior Writing Workshop 2015-16, Princeton
Graduate Teaching:
Graduate labor economics 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 University of Rochester
Applied Econometrics 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 University of Rochester
MBA Teaching at Yale School of Management:
Freakonomics 2015, 2017, 2018
Competitive Strategy and the Internal Organization of the Firm, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
The Employee Perspective, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
The Employee Perspective, Executive MBA Program, 2015, 2016, 2017
PhD Students
Name, school-year, first placement, current placement
Priyanka Anand, Yale-2012, Mathematica, George Mason University
Erica Blom, Yale-2013, Edgeworth, Urban Institute
Jamin Speer, Yale-2014, University of Memphis
Emily Nix, Yale-2016, University of Southern California, Marshall
Victor Hernandez Martinez, Rochester-2021, Cleveland Fed
Zibin Huang, Rochester-2021, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
Alexis Orellana, Rochester-2021, postdoc at BU, SESP Northwestern (lead economist)
Josh Hollinger, Rochester-2022, Dordt College
Hyun Yeol Kim, Rochester-2022, Korea Institute of Finance
Kaixin Liu, Rochester-2022, Jinan University
Geunyong Park, Rochester-2023, Singapore National University
Chengdi Hu, Rochester-2023, Analysis Group
Klint Mane, Rochester-2023, Keystone
Kai-Jie Wu, Rochester-2023, Penn State
Updated: January-2024