I am a labor economist with research interests in the U.S. and international labor markets and health policy. My publications focus on gender, race, and class differences in employment, wage rates, hours worked, healthcare outcomes, and economic geography. My current research examines the U.S. healthcare workforce and whether the healthcare sector provides better than average pay. One part of this larger project investigates if wages grew with the expanding demand for healthcare workers between 2001 and 2017. Wage growth in the (1) physicians and surgeons, (2) nurse, (3) healthcare practitioner and technical, (4) healthcare support, and (5) direct patient care jobs were examined. The gender pay gap in each occupation was also investigated. Another paper examines the changing incidence of jobs in the healthcare workforce that paid at least two-thirds or more of the median or mean wage between 2001-2017 in the five listed healthcare occupations. Findings show that healthcare wages in the U.S. are not recession-proof, unlike healthcare employment. Generally, women’s earnings grew at rates that were higher or less negative than rates for men. This trend contributed to narrowing the gender pay gap in every occupation except for nurses.

    In 2006, I was awarded a Fulbright Scholar award to teach at Abo Akademi in Turku/Abo, Finland. This experience helped deepen my research interest in globalization forces, post-neo-liberalist policies, and their relationship to labor market outcomes. I retain a strong interest in studying the Nordic economies and their adaptation to changing global conditions. 

 — Feb 5, 2013 3:03:51 AM