Miguel Contreras Labor Program
Visiting Scholars 2011-12
Visiting Scholar and Postdoctoral Appointment Program
Randall Akee – USA
Randall Akee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. His research topics cover a wide range, from a survey of remittances in India to forced assimilation and labor market outcomes. He will be at the IRLE from September 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012 and is sponsored by David Card.
Arie Arnon – Israel
Arie Arnon is a Professor in the Department of Economics at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. He is working on a research project, “Monetary Theory and Economic Crises in the Twentieth Century.” He will be at IRLE from September 1, 2011 through August 30, 2012 and will be sponsored my Michael Reich.
Yukiko Asai – Japan
Yukiko Asai is a PhD Candidate in Economics at Keio University,Tokyo.
She will be continuing her research on childbearing and its relation to labor supply and labor market outcomes. She will be at IRLE from September, 2011 through September, 2012 and will be sponsored by David Card.
Michael Coelli – Australia
Michael Coelli is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of Melbourne in Australia. His current research focuses on wage inequality, detailed occupational differences and the gender wage gap, and brain drain in Australia. He will be at the Center for Labor Economics (CLE) from July 25, 2011 through January 25, 2012 and is sponsored by David Card.
Jou-juo Chu – Taiwan
Dr. Jou-juo Chu is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Labor Relations and Institute for Labor Studies at the National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan. She is also the Director at the Research Centre for Global Taiwanese Entrepreneurs. Her research focus is on the brain circulation between Taiwan’s Science Parks and Silicon Valley; building long-distance social and economic networks. She will be at IRLE from June 20, 2011 through September 9, 2011. Her latest publication: “Gender Occupational Segregation in Taiwan, 1996 vs. 2006”, Asia Journal of Global Studies (2008).
Arindrajit Dube – USA
Arindrajit Dube is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Amherst University, MA. His research is with the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics (CWED). He is sponsored by Michael Reich and will be here from January 2010 through June 2012.
Ellen Friedman – USA
Ellen Friedman is a Visiting Scholar working with Katie Quan, CLRE, at Sun Yat-sen Univeristy in Guangzhou this fall, at the International Center for Joint Labor Research. Ms. Friedman has been a key partner in efforts to build academic linkages between labor scholars in China and the US. She will be here from September, 2011 through September, 2012.
Jenny Jansson – Sweden
Jenny Jansson is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the Department of Government, Uppsala University in Sweden. Her research examines the construction of a strong cohesive identity in the Swedish Trade Union Confederation for blue collar workers, the LO, in the 1920s and 1930s. She was will be at IRLE from January 10, 2011 through May 31, 2011 and will be sponsored by David Collier, Robson Professor of Political Science.
Erin Johansson – USA
Erin Johansson is a Deputy Research Director at American Rights at Work in Washington D.C. and writes an online publication titled Eye on the NLRB. She will be continuing her research, legal analysis, and outreach to support pro-worker reforms by the National Labor Relations Board. She is sponsored by Katie Quan and will be at IRLE from April 15, 2010 through March 31, 2011.
Niklas Kaunitz – Sweden
Niklas Kaunitz is a PhD Candidate in Economics at Stockholm University, Sweden. His current research concerns payroll tax cuts as a means for boosting employment, using a recent payroll tax cut in Sweden targeted towards young workers. Another project examines the possibility of evaluating social welfare by using measures of subjective well-being. Niklas will be at the IRLE from September 2011 through June 2012 and is sponsored by Patrick Kline.
Murat G. Kirdar – Turkey
Murat G. Kirdar is an Assistant Professor at the Middle East Technical University in Turkey. He will be continuing his research on labor market policies, migration and employment outcomes. He will be at the IRLE from August 25, 2011 through September 6, 2012. His latest publication: “Labor Market Outcomes, Savings Accumulation and Return Migration”, Labour Economics (2009).
Abby Larson – USA
Abby Larson received her Ph.D. from the New York University (2006-2010) and is now the National Science Foundation and American Sociological Association Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on the social organization of economic life, and in particular explores the intersection of political and cultural dynamics with technology, globalization, and specialized knowledge. Her major current project in this area is a study of global financial markets and is based on data collected in and around major global investment banks in New York, London, and Frankfurt during market crisis in the fall of 2008. At Berkeley, Larson is also affiliated with the University’s Department of Sociology, and the Institute for the Study of Social Issues.
Nelson Lind – USA
Nelson Lind is from St. Olaf College and is comparing the current unemployment status with that of the Great Depression, specifically in terms of distribution of unemployment across demographics. He is also examining the impact of the federal government's Community Renewal Initiative using the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics data set recently published by the Census Bureau. Nelson is at IRLE from August 20, 2010 through August 20, 2011 and is sponsored by David Card.
Richard Murphy
Richard Murphy is a PhD candidate from the Department of Economics at University College, London. He is also a researcher for the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, specializing in the fields of labor and education. Whist here he will continue to work on his PhD thesis, concerning high skill immigration in the UK higher educational system and also the teacher labor market. Richard is sponsored by David Card and will be at IRLE from September 1, 2011 through 23 March 2012.
Andre Nahoum – Brazil
Andre Nahoum is a Doctoral Fellow at the International Max-Planck Institute for the Study of Societies. He will be continuing his research on Selling “Cultures”: The Commodification of Indigenous Knowledge. He will be at the IRLE from August 21, 2011 through January 30, 2012 and will be mentored by Neil Fligstein.
Lauro Ramos - Brazil
Lauro Ramos is a Research Economist at IPEA and Editor of the Journal
“Mercado de Trabalho – Conjuntura e Analise” in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His research is with the Center for Equitable Growth at the IRLE and
focuses on inequality. He will be at the IRLE from February of 2012 through February of 2013 and will be mentored by Emmanual Saez.
Joanna Robinson – Canada
Joanna Robinson recently finished her PhD in Sociology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. She will be completing a cross-national comparative research study on the jus transition to a post-carbon economy in California and British Columbia. She is at IRLE from September 30, 2010 through June 30, 2011 with Karen Chapple as her sponsor. Her latest publication: with David Tindall, “Defending the Forest: Chronicles of Protest at Clayquot Sound”, Writing the West Coast: In Love with Place (2008).
Kevin. T. Schnepel – USA
Kevin T. Schnepel is currently working on his PhD in Economics at the University of California – Santa Barbara and is a teaching and research assistant in the field of economics. He is currently working on a research paper titled “Unbalanced Clusters and Accurate Inference.” He will be at the IRLE from February 2011 through December 2011 and will be sponsored by David Card.
Nicole Schneeweis - Austria
Nicole Schneeweis holds a Post-doc position at the Department of Economics at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz. Her research interests are education economics, labor economics, health and fertility. Currently she is working on segregation of migrants in schools and firms and its consequences for migrants’ economic outcomes. Nicole is mentored by David Card and at IRLE from July 2011 through June 2012.
Robert Scholte
Robert Scholte is a PhD Candidate in Economics at the VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands. His current research focuses on long-run effects of early-life conditions on labor market and health outcomes. He will be at the Center for Labor Economics at the IRLE from September 2011 through December 2011 and will be sponsored by David Card.
Robert Smith – USA
Robert Smith is a PhD Candidate in the Department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley. He will be continuing his research on fair labor standards, specifically comparative study of working sharing programs. He will be at IRLE from January 17, 2011 through December 31, 2011 and will be sponsored by Karen Chapple.
Ilan Tojerow – Belgium
Ilan Tojerow is a visiting researcher from Universite Librede Bruxelles, Belgium, whose research interest is ‘the impact of international trade on the wage structure’. He is here from September, 2009 through August 11, 2011. His sponsor is Professor David Card.
Helena Worthen – USA
Helena Worthen is a Clinical Associate Professor Emeritus at the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois. She is also the Vice President of the United Association for Labor Education. She will be continuing her research in labor education, workforce training, and economic development. She is sponsored by Ken Jacobs and will be at IRLE from August 18, 2011 through May 31, 2012.
