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Dan A. Black

University of Chicago and NORC at the University of Chicago, USA, and IZA, Germany

This is an exciting outreach program. I very much hope that the IZA World of Labor improves the ability of policymakers to make data drive decisions in Germany, Europe, and throughout the world

IZA World of Labor role

Author

Current position

Professor and Deputy Dean, Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago, USA

Research interest

Labor economics, applied econometrics

Website

http://bit.ly/Black_Chicago

Positions/functions as a policy advisor

Member, National Academies Sciences, Committee on National Statistics, Standing Committee on the Future of Major NSF-Funded Social Surveys, September 1, 2015 to October 31, 2016; Co-Research Director, CWICstat, 2009–2014; Committee on National Statistics of the National Academy of Science Panel, “Assessing the Benefits of the American Community Survey for the NSF Survey of College Graduates,” 2007–2009

Past positions

Trustee Professor of Economics, Syracuse University, 2004–2007; Professor of Economic, Syracuse University, 1999–2004; Assistant, Associate, and Professor of Economics, University of Kentucky, 1983–1999

Qualifications

PhD Economics, Purdue University, 1983

Selected publications

  • “The impact of the great migration on the mortality of African-Americans: Evidence from deep south” American Economics Review 105:2 (2015): 477–503 (with S. Sanders, E. Taylor, and L. Taylor).

  • “Predictive inference using latent variables with covariates.” Psychometrika 80:3 (2015): 727–747 (with L. Schofield, B. Junker, and L. Taylor).

  • “Is the threat of reemployment services more effective than the services themselves? Evidence from UI system using random assignment.” American Economic Review 93:4 (2003): 1313–1327 (J. Smith, M. Berger, and B. Noel).

  • “The impact of economic conditions on disability program participation: Evidence from coal boom and bust.” American Economic Review March 92:1 (2002): 27–50 (with K. Daniel and S. Sanders).

  • “Discrimination in an equilibrium search model.” Journal of Labor Economics 13:2 (1995): 308–333.

article(s)

  • Using natural resource shocks to study economic behavior

    Natural resource shocks can help studying how low-skilled men respond to changes in labor market conditions

    Dan A. Black, December 2019
    In the context of growing worldwide inequality, it is important to know what happens when the demand for low-skilled workers changes. Because natural resource shocks are global in nature, but have highly localized impacts on labor prospects in resource extraction areas, they offer a unique opportunity to evaluate low-skilled men's behavior when faced with extreme variations in local labor market conditions. This situation can be utilized to evaluate a broad range of outcomes, from education and income, to marital and fertility status, to voting behavior.
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  • Matching as a regression estimator

    Matching avoids making assumptions about the functional form of the regression equation, making analysis more reliable

    Dan A. Black, September 2015
    “Matching” is a statistical technique used to evaluate the effect of a treatment by comparing the treated and non-treated units in an observational study. Matching provides an alternative to older estimation methods, such as ordinary least squares (OLS), which involves strong assumptions that are usually without much justification from economic theory. While the use of simple OLS models may have been appropriate in the early days of computing during the 1970s and 1980s, the remarkable increase in computing power since then has made other methods, in particular matching, very easy to implement.
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