Submission Deadline April 15, 2022
Notification Deadline May 15, 2022
Organizers
Katharine G. Abraham (University of Maryland and IZA)
Susan N. Houseman (Upjohn Institute and IZA)
Keynote Speaker
Bruce Meyer (University of Chicago), "The Geographical Adjustment of Poverty Thresholds"
About the Workshop
A central concern for economic policymakers around the world is the standard of living enjoyed by their country’s population. Living standards depend on many factors, including workers’ wages and hours, the availability of jobs, living costs, and the adequacy of social insurance programs and the social safety net. Living standards for those at the bottom of the income distribution are a particular concern. This focus reflects concerns about mismatch between job requirements and workforce skills, the adequacy of the wages paid to low skill workers, and shifts in the labor market towards more precarious work arrangements. In developed countries with an aging population, the maintenance of living standards in retirement is another significant policy concern. Even within countries, incomes often vary significantly across geographic areas. Whether geographic differences in income translate into geographic differences in living standards, however, depends among other things on the variation across areas in living costs and local amenities. Over the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has raised new concerns about living standards, particularly for less skilled workers and workers in the developing world.
The purpose of the 2022 workshop of IZA’s “Labor Statistics” program area is to bring together senior and junior researchers to discuss their recent empirical research related to incomes, living costs, and standards of living. Among other possible topics, papers of interest might present new measurement approaches or evidence regarding:
- Trends in job quality
- The measurement of poverty and trends in poverty over time
- Differences in living costs and living standards across demographic and income groups
- Geographic differences in living costs and living standards
- Drivers of inequality in living costs and living standards
- Changes in living costs and living standards during the COVID pandemic
Strong preference will be given to papers that have an explicit measurement focus or that develop or make use of novel data - including data from surveys, administrative records, linked data sets, or proprietary sources - to produce better measurements or fill data gaps related to the workshop topic while addressing substantive questions.
Submission
Researchers interested in participating should submit a full paper or extended abstract by
April 15, 2022. Notification of acceptances will be provided by May 15, 2022.
Itt is expected that the submitter will also be the presenter of the paper.
Workshop sessions tentatively will be scheduled from 16:00 to 19:00 Central European Summer Time each day of the workshop, which equates to 10:00 to 13:00 Eastern Daylight Time and 7:00 to 10:00 Pacific Daylight Time. Invited authors are expected to participate in the entire 3-day workshop.
