Robert H. Topel

CURRICULUM VITAE
March, 2006

CURRENT POSITIONS

Isidore and Gladys J. Brown Professor, Graduate School of Business,

University of Chicago

Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research

EDUCATION

B.A. (with High Honors), University of California, Santa Barbara, 1974
Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1980

FIELDS OF SPECIALIZATION

Microeconomics, Labor Economics, Industrial Organization, Health Economics

PREVIOUS POSITIONS

Professor of  Economics, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, 1986-1993
Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, University of California, Los Angeles, 1986
Associate Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, University of California, Los Angeles, 1985-86
Associate Professor of Economics, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, 1983-85
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Chicago, 1980-83

OTHER AFFILIATIONS

Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1984—present
Senior Fellow, the Milken Institute, 1999—present

Member, Brookings Panel on Economic Activity, various years.

Visiting Scholar, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, 1990
Research Associate, Economics Research Center, NORC, 1980—1990 
Consulting Economist, The Rand Corporation, 1982—1989  
Research Associate, Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, 1980—present
Faculty Research Fellow, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1981-83
Research Economist, Unicon Corporation, 1981-88

Consultant, U.S. Department of Labor, 1985-90

Partner, Chicago Partners LLC 1994-present

 

EDITORIAL POSITIONS

Associate Editor, Journal of Labor Economics, 1982-92
Board of Editors, American Economic Review, 1992-94
Editorial Board, International Journal of the Economics of Business, 1993-
Editor, Journal of Political Economy, 1993-2003

Member of the Advisory Board, ERN Labor Journals

HONORS & AWARDS

Kirby Distinguished Visiting Professor, Texas A&M University, 2006

Elected Fellow, Society of Labor Economists, 2004

Research America Eugene Garfield Prize for Medical and Health Research, 2005

Elected Member, Conference on Research in Income and Wealth
Elected Founding Member, National Academy of Social Insurance
William Ladany Research Scholar, University of Chicago, 1989-91
William Fishman Research Scholar, University of Chicago, 1986-87
Smith Richardson Dissertation Fellowship in Political Economy, 1978-79
Foundation for Research in Economics and Education Fellowships, 1975-79
Chancellor’s Intern Fellow, University of California, Los Angeles, 1975-79
University Fellow, Northwestern University, 1975
General Electric Dissertation Fellowship, 1978

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Graduate Economic Theory I, II, III
Competitive Strategy
Advanced Topics in Labor Economics
Advanced Topics in Microeconomics
Managing the Workplace
Industrial Organization/Antitrust
Price Theory

OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Thompson Lecture (Keynote Address), Midwest Economic Association, 2000

Nominating Committee, American Economic Association, 1996, 1997

Program Committee, American Economic Association, 2006-2007.
Organizer, Universities-NBER Research Conference: “Labor Markets in the 1990s,” Cambridge, December 1989.
Program Chair, Labor Economics, Econometric Society Meetings, December 1989.
National Science Foundation Review Panel in Economics, 1998, 1999

Pihl Lecturer, Wayne State University, November, 2004

Keynote Address, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Conference on Education and Economic Development, November, 2004.

 

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books:

The Welfare State in Transition, with Richard Freeman and Birgitta Swedenborg. Chicago: University of Chicago Press for NBER, 1997.

Labor Market Data and Measurement, with John Haltiwanger and Marilyn Manser. Chicago: University of Chicago Press for NBER, 1998.

Välfärdsstat i omvandling: Amerikanskt Perspectiv pä den Svenska Modelten, with Richard Freeman and Birgitta Swedenborg. Författarna och SNS Förlag, 1995.

Measuring the Gains from Medical Research: An Economic Approach, with Kevin M. Murphy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (2003).

Reforming the Welfare State: Recovery and Beyond in Sweden, with Richard Freeman and Birgitta Swedenborg, Chicago, Univeristy of Chicago Press for NBER, 2007.

Att Reformera Välfärdsstaten, with Richard Freeman and Birgitta Swedenborg, SNS Förlag, Stockholm, 2006

Articles and Monographs:

“Layoffs, Inventories, and the Demand for Labor,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, December 1980.

“Unemployment Insurance: Survey and Extensions,” Economica 47 (August 1980): 351-79 (with F. Welch)

“Inventory Adjustments, Industry Behavior, and the Business Cycle,” presented at the NBER Conference on Inventories and Business Cycles, March 1980 (with A. Stockman)

“Inventories, Layoffs, and the Short-Run Demand for Labor,” American Economic Review (September 1982): 769-87.

“Experience Rating of Unemployment Insurance and the Incidence of Unemployment,” Journal of Law and Economics (April 1984): 61-90.

“On Layoffs and Unemployment Insurance,” American Economic Review (September 1983): 541-59.

“Equilibrium Earnings, Turnover, and Unemployment: New Evidence,” Journal of Labor Economics (October 1984): 500-22.

“Local Labor Markets,” Presented at Hoover Institution Conference on Labor Markets, January 1983. Journal of Political Economy 94 (June 1986, part 2): 111-43.

“Estimation and Inference in ‘Two-Step’ Econometric Models,” (with K. M. Murphy) Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 3 (October 1985): 370-80.

“Employment Risk, Sectoral Shifts, and Unemployment,” (with G. Neumann), in Studies in Search, ed. N. M. Kiefer and G. R. Neumann. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.

“Unemployment and Unemployment Insurance,” Research in Labor Economics 7 (1985): 91-135.

“Efficient Labor Contracts with Employment Risk,” (with F. Welch), Rand Journal of Economics 17 (Winter 1986): 490-507.

“Financing Unemployment Insurance: History, Incentives, and Reform,” in Unemployment Insurance: The Second Half Century, ed. W. Lee Hansen and J. Byers. University of Wisconsin Press, 1990.

“Sectoral Uncertainty and Unemployment,” UCLA Department of Economics Working Paper No. 384, September 1985 (with L. Weiss), in Employment, Unemployment, and Labor Utilization, ed. R. A. Hart. Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1988.

“The Housing Market in the United States” (with S. Rosen), Journal of Political Economy (August 1988): 718-40.

“What They Say or What They Do? The Use of Survey Data in Predicting Behavior” (with K. M. Murphy), Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, March 1985.

“Unemployment, Risk and Earnings: Theory and Evidence from a Model of Equalizing Wage Differentials” (with K. M. Murphy), in Unemployment and the Structure of Labor Markets, ed. J. Leonard and K. Lang. London: Basil Blackwell, 1986, pp. 103-140.

“Job Mobility, Search, and Earnings Growth: A Reinterpretation of Human Capital Earnings Functions,” Research in Labor Economics 8 (1986): 199-233.

“The Evolution of Unemployment in the United States: 1968-1985” (with K. M. Murphy), The NBER Macroeconomics Annual, vol. 2, 1987, pp. 7-58.

“The Impact of Immigration on the Labor Market,” in Immigration, Trade, and the Labor Market, ed. R. Freeman. University of Chicago Press for NBER, 1988.

“Efficiency Wages Reconsidered: Theory and Evidence” (with K. M. Murphy), in Advances in the Theory and Measurement of Unemployment, pp. 204-40. Edited by Yoram Weiss and Gideon Fishelson. London: Macmillan, 1990.

“Labor Market Adjustments to Increased Immigration,” (with R. LaLonde), in Immigration, Trade, and the Labor Market, ed. R. Freeman. University of Chicago Press for NBER, 1989.

“Job Mobility and the Careers of Young Men” (with M. P. Ward), Quarterly Journal of Economics 107 (May 1992): 441-79.

“Employment Risk, Diversification, and Unemployment,” (with George Neumann) Quarterly Journal of Economics (November 1991): 1341-1365.

“Specific Capital, Mobility, and Wages: Wages Rise with Job Seniority,” Journal of Political Economy 99 (February 1991): 145-76.   Reprinted in Outstanding Contributions in Labor Economics, ed. Orley Ashenfelter, Worth Publishers, 1999: 162-192.

“Specific Capital and Unemployment: Measuring the Costs and Consequences of Worker Displacement.” Carnegie-Rochester Series on Public Policy 33 (1990): 181-214.

“The Assimilation of Immigrants in the United States: Immigrant Quality and the Changing Price of Skills,” In Immigration and the Work Force: Economic Consequences for the United States and Source Areas, ed. G. Borjas and R. Freeman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press for NBER, 1992.

“Trends in the American Labor Market,” GSB Chicago, vol. 12, no. 2, Winter 1990, pp. 11-16.

“Why Has the Natural Rate of Unemployment Increased over Time?” (with K. Murphy and C. Juhn), Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 2 (1991), pp. 75-142.

“Immigrant Quality and Assimilation in the American Labor Market” (with R. LaLonde), American Economic Review, 81 ( May 1991): 297-302.

“Unemployment and Insurance,” in Proceedings of National Academy of Social Insurance, 1992.

“Labor Markets and Economic Growth: Lessons from Korea’s Industrialization, 1970-1990” (with D. Kim), Differences and Changes in Wage Structures, ed. Richard Freeman and Larry Katz (Chicago: University of Chicago Press for NBER, 1995.

“Wage Inequality and Regional Labor Market Performance in the United States,” Labour Market and Economic Performance: Europe, Japan, and the USA, ed. Toshiaki Tachibanaki (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994).

“Discretion and Bias in Performance Evaluation” (with C. Prendergast), European Economic Review 36 (June 1993): 355-65.

“What Have We Learned from Empirical Studies of Unemployment and Turnover?” American Economic Review, 83 (May 1993): 110-115.

“Regional Labor Markets and the Determinants of Wage Inequality,” American Economic Review, 84 (May 1994): 17-22.

“Ekonomiska problem i Sveriges välfärdsstat -- inledning, sammanfattning och slutsatser,” with Richard B. Freeman and Birgitta Swedenborg. In Välfärdsstat i omvandling: Amerikanskt Perspectiv pä den Svenska Modelten, with Richard Freeman and Birgitta Swedenborg. Författarna och SNS Förlag, 1995.

“Lönepolitik och strukturomvandling,” with Per-Anders Edin. In Välfärdsstat i omvandling: Amerikanskt Perspectiv pä den Svenska Modelten, with Richard Freeman and Birgitta Swedenborg. Författarna och SNS Förlag, 1995.

“Favoritism in Organizations” (with C. Prendergast), Journal of Political Economy 104 (October 1996): 958-78.

“Another Look at Look Labor Market Adjustments to Increased Immigration” (with J. Hojvat-Gallin and R. LaLonde), 1996.

“Economic Impact of International Migration and the Economic Performance of Migrants,” (with R. LaLonde), in Handbook of Population and Family Economics, ed. Mark R. Rosenzweig and Oded Stark (Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1997), pp. 799-850.

“Economic Troubles in Sweden's Welfare State,” in The Welfare State in Transition, ed. Richard Freeman, Robert Topel, and Birgitta Swedenborg. Chicago: University of Chicago Press for NBER, 1997.

“Wage Policy and Restructuring: The Swedish Labor Market Since 1960” (with Per-Anders Edin), in The Welfare State in Transition, ed. Richard Freeman, Robert Topel, and Birgitta Swedenborg. Chicago: University of Chicago Press for NBER, 1997.

“Unemployment and Nonemployment” (with Kevin M. Murphy), American Economic Review 87 (May 1997): 295-300.

“Factor Proportions and Relative Wages: The Supply Side Determinants of Wage Inequality,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 11 (Spring 1997): 55-74.

“Empirical Knowledge in Labor Economics,” in Labor Market Data and Measurement, ed. John Haltiwanger, Marilyn Manser, and Robert Topel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press for NBER, 1998.

“Labor Markets and Economic Growth,” in Handbook of Labor Economics, ed. Orley Ashenfelter and David Card.  Amsterdam: Elsevier Science B.V., 1999, pp. 2943-2984.

“Medical Research: What's It Worth?” (with K. M. Murphy), Milken Institute Review: A Journal of Economic Policy (First Quarter 2000): 23-30.

 “Entry, Product Design, and Pricing in an Initially Monopolized Market” (with S. Davis and K. M. Murphy), University of Chicago GSB, September 2001, revised January, 2003. Journal of Political Economy, vol. 112 no. 1, pt. 2, February, 2004, pp188-225.

“Adverse Price Effects of Entry in Markets with Few Firms” (with Steven J. Davis and Kevin M. Murphy), Working Paper, University of Chicago, April 2001.

“The Economic Value of Medical Research” (with Kevin M. Murphy), in Measuring the Gains from Medical Research: An Economic Approach, edited by Kevin M. Murphy and Robert H. Topel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,  2003, pp 41-73.

“Current Unemployment, Historically Contemplated” (with Kevin M. Murphy and Chinhui Juhn), Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 1.  Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 2002.

“Estimation and Inference in Two-Step Econometric Models” (with K.M. Murphy), Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 20, issue 1, 2002: 88-97 (reprint: 20th Anniversary issue of the most important contributions published in JBES).

“Labor Markets in the United States and Korea: Factor Proportions, Inequality, and Unemployment”  Paper presented at the 2002 EWC/KDI Conference on “Macroeconomic Implications of Post-Crisis Structural Change”, East-West Center, Honolulu, July, 2002.  Macroeconomic Implications of Post-Crisis Structural Change, KDI press, 2003. 

“Diminishing Returns?  Evidence on the Costs and Benefits of Improving Health” (with K.M. Murphy) November, 2002, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, volume 46, no. 3, (Summer, 2003): pp108-128.

“War vs. Containment” (with S.J. Davis and K.M. Murphy), March 2003; presented at NBER Conference on National Security Economics, November 2003.

“Black-White Differences in the Economic Value of Improving Health”, Working Paper, University of Chicago, December, 2001 revised August 2004 (with K. M. Murphy).  Presented at the National Institutes of Health Conference on Racial Disparities in Health Outcomes, December, 2001. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, Summer, 2004.

“The Value of Health and Longevity”(with K.M. Murphy), Revised March, 2005, NBER Working Paper #11405, June, 2005.  Winner of the Eugene Garfield Economic Impact of Medical Research Prize, given by Research America, 2005.  Journal of Political Economy, 2006 (forthcoming)

“The Private and Social Benefits of Education”, (with Fabian Lange), Handbook of the Economics of Education, North-Holland, 2006 (forthcoming).

“The Social Value of Education”, Keynote Address, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Conference on Education and Economic Development, November 2004,  in Education and Economic Development, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Economic Review, 2004, pp 47-58.

“On Human Capital and Economic Growth” (with Fabian Lange), Working Paper, University of Chicago, September, 2005. 

“Wage Determination and Employment in Sweden Since 1990”, (with Peter Fredricksson), Working Paper, University of Chicago and Uppsala University, December, 2005.

“Reforming the Welfare State” (with Richard Freeman and Birgitta Swedenborg), Chapter 1 in Reforming the Welfare State, University of Chicago Press for NBER, 2007.

“Äterhämtning och terstaende problem I den svenska valfardsstaten—inlendning, sammanfattning och slutsatser” in Att Reformera Välfärdsstaten, with Richard Freeman and Birgitta Swedenborg, SNS Förlag, Stockholm, 2006, 9-34.

”Forandrade forutsattningar for svensk lonebildning” (with Peter Fredriksson), in Att Reformera Välfärdsstaten, with Richard Freeman and Birgitta Swedenborg, SNS Förlag, Stockholm, 2006,  65-82.

”War in Iraq versus Containment” (with Steven J. Davis and Kevin M. Murphy), for CESifo Conference “Guns and Butter: The Economic Causes and Consequences of Conflict”, Munich, December 2005, February, 2006.

Congressional Testimony and Presentations:

“Unemployment and Insurance,” Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, April 23, 1991.

“The Economic Value of Medical Research,” Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, May 10, 2001.

“The Value of Improvements in Health and Longevity”, Presentation for Congressional Staff and the American Cancer Society, Washington, July, 2005.

Selected Reports:

“Unemployment Insurance Financing and Unemployment: Empirical Investigation of Adverse Incentives,” Final Report, U.S. Department of Labor Contract No. B9M22046, November 1982.

“Unemployment and Unemployment Insurance,” Final Report, U.S. Department of Labor, ETA, May 1984.

“Local Labor Markets,” Final Report, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, March 1984.

“The Use of Survey Data in Predicting Behavior: The Case of Enlistment Intentions,” Final Report, U.S. Department of Defense, May 1985.

“Equalizing Wage Differences,” Final Report, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, August 1985.

“Sectoral Change and Worker Displacement,” Final Report, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, March 1990.

Book Reviews:

Employment Hazards by W. Kip Viscusi. In Journal of Economic Literature, March 1982.

Handbook of Labor Economics, ed. O. Ashenfelter and R. Layard. In Journal of Economic Literature, 1988.

Selected Comments:

“Comment on ‘Some Recent Developments in Labor Economics and Their Implications for Macroeconomics’,” Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 20 (August 1988, part 2).

“Comment on ‘Industry Rents: Evidence and Implications’,” (by Lawrence Summers and Lawrence Katz) Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., 1989.

“Comment on ‘Wage Dispersion between and within U.S. Manufacturing Plants’, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1991.

“Comment on ‘Why Is the U.S. Unemployment Rate So Much Lower?’” NBER Macroeconomics Annual, 1998, pp. 67-72.

“Comment on ‘Does Immigration Grease the Wheels of the Labor Market?’” by George J. Borjas. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. edited by William C. Brainard and George L. Perry. Washington, D.C. Brookings Institution, 2001.

“Comment on ‘Where did the Productivity Growth Go?  Inflation Dynamics and the Distribution of Income’” by Ian Dew-Becker and Robert J. Gordon. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. edited by William C. Brainard and George L. Perry. Washington, D.C. Brookings Institution, 2006.