Robert I. Lerman

Professor of Economics
Roper 115
Tel: (202) 885-3761
Fax: (202) 885-3790
rlerman@american.edu

Research Interests
Youth labor force activities. Education and training programs, especially youth apprenticeship. Currently writing a manuscript on U.S. efforts to reform the system for helping young people move from school to careers.

Economic inequality, including approaches that decompose inequality by income source and by population subgroups. Current research has examined how taking account of immigration affects our understanding of inequality trends.

Impacts of welfare programs and welfare reforms; Fatherhood and child support; Economic effects of marriage.

Labor force trends, including the labor market for information technology workers.

Teaching Interests
Labor economics. Public Economics. Social policy issues in the developed and less developed world. Developed new course on Social Policy in Developing and Transition Economies.

Professional Activities
Professor Lerman received his A.B. from Brandeis University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and gave the valedictory address. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before joining AU, Dr. Lerman taught at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Wisconsin, and Brandeis University. He worked as a staff economist for the U.S. Congressional Joint Economic Committee and the U.S. Department of Labor. His 1985 essay, "Separating Income Support from Income Supplementation," won First Prize in a National Essay Contest on An Implementation Strategy for Reforming the Nation's Welfare Programs. Dr. Lerman has served on a National Academy of Sciences panel on post-secondary education and training. As Chair of the AU Department of Economics, he won the University Award for Outstanding Contributions to Academic Development for conceiving and implementing the MA in Financial Economics for Public Policy.

Recent Publications

• "The Impact of Changing US Family Structure on Child Poverty and Income Inequality," Economica, v. 63, no. 250 (S), 1996. S119-S139. Reprinted in volume on International Critical Writings in Economics on Income Distribution.
• "Reassessing trends in U.S. earnings inequality," Monthly Labor Review. December 1997. Won the Howard Rosen award for the Best Article in the MLR by an author outside the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• (with Gregory Acs and Keith Watson), "Carrots and Sticks: Work Incentives Under the New US Income Support System." (In Hebrew) Israel Social Security Journal, 1998.
• "US Wage Inequality Trends and Recent Immigration," American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings. May 1999.
• "Retreat or Reform: New U.S. Strategies for Dealing with Poverty." Social Policy Review 11. Annual Yearbook of Social Policy Association (United Kingdom). 1999.
• (with Elaine Sorensen) "Welfare Reform and Fathers." Challenge, July-August 1998 and "Father Involvement with their Nonmarital Children: Patterns, Determinants, and Effects on Their Earnings." Marriage and Family Review. Vol. 29, Number 3. 2000.
• Helping Disconnected Youth By Improving Linkages Between High Schools and Careers," in America's Disconnected Youth: Toward a Preventative Strategy, edited by Douglas Besharov. Child Welfare Association and American Enterprise Institute. 1999.
• "How Do Income Sources Affect Income Inequality?" in Income Inequality Measurement: From Theory to Practice, edited by Jacques Silber, Kluwer Academic Publishing, 1999.
• "Improving Job Market Outcomes for Youth: The US Experience with Demand-Side Approaches." in Preparing Youth for the 21st Century: The Transition from Education to the Labour Market. Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development. 1999.
• (with C. Eugene Steuerle) "Structured Choice Versus Fragmented Choice: The Bundling of Vouchers." in Vouchers and the Provision of Public Services, edited by C. Eugene Steuerle, Van Doorn Ooms, George Peterson, and Robert Reischauer. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. 2000.
• (with Caroline Ratcliffe) "Are single mothers finding jobs without displacing other workers?" Monthly Labor Review. Vol. 124. No. 7. July 2001. 3-12.
• (with Elaine Sorensen) "Child Support: Interactions Between Private and Public Transfers." Forthcoming in Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the U.S., edited by Robert Moffitt. National Bureau of Economic Research. University of Chicago Press.
• U.S. Income Inequality Trends and Recent Immigration, presented at the Population Association of America meetings in March 2000.

• "Is the School-to-Work Movement On the Right Track?" in The School-to-Work Movement:: Origins and Destinations. William J. Stull and Nicholas M. Sanders (Eds.) Westport, CT: Praeger Press. Forthcoming 2002.

[phone] 202-885-3770
[fax] 202-885-3790
econ@american.edu

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Updated: 09/23/2004