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Francine Blau

Frances Perkins Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Professor of Economics, Cornell University
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About Francine

Blau has written extensively on gender issues, wage inequality, immigration, and international comparisons of labor market outcomes. She serves as a Research Associate of the NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research), and a Research Fellow of IZA (Institute for the Study of Labor); CESIfo (Institute for Economic Research); and DIW (German Institute for Economic Research).

Contributions

Why Do American Women Continue to Earn Less than Men?

  • Lawrence Kahn

In the News

Francine Blau quoted by Liz Kennedy and Vikram Singh, "Drivers of Authoritarian Populism in the United States" Center for American Progress, May 10, 2018.
Francine Blau's research on Maggie Koerth-Baker, "The Pay Gap is Way Too Entrenched to be Solved by Women Alone," April 10, 2018.
Francine Blau's research on Stacey Vanek Smith and Cardiff Garcia, "Mind the Pay Gap," NPR, April 9, 2018.
Francine Blau's research on Claire Cain Miller, "Children Hurt Women’s Earnings, but Not Men’s (Even in Scandinavia)," New York Times, February 5, 2018.
"Analysis: Why Women Continue to Make Less Than Men," Francine Blau (with Lawrence Kahn), PBS News Hour, September 29, 2017.

Publications

"At Home and Abroad: US Labor Market Performance in International Perspective" (with Lawrence Kahn) (Russell Sage Foundation, 2002).

Discusses the relationship between different economic responses and outcomes

"Is There Still Son Preference in the United States?," (with Lawrence Kahn), The National Bureau of Economic Research, September 1, 2017.

Uses 2008-2013 American Community Survey data to update and further probe Dahl and Moretti’s (2008) son preference results, which found evidence that having a female first child increased the probability of single female headship and raised fertility.

"The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Sources" (with Lawrence Kahn). Journal of Economic Literature 55, no. 3 (2017): 789-865.

Provides new empirical evidence on the extent of and trends in the gender wage gap, which declined considerably over the period between 1980 and 2010.

"Chapter 15: Immigration and the Distribution of Incomes" (with Lawrence Kahn), in Handbook of the Economics of International Migration, edited by Barry R. Chiswick, Paul W. Miller (Elsevier B.V., 2015), 793-843.

review research on the impact of immigration on income distribution, surveying studies from a variety of countries. Immigration may affect the skill composition of a country's residents and also, by changing relative factor supplies, its relative factor prices. 

"At Home and Abroad: US Labor Market Performance in International Perspective" (with Lawrence Kahn) (Russell Sage Foundation, 2002).
"Gender Differences in Pay" (with Lawrence Kahn). American Economic Association 14, no. 4 (2000): 75-99.

 Considers the gender pay gap in the United States. Both gender-specific factors, including gender differences in qualifications and discrimination, and overall wage structure, the rewards for skills and employment in particular sectors, importantly influence the gender pay gap.