Stephen J. Rose
Research Professor, Institute of Public Policy, The George Washington University
Chapter Member: Maryland-Washington, D.C. SSN
Areas of Expertise:
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About Stephen
Rose’s areas of expertise include inequality, the state of the middle class, higher education, workplace skills, and the structure of the economy.
Contributions
Did U.S. Income Inequality Rise or Fall during the Recent Great Recession?
Key Findings Brief,
In the News
Quoted by Jim Tankersley in "Why the Upper Middle Class Might be the Real Target of Today’s Anger," The Washington Post, June 21, 2016.
Quoted by James Pethokoukis in "Have Worker Wages Really Gone Nowhere since the 1970s?," American Enterprise Institute, July 6, 2015.
Quoted by Akane Otani in "The Value of a College Degree is More Obvious than Ever," Bloomberg, April 13, 2015.
Research discussed by , in "Study: Customized Goods and Services Growth Area for College Grads," Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, April 13, 2015.
Quoted by Michael A. Fletcher in "Is the American Middle Class Doing Better than We Think?," The Washington Post, February 18, 2015.
Research discussed by , in "Inequality Has Actually Not Risen Since the Financial Crisis," New York Times, February 17, 2015.
Research discussed by , in "If Affirmative Action is Doomed, What’s Next?," New York Times, June 17, 2014.
Publications
"The Undereducated American," (with ), Georgetown Center on Education and Workforce, 2011.
Focuses on wage premiums of college-educated workers to project how we could meet Obama’s objective of having 60 percent of young people receive some sort of postsecondary credential.
"The False Claim That Inequality Rose during the Recession," The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, February 2015.
Criticizes Saez’s widely-cited finding that 95 percent of incomes gains from 2009 to 2012 went to the richest 1 percent as being based on ‘cherry-picked’ years. Uses Saez’s own data and data from the Congressional Budget Office to argue that income inequality moved slightly down since the onset of the Great Recession in 2007 and that government social insurance and tax policies were very important in offsetting market income losses.
"Was JKF Wrong? Does Rising Productivity No Longer Lead to Substantial Middle Class Income Gains?," The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, December 2014.
Criticizes Piketty and Saez’s widely-cited findings that 91 percent of incomes gains from 1979 to 2007 went to the richest 1 percent from 2009 to 2012, resulting in paltry gains (5 percent) for the bottom 90 percent of the income ladder. Uses data from the Congressional Budget Office to argue that the bottom 90 percent had substantial gains in their living standards (from 30-50 percent) because they received 47 percent of income growth over these years.
"Social Stratification in United States" (The New Press, 2014).
Discusses the division of the population by gender, household status, family income, education, race/ethnicity, and wealth, beginning with the ironic observation that the original 1978 edition presented the country as being very unequal, yet now inequality is much greater.
"Certificates: The Gateway to Gainful Employment and College Degrees," (with ), Georgetown Center on Education and Workforce, June 2012.
Presents all of the available data on post-secondary certificates in terms of who gets them, where they earn their certificates, and how much they earn for each type of certificate.
"Rebound: How America Will Emerge Stronger after the Financial Crisis" (St. Martin’s Press, 2010).
Addresses the strengths and weakness of our current economy in terms of income inequality, stagnant earnings, occupations, education, access to health care, and readiness for retirement.