Research program  
The Institute's research program encompasses many important aspects of the U.S. labor market. The research agenda is determined by the senior staff and reflects their assessment of the needs and opportunities presented by the current policy environment within the guidelines of the Institute's mission. Staff members specialize in specific areas, offering different but complementary perspectives on issues of common concern.

Causes and Consequences of Unemployment

A central aim of the Institute is to produce research on the causes and consequences of unemployment and to design and evaluate policies to assist the unemployed. In recent years, the Institute has concentrated on problems of dislocated and economically disadvantaged workers and has published many studies on this topic. Institute staff and grantees have studied the extent and nature of worker displacement and the roles of search assistance and job training in helping displaced workers return to work. Institute staff have also helped design and evaluate programs that offer innovative ways to assist the economically disadvantaged in overcoming barriers to employment. The scope of the Institute's work on unemployment has expanded in recent years to include international comparative research on Japan, Western Europe, and the United States and to establish systems for the evaluation and management of employment programs in Eastern Europe.

Social Insurance and Income Maintenance Programs

Since 1961, the Institute has investigated the working and effects of the unemployment insurance (UI) system, supporting research that has resulted in publication of over 20 books and monographs on the subject. The Institute has played a key role in designing and evaluating field experiments on innovative reemployment policies, such as the reemployment bonus and alternative work search requirements. The Institute has been closely involved with the efforts of the Advisory Council on Unemployment Compensation, which was established by Congress to reexamine the UI system. In 1995, the Institute hosted a conference, jointly sponsored with the U.S. Department of Labor, that brought together leading scholars and policy makers to discuss current problems facing the UI system.

Institute research on workers' disability compensation (WC) programs has also attracted considerable attention. Several important studies have been undertaken with an emphasis on WC system design and administration in the State of Michigan, as well as in Canada and Australia. A path-breaking joint study with Michigan State University of disability prevention and management techniques helped employers find ways to manage their WC costs. The Institute has also evaluated programs that offer incentives for reducing the use of drugs in the workplace.

Compensation: Earnings and Benefits

The increase in employee benefits, such as pensions and health care costs as a share of total compensation, poses issues that are of growing national importance. In recent years the Institute has actively supported research and has published monographs comparing private pension policies in industrialized countries, examining pension portability and the effects of pensions on job mobility and analyzing the relationship between pensions and retirement behavior. Other supported topics include profit sharing, the tax treatment of fringe benefits, comparable worth, access to health care of uninsured and underinsured workers, and employment effects of health care costs.

The Institute is also involved in research on earnings disparity. It places particular emphasis on studies exploring factors that contribute to earnings disparities among different population groups and within different labor markets.

The Institute's research has recently broadened in scope to include international comparisons of compensation issues. In 1994 the Institute co-hosted a conference on employee benefits that brought leading Canadian and U.S. scholars together to present original research on employee benefits and labor costs in the two countries.

Economic Development and Local Labor Markets

The Institute has traditionally viewed unemployment and other labor market problems as being caused in part by problems with labor demand. Over the years, the Institute has given considerable attention to economic development policies that create more and better jobs. Since most economic development policies in the United States are carried out by state and local governments, the Institute's research on job creation focuses on state and local governments and local labor markets. Local labor markets are also of interest to the Institute as useful laboratories for testing theories about labor market effects of national policies. As states are given more latitude in designing and implementing social programs, the outcomes of their programs offer valuable insight into the effectiveness of a wide range of policies.

Staff projects in this research area include examining the effects of regional development policies on the number and types of jobs created, who benefits from job growth, who gets those jobs, and the adjustment of local markets. An institute staff member is currently studying the effects of metropolitan growth on urban poverty.

In addition, Institute grantees have examined the effects of foreign direct investment in the United States, the efficacy of pursuing subsidies to attract outside businesses, and which types of local governments most vigorously pursue economic development subsidies.

The Institute also maintains a long-standing interest in the economic development of West Michigan. Sophisticated computer modeling is used by senior staff to examine the West Michigan economies. Central to this effort is the quarterly publication Business Outlook for West Michigan, which serves as a primary source for economic data, analysis, and forecasts of local economies of West Michigan.

Family Labor Issues

Family labor issues have become increasingly important in shaping national policy related to welfare reform and reemployment assistance. The growth in female labor force participation and the rise in female-headed households has drawn attention to the employment barriers for women, particularly those barriers associated with child-rearing responsibilities. Institute staff have examined whether the benefits of getting a significant number of welfare mothers to work exceed the cost of providing child care. The Institute has also sponsored a study that surveys child care preferences of workers and the availability of child care facilities within selected communities.

Labor-Management Relations

The Institute has provided considerable grant support over the years for the study of labor-management relations. The Institute views improved labor-management relations as critical to enhancing worker productivity and national competitiveness. Particular interest has focused on research that addresses new developments in labor-management cooperation. Research supported by the Institute in this field includes advance notice of plant closures, worker buyouts, and the effects of economic restructuring on unions. The Institute also published a volume based on the regional hearings of the Dunlop Commission, which was created by Congress to consider the future of worker-management relations and to offer policy suggestions.

Work Arrangements

The Institute supports research on a wide variety of policy issues related to the hours people work and the nature of their employment relationship. The Institute has published several studies of work sharing issues and studies of the effect of technological change on employment and the organization of the workplace. Current research focuses on the causes and consequences of the growth in part-time and temporary employment, multiple job-holding, and contingent workers. Particular emphasis is placed on the effects of these characteristics on worker productivity and household income. The Institute has also given considerable attention to international comparisons of work arrangements.

Workforce Quality: Education and Training

The Institute is actively involved at the local, state and national levels in the developments and evaluation of education and training programs. Recognizing the importance of education and training in enhancing worker productivity and employment security, Institute staff have conducted projects that examine workplace literacy program such as youth apprenticeships and worksite-based education, postsecondary technical education, and education programs for disadvantaged and at-risk individuals. Recently, staff members have also played an active role in the formulation and assessment of policies and programs in other countries, specifically Hungary and Poland.

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