Judith Hellerstein, Ph.D.

Recent Accomplishments

Hellerstein's primary research agenda has been to create and analyze matched employer-employee data sets at the U.S. Census Bureau. She has used these matched data sets to examine the relationship between wages and productivity, and to measure the impact of sex segregation on sex differences in wages. For example, in a paper published in the Journal of Labor Economics in 2003, Hellerstein (along with co-authors Kimberly Bayard, David Neumark, and Kenneth Troske), found that although a sizable fraction of the sex gap in wages is accounted for by the segregation of women into lower-paying occupations, industries, establishments, and occupations within establishments, approximately one-half of the sex wage gap takes the form of wage differences between men and women within narrowly-defined occupations within establishments. In an earlier paper with David Neumark and Kenneth Troske, Hellerstein used matched data from U.S. manufacturing plants to test for the existence of taste discrimination against women. They found evidence that although women working in U.S. manufacturing plants are less productive than men in those plants, the wage gap between women and men exceeds the productivity gap, consistent with discrimination. In other work, Hellerstein and Neumark have used these matched data to explore the impact on wages of English language proficiency for Hispanic workers, and most recently have completed work providing the most comprehensive estimates to date on the extent of segregation by race, sex, ethnicity, and skill in establishments in the United States. The matched data that Hellerstein has been involved in constructing are part of the core data available to researchers through the U.S. Census Bureau's Research Data Centers.

Funded Research

Hellerstein is currently the principal investigator (PI) on an R01 from the National Institute of Child Health and Development. This grant is funding the construction of a new matched employer-employee dataset using information on workers from the most recent (2000) Decennial Census of Population Long Form. The grant is also funding continued research on the extent of workplace segregation in the United States, the importance of spatial mismatch in the labor market outcomes of adults, and the link between residential and workplace segregation.

Future Plans

During the next few years, Hellerstein will continue her work examining the importance of segregation in U.S. labor markets. For example, with the matched employer-employee data she has constructed, she is working on empirical methods to measure the importance and extent of labor market networks in employment outcomes by examining in detail the link between where neighbors live and work. She has also begun a brand new research agenda measuring the changing impact of fathers on the occupation choices of daughters that has arisen as a result of changing labor market opportunities for women.