Richard B Freeman

Biographic Data

ID302185
NAMERichard B Freeman
GIVEN NAMESRichard B
FAMILY NAMEFreeman
SIGNATUREFREEMAN R B
AFFILIATIONSNational Bureau of Economic Research
ORCID0000-0001-9471-8117
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS99
TOTAL CITATIONS479
AUTHOR COUNT97
EDITOR COUNT2
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1941
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2025
H-INDEX13

  • Team incentives and lower ability workers: A real-effort experiment

    Open AccessRichard B Freeman, Xiaofei Pan et al.ARTICLEJournal of Economic Behavior &…2025References: 4

  • Telling about policy: Writing for reflexivity

    Open AccessRichard B Freeman, Richard FreemanARTICLEGlobal Social Policy2023Cited by: 2References: 6

    How might we engage global or transnational practitioners in talking and thinking about policy? This article offers a particular kind of practitioner, already concerned with advocacy, engagement and organizational development, a way of thinking about what they do and, in turn, what policy is and does and how it is made. It presents a research-based, narrative account of a policy officer visiting a country for the first time, as the trip – and the…

  • Trade Unions and the Welfare of Rural-Urban Migrant Workers in China

    Open AccessAlison L Booth, Alison Booth et al.ARTICLEIndustrial and Labor Relations…2022References: 37

    Using a panel survey, the authors investigate how the welfare of rural-urban migrant workers in China is affected by trade union presence at the workplace. Controlling for individual fixed effects, they find the following. Relative to workers from workplaces without union presence or with inactive unions, both union-covered non-members and union members in workplaces with active unions earn higher monthly income, are more likely to have a written…

  • Estimating the energy impact of electric, autonomous taxis: Evidence from a select market

    Open AccessAshley Nunes, Laurena Huh et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Research Letters2021

    Electric, autonomous vehicles promise to address technical consumption inefficiencies associated with gasoline use and reduce emissions. Potential realization of this prospect has prompted considerable interest and investment in the technology. Using publicly available data from a select market, we examine the magnitude of the envisioned benefits and the determinants of the financial payoff of investing in a tripartite innovation in motor vehicle…

  • Handbook of Research on Employee Voice

    Edward Elgar Publishing, Adrian Wilkinson et al.BOOKHandbook of Research on Employee…2020

    202007 bcma

  • From Immigrants to Robots: The Changing Locus of Substitutes for Workers

    Open AccessGeorge J Borjas, Richard B FreemanARTICLERSF The Russell Sage Foundation…2019Cited by: 8

    Using numbers of industrial robots shipped to primarily manufacturing industries as a supply shock to an industry labor market, we estimate that an additional robot reduces employment by roughly two to three workers overall and by three to four workers when robots are likely to be good substitutes for humans. The supply shock also reduces wages. The estimates far exceed those of an additional immigrant on employment and wages. While growth of rob…

  • Weathering the Great Recession: Variation in Employment Responses, by Establishments and Countries

    Open AccessErling Barth, James C Davis et al.ARTICLERSF The Russell Sage Foundation…2017Cited by: 1

    This paper finds that U.S. employment changed differently relative to output in the Great Recession and recovery than in most other advanced countries or in the United States in earlier recessions. Instead of hoarding labor, U.S. firms reduced employment proportionately more than output in the Great Recession, with establishments that survived the downturn contracting jobs massively. Diverging from the aggregate pattern, U.S. manufacturers reduce…

  • Share capitalism and worker wellbeing

    Open AccessAlex Bryson, Andrew E Clark et al.ARTICLELabour Economics2016

    We show that worker wellbeing is determined not only by the amount of compensation workers receive but also by how compensation is determined. While previous theoretical and empirical work has often been preoccupied with individual performance-related pay, we find that the receipt of a range of group-performance schemes (profit shares, group bonuses and share ownership) is associated with higher job satisfaction. This holds conditional on wage le…

  • Share Capitalism and Worker Wellbeing

    Open AccessAlex Bryson, Andrew Eric Clark et al.ARTICLESSRN Electronic Journal2014

  • Failing the Test? The Flexible U.S. Job Market in the Great Recession

    Open AccessRichard B FreemanARTICLEThe Annals of the American…2013Cited by: 4References: 21

    The Great Recession tested the ability of the “great U.S. jobs machine” to limit the severity of unemployment in a major economic downturn and to restore full employment quickly afterward. In the crisis the American labor market failed to live up to expectations. The level and duration of unemployment increased substantially in the downturn, and the growth of jobs was slow and anemic in the recovery. This article documents these failures and thei…

  • The Limits of Altruism: Selecting Living Donors

    Open AccessRichard B FreemanARTICLEThe AMA Journal of Ethic2012

  • Globalization and Inequality

    Richard B FreemanBOOKOxford Handbook of Economic…2011

  • Shared Capitalism at Work: Employee Ownership, Profit and Gain Sharing, and Broad-Based Stock Options

    Douglas Kruse, Douglas L Kruse et al.BOOKShared Capitalism at Work2010

  • Reforming the Welfare State: Recovery and Beyond in Sweden

    Richard B Freeman, Birgitta Swedenborg et al.BOOKReforming the Welfare State2010

    Over the course of the twentieth century, Sweden carried out one of the most ambitious experiments by a capitalist market economy in developing a large and active welfare state. Sweden's generous social programs and the economic equality they fostered became an example for other countries to emulate. Of late, Sweden has also been much discussed as a model of how to deal with financial and economic crisis, due to the country's recovery from a mid-…

  • How Many Highly Skilled Foreign-Born are Waiting in Line for U.S. Legal Permanent Residence

    Open AccessG Jasso, Vivek Wadhwa et al.ARTICLEInternational Migration Review2010Cited by: 11References: 1

    While the United States welcomes foreign-born students and trainees and, less warmly, temporary workers such as H-1B visa holders, it places an array of requirements, obstacles, and delays upon persons who would like to make the U.S. their permanent home. The number of people in the queue for legal permanent residence (LPR) is, however, difficult to ascertain. This paper estimates the number of highly skilled foreign-born persons waiting for LPR …

  • Incarceration, Criminal Background Checks, and Employment in a Low(er) Crime Society

    Open AccessRichard B FreemanARTICLECriminology & Public Policy2008Cited by: 10References: 2

  • Emerging Labor Market Institutions for the Twenty-First Century

    Joni Hersch, Lawrence Mishel et al.BOOKEmerging Labor Market Institutions…2007

  • Seeking a Premier Economy: The Economic Effects of British Economic Reforms, 1980-2000

    David Card, David E Card et al.BOOKSeeking a Premier Economy2007

  • People Flows in Globalization

    Open AccessRichard B FreemanARTICLEThe Journal of Economic…2006Cited by: 18References: 27

    The policy debate over globalization in the past decade has largely bypassed the international mobility of labor. Restrict trade and cries of protectionism resound. Suggest linking labor standards to trade and it's protectionism in disguise. Limit capital flows and the International Monetary Fund is on your back. But restrict people flows? That's just an accepted exercise of national sovereignty! During the last few decades, when most countries r…

  • The advent of open source unionism

    Open AccessRichard B Freeman, Margaret GriecoARTICLECritical Perspectives on…2005

    Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine innovative union use of the internet in the 2000s and to see whether the major union innovations in the USA and UK mark the advent of “open source” union structures. Design/methodology/approach Reviews two important innovations, www.workingamerica.org and www.unionreps.org.uk Examines how they may fit with the open source union design. Findings Both the AFL‐CIO and US union efforts to develop open s…

  • China, India and the Doubling of the Global Labor Force: Who Pays the Price of Globalization

    Open AccessRichard B Freeman, Richard FreemanARTICLEJapan focus2005Cited by: 1

    In this concise article, Harvard Economist Richard Freeman shows us that a spectre is haunting the industrialized societies, and above all the workers of these countries. Though little recognized in Japan and elsewhere, there has been an effective doubling of the global labour force (that is workers producing for international markets) over the past decade and a half, through the entry of Chinese, Indian, Russian and other workers into the global…

  • Inequality around the World

    Lars Osberg, Richard B FreemanARTICLEIndustrial and Labor Relations…2004

    PART I: INTERNATIONAL PATTERNS AND ADVANCED COUNTRIES Wages Around the World: Pay Across Occupations and Countries R.B.Freeman & R.H.Oostendorp Australian Responses to Increases in Unemployment and Wage Inequality: Comparisons with the UK, NZ and USA R.G.Gregory Wage Indexation and the Evolution of Returns to Education in Italy. 1979-1992 M.Manacorda PART II: LESS ADVANCED COUNTRIES Markets, Human Capital, and Inequality: Evidence from Rural Chin…

  • Inequality Around the World

    Open AccessR Freeman, Richard B FreemanBOOKInequality Around the World2002

    One of the most troubling developments of the past two decades has been the dramatic rise in inequality among nations and within nations. This book examines the nature of this development in a variety

  • What Workers Want

    Larry Haiven, Richard B Freeman et al.ARTICLELabour / Le Travail2002

  • The incentive for working hard: Explaining hours worked differences in the US and Germany

    Open AccessLinda A Bell, Richard B FreemanARTICLELabour Economics2001