Richard B. Freeman holds the Herbert Ascherman Chair in Economics at Harvard University. He is currently serving as Faculty Director of the Labor and Worklife Program at the Harvard Law School. He is also director of the Labor Studies Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Senior Research Fellow in Labour Markets at the London School of Economics' Centre for Economic Performance, and visiting professor at the London School of Economics.

Professor Freeman is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of Sigma Xi. He has served on five panels of the National Academy of Sciences, including the Committee on National Needs for Biomedical and Behavioral Scientists. He has published over 300 articles dealing with a wide range of research interests including the job market for scientists and engineers; the growth and decline of unions; the effects of immigration and trade on inequality; restructuring European welfare states; Chinese labor markets; transitional economies; youth labor market problems; crime; self-organizing non-unions in the labor market; employee involvement programs; and income distribution and equity in the marketplace. He is currently directing the NBER / Sloan Science Engineering Workforce Project (with Daniel Goroff).

In addition, he has written or edited over 35 books, several of which have been translated into French, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese. Some of his books include: America Works: The Exceptional Labor Market (2007), What Workers Want? (2006, 1999), Seeking a Premiere League Economy (2004), Emerging Labor Market Institutions for the 21st Century (2004), Can Labor Standards Improve Under Globalization? w/ Kimberly Ann Elliott (2003), Inequality Around the World - IEA Conference Volume #134 (2002),Youth Employment and Joblessness in Advanced Countries (2000), The New Inequality: Creating Solutions for Poor America (New Democracy Forum Series) (1999), Generating Jobs: How to Increase Demand for Less-Skilled Workers (1998), The Welfare State in Transition: Reforming the Swedish Model (1997), Differences and Changes in Wage Structures (1995), Working Under Different Rules (1994), Small Differences that Matter: Labor Markets and Income Maintenance in Canada and the United States (1993), Immigration and the Work Force: Economic Consequences for the United States and Source Areas (1992), Immigration, Trade and the Labor Market (1991), Labor Markets in Action: Essays in Empirical Economics (1989), Public Sector Unionism in the U.S. (1987), The Black Youth Employment Crisis (1986), What Do Unions Do? (1984), The Youth Joblessness Problem (1981), Labor Economics (1979), and The Overeducated American (1976).

To see a full list of publications in Freeman's cv: An unformated version in html is also available.

To request papers write to <jennifer@nber.org>

Some individual papers available for download here:

Articles and books published by NBER (including Working Papers) can be ordered on-line at .

DATASETS: the following data sets can be downloaded free:

1995 Worker Representation and Participation Survey

Occupational Wages around the World (OWW) Database

NBER Public Sector Collective Bargaining Law Data Set

Boston Youth Labor (Market) Survey, 1980, 1989

To contact Richard B. Freeman:

Portrait of Alida and Richard Freeman
by Jennifer Amadeo-Holl

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