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Calbodie (talk) 03:19, 6 November 2019 (UTC)Robert Irving Lerman

Robert I. Lerman is an economist best known for his work on promoting apprenticeship in the US, his research on unwed fathers, and his studies of income inequality. His 1990 publication with Hillard Pouncy, “The compelling case for youth apprenticeship” and his subsequent studies for the Progressive Policy Institute influenced public policy, ultimately leading to School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 and to recent initiatives of the Obama and Trump Administrations to expand apprenticeships. His articles and co-edited book on unwed fathers provided the first quantitative examination of the factors associated with young fathers. Dr. Lerman has testified before the US Congress on youth apprenticeship, child support, and unwed fatherhood. He is currently an Institute Fellow at Urban Institute, Emeritus Professor of Economics at American University, and Research Fellow at IZA (Institute for the Study of Labour, Bonn, Germany). Lerman serves on the board of the International Network for Innovative Apprenticeship and is the founder and president of the American Institute for Innovative Apprenticeship.

'''Biography

Robert I. Lerman was born in South Bend, Indiana, into a Jewish family headed by Nathan and Frances Lerman on January 24, 1944. He is the fourth oldest in a family of nine boys and one girl. He attended Riley High school, where he was on the wrestling and debate teams and where he won first prize at the Indiana state extemporaneous speaking contest. He entered Brandeis University in 1961. As a member of the Brandeis wrestling team, Lerman won the 1965 scholar-athlete award, earned Phi Beta Kappa honors, and gave the valedictory address at his 1965 graduation. He won a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship in becoming an economics graduate student at MIT, where he earned his PhD in 1970. He worked with Malcolm Cohen and Samuel Rea, Jr. to produce the first economic analysis using microdata from the US Current Population Survey. Their work culminated in the monograph, A Micro Study of Labor Supply and the article, “Area Employment Conditions and Labor-Force Participation: A Microstudy”. After graduating from MIT, Lerman taught at the University of Pittsburgh from 1969-1971 and at Herbert Lehman College in 1972 before joining the staff of Congressional Subcommittee on Fiscal Policy of the Joint Economic Committee. Lerman edited and wrote staff publications as part of the Subcommittee’s Studies in Public Welfare, including The Family, Poverty and Welfare Programs. He developed a jobs-oriented welfare reform plan that combined a wage rate subsidy with a guaranteed jobs program. From 1974 to 1976, Lerman became a visiting scholar at the Brookdale Institute in Jerusalem, authoring articles on income and wealth inequality and a critical overview of Israeli housing policy. He married the Institute’s librarian, Ariella Zidon. Lerman returned to the US with Ariella, first becoming a research associate at the University of Wisconsin’s Institute for Research on Poverty and then moving to Washington to become staff economist to the Assistant Secretary of Labor. He worked primarily on President Carter’s jobs-oriented welfare reform proposals and on youth employment issues. While examining research on income support programs, he argued for a focus on what is now known as the Lerman ratio, or the amount recipients gain in income per dollar spent by the government (the ratio is well under 1 because the program induces reductions in work incentives and earnings). In 1980, Lerman became a Senior Research Associate at the Brandeis University Heller School. His research in the 1980s dealt with youth employment patterns and policies as well as unwed and non-custodial fatherhood. He also began his collaborations with Professor Shlomo Yitzhaki on new ways to examine income inequality by income source and by population subgroup. In 1989, Lerman became Professor of Economics and chair of the American University (AU) Department of Economics. Under his leadership, the Department initiated an MA in Financial Economics for Public Policy. In 1995, he became director of the Human Resources Policy Center at the Urban Institute while continuing to teach and conduct research at AU. At Urban Institute, Lerman has conducted many research and evaluation projects, including serving as Principle Investigator of the Evaluation of the Community Healthy Marriage Initiative and of a project sponsored by the US Department of Labor to build Competency-Based Occupational Frameworks for Registered Apprenticeship. In 2012, he created the American Institute for Innovative Apprenticeship as an information clearinghouse on apprenticeship. In 2019, his team at Urban Institute won contracts from the US Department of Labor to expand apprenticeship in the US.

Lerman and his wife have two daughters, Alona and Maya, son-in-law Gilli Stern, and grandson Asher Stern.

Selected HonoursItalic text

'''Books, Monographs
 * First Prize, National Essay Contest for An Implementation Strategy for Reforming the Nation's Welfare Programs, Sponsored by the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies: November 1985
 * American University Award for Outstanding Contributions to Academic Development: May 1994
 * Co-recipient of Howard Rosen Award for Best Article in the 1997 Monthly Labor Review by an author outside the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
 * Elected to Policy Council of the Association for Public Policy and Management: Fall 2007
 * Elected President, Society of Government Economists: 2013.


 * A Micro Model of Labor Supply (with Malcolm Cohen and Samuel Rea, Jr.) Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, 1970.
 * What Works in Youth Employment Policy? How to Help Young Workers from Poor Families, (with Andrew Hahn) National Planning Association, Washington, 1985.
 * Young Unwed Fathers: Changing Roles and Emerging Policies, co editor with Theodora Ooms, Temple University Press, July 1993.
 * Improving Career Outcomes for Youth: Lessons from the U.S. and OECD Experience. Research and Evaluation Monograph Series 01-D.  U.S. Department of Labor, 2001.
 * (with Stephanie R. Cellini). Demography, Education and the Work Force. Greenwood Press. 2009.
 * (with Robert Cherry).  Moving Working Families Forward, NYU Press, 2011.

'''Selected Book Chapters


 * “Do Welfare Programs Affect the Schooling and Work Patterns of Young Black Men?” in The Black Youth Employment Crisis, Richard Freeman and Harry Holzer (eds.), University of Chicago Press, 1986.
 * “Child Support As A Nonwelfare Approach”, in Welfare Policy for the 1990s, David Ellwood and Phoebe H. Cottingham (eds.), Harvard University Press, 1989.
 * “Building Hope, Skills, and Careers: Making a US Youth Apprenticeship System,” in Social Policies for Children, edited by Irwin Garfinkel, Jennifer Hochschild, and Sara McLanahan, The Brookings Institution, 1996.
 * “How Do Income Sources Affect Income Inequality?” in Income Inequality Measurement: From Theory to Practice. edited by Jacques Silber. Kluwer Academic Publishing, 1999.
 * (with Elaine Sorensen) “Child Support: Interactions Between Private and Public Transfers.” in Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the U.S., edited by Robert Moffitt. National Bureau of Economic Research.  University of Chicago Press.  2003.
 * “U.S. Income Inequality Trends and Recent Immigration.” In Inequality, Welfare and Poverty: Theory and Measurement, Volume 9 of Research on Income Inequality, edited by John A. Bishop. Elsevier Science Ltd. 289-307. 2003.
 * “Are skills the problem? Reforming the Education and Training System in the United States” in A Future of Good Jobs.  Upjohn Institute.  2008.  17-80.
 * “Employer-Led Training: Intensive and Extensive Approaches.” In Transforming the U.S. Workforce Development System. Lessons from Research and Practice, edited by David Finegold, Mary Gatta, Hal Salzman, and Susan Schurman. Labor and Employment Relations Association. Cornell University Press. 153-180. 2010.
 * “Economic Perspectives on Marriage: Causes, Consequences, and Public Policy,” in Research Handbook on the Economics of Family Law, edited by Lloyd Cohen and Joshua Wright, Edward Elgar, 2011.
 * “Expanding apprenticeship in the United States: barriers and opportunities.” In Contemporary Apprenticeship: International Perspectives on an Evolving Model of Learning, edited by Alison Fuller and Lorna Unwin. Routledge, 2013.
 * “Skill Development in Middle Level Occupations: The Role of Apprenticeship Training.” In Oxford University Press Handbook on Skills and Training, edited by John Buchanan and David Finegold.
 * “Why Firms Do and Don’t Offer Apprenticeships” in Vocational Education and Training in Times of Economic Crisis: Lessons from Around the World, edited by Matthias Pilz. Springer. 2017.

'''Selected Journal Articles


 * “Area Employment Conditions and Labor Force Participation A Micro Study,” (with Malcolm Cohen and Samuel Rea, Jr.), Journal of Political Economy, September October 1971.
 * “Some Determinants of Youth School Activity,” Journal of Human Resources, Summer 1972.
 * “Conflicting Objectives in Income Maintenance Programs,” (with Alair Townsend), American Economic Association, Papers and Proceedings, May 1974.
 * “Options in Income Support for the Aged: A Critique of the Two Tier Approach,” (with Jack Habib), Journal of Public Economics, April 1979.
 * (with Shlomo Yitzhaki) “Income Inequality Effects by Income Source: A New Approach and Applications to the U.S.,” Review of Economics and Statistics, February 1985.
 * “Employment Opportunities of Young Men and Family Formation,” American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings. May 1989.
 * (with Shlomo Yitzhaki) “Income Inequality and Income Stratification,” Review of Income and Wealth, September 1991.
 * “Child Support Policies,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1993.
 * “The Impact of Changing US Family Structure on Child Poverty and Income Inequality,” Economica, v. 63, no. 250 (S), 1996. S119-S139. Reprinted in the International Library of Critical Writings in Economics: Income Distribution: II, edited by Michael Sattinger.  Edward Elgar Publishing.  Cheltenham, UK.  2001.  104-124.
 * “US Wage Inequality Trends and Recent Immigration,” American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings. May 1999. 23-28.
 * (with Avner Ahituv). “How Do Marital Status, Work Effort, and Wage Rates Interact?” Demography. August 2007, 623-647.
 * “Contributions and Capabilities of Unwed Fathers.” The Future of Children. Fall 2010.