Crandall, Robert W., C. Duncan MacRae, and Lorene Y. L. Yap. 1975. "An Econometric Model of the Low-Skill Labor Market." Journal of Human Resources 10(1):3-24.

The model describes the demand and supply of low-skill labor (private household workers, other service workers, and nonfarm laborers) by state. The parameters of the model are estimated primarily with data aggregated from the March 1970 Current Population Survey for 43 states and groups of states by a simultaneous-equations method. The estimates indicate that demand is slightly inelastic, while both primary (heads of families) and secondary (other family workers) supplies are backward bending, with the large states being on the negatively sloped range. For all but the smallest states, the explanatory power of the model as a whole in 1969 is good.

Dr. Crandall is in the Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Dr. MacRae is on the Senior Research Staff of the Urban Institute; and Dr. Yap is in the Department of Economics of the State University of New York at Binghamton. This research was supported by funds from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Evaluation, and Research, U.S. Department of Labor, and the Social and Rehabilitation Service, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Urban Institute, U.S. Department of Labor, or U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. We wish to thank Christine deFontenay and Christopher Gibbons for proficuous programming assistance and Judith Greenwald and Valerie James for valuable research assistance. We are grateful to Herrington Bryce, Alan Fechter, Charles Holt, and Terence Kelly for helpful comments.

© 2003 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System

US ISSN 0022-166X

Return to JHR Home Page