Speaker: Professor Christopher R. Bollinger，University of Kentucky
Host: Shihe Fu, Associate Professor, RIEM
Time: 9:30-11:00, June 12, Thursday
Venue: 经世楼C204, Liulin Campus
Abstract: The Appalachian region has experienced persistently higher poverty and lower earnings than the rest of the United States. We examine whether lower skill differentials or differences in the returns to those skills lie at the root of the persistent Appalachian wage gap. Using Census data, we decompose the Appalachian wage gap using both mean and full distribution methods. Our findings suggest that significant upgrading of skills within the region has prevented the gap from widening over the last 30 years. Additionally we find that urban areas within Appalachia have not experienced the rise in returns to skills that have been exhibited in non-Appalachian urban areas.
About the speaker: Christopher R. Bollinger is a Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Kentucky and holds a Gatton Professorship in the Gatton College of Business and Economics. Dr. Bollinger is also an affiliate of the U.K. Center for Poverty Research, and has seved as the Associate Director. He has been an Assistant Professor of Economics at both the UniversityofKentuckyand Georgia State University. He received his B.B.A. in Economics at Michigan State University and earned both an M.S. and Ph.D. in economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Professor Bollinger’s research has focused on data quality issues in estimation of micro economic models. His work on measurement error has been published in journals such as Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of the American Statistical Association, and Journal of Econometrics. Recent work has focuses on item non-response and has been published in the Journal of Labor Economics. Professor Bollinger also has interests in Urban Economics and Labor Economics. His work in these areas has been published in journals such as the Journal of Labor Economics and the Journal of Urban Economics. Professor Bollinger has served as Co-editor for the Southern Economic Journal and is currently an Associate Editor of the Journal of Econometric Methods.
His personal web site is http://gatton.uky.edu/faculty/bollinger/index.html.
