Kathryn A. Edwards

@keds_economist on Twitter

Economist; Professor, Pardee RAND Graduate School

Washington Office

Education

Ph.D. in economics, University of Wisconsin at Madison; M.S. in economics, University of Wisconsin at Madison; B.A. in economics, government, plan ii (humanities), University of Texas at Austin

Media Resources

This researcher is available for interviews.

To arrange an interview, contact the RAND Office of Media Relations at (310) 451-6913, or email media@rand.org.

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Overview

Kathryn Anne Edwards (she/her) is an economist at the RAND Corporation and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Her research focuses on the intersection of labor markets and public policy, including unemployment and unemployment insurance (UI); women's labor supply after children; the challenge facing women in retirement; poverty alleviation; and Social Security. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Edwards completed her Ph.D. in economics at the University of Wisconsin. While a student, she was a trainee at the Center for Demography and Human Ecology, a graduate fellow of the Institute for Research on Poverty, and a summer fellow at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago through the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession.

Research Focus

Pardee RAND Graduate School Courses

Issues of Modern Labor Economics

Selected Publications

Kathryn Anne Edwards, "Who Helps the Unemployed? Workers' Receipt of Public and Private Cash Transfers," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, 9(1), 2020

Kathryn Anne Edwards; Jeffrey B Wenger, "Parents of an Unemployed Child: Labor Supply, Consumption, and Savings Effects," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, 8(1), 2019

Jennifer L. Scott, Kathryn Anne Edwards, and Alexandra Stanczyk, "Moonlighting to the Side Hustle: The effect of working an extra job on household poverty for households with less formal education," Families in Society, 101(3), 2020

Jason Wards and Kathryn Edwards, "CPS Nonresponse During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Explanations, Extent, and Effects," Labour Economics, 72(October), 2021

Recent Media Appearances

Interviews: Barron's; Bloomberg News; Bloomberg Opinion; Bloomberg Radio; Great Ideas podcast; KCBS-AM; KPCC-FM; Marketplace Radio; NPR/All Things Considered; PBS News Hour; SkimmThis; The Skimm; WhoWhatWhy

Commentary

Labor Markets

Long COVID Is a Mass Disability. The Labor Market Is in Denial
Forget the work-from-home revolution or quiet quitting: The COVID-19 pandemic's biggest impact on the U.S. labor market will be as a mass disability event. It's a shock that the economy is not well prepared to handle.
Dec 7, 2022
Bloomberg
$Young Afro-Latina mother taking temperature of her child in bed, photo by Vesnaandjic/Getty Images$
Work-Family Conflicts

Working Moms' Winter Math Is Getting Tougher
Working mothers remain disproportionately responsible for raising children, and no one can work and take care of sick kids at the same time. In the coming months, the tripledemic of COVID, the flu, and RSV will pull a lot of working mothers out of the office for days at a stretch, compounding the obstacles that women already face.
Nov 22, 2022
Bloomberg
Labor Markets

Got a Labor Shortage? Make It Easier to Work
If the United States wants to avoid a long-term worker shortage, it should look to what policy can—but has failed to—fully address. We have a long history using carrots and sticks, but this is a problem we may not be able to cajole or punish our way out of. Finding workers can be as simple as giving more people a chance to work.
Aug 2, 2022
Bloomberg
Employment and Unemployment

Recovered, but Not Whole: U.S. Jobs Rebounded, but Not for Everyone
The U.S. recovery from the pandemic recession has been remarkable. But it's important to note that both the recession and its recovery treated men and women differently, and treated women of color differently than white women.
Jul 18, 2022
The RAND Blog
Pregnancy

Abortion Is Power
The Supreme Court's recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade will affect much more than women's access to abortions. Abortions allowed women to escape abusive and even deadly relationships. Now that door is closing, state by state.
Jul 15, 2022
Bloomberg
Employment and Unemployment

Is a Recession Coming? A Key Indicator Is Also the King of Mixed Messages
When fears of inflation arise in the United States, people start paying a lot of attention to weekly unemployment-insurance claims, as an early indicator of layoffs that could augur a broader slump. But unemployment claims are a flawed gauge that may be particularly skewed by the pandemic.
May 27, 2022
Bloomberg
Labor Markets

A Whole New, Same World
Workers in the United States have emerged from the pandemic with new preferences and demands, but they still lack the power to get what they want. By any meaningful measure, employers are still in charge.
Apr 20, 2022
Bloomberg
Social Services and Welfare

The Marriage Plot
For more than a quarter century, the U.S. government has been sending an unmistakable message to poor, single mothers: Get married. If America genuinely wants to address poverty and achieve gender equality, this has to change.
Apr 4, 2022
Bloomberg
Child Well-Being

America's Experiment in Remedying Child Poverty
Amid the debate over whether the success of the expanded child tax credit in reducing poverty is worth its large price tag, many are missing a crucial feature: It was uniquely well-designed to address the increasingly precarious economic reality that millions of Americans experience.
Feb 8, 2022
Bloomberg
Labor Markets

How to Explain This Weird Job Market
It's tempting to see in 2021 a harbinger of some permanent shift in our labor market, but that would be premature. What is clear is that we will never recreate the world of December 2019. The labor market in 2022 and beyond will reflect not only what workers learned from their pandemic experience, but also how employers and policymakers choose to respond.
Dec 14, 2021
The Wall Street Journal
Labor Markets

Married Moms Aren't Striking Workers, but They Are Saying the Same Thing
If we are in the middle of a labor shortage, recruiting people back into the labor force is key to sustaining a recovery. The historic work choices of married mothers reveal a lot about what might lure people back into the workforce.
Nov 1, 2021
Dallas Morning News
Employment and Unemployment

Will Unemployment Insurance Be Reformed? Ask Businesses, Not Workers
The expiration of pandemic benefits points to the flaw at the heart of unemployment insurance: The constituency that pays for benefits isn't the constituency who receives them. Lasting reform to the unemployment insurance system will mean finding a way to benefit employers directly.
Sep 15, 2021
New York Times
Labor Markets

Job Openings Are at a Record High. Why Aren't People Going Back to Work?
The U.S. labor market had 10.1 million job openings at the end of June, but 8.7 million workers were still unemployed in July. If there are so many more openings than job seekers, why are there unemployed workers left?
Aug 25, 2021
Barron's
Employment and Unemployment

How the Coronavirus Changed the Childcare Debate
Policymakers have long had evidence that childcare enables mothers to work. What the COVID-19 pandemic taught everyone is how the lack of childcare can be a disastrous constraint.
Jul 26, 2021
The RAND Blog
Workforce Management

Should Mothers Work? We've Been Asking the Wrong Question
As schools and day cares closed due to the pandemic, millions of women were driven from the labor market. What is it worth to the United States to have mothers in the workforce?
May 10, 2021
Dallas Morning News
Employment and Unemployment

Will States Take the Wrong Lesson About Unemployment Insurance's Failings?
By shoring up all state-run Unemployment Insurance programs equally, Congress set a precedent that it will intervene to raise benefits at no cost to state trust funds. From the states' perspective, why hike taxes on businesses to maintain robust unemployment benefits if Congress will step in when the economy goes south?
Mar 18, 2021
The RAND Blog
Employment and Unemployment

The Pandemic Is Completely Changing the Way We Treat Unemployment
Unemployment insurance is the most important fiscal response the United States has during a recession, because it sends timely, targeted, and temporary financial assistance to those directly affected by the downturn. What the CARES Act created—remarkably high benefits for more workers—was a short-term experiment born of necessity, but it could have a lasting influence on public policy.
Feb 1, 2021
The Washington Post
Employment and Unemployment

A Bell That Can't Be Unrung: The CARES Act and Unemployment Insurance
The CARES Act broadcasted to everyone that Unemployment Insurance can do better by workers and employers. Congress can debate the hows of permanent reform, but its actions in 2020 proved the need.
Jan 7, 2021
The RAND Blog
Employment and Unemployment

Unemployment Insurance and the Failure to Reform
Unemployment Insurance is the primary U.S. policy tool for sustaining workers during periods of high unemployment. But it has a history of being repeatedly neglected. Federal reform has been stalled for nearly 50 years.
Jan 5, 2021
The RAND Blog
Employment and Unemployment

Without Unemployment Benefits, How Might Americans Make Ends Meet?
Do unemployment benefits keep people from accepting jobs? What effect do they have on the economy? Researchers and policymakers have been debating these issues since COVID-19 led to widespread job losses last spring.
Dec 30, 2020
The RAND Blog
Gender Equity in the Workplace

COVID-19 Gave Managers a Look at Our Home Lives. Will They Now Penalize Women?
The pandemic gave managers a window into the struggles of working women. What will they do with this information? Will they accommodate women by making exceptions to their established norms? Or will they do the harder work of remaking their culture so women are no longer the exception?
Dec 14, 2020
The RAND Blog
Gender Equity in the Workplace

Women Are Leaving the Labor Force in Record Numbers
The economic downturn during the pandemic is affecting women workers measurably more than men. There were 2.2 million fewer women in the labor force in October 2020 than there were last October. Investing in childcare and expanding labor laws could keep women employed and buoy the entire economy.
Nov 24, 2020
Dallas Morning News
Labor Markets

Sitting It Out? Or Pushed Out? Women Are Leaving the Labor Force in Record Numbers
Added to long-standing challenges such as securing child care and combating pay disparities, the economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic has hit women workers measurably harder than men. The consequences highlight just how much policy has failed to keep up with women's progress.
Oct 23, 2020
The RAND Blog
Wages and Compensation

A $2.5 Trillion Question: What If Incomes Grew Like GDP Did?
Income inequality is an aspect of economics that resonates with many Americans: It feels like the rich are getting richer, while the rest are having a hard time just getting by. What would income distribution look like today if incomes grew apace with the economy?
Oct 6, 2020
ProMarket
Employment and Unemployment

'Holes Just Big Enough': Unemployment's History with Black Workers
There's a long-standing accusation leveled at the U.S. unemployment insurance system: that it's structurally racist, deliberately discriminatory from the outset, and remains so today. That claim has been met with doubt. But why doesn't unemployment insurance treat all workers and all earnings the same?
Oct 5, 2020
Los Angeles Times
Employment and Unemployment

For Leisure and Hospitality, Weak Recovery Still Looks Like Recession
By most measures, the workers hardest hit by pandemic shutdowns were those in the leisure and hospitality sector, which includes arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation, and food services. These jobs, which are still affected by government social distancing regulations, are not all likely to come back before the pandemic truly ends.
Sep 4, 2020
The RAND Blog
Employment and Unemployment

What Unemployment Statistics Obscure About Temporary Layoffs
As the broadest COVID-19 shutdowns were underway this spring, a historic number of American workers entered temporary layoff. Those temporary layoffs represent an economy put on pause. What has happened to them since then tells us if the economy can hit play again.
Aug 17, 2020
The RAND Blog
Employment and Unemployment

Is the U.S. Stuck with a Fixed Add-On for Unemployment?
When COVID-19 led to millions of Americans losing their jobs, Congress moved to increase unemployment benefits by $600 a week. What should happen when those extra benefits expire?
Jul 23, 2020
The RAND Blog
Racial Discrimination

The Racial Disparity in Unemployment Benefits
Economic racial inequality in America cannot be solved through unemployment insurance, but it certainly shouldn't be exacerbated by it. And yet, Black workers are less financially supported during unemployment, simply by virtue of where they live.
Jul 15, 2020
The RAND Blog
Work-Family Conflicts

Working Moms at Risk of Being Left Behind in Economic Recovery
Being a working parent was hard enough before the pandemic. If COVID-19 intensifies the perception that parenting is at odds with work, then there may be devastating career consequences for working mothers.
Jun 11, 2020
United Press International
Employment and Unemployment

38 Million Have Applied for Unemployment—but How Many Have Received Benefits?
Unemployment Insurance may need substantial reform to its application process, but it has weathered the COVID-19 pandemic unemployment disaster. Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the new program intended for workers who are not part of the employer tax base, has not.
Jun 1, 2020
The RAND Blog
Employment and Unemployment

Is the Unemployment Rate Now Higher Than It Was in the Great Depression?
The extent of COVID-19's effect on the labor market will be catastrophic for many workers and businesses. Matching the unemployment rate peak set by the Great Depression is not even necessary to establish the historic nature of the downturn that we're living through.
May 7, 2020
The RAND Blog
Economics

The Second Wave of COVID Consequences
Economists closely watch measures of consumer confidence because they are highly predictive economic indicators. New consumer data reveals likely long-term and prolonged economic fallout.
Apr 24, 2020
The RAND Blog
Work-Family Conflicts

Parenting Through the Pandemic: Who's Working, Who's Caring for the Kids, and What Policies Might Help
To help inform policy decisions that could help working parents affected by COVID-19, we examined the U.S. Department of Labor's Current Population Survey and recent coronavirus relief acts. Our review shows us what aid working parents might expect and what kinds of aid policymakers might consider going forward.
Apr 8, 2020
The RAND Blog
Employment and Unemployment

Millions Need Unemployment Benefits. Unfortunately, the Delivery System Is Broken
More than 10 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance in March as businesses closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Washington's stimulus package enacted welcome measures to tide people over, but these temporary fixes don't address some serious structural problems.
Apr 6, 2020
Los Angeles Times
Workforce Management

Should the Federal Workforce Stay Remote? Planning for After the Crisis
As physical distancing becomes the new norm, so too does telework. But should federal agencies maintain their remote operations for the long haul? As those of us involved with national security agencies, operations, and workforce issues know, this is not a decision to make lightly.
Apr 3, 2020
The RAND Blog
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

The Social Distancing Economy: Q&A with RAND Experts
Congress and the White House are weighing economic policies to help people acutely affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Here are insights from RAND experts on what might be effective in terms of fiscal policy, stimulus spending, and emergency relief to affected workers.
Mar 18, 2020
Postsecondary Education

Income Share Agreements: What's Risky, What's Promising, and What We Still Need to Know
While policymakers debate options to address college affordability and the nation's mounting student loan debt, an alternative education financing model has been gaining ground in a handful of schools and state legislatures: the income share agreement. While terms vary from institution to institution, they are all based on the same premise: The more income a graduate makes, the more they will pay back.
Jun 5, 2019
The RAND Blog
Global Security

What Keeps Millennials Awake at Night Could Change Over Time
Millennials are less worried than baby boomers about national security topics and more worried about kitchen table issues, such as making ends meet each month and paying off debts. But this may have less to do with the fact that they are millennials and more to do with the fact that millennials are young.
Jul 30, 2018
United Press International
Financial Decision Making

Why More Young Workers Are Relying on Financial Help from Parents
As today's young adults grapple with a difficult job market, high tuition costs, and rapidly rising rents, parents are increasingly providing financial support and other forms of assistance.
Aug 31, 2017
The RAND Blog

Publications

Report
Accounting for Black-White Wealth Differences: A Stylized Model of Wealth Accumulation
This report presents a stylized model of wealth accumulation that accounts for patterns in income and wealth shown in prior research to illustrate how various factors contribute to Black-white wealth differences.
Dec 7, 2022
Journal Article
Leak or Link? the Overrepresentation of Women in Non-Tenure-Track Academic Positions in STEM
This paper examines gender variation in departures from the tenure-track science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) academic career pathway to non-tenure-track academic careers.
Jul 7, 2022
Research Brief
Six Skills for Success: How the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program Can Support Participants in Developing Portable Skills Employers Value
The authors of this research identify a set of common skills among high-paying, growing occupations that do not require a bachelor's degree for possible incorporation into the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program curriculum.
Jun 30, 2022
Report
Guidance on When to Estimate a Future Price Factor: Development of Criteria and Thresholds
A future price forecast can help the Federal Emergency Management Agency and communities seeking its Public Assistance estimate construction costs. Researchers created a framework for determining when such a forecast could be useful.
Jun 20, 2022
Report
Forecasting Public Recovery Expenditures' Effect on Construction Prices and the Demand for Construction Labor
Researchers developed cost-estimating tools and estimated future construction costs for Puerto Rico's recovery from Hurricane María. This report documents their approach, data, findings, and recommendations.
Jun 17, 2022
Research Brief
Future Price Forecasting in the Wake of Large-Scale Disasters: The Case of Puerto Rico After Hurricane María
Large-scale disaster recovery projects in isolated areas likely require unique future price forecasting. This brief describes an occupational analysis and model to estimate the effects of recovery on the price of labor, materials, and equipment.
Jun 17, 2022
Journal Article
Pathways to Retirement Among Dual Earning Couples
This paper examines the transition from full-time work to fully retired among dual earning couples, which we call joint retirement trajectories. We analyze 12 waves of the Health and Retirement Study to map out the distribution of potential pathways that couples undertake when retiring.
Jun 1, 2022
Report
Developing Outcome Measures for the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program
The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe is a residential program for youth experiencing difficulties in traditional high school. This capstone report describes some of RAND's research and analyses on the ChalleNGe program from late 2017 through mid-2020.
Mar 2, 2022
Report
What Are the Skills Required to Obtain a Good Job? An Analysis of Labor Markets, Occupational Features, and Skill Training for the Youth ChalleNGe Program
The authors of this report identify a set of common skills among high-paying, growing occupations that do not require a bachelor's degree and describe how to incorporate such broader skills into the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program curriculum.
Feb 4, 2022
Journal Article
CPS Nonresponse During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Explanations, Extent, and Effects
This paper examines survey nonresponse in the CPS at the start of the pandemic and estimates to what extent nonresponse led to an underestimate of the unemployment rate.
Dec 21, 2021
Research Brief
A New Approach to Measuring Income Inequality Over Recent Decades
RAND researchers identified a new, intuitive way to measure income inequality and compare income growth over time.
Apr 29, 2021
Report
Compensation and Benefits for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Workers: A Comparison of the Federal Government and the Private Sector
The authors compare salary, benefits, and employment for federal and private-sector workers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). They analyze data, present findings on STEM and non-STEM workers, and make recommendations.
Jan 19, 2021
Report
Benchmarks for Success: Expected Short- and Long-Term Outcomes of National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Participants
National Guard Youth ChalleNGe is a residential intervention program to help teens who have dropped out of high school. Sites can compare the outcomes of their cadets with this set of population benchmarks derived from public datasets.
Dec 10, 2020
Report
Challenges and Opportunities for the Puerto Rico Economy: A Review of Evidence and Options Following Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017
The authors review Puerto Rico's economic history and provide analysis following the 2017 hurricane season that serves as the context for a set of principles and actions in the recovery plan for rebuilding a healthy economy.
Sep 30, 2020
Report
Supporting a 21st Century Workforce in Puerto Rico: Challenges and Options for Improving Puerto Rico's Workforce System Following Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017
A workforce development system that supports Puerto Rico's economic development requires a K through postsecondary education system that emphasizes individuals' career pathways and aligns training with the evolving labor market and business needs.
Sep 30, 2020
Journal Article
Who Helps the Unemployed? Workers' Receipt of Public and Private Transfers
Unemployment increases the probability a worker receives financial assistance from their family, inclusive of all demographic subgroups.
Sep 17, 2020
Journal Article
Moonlighting to the Side Hustle: The Effect of Working an Extra Job on Household Poverty for Households With Less Formal Education
To understand who works multiple jobs and its effect on economic well-being, we used the Survey of Income and Program Participation to estimate the effect of secondary earnings on household poverty.
Sep 17, 2020
Draft
Trends in Income From 1975 to 2018
Seeks to quantify the scale of income gap from 1975 to 2018 created by rising inequality compared to a counterfactual in which growth was shared more broadly.
Sep 14, 2020
Report
National Guard Youth ChalleNGe: Program Progress in 2017–2018
This report documents the progress of participants in the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program in 2017-2018. ChalleNGe is a residential, quasi-military program for youth ages 16-18 who are experiencing difficulty in traditional high school.
Oct 15, 2019
Report
The Relationship Between Disability Evaluation and Accession Medical Standards
If accession medical policies are changed, does the probability of medical discharge change? If so, how does the change in the probability of medical discharge alter postservice costs to the department? This report answers these questions.
Mar 11, 2019
Journal Article
Parents with an Unemployed Adult Child: Consumption, Income, and Savings Effects
In this paper, we directly approach the potential costs, inefficiencies, and inequities of aiding family members.
2019
Report
Millennial Perceptions of Security: Results from a National Survey of Americans
This report -- part of a series examining critical security challenges in 2040 -- uses survey data to compare attitudes and opinions of millennials with those of previous generations and draws inferences about potential millennial concerns about security.
Jun 14, 2018