Bernard L. and Irene Schwartz Chair of Economics, New School for Social Research

Body & Mind

Downward Mobility as a Relative Loss in Economic Security

How economic anxiety explains voting patterns

December 19, 2024 • by Teresa Ghilarducci and Ludovica Tursini

In 2016 formerly unionized parts of the country, the "Arsenal of Democracy," now called the Rust Belt (to the dismay of people who live there), switched from voting for the Democratic Party candidate Obama (both in 2008 and 2012) to the Republican Trump. Teresa Ghilarducci and Siavash Radpour (2016) show long-term stagnation ...

Downward Mobility as a Relative Loss in Economic Security

Capitalism

Who Gets to Retire?

An excerpt from Work, Retire, Repeat

October 17, 2024 • by Teresa Ghilarducci

For the first time in modern American history, gains in retirement time are concentrated at the economic top. ...

Economy

How to Reopen the American Economy Now

We don’t have to choose between a depression and tens of thousands of avoidable deaths

August 24, 2020 • by Teresa Ghilarducci

And, of course, economists are on the case. In my favorite economic paper on the COVID-19 economy, Harvard University economist James Stock describes a new family of epidemiological-economic models that provide guidance about how best to reopen the economy. Here are his smart reopening requirements: promote collective behaviors to stop the spread of the ...

Economy

The COVID-19 Crisis Demands Bold, Progressive Economic Ideas

A Call for Papers

April 2, 2020 • by Teresa Ghilarducci, Richard McGahey and Paulo L. dos Santos

This pandemic poses a series of unprecedented economic challenges. It compromises our ability to engage in productive and commercial activities that require close contact between groups of people. Because fighting the disease requires non-essential workers to stay at home, it threatens to trigger a catastrophic recession, if not depression, as entire ...

The COVID-19 Crisis Demands Bold, Progressive Economic Ideas

Labor

Will the US Pandemic Response Strengthen Workers?

Worker protections and collective bargaining must be part of any economic recovery plan

March 30, 2020 • by Teresa Ghilarducci

But this rare moment of bipartisanship will turn out to have been a missed opportunity if it does not also reverse the long decline of worker protections and collective-bargaining power in the United States. As Lawrence H. Summers of Harvard University and many others have shown, this trend has contributed significantly to the ...

Will the US Pandemic Response Strengthen Workers?

Finance

Pandemics and Your Retirement Accounts

What You Should and Should Not Do

March 24, 2020 • by Teresa Ghilarducci

First, pause with gratitude if you have a retirement account. Only 41 percent of older workers have any type of retirement plan at work, whether it is a traditional pension or a 401(k) TIAA- type plan. The rate of non-coverage is even higher for younger workers. And the rate of ...

Uncategorized

Senior Citizens as “Silver Surfers”

& Other Fantasies about Working Longer

October 15, 2019 • by Teresa Ghilarducci

The new “working-longer consensus” is reminiscent of the deeply flawed and now largely-discredited “Washington Consensus” that crystallized around aid to developing countries in the 1980s. Both are based on the demands of neo-liberal policy makers, not the needs of working people. The Economist recently endorsed the findings of the 2019 OECD report “Working ...

Feature

‘It Can’t Come Soon Enough’: Creating Retirement Security For New York Workers

A Q&A with New School economist and retirement expert Teresa Ghilarducci.

February 24, 2019 • by Bruce Cory and Teresa Ghilarducci

Urban Matters: You’re one of the leading authorities on retirement in America, so let’s get your opinion of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s recently proposed “retirement security plan” for New Yorkers. But first give us a snapshot of how many New Yorkers are approaching retirement, and how financially prepared they are. Ghilarducci:In ...

‘It Can’t Come Soon Enough’: Creating Retirement Security For New York Workers

Feature

Older Men’s Bargaining Power Hit by 36% Decrease in Job Tenure

2.9% unemployment rate for workers age 55 and older in December

January 5, 2019 • by Teresa Ghilarducci

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today reported a 2.9% unemployment rate for workers age 55 and older in December, which represents no change from November. Despite the low headline unemployment rate, changes in job tenure over the last 30 years have reduced older workers' bargaining power, especially older men. In 1987, the ...

Older Men’s Bargaining Power Hit by 36% Decrease in Job Tenure

Feature

Older Workers at Risk in Next Recession

November 2018 Unemployment Report for Workers Over 55

December 10, 2018 • by Teresa Ghilarducci

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today reported an unemployment rate of 2.9% for November, an increase of 0.1 percentage points from October. Older workers are benefiting from a historically low unemployment rate. Now is the time to prepare for older workers' higher risks in recessions. Older workers least prepared for retirement are most likely ...

Feature

How to Save 8.1 Million Seniors from Poverty by 2045

July 2018 Unemployment Report for Workers Over 55

August 5, 2018 • by Teresa Ghilarducci

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an unemployment rate of 3.1% for workers age 55 and older for the month of July, which represents no change from June. While the headline unemployment rate for older workers is at an historic low, an increasing share of older workers are in bad jobs with low and stagnant wages. Without access ...

How to Save 8.1 Million Seniors from Poverty by 2045

Feature

Stranded in Stagnant Regions, Older Workers Left with Low Wages

May 2018 Unemployment Report for Workers Over 55

June 2, 2018 • by Teresa Ghilarducci

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported a 2.8% unemployment rate for workers age 55 and older in May, a decrease of 0.2 percentage points from April. The economy is expanding, unemployment is low, and wages are growing. But wage growth for workers over 55 is slower than wage growth for younger ...