Category: Blogging
Posted on August 22, 2026
Why GAO Report Structure Determines Whether Oversight Actually Happens
GAO-24-106209, a 2024 report on SNAP employment and training program outcomes, runs 87 pages. The key distributional finding—that participants in mandatory E&T programs in states with high administrative burden had lower employment rates six quarters after enrollment than …
Posted on August 21, 2026
How Immigration Policy Shapes Labor Markets: Administrative Burdens, Distributional Effects, and State-Level Variation
Immigration policy is labor market policy. The rules governing who may enter, work, and remain in the United States do not simply alter the size of the labor force; they change the administrative obligations of employers, the bargaining …
Posted on August 20, 2026
How Immigration Policy Shapes Labor Markets: Administrative Burdens, Distributional Effects, and State-Level Variation
Immigration policy is labor market policy. The administrative rules that govern visa categories, work authorization, employer verification, and state-level benefit access do not simply regulate who enters the country. They determine which sectors can recruit, what wages get …
Posted on August 15, 2026
How Immigration Policy Shapes Labor Markets: Administrative Burdens, Distributional Effects, and State-Level Variation
Immigration policy is labor market policy. The rules governing who can enter, work, and remain in the United States do not simply alter population counts. They reallocate bargaining power, shift wage distributions, and change which employers can reach …
Posted on August 6, 2026
The Problem With SSA’s Representative Payee System for Adults With Disabilities
When a Social Security Administration field office staffer decides an adult disability beneficiary can’t manage their own monthly payments, the agency appoints a representative payee—someone legally responsible for receiving those funds and spending them in the beneficiary’s interest. …
Posted on August 3, 2026
Immigration Policy and the U.S. Labor Market: What Administrative Data Actually Show
Immigration policy shapes labor markets not through abstract debates about borders, but through the administrative machinery that determines who can work, in which sectors, and under what conditions. This article examines the intersection of immigration rules and labor-market …
Posted on July 29, 2026
The Administrative Underbelly of Labor-Based Immigration: How Policy Design Constrains Market Outcomes
When Congress or the executive branch tweaks an immigration quota, the press release practically drafts itself. A new cap on H-2B visas, an expansion of STEM Optional Practical Training, a fresh interpretation of “public charge”—each gets framed as …
Posted on July 25, 2026
Immigration Policy and Labor Markets: Who Gains, Who Loses, and Why the Fine Print Matters
Introduction: The Immigration–Labor Nexus as a Policy Variable Immigration policy doesn’t just add or subtract workers from the economy. It sorts them. By skill, by sector, by geography, and by legal status—each channel has its own set of …