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Productivity Research and Program Development
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Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia, Ph.D.
Research Economist, Division of Productivity Research and Program Development
| Contact Information |  (202) 691-5614 E-mail |
| Fields of Interest | Labor economics; hours measurement; economics of technological change; self-employment; study of work-life balance; time use research; effects of child gender on parental time allocation; school to work transition; economics of education. |
| Education |
Ph.D., Economics, University of Washington, 2001 |
| Professional Experience |
Research Economist, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2001-present |
Selected Publications and Working Papers
- “Remote Work, Wages, and Hours Worked in the United States” (with Victoria Vernon), 2025, Journal of Population Economics, 38, 18
- “Teen Social Interactions and Well-being during the COVID-19 Pandemic” (with Charlene Marie Kalenkoski), 2025, Review of Economics of the Household 23, 357-404. Replication file.
- “Couples’ Remote Work Arrangements and Labor Supply” (with Victoria Vernon), BLS Working Paper No. 581, January 2025.
- “The Rise in Remote Work since the Pandemic and its Impact on Productivity” (with Jill Janocha Redmond), Beyond the Numbers: Productivity 13(8), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, October 2024.
- "Why are Measures of Aggregate Hours Worked by the Unincorporated Self-employed So Volatile" (with Cindy Michelle Cunningham) BLS Working Paper No. 567, September 2024.
- "Job Tasks, Worker Skills, and Productivity" (with G. Jacob Blackwood, Cindy Cunningham, Matthew Dey, Lucia Foster, Cheryl Grim, John Haltiwanger, Rachel Nesbit, Jay Stewart, Cody Tuttle, and Zoltan Wolf). Paper prepared for the 38th IARIW General Conference, July 2024.
- "Paid Sick Leave and Childcare" (with Johanna Catherine Maclean) NBER Working Paper No. 32710, July 2024.
- “An Improved Estimate of Self-Employment Hours for Quarterly Labor Productivity” (with Cindy Michelle Cunningham, Stephen Miller and Michael Sverchkov) Monthly Labor Review (December 2023).
- “Dispersion in Dispersion: Measuring Establishment-Level Differences in Productivity” (with Cindy Cunningham, Lucia Foster, Cheryl Grim, John Haltiwanger, Jay Stewart, and Zoltan Wolf). Review of Income and Wealth 69(4), 2023, pp. 999–1032. Working paper version.
- “Improving estimates of hours worked for U.S. productivity measurement” (with Lucy Eldridge, Drake Palmer, Jay Stewart, and Jerin Varghese) Monthly Labor Review, October 2022.
- Hours of Work during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for Labor Productivity Measures” (with Drake Palmer and Jay Stewart) September 2022.
- “Opening the Black Box: Task and Skill Mix and Productivity Dispersion” (with G. Jacob Blackwood, Cindy Cunningham, Matthew Dey, Lucia Foster, Cheryl Grim, John Haltiwanger, Rachel Nesbit, Jay Stewart, Cody Tuttle, and Zoltan Wolf) .Forthcoming in Technology, Productivity and Economic Growth, Studies in Income and Wealth, Volume 83. Working paper version.
- “Who is Doing the Chores and Childcare in Dual-earner Couples during the COVID-19 Era of Working from Home?” (with Victoria Vernon). Review of Economics of the Household, 21 (2), pp. 519–565. Replication file.
- “Dispersion in Dispersion: Measuring Establishment-Level Differences in Productivity” (with Cindy Cunningham, Lucia Foster, Cheryl Grim, John Haltiwanger, Jay Stewart, and Zoltan Wolf)., Review of Income and Wealth, 2022. Working paper version.
- “Parental Disability and Teenagers’ Time Allocation” (with Charlene Marie Kalenkoski), Review of Economics of the Household. 2022. Replication file.
- “Telework, Wages, and Time Use in the United States” (with Victoria Vernon). Review of Economics of the Household 20(3), September 2022, pp. 687–734. Replication file.
- “Telework and Time Use” (with Victoria Vernon). In: Zimmermann, K.F. (eds) Handbook of Labor, Human Resources, and Population Economics. 2022. Springer, Cham.
- “Chaos Before Order: Productivity Patterns in U.S. Manufacturing”, (with Cindy Cunningham, Jay Stewart, Lucia Foster, Cheryl Grim, John Haltiwanger, and Zoltan Wolf). International Productivity Monitor 41, Fall 2021, pp. 138-152.
- “Impacts of COVID-19 on the Self-employed” (with Charlene Kalenkoski), Small Business Economics, 58, 2022, pp. 741–768. Replication file.
- “Covid-19 shutdowns and the self-employed” (with Charlene Kalenkoski)
- “Knowledge Capital and U.S. State-level Differences in Labor Productivity” (with Susan Fleck) Presented at NBER-CRIW in July 2020 and 2020 ASSA meetings
- “BLS Publishes Experimental State-level Labor Productivity Measures” Monthly Labor Review (2019)
- “Snooze or Lose: High School Start Times and Academic Achievement” Economics of Education Review (2019)
- “Teenagers' Risky Health Behaviors and Time Use During the Great Recession” Review of Economics of the Household (2017)
- “What Effects do Macroeconomic Conditions Have on the Time Couples With Children Spend Together?” (with Melinda Sandler Morrill) Review of Economics of the Household (2015)
- “Single Mother’s Time Preference, Smoking, and Enriching Childcare: Evidence from Time Diaries” (with Younghwan Song) Eastern Economic Journal (2013)
- “Time to Work or Time to Play:The Effect of Student Employment on Homework, Sleep, and Screen Time” (with Charlene Kalenkoski) Labour Economics (2012)
- “Bringing Work Home: Implications for BLS Productivity Measures” (with Lucy Eldridge) Monthly Labor Review (December 2010)
- “Parental Transfers, Student Achievement, and the Labor Supply of College Students” (with Charlene Kalenkoski) Journal of Population Economics (2010)
- “Are Those Who Bring Work Home Really Working Longer Hours? Implications for BLS Productivity Measures” (with Lucy Eldridge). In Productivity Measurement and Analysis: Proceedings from OECD workshops, Julien Dupont and Pierre Sollberger (Eds.), Swiss Federal Statistical Office, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 2008, pp 179-209.
- “Which Workers Gain Upon Adopting a Computer?” (with Cindy Zoghi) Canadian Journal of Economics (2007)
- “The Effect of Child Gender on Parents’ Labor Supply: An Examination of Natives, Immigrants, and their Children”(with Jennifer Ward-Batts) American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings (2007)