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Productivity Research and Program Development
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Jay Stewart, Ph.D.
Senior Research Economist,
Division of Productivity Research and Program Development
| Contact Information |  (202) 691-7376 Email |
| Fields of Interest | Labor economics; hours measurement; time use research |
| Education |
Ph.D., Economics, University of California, Los Angeles, 1989 |
| Professional Experience |
Senior Research Economist, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020 - present |
Selected Publications and Working Papers
- “Dispersion in Dispersion: Measuring Establishment-Level Differences in Productivity” (with Cindy Cunningham, Lucia Foster, Cheryl Grim, John Haltiwanger, Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia, and Zoltan Wolf). Review of Income and Wealth 69(4), 2023, pp. 999–1032.
- “Job Tasks, Worker Skills, and Productivity” (with G. Jacob Blackwood, Cindy Cunningham, Matthew Dey, Lucia Foster, Cheryl Grim, John Haltiwanger, Rachel Nesbit, Sabrina Pabilonia, Cody Tuttle, and Zoltan Wolf). Paper prepared for the 38th IARIW General Conference, July 2024.
- Hours of Work during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for Labor Productivity Measures” (with Drake Palmer and Sabrina Pabilonia), September 2022
- “Why was Labor Productivity Growth So High during the COVID-19 Pandemic? The Role of Labor Composition,” International Productivity Monitor, Spring 2022.
- “Improving estimates of hours worked for U.S. productivity measurement” (with Lucy Eldridge, Sabrina Pabilonia, Drake Palmer, and Jerin Varghese) Monthly Labor Review, October 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, Sabrina Pabilonia, Cody Tuttle, and Zoltan Wolf) BLS Working Paper No. 558. September 2022, and forthcoming in CRIW Conference volume, Technology, Productivity and Economic Growth
- “Revisions to BLS quarterly labor productivity estimates: How large are they?”, with Kendra Asher, John Glaser, Peter Meyer, and Jerin Varghese. Monthly Labor Review, March 2022, based on BLS Working Paper 538.
- “Chaos Before Order: Productivity Patterns in U.S. Manufacturing”, (with Cindy Cunningham, Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia, Lucia Foster, Cheryl Grim, John Haltiwanger, and Zoltan Wolf). International Productivity Monitor 41, Fall 2021, 138-152.
- “Time spent exercising and obesity: An application of Lewbel’s instrumental variables method”, (with Charles Courtemanche and Joshua C.Pinkston), Economics & Human Biology 41, May 2021
- “The importance and challenges of measuring work hours”, (with Harley Frazis) IZA World of Labor, 2019.
- “The BLS Productivity Program” (with Lucy Eldridge and Chris Sparks) in the Oxford Handbook of Productivity Analysis, Oxford University Press, 2018.
- “Reconciling the Divergence in Aggregate U.S. Wage Series”, (with Julien Champagne and Andre Kurmann). Labour Economics 49, December 2017, pp. 27-41.
- “Adjusting Body Mass for Measurement Error with Invalid Validation Data”, (with Charles Courtemanche and Josh Pinkston), Economics and Human Biology 19, December 2015, pp.275-293.
- “Is the Workweek Really Overestimated?”, (with Harley Frazis). Monthly Labor Review, June 2014.
- “Tobit or Not Tobit?” Journal of Economic and Social Measurement. 38(3), 2013, pp. 263-290.
- “Cyclical Variation in Labor Hours and Productivity Using the ATUS?” (with Michael Burda and Daniel S. Hamermesh). American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 103(3), May 2013.
- “How Does Nonmarket Production Affect Measured Income Inequality?” (with Harley Frazis). Journal of Population Economics 24(1), 2011.
- “Why Do BLS Hours Series Tell Different Stories About Trends in Hours Worked?” (with Harley Frazis) in Labor in the New Economy, Katharine G. Abraham, James R. Spletzer, and Michael J. Harper, eds., NBER Studies in Income and Wealth, University of Chicago Press, 2010.