Commentary Search for: All CategoriesArticles & Op-EdsBlog: By the NumbersBooksFiguresIn BriefMember StatementsNewsPapersAll TopicsBudgetClimate & EnergyEducation & WorkforceEmployment & WagesGeographic DisparityImmigrationInequalityInfrastructureInternational TradeProductivityProductivity & InnovationPublic FinanceRegulationSocial Welfare In Brief April 25 2024 |In BriefIn Brief: The Recent Rise in US Labor Productivity BRIEFLY US labor productivity has enjoyed a period of renewed growth over the past year, interrupting a nearly twenty-year decline: the 2.7 percent productivity growth in 2023 outpaces the 1.5 percent annual average since 2004, and it… Luke Pardue December 05 2023 |In BriefIN BRIEF: Pandemic-Era Student Learning Loss and the Policy Response BRIEFLY The COVID-19 pandemic created not only a public health emergency but a youth education crisis as well. Decades of progress in math and reading among America’s students were wiped away in two years. The federal government passed… Luke Pardue September 19 2023 |In BriefIN BRIEF: The Wide Class Divide in Family Structure BRIEFLY: Children in the US are far less likely to be raised in two-parent families today than they were in prior decades, a shift Aspen Economic Strategy Group (AESG) director Melissa Kearney explores in her new book, The Two-Parent… Luke Pardue May 24 2023 |In BriefIN BRIEF: Cutting the Safety Net Is Not an Effective Way to Reduce Government Spending BRIEFLY… High-stakes negotiations over the debt limit center on ways to bring government spending more in line with government revenues. The political contours of the debate have excluded cuts to Social… Luke Pardue, Melissa S. Kearney May 04 2023 |In BriefIN BRIEF: The Who, What, and Why of Declining College Enrollment, 2019-2021 BRIEFLY… College enrollment in the US declined among recent high school graduates in the past couple of years, even as the economic returns to a college degree remain substantial – see this previous IN BREIF. In this post, we… Luke Pardue March 07 2023 |In BriefIN BRIEF: The College Wage Premium Through the COVID-19 Pandemic IN BRIEF COVID-related disruptions coupled with a tight labor market have led to a historic decline in college enrollment of recent high school graduates over the past three years. This drop, however, comes as the earnings premium for… Luke Pardue January 17 2023 |In BriefIN BRIEF: Entrepreneurship Since the COVID-19 Pandemic Editor’s note: The Aspen Economic Strategy Group is pleased to welcome Luke Pardue, an economist at the payroll and HR platform Gusto, as an AESG Fellow. Luke obtained his PhD in economics from the University of Maryland and previously… Luke Pardue