Luke Pardue
Publications
April 2024 Jobs Report: A Best-Case Scenario for the Fed?
The BLS estimated that the US economy added 303,000 jobs in February, with the unemployment rate ticking down from 3.9% to 3.8%. Below are three key takeaways from this report – and what it means for interest rates. 1. Job Growth Continues to Defy Expectations Overall nonfarm employment grew by 303,000 in March, blowing past ...
The Small Role of Ivy League Schools in US Higher Education
The conversation about higher education admissions in the US is often dominated by developments at the eight Ivy League institutions. While there are good reasons to debate admissions at these elite schools (because, for instance, economists have found that their graduates hold a disproportionately large share of leadership positions in business and politics), this post ...
March 2024 Jobs Report: Three Things to Know
The BLS estimated that the US economy added 275,000 jobs in February, with the unemployment rate ticking up from 3.7% to 3.9%. Three things stood beneath the headlines of this report. Revisions Take Some Heat of the Economy While the top-line number today beat the consensus market forecasts, the BLS also revised down their ...
IN 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 three rounds of funding to help school districts mitigate the disruptions of the pandemic, but that aid ...
The Economic Case for Smart Investing in America’s Youth
The United States spends a relatively small sum on children, both on a per capita basis and as a share of all spending. In 2019, the federal government spent an estimated $5,595 per child on programs benefiting children under 18, compared to $29,189 per elderly American on entitlement programs alone—a gap that remains wide even ...
Introduction: Building a More Resilient US Economy
The post-pandemic US economy features a strong labor market but also persistent inflation, rising levels of debt, and acute educational challenges. These issues are compounded by ongoing, systemic difficulties: domestic and global, economic and political. This policy volume considers these topics and others, with a thematic focus on building a more resilient US economy. The ...