Kate Bahn is an economist and writer. She received her PhD in Economics from the New School for Social Research. Her background is in labor economics and economic policy. She is also the co-founder and managing editor of Lady Economist, a blog on how economics impacts women and girls. Her popular economics writing has been featured in the Guardian, the Nation, Salon, Good Magazine, Talking Points Memo, among others.
DOCTORAL RESEARCH
“The ABCs of Labor Market Frictions: New Estimates of Monopsony for Early Career Teachers in the U.S. and Implications for Caring Labor” studies the effects of systemic frictions in the K-12 teacher labor market in the United States. This labor market is monopsonistic because school districts are able to exploit these frictions and pay teachers less than they would be paid in a competitive labor market. The dynamics underlying monopsony can explain what has been found elsewhere that teachers experience a pay penalty compared to other similar workers. Monopsony also means that there are possibilities for proactive policy and union collective bargaining to reduce the rents to the employment relationship and increase teacher pay alongside teacher employment levels. This will reduce teacher turnover and could have positive effects for the provision of K-12 education in the U.S.
ECONOMIC POLICY WORK
Primary areas of economic policy analysis are gender in the labor market, retirement security, public sector labor, caring labor, collective bargaining.
Examples of previous policy reports co-authored can be found on the website of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis.
