Acknowledgements

The research for this book was funded by an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant to the Urban Institute and the University of Maryland. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Sloan Foundation as well as the support and encouragement of Gail Pesyna and Michael Teitelbaum, who initially also helped support the formation of the LEHD program in 1998.

Researchers from five Sloan Industry Centers and the U.S. Census Bureau joined forces to examine the impact of economic turbulence on economic growth, job ladders, career paths and earnings inequality. That partnership led to the writing of seven research papers that underlie the work summarized in this book. Thus, although there are three named authors, the book had multiple intellectual contributors. Julia Lane led the final drafting of the book, and she led the research on the distribution of earnings. Clair Brown led the research on job ladders and career paths. John Haltiwanger led the research on firm performance. Julia Lane and John Haltiwanger coordinated the researchers at the U.S. Census Bureau, and Clair Brown coordinated the researchers at the Sloan Industry Centers.

Although all participants contributed substantively to the analytical work and the writing of the reports, there were clear areas of specialization between the two groups. Sloan Industry Center researchers provided the analysis of their industries: Larry Hunter for the financial services industry; Michael Belzer and Stan Sedo for the trucking industry; Clair Brown, Ben Campbell, and Yooki Park for the semiconductor industry; Liz Davis and Tim Park for the retail food industry; Kathryn Shaw for the software industry. Yooki Park created the Career Path Simulator. Brian McCall provided analysis of the retail food industry as well as the analytical underpinning of the chapter on the earnings distribution. U.S. Census Bureau researchers took primary responsibility for the data creation and analysis: Fredrik Andersson for earnings inequality and career paths; Hyowook Chiang for firm performance and career paths; Cheryl Grim for firm performance; Nicole Nestoriak for firm performance; Kristin Sandusky for earnings inequality and firm performance and Jeongil Seo for firm performance. Ron Jarmin provided substantial input in all areas.

Special thanks also go to the Census Bureau staff—Steven Roman, Scott Scheleur, Jessica Young and Tom Zabelsky, as well as Fay Dorsett, Pat Kent, Christopher Pece, Judy Ross-Davis, Anne Russell, Chris Savage, Tim Winters—and Nicholas Greenia from the Internal Revenue Service for ensuring that the research had, as its predominant purpose, the improvement of economic, demographic surveys and censuses, and for providing invaluable input and guidance.

We also thank the teams from the participating states in the LEHD program for their cooperation in providing data and for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of our research. Particular thanks go to George Putnam, Henry Jackson, Vicky Feldman, Sonya Williams and Phil Hardiman.

We have benefited from thoughtful comments from Charlie Brown, Erica Groshen, David Stevens and participants at the 2004 American Economic Association, 2004 NBER Summer Institute, and 2005 Society of Labor Economists meetings, and the UC Berkeley Labor Economics seminar.

We are also indebted to Robin McCullough-Harlin for her indefatigable energy, and efficiency in taking care of the logistics associated with the project.

Matthew Freedman, David Stevens and Peter Welbrock provided invaluable guidance and editing assistance at multiple stages of the book. We are heavily indebted to them for their willingness to do such a thankless task, their candor and innate good sense. Our editor, Alex Schwartz, of the University of Chicago Press, provided extremely sensible and valuable input with good humor.

This manuscript draws heavily upon the research at the Census Bureau's Longitudinal Employer–Household Dynamics Program (LEHD). LEHD is partially supported by the National Science Foundation Grant SES–9978093 to Cornell University (Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research), the National Institute on Aging Grant 5 R01 AG018854–02, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The views expressed herein are attributable only to the author(s) and do not represent the views of the U.S. Census Bureau, its program sponsors or data providers.