Economic Turbulence:

The Impact on Workers and Businesses

Michael H. Belzer is an Associate Professor and Director of the Transportation Research Program in the College of Urban, Labor, and Metropolitan Affairs at Wayne State University. He also is a Adjunct Research Scientist at the University of Michigan's Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, and is Associate Director of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Trucking Industry Program, one of 21 Sloan Industry Centers. The Trucking Industry Program focuses on trucking industry operations and industrial relations, and Dr. Belzer personally directs its Trucking Industry Benchmarking Program. Current benchmarking Best Practices efforts include a partnership with the California Trucking Association to implement a Safety Best Practices Program and a partnership with the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association to implement an Owner Operator Cost-of-Operations Survey.

Dr. Belzer received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1993. His thesis, "Collective Bargaining in the Trucking Industry: The Effects of Institutional and Economic Restructuring," focused on how changing regulation and institutional structure have transformed industrial relations in the trucking industry. His research interests include all facets of trucking industry organization and operations, labor-management relations, employment policy, and safety. He currently is studying the relationship between truck driver pay (both method and level) and safety, as well as issues related to truck driver hours of work. Other continuing research interests include regulation, the labor market, occupational health and safety, and labor-management participation.