Cohort effect of the great recession

I finished my undergrad in May 2008. Although my sense is that my cohort just about caught the end of the boom, things were far less pleasant for the year behind us. Certainly the gap in employment opportunities between '07 and '09 was large. Future generations will want to know how large.

Care of the Institute for Social Research, there is now data that can quantify these effects. Transition into Adulthood is a longitudinal survey from childhood through adulthood, and a new wave capturing the effects of 2008 has just been released:

Transition into Adulthood (TA) (release 1): 2011

The preliminary 2011 Transition into Adulthood data file (TA-2011) is now available.

This data file represents the fourth wave of the Transition into Adulthood Study (TA) which was introduced in 2005 to capture data on the developmental pathways and outcomes of children who participated in the PSID Child Development Study as they transitioned into young adulthood. This study fills a gap between detailed information about development up through adolescence, and detailed information on adulthood once PSID panel members assume the role of economic independence as heads and spouses in the main study. The module collects data on health and emotional well-being, time use, community involvement, self identity and perception, expectations for the future, family, peer, and romantic relationships, work, schooling, and more. The interview domains are coordinated with the CDS adolescent measures and the PSID employment and health measures, and additionally provide new questions unique to this developmental stage.

Links: 19th July 2010

1. "Avoiding a Lost Generation: How to Minimize the Impact of the Great Recession on Young Workers": Testimony before Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress on May 26th, 2010. By James Sherk: Senior Policy Analyst in Labor Economics at the The Heritage Foundation.

2. "The Kids Aren’t Alright — A Labor Market Analysis of Young Workers": Kathryn Anne Edwards and Alexander Hertel-Fernandez (Economic Policy Institute): EPI Briefing Paper #258, April 7, 2010.

3. The Browne Review (or the Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance) is a panel which will consider the future direction of higher education funding in England. It was launched on the 9 November 2009 and is being chaired by Lord Browne of Madingley, the former chief executive of BP. Wikipedia provides additional information.

4. "Policy Watch: Income-Contingent College Loans": Alan B. Krueger and William G. Bowen, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 7, No. 3 (Summer, 1993), pp. 193-201

5. ESRI Higher Education Policy Conference: "Higher Education Policy: Evidence from Ireland and Europe". Venue: The ESRI, Whitaker Square, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2. Date: 16/11/2010.

6. David Willetts MP, the UK universities minister: "If You Can't Get a Job, Start a Business", Guardian: 16th July 2010.

7. On a lighter note, one for Dr. Kev: "Irishmen prefer to be single, survey shows". "Lee-Ann Burke, a lecturer in economics at University College Cork , said the study contradicts other surveys showing men happier being married."

8. Google Offers OCR: when you import files into Google Docs (JPEG, GIF, PNG, or PDF) you have the option of running optical character recognition on them.

9. The Turbulence Ahead blog got a makeover.

10. Finally, here's a video of Pete Lunn (ESRI) speaking at the Irish Economics and Psychology event last November, on "A Computational Theory of Exchange". Thanks to Karl Deeter for organising the video; if you follow this link, you will see other talks from the event by Marcel Das, Stephen Kinsella and Jonathan Murphy.