Economics

Immigrants whittle into a broad earnings gap with American-born workers only about half as fast as long-accepted estimates suggest, according to new research by a University of Illinois economist. Darren Lubotsky says immigrants’ typically low...

Even in the final days of the 2008 presidential campaign, polling was inescapable. Politicians rely on private polling commissioned by their campaigns to measure voter preferences, while voters rely on public polling to keep track of the horse race. Research by University of Illinois...

The credit freeze is showing signs of thawing, says LAS economist Anne Villamil. Villamil points to the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, which is the interest rate that banks charge each other for three-month loans. “Libor has dropped to the...

A massive Wall Street bailout won’t stave off a recession, but it will ease a creeping economic meltdown that threatened to slice into jobs, retirement savings, and access to credit across the country, a U of I economist says. Anne Villamil says the...

Media bias from both the left and right has become increasingly profitable and could affect election choices in 2008, according to three LAS economics professors, Dan Bernhardt, Stefan Krasa, and Mattias Polborn.Biased media boost ratings and profits...

New research challenges a growing trend toward holding kids out of kindergarten until they're older, arguing that academic advantages are short-lived and come at the expense of delaying entry into the workforce and other costs. The findings show older kindergartners fare better academically largely...

Health-insurance costs could ultimately balloon if President Bush signs a bill forbidding insurers from using genetic tests that gauge disease risks when setting premiums or deciding eligibility for coverage, a University of Illinois insurance expert says. Hailed by advocates as the first major...

The U.S. economy is sputtering amid a lingering housing slump and growing jitters on Wall Street, but whether a recession lies ahead is still anyone's guess, a trio of University of Illinois economic experts say. Economists J. Fred Giertz and Anne...

Richard Akresh, assistant professor of economics, returned from Burkina Faso with an unusual collection of "souvenirs." Six hundred pounds of paper, to be precise, which represents household survey data he collected over 18 months about social...

The gross receipts tax proposed by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, while a welcome step in tackling the state's budget shortfall, is a flawed approach to taxation, according to a University of Illinois expert. The proposed tax, which would be levied on transactions between businesses and between...