Center for Race and Ethnicity
at Rutgers University William Rodgers III
Professor, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Chief Economist, John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development
732-932-4100, ext 783
732-932-3454 (fax)
Professor Rodgers' research examines issues in labor economics and the economics of social problems. Currently, he is identifying the causes of the current recovery’s historically weak job creation and its consequences for the earnings and employment of Americans. At the state level, Rodgers is conducting a comprehensive study of the status of New Jersey’s minorities for the State Employment Training Administration. He served as a member of the Acting Governor’s Benefits Review Task Force from May 2005 to December 2005 and now serves on Governor Corzine’s New Jersey Commission on Government Efficiency and Reform.
He has appointments as a member of the Graduate Faculty at Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations and senior research affiliate at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He currently directs the American Economic Association’s Pipeline Project and recently served as Chair of the Association’s Committee on the Status of Minorities in the Economics Profession. He holds memberships on the Center for American Progress’ Academic Advisory Board, the National Urban League Institute for Opportunity and Equality Advisory Board, the Economic Policy Institute’s Research Advisory Board, and the board of the University of Kentucky’s Center for Poverty Research. Locally, Rodgers serves on the Board of Directors for the Somerset County United Way and the United Way of Tri-State’s Regional Operating Council.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Professor Rodgers served as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor from 2000 to 2001, and he was the Frances L. and Edwin L. Professor Cummings of Economics at the College of William and Mary.
His articles have appeared in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Monthly Labor Review, the New York Federal Reserve’s Economic Policy Review, the Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Family Economics and Nutrition Review, and the Review of Black Political Economy. In 2000, he co-edited Prosperity for All (Russell Sage Foundation). In 2006, he has had articles published by the Center for American Progress, the Southern Economic Journal. His edited volume The Handbook on the Economics of Discrimination (Edgar Elgar) came out May 2006.
He has extensive media experience. Rodgers' expertise is frequently called upon by journalists for articles in The New York Times, U.S.A. Today, Business Week, and other publications. He has been a guest on CNBC and CNNfn and many radio talk shows.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Causes and consequences of economic and social inequality
Skills gaps and skills shortages
The impact of macroeconomic policy on labor market outcomes
The federal minimum wage and food security
COURSES
Urban Poverty (undergraduate)
Introduction to Planning, Public Policy and Health (Undergraduate)
Master’s Degree Practicum (graduate)
PUBLICATIONS AND ACTIVITIES
Forthcoming and Recent journal articles:
"Male Black-White Wage Gaps from 1979 to 1994: A Distributional Analysis," Southern Economic Journal, 72:4, April 2006.
"The Pitfalls of Using a Child Support Schedule Based on Outdated Data,” Family Economics and Nutrition Review, 16:2, 2004 (with Yana V. Rodgers) (Published in 2005).
“The Pitfalls of Using a Child Support Schedule Based on Outdated Data,” (with Yana V. Rodgers), (Forthcoming Family Economics and Nutrition Review, 2005).
“New Estimates of Within Occupation Black-White Wage Gaps,” (Forthcoming The Review of Black Political Economy, Volume 31:4, 2004) (with John Holmes).
“The Disparate Labor Market Impacts of Monetary Policy,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 23: 4, 2004, 813-830; Labor History, 46: 1, 2005 (with Seth Carpenter).
“Blacks Need More than an Economic Boom,” in Real World Macro, 21st Edition, Edited by Daniel Fireside, Dollars and Sense (Forthcoming, 2005).
“What do the Future Labor Market Prospects of Non-college Educated Adults, Youth and Minorities look like?” in Extended Opportunities, Edited by Ronald Mincy, Columbia University and NPCL, (Forthcoming, Fall 2005).
“Jobless Recovery: Whatever Happened to the Great American Jobs Machine?” Centre Piece Magazine, London, 9: 3, Autumn 2004, 22-27; New York Federal Reserve, Economic Policy Review, (Forthcoming, May 2005) (with Richard Freeman).
"Do the Skills of Adults Employed in Minimum Wage Contour Jobs Explain Why They Get Paid Less?" The Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 27:1, Fall 2004, 37-66 (with Bruce Klein and William Spriggs).
Recent books authored:
Prosperity for All? The Economic Boom and African Americans, Edited by William M. Rodgers III and Robert Cherry, New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, (Summer 2000).
Handbook on the Economics of Discrimination, Edited by William M. Rodgers III, North Hampton: MA: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, (May 2006).
