Author

Katharine Abraham

Professor, Department of Economics and Joint Program in Survey Methodology, University of Maryland

Katharine Abraham is a professor in the department of economics and in the Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland. Abraham first joined the University of Maryland faculty in 1987 after holding prior positions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management and the Brookings Institution. She served two terms as Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and, more recently, was a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Among other honors and awards, she is an elected fellow of the American Statistical Association and of the Society of Labor Economists. She received her doctorate in economics from Harvard University. Abraham has studied and written about work-sharing policies, unemployment, and job openings; the operation of internal labor markets; the effects of financial aid on the decision to attend college; the work and retirement decisions of older Americans; and the measurement of market and nonmarket economic activity. From 2002 to 2004, Abraham chaired a National Academy of Sciences panel on accounting for nonmarket activity; its report, Beyond the Market, was published in 2005 by the National Academies Press.