Overview
The ILR Undergraduate Research Fellows Program provides ILR undergraduates with the opportunity to work with a professor during academic year 2025-2026. This program was developed in response to numerous requests we have received from undergraduates for research opportunities and in the hope that it will facilitate one-on-one student/faculty interactions. Students participating in this program will receive an hourly pay of $17.00 per hour for up to 10 hours a week. Awards will be made on a one semester basis with renewal possible for the second semester. Students may not earn credit for the research project during the semester or year they are being paid as a research assistant.
Which Workers Earn More at Productive Firms? Position Specific Skills and Individual Worker Hold-up Power
It’s widely understood that some employers offer higher pay than other employers for similar work. Historically, it was large and productive firms that paid relatively high wages, and workers across a wide range of occupations all benefitted from these higher wages. This has changed: today, more productive firms pay high wages, but large firms do not, and the benefits of working at these productive firms are concentrated among high-wage occupations. We argue that the current wage patterns arise because workers in high-wage occupations have hold-up power, as these workers tend to be more specialized and are costly to replace. We show empirical evidence supporting this theory.