The top three most read/downloaded publications at the Journal of Forensic Economics are authored or co-authored by JWE economist Dr. Kurt V. Krueger. The first two publications regard estimating worklife, and the third publication focuses on estimates of personal consumption.
“The Markov Model of Labor Force Activity 2012-17” uses the Morkov mathematical tool to estimate the expected remaining years of labor force participation for a person. The published estimates are organized by age, gender, education, and the
current state of labor force participation. The estimates can be interpreted the same way one interprets remaining life expectancy. For example, a 30-year-old woman who is active in the labor force can expect to be active for a remaining 29.7 years. One should not expect a 30-year-old woman to work without fail until retirement at age 59.7, rather the 29.7 years represents all the expected ins and outs of participation throughout the woman’s life.
“Total Worklife Expectancy” uses the same methods as above worklife publication and combines market-work with non-market work to capture the relatively large amount of non-market work women are engaged in. When combining both types of work, the gender differences in worklife expectancy nearly disappears.
The third publication, “Personal Consumption by Family Type and Household Income” delivers exactly what it advertises. Dr. Krueger conducts a detailed analysis of Consumer Expenditure Survey data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to arrive at his estimates. Forensics economists use these estimates to account for the share of a person’s income that goes to personal expenses.