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    2018 Jun 13

    UNRIGGING THE MARKET: Convening to Restore Competitive Labor Markets

    8:30am to 4:30pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Law School

    A diverse group of stakeholders including economists, law professors, private and public practitioners, advocates, and policymakers convened to explore how anticompetitive forces are harming American labor markets and workers. Participants discussed opportunities for coordinated research, enforcement, and policymaking to enhance labor market competition and protect workers. Justice Catalyst served as a co-host and partner for the convening. The convening agenda can be found...

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    2018 Apr 27

    Moonshot thinking: X's approach to radical innovation"

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    Baker 103, Bloomberg Center, Harvard Business School
    SPEAKER: ​ Helen Riley,Moonshot Mission Controller at X (formerly Google [x])
     
    ABSTRACT: 
    In 2010, Google founded a secret research lab called Google [X] to develop big, futuristic ideas it called moonshots. After five years, this research lab broke off into its own company called “X, the moonshot factory”. Today, X sets out to foster uncomfortably ambitious ideas that address some of the world’s biggest problems. It's currently home to some of Alphabet's far-out projects like Internet-beaming balloons and delivery drones. It's also where a range of Alphabet business and products were founded including Waymo, Google Brain and Verily Life Sciences.  In this session, X's Moonshot Mission Controller(aka CFO), Helen Riley will provide an overview of X’s radical approach to innovation and share how others can apply "moonshot thinking" principles too.
    2018 Apr 25

    Equal Pay Act @ 55: Successes, Challenges & Momentum

    10:00am to 12:00pm

    Location: 

    WCC 2019 Milstein West A, Harvard Law School

    event poster

    Registration 9:30am | Program 10:00am – 12:00pm

    It’s been 55 years since the passage of the Equal Pay Act, so where are we now? Join HLS Labor & Worklife Program and Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioner Charlotte Burrows for a panel discussion that explores the state of equal pay, its successes, challenges and momentum. The panel includes diverse leading perspectives from academia, business leaders, enforcement, and advocacy. The opening keynote is Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey.

    Please RSVP at EqualPayRSVP@eeoc.gov

     

     

     

    2018 Apr 13

    The Value of an Overseas Research Trip

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    Baker 103, Bloomberg Center, Harvard Business School
    SPEAKER: Gokhan Aykac (RA, Gazi University Dept of Economics, and Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Labor & Worklife Program at Harvard Law School) 
    TITLE: "The Value of an Overseas Research Trip"
    2018 Apr 10

    What Would Frances Perkins Do?

    10:00am to 12:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Law School

    Francis Perkins Event FlyerA distinguished panel of labor experts and new economy thought leaders will discuss how the global economy, technology, and the fissured workplace are eroding the legal regime Frances Perkins designed for 20th century workplaces: minimum wages and overtime pay, the 40-hour work week, unemployment insurance, safety standards, and retirement security. And, in the bold and action-oriented tradition of Frances Perkins, panelists will explore innovative solutions to the immediate challenges facing 21st century workers. 

    Free but must register to attend.

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    2018 Apr 06

    Denying workers their rights from their first day on the job

    12:00pm

    Location: 

    The Economic Policy Institute 1225 I Street NW, Sixth floor Washington, DC 20005 and Live streamed

    Join the Economic Policy Institute for an examination of the growing use of mandatory arbitration and class and collective action waivers and their impact on workers. The panel includes Sharon Block, Executive Director, Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School. 

    The event will be live streamed on the EPI Website

    2018 Apr 06

    Diversity and Collaboration in Economics

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    Baker 103, Bloomberg Center, Harvard Business School
    SPEAKER: Sultan Orazbayev (Visiting Fellow, Growth lab at the Center for International Development, Harvard Kennedy School) 
    2018 Apr 04

    Labor Problem: Can We Create Just Supply Chains in the Global Economy?

    9:30pm

    Location: 

    Wiener Auditorium, Taubman Building, Harvard Kennedy School

    Please join us for the first Pollak Lecture Series event of 2018. Richard M. Locke, Provost and Schreiber Family Professor of Political Science and Public and International Affairs at Brown University, will speak. Marshall Ganz, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, will provide an introduction. 

    Co-sponsored by:  by Harvard Kennedy School Alumni Relations and Resource Development. The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Carr Center for Human Rights, Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, and the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government are co-sponsors. 

    2018 Mar 29

    The Politics of Labor in the Trump Era with Gil Cedillo

    12:30pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    L-166, IOP Conference Room, Harvard Kennedy School of Government

    You are invited to a lunch conversation with Los Angeles City Councilman Gil Cedillo to discuss the politics of labor in the Trump era. In May, 2013, Cedillo was elected to the Los Angeles Council, representing the city's first council district. He previously served in the California State Assembly and State Senate, where he authored a number of major laws, including bills strengthening workers' right to organize, the California Dream Act, and legislation to granting drivers' licenses to undocumented immigrants. Before holding elective office, Cedillo worked for the Service Employees...

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    2018 Mar 28

    Charting the Future of Labor Policy

    12:00pm

    Location: 

    WCC Milstein West A, Harvard Law School

    Current affairs are full of stories of labor law in practice – professional athletes kneeling during the national anthem, or a bicyclist being fired for gesturing at the presidential motorcade.  Join us for this informal and lively discussion with HLS experts presented by HLS Joint Council.

    Panelists include: Sharon Block, Executive Director of LWP and Benjamin Sachs, Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry at Harvard Law School.

    2018 Mar 09

    MIT Sustainability Summit: Good Jobs for a Thriving Economy

    9:00pm

    Location: 

    Four Seasons Hotel, Boston

    Sharon Block, Executive Director of LWP will speak at the 10th annual MIT Sustainability Summit: Good Jobs for a Thriving Economy on Friday March 9th at the Four Seasons in Boston. Learn more about how businesses and other stakeholders are working toward a new normal, reimagining standards of work, and collectively mobilizing to build a thriving economy. Speakers and panelists will explore such topics as what are the benefits and challenges of implementing a “Good Jobs Strategy”? What does it look like to pay a living wage? What are effective strategies to partner across the private and public sectors to achieve “wins” for workers? 

    [More Information]... Read more about MIT Sustainability Summit: Good Jobs for a Thriving Economy

    2018 Mar 02

    Engineering Growth: Innovative Capacity and Development in the Americas

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    Baker 103, Bloomberg Center, Harvard Business School

    SPEAKER:  William F. Maloney (World Bank, Chief Economist, Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions) 
    TITLE: “Engineering Growth: Innovative Capacity and Development in the AmericasPreview the document" (paper joint with Felipe Valencia Caicedo) 
    ABSTRACT: 
    This paper offers the first systematic historical evidence on the role of a central actor in modern growth theory - the engineer. We collect cross-country and state level data on the population share of engineers for the Americas, and county level data on engineering and patenting for the US during the Second Industrial Revolution. These are robustly correlated with income today after controlling for literacy, other types of higher order human capital (e.g. lawyers, physicians), demand side factors, and instrumenting engineering using the Land Grant Colleges program. We support these results with historical case studies from the US and Latin America.

    2018 Feb 26

    What Fight for $15 and ‘Alt-Labor’ Tells Us About the Past and Future of the American Middle Class

    12:05pm to 12:50pm

    Location: 

    WCC 2004 Classroom, Harvard Law School

    Sharon Block, former Senior Counselor to the Secretary of Labor and head of the policy office at the Department of Labor, will discuss how the decline of the labor movement in the U.S. has led to a crisis for the American middle class and offer insights into the worker organizations that may fill the economic and political void.

    Hosted by the HLS American Constitution Society

    2018 Feb 23

    “From Revolving Doors to Regulatory Capture? Evidence from Patent Examiners"

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    Baker 103, Bloomberg Center, HBS Campus

    Haris Tabakovic (Harvard Business School and The Brattle Group) 
    Paper: “From Revolving Doors to Regulatory Capture? Evidence from Patent Examiners" (paper joint with Thomas Wollmann, University of Chicago)

    ABSTRACT:  Many regulatory agency employees are hired by the firms they regulate, creating a “revolving door” between government and the private sector. We study these transitions using detailed data from the US Patent and Trademark Office. We find that patent examiners grant significantly more patents to the firms that later hire them, that much of this leniency extends to prospective employers, and that these effects are strongest in years when firms are actively hiring. Ultimately, this leads the agency to issue lower quality patents, which we measure in citations. We argue these results are suggestive of regulatory capture.

    2018 Feb 16

    HARVARD TRADE UNION PROGRAM GRADUATION

    11:00am to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    TBA, Harvard Law School

    The culmination of the 107th Session of the Harvard Trade Union Program.
    Guest Speaker: Richard F. Griffin  former General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board and Of Counsel, Bredhoff and Kaiser

     

    Open to the Public

    Sponsored by the Harvard Trade Union Program,
    Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School

     

     

    2018 Feb 09

    AI and Jobs: The Role of Demand

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    Baker 103 (Bloomberg Center, HBS)
    SPEAKER: James Bessen (Technology & Policy Research Initiative, Boston University School of Law) 
    TITLE:  "AI and Jobs: The Role of DemandPreview the document"
    ABSTRACT: 
    Abstract: In manufacturing, technology has sharply reduced jobs in recent decades. But before that, for over a century, employment grew, even in industries experiencing rapid technological change. What changed? Demand was highly elastic at first and then became inelastic. The effect of artificial intelligence (AI) on jobs will similarly depend critically on the nature of demand. This paper presents a simple model of demand that accurately predicts the rise and fall of employment in the textile, steel, and automotive industries. This model provides a useful framework for exploring how AI is likely to affect jobs over the next 10 or 20 years. ... Read more about AI and Jobs: The Role of Demand

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