Through his research and teachings, Harry Holzer, professor in the Georgetown Public Policy Institute (GPPI), is determined to find ways to impact the low-wage labor market through policy.

With the nation in a recession and a new presidential administration taking office, Holzer sees opportunity for policy changes that could help the low-wage labor market and disadvantaged workers by using avenues such as tax credits, job-training and other educational programs.

“It is an interesting time, a very exciting time, to do public policy research, both because of the administration and a new Congress -- one that I hope will pay more attention to the research literature -- and also because of the economic changes that make a lot of these issues so important in the short run,” he says.

Whatever economic and labor policies wind up being developed, the professor says, they should have a strong analytical foundation. “We want it to make sense, in terms of the underlying economics,” Holzer says, “and we’d like it to be based on evidence of what actually works.”

Over the past year, the scholar has written numerous policy briefs on workforce development issues: how to fund education and training for youth and adults and what outcomes could be expected over time. He says a great deal hinges on the proposed $300-$500 billion economic stimulus package that Congress may wind up approving.

“In the stimulus package you usually have some things that can be up and running fairly quickly,” the professor says.

That means training programs alone may not be the type of relief government leaders will look to right away since those programs take time, Holzer explains. He believes the goal will be to “get cash in people’s hands quickly.”

“Your standard education or training program doesn’t do that. You’ve got people sitting in the classroom and not necessarily being paid for work,” Holzer adds.

On the other hand, Holzer says the time might be right for training programs as employers slashed 524,000 jobs in December alone. “It’s not a bad time to educate or train people because the jobs aren’t there,” he says.

Economic Enthusiasm
After 25 years in the field, Holzer says his research continues to feed his enthusiasm for public policy, and that enthusiasm comes from a deep interest in politics and what government can or cannot do to make people’s lives better or to improve their opportunities. 

“I’ve always been interested in the low-wage labor market,” says Holzer, who received his bachelor’s and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. “Why do some people have much worse job options than others? How much of that is due to skills and education versus other factors? Especially for low-income minority folks, what other factors on top of skill gaps explain their outcomes?”

Prior to joining the faculty at Georgetown in 2000, Holzer served as chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor in 1999 and taught economics at Michigan State University from 1983 to 2000. He has been a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation and a faculty research fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He also is currently a senior fellow at the Urban Institute and a member of the World Economic Forum Global Diversity Council.

“Harry is a terrific colleague and a source of good advice on the daily challenges that face us as educators and policy analysts,” says William Gormley, university professor and GPPI interim dean. “He’s also a very popular instructor, who brings both passion and rigor into the classroom.”

Students find Holzer’s knowledge and passion for the subject contagious.

Andrew Gothro (G’09), who has taken Holzer’s Poverty and the Social Safety Net and Advanced Regression Techniques courses, says the professor has a way of drawing enthusiasm in class.

“(He) is extremely familiar with, and is a major contributor to the body of research pertaining to poverty and policies targeting poverty. His experience and perspective really helped illuminate policy problems associated with poverty, as well as the statistical techniques used in policy research,” says Gothro, who is working toward his master’s in public policy. “He’s also an engaging and humorous lecturer -- a particular advantage when discussing statistics first thing Monday morning.”

Holzer teaches other courses in quantitative methods and has a new course this semester that focuses on programs and policies for the U.S. labor market.

A Bridge Between Research and Reality
The professor has written extensively about the employment woes of disadvantaged men -- particularly issues facing African-American men, advancement prospects for the working poor, worker inequality and workforce policy more broadly. Holzer also found time last year to establish the Georgetown Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy with law professor Peter Edelman and Mark Greenberg, the center’s executive director and adjunct law professor.

“Think of the center as a bridge -- a three-way bridge -- between researchers, practitioners and decision-makers,” says Edelman, who lauds Holzer’s ability to transition research into policy and political context. “Harry is very energetic, and he reaches out in a way that is so effective -- reaching out to people who need to be involved if we’re going to move these ideas; not just develop ideas, but reach out to people who implement ideas.”

For the better part of a year, Greenberg, Edelman and Holzer have been researching the economical and social impact on disconnected youth. The scholarly trio has taken ideas from the book “Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men” (Urban Institute Press 2006) to form proposals for legislation. Both Holzer and Edelman authored the book with the late Paul Offner, a former Wisconsin state legislator and consultant for the Urban Institute.

“(Offner) and I started working together on issues involving young black men,” Holzer recalls. “He was working as a Senate staffer during the whole welfare reform debate, and he came to realize welfare reform, for whatever its pluses and minuses, left out the men – the dads, the noncustodial fathers.”

Holzer, Offner and Edelman found that improvements could be made in the men’s lives if three key factors occur.

“We need to do some combination of three things: provide education and training to improve prospects, improve rewards for the working and reduce the employment barriers facing ex-offenders and noncustodial fathers,” says Holzer.

Decades of research on both the employer and employee sides of the labor market are important to Holzer’s policy development today. His most recent work with the center has been specific to proposing ideas for economic recovery programs that he hopes will be led by new President Barack Obama.

“I continue to feel that the issues of low-wage workers have enormous consequences to people’s lives, and I remain passionate about using tools of labor market and public policy analysis to develop policy that will enhance their opportunities,” says Holzer.

Source: Blue & Gray