A Labor Economist Goes to Washington: Bring Your Questions for Betsey Stevenson

Betsey Stevenson

Regular readers of the blog will be familiar with economist Betsey Stevenson, a sometimes contributor and frequent topic of discussion. Betsey’s research focuses on a wide range of topics: happiness, marriage, divorce, and labor economics, among other things.
The Freakonomics blog will have to do without Betsey for the next year, however, as she’ll be serving as the Chief Economist of the Department of Labor (DOL). Officially, the DOL is charged with “foster[ing] and promot[ing] the welfare of the job seekers, wage earners, and retirees of the United States by improving their working conditions, advancing their opportunities for profitable employment, protecting their retirement and health care benefits, helping employers find workers, strengthening free collective bargaining, and tracking changes in employment, prices, and other national economic measurements.” In plain English, Betsey will be helping out with everything from unemployment insurance to job creation, job training and readiness, the minimum wage and retirement security. It’s hard to think of a more interesting time to be working on these issues, and it’s hard to imagine the DOL won’t benefit from Betsey’s expertise.
Betsey has agreed to answer your questions about her new position so fire away in the comments section below. As always, we’ll post her answers shortly.