New Directions in the Study of Labor

REGISTER

The Matrix “New Directions” event series features research by three current Berkeley PhD students: William Darwell (Jurisprudence and Social Policy), Kristy Kim (Economics), and Vera Parra (Sociology). The panel will be moderated by John Logan, Visiting Scholar at the UC Labor Center.

In this panel, an interdisciplinary group of graduate students will explore the evolving dynamics of work, management, and labor organization. Their studies focus on the impact of pension systems on workforce participation, labor union organizing in automotive supply chains across North America, and how different political and economic systems influence workplace management practices.

Panelists

William Darwall, a PhD Student in the Jurisprudence and Social Policy program at Berkeley Law, researches the politics and political economy of past, present, and future regimes of workplace management, broadly construed.

Kristy Kim, a PhD Candidate in the UC Berkeley Department of Economics, researches issues at the intersection of public and behavioral economics. Her job market paper studies how changes in retirement benefits affect labor supply and workforce composition. Her other research focuses on the distributional impacts on tax-preferred property inheritances and behavioral welfare measures.

Vera Parra, a PhD Student in the UC Berkeley Department of Sociology, interested in labor history, political economy, and organizing in the 21st century. She is researching the recent history of auto industry organizing drives, both in the US and Mexico. She is interested in examining how green industrial policy– in particular the transition to EVs and attempts to secure a North American supply chain– shape organizing conditions on both sides of the border.

John Logan (moderator), a Visiting Scholar at the UC Berkeley Labor Center, is an expert on the anti-union industry and anti-union legislation in the U.S., and comparative labor issues, particularly how multinational companies treat employees and unions differently in the U.S. compared to European countries.