Firms and the distribution of income: the roles of productivity and luck.

• Position: Conferences

An NBER conference, "How do Firms Affect the Distribution of Income? The Roles of Productivity and Luck," took place in Palo Alto on November 13-14. Labor Studies Program Director David Card of University of California, Berkeley, and Research Associates Edward Lazear and Kathryn Shaw of Stanford University, organized the meeting. These papers were discussed:

* Erling Barth, Institute for Social Research and NBER; James Davis, Bureau of the Census; and Richard B. Freeman, Harvard University and NBER, "Augmenting the Human Capital Earnings Equation with Measures of Where People Work"

* John Haltiwanger, University of Maryland and NBER, and Henry R. Hyatt and Erika McEntarfer, Bureau of the Census, "Do Workers Move Up the Firm Productivity Job Ladder?"

* Chinhui Juhn, University of Houston and NBER; Kristin McCue and Holly Monti, Bureau of the Census; and Brooks Pierce, Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Firm Performance and the Volatility of Worker Earnings"

* Edward Lazear and Kathryn Shaw, Stanford University and NBER, and Christopher Stanton, Harvard University and NBER, "Who Gets Hired? The Importance of Finding an Open Slot"

* David Card and Patrick Kline, University of California, Berkeley, and NBER; Ana Rute Cardoso, Institute for Economic Analysis (Barcelona); and Jorg Heining, Institute for Employment Research (Nuremberg), "Firms and Labor Market Inequality: A Review"

* John M. Abowd, Cornell University and NBER; Kevin L. McKinney...