Pronounsshe, her, her, hers, herself

Department/College/UnitSocial Sciences Division

TitleProfessor

AffiliationFaculty

Primary Office LocationEngineering Building 2

Mail StopEconomics Department

Biography, Education and Training

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley

B.A., Vassar College

Summary of Expertise

Lori Kletzer's area of specialization is labor economics. Her research has focused on the domestic labor market effects of globalization and policy responses; the causes and costs of job displacement; and the economics of higher education. She was a member of the faculty at Williams College before joining the faculty at UC Santa Cruz in 1992. She has contributed to the campus as chair of the economics department, Academic Senate chair and vice chair, Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies, acting/interim dean of the Division of the Arts, and most recently, from 2019 to 2025, Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor.

Research Interests

Labor economics, industrial relations, applied econometrics.

Awards, Honors and Grants

Academic Senate Excellence in Teaching award, 2003. 

Selected Publications

• “Workers in the Global Economy: Job Loss and Wage Insurance,” Proceedings of New York University Law School’s 70th Annual Conference on Labor, June 2017, Charlotte Garden, ed., Samuel Estreicher, series editor, LexisNexis, 2020.

• “Trade and Labor Market Adjustment: The Costs of Trade-related Job Loss in the United States and Policy Responses,” Meeting Globalization’s Challenges: Policies to Make Trade Work for All. Luis A.V. Catao and Maurice Obstfeld, eds., Princeton University Press, 2019, pp. 166-180.

• “The Question with AI Isn’t Whether We’ll Lose Our Jobs – It’s How Much We’ll Get Paid,” Harvard Business Review, January 31, 2018, available at https://hbr.org/2018/01/the-question-with-ai-isnt-whether-well-lose-our-jobs-its-how-much-well-get-paid

• “Why the U.S. Needs Wage Insurance,” Harvard Business Review, January 25, 2016, available at https://hbr.org/2016/01/why-the-u-s-needs-wage-insurance

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  “Measuring Tradable Services and the Task Content of Offshorable Services Jobs,” (with J. Bradford Jensen) in Labor in the New Economy, Katharine Abraham, Mike Harper and James Spletzer, eds., University of Chicago Press, 2010, pp. 309-335.

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  “Trade and Immigration: Implications for the U.S. Labor Market,” in A Future of Good Jobs: American’s Challenge in the Global Economy, Timothy Bartik and Susan Houseman, eds., Kalamazoo, MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 2008, pps. 119-160.

• “’Fear’ and Offshoring: The Scope and Potential Impact of Imports and Exports of Services,” (with J. Bradford Jensen), Peterson Institute for International Economics Policy Brief, #PB08-1, January 2008.

•  “Tradable Services: Understanding the Scope and Impact of Services Offshoring,” (with J. Bradford Jensen) in Brookings Trade Forum 2005, “Offshoring White-Collar Work — The Issues and the Implications,” Susan M. Collins and Lael Brainard, editors, 2006, pp. 75-134.

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   “Easing the Adjustment Burden on US Workers,” (with Howard Rosen), in C.F. Bergsten, ed., The United States and the World Economy: Foreign Economic Policy for the Next Decade, Institute for International Economics, January 2005, pp. 313-342.

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   “International Experience with Job Training: Lessons for the U.S.,” (with W. Koch), in C. O’Leary, R. Straits, and S. Wandner, eds., Job Training Policy in the United States., W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 2004, pp. 245-288.

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   “Trade and Job Loss in U.S. Manufacturing, 1979-94,” in R.C. Feenstra, ed., The Impact of International Trade on Wages, University of Chicago Press, 2000, pp. 349-393

• Imports, Exports, and Jobs: What does trade mean for employment and job loss?, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, Kalamazoo, MI, December 2002.
• Globalization and American Job Loss: Public Policy to Help Workers, Perspectives on Work, Industrial Relations Research Association, Volume 6, No. 1, June 2002, pp. 28-30.
• Job Loss from Imports: Measuring the Costs, Institute for International Economics, Washington, DC, September 2001.
• A Prescription to Relieve Worker Anxiety, (with Robert E. Litan), Institute for International Economics, International Economics Policy Brief, #PB01-2, March 2001.
• The Long-Term Costs of Job Displacement Among Young Workers, (with R. Fairlie), Industrial and Labor Relations Review, forthcoming.
• Kletzer, L. G. "Trade and Job Loss in U.S. Manufactur-ing, 1979-94." In R. C. Feenstra (ed.), The Impact of International Trade on Wages. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
• Kletzer, L. G., and R. Fairlie. "Jobs Lost, Jobs Regained: An Analysis of Black/White Differences in Job Displacement in the 1980s," Industrial Relations, 37(4): 460-477, October 1998.
• Kletzer, L. G. (with J. Behrman, M. McPherson, and M. O. Schapiro). "The Microeconomics of College Choice, Careers, and Wages," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 559:12-23, September 1998.
• Kletzer, L. G. "International Trade and Job Loss in U.S. Manufacturing, 1979-91." In S. M. Collins (ed.), Imports, Exports, and the American Worker. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1998.
• "Increasing Foreign Competition and Job Insecurity: Are They Related?" In Proceedings of the 50th Annual Meeting, Industrial Relations Research Association, January 1998, pp. 99-106.
• "Job Displacement," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 12(1):115-136, winter 1998.
• "The Role of Sector-Specific Skills in Postdisplacement Earnings," Industrial Relations, 35(4):473-490, October 1996.