Katharine Abraham
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Katharine G. Abraham (born August 28, 1954) is an American economist who is a Distinguished University Professor of
economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
and
survey methodology Survey methodology is "the study of survey methods". As a field of applied statistics concentrating on human-research surveys, survey methodology studies the sampling of individual units from a population and associated techniques of survey d ...
at the
University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...
. She was commissioner of the
Bureau of Labor Statistics The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the government of the United States, U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics, labor economics and ...
from 1993 to 2001 and a member of the
Council of Economic Advisers The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is a United States agency within the Executive Office of the President established in 1946, which advises the president of the United States on economic policy. The CEA provides much of the empirical resea ...
from 2011 to 2013. She was elected a member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
in 2022 and, in 2024, was elected to be the President-Elect and then the President of the American Economic Association.


Education

Abraham holds a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from
Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricult ...
(1976) and a Ph.D. in economics from
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
(1982).


Career

Abraham was an assistant professor at
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...
's Sloan School of Management and a research associate at the
Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as Brookings, is an American think tank that conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics (and tax policy), metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, global econo ...
before joining the faculty at the University of Maryland in 1988. During her time as commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Abraham laid the groundwork for the American Time Use Survey, the first U.S. government survey of time use; obtained funding to launch the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey; and established the Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee. During extensive public debate on the
Consumer Price Index A consumer price index (CPI) is a statistical estimate of the level of prices of goods and services bought for consumption purposes by households. It is calculated as the weighted average price of a market basket of Goods, consumer goods and ...
in the 1990s, Abraham testified repeatedly before Congress on the shortcomings of existing methodology and the necessity of making revisions based on objective research. She expanded coverage of the prices of services in the Producer Price Index; instituted improvements in the Current Employment Statistics program, including the substitution of a probability sample for the quota sample; accelerated delivery of employment and wage statistics; and took steps toward expanding coverage of wages and salaries in the Occupational Employment Statistics program. In 2016–2017, Abraham served as Chair of the Commission on Evidence Based Policymaking. Many of the commission's recommendations were enacted into law as part of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (the Evidence Act). Abraham's research has included studies on unemployment, job vacancies, wages and the business cycle; comparisons among the U.S., European, and Japanese labor markets; work-sharing policies; the operation of internal labor markets; the gig economy; and the measurement of market and nonmarket economic activity.


Awards

Abraham is a research associate of the
National Bureau of Economic Research The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic co ...
and the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Iowa State University. She has been awarded the Julius Shiskin Award for Economic Statistics (2002), the Roger Herriot Award for Innovation in Federal Statistics (2010), the Susan C. Eaton Scholar-Practitioner Award of the
Labor and Employment Relations Association The Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) was founded in 1947 as the Industrial Relations Research Association. LERA is an organization for professionals in industrial relations and human resources. Headquartered at the School of Lab ...
(2013), and was named a Distinguished Fellow of the
American Economic Association The American Economic Association (AEA) is a learned society in the field of economics, with approximately 23,000 members. It publishes several peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Review, an ...
in 2020. She is a fellow of the
American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 27, 1839, and is the second-oldest continuous ...
and the Society of Labor Economists. She was elected to fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020.


Selected bibliography

;Books * ''Based on papers presented at a conference held at MIT in June 1987.'' * * * ;Journal articles * * * * * * * *
Pdf.

Working papers and National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) papers.
*


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abraham, Katharine 1954 births Living people American women economists Economists from Iowa Feminist economists 20th-century American economists 21st-century American economists Bureau of Labor Statistics United States Department of Labor officials Obama administration personnel Clinton administration personnel 20th-century American women civil servants MIT Sloan School of Management faculty University of Maryland, College Park faculty Fellows of the American Statistical Association Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni American labor economists Iowa State University alumni United States Council of Economic Advisers Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 21st-century American women scientists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences