Kathryn L. Shaw is the Ernest C. Arbuckle 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 ...

at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. Previously, she was the Ford Distinguished Research Chair and Professor of Economics at

Tepper School of Business The Tepper School of Business is the business school of Carnegie Mellon University. It is located in the university's campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The school offers degrees from the undergraduate through doctoral levels, in addition to ...

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

. From 1999 to 2001, she served as a Senate-confirmed Member of

President Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the attor ...

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 ...

Education

Shaw graduated from

Occidental College Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is ...

in 1976, and completed her PhD in economics at

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 ...

in 1981.

Research

Shaw is the co-developer of the field of "insider econometrics," a research field within

personnel economics Personnel economics has been defined as "the application of economic and mathematical approaches and econometric and statistical methods to traditional questions in human resources management". It is an area of applied micro labor economics, bu ...

in which researchers go within companies and use insider knowledge and data to identify the performance gains from

management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

practices. In early work, she (and her co-authors) use production-level data from firms in the

steel industry Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high elastic modulus, yield strength, fracture strength and low raw material cost, steel is one of the ...

to model the effects of alternative management strategies on

productivity Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proce ...

. Recently, she has turned to studying the performance gains from new

information technologies Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data and information processing, and storage. Information technolo ...

and the changes in management strategy towards product customization that enhance returns to investment. In related work on incentives in

franchising Franchising is based on a marketing concept which can be adopted by an organization as a strategy for business expansion. Where implemented, a franchisor licenses some or all of its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its busines ...

, she shows how the optimal use of franchise contracts can increase brand value for franchise companies. In recent work, Shaw and her co-authors have discovered that a good boss can significantly increase the output of subordinates. This kind of promotion will continue into the future. Shaw also finds that serial entrepreneurs carry intangible capital with them when moving to a new more productive company. Her research has been extensively funded by the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

(NSF), the

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is an American philanthropic nonprofit organization. It was established in 1934 by Alfred P. Sloan Jr., president and chief executive officer of General Motors. The Sloan Foundation makes grants to support origina ...

, the

Russell Sage Russell Risley Sage (August 4, 1816 – July 22, 1906) was an American financier, railroad executive and Whig Party (United States), Whig politician from New York (state), New York, who became one of the List of richest Americans in history, rich ...

and

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...

s, and the

Department of Labor A ministry of labour (''British English, UK''), or labor (''American English, US''), also known as a department of labour, or labor, is a government department responsible for setting labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workfor ...

, and has been published in the American Economic Review, as well as Management Science, among other publications.

Recognition

In 1998, Shaw was the recipient of the Minnesota Award for Employment Research for the best paper in 1997–98 on the topic of employment issues. In 2001, she received the Columbia University award for the best paper on international business. From 1999 to 2001, Shaw's expertise in labor economics was recognised by an appointment as a Senate-Confirmed member of Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors. At Carnegie Mellon University, Shaw received the Award for Sustained Teaching Excellence, the Economics Department Teaching Award, was Chair of the Faculty Senate, and was Head of the Department of Industrial Management. Shaw's work has earned her the Xerox Research Chair, and she has served on a Research Panel of the NSF. She has been an editor of several academic journals, including the Journal of Labor Economics, and the Review of Economics and Statistics.

Selected works

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References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Kathryn L. 21st-century American economists American women economists Living people Harvard University alumni Occidental College alumni American labor economists American business theorists Year of birth missing (living people) United States Council of Economic Advisers 21st-century American women