John Bound
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John Bound

George E. Johnson Collegiate Professor of Economics and Director of Doctoral Admissions
734-647-2319 [email protected]

John Bound is George E. Johnson collegiate professor of economics, director of doctoral admissions at the University of Michigan.  Dr. Bound is an empirically oriented labor economist. Much of Bound's research has focused on the effect of health on the labor force behavior of older working-aged men and women with a focus on the effects of the U.S. Social Security Disability Program on the behavior and economic well being of working aged individuals. He has worked on the reliability and validity of survey measures of health and was an early contributor to the research showing disability declines among the elderly.

In other work, Bound contributed to the evidence that an important influence on the demand for skilled labor within the U.S. is technological change. Much of his recent work has focused on education. In ongoing research Bound is studying the impact of high skilled immigration into the U.S. on U.S. competitiveness and on educational and labor force outcomes for U.S. natives.

In addition, in collaboration with Arline Geronimus, he has written a significant number of papers on black-white differences in health outcomes. Along with his substantive work, Bound has made a number of methodological contributions, including influential work on weak instruments and on measurement error in survey data. He is an elected fellow of the Econometric Society and the Society for Labor Economists.

Along with his appointment in the Department of Economics, Bound is affiliated with and an active member of the governing faculty of Michigan's Population Studies Center and is the director of the Michigan Center for the Demography of Aging (MICDA) there. He is a Faculty Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), affiliated with the Labor Studies, and Education and Aging programs.

Educational background

  • Ph.D. 1987 Harvard University (Economics) Ed.M. 1979 Harvard University (Education) B.A. 1971 Harvard College (Philosophy)
  • Ed.M. 1979 Harvard University (Education)
  • B.A. 1971 Harvard College (Philosophy)

Professional affiliations

  • Research Professor, Population Studies Center
  • ISR Faculty Associate, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
  • Member, Ad Hoc NIA review panel reviewing NBER NIA P0-1 program project proposal, 2009
  • Member, Nominating Committee, Society of Labor Economists, 2003-2006, Chair, 2006
  • Member, Ad Hoc NIA review panel reviewing Rand Corporation NIA P0-1 program project proposal, 2003
  • Member, Ad Hoc NIA review panel reviewing Rand Corporation NIA P0-1 program project proposal, 1994
  • Academic Consultant to the National Center for Health Statistics preparing a research agenda for the use of the 1994-1995 disability supplement to the Health Interview Survey, 1994
  • Participant, National Academy of Science's panel on reviewing disability trends, 1994
  • Participant, National Academy of Social Insurance's review of U.S. disability policy, 1993
  • Member, Technical Advisory Panel, Project NetWork Evaluation, 1993 - 1996
  • Consultant, National Center for Health Statistics, Measuring Social Inequalities in Health, 1993
  • Consultant, Lewin-VHI, Inc., 1993 – 1996
  • Reviewer for National Science Foundation Associate Editor, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1998 - 2008
  • Member, Board of Editors, AEJ: Applied Economics, 2007-present
  • Deputy Editor, Demography, 2013-present

Current research

  • Labor Economics
  • Health
  • Education

Recent publications