Policy Research Grants

The Upjohn Institute invites submission of proposals to conduct original, policy-relevant research on labor market and regional economic development issues. In past years, we have required grantees to develop book-length manuscripts. For this year, we have restructured the program to focus on article-length research papers, accompanied by a Policy Brief.

The Institute expects its grantees to produce two distinct products: 1) a Research Paper and 2) a Policy Brief. The Research Paper is expected to be suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, and acceptable papers will be published in the Upjohn Institute Working Paper series. The Policy Brief expands upon the policy implications of the analysis presented in the Research Paper, and its 12-page format is intended to be accessible to practitioners and policymakers. Acceptable Policy Briefs will be posted on the Upjohn Institute Web site and may be distributed in paper copy by the Institute’s Publications Unit. The research findings and policy recommendations may also be summarized in Employment Research, the Institute’s quarterly newsletter.

The maximum funding amount is $15,000.

Mini-Grants

The purpose of the Mini-Grant Program, which is reserved for untenured junior faculty within six years of earning their PhD degree, is to provide flexibility to meet special funding needs that, without support, would prevent researchers from pursuing the project.

Funds could be used as summer compensation or to acquire special data sets, meet unusual computer processing or programming needs, or cover travel to collect primary data. Special consideration will be given to those who use data from the Institute’s Employment Research Data Center.

We recognize that research universities provide many of these services, but we also understand that empirical research, particularly that oriented toward policy, may have unusual expenses that prevent the pursuit of topics that are particularly relevant to policymakers or practitioners.

The Mini-Grant recipients are expected to submit their research papers to a reputable journal, to prepare a synopsis of the research for consideration as an article in the Institute’s newsletter, Employment Research, and to enter the research paper in the Institute’s Working Paper series.

The maximum funding for a Mini-Grant is $5,000.

Application Procedure

Applicants for a Research Policy Grant should submit eight copies of a proposal of up to five double-spaced pages. The proposal should outline their proposed research and its policy relevance and include a budget.

Applicants for a Mini-Grant should submit eight copies of a proposal of up to three double-spaced pages; it should outline their proposed research and its policy relevance and include a budget.

All applicants must submit eight copies of a vita that describes their professional qualifications.

Evaluation Criteria

Proposals for Policy Research Grants will be evaluated according to the following five criteria:

1. Extent to which the research is likely to influence employment policy discourse
2. Extent to which the proposed analysis will contribute to a better understanding of the policy issues
3. Appropriateness of the methodology for doing the analysis
4. Professional qualifications
5. Cost effectiveness.

1. Contribution to important labor market policy issues and to the professional literature
2. Technical merit
3. Professional qualifications.

The Institute does not pay indirect costs but will entertain any legitimate research expense as part of the budget. Acceptable items include costs for professional, technical, and support personnel; data acquisition; materials and supplies; computer services; and travel. The Institute does not fund dissertation research (although it does have a Dissertation Award program).

We expect the research to be completed within a year.

Mini-Grant payments will be made to the individual upon award. Policy Research Grant awards are performance-based contracts and will be paid quarterly to the individual’s affiliated institution upon invoice, conditional on timely progress toward completing the Research Paper and Policy Brief.

Applications for all grants shall become the property of the Upjohn Institute. It is Institute policy to maintain an unrestricted publication right for the Policy Brief and to enter the research paper into its working paper series. Unaccepted proposals and rejected Research Papers and Policy Briefs will be returned upon request, without restrictions on further use by others. It is also Institute policy to encourage publication of the sponsored research in scholarly journals following submission of the Research Paper to the Institute. Submission of any material waives all rights to make any claim because of any use thereof by the W.E. Upjohn Unemployment Trustee Corporation, its agents and employees.

Submission Deadline and Notification Date

Download a pdf of the 2009 Grant Announcement.

FAQs

Recent Grantees

Research Policy Grants

• The Rise in Unemployment Insurance Exhaustion and What Can Be Done About It, Ralph E. Smith, Congressional Budget Office (retired)
• The Persistence of Employee 401(k) Contributions, Leslie Muller, Aquinas College and John Turner, Pension Policy Center

Research Grants

• The Employment Benefits from Small Business Innovation Research: Is the United States Making the Most of the Opportunity?, Albert Link, University of North Carolina and John Scott, Dartmouth College
• What Does the Minimum Wage Do?, Dale Belman, Michigan State University and Paul Wolfson, Dartmouth College
• The Transformation of the American Pension System, Edward Wolff, New York University
• Self-Employment Among Low-Income Mothers: Prevalence, Determinants and Consequences for Earnings, Parental Involvement, and Children's Outcomes, Lauren Rich, University of Chicago
• The Effect of Health Care Costs on the Growth and Survival of Small Business, Adela Luque, The Urban Institute, C.J. Krizan and Alice Zawacki, Center for Economic Studies, Census Bureau
• The International Law of Economic Migration: Toward Market Access for Labor, Joel Trachtman, Tufts University
• Private Pension Policies: A Comparative Analysis, John Turner
• Food Stamps and the Working Poor, David S. Ribar, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
• States of Occupational Regulation: Evidence from Case Studies, Morris Kleiner, University of Minnesota
• Health Care Costs and Employment Gains and Losses, Anne Beeson Royalty, Indiana University
• UK/US Workforce Policy, Michael Wiseman, Goerge Washington University
• Work After Welfare Reform and the Well-Being of Children: Evidence from the Michigan Women's Employment Survey, Rucker Johnson, University of California-Berkeley
• Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: Employment-Based Health Insurance and the Plight of Low-Skilled Workers, Nan Maxwell, California State University-Hayward
• The Role of Caregiving in Mothers' Time Use: Recent Evidence from the New American Time Use Survey, Rachel Connelly, Bowdoin College, and Jean Kimmel, Western Michigan University
• Business Organization and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Employment Opportunities in the United States, William Lazonick, University of Massachusetts Lowell and INSEAD
• How Important Are the Incentive Effects of Unemployment Insurance (UI)? Implications for Public Policy, Brian McCall, University of Minnesota, and Wei Chi, Kansas State University
• Apprenticeship Training: Evaluating the Impact on Human Capital among Today's Changing Entrants, Frank Neuhauser, University of California, Berkeley

Mini-Grants

• The Impact of Child Care Subsidies on Child Development, Chris M. Herbst, Arizona State University
• Do Minimum Wage Laws Affect People Who are Not Covered?, Anita Alves Pena, Colorado State University
• Opting Out? Explaining Recent Declines in Women's Employment, Kristin Smith, University of New Hampshire
• Does Paid Leave Promote Employment Stability?, Heather Hill, University of Chicago
• Origins of the Gender Wage: Gender Differences in Pay in the Adolescent Labor Market, Yasemin Besen-Cassino, Montclair State University
• Immigrant Participation in Medicaid, Lisa Dickson, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
• From War to Work: How Employers Shape Veterans' Transition into the Civilian Labor Market, Meredith Kleykamp, University of Kansas
• The External Effects of Black Male Incarceration on Black Females, Stephane Mechoulan, University of Toronto
• Who Benefited from the 2007 Minimum Wage Increase?, Kevin Mumford, Purdue University
• The Effects of College Quality on Student Performance and labor Market Outcomes: A Case for Affirmative Action Policy, Kalena Cortes, Syracuse University
• Estimating the Gender Wage Gap with Gender-Specific Measurement Errors, Jungmin Lee, Florida International University
• Women Breadwinners and the Labor Supply of Their Husbands, Christy Spivey, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville
• Reducing Health Care Costs for Employers – Financial Incentives for Company Gym Use, Justin Sydnor, Case Western Reserve University
• Working Poverty in Michigan: Scale, Determinants, and Policy Implications, Udaya Waglé, Western Michigan University
• The Impact of Off-shoring on Wages and Unionization in Latin American Export Processing Zones, Mark Anner, Penn State University
• Health Insurance Availability and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from New Jersey, Philip DeCicca, McMaster University
• How Much Does Work Pay? New Data on Combined Marginal Tax Rates, Jennifer Romich, University of Washington
• Global Competition, International Integration – Implications of Trade and Offshoring for American Workers, Susan Chun Zhu, Michigan State University
• The Impact of Local Antidiscrimination Employment Laws on the Earnings of Gay Men and Lesbians, Roddrick Colvin, John Jay College, CUNY
• College Major and the Changing Labor Market, Lisa Dickson, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
• Infertility and Female Labor Supply, Jungmin Lee, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville
• Employee Choice of Flexible Spending Account Participation and Health Plan, Jim Marton, Brown University
• Rising Health Insurance Premiums and Job Displacement, Younghwan Song, Union College
• The Impact of TANF on Maternal Employment in Low-Income Families Raising Children with Disabilities, Susan L. Parish, University of North Carolina
• China's New Cooperative Medical System: Implications for Household Labor Allocation, Alan de Brauw, Williams College
• Does Receiving Unemployment Insurance Raise the Likelihood of Finding Re-employment with Health Insurance?, Jeffrey Wenger, University of Georgia
• The Extra Health Costs of Living with a Disability, Sophie Mitra, Fordham University
• What is the Value of Cum Laude? An Application of Regression-Discontinuity to Latin Honors, Isaac McFarlin, University of Texas at Dallas
• State-Level Variation in the Effects of Trade on Job Displacement, Roger White, Franklin & Marshall College
• Reducing Direct Care Turnover: Does Policy Matter?, Reagan Baughman, University of New Hampshire
• A Nonparametric Analysis of Monopsony in the U.S. Nursing Labor Market, Debrasi Mukherjee, Western Michigan University
• Valuing Variety: How Much Do Workers Value Having Choices among Health Insurance Plans? Jean Abraham, University of Minnesota
• The Effects of Public Health Insurance on Job Lock: A Study of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Cynthia Bansak, San Diego State University
• The Use of Federal Work Opportunity and Welfare-to-Work Tax Credits by Temporary Help Service Firms and their Implications for Workers' Labor Market Outcomes, Sarah Hamersma, University of Florida
• Layoffs and Lemons: The Racial and Gender Disparities, Luojia Hu, Northwestern University
• Rising Health Care Costs: Effects on Labor Demand and Retiree Health Insurance Benefits, Jennifer Schultz, University of Minnesota Duluth
• An Empirical and Theoretical Investigation on the Cyclical Properties of Aggregate Employment, Hours of Work, and Wages of Skilled and Unskilled Workers, Daniele Coen-Pirani, Carnegie Mellon University
• The Economics of Optional SAT Scores: Gender and Race Implications, Stacy Dickert-Conlin, Syracuse University
• Have Minimum Wages Benefited South Africa's Farm and Domestic Workers? Thomas Hertz, American University
• The Long-Term Costs of Women's Work Interruptions, Mary Noonan, University of Iowa
• Research on the Impact of Labor Force Absence on Pension Savings, Jason Seligman, University of Georgia
• Generational Aspects of the Great Compression: A Cohort Analysis, Takashi Yamashita, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• Effects of Information Technology on Labor Supply and Gender Wage Differentials, Myeong-Su Yun, Tulane University
• Public-Private Contracting and Internal Labor Markets: The Case of Urban Transit, Roland Zullo, University of Michigan