Robert LaLonde , Ph.D.

Labor Economics

Robert J. LaLonde's research focuses on the education and training of the workforce, economic effects of immigration on developed countries, costs of worker displacement, and the impact of unions and collective bargaining in the United States. His most current project, studying incarcerated women and their children in Illinois, seeks to provide policymakers with reliable benchmarks of the social and economic factors that contribute to the experiences and outcomes of these women and their children in order to inform the policy recommendations.

To date, there has been little comprehensive understanding of the long-term effects of imprisonment on the women's ability to function as parents or the consequences for their children, even though single mothers are now the fastest growing segment of the U.S. prison population. Predominately imprisoned for minor offenses, these women often serve a year or less, but recidivism is high and their children's lives can be frequently disrupted by changes in primary caregiver. By combining state-level administrative data sets, the study's results will give policymakers and service providers a more holistic understanding of the impact of imprisonment on these women and their children, including their socioeconomic status, employment, participation in public welfare programs, and the associated costs to taxpayers.
LaLonde received his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University, and joined the University of Chicago in 1985, where he first taught for ten years at both the Graduate School of Business and the Harris School. Previously, LaLonde was an associate professor of economics at Michigan State University. He has served as a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research since 1986, a senior staff economist at the Council of Economic Advisers during the 1987-88 academic year, and is a faculty affiliate of the Harris School's Center for Human Potential and Public Policy.