Jake Rosenfeld

Ph.D. 2007, Princeton University. Stratification, work and labor markets, and political sociology.

Department: Sociology
Position: Assistant Professor
Email: click here
Phone: (206) 543-2376
Box: 353340
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Research Summary:

Jake’s research interests center around the relationships between labor market institutions and the structures of political and economic inequality. His most recent project explores the dramatic shifts in the wage distribution and political environment of the United States during the past few decades. Unions were a key component of the social compact that predominated during the post-War World II years. The precipitous fall in union membership and erosion of union power has removed a vital part of the compact. Jake’s project focuses on the various ways in which union decline has contributed to rising earnings inequality and the rightward turn in the polity. Parts of the project have been published in Research in Social Stratification and Mobility and Social Forces. Jake has also begun an investigation into the relationships between rising executive compensation and trade union power, focusing on the U.S., Great Britain, and Sweden. A third project utilizes a unique state-level database and focuses on how levels of income inequality affect the passage of progressive income policies at the state-level.

Rosenfeld, J., (2006), Desperate Measures: Strikes and Wages in Post-Accord American, Social Forces, 85, 235-265.

Rosenfeld, J., (2006), Widening the Gap: The Effect of Declining Unionization on Managerial and Worker Pay, 1983-2000, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 24, 223-238.

Western, B.; Kleykamp, M.; Rosenfeld, J., (2006), Did Falling Wages and Employment Increase U.S. Imprisonment?, SOCIAL FORCES, 84: 4, 2291-2311.

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