FC / NETWORK
Registry 01 · Domain
Economic Development
Seventy-five years of patient work, and a door held open for you.
Labor, mobility, and the institutional plumbing of broad-based prosperity.
Classification
Research domain
Cross-disciplinary index
Brief / 01
Context record
Economic-development research at RAND focuses on the institutional plumbing of broad-based prosperity, labor markets, mobility, human capital, and the policies that determine whether growth translates into well-being.
RAND economists have produced sustained work on labor-market institutions, income volatility, workforce development, and development economics across high- and low-income contexts. The Center for Asia Pacific Policy and the broader Economics, Sociology, and Statistics department anchor the institution's empirical capacity.
RAND's Signature Themes in Economic Development
Labor markets and income volatility
How earnings instability, benefits design, and labor-market institutions shape household economic security.
Workforce systems
Apprenticeship, community college, and the institutional pathways that move workers into higher-productivity roles.
Human capital and development
The returns to education, health, and early-life investment across high- and low-income settings.
Inequality and mobility
Which institutional arrangements predict mobility across generations, and which entrench position.
Representative Work
Income Volatility: A Primer
RAND · RR-2659
Early Childhood Interventions: Proven Results, Future Promise
RAND · MG-341
The Economic Case for Investing in Workforce Development
RAND · ongoing
Methodological Emphasis
Applied microeconometrics, panel data analysis, and quasi-experimental impact evaluation.
Methodological Lineage →Affiliated Researchers