David Neumark
Distinguished Professor of Economics UC Irvine
- Irvine CA
David Neumark is a labor economist whose work focuses on minimum wages, discrimination in the work force, and worker compensation.
Media
Social
Biography
Neumark graduated with a B.A. in economics in 1982 from the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude, with Honors. He went on to complete his M.A. in 1985 and Ph.D. in 1987 in economics from Harvard University. His fields were labor economics and econometrics. His dissertation was entitled Male-Female Differentials in the Labor Force: Measurement, Causes and Probes, and published in parts in the Journal of Human Resources.
From 1989 to 1994, Neumark was an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. He became a professor at Michigan State University in 1994 and remained at MSU until 2004. Since 2005, he is a Professor of Economics at the University of California, Irvine. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
Neumark's research interests include minimum wages and living wages, affirmative action, sex differences in labor markets, the economics of aging, and school-to-work programs, and has also done work in demography, health economics, development, industrial organization, and finance. His work has been published in economics journals like the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Labor Economics, the Journal of Human Resources. He is currently the editor of the IZA Journal of Labor Policy and a co-editor of the Journal of Urban Economics.
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
2016 Harris Distinguished Visiting Professor
Presented by Clemson University
2009 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
For "Minimum Wages"
2000 Minnesota Award
For “Age Discrimination Laws and Labor Market Efficiency”
Education
University of Pennsylvania
B.A.
Economics
Harvard University
M.A.
Economics
Harvard University
Ph.D.
Economics
Affiliations
- NBER - Research Associate
- IZA - Research Fellow
Media Appearances
Increasing employment in pre-retirement years slows cognitive decline
The Centre for Economic Policy Research online
2026-06-10
David Neumark, UC Irvine distinguished professor of economics, Tim Bruckner, UC Irvine professor and Chancellor's Fellow from the Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health and Noah Kouchekinia, UC Irvine PhD candidate write: “Employment near retirement age appears to reduce the risk of cognitive decline, which is a key precursor to dementia …. The potential link between work and forestalling cognitive decline and dementia suggests there may be large social benefits from higher employment at older ages.
Is 'Financial Independence, Retire Early' Bad for Your Brain? What the Science Says and How to Do It the Right Way
U.S. News and World Report online
2026-05-27
David Neumark, a professor of economics at the University of California, Irvine and co-author of the study, warned that large-scale declines in employment among older adults could have serious long-term consequences, both in economic and cognitive ways. The concern is particularly relevant for Gen X workers approaching retirement.
Can leaving the workforce early lead to cognitive decline? Here’s what experts say
San Francisco Chronicle online
2026-05-17
David Neumark, a professor of economics at UC Irvine … and his co-authors, population health [Professor] Tim Bruckner and graduate student Noah Arman Kouchekinia, wanted to look more closely at causation: Does leaving the workforce lead to diminishing cognitive ability, or does a decline in mental capabilities make a person more likely to leave their job? … Neumark said …. people who left employment early — particularly men aged 51 to 64 — showed more evidence of cognitive decline than people who remained employed over that same period.
Yamaha HQ Leaving California for Georgia
Orange County Lawyers online
2026-03-16
UC Irvine distinguished professor of economics David Neumark doesn’t believe Yamaha’s relocation signals a deeper crisis for Orange County or even California’s business climate. … His research detects only a modest uptick in company headquarters leaving California, affecting few workers and not necessarily impacting other jobs.
California’s Strict Regulations May Frustrate Business Starts
Public Policy Institute of California online
2026-02-19
Does California deserve its reputation as a state that burdens business with many regulations? At a recent event, David Neumark, UC Irvine professor and PPIC adjunct fellow, and Sarah Bohn, director of PPIC’s Economic Policy Center, discussed a new report examining the number and restrictive nature of California’s regulations and their effects on business launches.
Articles
Declining Teen Employment: Minimum Wages, Other Explanations, and Implications for Human Capital Investment
Mercatus Working PaperDavid Neumark, Cortnie Shupe
2018
We explore the decline in teen employment in the United States since 2000, which was sharpest for those age 16–17. We consider three explanatory factors: a rising minimum wage that could reduce employment opportunities for teens and potentially increase the value of investing in schooling; rising returns to schooling; and increasing competition from immigrants that, like the minimum wage, could reduce employment opportunities and raise the returns to human capital investment. We find that higher minimum wages are the predominant factor explaining changes in the schooling and workforce behavior of those age 16–17 since 2000. We also consider implications for human capital. Higher minimum wages have led both to fewer teens in school and employed at the same time, and to more teens in school but not employed, which is potentially consistent with a greater focus on schooling. We find no evidence that higher minimum wages have led to greater human capital investment. If anything, the evidence points to adverse effects on longer-run earnings for those exposed to these higher minimum wages as teenagers.
People versus machines: the impact of minimum wages on automatable jobs
Labour EconomicsGrace Lordan, David Neumark
2018
We study the effect of minimum wage increases on employment in automatable jobs – jobs in which employers may find it easier to substitute machines for people – focusing on low-skilled workers for whom such substitution may be spurred by minimum wage increases. Based on CPS data from 1980 to 2015, we find that increasing the minimum wage decreases significantly the share of automatable employment held by low-skilled workers, and increases the likelihood that low-skilled workers in automatable jobs become nonemployed or employed in worse jobs. The average effects mask significant heterogeneity by industry and demographic group, including substantive adverse effects for older, low-skilled workers in manufacturing. We also find some evidence that the same changes improve job opportunities for higher-skilled workers. The findings imply that groups often ignored in the minimum wage literature are in fact quite vulnerable to employment changes and job loss because of automation following a minimum wage increase.
Do opioids help injured workers recover and get back to work? the impact of opioid prescriptions on duration of temporary disability
National Bureau of Economic ResearchBogdan Savych, David Neumark, Randall Lea
2018
We estimate the effect of opioid prescriptions on the duration of temporary disability benefits among workers with work-related low back injuries. We use local opioid prescribing patterns to construct an instrumental variable that generates variation in opioid prescriptions but is arguably unrelated to injury severity or other factors affecting disability duration. Local prescribing patterns have a strong relationship with whether injured workers receive opioid prescriptions, including longer-term prescriptions. We find that more longer-term opioid prescribing leads to considerably longer duration of temporary disability, but little effect of a small number of opioid prescriptions over a short period of time.
