Carl Paul Kaiser Emeritus Professor of Economics
Professor Kaiser received his Ph.D. from Washington University, St. Louis in 1980. He joined the Department of Economics in 1979 and served most recently as head of the department from 2004 to 2012. His initial teaching responsibilities included teaching courses in Labor Economics, Labor-Management Relations, and Principles of Economics. Other courses he has taught include Systems of Worker Participation in Management, Microeconomic Theory, and Mathematical Economics.
While grounded in labor economics, much of Professor Kaiser’s research has incorporated both interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives. Topics he has addressed in his research include the effects of the unemployment insurance system on labor demand, understanding employee absenteeism from interdisciplinary perspectives, economic functions of employee absence, comparative and cross-cultural analyses of national sickness absence programs, and analysis of the real costs of absenteeism incurred by firms. The outlets in which his work has appeared include the Eastern Economic Journal, Quarterly Review of Economics and Business, Journal of Socio-Economics, Journal of Business and Economic Studies, and Atlantic Economic Society Best Papers Proceedings.
Upon receiving his B.S. degree, and prior to his professional interest in economics, Professor Kaiser took a position as Associate Aeronautical Engineer with The Boeing Company in Seattle, Washington. He held that position for almost five years during which he worked on wind tunnel testing and aerodynamic stability and control.
Education
Ph.D in Economics, Washington University, St. Louis (1980)
M.A. in Economics, University of Texas at El Paso (1973)
B.S. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, University of Illinois (1966)
Research
Economics of Employee Absence, Comparative Labor Markets, Comparative Social Policy, and Economics of Unemployment Insurance.