High-resolution

Biography
Lawrence Mishel served as president of EPI from 2002–2017. Mishel first joined EPI in 1987 as research director. In the more than three decades he was with EPI, Mishel helped build it into the nation’s premier research organization focused on U.S. living standards and labor markets.

Mishel co-authored all 12 editions of The State of Working America, a book that former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich says was “unrivaled as the most-trusted source for a comprehensive understanding of how working Americans and their families are faring in today’s economy.” The State of Working America has been an invaluable resource in newsrooms, classrooms, and halls of power since 1988.

Mishel’s primary research interests include labor markets and education. He has written extensively on wage and job quality trends in the United States. He co-edited a research volume on emerging labor market institutions for the National Bureau of Economic Research. His 1988 research on manufacturing data led the U.S. Commerce Department to revise the way it measures U.S. manufacturing output. This new measure helped accurately document the long decline in U.S. manufacturing, a trend that is now widely understood.

Mishel led the Unequal Power project at EPI which, among other publications, resulted in an edited volume in 2022, Not So Free to Contract: The Law, Philosophy, and Economics of Unequal Workplace Power, published in the Journal of Law and Political Economy.

Mishel led EPI’s education research program. He has written extensively on charter schools, teacher pay, and high school graduation rates. His research with Joydeep Roy has shown that high school graduation rates are significantly higher than the rates that are often cited by education analysts. This work has enabled policymakers to more accurately assess the state of U.S. public education.

Mishel has testified before Congress on the importance of promoting policies that reduce inequality, generate jobs, improve the lives of American workers and their families, and strengthen the middle class. He also served frequently as a commentator in print, broadcast, and online media. Mishel’s current work is centered on policies to address racial disparities and on generating more Black homeownership, working with the Washington Interfaith Network’s (WIN) Black Equity Through Home Ownership (BETH) task force.

Prior to joining EPI, Mishel held a number of research roles, including a fellowship at the U.S. Department of Labor. He also served as a faculty member at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Mishel also served as an economist for several unions, including the Auto Workers, Steelworkers, AFSCME, and the Industrial Union Department, AFL-CIO. Mishel holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Originally from Philadelphia, he has four children, seven grandchildren and lives with his wife and his dog, Bella, in Washington, D.C.

Education
Ph.D., Economics, University of Wisconsin at Madison
M.A., Economics, American University
B.S., Pennsylvania State University