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Economic Opportunity in a Volatile Economy
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Building on our Work: Suggestions for Further ResearchOur research points to a number of promising areas where further research would be highly valuable in shaping our understanding of the effect of intermediaries on career opportunities for disadvantaged workers, and how policy might improve their activities. These include the following three areas: 1) Perform additional case studies focused on "Market-Making" intermediaries What are key elements of the LMIs that improve the quality of jobs offered? How can they be strengthened and expanded? How are certain "market-making" LMI's worsening employment opportunities? To what extent are these tendencies growing? How might they be discouraged or prevented? 2) Research the change in wages of LMI users before and after use, in order to gather better evidence of the link between specific types of LMI use and change in wages: Our study was unable to measure wages both before and after intermediary use. Additional research could compare LMI users' wages and career progressions to a control group of non-LMI users. 3) Study more closely the relationship between LMI use and the nature
of social networks: Our research showed some important linkages between
social networks and the character of people's use of LMIs. Further research
would link social networks to people's access to various types of LMIs,
probably requiring detailed neighborhood and regional studies. Additional
research might also show how LMI use may help build social networks. Word to the Wise: Not a Final Document
It is
important to emphasize that this is a preliminary report, intended to generate
feedback and promote discussion. We are still in the process of analyzing
our data. In subsequent publications, we expect to be able to refine the
preliminary conclusions we present here, and to generate significant new
conclusions based on even more detailed analysis of our data. We plan to:
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