Staff Biographical Page: Karen Hamrick

Briefly

Karen Hamrick has been at ERS since 1990. She is an economist in the Food Assistance Branch with a research focus on labor markets. Her research areas are the labor response to changing market conditions in rural areas, labor markets and the food stamp program, and time use.

Current Projects

• Displaced workers in rural areas. This research project is analyzing the decline of textile and apparel jobs in nonmetropolitian areas. Textile and apparel jobs are disproportionately located in nonmetro counties in the Southeastern United States. This research is part of a larger ERS project on the expiration of the Multifibre Arrangement quotas at the end of 2004.
• Time Use Patterns. Karen is the lead in ERS's time use project, which includes the development of a supplemental module of questions on food and eating to the American Time Use Survey. The time use data will allow research to analyze the choices people make in how they spend their time, and the time and income constraints they face.

Education

Karen holds Ph.D and M.Phil. degrees in economics from The George Washington University, and also a B.A. degree in Applied Mathematics and Economics from The George Washington University.

Professional Affiliations

Karen is a member of the American Economics Association, the Society of Labor Economists, the Society for Human Resource Management, and the International Institute of Forecasters. She served as program chair for the 1999 International Symposium on Forecasting. Karen was an organizing committee member of the Federal Forecasters Consortium and served as program chair for the Federal Forecasters Conference 1996-2003.

Publications

See all ERS publications by this author >

Selected Recent Publications

Karen Hamrick, editor. Rural America at a Glance, 2005, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Information Bulletin No. EIB4, September 2005.

Karen Hamrick, editor. Rural America at a Glance, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 793, September 2004.

Kenneth Hanson and Karen S. Hamrick. Moving Public Assistance Recipients Into the Labor Force, 1996-2000. Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Report No. 40, May 2004.

David C. Ribar and Karen S. Hamrick. Dynamics of Poverty and Food Sufficiency. Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Report No. 33, September 2003.

Karen Hamrick, editor. Rural America At a Glance. Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Development Research Report No. 94-1, September 2002.

Karen S. Hamrick. Displaced Workers: Differences in Nonmetro and Metro Experience in the Mid-1990s. Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Development Research Report No. 92, Oct. 2001.

Karen S. Hamrick, Stephen A. MacDonald, and Leslie A. Meyer, “Trade Liberalization: International Trade Agreements Bring Adjustment to the Textile and Apparel Industries,” Rural Conditions and Trends, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Vol. 11, No. 1, June 2000, pp. 31-41.

Karen S. Hamrick, “Minimum Wage Increase Would Have Greater Impact on the Food System than on the Overall Economy,” Food Review, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Volume 22, Issue 1, 1999, pp. 17-26.