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Jacob Mincer Award 2026 Recipient Shelly Lundberg
In a series of highly influential collaborations with Robert A. Pollak, Lundberg transformed the study of the household from a unitary framework to one grounded in bargaining and individual incentives. Their work—including the “separate spheres” bargaining model (Lundberg and Pollak 1993) and empirical analyses such as Do Husbands and Wives Pool Their Resources? (Lundberg, Pollak, and Wales 1997) — demonstrated that control over resources within families fundamentally affects economic behavior and outcomes and showed that if current decisions have the potential to affect future bargaining power, outcomes will not necessarily be efficient. In earlier work, Lundberg made foundational contributions to labor supply, including her 1983 American Economic Review paper with Richard Startz and her 1985 Journal of Labor Economics analysis of the added worker effect, which together advanced our understanding of household labor supply responses to economic shocks. Lundberg has also worked on how broader social and economic forces shape family structure and inequality. Her work on family change, including studies of cohabitation, marriage, and childbearing patterns, highlights the growing divergence in family outcomes across socioeconomic groups and its implications for inequality. Her life-cycle approach highlights how gender norms in upbringing through retirement decisions impact gender gaps in the labor market. She has also contributed to our understanding of the gender gap within the economics profession. Her review article with Stearns highlights the multiple stages at which women are lost from the field—from undergraduate study through tenure—and emphasizes the roles of institutional structures, mentoring, and implicit bias in shaping these outcomes, Beyond her scholarship, Lundberg has provided exemplary service to the profession as a past president of the Society of Labor Economists, a former chair of the AEA’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, among several other leadership, mentorship, and editorial roles. Through these activities, along with her theoretical innovations, empirical insight, and sustained influence on the field, Shelly Lundberg has made enduring contributions that exemplify the spirit of the Mincer Award.
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The Society of Labor Economists is pleased to recognize Shelly Lundberg as a recipient of the Jacob Mincer Award for lifetime contributions to labor economics. Lundberg’s research has profoundly shaped our understanding of the economics of the family, inequality, and intra-household decision-making.