This report by PERI researchers Gregor Semieniuk and Robert Pollin estimates the prospects for job creation through expanding green locomotive manufacturing at the Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies (Wabtec) Corporation’s Lawrence Park facility in Erie, Pennsylvania. They estimate that returning production at Lawrence Park to roughly its 2008 level of 1,000 locomotives per year will produce major employment gains, both at the plant itself and the broader Erie area. The facility itself would employ between 3,400 – 5,100 workers, depending on the mix of green locomotives being produced, with another roughly 3,000 – 5,000 jobs generated in Erie County.

PERI researcher Nancy Folbre explores the challenges that feminist theory, stratification economics, and intersectionality pose to the characterization of capitalism as a unitary system. Attention to the structural basis for inequalities based on gender and race weakens traditional Marxian concepts of exploitation based on the appropriation of surplus value. On the other hand, the continuing relevance of many forms of collective conflict heightens appreciation of the ways in which capitalist institutions discourage the forms of cooperation necessary to address both ecological threats and shortfalls in care provision.

This book by PERI researcher Patrick Mason tracks persistent racial disparities in the United States. It examines the economics of racial identity, mechanisms of stratification and regimes of structural racism. It analyzes trends in racial inequality in education and changes in family structure since the demise of Jim Crow. It also examines generational trends in income, wealth, and employment by race, gender, and national region, as well as economic differences among African Americans. It concludes by examining hate crimes, the criminal legal system, and the impact of mass incarceration on family structure and income inequality.