Solomon W. Polachek is a Distinguished Professor at the State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University), where he has taught since 1983. He is also a Professional Fellow (2017-2019) in the Business at Liverpool Hope University. At Binghamton, he holds appointments in the Economics and Political Science Departments, and from 1996-2000 he served as Dean of the Arts and Sciences College. His Ph.D. is from Columbia University, and he has had post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Chicago (1972 -1973) and Stanford University (1979-1980).
Polachek's prime research contributions span two areas. First is the application of life-cycle models to labor economics. Here Polachek was the first to illustrate how life-cycle human capital models explain male-female wage differentials. His extensions of this work modified traditional human capital models by introducing human capital heterogeneity to explain gender-based occupational segregation. In another application, he imbedded search, job choice, and geographic location into the human capital model, enabling him to gain insight into the analysis of geographic and job mobility including how search over the life-cycle can explain migration periodicity. A byproduct of the empirical work led to an econometric technique to estimate buyer and seller information about wages and prices. Polachek's research in this area constitutes over 150 journal articles, book chapters and conference presentations, including the book The Economics of Earnings (Cambridge University Press) 1993 written with W. Stanley Siebert. Polachek has testified about the policy implications of this research to various governmental committees and policy boards, and many of the implications have been described in the popular press including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
Second is the integration of economics and political science to explain conflict and cooperation among nations. This research has been widely received in the political science field leading to over 20 publications and conference presentations. In recognition of this work, Polachek was chosen to serve on editorial boards of Conflict Management and Peace Science (since 1989), the International Studies Quarterly (1989-1995) and as co-editor of Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy (since 1993). Polachek was elected President of the Peace Science Society (International) serving from 1999-2000. Although primarily devoted to applying economics tools to international relations, this research has implications regarding industrial relations, particularly union wage negotiations and strike activity.
Polachek has presented seminars and workshops at over 50 universities and research centers world-wide, and has visited Bar-Ilan University, Catholic University of Leuven, Erasmus University, Tel Aviv University, the Tinbergen Institute, the University of Michigan, Kasetsart University (Thailand), and Princeton University for extended stays. In the past, he served on the Editorial Board of SUNY Press and the Board of Editors of the Journal of Income Inequality. Currently is Series Editor of Research in Labor Economics and is an Associate Editor of the Review of Economics of the Household.
Solomon Polachek joined IZA as a Research Fellow in December 2000.
