photo of Robert Lerman
Robert I. Lerman
Institute Fellow
Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population
  • Profile
  • Outside Affiliations
  • Since becoming a professional economist, I have focused on understanding social problems and developing productive ways to attack them. My involvement has stretched from my dissertation on youth unemployment, to public policy work on income support and youth employment programs, to analyses of unwed fathers, to promotion of homeownership vouchers, and to proposals to expand youth and adult apprenticeship. Urban has been a wonderful environment to collaborate on research and evaluations, to publish policy-relevant research, and to disseminate the findings to the research community, congressional and administrative staff, and the general public.

    Robert Lerman is an Institute fellow in the Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population at the Urban Institute, a professor emeritus of economics at American University, chair of Apprenticeships for America, and a research fellow at IZA in Bonn, Germany. A leading expert on apprenticeship, he recently established the American Institute for Innovative Apprenticeship. His current research focus is on skills, employer training, apprenticeship programs in the United States and abroad, and housing policies.

    Lerman’s published research covers employment issues, earnings and income inequality, family structure, income support, and youth development, especially as they affect low-income populations. In the 1970s, he worked as staff economist for both the Congressional Joint Economic Committee and the US Department of Labor. He was one of the first scholars to examine the patterns and economic determinants of unwed fatherhood and to propose a youth apprenticeship strategy in the United States.

    He served on the National Academy of Sciences panel on the US postsecondary education and training system and on the Maryland Task Force on Economic Development and Apprenticeship. Lerman has testified before congressional committees on youth apprenticeship, child support policies, and the information technology labor market.

    Lerman earned his AB at Brandeis University and his PhD in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

    Research Areas
    Education
    Wealth and financial well-being
    Workforce
    Social safety net
    Economic mobility and inequality
    Families
    Children and youth
    Tags
    Youth employment and training
    Apprenticeships
    Beyond high school: education and training
    Child support
    Employment
    Family structure
    Economic well-being
    Job training
    Vouchers
    Racial homeownership gap
    Mobility
    Kids in context
    Inequality and mobility
    Job markets and labor force


    Outside Affiliations
    Apprenticeships for America
    Chairman
    Body

    Urban experts are permitted and empowered to work and affiliate with outside organizations, whether serving on boards, volunteering their time, or providing advice and counsel. And Urban welcomes visiting scholars, nonresident or affiliated fellows who work for other organizations. These outside affiliations enrich our perspectives and our learning environment. We also require all paid and unpaid experts to disclose their affiliations to Urban leadership and follow rules governing their engagement to ensure transparency for audiences and independence of experts.