Experts Available to Discuss Low-Income Workers and Housing.

TOPIC: Low- and moderate-income workers are having a difficult time affording housing costs, according to an article by The Associated Press. The Center for Housing Policy conducted a study of 136 of the largest housing markets in the United States and found janitors and sales clerks in single-income households could afford rent comfortably in only 25 of those markets. The National Association of Counties conducted a separate survey and found 85 percent of participating county officials said new housing in their areas was aimed toward middle- and upper-income workers and not lower-income workers.

EXPERTS: ExpertSource can offer several highly qualified experts to comment on this story:

John Ballantine has over 25 years of experience in business and finance in both the academic and private sectors. He has been a banker, consultant, professor, and currently is CFO/President of Ballantine & Company, Inc., a Massachusetts-based software company. He has worked for the Chase Manhattan Bank, Arthur D. Little, Babson College, Harvard University - JFK School, and Brandeis University. He was educated at Harvard, University of Chicago, and NYU - Stern School. He has a PH.D. in Economics. John offers knowledge and expertise in banking, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, mortgage banking, mortgage banking, labor economics, income inequality and affordable housing.

Magnus Lofstrom is an assistant professor of economics and political economy at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is a labor economist with an emphasis on studying policy relevant issues applying econometric tools. Some of Lofstrom's specific research interests include immigration, self-employment, welfare, earnings inequality and education. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, San Diego in 1999. Prior to joining the faculty at UTD, he served as a researcher and taught at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) at the University of Bonn and at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Lofstrom also holds appointments as research fellow at IZA and research associate at the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

Professor Steven Raphael, of the University of California Berkeley, Goldman School of Public Policy, has research interests covering a broad set of subjects in labor and urban economics. He has written on the economics of racial discrimination, housing segregation, the transportation access of low-skill workers, unionization, workers compensation systems, homelessness, and various topics having to do with the criminal justice system. He is particularly skilled at analyzing large household surveys, administrative databases, and other forms of data.

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