Ezra Karger

Senior Economist

About Bank Publications Working Papers Selected External Publications

About

Ezra Karger is a senior economist in the economic research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He conducts research in the areas of labor economics, public economics, economic history, and forecasting. Prior to joining the Chicago Fed in 2021, he received a B.A. in mathematics, statistics, and economics and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago.

Bank Publications

Chicago Fed Insights

Introducing the Chicago Fed Labor Market Indicators

Scott A. Brave, Ben Henken, Katherine Jolley, Ezra Karger, Aryan Safi | 2025 | September

Tracking Unemployment in (Near) Real Time with CHURN: Data Update for June 2025

Scott A. Brave, Ben Henken, Ezra Karger | 2025 | July

Tracking Holiday Spending with CARTS 2.2 and a New Dashboard

Scott A. Brave, Ross Cole, Katherine Jolley, Ezra Karger | 2024 | December

What’s New in CARTS 2.1? Updates to Our Index Tracking National Retail Sales

Scott A. Brave, Lucas Cain, Ross Cole, Ezra Karger | 2024 | July

What Was in Your Holiday CARTS? Resuming Our Index Tracking National Retail Spending

Scott A. Brave, Ezra Karger | 2024 | January

Introducing CARTS: A New Index Tracking National Retail Spending

Scott A. Brave, Ross Cole, Michael Fogarty, Ezra Karger, Liam Puknys | 2021 | July

Chicago Fed Letter

Blending Traditional and Alternative Labor Market Data with CHURN

Scott A. Brave, Ben Henken, Ezra Karger | 2025 | No. 506 | June Download

Searching for “Inflation Canaries” in Household Surveys

Scott A. Brave, Ben Henken, Bart Hobijn, Ezra Karger, Anna Paulson, Jim Royal | 2024 | No. 503 | October Download

Measuring the Relationship Between Business Reopenings, Covid-19, and Consumer Behavior

Diane Alexander, Ezra Karger, Amanda McFarland | 2020 | No. 445 | August Download

Policy Brief

If You Build a Library, Children Will Come—and Learn More, Too

Ezra Karger | 2022 | February

Working papers

Working Papers

Heterogeneous Impacts of Sentencing Decisions

Andrew Jordan, Ezra Karger, Derek Neal | 2022 | No. 2022-02 | January Download

The Returns to Public Library Investment (REVISED July 2021)

Gregory Gilpin, Ezra Karger, Peter Nencka | 2021 | No. 2021-06 | April Download

Tracking U.S. Consumers in Real Time with a New Weekly Index of Retail Trade (REVISED November 2021)

Scott A. Brave, Michael Fogarty, Daniel Aaronson, Ezra Karger, Spencer Krane | 2021 | No. 2021-05 | March Download

Do Stay-at-Home Orders Cause People to Stay at Home? Effects of Stay-at-Home Orders on Consumer Behavior (REVISED August 2021)

Diane Alexander, Ezra Karger | 2020 | No. 2020-12 | May Download

Heterogeneity in the Marginal Propensity to Consume: Evidence from Covid-19 Stimulus Payments (REVISED February 2021)

Ezra Karger, Aastha Rajan | 2020 | No. 2020-15 | May Download

Selected External Publications

Acceptances in Academic Journals and Books

Ager, Philipp, Katherin Eriksson, Ezra Karger, Peter Nencka, and Melissa A. Thomasson, 2024, “School closures during the 1918 flu pandemic,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 106, No. 1, January, pp. 266–276. 20240101060000

Gilpin, Gregory, Ezra Karger, and Peter Nencka, 2024, “The returns to public library investment,” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Vol. 16, No. 2, May, pp. 78–109. 20240501050000

Alexander, Diane, and Ezra Karger, 2023, “Do stay-at-home orders cause people to stay at home? Effects of stay-at-home orders on consumer behavior,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 105, No. 4, July, pp. 1017–1027. 20230701050000

Berkes, Enrico, Ezra Karger, and Peter Nencka, 2023, “The census place project: A method for geolocating unstructured place names,” Explorations in Economic History, Vol. 87, 101477, January. 20230101060000

Jordan, Andrew, Ezra Karger, and Derek Neal, “Heterogenous effects of sentencing decision,” Journal of Labor Economics, forthcoming.