Showing papers in "Journal of Human Resources in 1982"
TL;DR: The authors found that real wages at re-entry are lower than at the point of labor force withdrawal, and the decline in wages is greater, the longer the interruption, while immigrants eventually catch up with and often surpass natives, returnees from the nonmarket do not fully restore their earnings potential.
Abstract: The quantitative effects and even the existence of a "human capital depreciation" phenomenon have been a subject of controversy in the recent literature. Prior work, however, was largely cross-sectional and the longitudinal dimension, if any, was retrospective. Using longitudinal panel data (on married women in NLS) we have now established that real wages at reentry are, indeed, lower than at the point of labor force withdrawal, and the decline in wages is greater, the longer the interruption. Another striking finding is a relatively rapid growth in wages after the return to work. This rapid growth appears to reflect the restoration (or "repair") of previously eroded human capital. The phenomenon of "depreciation" and "restoration" is also visible in data for immigrants to the United States. However, while immigrants eventually catch up with and often surpass natives, returnees from the nonmarket do not fully restore their earnings potential.
740Â citations
TL;DR: It is concluded that human capital theory has not generated an explanation of occupational sex segregation that fits the evidence.
Abstract: Predictions from Polachek's theory explaining occupational sex segregation are tested and found to be false. The NLS data do not show that women are penalized less for time spent out of the labor force if they choose predominantly female occupations than if they choose occupations more typical for males. Thus, there is no evidence that plans for intermittent employment make women's choice of traditionally female occupations economically rational. It is not surprising, then, that NLS women with more continuous employment histories are no more apt to be in predominantly male occupations than women who have been employed less continuously. I conclude that human capital theory has not generated an explanation of occupational sex segregation that fits the evidence.
457Â citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of tuition costs, financial aid, and individual attributes on college choice were analyzed using a conditional logit model and the results confirm that financial aid can be an important determinant of postsecondary school attendance and that individual academic ability relative to the academic standards of a college is an important predictor of which of available college alternatives is chosen.
Abstract: The effects of tuition costs, financial aid, and individual attributes on college choice are analyzed using a conditional logit model. The results confirm that financial aid can be an important determinant of postsecondary school attendance and that individual academic ability relative to the academic standards of a college is an important determinant of which of available college alternatives is chosen.
268Â citations
TL;DR: A longitudinal analysis of the labor market behavior of older, urban white males in 1969, 1971, and 1973 focuses on changes from wage-and-salary to self-employment and changes from working to non-working status.
Abstract: This longitudinal analysis of the labor market behavior of older, urban white males in 1969, 1971, and 1973 focuses on changes from wage-and-salary to self-employment and changes from working to nonworking status. In each two-year transition approximately 4 percent of wage-and-salary workers switched to self-employment. Controlling for a large number of economic and demographic variables, the self-employed were significantly more likely to continue to work, partly by reducing their workweek to under 35 hours. Other significant predictors of continuing to work are good health, years of schooling, white-collar occupation, no expectation of a private pension, and a workweek longer than 50 hours. Age is also important, especially at the eligibility ages set by Social Security.
205Â citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the human capital and discrimination explanations of occupational segregation are tested and the empirical evidence is mixed on the supply-oriented human capital explanation, but it supports the demand-oriented discrimination explanation.
Abstract: The human capital and discrimination explanations of occupational segregation are tested in this paper. The empirical evidence is mixed on the supply-oriented human capital explanation, but it supports the demand-oriented discrimination explanation. The enforcement of federal equal employment opportunity (EEO) programs measures discrimination indirectly. Findings show that between 1967 and 1974, both Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the federal contract compliance program increased a working woman's probability of being employed in a male occupation relative to a man's probability. This success of EEO laws suggests that discrimination was a determinant of occupational segregation originally.
193Â citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined inter-industry variation in wages and profits using data from manufacturing industries from the United States from a perspective of interindustry factor mobility, which is a crucial determinant of the income distribution effects of exogenous changes in relative commodity prices.
Abstract: Interindustry factor mobility is a crucial determinant of the income-distribution effects of exogenous changes in relative commodity prices. This examination of interindustry variation in wages and profits using data from manufacturing industries from ...
181Â citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on veteran players who are on the brink of retirement and on the ability of their teams to pay them their entire salary based on their performance, experience, star status, bargaining power, mobility and team's ability to pay.
Abstract: It is well-established that a baseball player's salary is based on his performance, experience, star status, bargaining power, mobility and his team's ability to pay. This paper focuses on veteran players who are on the brink of retirement and on the ...
124Â citations
TL;DR: Data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation are used to investigate ways in which health influences a single mother's decision whether to work.
Abstract: Data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation are used to investigate ways in which health influences a single mother's decision whether to work: the direct effect of a woman's health on work effort and potential wage; the impact of her ...
79Â citations
TL;DR: In this article, a systematic critique of the human capital approach to black-white inequality is presented, which suggests that a serious analysis of the black white earnings gap will require an entirely new approach to the study of racial income inequality.
Abstract: The persistence of earnings differences between blacks and whites in the United States has been a topic that has received a substantial amount of attention in both theoretical and empirical research in economics The differential in earnings typically is tied to racial differences in human capital accumulation This paper advances a systematic critique of the human capital approach to black-white inequality Inadequacies are identified in human capital theory as a general theory of inequality as well as a specific theory of racial inequality The critique suggests that a serious analysis of the black-white earnings gap will require an entirely new approach to the study of racial income inequality
77Â citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a matched sample of Social Security and current population survey records was used to examine life-cycle earnings patterns of white males over the 1951-1976 period, and they found that older cohorts exhibit smaller marginal returns to schooling and larger marginal return to experience, but differences between cohorts are very small.
Abstract: A matched sample of Social Security and Current Population Survey records is used to examine life-cycle earnings patterns of white males over the 1951-1976 period. Estimated direct effects of schooling and experience compare well with other studies, but interaction effects with cohort do not. Younger cohorts exhibit smaller marginal returns to schooling and larger marginal returns to experience, but differences between cohorts are very small. When demographic factors, namely, veteran status, are controlled, direct cohort effects are linear in these data and show no tendency to vary with cohort size.
77Â citations
TL;DR: This paper analyzes how much of the gender earnings gap among physicians is due to women's greater family responsibilities and finds that women physicians earn 11 percent less for being married plus 14% less for having one child and 22% less than that for having two children.
Abstract: This paper analyzes how much of the gender earnings gap among physicians is due to women's greater family responsibilities. Women physicians earn 11 percent less for being married plus 14 percent less for having one child and 22 percent less for having ...
TL;DR: This article found that the effect of minimum wage legislation on teenagers' education decisions is asymmetrical across family income classes, with the legislation inducing children from low-income families to reduce their levels of schooling and children from higher income families to increase their educational attainment.
Abstract: This paper tests the hypothesis that the effect of minimum wage legislation on teenagers' education decisions is asymmetrical across family income classes, with the legislation inducing children from low-income families to reduce their levels of schooling and children from higher-income families to increase their educational attainment. We use data from the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) and exploit the fact that, although the minimum wage is fixed at a point in time, its value relative to adult wages varies across areas. Multinomial logit models of teenagers' enrollment-employment outcomes are estimated. The hypothesis appears to be confirmed for white teens; however, the evidence for nonwhites is more ambiguous.
TL;DR: The authors showed that if labor supply curves are not perfectly inelastic, wage discrimination induces some minority workers to leave the labor force, and studies of discrimination that focus only on wage differentials overlook these disincentive effects on minority employment.
Abstract: If labor supply curves are not perfectly inelastic, wage discrimination induces some minority workers to leave the labor force. Studies of discrimination that focus only on wage differentials overlook these disincentive effects on minority employment. ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the relationship between interclass pay equity and product quality was examined in a sample of 102 corporate business units and a small pay differential between lower-level employees and upper-echelon managers was theorized.
Abstract: The relationship between interclass pay equity and product quality is examined in a sample of 102 corporate business units. A small pay differential between lower-level employees and upper-echelon managers (after controlling for inputs) is theorized to ...
TL;DR: The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is the primary escape route from poverty for a significant number of the aged poor; yet approximately 50 percent of all those eligible are not enrolled as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is the primary escape route from poverty for a significant number of the aged poor; yet approximately 50 percent of all those eligible are not enrolled. Analyses of data from the March 1975 Current Population Survey, reported here, reveal that individual participation probabilities are positively related to the level of available benefits. Other factors such as limited information, stigma, and the bureaucratic complexities of the enrollment process appear to be significant barriers to participation. Efforts to increase participation in SSI must concentrate on raising available benefits and reducing the barriers to participation.
TL;DR: The authors used 1970 Census data at three different levels of aggregation to estimate a model of the labor supply and fertility of married women and showed that there may be substantial biases in the estimates derived with published SMSA average data from the 1970 and previous Censuses.
Abstract: This study uses 1970 Census data at three different levels of aggregation to estimate a model of the labor supply and fertility of married women. Estimates with both the individual Public Use Sample observations and the published SMSA average data generally agree with findings from three previous Censuses and alternative data sources, especially in the case of labor supply. Direct grouping of the Public Use Sample observations by SMSA leads to very different labor supply estimates. Further analysis shows that there may be substantial biases in the estimates derived with published SMSA average data from the 1970 and previous Censuses.
TL;DR: The effects of family income, parents' education, maternal employment, and family composition on the IQ scores of 4- and 7-year-olds are estimated, using a sample of more than 3000 children.
Abstract: The effects of family income, parents' education, maternal employment, and family composition on the IQ scores of 4- and 7-year-olds are estimated, using a sample of more than 3000 children. The results suggest that childhood cognitive development plays a minor role in the intergenerational transmission of wealth, and that programs to supplement family incomes would not have much effect on children's IQ scores. Compensatory education is shown to have had significant but short-lived benefits for sample children. Implications for household production and confluence models of intellectual development are also examined.
TL;DR: In this article, a longitudinal sample of men aged 45 to 64 was used to estimate the net depreciation rate in human capital from wage data on a longitudinal data set, and the results indicate that wage rates begin to decline in the early fifties at rates under 1 percent annually and decline at about 2 percent annually after age 60.
Abstract: In this paper, net depreciation rates in human capital are estimated from wage data on a longitudinal sample of men aged 45 to 64. The results indicate that wage rates begin to decline in the early fifties at rates under 1 percent annually and decline at about 2 percent annually after age 60. This decrease was offset by the general increase in wage levels so that on average the real wages of men approaching retirement did not decline during the period studied. The general increase was larger for blacks than for whites, probably because of decreases in labor market discrimination between 1966 and 1974. An appendix presents a GLS estimator for a variance components model in which the number of observations per individual varies.
TL;DR: Empirical evidence, based on national interview surveys of physicians, shows insurance does affect fees in the predicted direction, and a standard model of physician fee determination yields unambiguous predictions about insurance effects on fees.
Abstract: According to conventional wisdom, the growth of health insurance is partly responsible for the rise in physicians' fees; however, to date, convincing empirical evidence is lacking. A standard model of physician fee determination yields unambiguous predictions about insurance effects on fees. Empirical evidence, based on national interview surveys of physicians, shows insurance does affect fees in the predicted direction. Insurance parameter estimates imply that a $1.00 increase in an insurer's fee schedule raises physicians' fees somewhere between $0.13 and $0.35 on average. The higher fees could be associated with higher quality, an issue discussed in the last section.
TL;DR: By estimating the parameters of a production function whose inputs consist of family time and market goods, the authors offers some new microeconomic estimates of the value of production that takes place in the home and also examine the concept of joint...
Abstract: By estimating the parameters of a production function whose inputs consist of family time and market goods, the authors offer some new microeconomic estimates of the value of production that takes place in the home and also examine the concept of joint ...
TL;DR: This article argued that since union-set wages are available to all workers covered by unions irrespective of their union status, and union membership entails costs, workers will benefit from union membership regardless of their status.
Abstract: Economists have long suggested that labor unions suffer a free rider problem The argument is that, since union-set wages are available to all workers covered by unions irrespective of their union status, and union membership entails costs, workers will
TL;DR: This analysis takes advantage of more recent data, an improved model specification, and a more appropriate pooling procedure to reveal that inequities in utilization had diminished considerably by the mid-1970s.
Abstract: In their study of physician and hospital utilization in 1969, Davis and Reynolds found that Medicare had failed to eliminate major racial and income-related inequities in the use of medical services by the elderly. Our analysis-which takes advantage of more recent data, an improved model specification, and a more appropriate pooling procedure-reveals that these inequities in utilization had diminished considerably by the mid-1970s. Several hypotheses concerning the underlying demand- and supply-side sources of these equity gains are offered.
TL;DR: In this article, a simultaneous model of application and denial rates for Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) is developed, where the decision to apply depends on the likelihood of qualifying for benefits and since denial rates are influenced by a state's applicant pool.
Abstract: Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) is federally financed but state administered. States vary widely both in benefit application rates and the rates at which applications are denied. Since the decision to apply depends on the likelihood of qualifying for benefits and since denial rates are influenced by a state's applicant pool, a simultaneous model of application and denial rates is developed in this paper. In addition, recent DI funding problems have induced substantial tightening of applicant screening, at least in some states. Estimates are presented which suggest that while this change may have eliminated some unqualified applicants, it is also likely to have increased cross-state inequities in screening.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: Argentina's Proempleo Experiment, conducted in 1998-2000, was designed to assess whether a wage subsidy and specialized training could assist the transition from workfare to regular work.
Abstract: Argentina's Proempleo Experiment, conducted in 1998-2000, was designed to assess whether a wage subsidy and specialized training could assist the transition from workfare to regular work. Randomly sampled workfare participants in a welfare-dependent ...
TL;DR: The authors argue that young Black men experience more joblessness than their white counterparts because they have priced themselves out of the labor market, and they argue that reservation wages of jobless young black men, what they...
Abstract: I argue against the popular view that young Black men experience more joblessness than their White counterparts because they have priced themselves out of the labor market. The seemingly excessive reservation wages of jobless young Black men, what they ...
TL;DR: This study integrates models of income redistribution developed by economists, who suggest that citizens voluntarily redistribute because of interdependent preferences and rely on the state for implementation owing to the public-good nature of the state.
Abstract: This study integrates models of income redistribution developed by economists, who suggest that citizens voluntarily redistribute because of interdependent preferences and rely on the state for implementation owing to the public-good nature of ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used the techniques for dealing with sample-selection problems to evaluate the performance of applicants for first-line supervisory positions and ratings of on-the-job performance of those hired.
Abstract: Employers often wish to know whether the factors used in selecting employees do in fact allow them to choose the most qualified applicants. Because the performance of those not chosen is not observed, sample-selection bias is a likely problem in any attempt to "validate" employee-selection criteria. With minor modifications, the recently developed techniques for dealing with sample-selection problems can be used. Using data on applicants for first-line supervisory positions and ratings of on-the-job performance of those hired, ordinary least squares estimates of the determinants of performance are compared with maximum-likelihood estimates which correct for selection bias. The correction for selection bias produces changes in the expected direction in some variables' coefficients, though the corrected estimates remain insignificant at conventional levels.