Showing papers on "Human capital published in 1982"

Interrupted Work Careers: Depreciation and Restoration of Human Capital.

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.

The Failure of Human Capital Theory to Explain Occupational Sex Segregation.

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.

The economic value of life: linking theory to practice

Abstract: Human capital estimates of the economic value of life have been routinely used in the past to perform cost-benefit analyses of health programs. Recently, however, serious questions have been raised concerning the conceptual basis for valuing human life by applying these estimates. Most economists writing on these issues tend to agree that a more conceptually correct method to value risks to human life in cost-benefit analyses would be based on individuals.' "willingness to pay" for small changes in their probability of survival. Attempts to implement the willingness-to-pay approach using survey responses or revealed-preference estimates have produced a confusing array of values fraught with statistical problems and measurement difficulties. As a result, economists have searched for a link between willingness to pay and standard human capital estimates and have found that for most individuals a lower bound for valuing risks to life can be based on their willingness to pay to avoid the expected economic los...

The Off-Farm Labor Supply of Farmers

Abstract: Theoretical and empirical models are developed to examine the off-farm wages, labor force participation, and hours of work of farmers. Econometric estimates use data from a 1971 survey of Illinois farmers. The off-farm wage depends on farmer human capital and the local labor market. The major result confirms the. sensitivity of off-farm work to economic incentives. A 10% increase in the off-farm wage entails an 11% increase in hours of off-farm work holding farm characteristics constant. Results also indicate effects of seasonality, risk, and life cycle factors on off-farm work.

Occupational Segregation by Sex: Determinants and Changes.

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.

The Effects of Marriage and a Working Wife on Occupational and Wage Attainment.

Abstract: The data used in this study were obtained from the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. The data were originally collected by the Center for Human Resource Research, Ohio State University. Neitherthe original collectors of the data nor the Consortium bear any responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented in this paper. In a study of a national random sample of mature male managerial, professional, and blue-collarworkers, the positive effects of being married and the negative effects of having a working wife on both occupational status and wage attainment were observed most strongly for the professional and managerial subsamples. These results are consistent with both a conformance-to-social expectations and wife-as-career resource arguments, but not as consistent with either human capital/market-signalling or distributive justice arguments. The effects of specific organizational tenure, education, and socioeconomic origins on both forms of attainment tended to be stronger for managers than for professionals, and, in turn, than for the blue-collar respondents. These results are consistent with the different need for control, given the uncertainty of evaluation and performance and importance of the jobs (higher for managers and professionals than for others), and the different mechanisms for achieving control. Professional control is achieved more through extraorganizational mechanisms, while managerial control is achieved through background, certification, and tenure, which tend to be associated with compliance to the normative structure.

When is a Man's Life Worth More Than His Human Capital?

Abstract: This paper develops a subjectivist theory of the value that individuals place on risks to their lives It explains the paradox that although individuals may view their lives as priceless, they still will take small risks for a finite amount of money Typical public projects that alter risks to life result in small changes in survival probability for a large number of people Standard tools of benefit cost can therefore be applied, where statistical lives saved are valued at a price equal to the marginal rate of substitution between survival probability and wealth This value is compared to human capital measures of the value of saving a life and is shown under reasonable assumptions to exceed the human capital value

Labour Force Participation: Timing and Persistence

Abstract: This paper examines the relative importance of timing and persistence elements in explaining cyclical fluctuations in labour supply. Data from the natural experiment provided by World War II and cross-sectional data on American local labour markets, as well as aggregate time-series data are used in the empirical work. We find little evidence that timing effects play an important role in labour market dynamics. The evidence suggests that views emphasizing persistence are more accurate, and that previous employment tends to raise the probability of subsequent employment. Much of the development of applied economic theory within the past 25 years has emphasized the importance of viewing economic decisions in a life cycle context. Consumption decisions are today frequently viewed as being determined by wealth or permanent income. The human capital revolution has brought life cycle considerations to the forefront of modern labour economics. While the life cycle dynamics of labour force participation decisions have important implications for macroeconomic theory and policy, they have received relatively little empirical attention. With the notable exceptions of Lucas and Rapping (1969) and Hall (1980), none of the large body of work on cyclical fluctuations in employment has explicitly relied on a dynamic model of labour supply.' This paper uses several types of data to examine two elements of participation dynamics. The first is the aspect of "timing" which is implicit in the work of Lucas and Rapping, and in Mincer's (1966) early discussion of hidden unemployment. The timing argument, which is presented most explicitly in Ghez and Becker (1975), holds that leisure is easily substitutable across periods. Hence relatively small transitory movements in the perceived real wage or real rate of return can have large effects on the path of labour supply as individuals time their participation to coincide with periods of high transitory wages. On the other hand, permanent changes, because they do not affect the timing decision, are expected to have a much smaller effect on participation. It is this view of labour supply which underlies new classical macroeconomic models. The dependence is made explicit in Lucas (1975), who claims that "what we do know indicates that leisure in one period is an excellent substitute for leisure in other nearby periods". The ability of classical macroeconomic models to explain fluctuations in employment depends on the presence of strong intertemporal substitution effects. Unless

"Learning by Doing" and "Investment in Training": A Synthesis of Two "Rival" Models of the Life Cycle

Abstract: This paper provides a theoretical synthesis of recent discussions of "learning by doing" and "investment in training" as alternative forms of human capital accumulation. These theoretical notions relate to essentially different phenomena; in particular, pace Becker and Mincer, "investment in training" does not completely encompass "learning by doing". The paper then develops a model in which human capital accumulation occurs via both "training" and "learning by doing". The joint training-learning model, since it is more general then "pure" models in which all accumulation occurs via either training or learning, avoids certain restrictive and seemingly implausible implications of either kind of "pure" model. However, the joint model also has implications that, while compatible with stylized facts about the life cycle, are sharper than those of either kind of pure model. (For example, the joint model implies that market time and earnings must rise early in the life cycle, while neither pure model without "corners" does so.) Finally, the notion of learning by doing provides a rationale for an empirical finding that has recently received attention, to the effect that the rate of depreciation of human capital is not constant, but rather depends on the extent to which it is used in market activities.

The Human Capital Approach to Black-White Earnings Inequality: Some Unsettled Questions

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

The Influence of Children on the Wage Rates of Married Women

Abstract: wage rates In the most rigorous formulation of this argument, Mincer and Polachek (24) found that adding the number of children to their general women's earning equation, after accounting for experience, education, and depreciation of human capital, failed to enhance the explanatory power of their model This result has been widely interpreted to mean that children only influence mothers' earnings indirectly, through the depreciation of their stock of human capital during the time they are out of the labor force and through the foregone accumulation of additional human capital, especially work experience In a number of studies, age and experience variables have been presumed to capture the children factor (see: Cohen (11), Blinder (5), and Struyk (32)), and Oaxaca (26)

Human Capital and Institutional Theories of the Labor Market: Rivals or Complements?

Abstract: (1982). Human Capital and Institutional Theories of the Labor Market: Rivals or Complements? Journal of Economic Issues: Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 255-272.

Taxation and On-The-Job Training Decisions

Abstract: This paper is an econometric analysis of the on-the-job training (OJT) decisions of a group of white American males during 1975. The data are obtained from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, which asked a very careful series of questions concerning the individual's OJT status. Each individual's internal rate of return is estimated and used as an explanatory variable to predict the probability of taking OJT. The individual's marginal tax rate is also entered in the equation. The results suggest that income taxation has tended to increase the probability of being involved in OJT. I conjecture that this is because income taxation makes investment in physical capital a less desirable vehicle for carrying consumption into the future, and hence increases the attractiveness of human capital.

Sex Discrimination in the Reward for Skills and Experience in the Australian Labour Force

Abstract: Human capital equations are estimated for males and females in Australia, which express earnings as the product of endowments and the return on these endowments. The results are used to examine the effect of discrimination on the difference in the average earnings. The effect of occupational segregation on the earnings of women is also examined.

Taxation and On-the-job Training Decisions

Abstract: This paper is an econometric analysis of the on-the-job training (OJT) decisions of a group of white American males during 1975. The data are obtained from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, which asked a very careful series of questions concerning the individual's OJT status. Each individual's internal rate of return is estimated and used as an explanatory variable to predict the probability of taking OJT. The individual's marginal tax rate is also entered in the equation. The results suggest that income taxation has tended to increase the probability of being involved in OJT. I conjecture that this is because income taxation makes investment in physical capital a less desirable vehicle for carrying consumption into the future, and hence increases the attractiveness of human capital.

Energy Intake over the Life Cycle and Human Capital Formation in Guatemalan Sugarcane Cutters

Abstract: Improved nutritional intake is clearly a form of investment in human capital whenever a stream of economic benefits results beyond the immediate food-consumption period. The question that is being addressed in the present study is whether increased energy intake in the rural work force of developing countries may be expected to result in human capital formation. Of equal importance is the question related to the optimal life-cycle pattern of investments in human capital. Little evidence is available to evaluate the relative economic returns of im-

Human Capital and the Risk of Divorce: An Asset in Search of a Property Right

Abstract: The "new home economics" [2; 5; 6; 7] analyzes investments in human capital or children in terms of a model of household decision-making. Traditionally, a harmony of interests between the spouses is assumed to prevail, and this is formalized by postulating a household utility function [9] or by assuming the maximization of the joint income of the husband and wife [6]. Recently, the approach has been modified to admit the potential for marital disharmony [3; 4]. The present paper follows this lead and considers how family investments in each partner's human capital is conditioned by the risk of divorce. The focus on human capital, rather than say tangible capital, is of particular interest because of this asset's illiquidity and the fact that the courts have generally not recognized the property rights of one spouse in the human capital acquired by the other during the marriage.' It demonstrates that the absence of property rights generally produces a sub-optimal pattern of human capital investment. Specifically, the risk of divorce leads to overinvestment in human capital, with this outcome being more likely the greater the fragility of the marital relationship.

The Economic Foundations of East-West Migration During the Nineteenth Century

Abstract: This paper argues that latitude-specific investments in seeds and human capital provided an incentive for farmers to move along east-west lines. The incentives were greatest during the early and mid 1800s. Towards the end of the century migration patterns changed as farmers learned about farming in different environments, as settlement reached the Great Plains and beyond, and as farming declined in importance. Census manuscript schedules and Mormon family-group records form the basis for empirical work.

Labour supply and off-farm work by farmers: theory and estimation

Abstract: Off-farm employment has become increasingly important as an aspect of resource adjustment and a source of income in Australian agriculture. However, it is surprising that there is a paucity of work on this topic reported in the agricultural economics literature. Therefore, we have drawn upon recent developments in labour economics in order to investigate off-farm employment in Australia. A conceptual model of the allocation of a farmer's labour between farm and off-farm work is developed and applied to cross-sectional data from the Australian Agricultural and Grazing Industries Survey. A Tobit maximum likelihood procedure is utilised to test the influences of the life cycle, level of human capital, wealth, non-wage income and farm income on the off-farm labour supply of farmers.

Who Owns the Assets in a Defined Benefit Pension Plan

Abstract: The liability to employees in a defined benefit pension plan is the present value of vested benefits, the present value of the benefits that employees would receive on the immediate termination of the pension plan. This is the literal and simple definition of the liability. Although it leads to an understanding of the economics of the promise of a pension, several common provisions of pension plans make it necessary to expand the definition. Anomalies such as vesting, early retirement benefits, lump sum provisions, and ad hoc increases in benefits for retired employees indicate that employees accrue benefits that exceed their benefits on a termination of the plan. These anomalies, however, can be explained by requiring that employees as a group possess specific human capital. Although losing one or a few employees from the group would be a small loss, losing the group of employees would be a great loss. In this group model, employees bargain with the stockholders over the compensation of the entire group; they allocate . their compensation according to marginal product, returns from previous equity investments in the human capital of the group, and to purchases and sales of claims on this capital. The model explains the anomalies as a natural outgrowth of the transactions of members within the group. In addition, the model explains the use of defined benefit pension plans, and how employees could have claims, in excess of vested benefits, on the assets in the pension plan.

Issues in the Theory of Human Capital : Education as Investment

Abstract: After a few references to the early literature on human capital, from Petty via Smith, Engel, and Nicholson to Marshall, various issues in current theory of human capital are briefly reviewed. They include questions regarding categories of "tangible human capital" and "intangible nonhuman capital;" investment in raising children, in schooling, and in research and development; depreciation of human capital through obsolescence, loss of strength, illness, retirement, and death; conflicts between efficiency and equality in the educational system; wrong educational mix resulting in waste or even net loss; the problem of complementarity among different kinds of physical and human capital; and the complexity of econometric research on comparative returns to different investments.

Fertility and labor force participation in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

Abstract: This discussion begins with a review of the basic features of the Western neoclassical models of human capital and fertility and their socialist counterparts that are employed in this study. This contrasts leads to the conclusion that the Western and Eastern models (in their contemporary forms) are basically identical. The agreement on the theoretical foundations of human capital analysis is bolstered by substantial agreement in the empirical results. The major comparative study of fertility and family in Eastern and Western Europe (UN 1976) failed to reveal a distinctive pattern of behavior for Eastern Europe other than its steeper decline in fertility since the mid 1950s. In general Soviet and Eastern European research (and Western studies) has yielded partial relationships similar to those found in Western countries. A simulatenous equation model of fertility female labor participation and marriage was specified and estimated using a combined time series cross section of Eastern European countries including the Soviet Union. Homogeneity tests required pooling over time and countries (except in the case of the participation equation) and the model was estimated using OLS 2SLS and Zellner-iterative techniques. The estimated equations revealed no major surprises. The labor supply of women was retarded by high fertility; higher wages drew additional women into the labor force; reductions in infant mortality lowered fertility; narrowing of the female wage differentials reduced fertility as did increases in marital instability. If there are surprises they were the positive impact of education upon fertility and the insignificant effect of female labor force participation on fertility. Simulations of the reduced form of the system revealed the direct and indirect effects of changes in exogenous variables and of shocks to intercepts. Forecasts of fertility female labor force behavior and marriage were made for the year 1990 on the basis of certain "likely" scenarios. All of these scenarios predicted further reductions in fertility and marriage rates and increases in female participation rates. The exercise suggests that there is no unique "socialist" model of population growth and labor force behavior suggesting instead that families behave similarly under radically different economic systems. There are reservations to this conclusion and the unexpected positive education effect on fertility and the insignificant female participation effect on fertility may suggest that differences in economic systems do "matter" in household decision making.

Occupational Earnings: Compensating Differentials and Human Capital : An Empirical Study

Abstract: This paper examines the empirical significance of the principle of compensating differentials for the occupational distribution of earnings in Canada. The estimated earnings equation relates differentials in earnings to differences in human capital investments of workers, training requirements, and other non-pecuniary characteristics of occupational employments. The evidence suggests that wage differentials are primarily 'equalizing differentials': workers receive higher pay in compensation for their higher schooling and work experience and for undertaking jobs that are risky, insecure, and require higher levels of general educational development and specific vocational preparation. The evidence also confirms the findings of hedonic wage equations that returns to schooling and experience may be biased when occupational requirements are not controlled. Salaires dans diverses occupations, diffrrentiels compensatoires, et capital humain: une etude empirique. Ce memoire examine la signification empirique du principe des diff6rentiels compensatoires pour expliquer l'eventail des salaires selon les occupations au Canada. Une equation des gains estimes etablit la relation entre les salaires et les differences dans les investissements en capital humain des travailleurs, la longueur de la periode d'apprentissage necessaire, et les autres avantages non-pecuniers attaches 'a une occupation. Les resultats suggerent que les differentiels de salaire sont d'abord et avant tout des diff6rentiels qui vont dans le sens de l'egalisation: les travailleurs reqoivent un salaire plus eleve en compensation pour le niveau d'experience et d'6education plus eleve qui est necessaire, et pour des travaux plus dangereux, moins stables et requerant des niveaux eleves d'instruction et une preparation particuliere. Les resultats confirment aussi les resultats derives d'equations de salaire de type hedonique indiquant que les rendements sur l'investissement en instruction et en experience peuvent etre fausses si on ne standardise pas les exigences des differentes occupations. The principle of compensating differentials outlined by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations is one of the many ideas of classical economists that have become a 'common place of economics. '1 The idea that differences in pecuniary wages are required to The authors wish to thank Steve Kaliski, Mike Abbott, and the Editor and anonymous referees for their helpful comments and suggestions. The financial assistance from Labour Canada on the initial phases of this study is gratefully acknowledged. 1 See Rees (1975) and McNulty (1980). According to Rees, 'Of the many ideas of Adam Smith that have stood the test of time, few have weathered better or are still more relevant than the idea of compensating wage differentials ... it would be hard to imagine a theory of relative wages that did not Canadian Journal of Economics / Revue canadienne d'Economique, XV, No. 3 August / aoet 1982. Printed in Canada / Imprimd au Canada 0008-4085 / 82 / 0000-0442 $01.50 (? 1982 Canadian Economics Association This content downloaded from 157.55.39.27 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 06:38:18 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Occupational earnings, compensating differentials / 443 compensate for the non-pecuniary advantages and disadvantages of different employments has remained in its original form for over two hundred years as an established analytical framework for the analysis of wage differentials. In recent years the principle of compensating differentials has sparked considerable theoretical and empirical interest in earnings distributions and their relationship with worker and job attributes. On the theoretical side the compensating principle has inspired the development of two major applied and policy-oriented economic models, the human capital theory and the recent hedonic wage function approach; while the human capital model emphasizes the significance of individual investment behaviour in the heterogeneity of labour incomes and singles out the length of training-formal schooling and informal training or work experience-as the principal compensating wage differential, the hedonic approach focuses on 'quality' variations in both worker and job attributes as an explanation for wage differences. Both models provide empirical conceptualization of the compensating differentials principle and have contributed significantly to a better understanding of labour market behaviour and wage determination processes. On the empirical side the availability of large data sets, incorporating information on both individual worker traits and job characteristics and requirements, and high-speed computers has helped in overcoming difficulties of measurement, thus facilitating empirical estimates of 'compensation' for non-wage characteristics. Consequently, in the past few years there has been a long line of empirical research in the United States relating wage differences to differences in worker and job characteristics.2 These studies have found considerable evidence of compensating wage differentials for jobs requiring additional years of training, together with positive average rates of return on the individual worker's human capital investments. The evidence on the direction and magnitude of compensating differentials for other characteristics, however, is so far inconclusive. Empirical work on these problems is practically non-existent in Canada, largely owing to the absence of appropriate data

The Demand for Consumption Time: A Longitudinal Perspective

Abstract: T he limited stock of time an individual has available and the inability to accumulate it as one does with capital makes time a scarce economic resource with competing demands for its use. Traditionally, economists have examined the way individuals allocate time in the context of the labor-leisure dichotomy.' Time and other resources are allocated to work activities based on the estimate of the expected income earned in comparison with the opportunities forgone. This consumption of time in work activities determines the supply of time available for nonwork activities, and places a value on time equivalent to its use in the labor market, i.e., the wage rate. Over the life cycle, various events bring about changes in labor market activity, altering the role and evaluation of time as an economic resource. Additions to an individual's stock of human capital through education, on-the-job training, and experience help to generate higher levels of productivity and wages, causing the value of work time to increase. As Linder (1970) suggested in The Harried Leisure Class, the limited availability of time, coupled with the increasing value of time spent working, generates the need for a reallocation process. Individuals must continually transfer time among activities to achieve parity between the yield of work and consumption. Moreover, economic development and technological advances have produced a growing list of alternative ways to use time. The combination of these forces has resulted in the realization that time, as a nonrenewable resource, is an essential element in calculating all labor-leisure decisions. The basic premise of this study is that the price of time is an important determinant of consumption behavior and an integral factor in determining the life-cycle patterns of labor supply and consumption (nonwork) time. As an individual's return (income) from work increases with age, the opportunity cost, or price of time, rises. Whenever possible, the individual will attempt to substitute other, less expensive, resources for time, such as market goods, to lower the demand for and price of time. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to determine how the demand for consumption time (nonwork time) is related to shifts in income, subject to personal resource and market constraints. The framework for analysis is based on the "new home economics" model of resource allocation. In the first section, the demand for consumption time is presented in a production-function approach to consumption activities. The methodology and sampling format for empirically testing the model are discussed in the second section. The estimated coefficients of the model and various parameters related to the consumption of time are analyzed and summarized in the final section.

Marx's Theory of Value and the Transformation Problem: Some Lessons from a Debate

Abstract: Capitalist societies are more than ever characterized by this "conversion into entities." To the fetishism of commodities, money and capital is now added that of technology, science and information. Labour-power has become "human capital." Science is henceforth considered a new "factor of production." The latest discoveries of what is called "economic science" help to obscure even more the nature of social relations in capitalist society, and thus to further remove us from an explanation of the phenomena which manifest themselves in this society.

Salary Patterns of Agricultural Economists in the Early 1980s

Abstract: Systematic explanation of wages in the service sector typically has been hampered by the absence of information on physical productivity of service workers. Frequently the analyst must rely on input information and make strong assumptions about the transformation of inputs (and cost) into outputs. To model the long-run pattern of wages in the service sector, it may be sufficient to look primarily at relative wages and long-term demand factors such as income and population. A number of professions in the service sector have been successfully modeled using the familiar cobweb formulation. For example, Hansen et al. report the results of estimating a multiequation model of the long-run supply and demand for economists generally and conclude, among other things, that the real salary of new Ph.D.s will fall throughout this decade. Short-run analysis of academic wages usually focuses on various sorts of earnings functions in which the natural log of earnings is regressed against a variety of human capital variables. There is an extensive literature on the determinants of general economists' salaries and on the determinants of salaries for agricultural economists. (On salary determinants, see, for example, Boddy; Hansen, Weisbrod, and Strauss; Strauss; Tolles and Melichar; and Tuckman, Gapinski, and Hagemann among others, which have examined various aspects of the general market for economists. For agricultural economists' salaries, see, for example, Broder and Ziemer 1980, 1982; Fuller; Helmberger; Lane; Lee; Lundeen and Clausen; Melichar; Peck and Babb; Schotzko; Schrimper; Ziemer, Broder, and Spurlock; and Redman.) The more recent literature has emphasized the importance of using actual productivity measures, such as publications, in explaining variations in earnings along with human capital variables. A deficiency in some of this second type of research involves the absence of a welldefined theoretical justification for particular statistical specifications and the reliance on single-equation models. The objective of this study is to take advantage of a new, relatively underutilized data source on agricultural economists in order to examine the general characteristics of agricultural economists and to examine the determinants of their salaries in the early 1980s. In particular, we examine the 1981 Registry of Agricultural Economists maintained by the American Agricultural Economics Association and the Illinois Department of Labor. The registry, when examined in conjunction with Melichar and unpublished 1976 tabulations of the association's membership list indicate that it is broadly representative of the profession. The plan of the paper is as follows. The next section describes the data base and provides some general characteristics of agricultural economists in the early 1980s. Then we examine salary patterns of agricultural economists in various types of employment and focus in more detail on the salaries of academicians, especially those who are from and at educational institutions with doctoral programs which have been ranked in terms of the quality of their faculty and in terms of the quality of their graduate programs. Special attention is paid to the salaries of female agricultural economists and differences in salaries attributable to the race/ethnicity of agricultural economists. We conclude with a prospectus on outstanding research issues. Robert P. Strauss is a professor of economics and public policy, School of Urban and Public Affairs, Carnegie-Mellon University; Michael J. Tarr is a student at Cornell University. The authors wish to express their gratitude to the AAEA and Dr. Emanuel Melichar for making unpublished data available for this study, and to Farm Foundation for financial support. Responsibility for the views and any errors in this paper rests solely with the authors.