Changes across Cohorts in Wage Returns to Schooling and Early Work Experiences

Arbeitspapier

This paper investigates the wage returns to schooling and actual early work experiences, and how these returns have changed over the past twenty years. Using the NLSY surveys, we develop and estimate a dynamic model of the joint schooling and work decisions that young men make in early adulthood, and quantify how they affect wages using a generalized Mincerian specification. Our results highlight the need to account for dynamic selection and changes in composition when analyzing changes in wage returns. In particular, we find that ignoring the selectivity of accumulated work experiences results in overstatement of the returns to education.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 11231

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models: Panel Data Models; Spatio-temporal Models ; Time Allocation and Labor Supply ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Analysis of Education ; Returns to Education
• Subject: schooling ; human capital ; wage returns ; selection

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Ashworth, Jared ; Hotz, V. Joseph ; Maurel, Arnaud ; Ransom, Tyler
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2017

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/177035
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET