The Timing of Careers and Human Capital Depreciation

Arbeitspapier

This paper explores the short and long run effects of career interruptions on wages for young skilled workers in West Germany. The analysis distinguishes four types of career interruptions: unemployment, parental leave for female workers, national service for male workers and other non-work spells. We adopt the human capital model by Mincer and Polachek (1974) with homogenous human capital and test whether net depreciation is equal across types of employment interruptions, and equal in the short and in the long run. The main findings are that timing effects seem important and net depreciation differs across types of interruptions.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 509

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
• Subject: wage determination ; human capital depreciation ; unemployment ; Erwerbsverlauf ; Humankapital ; Lohn ; Bildungsertrag ; Arbeitslosigkeit ; Schätzung ; Deutschland

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Kunze, Astrid
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2002

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/21432
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:46 AM CET