Adolescents face daily tradeoffs between human capital investment, labor, and leisure. This paper exploits state variation in the repeal of Sunday closing laws to examine the impact of a distinct and plausibly exogenous rise in the quantity of competing diversions available to youth on their educational attainment. The results suggest that the…

Sons (daughters) with criminal fathers have 2.06 (2.66) times higher odds of having a criminal conviction than those with noncriminal fathers. One additional paternal sentence increases sons' (daughters') convictions by 32 (53) percent. Compared to traditional labor market measures, the intergenerational transmission of crime is lower than that…

We contrast the intergenerational mobility rates of the historically disadvantaged scheduled castes and tribes (SC/ST) in India with the rest of the workforce in terms of their education attainment, occupation choices and wages. Using survey data from successive rounds of the National Sample Survey between 1983 and 2005, we find that…

This paper employs conditional second moments to identify the impact of education in wage regressions where education is treated as endogenous. This approach avoids the use of instrumental variables in a setting where instruments are frequently not available. We employ this methodology to estimate the returns to schooling for a sample of…

This paper examines the effect of oral health on labor market outcomes by exploiting variation in fluoridated water exposure during childhood. The politics surrounding the adoption of water fluoridation by local governments suggests exposure to fluoride is exogenous to other factors affecting earnings. Exposure to fluoridated water increases…

Using two single-cohort longitudinal surveys, the NLS72 and the NELS88, I investigate the impact of four noncognitive traits--self-esteem, external locus of control, the importance of money/work and the importance of people/family--on wages and on the gender wage gap among these young workers. I find that gender differences in these noncognitive…

After a long decline, the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) of older men in the United States leveled off in the 1980s, and began to increase in the late 1990s. We examine how changes in Social Security rules affected these trends. We attribute only a small portion of the decline from the 1960s-80s to the increasing generosity of Social…

Researchers often identify degree effects by including degree attainment ("D") and years of schooling ("S") in a wage model, yet the source of independent variation in these measures is not well understood. We argue that "S" is negatively correlated with ability among degree-holders because the most able graduate the…

Exposure to minimum wages at young ages could lead to adverse longer-run effects via decreased labor market experience and tenure, and diminished education and training, while beneficial longer-run effects could arise if minimum wages increase skill acquisition. Evidence suggests that as individuals reach their late 20s, they earn less the longer…

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. (Author)

Comparison of U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics and German Socioeconomic Panel data found similarities in correlation of earnings and working hours for fathers and sons. Correlation for daughters and mothers was stronger in the United States, where more women are in the labor force. Intergenerational correlations in educational attainment were…

Using data on 271 jobs, a study showed that both worker characteristics (education, months employed or unemployed) and job characteristics (skills, mental and physical demands, tools) are determinants of pay. Females tend to hold jobs of lower value to the organization, which explains part of the male-female pay differential. (SK)

In the 1980s, men's average earnings declined and percentage with low earnings increased, largely because of technological change. Shifts in industrial employment patterns affected African Americans' earnings more than whites' or Hispanics', although educational upgrading helped hold down the growth of low earnings. (SK)

A wage models in which college-educated workers are classified according to their degree attainment, college type, and college transfer status are examined using data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Transfer students receive an 'indirect' wage benefit as changing colleges allows them to earn a degree.

A study examined schooling, weekly and annual working hours, and hourly earnings of women organized into nine birth cohorts, 1920 to 1964. Many more women are working now than did 20 years ago. The gap between the work of married and unmarried women has narrowed. Schooling and wage differences have widened in recent cohorts. (SK)