Salary data from mathematicians and economists were used to test a model that first impressions of scholarly work are important to career success. Long-run salary increases from additional articles or citations decline with the age received. Large standard errors suggest that first impressions are not overly important. (Author/SK)

Examination of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth found that a woman's wages relate positively to early return to work after childbirth; higher family income delays return; income did not affect child care choice; greater child care tax credits increased early return; and tax credits did not affect child care choice, but predicted…

Analysis of the younger cohort of the High School and Beyond study shows a positive effect on wages of first job when type of occupation is omitted. When type is included, nearly all effects on wages are associated with occupation and not with training or occupation related to training. (SK)

Using National Longitudinal Survey data, the influence of personal characteristics, occupational choice, and discrimination on the occupational attainment of young men was investigated. Two conclusions were reached: (1) correcting for self-selection increases importance of occupational distribution in explaining racial wage differentials; and (2)…

Data on high school students' college choice was used to estimate the effects of attending different college types on labor market outcomes. Even controlling for selection effects, there was strong evidence of a significant economic return to elite private colleges, an effect that has increased over time. (SK)

This paper provides a longitudinal perspective on changes in Italian men's earnings inequality since the late 1970s by decomposing the earnings autocovariance structure into its long-term and transitory parts. Cross-sectional earnings differentials grew over the period and the longitudinal analysis shows that such growth was determined by the…

Previous studies of the relationship between body weight and wages have found mixed results. This paper uses a larger data set and several regression strategies in an attempt to generate more consistent estimates of the effect of weight on wages. Differences across gender, race, and ethnicity are explored. This paper finds that weight lowers wages…

Labor market attachment differs significantly across young black, Mexican, and white men. Although it has long been agreed that potential experience is a poor proxy for actual experience for women, many view it as an acceptable approximation for men. Using the NLSY, this paper documents the substantial difference between potential and actual…

This paper develops and tests a theory, referred to as "preference for whiteness," which predicts that the interracial (white-black) and intraracial wage gap widens as the skin shade of the black worker darkens. Using data drawn from the Multi City Study of Urban Inequality and the National Survey of Black Americans, we report evidence…

This paper analyzes three models of labor demand solving for the change in wages of a given labor group due to a change in the size of a birth cohort. When the production function includes age-schooling groups as separate factors, an increase in the size of one birth cohort changes the size of several labor market groups. (Author/CT)

Examines how the autoregressive earnings model developed by Ashenfelter to evaluate job-training programs can produce badly biased estimates of the magnitude and temporal pattern of program effects. Finds that the decay in Ashenfelter's estimated training effect for men was produced by a time-varying bias in his model, and presents a new, more…

Canadian panel data 1988-90 were used to compare estimates of minimum-wage effects based on a low-wage/high-worker sample and a low-wage-only sample. Minimum-wage effect for the latter is nearly zero. Different results for low-wage subgroups suggest a significant effect for those with longer low-wage histories. (Contains 26 references.) (SK)

Review of public school compensation policies and comparison of teacher salaries with those of other white-collar workers found that public schools spend the same percentage of wage-rewarding seniority as other employers. A steeper wage-tenure profile reduces turnover, but turnover costs are likely not high enough to make this an optimal use of…

From the humanities sample of the Survey of Doctoral Recipients 1977-95, a cross-sectional sample of tenured/tenure-track faculty and a longitudinal sample of doctoral recipients 1975-89 were studied. Gender salary differences were largely explained by rank. Substantial gender differences in tenure were found, with a slight decline in the gap for…

A computer-assisted interview elicited responses from 110 high school and college students, revealing a common belief that the returns to a college education are positive, earnings rise between ages 30 and 40, and their own future earnings are uncertain. Respondents tended to overestimate the current degree of earnings inequality in the United…