Using Spanish Social Security records, we document the channels through which mothers fall onto a lower earnings track, such as shifting into part- time work, accumulating lower experience, or transitioning to lower-paying jobs, and are able to explain 71 percent of the unconditional individual fixed- effects motherhood wage gap. The earnings…

Focused on human capital, economists typically explain about half of the gender earnings gap. For a national sample of MBAs, we account for 82 percent of the gap by incorporating noncognitive skills (for example, confidence and assertiveness) and preferences regarding family, career, and jobs. Those two sources of gender heterogeneity account for…

We show that the narrowing gender gap and the growth in earnings inequality are consistent with a simple model in which skills are heterogeneous, and the growth in skill prices has been particularly strong for skills with which women are well endowed. Empirical analysis of DOT, CPS, and NLSY79 data finds evidence to support this model. A large…

Using NLSY data, we examine the long-term effects of youth unemployment on later labor market outcomes. Involuntary unemployment may yield suboptimal investments in human capital in the short run. A theoretical model of dynamic human capital investment predicts a rational "catch-up" response. Using semiparametric techniques to control for the…

Before 1997, education was a way for young French men to avoid military service in the army. After the abolition of compulsory conscription in 1997, this incentive to stay on in education disappeared. We show that the decrease in the benefit of pursuing education for men was followed by a fall in their educational achievement relative to women and…

A study focused on the disabled working age population tracked changes in their labor market performance. Found from the 1960s through the mid-1970s, disabled improved their performance in labor market; their real earnings improved absolutely and relatively. In last half of the 1970s their earnings fell rapidly, the retrenchment in disability…

Current Population Survey data from 1979 and 1991 were used to decompose changes in the gender wage gap into three components: skill distribution, wage structure, and improvements in women's position. Relative wage gains by women may have been a source of increasing wage inequality among men. (SK)

Concludes that about half of racial differentials in earnings are due to current labor market discrimination, with the remainder due to past discrimination. (BH)

For high school dropouts who last attempted the General Educational Development (GED) test in Florida and New York in 1989-1990, earnings of those without GEDs, least-skilled GED holders, and highest-skilled GED holders were compared. Higher GED scores were associated with higher earnings, except for white males. These earnings differences were as…

The author feels that the income advantage of a male college graduate has fallen during the past 10 years. This is due in part to the difficulty college graduates have encountered in obtaining college-type jobs. He states that the job market for new graduates in the 1980s should improve. (CT)

The meta-regression analysis reveals that there is a strong tendency for discrimination estimates to fall and wage discrimination exist against the woman. The biasing effect of researchers' gender of not correcting for selection bias has weakened and changes in labor market have made it less important.

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…

First develops a model of the economic impact of occupational licensure and then estimates the effects of licensure on wages and the division of labor in clinical laboratories. The findings indicate that recent licensure laws have no effect while older, more stringent laws increase the wages and employment of skilled laboratory personnel. (EM)

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.