Earnings over the life cycle
Subtitle: the Mincer earnings function and its applications
By: Solomon W. Polachek
Series: Foundations and trends in microeconomics -- vol. 4, issue 3; Foundations and trends in microeconomics -- v. 4, no. 3.
Publisher: Now Publishers
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource] :
Number of pages: 111
ISBN-13: 9781601981233; 9781601981226
Subjects: Human Resources & Personnel Management; Econometric models; Income distribution; Influence; Labor economics; Human capital; Labor supply; BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
Description: In 1958, Jacob Mincer pioneered an important approach to understand how earnings are distributed across the population. In the years since Mincer's seminal work, he as well as his students and colleagues extended the original human capital model, reaching important conclusions about a whole array of observations pertaining to human well-being. This line of research explained why education enhances earnings; why earnings rise at a diminishing rate throughout one's life; why earnings growth is smaller for those anticipating intermittent labor force participation; why males earn more than females; why whites earn more than blacks; why occupational distributions differ by gender; why geographic and job mobility predominate among the young; and why numerous other labor market phenomena occur. This review surveys the answers to these and other questions based on research emanating from Mincer's original earnings function specification.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-111).

Description based on print version record.
Table of contents: title: Abstract; title: Introduction: why study earnings functions?; title: The theoretical underpinnings: the Ben-Porath model life cycle model of human capital investment over the life cycle; title: The Mincer earnings function; title: Derivation of the Mincer earnings function; title: Direct applications of the Mincer earnings function; title: The rate of return to education; title: Earnings function concavity; title: Distribution of earnings over the life cycle: the overtaking year of experience; title: Econometric issues regarding estimation of the Mincer earnings function; title: Functional form specification; title: Omitted and mis-measured variables; title: Selectivity; title: Unobserved heterogeneity; title: Extending the human capital model; title: School inputs and earnings: race, education, and black-white earnings differences; title: Earnings of women; title: Heterogeneous human capital, matching, and occupational distribution; title: Incomplete information; title: The power of the Mincer earnings function in explaining the earnings distribution; title: Critiques of the human capital approach; title: Conclusion; title: References; title: Updates.