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Mincer's Overtaking Point and the Life Cycle Earnings Distribution

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Author Info
Solomon Polachek ()

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Abstract

In 1958 Jacob Mincer pioneered an important approach to understand earnings distribution. 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 men earn more than women; why Whites earn more than Blacks; why occupational distributions differ by gender; why geographic and job mobility predominate among the young; why unemployment is lower among the skilled; and why numerous other labor market phenomena occur. This paper surveys the answers to these and other questions based on research emanating from Mincer's original discovery. In addition, this paper provides new empirical evidence regarding Mincer's concept of the “overtaking age”–a topic not currently well-explored in the literature. In this latter vein, the paper shows that Mincer's original finding of a U-shaped (log) variance of earnings over the life cycle is upheld in recent data, both for the United States as well as at least seven other countries. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2003

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File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1023/B:REHO.0000004790.49070.13
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Publisher Info
Article provided by Springer in its journal Review of Economics of the Household.

Volume (Year): 1 (2003)
Issue (Month): 4 (December)
Pages: 273-304
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Handle: RePEc:kap:reveho:v:1:y:2003:i:4:p:273-304

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Web page: http://www.springerlink.com/link.asp?id=109451

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Related research
Keywords: human capital; earnings; overtaking age; well-being; Mincer;

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References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Milton Friedman & Simon Kuznets, 1954. "Income from Independent Professional Practice," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number frie54-1.
  2. Polachek, Solomon W. & Robst, John, 1998. "Employee labor market information: comparing direct world of work measures of workers' knowledge to stochastic frontier estimates," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 231-242, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Mincer, Jacob, 1978. "Family Migration Decisions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(5), pages 749-73, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Polachek, Solomon W. & Kim, Moon-Kak, 1994. "Panel estimates of the gender earnings gap : Individual-specific intercept and individual-specific slope models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 23-42, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Eric A. Hanushek & John F. Kain & Steven G. Rivkin, 2002. "Inferring Program Effects for Special Populations: Does Special Education Raise Achievement for Students with Disabilities?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(4), pages 584-599, 07. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Hartog, Joop & Pfann, Gerard & Ridder, Geert, 1989. "(Non-)graduation and the earnings function : An inquiry on self-selection," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 1373-1395, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Paul Beaudry & David A. Green, 2000. "Cohort patterns in Canadian earnings: assessing the role of skill premia in inequality trends," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 33(4), pages 907-936, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Yoram Weiss, 1981. "Expected Interruptions in Labor Force Participation and Sex Related Differences in Earnings Growth," NBER Working Papers 0667, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. David H. Autor, 2001. "Wiring the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 25-40, Winter. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Groot, Wim & Oosterbeek, Hessel, 1994. "Stochastic reservation and offer wages," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(3-4), pages 383-390, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. Kumbhakar, Subal C., 1996. "A farm-level study of labor use and efficiency wages in Indian agriculture," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1-2), pages 177-195. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  17. Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Goldin, Claudia & Polachek, Solomon, 1987. "Residual Differences by Sex: Perspectives on the Gender Gap in Earnings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(2), pages 143-51, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  19. Michael, Robert T, 1973. "Education in Nonmarket Production," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(2), pages 306-27, Part I, M. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Paglin, Morton & Rufolo, Anthony M, 1990. "Heterogeneous Human Capital, Occupational Choice, and Male-Female Earnings Differences," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(1), pages 123-44, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  21. Robst, John & VanGilder, Jennifer, 2000. "Atrophy rates in male and female occupations," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 407-413, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  22. Booth, A-L & Frank, J, 1997. "Performance Related Pay," CEPR Discussion Papers 364, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University.
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  23. Becker, Gary S, 1974. "A Theory of Marriage: Part II," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(2), pages S11-S26, Part II, . [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  24. Kao, Charng & Polachek, Solomon W & Wunnava, Phanindra V, 1994. "Male-Female Wage Differentials in Taiwan: A Human Capital Approach," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 42(2), pages 351-74, January.
  25. Borjas, George J, 1993. "The Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(1), pages 113-35, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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