IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/reveho/v1y2003i4p343-361.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Jacob Mincer, Experience and the Distribution of Earnings

Author

Listed:
  • Barry Chiswick

Abstract

This paper reviews Jacob Mincer's contributions to the analyses of earnings and the distribution of earnings through his pioneering focus on labor market experience or on-the-job training. It begins with a brief discussion of the theoretical literature on the distribution of earnings in the pre-Mincer period, and then discusses his analysis of human capital and earnings developed in his 1957 doctoral dissertation and 1958 Journal of Political Economy (JPE) article. Further analyses of on-the-job training, and in particular estimates of the rate of return from on-the-job training, are presented in his 1962 JPE paper. The synergy between Mincer and Becker during the 1960s is discussed, as is the development of the schooling-earnings function by Gary S. Becker and Barry R. Chiswick (1966). Jacob Mincer extended this relationship by incorporating experience to form the “human capital earnings function” in his Schooling, Experience and Earnings (1974). Subsequent modifications, extensions, tests of robustness and the wide applicability of the human capital earnings function are presented. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2003

Suggested Citation

  • Barry Chiswick, 2003. "Jacob Mincer, Experience and the Distribution of Earnings," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 1(4), pages 343-361, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:reveho:v:1:y:2003:i:4:p:343-361
    DOI: 10.1023/B:REHO.0000004794.43782.55
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1023/B:REHO.0000004794.43782.55
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1023/B:REHO.0000004794.43782.55?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Milton Friedman & Simon Kuznets, 1945. "Income from Independent Professional Practice," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number frie54-1, October.
    2. James Heckman & Edward Vytlacil, 1998. "Instrumental Variables Methods for the Correlated Random Coefficient Model: Estimating the Average Rate of Return to Schooling When the Return is Correlated with Schooling," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 33(4), pages 974-987.
    3. James J. Heckman & Lance J. Lochner & Petra E. Todd, 2003. "Fifty Years of Mincer Earnings Regressions," NBER Working Papers 9732, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Mincer, Jacob, 1970. "The Distribution of Labor Incomes: A Survey with Special Reference to the Human Capital Approach," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 1-26, March.
    5. Gary S. Becker, 1962. "Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis," NBER Chapters, in: Investment in Human Beings, pages 9-49, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Chiswick, Barry R & Mincer, Jacob, 1972. "Time-Series Changes in Personal Income Inequality in the United States from 1939, with Projections to 1985," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(3), pages 34-66, Part II, .
    7. Murphy, Kevin M & Welch, Finis, 1990. "Empirical Age-Earnings Profiles," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(2), pages 202-229, April.
    8. Jacob Mincer & Solomon Polachek, 1974. "Family Investments in Human Capital: Earnings of Women," NBER Chapters, in: Marriage, Family, Human Capital, and Fertility, pages 76-110, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Milton Friedman, 1953. "Choice, Chance, and the Personal Distribution of Income," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61, pages 277-277.
    10. Barry R. Chiswick, 1974. "Income Inequality: Regional Analyses within a Human Capital Framework," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number chis74-1, October.
    11. Shoshana Grossbard, 2006. "The New Home Economics at Columbia and Chicago," Springer Books, in: Shoshana Grossbard (ed.), Jacob Mincer A Pioneer of Modern Labor Economics, chapter 7, pages 37-49, Springer.
    12. George Psacharopoulos & Harry Anthony Patrinos, 2004. "Returns to investment in education: a further update," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 111-134.
    13. Chiswick, Barry R, 1978. "The Effect of Americanization on the Earnings of Foreign-born Men," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(5), pages 897-921, October.
    14. Chiswick, Carmel U & Lehrer, Evelyn L, 1990. "On Marriage-Specific Human Capital: Its Role as a Determinant of Remarriage," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 3(3), pages 193-213, October.
    15. Yoram Ben-Porath, 1967. "The Production of Human Capital and the Life Cycle of Earnings," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75, pages 352-352.
    16. Becker, Gary S & Landes, Elisabeth M & Michael, Robert T, 1977. "An Economic Analysis of Marital Instability," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(6), pages 1141-1187, December.
    17. Haley, William J, 1973. "Human Capital: The Choice Between Investment and Income," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(5), pages 929-944, December.
    18. Jacob Mincer, 1958. "Investment in Human Capital and Personal Income Distribution," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66, pages 281-281.
    19. Barry Chiswick, 1970. "An Interregional Analysis of Schooling and the Skewness of Income," NBER Chapters, in: Education, Income, and Human Capital, pages 157-191, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. W. Lee Hansen, 1970. "Education, Income, and Human Capital," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number hans70-1, October.
    21. repec:eee:labchp:v:1:y:1986:i:c:p:525-602 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Chiswick, Carmel U, 1983. "Analysis of Earnings from Household Enterprises: Methodology and Application to Thailand," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(4), pages 658-662, November.
    24. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1, October.
    25. Barry R. Chiswick, 1988. "Differences in Education and Earnings Across Racial and Ethnic Groups: Tastes, Discrimination, and Investments in Child Quality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 103(3), pages 571-597.
    26. Chiswick, Barry R, 1991. "Speaking, Reading, and Earnings among Low-Skilled Immigrants," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(2), pages 149-170, April.
    27. Sherwin Rosen, 1992. "Distinguished Fellow: Mincering Labor Economics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 157-170, Spring.
    28. Leibowitz, Arleen S, 1976. "Years and Intensity of Schooling Investment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(3), pages 321-334, June.
    29. Jacob Mincer, 1962. "On-the-Job Training: Costs, Returns, and Some Implications," NBER Chapters, in: Investment in Human Beings, pages 50-79, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Monojit Chatterji & Karen Mumford & Peter Smith, 2011. "The public-private sector gender wage differential in Britain: evidence from matched employee-workplace data," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(26), pages 3819-3833.
    2. Karen Mumford & Peter N Smith, "undated". "The Gender Earnings Gap in Britain," Discussion Papers 04/05, Department of Economics, University of York.
    3. Concetta, MENDOLICCHIO, 2006. "A Disaggregate Analysis of Private Returns to Education in Italy," Discussion Papers (ECON - Département des Sciences Economiques) 2006054, Université catholique de Louvain, Département des Sciences Economiques.
    4. Shiba Shankar Pattayat & Jajati Keshari Parida & Kirtti Ranjan Paltasingh, 2023. "Gender Wage Gap among Rural Non-farm Sector Employees in India: Evidence from Nationally Representative Survey," Review of Development and Change, , vol. 28(1), pages 22-44, June.
    5. Almeida-Santos, Filipe & Mumford, Karen A., 2006. "Employee Training, Wage Dispersion and Equality in Britain," IZA Discussion Papers 2276, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Karina Mahirda & Heni Wahyuni, 2016. "Returning To General And Vocational High-Schools In Indonesia," Review of Economic and Business Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 18, pages 9-28, December.
    7. Anuneeta Mitra, 2016. "Education and earning linkages of regular and casual workers in India: a quantile regression approach," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 18(1), pages 147-174, October.
    8. Chiswick, Barry R. & Miller, Paul W., 2008. "Why is the payoff to schooling smaller for immigrants?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 1317-1340, December.
    9. Alejos, Luis Alejandro, 2006. "La elección del sector laboral y los retornos a la educación en Guatemala [Labour Sector Choice and the Returns to Education in Guatemala]," MPRA Paper 42756, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Filipe Almeida-Santos & Yekaterina Chzhen & Karen Mumford, 2010. "Employee training and wage dispersion: white- and blue-collar workers in Britain," Research in Labor Economics, in: Jobs, Training, and Worker Well-being, pages 35-60, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    11. Grit Muehler & Michael Beckmann & Bernd Schauenberg, 2007. "The returns to continuous training in Germany: new evidence from propensity score matching estimators," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 209-235, November.
    12. Zineb Draissi & Yu Rong, 2023. "Estimating the Determinants and Extent of Morocco’s Education and Skill Mismatch Through the STEP Survey," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(2), pages 21582440231, June.
    13. Gregory Price & William Spriggs & Omari Swinton, 2011. "The Relative Returns to Graduating from a Historically Black College/University: Propensity Score Matching Estimates from the National Survey of Black Americans," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 38(2), pages 103-130, June.
    14. Ayal Kimhi, 2004. "Growth, Inequality and Labor Markets in LDCs: A Survey," CESifo Working Paper Series 1281, CESifo.
    15. Alvarado, Rafael, 2012. "Wages differentials in Ecuador: A regional approach with sample selection of Heckman and Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition," MPRA Paper 37470, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Christian Hundt & Rolf Sternberg, 2016. "Explaining new firm creation in Europe from a spatial and time perspective: A multilevel analysis based upon data of individuals, regions and countries," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(2), pages 223-257, June.
    17. Stefan Gravemeyer & Thomas Gries & Jinjun Xue, 2011. "Income Determination and Income Discrimination in Shenzhen," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(7), pages 1457-1475, May.
    18. Siang, Liew & Noor, Zulridah, 2015. "The Impact of Training on the Conditional Wage Distribution in Selected Service Subsectors in Malaysia," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 49(1), pages 37-48.
    19. Valentina S. Consiglio & Denisa M. Sologon, 2022. "The Myth of Equal Opportunity in Germany? Wage Inequality and the Role of (Non-)academic Family Background for Differences in Capital Endowments and Returns on the Labour Market," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 455-493, January.
    20. Pedro Spindler-Ruiz, 2021. "Mexican Niches in the US Construction Industry: 2009–2015," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 405-427, June.
    21. Sylwia Roszkowska & Aleksandra Rogut, 2007. "Rozkład płac i kapitału ludzkiego w Polsce," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 11-12, pages 55-84.
    22. Stefan Gravemeyer & Thomas Gries & Jinjun Xue, 2008. "Discrimination, Income Determination and Inequality – The case of Shenzhen," Working Papers CIE 16, Paderborn University, CIE Center for International Economics.
    23. Ernst Coupet & Ehab Yamani, 2022. "The impact of the coronavirus on African American unemployment: lessons from history," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 56(1), pages 1-18, December.
    24. Agupusi, Patricia, 2019. "The effect of parents’ education appreciation on intergenerational inequality," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 214-222.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Polachek, Solomon W., 2008. "Earnings Over the Life Cycle: The Mincer Earnings Function and Its Applications," Foundations and Trends(R) in Microeconomics, now publishers, vol. 4(3), pages 165-272, April.
    2. Filipe Almeida-Santos & Yekaterina Chzhen & Karen Mumford, 2010. "Employee training and wage dispersion: white- and blue-collar workers in Britain," Research in Labor Economics, in: Jobs, Training, and Worker Well-being, pages 35-60, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    3. repec:eee:labchp:v:1:y:1986:i:c:p:525-602 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Das, Tirthatanmoy & Polachek, Solomon, 2017. "Micro Foundations of Earnings Differences," IZA Discussion Papers 10922, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Chaitali Sinha, 2014. "Human Capital and Public Policy," South Asian Journal of Macroeconomics and Public Finance, , vol. 3(1), pages 79-125, June.
    6. James J. Heckman & Lance J. Lochner & Petra E. Todd, 2008. "Earnings Functions and Rates of Return," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(1), pages 1-31.
    7. Stefan Gravemeyer & Thomas Gries & Jinjun Xue, 2011. "Income Determination and Income Discrimination in Shenzhen," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(7), pages 1457-1475, May.
    8. Alan Manning & Joanna Swaffield, 2008. "The gender gap in early-career wage growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(530), pages 983-1024, July.
    9. Nikolov, Plamen & Jimi, Nusrat & Chang, Jerray, 2020. "The Importance of Cognitive Domains and the Returns to Schooling in South Africa: Evidence from Two Labor Surveys," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    10. Kenneth L. Sørensen & Rune Vejlin, 2014. "Return To Experience And Initial Wage Level: Do Low Wage Workers Catch Up?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 984-1006, September.
    11. Solomon Polachek, 2003. "Mincer's Overtaking Point and the Life Cycle Earnings Distribution," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 1(4), pages 273-304, December.
    12. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2373-2437 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. James J. Heckman & Lance J. Lochner & Petra E. Todd, 2003. "Fifty Years of Mincer Earnings Regressions," NBER Working Papers 9732, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Günalp, Burak & Cilasun, Seyit Mümin & Acar, Elif Öznur, 2013. "Male-Female Labor Market Participation and the Extent of Gender-Based Wage Discrimination in Turkey," MPRA Paper 51503, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Dan A. Black & Lars Skipper & Jeffrey A. Smith & Jeffrey Andrew Smith, 2023. "Firm Training," CESifo Working Paper Series 10268, CESifo.
    16. Kyle Glenn, 2021. "Social Labor vs Human Capital: Competing Theories of Skills," Working Papers 2115, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    17. Ana Paula Martins, 2018. "Concentration and Other Wage Determinants," Journal of Economics and Econometrics, Economics and Econometrics Society, vol. 61(3), pages 75-109.
    18. Vachaspati Shukla & Udaya S. Mishra, 0. "Expansion in Education and Its Impact on Income Inequality: Cross-sectional Evidence from India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 0, pages 1-32.
    19. Ngo Van Long & Antoine Soubeyran & Raphael Soubeyran, 2014. "Knowledge acquisition within an organization: How to retain a knowledge worker using wage profile and non-monotonic knowledge accumulation," CIRANO Working Papers 2014s-32, CIRANO.
    20. Vachaspati Shukla & Udaya S. Mishra, 2020. "Expansion in Education and Its Impact on Income Inequality: Cross-sectional Evidence from India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(2), pages 331-362, June.
    21. Derek Neal & Sherwin Rosen, 1998. "Theories of the Distribution of Labor Earnings," NBER Working Papers 6378, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Jacob Mincer, 1975. "Education, Experience, and the Distribution of Earnings and Employment: An Overview," NBER Chapters, in: Education, Income, and Human Behavior, pages 71-94, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    human capital; labor market experience; earnings; income distribution; Jacob Mincer;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B21 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Microeconomics
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:reveho:v:1:y:2003:i:4:p:343-361. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.