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Why Do Wage Profiles Slope Upwards? Tests of the General Human Capital Model

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David Neumark
Paul Taubman

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Abstract

This paper tests some empirical implications of the general human capital model's explanation of rising wage profiles. At the individual level, the model implies that there will be a negative relationship between the initial wage level and wage growth of young, inexperienced workers. At the market level, the model implies that the present value of the wage profile of an investor equals that of an otherwise identical non-investor, or that the ratio of the present values equals one. We test both of these hypotheses. Evidence on the wage level-wage growth tradeoff points to a negative relationship between initial wage levels and wage growth, even after correcting for negative biases that may have influenced existing estimates of this relationship. Evidence on present values of wage profiles suggests that the ratio of the present value of rising wage profiles to flat wage profiles is quite close to one. Alternative estimates of this ratio are tightly clustered around one, and more often than not are insignificantly different from one. Overall, then, the evidence is largely consistent with the general human capital model.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 4688.

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Date of creation: Mar 1994
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:4688

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Loewenstein, George F & Sicherman, Nachum, 1991. "Do Workers Prefer Increasing Wage Profiles?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(1), pages 67-84, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Polachek, Solomon William, 1975. "Differences in Expected Post-school Investments as a Determinant of Market Wage Differentials," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 16(2), pages 451-70, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. McKinley L. Blackburn & David Neumark, 1991. "Omitted-Ability Bias and the Increase in the Return to Schooling," NBER Working Papers 3693, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Willis, Robert J., 1987. "Wage determinants: A survey and reinterpretation of human capital earnings functions," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & R. Layard (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 10, pages 525-602 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. George A. Akerlof & Lawrence F. Katz, 1989. "Workers' Trust Funds and the Logic of Wage Profiles," NBER Working Papers 2548, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Lazear, Edward P, 1981. "Agency, Earnings Profiles, Productivity, and Hours Restrictions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(4), pages 606-20, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Topel, Robert H & Ward, Michael P, 1992. "Job Mobility and the Careers of Young Men," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 107(2), pages 439-79, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Lazear, Edward P & Moore, Robert L, 1984. "Incentives, Productivity, and Labor Contracts," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 99(2), pages 275-96, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Alan S. Blinder, 1982. "Private Pensions and Public Pensions: Theory and Fact," NBER Working Papers 0902, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. George J. Borjas, 1998. "The Economic Progress of Immigrants," NBER Working Papers 6506, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Daniel Parent, 1995. "Matching, Human Capital, and the Covariance Structure of Earnings," Working Papers 730, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Mengistae, Taye, 1999. "The relative effects of skill formation and job matching on wage growth in Ethiopia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2104, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  4. Lydon, Reamonn & Walker, Ian, 2004. "Welfare-to-Work, Wages and Wage Growth," IZA Discussion Papers 1144, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. David Neumark, 2001. "Age Discrimination Legislation in the United States," NBER Working Papers 8152, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. repec:fth:prinin:351 is not listed on IDEAS
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