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An Intergenerational Model of Wages, Hours and Earnings

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  • Joseph G. Altonji
  • Thomas A. Dunn

Abstract

In this paper we develop and estimate a factor model of the earnings, labor supply, and wages of young men and young women, their parents and their siblings. We estimate the model using data on matched sibling and parent-child pairs from the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience. We measure the extent to which a set of unobserved parental and family factors that drive wage rates and work hours independently of wage rates lead to similarities among family members in labor market outcomes. We find strong family similarities in work hours that run along gender lines. These similarities are primarily due to preferences rather than to labor supply responses to family similarities in wages. The wage factors of the father and mother influence the wages of both sons and daughters. A `sibling' wage factor also plays an important role in wage determination. We find that intergenerational correlations in wages substantially overestimate the direct influence of fathers, and especially mothers, on wages. This is because the father's and mother's wage factors are positively correlated. The relative importance for the variance in earnings of the direct effect of wages, the labor supply response induced by wages, and effect of hours preferences varies by gender, and by age in the case of women. For all groups most of the effect of wages on earnings is direct rather than through a labor supply response.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 4950.

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Date of creation: Dec 1994
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:4950

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  1. Solomon William Polachek, 1978. "Sex differences in college major," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 31(4), pages 498-508, July.
  2. Jacob Mincer & Solomon Polacheck, 1974. "Family Investments in Human Capital: Earnings of Women," NBER Chapters, in: Economics of the Family: Marriage, Children, and Human Capital, pages 397-431 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  3. 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.
  4. Gary S. Becker & Nigel Tomes, . "Human Capital and the Rise and Fall of Families," University of Chicago - Population Research Center 84-10, Chicago - Population Research Center.
  5. Behrman, Jere R & Taubman, Paul, 1989. "Is Schooling "Mostly in the Genes"? Nature-N urture Decomposition Using Data on Relatives," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(6), pages 1425-46, December.
  6. Thomas Mroz, . "The Sensitivity of an Empirical Model of Married Women's Hours of Work to Economic and Statistical Assumptions," University of Chicago - Population Research Center 84-8, Chicago - Population Research Center.
  7. Paula England, 1982. "The Failure of Human Capital Theory to Explain Occupational Sex Segregation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 17(3), pages 358-370.
  8. Joseph G. Altonji & Thomas A. Dunn, 1991. "Relationships Among the Family Incomes and Labor Market Outcomes of Relatives," NBER Working Papers 3724, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  9. Behrman, Jere R & Taubman, Paul, 1990. "The Intergenerational Correlation between Children's Adult Earnings and Their Parents' Income: Result from the Michigan Panel Survey of Income Dynamics," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 36(2), pages 115-27, June.
  10. Griliches, Zvi, 1979. "Sibling Models and Data in Economics: Beginnings of a Survey," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages S37-64, October.
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Cited by:
  1. Honge Gong & Andrew Leigh & Xin Meng, 2012. "Intergenerational Income Mobility In Urban China," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 58(3), pages 481-503, 09.
  2. Donald Cox & Serena Ng & Andreas Waldkirch, 2000. "Intergenerational Linkages in Consumption Behavior," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 1791, Econometric Society, revised 08 Nov 2000.
  3. Bhashkar Mazumder, 2004. "Sibling similarities, differences and economic inequality," Working Paper Series WP-04-13, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
  4. Kerwin Kofi Charles & Erik Hurst, 2002. "The Correlation of Welath Across Generations," NBER Working Papers 9314, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  5. Raaum, Oddbjørn & Bratsberg, Bernt & Røed, Knut & Österbacka, Eva & Eriksson, Tor & Jäntti, Markus & Naylor, Robin, 2007. "Marital Sorting, Household Labor Supply, and Intergenerational Earnings Mobility across Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 3037, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  6. repec:ese:iserwp:2002-06 is not listed on IDEAS
  7. Richard Disney & John Gathergood, . "Housing Wealth, Liquidity Constraints and Self-Employment," Discussion Papers 08/03, University of Nottingham, Centre for Finance, Credit and Macroeconomics (CFCM).
  8. Melissa S. Kearney & Phillip B. Levine, 2007. "Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Early Childbearing," NBER Working Papers 13436, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  9. Ermisch, John & Francesconi, Marco, 2002. "Intergenerational Social Mobility and Assortative Mating in Britain," IZA Discussion Papers 465, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  10. Jencks, Christopher & Tach, Laura, 2005. "Would Equal Opportunity Mean More Mobility?," Working Paper Series rwp05-037, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
  11. Thomas Dunn & Douglas Holtz-Eakin, 2000. "Financial Capital, Human Capital, and the Transition to Self-Employment:Evidence from Intergenerational Links," NBER Working Papers 5622, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  12. Emran, M. Shabe & Otsuka, Misuzu & Shilpi, Forhad, 2003. "Gender, generations, and nonfarm participation," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3087, The World Bank.
  13. Harding, David J. & Jencks, Christopher & Lopoo, Leonard M. & Mayer, Susan E., 2003. "The Changing Effect of Family Background on the Incomes of American Adults," Working Paper Series rwp03-045, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.

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