IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/0363.html

Can Productive Capacity Differentials Really Explain Earnings Differentials Associated with Demographic Characteristics? Case of Experience

Author

Listed:
  • James L. Medoff
  • Katharine G. Abraham

Abstract

This study uses computerized personnel microdata on the white male managerial and professional employees at a major U.S. corporation to address the following question: Can the additional earnings which are associated with more labor market experience at a point in time really be explained by higher productivity at the same point in time? Our answer to this question, based on both cross-sectional and longitudinal information, is that performance plays a substantially smaller role in explaining cross-sectional experience-earnings differentials and earnings growth than is claimed by those who have adopted the human capital explanation of the experience-earnings profile. This response depends critically on our assumption that the performance ratings which supervisors give to their white male managerial and professional subordinates adequately reflect the subordinates' relative productivity in the year of assessment; we present a great deal of evidence which strongly supports this assumption.

Suggested Citation

  • James L. Medoff & Katharine G. Abraham, 1979. "Can Productive Capacity Differentials Really Explain Earnings Differentials Associated with Demographic Characteristics? Case of Experience," NBER Working Papers 0363, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:0363
    Note: LS
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w0363.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wise, David A, 1975. "Academic Achievement and Job Performance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 65(3), pages 350-366, June.
    2. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1, September.
    3. James L. Medoff & Katharine G. Abraham, 1980. "Experience, Performance, and Earnings," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 95(4), pages 703-736.
    4. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Alberto Bayo-Moriones & Jose E. Galdon-Sanchez & Maia Güell, 2010. "Is seniority-based pay used as a motivational device? Evidence from plant-level data," Research in Labor Economics, in: Jobs, Training, and Worker Well-being, pages 155-187, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    2. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2373-2437 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. William Moore & Robert Newman & Geoffrey Turnbull, 2007. "The Experience-Earnings Profile: Productivity-Augmenting or Purely Contractual? Evidence from the UK," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 417-435, July.
    4. Hellerstein, Judith K & Neumark, David & Troske, Kenneth R, 1999. "Wages, Productivity, and Worker Characteristics: Evidence from Plant-Level Production Functions and Wage Equations," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(3), pages 409-446, July.
    5. Dohmen, Thomas J., 2004. "Performance, seniority, and wages: formal salary systems and individual earnings profiles," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(6), pages 741-763, December.
    6. Michael Waldman, 2012. "Theory and Evidence in Internal LaborMarkets [The Handbook of Organizational Economics]," Introductory Chapters,, Princeton University Press.
    7. 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.
    8. Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Jagadeesh Gokhale, 1992. "Estimating a Firm's Age-Productivity Profile Using the Present Value of Workers' Earnings," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(4), pages 1215-1242.
    9. Cici, Gjergji & Rosenfeld, Claire, 2012. "The investment abilities of mutual fund buy-side analysts," CFR Working Papers 12-07, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    10. Valérie Canals & Claude Diebolt & Magali Jaoul-Grammare, 2015. "Education, productivité et gain. Retour sur les approches critiques de l’enchaînement causal de la théorie du capital humain," Working Papers of BETA 2015-22, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    11. David Neumark, 1992. "Are Rising Wage Profiles a Forced-Saving Mechanism?," NBER Working Papers 4213, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Harry J. Holzer, 1988. "The Determinants of Employee Productivity and Earnings: Some New Evidence," NBER Working Papers 2782, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Mihir Dash & Suprabha Bakshi & Aarushi Chugh, 2017. "The Relationship Between Work Experience and Employee Compensation: A Case Study of the Indian IT Industry," Journal of Applied Management and Investments, Department of Business Administration and Corporate Security, International Humanitarian University, vol. 6(1), pages 5-10, February.
    14. Rupert, Peter & Zanella, Giulio, 2015. "Revisiting wage, earnings, and hours profiles," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 114-130.
    15. Christian Pfeifer, 2009. "Adjustment of Deferred Compensation Schemes, Fairness Concerns, and Hiring of Older Workers," Working Paper Series in Economics 151, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    16. M. C. Navarro-Perez & J. M. Serrano-Sanz, 2002. "Evaluating Educational Output: An Estimation Method Based on Cross-Section Data," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 71-95.
    17. Willis, Robert J & Rosen, Sherwin, 1979. "Education and Self-Selection," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 7-36, October.
    18. Andrew W. Nutting, 2013. "Immediate Effects of On-The-Job Training and Its Intensity," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(3), pages 303-320, June.
    19. Grip,Andries,de & Sieben,Inge, 2004. "The Effects of Human Resource Management on Workers' Wages and Firm Productivity," ROA Research Memorandum 001, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    20. Pfeifer, Christian, 2009. "An Intra-Firm Perspective on Wage Profiles and Employment of Older Workers with Special Reference to Human Capital and Deferred Compensation," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-413, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    21. James L. Medoff, 1978. "The Earnings Function: A Glimpse Inside the Black Box," NBER Working Papers 0224, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    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:nbr:nberwo:0363. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.