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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

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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  • David Neumark & Paul Taubman, 1994. "Why Do Wage Profiles Slope Upwards? Tests of the General Human Capital Model," NBER Working Papers 4688, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:4688
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    Cited by:

    1. Zwick, Thomas, 2009. "Why Pay Seniority Wages?," ZEW Discussion Papers 09-005, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
    2. Mateusz Walewski, 2007. "Analysis of cross-country differences in the shape of the age-wage relationship with an attempt to tackle age-productivity differences within the EU," CASE Network Studies and Analyses 0351, CASE-Center for Social and Economic Research.
    3. Reamonn Lydon & Ian Walker, 2005. "Welfare to work, wages and wage growth," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 26(3), pages 335-370, September.
    4. George J. Borjas, 2000. "The Economic Progress of Immigrants," NBER Chapters,in: Issues in the Economics of Immigration, pages 15-50 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Li, Gan & Jaeun, Shin & Qi, Li, 2010. "Initial Wage, Human Capital and Post Wage Differentials," Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 51(2), pages 23-42, December.
    6. David Neumark, 2003. "Age Discrimination Legislation in the United States," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 21(3), pages 297-317, July.
    7. 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.
    8. Zwick, Thomas, 2011. "Seniority wages and establishment characteristics," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 853-861.
    9. Einarsson, Tor & Marquis, Milton H., 1999. "Formal Training, On-the-Job Training and the Allocation of Time," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 423-442, July.
    10. Rosemary Walker & Liviu Florea, 2014. "Easy-Come-Easy-Go: Moral Hazard in the Context of Return to Education," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 120(2), pages 201-217, March.

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