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Welfare consequences of rising wage risk in the United States: Self-selection into risky jobs and family labor supply adjustments

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  • Park, Seonyoung
  • Shin, Donggyun

Abstract

Wages in the United States have become more volatile since the early 1970s. This paper quantitatively demonstrates that the welfare cost caused by this change is substantially overstated when heterogeneity in individual risk preferences and workers'risk choices are neglected. Family labor supply adjustments reduce the welfare cost and do so most effectively when borrowing and saving behavior is allowed. It is also found that wives increase their labor supply signi ficantly in response to increases in the variance of husbands' permanent wage shocks, and this `added-worker' effect is mostly accounted for by wives' labor supply adjustments on the extensive margin.

Suggested Citation

  • Park, Seonyoung & Shin, Donggyun, 2020. "Welfare consequences of rising wage risk in the United States: Self-selection into risky jobs and family labor supply adjustments," Working Paper Series 20888, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.
    • Handle: RePEc:vuw:vuwecf:20888
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    2. Zhu, Mengbing & Xing, Chunbing & Li, Yi, 2023. "Husbands' wages and married women's labor supply in urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).

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