An Example for Lawyers

Leibowitz, A., & Tollison, R. (1978). Earning and learning in law firms. Journal of Legal Studies, 7(1), 65-81.

Of Special Interest

Ang, A., Bekaert, G., & Wei, M. (2005). Do macro variables, asset markets or surveys forecast inflation better? (NBER Working Paper 11538).

Ben-Porath, Y. (1967). The production of human capital and the life cycle of earnings. Journal of Political Economy, 75, 352-65.

Bloom, D. (1993). Some reflections on Jacob Mincer. Journal of Labor Economics, 11(1), v-viii.

Chiswick, B. (2003, August). Jacob Mincer, experience and the distribution of earnings (IZA Discussion paper 847).

Grossbard, S. (2006). Jacob Mincer: A pioneer of modern labor economics. New York: Springer.

Heckman, J., Lochner, L., & Todd, P. (2003). Fifty years of Mincer earnings regressions (NBER Working Paper 9732).

Kiker, B. (1966). The historical roots of human capital. The Journal of Political Economy, 74(5), 481-499.

Kydland, F. (2005). Quantitative aggregate economics. American Economic Review, 96, 1373-1383.

Loewenstein, M., & Spletzer, J. (1996). Belated training: The relationship between training, tenure, and wages (Bureau of Labor Statistics Working Paper 296).

Murphy, K., & Welch, F. (1990). Empirical age-earnings profiles. Journal of Labor Economics, 8(2), 202-229.

Polachek, S. (2007, November). Earnings over the lifecycle: The Mincer earnings function and its applications (IZA Discussion Paper 3181).

Rosen, S. (1992). Distinguished fellow: Mincering labor economics. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 6(2), 157-170.

Schultz, T.W. (1961). Investment in human capital. American Economic Review, 51(1), 1-17.

Teixeira, P. (2007). Jacob Mincer: A founding father of modern labor economics. Oxford: Oxford UP.

Weisbrod, B. (1961). The valuation of human capital. The Journal of Political Economy, 69(5), 425-436.

Willis, R. (1986). Wage determinants: A survey and reinterpretation of human capital earnings functions. In O. Ashenfelter & R. Layard (Eds.), Handbook of Labor Economics, Volume I. Oxford, UK: Elsevier.

Interesting Books

Ashenfelter, O., & Layard, R. (Eds.). (1986). Handbook of labor economics, Volume 1. Oxford: Elsevier North Holland.

Ashenfelter, O., & Layard, R. (Eds.). (1986). Handbook of labor economics, Volume 2. Oxford: Elsevier North Holland.

Ashenfelter, O., & Card, D. (Eds.). (1999). Handbook of labor economics, Volume 3A. Oxford: Elsevier North Holland.

Ashenfelter, O., & Card, D. (Eds.). (1999). Handbook of labor economics, Volume 3B. Oxford: Elsevier North Holland.

Ashenfelter, O., & Card, D. (Eds.). (1999). Handbook of labor economics, Volume 3C. Oxford: Elsevier North Holland.

Becker, G. (1975). Human capital, 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Chapters 3 & 4).

Becker, G. A. (1981). Treatise on the family. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Febrero, R., & Schwartz, P. (1995). The essence of Becker. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press.

Hanushek, E., & Welch, F. (2006). Handbook of the economics of education (Vol. 1). Oxford: Elsevier North Holland.

Hanushek, E., & Welch, F. (2006). Handbook of the economics of education (Vol. 2). Oxford: Elsevier North Holland

Haveman, R., Bershadker, A., & Schwabish, J. (2003). Human capital in the United States from 1975 to 2000. W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

Human Capital and Earnings

Champernowne, D. & Cowell, F. (1998). Economic inequality and income distribution. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Heckman, J. (1976). A life-cycle model of earnings, learning and consumption. Journal of Political Economy, 84(4), S11-44.

Heckman, J., & Lochner, L. (2000). Distinguishing between learning-by-doing and on-the-job training (Working Paper).

Heckman, J., Lochner, L. & Todd, P. (2005). Earnings functions, rates of return, and treatment effects: The Mincer equation and beyond (NBER Working Paper 11544).

Judd, K. (2000). Is education as good as gold? A portfolio analysis of human capital investment (Stanford University Working Paper).

Killingsworth, M. (1982). 'Learning by doing’ and ‘investment in training’: Two rival models of the life cycle. Review of Economic Studies, 49, 263-71.

Lazear, E. (1981) Agency, earnings profiles, productivity, and hours restrictions. American Economic Review, 71(4), 606-620.

Lochner, L. (2000). Learning-by-doing and on-the-job training in general equilibrium. Notes.

Mincer, J. (1974). Schooling, experience and earnings. New York: Columbia University Press.

Neal, D. (1995). Industry-specific human capital: Evidence from displaced workers. Journal of Labor Economics, 13(4), 653-77.

Polachek, S. & Siebert, W. S. (1993). The economics of earnings. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Rosen, S. (1972). Learning and experience in the labor market. Journal of Human Resources, 7(3), 326-42.

Rosen, S. (1976). A theory of life earnings. Journal of Political Economy, 84(4), S45-67.

Topel, R. (1991). Specific capital, mobility, and wages: Wages rise with job seniority. Journal of Political Economy, 99(1), 145-76.

Weiss, Y. (1986). The determination of life cycle earnings. In O. Ashenfelter and R. Layard, (Eds.), Handbook of labor economics, Volume I. Oxford, UK: Elsevier.

Williams, J. (1979). Uncertainty and the accumulation of human capital over the life cycle. Journal of Business, 52(4), 521-48.

Willis, R. (1986). Wage determinants: A survey of human capital earnings. In O. Ashenfelter and R. Layard, (Eds.), Handbook of Labor Economics, Volume I. Oxford, UK: Elsevier.

Consumption

Browning, M., & Crossley, T. (2001). The life-cycle model of consumption and saving. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 15(3), 3-22.

Deaton, A., & Muellbauer, J. (1980). Economics and consumer behavior. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Ferber, R. (1973). Consumer economics, a survey. Journal of Economic Literature, 11, 1303-42.

Friedman, M. (1957). A theory of the consumption function. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Gourinchas, P., & Parker, J. (1999, July). Consumption over the life cycle (NBER Working Paper 7271). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Heckman, J. (1976). A life-cycle model of earnings, learning and consumption. Journal of Political Economy, 84(4), S11-44.

Analysis and Explanation of Historical National Wage Patterns

Bound, J., & Johnson, G. (1989, May). Changes in the structure of wages during the 1980s: An evaluation of alternative explanations (NBER Working Paper 2983).

Card, D., & Lemieux, T. (2000). Can falling supply explain the rising return to college for younger men? A cohort-based analysis (NBER Working Paper 7655).

Gottschalk, P. (1997). Inequality, income growth, and mobility: The basic facts. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 11(2), 21-40.

Heckman, J., & Honore, B. (1990). Empirical content of the Roy model. Econometrica, 58, 1121-49.

Heckman, J. J., Lochner, L. & Taber, C. (1998). Explaining rising wage inequality: Explorations with a dynamic general equilibrium model of labor earnings with heterogeneous agents. Review of Economic Dynamics, 1(1), 1–58.

Kosters, M. (1990). Schooling, work experience and wage trends. American Economic Review, 80(2), 309-12.

Levy, F., & Murnane, R. (1992). U.S. earnings levels and earnings inequality: A review of recent trends and proposed explanations. Journal of Economic Literature, 30, 1333-81.

Lochner, L. (2000). Job ladders. Notes.

Murphy, K. M., & Katz, L. (1992). Changes in relative wages, 1963-1987: Supply and demand factors. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 107, 35-78.

Education, Its Determinants, Human Capital and Policy

Acemoglu, D., & Angrist, J. (2000). How large are human capital externalities? Evidence from compulsory schooling laws. NBER Macroeconomics Annual, 15, 9-59.

Blau, D. (1999). The effect of income on child development. Review of Economics and Statistics, 81(2), 261-76.

Card, D. (1995). Earnings, schooling, and ability revisited. Research in Labor Economics, 14 , 23-48.

Card, D. (1999). The causal effect of education on earnings. In O. Ashenfelter and D. Card (Eds.), Handbook of Labor Economics, Volume 3. Oxford, UK: Elsevier.

Card, D., & Krueger, A. (1992). Does school quality matter? Returns to education and characteristics of public schools in the United States. Journal of Political Economy, 101(1), 1-40.

Carniero, P., & Heckman, J. (2002). Human capital policy (Working Paper).

Elwood, D., & Kane, T. (1998). Who is getting a college education: Family background and the growing gaps in enrollment (Working Paper).

Hanushek, E. (1986). The economics of schooling: Production and efficiency in public schools. Journal of Economic Literature, 24, 1141-77.

Hanushek, E., Chea, B. C., & Leung, C. (1998). Redistribution through education and other transfer mechanisms (Working Paper).

Haveman, R., & Wolfe, B. (1995). The determinants of children’s attainments: A review of methods and findings. Journal of Economic Literature, 33, 1829-78.

Heckman, J., Layne-Farrar, A., & Todd, P. (1996). Human capital pricing equations with an application to estimating the effect of schooling quality on earnings. Review of Economics and Statistics, 78(4), 562-610. 

Heckman, J., Lochner, L., & Taber, C. (1998). Tax policy and human capital formation. American Economic Review, 88(2), 293-297.

Kane, T. (1994). College entry by blacks since 1970: The role of college costs, family background, and the returns to education. Journal of Political Economy, 102(5), 878-911.

Keane, M., & Wolpin, K. (1999). The effect of parental transfers and borrowing constraints on educational attainment (Working Paper).

Lang, K. (1994). Ability bias, discount rate bias, and the return to education. Unpublished Manuscript.

Lochner, L. & Moretti, E. (2002). The effect of education on crime: Evidence from prison inmates, arrests, and self-reports (Working Paper).

National Center for Education Statistics. (2001). Students whose parents did not go to college. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and improvement, NCES 2001-126.

Woessmann, L. (2000, October). Specifying human capital: A review, some extensions, and development effects (Kiel Working Paper 1007).

A Few Examples of Recent Non-Litigation Applications of Human Capital Earnings Functions

The following are but a few of the articles found in a search using EconLit, probably the most all-inclusive body of economics and related literature.  The search was limited to articles appearing during the last nine years that reference the human capital earnings function in the abstract.  Those using that method but not mentioning it in the abstract number in the hundreds.

Aly, A. (2004). Returns to education of U.S. Arab immigrants. Doctoral Dissertation, Kansas State University.

Andini, C., & Pereira, P. T. (2007, March). Full-time schooling, part-time schooling, and wages: Returns and risks in Portugul (IZA Discussion Paper 2651).

Beach, F., & Finnie, R. (2004). A longitudinal analysis of earnings change in Canada. Canadian Journal of Economics, 37(1), 219-38.

Beaudry, P., & Green, D. (2000). Cohort patterns in Canadian earnings: Assessing the role of skill premia in inequality trends. Canadian Journal of Economics, 33, 907-936.

Black, B., Trainor, M., & Spencer, J. (1999). Wage protection systems, segregation and gender pay inequalities: West Germany, the Netherlands and Great Britain. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 23(4), 449-64.

Blom, A., & Sohnesen, T. (2005). Is formal lifelong learning a profitable investment for all of life? How age, education level and flexibility of provision affect rates of return to adult education in Colombia (Policy Research Paper 3800). World Bank.

Bosworth, B., Furtless, G., & Steuerle, E. (2002). Lifetime earnings patterns, the distribution of future Social Security benefits and the impact of pension reform (Center for Retirement Research Working Paper).

Chapman, B. (2000). Unemployment traps and age-earnings profiles: Estimates for Australia in 2000. Australian Journal of Labour Economics, 4(3), 174-91.

Chiswick, B. (1999). Interpreting the coefficient of schooling in the human capital earnings function (Policy Research Working Paper Series). The World Bank.

Csengodi, S., & Urban, D. M. (2008, January). Foreign takeovers and wage dispersion in Hungary (CESifo Working Paper 2188).

Faruqee, H., & Muhleisen, M. (2005). Population aging in Japan: Demographic shock and fiscal sustainability (IMF Working Paper). International Monetary Fund.

Faruqee, J. (2002, February). Population aging and its macroeconomic implications: A framework for analysis (IMF Working Paper). International Monetary Fund.

Frogner, B. K., & Anderson, G. F. (2007). Long-term growth modeling of healthcare spending in OECD countries, 1970-2004. Paper presented at 6th World Congress of the International Health Economics Association, July 11, 2007.

Humphreys, B. (2000). Equal pay on the hardwood: The earnings gap between male and female NCAA Division 1 basketball coaches. Journal of Sports Economics, 1(3), 299-307.

Kazianga, H. (2004, August). Schooling returns for wage earners in Burkina Faso: Evidence from the 1994 and 1998 national surveys (Yale University Economic Growth Center Discussion Paper 892).

Kiker, B., Santos, M., & de Oliveira, M. (1997). Overeducation and undereducation: Evidence for Portugal. Economics of Education Review, 16(2), 111-125.

Kim, S., & Kim, J. (1998). Human capital-tcechnology complementarity and multiple equilibria. Journal of Economic Theory and Econometrics, 4(2), 41-68.

Lakshmanasamy, T., & Ramasamy, S. (1999). An econometric analysis of the worker choice between public and private sector. Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 42(1), 71-83.

Lucifora, C. & Simmons, R. (2003). Superstar effects in sport: Evidence from italian soccer. Journal of Sports Economics, 4(1), 35-55.

MacDonald, G., & Weisbach, M. (2004). The economics of has-beens. Journal of Political Economy, 112(1), S289-310.

Miranda, A., & Barros, P. P. (2008). Obesity-related wage differentials: Evidence from Portugul (Working Paper).

Morris, S., & McGuire, A. (2002). The private net present value and private internal rate of return to becoming a nurse in Great Britain. Applied Economics, 34, 2189-2200.

Neumark, D., & Stock, W. (1999). Age discrimination laws and labor market efficiency. Journal of Political Economy, 107, 1081-1110.

Pendakur, K., & Pendakur, R. (2002). Colour my world: Have earnings gaps for Canadian-born ethnic minorities changed over time” Canadian Public Policy, 28(4), 489-512.

Poterba, J., Venti, S., & Wise, D. (1999). Implications of rising personal retirement savings (NBER Working Paper 6295). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Schady, N. (2001). Convexity and sheepskin effects in the human capital earnings function: Recent evidence for Filipino men (Policy Research Working Paper Series 2566). The World Bank.

Smith, K. (2001). Age/earnings profiles in transition economies: The Estonian case. Post-Communist Economies, 13(4), 485-503.

Steen, T. (2005). Is there an earnings premium for Catholic women? Evidence from the NYS youth cohort. Faith and Economics, 45, 21-40.

Thompson, P. (2003). Technological change and the age-earnings profile: Evidence from the International Merchant Marine, 1861-1912. Review of Economic Dynamics, 6(3), 578-601.

Uribe, J. I., Ortiz, C. H., & Garcia, G. A. (2007). Columbian labor market division during the nineties. Revista de Economia Institucional, 9(16), 189-221.

Vieira, J. A. C., Couto, J. P., & Tiago, M. T. B. (2005, July). Inter-regional wage dispersion in Portugul (IZA Discussion Paper 1664).