Explaining Rising Wage Inequality: Explorations with a Dynamic General Equilibrium Model of Labor Earnings with Heterogeneous Agents
Explaining Rising Wage Inequality: Explorations with a Dynamic General Equilibrium Model of Labor Earnings with Heterogeneous Agents
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DOI：
10.1006/redy.1997.0008
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发表时间：
1998-01-01
影响因子：
2
通讯作者：
Taber, Christopher
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Heckman, James J.;Lochner, Lance;Taber, Christopher
本文开发并估计了劳动收入、技能形成和具有异质人力资本的物质资本积累的重叠代一般均衡模型。该模型在一个框架中分析了学校教育选择和毕业后在职技能投资，其中不同的教育水平对不同的技能进行了指数化。该模型的一个关键见解是，考虑技能价格和衡量工资之间的区别对于分析不断变化的工资结构非常重要，因为它们有时会朝不同的方向发展。开发和应用了估计对不可观察的人力资本的需求以及确定总体技术中技能和资本之间的替代关系的新方法。我们估计了与模型的一般均衡预测一致的特定技能人力资本积累方程。根据我们的估计，我们发现，以技能为导向的技术变革模型以及根据我们的总体技术估计的趋势与工资不平等加剧的核心特征是一致的，工资不平等是通过过去15年的大学高中工资差异和对数收入标准差来衡量的。低技能工人的移民对工资不平等的加剧几乎没有贡献。当模型扩展到解释婴儿潮时期扩大的群体时，我们发现用于解释过去 15 年工资历史的人力资本供给函数的相同参数估计也可以解释过去 35 年的工资不平等，正如 Katz 和 Murphy (C) 1998 学术出版社所记录的那样
This paper develops and estimates an overlapping generations general equilibrium model of labor earnings, skill formation, and physical capital accumulation with heterogenous human capital. The model analyzes both schooling choices and post-school on-the-job investment in skills in a framework in which different schooling levels index different skills. A key insight in the model is that accounting for the distinction between skill prices and measured wages is important for analyzing the changing wage structure, as they sometimes move in different directions. New methods for estimating the demand for unobserved human capital and for determining the substitution relationships between skills and capital in aggregate technology are developed and applied. We estimate skill-specific human capital accumulation equations that are consistent with the general equilibrium predictions of the model. Using our estimates, we find that a model of skill-biased technical change with a trend estimated from our aggregate technology is consistent with the central feature of rising wage inequality measured by the college high school wage differential and by the standard deviation of log earnings over the past 15 years. Immigration of low-skill workers contributes little to rising wage inequality. When the model is extended to account for the enlarged cohorts of the Baby Boom, we find that the same parameter estimates of the supply functions for human capital that are used to explain the wage history of the last 15 years also explain the last 35 years of wage inequality as documented by Katz and Murphy (C) 1998 Academic Press