Collaborative Project: Sources of Life-Cycle Inequality

合作项目：生命周期不平等的根源

• 批准号: 0551110
• 负责人: Amir Yaron
• 金额: $ 9.33万
• 依托单位: National Bureau of Economic Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-03-01 至 2012-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0551110&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Project; Sources; Life; Cycle

This project focuses on the sources of life-cycle inequality. Its aim can be summarized as an attempt to answer two questions. First, how important are initial conditions versus shocks for life-cycle inequality? Second, among initial conditions, which are most important for life-cycle inequality? To address these questions, the project offers a quantitative theory of life-cycle earnings by integrating a risky human capital framework into a standard life-cycle, permanent-income model. Three initial conditions are considered: financial wealth, initial human capital, and learning ability. Human capital is risky as human capital is subject to idiosyncratic shocks each period. To make the model empirically operative, the project offers a methodology to infer human capital shocks from data. Parameters governing the distribution of initial conditions are selected so that the model is consistent with key earnings facts for a cohort of individuals: mean earnings and the rise in earnings dispersion with age.Current work in macroeconomics uses dynamic models in which earnings or wages follow exogenous, stochastic processes. This project goes beyond current work by putting forward a model in which labor earnings are endogenous, as labor earnings are determined by optimal human capital investments in response to initial conditions, and stochastic shocks. The framework therefore permits a natural decomposition of life-cycle inequality in earnings and discounted utility into their sources. The framework offered is also appropriate to conduct analyses of policy for which the presence of human capital risk is critical.Broader Impacts: Few topics have received more attention in recent economic research than income, earnings and wealth inequality and their changes over time. This research has spanned several fields in economics, including macroeconomics, labor and international trade. By decomposing life-cycle inequality into its sources, this research provides a complimentary and key perspective for the study of inequality observations. Understanding the determinants of life-cycle inequality is arguably fundamental. Its importance stems from the fact that a better, quantitatively oriented understanding is crucial for the assessment of the relative merits of policies. The policies in question are those directed to initial conditions, e.g., public education, and those that provide insurance over the life cycle, e.g., unemployment insurance. Such an understanding is also vital to highlight the most important margins for future research, both at the theoretical and empirical level.

该项目的重点是生命周期不平等的根源。 其目的可以概括为试图回答两个问题。 首先，初始条件与冲击对生命周期不平等的重要性如何？ 第二，在初始条件中，哪些对生命周期不平等最重要？ 为了解决这些问题，该项目通过将风险人力资本框架整合到标准的生命周期，永久收入模型中，提供了生命周期收益的定量理论。 三个初始条件被认为是：金融财富，初始人力资本和学习能力。 人力资本是有风险的，因为人力资本在每个时期都会受到特质冲击。 为了使该模型在经验上具有可操作性，该项目提供了一种从数据中推断人力资本冲击的方法。 初始条件的分布参数的选择，使该模型是一致的一个队列的个人的关键收入的事实：平均收入和收入的离散度与age.Current工作在宏观经济学使用动态模型，其中收入或工资遵循外生的随机过程。 本研究在现有研究的基础上，提出了一个劳动收入内生的模型，即劳动收入取决于对初始条件和随机冲击的最优人力资本投资。 因此，该框架允许一个自然的分解的生命周期不平等的收入和贴现效用到他们的来源。 所提供的框架也适用于对人力资本风险至关重要的政策进行分析。更广泛的影响：在最近的经济研究中，很少有话题比收入、收益和财富不平等及其随时间的变化受到更多的关注。 这项研究跨越了经济学的几个领域，包括宏观经济学，劳动力和国际贸易。 通过将生命周期不平等分解为其来源，本研究为不平等观察的研究提供了一个补充和关键的视角。 理解生命周期不平等的决定因素可以说是至关重要的。 它的重要性源于这样一个事实，即更好地以数量为导向的理解对于评估政策的相对优点至关重要。 所讨论的政策是针对初始条件的政策，例如，公共教育，以及在生命周期内提供保险的机构，例如，失业保险。 这种理解对于突出未来研究在理论和经验层面上的最重要的余地也至关重要。