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Author: Brauer, John
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Brauer, John |
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Dynamic Skill Development and Labor Market Outcomes Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2019 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Keyword(s): Educational Attainment; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Labor Market Outcomes; Occupational Choice; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Racial Differences; Skill Formation; Wage Gap Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. The first chapter investigates the presence of statistical discrimination in the labor market. The Children of the NLSY79 data are used to link early-age home environment measures to educational attainment measures and labor market outcomes. While both black and white children with higher measured home inputs sort into higher levels of educational attainment, this positive sorting pattern is significantly stronger for black children. Estimates also reveal that, after controlling for a variety of skill measures, the residual black-white wage gap is large for high school dropouts and narrows rapidly with additional educational attainment. For college-goers, measured skills can account for the entire black-white wage gap. These patterns are consistent with a scenario in which employers use both race and education credentials to form expectations about elements of worker productivity formed through early-age inputs. Under plausible and partially testable identifying assumptions, the results imply that a portion of the black-white wage gap for low-education workers reflects statistical discrimination in the labor market. Skill development in college and on the job can depend not only on the quality of investments but also on the order in which these investments are made. The second chapter explores which types of occupational investments complement college best when performed before college entry and which types are more productive after college completion. A learning-by-doing model with both college entry timing and early-career occupation choices produces several key insights. Data from the NLSY79 are linked with abstract and routine occupational task content data, and relationships between college entry timing, early-career occupation choices, and future earnings trajectories are documented. Estimates suggest that abstract-intensive occupations are more beneficial for skill development just after college, whereas routine-intensive occupations are more beneficial for skill development before college. Accordingly, delayed college entrants choose more routine-intensive early-career occupations, and immediate college entrants choose more abstract-intensive early-career occupations. The results also indicate that high school graduates with high levels of abstract skills face the largest penalty for delaying college entry. |
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Bibliography Citation
Brauer, John. Dynamic Skill Development and Labor Market Outcomes. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2019. |