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Author: Mincer, Jacob
Resulting in 8 citations.
1. Leighton, Linda S.
Mincer, Jacob
Effects of Minimum Wages on Human Capital Formation
In: Economics of Legal Minimum Wages. S. Rattenberg, ed. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1981
Cohort(s): Young Men
Publisher: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Keyword(s): Human Capital Theory; Income Dynamics/Shocks; Job Tenure; Job Training; Job Turnover; Minimum Wage; Schooling; Vocational Education

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The hypothesis that minimum wages tend to discourage on-the-job training is largely supported by our empirical analysis. Direct effects on reported job training and corollary effects on wage growth as estimated in microdata of the NLS of Young Men and Michigan Income Dynamics (MID) are consistently negative and stronger at lower education levels. Apart from a single exception, no effects are observable among the higher wage group whose education exceeds high school. The effects on job turnover are: a decrease in turnover among young NLS whites, but an increase among young NLS blacks and MID whites. Whether these apparently conflicting findings on turnover reflect a distinction between short and long run adjustments in jobs is a question that requires further testing.
Bibliography Citation
Leighton, Linda S. and Jacob Mincer. "Effects of Minimum Wages on Human Capital Formation" In: Economics of Legal Minimum Wages. S. Rattenberg, ed. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1981
2. Leighton, Linda S.
Mincer, Jacob
Labor Turnover and Youth Unemployment
In: The Youth Labor Market Problem: its Nature, Causes, and Consequences. RB Freeman, et al., eds. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press, 1982
Cohort(s): Older Men, Young Men
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Keyword(s): Behavior; Black Youth; Human Capital Theory; Labor Turnover; Learning Hypothesis; Modeling; Racial Differences; Unemployment Rate; Unemployment, Youth

Public concern about youth employment problems in the U.S. derives from three facts: (1) the unemployment rate of young people is high in absolute numbers, in relation to adult unemployment, and in comparision with other countries; (2) unemployment rates of black youths are much higher; (3) youth unemployment rates have increased in recent years. Data from the two panels of men in the NLS and Michigan Income dynamics are used in several analyses that attempt to illustrate the structure of unemployment and to address the more permanent problem of high youth unemployment. Why is it so high? Are there criteria by which we can judge that it is too high? Why does it decline with age in a particular fashion? Models used suggest that the search for a determination of the operative mechanism in the human capital theory may not be the appropriate focus. The theory's primary insight relating to turnover is the importance of specific as opposed to general learning. This distinction plays a pivotal role in pure sorting and adaptive behavior models as well as in analyses of actual training processes.
Bibliography Citation
Leighton, Linda S. and Jacob Mincer. "Labor Turnover and Youth Unemployment" In: The Youth Labor Market Problem: its Nature, Causes, and Consequences. RB Freeman, et al., eds. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press, 1982
3. Mincer, Jacob
Education and Unemployment of Women
Technical Paper No 10. Washington, DC: National Center on Education and Employment, 1991
Cohort(s): Mature Women, Young Women
Publisher: National Center on Education and Employment
Keyword(s): Educational Attainment; Gender Differences; Job Turnover; Labor Force Participation; Unemployment; Women; Work Attachment

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The positive correlation between higher educational attainment and lower unemployment is as strong for females as for males. However, analysis of statistical data on female workers drawn from the NLS of Mature and Young Women, and comparison with the findings of an earlier study on the relationship between educational attainment and unemployment for males, point to the following sex differences: (1) educational differences in on-the-job training are related to low turnover among men; (2) educational differences in labor force attachment are related to low turnover among women; (3) educational differences in the duration of unemployment are negligible among females; and (4) educational differences in the duration of unemployment among males are small but observable. Recent growth in women's work attachment has reduced their inter-labor force turnover and their unemployment rate to the point of eliminating the sex differential. On-the-job training of women appears to have increased but it still remains skimpy. [ERIC ED324376]
Bibliography Citation
Mincer, Jacob. Education and Unemployment of Women. Technical Paper No 10. Washington, DC: National Center on Education and Employment, 1991.
4. Mincer, Jacob
Jovanovic, Boyan
Labor Mobility and Wages
In: Studies in Labor Markets. S. Rosen, ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1981
Cohort(s): Older Men, Young Men
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Keyword(s): Income Dynamics/Shocks; Job Tenure; Life Cycle Research; Mobility; Mobility, Interfirm; Mobility, Job; Schooling; Wages; Work Experience; Work History

The authors explore the implications of human capital and search behavior for both the interpersonal and life cycle structure of interfirm labor mobility. The economic hypothesis which motivates the analysis is that individual differences in firm-specific complementarities and related skill acquisitions produce differences in mobility behavior and in the relation between job tenure, wages, and mobility.
Bibliography Citation
Mincer, Jacob and Boyan Jovanovic. "Labor Mobility and Wages" In: Studies in Labor Markets. S. Rosen, ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1981
5. Mincer, Jacob
Ofek, Haim
Interrupted Work Careers: Depreciation and Restoration of Human Capital
Journal of Human Resources 17,1 (Winter 1982): 3-24.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/145520
Cohort(s): Mature Women
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Keyword(s): Career Patterns; Employment, Intermittent/Precarious; Human Capital Theory; Immigrants; Migration; Wages; Wives

The quantitative effects and even the existence of a "human capital depreciation" phenomenon have been a subject of controversy in the recent literature. Prior work, however, was largely cross-sectional and the longitudinal dimension, if any, was retrospective. Using longitudinal panel data (on married women in the NLS of Mature Women), we have now established that real wages at reentry are, indeed, lower than at the point of labor force withdrawal; and the decline in wages is greater, the longer the interruption. Another striking finding is a relatively rapid growth in wages after the return to work. This rapid growth appears to reflect the restoration (or "repair") of previously eroded human capital. The phenomenon of "depreciation" and "restoration" is also visible in data for immigrants to the United States. However, while immigrants eventually catch up with and often surpass natives, returnees from the non-market do not fully restore their earnings potential.
Bibliography Citation
Mincer, Jacob and Haim Ofek. "Interrupted Work Careers: Depreciation and Restoration of Human Capital." Journal of Human Resources 17,1 (Winter 1982): 3-24.
6. Mincer, Jacob
Ofek, Haim
The Distribution of Lifetime Labor Force Participation of Married Women: Comment
Journal of Political Economy 87,1 (February 1979): 197-201.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1832218
Cohort(s): Mature Women
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Keyword(s): Schooling; Wages; Wives; Work History

Two important corollaries of our finding are: (1) in the analysis of long-term (cohort or "lifetime") labor supply of married women corner phenomena are negligible; and (2) even though their current participation rate is 100 percent, married women observed working in a given survey cannot be viewed as permanent labor force participants in the same way as other groups (say adult men) whose average participation rate in the survey is close to 100 percent. Variation in length of previous work experience among currently working married women is quite large. This variation among married women is an important factor in their wage dispersion, and the shorter average work experience is a factor in producing an average wage which is less than the average wage of men or of single women.
Bibliography Citation
Mincer, Jacob and Haim Ofek. "The Distribution of Lifetime Labor Force Participation of Married Women: Comment." Journal of Political Economy 87,1 (February 1979): 197-201.
7. Mincer, Jacob
Polachek, Solomon W.
An Exchange: The Theory of Human Capital and the Earnings of Women: Women's Earnings Reexamined
Journal of Human Resources 13,1 (Winter 1978): 118-134.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/145305
Cohort(s): Mature Women
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Keyword(s): Children; Simultaneity; Unemployment; Wages; Wives; Work Experience

Sandell and Saunders find three blemishes in our earlier study: (1) that some of the original data made available to us by the Center for Human Resource Research (their own organization) is incorrect; (2) that we misinterpret the coefficients of our own model; and (3) that their treatment of the simultaneity problem is preferable to ours and yields somewhat different coefficients. We respond to these points in order. In discussing data errors and replications under point (1), we extend the evidence to related work by others and introduce new and more direct evidence from the NLS of Mature Women 1967-1971 panel. Points (2) and (3) are restricted to the methodological and conceptual issues raised about our treatment of the 1967 sample.
Bibliography Citation
Mincer, Jacob and Solomon W. Polachek. "An Exchange: The Theory of Human Capital and the Earnings of Women: Women's Earnings Reexamined." Journal of Human Resources 13,1 (Winter 1978): 118-134.
8. Mincer, Jacob
Polachek, Solomon W.
Family Investments in Human Capital: Earnings of Women
Journal of Political Economy 82,2 (March-April 1974): S78-S108.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1829993
Cohort(s): Mature Women
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Keyword(s): Children; Family Background and Culture; Fertility; First Birth; Human Capital Theory; Schooling; Wage Gap; Work Experience; Work History

Our data on work histories show some interesting trends which suggest a prospective narrowing of the wage differential. Women aged 40-44 who had their first child in the late 1940s stayed out of the labor force about 5 years longer than women aged 30-34 whose first child was born in the late 1950s. Family size is about the same for both groups, but higher for the middle group (35-39) whose fertility marked the peak of the baby boom. Still, the home-time interval in that group is shorter (by about 2 years) than in the older group and longer in the younger. Thus, the trend in labor-force participation of young mothers was persistent. By the time the 30-34- year-old women get to be 40-44 (i. e. , in 1977), they will have had 4 years of work experience more than the older cohort, and their wage rates will rise by 6 percent on account of lesser depreciation and by another 2-4 percent due to longer work experience. Thus, the total observed wage gap between men and women aged 40-44 should narrow by about one-fifth, while the gap due to work experience should be reduced by one-quarter.
Bibliography Citation
Mincer, Jacob and Solomon W. Polachek. "Family Investments in Human Capital: Earnings of Women." Journal of Political Economy 82,2 (March-April 1974): S78-S108.