Search Results

Author: Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Resulting in 34 citations.
1. Borus, Michael E.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
The National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience: Past and Future Uses to Study Labor Market Policy Questions
Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung 4 (1984): 428-438
Cohort(s): NLS General, NLSY79
Publisher: Duncker & Humblot GmbH
Keyword(s): Earnings; Labor Market Surveys; Labor Supply; Life Cycle Research; Longitudinal Data Sets; Longitudinal Surveys; NLS Description; Unemployment; Wages

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

The authors discuss past and possible future uses of the NLS panels with particular attention to the implications of NLS-based research for policy-making. The NLS consists of five separate longitudinal data-bases covering distinct segments of the labor force, each cohort being selected as representative of a period in the life-cycle when people are likely to undergo a particular labor market transition. The value of the longitudinal nature of this data is emphasized in discussions of accumulated research on labor supply, unemployment, and wage and earnings differentials. Future research uses for all five cohorts are outlined with emphasis on dynamic modeling and the redefining of research problems as a result of recent changes in socioeconomic conditions. A discussion of the history and institutional context of the NLS is included, as is a description of the data and tapes. Appended tables display survey years and type of interview for each panel, as well as NLSY cohort variables and a summary of research questions explored to date using NLS data.
Bibliography Citation
Borus, Michael E. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "The National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience: Past and Future Uses to Study Labor Market Policy Questions." Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung 4 (1984): 428-438.
2. Eckstein, Zvi
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Dynamic Labor Force Participation of Married Women and Endogenous Work Experience
Review of Economic Studies 56,3 (July 1989): 375-390.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2297553
Cohort(s): Mature Women
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing, Inc. => Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Earnings, Husbands; Endogeneity; Family Influences; Labor Force Participation; Life Cycle Research; Marital Status; Wives, Work; Work Experience

A dynamic model of married women's labor force participation and fertility is estimated using the NLS Mature Women's cohort data. The estimates are used to predict changes in the lifecycle patterns of employment due to changes in schooling, fertility, husband's income, and the magnitude of the experience effect on wages. Findings show that although work experience increases the disutility of further work, this effect is overwhelmed by the positive effect of experience on wages, leading to persistence in the employment patterns of these women. It was also found that an increase in young children and in husband's income substantially reduces participation while increased schooling has a powerful positive impact on participation.
Bibliography Citation
Eckstein, Zvi and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Dynamic Labor Force Participation of Married Women and Endogenous Work Experience." Review of Economic Studies 56,3 (July 1989): 375-390.
3. Eckstein, Zvi
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Estimating a Market Equilibrium Search Model from Panel Data on Individuals
Econometrica 58,4 (July 1990): 783-808.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2938350
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Department of Economics, Northwestern University
Keyword(s): Heterogeneity; Job Search; Labor Force Participation; Minimum Wage; Modeling, Mixed Effects; Unemployment; Wages; Welfare

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

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of estimating a Nash labor market equilibrium model using only information of workers. The equilibrium model is adapted from Albrecht and Axell (1984) and is based on workers who are homogeneous in terms of market productivity and heterogeneous in terms of non-market productivity, and on firms which are heterogeneous in terms of productive efficiency. The equilibrium model is contrasted in terms of its fit to the data with an unrestricted version of the model which is based on a mixture of negative binomial distributions. The equilibrium model fails to conform to the data in exactly the dimension of its major focus, namely it implies that measurement error accounts for almost all of the dispersion in observed wages. The equilibrium model also does not do well in fitting the unemployment duration distribution compared to the unrestricted model. The problem is that the duration distribution itself does not support the existence of significant heterogeneity, as evidenced by the estimates of the unrestricted model. The paper also illustrates the use of such models for policy analysis by simulating the welfare effects of a minimum wage.
Bibliography Citation
Eckstein, Zvi and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Estimating a Market Equilibrium Search Model from Panel Data on Individuals." Econometrica 58,4 (July 1990): 783-808.
4. Eckstein, Zvi
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Estimating the Effect of Racial Discrimination on First Job Wage Offers
Review of Economics and Statistics 81,3 (August 1999): 384-392.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2646762
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Keyword(s): Discrimination; Educational Attainment; High School Completion/Graduates; High School Dropouts; Racial Differences; Wages

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

In this paper we develop and implement a method for bounding the extent to which labor market discrimination can account for racial wage differentials. The method is based on a two-sided, search-matching model that formally accounts for unobserved heterogeneity and unobserved offered wages. We find that racial differences in offered wages are proportionately twice (three times) as large as racial differences in accepted wages for high-school dropouts (high-school graduates). The results indicate that discrimination could account for the entire racial wage-offer differential for high-school dropouts and for high-school graduates, i.e., the bound on the extent of discrimination is not informative.
Bibliography Citation
Eckstein, Zvi and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Estimating the Effect of Racial Discrimination on First Job Wage Offers." Review of Economics and Statistics 81,3 (August 1999): 384-392.
5. Keane, Michael P.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Eliminating Race Differences in School Attainment and Labor Market Success
Journal of Labor Economics 18,4 (October 2000): 614-652.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/209971
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Keyword(s): Earnings; Education; Educational Attainment; Labor Market Outcomes; Life Cycle Research; Occupational Choice; Racial Differences

In this article, we provide quantitative evidence on the effects of monetary incentive schemes designed to reduce racial differences in school attainment and earnings. Our analysis is based on the structural estimation of a dynamic model of schooling, work, and occupational choice decisions over the life cycle. We consider two recent proposals that, although not specifically targeted to blacks, can be expected to have differential racial impacts. One proposal, suggested by Robert Reich, provides a high school graduation bonus to youths from lower-income families. The other, suggested by Edmund Phelps, provides wage subsidies to low-wage workers.
Bibliography Citation
Keane, Michael P. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Eliminating Race Differences in School Attainment and Labor Market Success." Journal of Labor Economics 18,4 (October 2000): 614-652.
6. Keane, Michael P.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Estimating Welfare Effects Consistent with Forward-Looking Behavior: Part II: Empirical Results
Journal of Human Resources 37,3 (Summer 2002): 600-622.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3069683
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Keyword(s): Behavior; Benefits; Fertility; Labor Force Participation; Marriage; Schooling; Welfare

In this paper, we provide estimates of welfare benefit effects on a set of behaviors that includes welfare participation, fertility, marriage, work and schooling using approximations to the decision rules that would be derived from an explicit dynamic optimization problem. We use the stylized model and associated simulations from Part I as a guide in specifying the approximate decision rules that we estimate here. The estimates are based on data from the 1979 youth cohort of the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience (NLSY79).
Bibliography Citation
Keane, Michael P. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Estimating Welfare Effects Consistent with Forward-Looking Behavior: Part II: Empirical Results." Journal of Human Resources 37,3 (Summer 2002): 600-622.
7. Keane, Michael P.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Exploring the Usefulness of a Non-Random Holdout Sample for Model Validation: Welfare Effects on Female Behavior
PIER Working Paper Archive 06-006, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 2006.
Also: http://www.econ.upenn.edu/Centers/pier/Archive/06-006.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Penn Institute for Economic Research (PIER)
Keyword(s): Behavior; Heterogeneity; Modeling; Welfare; Women

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

Opportunities for external validation of behavioral models in the social sciences that are based on randomized social experiments or on large regime shifts, that can be treated as experiments for the purpose of model validation, are extremely rare. In this paper, we consider an alternative approach, namely mimicking the essential element of regime change by non-randomly holding out from estimation a portion of the sample that faces a significantly different policy regime. The non-random holdout sample is used for model validation/selection. We illustrate the non-random holdout sample approach to model validation in the context of a model of welfare program participation. The policy heterogeneity that we exploit to generate a non-random holdout sample takes advantage of the wide variation across states that has existed in welfare policy.

We implement the model using 15 years of information from the 1979 youth cohort of the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience (NLSY79), supplemented with state level welfare benefit rules that we have collected for each state over a 23 year period prior to the new welfare reform. Benefit levels changed considerably over the decision-making period of the women in the NLSY79 sample.

Bibliography Citation
Keane, Michael P. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Exploring the Usefulness of a Non-Random Holdout Sample for Model Validation: Welfare Effects on Female Behavior." PIER Working Paper Archive 06-006, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 2006.
8. Keane, Michael P.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Exploring the Usefulness of a Nonrandom Holdout Sample for Model Validation: Welfare Effects On Female Behavior
International Economic Review 48,4 (November 2007): 1351-1378.
Also: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2354.2007.00465.x/abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: U.S. International Trade Commission
Keyword(s): Behavior; Welfare; Women

A particularly challenging use of decision-theoretic models in economics is to forecast the impact of large changes in the environment. The problem we explore in this article is how to gain confidence in a model's ability to predict the impact of such large changes. We show that an approach to validation and model selection that includes the choice of a "on random holdout sample," a sample that differs significantly from the estimation sample along the policy dimension that the model is meant to forecast, can be fruitful.
Bibliography Citation
Keane, Michael P. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Exploring the Usefulness of a Nonrandom Holdout Sample for Model Validation: Welfare Effects On Female Behavior." International Economic Review 48,4 (November 2007): 1351-1378.
9. Keane, Michael P.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
The Career Decisions of Young Men
Journal of Political Economy 105,3 (June 1997): 473-522.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/262080
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Keyword(s): Absenteeism; Human Capital; Part-Time Work; Training, Occupational; Training, On-the-Job; Wage Differentials; Wage Levels

This paper provides structural estimates of a dynamic mode of schooling, work, and occupational choice decisions based on 11 years of observations on a sample of young men from the 1979 youth cohort of the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience (NLSY). The structural estimation framework that we adopt fully imposes the restrictions of the theory and permits an investigation of whether such a theoretically restricted model can succeed in quantitatively fitting the observed data patterns. We find that a suitably extended human capital investment model can in fact do an excellent job of fitting observed data on school attendance work, occupational choices, and wages in the NLSY data on young men and also produces reasonable forecasts of future work decisions and wage patterns. Copyright 1997 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved.
Bibliography Citation
Keane, Michael P. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "The Career Decisions of Young Men." Journal of Political Economy 105,3 (June 1997): 473-522.
10. Keane, Michael P.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
The Role of Labor and Marriage Markets, Preference Heterogeneity, and the Welfare System in the Life Cycle Decisions of Black, Hispanic, and White Women
International Economic Review 51,3 (August 2010): 851-892.
Also: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1468-2354.2010.00604.x
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing, Inc. => Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Labor Force Participation; Life Cycle Research; Marriage; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); Welfare

Using data from the NLSY79, we structurally estimate a dynamic model of the life cycle decisions of young women. The women make sequential joint decisions about school attendance, work, marriage, fertility, and welfare participation. We use the model to perform counterfactual simulations designed to shed light on three questions: (1) How much of observed minority-majority differences in behavior can be attributed to differences in labor market opportunities, marriage market opportunities, and preference heterogeneity? (2) How does the welfare system interact with these factors to augment those differences? (3) How can new cohorts that grow up under the new welfare system (Temporary Aid for Needy Families) be expected to behave compared to older cohorts?
Bibliography Citation
Keane, Michael P. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "The Role of Labor and Marriage Markets, Preference Heterogeneity, and the Welfare System in the Life Cycle Decisions of Black, Hispanic, and White Women." International Economic Review 51,3 (August 2010): 851-892.
11. Merlo, Antonio
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
The Transition from School to Jail: Youth Crime and High School Completion Among Black Males
European Economic Review 79 (October 2015): 234-251.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014292115001130
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Arrests; Black Youth; Crime; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Employment; High School Completion/Graduates; Incarceration/Jail

In this paper, we study the relationship among schooling, youth employment and youth crime. The framework, a multinomial discrete choice vector autoregression, provides a comprehensive analysis of the dynamic interactions among a youth's schooling, work and crime decisions and arrest and incarceration outcomes. We allow for observable initial conditions, unobserved heterogeneity, measurement error and missing data. We use data from the NLSY97 on black male youths starting from age 14. The estimates indicate important roles both for heterogeneity in initial conditions and for stochastic events that arise during one's youth in determining outcomes as young adults.
Bibliography Citation
Merlo, Antonio and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "The Transition from School to Jail: Youth Crime and High School Completion Among Black Males." European Economic Review 79 (October 2015): 234-251.
12. Rosenzweig, Mark R.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Are There Increasing Returns to the Intergenerational Production of Capital? Maternal Schooling and Child Intellectual Achievement
Working Paper, Prepared for the Workshop "Economic Well-Being of Women and Children" Minneapolis, MN, February 21-23, 1991
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Author
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Birthweight; Child Health; General Assessment; Human Capital; Mortality; Mothers, Education; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Pre-natal Care/Exposure; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Pre/post Natal Health Care; Siblings; Well-Being

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

A common empirical finding obtained from data sets describing both high and low-income households is a strong positive correlation between the educational attainment of mothers and measures of the human capital of their children, such as birthweight, survival, educational attainment or health. This relationship appears to be robust to "controls" for various measures of income. Two principal hypotheses have been suggested for why maternal education and offspring human capital outcomes are related. First, education may improve the efficiency of human capital production, so that there are increasing returns, intergenerationally, in parental human capital. This idea is embedded in the human capital (self) production model of Ben-Porath (1970) and is incorporated, for example, in the recent growth model of Becker et al. (1990). A second hypothesis is that the educational level of mothers is a function of their endowed or innate human capital, which is positively correlated with that of their children. More generally, it is suggested that unobservables affecting maternal education are correlated with the human capital of children net of any human capital investments in them.
Bibliography Citation
Rosenzweig, Mark R. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Are There Increasing Returns to the Intergenerational Production of Capital? Maternal Schooling and Child Intellectual Achievement." Working Paper, Prepared for the Workshop "Economic Well-Being of Women and Children" Minneapolis, MN, February 21-23, 1991.
13. Rosenzweig, Mark R.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Are There Increasing Returns to the Intergenerational Production of Human Capital? Maternal Schooling and Child Intellectual Achievement
Journal of Human Resources 29,2 (Spring 1994): 670-693.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/146115
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Birthweight; Childbearing; Children, Academic Development; Control; General Assessment; Heterogeneity; Human Capital; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Modeling; Mothers, Education; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Pre-natal Care/Exposure; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Pre/post Natal Health Care; Siblings; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT; Tests and Testing

A common empirical finding obtained from data sets describing both high and low-income households is a strong positive correlation between the educational attainment of mothers and measures of the human capital of their children, such as birthweight, survival, educational attainment or health This relationship appears to be robust controls for various measures of income. Two principal hypotheses have been suggested for why maternal education and offspring human capital outcomes are related. First, education may improve the efficiency of human capital production, so that there are increasing returns, intergenerationally, in parental human capital. Estimates from models that take into account heterogeneity in maternal endowments could not reject this hypothesis and suggest benefits to postponed childbearing. In particular, they suggest that postponement of the initiation of childbearin by two years among women who are tenth-graders would result in a 5 percent increase in their children's achievement test scores.
Bibliography Citation
Rosenzweig, Mark R. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Are There Increasing Returns to the Intergenerational Production of Human Capital? Maternal Schooling and Child Intellectual Achievement." Journal of Human Resources 29,2 (Spring 1994): 670-693.
14. Rosenzweig, Mark R.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Inequality Among Young Adult Siblings, Public Assistance Programs, and Intergenerational Living Arrangements
Journal of Human Resources 29,4 (Fall 1994): 1101-1125.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/146135
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Keyword(s): Age and Ageing; Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC); Coresidence; Earnings; Education; Endogeneity; Income; Siblings; Welfare

In this paper, we formulate a model of young-adult, parent and public sector interactions to consider the allocation of parental resources among siblings who are young adults. In particular, we examine the issue of the determination of the distribution of parental housing among young adult children, with particular attention to the role of public welfare programs. We model these decisions as a sample non-cooperative game between young adult children and their parents who take governmental welfare rules concerning assistance as exogenous to their decisions, but actual public support as endogenous. We show that identification of parental decision rules concerning the distribution of cursedness among multiple offspring requires information on the characteristics of parents and of all of the adult children as well as the governmental welfare rules that pertain to the area of residence of the parents and of each of the sibling children who may live apart from the parents. Information on the siblings represented in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) combined with information of state-level welfare rules, by year, is used to obtain estimates of parental co-residence decision rules in terms of the earnings, schooling and fertility choices of their children and potential welfare benefits based on estimation procedures that take into account, to varying degrees, missing information relevant to these decisions.
Bibliography Citation
Rosenzweig, Mark R. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Inequality Among Young Adult Siblings, Public Assistance Programs, and Intergenerational Living Arrangements." Journal of Human Resources 29,4 (Fall 1994): 1101-1125.
15. Rosenzweig, Mark R.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Inequality at Birth: The Scope for Policy Intervention
Journal of Econometrics 50,1-2 (October-November 1991): 205-225.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/030440769190096V
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Birthweight; Child Health; Childbearing; Cigarette Use (see Smoking); Fertility; Mothers, Behavior; Mothers, Health; Parental Influences; Sons; Substance Use

In this paper, the authors utilize information on birthweight and gestational age among siblings and maternal behaviors relevant to birth outcomes to decompose the inequality (variance) in child health at birth into those components associated with variance in endowments, the correlation between health-relevant behaviors and endowments, and the correlation between health endowments and the environmental variables influencing the household choice set. Estimations are made of: (1) the effects of maternal behaviors, including substance abuse, cigarette smoking, prenatal care, birth spacing and timing, and weight gain on the two birth outcomes; (2) the variance in the health endowment common to the two measures and to siblings; (3) the covariances between the maternal behaviors and health endowments; and (4) the variance in measurement errors for each outcome variable. The results indicate that, despite the importance of many maternal behaviors in influencing birthweigh t, a substantial fraction of its variance is due to endowment variation. This result appears to be robust to what is assumed about the relative importance of the correlations between household constraints and the responsiveness of health-related parental behavior to endowments. For birthweight, it was found, moreover, that endowment variation is on net reinforced by parental resource allocations, although this effect is small. It was also found that for the NLSY sample most of the variance in gestation is measurement error, while for birthweight the "noise" component is only one-third of the total variance. The authors reject the hypothesis that gestation and birthweight measure a single health factor, with parental behaviors influencing each in distinctly different ways.
Bibliography Citation
Rosenzweig, Mark R. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Inequality at Birth: The Scope for Policy Intervention." Journal of Econometrics 50,1-2 (October-November 1991): 205-225.
16. Rosenzweig, Mark R.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Inequality at Birth: The Scope for Policy Intervention
Presented: Toronto, Canada, Population Association of America Meetings, May 1990
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Birthweight; Child Health; Childbearing; Cigarette Use (see Smoking); Fertility; Mothers, Health; Parental Influences; Sons; Substance Use

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

Bibliography Citation
Rosenzweig, Mark R. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Inequality at Birth: The Scope for Policy Intervention." Presented: Toronto, Canada, Population Association of America Meetings, May 1990.
17. Rosenzweig, Mark R.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Intergenerational Support and the Life-Cycle Incomes of Parents and Children: Co-Residence and Interhousehold Financial Transfers
Working Paper, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1990
Cohort(s): Mature Women, Older Men, Young Men
Publisher: University of Minnesota
Keyword(s): Family Resources; Family Structure; Financial Assistance; Household Structure; Income; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Life Cycle Research; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Pairs (also see Siblings); Residence; Sons; Transfers, Financial; Transfers, Parental; Transfers, Private; Transfers, Public

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

This paper examines the relationship between generations with particular attention to the two principal mechanisms by which parents provide resource to their young adult offspring--shared residence and financial transfers to offspring living apart. The analysis made use of parent-son pairs from the NLS of Young Men, Older Men, and Mature Women. These data indicate that: (1) intergenerational co-residence and interhousehold transfers are at least as important as governmental transfers in providing support for young adults, with 20 percent of adult men in their 20s receiving one or another form of parental support; (2) there are substantial differences by race in the type of intergenerational support with black men ages 18-31 appearing twice as likely as white men to reside with at least one parent and half as likely as white men to receive financial transfers when residing apart from their parents. Econometric analysis of the choices between shared residence and non-coresidence cum financial transfers were supportive of the theoretical framework linking these two transfer methods and strongly rejected aggregation of co-residence and interhousehold financial transfers as perfect substitutes. They also suggested that failure to control for unobserved permanent differences across households can lead to serious biases; in particular the obscuring of the important role of parental resources in determining the incidence of transfers. Fixed effects logit estimates indicated that for given parental incomes, young men are less likely to both co-reside with parents and to receive financial transfers while residing apart the higher are their current earnings. Moreover, young adults attending school are more likely to reside with parents but are less likely to receive aid while living elsewhere; in contrast, their unemployment induces both co-residence and financial transfers. Parental income, for given offspring earnings and activities, also matters. Parents with higher incomes are more likely to provide transfers to children via separate residence combined with remittances than they are to co-reside with children. Indeed, among black families in which the mother has less than eight years of schooling, increases in income (net of governmental transfers) reduce significantly the likelihood that parents reside with their adult sons. For mothers with schooling levels above eight years, however, the authors could explain all of the differences in the life-cycle patterns of intergenerational co-residence choices of black and white families based on the life-cycle differences in the earnings of both generations and the investment decisions and employment experiences of the younger generation.
Bibliography Citation
Rosenzweig, Mark R. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Intergenerational Support and the Life-Cycle Incomes of Parents and Children: Co-Residence and Interhousehold Financial Transfers." Working Paper, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1990.
18. Rosenzweig, Mark R.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Intergenerational Support and the Life-Cycle Incomes of Young Men and Their Parents: Human Capital Investments, Coresidence, and Intergenerational Financial Transfers
Journal of Labor Economics 11,1, Part 1: Essays in Honor of Jacob Mincer (January 1993): 84-112.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2535185.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Keyword(s): Earnings; Kinship; Life Cycle Research; Men's Studies; Transfers, Financial

This article examines the resource allocations of parents in the form of both shared residence with and financial transfers to their young adult sons. Based on an overlapping generations model incorporating a game between parents and adult children, estimates of the determinants of such transfers are obtained from the kinship-linked cohorts of the National Longitudinal Surveys. The estimates suggest that both types of parental assistance are as important as governmental transfers in supporting young men and are responsive to the current and anticipated earnings of their offspring, suggesting that young men cannot adequately smooth their consumption without parental help.
Bibliography Citation
Rosenzweig, Mark R. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Intergenerational Support and the Life-Cycle Incomes of Young Men and Their Parents: Human Capital Investments, Coresidence, and Intergenerational Financial Transfers ." Journal of Labor Economics 11,1, Part 1: Essays in Honor of Jacob Mincer (January 1993): 84-112.
19. Rosenzweig, Mark R.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Maternal Expectations and Ex Post Rationalizations The Usefulness of Survey Information on the Wantedness of Children
Journal of Human Resources 28,2 (Spring 1993): 205-229.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/146201
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Bias Decomposition; Birth Outcomes; Birthweight; Children; Contraception; Fertility; Pre-natal Care/Exposure; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Pre/post Natal Health Care; Wantedness

In this paper we assess the value of retrospectively-ascertained information on the wantedness of children by evaluating (i) the extent to which such information provides an unbiased estimate of the excess births occurring solely as a consequence of imperfect fertility control and (ii) whether information on the wantedness of a child is a good predictor of its subsequent treatment by parents--whether unwantedness signals neglect. We formulate a dynamic model of fertility incorporating stochastic fertility control, uncertain child traits and information accumulation from which we can formulate a rigorous definition of child-specific unwantedness. Based on information on both retrospectively obtained and pre-birth information on wantedness and on children's birthweight, we find that parents are more likely to report that children are wanted ex post if they have a better birth outcome and exhibit overly optimistic expectations about their children's traits and/or risk preferences. As a consequence, published statistics on the prevalence of unwanted births overstate the true proportion due to contraceptive failure by 26 percent. Data are from the NLSY a sample of 3,233 females who had a live birth by 1986.
Bibliography Citation
Rosenzweig, Mark R. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Maternal Expectations and Ex Post Rationalizations The Usefulness of Survey Information on the Wantedness of Children." Journal of Human Resources 28,2 (Spring 1993): 205-229.
20. Rosenzweig, Mark R.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Natural "Natural Experiments" in Economics
Journal of Economic Literature 38,4 (December 2000): 827-874.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2698663
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: American Economic Association
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Earnings; Educational Returns; Fertility; Heterogeneity; Income; Labor Supply; Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Savings; Siblings; Work Experience

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

The costliness of and limitations on experiments involving human subjects have long been identified as major constraints on the progress of economic science. Indeed, it has been increasingly recognized that identification of many interesting parameters, such as the effects of schooling or work experience on earnings or of income on savings, requires attention to the fact that the variation in many of the variables whose effects are of interest may not be orthogonal to unobservable factors that jointly affect the outcomes studied. Such unmeasured or unmeasurable factors may include pre-existing or endowed skills ("ability"), preferences, or technologies that vary across individuals or firms in the economy. The possible existence of heterogeneity in these attributes means that almost all estimates are open to alternative interpretations in terms of self-selection by such traits. In determining the returns to schooling, for example, individuals cannot be considered to be randomly sorted among schooling levels. Thus, that more-schooled individuals have higher earnings may reflect the fact that more able individuals prefer schooling or face lower schooling costs. Similarly, that fertility and female labor supply are negatively correlated may reflect variation in preferences for children and work in the population.
Bibliography Citation
Rosenzweig, Mark R. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Natural "Natural Experiments" in Economics." Journal of Economic Literature 38,4 (December 2000): 827-874.
21. Rosenzweig, Mark R.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Parental and Public Transfers to Young Women and Their Children
American Economic Review 84,5 (December 1994): 1195-1212.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2117768
Cohort(s): NLSY79, Young Women
Publisher: American Economic Association
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Benefits; Coresidence; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Methods/Methodology; Parental Influences; Transfers, Financial; Transfers, Public; Welfare

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

This paper presents estimates of how an increase in welfare benefits for the welfare-eligible affects the provision of parental support in the form of both financial transfers and shared residence based on an overlapping-generations framework incorporating game-theoretic interactions among parents, their adult children, and the government. The empirical results, obtained from two longitudinal data sets, indicate that the parents view a dollar of income earned by their daughters as equivalent to a dollar increase in welfare benefits. However, there exists only a small trade-off between the generosity of government aid and the incidence of parental aid. Copyright 1994 by American Economic Association.
Bibliography Citation
Rosenzweig, Mark R. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Parental and Public Transfers to Young Women and Their Children." American Economic Review 84,5 (December 1994): 1195-1212.
22. Rosenzweig, Mark R.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Rational Expectations and Ex Post Rationalizations: The Value of Subjective Measures of Excess Children
Working Paper, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1988
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Author
Keyword(s): Behavior; Birthweight; Children; Fertility; Pre-natal Care/Exposure; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Pre/post Natal Health Care; Wantedness

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

This paper assesses the usefulness of an attitudinal fertility variable describing the "wantedness" of children. The authors formulate a dynamic model of fertility behavior which incorporates uncertainty about child traits in order to assess the informational content of retrospectively-ascertained measures of wantedness. Utilizing data from the NLSY, the authors test for bias in wantedness information that may arise from both parents' responsiveness to the observed characteristics of their children as well as from biases in their expectations about their children's endowed traits. Results indicate that reports of wantedness obtained after children are born are significantly influenced by children's traits (ex post rationalization) and that mothers exhibit overly optimistic expectations regarding their children's endowed qualities. As a result, the retrospective measure of wantedness commonly collected and used to measure the principal consequence of imperfect fertility control overstates substantially the actual incidence of unwanted births. The authors conclude that the incidence of unwantedness based on information obtained from cross-sectional fertility surveys neither measures appropriately the family size or resource-allocation consequences of imperfect or costly contraceptive technology nor is a reliable indicator of child neglect.
Bibliography Citation
Rosenzweig, Mark R. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Rational Expectations and Ex Post Rationalizations: The Value of Subjective Measures of Excess Children." Working Paper, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1988.
23. Rosenzweig, Mark R.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Sisters, Siblings and Mothers: The Effect of Teen-age Childbearing on Birth Outcomes in a Dynamic Family Context
Econometrica 63,2 (March 1995): 303-326.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2951628
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing, Inc. => Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Age at Birth; Birth Outcomes; Birthweight; Childbearing, Adolescent; Heterogeneity; Kinship; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Modeling, Instrumental Variables; Pre-natal Care/Exposure; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Pre/post Natal Health Care; Siblings; Sisters

A statistical model of dynamic intrafamily investment behavior incorporating endowment heterogeneity is estimated to evaluate alternative estimation procedures that have exploited family and kinship data. These procedures, which place alternative restrictions on the endowment structure and on behavior, include generalized least squares, instrumental-variables, fixed-effects based on the children of sisters, fixed-effects based on siblings, and sibling fixed-effects with instrumental variables. The framework is applied to data on birth outcomes, with focus on the effects of teen-age childbearing net of other maternal behavior. The empirical results imply that the least restrictive statistical formulation, consistent with dynamic behavior and heterogeneity among siblings, fits the data best. All of the estimation procedures that control for a family-specific endowment indicate, however, that the biological effect of having a birth at younger ages is to marginally increase birthweight and to increase fetal growth.
Bibliography Citation
Rosenzweig, Mark R. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Sisters, Siblings and Mothers: The Effect of Teen-age Childbearing on Birth Outcomes in a Dynamic Family Context." Econometrica 63,2 (March 1995): 303-326.
24. Rosenzweig, Mark R.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Sisters, Siblings and Mothers: The Effects of Teenage Childbearing on Birth Outcomes
Working Paper, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, November 1991
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Author
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Behavior; Birth Outcomes; Birthweight; Childbearing, Adolescent; Heterogeneity; Kinship; Pre-natal Care/Exposure; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Pre/post Natal Health Care; Siblings; Sisters

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

The use of kinship data, particularly sibling information, as a means of reducing the effects of heterogeneity on estimates of the determinants of human capital is becoming increasingly common in economics. The most common applications have been directed to the questions of the returns to and determinants of schooling attainment. In this paper, we set out a statistical model incorporating the features of recent theoretical models of the family that highlight the roles of heterogeneity in endowments, endowment heritability and dynamic intrafamily investment behavior. The framework is used to show the nested (implicit) restrictions that characterize the statistical procedures that have exploited family and kinship data to obtain estimates of the determinants of children's human capital and thus to establish tests that discriminate among them. We show that information on the investments in and human capital outcomes of at least two children for mothers who are sisters is required to test among all possible estimators, although such data are not required to obtain estimates of the behavioral determinants of human capital outcomes with desirable properties. However, we show that such data can also reveal the intergenerational correlation (heritability) of endowments without the need to have information on outcomes or investments characterizing two generations.
Bibliography Citation
Rosenzweig, Mark R. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Sisters, Siblings and Mothers: The Effects of Teenage Childbearing on Birth Outcomes." Working Paper, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, November 1991.
25. Rosenzweig, Mark R.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Sisters, Siblings, and Mothers: The Effects of Teen-age Childbearing on Birth Outcomes
Presented: Bethesda, MA, NICHD Conference, "Outcomes of Early Childbearing: An Appraisal of Recent Evidence", May 1992
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Behavior; Birth Outcomes; Childbearing, Adolescent; Heterogeneity; Kinship; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Modeling, Instrumental Variables; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Pre/post Natal Health Care; Siblings; Sisters

effects of heterogeneity on estimates of the determinants of human capital is becoming increasingly common in economics. The most common applications have been directed to the questions of the returns to and determinants of schooling attainment. In this paper, we set out a statistical model incorporating the features of recent theoretical models of the family that highlight the roles of heterogeneity in endowments, endowment heritability and dynamic intrafamily investment behavior. The framework is used to show the nested (implicit) restrictions that characterize the statistical procedures that have exploited family and kinship data to obtain estimates of the determinants of children's human capital and thus to establish tests that discriminate among them. We show that information on the investments in and human capital outcomes of at least two children for mothers who are sisters is required to test among all possible estimators, although such data are not required to obtain estimates of the behavioral determinants of human capital outcomes with desirable properties. However, we show that such data can also reveal the intergenerational correlation (heritability) of endowments without the need to have information on outcomes or investments characterizing two generations.
Bibliography Citation
Rosenzweig, Mark R. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "Sisters, Siblings, and Mothers: The Effects of Teen-age Childbearing on Birth Outcomes." Presented: Bethesda, MA, NICHD Conference, "Outcomes of Early Childbearing: An Appraisal of Recent Evidence", May 1992.
26. Rosenzweig, Mark R.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
The Effect of the Timing and Frequency of Marijuana Use on Fetal Growth Based on Sibling Birth Data
Working Paper, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1990
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Author
Keyword(s): Alcohol Use; Birthweight; Cigarette Use (see Smoking); Deviance; Drug Use; Pre-natal Care/Exposure; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Pre/post Natal Health Care; Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes; Siblings; Sons; Substance Use

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

A sample of 5669 births obtained from the NLSY is studied to investigate the effects of marijuana usage on fetal growth and the sensitivity of findings to the existence of both measured confounding risk factors associated with pregnancies and mothers and unmeasured risk factors characterizing mothers. In the bivariate relationships, infants born to women who smoked marijuana every month of the first trimester weighed 6.7 ounces less than women who did not smoke marijuana in the first trimester. Introducing controls for a large number of measured confounding risk factors identified in prior studies reduces the marijuana effect to 3.3 ounces. However, controlling in addition for all unmeasured attributes of the mother that are invariant across births using information on sibling births increases the estimated impact of marijuana use net of measured risk factors to 5.1 ounces, a value which is 52 percent higher than the standard multiple regression estimate. Further, the estimated marijuana effect obtained from this measure of use, which takes into account frequency and timing, is more than three times as large as the effect based only on a measure of ever-use in the first six months of pregnancy. The authors conclude that it is important to take into account unmeasured risk factors characterizing the mothers of infants in estimating the effects of substance use on fetal growth. Lack of controls for mother characteristics appear to lead to underestimates of the impact on fetal growth of the use of marijuana early into a pregnancy.
Bibliography Citation
Rosenzweig, Mark R. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "The Effect of the Timing and Frequency of Marijuana Use on Fetal Growth Based on Sibling Birth Data." Working Paper, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1990.
27. Todd, Petra E.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
The Production of Cognitive Achievement in Children: Home, School and Racial Test Score Gaps
Presented: Buffalo, NY, Human Capital Conference, 2006.
Also: http://athena.sas.upenn.edu/~petra/papers/revpaper.pdf
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); Hispanics; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Maternal Employment; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Racial Differences; School Characteristics/Rating/Safety; Teachers/Faculty

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

This paper studies the determinants of children's scores on tests of cognitive achievement in math and reading. Using rich longitudinal data on test scores, home environments, and schools, we implement alternative specifications for the cognitive achievement production function that allow achievement to depend on the entire history of lagged home and school inputs as well as on parents' ability and unobserved endowments. The empirical results show that both contemporaneous and lagged inputs matter in the production of current achievement and the importance of allowing for unobserved endowment effects. We use cross-validation methods to select among competing specifications and find support for a variant of a value-added model of the production function augmented to include information on lagged inputs. Using this specification, we study the sources of test score gaps between black, white and Hispanic children. The estimated model captures key patterns in the data, such as the widening of minority-white test score gaps with age and differences in the gap pattern between Hispanics and blacks. We find that differences in mother's ability (as measured by AFQT) accounts for about half of the test score gap. However, home inputs also account for a significant proportion. Equalizing home inputs at the average levels of white children would close the black-white and the Hispanic-white test score gaps in math and reading by about 10-20%.

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at Columbia University and at the Institute for Research on Poverty conference in Madison, WI. An earlier version was presented at seminars at Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Harris School of Public Policy (Chicago), UCLA, UCSD, Columbia University, University of Toulouse, University of Bergen, and a conference at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank.

Bibliography Citation
Todd, Petra E. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "The Production of Cognitive Achievement in Children: Home, School and Racial Test Score Gaps." Presented: Buffalo, NY, Human Capital Conference, 2006.
28. Todd, Petra E.
Wolpin, Kenneth I.
The Production of Cognitive Achievement in Children: Home, School, and Racial Test Score Gaps
Journal of Human Capital 1,1 (December 2007): 91-136.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.1086/526401
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); Children; Cognitive Ability; Cognitive Development; Hispanics; Home Environment; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Racial Differences; School Characteristics/Rating/Safety; Teachers/Faculty; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT

This paper studies the determinants of children's scores on tests of cognitive achievement in math and reading. Using rich longitudinal data on test scores, home environments, and schools, we implement alternative specifications for the cognitive achievement production function that allow achievement to depend on the entire history of lagged home and school inputs as well as on parents' ability and unobserved endowments. We use cross-validation methods to select among competing specifications and find support for a variant of a value-added model of the production function augmented to include information on lagged inputs. Using this specification, we study the sources of test score gaps between black, white, and Hispanic children. The estimated model captures key patterns in the data, such as the widening of minority-white test score gaps with age and differences in the gap pattern between Hispanics and blacks. We find that differences in mother's "ability," as measured by AFQT, account for about half of the test score gap. Home inputs also account for a significant proportion. Equalizing home inputs at the average levels of white children would close the black-white and the Hispanic-white test score gaps in math and reading by about 10–20 percent.
Bibliography Citation
Todd, Petra E. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. "The Production of Cognitive Achievement in Children: Home, School, and Racial Test Score Gaps." Journal of Human Capital 1,1 (December 2007): 91-136.
29. Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Education Data in the NLSY79: A Premiere Research Tool
Monthly Labor Review 128, 2 (February 2005): 15-20.
Also: http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/02/art3exc.htm
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: U.S. Department of Labor
Keyword(s): Education; Longitudinal Surveys; NLS Description

Social science researchers widely use the NLSY79 schooling data because of its longitudinal nature and range of content. Perhaps the most widely used data in social science research are those related to measures of education; among such measures, years of schooling is the most ubiquitous. A search of the National Longitudinal Survey (NLS) Annotated Bibliography yields 1,803 articles, book chapters, dissertations, and so forth, in which either the word "education" or "schooling" appears in the title, abstract, or as a keyword. Of those, more than 1,000 were based on the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 (NLSY79) data.

Researchers' use of education measures found in the NLSY79 spans several social science disciplines, particularly economics and sociology, and, to a lesser extent, psychology. A large number of articles using NLSY79 education measures have appeared in major general audience and specialty journals. (See table 1.) In economics, there were 8 such journals, totaling 78 published articles, and in sociology, 6 journals with 47 articles. In psychology, one journal specializing in child development published five articles, and one medical science journal also published five.

Bibliography Citation
Wolpin, Kenneth I. "Education Data in the NLSY79: A Premiere Research Tool." Monthly Labor Review 128, 2 (February 2005): 15-20.
30. Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Estimating a Structural Search Model: The Transition from School to Work
Econometrica 55,4 (July 1987): 801-818.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1911030
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing, Inc. => Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Job Search; Modeling; Unemployment; Wages, Reservation

This paper presents a job search model that is econometrically implemented using all the restrictions that are implied by job search theory, and it provides a statistical test of those restrictions. The usefulness of this approach is that it provides a check on the internal consistency of the model as revealed by the data; i.e., one can verify the extent to which the internal logic of the theory misrepresents the data. The most interesting experiment is related to the impact of a change in the offer probability schedule on reservation wages and working probabilities. On the whole, working probabilities are not very sensitive to changes in offer probabilities, given the other parameter estimates. It would therefore be misleading to conclude that it is the rarity of offers that causes long durations of unemployment because an increase in offer probabilities alone will not reduce the duration. There exist combinations of parameters which would lead to greater sensitivity of working probabilities to offer probabilities, but evidently those combinations do not fit the data as well as the parameters estimated here.
Bibliography Citation
Wolpin, Kenneth I. "Estimating a Structural Search Model: The Transition from School to Work." Econometrica 55,4 (July 1987): 801-818.
31. Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Estimating a Structural Search Model: The Transition from School to Work
Report, Center for Human Resource Research, The Ohio State University, 1984
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Center for Human Resource Research
Keyword(s): Job Search; Modeling; Statistical Analysis; Transition, School to Work

The purpose of this paper is to present a job search model that is econometrically implemented using all the restrictions that are implied by job search theory and to provide a statistical test of those restrictions.
Bibliography Citation
Wolpin, Kenneth I. "Estimating a Structural Search Model: The Transition from School to Work." Report, Center for Human Resource Research, The Ohio State University, 1984.
32. Wolpin, Kenneth I.
The Determinants of Black-White Differences in Early Employment Careers: Search, Layoffs, Quits and Endogenous Wage Growth
Journal of Political Economy 100,3 (June 1992): 535-560.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2138730
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Keyword(s): Endogeneity; Job Patterns; Job Search; Layoffs; Mobility; Quits; Transition, School to Work; Unemployment Compensation; Wages; Work Experience; Work Histories

This paper studies the transition from school to full-time employment and subsequent labor mobility during the first five post-schooling years for several recent cohorts of black and white male high school graduates, those who graduated from high school between 1978 and 1984. A comparison of the early employment transition process using unique data from the NLSY reveals important differences in the accumulation of work experience for black and white male high school graduates. The most important general findings are as follows: (1) Blacks have higher probabilities of receiving job offers than whites, and a higher layoff probability. History matters in the propensity to receive offers differently by race. While unemployed the probability of receiving an offer increases with work experience for blacks, but decreases for whites; while employed these relationship are reversed. (2) Work experience has a substantially higher payoff for whites than for blacks overall. Specific experience is relatively more important than general experience for blacks while the opposite is true for whites. (3) If blacks faced the same wage offer structure, all else the same, they would accumulate general work experience more rapidly than whites. However, black accepted wages would still be lower than whites. (4) Increasing unemployment compensation benefits, all else the same, has very little effect on whites but substantially increases the propensity for blacks to accept a first job.
Bibliography Citation
Wolpin, Kenneth I. "The Determinants of Black-White Differences in Early Employment Careers: Search, Layoffs, Quits and Endogenous Wage Growth." Journal of Political Economy 100,3 (June 1992): 535-560.
33. Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Gonul, Fusun Feride
On the Use of Expectations Data in Micro Surveys: The Case of Retirement
Report, Columbus OH: Center for Human Resource Research, The Ohio State University, 1985
Cohort(s): Older Men
Publisher: Center for Human Resource Research
Keyword(s): Labor Supply; Retirement/Retirement Planning

Most large-scale data sets, cross-sectional and longitudinal, contain questions concerned with expectations about future life events, among them future labor force behavior, fertility, schooling, and occupation. The aim of this paper is to ascertain whether data on retirement expectations are consistent with data on actual labor supply in the sense that both are derived from the same optimizing model. The researchers develop a methodology for this purpose and implement it using data from the NLS of Older Men. They find that reported expected retirement ages are actually more accurate than expected retirement ages predicted by the labor supply model, although the correlation between them is significant. This is consistent with the idea that expectations data provide valuable information about labor supply behavior which can be exploited to improve estimates of labor supply models.
Bibliography Citation
Wolpin, Kenneth I. and Fusun Feride Gonul. "On the Use of Expectations Data in Micro Surveys: The Case of Retirement." Report, Columbus OH: Center for Human Resource Research, The Ohio State University, 1985.
34. Wolpin, Kenneth I.
Merlo, Antonio
Youth Crime and High School Completion
Presented: Washington, DC, Bureau of Labor Statistics Conference Center, NLSY97 Tenth Anniversary Conference, May 29-30, 2008
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: U.S. Department of Labor
Keyword(s): Crime; High School Diploma; Youth Problems

Bibliography Citation
Wolpin, Kenneth I. and Antonio Merlo. "Youth Crime and High School Completion." Presented: Washington, DC, Bureau of Labor Statistics Conference Center, NLSY97 Tenth Anniversary Conference, May 29-30, 2008.