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Title: Family Investments in Human Capital: Earnings of Women
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. 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.