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Lifetime labor supply and human capital investment

Author

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  • Rodolfo E. Manuelli
  • Ananth Seshadri
  • Yongseok Shin

Abstract

We develop a model of retirement and human capital investment to study the effects of tax and retirement policies. Workers choose the supply of raw labor (career length) and also the human capital embodied in their labor. Our model explains a significant fraction of the US-Europe difference in schooling and retirement. The model predicts that reforms of the European retirement policies modeled after the US can deliver 15?35 percent gains in per-worker output in the long run. Increased human capital investment in and out of school accounts for most of the gains, with relatively small changes in career length.

Suggested Citation

  • Rodolfo E. Manuelli & Ananth Seshadri & Yongseok Shin, 2012. "Lifetime labor supply and human capital investment," Working Papers 2012-004, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2012-004
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Alfonso Sánchez-Martin & J. García-Pérez & Sergi Jiménez-Martín, 2014. "Delaying the Normal and Early Retirement Ages in Spain: Behavioural and Welfare Consequences for Employed and Unemployed Workers," De Economist, Springer, vol. 162(4), pages 341-375, December.
    2. Lars Ljungvist & Thomas Sargent, 2014. "Career Length: Effects of Curvature of Earnings Profiles, Earnings Shocks, Taxes, and Social Security," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 17(1), pages 1-20, January.
    3. Anderberg, Dan & Rainer, Helmut & Roeder, Kerstin, 2018. "Family-specific investments and divorce with dynamically inconsistent households: Marital contracts and policy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 199-225.
    4. Ian Fillmore & Trevor Gallen, 2019. "Heterogeneity in Talent or in Tastes? Implications for Redistributive Taxation," 2019 Meeting Papers 94, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    5. Gustavo Mellior, 2020. "Higher education funding, welfare and inequality in equilibrium," Studies in Economics 2005, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    6. Daniel, Betty C. & Gao, Si, 2015. "Implications of productive government spending for fiscal policy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 148-175.
    7. Sau-Him Lau, 2013. "Does longevity improvement always raise the length of schooling through the longer-horizon mechanism?," 2013 Meeting Papers 292, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    8. Dan Anderberg & Helmut Rainer & Kerstin Roeder, 2016. "Family-Specific Investments and Divorce: A Theory of Dynamically Inconsistent Household Behavior," CESifo Working Paper Series 5996, CESifo.
    9. Cai, Zhipeng & Lau, Sau-Him Paul, 2017. "Impact of mortality reductions on years of schooling and expected lifetime labor supply," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 134-144.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Human capital; Labor supply; Retirement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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